Caterpillar Spelling

After reading Snowman Spelling on Marla's Motherhood Musings and Word Family Stick Men on House of the Rising Sons, I was inspired to create these caterpillars with my daughter. The en part of the body is glued together and the head can be replaced with m, d, t, h or p to make men, den, ten, hen and pen. She knows her letters and their sounds and is on the verge of reading. She had fun creating them and was thrilled to be able to spell a few new words.

Cute Knitted Animals

We had fun making these cute knitted animals from Fuzzy Mittens by Barbara Prime. They are quick projects and great for using up those left-over balls of yarn. Although they were more difficult than hats, scarves and legwarmers my ten year old daughter was able to make the mouse and panda with a little help from Grandma. My daughter made the arms and legs while Grandma made the heads, bodies and clothes. I made the squirrel.

This post is linked to: 
Inspired Weekends
 
* I did not receive any compensation for this recommendation. I'm just a homeschooling mom who has found many products that I like. If you're interested in the products I recommend on this blog I want to make it easy for you to find them. 

St. Patrick's Week - Green Foods

Last year we ate green food all week to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I found the Teaching Good Eaters blog which is full of healthy recipes and eating ideas and the source of most of these recipes.

On our menu
Green Omelette
Spinach Pesto
Green Pepper Soup
Bean and Avocado Pizzas
Leprechaun Juice
Green Magma Juice
Key Lime Mousse

The Key Lime Mousse recipe came from the book Raw Food Made Easy by Jennifer Cornbleet. Like many of the recipes in the book it is so simple to make - just avocados, lime juice and honey mixed together in a food processor.- Delicious!

We finished up the week with a lightning fast St. Patrick's Day parade.

* I did not receive any compensation for this recommendation. I'm just a homeschooling mom who has found many products that I like. If you're interested in the products I recommend on this blog I want to make it easy for you to find them. 
** I am an Amazon associate and receive a small portion of the sales on orders made after clicking in from this site, which I promptly spend on homeschooling books and supplies for my children.

Speed! - Multiplication Game Giveaway

My friend Kim at Starry Sky Ranch is sponsoring a giveaway of my multiplication game - Speed! on her blog.

Her oldest child still at home, (she has 10) teaches my daughter piano. During the lessons we solve knitting problems and talk about homeschooling. She is a professional photographer and is also teaching me to take better pictures. Slowly but surely I am learning about the different buttons on my point and shoot camera. Last week I actually put my camera into manual mode with pretty good results. You see, I'm lucky because I get the lessons twice. A few days after our visits she writes up her advice in her weekend photography tips on her blog. Check it out.

If you would like a chance to win a box of Speed! cards through her blog there are three ways to enter. You can do all three if you would like.

1. Leave her a comment on her blog
2. Like Highhill Educational Supplies on Facebook
3. Write about Speed! on your blog with a link to her give-away

The winner will be announced next Wednesday.
-giveaway open to US and APO addresses only

Intro to Computer Programming - Scratch

All I have to say is wow! Scratch is the coolest computer programming tool ever.... and it's free. It is a tool for kids to learn how to write computer programs. After downloading it to the computer, kids can create games, movies, stories and all sorts of cool computer stuff. They can start with one of the images already loaded in the program or create their own. There are built-in tools to create motion, sound, and change the appearance of the graphics. They can even make their programs more sophisticated through the use of variables.

Not only does it do all that, but it's a great way to practice math. Getting a figure to move to a desired location requires knowledge of grids (x,y coordinates). Figures can be rotated a desired number of degrees. Equations can be added in conjunction with control statements such as loops.  Overall, it's an excellent way to learn programming, practice logic and the math possibilities are endless.

If you allow computers in your home and have a child who loves them, try this! They will learn so much and this could be a great introduction to a career in computer science.

* I did not receive any compensation for this recommendation. I'm just a homeschooling mom who has found many products that I like. If you're interested in the products I recommend on this blog I want to make it easy for you to find them.

Learning about Lying and Stealing

This week we learned about lying and stealing. My five year old is both independent and smart. She dresses herself, packs her own snacks for German pre-school and packs her own suitcase for vacations. I've heard many stories about when somebody's kid stole something. Well, now I am proud to say that I have one of my own stories to tell.

Earlier this week, my husband was in the bathroom, and then he left for a couple of minutes to get something downstairs.  When he returned two minutes later, he met our daughter exiting the bathroom.  She was dressed, her hair was slightly damp, and she claimed that she had just showered and was ready for school. Hmmmm...... the bathroom wasn't steamy and there was no evidence of a wet towel, but she did have that huge smile on her face. Although we hadn't yet realized it, this was her second day in a row of faking her shower. Well, her smile didn't last long this time around. He figured out her trick and busted her. She was really mad as he waited patiently in the bathroom until he had acquired visual evidence of her getting into the shower and turning the water on.

It wasn't enough that on Thursday my husband caught her pretending to take her morning shower. Two days later, we had another event after attending the bi-weekly tennis lesson for the two older kids.  When we were leaving the grocery store, my older daughter said "Mom, what's that lump in her jacket?" Upon inspection, you guessed it - a tennis ball. Needless to say we drove back to the tennis court so she could apologize and return the ball. This was HUGE! She didn't want to do it and was feeling really bad. So after I told the teacher why we were back, she laid on the ground crouched in a ball, hiding and hoping somehow this was all going to go away if nobody could see her. After about 15 minutes (she is very strong willed) she was finally starting to stir a little. So I asked her how she wanted to apologize - "Would you like to do it fast? Would you like me to hold your hand?"

"I want you to do it she replied." I said "alright, but you need to come with me." After it was over she ran as fast as she could from the tennis court to the car, sobbing all the way. I felt badly for her, but happy for her at the same time. Her theft was minor, but she learned a very important lesson. I think she really understood what happened and won't do it again.

This parenting journey is so much fun, and it sure keeps me on my toes. I can't wait to see what my five year old comes up with next.

This post is linked to: 
Mums Make Lists

English Christmas Pudding

Our cooking experience this week was a true math and science lesson. We made English Christmas Pudding. Anne-Marie at Life's Adventures recently did a post about English Christmas Pudding which included wonderful directions. You are supposed to make it during lent and let it sit for about eight months (until Christmas) to eat it.

Math

1. We learned there are 16 oz in 1 lb. Since the directions are English food is measured by weight instead of volume. (i.e. lbs instead of cups). When my son was weighing out 1 lb of bread to make into crumbs, the scale was set for pounds and ounces. Right away he said "Each time I add a piece to the scale that number (oz) goes up. When will the other one (lbs) change from 0 to 1."

2. We learned 1 lb of raisins = 1 lb of bread, but the volume of space the food takes up is different. For the last year or so, this has been a regular dinner discussion. "What weighs more a pound of bricks or a pound of cotton?" Each time this question is asked my son yells "a pound of bricks", the girls laugh and say "no, they are the same." Well we discussed this after weighing the bread and raisins today and I think he may have gotten it.
3. We learned that there are about 2 tsp per 10 mL. The recipe called for 10 mL of ground almonds and we couldn't find any measuring devices for mL. Then we asked our best friend Mr. Internet and he knew the answer.

 4. We noticed that many products include a weight measurement of the contents on the packaging.

Science
1. We learned that water turns into steam and disappears. Since the pudding had to be steamed for eight hours we were constantly checking to make sure the water didn't run out.

2. We are wondering why Christmas Pudding doesn't rot. We haven't yet learned the answer to this question, but it has inspired our curiosity. Hopefully we will know the answer by Christmas.

Well maybe ours will rot? We made several substitutions as I couldn't find all the required ingredients.

Required Ingredients                                  Our Substitutions
1 lb of bread crumbs
1 lb of currants                                               1 lb dried cranberries, cherries and plums
1 lb of raisins
1 lb of golden raisins
1 oz crystalized ginger                                    1/4 tsp ginger powder
3 oz candied orange and lemon peel               fresh peelings from two clementines and some extra raisins
2 carrots
1 apple
10 ml ground almonds
1 lb vegetable suet                                         1 lb grated frozen butter
2 tbsp golden syrup                                        2 tbsp maple syrup
5 oz dark ale beer
3 tbsp brandy