What My Child is Reading - Pumpkins

Laura Numeroff should write a story called, If You Give a Homeschool Mom a Pumpkin. Because, once you cut into a pumpkin, there are so many things to do with all the bits, and pieces. As we discovered, after being inspired by Margaret McNamara's How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?, to cut open, not just one...

...but two pumpkins. I'll be sharing more about what we found there, and in McNamara's book, for Sunday Science, tomorrow, Lord willing.

But, while the children were busy pulling the pulp, and seeds (or guts), out of the pumpkins, they were chanting all the goodies the pumpkins would become...pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread, pumpkin waffles...I added...pumpkin soup...and received a chorus of "YUCK!"

Of course, that was before reading Helen Cooper's excellent Pumpkin Soup, the story of a cat, a squirrel, and a duck, who live together in harmony. Every night, they make pumpkin soup together. Everyone has a job, and everyone is happy, until one day, Duck decides to stir things up.

The beautiful, warm illustrations, left me hungry for a bowl of the soup, but not the children. They were more taken with Dianne Ochiltree's idea of turning smashed pumpkins into pumpkin pies, in Sixteen Runaway Pumpkins.

A warning to parents: If you plan to read Ochiltree's book out loud, you might want to practice it alone a few times first. It's a fast paced, rhyme filled, read, that can be tricky for the tongue, the first time through.

Finally, we (especially the youngest of us), also enjoyed the silly, pumpkin themed, word play of Pick a Pumpkin, Mrs. Millie! by Judy Cox. I wasn't actually sure if it was supposed to be a Miss Frizzle/ Amelia Bedilea sort of visit to a pumpkin patch, or a close look at the early onset of Alzheimer's, but it had the little ones rolling with laughter, so I'll say it was a hit.

Be sure to check out all the other children's story reviews, and recommendations, at this week's What My Child is Reading blog hop, hosted by Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Family Fall To-Do "Leaf" List

This morning, we traced, and cut out 30 construction paper leaves.

Then, we wrote one item from our fall to-do list, on each leaf...

...and taped them up to a paper bag tree, I put up last night.

Now, instead of checking items off our list, we can remove a leaf from our tree, for each item completed, this fall.

Since fall overlaps with the Thanksgiving season (we're counting Thanksgiving as the end of fall, because after that our focus shifts to Christmas), we plan to also use this tree for our count-down to Thanksgiving, turkey tree, too.

So, as the leaves come down, our thankful turkeys can go up.

And, just in case you're wondering, here's what's on our list of hope-to-do's, this fall:

• Make paper bag owls
  
• See the leaves change on our mystery tree
  
• Spot a changing larch (more on that later)
  
• T's first hunt
  
• Celebrate Columbus Day
  
• Go on a hayride
  
• "Watch Toy Story 3" (we skipped the kid's movies in the theater this summer, and are waiting for their DVD releases, this fall)
  
• Watch "Ramona and Beezus"
  
• Watch "How to Train Your Dragon"
  
• Bob for apples
  
• Make apple donuts
  
• Rake leaves
  
• Jump in a leaf pile
  
• Celebrate Mom's birthday
  
• Pull the guts out of a pumpkin
  
• Roast pumpkin seeds
  
• Make candy corn
  
• Celebrate Dad's birthday
  
• Go to a fall festival
  
• Play in the first snow
  
• Make gingerbread men
  
• Do a scarecrow craft
  
• Make zucchini bread
  
• Do a squirrel craft
  
• Do a hibernation craft
  
• Make hot chocolate from scratch
  
• Make a pumpkin pie
  
• Do a pumpkin craft
  
• Go on a fall scavenger hunt
  
• Go to Starbucks for a Pumpkin Latte (this one is for the Man of the House, and I - but since the nearest Starbucks is 50 miles away, it ends up being a fall family outing).
  

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Owl Cookies - A Family, Fall Tradition

Another fall, and another batch of owl cookies down (click here, for directions).

Despite my last few posts centering in on food, we do more than eat in the fall. In fact, tonight I'm busy putting together a fall "bucket list" of sorts. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to tell you about that, tomorrow. But meanwhile, our fall festivities continue...

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Candy Corn For Lunch

The children enjoyed our fall themed breakfast so much, yesterday, that I decided to carry the fun on into lunch, with a Moms Menu inspired recipe - Candy Corn Quesadillas.

Moms Menu suggests making this a layered affair, with melted cheese between two flour tortillas, and then more melted cheese, to form the candy corn, on top. But, we went with an open face, single layer look, instead.

Place a couple of tortillas on an ungreased cookie sheet. Piece third slices of American cheese around the edges.

Fill in the middle ring with a layer of grated cheddar cheese...

...and the center with grated mozzarella (we grated up two sticks of string cheese).

Pop the cookie sheet into a 400 degree (Fahrenheit) oven for a few minutes, until the cheese is melted.

Slice, with a pizza cutter, or sharp knife, into sixths, or eights, and serve with fresh fruit, and salsa, or pizza sauce for dipping.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Tag!

So, there's a game of tag going around the blogosphere. Someone tags you with 8 questions to answer. You answer them, and then tag some other blogger buddies with your own set of questions.

I was just tagged by Christy from Superheroes and Princesses. She asked:

1. What is your favorite fictional book? If you had ask me this in high school, or college, I would have instantly answered The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, or maybe Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. I still really like his satire, but now that I'm older, I have less patience for his sacrilegiousness (I'm not sure that's really a word), and assuming that he died in those beliefs, makes his humor, tragic tinged. So, I don't know. I read a lot of mysteries, and science fiction, for mind candy. But, I think I'm currently without a real favorite.

2. What was your college major? International Studies, with a German emphasis.

3. If you could visit one place in the world, where would you go? This is a hard one, too. I would love to say Ireland - I've always wanted to see Ireland. But, in reality, if I was just planning a trip for fun, I'd go to Great Falls - I don't know why, but I just love going to there.

4. What is your biggest challenge as a mom? I think maybe just trying to keep up with the day to day. Has everyone had their shots, seen the dentist, gotten their hair cut? Do they need new socks, slips, tights, belts, or things? Can they all tie their shoes, ride bikes, spell their names? All the little easy things, that aren't really easy after all.

5. What did you eat for breakfast today? Peanut butter toast, a banana, and a cup of coffee. It's the same thing I have for breakfast every morning, unless we're out of bananas, or I'm on a no coffee kick. Then, I make muffins for the kids (unless I have Poptarts on hand).

6. What kind of music do you listen to most often? Well, right now, it's kid's music - Sesame Street Fiesta, They Might Be Giants' Here Comes Science, the collected works of Veggie Tales songs. Before children, I had an eclectic taste in music - Christian Rock (Steve Taylor, Michael W. Smith, Steve Camp), American folk music, those South American groups that play at all the street fairs, really anything with a lot of emotion to it.

7. What is your least favorite chore? Maybe laundry, or cleaning the bathrooms, or dusting, vacuuming, mopping the floor, cleaning fingerprints off of doors. I think, really, I truly despise housework - it's so dirty. I often find myself using the little mantra of Dory, from Finding Nemo. Instead of "Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming..." I chant along, "Just keep folding, folding, folding" or whatever goes with the particular chore in front of me. It seems to help.

8. Pretend that money is no object, and you need a new outfit. Where would you go to buy it? Christopher & Banks.



Okay, so I'm tagging:



Phyllis from All Things Beautiful

Wonder Mom from The Fantastic Five

and, Carrie from Reading to Know

And, my questions:

1. What is your favorite children's book of all time?

2. What is it that you like most about where you live?

3. What is it that you like least about where you live?

4. Do you have any special fall traditions?

5. What is your favorite holiday, and why?

6. Do you still eat sugary kid's breakfast cereals? Do you have a favorite?

7. If you could pick any age to stay at (teens, 20's, 30's, 100's), which age would it be?

8. What do you enjoy most, and least about blogging?

If I didn't tag you, but you'd love to answer one of the questions above, just leave your answer in the comments, and we can all play along.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Balloon Pumpkin Patch for the First Day of Fall

We kicked off the first day of fall, this morning, with pumpkin muffins, apple cider, and a trip to the pumpkin patch.

Yes, I know it's a tad early for pumpkin patches. Actually, we don't even have any in our area, anymore. A year or two ago, a couple of farmers tried to grow enough pumpkins to make a patch, and it was fun - but nothing like the patches near Grandma's house in Oregon's Willamette Valley.

Given our dismal garden showing this fall, I can't blame our local farmers for giving up. But, we weren't ready to abandon a favorite fall tradition.

So, this morning, before the children got up, I scattered orange (and a few green) pumpkins around the floor...

...tied them together with curly ribbon...

...and taped on some construction paper leaves.

Then, when the children got up, they ate their muffins, drank their cider, and watched "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" (we have it on disk, but you can find it online, here).

I know it's a early for the Great Pumpkin, too. And, we don't even celebrate Halloween, anymore. But, I'm a sucker for all things Charlie Brown, and it went perfectly with our breakfast.

I placed a real pumpkin on the table too, with the promise of some fall themed schoolwork, later in the day.



But first, it was off to the patch, for some good old fashioned pumpkin picking, of our own.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

(Opaque) Magnifying Glass Cookies

In case I haven't mentioned it lately, I love living in western Montana. The mountains are gorgeous. Even rainy day, cloudy skies can be beautiful.

The pace of life is slower, too. Which, if you're use to the hectic rush of the modern world, can take some getting use to. And, you have to learn to do without a few conveniences...like packs of light colored Life Savers for making...

...magnifying glass cookies, for a group of super sleuth, tree detecting, children. You would think a Safeway store, even in the middle of nowhere Montana, would carry at least one pack of Life Savers - wouldn't you? Sigh.

Oh well, if you have access to clear, or light colored candies, and want a mystery themed snack, then these Tea Time Magazine inspired cookies, could be just what you need.

We made ours simply, with plain old sugar cookie dough. You could even use the store bought, from the tube, kind - even my grocery store carries those. And then, you would start by slicing the dough into circles.

We rolled out our dough, and used a glass, dipped in flour, to cut the circles.

Then, we used a small funnel, to cut smaller circles, out of the centers.

An, "I" cookie cutter provided our handles - though they could just as easily have been cut with a butter knife. Just press them onto the circles, and you have the magnifying glass frames.

Bake those at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, for around nine minutes - until they are about two minutes from being done. Then, remove them from the oven, and fill the centers with crushed, hard candies - preferably clear, crushed, hard, candies, like pineapple, or lemon Life Savers.

We used Werther's Originals - which while delicious, are not even close to clear. So, after popping them back into the oven, and baking for the additional three minutes it took to melt the candy, and bake the cookies, we got something that looked to me like pumpkins with long stems (although stain glass pumpkin cookies might be fun, too).

Oh well, they tasted good...

...and really, with a sky like this, who can complain about the cookies?

It's great to be a homeschooler.