Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Healthy Eating

Another post certain to send my readership soaring.

All summer I've been telling myself that come fall, I'm really going to make some more strides in cooking and eating healthier foods. Whole grains, less sodium, less processed stuff. Well, its fall.

The magic food fairy hasn't visited my kitchen to stock it with healthy food choices, nor has she dropped off a quick and easy meal plan for me to follow that my family will eat. Drat that fairy. She must be in league with the magic housekeeping fairy who also fails to frequent my house to clean and organize it while I sleep. Its a fairy conspiracy I tell you. Surely I'm entitled to free fairy labor.

And yet, here I sit, having to do all the research and figuring out on my own.

Here are my obstacles:
  1. I am not a great cook, nor do I have any desire to be an amazing chef. I'm interested in some decent results with a reasonably light amount of kitchen labor on my part.
  2. I do not have hours to spend cooking. Anything that takes more than 45 minutes from microwave defrosting of the meat to plates hitting the table is right out. I can make an occasional exception for a meal that get thrown in the crock pot or something that roasts in the oven for a longer time. But I'm not slaving over prep and stove time for hours.
  3. The Jedi is of the opinion that vegetables are what food eats. Beans are highly suspect as they claim to be part of the meat and protein group and yet come from plants. That makes most beans like the double agents of the food chain.
  4. Tuesday and Thursday are Tae Kwon Do nights for three members of my family. They need a dinner, but not a heavy dinner that's going to sit on their stomachs during the high-impact exercise of a Tae Kwon Do class.
  5. I'd like to keep my grocery spending for any week under $115, this including household supplies and such.
With those constraints in mind, here's what I'm thinking for lunches, snacks, and dinners next week:

Dinners:

Cheesy Chicken Bake. This uses cambell's cream of chicken soup and stovetop stuffing, so isn't quite part of the whole get away from processed foods goal. But I'll serve it with mashed sweet potatoes and whole grain bread.

Burritos: I found a recipe that doesn't use the prepackaged taco seasoning. Maybe I'll get doubly ambitious and try for my own refried beans. I personally hate the canned refried beans. Toa of Boy loves my homemade tortillas, but they violate the less than 45 minutes from start to finish rule, so I'll go with some healthier pre-packaged burritos.

Zucchini Manicotti: yum baby yum. I have to make some without the evilness of zucchini for the Jedi, but that's easy enough to do.

Cincinnati Style Chili: another yum baby yum moment is in order here. Notice the lack of vegetables or beans in this dinner choice. Too bad. It's too delicious to fret over. I'll make sure the kids and I have big salads for lunch that day.

That's four dinners, and none of them are light dinners for Tae Kwon Do nights. Hmmm....

Lunches:

Sandwiches and wraps: We have these at least twice a week. Turkey ham, spinach leaves, cheese, and in my case tomatoes and peppers, served up on whole grain bread or wrapped up in a whole grain tortilla or flat bread.

Broccoli Cheese Soup. This is good for another two or three lunches.

Bread Pizza. A kid favorite. One lightly toasts some slices of whole grain bread. Then you spread on spaghetti sauce, sprinkle on cheese, and add peppers, pepperoni slices, or whatever. You put them under the broiler for a few minutes and voila, happy children with a healthy lunch. Mommy generally opts for a salad on these days.

Spinach Salads. A big plate of spinach leaves topped with hard boiled egg slices, other veggies, and shredded cheese, topped with a dressing of choice. Not a kid favorite, but one that occasionally gets served up anyway.

Snacks:

Sun chips: We love these. They are low in fat and high in fiber. Relatively so at least.

Fresh fruit. Mmmmm.

String Cheese. Sweetling the Lactivore likes string cheese. Toa of Boy will eat if its the only option between him and hunger.

Fresh Guacamole. I actually spelled that correctly on the first try. I'm amazed with myself. This is Toa of Boy's favorite snack, and it doubles as a lunch since he'll polish off an entire avocado's worth of guac in one sitting. I slice open the avocado for him, then he scoops out the flesh, mashes it up, stirs in some lime juice and a dash of salt, and is a happy, happy, camper.

Popcorn. This isn't the healthy kind. In our house, our popcorn is laden with butter and salt.

Fresh Baked Goods.
This week, I'm picking up a pie pumpkin and making pumpkin bread and pumpkin cinnamon rolls. This violates the 45 minute guideline, but for baked goods its totally worth it.

In the mood for Fall!

Oh yeah, yeah, it's that time. I'm planning on having a window sill lined with these little beauties.

And a pie pumpkin wants to come home with me and be baked into delicious things. It does. Don't tell me it doesn't. Pumpkin bread and pumpkin cinnamon rolls are top of the list. As is pumpkin chocolate muffins. Don't tell me that makes three things at the top of the list of three things. I'm not listening to reason right now. Reason can make an appointment for later.

Right now its all about fall fun baby.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Happy Birthday Vaya!

I have been composing a special birthday song just for you in my head since 7 this morning. But, because I love you very very much, I did not call you at 7:30 to sing it to you....even though doing so was very very tempting. Instead, I decided to post it on your Facebook page where all your friends and family can enjoy it too. See, I'm thoughtful that way. (I am, obviously, also posting this on my blog, since I'm way too pleased with myself. Sweetling co-authored this song, though I'm not sure how much she wants to admit to such a thing. She would also like to point out, and in fact did point out, that technically Vaya is not halfway to thirty. Halfway to thirty is fifteen. To which Mommy replies, math shmath.) 

 
We wish you a Happy Birthday,
We wish you a Happy Birthday,
We wish you a Happy Birthday,
Let's sing it again....

You're halfway to thirty,
You're halfway to thirty,
And when you ARE thirty,
I will sing this again!

Let's have chocolate at your party,
Let's have chocolate at your party,
Let's have chocolate at your party,
Again and again!

What do you mean I'm not invited?
What do you mean I'm not invited?
What do you mean I'm not invited?
You are grounded again.

If you visit me, I'll make chocolate,
If you visit me, I'll make chocolate,
And we can snuggle Peach Boy
Again and again!

We wish you a Happy Birthday,
We wish you a Happy Birthday,
We wish you a Happy Birthday,
And this is The End!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Not Doing Donuts

Last year, I initiated a dangerous, difficult to change tradition on co-op days. Frustrated with trying to get out the door on time...which was becoming me badgering my children to the point of at least one of the three of us leaving in tears...I decided we needed a different system. Now, we *do* get our backpacks ready the night before, but we were still struggling with being out the door at 9:15. I had just read Have a New Kid by Friday, and decided I needed a natural consequence. So in a flash of brilliance, I made the following statement.

At 9:00, I'm getting in the van and going up the corner to Speedway for Krispy Kreme donuts. Any child who is ready to go to co-op may put their backpacks and lunchboxes in the van and join me. Any child who is not ready does not get to go on the donut run. The van will return to the house after the donut run and pick up any stragglers IN WHATEVER STATE of readiness they have achieved, and then we will all proceed to co-op.

We went from being one of the last families to arrive to being one of the first families to arrive on a consistent basis.

Now, its co-op again. Children are asking if the donut policy is still in place. Last week we got donuts. After a summer without donuts, I ate half of one donut and felt nauseous from how sickly sweet it was. I can't in good conscious give my children these donuts full of way too much sugar and empty of any redeeming nutritional value...not on a weekly basis anyway.

In a moment of desperation, I decided I will make delicious homemade apple cinnamon muffins as our Monday morning treat. I don't know how this applies to leaving on time, but I have to have something other than the donuts as a treat. So, I hopped online, found a recipe, and whipped up a batch of muffins. (I did have one moment of panic when I realized I had dumped a quarter teaspoon of ground cumin in the muffins and not the ground cinnamon I had reached for, but I quickly spooned out the cumin and no harm was done.)

I have just eaten the first muffin. My children are not going to accept these as a donut alternative. They are, sadly, very bland. They needed more apples, more cinnamon, more something.

Here's the recipe, unmodified:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup honey
1 and 1/4 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400.
In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and brown sugar.
In another bowl, whisk together egg, butter, honey, and buttermilk.
Pour into flour mixture, stirring just until moistened and blended. [At this point, I added 1/2 cup finely chopped apples.]
Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin [sprayed], filling cups [nearly] to the top.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.

When they came out of the oven, they did not have that cinnamony-goodness smell going for them, so I sprinkled the top of them with a cinnamon-sugar mixture. That helped some, but not much. I think I should have doubled the amount of cinnamon and the number of apple pieces I put into them. Maybe I should have added 1/4 tsp of vanilla too.

But what am I going to do for a co-op treat tomorrow morning?

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Rules? And the Role of Dad!

This is a link up to The Homeschool Village. The topic reads as such--
 
Link up your homeschool rules! Share your post about how you keep your ducks in a row. What is expected of your children? How do you handle interruptions or poor behavior? Do you have homeschool detention?
Of course, I knew immediately what my rules are, what my expectations are, and what the usual consequences are.

I expect morning and afternoon chores lists done in a timely manner. We have lists of these posted on the fridge, and the kids put a dot on the chart each day when they complete each task. At the end of the week, we count up points, and whoever has the most points tallied up gets to pick a fun family activity that everyone participates in. If they tie, or come with in two points of a tie, they both pick an activity and we have two fun things we do. Its a win-win situation. A more complete description of my system can be read in this post.

I expect good attitudes through the day and good efforts put into learning. Electronic entertainment is suspended until school work is complete. Each child has a mail box which they put their completed work in to be checked by Daddy. Blatant refusal to do work, or blatant negligence to do work often results in an email to Daddy, followed by a phone call from Daddy, followed by a 24 hour suspension from electronics. (Video games and computer time are big motivators in our house. Don't judge us.)

I word about this. When I was much younger, and had no children of my own, (read totally naive), there were a few things that I swore I'd never use or say to my children. Among them were---spankings, "You have till the count of ___ to do ____...one.....two....two and a half...." ;  "Because I said so";  "I'm going to give you something to cry about" ;  and, "Just wait until your father comes home." Of all of these, I am proud to say that I still refuse to count at my children. But what I want to talk about is using my husband's authority to support my own.

I used to be against this concept of using my husband as the ultimate authority in the home for several reasons. One, I wanted the children to respect MY authority, not to just respect me by proxy. Two, I wanted my children to see my husband and I as a team of equal partners. (Ok, really that one isn't about my children, its about me. I wanted to see myself as an equal partner with my husband.) Three, I didn't want to play good-parent, bad-parent games where my husband was the only enforcer in the family. And, four, I didn't want my children to be afraid of or intimidated by their father.

I could write a long, long post on any one of those aspects, but in the interest of having any one actually, you know, read what I'm writing, let me keep this brief. Let me start by saying that my children are not afraid of or intimidated by their father. Both kids love to do things with Daddy, are excited when Daddy comes home, joke and laugh with Daddy, and have a great relationship with their Daddy. Because they know how much Daddy loves them, and because they also really love their Daddy, it is important to both of them that Daddy is pleased with their work and their behavior and their characters. When he does need to speak with them about any poor choices they have made that day, he never raises his voice. He never displays anger. He is never harsh in his tone or in his words. He sits down and very calmly states, "I understand that you had trouble following Mommy's directions today. I'm very disappointed to hear that. Tomorrow, I hope to hear that you made better choices." (Notice that he doesn't say "I'm disappointed in -you-" he makes the distinction between the child and the behavior.) So, my children are not fearful of their father, that's one concern of mine that turned out to be unfounded.

In regards to another concern, that one parent would always be the enforcer while the other was the fun parent, I almost sabotaged myself. (Again, a long, long post could be written...and yes, this is the short version, thank you.) To prevent this, on those occasions when I do feel like I could use a little back-up, I try to set the consequence with the child at the time the infraction occurs. So, if someone balks at doing math, or goes into their room and plays on their DS when they should have been reading, I set the consequences right then. And most of the time, that's then end of the story. I'll tell the Jedi about it if he asks, but most of the time, I don't need to bring him into the situation. However, if I set the consequence, and that doesn't seem to produce the desired change in behavior or attitude (the child who bulked at doing work is still pouting and bulking or the child who chose playtime instead of reading is later playing with stuffed animals instead of xyz), THEN I make a phone call or shoot an email off to the Jedi. When he calls, or when he comes home and discusses the issue with the child, he doesn't have to set the consequence....that has already been done.

The other thing that off-sets my husband being relegated to the sole role of "home school enforcer," is that I make a conscious effort to point out all the good things that happened during our day at the supper table that night. That way, my husband gets to hear about, and respond to the positives every day, instead of only hearing about the occasional negative. Likewise, having the children put their completed work in Daddy's box means he gets to see and be aware off what they are doing on a regular basis. I want to include my husband in out homeschool journey as much as possible, so I'm making an effort to find ways of doing so even though most of our formal schooling and our field trips happen during the days when he is at work.

Lastly, I'm finding that involving my husband in this area does not in any way diminish or demean my own authority, value, or respect in the home. Quite the opposite, in fact. Again, a long dissertation could be written on this topic. While it would be easy enough for me to say, oh look, God's plan works! I want to address this phenomena in more bite-sized pieces. One, keeping my husband as part of the complete picture, in both the good and the bad, does demonstrate and model to our children a unified partnership between the two of us. Two, my husband reinforces to my children my value and my importance in our family, just as I am reinforcing his role and his importance in our family. (Just this week, my husband had a talk with one of the children who had fallen into a pattern of waiting until the second or third time they were called to decide to begin responding. He said, "I need you to be prompt to listen to Mommy. I need you to respect Mommy. Mommy cares for you and is trying to make sure that everything in our home runs smoothly, and we need to respect and appreciate her efforts by doing our part to co-operate with Mommy.") Three, we are modeling and demonstrating that family members help each other, are concerned with what concerns each other, and offer our support and affirmation to each other.


Having said all that, and assuming that anyone is still reading, let me add that we do not have a written list of homeschool rules and expectations. So, I wondered if my children would be able to identify our unwritten rules and expectations. How much of this was actually being communicated effectively to my children?

I called them into the living room to find out. I told them I wanted to interview them for a blog post I was working on. They sat on the couch, and i sat in the chair by the window with my netbook, typing as I listened.

Mommy: "I'm writing a blog post about the rules and the expectations that we have for our homeschool for other homeschooling families to read. I know that we don't have a written list of rules, but I'm wondering if you could name some of the rules that we have for our homeschool."

Toa: "You didn't tell us yet!"

(So much for effectively communicating with my children. I went back to explaining what I was after. After a repeat of this with Toa, I looked at Sweetling.)

Sweetling: "Try your best."

Toa: "Don't give up."

(Woo hoo! We are on a role now!)

Sweetling: "There are a lot, and its kind of hard to narrow it down. Are you writing this down?" (She looks suspiciously at my fingers flying over the keyboard.)

Toa: "Take off your shoes before you go on the waterbed."

Sweetling: "That's more a rule of the house than a rule of homeschooling."

Toa: "I do go on the waterbed everyday."

Sweetling: "Do you get tickled everyday?"

(The conversation and interview dissolves into a brief tickle fight. I take a few moments to catch up on my typing then try to call a time out on the tickle fight to get children back on topic.)

Toa looking at Sweetling:"Don't karate chop my arm off."

Sweetling: "Thats not a rule of homeschool, that's just something you made up right now because you're annoyed with me." (Debate which results in Sweetling announcing the next rule-- "Stay on your side of the couch.")

Sweetling: "Pay attention."

Toa: "Follow Mommy's directions."

Sweetling: "If your sister tells you to leave her alone, leave her alone."

Toa: "Don't destroy the blanket?" Toa grins a big cheesy grin as the blanket throw cover slips off the couch and falls on his head.

Sweetling: "Like you're doing right now?"

Toa: giggle giggle

Mommy: "What about be prompt to come when Mommy calls?"

Sweetling: "Yeah, that's a good one."

Sweetling looking at her brother: "If your feet are above your head, that's a problem."

Mommy: "Get off the couch. You're finished with the couch for the day."

Sweetling: "No Wii until we're done with all our school?"

So, are they getting it? Yeah, I think so.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Junior Ranger Program

I've been reading The Ticknor Tribe blog (I swear I feel like a stalker; I'm going to have to introduce myself so I feel less creepy reading someone else's blog.)

I came across a program called The Junior Ranger Program. This looks really cool. "Rather than tying their park experiences only to the scheduled programs, Junior Ranger Programs are designed to provide participants with the flexibility to see and interact with the park at their own pace and within the limits of their own time. Many National Parks offer visitors the opportunity to join the National Park Service Family as Junior Rangers. Interested students complete a series of activities during their park visit, share their answers with a park ranger, and receive an official Junior Ranger badge or patch and Junior Ranger certificate."

So, now I'm going through the list of participating parks to see if we'll be traveling through or near any of them on our trek west. The obvious, The Grand Canyon, is part of the list. But I also found a few in Ohio. I'll do a more thorough search of the list and compare it to our driving route later. (When I'm not being a blog stalker.)


Another question that is raised is, will it be cheaper to buy a National Parks Access Pass for $80? Or just pay the park admission. How many of the parks which we are hitting are state parks and how many are national parks? Don't know. More research needs to happen.







Saturday, September 11, 2010

Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction

I'm not addicted to planning for this trip. I could quit anytime.....but I'm no quitter ;)

The Jedi doesn't like caves, and Nana couldn't do a 70 minute walking tour, but I have to make note of Glenwood Caverns anyway. Neither will we be taking a 90 minute tour of Redstone Castle, because that takes 90 minutes, and we're already driving 9 hours that day. Glenwood Springs is home to the world's largest hot springs pool, which is pretty cool (well, warm, technically), but again, time, and sulphur might be a deterrent there.  However, the Two Rivers Park as a possible get out and stretch legs point in Glenwood Springs.

But, the real winner of this particular treasure hunt goes to the Jedi, who found the Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction.  He found a dinner that we can hit before driving to the northwest park entrance.

Decisions, Decisions

Looking at some of the details of the return trip now. In California, do we take a route that lets us see Death Valley, or do we take a route that lets us visit the Calico Ghost Town?


Thursday, September 09, 2010

Fall Break

We're considering starting our two week fall break next week. Here's our list of things we might like to do during our Fall School Break:

--go to Pig Island
--visit the outdoor area of the Creation Museum
--go to Serpentine Mound
--make fairy houses
--decorate the house for fall
--carve our own letterbox stamps and use them :)
--helium balloon launch (with an email address for responses to track how far they travel)

And, because we are us and all, this has developed into another list for October activities:

--burry the Oooka in leaves
--collect and laminate pretty fall leaves to hang in the windows
--set up our own haunted house

And now this has become a discussion of what we want to be for Halloween. Just so you know, here are some of the options that have been tossed out (for our family, these are remarkably mainstream).

1. Toy story characters. The kids could be the three eyed aliens. Mommy could be Jessie. This plan falls apart because we don't think we can talk the Jedi into being Buzz Lightyear.
2. The cast of Curious George. Toa gets to be the monkey, of course. Sweetling gets type-cast as Professor Wiseman. And Mommy getst to be the Mommy in the Yellow Hat. The bonus of this plan is that Mommy gets a yellow hat.
3. The cast of Pacman game. Someone would have to be Pacman and the rest of us get colored sheets and become Inky, Blinky, and Pinky.
4. The cast of Penguins of Madagaskar was tossed out by Toa of Boy, who immediately volunteered to be Mort. Sweetling says this would wind up looking like three penguins and a little brown thing. Unless Mommy was King Julien, which Sweetling says would look like two penguins, a little brown thing, and Mommy wearing a grey suit with a crazy hat.

Re-route

After talking to some people at work who have done some traveling out west, the Jedi is considering rerouting some of our trek west. Instead of driving north from Denver CO to Laramie WY and then west through WY to Salt Lake City UT, we are considering driving straight west from Denver, through the mountains of Colorado into Utah, and then north to Salt Lake City. It is a slightly longer drive, but only slightly, and it supposed to be a far more scenic drive.

This would mean giving up Fort Bridger in Wyoming, which looked really cool, but it would mean driving through the Great Rocky Mountains, which would also be cool. So I've spent the past couple of days poking around on google to see what else we might encounter on a rerouted drive.

The new route would take us just north of Arches National Park in Utah. Let me tell you how excited I was by this discovery. I quickly did some more research, and discovered that the entrance to Arches National Park is on the south side of a very large park. And we're on the north side. Hmm.

Not to be deterred, I jumped on google maps to see if there were any roads that went into the north side of the park. Yes, yes there were! And, the back roads (Salt Valley Rd and Valley City Rd) connected to a state route {191} with an exit from the main interstate, I-70. Woo di hoo! So, Arches was looking like it might be on our itinerary after all.


Just to be sure, I did a google street view of the state route and looked at the turn off to these back roads into the park.
See that dirt path over the railroad tracks? That's a "road".

So, on a day that already has nine hours of travel slated, to see Arches, we need to drive an hour south, then drive north into the park and see the arches, then drive back south to leave the park, then drive an hour north to get back on the interstate. Add up the hours there. It's not looking like Arches is going to be on our travel docket.

Of course, that didn't stop me from dragging the little goggle street view person all over Utah and Colorado to plunk him down on the map and see what I could see. Or from surfing all sorts of blogs in search of other ideas.

I spent so much time on this over the past few days, that last night I kept waking up in a panic, convinced that I had forgotten to pack for our trip and that we needed to be on the road by seven. I'd eventually figure out that our trip was still several months away, and I'd fall back asleep, only to wake up again in a panic because I had forgotten to pack for our trip....

Noises in the Attic

Last week, early in the morning, there were loud noises coming from our attic crawl space. Clearly a possum or a raccoon was taking up residence, as we could easily hear him moving in his new furniture. Our new tenant was audible again one afternoon as the children and I were sitting on the couch reading together after lunch.

Toa of Boy looked up at the ceiling and asked what the noises were coming from.

I answered him honestly, and told him that a possum or a raccoon or something had gotten into the attic.

"It could be a rabbit," he said.

"No," I replied. "A rabbit couldn't climb up onto the garage roof to get into the attic."

"Rabbits can jump," he said.

"Not that high," I said.

"Could it be a skunk?" he asked.

"No, skunks can't climb either."

He didn't say anything else, and I went back to reading our story.

"Mommy," he asked, "what happened to Sheeba?" (Our dog who passed away a few years before Toa of Boy came home with us. Toa has seen pictures of her with a toddler Sweetling.)

"She died," states Sweetling, rather bluntly. Sweetling can only tolerate just so many interruptions.

I tried to resume the story.

"No," persisted Toa. "I mean what happened to Sheeba's body?"

After a moment of reflection, I pieced together what Toa's train of thought must be. "There is not," I stated, "a zombie dog in our attic."

This response seemed to satisfy Toa and we got back to reading our story, despite the occasional noise from the attic.

Saturday, September 04, 2010

Weekly Wrap-Up.....South of the Border

For the past 2 weeks we've been learning about deserts, Mexico, the countries of Central America, and the Caribbean islands. Here are our highlights:

Desert Sunset Art

  1.  First, we did a google image search for desert sunsets. We talked about the different colors seen in the skies and the usual order of the colors in the skies. We talked about how the horizon landscapes were all silhoutted against the skies and we looked at the variety of vegetation and rock formations.
  2. Each child picked a piece of colored construction paper. (Surprisingly, they both went with pink.)
  3. I got out my art pastels. (The soft chalk kind, not oil pastels.) I love using pastels for art projects. At just $15 for a box of 64, they are totally worth it.
  4. The kids used the pastels to cover their construction paper with their favorite sunset colors. Sweetling softly smeared her color bands with her fingers. Toa did not.
  5. I gave each child a piece of black construction paper and a white crey pas (like white chalk, a white crayon would work to.) They each drew a horizon line on the black paper, then cut it out and glued it to their sunset. 
  6. I recommended they each draw an additional element to complete their horizon, such a rock formation, a mesa, a cactus, or other vegetation. They both drew a cactus and cut it out and glued it on their sunset.
  7. Voila! Lovely sunsets.

Mexican Yarn Paintings

  1.  We read a little about the history of the craft and did a google image search to look at lots of real samples. We talked about the vibrant colors used and the shapes and forms.
  2. I got out the card stock and each child picked a color and then, in theory, used some large simple shapes to form their design. (Toa had trouble with this. He naturally draws small, detailed art, so drawing something big and simple that could be filled in with yarn was a real challenge for him.) In the end, Sweetling drew Pacman and Toa drew a beach pail filled with shells, rocks, and a feather. 
  3. We started filling in the design with yarn. Sweetling did Pacman's eye first and the white dots second. For each of these she started in the center and coiled her yarn outward (I think). Then, for the large pacman, she started by outlining him in yellow and coiling her yarn inward. 
  4. CAUTION: Toa found the whole yarn part extremely frustrating. He couldn't get it to lay on the intricate lines he had drawn for his shells and things. This is definitely not his favorite art medium.

Turtle Temperature

We had just read about some of the ways animals dealt with the desert heat. As part of that reading, we were discussing cold blooded animals. Sweetling's Webkinz, Andy the Turtle, very kindly agreed to help demonstrate the temperature difference between sun and shade. First, we put Andy in the shade with a thermometer on his back. Five minutes later we came back and took his temperature. Then we found a nice sunny rock for Andy to sit on, again carrying the thermometer on his back. We took his temperature after another five minutes and compared the two readings. Simple, but hands-on for the Toa.

Transpiration

This followed a reading about oases in the desert. Did you know that the air temperature in an oasis is actually ten to twenty degrees lower than the surrounding air temperature? This is do in part to the shade provided by the vegetation, but also due to transpiration. So, we learned what transpiration was, and then moved to a hands-on demonstration. (Anything that's hands on is a win for my boy.) I gave each child a small ziploc bag and sent them outside to pick a few leaves to place in their bag. We left a good bit of air in each bag, and sealed them up. We placed them in a sunny spot, securing one corner with a rock to keep them from being blown away, and went back inside. An hour later, we went back out to check them. Even I was blown away at the amount of condensation on the inside of the baggies. You could barely see the leaves do to all the water drops along the plastic. We verified that the water was definitely on the inside of the bags, but not the outside. The  Jedi says we should have had a control of one empty bag. We probably should have, but I didn't think of it at the time.

Chi Chi Bird

This Jamaican song was on our Wee Sing Music CD. We had a great time improvising our own verses. Well, two of us had a great time improvising our own verses, and one of us tried to reign in the silliness of the other two. The song had a caller, and then a repeated refrain. The chorus goes like this--
Chi chi bud, o!
Some o' dem a holler some a bawl!
Chi chi bud, o!
Some o' dem a holler some a bawl!
And then the verses are a little more improvisational, with the caller adding in colors or types of birds, or other adjectives of birds, like this--
Some a sea gull!
Some o' dem a holler some a bawl!
Some a yellow bird!
Some o' dem a holler some a bawl!

So, after we had sung it with the CD, we decided, meaning I decided, that we would improvise our own verses. Originally, I thought we would each take a turn being the caller. But neither of the kids wanted to be a caller, so it was all me. We sang the chorus, and then we went to our first verse. It went like this--

Some a zummies!
Mommy! Those aren't even birds!
But dey got wings!
Mommy! That does NOT make them birds!
Chi chi bud o!
Some o' dem a holler some a bawl!
Chi chi bud o!
Some o' dem a holler some a bawl!
Dey aren't squirrelsies!
Some o' dem (giggle giggle) a bawl!
But dey live in trees!
Mommy! (giggle giggle)
Dey go cheepie chirp!
(giggle giggle)
Dey wake me uppie up!
(giggle giggle giggle)

We wrapped up this highly educational activity by watching a short you tube video about steel drums.


Griddle Corn Cakes

These were supposed to be corn tortillas, but I didn't read the recipe carefully and used corn meal instead of corn flour. Big difference between corn meal and corn flour. We did this activity on Friday night as a nice wrap up to our unit. We read The Tortilla Factory and the the kids measured and mixed the ingredients for corn tortillas. Because we used corn meal, they couldn't actually be rolled like tortillas, so I added eggs and a little flour and honey, patted them into small griddle cakes, and fried them. I made ground beef with taco seasoning, refried beans, and spanish rice. We put the corn cakes as a base on our plates and layered the other ingredients, plus cheese, on the top. (Sweetling had a taco salad on a bed of spinach leaves and then ate her corn cake on the side with butter and honey.)

Cool Runnings

We, meaning I again, had planned on having movie and popcorn at the end of our week. Since the Jamaican music lesson had been such a rousing success, I thought watching Cool Runnings would be an excellent choice. But Friday afternoon was sunny and in the seventies, instead of rainy like I thought it might be, so we went to a park instead of staying inside with a movie. There will be plenty of cold, wet, miserable Friday afternoons in the winter and we might watch the movie some other time.

Be sure to read what other homeschoolers did this week on Weird, Unsocialized, Homeschoolers.

Friday, September 03, 2010

Contents of My Kitchen Table

On Tuesday, I walked upstairs after lunch to match up my coupons with my grocery list. I walked into the kitchen, and this is what was on the table. For some unknown, deeply profound psychological reason, I felt the need to share this with the world and save it for posterity. So, I grabbed my phone, made a list, and emailed it to my self.


3 skeins of yarn
3 bottles of glue
1 tailless rubber lizard
1 pair sewing scissors
2 brown napkins
Pack of 4 crayons and coloring book from PF Changs
3 empty water bottles
1 paper carry out bag from PF Changs (folded)
1 plastic container (clean) with 2 lean plastic spoons inside
1 pack of "wikki stix"
2 yarn art creations (drying)
1 glass craft pebble
1 small shell
1 tiny orange Knex connecter
1 half dead plant
1 sugar encrusted measuring spoon
1 mostly consumed plastic cup of chocolate milk with straw
You've read "Contents of a Dead Man's Pockets," right?