Melissa Wiley at the Bonny Glen (actually this is on her other blog), and others (linked from Melissa's post), have been posting in answer to some non-homeschoolers' questions about why we’d want to homeschool, or how we have the nerve to do this without courses in pedagogy etc., etc.
An analogy I used last year was that of a professional chef vs. cooking for your own family. I made supper tonight (in the middle of a heat wave) and we ate it (in the middle of a thunderstorm). Aside from the freaky weather, how did I know how to do that? How did I manage to get it all on the table, in the right amount, at the right time? We had chicken breasts baked in canned pasta sauce (in the toaster oven), whole wheat fusilli, spaghetti squash (cooked on top of the stove), raw broccoli and carrots (cut up yesterday), and a frozen ricotta dessert topped with leftover canned pineapple. And it wasn't a complicated meal to make; it was just experience, knowing how much chicken to thaw, how to thicken the sauce at the end, remembering that we had leftover veggies, figuring that the pineapple would go nicely on top of the dessert. At home, you learn to cook (see #s 18 and 19 there) based on experience, reading, watching, asking other people how they do things. Family meals aren't like restaurant cooking, and they're not meant to be (unless you're Anne Tyler). Homeschooling compares better to home cooking than it does to the surgery-on-the-kitchen-table analogy. If the math lesson doesn’t connect, you can try it another way tomorrow, or wait awhile and then try it again. Surgeons don’t have that option; homeschoolers do.
But back to the pedagogy, qualifications question that keeps coming up: somebody out there has an idea that I (or any homeschool parent) must have a little schoolroom in my house with a blackboard and a pointer, or at least a kitchen table with chains to keep the students there; plus a piece of paper from the government that says I took a course in how to teach and what to teach; and that if I don't, then I don't know what I'm doing and shouldn't be teaching.
So this post is meant to show anybody who's interested how the process of planning a school year works, after ten years at this. These are some of my real-life thoughts and experiences as I plan for Ponytails' grade 4.
1. Mathematics: I order Making Math Meaningful Level 4, since we'll be done Miquon Math and I need to find something that has a good dose of word problems in it--something Ponytails is still weak on. When I get the books, I realize there’s some repetition of what she's already done, so I figure we can complete it in 3 days a week next year, and that leaves 2 days for activities in geometry, and other topics that MMM doesn't cover. How did I get the general idea of grade 4 math topics? I compared a couple of scope and sequences and made a list of goals for next year. I checked those that aren't included in our main book against a list of good library math books (not textbooks--there are a lot of other books on the 500's shelf) and a couple of our other resources like Family Math--for instance, I want to work on using a calculator, and Family Math includes several calculator games.
2. Language arts: again, I have a list of typical grade 4 skills, which I’ve gone over with Ponytails in mind, eliminating what she already knows and adding in a couple of other things I would like her to work on. I have two main goals for the year—-increased independent reading skills (especially in non-fiction) and improved ability in writing—-not her ability to express herself so much (see Theseus here) as her level of comfort with written work—-mechanics, handwriting, spelling, all the boring but important stuff. Also she'll be working on skills in finding things out—-choosing resources (a dictionary? A thesaurus?) and using them.
And how will we be working towards those goals? By checking off pages in a language textbook? Am I ordering a creative writing program, a speller, and basal readers? No, we've never done things that way. At our house it's more like this:
Reading skills: This will be the year I ask her to read more school books on her own—-not setting her adrift, but giving her 15 minutes to read a section and then following up. We will start with short sections and see if she can work up to reading a whole chapter and then telling back what she's read. It means working on habits like attentiveness, not getting distracted. (Do we need readers with chapter-end questions? No, we have books, magazines, newspapers, emails...)
Writing: again, beginning short written narrations—-or writing some and then dictating the rest. Knowing Ponytails, she will probably initiate some of her own writing projects as well.
Mechanics: we will use copywork and dictation, from books across the curriculum, as a place to work on mechanics and very basic grammar (just parts of speech, not diagramming); on noticing story details and picking out homonyms; on experimenting with synonyms or changing tense. Will I have all those lessons prepared ahead of time? No, it’s not practical. If something needs extra work, we spend extra time on it. It’s a waste of time for me to write out 36 weeks of language lessons for Ponytails, just like I don’t buy her new shoes until she needs them. (We do have a couple of yard-sale grammar workbooks to fall back on too.)
Handwriting: besides copywork, we will use Ruth Beechick’s 3-week cursive improvement course (from You CAN Teach Your Child Successfully Grades 4 to 8). (That's less involved than it sounds; it just means having her write sentences and then looking at specific things that need improvement.)
Spelling: I don’t know yet how much extra time Ponytails will need on this next year, so we'll just keep working on it along with her other language activities.
3. Latin (the thinking continues here): I look at the Latin program a friend loaned us, and decide this is not the year to be adding another language. We’ll include some Latin roots when we talk about prefixes and suffixes.
4. Nature studies: I look at the fat handbook we’ve had forever but hardly use,and realize we can use it next year for some book lessons about ladybugs, spiders, ants, worms, and other wiggly crawly things we have close at hand. I was going to add to our collection of magnifiers and bug-lookers anyway, and this will give us some things to examine and maybe draw.
5. Music: At a rummage sale, I find a book & record set of Leonard Bernstein’s 1960’s young peoples’ concerts. There’s a whole kid-size music appreciation course in there, and I know our library has some of the videos too. At our support group's annual conference I buy 2 new Music Maker packs for our lap harp, including a basic music theory pack.
6. I list books we own and can use for history, Bible, science, poetry and more. I write down a couple of others to ask for on a swap board or to look for at the library. Something with legs crawls out of Five Little Peppers, so I toss the book in case the little thing is thinking about multiplying (it was an old tattered copy anyway) and make a note to replace it (the book, not the bug). (No, I do not want to do nature study on a silverfish.) I plan to use one book of Greek myths, but then pick up something I like even better at a library sale and cross out the first one. I decide to order an audio book of Robinson Crusoe, because it's probably the hardest book we’ll be doing this year. An online friend has written her own geography e-text, so I decide to use that for both of our elementary-aged students. I also plan for each of them to make a scrapbook about Canada.
Interlude: I re-read some of my favourite Charlotte Mason chapters and Parents' Review articles and underline key points about why we do what we do. Call it inspiration.
7. I write down the plans in a binder, print out ideas for memory work, favourite songs, and a few other Internet printouts. I divide them up into terms, then roughly by weeks. I collect the books, find CDs, save cardboard and pop bottles for science experiments. We’re ready to begin again.
And did you remember the point of all this? Does this sound like homeschoolers are competent to make curriculum choices, to find resources, to teach lessons, to modify and supplement when needed, to set goals and evaluate progress?
I hope so.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
A funny from Crayons
Crayons came to me all excited, holding one of our fairy tale books. She'd just discovered that this particular book had a story she recognized. "Look! Handsome and Gretel!"
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Let's go bowling
These pretty girls are Christina and Delancey. They're best friends.
They do fun things together, like try on silly hairstyles!
One day, they were just walking along when...
Whoops! They stumbled into a cosmic bowling lane! Those girls must have been really not paying attention...
But as they walked out, Delancy had a great idea.
"Christina! Let's go bowling with all our friends!"
"That's a great idea!"
So they made a couple calls.
And all the girls came: Chelsea, Delancey, Christina, Barbie, and Susan.
And bowled under blacklights!
What a groovin' time.
RARRRR!
P.S. Would you like paperdolls like mine? Here's Christina, Chelsea, and Delancey. I made Susan, and Barbie is an old punch-out paperdoll. I looked for pictures of her on Google, but she wasn't there. Pretty sure she was a Golden Book though!
They do fun things together, like try on silly hairstyles!
One day, they were just walking along when...
Whoops! They stumbled into a cosmic bowling lane! Those girls must have been really not paying attention...
But as they walked out, Delancy had a great idea.
"Christina! Let's go bowling with all our friends!"
"That's a great idea!"
So they made a couple calls.
And all the girls came: Chelsea, Delancey, Christina, Barbie, and Susan.
And bowled under blacklights!
What a groovin' time.
RARRRR!
P.S. Would you like paperdolls like mine? Here's Christina, Chelsea, and Delancey. I made Susan, and Barbie is an old punch-out paperdoll. I looked for pictures of her on Google, but she wasn't there. Pretty sure she was a Golden Book though!
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Math stuff
Maria at The Homeschool Math Blog pointed out this post: Number Bonds = Better Understanding, by Denise in IL at A Home for Homeschoolers. [Update: Denise's blog has moved; that post is now here.]
This is the way we teach math too! Kids find it easier to see relationships between numbers when you show that a whole can be separated into two or more parts--and you can demonstrate that with a group of things (like a pile of blocks, as Denise's post describes), or a whole thing split into pieces (there we might get into fractions). The post and comments refer to Singapore Math, but we do much the same thing with Miquon Math and Cuisenaire Rods (picture here). [OK, that's changed too. Try this one instead--scroll down a bit to see the photo.] If an orange rod is understood to be ten units long (assuming a white rod is the basic unit), then you can make a "train" just as long as the orange rod by grouping two yellow rods (each 5 cm long), or a light green plus a black (3, 7), or a white plus a blue (1, 9) and so on. You reverse that by showing a white plus a blue and asking what rod will be just as long as that "train"--that's addition. Then you get even more complicated by showing the orange rod with a white rod underneath it, and ask for the missing piece that completes the "train." That's the beginning of subtraction. (Update: If you still can't get the idea of this, you can play with some virtual Cuisenaire Rods here--click on "Start the Integer Bars Applet." This site (www.archytech.org) calls the rods Integer Bars, and the only real disadvantage to them is that they can slide on top of each other in a way that real 3-D rods can't; so you might accidentally overlap your two yellow rods and think that they were equal in length to a blue rod instead of an orange one. The real thing is definitely better, but these at least can give you the sense of how the rods work.) [2012 UPDATE: the virtual rods are long gone--sorry!]
When Ponytails was in first grade, we got a lot of math ideas from the Miquon First Grade Diary (not a diary you write in--it is a day-by-day description of a first grade math class back in the '60's). Lore Rasmussen (the author) described some hollow wooden tubes she had, each 10 cm long, into which you could insert Cuisenaire rods--any number of them that would fit into the tube. The idea was to play a guessing game. If I put a white and a blue rod into the tube, and cover up the blue end so that you can see only the white end--and I tell you that there are only two rods in the tube--then you can guess that the other rod must be blue. The game can get more complicated when three rods are used--if you can see the colours of the two ends, what is the hidden rod in the middle?
And where do you buy these tubes? I have no idea, but I made my own out of 3 x 5 inch file cards. I cut several cards to a 10 cm length (how do you like that for mixing measurements?), folded each one several times around an orange rod, and taped them shut. Instant rod tubes. When they wear out, you can make new ones in a couple of minutes.
We played other games too that develop the idea of whole/parts, particularly relating to the number 10. One game The Apprentice played in kindergarten came (I think) from Peggy Kaye's book Games for Learning. You need a bowl or other container, and five paperclips (for a young child). The bowl goes a short distance away, and you take turns chucking the five paperclips into the bowl. When you're done with your five, you say something like, "Oh, I got one on the floor and four in the bowl. I get four points." Then the child throws her five, and you say, "Oops, you got just two in the bowl and three on the floor." The point of the game is not to get to be a great paperclip chucker, but to get acquainted with all the "parts" of the number five.
Another whole/parts activity I've done with all the Squirrelings is to take several crayons, or blocks, or any small objects, hide them behind my back, and bring some of them back out--how many are still behind my back? Then they have a turn to hide the objects. Sometimes we just put a few objects on the floor--hide your eyes and somebody takes some away--you have to figure out how many are gone.
The Squirrelings have occasionally run into math blocks in other areas, but understanding addition and subtraction has never been a problem!
P.S. Here's a bonus for reading to the end: how do you say "Cuisenaire rods" in other languages?
French: les réglettes Cuisenaire
German: Cuisenairstäbe
Spanish: las regletas Cuisenaire
Portuguese: as barras Cuisenaire
Italian: I regoli Cuisenaire
Swedish: Cuisenaire-stavar
Polish: klockami Cuisenaire'a (Krakovianka, did I get that one right?)
This is the way we teach math too! Kids find it easier to see relationships between numbers when you show that a whole can be separated into two or more parts--and you can demonstrate that with a group of things (like a pile of blocks, as Denise's post describes), or a whole thing split into pieces (there we might get into fractions). The post and comments refer to Singapore Math, but we do much the same thing with Miquon Math and Cuisenaire Rods (picture here). [OK, that's changed too. Try this one instead--scroll down a bit to see the photo.] If an orange rod is understood to be ten units long (assuming a white rod is the basic unit), then you can make a "train" just as long as the orange rod by grouping two yellow rods (each 5 cm long), or a light green plus a black (3, 7), or a white plus a blue (1, 9) and so on. You reverse that by showing a white plus a blue and asking what rod will be just as long as that "train"--that's addition. Then you get even more complicated by showing the orange rod with a white rod underneath it, and ask for the missing piece that completes the "train." That's the beginning of subtraction. (Update: If you still can't get the idea of this, you can play with some virtual Cuisenaire Rods here--click on "Start the Integer Bars Applet." This site (www.archytech.org) calls the rods Integer Bars, and the only real disadvantage to them is that they can slide on top of each other in a way that real 3-D rods can't; so you might accidentally overlap your two yellow rods and think that they were equal in length to a blue rod instead of an orange one. The real thing is definitely better, but these at least can give you the sense of how the rods work.) [2012 UPDATE: the virtual rods are long gone--sorry!]
When Ponytails was in first grade, we got a lot of math ideas from the Miquon First Grade Diary (not a diary you write in--it is a day-by-day description of a first grade math class back in the '60's). Lore Rasmussen (the author) described some hollow wooden tubes she had, each 10 cm long, into which you could insert Cuisenaire rods--any number of them that would fit into the tube. The idea was to play a guessing game. If I put a white and a blue rod into the tube, and cover up the blue end so that you can see only the white end--and I tell you that there are only two rods in the tube--then you can guess that the other rod must be blue. The game can get more complicated when three rods are used--if you can see the colours of the two ends, what is the hidden rod in the middle?
And where do you buy these tubes? I have no idea, but I made my own out of 3 x 5 inch file cards. I cut several cards to a 10 cm length (how do you like that for mixing measurements?), folded each one several times around an orange rod, and taped them shut. Instant rod tubes. When they wear out, you can make new ones in a couple of minutes.
We played other games too that develop the idea of whole/parts, particularly relating to the number 10. One game The Apprentice played in kindergarten came (I think) from Peggy Kaye's book Games for Learning. You need a bowl or other container, and five paperclips (for a young child). The bowl goes a short distance away, and you take turns chucking the five paperclips into the bowl. When you're done with your five, you say something like, "Oh, I got one on the floor and four in the bowl. I get four points." Then the child throws her five, and you say, "Oops, you got just two in the bowl and three on the floor." The point of the game is not to get to be a great paperclip chucker, but to get acquainted with all the "parts" of the number five.
Another whole/parts activity I've done with all the Squirrelings is to take several crayons, or blocks, or any small objects, hide them behind my back, and bring some of them back out--how many are still behind my back? Then they have a turn to hide the objects. Sometimes we just put a few objects on the floor--hide your eyes and somebody takes some away--you have to figure out how many are gone.
The Squirrelings have occasionally run into math blocks in other areas, but understanding addition and subtraction has never been a problem!
P.S. Here's a bonus for reading to the end: how do you say "Cuisenaire rods" in other languages?
French: les réglettes Cuisenaire
German: Cuisenairstäbe
Spanish: las regletas Cuisenaire
Portuguese: as barras Cuisenaire
Italian: I regoli Cuisenaire
Swedish: Cuisenaire-stavar
Polish: klockami Cuisenaire'a (Krakovianka, did I get that one right?)
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Rhubarb, Year Two
What I'm eating: Coffeemamma's Rhubarb Muffins, made out of the skinny little fresh rhubarb stalks from our garden. We put the plant in last year (actually more than one, but this is the survivor), but it produced nothing all last summer. This spring it started getting leaves very early, and I managed to get enough from it today to make a double batch of the muffins that we never got to try last year. (See Coffeemamma's comment on last year's post; the comments in the recipe are hers as well.) (Update: Coffeemamma has been taking a break from blogging, for various very good reasons, but she's posted a Blue Castle Update today.)
Sour Cream Rhubarb Muffins
Blend these together in a small bowl:
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
Stir these ingredients together:
1 1/3 cup flour (I have successfully substituted 1 cup unbleached, 1/3 cup whole wheat)
1 cup diced rhubarb
2/3 cup brown sugar (or raw cane sugar)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
Stir in sour cream mixture until moistened (batter will be thick).
Drop large spoonful into 12 greased muffin cups or paper-lined muffin cups.
In small bowl, combine these ingredients:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. melted butter
Spoon this over batter (or lightly brush muffins with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar-cinnamon if you have a jar on hand). Bake muffins at 350 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes. (A note from the Treehouse: you might want to put a cookie sheet under your muffin pans just in case of drips--the sugar mixture bubbles a bit.)
I always double this recipe, and they are still gone the same day they are made ;-) Enjoy!
Sour Cream Rhubarb Muffins
Blend these together in a small bowl:
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
Stir these ingredients together:
1 1/3 cup flour (I have successfully substituted 1 cup unbleached, 1/3 cup whole wheat)
1 cup diced rhubarb
2/3 cup brown sugar (or raw cane sugar)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
Stir in sour cream mixture until moistened (batter will be thick).
Drop large spoonful into 12 greased muffin cups or paper-lined muffin cups.
In small bowl, combine these ingredients:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. melted butter
Spoon this over batter (or lightly brush muffins with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar-cinnamon if you have a jar on hand). Bake muffins at 350 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes. (A note from the Treehouse: you might want to put a cookie sheet under your muffin pans just in case of drips--the sugar mixture bubbles a bit.)
I always double this recipe, and they are still gone the same day they are made ;-) Enjoy!
Friday, May 05, 2006
Big math, big ideas
Another culling from the Toronto Star Ideas section...The Curious Side of Big Math, by Siobhan Roberts, special to The Star from Atlanta (April 30/06).
One interesting thing about this story is the reason that Siobhan Roberts was in Atlanta to start with: G4G7, the seventh gathering of mathematicians in honour of Martin Gardner. (Get it?--Gathering 4 Gardner, number 7.) It's "all about invoking Gardner's abiding love for the play and fun in math." In other words, if you're a Lewis Carroll type of person, this is your place. It's a "four-day curiosity cabinet of....brainteasers." But there's a catch: you have to be invited. You have to be smart. And you have to be a mathematician.
That doesn't mean you have to be old. One of the invitees was Robert Barrington Leigh, a 19-year-old math student at the University of Toronto. This is a guy who's won a lot of math contests and is majoring in math...but think about this:
Couldn't they just give somebody like that a degree and then let him go off and do "big math?"
And if that's the case for our best math students, how much more should we be concerned for those who aren't as highly motivated in math to begin with?
P.S. Oh yes--the other neat thing (if you didn't read the article) was this:
One interesting thing about this story is the reason that Siobhan Roberts was in Atlanta to start with: G4G7, the seventh gathering of mathematicians in honour of Martin Gardner. (Get it?--Gathering 4 Gardner, number 7.) It's "all about invoking Gardner's abiding love for the play and fun in math." In other words, if you're a Lewis Carroll type of person, this is your place. It's a "four-day curiosity cabinet of....brainteasers." But there's a catch: you have to be invited. You have to be smart. And you have to be a mathematician.
That doesn't mean you have to be old. One of the invitees was Robert Barrington Leigh, a 19-year-old math student at the University of Toronto. This is a guy who's won a lot of math contests and is majoring in math...but think about this:
"[Barrington Leigh's mentor, Professor Andy Liu of the University of Alberta in Edmonton] said that Barrington Leigh was able to maintain his mathematical curiosity through his first two years at university....[but] his university syllabus of mathematical study doesn't allow him time [now] to do playful math. And finding himself [at the conference] among those who do have the time to indulge makes him a bit apprehensive, at first. 'I used to be more [into playful math] when I was younger,' said Barrington Leigh. 'It helps keep you sharp. But right now my work is more about remembering than being creative.' [Liu] noted that therein lies the value of G4G7, and the weakness in typical mathematics education. 'The worst thing the education system does is take away students' natural curiosity,' said Liu...."Wow--even for math majors who get invited to G4G7.
Couldn't they just give somebody like that a degree and then let him go off and do "big math?"
And if that's the case for our best math students, how much more should we be concerned for those who aren't as highly motivated in math to begin with?
P.S. Oh yes--the other neat thing (if you didn't read the article) was this:
Gardner, now 91, lives in Norman, Okla. He did not attend his namesake conference; he has never liked travel (he spent the weekend at home, writing his umpteenth book, this one on the works of the "prince of paradox," G.K. Chesterton).
Thursday, May 04, 2006
We still like Frye
Grandpa Squirrel made his usual weekend Toronto Star/Globe and Mail drop Sunday night, but I haven't had a chance till now to blog about one of the Really Interesting articles in the papers.
Between April and June of last year, I posted several times (here, here, here) about the Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye. The last time was here. Since then I've gotten a couple more of his books, become slightly more confused about his theology (was he ever really clear on it himself?) but even more interested in his ideas on literature.
Last Sunday's Toronto Star had this article by Philip Marchand, called "McLuhan, Frye and the falling towers." Marshall McLuhan, for Americans or others who don't know, was another professor of Frye's vintage, and as Marchand says, he's best known for the phrases he coined: "the global village" and "the medium is the message." As Marchand also points out, Frye and McLuhan were rivals and each "thought the other was on the wrong track."
And neither of them, according to Marchand, is exactly on key with today's academic thinking. Frye in particular is "a distinct minority taste in an age when literary studies are heavily influenced by radical politics and the philosophy of deconstruction--twin wrecking balls sworn to destroy any literary cathedral in sight."
Yep, I know. Frye doesn't have enough duende. He's not hip. And neither is McLuhan, although you would think, of the two, that somebody so interested in the media would have held up better.
However, we at the Treehouse are not too much into hip anyway, and we still like Frye. So, apparently, does B.W. Powe, a York University professor who has "written brilliantly about both Frye and McLuhan in his books A Climate Charged and The Solitary Outlaw....". Powe recently got one of his classes to stage a debate about how Frye and McLuhan would have viewed events such as 9/11. Actually the class is about Frye and McLuhan, which sounds very cool. (Powe was a pretty cool professor anyway. How do I know? I was in one of his senior writing classes in my last year at York.)
It's amazing that there is a Frye-McLuhan class offered these days. It's amazing that anybody takes it. It's amazing that this debate sounds (from the description in the article) like at least some of the students peered out of their millennium-sized boxes long enough to get a handle on what these pre-deconstructionist geezers (dead white guys and all that) were saying. I would have liked to have been there.
Between April and June of last year, I posted several times (here, here, here) about the Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye. The last time was here. Since then I've gotten a couple more of his books, become slightly more confused about his theology (was he ever really clear on it himself?) but even more interested in his ideas on literature.
Last Sunday's Toronto Star had this article by Philip Marchand, called "McLuhan, Frye and the falling towers." Marshall McLuhan, for Americans or others who don't know, was another professor of Frye's vintage, and as Marchand says, he's best known for the phrases he coined: "the global village" and "the medium is the message." As Marchand also points out, Frye and McLuhan were rivals and each "thought the other was on the wrong track."
And neither of them, according to Marchand, is exactly on key with today's academic thinking. Frye in particular is "a distinct minority taste in an age when literary studies are heavily influenced by radical politics and the philosophy of deconstruction--twin wrecking balls sworn to destroy any literary cathedral in sight."
Yep, I know. Frye doesn't have enough duende. He's not hip. And neither is McLuhan, although you would think, of the two, that somebody so interested in the media would have held up better.
However, we at the Treehouse are not too much into hip anyway, and we still like Frye. So, apparently, does B.W. Powe, a York University professor who has "written brilliantly about both Frye and McLuhan in his books A Climate Charged and The Solitary Outlaw....". Powe recently got one of his classes to stage a debate about how Frye and McLuhan would have viewed events such as 9/11. Actually the class is about Frye and McLuhan, which sounds very cool. (Powe was a pretty cool professor anyway. How do I know? I was in one of his senior writing classes in my last year at York.)
It's amazing that there is a Frye-McLuhan class offered these days. It's amazing that anybody takes it. It's amazing that this debate sounds (from the description in the article) like at least some of the students peered out of their millennium-sized boxes long enough to get a handle on what these pre-deconstructionist geezers (dead white guys and all that) were saying. I would have liked to have been there.
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Cookin' with math
Because the name's unfamiliar, people often misspell it. I've seen information online about Cuisinaire Rods, Cuisanaire, Quisenaire, Cuisonaire, Cuisinnaire, Cuisenarie, Cuisenare, Cuisennaire, Cuisenair, and just about every other spelling. (Even Ruth Beechick got it wrong once!) But this one (from the transcript of a legal proceeding involving mentally handicapped students) was new to me.
Mr. RHODES: ....We believe that to do this they've got to get a little messy, maybe, and from that mess we think something good comes. By way of example, I'm sure you're familiar with cuisinart sticks?Not only that, they julienne and shred salad too.
Mr. DICKEY. No. I'm from Arkansas.
Mr. RHODES. They're small sticks that are used to teach mathematics.
Mr. DICKEY. Are you saying cuisinart?
Mr. RHODES. Yes, cuisinart. They are small sticks that are generally in units of one to ten, and they are used to teach mathematics to preschool children. And that activity, that hands-on nature, is what seems to work. I know it did wonders for my daughter when she was three.
(The quote was found here.)
Friday, April 28, 2006
Monday, April 24, 2006
A funny from Crayons
New readers can unintentionally provide a lot of humor.
At lunch, Mr. Fixit was looking at something that came in the mail, and Crayons was looking over his shoulder. "Real...Easter...Update," she read. A real Easter update?
Oh, a real estate update.
I think I preferred Crayons' version!
At lunch, Mr. Fixit was looking at something that came in the mail, and Crayons was looking over his shoulder. "Real...Easter...Update," she read. A real Easter update?
Oh, a real estate update.
I think I preferred Crayons' version!
This is too hard, too boring, irrelevant...
Mom makes us work too hard. Not another book! School is hard. If my children were talking Barbies, they might echo that unfortunate doll (who had her conversation chip yanked for saying that math is too hard). Yes, the Apprentice and Ponytails do complain about school, lest you think that these Shakespeare-reading progeny do everything excellently without ever needing to be prodded (that's only true of other peoples' children, right?). After all, The Apprentice isn't planning on going to university anyway...she alternates between interests in hairdressing/cosmetics, photography, and computer information systems (maybe she'll figure out a way to do all of them). Why does this stuff matter?
So I have some alternatives. I could buy a fill-in-the-blanks homeschool curriculum instead of boring them with Thomas More or Winston Churchill. (Jane Austen and Charles Dickens don't get the "boring" face, for some reason.) I could let them follow their own interests completely. I could buy some of those prepared novel studies, comprehension workbooks, language textbooks, and spend a lot more time teaching them to write five-sentence paragraphs. (Squirrelings, that's not meant to be a threat--some homeschoolers spend a lot of time on those things because that's just the way they do school, and it works for them.)
I could send them to public school, so that they could develop the the following characteristics of current university students. (This list comes from Barbara Aggerholm's story "Educating the next wave" in The Record, April 24, 2006. I'm only including some of them.)
Or we can keep on reading writers who are much wiser and better educated than we are, taking what we can from their thoughts, and making our responses to their books a central part of Treehouse homeschooling.
In spite of the grousing, there are those moments when I know that what we're doing is what we're supposed to be doing. Like when Ponytails asked for a James Whitcomb Riley poetry book at a booksale last year, or The Apprentice kindly found me a volume of Tennyson at this year's sale. Or when I found The Apprentice reading her Canadian history book without being reminded, or saw Ponytails poring over a map of Narnia. Or when The Apprentice found a creative way to make her science experiment work even though somebody discarded the plastic pop bottle she was hoarding. (Sorry.) Or when Ponytails was genuinely sad at finishing a biography of Galileo. Or when Crayons read me back part of the Charlotte's Web chapter we'd just finished together (I had to work her into this post somehow).
We'll try to understand that delays happen...there are disappointments...and that not everything's fun (though something can be enjoyable in its own way without being fun). Maybe the Squirrelings will be strange enough to think that knowing something is even more valuable than knowing where to look it up (or where to copy it from the Internet). Maybe when we've read Utopia and How to Read a Book and Whatever Happened to Justice, there won't be so many blurry lines. Maybe they will be subversive enough to think that they can be producers as well as consumers of knowledge.
If they turned out like that, I wouldn't mind at all.
So I have some alternatives. I could buy a fill-in-the-blanks homeschool curriculum instead of boring them with Thomas More or Winston Churchill. (Jane Austen and Charles Dickens don't get the "boring" face, for some reason.) I could let them follow their own interests completely. I could buy some of those prepared novel studies, comprehension workbooks, language textbooks, and spend a lot more time teaching them to write five-sentence paragraphs. (Squirrelings, that's not meant to be a threat--some homeschoolers spend a lot of time on those things because that's just the way they do school, and it works for them.)
I could send them to public school, so that they could develop the the following characteristics of current university students. (This list comes from Barbara Aggerholm's story "Educating the next wave" in The Record, April 24, 2006. I'm only including some of them.)
* "Doing" is more important than "knowing." In other words, what you know is less important than knowing where to get the answer. "You don't have to master the subject anymore," Sharpe said. [Associate Professor Bob Sharpe of Wilfrid Laurier University, who led a seminar about preparing for the next generation of students.](That last one, in particular, intrigues me. It sounds like one of those creative report card comments that really means "He cheated on his term paper.")
* They have zero tolerance for delays. When they send an e-mail to a professor, they want an answer immediately.
* They're consumers rather than producers of knowledge.
* They blur the lines between consumer and creator by sampling information on the Internet and producing new forms of expression.
Or we can keep on reading writers who are much wiser and better educated than we are, taking what we can from their thoughts, and making our responses to their books a central part of Treehouse homeschooling.
In spite of the grousing, there are those moments when I know that what we're doing is what we're supposed to be doing. Like when Ponytails asked for a James Whitcomb Riley poetry book at a booksale last year, or The Apprentice kindly found me a volume of Tennyson at this year's sale. Or when I found The Apprentice reading her Canadian history book without being reminded, or saw Ponytails poring over a map of Narnia. Or when The Apprentice found a creative way to make her science experiment work even though somebody discarded the plastic pop bottle she was hoarding. (Sorry.) Or when Ponytails was genuinely sad at finishing a biography of Galileo. Or when Crayons read me back part of the Charlotte's Web chapter we'd just finished together (I had to work her into this post somehow).
We'll try to understand that delays happen...there are disappointments...and that not everything's fun (though something can be enjoyable in its own way without being fun). Maybe the Squirrelings will be strange enough to think that knowing something is even more valuable than knowing where to look it up (or where to copy it from the Internet). Maybe when we've read Utopia and How to Read a Book and Whatever Happened to Justice, there won't be so many blurry lines. Maybe they will be subversive enough to think that they can be producers as well as consumers of knowledge.
If they turned out like that, I wouldn't mind at all.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Four homeschool days with Ponytails
This is a four-day school week for us (we took Monday off), so these lessons cover what Ponytails did over the last two days and what's planned for the rest of the week. This week also marked the start of our spring term, although a lot of what she's doing is just continuing from the winter.
Tuesday:
Bible: listen to part of Proverbs 1. Start keeping a new illustrated copybook for Proverbs (one verse and one drawing for each chapter).
Copywork: one verse from Proverbs, see above.
Grammar and spelling: Ruth Beechick-style exercises based on The Enchanted Forest (a fairytale in chapters that Ponytails is reading to herself)--looking for synonyms, spelling patterns, word meanings, etc.
Miquon Math: Division concepts.
French: short lesson about "Je sens avec le nez."
Canadian History: Canada's Story, chapter 7, about Champlain and Captain Kirke (really).
Wednesday:
Pilgrim's Progress, Book II--about four pages (part of this section)
Copywork/handwriting: worked on capital G in cursive.
Miquon Math: Reviewed division lesson; did five adding/subtracting word problems.
Shakespeare (with Mom and The Apprentice): read two scenes from Two Gentlemen of Verona.
British History: An Island Story chapter 84: King Monmouth. Marked her timeline.
Minn of the Mississippi, chapter 14 (and an online jigsaw puzzle about the Mississippi)
Thursday:
Bible: Proverbs 2.
Copywork: verse from Proverbs.
Read poems with Mom.
Language work: same. Read some of The Enchanted Forest alone.
French: short lesson.
Natural History: Secrets of the Woods--finish the Tookhees chapter.
Canadian History: Canada's Story, chapter 8 (the death of Champlain). Timeline.
Read Children of the New Forest with Mom and The Apprentice.
Friday:
Bible: Proverbs 3.
Copywork: verse from Proverbs.
Language work: dictation from The Enchanted Forest.
Miquon Math.
The Heroes, by Charles Kingsley: Theseus, part 1.
Science: The Story of Inventions, pages 271-280, about Alexander Graham Bell. Do some experiments with sound.
Other things Ponytails is doing:
Reading The Magician's Nephew with Mom
Listening to Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang read on CD
Making clothes for a felt doll
Playing outside
Eating Easter candy
Loving her "pet bird" that drinks water
Watching everybody's beans sprout (a science experiment)
Tuesday:
Bible: listen to part of Proverbs 1. Start keeping a new illustrated copybook for Proverbs (one verse and one drawing for each chapter).
Copywork: one verse from Proverbs, see above.
Grammar and spelling: Ruth Beechick-style exercises based on The Enchanted Forest (a fairytale in chapters that Ponytails is reading to herself)--looking for synonyms, spelling patterns, word meanings, etc.
Miquon Math: Division concepts.
French: short lesson about "Je sens avec le nez."
Canadian History: Canada's Story, chapter 7, about Champlain and Captain Kirke (really).
Wednesday:
Pilgrim's Progress, Book II--about four pages (part of this section)
Copywork/handwriting: worked on capital G in cursive.
Miquon Math: Reviewed division lesson; did five adding/subtracting word problems.
Shakespeare (with Mom and The Apprentice): read two scenes from Two Gentlemen of Verona.
British History: An Island Story chapter 84: King Monmouth. Marked her timeline.
Minn of the Mississippi, chapter 14 (and an online jigsaw puzzle about the Mississippi)
Thursday:
Bible: Proverbs 2.
Copywork: verse from Proverbs.
Read poems with Mom.
Language work: same. Read some of The Enchanted Forest alone.
French: short lesson.
Natural History: Secrets of the Woods--finish the Tookhees chapter.
Canadian History: Canada's Story, chapter 8 (the death of Champlain). Timeline.
Read Children of the New Forest with Mom and The Apprentice.
Friday:
Bible: Proverbs 3.
Copywork: verse from Proverbs.
Language work: dictation from The Enchanted Forest.
Miquon Math.
The Heroes, by Charles Kingsley: Theseus, part 1.
Science: The Story of Inventions, pages 271-280, about Alexander Graham Bell. Do some experiments with sound.
Other things Ponytails is doing:
Reading The Magician's Nephew with Mom
Listening to Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang read on CD
Making clothes for a felt doll
Playing outside
Eating Easter candy
Loving her "pet bird" that drinks water
Watching everybody's beans sprout (a science experiment)
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Well-mannered
The Squirrelings are not always well behaved. (!)
Crayons' account of a fracas she got into with Ponytails:
"I was just colouring nicely, and she hit me. And after that we took turns hitting each other."
Well, at least they were polite about it.
Crayons' account of a fracas she got into with Ponytails:
"I was just colouring nicely, and she hit me. And after that we took turns hitting each other."
Well, at least they were polite about it.
Monday, April 17, 2006
Stuff and nonsense
My friend the DHM at The Common Room quoted Charlotte Mason today:
"There is absolutely no avenue to knowledge but knowledge itself, and the schools must begin, not by qualifying the mind to deal with knowledge, but by affording all the best books."--Towards a Philosophy of Education (Vol. 6), pg. 347
Did she mean the most serious books? The hardest books? The longest books?
Just before Miss Mason gets to that point in the chapter, she has been describing the sad case of two young men who had a half-baked education (in her view), who "laboured indefatigably" at making sense of the books they picked up as young adults, but who admitted themselves that "You and I go at a subject all wrong!"
What was one of the books they couldn't make sense of? Alice in Wonderland.
I found this posted on the Catholic Culture blog:
"There is absolutely no avenue to knowledge but knowledge itself, and the schools must begin, not by qualifying the mind to deal with knowledge, but by affording all the best books."--Towards a Philosophy of Education (Vol. 6), pg. 347
Did she mean the most serious books? The hardest books? The longest books?
Just before Miss Mason gets to that point in the chapter, she has been describing the sad case of two young men who had a half-baked education (in her view), who "laboured indefatigably" at making sense of the books they picked up as young adults, but who admitted themselves that "You and I go at a subject all wrong!"
What was one of the books they couldn't make sense of? Alice in Wonderland.
Deeply impressed he bought the book as soon as he returned to London and read it earnestly. To his horror he saw no sense in it. Then it struck him that it might be meant as nonsense and he had another try, then he concluded that it was rather funny but he remained disappointed.So we have to give our children more than facts, more than vocabulary drills. Knowledge, yes...the DHM's post points that out well, along with the sad fact of our culture's anti-knowledge bent. But also another kind of knowing...an understanding of laughter and nonsense that goes beyond the usual nose-picking humor found in childrens' books. They need to meet characters like my aged Uncle Arly, sitting on a heap of barley...and the Humbug...and the White Knight, one of my favourite characters in any book. They need some silliness, some furry squirrel puppets (I promise we'll do a post about Dewey soon), some knock-knock jokes, some James Thurber, and eventually some Wodehouse and Chesterton. They need to let their brains learn to play and dance and jump around with all the wonderful connections that a sense of nonsense allows. They need some nonsense so they can understand inventiveness...and a mandatory credit in inventiveness and creativity will not substitute.
Here, again, is another evidence of the limitations attending an utter absence of education. A cultivated sense of humour is a great factor in a joyous life, but these young men are without it. Perhaps the youth addicted to sports usually fails to appreciate delicate nonsense; sports are too strenuous to admit of a subtler, more airy kind of play....
I found this posted on the Catholic Culture blog:
A friend said all this reminded him of the scene in The Chronicles of Narnia where Aslan (God) creates Narnia, including an odd little bird which, like all the animals, can talk. The bird says something ridiculous and all the other creatures laugh. Turning to Aslan, the bird says, “Oh, Aslan, have I made the first joke?” “No,” Aslan replies, “you are the first joke.” My friend says there is a moral here.I think he's right.
Friday, April 14, 2006
She knows what she likes
Crayons' comment about today's lunch:
"I could eat a hundred grilled cheese sandwiches. And a hundred macaroni and cheese (that wasn't on the menu). And a hundred kiffle. And a hundred of my favourite beans."
What more could you ask for?
"I could eat a hundred grilled cheese sandwiches. And a hundred macaroni and cheese (that wasn't on the menu). And a hundred kiffle. And a hundred of my favourite beans."
What more could you ask for?
Good Friday Thought
After an emergency or a crisis, there is always the time when you come back and look around at the place that you left in such a hurry.
About ten years ago, my grandmother got very sick and was rushed to the hospital. I went to my parents’ house and found a crockpot full of chili sitting on the counter that had been there since suppertime the night before. You don’t always stop to clean things up when you’re in a hurry.
I was wondering who cleaned up after the last supper. Were some of the disciples intending to come back after their after-dinner walk with Jesus? Then everything was interrupted. Was it hours later, even the next day, that anyone came back into that upstairs room where Jesus had washed their feet and talked about the bread and the cup?
What did they see? Was there maybe the bowl and a still-damp towel, sitting on the floor? Maybe there was a cup that someone had knocked over, with the wine spilling out. Maybe some of the bread was left on the plate, leftovers broken in pieces. Maybe there were candles burned down to stubs, or empty oil lamps that they had used to light the room during their last meal with Jesus. Had they expected to come back to a room that felt so empty and yet that held so many things that reminded them of their Lord?
What did they do with the things? Did someone get busy then and wash the dishes? Did they pack everything away as it was, not wanting to have to deal with such things at such a time? Did they call some women in and ask them to wipe everything up?
Or did someone else come in and clear everything away, not knowing anything about what had happened there that night? Did the disciples come back to a room that was empty, cleaned out? Maybe the whole thing seemed like a dream that had never happened.
What do you think?
About ten years ago, my grandmother got very sick and was rushed to the hospital. I went to my parents’ house and found a crockpot full of chili sitting on the counter that had been there since suppertime the night before. You don’t always stop to clean things up when you’re in a hurry.
I was wondering who cleaned up after the last supper. Were some of the disciples intending to come back after their after-dinner walk with Jesus? Then everything was interrupted. Was it hours later, even the next day, that anyone came back into that upstairs room where Jesus had washed their feet and talked about the bread and the cup?
What did they see? Was there maybe the bowl and a still-damp towel, sitting on the floor? Maybe there was a cup that someone had knocked over, with the wine spilling out. Maybe some of the bread was left on the plate, leftovers broken in pieces. Maybe there were candles burned down to stubs, or empty oil lamps that they had used to light the room during their last meal with Jesus. Had they expected to come back to a room that felt so empty and yet that held so many things that reminded them of their Lord?
What did they do with the things? Did someone get busy then and wash the dishes? Did they pack everything away as it was, not wanting to have to deal with such things at such a time? Did they call some women in and ask them to wipe everything up?
Or did someone else come in and clear everything away, not knowing anything about what had happened there that night? Did the disciples come back to a room that was empty, cleaned out? Maybe the whole thing seemed like a dream that had never happened.
What do you think?
Good Friday
And all three stood and wept. Even the Lion wept: great Lion-tears, each tear more precious than the Earth would be if it was a single solid diamond....
"Son of Adam," said Aslan, "go into that thicket and pluck the thorn that you will find there, and bring it to me."
Eustace obeyed. The thorn was a foot long and sharp as a rapier.
"Drive it into my paw, son of Adam," said Aslan, holding up his right fore-paw and spreading out the great pad toward Eustace.
"Must I?" said Eustace.
"Yes," said Aslan.
Then Eustace set his teeth and drove the thorn into the Lion's pad. And there came out a great drop of blood, redder than all redness that you have ever seen or imagined. And it splashed into the stream over the dead body of the King.
--C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair
"Son of Adam," said Aslan, "go into that thicket and pluck the thorn that you will find there, and bring it to me."
Eustace obeyed. The thorn was a foot long and sharp as a rapier.
"Drive it into my paw, son of Adam," said Aslan, holding up his right fore-paw and spreading out the great pad toward Eustace.
"Must I?" said Eustace.
"Yes," said Aslan.
Then Eustace set his teeth and drove the thorn into the Lion's pad. And there came out a great drop of blood, redder than all redness that you have ever seen or imagined. And it splashed into the stream over the dead body of the King.
--C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Thinking outside the package
Several years ago, I went to a post-Christmas sale at a craft store. In the final-clearance, nobody-wants-this bin, I found a couple of Christmas-themed cross-stitch kits that came with some kind of square plastic frames, and bought them for about 75 cents apiece. When I got home, I realized that floss was not included in the kits. I didn't have much floss and definitely not in the right colours, and I don't get to the craft store much. The kits sat. And sat. I kept thinking "someday when they've got floss on sale, I should go and match up all the right colours, and get what I need, and make up those kits." But it wasn't really high on the list of priorities. I'm not even a very good cross-stitcher.
I tried to give the kits away to a crafty friend, but she didn't want them. So they sat.
Finally I was about to put them in a thrift-shop box. And then I took another look at the packages, and a light went on. Those things in my hands were meant to be coasters: nice, heavy-duty clear plastic coasters that you could insert your needlework into. Or anything else! Aha! (You mean I'm allowed to throw out those cross-stitch patterns I've never used? Sigh of relief.)
Since it was close to Father's Day, I found a couple of colourful family pictures that we'd taken at a mini-golf course; stuck them on some printed origami paper (because the pictures were smaller than the coasters); got the kids to sign their names below the pictures; and inserted the whole works into the coasters. One for Mr. Fixit, one for Grandpa Squirrel. Mr. Fixit now uses his coaster every night for his bedtime tea.
Now I'm not expecting that you're going to run out and raid the bargain bins looking for useless needlework kits. But it does illustrate a basic frugal principle. As the DHM at the Common Room likes to say, what do you have in your hand? And if you can't use something in the way it was intended, could you use part of it for something else? Sometimes you'll come up with something even nicer than what it was really meant for.
I tried to give the kits away to a crafty friend, but she didn't want them. So they sat.
Finally I was about to put them in a thrift-shop box. And then I took another look at the packages, and a light went on. Those things in my hands were meant to be coasters: nice, heavy-duty clear plastic coasters that you could insert your needlework into. Or anything else! Aha! (You mean I'm allowed to throw out those cross-stitch patterns I've never used? Sigh of relief.)
Since it was close to Father's Day, I found a couple of colourful family pictures that we'd taken at a mini-golf course; stuck them on some printed origami paper (because the pictures were smaller than the coasters); got the kids to sign their names below the pictures; and inserted the whole works into the coasters. One for Mr. Fixit, one for Grandpa Squirrel. Mr. Fixit now uses his coaster every night for his bedtime tea.
Now I'm not expecting that you're going to run out and raid the bargain bins looking for useless needlework kits. But it does illustrate a basic frugal principle. As the DHM at the Common Room likes to say, what do you have in your hand? And if you can't use something in the way it was intended, could you use part of it for something else? Sometimes you'll come up with something even nicer than what it was really meant for.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Money habits...and promises
LRJohnson's Savings Blog posted recently about Habits, Habits (linked through the 18th Festival of Frugality). She points out:
The Squirrels can identify with this. We have often had people ask exactly how we have managed to stay out of debt, have Mama Squirrel stay home with the Squirrelings, etc.; and it is often difficult to answer; or, to be more exact, any honest answer makes it sound more difficult than it has been. At the time we got married, we agreed to keep a running journal of our joint budget and expenses for the year, and to stick as close as possible to the amounts we had agreed on for things like clothes and groceries. We also treated Mama Squirrel's rather paltry wages as extra money but not something to be counted on--which was a good thing, because the Squirrelings started coming along very soon after that. (We still keep a budget binder--it really helps with each year's planning.)
Like LRJohnson, we acquired different habits of saving at different times--or changed them as we went along. There are things we do better now than we did fifteen years ago--those are the habits we've learned. Some things we figured out ourselves or from reading; I think some of the rest are ideas we picked up from watching what our parents and other relatives did. We might not have acted on them until we got married, but they were absorbed!
Some of the habits don't seem money-related; they just involve taking care of things so that they don't have to be replaced as fast or cleaned as often. (We rarely eat meals or have drinks in the car; we don't wear shoes in the house.) We buy store brand groceries, eat leftovers, pass down clothes, go to yard sales, and use/wear/drive things until they won't work/fit/run anymore. (And we try to replace parts before tossing things--that's getting harder to do all the time, though. Most things now are made to be tossed, not fixed, and the parts cost more than the original gizmo.) There are other things we stopped doing...at one time I attempted to keep Mr. Fixit's work socks darned, but his workboots kept putting so many holes into them that I gave up. And anyway, he no longer wears workboots.
But there's one other factor that comes into it for us. Along with habits, we needed faithfulness--and we had to be committed to that from the start. Before we knew each other, and even during the year that we dated, we each had different spending patterns than we did post-wedding. We went out for more meals (and fancier ones), we bought more new clothes, we just seemed to go through more cash in general. But somehow, along with the promises we made to be faithful to each other in other ways, we both came into marriage with a feeling of "this money we have now takes care of both of us--so we have to be responsible to each other with it." No spending sprees, no "I worked for this so I should have more of it", no demands for things that the budget wouldn't allow (brand new furniture or vacation cruises), no tossing the toothpaste tube before we'd squished the last squish. I don't know that we ever even sat down and spelled all that out (definitely not the toothpaste part); it was just understood. We also knew that we weren't accountable only to each other: we were responsible to God for what he'd entrusted us with.
And that--as much as frugal habits--is what's kept us solvent.
I did not start buying oatmeal at the same time that I stopped buying pre-made cartons of juice. Powdered milk came into my life at a different time than the concept of having a max price I’d pay for an item. (For me that’s an In My Head Price Book.) I didn’t start putting leftovers in salsa tub Tupperware at the same time I decided to buy generic or store brand for everything. TVP and bulghur and beans entered my life at different times. But all of these thrifty skills and habits accumulated, over the years, to become a low grocery bill. I incorporate a new habit every now and then, and add it to the routine.And so on.
The Squirrels can identify with this. We have often had people ask exactly how we have managed to stay out of debt, have Mama Squirrel stay home with the Squirrelings, etc.; and it is often difficult to answer; or, to be more exact, any honest answer makes it sound more difficult than it has been. At the time we got married, we agreed to keep a running journal of our joint budget and expenses for the year, and to stick as close as possible to the amounts we had agreed on for things like clothes and groceries. We also treated Mama Squirrel's rather paltry wages as extra money but not something to be counted on--which was a good thing, because the Squirrelings started coming along very soon after that. (We still keep a budget binder--it really helps with each year's planning.)
Like LRJohnson, we acquired different habits of saving at different times--or changed them as we went along. There are things we do better now than we did fifteen years ago--those are the habits we've learned. Some things we figured out ourselves or from reading; I think some of the rest are ideas we picked up from watching what our parents and other relatives did. We might not have acted on them until we got married, but they were absorbed!
Some of the habits don't seem money-related; they just involve taking care of things so that they don't have to be replaced as fast or cleaned as often. (We rarely eat meals or have drinks in the car; we don't wear shoes in the house.) We buy store brand groceries, eat leftovers, pass down clothes, go to yard sales, and use/wear/drive things until they won't work/fit/run anymore. (And we try to replace parts before tossing things--that's getting harder to do all the time, though. Most things now are made to be tossed, not fixed, and the parts cost more than the original gizmo.) There are other things we stopped doing...at one time I attempted to keep Mr. Fixit's work socks darned, but his workboots kept putting so many holes into them that I gave up. And anyway, he no longer wears workboots.
But there's one other factor that comes into it for us. Along with habits, we needed faithfulness--and we had to be committed to that from the start. Before we knew each other, and even during the year that we dated, we each had different spending patterns than we did post-wedding. We went out for more meals (and fancier ones), we bought more new clothes, we just seemed to go through more cash in general. But somehow, along with the promises we made to be faithful to each other in other ways, we both came into marriage with a feeling of "this money we have now takes care of both of us--so we have to be responsible to each other with it." No spending sprees, no "I worked for this so I should have more of it", no demands for things that the budget wouldn't allow (brand new furniture or vacation cruises), no tossing the toothpaste tube before we'd squished the last squish. I don't know that we ever even sat down and spelled all that out (definitely not the toothpaste part); it was just understood. We also knew that we weren't accountable only to each other: we were responsible to God for what he'd entrusted us with.
And that--as much as frugal habits--is what's kept us solvent.
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Only in Canada
Tonight I was reading our family favourite Little Tim and The Brave Sea Captain to Crayons. Then she read some of it back to me. In the story, Tim stows away on a ship and is made to work as a cabin boy. And then the weather gets rough. Crayons read,
"But alas, Tim soon began to feel sick, and when he went down to the galley he could not eat any of the titbits that the cook gave him."
Only she read it "any of the Timbits."
Well, it WAS a Little Tim story.
Postscript: Crayons now says that she wants to be a sailor too.
"But alas, Tim soon began to feel sick, and when he went down to the galley he could not eat any of the titbits that the cook gave him."
Only she read it "any of the Timbits."
Well, it WAS a Little Tim story.
Postscript: Crayons now says that she wants to be a sailor too.
Friday, April 07, 2006
Good Friday Kiffle
We have a Good Friday food tradition at the Treehouse. Some people eat hot cross buns on Good Friday; we make and eat Mr. Fixit's German grandma's Kiffle.
Kiffle (they sound like kee'-fa-la) are not those rolled-up European pastries called kipfel (although Grandma did make something like that too). These Kiffle are more like Polish Kolacky or Czech Kolache--a small, sweet yeast bun with fruit or jam filling poked into its side. We didn't have an authentic recipe for them from Grandma--I don't know if it was ever written out, she did most of her cooking without recipes. There are Kolacky/Kolache recipes online that sound pretty close-- this one is much like ours only it makes twice as many and uses a whole lot more butter.
The version we came across a few years ago and make every year (because Mr. Fixit says it's reasonably close to his grandma's Kiffle) comes from Dorothy R. Bates' Kids Can Cook vegetarian cookbook, published by The Book Publishing Company in Tennessee (yes, the tofu people). It makes about 24 small rolls, most of which get eaten pretty fast.
(A historical note from Grandma: she told us that when she was growing up in Eastern Europe, the traditional snack on Good Friday was popcorn. So sometimes we make popcorn too.)
Kolacky (or Kiffle)
1. Mix in a small bowl: 1 tbsp. yeast, 1 tsp. honey, 1/4 cup warm water.
2. Cream together: 1 stick (1/2 cup) margarine or butter, softened; 2 tbsp. honey; 1 tsp. salt.
3. Stir in and beat well: 1 egg, 1 cup warm water, 1 cup flour.
4. Add the yeast mixture and stir well together.
5. Slowly add, while stirring: 3 to 4 cups flour. Use enough to make dough soft but not sticky.
6. Turn it out onto a floured surface and knead it a few times. Put it in an oiled bowl and turn it around to coat with oil.
7. Cover bowl with a clean towel. Let rise for about 45 minutes, until doubled in size.
8. Knead down, pinch off balls, the size of a walnut, place on a lightly greased baking sheet.
9. Let rise another 30 minutes.
10 Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Press down the centers with your thumb to make a small hollow. (The online Kolache recipe notes that you have to press down good and hard, because otherwise the indentations will "pop out" while they're baking.) Fill each hollow with 1 tsp. apricot preserves, or peach preserves, or apple butter.
11. When oven is hot, put rolls in oven and bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Tops should be lightly browned.
12. Remove from oven and cool. If desired, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Kiffle (they sound like kee'-fa-la) are not those rolled-up European pastries called kipfel (although Grandma did make something like that too). These Kiffle are more like Polish Kolacky or Czech Kolache--a small, sweet yeast bun with fruit or jam filling poked into its side. We didn't have an authentic recipe for them from Grandma--I don't know if it was ever written out, she did most of her cooking without recipes. There are Kolacky/Kolache recipes online that sound pretty close-- this one is much like ours only it makes twice as many and uses a whole lot more butter.
The version we came across a few years ago and make every year (because Mr. Fixit says it's reasonably close to his grandma's Kiffle) comes from Dorothy R. Bates' Kids Can Cook vegetarian cookbook, published by The Book Publishing Company in Tennessee (yes, the tofu people). It makes about 24 small rolls, most of which get eaten pretty fast.
(A historical note from Grandma: she told us that when she was growing up in Eastern Europe, the traditional snack on Good Friday was popcorn. So sometimes we make popcorn too.)
Kolacky (or Kiffle)
1. Mix in a small bowl: 1 tbsp. yeast, 1 tsp. honey, 1/4 cup warm water.
2. Cream together: 1 stick (1/2 cup) margarine or butter, softened; 2 tbsp. honey; 1 tsp. salt.
3. Stir in and beat well: 1 egg, 1 cup warm water, 1 cup flour.
4. Add the yeast mixture and stir well together.
5. Slowly add, while stirring: 3 to 4 cups flour. Use enough to make dough soft but not sticky.
6. Turn it out onto a floured surface and knead it a few times. Put it in an oiled bowl and turn it around to coat with oil.
7. Cover bowl with a clean towel. Let rise for about 45 minutes, until doubled in size.
8. Knead down, pinch off balls, the size of a walnut, place on a lightly greased baking sheet.
9. Let rise another 30 minutes.
10 Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Press down the centers with your thumb to make a small hollow. (The online Kolache recipe notes that you have to press down good and hard, because otherwise the indentations will "pop out" while they're baking.) Fill each hollow with 1 tsp. apricot preserves, or peach preserves, or apple butter.
11. When oven is hot, put rolls in oven and bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Tops should be lightly browned.
12. Remove from oven and cool. If desired, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Tastes of home
Did you ever notice that, although you might not think too much about what your normal, everyday family food tastes like, it always tastes the best when you've been away and then come back? You get used to your own spices and your own ways of chopping things (or your spouse's, or your mother's), how big you make your muffins, what your regular brand of peanut butter tastes like, whether or not you ice your brownies (or put nuts in them, or put chocolate chips on top)--and you don't notice those things really until you're eating somebody else's food. I remember visiting Quebec a couple of times (a long time ago), and every time I ate lasagna, it had chili pepper flakes in it. Unheard of around here! When Mr. Fixit and Mama Squirrel were on their honeymoon in the mythical days before squirrelings, they stayed at a resort where every night's dinner was something fried and battered: battered fish, chicken nuggets and so on. Finally Mr. Fixit admitted, "I just want to get home and eat some tofu."
For the Beehive folk, it's Texas tacos and cheeseburgers after their trip to Scotland.
For Mr. Fixit, who had to suffer through a fancy filet mignon dinner last night and another fancy lunch today (he REALLY doesn't like sushi), it was coming home to some Kitchener Special tonight.
What's your taste of home?
For the Beehive folk, it's Texas tacos and cheeseburgers after their trip to Scotland.
For Mr. Fixit, who had to suffer through a fancy filet mignon dinner last night and another fancy lunch today (he REALLY doesn't like sushi), it was coming home to some Kitchener Special tonight.
What's your taste of home?
Saturday, April 01, 2006
April Fools Day,by Ponytails.
Today is April Fools Day, and we've done a lot of pranks. To start off the day, Mama put big salad spoons for little spoons to eat cereal. And she put ketchup and relish and mustard on the table for a joke. And Mr. Fixit put a spider under the napkins and pulled it across the table. I knew it was there because I saw the white string. Then we went grocery shopping and I was putting some juice in the freezer and.........I saw a fake spider jumping out at me!!!!! It was then hanging on the Fridge! And when I opened the fridge....I was freaked out at the spider when you see it was hanging on the fridge and when I was opening the fridge the fake spider started crawling up the fridge!!!!!!!!!!! And when I anwsered the phone it was one of my friend's sisters, and for an April Fools Day trick they said that my friend had laryngitis and I couldn't call her for 1 or 2 months!!!!!!!!!
~~~~~Ponytails
~~~~~Ponytails
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
The Phantom Tollbooth and other things, by Ponytails
First of all, I watched The Phantom Tollbooth movie. And then Mama read me the book. Why didn't they put Alec Bings, the Sound Valley, the whole orchestra, and other things like Canby (can-be) in the movie? I guess because they didn't want to make the movie too long. I think Rhyme and Reason looked prettier in the book, because in the movie they're just yellow and red outlines of people, sort of. Why do they do that to a lot of books: make them into a movie, different?
I took two really cool pictures, and some others. Here's one.
It's a picture of tulip leaves sprouting. I like taking pictures.
I took two really cool pictures, and some others. Here's one.
It's a picture of tulip leaves sprouting. I like taking pictures.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Dessert creation
The Apprentice wanted to make something for dessert tonight, but we didn't have a lot of ingredients to play around with besides a container of ricotta cheese. I showed her the recipe for Tortoni, and she wanted to know if we could make it chocolate-flavoured, and not frozen. Why not? So this is what we came up with. It's not all that original; variations are all over the Internet, some low-carb, some artificially sweetened; sometimes the same kind of chocolate-cheese mixture is used as a stuffing for pears or blintzes. Our version is rich but not very sweet.
Cocoa Ricotta Cream
1 500-gram (2 cup) container ricotta cheese (lite is fine)
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
About 1/4 cup of honey (we didn't measure)
1/4 cup brown sugar (or more to taste; you could also use just brown sugar, no honey)
Combine all the ingredients in a blender or food processor, and blend until very smooth. (We started out with just the cheese, cocoa and honey, but it needed more sweetener, so we added the sugar and blended it again.) Chill in small dessert dishes. Makes 4 (larger) to 6 (small) servings.
Cocoa Ricotta Cream
1 500-gram (2 cup) container ricotta cheese (lite is fine)
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
About 1/4 cup of honey (we didn't measure)
1/4 cup brown sugar (or more to taste; you could also use just brown sugar, no honey)
Combine all the ingredients in a blender or food processor, and blend until very smooth. (We started out with just the cheese, cocoa and honey, but it needed more sweetener, so we added the sugar and blended it again.) Chill in small dessert dishes. Makes 4 (larger) to 6 (small) servings.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Crayons is really good with felts, by Ponytails
Today Crayons did something really cute. She was using a felt set from a garage sale, and she was doing some Silver Chair Narnia with it. That set is really good for it. You can make the snake and everything. And there's even a "Good Day Travellers" lady in a green kirtle. And this is how it looks.
Crayons: I'm making Narnia.
Ponytails: Can I see maybe?
Crayons: See? This is Rilian tied up, and see, this is Eustace taming the dragon, and this is Puddleglum. And see, this is Jill with a bag of the nightclothes of the giants, and the giants' little baby bed that Jill sleeped in, and the giants' cookbook.
And this is so cute...she made the witch, and she used blue ducks and blue birds to make the earth workers, and our green felt lady was down there with them.
We watched a Silver Chair Narnia movie, and it's kind of bad, because the snake is so unreal. It looks like a puppet on Mr. Dressup or something. I like Puddleglum, because he's Tom Baker, Dr. Who. (Jellybabies, Sarah?)
~~Ponytails
Crayons: I'm making Narnia.
Ponytails: Can I see maybe?
Crayons: See? This is Rilian tied up, and see, this is Eustace taming the dragon, and this is Puddleglum. And see, this is Jill with a bag of the nightclothes of the giants, and the giants' little baby bed that Jill sleeped in, and the giants' cookbook.
And this is so cute...she made the witch, and she used blue ducks and blue birds to make the earth workers, and our green felt lady was down there with them.
We watched a Silver Chair Narnia movie, and it's kind of bad, because the snake is so unreal. It looks like a puppet on Mr. Dressup or something. I like Puddleglum, because he's Tom Baker, Dr. Who. (Jellybabies, Sarah?)
~~Ponytails
Dumping leftovers
Since Crayons has discovered she can read "a zillion stories," it's been a lot of fun going back over some of her old favourites and letting her do the reading. Yesterday we took turns with a Mother Goose book. She read,
"Pease porridge hot
Pease porridge cold
Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old."
Ponytails was listening and she said, "I know YOU put it in muffins, but then it's only TWO days old."
Mmmm....
"Pease porridge hot
Pease porridge cold
Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old."
Ponytails was listening and she said, "I know YOU put it in muffins, but then it's only TWO days old."
Mmmm....
Homeschooling Carnival at The Common Room
This week's Homeschooling Carnival is now up at The Common Room, and it includes our post about Crayons' approach to reading. The always-amazing DHM and family have managed to get this up in spite of the fact that they're moving into their brand-new house (complete with Common Room) this week. Hurray!
Monday, March 13, 2006
My birthday present, my preciousss
I am not a teapot collector. In fact, I've poured tea for the last sixteen years out of the same red Chinese teapot. So Mr. Fixit kindly bought me a new one that goes much nicer with the blues and browns in our kitchen. (It matches the blog pretty well, too, don't you think?)
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Chinese food
One of the first (and really the only) sort-of-international restaurants I remember eating at WIWAK (When I Was a Kid--there, I just made up my own Internet abbreviation) was George's Chinese Restaurant. George was probably the most authentic Chinese thing about the place...it was pretty standard Cantonese-for-Canadian-tastes cuisine. Very good food, but not scary.
When I started university, I had a Chinese-Canadian roommate whose parents ran a restaurant. She told me that it was also a to-Canadian-tastes restaurant, and that when her parents wanted to eat real Chinese food, they closed the restaurant and headed to Toronto. Since we were studying in Toronto, she offered to take a couple of us to Chinatown for something a little more adventurous than soo guy almond.
So we were introduced to congee, and rice noodles fried with meat, and the little bowls filled with rice where you take some of what's on the table and add it to your bowl. And chopsticks, of course. And tilting the lid on your teapot to signal that you wanted more. I went back to that restaurant a few times while I lived in Toronto, and also checked out some other interesting places. One restaurant I remember featured the cooking of some Chinese province that specialized in spicy (not Szechuan). Not realizing just how hot that chili-spiked dish was already, I added some of the bowl of sauce on the table...it wasn't plum sauce! But I ate it anyway.
This recipe is a lot tamer than that. I think it's kind of semi-authentic Chinese (meaning it uses hoisin sauce instead of ketchup). We've made it a couple of times and it's very tasty.
Beef and Green Bean Stir Fry
1 sweet red or green pepper
1 lb. lean ground beef (we have also used leftover roast beef)
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp. minced gingerroot (the kind you have to chop up)
1/4 tsp. each salt and pepper
3 cups diagonally halved trimmed green beans
1/2 cup beef stock (I used no-MSG bouillon powder)
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. cornstarch
2 green onions, thinly sliced
Rice or noodles for serving
Get everything ready to go before you cook. Seed, core and cut the pepper into thin strips. Mix up the beef stock, hoisin sauce, soy sauce and cornstarch. Chop up the beans, garlic and ginger.
Ready? In wok or large skillet, stir-fry the beef over high heat until no longer pink, about 3 minutes. Using slotted spoon, remove the beef and set aside. (If you're using leftover meat, cut it into thin strips and add it later with the vegetables.)
Drain fat from the wok; add oil. Stir-fry garlic, ginger, salt and pepper over medium heat until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add green beans, red pepper and 2 tbsp. water; cover and steam until beans and pepper are tender-crisp, 3 minutes.
Return beef to wok. Stir up the hoisin mixture again and stir into pan. Bring to boil; boil, stirring, until sauce is thickened and glossy, about 1 minute. Sprinkle with green onions or pass them at the table.
(Source: Canadian Living Magazine, March 2005)
When I started university, I had a Chinese-Canadian roommate whose parents ran a restaurant. She told me that it was also a to-Canadian-tastes restaurant, and that when her parents wanted to eat real Chinese food, they closed the restaurant and headed to Toronto. Since we were studying in Toronto, she offered to take a couple of us to Chinatown for something a little more adventurous than soo guy almond.
So we were introduced to congee, and rice noodles fried with meat, and the little bowls filled with rice where you take some of what's on the table and add it to your bowl. And chopsticks, of course. And tilting the lid on your teapot to signal that you wanted more. I went back to that restaurant a few times while I lived in Toronto, and also checked out some other interesting places. One restaurant I remember featured the cooking of some Chinese province that specialized in spicy (not Szechuan). Not realizing just how hot that chili-spiked dish was already, I added some of the bowl of sauce on the table...it wasn't plum sauce! But I ate it anyway.
This recipe is a lot tamer than that. I think it's kind of semi-authentic Chinese (meaning it uses hoisin sauce instead of ketchup). We've made it a couple of times and it's very tasty.
Beef and Green Bean Stir Fry
1 sweet red or green pepper
1 lb. lean ground beef (we have also used leftover roast beef)
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp. minced gingerroot (the kind you have to chop up)
1/4 tsp. each salt and pepper
3 cups diagonally halved trimmed green beans
1/2 cup beef stock (I used no-MSG bouillon powder)
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. cornstarch
2 green onions, thinly sliced
Rice or noodles for serving
Get everything ready to go before you cook. Seed, core and cut the pepper into thin strips. Mix up the beef stock, hoisin sauce, soy sauce and cornstarch. Chop up the beans, garlic and ginger.
Ready? In wok or large skillet, stir-fry the beef over high heat until no longer pink, about 3 minutes. Using slotted spoon, remove the beef and set aside. (If you're using leftover meat, cut it into thin strips and add it later with the vegetables.)
Drain fat from the wok; add oil. Stir-fry garlic, ginger, salt and pepper over medium heat until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add green beans, red pepper and 2 tbsp. water; cover and steam until beans and pepper are tender-crisp, 3 minutes.
Return beef to wok. Stir up the hoisin mixture again and stir into pan. Bring to boil; boil, stirring, until sauce is thickened and glossy, about 1 minute. Sprinkle with green onions or pass them at the table.
(Source: Canadian Living Magazine, March 2005)
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Dulcie's Dish
I've mentioned the Beany Malone Cookbook before and given the recipe for Beany's Beans. I thought I had posted this recipe for a helper-like dish before, but I don't see it in our archives. Like Beany's Beans and like our Kitchener Special, this recipe (which we had for supper last night) does not use gourmet ingredients. In fact, the number of recipes we make that include ingredients like ketchup is kind of embarrassing. Not particularly healthy or fashionable, I know. But this one is good, inexpensive, and husbands and young squirrels like it, so I'm passing it on, with a couple of adaptations.
Dulcie's Macaroni Meal in a Skillet
2 tbsp. bacon fat (we leave this out)
1 lb. ground beef or ground chicken (it's good with chicken; in a pinch we have even used bacon)
1 medium onion, diced
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper (or less, to taste--we don't like that much pepper)
1/2 tsp. paprika
1 8-oz. can tomato sauce (or equivalent anything else like tomato puree; last night I used part of a can of diced tomatoes and added a little extra water)
1 1/2 cups water, or as needed (depending on how wet the tomatoes are)
1 tsp. prepared mustard
1 rounded tsp. brown sugar
1 tbsp. cider vinegar
1/2 cup ketchup
2 cups elbow macaroni (we used whole wheat)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese for serving (optional. We were out of Parmesan, so I grated some Cheddar and mixed that in before serving.)
This is how I do it. Because the list of spices and things is kind of long, I combine the salt, pepper and paprika with the cupful or canful of tomato sauce (just dump them in the top of the opened can). I put the mustard, sugar and vinegar into the half cup of ketchup. I chop the onion and start browning the ground meat in a large skillet that has a cover; when it's almost done I stir in the onion and finish browning it. When the onion's soft, I add the tomato sauce mixture. The recipe says to rinse the tomato sauce can out with the 1 1/2 cups of water and add that to the skillet. (If you don't have a tomato sauce can, obviously you just measure out the water and add that.) And then add the ketchup mixture.
Stir it all together, bring it to a boil, and then add the two cups of macaroni. Let it boil for a minute or two, and then cover (if you haven't already), turn the heat down, and cook for about 1/2 an hour or until the macaroni is done. You can check it occasionally and add more water if necessary. Mix in grated cheese if you want, or serve with Parmesan at the table.
You can also add canned grean beans or mushrooms to this skillet meal; we've done both. Mr. Fixit likes to add hot sauce at the table.
Dulcie's Macaroni Meal in a Skillet
2 tbsp. bacon fat (we leave this out)
1 lb. ground beef or ground chicken (it's good with chicken; in a pinch we have even used bacon)
1 medium onion, diced
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper (or less, to taste--we don't like that much pepper)
1/2 tsp. paprika
1 8-oz. can tomato sauce (or equivalent anything else like tomato puree; last night I used part of a can of diced tomatoes and added a little extra water)
1 1/2 cups water, or as needed (depending on how wet the tomatoes are)
1 tsp. prepared mustard
1 rounded tsp. brown sugar
1 tbsp. cider vinegar
1/2 cup ketchup
2 cups elbow macaroni (we used whole wheat)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese for serving (optional. We were out of Parmesan, so I grated some Cheddar and mixed that in before serving.)
This is how I do it. Because the list of spices and things is kind of long, I combine the salt, pepper and paprika with the cupful or canful of tomato sauce (just dump them in the top of the opened can). I put the mustard, sugar and vinegar into the half cup of ketchup. I chop the onion and start browning the ground meat in a large skillet that has a cover; when it's almost done I stir in the onion and finish browning it. When the onion's soft, I add the tomato sauce mixture. The recipe says to rinse the tomato sauce can out with the 1 1/2 cups of water and add that to the skillet. (If you don't have a tomato sauce can, obviously you just measure out the water and add that.) And then add the ketchup mixture.
Stir it all together, bring it to a boil, and then add the two cups of macaroni. Let it boil for a minute or two, and then cover (if you haven't already), turn the heat down, and cook for about 1/2 an hour or until the macaroni is done. You can check it occasionally and add more water if necessary. Mix in grated cheese if you want, or serve with Parmesan at the table.
You can also add canned grean beans or mushrooms to this skillet meal; we've done both. Mr. Fixit likes to add hot sauce at the table.
Preschool Theology
Crayons (drawing): I'm making a picture of God.
(Note from Mama Squirrel: I was not so sure about this, re violating one of the Ten Commandments and so on, but since I know that God and Jesus are interchangeable in Crayons' mind, I murmured something like "okay.")
Crayons: Does God have a wife?
Mama Squirrel: No.
Crayons: Oh...why not? Did she die then?
Mama Squirrel: No...God just doesn't need a wife, he's enough all by himself.
(Pause to draw some more)
Crayons: Does God have wings? I'm drawing wings.
Mama Squirrel: No, God's everywhere. He doesn't need wings.
Crayons: (as scornfully as a four-year-old can say this) Humph. Well, then, how is he supposed to FLY, then?
(Note to self: I think we need to sing some of those Judy Rogers catechism songs again.)
(Note from Mama Squirrel: I was not so sure about this, re violating one of the Ten Commandments and so on, but since I know that God and Jesus are interchangeable in Crayons' mind, I murmured something like "okay.")
Crayons: Does God have a wife?
Mama Squirrel: No.
Crayons: Oh...why not? Did she die then?
Mama Squirrel: No...God just doesn't need a wife, he's enough all by himself.
(Pause to draw some more)
Crayons: Does God have wings? I'm drawing wings.
Mama Squirrel: No, God's everywhere. He doesn't need wings.
Crayons: (as scornfully as a four-year-old can say this) Humph. Well, then, how is he supposed to FLY, then?
(Note to self: I think we need to sing some of those Judy Rogers catechism songs again.)
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Kitchen Floor Cookies? Oh so frugal, but good
No, no. They're not made with floor sweepings. (My kids think they're so funny.)
These are supposed to be called Kitchen Scrap Cookies, which I don't really like either, but it will have to do for now. I found it on the Like Merchant Ships blog, via a side trip through In a Shoe. Since we did have leftovers from this morning's crockpot cereal (the main ingredients of that were brown rice and oat groats, with a little TVP), I decided to try it. They are good! A lot like pumpkin drop cookies without the pumpkin, which makes sense if you think about it because you're just substituting one thick wet thing for another thick wet thing. We got about four dozen small cookies out of the batch.
Another idea for using up that cooked crockpot cereal (or leftover oatmeal) is to put it in muffins--this only uses up a bit of it (maybe half a cup of cooked cereal per dozen muffins), but sometimes that's what you have. I follow the Tightwad Gazette's instructions for incorporating cooked grains into muffin batter: that is, run them with all the other wet ingredients through the blender, and then add the dry ingredients and adjust the wetness as needed then. I don't own a real blender, but a stick blender works fine for this. I like some applesauce and cinnamon added too. And muffin batter can also become muffin cake if you bake it in a square pan at 350 degrees.
These are supposed to be called Kitchen Scrap Cookies, which I don't really like either, but it will have to do for now. I found it on the Like Merchant Ships blog, via a side trip through In a Shoe. Since we did have leftovers from this morning's crockpot cereal (the main ingredients of that were brown rice and oat groats, with a little TVP), I decided to try it. They are good! A lot like pumpkin drop cookies without the pumpkin, which makes sense if you think about it because you're just substituting one thick wet thing for another thick wet thing. We got about four dozen small cookies out of the batch.
Another idea for using up that cooked crockpot cereal (or leftover oatmeal) is to put it in muffins--this only uses up a bit of it (maybe half a cup of cooked cereal per dozen muffins), but sometimes that's what you have. I follow the Tightwad Gazette's instructions for incorporating cooked grains into muffin batter: that is, run them with all the other wet ingredients through the blender, and then add the dry ingredients and adjust the wetness as needed then. I don't own a real blender, but a stick blender works fine for this. I like some applesauce and cinnamon added too. And muffin batter can also become muffin cake if you bake it in a square pan at 350 degrees.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Subversive tuna recipe
Subversive because, according to a certain person on American TV (see two posts below), I should be contributing more to society than a tuna recipe.
But I'm going to send it around anyway, because it's pretty easy and because it's not tuna casserole. The Squirrel family really does not like tuna casseroles. We've tried regular tuna casserole, Asian tuna casserole, a few other variations, and they all end up tasting like...tuna casserole.
So when we hit a really good sale on tuna a few weeks ago (I think it was 58 cents a can, so eat your heart out David Tsubouchi--does anyone remember his little tuna fiasco?), I wasn't sure what we were going to do with several cans of tuna besides make sandwiches.
Then I remembered Edna Staebler's recipe for Salmon or Tuna Wrap-Up in More Food That Really Schmecks. Edna recently turned 100 and celebrated with a big birthday party. This book came out when she was a young thing of about 75 and I was just learning to cook...Mom and Dad Squirrel gave me a copy for my birthday that year.
Oh yes...the recipe. Well, I'm not going to give you the whole thing because I think you can figure most of it out for yourself. This is what you do:
1. Make your favourite tuna salad with two cans of tuna (or salmon). Because we have some food aversions in the family to things like raw chopped onion, we make about the simplest possible tuna salad: tuna plus some generic white salad dressing (you know the stuff, it looks like mayonnaise) plus a spoonful of pickle relish. You can use any other kind of tuna salad you want, as healthy or as unhealthy as you prefer.
2. Make a biscuit dough with the following ingredients: 1/4 cup butter, margarine or oil; 2 cups flour (I used unbleached all-purpose); 3 tsp. baking powder; 1/2 to 3/4 tsp. salt; 3/4 cup milk or enough to make the dough hang together. This is just basic biscuit dough with an extra teaspoon of baking powder.
3. Roll the dough out into an oblong about 1/2 inch thick. Either spread the tuna salad over it and roll up like a jelly roll (what we did); or line a greased loaf pan with the dough, with the edges hanging out, plop the tuna salad on top, and bring the edges not quite together in the middle (leave a vent). If you roll it up like a jelly roll, put the whole thing into the greased loaf pan.
4. Bake at 400 degrees F for at least 15 minutes, maybe 20, until the biscuit dough is done. (I had it in at 425 degrees just to be sure.) If you rolled it up, you can remove it from the loaf pan, slice it into several rounds, and serve it on a platter. If you did the wrap-around version, you'll probably have to serve it from the pan.
5. Serve with a white sauce or gravy if you like, and a salad. (We have a vegetarian gravy recipe from the Goldbecks' book American Wholefoods Cuisine, that's simple to mix up. I'll post it if anybody wants it.)
6. Ta-da. Hot tuna sandwiches.
But I'm going to send it around anyway, because it's pretty easy and because it's not tuna casserole. The Squirrel family really does not like tuna casseroles. We've tried regular tuna casserole, Asian tuna casserole, a few other variations, and they all end up tasting like...tuna casserole.
So when we hit a really good sale on tuna a few weeks ago (I think it was 58 cents a can, so eat your heart out David Tsubouchi--does anyone remember his little tuna fiasco?), I wasn't sure what we were going to do with several cans of tuna besides make sandwiches.
Then I remembered Edna Staebler's recipe for Salmon or Tuna Wrap-Up in More Food That Really Schmecks. Edna recently turned 100 and celebrated with a big birthday party. This book came out when she was a young thing of about 75 and I was just learning to cook...Mom and Dad Squirrel gave me a copy for my birthday that year.
Oh yes...the recipe. Well, I'm not going to give you the whole thing because I think you can figure most of it out for yourself. This is what you do:
1. Make your favourite tuna salad with two cans of tuna (or salmon). Because we have some food aversions in the family to things like raw chopped onion, we make about the simplest possible tuna salad: tuna plus some generic white salad dressing (you know the stuff, it looks like mayonnaise) plus a spoonful of pickle relish. You can use any other kind of tuna salad you want, as healthy or as unhealthy as you prefer.
2. Make a biscuit dough with the following ingredients: 1/4 cup butter, margarine or oil; 2 cups flour (I used unbleached all-purpose); 3 tsp. baking powder; 1/2 to 3/4 tsp. salt; 3/4 cup milk or enough to make the dough hang together. This is just basic biscuit dough with an extra teaspoon of baking powder.
3. Roll the dough out into an oblong about 1/2 inch thick. Either spread the tuna salad over it and roll up like a jelly roll (what we did); or line a greased loaf pan with the dough, with the edges hanging out, plop the tuna salad on top, and bring the edges not quite together in the middle (leave a vent). If you roll it up like a jelly roll, put the whole thing into the greased loaf pan.
4. Bake at 400 degrees F for at least 15 minutes, maybe 20, until the biscuit dough is done. (I had it in at 425 degrees just to be sure.) If you rolled it up, you can remove it from the loaf pan, slice it into several rounds, and serve it on a platter. If you did the wrap-around version, you'll probably have to serve it from the pan.
5. Serve with a white sauce or gravy if you like, and a salad. (We have a vegetarian gravy recipe from the Goldbecks' book American Wholefoods Cuisine, that's simple to mix up. I'll post it if anybody wants it.)
6. Ta-da. Hot tuna sandwiches.
Monday, February 27, 2006
Crayons does it her own way
Since our last post three weeks ago about Crayons' reading progress, she's moved on from Arthur's Pen Pal to two Golly Sisters books, Little Bear, and a couple of other easy readers. Tonight she worked through Caps for Sale, even though she had to ask what a bunch of the words were. (If I'm sitting beside her, she just stops reading until I say the word she doesn't know--I can pretty much predict which ones are going to stump her anyway.) She reads the same books over and over, to herself, to her doll, or to anyone who will listen. [Side note for anyone who's just climbed up to the Treehouse: Crayons will be five this May.]
Part of what she's doing is memory of the story, especially on the hard words. Part of it is her good memory for sight words, and part of it is sounding things out. She already knows these stories so well that what she remembers can carry her over the things she can't sound out. Every few days I try to dig out something at her level that I remember her sisters reading at that stage, and help her read through it. Or if it's one of those four-stories-in-one books like Frog and Toad, I'll read a story and then she'll read a story. After that she just takes the book and reads it until we don't ever want to hear it again.
I read the curriculum catalogues and realize how much learn-to-read material we seem to be skipping over. It's not systematic, it's not sequential. We've been playing games for about a year to get her to this point [Side Note: We're only talking a few minutes of word games every couple of days, in case you think I pressured a four-year-old into learning to read], but it was her own sudden burst of confidence that moved her into this new "I can do it" stage. If I had a child who would just take things at the "normal" pace, I'd use the old Alphaphonics book and help her grow her reading vocabulary bit by bit. But Crayons (like her sisters) hasn't wanted lists of phonics words, or especially anything to do with "short vowels" or "consonants"...in a way, she's not even ready for them. What four-year-old is? What she wanted was to be able to read books, and now she's there. Buddy-reading time (when we're reading books written at about a grade 2 level) has changed from me reading most of the words and letting her fill in a line here and there, to her doing most of the words and me filling in the extras.
At this point it doesn't take a lot of teaching. It doesn't take follow-up activities (let's all pretend we have a pen pal like Arthur, and write a letter to him). It just takes a lot of listening.
Quote from Crayons: "I can read a zillion stories, and I know about numbers, so now I want to do math."
Part of what she's doing is memory of the story, especially on the hard words. Part of it is her good memory for sight words, and part of it is sounding things out. She already knows these stories so well that what she remembers can carry her over the things she can't sound out. Every few days I try to dig out something at her level that I remember her sisters reading at that stage, and help her read through it. Or if it's one of those four-stories-in-one books like Frog and Toad, I'll read a story and then she'll read a story. After that she just takes the book and reads it until we don't ever want to hear it again.
I read the curriculum catalogues and realize how much learn-to-read material we seem to be skipping over. It's not systematic, it's not sequential. We've been playing games for about a year to get her to this point [Side Note: We're only talking a few minutes of word games every couple of days, in case you think I pressured a four-year-old into learning to read], but it was her own sudden burst of confidence that moved her into this new "I can do it" stage. If I had a child who would just take things at the "normal" pace, I'd use the old Alphaphonics book and help her grow her reading vocabulary bit by bit. But Crayons (like her sisters) hasn't wanted lists of phonics words, or especially anything to do with "short vowels" or "consonants"...in a way, she's not even ready for them. What four-year-old is? What she wanted was to be able to read books, and now she's there. Buddy-reading time (when we're reading books written at about a grade 2 level) has changed from me reading most of the words and letting her fill in a line here and there, to her doing most of the words and me filling in the extras.
At this point it doesn't take a lot of teaching. It doesn't take follow-up activities (let's all pretend we have a pen pal like Arthur, and write a letter to him). It just takes a lot of listening.
Quote from Crayons: "I can read a zillion stories, and I know about numbers, so now I want to do math."
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Thursday, February 23, 2006
John Ruskin on books
"What do we, as a nation, care about books? How much do you think we spend altogether on our libraries, public or private, as compared with what we spend on our horses? If a man spends lavishly on his library, you call him mad--a biblio-maniac. But you never call any one a horse-maniac, though men ruin themselves every day by their horses, and you do not hear of people ruining themselves by their books. Or, to go lower still, how much do you think the contents of the book-shelves of the United Kingdom, public and private, would fetch, as compared with the contents of its wine-cellars?....how long most people would look at the best book before they would give the price of a large turbot for it!"
"Bread of flour is good, but there is bread, sweet as honey, if we would eat it, in a good book; and the family must be poor indeed which, once in their lives, cannot for such multipliable barley-loaves, pay their baker's bill."
--John Ruskin, "Of Kings' Treasuries," in Sesame and Lilies
Ruskin on masked words
"There are masked words droning and skulking about us....which nobody understands, but which everybody uses, and most people will also fight for, live for, or even die for, fancying they mean this, or that, or the other, or things dear to them: for such words wear chameleon cloaks--"groundlion" cloaks, of the color of the ground of any man's fancy: on that ground they lie in wait, and rend him with a spring from it. There were never creatures of prey so mischievous, never diplomatists so cunning, never poisoners so deadly, as these masked words; they are the unjust stewards of all men's ideas; whatever fancy or favorite instinct a man most cherishes, he gives to his favorite masked word to take care of for him; the word at last comes to have an infinite power over him,--you cannot get at him but by its ministry."
--John Ruskin, "Of Kings' Treasuries," in Sesame and Lilies
--John Ruskin, "Of Kings' Treasuries," in Sesame and Lilies
An educated person
"....you might read all the books in the British Museum (if you could live long enough), and remain an utterly "illiterate," uneducated person; but....if you read ten pages of a good book, letter by letter,--that is to say, with real accuracy,--you are for evermore in some measure an educated person."
--John Ruskin, "Of Kings' Treasuries" in Sesame and Lilies
--John Ruskin, "Of Kings' Treasuries" in Sesame and Lilies
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
All around the kitchen
Re-posted in 2011, with updates
Our friend the DHM at The Common Room started a Meme for Monday. In other words, a quiz game to play and pass on, in this case about our kitchens and cooking habits.
1. How many meals does most of your family eat at home each week? How many are in your family?
Two adults, one teenager, two younger children. We eat most meals at home, maybe eat out once a month. Mr. Fixit sometimes stays at work over lunch and goes out for a burger.
2. How many cookbooks do you own?
I thought I had quite a few, but definitely not as many as the DHM's guess of 300. Maybe 40? I have some doubles for the girls (for when they're out on their own someday).
3. How often do you refer to a cookbook each week?
Including my binder of printouts and clippings? Probably several times a week.
4. Do you collect recipes from other sources?
The Internet is one of my favourite sources as well, particularly recipes from friends' blogs. I also think the recipes from Canadian Living turn out pretty well. As Mama Lion said in her responses, the Internet has definitely changed my cookbook-buying habits and also my clipping-and-saving habits. Reading the Hillbilly Housewife's site alone has been the equivalent of a new cookbook.
5. How do you store recipes?
The ones I like go into a binder. Clippings I'm just thinking about go in an accordion file.
6. Do you follow recipes pretty closely, or use them primarily to give you ideas?
Depends on what it is. I've read so many recipes for things like lentil soup that by now I just notice "oh, they put in oregano and carrots, maybe I'll try that." But some recipes work so well just the way they're written that I don't want to change them. I like recipes that give you variations and suggestions for substitutions, because I don't always have whatever-it-is on hand.
7. Is there a particular ethnic style or flavor that predominates in your cooking?
How about this: Post-vegetarian/tightwad/comfort food with a few shots of Mennonite and Schwabian. (Mr. Fixit's family cooked in an Eastern European style that combined German, Hungarian and Croatian cooking influences.)
8. What's your favourite kitchen task related to meal planning and preparation?
Taking something out of the oven that smells good. And maybe puttering around before supper time, getting everything on the table.
9. What's your least favourite part?
Peeling things.
10. Do you plan menus before you shop?
I usually have several meals in mind but I don't always know when we're going to have them.
11. What are your favourite kitchen tools or appliances?
Crockpot, toaster oven, timer. And Mr. Fixit's power grinder that sharpens knives, but that's in the garage.
12. If you could buy one new thing for your kitchen, money no object and space not an issue, what would you most like to have?
A gas stove and new curtains.
13. Since money and space probably are objects, what are you most likely to buy next?
A blender, if I can find one at a yard sale. (I want to make milkshakes.)
14. Do you have a separate freezer for storage?
Yes, we just got one.
15. Grocery shop alone or with others?
We all go together on Saturdays, and then Mr. Fixit goes to the butcher's when he's at that end of town.
16. How many meatless main dish meals do you fix in a week?
It depends on the week. Usually a couple of nights a week, and then I guess you could count "meatless leftovers" the next day!
17. If you have a decorating theme in your kitchen, what is it? Favourite kitchen colours? (And yes, I spell Canadian; doing it the other way is like walking backwards for me.)
A theme? "Homeschool Contemporary." Blue and yellow flowered wallpaper. I have a few vintage china things out that I like, roosters and funny-face jam jars.
18. What's the first thing you ever learned to cook, and how old were you?
My mother let me put bacon on the Kraft Pizza Mix when I was about three...
19. How did you learn to cook?
Brownie Cooking Badge when I was nine?
"1. Prepare a breakfast, set the table and serve the breakfast. It should include: juice, cooked cereal, boiled or poached egg, toast and milk. Tea or coffee for adults.
2. Prepare and pack the following in a lunch box:
a) A sandwich made with meat, poultry, fish, cheese, egg or peanut butter filling. [I guess tofu spread wasn't an option?]
b) A raw vegetable, washed and prepared, such as carrots, turnip or celery sticks.
c) A raw fruit or cooked or canned fruit in a leak-proof container.
d) Simple cookies you have made.
e) A hot drink in an insulated container.
OR
Prepare and serve, at a table or on a tray, a lunch or supper to include:
a) Hot soup, either homemade or canned.
b) A sandwich made with meat, fish, poultry, cheese, egg or vegetable filling; with a raw vegetable served on the side.
c) Canned fruit.
d) Milk, tea or coffee for adults."
I also learned from making a lot of dinners during high school (my mom often got home from work right at supper time) and from working for a chef in a camp kitchen one summer. I did NOT learn from the one year of grade 7 home ec I took.
[Oh, I forgot to say that I took a Community Nutrition Worker course ten years ago. But that wasn't about learning to cook--it was more about budgeting and shopping, and getting people to try things like lentils.]
20. Who else would you like to participate?
Has to be somebody else with a blog, right? OK, I tag Marsha at the Abarbablog.
Our friend the DHM at The Common Room started a Meme for Monday. In other words, a quiz game to play and pass on, in this case about our kitchens and cooking habits.
1. How many meals does most of your family eat at home each week? How many are in your family?
Two adults, one teenager, two younger children. We eat most meals at home, maybe eat out once a month. Mr. Fixit sometimes stays at work over lunch and goes out for a burger.
2. How many cookbooks do you own?
I thought I had quite a few, but definitely not as many as the DHM's guess of 300. Maybe 40? I have some doubles for the girls (for when they're out on their own someday).
3. How often do you refer to a cookbook each week?
Including my binder of printouts and clippings? Probably several times a week.
4. Do you collect recipes from other sources?
The Internet is one of my favourite sources as well, particularly recipes from friends' blogs. I also think the recipes from Canadian Living turn out pretty well. As Mama Lion said in her responses, the Internet has definitely changed my cookbook-buying habits and also my clipping-and-saving habits. Reading the Hillbilly Housewife's site alone has been the equivalent of a new cookbook.
5. How do you store recipes?
The ones I like go into a binder. Clippings I'm just thinking about go in an accordion file.
6. Do you follow recipes pretty closely, or use them primarily to give you ideas?
Depends on what it is. I've read so many recipes for things like lentil soup that by now I just notice "oh, they put in oregano and carrots, maybe I'll try that." But some recipes work so well just the way they're written that I don't want to change them. I like recipes that give you variations and suggestions for substitutions, because I don't always have whatever-it-is on hand.
7. Is there a particular ethnic style or flavor that predominates in your cooking?
How about this: Post-vegetarian/tightwad/comfort food with a few shots of Mennonite and Schwabian. (Mr. Fixit's family cooked in an Eastern European style that combined German, Hungarian and Croatian cooking influences.)
8. What's your favourite kitchen task related to meal planning and preparation?
Taking something out of the oven that smells good. And maybe puttering around before supper time, getting everything on the table.
9. What's your least favourite part?
Peeling things.
10. Do you plan menus before you shop?
I usually have several meals in mind but I don't always know when we're going to have them.
11. What are your favourite kitchen tools or appliances?
Crockpot, toaster oven, timer. And Mr. Fixit's power grinder that sharpens knives, but that's in the garage.
12. If you could buy one new thing for your kitchen, money no object and space not an issue, what would you most like to have?
A gas stove and new curtains.
13. Since money and space probably are objects, what are you most likely to buy next?
A blender, if I can find one at a yard sale. (I want to make milkshakes.)
14. Do you have a separate freezer for storage?
Yes, we just got one.
15. Grocery shop alone or with others?
We all go together on Saturdays, and then Mr. Fixit goes to the butcher's when he's at that end of town.
16. How many meatless main dish meals do you fix in a week?
It depends on the week. Usually a couple of nights a week, and then I guess you could count "meatless leftovers" the next day!
17. If you have a decorating theme in your kitchen, what is it? Favourite kitchen colours? (And yes, I spell Canadian; doing it the other way is like walking backwards for me.)
A theme? "Homeschool Contemporary." Blue and yellow flowered wallpaper. I have a few vintage china things out that I like, roosters and funny-face jam jars.
18. What's the first thing you ever learned to cook, and how old were you?
My mother let me put bacon on the Kraft Pizza Mix when I was about three...
19. How did you learn to cook?
Brownie Cooking Badge when I was nine?
"1. Prepare a breakfast, set the table and serve the breakfast. It should include: juice, cooked cereal, boiled or poached egg, toast and milk. Tea or coffee for adults.
2. Prepare and pack the following in a lunch box:
a) A sandwich made with meat, poultry, fish, cheese, egg or peanut butter filling. [I guess tofu spread wasn't an option?]
b) A raw vegetable, washed and prepared, such as carrots, turnip or celery sticks.
c) A raw fruit or cooked or canned fruit in a leak-proof container.
d) Simple cookies you have made.
e) A hot drink in an insulated container.
OR
Prepare and serve, at a table or on a tray, a lunch or supper to include:
a) Hot soup, either homemade or canned.
b) A sandwich made with meat, fish, poultry, cheese, egg or vegetable filling; with a raw vegetable served on the side.
c) Canned fruit.
d) Milk, tea or coffee for adults."
I also learned from making a lot of dinners during high school (my mom often got home from work right at supper time) and from working for a chef in a camp kitchen one summer. I did NOT learn from the one year of grade 7 home ec I took.
[Oh, I forgot to say that I took a Community Nutrition Worker course ten years ago. But that wasn't about learning to cook--it was more about budgeting and shopping, and getting people to try things like lentils.]
20. Who else would you like to participate?
Has to be somebody else with a blog, right? OK, I tag Marsha at the Abarbablog.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Our Blog's First Birthday
This is the first birthday of Dewey's Treehouse! Climb on up and celebrate with us.
Friday, February 17, 2006
Barbie goes to the mall
One day, Barbie went to the mall.
She saw a new store and decided to try on some clothes.
"I think I'm starting to see a pattern here!"
"Aaahh! Even the shoes are too skimpy!"
"Can I help you with something?"
"You can help me get pneumonia! I'm shopping somewhere else."
Barbie was walking to the pizza restaurant when she saw another new store.
So she went in.
She liked the clothes...
...and the hairstyles.
So she tried on an outfit.
She liked it so much that she bought it and another.
"Thanks so much for telling us about this awesome store, Barbie."
"Check out my cool threads, man."
"Yeah! This is, like, so totally retro!"
The End.
She saw a new store and decided to try on some clothes.
"I think I'm starting to see a pattern here!"
"Aaahh! Even the shoes are too skimpy!"
"Can I help you with something?"
"You can help me get pneumonia! I'm shopping somewhere else."
Barbie was walking to the pizza restaurant when she saw another new store.
So she went in.
She liked the clothes...
...and the hairstyles.
So she tried on an outfit.
She liked it so much that she bought it and another.
"Thanks so much for telling us about this awesome store, Barbie."
"Check out my cool threads, man."
"Yeah! This is, like, so totally retro!"
The End.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Treehouse milestones
1. Crayons read her first really real book out loud today: Arthur's Pen Pal, by Lillian Hoban. This isn't the aardvark Arthur from Marc Brown's TV series; this Arthur is a chimp. (Link on GoodReads)
2. The Apprentice made chocolate chip cookies all by herself. OK, she's baked other things, but this was her own idea and she did all the work. Except for cracking the eggs. The Apprentice will do anything to avoid getting gook on her fingers.
3. Ponytails can sing all the words to Kiki Dee's part of "Don't Go Breaking My Heart." She's also got most of the Kings and Queens of England song down pat, even though Beethoven's Wig had to go back to the library.
4. French Fry had a little tour around the house in his plastic ball. (We're pretty sure that French Fry is a boy.)
Some days are just full of new things.
2. The Apprentice made chocolate chip cookies all by herself. OK, she's baked other things, but this was her own idea and she did all the work. Except for cracking the eggs. The Apprentice will do anything to avoid getting gook on her fingers.
3. Ponytails can sing all the words to Kiki Dee's part of "Don't Go Breaking My Heart." She's also got most of the Kings and Queens of England song down pat, even though Beethoven's Wig had to go back to the library.
4. French Fry had a little tour around the house in his plastic ball. (We're pretty sure that French Fry is a boy.)
Some days are just full of new things.
Don't strategize me
The most overused, most meaningless word I've heard lately is "strategy." Usually used in the plural.
Example: a radio commercial against drinking and driving offers some suggestions (take a taxi) and then asks, "Which of these strategies do you use?" (How about just not getting drunk in the first place?)
Educationalists love "strategies", usually reading strategies. What strategies will Junior use to figure out the next word? Will he guess? Will he use the picture as a clue? This pretty much ignores the real problem, which is that Junior doesn't know because nobody's taught him.
The Apprentice got it right on. When I mentioned my issue with "strategies" to her, she said, "Isn't that a Dilbert kind of word?" Exactly. Nothing accomplished but it sure sounds good.
Example: a radio commercial against drinking and driving offers some suggestions (take a taxi) and then asks, "Which of these strategies do you use?" (How about just not getting drunk in the first place?)
Educationalists love "strategies", usually reading strategies. What strategies will Junior use to figure out the next word? Will he guess? Will he use the picture as a clue? This pretty much ignores the real problem, which is that Junior doesn't know because nobody's taught him.
The Apprentice got it right on. When I mentioned my issue with "strategies" to her, she said, "Isn't that a Dilbert kind of word?" Exactly. Nothing accomplished but it sure sounds good.
Monday, February 06, 2006
How to Shovel Snow, by Ponytails
How to shovel snow.
First you will need a shovel. Than you need to have a place with some snow. Than when you have got to your snowie place you take your shovel and dig gently. When you have got some snow on your shovel you dump it some where else. Than keep doing that till your done. And that is how you shovel snow.
~~Ponytails.
[Mama Squirrel's comment: Yep, that about sums it up.]
Sunday, February 05, 2006
More of the Hamster and the Hamster, by Ponytails.
Okay, coffeemamma and others who have been waiting to find out who won the race in, "The Hamster and the Hamster", here it is:
[Part One is here]
And now they're at the same speed! Now it looks a lot like Josanne is going to win! Do you see Josanne just one Meter ahead! It is Josanne no! Rosanne. It looks like Josanne a lot. And there is the finish just one Meter ahead! Well for Josanne it is. And JOSANNE wins! The Rabbits cheer and they can’t stop! After they went home and had some nice warm bath.(But there is going to be more).
~Ponytails
Friday, February 03, 2006
The Hamster and the Hamster, by Ponytails
Hi, this is Ponytails. I am creating a story called The Hamster and The Hamster. Would you like to hear what I've done so far?
Dear Young Readers,
I will be happy to tell you the story of....................the Hamster and the Hamster.
Once upon a time there lived a Hamster named Rosanne and a Hamster named Josanne.
And they lived in a Castle the end. Just kidding! Ok now on with the story. And Rosanne And Josanne were cousins. One sunny day the Hamsters said they would like to Race. So they got some Rabbits to ready set go! And the Hamsters ran and ran! As fast as their little legs could take them! And then Josanne got in front and now Rosanne in the lead. And what is this? Why it is Josanne two Meters in front and now Rosanne in the lead it looks like Josanne maybe could it be Rosanne? The whistle blows time for a little BREAK! Ok now it is the end of the little BREAK.
Now it looks like Rosanne in the lead no! it’s Josanne now! No Rosanne I can’t keep track! Ok now what’s this? It’s Rosanne bumping in front! Now Josanne bumping in front could it be true?
What’s this? A wheel now Josanne in the wheel she can’t stop! Good she is off. Now Rosanne so fast on the wheel no could it be? the Rabbits are cheering for JOSANNE! Rosanne don’t bump. There’s the finish line ten Meters. Now Rosanne is making it nine Meters cause she went by one Meter. And on went Josanne and Rosanne five Meters till they finish. Five for Josanne and six Meters for Rosanne.(Remember their Hamsters).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do you like it so far?
~~Ponytails
Dear Young Readers,
I will be happy to tell you the story of....................the Hamster and the Hamster.
Once upon a time there lived a Hamster named Rosanne and a Hamster named Josanne.
And they lived in a Castle the end. Just kidding! Ok now on with the story. And Rosanne And Josanne were cousins. One sunny day the Hamsters said they would like to Race. So they got some Rabbits to ready set go! And the Hamsters ran and ran! As fast as their little legs could take them! And then Josanne got in front and now Rosanne in the lead. And what is this? Why it is Josanne two Meters in front and now Rosanne in the lead it looks like Josanne maybe could it be Rosanne? The whistle blows time for a little BREAK! Ok now it is the end of the little BREAK.
Now it looks like Rosanne in the lead no! it’s Josanne now! No Rosanne I can’t keep track! Ok now what’s this? It’s Rosanne bumping in front! Now Josanne bumping in front could it be true?
What’s this? A wheel now Josanne in the wheel she can’t stop! Good she is off. Now Rosanne so fast on the wheel no could it be? the Rabbits are cheering for JOSANNE! Rosanne don’t bump. There’s the finish line ten Meters. Now Rosanne is making it nine Meters cause she went by one Meter. And on went Josanne and Rosanne five Meters till they finish. Five for Josanne and six Meters for Rosanne.(Remember their Hamsters).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do you like it so far?
~~Ponytails
Thursday, February 02, 2006
The funniest Groundhog Day joke I know
Pardon me if you've heard this too many times.
The teacher told her class that today was Groundhog Day.
There was silence and then a boy in the back of the class piped up, "Boy, am I glad I brought my own lunch!"
The teacher told her class that today was Groundhog Day.
There was silence and then a boy in the back of the class piped up, "Boy, am I glad I brought my own lunch!"
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
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.]
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.]
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