Polish School 2

Every Monday is devoted to strictly Polish homeschool

we speak Polish, we read in Polish and my kids learn to write as well.

So there is this alphabet book (that I even remember using as a kid)
called ELEMENTARZ a great source for beginners. 

It introduces the children to easy words such as Ala, Ola, las, lis, as, osa and so on.

Here my almost 5 year old awesome dude is recognizing the pictures 

from the alphabet book and writing what he sees.

I copied the pictures from the book

and made two blank lines with the letter "i" in between which stands for &

Ala i Ola (2 girls names)

As i osa (dog named As and a bee)

las i lis (forest and a fox)

my almost 3 year old awesome dude

 is just typing the first letter of the picture that he sees

A i O

A i O

L i L

here is a picture of a fox which my 5 year old wrote on the chalkboard

kot (cat)

On this picture is a Polish flag that I cut up and laminated, 

it was easier for them to connect the pieces when I numbered each piece

because the flag is just white and red so each piece looked like the other

easier one for my 3 year old (straight lines)

and a little trickier one for my 5 year old (cut up in triangles)

Polish School

 Since my family is Polish and the fact that I was born in Poland,
came here when I was 12
and years later ended up marrying a Polish guy,
I want my kids to speak Polish and learn about their heritage.

Since we Homeschool already
 adding Polish school to our schedule was the natural thing to do.

My awesome dudes are still young so I decided to teach them the basics about Poland,
here you can see true devotion from my little dude in trying to color the Polish flag

  

white and red with an eagle of course,
by now my kids recognize the flag and when asked can tell me the colors.

And since Corn Poppies (Maki) are Poland's national flower

we decide to make some to hang on our window.

The idea came from DLTK's website.

Cut some red strips into small squares

(developing some good cutting skills)

spread some glue on the flower and  place the red strips on top

and in order for the flower to keep its shape I had to cut them out.

The finished project, beautiful hanging flowers on my window.

Spring Steam Cleaning

Dust Mites are disgusting and they live in our pillows and blankets by the millions. 

They feed on our dead skin and poop in our comforters, 

beds and pillows and then they die there.

Did I grossed you out yet? 

Yes it is truly an eye opener. BLEHHHHH

This is what I did to help the problem that all of us have.

OK so here it goes,

 since I have a king size comforter filled with down feathers

 I could not put it in my washing machine for a nice hot wash, 

therefore I decided to put my steamer (that I got from my hubby, thank you :))

to good use and steam each and ever square on both sides, to kill whatever was inside.

After about 2 hrs of on and off steaming my comforter became fluffier and fluffier 

and the finished result, was very nice. One big fluffy cloud.

Pillows on the other hand were a little easier, 

I put both in the wash on hot and extra rinse to make sure that everything gets washed away. 

Since my pillows are also stuffed with feathers they took a bit longer to dry.

I had to put then on LOW for few good hours

with 3 tennis balls which help them to get nice and fluffy. 

In between the hour drying times I had to take them out and give them a nice fluff 

as well as using my hands to separate the clusters of feathers.

Results, again nice and fluffy.

I also steamed my bed and my drapes and gave my bedroom a nice scrub down for dust including a  thorough carpet vacuuming, 

I guess I can call this my Spring Steam Cleaning.

The info definitely woke me up and to think that we sleep with dust mites everyday.

Hope that this will get many of you out there to steam clean your beds

and wash your pillows and comforters or blankets.

For more info about dust mites go here

HAPPY STEAM CLEANING!!!

My new Garden Beds

 This is where it all begins, my new garden beds.
We needed to roto-till the garden first to make the soil nice and workable

here is my little awesome dude helping out with his little lawn mower

and the construction begins

day #2 was a bit of a challenge b/c the beds are on a bit of a hill
and one side was taller then the other so we had to improvise a bit

and the beds are done

other angle

my hubby put in our left over brick from the patio

some topsoil followed by organic compost

and here are the beds filled to the top

other side

some of my spring crop is already in

starting on the summer crop

some herbs

spring weather brings all sorts of surprises 

and sure enough temperatures dropped to almost 20's 

so we needed to keep the veggies nice and warm for the night

more to come...

Easy Chicken Tacos

I had some left over chicken from the night before and it wasn't enough for everyone

so I decided to make Chicken Tacos from the leftovers. 

So I cut up some chicken

cubed tomatoes

shredded some lettuce

then I toasted the tacos for about 2-3 minutes to make them nice and warm then

put it all together with chicken, sour cream, guacamole, salsa and some shredded cheese

and here is my finished product. 

YUM!!!

Turning back time to my 2011 garden

This was my first attempt in 2011 at official gardening, 

I must say looking back I did OK.

Here is the harvest that I was collecting

it looks so wonderful doesn't it

yum! I can't wait for this year to begin (click here for 2012 Garden)

some lettuce

peas

radishes 

watermelon was a success

it was eaten in 5 minutes

beautiful onions

some garlic

and one of my last collection of harvest, 

basil, fava beans, small red tomatoes and some zebra tomatoes that are green when ready  

before it got to cold I brought my rosemary, 

parsley and chives indoors to have some indoor herbs for the winter 

this year will be different I will have new garden beds, better organic soil, 

and way more crops then in 2011.

Let me just say kohlrabi, turnip... that's how interesting we are going in 2012.

So come back and check out my progress...

My New Garden 2012

This is where it all begins, this year we are doing something different and starting our seeds indoors earlier then the previous years. As it turns out there is a thing called "Spring Crop" LOL this is where my grandma calls me crazy for doing my veggies so early but hey that's why the name is spring veggie b/c you harvest it in the Spring. However I think that an average person (just like me before) thinks that just b/c you plant tomatoes and cucumbers after the official frost date you should do the same with everything else. 

So here is our first year doing it right...

My 2 awesome dudes helping me with the soil

Dude #1

Dude#2

we used our empty yogurt cups, 

drilled holes from the bottom and the sides for drainage 

and put the cups in a bigger container, 

so we can water the seeds/veggies from the bottom

here is our first batch

growing nicely

look at all the sprouts

my new home for my veggies

a nice greenhouse with lights under every rack

installed by non other then my hubby

more to come...