Family Schooling Summary

Big sister A did her workbook pages the first part of the week, but then got strep throat and was feeling sick Wed-Friday.  Brother M had joy school and enjoyed it as usual.   We just finished reading the Kit books from the American Girl collection aloud to the kids at night.  It's fun that big sister A is loving the types of historical fiction that I did as a child and also learning a lot about the experiences of kids during the great depression.

We also listened to The Graveyard Book together in the car while we did our errands this week.  It is came from the childrens section of the library, but it is too scary for the under 5 crowd.  Luckily the story went right over brother M's head.   Just big sister A and I, have been enjoying it and talking about it as we drive.  For some reason, big sis A loves ghost stories.... I still don't understand why.  Maybe because I am so easily spooked by them?  In any case, it is a fun adventure type book for kids 8+.

 We have been doing A LOT of cooking projects this week.  I am making a little extra money as a reviewer for Vitamix (which I used all the time anyway, so am happy to support).   This month is recipe tracking and showing what kinds of things we use it for.  One of the recipes we made were these Russian Gingerbread cookies.  They can be made with rye flour, oat flour, or regular flour.  Since it was our first time through, I did half oat flour and half regular.  They have no sugar in the dough, just honey.  I think they turned out yummy, though of course, not the same as the ones that I was trying to replicate from my time in Russia. They include (freshly) ground cardamom, which I was craving and a lemon glaze and that was made with sugar.

Another yummy recipe my testers helped me with was this Creamy Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce.  They had no idea they were eating vegetable sauce on their spinach noodles. So sneaky, he he he. Oh, but this makes a TON.  I would make about a half size of this recipe if I were doing it again for my family of 5.  I had a bunch of the sauce left which I put in the freezer for another meal. 

And just one more -since the pics are so funny.  Here is baby S testing out the Coconut Milk Ice Cream (just frozen coconut milk, frozen bananas, and a wee bit of chocolate).   I think they would have liked it even more with sugar added.

And now for some Professional Grade photos from Grandpop: Part 1

I had to make these small enough to fit on the blog.  To the other Grandparents, let me know if you want a copy and I will send you a larger file.  This is basically just a teaser. There are a bunch more that I still need to get from Grandpop. He took over 500 shots!

Thanksgiving Events

On Thanksgiving Day we did some haircuts in preparation for family pictures.  Yes, we shaved off baby S's curls again, but his hair was getting too long. 

 Brother M's turn for his haircut -- no fear. All old hat for him.

The girls just watched and laughed at their poor brothers/cousins.

We had enough snow for sledding down the little hill next to Grandpop's garage.

We thought the snow would be sticky enough for making a snowman, but it wasn't.  We ended up just making some mini snowmen on Grandpop's deck.

We had a "kid table" next to the adult table.  It worked great. Grandpop cooked a feast from scratch: Fresh Turkey (brined), whipped sweet potato casserole with pecan topping, and green bean casserole with homemade crispy onion topping. There were also about 6 types of pie. Uncle L made a delicious cheesecake from scratch.  We also had rhubarb, dutch apple, pumpkin (inedible because I forgot to put the sugar in at midnight when I was baking it, uggh!), walnut, and peanut butter chocolate.  I loved the walnut pie! Dad made it with honey and maple syrup instead of corn syrup. 

Family Schooling Summary

We went to Grandpop's house in upstate New York for Thanksgiving this week.  We had a great feast and lots of fun family time. Hubby helped the kids make a princess gingerbread house (from a kit). 

We went to the Corning Museum of Glass and watched the glass blowing demonstration, learned about the properties of glass, and saw the historic and contemporary glass collections from all over the world.

Colored glass is made with different elements and each has different properties.

We saw the practice runs of the glass that Corning made for the Hubble Telescope.

The kids looked through telescopes and a periscope that allowed them to see outside the museum.

Glass that darkens when you step near it -- a useful alternative to curtains

Family Schooling Summary

This week I was in the ER on Sunday (chest pains going down my left arm) and was still in quite a bit of pain on Monday.  So we missed the last day of SHARP co-op for the semester. It was the class fair.  My students brought their ethnographic genealogies to display.  The director told me that it went well and sent me this picture:

It was my turn to teach Joy School this week. I decided to get it over with even though I was not feeling 100%.  This will be my last time teaching it until after the new baby comes. We learned about sharing and service.  They made drawings for each other, ornaments for their moms, and did some "service" raking leaves in our yard. It has been really cold here though and they did not want to stay outside very long.

We read about the first Thanksgiving and talked about the service that the American Indians gave the pilgrims and also  read The Giving Tree. 

Big sister A read 10 books in October (accomplished her goal) and got a free pan pizza from Pizza Hut as part of the Book it! program with Pizza Hut.  I had never heard of it before, but some ladies at church told me that homeschoolers can do it too.  She could potentially get a free pizza every month for the next 5 months if she continues to meet her reading goals. 

Recommended Reading: Middlemarch and Jane Eyre

I read Jane Eyre and Middlemarch over the last 2 weeks.  I enjoyed them both.  Jane Eyre is written in the first person and it is easier to stand in her shoes and walk through the events of the book with her. The cast of characters in Jane Eyre is much smaller and chronologically segregated.  Middlemarch on the other hand is about a whole town and so reads a little like an old time soap opera. It jumps from the events of one household to another and then circles back around as time and events occur. Both of the protagonists are ladies with a strong moral character who are striving to do good. I admire them both and I think that they are the kind of heroines that I would like my kids to read about as they get older. 

Some excellent quotes from the Jane Eyre:

“Do you think I am an automaton? — a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! — I have as much soul as you — and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal — as we are!” 
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

(This passage has been cited in General Conference on more than one occasion)

“They spoke almost as loud as Feeling: and that clamoured wildly. "Oh, comply!" it said. "Think of his misery; think of his danger — look at his state when left alone; remember his headlong nature; consider the recklessness following on despair — soothe him; save him; love him; tell him you love him and will be his. Who in the world cares for you? or who will be injured by what you do?"
Still indomitable was the reply — "I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad — as I am now. Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth — so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am quite insane — quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.” 
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

Some good quotes from Middlemarch:

“But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.” 
― George Eliot, Middlemarch

“Confound you handsome young fellows! You think of having it all your own way in the world. You don't understand women. They don't admire you half so much as you admire yourselves.” 
― George Eliot, Middlemarch

“If youth is the season of hope, it is often so only in the sense that our elders are hopeful about us; for no age is so apt as youth to think its emotions, partings, and resolves are the last of their kind. Each crisis seems final, simply because it is new. We are told that the oldest inhabitants in Peru do not cease to be agitated by the earthquakes, but they probably see beyond each shock, and reflect that there are plenty more to come.” 
― George Eliot, Middlemarch

“You must love your work, and not be always looking over the edge of it, wanting your play to begin. And the other is, you must not be ashamed of your work, and think it would be more honorable to you to be doing something else. You must have a pride in your own work and in learning to do it well, and not be always saying, There’s this and there’s that—if I had this or that to do, I might make something of it. No matter what a man is—I wouldn’t give twopence for him’— here Caleb’s mouth looked bitter, and he snapped his fingers— ‘whether he was the prime minister or the rick-thatcher, if he didn’t do well what he undertook to do.” 
― George Eliot, Middlemarch