The sort of menu plan I make when I’m congested

Poppy and I caught Pete’s cold, and today is the first day of co-op. This is not the best timing.

In happier news, we had a great meal for Sunday night dinner yesterday. I made Ina Garten’s lemon chicken, roasted some Brussels sprouts and tossed some spaghetti squash with butter, sautéed garlic and salt and pepper. I’d intended to sprinkle it with Parmesan cheese, too, but I grabbed the Italian blend instead. I put it on the squash before I noticed that I’d grabbed the wrong cheese, but it turned out just fine anyway. The full meal was a little work-intensive, but it made for a very pretty plate and I’m told the flavors were excellent.

Monday: Tortellini
This is one of Poppy’s favorite meals, and it’s super-simple. I’m going to walk her through making it tonight so she can add it to her repertoire.
Tuesday: Take out
It’s Kids Eat Free night!
Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner
Because it’s probably been two weeks since last I made an omelet. I have to keep my omelet skills on point.
Thursday: Tacos
When I do taco night, it’s a pretty basic affair. When Rockford does taco night, it’s an all-out toppings and accoutrement assault. I like Rockford’s version better.
Friday: Pizza
My favorite pizza place closed for good a few weeks ago, so I’m currently yearning for a Big Green Egg so I can try to replicate their pizzas at home. For this week, though, we’ll probably order a pizza or two.

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This week in homeschooling: Schooling while sickly

Pete has been sick for most of this week, so our schedule has been really wacky. So instead of telling you what we did from day to day — a lot of napping with a little schoolwork thrown in here and there — let’s talk in more general terms.

Memorization

Naturally, we started our most recent memorization effort by watching the 1946 Disney version of “Casey at the Bat”. “Casey” is a very long poem, and we’re taking it a stanza at a time. They’re working on the sixth stanza this week.

Read-aloud

We started reading “Fortunately the Milk” by Neil Gaiman, which promises to be a ridiculous, hilarious read-aloud.

Grammar

We’re about halfway through the first level of Michael Clay Thompson’s grammar program. It’s quite different from other grammar programs that we’ve used, but the information seems to be sticking.

Math

Poppy leveled up on her math curriculum a few weeks ago. A lot of what she’s doing right now is review, so math has been pretty stress-free for her lately. Pete is chugging along on his curriculum. It’s been a lot of patterns lately, and they’re starting to introduce the concept of fractions.

History

This week’s “Story of the World” chapter was about the lead-up to the American revolution, which is also what the kids have been talking about in their US history class. So it was pretty much just review.

Piano

Poppy has a piano recital coming up, so she’s been focusing on the two pieces she’ll be playing for that. One is from her piano book, and the other is “Let It Go.” She also decided she wanted to teach herself to play “Clocks,” so we’re been hearing that a lot lately.

Free reading

Poppy reads so much for fun that I took it off of her daily to-do list. Pete isn’t as enthusiastic about reading just yet, though, so he still has the daily reminder on his task list. He’s been reading a lot of “Garfield” comics and “Into the Air: The Story of the Wright Brothers First Flight.”

Wanna read more about homeschooling? Check out the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers weekly linky thing!

What’s black and white and snowy all over? This week’s 52Frames photo.

Last week’s 52Frames theme was “Black and White,” and once again I didn’t even take my camera out for a go at it. I’m hoping I’ll find my enthusiasm for this project once the weather stops being so insistently unpleasant.

We had a good bit of snow last week, and the neighborhood kids took to the hills to enjoy it. It was only around until mid-afternoon, so I’m glad we went out when we did! I took this photo with my iPhone and converted it to black and white using Aviary.

52Frames, week 9: Black and White "Snow Day"
52Frames, week 9: Black and White
“Snow Day”

Pete and Poppy are growing so quickly that it’s a rare occasion to look at them and think “Oh they’re so small!” I like that the trees and the expanse of sky in the photo show that they are, indeed, still little guys. I also like the textures that popped out when I converted it to black and white.