50+ Reasons to Be Thankful for Homeschool!

I am so thankful for the opportunity and the blessing of homeschooling my children. However, like any family we also have our tough days. We have the days I feel like I can’t do it all. We have the days where the children are fighting with each other. We have days where decimals seem like they are going to get the best of us. On those days I find that it is so very beneficial to remember all the reasons that I am thankful we homeschool.

Our family has many reasons, including wanting to put God first in our lives, teaching true American history, family time, and the time freedom. I asked homeschool moms on my Facebook page and in our Schoolin’ Swag Facebook group to share with me the reasons they were thankful to homeschool. Some of them I have shared word for word and others I combined because multiple moms shared similar reasons. It is my prayer that when you are having a tough day or if you are considering making the switch to homeschooling, that these reasons would be an encouragement to you.

Take a few minutes with a hot cup of coffee or a cold drink of lemonade (or my personal favorite chocolate milk), read over this list and reflect on all the reasons to be thankful we can homeschool our children. If you have other reasons, I would love to have you share them with me in the comments.

Witness every ‘first’
Flexibility
To raise them according to God’s word.
I love spending time with my kids.
Fun field trips
Learning more about life on a daily basis.
I’m thankful my husband & I get to be a bigger influence in our children’s lives than strangers who don’t share our family’s values. ❤️
No more bullying at school.
One big blessing(among so many) is seeing how close my children are to each other.
I’m thankful for the time to get to really know them.
I’m thankful for being able to cater to each individual way my child learns.
I’m thankful I was able to instill a love of reading in two kiddos.
I’m getting to build a strong relationship with my son.
He learns at his pace, not the systems pace!
I was glad I had spent EVERY MINUTE of him in his childhood ~ IT GOES SO FAST! (From a mom whose oldest is in college)
I love the fact that we can school outside when the weather is appropriate.
We can also school year round and take vacation days when we want to, not when scheduled for us.
As homeschoolers my children have learned to get along with people of all ages.
I don’t have a bunch of unteaching to do like I would have to if they attended school
I can teach them the whole American history story.
I can teach them what the Bible has to say in regards to science, philosophy, humanity, religions, etc.
Kids can spend more time studying in detail the subjects they are interested in.
“It means when my 13-year-old son told me he would finish his project in a fortnight his comment had everything to do with the great books he’s reading and nothing to do with a video game.“
The life learning that happens.
The uniqueness of my children’s personalities was allowed to blossom.
They get more sleep and more unstructured time.
” As a mom of 6 with Multiple Sclerosis I couldn’t imagine schooling my kids in any other way. It provides the freedom we need, while we figure out structure with flexibility.”
It is awesome to learn new things together.
Have time for “extra” things like starting a garden together.
We can read books together on topics that aren’t typically school subjects.
They can learn to handle firearms and shoot safely without punishment for having a firearm.
Siblings in different grades can learn together rather than rarely seeing each other throughout the day.
We can take vacations as a family without working around school schedules.
We have greater flexibility in scheduling medical and dental appointments.
An older student can tutor a younger friend in a subject during a regular school day.
We have a school holiday on birthdays.
Early risers can start school while others are sleeping.
We can eat breakfast together at a decent hour.
We wanted our children to know us.
We can go on nature walks together and notice details of the world around us.
We can have long conversations about things that are side bars of a lesson and wind up having a completely unexpected lesson.
All the coffee and like minded mommas out there.
I’ve been learning all these years! I’m smarter now than I was 21 years ago when we started hs’ing
I love that we can learn so many subjects from a Christian worldview and really discuss what we are learning.
I love that when my child doesn’t understand a concept in math, we can stop and really focus on hands-on learning for as long as we need to until he gets it.
I know they are safe (where they are, what they’re doing, who they’re with, no peer pressure).
A hike in the mountains, baking cookies, building a fort, growing a garden, etc can be packed with lessons you can’t learn in a book.
Mornings are less stressful.
I don’t want my kids to fall through the cracks of the education system.
We can let them have a say in their education.
I’m grateful for how it’s forced my family into deeper relationship, better communication, and more learning for all of us! -Beth of Fit2B

Be encouraged today that this hard work you are doing is totally worth the hard work and the difficult days! You are not alone and it does get easier.

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Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

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G is for Green Ember

Who doesn’t like talking rabbits? Add in a few swords and some classic good vs evil action and you have a recipe for a great family read aloud. This great series by SD Smith is one of our family favorites. The first book took a few chapters to really get into, but after that, we were all ‘hooked’. We actually enjoy listening to these as audio books on our travels, but my son also has the paperback versions of most of them so he can also read them independently.

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The main characters are rabbit siblings Heather and Pickett. At the beginning of the Green Ember they lead very ordinary rabbit lives, but then a series of tragic events lead them on an exciting adventure of fighting for both their safety and good vs evil. The book is exciting and not gratuitously graphic but it might be a little intense for some young readers. There are battle scenes and the audio version has some very good sound effects.

“I really liked that the rabbits were able to fight off the villains. It was full of adventure and excitement. You never knew what was going to happen next.” Matthew, age 12

We thoroughly enjoyed this book and the others in this series. I always appreciate being able to give my children fun examples of bravery, valor, honestly, and other important values. C.S. Lewis once said, “Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.” I think these books are a great example of offering our children stories of brave knights and heroic courage.

My daughter also really wanted me to mention Gooney Bird Greene as a G book that she really enjoyed. Gooney Bird Greene is about a young girl named Gooney Bird and her adventures at school. It is a great choice for students that are just getting into chapter books.

Have you read the Green Ember before? I noticed that it is currently free with kindle unlimited. What is your favorite ‘G’ book? I would love for you to share in the comments and let us know.

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Deals and Freebies

You Are An Artist is having a spring sale right now on their courses included a great Easter course.

Schoolhouse Teachers is also offering a great sale! If you want to give it a try, your first month is only $1 or you can get an entire year for $111. My daughter is getting ready to use a photography class from our subscription to help her learn more about her new (to her) camera.

April showers

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

April Hymn Study: Up From the Grave He Arose!

This hymn is known by several names: Up From the Grave He Arose, Low in the Grave He Lay, and Christ Arose. I knew that I wanted to choose a song about the resurrection in honor of Easter this month and this one kept playing through my head.

While it is an older hymn, dating back to 1874, it is still so applicable today. I love the upbeat excitement about the resurrection of Jesus portrayed in the hymn’s lyrics. The hymn was written by Pastor Robert Lowry who wrote many other hymns but felt that his true calling was preaching.

This hymn sings glory and praise because Jesus arose from the dead. There are three short verses but what most people remember most is the refrain. I think it is a great hymn study for children because the simple but powerful lyrics are easy to remember and share such a powerful truth. Jesus defeated death and lives forever!

“Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!”

I have shared various versions of the hymn below as well as more about the author Robert Lowry. If you have young children, you might enjoy this recipe for resurrection rolls that would go really well with a study of this hymn. I had such a hard time picking just one hymn for us to study this time of year, so I am hoping to get time to publish a couple of extra hymn studies this month.

Hymn Study Resources:

Sheet Music and Hymn Background

Up From The Grave He Arose, Hymn Story

Up From The Grave He Arose, Acapella

Up From The Grave He Arose (sung by young children)

Up From The Grave He Arose (More country/blue grass style)

Download Your Freebies Below!

Hymn Study Fact Sheet

Up From The Grave He Arose (Copywork)

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Deals and Freebies

Schoolhouse Teachers is now offering a lifetime option! They are a great place for a one stop shop curriculum or a way to have a lot of options to fill in different electives and courses into what you have already chosen.

FREE zoo scavenger hunt from Journey Homeschool Academy

The Homeschool Curriculum Summit is coming soon! Grab your free ticket now!

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Not Consumed has a BRAND NEW Pre-K and Kindergarten Curriculum and it is on sale now!

Fix It! Grammar (A Review)

Grammar has been the thorn in the side of my existence as a homeschool mom; finding a program that worked but that wasn’t dull and dry has been a real challenge. Along came an opportunity to review Fix It! Grammar which promised short lessons and the opportunity for students to apply grammar concepts in context. I knew that Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) created quality products and so I decided I would give it a chance and see how it worked for my daughter. We started at the beginning and review Student Book 1, The Nose Tree.

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The program is built around four, approximately fifteen-minute long lessons per week. The first day took a bit longer than that as we got set up and my daughter and I both got learned how the program worked. After the first day, she was able to finish each day’s assignments in 10 to 15 minutes. I went over each day’s work with her but (after that first day) she was able to complete the work independently.

Student Workbook

In each lesson a student only has to work with one sentence. They read the sentence and then in their notebooks define the one word that is in bold print. Next, they mark the sentence for grammar by marking the parts of speech that have been taught thus far as well as fixing any mistakes. Once they have it corrected, they turn to a second section in their notebook and add that sentence to the story that they are working on, making sure to include the correction punctuation and any fixes they noted in their books. Each sentence from the beginning to the end of the book adds to the same story. This makes it fun for them to find out what happens next. This whole process generally takes no more than fifteen minutes.

The student workbook also includes grammar cards with the different concepts to cut out and use for review. They are double sided with the concept on one side and an explanation on the other. For example, the first card says “Nouns N” and then the back gives the definition of a noun and a couple of tips for helping determine if a word is truly a noun.

“I liked the story and how it kept adding on to the same story. I also liked how it slowly added in things like nouns and pronouns and did not have me try to remember them all at once. ” Elizabeth, Age 11

The teachers manual shows the sentences that are in the student workbook with the appropriate corrections. It also includes explanations and helpful tips. For example, when it taught about quotation marks, the teacher tip explained why quotation marks were supposed to be curved but were sometimes straight because of type writers. There is also a glossary at the back of the teachers manual and the student workbook which have lots of great grammatical information. It explains concepts like Oxford comma, capitalization rules, and clauses.

Fix It! Grammar turned out to be a great program for my daughter. Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) did an excellent job offering a high quality, thorough program that is easy to implement (all the busy moms rejoice) and engaging. Other reviewers from the Review Crew checked out other levels of Fix It! Grammar so make sure to check out some of the other reviews at the link below.

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Rhythm & Writing (A Review)

My four year old had been wanting to learn to write more than just B (the first letter in his name) and this review of Rhythm & Writing with the Get Write Crew came at just the right time. Rhythm & Writing has created a cute program of videos, stories, and practice to help young children learn to write. I was excited to find out that it was created by an occupational therapist who knew and understood the importance of fine motor skills in handwriting.

When we first got the package in my son had an opportunity to take a ‘pre-test’ where he copied words to get an idea of what he already knew. This would be especially beneficial for a child that had learned some of his letters and just needed to work on trouble spots. I was excited to be able to have it to compare his progress. If your child already had mastery of some of the letters you could skip through those and only focus on the ones that needed work. Since my son only really knew the letter B, we decided to start at the beginning and work our way through the book. The book covers both the upper and lower case of each letter, but not at the same time.

There is a song/rap for each set of letters to help you remember how to form them. If I’m being honest, I was not a huge fan of the raps but my son LOVED them. He wanted to watch the videos over and over again and I think they helped him learn to write. Their effectiveness made up for the fact that I didn’t enjoy listening to them. The videos feature the same characters as the story in the book: “Big Country” Guitar, “Hip Hop” Lyricist, “Mo Rock” Drums, and “Jazzy Faith” Keyboard and Vocals. You can even listen to a sample on the website.

rhythm capture

The rhymes that help them remember how to write the letter are simple but effective. For example, letter V was down stop, up stop. Capital H is long line down jump out, long line down and across. Those combined with the songs and the practice made it easy to master the letters.

20190318_113848 — Sometimes you just need to ‘do school’ outside.

One of my favorite parts of this program is that they sent a transparency with the workbook so that a child could practice as many times as needed to gain mastery. As a four year old my son is still working on those fine motor skills needed for writing letters and requires quite a bit of practice. If he had done the workbook page without the transparency he would have been unable to keep working on it until he had it mastered. Once you feel they have mastery, you can remove the transparency and allow them to write on the actual page.

20190401_101843 — After practicing with the marker and transparency for a couple of days, he did the worksheet in pencil.

My son also enjoyed that there was a picture he could color on each page. The pictures add visual interest for the student but also give them a little extra fine motor skills practice.

We moved slowly through the program, averaging a letter or two a week because of my son’s age and developing motor skills. If I tried to do too much, he would get frustrated and not do his best work. I had to remember that it takes a lot of focus and work for young hands to form the letters. If you were working with an older student or one who was just missing some of the letters the program could be done at a faster speed.

20190320_112330 — Same robe, different hair cut, different day.. more letter practice.

Overall, I think Rhythm & Writing with the Get Write Crew is a creative and effective way to teach handwriting skills. The videos and story make it fun, the transparency and catchy rhymes allow for plenty of practice and make proper formation easier. We plan to continue using this with my son until he reaches mastery of all of the letters. Make sure you click below to check out the experiences of the other Crew members.

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F is for From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

This week my daughter chose the book. This is the book that I assigned her to read last week and when she was finished she immediately asked me if I would chose it as the ‘F’ book in the series. It is a longer chapter book and so I had allowed up to two weeks for her to finish it but she had it done in about four days.

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From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is a fun book about a girl and her brother who run away and live in an art museum for a little while. They have many adventures and meet a lady named Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. They also discover and solve a great mystery.

” I really liked it. I thought it was really neat how they slept in the museum and found Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I liked the mystery part of it as well. I would recommend this book for students that are in the mysteries in about fourth or fifth grade. I think it would be good for both boys and girls.” Elizabeth, Age 11

I think this book speaks to the adventurous parts of our soul. So many times as children, we long for something exciting to help to break up the day-to-day routine. I know as a child I used to imagine myself having a grand adventure and solving a big mystery. Books like this allow us to live vicariously through the main characters and have adventures while never having to leave the comfort of our own homes.

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Have you read From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler before? What is your favorite ‘F’ book? I would love for you to share in the comments and let us know.

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Deals and Freebies

Evan-Moor is having a big 29% off sale for Leap Year from 2/27-29 29% off for Leap Year!

Little Women is only .99 on kindle right now! (Amazon prices subject to change always check before purchasing.)

FREE Baby Yoda Art Lesson from Nana!

All About Learning has released the best deal of the day: A FREE Snowman Pack with reading and spelling activities for a variety of ages.

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Real Life Fitness and a FREE workout video!

October 1, 2020 update: Fit2B is having a 50% off Anniversary Sale this week, 2 days only!

I recently asked on my Facebook page how many people were struggling to make time for fitness and physical activity. A whopping 83% of respondents said that they struggled with finding the time to be physically active. I am not writing this from the perspective of a fitness guru or expert. I struggled with this for a long time and in all honesty I still am not where I want to be but I’m making progress. There is no realistic way that I can spend hours a day working out at this stage in my life, but I can do little things that add together to make up a real life fitness plan. Slowly but surely, I’m moving forward and regaining my health and my strength. I could not have done this without the help of Fit2B and their great online fitness program. I needed something I can do on my time, in small increments, and while my children were playing at my feet and Fit2B provided all of that and more.

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

5 Minute Routines

Fit2B offers over 200 different routines in varying lengths and intensities. I have been most thankful for their five-minute routines. Many mornings I get up and I know that I don’t have thirty minutes for a full routine, but most days I do have five minutes. I can at least get my body moving and start the day out right. If I go ahead do that quick routine, I find that I tend to be more active during the day. Many days I can do two or three of the five-minute routines in the morning before the children need my more focused attention. Those routines tend to break through both my excuses and the reality of my busy mornings and help me to be active.

Tummy Safe

After four children and years of unsafe abdominal exercises I was had significant damage to my abdominal muscles and a diastasis. You can read more about my journey with that here, but I was very happy to find this program that provides exercises that help me safely strengthen my core.

Real Life Routines

Some programs require lots of time or lots of equipment that in my current life stage just is not a good option. Fit2B uses mostly body weight exercises with a few hand weights (though she will show you how to use household objects to replaces the weights if needed). She even has workouts that show you how you can use your time in the kitchen to get in a workout. I love how well it just flows into my real life so that I do not have to sacrifice time with those I love most in order to get in a workout.

Mommy and Me Routines

When my babies were little even a five-minute routine often seemed like too much to manage. In the times they were napping I wanted to get a shower, take my own nap, eat, or play with my other children. The mommy and me routines were the perfect solution. I didn’t have to wait until the baby was napping to get in a quick workout. I could do a workout that safely incorporated baby so that I could combine my workout and baby playtime. Fit2B has several great options for mommy and me routines.

Workouts for the Whole Family

Unlike the regular workouts, the Fit2B kids workouts are much less structured and more about getting children moving and active. Beth at Fit2B was generous enough to share this sample workout that provides a movement for each letter of the alphabet. These are fun and silly ways to get kids moving. We especially enjoy these workouts on those cold or rainy days when it’s hard to get outside to play. The children can do them by themselves or you can join in with them. These also work great to incorporate physical education into your homeschool. I encourage you to give this one a try and tell me in the comments which letter was your favorite!

Right now Through April 1st Fit2B is having a huge 40% off sale to celebrate Beth’s birthday! I encourage you to check out their program to see if it might be a tool to help you with your struggle to fit fitness into your everyday life. No traveling to a gym, no purchasing expensive equipment, no need to find a baby sitter. You can get an annual membership for less than $90 during this sale and that covers your entire family. If you prefer you can even purchase smaller series of specific workouts. If you have any questions please let me know in the comments.

P.S. If you need a great health course for your daughter I did a post about their girls course and it is also on sale right now!

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Nature Study: Birds

Spring is such a fun time to study birds. My four-year-old son was quite interested in the fall and early winter, but we did not see very many birds, as we would go for walks. He even put out a bird feeder but saw no birds eating at the feeder over the winter. However, now that spring has arrived, he is seeing a variety of birds at the feeder and in the yard each morning.

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Every day since the weather started warming up, we have had cardinals, wrens, finches, and robins in the yard. One day last week, we had a yellow bird that I thought I had never seen before. Once we identified it in the bird guide, we realized that we had seen it before, but it is only bright yellow during the spring mating season.

These birds have been an exciting way for our family to learn together. My older children can teach my four-year-old the names of the birds that we recognize already, and together we can look up the ones that we do not know. We discuss colors and sizes with the younger ones and the older children are learning more about details, migration patterns, and identifying the birds that are not as commonly known.

20190304_083834

In addition to the birds in our yard, we have enjoyed taking walks down our road to see the various birds along the way. We also hike local trails to see if we can find different birds. We’ve even seen bald eagles on a few occasions. This can be a bit of a challenge with the children as they often scare the birds away before we can get close, but sometimes we get to spot some really interesting birds and they always have a good time.

To help my older children expand their knowledge and improve their nature journals, we have been doing a course of chalk pastel bird lessons for our art class. Then having them take those skills and do their own pictures of birds that they see in the yard or on our hikes. Once they have drawn the pictures they identify the bird in the bird book and write several facts about the bird. These have been some of their best journal entries.

One of the things that is so great about using birds for nature study is that they are readily available and it does not take a lot of specialized equipment to watch them. You can see them without any equipment and if needed identify them on the computer. I did find that there were a few inexpensive items that have made our bird study easier and more productive. We love having a bird guide because then my children can take it with us on hikes or use it at home and identify the birds they find. We love having a bird feeder in the yard to attract more birds. They are many inexpensive feeders and it is also a benefit to the birds. You can even make your own using a pine cone, peanut butter and bird seed or a pipe cleaner strung with cheerios. I have included a list of a few of these great resources below.

I would love to hear about what birds you are finding in your area this spring? Do you have a favorite bird book or resource?

Bird Study Resources:

Peterson First Guide to Birds (small but quality and easy to carry on hikes and easy for children to use.)

Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America (this is a thicker book that we keep in our kitchen for identifying the birds in our yard)

Clear Window Bird Feeder (This is so much fun for getting an up-close look at the birds. We enjoy having the birds ‘join us’ while we eat our breakfast inside and can watch them eat their breakfast.)

Binoculars (These are not required to see birds but can be helpful if the birds are further away.)

Bird Chalk Pastel Lessons (Such a great way to expand your study of birds and also to improve nature journals.)

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library, you will get a link and password to the library; we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you updated on what we have going on.

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This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always, I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in, and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies

Free Makeover Your Morning 5-Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Getting Our Mornings Going: Quick and Easy, Protein Packed Breakfasts

Recently, I realized that our morning routine had gone out the door, and we needed to get it together. I realized that breakfast was a bottleneck for us, but I was not sure how to fix it.

My son has always done better with a high protein breakfast and my husband wants nothing to do with oatmeal. So we typically cooked a full breakfast each morning: eggs, meat and potatoes, egg casserole, pancakes with bacon, etc. For a long time this worked well for us, as my children were all early risers and would help make breakfast each morning.

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Life Changes and Schedules Change

However, between busy schedules, late nights, and sleeping a bit later in the morning, it just was not working anymore. It was getting to be later and later when we finished cleaning up the kitchen from breakfast and got our school day started. While one of the things I love about homeschooling is the flexibility to set our own schedule, these late mornings were causing us to be rushed to finish up and do things in the afternoons.

I really wanted to be able to go ahead and get our school day started by about 9 am so that we could comfortably be done before our afternoon activities. This also gives us much-needed free time for outdoor play and activities.

I brainstormed breakfast ideas with my family. I asked my readers for ideas for easy and fast protein-packed breakfasts that were low glycemic index and did not involve oatmeal. I added the ideas to my meal plan and gave it all a try.

I have found several ideas that we really love, and we have some other ideas we still need to try out. Daylight Savings Time threw our mornings off a bit last week, but all in all, I am seeing a marked improvement in our ability to eat breakfast, clean up the kitchen and get our day started ‘on time’.

I may add to this list in the coming weeks but I wanted to go ahead and share what has worked well so far. You will notice that some of these are made ahead, some cook fast, some were prepackaged, and others take longer but do not require a lot of hands on time which means we can be working on other things while breakfast cooks.

Frozen Breakfast Burritos

We tried two different versions of frozen breakfast burritos. I found a brand of premade breakfast burritos that were on sale buy one get one free, so I decided to give them a try. The price was very reasonable with the sale (about $1.17 each) but we found that they really didn’t suit the tastes of my family. We also tried making our own frozen breakfast burritos and those were a big hit! We will absolutely be keeping those in the rotation.

To make our own we simply scrambled up a dozen eggs with a bit of milk, a touch of salt, and some cheddar cheese. After cooking the eggs we sliced some additional cheese and placed a slice or two of cheese into each tortilla and then a scoop of eggs. We folded up the tortilla and wrapped it in foil.

You can refrigerate these for a couple of days or freeze them. When you are ready to use them, simply take them out of the freezer, place on a baking sheet and cook in the over at 350 for about 20 minutes or until hot. You can add salsa and sour cream that day if desired. These were very nice because there was very little clean up and only about 2 minutes of hands on time that morning.

Instant Pot Breakfasts

We found this recipe for an Instant Pot sausage, egg, and potatoes breakfast and were excited to try it. The first time we tried, we followed the recipe. We found that our family did not really like the sauce. I adapted the recipe by using water or broth instead of the sauce and found that it was much more to our tastes. We also skip the bell peppers because not everyone in my family likes them. We really enjoyed it with those simple changes.

I timed myself and it took me six minutes of prep work in the morning to get it started. This was cutting the potatoes, onion, and sausage and putting everything into the instant pot. It took about 30 minutes start to finish to get breakfast on the table, but only those first six minutes and then a minute or two to put it onto plates are active time.

I could set it to start and then work on getting the little ones dressed and ready for the day. There was lots of protein and it was delicious. My husband and son added a bit of Cajun seasoning to their potatoes to give them a little added kick.

We also found that we could boil eggs in the Instant Pot to eat that morning or for eating throughout the week. These are an easy way to add protein to any breakfast. They also work well as an easy high-protein snack.

Egg Molds

Scrambling eggs really doesn’t take all that long, but somehow it always seems to make a big mess and take longer than it should to clean up in our house. It also takes very attentive focus so that they do not burn. Egg molds solve this attention problem and clean up easily.

You simply scramble your eggs and mix in whatever add ins you would like to mix into them. This could be veggies like spinach, peppers, squash, or onions. You could also add in small bits of meat like ham. Then ladle it into the molds. You can stack two molds on top of each other and cook them at the same time.

This breakfast idea uses the instant pot for hands-free cooking. Place one cup of water in the bottom of the instant pot, put in the rack and then place the egg mold on top. If you are using two egg molds, be sure to place them off center of each other so that the top one doesn’t sink into the molds of the first one.

Then cook on high pressure for 8 minutes. We often added toast, fruit, or English muffins to round out breakfast on egg mold day. To speed up the process even more you could mix them up the night before, place them in the fridge with the lids on and then in the morning just take the lids off and put them in the instant pot.

Waffles

When I think of waffles, I do not think of a speedy breakfast. If we actually make waffles from scratch in the morning, it can take a very long time and due to the grains and syrup, they tend to be high on the glycemic index. However, my children love them, and I wanted to find workable options.

First, we searched and found a couple of brands of frozen organic whole-grain waffles. Whole grains lower the glycemic index. Then we looked at our toppings to see how we could improve those. Instead of maple syrup we used agave or yogurt and my son adds peanut butter to his for extra protein. These were supper fast and easy but a bit pricier than homemade.

The other option that we found was to make and freeze our own waffles. We can use a whole grain waffle recipe, add in a little protein powder and make yummy healthy waffles. Making waffles can be a messy ordeal but it doesn’t make any more mess to make four batches than one batch so you can make enough for three or four breakfasts all at once.

We tend to do this on a morning that is not rushed but you can also do this one evening and freeze all of them. Then just pop them in the oven for a few minutes when you are ready to enjoy them.

Breakfast Casserole

This idea is one we have been using and perfecting for a while now. It does take quite a bit of time to cook so you do not want to make it fresh on a morning when you are trying to rush out the door. However, it is an easy recipe to double and it does not take very much ‘hands on’ time. You can mix up a large one the first morning or even the night before. We use twelve eggs, a pound of sausage, eight ounces of cheese, two or three shredded potatoes, a bit of milk and salt and pepper to taste.

I also like to add vegetables depending on what we have available, particularly squash or broccoli. Bake until the eggs are cooked through (about 40-45 minutes). Then we eat half of it the first morning and store the other half in the refrigerator until later in the week when we warm it up for a second breakfast.

I hope you find these ideas useful. I am still testing out some options for muffins, breads, and even a healthy ‘pie’ that might be good options to make ahead and have for breakfast. I will share those in another post next month. Please remember that I am not a medical professional. These breakfast ideas work for us but if you have questions about health and nutrition please consult your physician. I would love to hear about your favorite high-protein breakfasts.

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Counting, it’s in the Cards: Math Lessons From Card Games

My four year old had little desire to learn his numbers. He knew how to count but was not interested in being able to recognize written numbers. I had not pushed the issue as I knew that it would be far easier to teach it when the time was right and he was ready. Little did I know that the job would be outsourced and I wouldn’t even have to teach him. No, I didn’t send him to school, I let him play card games.

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In January, my daughter learned to play a game called Dutch Blitz from some Amish friends from Ohio who were here doing volunteer work. She really loved the game and the girls were kind enough to mail her a set of cards so that she could continue to play. She began playing several times a week with most of the different volunteer groups that stayed at our church. In my mind I thought it was a great chance for to get to know other people, but I never thought about what my four year old was learning. He wanted to be able to play with his older sister and the other volunteers and so he watched the games, played with help, and very quickly learned to recognize the numbers so that he could play on his own. They have enjoyed it so much my husband found them an expansion pack so that they can include more people.

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In March, a dear couple who my children have come to love, came back to North Carolina for their third volunteer trip. In addition to playing Dutch Blitz they taught the kids how to play Diamonds Rule. They could not believe how much better the four year old was with his numbers than when they had been here in January. He learned to play Diamonds Rule and could quickly recognize where each number needed to be placed in the stacks. This was a simple game played with a standard deck of cards. In this game, he had to be able to put down the right card at the top or bottom of a stack in numerical order.

He now knows his numbers 0-9 and I never had to actually teach them. When he came to a math lesson a few weeks ago in a curriculum that we were reviewing, that taught the numbers, he proudly told me that he already knew those numbers.

There are many other games that can teach math concepts. Think about using the card game War for practicing greater than and less than or the card game 21 for addition skills. Games often help motivate children to want to learn those concepts to participate in the game. What games have you used intentionally or unintentionally to teach math skills?

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Deals and Freebies

Starting August 31st all of Evan Moor’s Daily Practice titles will be on sale 20% off!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)