Kaya- An American Girl Unit

We've slowly been working through the Portraits of American Girlhood in R11's homeschooling. Last year we did a unit on Felicity and of course I taught some American Girl co-op classes, but this year we decided to start with Kaya and since she is not one of the six original historical dolls, she is not in the Portraits unit study. So, I set out on my own to create something we could use. R11 is pretty familiar with all the time periods of history represented by the dolls, so I decided we needed to do some out-of-the-box thinking to make these units work. After all, NOW is the time while she is 11 even though she isn't learning a lot of new things in terms of history. Given that she has a lot of prior knowledge on most of this, it's time to add another layer to what she already knows. So, this is what we came up with to round our her studies and dig a little deeper.

Fashion Design- she has been designing a beaded dress for Kaya and has hit some bumps in the road in getting it completed. This has been a good exercise in diligence and problem solving.

Cooking & Cuisine- she studied what sorts of things Kaya's people would have eaten and has prepared a menu based on this information. We hope to get that cooked up by week's end (our family schedule is busy this week so this may be tricky)

Climate & Habitat- what is it like in that area of the US? how does it compare to where we live? How did their environment influence their lifestyle?

Comparisons- of other known historical figures and the doll's character. For example, R has been working on comparing Kaya with Sacajewea who was also a member of the same Nez Perce tribe.

Blogging- as part of her schooling, R11 is stepping her blogging over at Miss Bliss. This is an informal way of sharing her creativity and projects with others. This is great practice for keyboarding skills and will be a fabulous portfolio of her work in the years to come. It's also a good way to practice writing. We've been discussing how this format will be a friendly one for a creative girl who wants to showcase her work and possibly sell it in the future. It's time to make friends with it! (even though formats and interfaces can change this is good practice at the general form)

Stop Motion- R11 has made some really fun videos in the past and she has been working on developing some for her American Girl dolls. She made a video from a script she wrote for the dolls and is now trying to work with the sound. It's all about how the other dolls surprise Kaya with the fact that R11 is making her a new dress. Very cute with the movements and script, but sound is an issue.

Now this is all unit study work which she works on with me- mostly as a check point/advisory type role and on her own. In addition to unit study time, she is doing WriteShop Junior Level F (we are beta testing again), math, nature/art/music (CM type study that rotates), and Latin (twice a week).

We've been doing a lot of good work though it may appear unconventional. If you are going to try it out, I'd recommend regular check-in times and frequent conferencing about the student's work. Part of the deal with this custom design for R is that she has to really make an effort and we need to see that she is learning new skills and stretching herself. If not, then she knows the natural consequence is to go back to more traditional schooling on the same topic or a different one all together. 

Blueberry Pie

It's that time of year in New York State when we pick and process blueberries! We hope to pick when we arrive home again (this post was scheduled for while we are gone), but I did buy a flat of them to freeze and to make a pie.

A very yummy, amazing pie. Polly's Perfect Blueberry Pie

The crust is as easy as...well...pie! You mix it right in the pie dish.

The blueberries stay whole for this pie.

Ready for the oven...

Perfection!

I hope to make another one or so this season and I seriously wonder how it would freeze. If any one knows, leave a comment!

4-H Project: Strawberry Muffins

R11 loves to cook and bake and she has decided to enter a baking item into the 4-H Fair this year. I was happy to help her out. I mean, after all, what's not to love about the results of her efforts? She found this recipe in one of her library booksale cookbooks from sometime this year- it's a kid's cook book.

fresh strawberries- 3/4 cup

Folding in the berries- had to give a lesson to R11 on what "folding in" means!

You put half the batter in the muffin cup then add a "surprise" of strawberry jam in the middle before adding more batter. This was a bit tricky, but she did it.

Finished Muffins! Mmmmm....

We've never entered anything into the baking section of the fair before, so this will be a learning experience for all of us. We've been busy at our house preparing for the fair and still have lots of work to do- we missed a week of preparation because of VBS  (I was the craft lady!), so today is the last day and we can get these items ready for the fair and deliver them tomorrow. I'll post again on what other sorts of things are going to fair this year. J5 will have a big year as a Cloverbud which he's very excited about. He also caught wind that he is in first grade now and that is BIG news here at our house!

Strawberry Season

It's finally strawberry picking time in NY! Instead of picking this year (because no one really enjoys it), I decided just to buy the flats and save my energy for processing these beautiful berries! I bought them one at a time and I have just a half flat to go to end the season and finish "putting up" the strawberries. Friday and Saturday we made lots and lots of jam!

Mmmm...fresh farm berries just ripe for action!

Hulled berries ready for duty!

Berries get mashed with a potato masher before getting combined with sugar...4 cups of sugar in case you like to count stuff like that.

E12 likes to make jam and R11 is always willing to help in the kitchen. I have to admit with their help in making the jam, it really cut down my time. We all had a job to do with multiple timers going. Good time!

This jam is ready to jar up!

We made about 20 half pints of strawberry freezer jam.

The remainder of this flat and just about all of the second one were sliced and put in ziploc bags into the freezer. Throughout the year, we pull them out to make fruit smoothies and it is sooooo worth the work! If you've never made freezer jam, there's nothing quite like opening a jar of  jam in the middle of winter and getting a blast of summer time right out of there! The smell takes you right to the of month June. Amazing!

Mixing Bowl Academy: Meatballs and Marinara

Last week we had another chance to take a Mixing Bowl Academy class through CurrClick Live. This time it was a Junior Chef class called Meatballs and Marinara. E12 and R10 had a turn at helping to fix dinner which they both thoroughly enjoyed. The Junior Chef classes are $30 for one session which is four classes.

The class is taught using the Adobe web room format. It's easy to use and follow along. She sends you the log in information ahead of time. And in case you are wondering...of course that's a graduated cylinder in my kitchen. Doesn't everyone have one?

The kids had a great time being "in charge" in the kitchen and it was fun to just supervise and give direction.

First, the kids made the marinara sauce. They chopped the green peppers and would have chopped onions if I could have handled them. The other kids also pressed garlic. Ultimately, this sauce was put through the blender to hide all the veggies. We opted for chunky marinara!

E12 mixed up the beef with the other ingredients. I left out the onions and garlic because I'm allergic to them both. But they were tasty just the same!

E12 and R10 are sharing the load. He is rolling the meatballs and she is dredging them through the breadcrumbs. Have you ever had a meatball with an outer crusty covering? Mmmmm....

Look at how organized we were! Like my new cast iron pan? It was a gift and I bought the one that has a skillet lid as well. Love it!

This recipe uses 2lbs of ground beef and it makes caboodles of meatballs! We froze some for a future meal. Once again, I had an opportunity to use my new commercial baking pans (the 2/3 sheet size).

What a fabulous meal!

The class was definitely fun and the meatballs were AMAZING! The kids really liked working in the kitchen. The web room format has some pros and cons. I asked the kids what they thought of the experience. They really liked watching real time the action in the instructor's kitchen. You can use the chat window to ask questions and the instructor will answer you verbally.

The downside is that it is sometimes difficult to hear what's going on. Lots of folks were asking for clarification so it may have been a common problem. Between us moving back and forth from the laptop to the stove and counter top and the instructor being off to the side and her kids doing the same, it was sometimes hard to hear her and to keep up with what she was doing. The chat option is fun for the kids, but it's not so easy to hang out and chat when things are moving during class. So, the idea of the kids being part of something bigger than what's happening at our house gets a bit lost on them.

I would love to see this program offer some classes a la carte rather than having to sign on for an entire series. The other thing that could see some improvement is the recipe availability. We got the ingredients list ahead of time which does give you the amount of each ingredient, but I would think after the class takes place that a copy of the recipe would be helpful for replication. I'm left to recreate it from memory and copy it down.

Both of my kids thought having me set up a recipe and having them cook it would be more fun. For me, one advantage of the class is that it forces me to leave that time to have them help in the kitchen (not something we always do...I bet you know what I'm talking about!) The other thing I really liked is the choice of recipes. It introduces new things to our kitchen.

I encourage you to try this for yourselves and see what you think!

Mixing Bowl Academy: Strawberry Smoothies!

We had the fabulous opportunity to take a Mixing Bowl Academy class last week and review it. Well actually two classes, but so far we've only done Strawberry Smoothies. This was a pleasant experience from beginning to end. I encourage you to read below and visit the link to see if something appeals to you.

We logged into CurrClick's web classroom. She has a chat window for the kids to get to know one another for a few minutes before class. The ingredients list is there and she includes some reminders and health tips in some of those windows.

This class is designed for 4 and 5 yr olds, so J5 was the star for the afternoon. However, he had some able assistance from his big sister R10.

He did a great job following along with the instructor.

He really enjoyed the blender part, but we fell a little behind. I can probably count on one hand the number of times we've used a blender and well apparently I shouldn't open a smoothie shop with my Oster here.

Yummo! This is one proud Jr Chef! We had some very impressed recipients of some strawberry smoothies!

What a fun time for everyone! This was thoroughly enjoyable. The ingredients list was sent a week ahead of time and I just put the laptop up in the kitchen and we pulled out what we needed shortly before class. The Adobe Web Room is easy to use and the link is sent to you with the ingredients list. Once you are are logged in, it's very easy to navigate and the instructor is easy to understand. Her kids model for the class and she is there to guide us along.

We had a great experience and the recipe was tasty and very easy for the younger set. We are all looking forward to tomorrow's class and I can't wait to tell you how it went.

American Girl Cooking: Raspberry Flummery

		Raspberry Flummery VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

So, I’m still playing around with Windows Live Writer…I guess if you click on that link to view the slide show, you’ll be able to. Or not…

This is the flummery we made for the American Girl Co-op Class two weeks ago. We got the recipe from Felicity’s Cookbook. Though the Pleasant Company no longer prints these books, they are available at libraries and I pick them up at book sales and swaps.

R10 really enjoys the opportunity to cook in the kitchen with me so I’m taking advantage of her enthusiasm for sure!

Some of you have asked me how we put together the co-op class. We are part of our homeschool support group’s co-op which meets for two hours on Monday afternoons (10 sessions in the fall and spring). I volunteered to teach this class (along with two others) so that is how it came together.