Archives for June 2014

Planning a Messy Science Day

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Planning a messy science day is a good way to help kids answer the “why” questions they have. From a young age, children live to ask why. “Why is the sky blue? Why do farts stink? Why? Why? Why?” One of the best things to do with the question of why is to teach children to find answers through the Scientific Method. A few of my friends and I have put together a fun homeschool co-op. We plan all kinds of fun for them. This time around we decided it would be fun to have a Messy Science Day. I thought it would be fun to take a few minutes and share with you how we set everything up and made it work for everyone.

Planning a Messy Science Day - Are you teaching Science this year? Check out these fun ideas to plan a messy Science day for your kids! #Science #stem #homeschool #homeschooling #education #edchat

Messy Science Day Ideas

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Easy Chicken & Rice Casserole

Jun 26 by Meagan 3 Comments

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Easy Chicken and Rice Casserole recipe you can easily make! Recently I went to a talk by Crystal Paine from Money Saving Mom. One of the money-saving ideas she offered was to view meat as a condiment. With that in mind, I set out to make the most of the chicken I had left from cutting up a whole chicken. I came up with this easy chicken and rice casserole I would highly recommend for a family dinner or as a meal for a new mom.

Cheap Chicken and Rice Casserole Recipe

What you will need:

Cooked Shredded Chicken – 1 cup.
Cooked Red Beans – 1 cup (I made a whole pound in the crock pot and pull out beans when I need them.)
Cream of Chicken Soup – I am not a big fan of the canned stuff so I had my own in the freezer. I used about 1 cup of cream of chicken soup.
2 cups water
1 cup peas
Goya Sazon Azafran Seasoning (1.40z) – 1 packet
1 1/2 cups Rice
1/4 Cup italian bread crumbs

What to do:

Cook your rice – I boiled 4 cups water, added 1 1/2 cups rice, reduced heat, and covered. It takes about 10 minutes or so to cook.
Combine chicken, beans, peas, cream of chicken soup, and 2 cups water in a pan.
Simmer for about 5 minutes. -You should have a small amount of broth. Don’t drain it.
Combine rice and chicken mixture in a casserole dish.
Top with bread crumbs.
Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes until the top is golden brown.

Serve and enjoy.

You can freeze it!

At this point you can freeze your casserole. If you want to save space or if you are cooking for a smaller family, slice it and freeze. Once frozen, separate the portions, wrap, and bag individually. You can pull out one portion to reheat at a later date or the entire casserole.

Doctor Who Creative Writing Printable Pack

Jun 11 by Meagan 10 Comments

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Summer is a great time to take a break from schoolwork. It is also a fun time to work on your child’s writing skills with something they can have fun with. Working on creative writing is a fun way to strengthen writing skills without boring a child. Adding Doctor Who to the process will add another element of fun while still encouraging your child to keep working hard.

Are you working on creative writing with a whovian this year? Don't miss these Doctor Who Inspired writing printable pages!

Free Doctor Who Creative Writing Printable

Taking time to work on creative writing can help your child to become a stronger writer. By working on each of the pages in this fun Doctor Who printable your child will be able to write some fantastic Doctor Who inspired stories that are sure to be amazing!

Cover Page – Writing a great story deserves a great cover page.

Writing Prompts – There are 2 pages of Doctor Who inspired story ideas to get your young whovian writing. (Who am I kidding? Some of these would make an awesome FanFic.) The writing prompts will give kids the motivation to put together some fun stories while taking a small idea and building it out. It could also be fun to give an idea to multiple children and see what different stories they build.

Character Building – This page includes some great questions to help your child build the character for their story. The goal of this page is to help them build out each of the characters they are using in their piece. This can help with strengths and weaknesses to help them better write the piece.

Setting Idea Page- This page has questions to help your child figure out what the setting of the story should be. This section will help your child to expand upon the locations the story takes place in. It will help them to have a more thorough story and help them to think through each of the steps.

Building Your Plot – This page is to help your child design the plot of their story. Take some time to work through each of the parts of their plot and build out ideas for the piece. By spending some time on development before writing the final piece, your child will have a better understanding of their overall plot.

Catchphrase Idea Page – The Doctor and some of his companions need a great catchphrase. Use this page to help your child design one. This will help your child to design the catchphrase for each of their main characters, villains, or any supporting characters. A catchphrase is a huge part of any good Doctor or Master.

Revision Ideas/Questions – Revising a story before writing the final draft is important. This page has ideas to help your child revise their story. These will help your child to work through their first draft and edit all of the individual pieces. Teaching a child to self-edit is a skill that can help them well into the future.