Copywork: A Cheerful Mom

Is a picture still worth a thousand words if it's a picture of words?

This is first grade gent's copywork. Last month we had one of those days. Weeks? Enough, anyway, that I did a Google search for quotes on cheerfulness and good attitudes for this gent to copy into his composition notebook. Today's quote: "A cheerful friend is like a sunny day, which sheds its brightness on all around." (John Lubbock)

This fine middle gent is clever and mischievous, a bit of an imp. Halfway through copying the quote, he put down his pencil, erased the word "friend," and wrote "mom" in its place. Gave me that cheesy little grin and a kiss. After I took this picture and he'd finished copying, he drew hearts all over the board.

I've noticed that the opposite holds true as well, at least in our home. A grumpy mom is like a stormcloud. Why is it, I wonder, that anyone else in the family can have a bad day and the others just keep on going, but when I have a bad day, when I'm feeling grouchy, glum, grumpy it infects the entire family? Mom sets the tone for the whole day.

My fine young gent has inspired me to remember that I've never regretted kindness and that gentle words and a smile help set young feet on the right path. I'm going to print this picture and put it on my fridge to remind myself that I want to shed brightness on our days.

Stardust

We're made of stardust, and stardust is atoms.

How to Get a Kid to Eat Squash: Squash Scones

Yesterday we had squash scones for breakfast. I had leftover butternut squash and happened across my pumpkin scone recipe. Squash, whole wheat flour and not a lot of sugar make this a delicious tasty way to begin the day. A caution: If you've got, er, discerning children like mine, make sure to call these Pumpkin Scones, as the word "squash" suggests defilement to my particular eaters. The fine young gents devoured these scones.



Delicious "Pumpkin" Whole-Wheat Scones

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix in a large bowl:
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. all-spice
A pinch of fresh nutmeg

Using a pastry blender, cut in:
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled butter
Cut in butter pieces until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Optional: Toss into the flour-butter mixture a small handful of dried cherries or cranberries.

In another bowl whisk together:
1 large egg
1/2 to 1-1/2 cup mashed butternut squash, pumpkin or sweet potato
Approximately 1/3 to 1/2 cup buttermilk (or more)

Note: The buttermilk is approximate because it depends on the amount and consistency of your vegetable. Fresh pumpkin has a very different consistency than canned pumpkin, squash has a lot less moisture than pumpkin, and sweet potatoes have a different texture, and so on.

Add wet ingredients to flour mixture and stir until flour mixture is just moist and can be patted into a ball. If your dough is too dry to make a ball, add a splash more buttermilk until the flour is just moistened and can be molded into a ball.

Turn out your dough onto a floured surface and knead gently until mostly smooth. Pat into a circle about 1 inch thick. Cut into 8 wedges and place wedges on an ungreased baking sheet. If desired, brush scone tops with milk and sprinkle each scone lightly with a pinch of sugar. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden-brown.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Squashy yummy golden goodness.

2009: The Year in Review

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Wordless Wednesday: Las Caletas

Great Pyramids

Our middle gent turned 7 last week.

Sniff. Seven??? Already??? Can't your sweet momma have one more year of delightful six? Excuse me for a moment while I collect myself. Alas, and hooray!, it seems I get a year of delightful seven instead, which is just as marvelous.

He asked for chocolate cupcakes, and we all decorated. The frosting was really that bright blue. Yowza!
For his birthday, he got the new Playmobil Sphinx with a Mummy. And, way cool, some Tomb Raiders with Camels! Let's side track for yet another moment. (Bear with me.) We've been studying Egypt. Our Egypt study has stretched several months past our timeline because the fine young gents have been so fascinated by the ancient Egyptians, middle gent in particular. We've even priced airline tickets to Egypt, mostly to explain why we're not going. He's not even deterred by the fact that it's blazing hot in Egypt. He wants to sail on the Nile River, visit the Sphinx, and go inside a pyramid. "Someday, Mom," he promised earnestly, "I'll go to Egypt with you." I certainly hope so, my darling.

To my point. Playmobil sells a Pyramidtoo. It's pretty awesome. It's also pretty expensive, and they were out of stock at the store for which we had a 50% off certificate. So, no pyramid. A fact my fine young gent noted. "Hmmm. We need a pyramid."

Note the "Teachable Moments" label at the bottom of this post. My poor gents.

"You're right, honey," I said. "Let's build a pyramid!"

We started with paper:
We printed several pyramid templates. The gents and I spent a happy half hour cutting and folding paper pyramids from different kinds of templates. I didn't do a lot of teaching or talking. (I know, right? Me! I didn't talk a lot. Maybe I should go lie down.) I just let the different templates, which ended in the same pyramids, work for themselves.

My fine young gent noted that the little paper pyramids weren't quite big enough. So I pulled moving boxes out of the attic. Then the real work began.

"How am I going to make a template for you?" I asked the gents. They blithely asked me to print one. Then they said, "Oh. Yeah," when I reminded them of the limitation imposed by the size of our paper. They were a little stumped, so I measured the templates with them...each side of the base was the same length because the base is a square. Let's measure the edges of the triangles that make up the sides....OH!

Fortunately, loving math-brain was available to work with our eldest gent:
They did it the math way, with multiplying and such. I helped middle gent. I didn't want to think that hard, so we did it the measuring and observing way, recreating the template by deciding how long our sides should be then copying the model. Fortunately again, loving husband had to go to work, so eldest gent and I created the largest pyramid together the measuring and observing way, which meant that he got to see how both equally valid methods ended with the same results. He cut it and folded it almost all by himself.

Ancient Egypt has taken up most of our living room floor.
Now we just need a white-walled palace from which the Pharoah and his soldier can dangle the captured tomb raiders.
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Pyramid Templates:
The template the boys chose, as our boxes were rectangular. You have to check out this whole site: Paper Models of Polyhedra Could it possibly get any more math-awesome?

Pyramid template at Do To Learn Kids

And from our beloved Enchanted Learning: Make a Pyramid

Wordless Wednesday

I Spy with my little eye.....

Can you see it?

"Tell the boys to watch out for the iguanas that are black and orange," said Mazey the housekeeper/advisor/handy-woman. "They're pretty mean and agressive. Not that they'd want to touch something that looks like that."

Ha!

I went and warned my fine young "Mom, can I keep it?" gents right away.

Nature, Nature, Everywhere

Nature Study: The boys found an ant nest outside the Dolphin Center in Nuevo Vallarta. It's what they do.

They also catch pollywogs.

And throw rocks, and build dams.

Who says we took the week off school? Outdoor studies abounded in Mexico: Ants, pelicans, iguanas, butterflies (mariposa!), water, rocks, sand, trees (Bananas! On a tree!), flowers, birds.

Life is good.

Wordless Wednesday