Short, a word prompt post

The Homeschool Review Crew does word prompts for Instagram fun, I think it's great to have these words prompts for doing quick posts.  :)   I find them fun as sometimes it surprises me where my brain goes.  :)

The word for today is Short.  Let's follow my brain where it goes eh?
_____

Short

Not long

Not tall

Not average.

Just short

Short a nickel

Short a dime

Slip me a penny won't you?

A brick short of a full load

A few screws short of a hardware store

  A burger short of a combo meal. 

I query this.

Is to be short bad?

Short can slip through crowds

Short can pass unnoticed.

Short can be youth.

Short can be senior.

Short is my mom.

And that is not a bad thing.

Short is different.

Short is good.

Short is easy leg room.

Short is less head bonks.

Short is not me..

Unless I am next to a tall cousin.

Which shows that 

Short is totally relative. :)

Review: Armstrong & Charlie

This middle school book was simply a good read. A white boy and a black boy... learning they really weren't so different after all.   A good book for middle schoolers (and their older siblings or parents too!).  :) 

Book Synopsis:
 Charlie isn't looking forward to sixth grade. If he starts sixth grade, chances are he'll finish it. And when he does, he'll grow older than the brother he recently lost. 

Armstrong isn't looking forward to sixth grade, either. His parents have signed him up for Opportunity Busing to a white school in the Hollywood Hill.

So from September to June, arms will wrestle, fists will fly, and bottles will spin. There'll be Ho Hos spiked with hot sauce, sleepovers, boy talk about girls, and a little guidance from the stars.

Set in Los Angeles in the 1970s, Armstrong and Charlie is the hilarious, heartwarming tale of two boys from opposite worlds, Different, yet the same.

My Thoughts:

I have to admit, it took me a while to cotton to the fact that the story jumped back and forth between Charlie and Armstrong's stories.   But once I did it worked.

Seeing the thoughts of two sixth grade boys as they work through not only sixth grade and all that means, but through integration of blacks and whites in the same school.  Armstrong being one of the children bused into a predominately white school.  Charlie having to deal with his school friends abandoning his integrated school for the security of all white schools.

It's a neat book where two boys had to work through a variety of challenges... involving fights and ho ho's and misunderstandings, and then... a sleepover in which they discovered... they are both boys and aren't as different as they thought they might be.

That doesn't mean the challenges stopped, it just means they changed.  Through it all, lessons are learned and friendships are forged and change happened. 

My suggestion: This is a good, enjoyable read.  Could easily make the type of book to do a report on and be good for conversation starters.  NOTE: there is some astrology in this book for parents who would rather avoid that, but it's not a huge part.

 Armstrong & Charlie. 
By Steven B. Frank
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Size: 6.1 x 8.56
304 pages
Ages 10-12 years
Received: Softcover book

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books.

 Amazon.ca: Armstrong and Charlie

 Amazon.com: Armstrong and Charlie

Recipe: Tasty Buns

I really liked the dough in this recipe, hopefully they taste as good as the recipe was to make.   Just so you know... THEY DID!!!

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour(I used one whole wheat, one white)
• 2 (.25 ounce) packages dry yeast 
•  1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp Salt

• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil 

•  2-3 cups all-purpose flour(I used one whole wheat and almost 2 white)

• fine grated cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Stir together 2 cups flour and the yeast, add in sugar and salt. In a separate bowl, heat milk, water, and oil heat to lukewarm in microwave.(in my microwave took 3 minutes). Add all at once to the flour mixture, and beat until smooth, about 3 minutes.  Use a mixer.
2. Mix in enough flour to make a soft dough, 2 to 3 cups. Mix well. Dust a flat surface with flour, turn dough out onto floured surface, and let rest under bowl for about 10 minutes.  I kneaded it for a minute before letting it rest.
3. Shape dough into 12 slightly flat balls, and place on greased baking sheet to rise until doubled in size.  Made enough for 12 flat buns and a bunch of little rolls.
4. I added cheese to the little rolls once they had risen
5. Bake in a preheated 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) oven for 12 to 15 minutes.

I keep trying to make cheese buns like what I can buy in the store with cheese that you pull apart and taste ever so yummy.  Hoping these will do the trick.

End result:
The boy (age 11) devoured, "adding they need more cheese, and better than the store mom"
Hubby said "good buns hun, better than store bought"  
Me: Enjoyed them.. both with and without cheese, though the ones without cheese seemed a tad flat (probably cause I made them smaller than they should have been) 

Linked up at 
Hip Homeschoolers. 
Turn it up Tuesdays.
  

The Greats of Canada!

Welcome to blogging through the alphabet, this week we are on letter G!   I know...seven weeks in already...time just flies doesn't it?   I hope you are taking part in this blog linky, or at least having fun with it.  :)

Others in this series:
A: Sidney Altman, Canadian Scientist. 
B: Beavers!
C: Chant National/O Canada.
D: Dog Sledding.
E: Edgewalk.
F. Tailed Frogs.  
 

This week I really had to ponder what I would do for the letter G.   I thought for a while of doing the Go-Train which was on my brain because a friend recently found it more cost effective than taking VIA.  But that wasn't setting well... then I thought about the great lakes and thought hmm.... and my smart alecky 11 year popped up with "you can do the great cat Milo!!!"....and therefore the Greats of Canada was born!   :)




Did you know that Canada is one of Great Britain's offspring?  Yes indeed, a long time ago England sent explorers off to North America (1600's).  There were a variety of skirmishes over the years, but overtime England and France settled their differences, the different parts of Canada joined together and eventually became known as the Dominion of Canada.  Unlike the USA we didn't have a rebellion, we did the Canadian thing and negotiated a peace.   So our first Great is .. .  Great Britain.

Great Lakes is the second Great.  :)
Canada is home to four of the five great lakes.  We have a great deal of fresh water (fourth of all countries in the world) and host to the deepest lake in North America, and 8th deepest in the world.   In fact the deepest lake in Canada is another great!   Great Slave Lake!    For curiousities sake....our favourite place to walk in Pinery Provincial Park which borders Lake Huron.

Great Seal of Canada
Then of course we come to another great, called the Great Seal of Canada.
This seal "is a symbol used on all state documents for authority and authenticity. Documents such as proclamations, commissions of cabinet ministers, senators, judges and senior government officials.    The Great Seal of Canada provides the formal sanction of the Crown to a document......The current seal is complete with an image of Queen Elizabeth in her robes, holding the orb and scepter, while seated on the coronation chair." (source)


Great White North  oooh... see...it's another Great!!!   :)
This can refer to Canada (woot woot) or the show by the McKenzie Brothers. 

Bob and Doug McKenzie were a pair of fictional Canadian brothers who did a sketch called "Great White North".  It started on SCTV  then moved to CBC Television in 1980.   Bob was played by Rick Moranis and Doug was played by Dave Thomas.   It was created as a mock filler to suit network demands for Canadian Content but quickly became a phenomenon in Canada and the United States. 


Great Cat Milo... it's my last great for tonight as hmm... bed time is approaching.  This was the lad's contribution.. who is the biggest Milo fan in the world!   

 Milo is an 8 year old cat (will turn 9 this year) that the lad picked out as a wee three year old.  This boy has been cat focused ever since he fell out of my arms into a bin of stuffed cats at IKEA as a wee lad.  Milo likes to be read to, comes when called, and is ever so patient with the lad MOST of the time.  He does suffer from some back-pain and that occasionally makes him very grumpy, and he catches colds easily, but overall is a great cat for the lad.   We call him the doggiest cat that we know.  But seriously...isn't he a beaut?

  So what do you think? Want to join us? If you live in Canada what other greats can you think of for Canada?? 

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