The Burrito Brothers - The BIG Business Plan!

On October 31, 2015, my young business boys suited up and sold 60 breakfast burritos in record time!  

All the prep work had been done about a month before and it blew me away how this one experience taught our whole family!

And if you miss the post on how this all came about - check it out here:

How it ALL Began!

Let me start from the beginning of our successful business plan....

We knew we needed a logo for this business and he wanted to make it unique!  So we called up a sweet 10 year old friend that has some mad-skills in Art and he created this...

It's it awesome!  We even decided to take the logo one step further and ordered t-shirts!  

If we were going to make and sell breakfast tacos, then we needed to know what "good" tasted like and how much they were going for. We knew that the price of eggs had gone up.  Something that we learned when we visited Ken's Tacos for a fun & tasty field trip.

Our tasty test at Ken's Tacos.  

We also stopped by El Faro for some breakfast tacos.

We made sure to study and notice where their menus were located and few other fine details.

We made a budget with brought out a SERIOUS MATH LESSON!  And created a "time line" to keep our business plan on track.

 

Back to the "price of eggs on the rise"... we wanted to invite a 5 year old friend that has backyard fresh eggs to partner up with us.  This would help with the cost of our eggs AND make them super tasty!  So our sweet friend donated 3 dozen eggs AND created her own logo to advertise with at the business fair.  

 Throughout the month of October, J learned how to use Google Drawings to create his own menus.

I incorporated making change into our monthly math focus.  One morning, we even had Jackson set up a Dollar Store.  MiniM and N were customers.  Perfect learning in every way - Imaginative Play for all while learning how to give correct change back to costumers.

Next up, was a Taste Test at Toybrary Austin!  This was GREAT practice for J to use his business-man words to sell his samples.  That kiddo brought home $11 in tips from his tip jar.  We couldn't believe it!!!  J and N decided to split that money.

October 30 had arrived.  That meant one thing (on that VERY rainy day!)...LET'S MAKE SOME BREAKFAST BURRITOS, BOYS!

And everyone needed to help!

It took a good 3 hours to make them all!  But the next day, October 31st, we found out all that time and effort was worth it!

Stay tuned for the next post, The Burrito Brothers - The Successful Business Fair

Picture Blog - StemEd Class

I was honored to get the opportunity to work with StemEd Labs this month.  They are a wonderful organization that is having an amazing impact on our children's education.  Be sure and check them out!

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Tis the season for ... slime, pumpkins and Halloween fun, right?  So that's the inspiration behind the Sensory Science Blood and GOO!

And here's a quick picture blog for you to see how much fun we had!

Part 1 - Sensory Science - BLOOD!  

Mixing the platelets (red foam) and White Blood Cells (pingpong ball) in with our Red Blood Cells (red water beads)

J got to join the class!

Sensory FUN and Learning all in ONE!
This learner even added some "germs" (strips of paper)

She was SO proud and super, excited to get to take home her creation! 

This amazing idea came from:Jenae over at I Can Teach My Child

Part 2 - Pumpkin Pulp Goo!

What happens with you add a Tablespoon of cornstarch and a Tablespoon of water into your dissected pumpkin pulp? 

These kids will tell ya...

We used a KWL chart to launch our learning.

After we got messy, we came in and wrote "what we had learned"

An Example of beautiful learning

Learning confirmed!

What a FUN way to learn and play.  And I am so blessed to get to teach others with my own kiddo by my side!  So happy that J could join this class.

Wanted to give a HUGE shout out to our friends at HEB for donating the pumpkins for our learning.
HEB Round Rock

The Burrito Brothers - How it all began

I needed 30+ Breakfast Burritos STAT on the day of Mason's 2nd birthday party.  I had pre-cooked all the ingredients.  And all I needed was some help!

So I called in the troops on the HOT July day!  

"You are the "egg master", You are the "Sausage slinger" and I'll sprinkle cheese and fold."  Ready!?!

And THAT IS HOW "The Burrito Brothers" ALL BEGAN!

I had found out about the Acton Business fair from our homeschooling group.

I knew that my young entrepreneur would find it interesting after our Kid's ONLY Garage Sale!  Jackson thrived off of this experience, so I knew the business fair would be the perfect extension!

After WEEKS of going back and forth with ideas, we came up with "The Burrito Brothers".  My husband had mentioned the idea for the breakfast burritos and it seemed very realistic for a 6 year old and a 4 year old to successfully pull-off!

So we submitted our application based off this brainstorming session (see picture below)  And we waited...

We got an acceptance email in September.  And that's when the planning began!

Check in soon for my next post ... The Burrito Brothers - The Big Plan 

I never thought this business idea would have so many learning opportunities attached!

Our Week!

It has been a LONG time since I've let you peek inside our week!  So here ya go!

Monday 

Happy Columbus Day!  We took a special trip to Inner Space Cavern! I used this as a follow-up field trip from our Rocks and Minerals Unit which we worked on in September!  

Tuesday 

Off to find a GOOD breakfast burrito, so we took learning on the road!  Stopped in at Ken's Tacos to observe the difference between menu design and placement, ordering and promptness.  

Ken's is our front-runner beating El Faro.

(This is all in prep for the Acton Children's Business Fair - The Burrito Brothers business idea.

Our next stop is a little fun with our homeschooling group.

Wednesday 

We stayed home and enjoyed learning in this Fall-like weather! 

Wednesday Afternoon 

A quick stop to the park for play and reading!  Then off to piano with Ms. Charissa!

 Thursday 

I taught a Fun with Food class at Toybrary Austin.  

Friday

We learned and played at the park with some friends!  Minecraft Bingo and a body tracing activity from The Homegrown Preschooler. 

 Lots of fun and lots of play and sprinkled some learning throughout our day!

A Homeschool Vaca - Part 3 - The Reflection

Happy September 30th!  Can you believe it is October?  I am just amazed at how fast life is going these days.

So happy you stopped back by for the final part of this series.  If you missed the first 2, check them out here:

A Homeschooling Vacation - Part 1 - The Planning

A Homeschooling Vacation - Part 2 - The Learning

And THIS last post is ALL about the reflection!  

And with scenery like this...I had lots of time to reflect!  

I don't want to share to many of my personal reflections, but I do want to share 3 of my most impactful ones.  

#1 Reflection as their Teacher

Learning CAN happen anyway and everywhere!  You just have to be willing to listen to the small things that are said and teach from how THEY are seeing their world at that VERY moment in time.  Truly listen and observe their play.  

And I am guilty of coming back home...getting back into the same routines.  And then I remember the freedom my kids felt while learning about:

When you really slow down and look at sticks...they DO make letters in the alphabet!

 

When you cook Jiffy Pop on a campfire, it's probably going to end up half burned.  But you eat it anyway because it was fun to do.

That fish are pretty interesting creatures.  But not really the smartest!

That even the smallest boy can pick up the BIGGEST rocks just to see how BIG the splash is.

When your kids have lots of playground equipment to play on and all they want is to touch and feel the gravel.  

So what do I plan to do with this reflection!  Listen now, talk less and guide them more!

#2 Reflection as The Wife

Time ALONE with your husband is pretty awesome!  If you take internet service, laptops, cell phones and work and just add a cold night in Colorado under an unbelievable starry sky - you are going to get the same feeling that you had when you first met him.  Every night, Jer and I made a promise that we would sit, wrapped up in a Coleman sleeping bag,  and just talk!  No typing, no texting - just good ole fashion talking. We would talk about our future and our dreams.  We would talk and laugh about how silly the boys were that day.  Every night we would wondering how many galaxies there really are out "there".  

So what am I planning to do?  Talk to him more!  I am trying to set a goal to unplug when he is home during the evening.  And we are planning to do the same, on weekend nights, just us...talking under the Texas stars (on our back porch covered in baseballs and nerf guns)  

And I don't have any pictures of this - and that's ok because it's a great memory! 

#3 The Mom Reflection

Kids grow up fast so let's try to S-L-O-W down our lives so we don't miss it!  Every year, I come back sad.  I come home to another wonderful vacation with my family all done and over.  I think it's impossible for the next year to top this year.  But each year just keeps getting better.  But why?   Is it because I've learned to slow down and appreciate the moments?  Maybe.  Or is the thought that next year, I won't have a pack n play set up anymore but we will be on to BIG adventures with out a baby.  I don't know.  But I do know that  if homeschooling has taught me one thing, it's taught me to SLOW DOWN!  Homeschooling has taught me to listen to my children and let THEM led the way.  They have taught me so much...

This guy taught me that HE can accomplish ANYTHING!  Even if it involves BIG things.
(Tears are building up! Sniff...sniff...)

This guy teaches me that life is BIG to him right now and I'm so happy to get to experience it everyday.

And this lil astronaut will some day experience that life will have it's UPS and DOWNS...
but we are a family and we will experience it all together.

So what do I plan to do as a Mom?  Slow down...stop and play...everyday!

Cause remember, "there's A LOT to learn when you are little" and what a great gift to learn it all over again with your own children.