I’ve been homeschooling Firecracker (and by proxy, Treat) this school year, which is why things have slowed down quite a bit around here in the blog-o-sphere.
But I’ve really been enjoying it!
I’ve been following a curriculum I purchased last summer, but mixing it up somewhat drastically to fit certain themes or occasions in our lives. For example: We actually started with units 9 and 16 instead of 1 and 2. We actually just did unit 2 in January!
And now that we have somewhat of a routine with how the units are organized, I’ve been venturing out and creating my own units, too! All of the units I’ve developed are centered around the holidays.
We’re currently on, you guessed it, Valentine’s Day!
And I’ve been getting really into this least favorite holiday of mine. I’ve been cutting their sandwiches and cheese slices into hearts for lunch and we’re crafting up a storm.
We even made Valentines for our long distance family members. (The photo below was sent from my beautiful sister-in-law and shared with her permission.)
I found the idea for the Valentines on Pinterest. The boys loved having me paint their hands, saying it tickled. (Mega crafting milestone for my boys!) I cut the yarn to be the length of their arm span. The boys each picked the background color for each of their Valentines depending on who they were being sent to! It was fun to watch their little minds work in decision mode.
Inside their Valentine boxes were a couple of appropriately colored M&M cookies. We sent so many cookies that there was only one cookie leftover for the 4 of us to share. (I ran out of brown sugar to make more – tragedy! Seriously. I have got to hit up a grocery store, like, ASAP, so I can make more of these cookies for us!)
I don’t think I’ve ever baked cookies that involved melted butter before, I was skeptical. But using melted butter made the mixing of these cookies insanely easy – no stand mixer required! I love the use of brown sugar in cookies, I think it gives the cookies a great depth of flavor. And of course, holiday colored M&Ms provide the perfect texture to these soft and chewy cookies.
This recipe makes approximately 21 cookies.
M&M Cookies
Ingredients:
- 2 C flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
- 1 C brown sugar
- 1/2 C sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 C M&Ms
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with silicone baking mats, parchment paper, or spray with cooking oil.
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- In another large bowl, whisk together the melted butter and sugars until combined. Add the eggs and vanilla, mixing until fully incorporated.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, switching to a spatula for easier mixing. Fold in the M&Ms.
- Spoon onto prepared baking sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes, until the edges are golden. Let cool on baking sheets.
*This recipe is adapted from Kristyn at https://lilluna.com/giant-chewy-mm-cookies/*
This book is one that we’ve had for a long time (that’s a 7 month old Firecracker in that picture!). As a rocket scientist, I couldn’t not purchase this particular installment from The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library. I just love the rhyming tour of our solar system and the beautiful illustration. We also have 
A lot of the “step into reading” books contain stickers, particularly if they’re books from a TV show or movie. I’ll usually pick up one of these books before a vacation -a new story and new stickers can always entertain small hands for at least 20 minutes. At first, I’d require reading through the story before getting a sticker. Of course, now that they can pull the sticker off the paper in {mostly} one piece themselves, it’s harder to police the sticker collection.
, tracing their outline in black Sharpie. I put a “Thank You” sticker with each kid’s name on the back.
by Dr. Seuss
by Dr. Seuss
Danny and the Dinosaur
by Syd Hoff
before our cross-country move. I remember it being the first book I read in our new home. Just like 
by Sherri Duskey Rinker
for my boys for Easter. I used to keep them both in the car (the books, not the boys) and Firecracker would happily “read” through them, often finally falling asleep. I’m not sure when it happened, but the colors book found its way inside and is now mandatory bedtime reading. He even has the first page memorized. He doesn’t fall asleep reading this book, though. We often read it 2-3 times. Graduating from color recognition, he states all of the letters in the words at each turn of the page. I can recite this book for memory and can “read” it in the pitch black of night.
Where Do Steam Trains Sleep at Night?
by Brianna Caplan Sayres
by June Sobel
Goodnight, Dragons
by Judith Roth
by Ann Whitford Paul
broke. The metal spoke holding the propeller snapped. Because it’s one of his favorite toys, I decided we should try and fix it. Super glue can fix anything, right?
and 
are now well loved car companions. (Those names were given by me during an attempt to cheer him up.)
teething toy so to prevent any confusion Treat gets a different version. (Granted, Sophie has been lost for almost a year now.)
, 
, and 
. I kept some books out for hotel nights, too, mostly those that are bedtime appropriate.
though if you can’t toss them elsewhere right away. (Yes, we made a highly necessary diaper and outfit change in the middle of nowhere. Only once though!)
Sew You Think You Can Cook 