Is It Math? Is It Science? It's Cooking Time!

Earlier this week we quickly finished up our schoolday in order to free up some time to do a cooking project. We needed snacks to take to school, so Mom decided it would be fun to make them.

First we started with making soft pretzels. We each helped Mom dump the ingredients into the mixer, and then we set the dough aside to rise.

While it was rising, we made peanut butter balls. It was fun taking the "peanut butter dough" and rolling it into balls, then rolling the ball into powdered sugar or crushed corn flakes. Those went into the fridge and out came the pretzel dough.

We rolled the dough into long snakes. Then Mom showed us how to make a U shape with the dough and fold each end to make a pretzel shape. It was hard for some of us, be we all managed to figure it out eventually.

Then Mom plopped them in boiling water for a little bit and then shook salt all over them. Then we put them into the oven to finish cooking.

YUM! They were so good! At first we were unhappy that they wouldn't be like the crunchy pretzels we buy from the store, but they were so good that we ate the entire batch right then and had to make a second one for school the next day!

And we tried the peanut butter balls, too. YUMMY! But there were enough of those that we didn't need to make another batch. Besides, we were getting full from all the pretzels we ate.

So was it math we learned? Yes. We counted the cups of flour and figured out how many 1/2 cupfuls of honey we would need to equal 2 cups. We also learned time as we calculated what time the dough would be finished rising.

Was it science we learned? Yes. We talked about how dough rises (thanks to the yeast) and learned about friction and ways to reduce it as dough stuck to the table and we put oil down to stop it from sticking.

But most of all, it was Cooking Time! We love Cooking Time!

Week In Review, Sep. 15-19

Sorry it's a bit late, but here's what we accomplished last week in our homeschool.

AMMON-attended his Lego, Science, PE, Painting/Drawing and Ceramics classes at the coop. (See previous two posts about these classes.) He finished two more weeks worth of math (lessons 8 and 9) and two grammar lessons. And he read a few books. We started reading Norton Juster's The Phantom Toolbooth together (Mom's reading it outloud to us boys).

BEN-attended his Lego, Toy-Making, PE, Ceramics and Hands-On Math classes at the coop. He completed week 3 in math and also read on his own.

DANIEL-attending his Lego, Toy-Making and Ceramics classes at the coop. He also started working on his ABC book. He has a page for each letter of the alphabet and he picks pictures out of magazines that begin with the letter and pastes them into his book. So far he is filling the letter pages in at random while working on the sounds each letter makes.

ELIZABETH-more painting. She also worked on her shapes and colors with Mom and went to story time at the coop.

GRACE-worked on figuring out how to crawl some more. That's all she ever does, except eat our homework when we leave it on the floor.

TOGETHER-we learned about when Christianity came to England and learned about the monasteries there. We made our own illuminations (the brightly colored pictures the monks made in the books they copied). When Mom gets the camera working again we'll try to take pictures of these cool things. We also learned about Giraffes for science. Did you know that a giraffe NEVER takes a bath for its whole life? Mom said "Ewww!" but Ben said "Giraffes are so lucky!"

Co-op School, Day Two

Yesterday was our second day at our co-op school. We had classes that lasted ALL day. Here are the classes we took yesterday:

9:00-10:00am was Ammon's P.E. class. He played tag games like Raptor Tag, Missionary Tag and Toilet Tag.

10:10-11:10am was Ben's P.E. class. He also played tag games. He said Freeze tag was his favorite.

11:20am-12:20pm Ammon had drawing/painting class. He drew doodle art and turned squiggles into pictures. At the same time Ben and Daniel had their ceramics class, where they learned how to work with clay.

12:50-1:50pm was supposed to be Ben's Hands-On Math class, but they still didn't have a teacher this week so class was cancelled.

2:00-3:00pm was Ammon's ceramics class. He made a clay pot.

Elizabeth and Grace spent the day in the Commons with Mom. Elizabeth painted, laced a picture (used a shoelace and went in and out of holes in a picture), drew shapes with the help of some templates, watched a DVD about letter sounds, and played with the older girls who were inbetween classes. She also got to go to her own "class." From 9:30-10:00 am one of the mom's had story time for the 3-5yos. In the afternoon she also played a few board games that the school has available.

Grace just crawled around and tried to eat anything within reach. She also took a few naps.

Also, after school Mom took us over to the Boys and Girls Club and got all the boys registered for Basketball! HOORAY! And since Ammon's basketball doesn't start until January, Mom also let him sign up for Gladiator for the fall season. Gladiator is a combination of Capture the Flag, Dodgeball and Flag Football.

Elizabeth wants to take dance lessons but since they cost too much she wasn't able to sign up for anything.

That was our very long day! It was fun be we were glad to get home at the end of the day.

The First Day of Co-op School

Today was the first day of our co-op school. We go to classes at the Family Learning Center, which is a special co-op school in our school district. We have classes on Mondays and Tuesdays. Here was our schedule for today:

9:00-10:00 am--Ammon had Lego class. Today he just sorted Legos back into their right places because the internet was down so they couldn't go to the Lego website and do the introduction that their teacher had planned.

10:10-11:10 am--Ben and Daniel had Lego class. They did the same thing Ammon did.

11:20 am -12:20 pm--Ammon had science class where he did sound experiments. It was cool because he had to memorize a certain sound and listen for it. Ben and Daniel went to their Toy Making Class (yes, it really is a toy making class). They each made a paper ball-catching game. You know, those cups with the ball attached, and the object of the game is to catch the ball in the cup. It was super cool to bring home a toy!

Mom, Elizabeth and Grace waited in the Commons while the boys were in classes. Elizabeth painted a picture, ate a snack, played with a magnet game that taught the four seasons, and played with the other younger siblings waiting too. Grace just crawled around and tried to eat everyone's shoes (and her toys,too).

Tomorrow we will tell you all about our long day at the co-op. We can't wait to go back. The classes are really small but totally fun!

Week in Review, Sep. 8-12

We had another good week. Here's what we accomplished:

TOGETHER: History was about the Celts, the first known people in England. Did you know they used to paint themselves blue before battle? Weird. We read a chapter out of our history book and made our own Celtic double-edged war axes out of cardboard, foil and twine (they were COOL). We also read an old Celtic tale, Finn MacCoul. For science we learned about buffalo, both the Asian and African versions and our own American bison.

Ammon: Week 6 and 7 in math, cursive writing, grammar lessons 3 and 4 (plus lesson 2 in writing letters), reading and spelling.

Ben: Week 2 in math, grammar lessons 3-5, reading and spelling (another 100%!), and he wrote and illustrated a story about blue people who like hot dogs, standing on their heads and the color yellow.

Daniel: Practiced writing the alphabet, dictated and illustrated a story about blue people who had lava that came out of their feet, and read books with Mom.

Elizabeth: Also wrote and illustrated a story about blue lava people. Read books with Mom, too.

Grace: Worked on her hands and knees (i.e. she's learning to crawl)!

The Week in Review--Sept 1-5

Our homeschool has officially started. Here's our week in review:

Together--We read a chapter about the end of the Roman empire in our history book, The Story of the World, Vol. 2 (it covers the Medieval period). Our history activity was to make our own Roman pillar out of cookie dough (which we then cooked and ate to symbolize the "barbarians" who conquered/destroyed the empire). For science we learned about rhinos. Did you know the horn on a rhino's head is not bone but similar to what our hair is made out of? Weird, huh!

Ammon--Finished week 4 and week 5 in his math book (he's catching up so he's working quickly through this math book). He did the first three weeks throughout the summer break. He also completed the first two lessons in his grammar book, which was mostly review but gave him more writing than previously, and a lesson on letter writing. He also completed his spelling and reading.

Ben--Finished week 1 in his math book. He did the first two grammar lessons and has started to memorize the poem, The Butterfly, by Christina G. Rosetti. He took his very first spelling test and got every single word correct the first time! He also did some reading of his choice. For art he painted with watercolors.

Daniel--Worked through some lessons in Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. He also watercolored.

Elizabeth--Painted and painted until her heart was content. She really loves to paint.

Two Fieldtrips while on Vacation

We went on vacation to visit our family back in Utah this month. While we were there, our mom and Aunt Erin and Grandma Putnam took us on two cool fieldtrips.

CHEESE FACTORY


On August 13th we went to the Deseret Cheese Co. in Uintah, Utah and took a tour of their cheese factory. Only Aunt Erin and Connor came with us on this fieldtrip. The cheese factory owner gave us these cool hats to wear so that our hair would not fly around and accidentally fall into the cheese vats.


We went in the back and saw the big silver vats full of milk, and we watched as they siphoned off the whey from the curds (they taught us that the whey is the yellowy water stuff and the curds is the thicker cheese stuff).


Then they took us into their huge fridge. It was a warehouse fridge full of aging cheese! This is a picture of Elizabeth down one aisle of the fridge. We only stayed inside for a few minutes but we were cold! The tour ended with samples of "squeaky cheese" for everyone to try. Squeaky cheese is what our mom calls fresh cheese curds because it squeaks on your teeth when you eat it. Everyone except Ammon tried it.



UTAH STATE CAPITOL



On Saturday, August 16th we went with all our cousins and Aunt Erin and Grandma Putnam to the Utah State Capitol. A copy of the Declaration of Independence was on display inside, and we wanted to see it. Ben asked if this was the building where the President lived.


We waited in line for about 15 minutes and then Mom went to see how long the line really was. It wound around the entire building! The Declaration stood in the middle of the building directly below the Rotunda (the circular top to the building). So instead we got a glimpse of the Declaration from a distance and spent some time climbing the huge staircases and staring up at the painted ceiling of the Rotunda then decided to go home. We are glad we did. As we were leaving we heard one family talking about how they had stood in line for six hours and didn't get to see the Declaration up close. They had finally left, disappointed, because the wait was just too long.