Once in a blue moon....

It's not every day we have a blue moon but in the sky tonight was just that. Since it won't be until July of 2015 until the next blue moon we decided to do this night right! Let's not even mention that my daughter will be 10 years old by then (oh my!). It was a awesome learning experience for us.

We started our night by making pizza. We get pizza dough from Wegmans market in the bag. All we had to do was lay it out on a baking sheet and stick it in the oven. I tried my hand at making blue pizza dough. It was just too much dough for my little eye dropper bottle but it made a cool marble look to the dough. My daughter had a blast stretching the dough and shaping it like the moon. For our sauce we took Classico's Alfredo sauce and dyed it blue. Grandma and Bridget had a blast mixing it all together.

Our pizza turned out amazing. Out of this world really! Fun and yummy, perfect combination. Bridget enjoyed the pizza but the best part was the learning. While the pizza was baking Bridget drew me a space ship. Later in the night she stood in front of grandma and myself to teach us how to draw our own space ships too. When we were ready to eat I also surprised her with blue kool-aid. I even had blue plates and cups on hand to add to the atmosphere. It all came together real nice.

Now let's not forget dessert. Blue Moon Jello! My mom stopped for some cool whip and dyed it blue when she got home for a topping. We made craters with our spoons and dug in to this tasty lunar dessert.

Okay so this part was a fluke. My mom wanted to get The Smurfs on DVD for us to watch since they are all blue and all. Little did she know the movie is all about the Blue Moon Festival! What a awesome movie for tonight! Many have said this movie was kind of bad but I thought as far as cheesy kid movies go it was fun and it fit perfect with our theme tonight.

After our movie we checked out the moon. As it was foretold, it was not blue. I explained the fact to Bridget now. The blue moon is a rare time where there are two full moons in one month. Our calendars don't meet up with the lunar cycles at these times but it only happens...well....once in a blue moon.  Here is a awesome link to all the great details of a blue moon.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48831835/ns/technology_and_science-science/?ocid=ansmsnbc11

After finding out all the details of this great blue moon I printed out a copy of the moon and had Bridget doodle in space. Something fun and easy to end out night. My mom and I were brainstorming on this on Wednesday and within the past 2 days we got it all together to make this blue moon special. Because let's face it, we all have blue moon moments. Times when we know that there will never be another moment like it in our whole lives. Our kids growing up is full of blue moon moments. My daughter won't have another blue moon until she is 10 years old. By then she might be too cool to hang out with mom and grandma to watch cheesy movies and eat blue pizza. Tonight I made a blue moon moment that we won't soon forget.

Until the next blue moon.....



It's the Grade 2 Countdown

Bridget at the end of the year picnic in Hershey.

Last year I did something daring and very risky. I decided to cyberschool my daughter. This decision was not one that was easy. I enjoyed my mid afternoon naps before picking up my daughter at the bus stop each day. Even though I was enjoying my daughter's kindergarten year she was not. Not only was she bullied by a group of boys in her class for begin a girl who had short hair and liked the color green, she was also given a lesson of anatomy by a little boy during nap time when he exposed himself to her. The school did nothing to help and the counselor never responded to my emails. I had enough with the school but what else was there to do?
We received tickets to a local baseball game through my church which led me to Connections Academy. They are a public cyber school here in PA. I never heard of such a thing before and was interested to find out it was a perfect fit for us. I can help my daughter learn at home while still receiving all my materials and curriculum from the public schooling system through Connections Academy. With only weeks left before school started we signed on right away, praying that this was a good choice for us.
Bridget's first grade year went off amazingly! She received great grades and her teacher was awesome. She was able to talk to her teacher on the phone bi-weekly and was in her virtual class every week. She did a amazing job and I was so happy to watch her blossom into a amazing reader. There were some hiccups along the way but for the most part I was happy with the results.

This year we are headed into second grade. For me, this was my favorite grade! I can't wait to enjoy this time with my daughter. Now that I have a year under my teacher's belt I came up with some ideas as well as swiping a few from Pinterest to make this year more successful. I want to share this year with as many people as I can. So here I am! On my own blog and happy as a bee in a garden. I named this blog Owls in the classroom because that is our theme this year. We love owls and have decorated our learning area with as many owls we could find. Be prepared I love the camera so there will be pictures with my post.          Leave your comments and ideas here and follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/#!/theresamyoung. Leave me a message letting me know you saw me here on my blog or else I won't friend you, you stranger you. :P

I will post once a week at the least. Being a mom, learning coach, and a part time worker I do get busy at times and I will try my best to post once a week for you to follow. School offically starts September 4th this year. Look out Grade 2 here we come!Thanks for stopping by and I hope to encourage more moms to take a daring step in their child's education.

A photo collage we did for a contest to show the amazing things we get to do with Connections Academy.