Homemade English Muffins!

I am not a bread master, but I am thankful to know someone who is.  I've adopted JoAnn over at Homeschool Distractions as my resident bread expert.  :-)  She found a recipe for English muffins that her family loved, so I decided to give them a try, and let me tell you...they. are. GOOD!  We used them for last night's cobb sandwiches, and then this morning for breakfast.  I made them a bit too thick, but I'll fix that next time.  Thanks for sharing this, JoAnn!!

Here's the dough recipe from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.

Resurrection Lapbook

I just found this Resurrection lapbook this morning and I love it!  They have a little video showing each component of the lapbook and all the links to print everything out.  I just took what I liked and left what I didn't think "Rupert" would be interested in.  I'm also adding a couple more Bible verses to copy:

"He is not here; he has risen just as he said." ~Matthew 28:6
and
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." ~John 15:13

I'm currently getting it all set up for "Rupert" so he can just do the fun little activities and coloring and not have to worry about cutting everything out.

It's funny how the learning doesn't stop just because we're on spring break.  It just has a different flavor.  :-)

Photos of our lapbook:

We Made a Book!

My mom recently brought over a box of stuff I had made in school.  Some of this stuff was from kindergarten!  As "Rupert" and I went through it, we came across a book I had made in the 3rd grade.  The teacher had constructed the book and I had written my own story and drawn my own illustrations in it.  Immediately, "Rupert" asked if we could make one for him.  What a fun idea!  I went out and bought some Con-Tact paper and we were ready to create!

We used:

1. The cardboard from a large pizza box
2. A few of our handwriting pages
3. A needle and thread
4. Rubber Cement
5. Con-Tact paper

First, we folded the handwriting paper in half and stitched it down the center so it would stay together firmly.  I decided to do this because the book I had made as a child was starting to fall apart, and I wanted this one to be stronger.

Then, we cut out two rectangles a bit larger than the folded paper.  These were to be the cover.  We set these side by side on the contact paper and wrapped it around them, and the cover was made!

Then we just glued the pages into the inside covers of the book and TA-DA!!  Our own book.

I have to say...I have a new appreciation for my 3rd grade teacher who made these books for 30 students.  I can't imagine making 30 of these at once!  One is cool.  30 doesn't sound so fun.  So, thank you, Mrs. Wolkenhauer!!

1st Grade: Week 29 Highlights

Bible:  "Rupert" had 3 Bible verses to memorize for J-Force (his play practice) this week, and I think he's going to get them all down!  He has an incredible memory.  He only has to hear something a couple of times and he's got it.  I wish it were that easy for ME.

Speaking of his play, well, technically it's a musical, this week he found out that he got a small solo part and he gets to play the parts of Paul and Jesus at a couple of points in the play.  Add to that the ribbon dance that he gets to do, and you've got one excited little boy!  This will be a great experience for him and he is having a lot of fun with it.

Spelling:  Whew!  This week's list was HARD!  He got half of them down, and we'll work more on the other ones when we come back from spring break.

Math:  Now that "Rupert" has a pretty good handle on addition, we're starting to be more purposeful about subtraction.  This is a harder concept for him, but amazingly, it helps if I put things in terms of money.  "If you have 7 dollars and you spend 4, how much do you have left?"  works a lot better than "What's 7 minus 4?"  We also use his Funtastic Frogs manipulatives to help him to understand and visualize the problems.

History:  This week we were introduced to Alexander the Great.  "Rupert" had fun pretending to be Alexander while riding around on his stick horse, "Bucephalus", and conquering the Persian Empire.  We also learned how to tie a Gordian knot.

On Saturday, we had family over for an ancient Greek feast and Olympic games.  We had Greek pilaf, cheese, olives, grapes, apples, pears, bread, honey, almonds, spinach, Greek pasta salad, traditional Greek Easter cookies and cheese cake.

We did not follow the ancient Greek protocol for our Olympic games as we allowed girls to participate and none of the contestants competed in the nude.  The events we competed in were long jump, discus throw (frisbee), wheelbarrow race, foot race, and for the grand finale, a foot race with armor on!  The winners got the traditional wreath of olive leaves, fame in their home towns, and room and board for life (okay, maybe not for LIFE...that's up to their parents).

Our Greek name tags:

Science: We learned about our sense of taste and hearing.  We'll do more with hearing after spring break, but this week we watched Bill Nye and did a couple of fun experiments with sound.  In one of them, we made a model of an ear drum, sprinkled salt on it and then made loud noises (beating a pot with a spoon) to make the salt dance, showing the vibrations of the sound waves on the "ear drum".

Social Opportunities: Play practice, overnight at Grandma's (with a little Grandma schooling thrown in), kung fu, playdate with my friend's girls, art day, and our Greek feast/Olympic games.

1st Grade: Week 28 Highlights

Bible: We've really been enjoying the daily devotions at kids4truth.com They have been such a blessing for us. Check them out! "Rupert" has also been reading his children's Bible for phonics this week.

Grammar: We were introduced to three more sentence types this week- the command, the question and the exclamation. "Rupert" practiced writing a sample of each of the four types of sentences.

Science: This week we talked about our sense of touch. We also did a fun little activity where I put miscellaneous items into a paper bag, and "Rupert" had to put his hand in the bag, and determine what was in there by using his sense of touch. We also talked about how sensitive our fingers are to touch, and did the activity again, but this time wearing a mitten on his hand.

Some of the things in our touch bag:

History: We read about the Greeks (Sparta and Athens) coming together to fight off the Persians, the origin of the Marathon run, and finally, the Peloponnesian war. We also played a Peloponnesian war board game that was in our Story of the World Vol.1 Activity Book.

Math: We reviewed our skip counting songs and double and triple digit addition with carrying. After doing a great job on that, "Rupert" asked for a challenge: a 10-digit problem! My little math master did his challenge problem perfectly! We called it our "monster problem", so when he was done solving it, he drew in a monster face around it. :-)

Kung fu: "Rupert" learned more of his double stick form this week. I finished learning it, and I'm here to say, it is tough! Keeping track of what your body is doing is tricky enough sometimes, then adding a stick in each hand and trying to make those do what you want them to...I don't know how any kid would be coordinated enough to get it down. But they do...and he is.

Social Opportunities: We took it easy this week and just had kung fu class, a baking/crafting playdate for St. Patrick's Day, and PE class.

Our St. Patrick's Day craft will grow parsley "hair"

Our cupcakes had rainbow colors inside!

New Recipe: California Chicken Wraps

OH. MY. DEAR. HEAVEN! You have GOT to try these! We had them for dinner tonight and they were SO good! Next time, I think I'll try them with homemade tortillas!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Lately I've been re-evaluating our diet. I've been wading through TONS of information on food, how it is processed, what is added to it, the effects of those additives...and all the OPTIONS and diet choices there are to be made. I feel a heavy burden to protect the health of my family. I've been lost, confused, overwhelmed, motivated, disgusted, disappointed and inspired. I've contemplated organic foods, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), whole foods, raw foods, local farms, vegetarianism...all in a matter of about two weeks! So if you run into me and I have a glazed-over, spacey look, that's why. I'm in a state of health food information overload! I've even been DREAMING in terms of raw milk and making my own butter and yogurt!

My research is not over, but changes are being made. Thankfully, I've found some great sources of information on healthy cooking and eating. People are sharing their knowledge and I am so grateful for their help. There are a couple of blogs, in particular, that I've found very helpful as I begin the transition to eating a truly healthy diet.

Kitchen Stewardship

Heavenly Homemakers

Naturally Knocked Up

Misadventures of a Homeschooling Foodie Family

Passionate Homemaking

I'm sure I'll find more great blogs in connections with these, and I'll post links to them as I stumble upon them. Just thought I'd share what I've found so far.