Math Monday Meets Bible Alive! Tuesday

The girls wanted to give some to our church's Thanksgiving pantry, but they had spent all their allowance, before they saw the list of needs in Sunday's bulletin. So, I made a deal with them, that combined Math Monday (hosted by Joyful Learner), and Bible Alive! Tuesday (hosted by The Fantastic Five).

I had received a coupon in the mail for $15.00 off our next shopping trip, if we spent over a certain amount. So, I gave the girls the coupon, and the sale ads, and told them they could have the coupon, when I went grocery shopping, but I wanted them to search the ads for the best buys, so they could get the most food for the amount (and hopefully, alert me to some sales on our own grocery items, too).

They spent quite a while checking the pantry need list from the bulletin, and searching through the ads, and our own stash of coupons. They compared the sale prices at the store we were heading to, with the other store ads, to make sure we were really selecting good sale items.

Finally, we were off to the store. I picked up my normal grocery items, while A kept track of our running total on the calculator, to make sure we bought enough to validate the coupon, and G kept a written total of the pantry items, to make sure they stayed within the coupon amount.

In the end, they (with a little help from me - I mean really, you practically need a masters in mathematics to navigate the store sales these days) not only picked up an impressive pile of canned, and boxed goods for the pantry, but knocked $92.00 off of our total, in the process. And, for a final boost to the lesson, the cash register spit out $14.50 in cash off (with no strings attached) coupons, for our next shopping trip.

I had intended our Bible Alive! Tuesday lesson to be from James - you know, faith with works. But, as I looked at the cash back coupons, the cashier handed me, I realized God had provided us with an entirely different lesson.

Ecclesiastes 11:1 "Cast your bread (or cash back coupon) on the water (or into the food bank), for after many days (or sometimes sooner) you will find it again."

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Turkey Bread

I'd like to promise, this is our last turkey themed project of the year, but I've already spotted at least one more turkey project, I'm sure I won't be able to pass up. After Thanksgiving though, we'll move on.

We had so much fun making "bear" bread, a couple of weeks ago, I knew we'd have to make this turkey bread, as soon as I saw it on the Wheat Council's site. They give a recipe, and instructions. We just used a normal, white bread, recipe, on the dough setting, in our bread maker, and morphed the instructions slightly. I'll repeat the step-by step here, so I can throw in some pictures, for you visual types.

Start with one loaf's worth of bread dough, made the traditional way, in the bread maker, or thawed from the store.


Divide it in half, and pat one half down on a greased cookie sheet, into a slightly, flat circle.


Divide the other half, into ten equal pieces.


Shape eight of the pieces into tear drop shapes, three to four inches long, and cut them with kitchen shears, or a sharp knife (shears work better), up the sides, to give them a feathery look.


Fan them out, pointy ends up, under the top edge of the circle, for tail feathers.


Combine the two remaining pieces of dough, and pull off three small bits, to turn into a beak, and feet. Flatten what's left of the dough into a bowling pin shape, and place it on top of the circle, to form the turkey's neck, and head.

Pinch one small piece of dough into a beak, and pinch it down into the middle of the head.


Cut small slits in the dough, to the right, and left of the beak.


Insert raisin eyes.


Form the last two scraps of dough into small circles, and snip them two, or three times on the bottom edge, to form feet. Then, place them under the bottom edge of the turkey.


Cover the turkey with a clean towel, and let it rise for about 45 minutes.

Bake for 25 minutes, at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Rub it with butter, as soon as you remove it from the oven.

Serve.

The Wheat Council suggests drying it out, on the counter, for a few days, and using it as a Thanksgiving centerpiece. I think, fresh out of the oven, it would be quirky replacement for rolls, on the table. Or, wouldn't it be fun to make small individual turkey rolls, for each Thanksgiving guest?

Hmmm...I've got some work to do.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Going on a Turkey Hunt

For Science Sunday this week, we decided to go on a turkey hunt.

The children were slightly disappointed to discover I meant for it to be a turkey spotting expedition, and we weren't actually going to shoot a wild turkey. But, their enthusiasm returned when we spotted a small flock, crossing the road, on the outskirts of town.




According to the Montana Field Guide, wild turkeys are not native to our state, but were introduced. They seem to be thriving now though.




And, they gave us a very fine display of camouflage in action. Can you spot the turkey in the picture below?


How about now?



On the way home we stopped by the library, where I picked up Jim Arnosky's I'm a Turkey. It's a factual picture book (though a little sparse on facts), that reads like a story, with lots of fun illustrations...



...and it will hold us over nicely, until Dorothy Henshaw Patent's, fact filled, Wild Turkeys, arrives in from a partner library. From what I've seen of this Rookie Reader, on Amazon's instant view, I don't think we'll be disappointed.



We also found quite a few interesting, and useful facts from Gary Clancy's Wild Turkey, which is not for children, but for hunters. On page 8 (you can view it on Google Books, here), there is an excellent, labeled, photograph of the beard, dewlap, snood, and caruncles of a turkey.

And, just in case you still want to know more, here are a few of the turkey facts we've picked up so far:

• An adult male is called a Tom, or a Gobbler (females don't gobble).
  
• An adult female is called a Hen.
  
• A juvenile male is called a Jake.
  
• A juvenile female is called a Jenny.
  
• A baby turkey is a Poult.
• Turkeys roost in trees at night.
• They can fly, but not very far.
  
• They run about 12 mph, but can put on a burst of speed up to 35 mph (these numbers vary widely, depending on what you are reading).
  
• Females lay 10-18 eggs at a time, which take 28 days to hatch.

For more fun with science, check out this week's Science Sunday link-up, at Adventure's in Mommydom.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Ode to a Rice Krispies Turkey Tradition

Thanksgiving is not the time to try new things. It's a time for traditions. Or, at least that's what I understood Martha Stewart to say once, though for the life of me, I can't find a reference for that quote. Even so, I think it's mainly true.

Which is why, even though the good people of Kellogg's have offered up instructions for a new, and adorable, Rice Krispies Turkey (click the underlined link to view the recipe, and then hopefully they won't mind my "borrowing" the photo off their site)...

...we will stick with, the old, tried, and true, traditional Rice Krispies Turkey (even if we did make ours with Cocoa Pebbles, this year). Kellogg's might have moved on to cuter ground, but bowling pin shaped turkey...

...you're always welcome at our house. Not to say we won't be making any of your sweet little cousins, but first things first.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

What My Child is Reading - Thanksgiving Books

Our reading this week, felt very scattered. Even though all of our books fell under the Thanksgiving umbrella, they were very different, from fun and fanciful, to fact filled and less frivolous.

Straddling the gap, was Peter Cook's You Wouldn't Want to Sail on the Mayflower! A Trip That Took Entirely Too Long. Amazon has it marked for ages 4-8, but I'd say more 7-11. Like all of the books in the series (and there are a lot of them), it presents non-fiction details of a historical time period, in a comic book like format. My older children, and I, enjoyed it well enough, but the younger children found it a little too long, and busy for their liking.

I picked up Edna Barth's Turkeys, Pilgrims, and Indian Corn, The Story of the Thanksgiving Symbols, mainly for myself, to fill in some of the history, and details of our traditions. It could easily be read, and enjoyed by older children (ages 7-12) too, though. This book was written in the 1970's, so I was surprised to find how many of the myths, like Pilgrims wearing black, and living in log cabins, and the Indians in tipis, with feathers in their hair, it debunked. If we've known all these things weren't true for so long, why do we keep teaching them?

I guess, it's because the myths are so much cuter than the reality.

The younger children enjoyed Pat Mora's Gracias/Thanks. With Spanish text on one page, and English on the next, readers follow a small boy, as he lists off the everyday things, that make him happy, and says "thanks".


I checked out The Perfect Thanksgiving by Eileen Spinelli, because I usually enjoy her books. And, the children enjoyed this one, comparing two different families', different ways of celebrating Thanksgiving. I found the comparison of classes strange, and unsettling in a children's books though, as one family seems to be from the upper, educated, elite, while the other is a lower class, "average American", family. Although both families are said to be perfect in the end, most of the book is dedicated to pointing out the superiority of the upper class.


But, Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano, was nothing but fun. As Thanksgiving approaches, Turkey seeks to disguise himself, to blend in with the various animals on the farm, who he thinks are less likely to be chosen as a holiday entree. Finally, he settles on the perfect disguise, saving not only himself, and his barnyard friends, but the farmer's Thanksgiving dinner, as well.



Find out what other families are reading, at this week's What My Child is Reading blog-hop, hosted by Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.



It's great to be a homeschooler.

Turkey (Shaped) Sandwiches

Start with apple, and orange slice feathers, and cheese legs.

Add, a round sandwich of your choice. Cut the bread with a large glass, save the left over pieces, to dry for Thanksgiving stuffing.

Use a flattened piece of crust, for a head.

Cut a triangle of cheese for the beak...

...raisin halves for eyes, and a piece of fruit roll up, or craisin if you have one, for a snood.

(Place gobble related pun here).

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Hand Print Mayflower Craft

I saw a hand print craft kit, for Columbus Day, at the Oriental Trading Company, and thought maybe we could do something similar for Thanksgiving.

To start with, I drew a wavy line on blue construction paper, for the girls to cut out. After, E cut hers, C just had to cut a straight line below it, and she could use the waves left behind, by E's cutting.

They glued the wavy ocean down, onto yellow construction paper.

Then, added their hand prints, at the water line. I had instructed them to spread their thumbs out, to make the bow of the ship.

When, the paint was dry, they glued on construction paper sails, and flags, and a few clouds overhead. I may yet have them draw a flower on, so they will remember the name of the ship, but then, we might just leave them as is.

C, chose to make her ship purple, because she's four, and she likes purple.

Her color choice afforded opportunity to discuss the fact, that we really don't know what the Mayflower looked like. All, the pictures we see, and even the Mayflower II moored on the east coast, are best guesses, not actual representations.

Speaking of the Mayflower II, here's a link to an old newsreel-type film, of the ship being sailed from England to the United States back in the '50s. It's a pretty good piece of history now, itself.

It's great to be a homeschooler.