Gigi's Blog » Tales of the Mortician's Wife

I’ve had a ton of people e-mail and ask me how my homeschooling is coming along since we started last week.

I know – say what? Homeschooling? Running a photography business? Baby on the way and three kids underfoot?! “What, are you crazy, lady?!”

No, I’m not crazy. Oh wait, maybe I am. That would explain a LOT of things … hmmmm …

But all things said and done, the homeschooling has been going AMAZING. I’m not saying it doesn’t have it’s difficulties, but generally speaking, everything has been working out just fine. I’m rather surprised. I thought it would be harder to dedicate that time block needed to do Grade 1 with Lacey, but so far, it’s good. We’ve worked ourselves into a somewhat-normal-routine of getting up, getting dressed, making beds, doing hair, eating breakfast and then STARTING school on time each morning (anytime between 8:30 and 9 a.m. is my goal). The two little ones play together while I homeschool Lacey for a while and then I bring Lyla in for some of the lighter, more interesting subjects (like science and arts/crafts) and also work on her letters/numbers, etc.

We’ve even gone on our first field trip with a few other homeschooling families  – we picked up our own butterfly rearing kit and toured the Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory.

The girls and I were so excited … we get to watch these caterpillars change into monarch butterflies, we tag them and then release them and track them to Mexico. What a great study! I immediatetly booked out a ton of books from the local library on this subject and we’ve started a whole study unit on butterflies.

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What I absolutely love so far about homeschooling is the fact that Lyla (4) and Lucia (2) are learning right alongside with Lacey. It’s amazing. We’ve discovered Lyla (our middle girl) has a head for science and is very eager to learn more. I love it. I love seeing the girls thrive.

We’ve set up the monarch kit in our ‘homeschooling area’ (aka, a portion of our dining room) …

Sadly, the caterpillars have not been well since we brought them home … we were so sad to see them become ill and … um, well, die. How awful! *cringe* Thankfully, we’re not the only ones who’ve had poor luck with these little guys and we’ll be getting new caterpillars next week with high hopes of the project working as planned. (I was very relieved to find out I hadn’t killed our first school project!)

So for those of you who asked …  there you go. I hope that helps. 🙂 It’s been a lot of fun so far … ask me when June rolls around and I might change my mind (hee hee! Just kidding – I know things will be just fine!), but so far, it really is a perfect fit for our family.

Oh, also, some of my readers were asking me to post the zucchini  chocolate chip cookie recipe I tweeted about last week.

First, I have to point out where this recipe is from – Lori Tinella of Little Chefs had it on her blog and so yay for Little Chefs!

Make sure you check out her blog for other awesome ideas in the kitchen. This mom knows it all when it comes to eating healthy and yummy!

{Sshhhh, I didn’t have a few of the things called for in the recipe (like agave nectar) so I just used regular plain ol’ sugar. I know, bad … but hey, at least my kids still ate zucchini cookies!}

Here’s the recipe, compliments of Lori:

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies

-1 egg, beaten

-1/2 cup of soft butter

1/2 cup of brown sugar

1/3 cups of honey/agave nectar (and this is where I used regular sugar)

1 tbsp. of vanilla extract

1 cup of all purpose flour

1 cup of whole wheat flour (um, I ran out so I had to use regular flour – I know, I probably took away all the healthy aspects of this recipe!!)

-1/2 tsp. of baking soda

1/4 tsp. of cinnamon

1 cup of YUMMY grated zucchini (oh wait, I’m saved! There’s the healthy part right there!)

and then drop in some delicious chocolate chips!

Heat up your oven to 350 degrees. Mix the eggs, sugar, vanilla and butter in one bowl. Them mix all the dry ingredients in another bowl. Mix together both bowls, add in the magic (the zucchini and chocolate chips), drop on cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes. Voila. Healthy, delicious snack.

My kids LOVED them …! Thanks, Lori, for such a great recipe.

Okay, I’ve been promising a few sneak peeks so I better get back to proofing … maybe, first, I’ll have a cookie to eat. Or two. Or three.