Monthly Archives: August 2013

Homeschool

This is where we do school

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Twice now we’ve had a designated schoolroom — the first was when I tried to get the kids to share a room, and the second was when we moved into a house with a basement — but we always end up doing most of our schoolwork at the dining room table or on the couch.

Last year I set what I think was meant to be a linen closet in our bedroom up as my “office,” and now I just grab the day’s work from there and (when I’m being a responsible adult) reshelve it when the kids are finished. The only thing I’ve changed there from last year — aside from switching out some of our books — is the printer. It’s supposed to be a wireless printer, so I had it set up in the basement with the modem. But the wireless aspect stopped working about six months ago, and I’ve yet to figure out why. So now the printer has joined the rest of the supplies in the office-closet. Maybe it was just lonesome.

Of course, sometimes we do school other places, too, like hotel rooms or at homeschool co-op, museums or aquariums, the backyard, the zoo or the library. And sometimes our reading lessons take place in the coziest place of all:

Eating, recipes

What to do when your mom gives you a bag of summer squash

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My mom brought us a big bag of yellow squash and zucchini last week, and when I saw the bag I thought “Oh my, that’s too much squash!” But then I looked in the bag, and it was only about a third full so I didn’t go into squash-overload-panic-mode.

And then I started making SquashThings and learned just how much squash was in a third of a bag of squash.

(Spoiler: It’s a lot.)

First I made Chocolate Chip Zucchini Banana Muffins, which used up half a zucchini and also the bananas on the counter that were about to go bad. They were delicious, but next time I’ll use applesauce instead of mashed bananas because Poppy said they were “too banana-y” for her.

Most of the other half of that zucchini went into Ambitious Kitchen’s Flourless Chocolate Chip Zucchini Oat Brownies, which Poppy has joined the rest of the family in eating with relish. (Not literally with relish. That would be gross.)

Are you sensing a theme here? Because you should let go of that idea, because the rest of the squash did not get a chocolate chip accompaniment. The rest of the zucchini and most of the yellow squash became a wonderful, cheesy squash casserole, and the remaining yellow squash went home with my sister-in-law. Which I regretted as soon as I tasted the casserole, because it was delicious and I want to make it again ASAP.

In conclusion, we’ve eaten a lot of squash over the last few days, and I’ve been very happy about that. What’s your favorite squash recipe?

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Banana Muffins
Recipe Type: Breakfast
Serves: 18
Ingredients
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 over-ripe, medium bananas
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup whole-wheat flour
  • 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups finely shredded zucchini
  • 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • Cooking spray
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350°.
  2. Place first 3 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at low speed until well blended. Mash or blend your bananas until they’re smooth, and add to the egg-sugar mixture.
  3. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and the next 4 ingredients (through salt), stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture, beating just until moist. Stir in the zucchini and chocolate chips. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of a muffin comes out almost clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack, then remove muffins from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.
Serving size: 1 muffin Calories: 125 Fat: 3 Carbohydrates: 23 Sugar: 10 Sodium: 128mg Fiber: 1 Protein: 2.5
Notes

Adapted from “Cooking Light” magazine.


 

Homeschool

Our school year started a few weeks early

Homeschool at ButterscotchSundae.comThis time last week I wasn’t planning to start our school year until the 19th. Last weekend, though, I reorganized the homeschool-stuff closet so I’d be ready when the time came, and then on Monday one of the kids experienced a moment of Boredom.

And so we started Homeschooling Year 2013-14!

We had a number of pre-planned activities this week — a pool party with Poppy’s AHG friends, an informational park playdate for potential new co-op members and mid-afternoon dentist appointments — so we didn’t get everything on our schedules done every day. The kids did get the majority of their work done, though, and most of it was done cheerfully.

Extracurricular

The kids are doing a weekly LEGO-building challenge based on the LEGO Quest Kids blog. They did the second challenge this week, which was to create a monochromatic design. The both made vehicles, which as it happens was also the first challenge!

Pete’s design “has a button that makes the wheels pop off. It can transform into anything” the LEGO guy “needs. It has a little gun, and that’s it.”

Poppy’s creation “has a driver’s seat and a little place where you can put Lego luggage in the back. And it has 4 extra seats on the side, and it has a little window so if he needs a window when it’s raining he can use his windshield wipers to clean the window. (I didn’t actually put windshield wipers on it. They’re pretend.) The four extra seats can transform into wings. The wheels pop off when he goes to the airport.”

History

This year Pete is a full participant in our “Story of the World” studies. He did a great job remembering details of the story of Indian ruler Akbar, and he seemed to enjoy doing the map work.

In US history we read about John Fremont, about whom Poppy was quite interested because the book said he was handsome. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Reading

  • We started “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” this week, and the kids are full of ideas about what might happen in the book.

  • I’ve suggested to Poppy at least 10 times that she might enjoy “Ivy and Bean” by Annie Barrows, but she expressed zero interest until this week, when she “discovered” it at the library. She then proceeded to read the entire book in about 40 minutes. I really need to create something like a notebooking routine for her free reading.

    Spelling

  • Poppy started SpellWell B this week, and she aced the preview with such alacrity that it made me wonder if I might ought to move her straight to SpellWell Bb. If she keeps spelling every single word on her spelling lists correctly on the first try, I’ll probably start skipping them until we get to something more challenging for her.

  • Pete is doing McRuffy’s Spelling & Word Study. It starts with a simple spelling list — cat, pat, bat, etc. — and I think it’s just exactly challenging enough for him.

    Latin

    We started “Song School Latin” this week, and so far we’ve learned how to introduce ourselves and engage in a very limited amount of small talk. I only bought one workbook, but I think that’s going to work out fine because the amount of writing required is a little beyond Pete’s patience level at this point. So I’ve been talking over the questions with him while Poppy does the written work.

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