Audrea

Syllabication of Words

July 14, 2020January 26, 2026 By AudreaLeave a comment

An example of syllabicating a word with the vcv pattern

After I wrote the post about the syllable types, I realized that if that was completely new information then you might need information about how to syllabicate words. So, today I am going top talk a little bit about how to syllabicate words and the purpose of doing so. When I went through my trainings with Brainspring on syllabication they would say that the purpose of syllabication was to get close enough to pronounce the word correctly. What that meant was that breaking the word down through their syllabication processes would get you close enough to pronounce/read the word, but may not match a dictionary’s syllabication. In this post I am not going to include all of the details of their program, I am certainly not qualified to teach all that they offer. I just want to give you an overview of how to syllabicate words and the purposes it serves.

First, similar to the syllable types there are syllable pattern types. There are 3 types. There are vccv (vowel, consonant, consonant, vowel), vcv (vowel, consonant, vowel), and vv (vowel, vowel). Also, before we talk about the three types, I want to mention that you will only use syllabication with multisyllabic words. You can find most of the syllable types in one syllable words as I mentioned in the Syllable Type posts, but you don’t need to syllabicate unless there are two or more syllables in a word.

The easiest way to syllabicate is to find the first 2 vowels and then you have to look between the vowels to see how many consonants are between. We will talk about the three different syllable pattern types, now.

Vowel, consonant, consonant, vowel

The first thing to do is to find the first two vowels. You need to remember that there are some times when vowels go together with another letter and count as a consonant like with qu. Also, when two vowels are together and they count as one vowel like vowel teams, ee, ea, ue, ie, oe. If there are two consonants between the vowels then the word would be divided between the two consonants. An example of this pattern would be better, bet (closed syllable) ter (r controlled syllable). Sometimes there will be three consonants between the vowels, but will always have a blend that should be treated like one consonant. This is the case for words like constrain. In this word you would actually group s, t, and r together and count it as one consonant. So the first syllable would be con (closed syllable) and the second syllable would be strain (vowel team syllable)

2. Vowel, consonant, vowel

This kind of syllable pattern has two options for where to break the word. You should always try before the consonant first. That will leave you with an open syllable as the first syllable and thereby a long vowel sound in that syllable. An example of this would be raven, ra (open syllable) and ven (closed syllable). If that pronunciation is incorrect than you should move the break to behind the consonant to provide a closed syllable and thereby a short vowel sound in that syllable. An example of this would be cabin, cab-closed syllable and in-closed syllable. That should then give you the correct pronunciation. There are only a few reasons why it might not. One is a schwa syllable type. An example of that exception is the word banana. I went over that word in this Syllable Types, Part 2 post.

3. Vowel, vowel

The last syllable pattern type is vowel, vowel. This is where there are two vowels side by side, but they are not a vowel team or a diphthong. Each vowel in this scenario is a sounded vowel and thereby fall into their own syllables. The first one would be open and thereby have a long vowel sound and the second syllable would depend on what if anything comes after the second vowel. An example of this type of syllable pattern is the word eon. The syllables break down to e (long syllable) and on (short syllable).

These are the three types of syllabication patterns. The point of doing syllabication is to help decode (read) unknown multisyllabic words. When words get this long it is no longer effective to sound out words as a whole. It becomes nearly impossible to keep all of those sounds in mind by the time you get to the end of a 7, 8 or 9 letter word. Also, as words get longer and multiple different syllable types are combined, the vowel sounds change and it is necessary to know what type of syllable you are looking at to determine which vowel sound to use.

These are the three syllable patterns to look for when syllabicating and how to divide each one. This is also some of the reasons for using syllabication in decoding. It is like learning to count by 2’s or 5’s instead of 1’s. Now you only have to read a few chunks instead of 7 or more individual sounds to decode the word. Counting by 10’s is like using roots to decode words. We will talk about that in a later post. I recommend some teaching on each of these patterns in isolation to familiarize readers with the process. But, I would teach the majority of this as “real life” unknown, multisyllabic words come up in reading.

Let me know how this information helps you. I am planning to do another post on syllabicating that shows each step of the process.

Recipes

Sugar Cookie Recipe

July 13, 2020January 26, 2026 By AudreaLeave a comment

This past Friday was the girls’ joint birthday party. Even though we try to limit our guest list to my and Adam’s immediate family (occasionally one or two friends may get invited) that is over 20 people who come to the girls’ parties. It is a HUGE blessing to have so much family close by, but it is also a big thing to feed all of these people. We generally just do desserts, but it can still be a lot of cake or cupcakes.

This year I suggested cookie decorating and the girls thought that would be a great idea. I always want to make everything myself from scratch and often end up overwhelmed and in tears trying to get everything done. This year I told my husband that he was in charge of making sure that we bought any mixes we needed or anything store bought that we should get in order to keep me from making myself and our family miserable trying to do everything myself. I don’t know if really thought I could handle everything, or just forgot his job when we were grocery shopping, but we did not buy any pre-made cookie dough or mixes, although I did buy pre-made icing.

In an effort to keep from overwhelming myself or the family, I decided that since I WAS making everything from scratch to make some cookies each day since I wanted at least two different types of cookies to decorate. The first ones I tried were 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies and they turned out really well!! So well in fact, that I ended up having to make another batch on Thursday to make sure we still had enough for the party on Friday! The next ones on the list were sugar cookies. We had to have sugar cookies since they are the quintessential decorating cookie. The tricky thing about sugar cookies in our family is that they are my husband’s favorite cookie. That means he is pretty particular about them. I knew the recipe I picked was a winner when he tried them and said they were good. I even probed further to be sure, and asked if they were good as in I shouldn’t worry about serving them or if they were actually good. He said they were actually good. They were a little hard when he tried them, but that was because I was storing them in the refrigerator to keep them fresh. I took them out of the ‘fridge a couple of hours before the party, added half a slice of bread to the air tight container to add moisture and they were soft and chewy for the party. The other thing that makes this recipe a winner for me is that they were simple for me to make. I used my food processor for ease. It also helped since I was late getting my butter out of the refrigerator and didn’t want to have to wait forever for it to soften. I was super nervous after I got them mixed up and read the rest of the directions or commentary in the recipe. I often find myself in a predicament like this where I just start mixing looking just at the recipe, without reading all of the directions through. THis time the concern was that it said not to over mix your butter. I certainly did over mix my butter by using my food processor in comparison to the stir in directions from the recipe itself. Fortunately, despite my over mixing, my cookies did not rise in the oven and then fall when they came out. I linked the original recipe above if you want to follow their mixing directions for safe outcome purposes. I am sticking with my food processor mixing technique myself, since the cookies turned out so well and ease is always something I am looking for as long as it doesn’t sacrifice the quality! Here are the ingredients and directions for how I made these sugar cookies.

Sugar Cookie Recipe:

1 cup Butter

1 1/2 cups Granulated Sugar

1 large Egg

2 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract (optional, I left it out of mine because I didn’t have any at the time, but I do think it would enhance the flavor to include it)

1/4 cup Granulated Sugar (for rolling scooped cookie dough in before baking)

Sugar Cookie Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Place butter, sugar and egg in food processor and mix until completely combined
In a separate bowl mix together flour, salt and baking powder
Add about 1/3 dry ingredients to food processor and blend until combined. Repeat twice with the remaining two thirds of dry ingredients.
Add vanilla if using and mix final time until fully incorporated
Place remaining 1/4 cup of granulated sugar in a shallow tupperware container
Use a small cookie scoop and scoop dough into balls
Roll cookie dough balls in sugar and place on an ungreased cookie sheet 1 1/2-2 inches apart(you can choose to flatten the balls if you would like, the cookies in the picture above were not flattened prior to baking)
Place cookie sheets on two separate racks in the center of your oven
Bake for 5 mintues
Switch the trays to the opposite racks and bake an additional 5 minutes or until the bottom edges of the cookies are starting to brown
Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes
Remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling, store in an air tight container.

As you can see I really, really mixed my cookie dough A LOT. But the cookies turned out really, really well!! Although sugar cookies are Adam’s, my husband’s, favorite cookie, I am not generally a big fan of sugar cookies. These however, have a buttery, sugary goodness that I cannot resist! I hope you find them equally delicious and easy to make!! I look forward to hearing how making them goes for you! Please be sure to comment below if you try this recipe. Let me know if you use the recommended vanilla!

Ramblings

Building a Blogging Business

July 9, 2020January 26, 2026 By Audrea2 Comments

The original picture I was going to use for this post was a differnt one of the girls and then I thought, no Adam is a big part of why I am doing this, too. Then I was reminded that the picture needs to look like a part of a professional website/business. I’m not sire this one does,but it’s closer than the only one i have on my phone of the three of them. Then the original caption for the picture I chose was going to day THE two reasons I’m doing this and then I thought of my sister and my niece and a few more people and realized that even though the two people in this picture are two of the three most important people in my life, they are not the only ones I am doing this for. I truly do want to help people. I have friends who struggle to find the time, motivation, want to or recipes to create meals to feed their families. I have family and friends who are teaching their own children at home without degrees in education. I have friends who are teachers, but who don’t have a background in teaching students to read. I have friends and family who have children who are struggling in school and they need to help them. AND ALL of these people are why I am doing this. God called me to teach, He got me through school, He got me a job and He has taken me from second grade to kindergarten to third grade to Title 1 to Middle School! He also gifted me with an incredibly intelligent daughter who disdains reading and struggles with it to an extent that is disproportionate to her intelligence. That gift is the force that has driven me to immerse myself in ALL things reading. I already had/have a literary bent in my teaching, background and preferences. BUT, the needs of my daughter, have taken it from a natural tendency to a focused drive. I also happen to come from parents who bake and cook not just at home, but both of whom have done it as a profession. Therefore, I have acquired some knowledge in both reading and cooking that can help others who are equally passionate about helping, nourishing and caring for their families, but who may need some resources to enable them to do that more often and more easily!

That is the point of growing this blogging business. I started blogging last year as a way to creatively express myself, and maybe, just maybe, help someone along the way. But, I kept my blog quiet and just let it share itself with anyone who stumbled across it or who my sisters happened to mention it to. Then as school continued to be a struggle for my oldest for a variety of reasons, the pandemic hit and I stumbled across Alida’s, The Realistic Mama, free 7 Day Summit, I decided it was time to really work to take this blogging thing from a quiet hobby to a business. To change it from a creative outlet to a business that helps others. Alida’s 7 Day Summit helped me to realize that I do have something worth sharing, a calling that really can help people. A message to other mommas and parents that they ARE their child’s best advocate for the best possible education. A message to other mommas that they really can make nourishing food for their families. Basically, you are the momma God gave to your family and He makes NO mistakes. I used to be embarrassed to share anything about my blog, and to be transparent I really still am. BUT, what if what I write really can make things easier for someone? What if the information I share about the Science of Reading really can help a homeschool momma know that she is teaching the right things to her child, or help a momma who has a child struggling in school finally know what the problem is and have real suggestions to share with their child’s teacher? If those things are true then I absolutely need to share what I know. If the posts I write about my struggles with faith and parenting can help encourage someone else to trust God more or keep on growing into the disciple or parent they want to be, then I must share. So, for all of those reasons I am working to build my blog into a business.

And finally, yes, I am trying to make this a profitable business. If I can replace my teaching income with blogging income in order to have the opportunity to teach my daughters at home, than I want to do that. If blogging income can make it so that my husband doesn’t have to work two jobs to support our family, than I want to do that! I certainly have not figured all of this out, but I am working one it.

Lately, I have wanted to give up on all of this as often as I have wanted to work at it, more often probably! You see, just like all of the conflicting information about this virus that I hear (cases are climbing, it’s no big deal, everyone is dying, your child will be fine at school, don’t wear a mask, everyone needs a mask, etc.) I am hearing SO MUCH information about how to build this business. It isn’t really conflicting information, there is just SO MUCH information! How to make the perfect pitch, How to build your email list, How to use ads, How to build your blog. It is all really great information, but for this technology backward momma, it gets SUPER overwhelming, SUPER quickly. I am eternally grateful for my graphic designer brother for ALL of his help in setting up this website and his encouragement as I blunder my way through new things like Instagram, Link Tree and LinkedIn. Yes, I know those things aren’t new themselves, but they are new to me. I keep finding more and more applications of Paul’s words in Philippians 3:13 in my life. And this is one of them. I certainly do not consider myself as having figured out technology or these programs (I just messed up my Link Tree Account as I created it tonight), but I press forward toward using them more and more effectively. I want to use them more effectively to provide for my family and to help anyone who would benefit from any knowledge or resources I have.

Those are my current thoughts on growing this blogging business. I pray that the next time I write about this that I have more concrete information to share with you! My own version of what works, but for now I am simply sharing my struggles, thoughts and baby steps toward this goal of building a business. What are you growing on your life? How is it going? What content would you find most helpful to see more of on The Educating Momma (recipes, Reading, education, etc.)? Please share int eh comments below!

Recipes

3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

July 9, 2020January 26, 2026 By AudreaLeave a comment

When I first saw this recipe I thought of my sister. She and her husband have avoided gluten for several years for various reasons. Recently they are both finding that perhaps they can have more gluten if they limit or eliminate dairy. These cookies would be perfect for them regardless of which they are trying to limit or eliminate. I emailed the recipe to my sister the day I saw it. This week I finally decided to try it myself.

The girls are having their birthday party this Friday. We have always done one party for the two of them since Brinley’s, our youngest, first birthday. We did separate parties that year, so Brinley could have her special 1 year celebration. Since then, because Whitley’s birthday is June 15th and Brinley’s is July 25th, the girls share their party in between. We do celebrate as a family with each girl on their actual birthdays. But, their party with extended family and friends is shared. This year their party is on July 10th, and the girls are celebrating turning 8 and 6. We are planning to decorate cookies, have cake and ice cream, make s’mores and then the girls are having their first sleep over.

They are SO excited and I thought this would be the perfect time to try this peanut butter cookie recipe so that we could have a variety of cookies for people to decorate. It would also be an easy way for me to make sure that I have treats that everyone can eat at the party. In an effort to keep from having a ton of stuff to do on the day of the party I have been baking some of the cookies each day. I started with the peanut butter cookies yesterday. That way, if I didn’t like them, I would have the chance to figure out something different, and if I did like them I would have one thing out of the way. The good news is that the cookies are delicious, so I don’t have to figure out something different. The bad news is the cookies are delicious, so I will be needing to make another batch tomorrow since we don’t have enough left for the party after having some with our tea yesterday and Daddy having some for his evening snack after that.

The girls and I have started having “High Tea” at 3:00 each day. This allows us to get our read aloud time in, we are currently reading The Magician’s Nephew by CS Lewis, without anyone getting frustrated or upset about it. I have also been able to incorporate a little bit of Bible Study with our time. Monday we talked about Proverbs 31 to explain our new shirts from Aunt Dally’s company, More Than Rubies Designs. Yesterday and today we learned from Brinley’s Sunday School lesson about prayer. Her Sunday School teacher is the best Sunday School teacher in the world!! Mrs. Janie has sent Brinley’s Sunday School lessons to us every single week since Sunday School has shut down because of this pandemic! It has been a truly sweet time. I am SO grateful for these moments with my girls and I am working to treasure each one and “making the most of the time for the days are evil”. I want to use every opportunity I can get to build my daughters’ faith before they head back to school in August!! So, tonight I want to share this new, simple and amazing recipe with you. It may not be a simple supper, but it’s still a simple recipe.

Gluten and Dairy Free Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe:

1 cup Peanut Butter

1 cup + 1/4 cup Sugar (separated)

1 large Egg

Gluten and Dairy Free Peanut Butter Cookie Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees with racks in the two center positions.
Place peanut butter, 1 cup of the sugar, and the egg in food processor (the original recipe used an electric mixer, but mine is a little bit of a hassle to get out, so I used my food processor)
Process until well mixed and a large ball of dough forms. It may still appear a little crumbly, but should stick together easily if you press on it.
Use a small cookie scoop and scoop the dough into balls (you should end up with 20-24 cookies)
Roll each ball in the additional 1/4 cup sugar
Place each ball on ungreased cookie sheets
Dip fork into sugar and gently press each ball, repeat on each ball in the opposite direction to create hash marks on each cookie
Place each cookie sheet on it’s own rack in the oven and bake for 7 minutes
Switch the baking sheets to the opposite shelf in the oven and bake for an additional 7 minutes
Take out and allow to cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheets
Remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack to finish cooling
Store in an airtight container on the counter or in the refrigerator

Getting ready to switch racks for the last 7 minutes of baking!

I hope this simple recipe is a wonderful, sweet dessert to add at the end of one of your simple suppers, like Smothered Pork Chops or Beef Fried Rice! If you try it and your family loves it, be sure to comment below and tell us how it went and how long your cookies lasted!

DIY Recipes

DIY Hair Gel and Spray

July 7, 2020January 26, 2026 By AudreaLeave a comment

This past week I have tried two different DIY recipes to try to make my hair care more natural and to better support keeping what hair I have. I am on this interesting new journey with curly hair. My hair has always had quite a bit of wave in it, but not real curl. BUT, then I had babies! And, now it is curly. If I wash it and just leave it to dry it is curly, if I brush it out it is puffy and super wavy. AND, it is thinner than ever. I feel like I have lost so much hair. It started coming out after my youngest daughter was born and I thought it was just normal postpartum hair loss. And, maybe it is, but it seems like my hair loss hasn’t ever really stopped. It has seemed to slow or stop over the summer, both last year and this year. I was talking to my sister about that a few weeks ago and was thinking it must be due to the stress of teaching and taking care of the girls during the year. As I thought about it more though, I began to wonder if it may be my hair products instead. You see, since I am home most days during the summer, I rarely put any products in my hair. So, I began to wonder if maybe it is the products that are causing the problems, not the stress.

That concern along with the extra time I’ve had due to no vacation because of Covid, extra quarantines, closed activities, and closed restaurants finally pushed me to try making my own hair care products. First, I tried making hair gel from a recipe I found on Mommypotamus. I decided to try her flax seed recipe since she said it seemed to have the strongest hold. I added peppermint essential oil because that is what I had on hand AND it was one that was suggested for stimulating hair growth. I like it and will make some more. I will have to double or triple the recipe, though. It does well and I love the minty smell. I do wish it had a little more hold.

Since, I felt the need for a little more hold and because I had been using just hair spray when using regular products for my curly hair, I decided to go ahead and try a recipe for DIY hair spray. I had seen and wondered several times about one I saw from Whole New Mom. I have found that these two DIY products together work really well. The only struggle I have had so far is that I generally apply my products when my hair is wet. This works really well with the gel, but the since the hair spray is water based it actually makes my hair heavier and harder to dry. I have used the hair spray after my hair has dried with the gel on it and that seems to work the best.

So, once I have made more of the gel, I think that my plan will be to put the gel on and style as usual while my hair is wet. Then, once my hair is dry or at least mostly dry, then I will add the hair spray. This seems to work best. Now, here are the recipes that I am currently using to make these products. It was nice that both of them were super easy to make and TRULY made from stuff I already had on hand. Okay, except the distilled water, I used my normal city, tap water. I know that this is not recommended for either recipe and if you have distilled water you should definitely use it. However, I figured my city water in these recipes was better than the chemicals in the hair spray I’d been using.

DIY Hair Gel Recipe:

3/4 cup water

1 TBSP + 1 1/2 tsp Flax Seeds

Up to 24 drops Essential Oil

Hair Gel Directions:

Put flax seeds in the water and boil
Turn heat down and simmer for 10 minutes
I didn’t have a mesh sieve, so I just put cheese cloth over a bowl and after the mixture had simmered for 10 minutes I poured it out on the cloth.
Mine was SUPER thick and I had to let it cool enough to touch and then I had to just squeeze and squeeze it out through the cloth until I had gotten most of it out.

I think that I may have left mine on to boil a little longer than I was supposed to. I’m hoping that the next time I make it, it may turn out a little thinner so that it is easier to get through the cloth. I will certainly try to watch it more carefully, but I’ll be honest, mommying makes it hard to be totally focused on very many things!! After I got out as much as I could I kept mine in a small Rubbermaid container in the butter compartment of the refrigerator door.

DIY Hair Spray Recipe:

1 cup water

4 tsp sugar

8 drops of peppermint oil – optional (Adrienne from Whole New Mom recommends a blend of oils, but again I typically just use what I have on hand and peppermint oil is what that was.)

DIY Hair Spray Directions:

Heat water to boiling
Add sugar and stir to dissolve
Allow to cool
Add essential oils if using
Pour into spray bottle

I admit the spray bottle thing is something I haven’t worked out yet. I honestly put it in the container I had been using for my homemade granite cleaner, after rinsing it out. The bottle is pictured above. It gave really good coverage as long as it worked! Unfortunately, it stopped spraying for some reason. I would guess that the sugar may be gumming it up a bit. So, I’ve been doing what I do whenever I’ve almost used up my sprunch spray and it won’t come out the squirty top anymore. I just pour a little into my hand, rub my hands together and then scrunch my hair. I did have to start doing this over the shower because it will make sticky spots on the floor if I get any on there. The only downside I have found to this spray so far is that it feels kind of powdery after it dries on my hair. I really like it though and plan to figure out a spray bottle that WILL work and keep using it! It’s kind of hard to see my hair in these pictures, but this was just using the hairspray to hold my curls after my hair had dried twisted in a bun on top of my head until it was just damp. I also got a compliment on my hair from my sister later that evening after pulling it up into a messy bun. She commented on how well it was held and how full it looked!! That’s nice to hear when you are trying to combat hair loss!!

I hope these recipes are helpful to you. Are you finding yourself at home more? If so, what kind of DIY projects have you found yourself making while being at home more?

Recipes

Beef Taco Skillet

July 7, 2020January 26, 2026 By AudreaLeave a comment

Tonight we had another super simple supper. It truly is a one dish meal and the sides we had with it are optional for you and your family. I am excited about sharing this one with you because, like the Creamy Chicken Casserole, it again changes up the flavor palate and gives a different journey for your taste buds than other Simple Suppers I’ve shared.

I originally found this recipe as a recipe for Campbell’s Soups. We had it several times and then I just stopped making it. Recently though, I felt like we were getting into a rut of having the same meals over and over again. So, I started looking through different recipes I have and came across this one. I keep a spiral bound set of note cards with some of our favorite and most used recipes written in it. That is where I found this recipe. It struck a chord for having it for dinner this week for several reasons. One was that we had not had it for a really long time. Another was that everyone liked it when we had it before. It is also super easy to make. And that ease makes it a great addition to the easy supper meal recipe collection that I’ve been building. I can’t wait to share it with you, so here we go!

Beef Taco Skillet Recipe:

1 pound Ground Beef

1 can Tomato Soup

1/2 cup Salsa

1/2 cup Water

1/2 cup Cheddar Cheese

6 Tortillas (we used flour, you can use either flour or corn. We have used both, I actually prefer the flavor and texture of corn, but my family prefers flour.)

Beef Taco Skillet Directions:

1. Brown Ground Beef, or as I did when I made this tonight, warm your frozen browned ground beef.

2. Add salsa, tomato soup, and water.

3. Bring mixture to a boil

4. Reduce heat to low and cook another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. Slice tortillas into strips (I use a pizza cutter to do mine.)

6. Stir in Tortilla Strips

7. Sprinkle Cheddar Cheese on top of skillet (I added a little extra, since we really like cheese!)

8. This step is optional due to how you like your meal. I placed our skillet in the oven under the broiler for 2-3 minutes to really melt the cheese.

9. Serve immediately with your choice of sides like refried beans, tortilla chips, salsa, avocado, additional cheese, or sour cream

Beef Taco Skillet with Tortilla Chips, Salsa and Avocados, YUM!!

I pray this meal brings easy nourishment to you and your family! What old favorites have you been uncovering as you are cooking at home more during all of the ups and downs in our world? Please share if you try this recipe below, and other favorite recipes you’ve been making again!

Ramblings

We’re Quarantined Again!

July 3, 2020January 26, 2026 By AudreaLeave a comment

One of my sister’s brother’s-in-law responded to a medical emergency involving complications due to Covid-19. We’re grateful for his service. The hard thing is the subsequent exposure to him by my sister’s family and then my whole family to my sister’s family led us to feeling the need to quarantine ourselves from my family for two weeks. It felt like we had just started being able to see people and since 80% of the people the girls and I spend time with outside of ourselves are my family it was a major shut down for us. Being isolated has shown me a few things.

First, it highlights the holes and weaknesses of my relationship with God. In Him we are never alone. But, I have become dependent on people to be my sounding board and comfort to get through hard things. When that support system is physically removed, I am actually in a better place to create real change in my situation. But it feels the opposite! It feels like I am alone and my problems are bigger and I get stuck in my head a LOT more often. And in my head things a HUGE mess right now! I am learning to rely on God and use Him as my sounding board. That’s a much better thing anyway. Since in talking with Him I’m not gossiping. Since He alone can do something about most of the things I am concerned about and struggling with. And since He is perfect and, though I may hurt His feelings, He forgives more easily than people can. I know all these TRUTHS! I am grateful for the scripture I’ve been taught and have read and memorized and taught and helped the girls memorize. I just have to practice rehearsing the truth over and over in my mind instead of my problems. I am working on it, but it remains a struggle and truly a work in process.

I have also learned it is the little things that matter. It is taking the time to visit with my daughters. It is playing Go Fish and laughing at nothing. It is watching their flips and tricks and taking pictures and making videos to send to cousins they can’t see because of Covid and great grandmas they can’t see due to distance. It is being creative about birthday celebrations and vacations because of the virus and closed businesses. It’s a chance to expand our circle of people and strength other friendships. It’s finally painting the bunk beds their daddy and uncle built them for Christmas. It is about celebrating a replacement car even if it isn’t the one I wanted. It is celebrating healthier tomato plants even if I don’t know if we’ll get more than our one tomato. You see this road is rocky and these circumstances are fibrous (no pun intended), but it is what I ruminate on (to borrow an illustration from the way cows eat) that feed my soul. A cow has 7 stomachs and their food has to go through a lot of digestion to give the cows the nutrients they need. The nutrients are in the grass, but the cows have to really let that grass sit and they have to chew it and ruminate it to get to those nutrients. I can ruminate on the hard things and poison my soul with all the hard there is today. Or I can ruminate on all the blessings and nourish my soul with all the good there is today. This is a choice that is honestly so hard to make right now it barely feels like a choice. I honestly want to wallow in self-pity and cry and throw a big old hissy fit. But, I won’t feel better when that’s done because it won’t change anything. So, I am choosing instead to feed myself truths even when they seem patronizing and useless because the truth will set me free. By focusing on it, I will eventually be freed from this grouchy, negative place of hard and revel in the beauty that surrounds me. At least that’s the truth I read in the Bible and it’s what I’m clinging to in this long season of helplessness to change my situation.

This past week, and the one ahead, where I can’t see my family have been and will be hard. They will all be together tomorrow for the 4th of July. All except us! Just like it was all except us at Easter. And I’ll probably cry about it. But, I do have these three amazing human beings I do get to see, and a chance to see my Nanna outside during some fireworks tomorrow night. And that is the good I am striving to focus on. The sunshine on my cloudy day!

I fear what the school year holds for my daughters and for me. But again that is something I cannot control. I have talked to some other teachers about some of the possibilities, I have checked my email every day hoping for any inkling of what is coming. But none of that really helps me feel better. Today my intention will be to pray or speak a truth whenever I start to worry or pity myself. I will remind myself that God is the only one REALLY in charge of school this fall. I will be grateful for the fact that several of our board members and our superintendent know that and rely Him for their direction. I will mess up today and grumble and worry, but if I set and reset my intention to focus on and ruminate on truth then I will have a more positive outlook and will see more of the sun in my partly cloudy skies instead of just the clouds.

That is where I am today in my isolation from people and my invitation to the throne room of grace. Where are you today? What things can I pray with you about?

Education Ramblings Resources Science of Reading

Syllable Types, Part 2

July 2, 2020January 26, 2026 By AudreaLeave a comment

In Syllable Types, Part 1, we talked about the 6 syllable types you will find in just about any article you look up, product you look for or purchase and in any phonics program you try. Today we are going to talk about 2 more types that are not always included. Even though they are not always included they are valuable to know about. These syllable types help with understanding the pronunciation of words and some more seeming rule exceptions that actually have an explanation or another rule they are following. These two types of syllables are Diphthong Syllables and Schwa Syllables.

It was interesting to me in thinking about this post last night and as I am writing it today to realize that although, I have always been taught about these syllable types in conjunction with learning how to syllabicate (diagram syllables) multisyllabic (2 or more syllables) words. However, 6 of the 8 types will be encountered by readers in single syllable words. All the syllable types except Consonant le and Schwa Syllables can be found in single syllable words. Cat is a Closed Syllable, he is an Open Syllable, white is a Silent e Syllable, meet is a Vowel Team Syllable, mark is an R Controlled Syllable, and boil is a Diphthong Syllable.

The Consonant le syllables are sometimes called Final Stable Syllables because they come at the end of words (final) and they are their own syllable (stable syllable). Since the C-le Syllable contains it’s own vowel sound, it is it’s own syllable, but none of them form complete words. Therefore they cannot be found in single syllable words. Schwa’s are dependent for position on accented syllables within a word. Therefore, to my knowledge no single syllable words would be Schwa Syllables. However, I do know that we as American’s get lazy with our pronunciation of vowel sounds within words at times and therefore may have created some schwa single syllable words based purely on dialect instead of English rules.

Okay let’s get to the subjects of the day, Diphthong and Schwa Syllables. I will discuss both of these individually. We will talk about what they are, why they are not always included in Syllable Type lists and how they effect readers’ decoding and pronunciation skills and abilities. First up, Diphthong Syllables.

Diphthong Syllables

Diphthong Syllables are not always included in syllable lists and programs because not all programs, teachers, people, differentiate between diphthongs and vowel teams. Remember, a vowel team is technically a team of two vowels that follow the rule “when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking’ and says it’s name’. Vowel teams therefore would only include ie, oe, ai, ee, ea, and most programs would include ay here. I don’t love that inclusion because y is not a vowel. I would personally be more likely to include ue because both letters are vowels and follow the rule for the u saying it long vowel sound and the e being silent. I am honestly not sure why programs do not include ue, unless it is because it is not common. Another possible reason may be because according to some articles I have read, the e is in words like true, is not a part of a vowel team, but an obscure use of silent e because English words don’t end in u.

Merriam Webster defines a diphthong as “linguistics : a gliding (see GLIDE entry 1 sense 4) monosyllabic speech sound (such as the vowel combination at the end of toy) that starts at or near the articulatory position for one vowel and moves to or toward the position of another”. So, a diphthong has a sound that includes two sounds blended or glided over together, but not really a blend of the two sounds the letters would make individually as in blends like bl, tr, fl, etc. Also, there are still two different sounds instead of two letters coming together to make one new sound like digraphs sh, ch, ph, th, wh. Here are the most common diphthongs I think of; oi as in oil, oy as in boy, au as in sauce, aw as in saw, ou in sound, and ow in low or cow.

One thing to keep in mind about the diphthongs oi and oy are that they make the same sound. Another thing is that oi is generally at the beginning of or in the middle of words like oil and soil. Lastly, oy is generally at the end of words like boy or enjoy (en-closed syllable, joy-diphthong syllable).

With au and aw they again make the same sound like oi and oy. This time it is au that is typically found at the beginning of or in the middle of words like audit (aud-diphthong syllable, it-closed syllable) and sauce. And aw comes generally at the end of words like saw and slaw.

Ou and ow are the same as au and aw in respect to having the same sound and the second letter determines their placement in words. Ou is found in the middle of words like found and at the beginning of words like out. Ow is found at the end of words like cow and endow (en-closed syllable, dow-diphthong syllable). The unique thing about ow is that is has two sounds. It makes it’s traditional matching sound to ou in bow (bending at the waist as a sign of respect, pride or gratitude), but also a long o sound in snow and bow. So, this is one spelling that it is important to teach children both sounds for from the beginning. That way when they come to the word b-o-w, they can use both pronunciations and context from the text to determine the correct sound to use.

The most important thing to do in regards to diphthongs and growing readers is to teach them the sound or sounds for these letter combinations so that they will start to recognize then as a sound unit instead of two separate letter sounds. One activity you can use to help your reader start to recognize these letter combinations as a single unit is after a lesson on them have them find all of that combination on a page of a book they are reading or a printed passage or in a magazine or newspaper. You can just have them find as many as they can for 1 minute, so it doesn’t become a huge laborious task. And, if you are using an authentic text (one you are reading anyway or a magazine or newspaper) instead of a decodable text (one devoted to specific letter or letter combination sounds) they may not find any. That is okay, just looking for them will help them make the connection to look for and see these letters as one letter sound unit.

The importance of knowing that diphthong’s form a syllable is that it reiterates to readers that every sounded vowel is a syllable. Syllabicating words with diphthongs in them helps readers become more fluent in recognizing these letter pairs (all of them have two letters as the root di- at the beginning of the word shows. Di- means two.) Fluently recognizing these letter combinations and being fluent in knowing their sound or sounds will greatly aid you growing reader as they encounter longer and more complex words in their reading journey.

2. Schwa Syllables

Schwa Syllables are syllables when the single vowel in the syllable makes a distorted sound. The sound it makes is the short u sound of /uh/. This can happen with any vowel. To be completely honest schwa’s are very complicated to explain thoroughly for me. That is because the placement of a schwa sound has to do with accented and unaccented syllables. I think that it is very valuable to teach young children about accented and unaccented syllables. I think it is less helpful to try to teach older, struggling readers. The reason behind this is that young children can learn new things easily, in most cases, and can therefore, most likely, be taught to hear the accent in words fairly easily. However, for older people like myself or my middle school students who have not been exposed to accented syllables and have not been trained from an early age to hear the accent, it can be VERY difficult to learn.

Different ways to syllabicate the word banana.

The most critical thing to teach students about the schwa syllables and schwa in general is again the sound it makes. That way growing readers have another option for when they are decoding (sounding out) unknown words and the actual vowel sound as dictated by the syllable type (open or closed) doesn’t work. For instance in the word banana, you can syllabicate it a few different ways, ban-an-a, ba-na-na, ba-nan-a. According to open and syllable types and the vowel sounds each uses (closed syllables have 1 or more consonants after the vowel and use short vowel sounds, open syllables end in a vowel and use long vowel sounds), the pronunciation of the word changes based on which syllabication you use. The first option, ban-closed, an-closed and a-open would be pronounced ban-an-ay, not how we say the word. The second option, ba-open, na-open, and na-open would be pronounced bay-nay-nay, still not how we say the word. The last option, ba-open, nan-closed, and a-open would be pronounced bay-nan-ay, our last option (and the correct one), but still not how we say the word. Insert schwa syllables and we can finally get to the correct pronunciation. Because the middle syllable is accented (said with more force) it is pronounced correctly as a closed syllable with a true short a sound. However, the unaccented first and last syllables both use the schwa sound of /uh/ for the a. Therefore, we finally get our pronunciation of the word as buh-nan-uh. And the syllables are ba-schwa syllable, nan-closed syllable, a-schwa syllable.

To review, our last two syllable types are diphthongs and schwas. These are most important in helping readers have additional sounds for decoding (sounding out) words. Both of these syllable types are important and I believe that they should be included when teaching syllable types. How deep you go beyond the sounds of the diphthongs and the schwa depends on the needs of your readers and the complexity of the texts they have progressed to.

If you have taught these syllable types to your child or class, how did it go? If you found this information helpful please like this post! Please share your thoughts and experiences below so that we can continue to learn together!

Recipes

Creamy Chicken Casserole

July 2, 2020January 26, 2026 By AudreaLeave a comment

Pantry staples for a delicious, easy dinner!

This is the fifth simple supper recipe so far. I’m excited because this makes a full week of suppers. I know it doesn’t cover the weekend unless you have left overs. I’ll keep working on that. I wasn’t sure until last night what recipe I could use to get this series up to five. Since this was a last minute decision, I don’t have a recent picture of this meal cooked. But since I needed a picture for this post I pulled together the ingredients from my freezer and pantry. Hmmmm… maybe we’ll have it for dinner tonight! I’m just missing the crackers!

This recipe lightens things up a bit and changes the flavors from the recent meals I’ve shared. It is can be a one dish meal depending on your meal prep, so that makes not only the cooking, but the clean up easier! I got this recipe from my sister, Haidee. She made it for a family dinner or when I was over for dinner one night. I’m not a big fan of casseroles, but this is one that I really do enjoy! All of my family enjoys it also, so that’s a double win! I have made it with a lot of different types of chicken. I have used left over shredded chicken breasts or thighs, canned chicken, fajita chicken and chicken breasts or thighs I cooked just for this dish in the skillet, crock pot or instapot. As with several of the other dishes in this simple supper series, there are also plenty of options for variations of the vegetables in this dish. Another variation option is in the amount of sour cream you use. The more sour cream you use the creamier it is, but also the less of the chicken flavor that comes through. The sour cream we buy is in 16 ounce containers. So, I only need half of it for this recipe. I’ve been known to use a little less or a little more depending on what I have left in the container from other meals, how far I need this meal to go or if I have more sour cream that needs to be used up.

For me cooking doesn’t have to be an exact science. It is a chance to allow yourself to be creative and try new things. One of my biggest challenges with writing a lot of these recipes is taking the time to measure and pay attention to what and the amount of ingredients I use. Since the flavors are lighter in this meal it is more of a summer pallet to me. Although it is still warm and creamy which makes it an amazing comfort food for any season.

If you leave off the crackers or sub cheese crisps this could possibly be a keto friendly meal. You would need to be mindful of your portion size due to the carbs in the Cream of Chicken soup and make sure that the veggies you use are keto friendly options. The frozen vegetables I use most often have peas and carrots in them, so that would not be the best option for someone looking to limit their carbohydrate count. But you could use zucchini or summer squash or even mushrooms and that would lower the carb count.

I hope that you and your family are finding these recipes helpful in making family dinner an easier and more realistic option. These times continue to be hard for us here at our house as we are under another quarantine from family right now. At the same time, I am facing the uncertainty of what school will look like for me as a teacher and for the girls as students when we go back in just under 5 weeks. These are heavy times, thoughts and struggles. I want nothing more than to be home with my girls permanently, but that is not in the plans for us right now. I am trying to accept the TRUTH that God’s ways are higher and better than mine. However, the faith of a broken heart is faltering and painful. I need things like cooking and supper to be as simple and easy as possible while still providing my family with inexpensive, nourishing and delicious food. I pray that they are nourished when I cook for them. I pray your life is easier and your family is nourished by these recipes as well!!

Creamy Chicken Casserole Recipe:

4-5 Chicken Breasts OR 2-3 cups Fajita Chicken OR 1 large can chicken

1 can Cream of Chicken Soup

1 bag Frozen Mixed Veggies

8 ounces Sour cream

1 sleeve Circle Crackers (think Ritz)

1/2-1 stick butter

Cream of Chicken Casserole Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cook and shred the chicken breasts OR cook the fajita meat OR open the canned chicken.
Mix the cooked/canned chicken, the frozen/fresh veggies, the Cream of Chicken Soup, the sour cream together well and place in a 2 quart baking dish
Salt and Pepper to taste
Crush the crackers in their sleeve or in a ziplock bag until they are small crumbs
Sprinkle cracker crumbs over casserole
Slice butter into pats and place on top of crackers
Cook in oven for 20-30 minutes until bubbly and crackers are a golden brown.
Serve immediately alone, with your favorite crusty bread, or a green salad!

I have tried to mix this in the skillet I used to cook the chicken or in the baking dish to make this a completely one dish meal. I have found though to get all of the ingredients truly mixed well, I do need a bowl to mix it in. Sorry about the extra dish, but it does make for a more even flavor for the dish. Let me know in the comments below how your family enjoys this meal. What kind of chicken did you use? What are your favorite easy meals and meal prep tips?

Recipes

Beef Fried Rice

July 2, 2020January 26, 2026 By AudreaLeave a comment

This is what’s left after everyone is served! But generally everyone has second or third helpings!!

This is another super simple recipe that I have made multiple times when I am short on time or just don’t know what I want to make. I always plan dinner meals for the week before I go grocery shopping. But, I don’t always schedule those meals for specific days. I just plan enough to make sure that I have the stuff on hand to make dinners for the week. Sometimes, though, what I’ve planned doesn’t sound good, or I forgot to thaw something, or we use up our planned meals faster than I expect. When those things happen or, when it is planned for the menu because everyone really likes this meal, Beef Fried Rice is an easy rescue for me. In fact just last week, I couldn’t bring myself to decide on what to have for dinner and made Adam choose instead. He asked if we had any ground beef and vegetables and then requested Fried Rice. It turned out that I didn’t have the bag of frozen veggies that I thought I had, but I did have some zucchini and yellow squash, so I used those veggies that time and it was still delicious. This recipe is especially easy when I have browned ground beef in the freezer. I started browning ground beef and freezing it when the last homegrown beef we got from a friend was packaged in 2 pound packages. I was generally only making a meal that required one pound, but would have two pounds thawed. So, I started freezing the other pound to have on hand to speed up supper prep. I have tried to keep up with this with our new beef. But, it is a little harder to stay in the practice since our meat is in 1 pound packages now.

I got the original form of this recipe from the Pillsbury Fast & Healthy Cookbook. It calls for sesame oil and ginger. I have been using ginger lately because I had a bunch given to me. I just peel a chunk and keep it in the fridge. The rest is kept in the freezer to keep it fresh. Then for this recipe I use the small part of my cheese grater to grate the ginger. However, since I don’t generally have it on hand I usually just leave it out make and the meal is still delicious. Also, I’ve never bought sesame oil, so I just use olive or vegetable oil in the sauce. And sometimes, I just leave the oil out completely since I will use some extra coconut oil or butter in the pan when mixing everything together. This is a very changeable recipe that is way harder to mess up than to customize. I have used both coconut aminos and soy sauce and personally I prefer the coconut aminos. If you use cauliflower rice and coconut aminos and acceptable veggies like snap peas, green beans or squash then this can be a Whole30 meal.

Beef Fried Rice Ingredients:

1 pound Ground Beef

1 bag Frozen mixed veggies

1 1/2 cup Rice (measured dry)

2/3 cup Soy Sauce or Coconut Aminos

1 tablespoon Grated Ginger (optional)

2 tablespoon Oil

2 large Eggs

1/2 tablespoon Butter

A splash of Hot Sauce OR dash of Red Pepper Flakes (optional to taste)

Beef Fried Rice Directions:

Cook Rice according to package directions. I use my rice cooker so that I can focus on the rest of the ingredients while the rice cooks. Ideally you could/should make the rice the day or night before and then the prep would go even faster. I’ve never managed to pull that much prep off, but I’m sure you could!
If using frozen browned meat start by making the egg. Otherwise brown your ground beef in a skillet.
Take meat out and set it aside.
If needed (there isn’t enough grease from the beef) melt the butter in the skillet.
Beat the two eggs well and pour into buttered/greased skillet
Allow the eggs to cook through
In a bowl mix together the soy sauce or coconut aminos, ginger if using, the splash or dash of heat, and the oil.
Reduce heat to medium/low, slice cooked eggs, add the meat back in (or warm the frozen browned beef), stir in frozen veggies.
Stir together meat, eggs, veggies and rice.
Pour sauce over the whole thing and stir until well combined.

Let me know how this meal goes with your family. What are your favorite veggies? If you like this recipe or if you have any delicious substitutions please be sure to share below so that we can continue to learn together!