The Arctic has some amazingly, resilient animals. These Arctic animal activities will leave your little one fascinated with animals of the Arctic.

(Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you use them, you help this site at no cost to you. Thank you!)

Books About the Arctic

Children love books, especially books with wonderful pictures. These books are great for teaching your child about Arctic animals.

• Arctic Animals (Who’s That) by Tad Carpenter
• In Arctic Waters by Laura Crawford
• Amazing Arctic Animals by Jackie Glassman

Ideas for Imaginative Play

Set out items that are worn or used in the Arctic for your child to pretend with. You could set out:

• Coats
• Gloves
• Scarves
• Winter hats
• Snow boots

Go on a Virtual Field Trip

Watch videos of Arctic animals on YouTube.

Make an Arctic Sensory Bin

Kids enjoy playing with sensory bins, especially when water is involved. Make an Arctic sensory bin by freezing large chunks of ice. Then put plastic Arctic animals in the bucket with the ice and some water.

Fine Motor Arctic Animal Activities

Fine motor activities are a great way to keep your little one busy at the table while you’re working with an older child. Here are some Arctic activities that will encourage fine motor development:

• Make snowflakes.
• Make a snowman out of play dough.
• Paint an Arctic picture onto blue paper.
• Polar Bear Activity (This activity is part of the Arctic Theme Unit Pack.)
• Color the Arctic coloring page. (This activity is part of the Arctic Theme Unit Pack.)

Gross Motor Arctic Animal Activities

Gross motor activities are always a favorite in our home; sometimes older siblings even join in on the fun. These Arctic animal activities helped my little guys get out some extra, winter energy too.

• Don’t Fall Through the Ice – Cut random shapes out of white paper. Secure paper to the floor with painters tape or poster putty to prevent slipping. Have child jump from iceberg to iceberg without falling in the ice.
• Bundle Up Race – Set out a coat, scarf, gloves, winter boots, and a warm hat on one end of the room. Then have your child run to the pile of clothes, put them on, and race back.
• “Snowball” Fight – Use rolled up socks as snowballs and throw them at each other.
• Run and Find – Print and cut out pictures of Arctic animals, such as, polar bears, walruses, and Arctic wolves. Then scatter the pictures around the room or your house. Have your little one run and find all the Arctic animals. (This activity is part of the Arctic Theme Unit Pack.)
• Arctic Animal Action Cards – Show your child pictures of Arctic animals and have them move like the animals you show them. (This activity is part of the Arctic Theme Unit Pack.)

Songs

• “I’m a Little Snowman”
• “Baby Beluga”
• “Little Snowflake”

Snack

Here are some fun Arctic snack ideas:

• “Snow” – Vanilla Ice Cream
• “Arctic Circle”- Spread cream cheese on a bagel.
• “Polar Bear Yogurt” – Put slices of banana on vanilla yogurt to make your bear’s ears and nose. Use raisins for eyes.

I hope these Arctic animal activities help you make some special memories with your little ones.

For more ideas about activities that will keep your preschooler learning and occupied so you can work with older children too, be sure to check out The BIG Book of Ideas for Homeschooling Preschool.

The post 15 Arctic Animal Activities for Preschool appeared first on Many Seasons of Motherhood.

Have you been considering trying Teaching Textbooks, but aren’t sure what your kids will think of it? We’ve been using Teaching Textbooks for 5 years now, but I still remember what a big deal it was to switch math programs.

I asked my daughters if they would be willing to share their honest thoughts about Teaching Textbooks and they agreed. Katie is in 7th grade and Kelsey is in 11th grade. Read their thoughts below or watch the interview here.

What do you think about Teaching Textbooks?

Katie: I think that it is really good at teaching stuff. (no pun intended) If you mess up on a problem, it lets you see the answer, like how to do it. I think that’s really helpful, because it’s not just like you messed up move on. It’s like I’ll teach you now.

Kelsey: I agree with Katie.

What do you like about Teaching Textbooks?

Katie: I like on the new online version, which is probably my favorite one, I like how you can have the wallpapers and stuff.

Kelsey: I like on the online version that you don’t have to have discs. Because when we had discs we would lose them or fight over who got to use the computer first. So I like that factor about it.

About how long does a lesson take you?

Kelsey: 45 minutes to an hour.

Katie: It takes me about half an hour…probably.

Do you have any tips for other students?

Katie: Don’t double up. (Side note: Our family calls it doubling up if for some reason they miss a day of working on math or another subject. The next school day they have to do double the work. They’ve all learned the hard way that you want to avoid doubling up.)

Kelsey: Don’t get frustrated if you get a problem wrong.

Katie: Pay attention during the lectures; they’re helpful.

Kelsey: Always watch the problem thing if you get it wrong. It’s very helpful. Sometimes I kind of skip it, but when I don’t skip it, I learn what I messed up on.

Would you recommend Teaching Textbooks to your friends?

Katie: Definitely.

Kelsey: Yeah, but all my friends already use it.

Did you know you can try Teaching Textbooks 3.0 for FREE?

Now that you know what my teenagers think of Teaching Textbooks find out why I love using Teaching Textbooks in our homeschool.

Enter for a chance to win 1 Teaching Textbooks 3.0 for the level of the winner’s choice.

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The post What My Teenagers Really Think of Teaching Textbooks appeared first on Many Seasons of Motherhood.

We all have resources we’ve discovered on our homeschool journey that we love. Sometimes we’re still in search of the perfect resource to fit our family’s needs though. When we’re on the search it helps to hear what works for other families. So I’m sharing my top 5 favorite science resources with you in case you’re on the hunt for some great science resources.

To be perfectly honest, science is not my favorite subject. Don’t get me wrong, I love discovering how God’s creation works, especially through the study of life sciences. I just much prefer studying history.

That being said, the resources I mention in this post are great for moms that love science and those that need some extra help getting excited about it, like me.

(This post contains affiliate links.)

Top 5 Favorite Science Resources

#1 – Apologia

If I could only choose one science resource it would be the Exploring Creation series by Apologia. We’ve used the younger books and the older books over the years and I’ve never been disappointed in them.

The science facts presented in the books are on point. In fact, when my sister, who happens to be a microbiologist, saw one of our younger books she was amazed by it. She told us that most of the information presented she had learned in her college classes.

I also appreciate how it is written in a way that makes the science concepts easier to understand. Plus there are colorful pictures and charts on nearly every page, which is wonderful for visual learners.

The younger series and the older series are designed a little differently. Here is what I like about each one:

Exploring Creation – Young Explorer Series

• Written as if the author is speaking to you.
• Includes scientific terminology but the surrounding texts makes it easy to understand.
• Colorful photos or illustrations on every page.
• Try This! Sections throughout most, if not all, lessons so children can see what they just learned in action.
• Places to pause in each lesson for your child to discuss what they’ve learned so far.
• There are notebooking activities at the end of many lessons. If your child really enjoys notebooking, Apologia also offers a notebooking journal with more notebooking activities for each lesson.
• At the end of each lesson is an experiment or project.

Exploring Creation Series

• It’s an in-depth study that’s written as if the author is explaining the course to you.
• Pictures, illustrations, tables, and charts are found throughout each module.
• There are on your own questions to help your child review as they read the module.
• Most modules have multiple experiments, but what I really like is how each experiment is explained in the text afterwards.
• The study guide at the end of each chapter helps prepare students for the test.
• The tests are great for teaching your child study skills.

#2 – Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America

This book about birds has come in handy so many times. It’s great to use with a unit study on birds, as a compliment to Apologia, to take with you on nature walks or hikes, or just to find out what kind of bird you have in your own backyard.

What I love about it:

• There are 2,000 color photographs of birds in their natural habitats to aid in identifying them.
• It lists information about their appearance, when they molt, and what their call sounds like.
• 700-plus color-coded maps show you when to expect specific birds in certain parts of the country.
• It even comes with a disc to download over 500 bird calls.

#3 – Encyclopedia of Animals by DK

This encyclopedia is packed with colorful pictures of animals on every page. Most of the beautiful photos include snippets of information, making it easy to read.

It’s a wonderful resource to use with preschoolers and children that aren’t quite ready for a science curriculum. However, even older children can learn a lot from it and enjoy reading it.

This book pairs nicely with any of the life science Apologia books and works well as a solid resource for animal unit studies.

#4 – Zoo and Aquarium Guides by Answers in Genesis

Another resource for the animal lovers in your family. The Zoo Guide focuses on animals created on days 5 and 6 of creation and the Aquarium Guide focuses on animals created on the 5th day. 

So many resources about animals talk about evolution. I appreciate that this series focuses on God’s design and His creation.

Each animal represented has a full page color photo and a page that lists the following:

• The animal’s day of creation
• Unique design of the animal
• Features
• Fun Facts
• Created Kind Members
• Class
• Order
• Family
• Genus/Species
• Size
• Weight
• Original Diet
• Present Diet
• Habitat

#5 – Usborne 100 Science Experiments

What would science be without a few fun science experiments!

This book of science experiments is great to use with preschoolers and elementary aged children. Older elementary children could even do most of the experiments on their own.

It’s full of colorful step-by-step illustrations too. This is a fantastic resource for a fun unit study, rainy days, or for some science fun during the summer.

I hope you discovered a new science resource to benefit your family’s studies.

What are some of your favorite science resources? Please share them in the comments, so we can all discover new favorites!

The post Top 5 Favorite Science Resources appeared first on Many Seasons of Motherhood.

If you’re homeschooling multiple ages you have probably quickly learned that it is somewhat of a balancing act. Sometimes you might find the right groove, but soon after your family enters a new season. Perhaps a new baby has joined the family, a little one is ready to join in on school, or an older child has started struggling with a new subject.

Whatever the reason, there are ways you can be creative when it comes to homeschooling multiple ages. Here are some ideas that have worked for our family throughout the years. I hope some of these tips will work for your family too.

(Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, when you use them you help support this site at no cost to you. Thank you!)

Tips for Homeschooling Multiple Ages

Choose multi-level curriculum when you can.

Certain subjects work really well with multiple ages. Plus it helps to have the whole family studying the same topic instead of pulling you all over the place. Just tweak the lessons to be more challenging for older students. Here is a list of subjects that have worked well to study together:

• History – We love the Mystery of History and have used it since my oldest was in kindergarten; the series wasn’t even finished yet! While that makes me feel old, we’ve always used it because it works so well with multiple ages. Each lesson even has activity suggestions for younger, middle, and older students.
• Science – In our home, my children studied science as a group until they reached middle school. We really enjoyed the Young Explorer Series from Apologia and worked through a book each year.
• Geography – If you aren’t studying geography together, you are missing out. Seriously though, it is easy to put together a geography unit study and discover the world together. You can read how our family studies a country a month and makes some incredible memories in the process, here.
• Bible – The Bible speaks to all ages and can easily be studied together.

Routine

It truly does help to have some sort of routine. You don’t necessarily have to follow a strict schedule, but if your children know what to expect next it will help the day run smoother.

Leave some wiggle room.

As you set up a routine be sure to leave some wiggle room. Maybe leave one afternoon or even an entire day open if your schedule allows it, or just an hour each afternoon that isn’t spoken for. It will help you and your children to have some breathing room. Use that free time in your schedule to catch up on work, chores, or as an incentive to have a break if everything is done.

Have a set time to work with your children individually.

As wonderful as it is to work on subjects together, when you’re teaching multiple ages some subjects must be catered to each child. This goes along with a routine, having a set “mommy school time” with each child helps keep everyone on track. Younger children undoubtedly need your time, especially as they are learning to read and mastering other new skills. Even older, more independent children will work more diligently knowing that they will be meeting with you to go over the day’s work.

Use self-paced online programs when it works for your family.

Teaching Textbooks has been a big help for our family. My children are able to work independently for the most part, freeing me up to work with another child. Plus the automated grading is a HUGE time saver.

Chores

As a mom, I don’t know if there is anything more distracting than seeing housework that needs some attention and in a home with multiple ages it’s bound to happen. Try to curb this distraction by assigning chores and a set time for them to be completed. Maybe a child can do their chores while another child is having “mommy school time,” or perhaps everyone can clean in the same room and listen to an audio book.

Meal Prep

With multiple mouths to feed, it can feel like we spend all day in the kitchen. I have an entire post with ideas to help you simplify breakfast and lunch, so you can get in and out of the kitchen and back to your school day.

Eliminate Distractions

Homeschooling multiple ages means you need to be intentional about your time. If you’re anything like me, you’re phone can be a huge distraction. Choose to set it aside for the chunk of your school day or train yourself to only check phone calls or messages from your husband. All the notifications and messages will still be there at the end of your school day.

Organized Space

You don’t necessarily need a “school room” to homeschool, but having an office, dedicated bookshelves, or a closet that is dedicated to school supplies is extremely helpful. You could even use a file crate for each child to keep all of their supplies in. When you are homeschooling multiple ages you are also handling more books, papers, and other supplies. It will save you and your children time if you know where to look for certain items. Of course, the real trick is getting everyone to put it back where it goes.

Be Flexible

Each of your children are unique individuals. There will be days when someone is sick or just wakes up in a bad mood. Even well planned routines don’t always run smoothly. Show yourself and your children some grace.

Little Ones

Perhaps the biggest challenge when homeschooling multiple ages is keeping little ones happy and under your watchful eye. Having your older children spend some time with their younger siblings can be helpful and allow you time to work with another child. I shared more tips for homeschooling with little ones that have been very helpful for our family in the HELP! for the Homeschool Mom series, click here if you would like to read those tips.

Set clear expectations.

This is especially beneficial to your older children. At the start of each day or week let each child know what they are expected to complete. Your children should also know that they shouldn’t interrupt you when you’re working with another child. If they need help with something encourage them to move on to something else until you are available.

I hope you found some of these tips for homeschooling multiple ages useful. What works for your family? Share your tips with us in the comments.

You might also enjoy:

How to Simplify Your Homeschool Day in the Kitchen

7 Things Being a Homeschool Mom Has Taught Me

The post Tips for Homeschooling Multiple Ages appeared first on Many Seasons of Motherhood.

Our family is focusing on making healthier decisions this year. Trust me we are still going to enjoy some fun treats at times too. Since we are trying to make better choices, I thought this month’s cooking challenge would be a great opportunity to teach my daughters about counting calories. This cooking challenge turned into a math lesson, as well.

The Challenge: Make a dinner that is 600 calories or less per serving. 

The Guidelines: 

• Your meal must be $10 or less.
• Each serving must be 600 calories or less.

The Competitors:

• Kelsey, my oldest daughter, chose to make a salad with homemade dressing and baguettes on the side.
• Katie, my youngest daughter, decided on an Italian chicken dish served over zoodles.

They both looked on Pinterest for inspiration and then tweaked things to make their own recipe.

(Some of the links in this article are affiliate links – if you use them you help support this site at no cost to you. Thank you!)

The Shopping Trip:

Kelsey had wanted to make a shrimp salad, but after seeing the cost of shrimp she decided on chicken instead. When it comes to spices and other staples, they don’t purchase the entire item, but instead figure up the cost of the portion they use. This helps them see how they actually DO use math in daily life.

Kelsey’s ingredients were $8.94. Plus she had plenty of salad dressing left, which we enjoyed the rest of the week.

Katie’s meal was $9.26 which came in under budget and we even had sauce left over for lunch the next day.

The Meals:

Katie was up first with her Crock-pot Italian Chicken. 

She wasn’t a fan of cutting up the chicken breasts, but she powered through. I can’t say that I blame her; I’m nearly 40 and still have to power through cutting up meat.

Katie then added the chicken and the various ingredients to the Crock-pot and let it cook on high for 4 hours.

As the chicken finished cooking, she cooked the zoodles in a frying pan with a little bit of oil and crushed garlic.

Then she served the chicken and sauce over the zoodles.

Kelsey prepared her salad and baguettes the next evening.

She started by preparing the dough for her baguettes so it had time to rise. 

While the dough was rising she prepared the salad dressing. She used a copycat Italian dressing recipe. It was her first time making salad dressing. Now that she knows how easy it is, I think she’ll be trying a variety of salad dressing recipes.

After the dough finished rising she formed eight personal baguettes and let the dough rise again for 30 minutes before baking it.

She served the dressing over a romaine salad with diced chicken, cucumber, and tomatoes and served the baguette on the side.

The Scores:

We rate each meal based on presentation, taste, and originality. Three of us were judging so the most each category could receive was 15 points.

Presentation –

• Crock-pot Italian Chicken: 9 points
• Chicken Copycat Salad: 10 points

Taste –

• Crock-pot Italian Chicken: 11 points
• Chicken Copycat Salad: 12 points

Originality –

• Crock-pot Italian Chicken: 13 points
• Chicken Copycat Salad: 7 points

Katie’s Crock-pot Italian Chicken came out on top for this month’s challenge with 33 points.

Counting Calories 

How did they rank when it came to counting calories though?

• Crock-pot Italian Chicken and Zoodles: 350 calories per serving
• Chicken Copycat Salad and Baguettes: 590 calories per serving (We did not add butter to the baguettes.)

Mom’s Verdict:

The Crock-pot Italian Chicken was incredible. I had never had zoodles before and they were surprisingly delicious. I will definitely be working this meal into our family menu. Plus it’s a slow cooker recipe, which makes this busy mom love it even more.

The copycat salad dressing was good, but could have used less oil, which was my fault. My daughter didn’t want to even add it, but I told her to follow the recipe and that all dressing has oil in it. Next time, I’ll let the chef do the cooking. The baguettes were awesome! What makes them even better is Kelsey loves making them, so she is my go to baguette girl now. I have to practice self-control but since she bakes them as individual servings, I can have one with a low calorie meal.

If you think your family would enjoy learning to cook with cooking challenges, be sure to grab my Cooking Challenges Pack.

Do you have a favorite calorie friendly recipe? Please share it with us!

The post Counting Calories Cooking Challenge appeared first on Many Seasons of Motherhood.

When my now 4 year old joined our family he was 18 months old and didn’t talk. For nearly 2 years now he has worked with a wonderful speech therapist. I have been able to sit in on his sessions and have witnessed how beneficial teaching vocabulary through play can be.

I hadn’t even realized how difficult his speech delay had made daily communication until his speech started improving. He can answer questions now and tells me when something hurts. His developing vocabulary has even made a huge impact on his behavior and our effectiveness to teach him.

Do you have a child that struggles with a speech delay or do you just want to broaden their vocabulary? If so, then try these techniques for teaching vocabulary through play.

Teaching Vocabulary Through Play

(Some of the links in this post are affiliate links – if you use them you help support this site at no cost to you. Thank you!)

“I Want” Game

Put random toys in a mesh bag or a clear storage bag so your child can see what is inside. Hold the bag and prompt your child to ask for one of the toys of their choice.

• “I want the dolphin.”

You could also work on using the word “please.”

• “I want the red car, please.”

Plus this is a great opportunity to encourage your child to say “thank you” and to model the correct response by saying “you’re welcome.”

Target plurals by putting more than one of the same kind of toy in the bag. Say to your child, “Do you want one horse or two horses?”

“Feels Like” Game

I use this cute set from Learning Resources to play this game. It comes with matching bones in different colors and textures. My sons enjoy playing with it, but I like using the dog house with other objects too. You could also make your own box that your child could reach in or even use a paper bag.To play this game, put random objects inside of something that your child can’t see inside of. Then have your child reach inside and have them tell you what it feels like. Examples: “It feels squishy.” “It feels rough.” Next have your child guess what the object is.

The Preposition Game

Using one of your child’s favorite toys teach them about prepositions. Put the toy under the table and say something like, “Buzz Lightyear is under the table.” Be sure to put an emphasis on the preposition. After modeling a few different prepositions ask your child to put the toy under the table, etc. Then encourage your child by saying, “Good job! You put Buzz Lightyear under the table.”

Tip: Make it fun by putting the toy in silly places.

“Give Me” Game

The following games can be played while your child is already playing with toys, but they are excellent for clean up time too.

• Describe a toy and ask them to give it to you.
  • “Give me the animal with the long neck, please.”
  • “Please, hand me the purple pony.”
• Use numbers to encourage math vocabulary and understanding. As your child’s vocabulary develops introduce concepts like a few, many, etc.
  • “Give me 4 dinosaurs, please.” Then count them out loud together.
  • “May I use a couple of your crayons?”
• Practice categorizing while you clean up.
  • “Please, hand me all of the horses.”
  • “Put away all of the red cars, please.”
  • “Please, give me the small dinosaurs.”

Gross Motor Games

Play games that target gross motor skills and vocabulary at the same time.

• Run and Find Game – Put pictures of words that you’re working on with your child around the house. Then say what picture you would like them to run and find. You can find this game in The BIG Book of Ideas for Homeschooling Preschool.
• Animal Action Cards – Teach your child different action words with these cards. You can snag a free set of Animal Action Cards at the end of this post.
  • “Stomp like an elephant.”

Each of  these techniques for teaching vocabulary through play only takes about 15 minutes, which makes it easy to work into your little one’s day. Every child is different and develops at their own pace. If your child seems to have a speech delay, I highly recommend having your child evaluated by a therapist. Speech therapy has done wonders for my son.

What are some ways you naturally incorporate more vocabulary into your preschooler’s speech?

You also might be interested in:

The post Teaching Vocabulary Through Play appeared first on Many Seasons of Motherhood.

The Christmas season is full of different sights, smells, tastes, textures, and sounds. There are so many possibilities to share Christmas sensory activities with your little ones. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Christmas Sensory Activities:

Cookies

Between rolling the dough, using cookie cutters, and decorating, sugar cookies and gingerbread are great for fine motor skills. Plus they incorporate the sense of smell, touch, sight, and taste.

Playdough

Sadly, our children shouldn’t have cookies every day, but they CAN play with playdough every day. Set up a Christmas playdough bucket for your little one, filled with festive cookie cutters and miniature ornaments. If you are making the playdough from scratch be sure to add some Christmas scents like ginger or cinnamon.

Sensory Walk

Fill some shallow buckets with some seasonal textures. For example, one bucket could have wrapping paper scraps in it and another could have jingle bells. Have your child take off their socks and shoes. (Random question: Does anyone have a child that actually keeps their socks and shoes on?) Then help them carefully step into each bucket, exploring the textures with their feet.

Sensory Buckets

YAY for sensory buckets! I set them out on the table to keep my little guys busy while I’m making dinner. There are so many things you can fill your Christmas sensory buckets with:

• Ribbon
• Colored rice
• Bows
• Plastic ornaments
• Plastic or wooden nativity pieces
• Wrapping paper scraps
• Jingle bells
• Cotton balls
• Miniature presents

Christmas Sensory Match

I love sensory activities that include gross motor, but during the cold, winter months I love them even more. Little ones need an opportunity to work their muscles and get out some of their energy. This Christmas Sensory Match Activity does just that!

I wrote a guest post over at Sicily’s Heart and Home explaining how to put this fun activity together. You can check it out here.

What kind of Christmas sensory activities do you enjoy doing with your children?

You also might enjoy:

The post Christmas Sensory Activities appeared first on Many Seasons of Motherhood.

“One day all of this will go away.”

This is something my husband has said to our children multiple times over the years. Usually when they are frustrated with each other. And he was right; it did go away or at least changed into something different. Which is one of the reasons I am grateful for the memories we make homeschooling.

Our oldest is in his 3rd semester of college, and is only home about 6 weeks out of the year now. The extra time we had together because of homeschooling and the memories we made are such a gift. They have created a strong family bond and bring a smile to my face when I recall them.

You’re making memories too.

Some of the memories we make homeschooling happen in our every day routines as we complete lessons. Others happen because we, as homeschool moms, planned some fabulous activities.

What memories are you making with your children as a result of homeschooling? You’re probably making more than you even realize.

To help you remember some of your special moments, here is a list of some of my favorite homeschool memories:

Teaching My Children to Read

Is it easy? No. It takes time and dedication to teach our children to read, but cuddling up next to each other on the couch with the little readers is a precious season. I still remember the questioning look they would give me as they tried to pronounce a new word and wondered if they were right. Then the look of delight on their face when they got it right.

Playing Games

There are countless educational games out there. Games are a fantastic way to connect with your children and make memories together. We spent quite a bit of time playing educational games. For a season, we even played games every day over lunch. We all looked forward to it and it was a nice break in the middle of the day from our usual school work. I can still picture all of us gathered around the table and my children’s excitement.

To continue reading this post, join me over at Minnesota Country Girl where I have the privilege of guest posting for the 30 Days of Gratitude in the Homeschool series!

The post Thankful for the Memories Homeschooling Blesses Us With appeared first on Many Seasons of Motherhood.

This month’s cooking challenge features an ingredient that our area is known for, green chilies. Each fall our family makes a trip to the farm to have a couple of green chili bushels roasted. Then we come home and spend the afternoon preparing the green chilies for the freezer. It’s one of our favorite fall traditions.

For the most part we use them to make batches of green chili, but they also add a great flavor and nice kick to other dishes too. Which is where our cooking challenge comes in…

The Challenge: Use roasted green chilies in a meal. 

The Guidelines: 

• Your meal must be $10 or less.
• The green chilies can’t overpower the dish but the flavor needs to be present.

The Competitors:

• Kelsey, my oldest daughter, chose to make macaroni-n-cheese.
• Katie, my youngest daughter, decided on a casserole.

They both looked on Pinterest for inspiration and then tweaked things to make their own recipe.

(Some of the links in this article are affiliate links – if you use them you help support this site at no cost to you. Thank you!)

The Shopping Trip:

Both of my daughters quickly realized at the grocery store that they needed to scale back on the original recipes they were going to use. Which explains why they tweaked their recipes. The realization of how much things cost is one of my favorite things about doing cooking challenges.

Kelsey came in right under $10.

Katie came in around $8. Go, Katie!

The Meals:

Kelsey was up first with her Mac-n-Cheese. 

She was in tears after dicing up the bacon and onion. Onions are cruel that way.

After she sautéed the bacon and onion for a few minutes she added a couple of cloves of crushed garlic. Yes, it smelled incredible.

While her pasta shells boiled, she sliced 4 green chilies and heated them in the pan she had cooked the bacon onion mixture in.

When the shells were finished she heated the cheese in the pan. She used jarred cheese dip; she had wanted to use Velveeta, but the $10 budget cramped her style.

Once the cheese was warm she stirred everything together and her meal was complete.

Katie prepared her Chicken and Chili Casserole a few nights later.

She started to prepare her dish by cutting two chicken breasts into cubes and browning the chicken.

Then she used the Pampered Chef Food Processor to easily dice the green chilies.

After that Katie quickly assembled her casserole, mixing a package of cream cheese with the chilies, a bag of tater tots, and the cooked chicken.

Then she baked the casserole for 20 minutes before topping it with shredded Colby Jack cheese and baked it for an additional 15 minutes.

They both did a fantastic job and best of all I didn’t have to cook.

The Scores:

We rate each meal based on presentation, taste, and originality. Three of us were judging so the most each category could receive was 15 points.

Presentation –

• Chili Mac-n-Cheese: 7 points
• Chicken and Chili Casserole: 4 points

Taste –

• Chili Mac-n-Cheese: 12 points
• Chicken and Chili Casserole: 14 points

Originality –

• Chili Mac-n-Cheese: 11 points
• Chicken and Chili Casserole: 8 points

Kelsey’s Chili Mac-n-Cheese came out on top for this month’s challenge with 30 points. The good news is that both meals were great and we look forward to enjoying them again sometime.

If you think your family would enjoy learning to cook with cooking challenges, be sure to grab my Cooking Challenges Pack.

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Do you have a recipe that uses green chilies that your family loves? Please share it with us!

The post Green Chilies Cooking Challenge appeared first on Many Seasons of Motherhood.

Each month our family studies a different country; this month we “explored” Greece. My favorite part about studying geography this way is the memories we make as a family. This is a brief rundown of what our Greece Unit Study looked like this month. For even more ideas on studying a country a month be sure to get my Guide to Making Geography Memorable.

(Some of the links in this article are affiliate links – if you use them you help support this site at no cost to you. Thank you!)

Country of the Month: Greece Unit Study

Day 1: Clues

• This country is located in Europe but is also close to Africa and Asia.
• The apostle John was exiled to an island in this country.
• Picture of the Acropolis

Day 2: Begin Map

Uncle Josh’s Map Collection is a great resource for printing maps. What you have your children label and mark on the map is up to you. I increase the details expected on the maps with age. When it comes to mapping Greece, the largest emphasis will probably be on the multiple seas and countries that border it.

Day 3: Learn some Greek phrases and practice saying them throughout the month.

Here is a short video that teaches greetings in Greek.

Day 4: Dancing is a big part of Greek culture. Learn a Greek dance.

Disclaimer: I am most likely the most uncoordinated person on planet earth, so we had a lot of laughs and made memories. Thankfully my daughters can dance better than their mom.

Day 5: Virtual Travel

Geography Now is an awesome geography YouTube channel! I haven’t prescreened all of their videos yet, but the one on Greece was fun and very educational.

Day 6: Start Writing Projects

• Junior – Power Point Report
• 7th Grader – Placemat
  • Placemats are fun to make and are nice to have with the authentic dinner. When my children were younger I would make different placemats during the Olympics. Now that some of them are older they get to design their own on the computer. Ideas to include on a placemat:
    • Map of the Country
    • Black & White Picture of a Landmark to Color
    • Crossword Puzzle
    • Word Search
    • Jokes
    • Trivia Questions
    • Fun Facts

Day 7: Play 10 Days in Europe

If you don’t own this game play another geography game.

Day 8: Read a book or watch a movie based in Greece.

Day 9: Taste a Greece Treat – You can see our taste test video here.

I found these Loux drinks at World Market. The packaging has an English side and a Greek side, which is pretty cool.

Day 10: Work on Writing Project

Day 11: Virtual Travel

For virtual travel we watched some YouTube videos geared towards tourists visiting Greece, what to expect as a tourist and places not to miss. (Tip: I preview YouTube videos before we watch them together.)

Day 12: Finish Map

Although the country of Greece has a vast amount of islands, we only labeled the larger ones. It would be quite challenging to label them all so choose the ones you feel are important for your child to learn.

Day 13: Paint Flag Rocks

Our family enjoys painting these rocks each month to add to our collection.

Day 14: Finish Writing Project

Day 15: Trivia Style Review Game

Write down questions throughout the month, to ask later for the review game.

Day 16: Authentic Dinner: Gyros and Cucumber Greek Salad

The flatbread we made for the Gyros was SO GOOD! I’ll be making it often. Recipes are on my International Recipes Pinterest Board.

That’s a wrap for our Greece unit study. If you’re interested in making memories with your children through studying geography check out my video about studying a country a month.

You may also like our Unit Study on France.

The post Greece Unit Study – Country of the Month appeared first on Many Seasons of Motherhood.