Some things we did today

Not necessarily in order.

1. Made a batch of Raisin Sesame Cookies (Mama Squirrel mixed and the Squirrelings plopped them on the pans).

1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 cup raisins or dried cranberries (optional)
1/2 cup oil
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
1 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup milk or enough to get the dough to hold together

Sift flour, soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir in raisins.

Beat together oil, sugar and egg. Add rolled oats, sesame seeds and milk. Combine with flour mixture until well blended.

Drop dough by heaping teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets, allowing room for cookies to spread. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10 to 15 minutes (watch them at the end). Makes about 4 dozen medium-sized cookies.

(Source: The Harrowsmith Cookbook Volume One, contributed by Holly McNally of Fredericton, New Brunswick.)

2. Read about Henry Purcell and listened to the first track, "Welcome, welcome, glorious morn" on The Essential Purcell CD. You can hear a short sample of each track if you click on the link and scroll down. This piece was a birthday present for Queen Mary II (the one who reigned with her husband William). Purcell wrote her a birthday song every year that she reigned, which is only about seven birthdays (she died of smallpox when she was 32). We imagined we were at the Queen's birthday party listening to the music. At least with Purcell's songs you don't have to translate the words!

3. Read Chapter 5 of Children of the New Forest, about hunting deer and figuring out how to catch a wild cow. (Mama Squirrel read, The Apprentice and Ponytails listened, and Crayons played with her Dora Dominoes.)

4. Ponytails did a page in her new Purple Miquon Math workbook. She's up to the last book now! (You can download a few sample pages from the Purple book here.) We also played Arithmetic Four on the computer. (That's Connect Four but with math facts.)

5. Ponytails put some of our Magnetic Poetry words in alphabetical order.

6. The Apprentice read some of Homeschooling The Teen Years.

7. We watched the yard fill up with snow (apologies to Robert Frost). [Postscript: The snow fell but didn't amount to anything. We have a big brown-green muddy yard that doesn't know what's happening to it lately with all these thaws.]