This week in homeschooling: Getting back to work

Homeschooling at ButterscotchSundae.comWe are steadily creeping up on the end of this school year.

In past years we’ve been finished by now, but we had a lot of sick days this yea, and we took last week off entirely to go to Disney World, and we took Monday off because it was Memorial Day. And so we still have a couple of weeks to go. I’m aiming to be finished with our 180 days by June 13th.

Here’s a bit of what we did this week:

Language Arts
  • Pete finished Step 11 of “All About Spelling,” which is working very well for him.
  • Poppy is working independently on “Growing with Grammar: Level Three” and the “Wordly Wise 3000” vocabulary program. She isn’t going to finish either by June 13, but we’re going to do a little bit of schoolwork throughout the summer. She might finish “GWG” by August.
  • Math

    The kids are both still plugging away at their McRuffy Math, and Poppy is still working through “Teaching Textbooks: Math 4.” I’m still on the fence about switching Poppy to Right Start math next year. It’s so expensive! Any insight you have on it would be appreciated.

    Reading
  • Still. Reading. “The Mysterious Benedict Society.” A.K.A. The book that wouldn’t end.
  • Poppy has been working on a reading comprehension workbook, and she’s doing mostly well on it. There is a writing exercise at the end of each assignment, and she’s very reluctant to do that part.
  • Wanna read more about homeschooling? Check out the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers weekly linky thing!

    This was not the Pão de Queijo I sought

    Imperfect paoI only realized this morning that today was the 27th, which is also known as Daring Bakers Reveal Day. This month’s challenge was a Brazilian cheese roll called pão de queijo. From what I understand, they’re supposed to be light and chewy and reminiscent of a gougère, which I’ve successfully made in the past. So I thought I’d make a batch of pão de queijo this evening to serve with our red beans and rice.

    I used the pão de queijo recipe from Our Best Bites, which specifically said that there was no substitute for the tapioca flour for which it called. But because our local grocery store doesn’t have tapioca flour and I am a rebel without a clue, I bought a small box of gluten-free rice flour blend and hoped for the best.

    The dough/batter was gluey, just as the recipe had said it would be. My final product, though, was neither light nor chewy nor particularly flavorful. It wouldn’t be fair to say I don’t care for pão de queijo, seeing as how what I made didn’t follow the recipe precisely. I think it is fair to say, though, that rice flour doesn’t do the job when you’re trying to make the dish. I know there are grocery stores around here that sell tapioca flour, so I might give this another shot sometime. This effort, though, was a bust.

    I just want a Disney food court installed in my kitchen

    Dancing with BelleWe spent last week at Disney World, where the dining plan spoiled me entirely. We just picked our meals and scanned our little wristbands and shazaam dinner was on the table!

    This week’s planning took a little more effort on my part. Between the having to cook and clean and the not spending hours at the pool in the afternoon? I think I might be feeling a good bit of Disney nostalgia this week.

    Monday: Baseball food!
    We went to our first baseball game of the summer this evening. The kids had pizza, Rockford had chicken tenders and I had a hot dog.

    Tuesday: Red Beans & Rice
    Pete and I were reminiscing the other day about how I used to make a big pot of red beans & rice when Rockford was out of town and the two of us would eat it every night for dinner. I realized I hadn’t made any in a long time, so we figured it was time to revisit one of our favorites.

    Wednesday: DIY Big Macs
    Every now and then I get the urge to try to recreate a “restaurant” dish at home. Last time it was the Taco Bell crunch wrap. They were really, really good. I’m hoping the Big Mac is great, too.

    Thursday: Chicken sausages & macaroni and cheese
    You know what’s great about Memorial Day? All of the sausages are on sale.

    Friday: Pizza
    We’ll either be ordering pizza or going the frozen route.

    I’m linking this up with OrgJunkie.com’s weekly Menu Plan Monday thing.