The Shrinker Latte

So, I'm in love with the new Trim Healthy Mama drink, The Shrinker. I drink it at least once a day, so I decided to see what else I could do with this delicious chai like drink. And I made a frozen latte with it, and it is YUM! 

All the power of Oolong tea in a icy cold drink....starbucks...Move over!!!

Here's the recipe....

-Steep 2 tea bags of oolong tea in 8 oz of boiling water until it's a comfortable enough temperature to handle....about 20-30 minutes. 

-Put it in your blender and add about 2-3 shakes of cinnamon and 1-2 shakes of cayenne pepper, or more to your taste

-Add 8 oz of unsweetened almond milk, one scoop of whey protein powder, a dash of vanilla, a couple dashes of sea salt. 

-Add sweetener. I used 3 tsp of truvia and a couple dashes of nunaturals stevia. 

-Add one to one and a half trays of ice, and turn the blender on. 

-With the blender running, add 1/4 tsp of glucomannan. Run for about 30 seconds, turn off for about 30 seconds and then run again for another 30 seconds to a minute. 

-Pour into a big ole quart jar, top with some fat free Reddi Whip, and sprinkle some cinnamon on top, and enjoy the awesomeness!

This would be a FP, but alternately you could add cream if you wanted it as an S. 

Lifestyle Learning and Goals for my children and I

Ok, I think I've found it....what I'm wanting school to look like for us on a daily basis. I've been trying to define that very thing for months without success...I've tried something only to have that aching feeling that this is not what it's about for us. I allowed myself to get so caught up in what our homeschool *should* look like, that I hardly considered what I felt was right. 

A  year or so ago, I found the blog of mom who's been there, done that in the homeschooling world. She raised 4 wonderful and intellectual children and homeschooled them all the way through. There's so much wisdom to be gleaned from these moms who've scaled the mountain and seen the other side. Unfortunately shortly after I found her blog, and started taking in every bit of wisdom that she had to offer, she decided to close her blogs. I read what I could, and left it at that. But her style of education truly spoke to my heart, and I wanted to know more. But I put it away for a while, and went about my own thing, still feeling a bit unsettled in our day to day of home education. 

I was pleased as punch though to run across a sort of archive of her homeschooling posts, and I went through and gobbled them all up. And I found the missing link of what I was looking for. In one of her posts, she speaks of the three things that she requires of her children each day. They were reading, writing, and math. It was implied that they also did chores and Bible study, and spent less time in front of a screen and more time living life and learning, which is so important! 

She said for reading they could read whatever they wanted as long as it was good quality writing. She said, they read together and on their own, and all throughout their day. 

For writing, they could write whatever they wanted to write, so long as they wrote. Essays, poems, copywork, dictation, journals, letters, etc. She didn't worry about teaching writing style, so long as they wrote. If she saw recurring mistakes, she made it a point to help them fix it. 

And for math, they did math according to their own level of understanding. 

I love it! The simplicity, the common sense of it! 

I propose to find my own way within these guidelines for my own group of eager learners. 

So here are my own personal guidelines for our homeschooling experience. I will require six things from my children each day, and they are:

1. Time spent in God's Word-getting to know their Creator personally and in depth. Building godly character. Reading through their Bibles together as a family and on their own. 

2. Reading-As was said above, whatever so long as it's quality writing. I'm going to ask the older children to choose 5 different books when they go to the library each week- a biography, a science book, a historical book, a literature or poetry book, and a book of their choice. I won't make them read all of those, but I want them to have the variety to choose from. We will also read daily together as a family. I use meal times and bedtimes as anchors in our day, so we do a little reading during/after each meal and at bedtime. 

3. Writing-Again...they can write whatever, so long as they write each day! I will keep a list of ideas for them to choose from if they need them. 

4. Arithmetic-We will choose this together as to what will fit them best. 

5. Chores-A given. We're a large family, we work together to make our home an enjoyable place to live. 

6. Less screen time, more real life learning and living-Self explanatory. I've allowed my children to get far to friendly with gaming and screen time. They need to experience real life, and all the wonderful things it has to offer. I want them to observe nature, build things, create things, and just take it all in. You can't do that when you're staring at a screen all day. 

And lastly, a personal goal for myself. I want my children to see that learning never stops. It goes on and on all through adulthood. I want them to see me learning and living and creating, and not just surviving, or spending too much time online. I want to come up with a cottage business we can do together as a family, and that they can help me with, and I want us to grow our own food, and raise animals, and paint and fix up our home together. I want them to see that our lives are worth living, and getting to know God and His great creation should be our highest priority. 

Thanks for letting me share my heart and my goals for my children and I. Now it's time to stop talking about and get to it! Be blessed!

Unit Studies Made Easy Review

A few weeks ago, I made a feeble attempt at starting school with my kids.....and found after the first few days, that we were quickly floundering under the stress and disorganization of what I was trying to do. I couldn't really figure out what was wrong, but realized, I just wasn't quite ready to start school with a newborn in tow just yet, so we took a step back, and I realized that one of our biggest issues is our struggle with following and sticking with a good routine, and my kids (and mine in some things) lack of knowledge about properly keeping our home as we should. I didn't know what to do with that just yet, but just resigned myself to take it slow, and thought that maybe it would help if we planned a yard sale to get rid of some our clutter. We've spent the last couple of weeks going through and doing quite a bit of decluttering throughout the house, and will be having a big yard sale this coming Saturday. 

While working on decluttering, however, I started searching around the internet for some ideas and encouragement regarding homeschooling. I was considering trying another pre-planned unit study, something like KONOS, because I just didn't think I could pull together something myself in any sort of organized fashion....I was doing some research on these types of curriculum, and feeling discouraged, because our track record with these types of units have not gone over well with us in the past. I always feel too tied down, or get overwhelmed with all the projects and crafts. Well, a few nights ago, I stumbled upon a book I had heard of before, but for some reason dismissed. The book was Unit Studies Made Easy by Valerie Bendt....I looked through the previews, and thought, why not...what else do I have to lose. 

Boy, was I pleasantly surprised! This large collection is full of so much great wisdom, and I repeatedly found myself physically nodding in agreement, and thinking, that's exactly what I've been wanting to do! She takes my whole thoughts on this method of homeschooling and puts it into a practical easy to do way! She covers so much information in this more than 300 page book! 

Some of the things I've found wonderful are:

-Practical tips for pulling together your own unit studies
-She references my two favorite homeschool authors often....Ruth Beechick and Charlotte Mason

-How to use your library for doing units, including how to find appropriate poetry, art, or music to go along with your unit

-Including Biblical principles in your unit

-The importance of copywork and dictation

-Lots of ideas for unit studies and things to include

-There is a section on teaching reading that I have gotten many ideas from as well

-She talks about the importance of routines, but with flexibility

As far as negatives...the only thing I felt was really missing was I wanted to read more about how she incorporated writing into her units. Though she does give many suggestions! 

I'm super excited about our upcoming unit that I've already started planning, and you'll see that it's a bit outside the box for a unit study, but one that I know our family will greatly benefit from! 

If you're looking for a way to put together your own homeschool curriculum so that you can do what you know is best for your family, and save money while doing it, this is a great book! It's the perfect book for a mom who is looking to homeschool her large (or small) family using a relaxed, family oriented, unit study! It's not going to be for moms who need the step by steps of homeschooling completely laid out for you, but there is still so much information to glean from it, that I think anyone can benefit from reading this book! 

Blessings, 

sara