Taste Test Tuesday: Lafayette vs American

Today we decided to venture downtown to try a couple of restaurants that have been Motown favorites for years. I have lived in Michigan all my life and never visited either of these two establishments. Both have been featured on the Travel Channel series called "Food Wars" and "Man vs Food Nation: Detroit."

The prices were similar at both locations. The biggest difference is the menu items offered.

After trying each restaurant it was time for each of us to cast our vote. Three of us chose Lafayette Coney Island and two chose American Coney Island. I personally liked Lafayette chili sauce better.

Dave & Busters

A new Dave & Busters locations opened recently close to our home. So we decided to meet up with some family members and check it out. The boys really enjoyed themselves and like that it's closer for them to frequent.

 

Busy Month of December

 

We have had a really fun and busy month. We had our first big snow storm of the year. The boys were really excited to see all the white stuff, me not so much. They bundled up and went snow sledding and had a few snow ball fights.

 

 

We also had another homeschooling family join us in making holiday treats. We baked homemade sugar cookies and decorated them. The kids made a big mess and had a lot of fun.

 

 

They also made caramel wrapped pretzels dipped in chocolate.

 

 

The boys and I helped make ornaments for a local nursing home Christmas tree after speech class this month.

 

 

Jaedan and Malik read lots of Christmas themed books. These two books were our favorite books to read.

 

 

 

We attended our coops christmas concert and art show. Jaedan made this wonderful paper mâché dog.

 

My highschooler really applied himself this semester and achieved grades worthy of kisses and hugs from his mommy. My other two students did an awesome job in their studies.

 

God really shined on us this year and we are truly greatful to have His favor in our lives.

 

 

I made Christmas cards for the first time this year. I like the way most of them turned out.

 

 

 

This guy right here is the love of my life. I could not do what I do without my husbands support.

 

 

Well I hope everyone is having a wonderful month. We really accomplished a lot this semester in our homeschool. I look forward to what next semester and year has in store for us.

 

New Planner Pages

With the first part of the school year slowly coming to an end. I decided I want to make some changes to my homeschool planner. If I'm organized things tend to flow much easier. With the new year approaching this was the perfect time to start a new schedule. I have been sick with a bad cold so I had some free time to play around with my planner templates.  I copied a lot of the designs and made them my own. But I was missing the one key thing that I really needed a grade tracker.  So today I played around with MS Word and made these below. I really like the way the came out.

Preparing For Thanksgiving

I remember sitting in my grandmothers kitchen prepping food for the holidays. For some reason I always got stuck with the job of chopping the onions, celery and bell peppers. I guess I am carrying on the traditions with my sons by putting them to work. Funny thing is one of the first kitchen gadgets I purchased as and adult was a food processor.

Book of The Week

Thanks everyone for sharing what your children were reading last week. We added a lot of the shared titles to our booklist. Jaedan finished reading "I Survived Hurricane Katrina" by Lauren Tarshis on Saturday. Today he started reading "The Ninth Ward" by Jewell Parker Rhodes. What are your children reading this week?

Homemade Pop Tarts

For recipe click here for link.

Community Service

 

This summer my son will be old enough to get a part time job. In order for him to get a job he has to prove to his father and I that he can maintain his school work as well as work. So we decided to let him test the water by volunteering at our local library.

 

 

Jaedan did his school work assignments. While I gave my dad a lesson on how to send emails with his iPad.

 

 

Theses are the books we selected this week.

 

 

 

Science Notebooking: Photosynthesis

Today we continued with our Solar System Unit Study. We discussed the Sun and the benefits of photosynthesis and how it works. The boys sketched a diagram in their notebooks showing the process.

We also read the adventures of Max Axiom, a science teacher and super-cool super-scientist, as he explains the science behind photosynthesis.

Kindle eReader Giveaway!

This is a giveaway for a gently used Amazon Kindle 3G Third Generation eReader. This would make a great gift for someone special in your life.

Enter to win by filling out the rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Family Movie Night

Last night we had family movie night. We watched "Pacific Rim". The movie had lots of big robots for the guys and a touch of romance for me. Overall I would give the movie a 5 out of 10.

The highlight of the night for me was our new movie caddies. These wonderful caddies were put together using items from the dollar store. It was so nice being able to relax and enjoy the movie without saying pass the popcorn or can you get me something to drink. The caddy which is a basket is just the right size to hold a drink tumbler, popcorn container and candy or food of your choice.

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus

Trying Venison For The First Time

Today we tried venison for the first time. A friend of the family husband went deer hunting recently. So when we went to visit I asked her what did it taste like? She explained that it is a healthy alternative to beef and naturally low in fat. She asked me if I wanted to try it and offered me two packages. One package was ground mixed with ground beef and the other a steak. 

We tried the ground venison for lunch which we made into burgers. It was differently different not in a bad way but in a Bambi way. I was so nervous but I had to be brave and try it with the boys. We all tried a burger and thought the texture was like ground beef.  The boys liked it. I liked it once I built up the courage to eat it.

Teaching a Visual Learner

Do you have a visual learner? Do you ever wonder how you can teach a visual learner? Well today I am going to show you one idea that can be modified for any child. With all the technology out today most homes have a camera phone, iPad or tablet with a camera. Why not record whatever you want to teach your visual learner. My son loves to raise and eat early. So I decided to record for him how to make some of his favorite breakfast cereals in the microwave. He owns an iPad so after I record the videos I send it to his device. This is a great way for him to learn life skills. So pull out those cameras and get to recording.

Discussing His Score

Sometimes when you sit back and observe your children, you can see how far they've come. Today after my youngest finished his math he went to get his brother so he could see his score. It was nice to see the boys reviewing and discussing his score. Homeschooling the boys has brought them closer together. They all want to see eachother succeed.

Ruby and the Booker Boys

This week Jaedan read "Ruby and the Booker Boys". Today he attended a book discussion at our local library. The librarian split them up into three groups and asked them random questions about the book. Jaedan's Group was all boys. I was very impressed with these young men. They all participated and got 13 out of 14 of the questions right.

Michigan Lapbook

This has been a very busy week for us. On Monday we attended my husbands grandmothers funeral. It was a beautiful service she was 97 yrs. old what a blessing. So Tuesday we were physically and mentally tired so we took the day off. But today is hump day so I thought we needed to get some school work done. We were able to complete our State of Michigan Lapbook. This was a fun lapbook to do because it was nice learning more about our state.