Friday Fun: Math in the Kitchen with free printable

One of the most enjoyable ways I know of to do math is using food.   

When my lad was young we used skittles and m&m's to count and subtract.  We broke hallowe'en candy down into groups and numbers, seeing how it all went together and what not.   We've done gummy bear math, lego math, and math blocks.  Lots of fun in many different ways.  

As he gets older I find it harder to make math fun, but I've also discovered my lad finds new food FUN NOW!!   Gack!   Can you imagine it?   This super picky boy likes experimenting with food now!  

A Day in the Life - May 11

 Normally I do review of the entire week but today was such a good day I wanted to share that with you.    

It started with a shock!
I was having a marvellous dream after having a hard time getting to sleep the night before.   Snoozing and snoring away when suddenly "Good morning mom!"   I about jumped out of my skin!  OH MY.. not good.   This was followed by "sorry, sorry mom!  I thought you were awake!!"

Apparently the lad had been up since 730 had some of his schooling done and wanted to touch base with me before moving forward.   GACK!!   Never wake up the mom!!   :)

Anyways, I managed to drag myself out of bed, and down for breakfast of cereal and a muffin, the lad and I chatted about day plans and all was good.   I took care of the bunnies and noticed the lad had already cared for his mice.

I wanted to get working on the garden, but needed to make sure the lad was well situated with his schooling.  He needed some help getting going with Unlock Math, and mentioned how another math program we are using is WAY too easy for him... so could I contact them and tell them that?   So I have an email to write later tonight asking about course placement.

While he worked on his math, and later his typing, I got some seeds planted in the garden.  YEAH!!!   I got one garden done.   Then I pulled weeds out of another garden that already has peas in it (but needs something more).   OH!  And I hung out a load of laundry to dry.

I heard a "MOM!!!   I need you!" just as I finished so went in to find a lad wondering if we were doing ArtAchieve today or if it was going to wait til Friday.    Friday it was.   He grinned, so then the rest of the negotiating started.   Could writing his story wait, what about not doing science or apologia or .....   :)     We settled on videos for science and history, and apologia will wait til next week where if he reads two pages a day it will be completely finished.

Lunch (I had soup, the lad had a bagel with cheese) and freetime for 1/2 an hour and then "lad, can you give me a hand?"  He was happy to help.  We built a small herb garden out of some old lumber we had laying around.  

Unbeknownst to the lad I tossed in a wee bit of math... the lad thinks he's horrid at estimating so I asked him how much dirt he thought it would hold and he found out he's not so horrid at estimating!  WOOT WOOT!   But we had a seriously good time working together, the lad had fun holding wood, using a drill and saw and dumping in dirt.   Did you know that working out clumps with your bare feet is the fastest and bestest way to do it?   AND it feels really good on your feet apparently.  :)

While the lad and I were working hubby was busy fixing the riding lawn mower for the church.   It was a bit of a frustration BUT at the end... isn't it great to learn new skills and have success?  :)

After we got this done we did a touch of shopping, I was out of feed for the bunnies and Hubby needed to pick something up. 

Upon our return (having had a break from the heavy work) we set out to do some more.  We moved the snowblowers out of the garage into the back yard (to make room in the garage).   Not the best place to store them but hubby is looking at erecting a small shelter for them and the riding lawn mower to protect them in the summer.  

Anways, moving the snowblowers into the back yard had necessitated moving a few other things. All of which needed a good hose down me thinking "do I want to move this or do I want to sell it?"  I'm leaning toward selling it... but that might require some discussion with family.   The lad repotted his catnip plants (he sells it and makes crafts from it) and repotted a hosta for me.  So his garden bed this year holds amaryllis, a small flowering plant and all his catnip (he wants to move it with us).

We had an unpleasant surprise in a finding my rubbermaid tote (that I use to store supplies for the rabbitry)  full of water.  Everything was soaked and was quite the mess to clean up.  We even found a lightbulb full of water!!! (made us laugh and totally surprised dad)   But the pleasant result of it was my lad making his first terrarium.

Admittedly by end of day I was getting pretty tired... and then I needed to make supper. GACK!!!   It was the lads turn to cook but he was pretty wasted by then as well.

We ended up doing mac and cheese.. YES from a box as it was downright quick and easy!  I much prefer homemade.. but annie's does make a decent boxed mac and cheese.

We quickly got the laundry off the line, garbage out to the curb, read our bedtime books, played a round of Clash Royale together and then the lad was off to bed.

Hubby and I watched Star Trek and Crimes Beyond Borders together and then it was getting on time for bed.   I talked with a friend for a while and then ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ  :)  I had tried hard to finish this post last night but at the end of it all.. I was just fried!   

Sharing this post over at Kym's (when she gets her highlights post done).


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Recipe: Multi-grain, Whole Wheat Bread

This recipe is loosely based off this one. 

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 1/4 cups warm water
• 1/2 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoons active dry yeast 
•  
• 2 eggs beaten
• 1 cup multi-grain flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 
  
• 2-4 cups white flour
• 3 tablespoons wheat germ
• 
  

Instructions

Mix together honey, water, salt, and yeast. Leave until yeast dissolves, about 10 minutes. 

Beat in eggs and 2 cups of flour. Allow to rest, covered, for 30-60 minutes, until bubbly. 

Stir in enough flour to make a soft, workable dough. Knead in wheat germ. Knead well and let rise  in bowl.   Grease bowl before returning kneaded bread to bowl.

Shape into 2 loaves and place in a greased 8 inch loaf pans.

Let rise again until the loaves just crest the edge of the pan. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

For more bread recipes see below  

Traditional White Bread.
Irish brown soda bread.
Irresistible Irish soda bread. 
Amish White Bread. 
Pizza Bread. 
Python Dogs and Sun Bread. 
Kim's White Bread, altered. 
Grandma VanDoren's White Bread. 
Hamburger Buns. 
Buns for Thanksgiving. 
Garlic and Cheese Breadsticks. 
Sweet Rolls. 
Scones. 
Scotch Scones. 
Whole Wheat Rolls and Buns.
Julia Child Sandwich Bread. 
Cheese Biscuits. 

STEM: Building a robotic hand

Ever since we build a hand out of paper and yarn my lad has been searching for something, almost ANYTHING that would work better.  So imagine our delight when Tinker crates arrived and the topic was "Robotic Hand!"

With the use of elastic, brands, eye screws and foam...one working robotic hand was made.

I loved seeing the look of concentration on his face.

Tinker Crates give clear instructions on how to make their crates.  As long as one carefully reads EVERYTHING you can make the STEM project without any issues.  I find them affordable, and the lad likes putting them together so it's a win-win.  

It comes with a handy tinkerzine with greatly expands the learning done.  We have a couple of other projects left in this kit to do.  We just didn't get to them today.

The lad has had a great deal of fun experimenting with the robotic hand.

I really wish I could have videoed the conversation between the lad and his dad afterwards.
Figuring out why the robotic hand doesn't work as well as a human hand.
Seeing how they would change it to make it work better if they could.
It was just a great conversation and one of the top reasons why I like to do these tinker crates with my lad, the conversations with my lad.

That and this statement
"This isn't homeschooling.  This is fun!"

If you follow this affiliate link, you can get $10 off your first Tinker Crate eh?

Recipe: Chicken Heart Casserole

I'm calling this a casserole though it isn't really....

This is something I make frequently and I change it all time time.  Most of the time I take some rice, seasonings, and chicken bouillon and toss it in a casserole dish in the oven.  I am the ONLY one who eats it in this house and I make it when I feel stressy in my head.

Today I reworked it a bit to see if it would appeal to others in the house, and it was a bit hit and miss. 

Take your crock pot.
Add 900 ml of chicken bouillon.
Add some brown rice (2 cups) and some leftover soup mix (with lentils, brown rice etc in it).
Add a small flat package of chicken hearts (about a pound or so).

Put in some seasonings

• Costco no salt seasoning
• salt
• pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• garlic powder

Cover and set on low, making a point of stirring it off and on throughout the day.

It's done in about 7 hours.
Pop the lid off.   At this point it is done if you want it to be.  :)

I decided to play around with it a bit though.
I heated up some cream soup in a large fry pan I have.  Then put the chicken/rice mix into the soup (removing the bay leaves).   Added a whack of fine grated cheddar cheese and some more salt and pepper.   Mixed it all together and heat through.

My son's opinion: I like it better this way mom.  :)

So.. WOOT WOOT.. success.  :)

Recipe: Homemade Marinara Sauce

Take a few marina sauce recipes, see what they have in common, and find a way to make it work.  This is what my hubby came up with.

Here is how we put it together:

Recipe: Seasoned Teriyaki Chicken

This is one of those throw it together dishes that hubby and I often collaborate on.

Take four chicken breasts.   If you dislike any kind of fat like hubby does, trim off that fat and leave for your spouse to fry up with some mushrooms.  :)

Slice one large onion thinly and lay it in the bottom of a casserole dish.  Use more if you really like onion.   We are a mixed bunch in this house so we met in the middle.

Salt and pepper one side of those chicken breasts, and lay the seasoned side down on the onions

Season the chicken: Feel free to use what you like eh?
we put on

• salt
• powdered garlic
• basil
• pepper
• no salt seasoning (from Costco)

Take 3/4 of a small bottle of diana's teriyaki marinade and splosh it over the chicken.  The marinade we used was a thinner type of marinade, but not too thin.  It thinned more as it cooked. letting off a delicious aroma.

Stick in in the oven for about an hour, at 350.  About 50 minutes in, I cut the chicken breasts in half and moved them around a bit in the liquid.

End result:

International student: tastes good.
11 year old boy, somewhat food suspicious lad: I like this mom!   Can I have some more?
Mom: This works.
Dad: I really like how we did this.  WRITE THIS DOWN hun. 
----------------
As for the leftover chicken bits.   I tossed them in a pan with some sliced thin small chucks of portabello mushroom.  I tossed in some garlic salt and butter as well.  It was a really quick fry up.  I like cooked mushrooms, and this gave me a way to use up the chicken fat so it didn't go to waste.

STEM: PopCan Robot

Fridays are our do it differently days, learning happens we just have fun doing everything differently.   One of the things we do is do some sort of STEM activity.

We had SO MUCH FUN putting this fellow together.  OH MY OH MY.

To make this fellow you need the 4M kit and one popcan...that's it.

Add to that some laughs.
Lots of questions.
Scissors.
and a wish for a coverup for a can.



On to the joy and wonder of making a tin can robot.

One of the things I like about 4M kits is they are very clear about what the kit does and does not contain.   In this case we need to supply two batteries and one popcan.

The box is a nice size to store on a shelf, recyclable, and easy to open. .. HEY>> it's good to know that stuff.. I've gotten kits before that opening them is a pain in the ... well you know... but easy to open bags with all parts conveniently grouped.

The back of the box clearly indicates the parts contained which is a great help to know if it's age appropriate or not.


OH.. I almost forgot... we did need to supply our own screwdriver.

 As you can see the instructions are clearly labeled, with colour markers to help with placement and understanding.   The lad found it very easy to understand and rarely needed my assistance.    It's great to see his confidence building more all the time.

 This fellow currently resides in my son's room and makes regular circuits up and down the floor during our night time reading.

You gotta admit, he is rather cute don't you think?   :)

As you can see.. he works!  We learned he works on smooth floors best, with couches working as well... but the carpet... never got him to like that.  We do wonder, what if we put traction on the wheels.. would that work better but we haven't test that theorem out yet.

And the cat is well....unimpressed.

Others in this series
Salt Water Spider.
Solar Oven.
Sand Art.
Spy Case.
Practical Math.
Light Up Planetarium.
PopCan Robot.

Using Google Docs to make a slideshow

One of the things I loved about my previous blog A Net in Time Homeschooling that I maintained through Weebly was the ease of making a slideshow.   It was SO easy it was brainless.

BUT I've been running into issue with weebly where I have to clear my cache to post a picture, with my browser disconnecting causes me to do resets, and lately not letting my scheduled posts .. post.   It's been annoying enough that as much as I love weebly I decided to go back to blogger.

BUT what to do about the slideshow option?

I got to thinking.
A slideshow is basically a powerpoint thing right?   So how do I make a powerpoint type thing?   Something that will be easy to load into a blog?

What about Google Docs?   I found a video the supported the idea...I guess it used to be called presentation but now it's called SLIDES.

Did some research and looked into google, where HEY!!!   They have a slideshow option!!!

Open up the slide option, and make up your slide show, your presentation so to speak.

Once you are done, go to the sidebar again and find the publish to web button

That will bring up this window, it will open up on the LINK tab, so make sure you switch it to the embed tab.

I did find a youtube video that recommended changing the width to 600 as that will fit onto most websites properly.  But much of the rest of the video was old.

Once you hit the publish button it will bring you to a new screen that will have the embed code highlighted.

Copy and paste that and you will get this:



Just so you know, if you want to see what the Homeschool Review Crew picked for the all round favourties, you can go here to see them.

 Addendum due to comments: I am pretty sure this will work in any blog program as it's just HTML code.   Give it a try!