Tots and Me... Growing Up Together: March 2014

Monday, March 31, 2014

Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up- April 1, 2014

Welcome to Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up with your hosts Karen @ Tots and Me and Emily @ Emily Reviews

So glad you could join us as we share our giveaways on Tuesday's Giveaway Link Ups.

Our co-hosts this week are Ashley from Forgetful Momma and Mellissa from Something Like Life.

This link up will be posted Monday at 7 PM est. and run all week long! Make sure you stop in as often as you can to list your latest giveaways.

Here is how to use the Giveaway Link Up

1. Post your reviews and/or giveaways, as many as you have, be sure to add the end date (family friendly please)

2. Help spread the word about the giveaway link up by grabbing our button, Tweeting or posting on Facebook. (Not mandatory- but it helps get more exposure to your giveaways as well!)

3. Take a moment to enter any giveaway that strikes an interest to you!

If you would like to follow the hostesses, we will gladly follow you back! Simply leave us a message to do so.

Featured Giveaway

American Girl Giveaway (win a doll plus a book) US/Canada only Ends 4/1

Thank you for linking up with Karen @ Tots and Me & Emily @ Emily Reviews along with Ashley from Forgetful Momma and Mellissa from Something Like Life.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Map Skills with Mapping Penny's World

Welcome to the March edition of Poppins Book Nook!

This is my first month participating and I am enjoying it immensely. This month's theme was: Where in the World? At first I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to focus on, but as I got to thinking about it I realized this would be a great opportunity to focus on some map skills. In fact, I was surrounded by geography this month, both at home and at our homeschool co-op where I was teaching the K-3rd graders some Global Art and having fun with geography. Our very helpful librarian found a couple of great books that we used this month.

Our main book is Mapping Penny's World by Loreen Leedy. Penny is Lisa's dog and we first meet Lisa as she tells us about learning to make maps in school. She decides to make a map of her room with Penny's help. She then makes a map of her yard showing all of the places Penny hides things she finds. This leads to making a map to show the route a neighbor dog would take to come to visit Penny and a map of their hiking and biking trails. She also makes a 3-D map of Penny's Favorite Places. The books ends with a map of a planned trip around the world.

I decided to follow the same sort of pattern with the girls so we could see how we live in one tiny area of this great big world God created. We started by making a map of their bedroom.

Heading up the stairs.

They helped me measure the room and the furniture. We did not make the room exactly to scale, but we did try to estimate

Then on another day we branched out a bit and made a map of our house. We only did the downstairs. We started by taking a walk around the outside of the house to see how the different walls were arranged. The girls figured out quite easily which room we were standing outside of. I marked where doors, windows and porches were.

Then we walked around inside to mark were walls would go, filling in counters, appliances and furniture.

I then created 2 more outline maps and had the older two girls fill them in.

A few years ago I had made a map of our town. It isn't all that hard seeing as our town is only 1 mile around with hardly any side streets.

The girls took a short walk with daddy, taking pictures of some landmarks that have changed in the last few years.

We used to have a thrift shop right next door to us and then a small gas station was next to that. The thrift shop was torn down a couple of years ago for the gas station to expand.

It is now less than a quarter of a mile away in an old store.

The next day the weather was warmer, so the children and I walked all the way around town, filling in a map as we went.

I made both Tabitha and Amelia an outline map of our town. Amelia wasn't as interested in filling in all the houses, but I am going to have her fill in road names and some of the landmarks that are on my original map.

While we didn't give our maps all the features that were mentioned in the book, such as a scale, key or symbols, we did try to make the buildings stand out. Houses are just squares or rectangles, but garages have little cars drawn in them and the churches have pointed roofs and crosses for example.

Then we expanded our world further using maps I printed from the internet. The girls colored in our county, state, country and our planet.

This is Tabitha's book. Amelia hasn't quite finished hers as she wasn't really into it as much. I think this project was just right for Tabitha, but I would tweak it for younger children.

We also learned some fun map making pointers from

Math Monsters- Making Maps: Where's the Party by John Burstein.

I also read some of this book:

Geography for Fun: People and Places by Pam Robson. There are some great geography projects that I would like to work on in the future.

Come and check out what the other Poppins Book Nook co-hosts have been up to this month. Then don't forget to link up your own posts! Lastly, enter the giveaway below for a copy of Where in the World?

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom ~ 3 Dinosaurs ~ To the Moon and Back ~ Planet Smarty Pants ~ Farm Fresh Adventures ~ Growing in God's Grace ~ Chestnut Grove Academy ~ Faith and Good Works ~ Learning and Growing the Piwi Way ~ The Usual Mayhem~ Preschool Powol Packets ~ Monsters Ed Homeschool Academy ~ Adventures in Mommydom ~ Teach Beside Me ~ Life with Moore Babies ~ Kathy's Cluttered Mind ~ Are We There Yet? ~ Our Crafts N Things ~ Hopkins Homeschool ~ ABC Creative Learning ~ Joy Focused Learning ~ P is for Preschooler ~ Laugh and Learn ~ A Mommy's Adventures ~ Inspiring 2 New Hampshire Children ~ World for Learning ~ The Kennedy Adventures ~ Ever After in the Woods ~ Golden Grasses ~ Our Simple Kinda Life ~ A glimpse of our life ~ Journey to Excellence ~ Happy Little Homemaker ~ Little Homeschool Blessings ~ Simplicity Breeds Happiness ~ Raventhreads ~ Water on the Floor ~ Learning Fundamentals ~ Tots and Me ~ As We Walk Along The Road ~ Stir the Wonder ~ For This Season ~ Where Imagination Grows ~ Lextin Academy ~ The Canadian Homeschooler ~ School Time Snippets ~ Peakle Pie ~ Mom's Heart ~ A Moment in our World ~ Every Bed of Roses ~ Finchnwren ~ At Home Where Life Happens ~ Suncoast Momma ~ The Library Adventure ~ Embracing Destiny ~ Day by Day in our World ~ Our Homeschool Studio ~ A "Peace" of Mind ~ Thou Shall Not Whine ~ SAHM I am ~ eLeMeNo-P Kids ~ Simple Living Mama

Poppins Book Nook Giveaway! Every month the Poppins Book Nook group will be offering readers a chance to win a brand new storybook that ties in with our theme for the month. This month one lucky entrant will win a copy of Where in the World! The winner must reside within the United States. This giveaway is brought to you by the company Enchanted Homeschooling Mom, who is owner and founder of the Poppins Book Nook. By entering this giveaway you are also acknowledging that you have read and agree to all of the Rafflecopter terms & conditions as well as Enchanted Homeschooling Mom's disclosures found here.

Just enter the Rafflecopter below to win: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Come and find out more information about Poppins Book Nook at Enchanted Homeschooling Mom, on Facebook and on Pinterest.

Clip Art by Melon Headz

Hopping Along to Easter 2014: Week 1

Hosted by Tots and Me, Walking in Faith and Angels of Heart

Spring is here, well, supposedly. I am still waiting with great anticipation to really experience "spring." I guess it is fortunate that Easter (or Resurrection Sunday) is later in the month this year. Not only is there the chance that it may be warmer so we can do our Egg Hunt outdoors, but we have more time to get ready.

We would like to welcome you to the first week of the Hopping Along to Easter Blog Hop! What is Hopping Along to Easter? Well, it is a weekly blog hop that will last from now through the Friday after Easter. Each week there will be a new topic related to the celebration of Easter. We would love for you to come back each week and check out the current topic. We ask that you compose a related post answering the question, or share an old post that fits the theme. Please include the Hopping Along to Easter Blog Hop Button or a text link back to the hop, and head on over to any of the co-hosts' blogs to link up. Your post be as long or short as you want it to be. We will be choosing a co-host from those who link up a relevant post during the week. The co-host will have the linky on their blog for the following week.

Please take the time to visit the blogs of those who have linked up. Leave a comment. Follow them. Wish them a Happy Easter.

Don't forget to follow the hostesses. We will gladly stop by your blog and follow you back.

Here is this week's question:

What do you do to prepare for/get ready for Easter?

Do you have anything special you do to prepare yourself, your family, your home for this holiday. During Christmas we spend a lot of time buying and wrapping presents, sending Christmas cards, baking cookies or making candy, decorating our homes. What do you do to make Easter special?

We are looking forward to reading your posts, visiting your blogs and following you.

(Please be aware that irrelevant posts, links to your main blog instead of a specific post and giveaways will be deleted. Please only link up posts relevant to the weekly theme. Thank you for your understanding.)

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Lovin' the Weekend Blog Hops: March 27-30, 2014

Welcome to Lovin' The Weekend Blog Hops with your co-hosts:

Karen from Tots and Me, Rena from An Ordinary Housewife, Erin from For Him and My Family and Aurie from Our Good Life

Thank you to every one who has stopped by, whether this is your first visit or you have been a faithful ongoing participant!

Please note, there are 3 linkies, please scroll down to the 3rd one to link up giveaways! Thank you so very much!

(Giveaways linked up to either of the other linkies will be removed. Thank you for your understanding.)

We would love for you to stop by all the co-hosts and follow us, then feel free to add your links to any or all of the following linkies.

We also randomly choose a Featured host each week. This week we are featuring Shelly from There's No Place Like Home.

Here's what she has to say:

"My name is Shelly, and I just recently started blogging about three months ago. I have eleven children ranging in age from 10 months to 20 years, but only ten still live at home, as our oldest son has moved out. I started my blog for two reasons- the first being that I constantly have thoughts floating around in my head, so I needed an outlet for them so that I can actually get some sleep at night. The second reason is because after five years of homeschooling, we recently started unschooling after Christmas, and I was hoping to be a source of encouragement for people in similar situations. Most of my posts are about homeschooling and unschooling, although I do also write about our Christian faith and the logistics of having such a large family. You won't find many how-to posts on my blog, as I'm mostly a philosophical person, and, truthfully, I'm not at all crafty!"

Don't forget to link up to the Lovin' the Readers Hop if you would like a chance to be a Featured host next week. Please comment with a way to contact you, especially if there is not an obvious way mentioned on your blog. We would love to include a little write up about you and your blog in the next week's Lovin' The Weekend Blog Hop post, including a link to your blog. And you will get to include the linky codes on your blog. Sound fun? We're looking forward to getting to know our readers better.

Here's how this blog hop works. We would appreciate it if you would follow Tots and Me, An Ordinary Housewife, For Him and My Family and Our Good Life then please head on over to our Featured Host and follow as well. If you no longer have GFC please follow in some other way. After that there are three different linkies you can link to. Whichever one you choose to link to, please grab that button and share it on your blog (the codes are on Tot's and Me's sidebar). We'd love it if you could tweet or in some other way share about this blog hop, the more people who know about it, the more potential visitors and new followers of your blog. We'd love to meet some new friends this weekend.

Some people are more interested in just increasing their numbers, while others really want people who appreciate their blog and want to keep up with their posts. So, there are two separate blog hop linkies.

The third linky is for you to link up your giveaways.

If you are interested in increasing the number of followers to your blog via GFC, Linky Followers, email, Twitter, Facebook or Google+ link up here. We will follow you back if you follow us (just note which one you are linking to):

If you are interested in gaining followers to your blog who will read and comment and truly find an interest in your blog, link up here:

If you have family friendly giveaways to link up, here's your spot. Please make sure to include an end date for your giveaway.

We are so glad you stopped by. Please leave a comment if you link up and we will be sure to stop by and follow back.

Don't forget to check out my "Blog Hops" page for other great blog hops!!

Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen #78: Buttermilk Dip (from My Father's World K Teacher Manual)

Time for Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen

(A weekly linky to share what you and your children have created in the kitchen.)

The linky is at the bottom.

We are finishing up our V: Vegetables unit this week and I decided we would make the Buttermilk Dip recipe to go with our V Muffin Tin. I have never made dip from scratch before and was quite happy with the results, though I will probably cut the salt back a bit next time I make it.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp dried parsley flakes
1 clove garlic, minced (we used 1/2 tsp garlic powder)
1 tsp onion, minced (I used dried minced onion, wasn't sure if it meant fresh or dried)
1/2 tsp salt (will definitely try without the salt first next time)
dash of pepper