Weekly Wrap-Up

This week we had all our books. I unpacked and found the Geography and Latin books that were in a box.

We are continuing to enjoy Mystery of History. This week it was Ancient India, The Mayas, St. Augustine of Hippo, and Jerome.

One of my goals for the weekend is to find or create a list of things I want the kids to be memorizing. The pantry closet is a perfect place to post those pages. I am thinking that I will do memory notebooks when we move. I have clear books in the shipment.

Another goal for next week is to begin a read-aloud. The kids both enjoy it when I read a book so I just need to do it.

Remember last week I wanted to add some fun things in our day. I did add a nature walk this week.

J began flute lessons this week. He has been talking about wanting to take flute lessons and we were able to find a teacher here. Both of the children are continuing piano lessons. I am excited that we are able to give him that opportunity. He learned how to play Hot Cross Buns on the flute which is one of Miss K's piano pieces so maybe they can plan a duet.

We have had some math challenges. I think he knows the material but it seems to be a combination of  rushing through, not checking his work and maybe not reading the lesson completely. I sit down and review the problems with him. He says that he was rushing through it.

He had swim team practice today. We are enjoying the homeschool swim team that we found in this area. His group is mainly boys and a number that he knows from co-op.

I have to share this funny from J. Yesterday he was standing at the table and said, "am I like the school janitor?" I looked at him and chuckled. I didn't even have him doing cleaning at that time.


Miss K

I have been working with Miss K in handwriting to put the g on the line. I think this has been something we have been working on for weeks. Usually the "g" is hanging in the middle of the line. I have told her that "g" gets tired and needs to sit on the line or I tell her that the tail can't hold up "g". I even drew a little line to show her where to draw the g and said that was "g's" pillow. So as I am going on about this, she looks up at me and pats my arm and says, "it is going to be okay." That was my cue to pause and try again on another day. Right now the "g" just doesn't want to sit on the line.

Any ideas on who to teach that "g" needs to sit on the line?

We got back to Scaredy Cat reading this week. We are working on the Words book and spent some time making blends. We even got the blender out for that.

It is great to see her math skills improving as she does the problems. She uses the blocks but that is fine. She tried to "X" out her problems a few times but giving her more problems cured that.

I have had a hard time finding a Bible program that I liked for her. I bought the Read Aloud Bible Stories. She finished Volume 1 and I am having her read it again. Partly to make sure she is able to read it and partly because I can't keep buying these as fast as she reads is once.

I found a planner that I think is just want I want. I want to spend some time this weekend planning and then will show you what I found.

We are settled in the house and I am getting back to cooking after not cooking. We are working our way through the 10 pounds of lentils.

That is about all for this week.


Beth

The Lentil Challenge - Lentil Soup

I have two lentil soup recipes on my computer. So I decided to make this one just called Lentil Soup. I am not sure where I got the recipe. The picture was taken before the parmesan cheese to the top.

Lentil Soup

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups dry lentils
• 8 cups water
• 1/2 cup spinach, rinsed and thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a large soup pot heat oil over medium heat. Add onions, carrots, and celery; cook and stir until onion is tender. Stir in garlic, bay leaf, oregano, and basil; cook for 2 minutes.

2. Stir in lentils and add water and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for at least 1 hour. When ready to serve stir in spinach, and cook until it wilts. Stir in vinegar, and season to taste with salt and paper, and more vinegar if desired. 

The other recipe I have comes from the Betty Crocker's New Cookbook. I love my Betty Crocker cookbook. My mom has an old one that has fallen to pieces as well as the same book that has not fallen to pieces that she keeps as a back-up. I love my new Betty Crocker cookbook and get a number of recipes from that -- meatloaf, biscuits, chili, and a number of other things. 

Also Sarah Elizabeth shared this recipe with me. I want to try that. I am thinking that since this goes in the blender they might not recognize the lentils as quickly. I don't want us to get tired of lentils before we finish the bag.

You can read about The Lentil Challenge here.

Do you have any more lentil soup recipes to share?

Beth

Art Class

Last spring J took an art class and I posted his artwork here. This fall in co-op Miss K taking an art class. I heard wonderful things about this teacher and I have to say that I am impressed and pleased with Miss K is learning.

This is from the first week. They were studying Monet.  You can see the bridge. She did tell me that the blue spot that you see in the lower right corner is a lily pad.

This week it was van Gogh and sunflowers. I can somewhat see the flowers.

I am not really sure what this was except that it was done in watercolor. Maybe a sunset.

I will say that there is an improvement in her art when I look at what she was doing a few years ago. Here is something she brought home from preschool.

I look at some of the things that she draws on her Doodle and really need to sit with her and help her learn some more art and drawing skills. She is impressive at times.

Do you have a favorite art book for elementary children?

Beth

The Lentil Challenge

As I walked through Costco the other week, I spied a 10 pound bag of lentils. We didn't have bulk dried items like that in Costco on the East Coast. I thought about it and decided I am going to buy 10 pounds of lentils for less than $6.00 and we will enjoy lentils. Do you realize that is 60 cents a pound? That is cheap protein.

Now before you feel sorry for my kids for having to eat 10 pounds of lentils, let me tell you about my son's reactions when as I walked through the aisle with my shopping card to put a bag of lentils in the cart. His reaction was something like, "lentils, yeah!" with a very excited tone. My kids love lentils.

One of the easy things about lentils is they don't need to soak and are generally ready to eat in 45 minutes. For a long time lentils have been my go to item if I didn't have meat thawed.

So the challenge that I have given myself is to use all 10 pounds in the next 8-10 weeks. (We are praying that we will have our visa by the end of the year and be moving and I won't take this with me.)

I have a few lentil recipes that we like and I also spent some time online looking for lentil recipes. I pinned a number on Pinterest.  For my first meal I was brave and tried a new recipe. I made this recipe, Lentil And Spinach Dhansak (I copied the recipe here for reference.) We ate it so fast I didn't take a photo.

Ingredients

• 25ml Flora Cuisine
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 2.5cm (1 inch) piece root ginger, grated or finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons curry paste, or to taste
• 1 Knorr Vegetable Stock Cube dissolved in 600ml (1 pint) boiling water
• 85g (3 oz) red lentils
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 sweet potato, cut into cubes
• 350g (12 oz) basmati rice
• 225g bag spinach leaves
• Finely grated rind and juice of ½ lime or lemon
• Lime or lemon zest, to garnish
• 150g carton low fat natural yogurt to accompany                   

Preparation

1. Melt the Flora in a saucepan, add the onion and ginger and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft.
2. Add the curry paste and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.  Gradually add the vegetable stock and bring to the boil.
3. Stir in the lentils, carrots and sweet potato and simmer gently for about 15 minutes until tender.
4. Meanwhile, cook the rice according to packet directions.
5. Stir the spinach leaves into the cooked vegetables until they have just wilted and then add the lime or lemon rind or juice.
6. Serve the vegetables with the rice, garnished with lime or lemon zest.

In my typical style I changed the recipe a bit. I didn't know what Flora Cuisine was so I just used butter. I didn't use red onion just a regular brown onion. I used brown lentils instead of red and decided that was not enough lentils so I increased it to 1 cup and added more water. Maybe it is because I used brown lentils instead of red but it did take longer than 15 minutes to cook.

The recipe was a hit. My son had thirds. Everyone was a bit disappointed that there were not enough leftovers to have for lunch the next day.

So share with me your favorite lentil recipe. I have enough lentils and we will probably be looking for some variety. A number of the recipes I have are Indian type dishes. Give me your favorite.
Beth

Math Fun - Hopping by 5's

I wanted to review and work on counting by 5's. I had copied the 100 number chart the other day and we colored and the 10's. Today I wanted to work on the 5's. I was talking about hopping and went to grab an animal thinking maybe there would be a rabbit in the animal box that could hop along. Instead I found a frog that was just right for our 100 number chart.

First we colored the multiples of 5 in green because the frog needed some lily pads to hop along as we went through the number chart.

Then using the frog we counted our way to 100 by 5's.

It was a fun activity. I love it when I come up with something fun that didn't take much planning. I am not always the best at planning things ahead which is funny because for the most part I would consider myself a planner.

J thought it looked fun and said, "remember when you used to do fun things with me in math." Yes, now he is studying fractions. Maybe we need a pizza and we can do some fraction work.

Beth

Fall Soccer

The leaves are beginning to change color, the days are getting shorter, the apples and pumpkins are in season -- it is fall and that also means time for soccer. J has played the last four years on the east coast and we were able to find a team for him to play with here in the Northwest.

Today the weather was perfect meaning warm and not too cold, not raining or not even drying from rain so I took my camera to the game with the goal of getting some photos.

J's favorite position to play is defense. It was fun watching him play and realizing how he is focusing and thinking about where the ball is going.

His team won today 2-0. It is a team that has been playing together for a few years. 

I am glad that he has had the opportunity to play here. They have practice twice a week and a game every Saturday. It gives him some good exercise and I consider it his PE. 

Today's game was at 5:00 so it was a bit cool by the time the game was over.

I guess his arms are out to balance himself. Maybe it is also a bit of having done ballet this morning with his sister. He said she would only do it if he did it with her.

Miss K found some friends and was playing both soccer and football. She was happy even though there was no playground. She remembers going to the playground when we were on the east coast and wanted to do that tonight but this is just a huge field with lots of soccer fields.

Here I am.

Beth

Math Funny

A few days ago I wrote a nice long post praising Miss K for all her math progress. Today I gave her the assigned page which is to copy the date, write in what today is, do a patterning sequence and then do eight math problems. It is simple and the same thing that she did all by herself just a day or two earlier. Well, I looked at her page and this is what I saw.

A big "X" on the addition problems. She said she didn't want to do them, they were too hard. Her brother tried to tell her that wasn't going to work and then her mother told her that wasn't going to work.

She is a fast learner. We had been working on Explode the Code and there was a page with three sentences with the words mixed up and she was to unscramble the words and make a sentence. It is a concept that she does not understand. She will just copy the words so she writes, "runs Jim mud in the". So I decided it was too much and so I put a big "X" on that page. I guess that will be the last time that I allow something like that.

I will say that after being sent to the principal's office she did get her math done. She sat in there and did it. She can do it. Yes, it is hard but we work hard to make it easy.

She keeps us laughing and enjoying life.

Beth