Anne of Ingleside - Review

I've just finished reading Anne of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery, for the L.M. Montgomery Reading Challenge, at Reading to Know.

It is book six in the Anne of Green Gables series, and so far, it is my favorite of the set.

The story finds Anne a soon-to-be, middle aged, mother of six. Which, no doubt, has something to do with my feelings toward it.

Like the other books in the series, after the first, there is no real point, or purpose to the narrative. It is simply a continuation of Anne's life. And, after knowing Anne, as a dreamy child, hopeful collegiate, a beginning career woman, and a young bride, I was very happy to meet her as a mother.

The story unfolds in a series of short anecdotes of each of the children's adventures, and misadventures, as they swirl around a mother (in a way only six children can), who is just beginning to feel the speed of life quickening, with each milestone passed, and each season's, too quick, return, embracing motherhood, with an excepting knowledge of it's temporary nature, and feeling with each joy, an equal promise of sorrow.

Of course, even though she is no longer Anne of Green Gables, she is still, the perfect, thin, beautiful, patient, loving, understanding, capable, imaginative Anne. I only wish I could be half the mother she is. Then again, maybe if I had her housekeeper...

It's great to be a homeschooler!

Chocolate Strawberry Pinwheel Heart Cookies

Make one batch of sugar cookie dough. (I generally use a recipe from Alphabake A Cookbook And Cookie Cutter Set, by Deborah Pearson, but one sugar cookie recipe is pretty much the same as the next.)

Divide it in half, and add 4 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa to one half, and 1 teaspoon of strawberry extract, with 4 drops of red food coloring, to the other (this won't add a great gob of flavor to the cookie, just a slight hint of strawberry).

Roll dough into two, similar sized rectangles.

Place one rectangle on top of the other.

Roll the rectangles into a tube shape, together.

Wrap the dough in wax paper, and place it in the fridge for an hour to firm up.

Remove the dough from the wax paper, and slice it into 1/4'' slices. Bake these at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, for 10 minutes, for standard pinwheel cookies.

Or, cut them into heart shapes, with a cookie cutter, before baking, for that extra Valentine's Day touch.

And, roll up the scraps of dough, and cut, for marbled heart cookie leftovers.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

What Makes the Sky Blue?

After a week of studying germs, and a week of studying earthquakes, we were ready for some blue skies, and happiness. Of course, that led us to the question, "What makes the sky blue?"

We found our answer, or at least one good enough for our understanding, in an experiment from Jean Potter's Science in Seconds for Kids, which contains over 100 experiments you can do in ten minutes, or less (pretty cool).

We started with a jar of water, and a flashlight. Shining the light through the water, in a dark room, we could see the light bouncing off bits of dust floating in the water, but not very well.

Then, we added a few drops of milk to the water, and tried again. This time the light bounced off of the milk particles, reflecting back pale blue waves of light, just like the sunlight reflecting off of the particles of dust, and water vapor in the atmosphere, making the sky appear blue.

For a more extensive version of this experiment, check out the Blue Sky, Red Sunset experiment from Science is Fun.

Or, check out the Science Sunday link up at Adventures in Mommydom, for more children's science fun.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Coffee Creamer and Snow Ice Cream

This has been such a funny winter, with early snow, followed by an arctic blast, and weeks of spring like weather. Then, when I didn't think I could resist the urge to plant the flowers gardens any longer, the snow returned.

And, the timing couldn't have been any better. We just finished the chapter of Anne of Green Gables, where Anne tastes ice cream for the first time. I'd been planning to make some ice cream with the children anyway, now we can make snow ice cream, instead.

We watched a wonderful video demonstration by Tawra Kellam from http://www.livingonadime.com/, on how to make ice cream using fresh snow, milk, sugar, and vanilla. And, then we sat some bowls out to catch the falling snow. I wouldn't recommend doing that barefoot, but I was in a hurry to get the bowls out while it was still snowing.

In the meantime, I wanted to try something a little more upscale, for the man of the house.

I gathered a bowl of fresh snow (after putting on some shoes), being careful to take it off the top. Again, I wouldn't suggest sending the kids out to collect the snow, unless you want rocks, and dirt in your ice cream, too.

I added a half a cup of coffee creamer to the bowl, using Parisian Almond Cream flavored creamer.

A little mixing, and it was ready to eat.

The texture is not as creamy as traditional ice cream, but it's refreshing in a way I can't quite explain. To use a quote from Anne, "I guess (coffee creamer snow) ice cream is one of those things that are beyond imagination."

It's great to be a homeschooler.

What My Child is Reading - January 23, 2010

This was our week for finishing things up.

We read the last two of the germ books, that straggled in from the library:

Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Inside Ralphie, which I read to the little ones, as a follow up to the television episode, we watched last week, by the same name. The book, and the show are very similar, but the little ones still enjoyed going through the story again. If you haven't checked out The Magic School Bus series with your children yet, then let me highly recommend it. These books are terrific, for backing up just about any scientific study you can imagine.

We also received in a Magic School Bus, chapter book entitled, The Giant Germ. My 12 year old read this one on his own, in a just because, sort of way. The reading level is below his age. I think Amazon says it's for ages 9-12, but it's pretty simply written. Still, judging from all the facts he's been spewing about germs, and viruses, I'd say he learned quite a lot.

We also finished up the last of our Hans Christian Andersen study, for the time being:

The older girls read one more retelling of The Little Mermaid, illustrated by Charles Santore, and claiming to be faithful to the original English translation of Hans Christian Andersen's story. The illustrations are by far the loveliest of all The Little Mermaids we've read. And, the girls did not seem to mind, that the mermaid lost her prince in the end, though they did mention, that they thought the mermaids should be wearing tops.

We left Naomi Lewis' adaptation of The Snow Queen unfinished, or at least the children did, I read to end, and can tell you it concludes quite nicely. The little ones just lost interest in the story, it was too long for them to stick with. And, the older children refused to read it, because it begins with the devil, and his demons. I will not say they completely rejected the book however, because everyone agreed the illustrations were beautiful, and intriguing. Even the older children spent some time flipping through the pages, admiring them.

Finally, we completed our mini earthquake study, with three books:

Earthquakes by Franklyn M. Branley, and illustrated by Megan Lloyd, which we found interesting, and informative, but a little too scary.

National Geographic's Jump Into Science: Earthquakes, by Ellen J. Prager, and illustrated by Susan Greenstein, was just excellent, with a nice mix of story book, science, and reassuring safety tips.

And, TIME For Kids: Earthquakes! They make the ground shake, by the editors of TIME for Kids with Barbara Collier. We always enjoy this series of books. They are factual, but fun, and presented in a very kid friendly format.

We have a Magic School Bus Earthquake book on reserve at the library as well, but it hasn't arrived in yet, so I guess it will be our straggler for next week.

In the meantime, you can find more reviews and recommendations of children's literature, at the What My Child is Reading link up hosted by Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Weaving Construction Paper Valentine Holders

It's a little early to start Valentine's projects with the kids, but we went ahead, and made our Valentine's pockets today, so the kids can take their time, and fill each other's with cards and goodies, over the next couple of weeks.

I found instructions for this craft in an Expert Village video, on YouTube. It offers pretty clear instructions, so I won't repeat them. But, each heart takes two pieces of construction paper, scissors, glue, a stapler, a ruler, and a pencil.

***Or, for a longer lasting, fabric version, check out this tutorial, at Pickup Some Creativity (thanks Chris, for the heads up about your post!).***

Weaving construction paper was too difficult for the youngest children (those under 8), but they enjoyed folding, and cutting, the paper, and with a bit of help, they all managed pretty well. It was a good chance to evaluate the young ones' cutting skills, and the older children's ability to follow multi-step directions, not to mention, my patience.

I realized after the first fold, it wasn't going to be a good group craft, so while I worked one on one, with each of them, the rest of the kids cut, and crafted Valentine's for each other. Though, I think there was more cutting, than crafting going on.

The heart shaped pockets, hang nicely on the back of their chairs, and have plenty of room for treats from each other.

It reminded me a lot of the shoe boxes we used to decorate in school, for receiving classmates' Valentines. In fact, it made me quite hungry for some frosted sugar cookies - you know, the kind with the red hots on top. Where is that room mother when you need her?

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Valentine's Candy Corn

I was supposed to be working on our tax forms last night, but of course, I ended up needing a form I didn't have. The library, where the forms are, was closed for the evening, and I could have printed it off of the the IRS's website, if the children hadn't colored on all my printer paper...

So, I made another batch of candy corn, instead.

I've used this recipe, from Home Made Dessert Recipes, a few times now, with pretty good success. I've only had one batch fail (you might have noticed the absence of a Christmas candy corn post), but that was due to a total lack of attention, on my part. If you measure carefully, and follow the directions, as they are written, it is an excellent recipe.

For this Valentine batch (please excuse the really bad, night time, house lit photo, the candy is much prettier in real life), I added five drops of strawberry extract to the red, and pink, and...YUM. I'm really pleased with the results.

Not quite as good as a tax return (remember I have six children!), but then there's no tedious form to fill out for this treat, either.

It's great to be a homeschooler.