Littles Learning Link Up: August 15, 2017: Featuring Our Australian Meal

 Each month you will find:

• A seasonal round-up (usually toward the beginning of the month)
• Posts where I share what I have been up to with my preschoolers and/or early elementary children (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme.  Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up. 

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child(ren).

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

What have we been up to?

We have officially finished our My Father's World ECC year! We didn't quite get all the activities done that I hoped to, but we read lots of books (as usual), watched a couple of movies, and even had a "leaving the country" meal, complete with a Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen time. 

You can see a partial list of the books we read on Australia and Coral Reefs on my first Picture Book Saturday (on a Monday) post. I completely forgot to post this week's Picture Book Saturday as I am still trying to get into the routine, but I plan to share the rest of the books we read on Australia and Coral Reefs this coming weekend. 

The movies we watched were: The Rescuers Down Under and Blinky Bill the Movie (a never before heard of character for us). I was looking for a movie about kangaroo that I watched many years ago but couldn't remember the name. Found Kangaroo Jack thinking it was the right one. Started watching it, realized it wasn't the same movie, read reviews real quick, and promptly turned it off and searched for another movie. 

For our meal, I made four different dishes, utilizing three books. 

One of our curriculum books, A Trip Around the World, had a recipe for Australian Meat Pie. There was also a recipe for Damper Bread, but it called for self-rising flour which we don't have. So, I found a different recipe for the Damper Bread in Foods of Australia by Barbara Sheen. And in Cooking the Australian Way by Elizabeth Germaine & Ann L. Burckhardt, I found Sunshine Salad with Vinaigrette Dressing plus Glazed Kiwi Tart. 

As I was in a bit of a rush because daddy had to get to work, I made the Damper Bread and the Australian Meat Pie by myself. While the meat pie cooked, the children helped make the tart and the salad. 

Glazed Kiwi Tart

Ingredients:

1 9-inch unbaked refrigerated pie crust

1 8-oz package cream cheese (room temp)

2/3 cup sugar (I used 1/3 cup Pyure)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 Tbs heavy cream

3 ripe kiwis

1/4 cup apricot preserves

1 Tbs water

I followed the directions for baking the pie crust while the children were occupied in other activities. Then I let it cool. After the meat pie was in the oven, I called the children to help with the tart.

Tabitha and Hannah started getting the glaze cooking by combining the apricot preserves and water in a small saucepan. We heated it on low.

While that was heating, we worked on the filling. We mixed together the cream cheese, Pyure, vanilla extract, and heavy cream.

I love that Amelia helped pour while the others held the spoons.

Harold and Hannah helped mix the filling together with the electric mixer.

And Hannah sort of helped spread the filling. I ended up taking over because the crust kept sliding and I was afraid it was going to break.

While all this mixing and stirring was taking place, the older girls were in the dining room cutting kiwi.

Then Harold and Hannah helped arrange it on the tart.

And mommy poured the "glaze" on top. As you can see, it wasn't quite glaze consistency. I think it ended up cooking too long while I was moving back and forth between children.

Here is our Australian meal:

Let's take a look at that review schedule:

Last week I posted my review for Hey Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! from Greek 'n' Stuff . Next week I will post my review of The Everyday Family Chore System from Everyday Homemaking. In September I will be posting reviews of the Charlotte's Web E-Guide from Progeny Press, four books by Carole P. Roman, a book from Barbour Publishing called Imagine. . . The Great Flood by Matt Koceich, and Let's Go Geography.

Some things I would like to share with you:

I recently started a new weekly feature called Fun Fiction Friday, where I share the books the older girls and I are reading, sharing their thoughts on the books, and possibly even a review of a Juvenile book I am reading. 

Last week I started Picture Book Saturday (though it posted on Monday). These posts feature the picture books we read during the week, with the children each sharing which one was their favorite. Last week I shared the books we had read about Australia and Coral Reefs.

Hoping to make both of these consistent, weekly features here on Tots and Me...Growing Up Together. 

The 2017 Back to Homeschool Blog Hop brought to you by the Homeschool Review Crew started yesterday. I posted Our 2017-2018 Curriculum Choices. Later today I will be sharing Homeschool Supplies I Can't Live Without.

Also, in case you are interested, this post is from last years Back to Homeschool Blog Hop.

Littles Learning Link Up : Back to Homeschool Blog Hop Day 2 - Back to School Round Up

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 13 wonderful posts linked up. I will be picking one randomly selected post to share, plus the top clicked-on post.  

Please, don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's randomly selected post is:

Sara from A Mama's Story shared 3 Ways to Set Up Your Homeschool Space

And here is this week's top clicked on post.

Kelli from 3 Boys and a Dog shared Educational Toddler Activities for Homeschoolers.

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on one of my relevant boards, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

No button currently, and there won't be one until I can figure it out seeing as Photobucket has changed things. Feel free to still share the picture in place of the button. Just link it to my Littles Learning Link Up permalink please.

An InLinkz Link-up

Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up- August 15, 2017

Welcome to Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up with your hosts Karen @ Tots and Me, Emily @ Emily Reviews, Shelly @ The Attic Girl, and Rena @ An Ordinary Housewife.

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

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 Reviews

Thrilling Audio Adventure with In the Reign of Terror from Heirloom Audio Productions{A TOS Review} 

A Gradual Introduction to Biblical Greek with Greek 'n' Stuff {A TOS Review}

Thank you for linking up with Karen @ Tots and Me, Emily @ Emily Reviews, Shelly @ The Attic Girl, and Rena @ An Ordinary Housewife.

An InLinkz Link-up

The 2017 Back to Homeschool Blog Hop: Our 2017-2018 Curriculum Choices

Our 2017-2018 Curriculum Choices

We are finally done with our summer session of school and will be enjoying a break for the next few weeks before starting our fall "semester" the first week of September. Though we skipped a bit, we are officially done with Exploring Countries and Cultures from My Father's World. I think we all had a blast, "flying" off to different destinations, completing crafts from the various locations, eating foods native or popular in those countries, reading lots of books to learn information about them, and spending money to buy snacks and watch movies set in those countries. We also learned about different missionaries who traveled to these countries and prayed for others that still need to hear about Jesus. It was a wonderful year, expanding our horizons and learning more about the people who live in God's world.

Now, we are continuing on in the family cycle, heading back to the beginning of the world in Creation to the Greeks. Though we learned about some history in the Bible with the first grade curriculum, we will be digging much deeper this year, plus learning about different ancient cultures. And, little Harold will be following along plus doing the first grade curriculum.

Look at all the fun materials we received on our box day back in March:

That includes the materials for CtG and 1st grade (Learning God's Story).

Here is the core for Creation to the Greeks:

These books make up the history component.

Our science will focus on days of Creation and we will also be looking at the pyramids.

We will be using God & the History of Art.

And we will be focusing on several different composers. 

We may dig a bit deeper into one or two of these composers using our Music Appreciation Book from Zeezok Publishing LLC that we reviewed last year.

(Any links will go to my reviews of the curriculum mentioned)

English will include learning Greek roots and the following read alouds.

There will be more to our Language Arts than just the above books.

Tabitha will continue using Phonetic Zoo for Spelling, and will continue on with Readers in Residence.

Amelia will start using Phonetic Zoo for spelling, when she completes her Horizons book, and will continue on with Lightning Lit from Hewitt Homeschooling. 

Hannah will be using a combination of English on a Roll for grammar, plus continuing on with Level B of Eclectic Foundations Language Arts.

Plus we are going to start working on our poetry memorization again.

For math, I am still up in the air. 

I would love to go back to using CTCMath as I feel it is a great program. For now though the children will be working on daily math drills plus using the math component of K5 Learning.

Of course, Harold will be tagging along with as much as he can in Creation to the Greeks. But his main curriculum will be Learning God's Story from My Father's World.

He will be learning about the beginning of history from creation and will be continuing through the Bible. I will probably try to find some way to work on the Bible stories together and have him focus mostly on his phonics with Learning God's Story. He will also be using The Complete Book of Math.

As he has been enjoying his Learn to R.E.A.D Curriculum Notebook (getting all sorts of pouty when he is told he doesn't have to do it), I will have him continue on with it. He will be using that while the girls work on spelling. 

Foreign Language

We actually have a lot of resources we could use for foreign language this year. 

As our core focuses on Creation to the Greeks, we are going to continue working on Biblical Greek with Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek!. 

Looks like I'm going to have to get Tabitha her own Worktext so she can join in. She really wants to continue on with her Latina Christiana . . .

. . . but I was thinking of setting that aside til next year, when we do My Father's World's Rome to the Reformation. Still debating this actually. I have a few weeks to decide. 

Additionally, we will be working on Spanish again with Foreign Language for Kids by Kids. We will start back at the beginning and watch the videos, and work through the remainder of the workbooks. 

Harold would like to continue with his Whistlefritz, and I will include the girls when I can.

I almost forgot. I also set aside the D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths that we reviewed last spring, in anticipation of using it more fully during our CtG year. So, yes, we will be using that this year too.

As you can see, we supplement A LOT with review products from being on the Homeschool Review Crew. I'm sure there will be other things we will get to review this coming school year that may change the above plans, but our core will remain to be My Father's World Creation to the Greeks and Learning God's Story. 

So, what are you using in your homeschool this year?

Tomorrow I will be sharing about the supplies I can't live without. Hope to see you again tomorrow.

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The 2017 Back to Homeschool Blog Hop is Coming!

It's that time of year when people all around are thinking about their children going back to school. Some have already started, others won't be going back for a couple of weeks or more. Nevertheless, there are reminders popping up everywhere. So, I thought, why not join in as well. I have been contributing in these Back to School Blog Hops with the Homeschool Review Crew for a few years, and really enjoy doing so. This year's hop starts next Monday, August 14th, and ends on Friday, August 18th. My fellow Crew Mates and I are going to look at different aspects of homeschooling. 

Ironically, we are just finishing up our summer session and will be taking a three week break. At least that means I'm not going to have to try to get these posts up while also having a full homeschool day. Don't you love the flexibility of homeschooling?

So, what can you expect this year?

Monday: Our 2017-2018 Curriculum Choices

Tuesday: Supplies I Can't Live Without

Wednesday: Planning and Recording Our Homeschool Year

Thursday: Homeschooling Outside the Home

Friday: Dear Homeschool Mom: Encouragement From the Homeschool Dad

I hope you will find time to stop by each day to get a glimpse into our homeschool. Each day there will also be a linky at the bottom of the post so you can easily hop around to see what my Crew Mates have to share about each subject.

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Fun Fiction Friday - August 11, 2017

Fun Fiction Friday
August 11th, 2017

Welcome back to Fun Fiction Friday.

In my Fun Fiction Friday I share the books the older girls and I are reading, and a short review of a Young Adult or Juvenile book I have finished, if applicable. I will also ask the girls to tell me something they would like to share about at least one of the books they are currently reading. As I am also reading books for adults, I have started my book blog up again. A few weeks ago I shared my Friday Finds, Book Beginnings on Friday, and The Friday 56 in my Friday Fun post. I haven't had a chance to post one since, but hope to do so today. I will also be sharing my reviews of any adult books over there. If I do, I will share links to those reviews in my Fun Fiction Friday post. 

I finished The Castle in the Mist by Amy Ephron. I was so excited to see I had a message on my Tots and Me Facebook page by the author. That was just so exciting. I have yet to start The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns by Chris Colfer. I've just been way too busy. A lot of books are going to end up going back to the library unread. I had such lofty reading goals at the beginning of the summer reading program. Just isn't going to happen. 

The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns by Chris Colfer is the second book in the The Land of Stories series. Young Alex and Conner Bailey are back to help save the day in this sequel to The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell. The Eastern Kingdom, once called The Sleeping Kingdom, had finally began to really recover from the original sleeping curse. At the time of the first book, the Sleeping Kingdom was still half asleep and unproductive (both the land and the people), though Queen Sleeping Beauty's actual curse had been broken before the book began. Now the evil Enchantress (the one who originally cursed her) is back and her evil had reached into the real world. Friends and acquaintances from the first story join forces to help Alex and Conner rescue their mother and save the fairy-tale world. Can't wait to actually read it. Think I'll start tonight after the kids are in bed.

Moving on to the girls' books:

Amelia is still reading The Prisoner of Azkaban, plus a chapter book for Australia called Flat Stanley's Worldwide Adventures: The Australian Boomerang Bonanza, and recently started Charlotte's Web because we are reviewing the study guide from Progeny Press. She took Hamster Princess: Giant Trouble out of the library and hopes to be able to get to it soon. Though she sort of ended up reading a fairy book first called Ava the Sunset Fairy.

Amelia really likes Harry Potter and the Prisoner and Azkaban. She is toward the beginning of the book still and wanted to share a bit about what is going on. When Harry was still with Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, right before he went to Diagon Alley, he got presents from Ron and Hermione. He then took the Knight Bus to Diagon Alley and in the morning he met them. Then they went to the pet store and Hermione got a cat named Crookshanks. Ron got his rat tonic. A few days later they got on the Hogwarts Express where they meet Professor Sleeping Lupin. 

Tabitha is really enjoying the History Mysteries from American Girl. She is almost finished reading Ghost Light on Graveyard Shoal by Elizabeth McDavid Jones. She is also almost finished with The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. She is also reading Charlotte's Web, for the same reason Amelia is. 

Tabitha is enjoying Ghost Light on Graveyard Shoal. It's about a girl whose name is Rhoda. Her father works at a life saving station to save people from shipwrecks because they live on an island. Rhoda has a sick friend named Pearl who may die if her father can't get enough money. 

Rhoda sees some kind of light, and she tries to figure out what it is, and it becomes more and more mysterious. She thinks it could be the light of a wrecker, who is a person who takes a big light and lures ships to their doom. It could look almost like another ship or a lighthouse. 

She thinks it is really good and she likes it. Tabitha thinks Rhoda's figured out that it is a wrecker, and thinks she knows who it is. But Tabitha realizes that in mysteries sometimes the people add up the clues too hastily and jump to conclusions. 

Fun Fiction Friday

Book Review

The Castle in the Mist is another book I found on display in the library. It is a juvenile fiction book written by Amy Ephron, her first book for young people. In this story Tess and Max are sent to their aunt's English countryside village because their father is in Afghanistan and their mother is sick.. There isn't a lot to do until Tess finds a key that unlocks a magical gate into what at first I thought was a mysterious land, but ended up being the neighboring estate. However, there is still a huge mystery about who the boy is who Tess first meets, a boy who is there with his "governess" and a man named Barnaby. Tess keeps the key and ends up bringing her brother Max back with her to meet William. A lovely friendship is forged in the fantastical backyard with a beautiful rose garden, pond, magical carousel and lifelike statues of different gods and goddesses. However, there is something sinister about the hawthorne trees, something that isn't quite understood, but definitely makes for some suspense. 

There is quite the mystery about who these people might be, seeing as nobody is supposed to be living in the castle, and their Aunt Evie knows of no young boy living anywhere nearby. And there are magical wishes involved, wishes that bring adventure, but also some intriguing surprises. 

The chapters are quite short, maybe a little too short actually. Personally, I wish the story was a bit longer and a little less confusing. I loved the idea of the storyline, but some of it was just a bit weird, and never really explained well. The ending left me wondering what exactly is going on their, and how these people are even there. 

I did enjoy the book, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. It also caught me off guard when Tess was wanting to pray to one of the statues of the gods. There seemed to be a bit more power in these statues that didn't quite make sense. 

Throwback Thursday Blog-Style #164: August 10, 2017

Welcome back to... 

I know, I know, Throwback Thursday seems to be all about sharing pictures from the past, great memories that mean something to you, that you would like to share with others. At least that is how it appears to me. Throwback Thursday wasn't something I was participating in, and then I came up with an idea.

I thought it would be great fun and a help to my blog to share old content, but not just any old content. Each week I will share an old blog post from a previous year, any year, BUT it has to be from the current week (for example, something I've posted around August 10th, from any previous year)  I will go in, edit the post if needed, add a pinnable image if I don't already have one, and share it on Facebook.

Last year I focused solely on recipe posts for the posts I wanted to share, and the year before that, I shared past review posts. It was fun remembering some of the recipes and reviews I had forgotten about. This year I will be sharing random posts.

Would you like to join in? You do not need to edit your past post in any way, you don't need to create a pinnable image, though it couldn't hurt, in fact it will help your blog traffic to add quality pinnable images to your posts.

Just go into your archives, choose a favorite post from this current week from any previous year, and link it up below. (If you don't have anything from this current week, it is still okay to link up with a post from a previous year around this time. And if you haven't been blogging for a full year, feel free to share any earlier post.)

Please make sure to share from the past as instructed above if you would like your post to qualify for the Featured Post. Most weeks I find that there is a wonderful post, but I can't feature it because it is a current post, not from the past. I love reading the current posts, if you want to share them. However, I am not able to feature them, because the spirit of Throwback Thursday Blog-Style is to share posts from the past.
Thank you

I will be pinning posts to my appropriate Pinterest boards and will be randomly selecting a Featured Throwback Thursday post to share next week. Just a note, I will be sharing a picture from your post if you are selected as the featured post, but I will link back to your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. By linking up you are giving me permission to use your picture in the post. 

Here is my Throwback Thursday post:

Originally posted August 10, 2013
Teaching Toddlers While Teaching Older Children

Here is this week's randomly selected

Featured Throwback Thursday:

Jackie from Reviews, Chews & How-Tos shared 

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

To participate, link up below. It would be great if you could visit several of the other posts that have linked up. Stop by, comment, and pin images so we can help each other.

No button currently, and there won't be one until I can figure it out seeing as Photobucket has changed things. Feel free to still share the picture in place of the button. Just link it to my Throwback Thursday Blog-Style permalink please.

Happy Throwback Thursday!

An InLinkz Link-up