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Home Archive for 2013

 
This was their favorite so far. We went Friday night. I bought a coupon book online before getting there so we saved a few bucks just getting in. It included one ticket, a drink and this combo plate. The kids got in free. That plate was enough for all of us. 


We had Lamb (something I never ate as a kid, but they all tried it), 
Dolmathes - Beef, rice and spices mixed and rolled in tender grape leaves and baked in lemon sauce.
Pastitsio  - Layers of ground beef and macaroni topped with cream sauce and baked. 
Greek Salad 
Rice Pilaf
and they gave us 2 rolls to split between us. 

Loukoumades Recipe

 

They loved the Loukoumathes (or Loukoumades) which are basically like light doughnut holes drenched in honey and sprinkled with cinnamon or powdered sugar.  They liked it so much I looked up the recipe and it is super easy so maybe I'll make it for breakfast or special occasions. 


The dancers were scheduled for earlier, but ended up postponing the start of their dance until the sun went down. So we had some time to sit and enjoy all of these pastries. There was a lot of honey, cinnamon and walnuts. There were two types of cakes; a spice cake and a chocolate cake. A lot of the dough was crispy, then soaked in honey. We were a sticky mess while we ate. 


These are Diples; which are giant rolls of crispy pastries that had honey, cinnamon and walnuts. 

Finally the dancers came on. There were 3 age groups. This was the middle age group. 

These were high school/college age kids. Those kids had a lot more dance moves and we really enjoyed watching them. The kids tried to duplicate their moves when we got home. 

After the dancers, they lit the giant torch. The weather was perfect, they loved all of the food and overall they really had a good time.


A great resource for learning about World Cultures is Food Festivals. I was surprised just how many there are in my area. Not only is there food, but there is usually entertainment related to the culture and that includes dancing and singing. The key to saving money is don't buy souvenirs, don't go on any rides, catch the show and chose a few different entrees to share between you.

Once you've sampled the cuisine, try making it at home. I'm using this portion as part of our Health/Nutrition course and having my oldest research healthier options to cook at home.

Food Reference.com is great for searching for what's in your area. They have it listed by State, Month and even country in case your are traveling.

Here's a list of names to search for. I would link, but it appears each festival location has it's own website.

Italian
San Gennaro Feast

Greek
Greek Food Festival
Usually at your local Greek Orthodox Church

German
Oktoberfest
In October of course ;)

China
Chinese New Year
Between late January to early February

China
Moon Harvest Festival
Usually in September to October, but can be as early as August

Polynesian
Polynesian or Aloha Festivals

International
Heritage Festival or Culture Festival - town usually puts on.
Ours has Japanese, Korean, Irish, German, Mexican, Polynesian, and Bulgarian dancers and entertainers.

Japanese
Aki Matsuri

For even more culture, don't forget to look up holidays such as Dios De Los Muertos (Mexican Day of the Dead) - can be a bit scary for the younger kids.





There's a lot more out there, I'll be adding as I find them.




Every night when I'm making dinner, my 6 year old daughter begs to help. I usually have a few things she can do, but this week I planned a menu that is kid friendly. This is her making Lasagna.

She browned the meat.





Mixed the Ricotta and layered everything. I just grated the cheese and put it in the oven.



 She loves watching cake decorating shows. She's watched the same ones over and over, so I found YouTube channels How To Cook That, My Cupcake Addiction and her new favorite, Charli's Crafty Kitchen which has two little girls decorating cupcakes and treats. 

After this, she's helped me make Chicken Pot Pie and Enchiladas. Anything that involves layering is nice because there are lots of small steps for them to take.

In case you are looking for cooking utensils that will fit your child's hands, For Small Hands, is a website that sells Montessori-style, real, working, child-size tools for cooking and learning life skills.


Vegetable Chopper with Wooden Handle
Vegetable Chopper


My oldest is taking MIT's OpenCourseware; Speak Italian With Your Mouth Full. This is a great course for learning basic conversational Italian while learning how to cook healthy Italian recipes. He will learn how to make a simple pasta, risotto, meatballs, some vegetarian dishes, and desserts.

A side note: I'm double dipping when it comes to school here. Not only is he taking World Geography and Cultures this year for high school credit, but he's also taking Health & Nutrition. We went to the San Gennaro Italian Feast and sampled their cuisine while learning more about the Italian culture, then this course will give him some healthier options for Italian cooking. The MIT course includes some cultural background as well, making it a perfect supplement for both high school courses.



I'm really loving Story of the World. We are starting at an odd place because my 7 year old really wanted to learn about knights and castles. Since we haven't done Vol. 1 yet and missing out on Rome would just be a tragedy, we're starting with Rome and then moving onto The Middle Ages. The library had a storytime about being a Roman Warrior, so of course we had to go. They all lined up like soldiers and learned the Turtle formation and how the Romans rotated the front men out to give them a break. When that was all done, they learned how to lock shields in the front line. They got to keep their shield and colored them with marker.



We still plan to put a design on the front.  My 7 year old wants a lion and my 6 year old daughter either wants her initial or something else...she's not quite sure. She thought hers looked like fire when she was done. 


Then we made a Roman road. The cardboard was the ditch, then we layered sand with glue, pebbles (aquarium rock), concrete (playdough), and large stones (floral gems). We staggered the layers so it was easy to remember each one.


My oldest finished his work early, so he was happy to participate with us. 


Our lone Schleich Roman Soldier. 

Then we made roman columns out of cookie dough. I think that was their favorite. And used our wood blocks to make a Roman aqueduct. 

We read City by David MacAulay and See You Later, Gladiator, which the kids just loved. I'll have to check out the other books from the Time Warp Trio. 
It had some Latin words and phrases in the back for them to practice. 
The one that stood out was 
"Gratias tibi ago quia me gladio tuo non fodisti." 
That's "thank you for not poking me with your sword."





Funny Pictures – 41 Pics
I've been working on Geography and wanted to have a worksheet to go along with his reading in a Notebooking style.

I will print these along with the Knowledge Quest Maps from Map Trek and bind them with my handy Pro-Click to make a Geography Notebook. I've tried using a 3-ring binder with the maps and they always end up getting torn up. With the Pro-Click, nothing is getting taken out and put back and you really have to try to pull a page out without opening the comb.

Page 1

On page 1 there is a spot for them to write down the Country Name, Capital City, Language (Primary), Draw a Flag, General Facts, Vocabulary words, Points of Interest.


On page 2, there is a world map for them to color in the country and a large place to write down major points in history and current events happening in today's world. 

You can download the PDFs here. 








Who doesn't love a good book list? I've been putting together a book list board on Pinterest that will have you filling out your own reading lists in no time.

You can find it here.

Here's a sample of some of my favorites.


Twaddle-Free Children's Literature and Living Books by Grade Level


Newberry Award Winners by Grade Level



Amongst Lovely Things



What Do All Day?

A Mighty Girl


4tunate

Blue House Academy
Story of the World Vol. 2 Book List



Reading with Dr. Seuss: From Easiest to Hardest

I'll be going on my 3rd year and I cannot believe how much stuff we've accumulated. It's a good thing they are growing out of some of it. I posted some books on Amazon last week and already sold 2! Anyway, I wanted to clear out the room and reorganize. I only bought a few things, the rest was repurposed from what was already around the house. 


I painted the tables and scored when I saw the tins at Michaels for 70% off. My big ol office chair is usually blocking the bookcase so everything is within reach and I can quickly change subjects. Why yes, that's a purple laptop. :D I needed a laptop so I can take school with me into the kitchen for experiments or to the backyard. I found this one refurbished at NewEgg. Hmmm...black or purple? I'll take purple. 


I love these maps! They are peel and stick and dry erase. They are also the perfect color. 

I still have to hang the bulletin board. All of my cubbies are organized and labeled. 


I kept the Hogwarts corner and turned the old coffee table into daughter's coloring table. I found the lapdesk at Walmart for $10. She carries it around so she can color in front of the tv or wherever. 


This will eventually be my middle son's desk. The green looks fluorescent, but it's not nearly as bright as it looks. They both came into the room after I painted it and said they didn't know there was another table. Ha. Yes, it blended into the wall and was covered in papers to file and to bind.  I'd still like to paint the folding chairs or get some office chairs that will let them sit higher up so my daughter doesn't have to use a booster seat. 


 I found a bunch of sayings online that I wanted to turn into posters. I made them in Publisher and printed then laminated them because I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them. I found a cheap poster frame sitting in the garage, so I painted the outside, put wrapping paper on the inside and hung it up. It should be easy to change it out if I want to down the road. 


The baskets were also 70% off. Now I have a place to put the library books. Though I'll probably need to use both because we check out a lot of library books. 

I still have to go through the closets and my oldest's room. We won't start until September 2, so I have some time.
How to Learn Math

The class just began and I am really enjoying it. The class is for parents, teachers and of course, homeschoolers. It is designed to make you a better teacher in math by changing the student's perspective on math. She will be designing a similar course for students after the summer.

  • This course is free. 
  • It is from Stanford Math professor, Jo Boaler. 
  • It runs from July 14, 2013 through September 27, 2013. 
  • If you complete at least 85% of the sessions and activities, you will receive a Statement of Accomplishment. 
    • If you don't have the time or energy to do the activities, you can still just watch the videos and contemplate the questions she asks without responding. 

Concepts Covered
  • Knocking Down the Myths About Math
  • Math and Mindset
  • Mistakes, Challenges, and Persistence
  • Teaching Math for a Growth Mindset
  • Conceptual Learning Part I: Number Sense
  • Conceptual Learning Part II: Connections, Representations, Questions
  • Appreciating Algebra
  • Going From This Course to the New Mathematical Future

I looked out our sliding glass door and saw this hanging out on our back porch in the shade. From the door, it looked like a bat. I was sure it was a bat. I don't have any pictures to show the scale because he was high up, but it was about 3 inches long.

So I went outside and closed the door to take pictures fully expecting my children to see me jump and panic when it flew at me. It did not. It just sat there. Ok,  I'll get some pictures and load them into the camera to see what we have. Hmm, it's not a bat. I was convinced the two little white dots on the inside bottom of it's wings were eyes because they were really reflective.

I looked up giant moth and found out first there really is such a thing and second it was a Black Witch Moth.

White Witch Moth to show scale

It was so big! They finally got to see it open it's wings before it flew off. 
Kids, we're doing a report on moths today! :D 
When we do animals in the desert reports, how come we never hear about these kinds of things?

Andrew Rader has created a series of educational websites for kids.
Each of the sites below offer:

  • Free curriculum
  • Units with a hefty amount of subtopics
  • Mini-quizzes at the bottom of the page
  • Definitions built into the reading
  • A site tour if you want to stay on track
  • Links to related topics on the other sites to follow rabbit trails


Rader's Chemistry 4 Kids


Rader's Cosmos 4 Kids



Rader's Biology 4 Kids



Rader's Geography 4 Kids


Rader's Physics 4 Kids


Rader's Number Nut Math

All of these computer science courses are free unless otherwise specified. 

Where to start:
Code.org
Zuckerberg and Gates team up with the mission to teach code to kids. This site has links to some of the sites you see below. It's kind of a one-stop shop.

For younger students:
Scratch 
From MIT is a free download that can easily be used by kids as young as 6 (like mine!).

If they really start to enjoy it, you can turn it into a computer science course by using these books.
Super Scratch Programming Adventure!
Scratch Programming for Teens


Gamestar Mechanic - A fun quest-based program that unlocks pieces the student  can use for their own game.



Kodu 
Microsoft's program that allows kids to make games for the XBox or the pc.


For Middle Grade Students:


Learn Street
Ruby, Python and Java Courses.
Ruby is used on Twitter and Hulu.
Python is used on Pixar and EVE Online
Java is used on websites and for animations.


Khan Academy
Computer Science Courses


Alice
Next step up from Scratch
Java, C++ and C#



KidsRuby 
12+ and up
New site that is just starting to add class materials.

Mozilla Tools


Mozilla Thimble 
Learn how to edit HTML and CSS


Mozilla X-Ray Goggles
Installs on your browser and use the mouse to take a peek at the code.

Mozilla Popcorn Maker
Enhance, remix and share web video. Uses your web browser to combine video and audio with content from the rest of the web - from text, links and maps to pictures and live feeds. 

Codeacademy
Javascript, HTML/CSS, Python, Ruby, APIs
Community support
Points and badges to earn


For High School/Advanced Students:

Lynda
1600+ Advanced computer lessons
Core programming languages C++, Java and HTML5
Subscription-based model


GameMaker Studio
Cross Platform Complete Gamemaking Software
Create characters, tools, music, animations, quests, map paths, worlds...
Free - $500 - depending on how many tools and platforms you would like.
Occasionally goes on sale on Steam.
Full package allows easy porting for later sale in app markets.



Coursera
College level courses
Beginner level to very advanced
Courses available for a limited amount of time
Some courses available year-round



When they have a finished game they would like to show off


National STEM Video Game Challenge


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Homeschooling mom of 3 wonderful children as well as accountant, gardener, housekeeper, personal chef, chauffeur, fashion coordinator, sports coach, personal assistant to my husband and life coach to my kids. Gamer Boy (19), Jibber-Jabber (13), and Hermione (11).

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
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