FRIDAY - Speech and Other Things

 Speech: We continue to explore Nolan's problem with processing information. WAIT - it's not a problem - it's a "learning difference". ::snort:: The speech therapist does not feel we need to do further tests/labeling etc. She thinks that she and I working together can affect change. She said that it seems to her that Nolan is a visual learner. She says that he responds well to visual cues before being given an auditory list of things to do.....Now I had not tried that in every day life. She draws photos of everything he is asked to do...tells him what to do and thinks it helps. For example....Nolan simply can't do more than one thing at a time...if I give him multiple instructions - he freezes. He's 8. Zander is 5 and can easily follow 2 or 3 step directions...so it isn't just a developmental thing that he'll outgrow. I've been working at giving him LOTS of 2 step directions. BUT Natalie says I should DRAW pictures of what I want him to do. ARGH. I don't have time to draw pictures of every instruction...and furthermore, my pictures are NOT going to be much help in deciphering my directions. I am thinking I could make up a laminated sheet and find photos on the web of various things...or take pictures of him doing them....and then use THAT when I ask him to do things...."MOVE the chairs, sweep the floor, and take out the garbage" etc. I was thrilled to hear someone say Math U see appeals to visual learners....we switched to that already. In Science, I've gone more "traditional" than *I* like because Arielle likes that (auditory learner) but I am going to make sure we get lots of visual input added to the programs this year. I'm already finding great, brightly colored science books from the library on the topics we are covering in Apologia. NOT TK all over the page type books but the ones with really big and detailed photos. I really like photos too. LOL He LIKES apologia and wants to continue it...but it's amazing the facts that click when he simply SEES a photo of say a Praying Mantis.... I think I can easily make Elementary Apologia more visual.

In TOG I'll be sure to pull in more history quilts, lapbook type things...I'm debating if hands on is the same as visual....and thinking of how he's responded this year. He LOVED the lapbooks - Arielle felt they were a waste of time (just read the text and move along, please). I'd already been trying to see if I could fit 3 history kits into the budget next year. Kate (from SHS) and her husband Jeff run Hands and Hearts , a company that sells wonderful history kits. They've tested all their projects and kits on children 5 - 12. Any activity that wasn't loved by all is removed from the kit. I'd thought of these for the last couple of years. I've held off because of the budget. I've also known that there were many great hands on ideas in the TOG manual...but I find I do better if I have all the pieces I need in a box at the start of the year (i.e. the history quilt versus all my lapbook plans).

Dessert Co-op: I've put together an invite for a Tapestry Tea. I think it will be fun even for those who have no intention of buying TOG. I always like to see new curriculi (spell check doesn't like my other word??). AND everyone who attends gets a free Egyptian Unit - can't beat that. Of course, you can also click the link in the sidebar and get the free unit but you know. ::snort:: I've been hoping that maybe the tea will be a way to find some who are either using TOG year 1 next year or studying ancients - and they may want to join our "fun" co-op. I've read what Marcia says about co-ops and for young children she says they should be the "dessert". I think I'm going to tell people I'm starting a "dessert co-op". ::snort:: I have been thinking that Jeff and Kate's KITS would be the perfect sort of thing to do in a "dessert co-op". The supplies are all there, they tie in to the period being studied, and I keep hearing they are wonderful. I can have everyone simply order the kits and go from there. Saves having to shop and buy supplies myself. LOL We shall see. I also think it would be fun to do Meet the Masters in a group setting...really easy...but I'm trying to curb the ideas.

Produce c0-op: went well. We seem to be alternating between big weeks and medium weeks. LOL If the trend keeps up, I will have to talk to the every other week members and get them spread out a bit more evenly. ::snort::

Family Bits: Josiah got called into work again yesterday...BUT...they let him out of his evening shift so he was home for family night. Yippee!

Arielle and Nolan had drama. They are really enjoying this. They go home with Deja after co-op and get some playing time in with Erik and Emma beforehand.

It's hard for Zander to see them leaving every week. AND this week he was certainly off. I needed to spend some time with him. I took he, Stacia and Jared and we went to BK - his choice. I had a great salad and they ate junk...then I let them play on the playground until it was time to go pick up the other two from Camp Broadway. I read some of *Teaching the Trivium* and promptly fell asleep in the play area. I woke up with just enough time to drive to drama. I'm determined to finish that book this week!

Jamin asked me to make the deep dish pizza last night. I did a nutmeg type sauce with chicken, cheese, mushrooms, red peppers and asparagus. He and I were the only ones who tried it - but it WAS good and there is plenty left over for today! Maybe breakfast.

We watched Happy Feet from Netflix. We worked on Josiah's graduation slide show. Mike went in to the office yesterday because the Air Force Chief of Staff was on base.

Busy - full day for all.

Whole Wheat Garlic Cheese Dinner Rolls (big recipe)

Crystal Miller

2 cups water (1 3/4 water 1/4 milk)

3 T melted butter

3 t. salt

6 T cane juice crystal’s (Rapadura)

¼ cup powdered milk (skipped)

1/3 cup gluten flour
5 to 5 ½ cups whole wheat bread flour
2 T dry yeast
½ cup butter

2 to 4 T minced garlic (I used dried)

Parmesan cheese (I used fresh)

In mixer add water, 3 T melted butter, salt, cane juice crystal’s, powdered milk, yeast, gluten flour and bread flour. Knead and add more flour if necessary. Allow dough to rest for about 15 minutes.

Divide dough into 48 pieces. I do this by cutting the dough in half with my kitchen scissors and then each half, in half again. Now you have 4 parts and each will make 12 rolls. With one piece of this dough, cut it in half, and both halves cut again. Now each piece can be divided into 3 pieces. This helps the rolls to be more of an equal size. I then repeat the process with the other 3 sections of dough.

Put the rolls on a lightly greased large jelly roll pan. Melt the ½ cup butter and mix in the garlic. Spoon this over the rolls in the pan. Now sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Let rise until doubled in size.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Chocolate Rolls

Crystal Miller

2 pieces of dough and rolled out each one.

Melt: ¼ cup butter and added 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder and ½ cup Rapadura

Pour on rolled out dough.

Sprinkle ½ C Chocolate Chips on the dough

Roll the dough up and cut it into slices like cinnamon rolls.

This filled up a large jelly roll pan. I baked them for 25 minutes.

Delicious Whole Wheat Bread - makes 2 loaves2 cups warm water
1/3 cup honey
1 T yeast
1/3 cut olive oil
2 t. salt
1/3 cup gluten flour
5 to 7 cups freshly ground whole wheat flour

In a large bowl or in a large mixer (such as a Kitchen Aid or Bosch type) combine the water, yeast and honey. Let sit for a few minutes to give the yeast a chance to start working. Add the salt, oil, gluten flour and 3 to 4 cups of whole wheat flour. Continue to add more flour until the dough does not stick to the side of the bowl and does not feel sticky to the touch. Knead for 4 minutes in a Bosch mixer or 7 to 10 in other mixers or 10 to 15 minutes by hand.

When dough has finished kneading let it rise once until doubled in bulk (unless you are using a Bosch type mixer and in this case you can skip the 1st rising). Punch down dough and divide it into 2 pieces and form into loaves and set in bread pans.

Let it rise in a slightly warm oven (this means that you turn the oven on for just 2 or 3 min. or until you can feel the heat and then turn it off, if it is too hot then it will kill the yeast) for 15 to 25 minutes or until the dough is ½ inch above top of pan. Turn oven to 350 (without taking bread out) and bake for approx. 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Afternoon/Evening...

We did get six more squares done for our history quilt.

Bus Boycott & Israel's formation

Vietnam war (wall) & School Integration Moon Exploration & Ummm Stacia's square

Stacia explains to me HOW a paint marker got in her hand and HOW she ended up with such pleasantly pink lips!

Josiah got home from work and suggested taking the three middle children (Arielle, Nolan and Zander) to the movies. The thought was that Stacia and I could nap. What a great idea! Turned out Zander opted to stay home....and then changed his mind after they left....leading to great lamenting...leading to Stacia waking up....

I fixed meatloaf and grilled some corn on the cob, answered a few phone calls, read SHS mail, collected a few baskets for tomorrow. The rest of night we'll read a chapter for Jamin's book, set up co-op tables and baskets and finish up the co-op newsletter.....

ALICE SPRINGS CHICKEN:

This is a clone of the dish by the same name which is served at the Outback Steakhouse.

4 chicken breasts
4 slices marbled cheddar and swiss cheese
1 cup mushroom
4 slices bacon (I left this out)
honey mustard dressing for dipping

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. On each piece of chicken, carefully layer the mushrooms first and then the bacon (position the bacon on the mushrooms so that it holds them in place).
3. Cover and bake for 30-45 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
4. Remove from oven, add cheese and bake for 15 minutes uncovered.
5. Serve with a side of honey mustard salad dressing for a real treat.

HONEY MUSTARD DRESSING:
1 1/2 cups real mayonaise (veganaise - no cholesterol)
1/4 cup Grey Poupon
1/2 cup honeyCombine and let sit for 2 hours or overnight. Serve with Alice Springs Chicken.

*THIS is my favorite dish at Outback (though our Outback has CUT BACK on their servings and I'm not sure I'll be going there much any longer). When I saw this on Cindy's blog, I knew I would eventually make it. ::snort:: You'll want to go to her blog to see photos...my crew tends to attack the food before I get it photographed!

I LOVE the sauce at Outback and laughed when I saw the recipe. I happened to have made my
Honey Mustard Dressing yesterday and noted that it seemed similar when I made this dressing last night. Sure enough...less mustard, more veganaise....

YUMMMM

School Today

Thursday is really the last "full day" of school for Arielle and Nolan. The older boys try to get some school done on Friday - but because of Produce Co-op we don't get a LOT done.

I can't believe that our math u see arrived yesterday afternoon. Wow. I ordered it on the 17th and it arrived on the 18th! Now THAT is great customer service. Of course, it turns out they ARE a TX company. ::snort:: Jared began Epsilon. He watched the first lesson and said, "Ah - I think I get it". Fractions have been a consistent problem for him. He went on to complete 5 worksheets and ACED them all. I gave him the option of taking the tests and skipping the work, but he wants to do the work. I told him to work 30 minutes a day and do as much as he can in that 30 minutes (Saxon took 1 - 1 1/2 hours a day). Arielle, Nolan and I began learning the skip counting songs. I don't think we'll ever be able to sing some of these hymns in chapel again without laughing. Arielle is on lesson 9 and Nolan is going to begin on lesson 1. He CAN do the work but I have to explain how every time...so he needs to start at the very beginning...a very good place to start. ::snort::

They zipped through their independent work. I can't believe that Nolan has lost his raceway book and reader 17 - again! I have spent the week looking for this. I hate to buy another workbook for this - but I hate to not do it either. We've spent the week reading other books I found at the library and doing Explode the Code. I'm really excited to check out Character Quality Language Arts. Thanks again, Lisa for mailing it to me to check out. I KNOW that we are doing writing, spelling, grammar...but the idea of integrating them and doing it AROUND a character study really appeals to me. I could make up my OWN units on various character traits that are part of our "parenting projects" but I'm wondering......We shall see.

*Praying Mantis* by Rebecca Stefoff - this is a COOL book. I did not plan on using ANY text book for science with my younger ones. I really believe in lots of hands on experiments, activities and nature studies for elementary age. These younger two, however, saw Jared's apologia book and wanted to do it with him....and so we've been using Apologia's elementary books. They are written around Charlotte Mason principles and so they are a great compromise between my idea and their desires. ::snort:: However, sometimes I simply have to go to the library and find tons of real living books on the topics we are doing in Apologia. This is one such book. I would class this as a LIVING BOOK. It's interesting, lots of facts, great photos and the author obviously loves his topic. This was an easy read today and we had lots of fun talking about various mantis', stick bugs etc that we've seen since moving down here. I plan to add some of the lap books that Cyndi Kinney has made that go along with the Apologia Elementary books. I think that will give us the best of both worlds. Hands on and fun for ME and the structured text book that Arielle seems to thrive on. If you are interested in the lapbooks you can either google Cyndi or follow the homeschoolestore link in my side bar....they are the "pick of the week". I know I COULD make up our very own lapbooks, and maybe we will some day, but for now I'm thrilled to find kits. ::snort::

Josiah was supposed to have today off...but called in. He asked me if I had something he had to do....and we couldn't think of a thing...so he went in. Then I thought, "you know he's in high school - he has SCHOOL to do and if he doesn't want to go in when called again THAT is enough reason to tell them to ask one of the older managers to come in." ::snort:: So....he has the van...and I forgot about getting the other boys to their ministry location today...::snort:: Cy REMEMBERED and is running home to drop them off quickly...

The younger ones and I are home bound - think we'll work on some quilt squares. We've finished 3 weeks of TOG this week. We're on a roll. It helps that they are weeks without a lot of resources listed. ::snort::

Homeschooling Cartoon

A funny thing happened while I was searching for graphics for the hand out last night.....at least I thought it was fairly humourous...I found this....