tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90099071996509966932024-03-13T13:20:08.001-04:00Two Crazy Little People and Their Crazy MomThe adventures of two little kids and their mom as they play, work, homeschool and be geeky.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-15227112984337215742015-07-07T08:09:00.002-04:002015-07-07T08:09:27.536-04:00Release of RSO Physics!Quick post today! Pandia Press just released <i>Real Science Odyssey PHYSICS!</i> I'm very excited about this book! I can't wait to catch a peek at it and see how they present the material!<br />
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BTW, they are doing a giveaway for this text. You can go to <a href="http://www.pandiapress.com/rsophysics1/" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.pandiapress.com/rsophysics1/</a> to enter!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-2545848817595915892015-02-12T09:26:00.003-05:002015-02-12T09:26:54.147-05:00Edible Geodes!The two crazy little people and I have been exploring some earth science lately. Well, actually, according to the lovely plans I set up at the beginning of the year, we should be exploring the world of plants. However, since there's about 3 feet of snow on the ground, that didn't seem like a good idea (what was I thinking!?!)! So, we're on to earth science, and specifically, minerals and rocks.<br />
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During our exploration, we've learned a lot about minerals and how they have an inner crystalline structure. I decided it would be fun to run with the crystal idea, and more specifically, to spend some time exploring geodes.<br />
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Geodes are made when little gas pockets in molten lava cool and harden. Water rushes into little cracks and crevices of the pocket, depositing minerals which crystallize. We had lots of fun opening up some geodes (you can get them on Amazon) with a hammer to see what the inside looked like.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--S9H4UxMBFI/VNy00vd-k8I/AAAAAAAAHzM/JqGufxi2jhs/s1600/20150212_085734.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--S9H4UxMBFI/VNy00vd-k8I/AAAAAAAAHzM/JqGufxi2jhs/s1600/20150212_085734.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crystals!<br /></td></tr>
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This was great fun, and I strongly suggest you try it at least once in your lifetime. Amazingly therapeutic! But I wanted to show the crazy little people a bit more about how that crystal was formed inside. They've used borax to make crystals, so we discussed that, but it wasn't quite what I was looking for. And then I found this on Pinterest: <a href="http://makezine.com/2013/11/01/how-to-rock-candy-geode/">http://makezine.com/2013/11/01/how-to-rock-candy-geode/</a><br />
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(By the way, have I mentioned how much I love Pinterest!?!)<br />
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Directions on how to make rock candy geodes! Yum! In the video, two ways to form the geodes are shown, one using fondant and one using melted chocolate. We decided that the one using fondant was most similar to how an actual geode was formed, so that's what we worked with. It turned out to be a fun and yummy project!<br />
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Basically, all we did was roll out our colored fondant, putting a dark layer on the bottom and a light layer on top. Then we laid out a large piece of tinfoil, placed a dishtowel on top, and then put a small bowl on top of that like this:<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HTUxfpTO728/VNy2BJ4xr5I/AAAAAAAAH0I/QbKtNR_TPiI/s1600/20150212_091633.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HTUxfpTO728/VNy2BJ4xr5I/AAAAAAAAH0I/QbKtNR_TPiI/s1600/20150212_091633.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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We put another layer of tin foil in the bowl, making sure to keep it bumpy like a rock. Then we laid the fondant inside. When that was done, I cooked up some simple syrup, using one cup water to 3 cups sugar. I heated that over the stove until all the sugar was dissolved and the syrup was clear. The crazy little people picked some food coloring and dyed the syrup, and then I poured it into the fondant shells. We wrapped the entire thing up in the tin foil and let it sit until the next day. The crazy little people were so excited to unwrap their little geode presents!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P3gT6miIsQE/VNy2z-yyq8I/AAAAAAAAH0Q/GK0WKOzIMzo/s1600/20150212_091515.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P3gT6miIsQE/VNy2z-yyq8I/AAAAAAAAH0Q/GK0WKOzIMzo/s1600/20150212_091515.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Nice Shiny Package!</td></tr>
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After they were unwrapped, we poured out the extra liquid and any crystals that were lying on top of that liquid. And there was our geode!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crystals!<br /><br /></td></tr>
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This led to a wonderful discussion about how these yummy geodes are different from regular geodes. We decided they should write a bit about how we made these geodes in their journals, and then it was time to eat! Who doesn't like candy geodes for a snack!<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-73918322351111811312014-12-04T15:54:00.002-05:002014-12-04T16:30:00.615-05:00Create an Animal!<br />
With the holiday season fast approaching, I thought it should be time for us to finish up with our study of animals so that we could concentrate on Christmas. We've been looking at a variety of different animals, as well as the classification system, and we've really enjoyed it. But I didn't have the slightest idea how to end the unit!<br />
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After spending some time on Pinterest (one of my favorite sites!), I found an idea from <a href="http://ilove2teach.blogspot.com/2011/10/create-animal-create-plant-freebie.html" target="_blank">ilove2teach</a>. Instead of looking at animals that already exist, the crazy little kids could come up with their own make believe animals. There was some writing involved, so I was a bit worried. CLG is a bit young to write, and CLB is just not a happy writer. I was pleasantly surprised when they both greeted the project with enthusiasm!<br />
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I decided to make a sheet that each kiddo would fill out to help them decide what their animals would look like. I didn't make it too complicated, just made sure they would have something to refer to to help them remember all the things we learned about animals:<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-igtuHrlywok/VIDSF47EWKI/AAAAAAAAHVc/VtXujjIesaA/s1600/Screenshot%2Bfrom%2B2014-12-04%2B16%3A26%3A16.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-igtuHrlywok/VIDSF47EWKI/AAAAAAAAHVc/VtXujjIesaA/s1600/Screenshot%2Bfrom%2B2014-12-04%2B16%3A26%3A16.png" height="354" width="640" /></a></div>
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From this, both crazy kids were able to think up interesting ideas for new creatures. And to draw them, too!<br />
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CLG came up with an "amnite fish". This little guy apparently enjoys living in the "middle" and "bottom" layers of the ocean. It was fun taking time to figure out what the technical name of those ocean layers are called, and it's still amusing listening to her try to say abyssal! This fish apparently does wander up to the top layer of the ocean to eat jellyfish, but usually stays below. The unique bit about this fish is that it's fin can change to wings! When it's threatened while having it's dinner, it will switch up its fin, fly out of the water, and hang out on the beach for a few hours (she wanted the fish to head over to the subway, but I talked her out of that one).<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IFP8nB6NOsQ/VIDHx162WNI/AAAAAAAAHUo/JgKpsA7VLkE/s1600/Create%2Ban%2Banimal%2Bfish%2Bin%2Bwater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IFP8nB6NOsQ/VIDHx162WNI/AAAAAAAAHUo/JgKpsA7VLkE/s1600/Create%2Ban%2Banimal%2Bfish%2Bin%2Bwater.jpg" height="320" width="253" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See the little fish in the wave?</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hiGNckM2evA/VIDH0rNQTPI/AAAAAAAAHUw/NpMCzNw0JV4/s1600/Create%2Ban%2Banimal%2Bfish%2Bon%2Bthe%2Bbeach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hiGNckM2evA/VIDH0rNQTPI/AAAAAAAAHUw/NpMCzNw0JV4/s1600/Create%2Ban%2Banimal%2Bfish%2Bon%2Bthe%2Bbeach.jpg" height="320" width="241" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Doesn't it look so happy on the beach?</td></tr>
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CLB came up with a new amphibian called a "fran". This little guy lives in bogs, under the ground. Since it lives in a bog under the ground, and it's an amphibian, it has to leave its home periodically so it can breath. The fran likes to eat and has antenna that can help it sense worms, ants, and flies up to one mile away. It can also change color, to stay away from predators, but if it is spotted by a predator, it will use its upside down claws to quickly dig a hole for it to hide away in.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gerFxmr6VvU/VIDJJfcgifI/AAAAAAAAHU8/2FxZ6YimmAM/s1600/Create%2Ban%2Banimal%2Bantenna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gerFxmr6VvU/VIDJJfcgifI/AAAAAAAAHU8/2FxZ6YimmAM/s1600/Create%2Ban%2Banimal%2Bantenna.jpg" height="320" width="254" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close up of the antenna </td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yUeLLP7hExo/VIDJL5j0aYI/AAAAAAAAHVE/oUAvAzCoLXA/s1600/Create%2Ban%2Banimal%2Bchange%2Bcolor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yUeLLP7hExo/VIDJL5j0aYI/AAAAAAAAHVE/oUAvAzCoLXA/s1600/Create%2Ban%2Banimal%2Bchange%2Bcolor.jpg" height="320" width="301" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A fran can change from grayish green...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7UEQGei6scI/VIDJNMubkII/AAAAAAAAHVM/Ni2WP0jyMuo/s1600/Create%2Ban%2Banimal%2Bchange%2Bcolor%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7UEQGei6scI/VIDJNMubkII/AAAAAAAAHVM/Ni2WP0jyMuo/s1600/Create%2Ban%2Banimal%2Bchange%2Bcolor%2B2.jpg" height="320" width="251" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...to brown!</td></tr>
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We had a lot of fun with this project. And, no, these creatures might not be scientifically possible! But the kids spent time thinking about how their animals fit in the classification system, where they live, how they protect themselves, and where they fit in the food web of their habitats. It was a wonderful way to end a fun unit!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-14818782628556791862013-10-02T16:26:00.000-04:002013-10-02T16:26:03.091-04:00Letter (and Number) BreadCLB had a friend over to play with today, so CLG and I decided to bake some bread for dinner. It's always fun having some girl time, especially since CLG enjoys baking and cooking as much as I do. We picked a bread recipe out of the book, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Alpha-Bakery-Childrens-Cookbook-Medal-Flour/dp/B000GP6QJS/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380742086&sr=1-1&keywords=alpha-bakery+children%27s+cookbook" target="_blank">The Alpha-Bakery Children's Cookbook</a></i> by Gold Medal.<br />
This book has a recipe for each letter of the alphabet! It's a fun little book with recipes that my two Crazy Kids can make, with help from me of course! For the letter t, the book has a recipe for turtle bread, which is basically bread in the shape of a turtle. We did this when CLG was focusing on the letter T, but this week, we're actually reviewing the letters, B, C, S, and T, along with the number three. So CLG thought it would be fun to make these letters and numbers out of bread and eat them for dinner. And that's just what we did!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rs9MzEQsT2M/Ukx-D0w7TeI/AAAAAAAAC3w/O08Kt-ddrQ4/s1600/IMG_2817.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rs9MzEQsT2M/Ukx-D0w7TeI/AAAAAAAAC3w/O08Kt-ddrQ4/s1600/IMG_2817.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CLG finishing up her "C"</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here are all our letters (and our number 3)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vOQ4DHwkVmE/Ukx-WsdxPLI/AAAAAAAAC4Q/0XgdQUijc98/s1600/IMG_2821.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vOQ4DHwkVmE/Ukx-WsdxPLI/AAAAAAAAC4Q/0XgdQUijc98/s1600/IMG_2821.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting ready to take a 20 minute rest after all that work!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nSOXGDOpfjE/Ukx-WjAgUDI/AAAAAAAAC4U/8VyIMsG70P0/s1600/IMG_2822.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nSOXGDOpfjE/Ukx-WjAgUDI/AAAAAAAAC4U/8VyIMsG70P0/s1600/IMG_2822.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rested and risen, time for the oven!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yum! Ready for dinner!</td></tr>
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The bread has a wonderful taste and texture, and it went beautifully with our spaghetti dinner. Even better, CLG had fun making the bread and then practicing her letter and number making skills by playing with the dough. All in all, it was a nice way to spend an afternoon!<br />
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<b>Letter (and Number) Bread Recipe</b><br />
adapted from the Gold Medal <i>Alpha-Bakery Children's Cookbook</i><br />
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<b>Ingredients</b><br />
2 to 4 cups of all purpose flour<br />
1 package of rapid rise active dry yeast<br />
1 TBSP of sugar<br />
1 tsp of salt<br />
1/2 cup of water<br />
1/3 cup of milk<br />
1 TBSP butter<br />
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<b>Directions</b><br />
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1. Mix the yeast, 1 1/2 cups of the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Put water, milk and butter in a microwavable container. Microwave it for 15 seconds, and test the temperature. If it's warm (between 125 to 130 degrees) take it out. If not, microwave for another 15 seconds. Wait for the butter to melt a bit and then add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture.<br />
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2. Stir in one egg, and then stir in enough flour so that the dough is stiff enough to handle. Sprinkle a surface with flour and then knead the dough on this for about 5 minutes, adding flour to the board as needed. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.<br />
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3. Spray one or two cookie sheets with baking spray. Cut the bread into six evenly divided chunks, and form them into long "worms". Form the worms into whatever letters or numbers you desire. Cover and let rise for 20 minutes. While the dough is resting, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.<br />
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4. Place the cookie sheet(s) into the oven and bake the bread for 10 to 15 minutes. The bread should be a golden brown and make a hollow sound when you tap on the bottom of a piece.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-86780146523456051392013-09-25T17:00:00.003-04:002013-09-25T17:45:08.086-04:00Lunchables!I just realized something the other night while trying to figure out what to make the Crazy Kids for dinner. You see, we generally sit down at the table all together and have a nice dinner together. But, periodically, I enjoy feeding the kids early and then have dinner set up for my husband and myself for after the Crazy Kids are in bed asleep. Something about sitting down and actually being able to pay attention to what I'm eating is just wonderful. Don't get me wrong, I like our family dinners, but it's nice to be able to eat instead of listening to the various complaints about what is sitting on this Crazy Kid's plate or whinging about whether or not the other Crazy Kid needs to eat all his/her beans or just two of them. We all need a break from that sometimes!<br />
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On days when my Crazy Kids eat separately from the grown ups, I do make a completely different meal for them. I figure if the grown ups get a treat, why not them? The only problem is that my little kid dinner repertoire is just plain sad. They get either hot dogs (yes, hot dogs! Don't get me started on what it takes to get these two to eat protein!) and a veggie, plain pasta and a veggie, or sandwiches and a veggie. They want nothing else! I tried to change it up with a quesadilla once or twice, but I probably won't be making that mistake again. And then I saw a bunch of these homemade "lunchable" ideas on <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=homemade%20lunchables&rs=ac&len=9" target="_blank">Pinterest</a>. Who knew putting food in little containers would make eating different foods appealing for little kids! I surely didn't! But my two loved the idea! Heck, CLG even helped put them together!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A quick and easy dinner for the Crazy Little Kids!</td></tr>
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It was so easy! I just put paper cupcake liners into a plastic container and filled them up with different foods. I picked whatever I had on hand that was healthy (okay, so pepperoni and salami isn't the best, but they needed protein. Again, don't get me going on trying to get them to eat proteins!). And both kids LOVED it! Scarfed it all up! We will definitely be doing this again! So I just had to share! Go check out all the neat lunchable ideas over on Pinterest! I can't wait to try it again...ummm, yeah, tonight!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-4989204702091385152013-09-19T22:07:00.002-04:002013-09-19T22:07:07.512-04:00Rice MosaicSo we did a fun little activity to go along with the book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Grain-Rice-Helena-Clare-Pittman/dp/044041301X/ref=sr_sp-atf_image_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1379641703&sr=1-1&keywords=a+grain+of+rice" target="_blank">A Grain of Rice</a></i> by Helena Clare Pittman. Again, this activity is thanks to the book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Learn-at-Home-Grade-4/dp/1561895121/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1379641848&sr=1-1&keywords=learn+at+home+grade+4" target="_blank"><i>Learn at Home Grade 4</i></a>, which we absolutely love for our homeschool!<br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">If you haven't read the book, it's basically about an extremely clever peasant and a princess who want to marry, but good old dad, the Emperor, is standing in the way. It's fun to see how the clever guy wins over the Emperor by starting with a simple grain of rice. CLB loved it! So he decided to do the accompanying rice mosaic craft that was suggested in </span><i style="text-align: left;">Learn at Home</i><span style="text-align: left;">.</span></div>
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First I had to dye rice different colors. It's really not that difficult, but you need a bit of space. I divided one bag of rice into 6 different baggies. Then added enough rubbing alcohol to cover the grains (just a couple of tablespoons will do, I think, but I did use more than that). Then I added drops of regular old food coloring into each bag, mixing colors until I had the entire rainbow:</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IMuDd8wrsqU/Ujuru4k2nUI/AAAAAAAACng/aNlI1eLhHJE/s1600/IMG_2763.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IMuDd8wrsqU/Ujuru4k2nUI/AAAAAAAACng/aNlI1eLhHJE/s1600/IMG_2763.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The colors came out so vibrantly!</td></tr>
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After soaking in the baggies for a bit, I just poured out the extra alcohol and laid the rice on piles of paper towel to dry. Once they dried up, I put them into clean baggies to keep them separated.<div>
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The next day, CLB decided on a picture to make. He wanted to make a tree, so used regular Elmer's glue to lay down the trunk and branches. He got a little carried away with the glue, so I suggested he use cotton swabs to move the glue about the page. As he completed each part, he would sprinkle the glue with colored rice, and then move onto the next piece. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RvR_O-BhDqI/Ujus6jMOjdI/AAAAAAAACns/Qa0Ma1kVKh8/s1600/IMG_20130917_100517.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RvR_O-BhDqI/Ujus6jMOjdI/AAAAAAAACns/Qa0Ma1kVKh8/s1600/IMG_20130917_100517.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CLB has always said that he prefers making abstract art to real life pictures. I guess that's pretty obvious with this depiction!</td></tr>
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Now I should warn you that gluing rice, although fun, is a bit messy, so have a broom and dustbin on standby! But CLB had a blast, and, although it's tough to see the tree because he decided to use some unusual coloring, he was really proud of the result. And that's all that matters, right!?!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-34108962588495992652013-09-12T11:45:00.001-04:002013-09-12T11:45:20.606-04:00Making ButterToday we decided to take some heavy cream and turn it into butter. All we had to do was put cream in a container and shake it, so easy peasy lemon squeezy, right? CLB did it over the summer in a science class at the library, and it didn't seem so bad, and CLG is exploring farm animals, so why not make butter?<br />
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Well, let me tell you, making butter may sound easy, but it involves a lot of shaking! Not the kids' shaking the container, mind you. Know this in advance if you decide to do this with your kids! Those excited little people are going to give up pretty fast on the shaking, and you're going to be left with the butter. And a sore arm!<br />
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Really all it is is putting an amount of heavy cream into a container that you can seal and then putting in the time to shake the container. Non-stop! For about 15 minutes or so. Which, I know, doesn't sound long, but when the Crazy Little Kids gave up after a couple of minutes, those 15 minutes I was left with shaking the cream seemed to take forever. Oh, and did I mention about 5 seconds into my shaking, I realized I hadn't put the lid on tightly. Cream all over me and the kids. Fun! Make sure your lid actually fits your container tightly!<br />
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After we shook for a bit, the cream turned into whipped cream. At this point, I added a bit of salt to the mix and started shaking....again! I kept at it but made the kids shake at times to give my arm a rest (they actually liked to jump with the container. To be honest, that seemed to work better than my shaking!). Eventually, we noticed that a liquid had reformed back in the container. We opened it up and there it was!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-77sgPObHP3c/UjHeVIaeoHI/AAAAAAAACbc/Jz5wJ461Umw/s1600/IMG_20130912_110430.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-77sgPObHP3c/UjHeVIaeoHI/AAAAAAAACbc/Jz5wJ461Umw/s1600/IMG_20130912_110430.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Butter! Sitting in it's very own buttermilk!</td></tr>
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<br />We were amazed!! To be honest, I didn't think it would work. I mean, knowing that it should work and then having it actually work are two different things. Next question, how did it taste!? So we drained the butter from the buttermilk:<div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FoVYWkCOnCI/UjHeWA6jLZI/AAAAAAAACbw/Lble9nFoBfI/s1600/IMG_20130912_110631.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FoVYWkCOnCI/UjHeWA6jLZI/AAAAAAAACbw/Lble9nFoBfI/s1600/IMG_20130912_110631.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Really high tech, huh!</td></tr>
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<br />And then plopped it onto wax paper:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n8BOHrLHiag/UjHeV9BE1YI/AAAAAAAACbs/6amc64IPTKY/s1600/IMG_20130912_111218.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n8BOHrLHiag/UjHeV9BE1YI/AAAAAAAACbs/6amc64IPTKY/s1600/IMG_20130912_111218.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a><br /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was still actually pretty wet. I ended up draining more buttermilk using a paper towel and putting the butter back onto fresh wax paper.</td></tr>
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Then the big taste test...would it taste like butter!?!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w1CmqSEgmMU/UjHeYNB_1GI/AAAAAAAACcA/EPZ-tHkhLz4/s1600/IMG_20130912_112901.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w1CmqSEgmMU/UjHeYNB_1GI/AAAAAAAACcA/EPZ-tHkhLz4/s1600/IMG_20130912_112901.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It looks good, but how does it taste?</td></tr>
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<br />It does! Like fresh salted butter. It's fantastic! I can't believe we did it! We wrapped it up and put it in the fridge.<br /><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rbsdOkAltE4/UjHeXcK2-QI/AAAAAAAACb4/T70fMDsR1Kk/s1600/IMG_20130912_111419.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rbsdOkAltE4/UjHeXcK2-QI/AAAAAAAACb4/T70fMDsR1Kk/s1600/IMG_20130912_111419.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All wrapped up and ready to go!</td></tr>
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<br />The Crazy Kids and I have every intention of eating it with dinner tonight. It's lovely! And fun! Now, I just have to work out this cramp in my arm....<br /><br /><br /><div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-4239275514835451542013-09-05T18:42:00.000-04:002013-09-05T18:42:01.955-04:00Catching Some Zzzzzs!<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial;">I'm a member of a local mom's group, as I'm sure a lot of moms are. The group communicates by email and all us moms share deals around town, where to find the best plumber, contractor, dentist, pediatrician, etc. and offer advice to other moms who are trying to figure out a particular mom problem. One of the issues that tends to come up almost cyclically (probably at least four times a year) is how to get a three year old to go to sleep in his/her own bed. Since we just worked our way through this with CLG, I decided to reply (well, actually I decided to reply after one mom suggested massages and another melatonin...for the kid, not the mom!!), and realized, hey, this is a pretty good blog post! And so here it is:</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i-xNOPE6chs/UijthzAxdrI/AAAAAAAACVk/04KIyxxVbKA/s1600/Toothbrush-20060209.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i-xNOPE6chs/UijthzAxdrI/AAAAAAAACVk/04KIyxxVbKA/s1600/Toothbrush-20060209.JPG" height="200" width="133" /></a><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ahhh, getting a three year old to go to sleep. We've just
worked our way through this, too, with our youngest one. Three year
olds are great draggers of feet! LOL! Both mine stopped napping
around 3, so that did make my life easier. But they do like to push
their limits with the bedtime routine. We stuck closely to our
routine, and if the kids tried to stray, we'd gently put them back on
course. We are strong proponents of the 5 Bs: Bath, Brush, Bathroom,
Book, Bed. We give plenty of time to get it done, no rushing through
this, but everyone stays focused on the task at hand. We do not
generally clean up the toys and such before, during or after this
routine. Cleaning up toys happens before dinner, we eat dinner, and
then, depending on the bedtime of the child, we start the bed time
routine (our son is older now, so he doesn't go to bed quite as early
any more, but we still only allow quiet reading/drawing before bed
usually). We stick closely to our routine, and if the kids try
to stray, we gently put them back on course. "I need a drink of
water" doesn't stop the routine, because we either tell the kids
they'll have a drink when they brush their teeth, or we remind them
that they just had a drink when they brushed. That kind of thing. We
do sometimes have issues with teeth brushing, though, and then we get
a bit firmer. If a child is refusing to brush his/her teeth, we
explain that he/she either can get the teeth taken care of or there
will be no book. This generally does the trick, but only because when
it didn't do the trick, we took the book away. It doesn't matter how
much they scream, if the teeth don't get brushed (or there's any sort
of outright refusal to get the routine done), the child doesn't get a
book. It makes for a louder (ie the kid is screaming and crying)
bedtime, but we figured out a way to deal with that too (see below).</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;">Once the child
is in bed, he/she says prayers, gets kisses and hugs and maybe a
little song, and that's it. Any other discussion can be done during
the bath and brushing parts of the program (we like to discuss what
we did that day and what we're doing the next day). If one of the
kids acts up and is out of bed or screaming, there's a routine for
that too. The first time I get up right away and remind him/her it's
bedtime. Pick him/her up and tuck him back into bed. No kissing, no
hugging, no talking beyond saying it's time for bed. Second time
around, he/she gets no conversation at all, just gets put back in
bed. And that continues until he/she stays in bed. And believe me,
there's been many a night where I just sat on the floor by the door
for a half hour to an hour until the kid stays in bed! But they learn
that bed is the place to be and where they're going to end up
regardless of whatever wandering they would like to do!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's called a bed! You sleep in it!</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;">If there's any
yelling, screaming, asking questions (of any sort...don't fall for
the "Could you get me a drink of water?" play...that seems
to be a specialty of three year olds!), anything like that, again, I
go up right away and remind the child it's time for bed and tuck
him/her back in. Nothing else, no yelling, no other talking, no
hugging no kissing! If he/she continues to scream and/or ask for
stuff, I just go out of the room and wait 5 minutes or so, then I go
back in and try again to tuck him/her back in. If it works, great, if
it doesn't back out again for another 10 minutes this time. Keep
increasing the time in between by 5 minutes or so. Sometimes, they
just are so tired that they need to yell, I think. But make sure to
go in there when they settle down and tuck them in...I think they
also need that tucking in and face wiping to really settle in.</span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uzsRHnjd72E/UikGa3E2DkI/AAAAAAAACV8/N0bTc1sUn_A/s1600/pillows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uzsRHnjd72E/UikGa3E2DkI/AAAAAAAACV8/N0bTc1sUn_A/s1600/pillows.jpg" /></a><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;">And if you
don't want the child in the bed with you any more, for goodness sake
don't let him/her sleep in your bed any more!! If the child gets up
in the middle of the night and wants to get into bed with you, remind
him/her about his/her own bed, lead the child back to the bed, and
tuck him/her in. No hugs, no kisses, just a reminder about his/her
own bed. If he/she gets out and comes back in, just bring him/her
back, no talking this time, and tuck him/her in. And repeat, repeat,
repeat. If there's any screaming, crying, or yelling involved, but
they're staying in bed, great! Just see above to see how we dealt
with screaming and crying. It's tough on you the first few times, but
if you let the child back into your bed, it'll be 20 times harder the
next time because he/she will try longer to see if you give in.
Believe me, I know with this one...my husband always let my youngest
into bed, which worked fine for him because she stopped bugging us,
but was not fine for me because she basically shoved me out of bed. I
like my snuggles, but not at 2 am when I need my sleep!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;">As far as
monsters and bad dreams go, the only things that have worked for us
is a bit of imagination. These things are coming from their
imagination, so we figured we'd fight the monsters with our
imagination :). I made monster spray (just water and glitter), which
I would spray around the room whenever that worry came up. Monster
spray works for at least a week and is guaranteed to keep all
monsters away for at least that long (after I spray it, I always ask
if I missed any spots). Bad dreams are a tough one, though. I do give
lots of hugs and kisses after a bad dream, but at one point it was so
bad that my son was waking up constantly and working his way into not
wanting to go to sleep at all. In a fit of desperation, I grabbed
this tiny stuffed dog and frantically yelled out, "This is Good
Dream Doggie!! When he's with you, you don't have any bad dreams!".
My son stopped crying, rolled over and went to sleep without bad
dreams. I was shocked...but it worked for us!</span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thank Heavens for little doggies!</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;">Oh, and if
there's a really bad thunderstorm that wakes the kids up, all bets
are off...both kids usually end up in bed with us getting loads of
hugs, kisses, and whatever else they need. But you can bet the next
night they're back in their own beds!!</span></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-15897548176928308412013-09-03T15:58:00.001-04:002013-09-03T15:58:26.232-04:00Bake While You Spell!A few months ago, CLG figured out how to sound out simple words and spell them. Since then, she seems to be asking how to spell different words, non-stop. We're talking every day, all day, with every breath she takes! I had a couple of days there when it seemed we had moved past this phase, but she came back to it after a bit of a break. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that she is curious about spelling and sounding out words, which is why I answer her questions each time she asks. But after months (and months!) of spelling words, I think even the most patient person in the world would start to twitch a bit!<br />
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To try to shake things up, I thought we'd mix in some baking with all this spelling. If there's one thing the CLG likes more than spelling, it's baking! So both Crazy Kids and I made up some sugar cookie dough (Thank you, <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/hand-cookies-recipe/index.html" target="_blank">Pioneer Woman</a> for the dough recipe!), rolled it up in wax paper into two tubes, and then put it in the fridge over night. The next morning, I baked the cookies up into little rounds and frosted them (again, thanks <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/hand-cookies-recipe/index.html" target="_blank">Pioneer Woman</a>!!!) in different colors. Then the CLG went to spelling some words. As she spelled them, I wrote the letters on the cookies in melted chocolate. We went through a number of -at words, and then moved on to -ogs.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y9eIYkdNWUw/UiY97LYIvtI/AAAAAAAACRU/djbdB0OfpKU/s1600/IMG_2708.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y9eIYkdNWUw/UiY97LYIvtI/AAAAAAAACRU/djbdB0OfpKU/s1600/IMG_2708.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frog, log, hog, bog....Thank goodness I get to eat cookies after all this spelling!!<br /></td></tr>
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<br />CLG had great fun, and CLB is happy to have lots of cookies to eat. All in all, a successful spelling lesson!<br /><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-15177687871220364142013-08-30T17:27:00.002-04:002013-08-30T17:27:14.248-04:00Cool Science Experiment!!For science, CLB has been exploring force and motion. He's read about Sir Isaac Newton a bit, and watched a short biography about him on<a href="http://www.biography.com/people/isaac-newton-9422656" target="_blank"> biography.com</a>. But reading and watching about force and motion only goes so far. I wanted to show CLB how this all fit together. I was absolutely delighted when I found this experiment on the blog, <a href="http://www.ordinarylifemagic.com/2010/01/newtons-first-with-raw-eggs.html" target="_blank">ordinary life magic</a>. Although the potential for mess was high, we just couldn't pass it up!<br />
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The idea behind this experiment involves Newton's First Law of Motion...an object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. CLB knows these words, but he hasn't seen them in action! First, I set up the experiment, without telling him what we were doing. I was going for the WOW factor here, and man, does this experiment have a lot of WOW. So here's the set up:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TNo1WThbscs/UiC9X45j2fI/AAAAAAAACN0/1ODF_Ii5w_I/s1600/IMG_2698.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TNo1WThbscs/UiC9X45j2fI/AAAAAAAACN0/1ODF_Ii5w_I/s1600/IMG_2698.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The potential for mess here is HUGE!!!</td></tr>
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Yes, that is a RAW egg perched on top of a small paper tube, on top of a tin pie plate, on top of a glass of water! And guess what I did? I knocked the pan away with a mighty karate chop! POW! Before I did that, I asked CLB what he thought would happen. His hypothesis was that there would be a mighty mess to go along with the mighty karate chop! But what actually happened was:</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">YEEESSS!</td></tr>
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<br />The egg fell straight down into the water, which broke it's fall so it didn't break!!! I have to admit, I was a nervous wreck doing this. I really wanted it to work, but I wasn't so sure about my karate chop capabilities! This experiment works because the karate chop knocks over the pie plate and the lip of the plate hits the paper tube, knocking it over in turn. However the egg hasn't been knocked over (acted upon) by either my hand, the pie plate, or the paper tube. Since there isn't a force acting on it except gravity, it falls straight down to the water. <div>
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You should note that you absolutely have to line the paper tube up with the opening to the glass so that the egg falls into the glass and not on the counter. And you need to make sure to hit only the pie plate with your karate chop. If you hit the glass and the pie plate you do end up with a mess, as CLB found out when he tried it:<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Egg down! Egg down! Actually, the egg did crack but not too badly. Cleaning up the water was more of a pain than the egg!</td></tr>
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<br />If I were you, I would definitely give this one a try! Hey, what's a bit of mess compared to showing your kids how cool you and science are!?! But, just in case you're worried about it and just can't bring yourself to try it, CLB took some video of our third attempt of this. It's a bit shaky (he is only 8, so his videotaping skills need a bit of work), but in 45 seconds you can see exactly what happens and how exciting it all is to Crazy Little Kids!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-34108373880580020152013-08-24T19:23:00.003-04:002013-08-24T19:23:37.220-04:00Spelling City!Just a quick shout out: <a href="http://www.spellingcity.com/" target="_blank">SpellingCity.com </a>is offering a free 30 day premium membership sign up for new members until August 31st. I've used SpellingCity, the free version, for the last couple of years and loved it, but never thought to pay the $30 a year for the premium version. Since we started playing around with the premium membership, I've been able to see all the games that CLB can play to help his spelling. And I can group the lists how I want and set up assignments for CLB to do on his own by a certain date. We're loving it! I'm not affiliated with the site at all, just a happy homeschooling mommy who can't believe she didn't try this out earlier!<br />
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To get the free 30 day trial, just go to <a href="http://spellingcity.com/">SpellingCity.com</a> by August 31st, click the "Sign Me Up" button and enter the code BTS13 at checkout. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-62989367841108603562013-08-22T20:34:00.000-04:002013-08-22T20:34:09.068-04:00Circles and Faces!Just a quick little post from little old me! Just about done wrapping up the first week of school, and I wanted to share these cute little snacks we made this week. CLG has been making an "All About Me" book, and one of the first things she did was to look at different faces and then try to draw her own face.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Give her a break...she's only just about 4!<br />Handout is from the book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Learn-at-Home-Grade-K/dp/0769683703/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1377216815&sr=8-2&keywords=learn+at+home+kindergarten" target="_blank">Learn at Home Grade K</a></i></td></tr>
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She's been having great fun putting all of this together,<i> </i>and the activities have been right up her alley (Love love love the <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Learn-at-Home-Grade-K/dp/0769683703/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1377216815&sr=8-2&keywords=learn+at+home+kindergarten" target="_blank">L</a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Learn-at-Home-Grade-K/dp/0769683703/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1377216815&sr=8-2&keywords=learn+at+home+kindergarten" target="_blank">earn at Home</a></i> series!) Our favorite one this week, though, was making a snack that looked like her face. We started with a rice cake:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RDjA-zGam-M/UhaqDSe_VPI/AAAAAAAACGA/b9fiXlnWTIs/s1600/IMG_2545.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RDjA-zGam-M/UhaqDSe_VPI/AAAAAAAACGA/b9fiXlnWTIs/s1600/IMG_2545.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And lookie there...it's a circle! This led to a completely different conversation linking to our study of circles this week!</td></tr>
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<br />I gave her a choice of jam or peanut butter to put on the rice cake to help glue the face on. She chose jam, so I spread that on for her:<div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3VW3kz0Sw3E/UhaqCVauXyI/AAAAAAAACF4/GJPu4E1h89s/s1600/IMG_2546.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3VW3kz0Sw3E/UhaqCVauXyI/AAAAAAAACF4/GJPu4E1h89s/s1600/IMG_2546.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking yummy!</td></tr>
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<br />For the eyes and nose, CLG added yogurt covered raisins:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sXpCwfXp4DQ/UhaqCC1X1gI/AAAAAAAACF0/Zt1RQng2MMs/s1600/IMG_2547.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sXpCwfXp4DQ/UhaqCC1X1gI/AAAAAAAACF0/Zt1RQng2MMs/s1600/IMG_2547.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cute as a button!</td></tr>
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<br />Then an apple slice for the smile and grapes for the ears:<div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WDy9mzCyhAA/UhasnbJ-2XI/AAAAAAAACG4/LuHtKUwHmtU/s1600/IMG_2549.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WDy9mzCyhAA/UhasnbJ-2XI/AAAAAAAACG4/LuHtKUwHmtU/s1600/IMG_2549.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yes, I know, her "ears" are actually cheeks. Again, she's not quite four!!</td></tr>
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<br />CLG loved making her circle face snack almost as much as she enjoyed eating it! Oh, and CLB just couldn't resist making one either:</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Now, him, he's in 3rd grade...I gave him grief about the "ears" a bit :)</td></tr>
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<br />This snack was adapted from an activity in the book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Learn-at-Home-Grade-K/dp/0769683703/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1377216815&sr=8-2&keywords=learn+at+home+kindergarten" target="_blank">Learn at Home Grade K</a>, published by American Education Publishing<br /><br /><div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-64165003256747606502013-08-21T16:04:00.002-04:002013-08-21T16:04:48.725-04:00Peanut Butter Fudge<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We've completed our third day of school and all is well in our world, so I thought, "Dag nabbit, we worked our tails off and did a great job! We deserve a treat!" Since our State Fair starts up tomorrow, I also thought about all the yummy treats I'll be eating there. One of my favorites is the fudge from the dairy building...mmmm! Yum yum! That seemed to be my second good thought of the day, so I decided to whip up a batch of Peanut Butter Fudge. It's a super easy recipe, adapted from one of <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/peanut-butter-fudge-recipe/index.html" target="_blank">Alton Brown's</a>, and it is the sole reason I still buy peanut butter in the big 40 oz containers. Two at a time!<br />
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NOTE: I don't generally cook this up with the Crazy Kids. It requires the use of one glass bowl, heated up in the microwave for 4 minutes. Since the bowl gets really hot, the Crazy Kids just get to sit back and watch while I put this together.<br />
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First, make sure you use a large glass bowl for this. The ingredients are going to expand in the microwave, so you need room for that. In the glass bowl, put in a cup of salted butter (2 sticks) and one cup of peanut butter. Then add another big wallop of that peanut butter! Seriously, you can't go wrong...just do it!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CYBe8lANaNw/UhUYAQZ9PCI/AAAAAAAACEQ/A3Uy6bebXxI/s1600/IMG_2569.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CYBe8lANaNw/UhUYAQZ9PCI/AAAAAAAACEQ/A3Uy6bebXxI/s1600/IMG_2569.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You know this can't be good for you! But who cares today!?!</td></tr>
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Put the bowl in the microwave and nuke it for two minutes. Then take it out and stir with a wooden spoon.<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You'll notice I barely take this out of the microwave. The bowl is already starting to get super hot, and I keep it here away from the Crazy Kids.</td></tr>
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<br />Back in to the microwave it all goes for another 2 minutes. The mixture will expand this go around, so cross your fingers that you picked the correct bowl size!!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It had me worried there for a minute!</td></tr>
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Take this mixture out of the microwave (carefully! Use oven mitts and put it on a pot holder! It's hot!), and stir in one teaspoon of vanilla.<div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bs_8vp3Lb5c/UhUYQCZXGhI/AAAAAAAACEs/msFNY09c47s/s1600/IMG_2573.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bs_8vp3Lb5c/UhUYQCZXGhI/AAAAAAAACEs/msFNY09c47s/s1600/IMG_2573.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mmm, don't forget to smell the vanilla!</td></tr>
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<br />Then, a cup at a time, mix in the powdered sugar. The amount of sugar you end up putting in is going to depend on how much peanut butter you ended up adding, so add your sugar a cup at a time. Again, remember to mix with that wooden spoon!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the first cup</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is after the third cup. The mixture is starting to get some body to it.</td></tr>
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Once the mixture starts thickening up, add the sugar in only about a third of a cup at a time. Once it starts pulling away from the bowl after you mix it, you've added enough.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Perfect!</td></tr>
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<br />Plop it in a buttered 8x8 glass pan and refrigerate until cool.<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mmmmm!</td></tr>
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<br />You might want to leave just a bit in the bowl to tide you over until the fudge is cooled down! </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nom! No one will miss this little bit...go on! Indulge!</td></tr>
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<br />Seriously, this is one of the simplest recipes I know that satisfies my sweet tooth! And the actual work time on it is less than 10 minutes! Who can resist!?! Certainly not me!<div>
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<b>Quick and Easy Peanut Butter Fudge</b></div>
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adapted from a recipe by <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/peanut-butter-fudge-recipe/index.html" target="_blank">Alton Brown</a><br /><div>
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Ingredients:</div>
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1 cup salted butter (2 sticks) and a bit more to grease the pan</div>
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1 cup peanut butter, with more added for good measure</div>
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1 tsp. vanilla</div>
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3-5 cups powdered sugar</div>
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Add the butter and peanut butter to a large glass bowl and microwave for 2 minutes. Take the bowl out of the microwave, stir with a wooden spoon until combined, and then microwave again for another 2 minutes. Take the bowl out of the microwave with pot holders and place on a pot holder. Add the vanilla and stir with a wooden spoon. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, and stir (again, use that trusty wooden spoon!). When the mixture starts thickening up, stir in powdered sugar about 1/3 of a cup at a time. When the mixture starts pulling away from the side of the bowl while you're stirring it, you've added enough sugar. Pour the mixture into a buttered 8x8 glass pan, and refrigerate until cool. Cut into bite size pieces and enjoy!!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-34679710400342384332013-08-19T16:43:00.001-04:002013-08-19T17:10:09.228-04:00First Day of "Home" School TraditionsSo today was our first official day of homeschooling for the 2013-14 school year! Yay! The Crazy Kids were excited, I was excited, the entire house was excited! I figure everyone has different ways to celebrate the first day of school, so I thought I'd share some of ours.<br />
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The big one for me is that the first day of school is just for us. We don't plan on meeting up with friends at the park or attending any kind of group activities. Don't get me wrong...I sooooo do not have the "stay at home, don't socialize" kind of Crazy Kids! We have a very vibrant social life, with many different activities and friends to share them with. But on the first day, I want to let the Crazy Kids ease into school, not dart through lessons and then yell, "Hey, come on, it's time to go play with friends!", or, "It's such and such a day, time to go to (fill in the blank...it could be anything from the Y to a playdate to a co-op class!)." Nope, slow and steady on the first day! It helps us enjoy the day and each other, and always reminds me how lucky I am to be with my kids all day and able to homeschool them.<br />
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So like everyone else we know, we take our first day of school pictures and gather our materials. But before we start, we always ring the bell. My grandmother's apple bell. I love this bell...it's so pretty! And the crazy kids especially love to ring it rigorously and joyfully! First day of school!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ring the bell for the first day of school!</td></tr>
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We may forget to ring it every day as the school year goes on and we get more and more wrapped up with our work. But you can bet on that first day, that apple bell's a-ringing!</div>
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Once the bell has rung, we can't forget to put our first jelly bean into our jelly bean containers. I have to admit, I always do forget, but as I said in a previous post, the two Crazy Kids love this countdown to the Hundredth day of school and never miss a day!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jelly bean #1!!!</td></tr>
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Then we ease into our planned activities and school work. Sometimes this involves learning new procedures or schedules for the year. I try to start with anything that's going to be with us all year as soon as possible. This year, I'm hoping CLB will learn to ask for help with his writing when he needs it instead of simply waiting for me to step in and give suggestions. So right away, we went over the new schedule for writing, and I'll keep it up on the white board until he's comfortable with it or until I need to make changes to it to help support him more.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YP5HTnX9ssg/UhKBYW4aiLI/AAAAAAAACCs/gum3mqPAmwU/s1600/IMG_20130819_144842.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YP5HTnX9ssg/UhKBYW4aiLI/AAAAAAAACCs/gum3mqPAmwU/s1600/IMG_20130819_144842.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If this doesn't work, and CLB doesn't ask for help, then I'll make sure to change it up!</td></tr>
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Once all the paper and pencil (and markers, paint, shaving cream, etc.) work is completed, we have a little fun! We always go out to eat for lunch, and I usually let the Crazy Kids pick where they want to go. This year, I didn't even bother asking where they wanted to eat, because every time I do ask, it's always "MCDONALD'S!!!". We try not to go too often, so going on the first day of school was a special treat! While we were there, we also worked on a scavenger hunt for CLG. She was supposed to look around to find circles while we were out and about and find circles she did! </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My chocolate milk cap, Mooom!</td></tr>
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While we eat, I always check in with the Crazy Kids and see how the first day went. There have been times when CLB has felt completely overwhelmed on the first day and others where he is left wondering if that was all we'd be doing for the day, because it surely didn't feel like much! I'm happy to report that it seems as if we reached a happy medium this year. Over lunch, we also talk about our first service project for the year and how we can accomplish it. This year, we had already decided to do <a href="http://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/" target="_blank">Operation Christmas Child</a> and thought it would be a great idea to head over to the local Target to pick up items for our shoe box with the money the Crazy Kids have been saving. I like starting the year speaking to the Crazy Kids about how they can help other people in our community and across the world. I feel it's important for them to realize that not everything revolves around their little Crazy selves and although they might be little, a little bit of something can make a big difference and is definitely better than nothing!!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6osdwInuppo/UhJTi_dmaGI/AAAAAAAACDI/jzZ26uI0TKM/s1600/IMG_20130819_131832.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6osdwInuppo/UhJTi_dmaGI/AAAAAAAACDI/jzZ26uI0TKM/s1600/IMG_20130819_131832.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of our donation picks for Operation Christmas Child. Yup, more pictures for the circle scavenger hunt!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w9-ZoOcUBv4/UhKIdIm4avI/AAAAAAAACDk/qGKI60RFIqI/s1600/IMG_2544.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-w9-ZoOcUBv4/UhKIdIm4avI/AAAAAAAACDk/qGKI60RFIqI/s1600/IMG_2544.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You can fit a lot in a shoebox! And lookie there, I <i>was</i> able to buy some school supplies this year. Ahhh, my zen moment!</td></tr>
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This really was a big day for the Crazy Kids, and they enjoyed themselves and I enjoyed them! But before we finished up for the day, we all thought there was one more thing we should do to celebrate a successful first day of school:</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ICE CREAM!!</td></tr>
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I think this is going to be a new treat we add to our list of things to do on the first day of school. Oh, and look at that:</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nom!</td></tr>
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Another circle! Whoda thunk!?!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-19511153922152528632013-08-17T11:10:00.001-04:002014-11-05T16:27:25.696-05:00Last Big Bit of Summer Fun!<div style="text-align: right;">
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Just a short blurb from me today. I'm tired, beat and worn out! A great way to be when our homeschool year starts in just a few days, right!?! Well, I have a good reason for being worn out...we went to the beach yesterday. And not just any beach! A beach with an old fashioned amusement park!<br />
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This little piece of kiddie heaven is only about 45 minutes away from us, but (and I cringe to admit it) we haven't been there <b>once</b> in all the times we've lived here! The reason? I'm a super nervous Nellie when it comes to driving too far from home! Fortunately, I have a fantastically wonderful friend who completely understands this, and she told me that we have to go, so we're going, no ifs, ands, ors or buts! Sometimes that's just what I need to beat the anxiety...a good kick in the pants! </div>
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So we went, and I drove and my fantastically wonderful friend just kept being more and more fantastically wonderful while she looked after her child and helped me with the Crazy Kids! Seriously, I cannot believe how much fun it is going to an amusement park/beach with a kind hearted mom. Other moms are telepathic and just know when you need help with your crazy kids! Anyway, we had a great time, the kids had a great time, and I conquered my fear of driving to this place, so we will be going again and again! And it was a fantastic way to end our summer season. But now, I'm tired, beat and worn out (in a happy way), and, oh yeah, I have a bit of a mess to clean up before school starts!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Guess who forgot to take off her little pink crocs when we got back from the beach!</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-39314690805999362722013-08-14T08:43:00.000-04:002013-08-14T09:17:35.688-04:00Fun Touches for the School Room!So in less than one short week we'll be starting up with our new homeschool year. We're all very excited! The school room is cleaned up and looking great, lesson plans have been put together, and we are ready!<br />
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This year for the school room bulletin board, we decided to have a wise old owl theme. I found a cute little roll of owl ribbon, and thought strips of that around the board would look lovely.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r8fsxciR0lA/UgtpjeSc7hI/AAAAAAAAB18/vNCvHaBCfYk/s1600/IMG_2484.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r8fsxciR0lA/UgtpjeSc7hI/AAAAAAAAB18/vNCvHaBCfYk/s1600/IMG_2484.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So cute!</td></tr>
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I wanted an olive green background, but the two Crazy Kids were adamant we have brown. Since it's their room, too, who am I to argue! And, turns out, I think the brown looks much better than the olive would have! I just bought a yard of cloth from JoAnn Fabrics (our JoAnn's allows multiple coupons on one purchase, so, for us, it's the place to go!), cut it to fit the board and stapled it up there. Then I cut strips of ribbon to go over the border of the board because heaven knows I cannot cut fabric in a straight line! The ribbon hides the crookedness beautifully! I stapled them up, too, and voila! decorated bulletin board!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vSFtGgjgF6s/Ugt_I_gvs0I/AAAAAAAAB3Y/RImtF7bhFos/s1600/IMG_2492.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vSFtGgjgF6s/Ugt_I_gvs0I/AAAAAAAAB3Y/RImtF7bhFos/s1600/IMG_2492.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hmmm, maybe I should have ironed the cloth. And would you look at that! Crooked ribbon. I'm hopeless with straight lines!</td></tr>
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We also decided to start the year off with the Book Tree again. I did this with the kids last year, and apparently, it was a huge hit. I cut out an outline of a tree and used double sided "removable" tape to stick it to the school room door. I put the word "removable" in quotes because, later in the year, when I tried to remove it, it didn't remove. It took about an hour to scrape everything off the door! This year, I'm laminating the entire thing!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I know, it looks like something from another planet, but the tree actually looks fantastic once the leaves and apples get put on there!</td></tr>
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Once school started, every time we read a book, we wrote the title and author's name on a leaf or apple and taped it to our tree.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These look wonderful on our tree!</td></tr>
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The tree does tend to get overgrown after a bit, since we read so many books. Last year, once that started happening, I planned on taking it down and being done with it. But the Crazy Kids loved it so much, they asked me to continue with the idea. So for each season or holiday, we made another display for our book titles. It was lots of fun to see the displays grow, so we'll be doing it again this year!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our Spring book display from last year. The Crazy Kids loved watching the flower bloom!</td></tr>
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And finally, our school room would not be complete without our Hundred Day Jelly Bean Jars!</div>
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I actually keep waiting for the Crazy Kids to be sick of this activity, but still, after three years, they look forward to it! Every day, we put in one jelly bean to mark the time. On our Hundredth Day, we put the last jelly bean in and have a little party. Of course they get to eat jelly beans, but not the ones that have gotten all sticky and stuck together in the jars...we do a craft of some sort with those. But it's a fun way for them to start their school day and seeing the jar every day reminds them of how much they've accomplished and the fun party they'll be having soon.<br />
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I love our little school room and, although I am not a terribly good decorator (not at all, actually), it is fun to do these little touches for the kids. It really gets them geared up for another fun homeschool year. What do you do to get your school room or space prepared? I'd love suggestions!!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-40809951024378812472013-08-12T11:54:00.002-04:002013-08-12T11:54:13.624-04:00Just say "NO!" to school suppliesWe are really close to the beginning of our official school year. As a result, I have been tearing apart the classroom and putting everything back together in a more organized fashion. Our school room looked like a huge pack of puppies came flopping and rolling and wrestling in every drawer, on every shelf, heck, basically in every nook and cranny of the school room. The mess makers were quite adorable, but very thorough.<br />
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As I was going through everything, I was thinking of all the school supply shopping I'd be able to do once I cleaned everything up! It was my mantra..."As soon as you get this organized, you get to go shopping for school supplies! So get it done!!" I'm a sucker for school supplies and the only thing I like better than buying them is buying them for pennies, dimes and quarters! Yay! Shopping is fun!<br />
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But as I started cleaning and organizing, I noticed something. I have apparently been going nutso every year with the school supply shopping, and as a result, we have sooo many supplies that the school room is packed to the gills!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ICcmApj-8_k/UgkBv0eZA4I/AAAAAAAAB0c/uxjtoLsVya4/s1600/IMG_2475.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ICcmApj-8_k/UgkBv0eZA4I/AAAAAAAAB0c/uxjtoLsVya4/s1600/IMG_2475.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We have enough crayons and markers to last us a lifetime! And yes, all those markers work!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ey36YcXDKKY/UgkCdk85MTI/AAAAAAAAB08/skMRG1Ar1WA/s1600/IMG_2476.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ey36YcXDKKY/UgkCdk85MTI/AAAAAAAAB08/skMRG1Ar1WA/s1600/IMG_2476.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I have mentioned that I have TWO Crazy Kids, not 5, right! Why on earth do I have all these scissors!?!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9hrORCbpmE0/UgkCzx-fFEI/AAAAAAAAB1M/PwJ-D8fNoWQ/s1600/IMG_2477.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9hrORCbpmE0/UgkCzx-fFEI/AAAAAAAAB1M/PwJ-D8fNoWQ/s1600/IMG_2477.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This just about says it all...and yes, these are all the ones that work! You should have seen what I threw out!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vrukTGn87nE/UgkCyk4o5QI/AAAAAAAAB1E/vNARqnR_gyo/s1600/IMG_2478.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vrukTGn87nE/UgkCyk4o5QI/AAAAAAAAB1E/vNARqnR_gyo/s1600/IMG_2478.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We have so much paper that I can barely open the storage drawer!</td></tr>
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I don't know what I was thinking each year I went shopping. Not much, apparently, except "YIPPEE! Here we go!!" Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it!), I'm thinking about what to do this year!<div>
<br />So after doing all this thinking, I have made the decision (sob!) not to go school supply shopping (sob sob!)! I'm avoiding any kind of office supply store or back to school section as if my life depended on it. It'll be hard, but I'm just saying NO! (SOB!) Wish me luck!<br /><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-55042760264943131232013-08-02T14:41:00.001-04:002013-08-02T14:41:07.059-04:00The Ivory Soap ExperimentI've been seeing this Ivory Soap Experiment on Pinterest since I first started pinning. I've constantly said to myself, "Okay, I want to do this with the two crazy kids", and then I get busy and end up forgetting about it, until I see it on Pinterest yet again. Since we've been having a very low key afternoon, I decided that this is it! Today is the day to do the Ivory soap experiment! Finally! Oh, and like I said, it's all over Pinterest, so you can go there if you want more information or pictures. I originally saw it on the blog <a href="http://overchocolatemilk.blogspot.com/2012/06/exploding-ivory-soap-soap-microwave.html" target="_blank">Our Chocolate Milk</a>, so I followed their instructions.<br />
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So the first thing I did was to show the kids a bar of Ivory soap, and then told them that when this soap is made, it gets whipped up so that air pockets form. I cut it in half and let them take a look and examine it:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YlKbgYB60fI/Ufv24KAMxTI/AAAAAAAABrg/u20uVgQv6z0/s1600/IMG_2418.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YlKbgYB60fI/Ufv24KAMxTI/AAAAAAAABrg/u20uVgQv6z0/s1600/IMG_2418.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CLB was convinced he could see all the air pockets! Neither kid liked the smell of the soap, though...crazy kids!</td></tr>
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I reminded them that the soap was made of water and that there were air pockets trapped in the soap, very similar to the water trapped in a kernel of corn. Then I asked them what they thought would happen if we microwaved the bar of soap. They were a bit mystified at first, so I asked them what a microwave does. Once they realized that I was talking about heating up something, especially kernels of corn, they shouted out, "Popcorn!" (it's actually great fun popping corn on the stove with kids so they can actually see the popping...another blog entry I suppose). So CLB's hypothesis was that the soap would blow up (so dramatic!). CLG was hoping the soap would magically transform into something she could eat (she is little after all, and we were talking about popcorn!).<br />
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So we had our hypothesis and decided to conduct our experiment! I cut the halves down again into quarters, and put one quarter onto a glass pie plate:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p7SxWvm_jyw/Ufv4u5tvs7I/AAAAAAAABrw/1FqOxp9GBKU/s1600/IMG_2419.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p7SxWvm_jyw/Ufv4u5tvs7I/AAAAAAAABrw/1FqOxp9GBKU/s1600/IMG_2419.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Do this <i>with</i> your kids! Don't let your kids do this by themselves or you'll end up with a mess!</td></tr>
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<br />Then we stuck the pie plate with the soap into the microwave and nuked it for 90 seconds. It probably could have stayed in there for only a minute, but I wasn't sure, so I followed directions. The kids were so surprised when it started puffing up, even though we had just talked about it!<div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B1YP92GdgPE/Ufv5RtcS9DI/AAAAAAAABr4/lZoERoyF4uk/s1600/IMG_2422.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B1YP92GdgPE/Ufv5RtcS9DI/AAAAAAAABr4/lZoERoyF4uk/s1600/IMG_2422.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Okay, I know, not the best picture, but you can see it starting to puff up. It happens right away, so don't take your eyes off it!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YmPbyj2RltA/Ufv58Dpww0I/AAAAAAAABsA/0NJWpe9PNVQ/s1600/IMG_2423.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YmPbyj2RltA/Ufv58Dpww0I/AAAAAAAABsA/0NJWpe9PNVQ/s1600/IMG_2423.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's what it looked like when it came out...so neat! Very light!!</td></tr>
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<br />Both crazy kids loved picking it up and feeling it's weight and texture. It was a bit warm when it came out, so be sure to test it before letting little hands play with it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dOtrJTdHcfg/Ufv6WgVxngI/AAAAAAAABsI/OXCOoHLsTus/s1600/IMG_2426.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dOtrJTdHcfg/Ufv6WgVxngI/AAAAAAAABsI/OXCOoHLsTus/s1600/IMG_2426.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CLB especially enjoyed playing with it. At this point, he also wondered if it was edible like popcorn. Now he is old enough to know better! Another reason to do this <i>with</i> kids, not just letting them do this on his own!</td></tr>
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<br />All in all, this was a fun little experiment that both kids enjoyed. Not too messy and you can really build up the suspense if you like! Oh, and I believe it's still usable as soap! So guess what my wonderful husband gets to use to wash up with:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R9oMKy39oiI/Ufv7MWx5hPI/AAAAAAAABsY/M4AfM0DPcvg/s1600/IMG_2424.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R9oMKy39oiI/Ufv7MWx5hPI/AAAAAAAABsY/M4AfM0DPcvg/s1600/IMG_2424.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fluffy soap, all for you, Hon! <3<br /></td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-50895391501605622332013-07-30T16:57:00.000-04:002013-07-30T16:57:00.154-04:00BOB Books<div style="text-align: justify;">
CLG has decided she wants to learn to read. She knows most of her letter sounds, and lately I've been hearing her trying to sound out words constantly. Between that and her nonstop questions about how different words are spelled, I thought it was time for her to try something new (I mean, seriously, the only time she stops asking how something is spelled is if she's sleeping or swimming! And when she's swimming, I betcha she's asking her swim instructor how he spells different words. I need a break from spelling!!!). So I introduced her to BOB... BOB books, that is!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We love these books! CLB used them to learn to read, and now it's CLG's turn.</td></tr>
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These books are great! Just the right size for little hands, and the words that are used to tell the stories are perfect for little ones just trying to figure out how to sound out words. As kids work through the books, the number of words per sentence increases, allowing them to work on reading comprehension as well as sounding out words. And the pictures that are included help kids figure out what is happening in the story (This is not Shakespeare, people! Simple little stories with simple little words and simple little pictures!! Perfect for little people!!). CLB started to learn to read with them, so it's fun going through them again with CLG and remembering how much her big brother loved them. </div>
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This time around, though, because of Pinterest, I've also found some fun sheets and activities to help CLG practice what she's learning. We did a couple today, and she loooved them! The site, <a href="http://www.3dinosaurs.com/printables/learningtoread/bobbooks/set1.php" target="_blank">3 Dinosaurs</a>, not only has some great printables for BOB books but also lists out a bunch of other sites with printables and activities. I'm finding they're just enough of a challenge to satisfy CLG's curiosity, without overwhelming her (she's still little, after all!).</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A word path for BOB Book Set 1, Book 8 from <a href="http://www.3dinosaurs.com/printables/learningtoread/bobbooks/set1.php" target="_blank">3 Dinosaurs</a>. CLG had fun with this one!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A tracing and stamping activity from <a href="http://www.3dinosaurs.com/printables/learningtoread/bobbooks/set1.php" target="_blank">3 Dinosaurs</a>. This was CLG's favorite! We didn't do the tracing, but she was all over the stamping!</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: left;">CLG is really excited to be able to learn to read and to get to do school time like her crazy older brother. I'm excited for her, too! And for me! These books are a great change of pace from spelling out word, after word, after word, after word...</span></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-19385165833920149552013-07-25T11:20:00.003-04:002013-07-25T11:20:47.769-04:00Time to Start Planning!So as we start getting to the end of July, the Crazy Little Kids and I start getting antsy. We're starting to feel ready to gear up for the new school year! We're not quite ready to start our "official" school year, but almost. So in the next few weeks, I begin to start setting up an overview of the school year and giving the kids some clues about what's coming up. It helps build the excitement!<br />
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When we first started homeschooling, I had dreams of making up all my own activities and finding all these amazing books to read, all on my own. Yeah, that lasted about four months! I had a 6 year old to teach and a crazy 2 year old girl who was into everything. Making up my own stuff just was not an option! Fortunately, I found this series of books that have been an absolute joy for us! We love love love the <i> Learn at Home</i> series! It really suits the crazy kids' learning styles, and it also suits my teaching style. A lovely fit for us! Thirty-six weeks of topics to study, possible field trips, activities and crafts for math, spelling, reading, science, social studies and language arts. It's all crammed into one lovely book for each grade!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Love love love these books!</td></tr>
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There are only two issues I have with these books. First, they're not published any more, so the only way I can find them is on Ebay or discount book sellers. And sometimes, this means it's missing pages, which is a problem. Bleurgh! The other issue is there isn't an index of topics or books being read! So every summer, I've had to go through it week by week with CLB to see what he thinks he will enjoy and what he isn't so thrilled about and then tweak it all. For him, we usually focus on the books he'll be reading (the series suggests a book to read every week), so that I can start reserving books at the library. And if a book doesn't seem engaging to CLB or for some reason our library doesn't have it, I start looking for books to switch things up. It doesn't happen often, but for those few times it does, I want to be prepared for it. So then I end up writing up something that looks like this:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Am I seriously supposed to read this chicken scratch!?!?</td></tr>
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I don't know what my problem is that I can't type my book list out. It always needs to be written by hand! Everything else, I can type and go, but for some reason, this gem needs to have the chicken scratch to make sense. And after I'm done with it, I want nothing to do with typing it out, so heaven help me if I lose this thing! It's our overview for the entire year, with dates and weeks and books and topics all written out.<br />
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What's tough this year is that CLG is getting added into the mix. And her list is crazy! Lots and lots of books for every week, and I STILL can't type it out while I go through it!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cC8t7PAx-Ck/Ue_xUUkghEI/AAAAAAAABjw/4N8wJIVhyAI/s1600/IMG_2381.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cC8t7PAx-Ck/Ue_xUUkghEI/AAAAAAAABjw/4N8wJIVhyAI/s1600/IMG_2381.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Well, at least it's a little neater!</td></tr>
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So whereas one sheet of paper will hold all of CLB's yearly outline, one sheet of paper will only take care of 5 days!!! for CLG!! Seriously, I have to do this on the computer, right!?!? I'll be here forever doing this. I don't think I did this with CLB...I was too much of a newbie homeschooler to think of it.</div>
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I will say, though, that it is exciting to get a closer look at what we'll be exploring this year and all the new books and activities we have to look forward to. Once these lists are done, I'll have a good vision of how the school year will proceed. And once the school year starts, I'll spend time each week planning out the following week, but we haven't gotten that far yet. We are all starting to anticipate getting back into the swing of things, though! And if we can't wait any longer, well, we can always just start! That's what's fun about homeschooling!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-12418529515626704092013-07-24T11:12:00.000-04:002013-07-24T11:12:12.836-04:00Canning Update!Ha! So I did it! It's 61 degrees here today, so, since there is no way in Heaven I'm going to make the kids go swimming, I decided to make and process some salsa! I followed the Zesty Salsa recipe from <i>The Ball Blue Book</i>, and I can't wait to eat it!<br />
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The only annoying part out of the entire deal was peeling those darn tomatoes. Yes, I know, score them, boil them, and then plunge in ice water! I know the drill with peeling them. But these tomatoes did not want to get naked this morning! Chopping the peppers and onions were a breeze compared to that. But it got done!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Everything chopped and ready to cook up!</td></tr>
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<br />After only ten minutes of simmering, this mixture was ready to process! So, once I got past peeling my shy little tomatoes and everything else was all chopped up, it went along pretty well.<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cooked down and ready to process!</td></tr>
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<br />After 20 minutes of boiling water, here are my three lovely jars! Yes, I know, only three, but I'm starting out small. I actually halved the recipe in the book (the book said it was okay to do that with this recipe, thank goodness!).<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yummy! </td></tr>
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<br />I hope it tastes as good as it smells and looks! It was fun trying something new! Next step, canned nectarines!<br /><div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-75470362094864747812013-07-22T18:32:00.002-04:002013-07-22T18:32:14.742-04:00Canning and Processing...Can I Do It?!?When I was very little, my grandmother used to live with us, which was absolutely wonderful! Every summer, she and my mom would get us all together with buckets, and we'd head out to the field behind our backyard. Our goal? Berries!!! Lots and lots of berries! I don't actually remember what kind of berries we picked, but we always picked a ton of them! And then we'd head back to the house, overflowing buckets in tow, and my grandmother and mother would spend the rest of the day making jam and processing it all. To do this, they took out the biggest pot I've ever seen, added water, and boiled it over and over all day. Our kitchen was just filled with steam! My mom and grandmother made short work of those berries, and, if we were lucky, they'd also process homemade pickles from cucumbers straight from our garden! I used to love those days, but, unfortunately, I never learned the tricks of processing fruits and vegetables.<br />
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I've wanted to do it myself, but I've always been a bit tentative. What if I didn't process the jars correctly and I ended up inadvertently giving everyone food poisoning (can you tell I'm a worrier!?!). I asked my mom to show me how to process food, but she wanted nothing to do with it. I guess she had enough of it all those summers we were growing up! Eventually, I have gained some confidence in my ability to read directions out of a book (ha ha), and have made some different jams that were quite successful. So I finally decided that this is the year I'm going to try something a bit more complex! I'm going to do it this summer! I decided on making salsa, since we love the stuff and it's not too difficult to make. The tomatoes and peppers also looked fantastic today in the market, so that sort of helped me set my mind to it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-whg9SNnAx2w/Ue2xFhvj9JI/AAAAAAAABiY/IGkvICsQ-D4/s1600/IMG_2374.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-whg9SNnAx2w/Ue2xFhvj9JI/AAAAAAAABiY/IGkvICsQ-D4/s1600/IMG_2374.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My future salsa!</td></tr>
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<br />As you can see from the picture, I didn't get tons and tons of vegetables...just enough to make a few pint jars of salsa to store away for the winter. I figure I'll start out small, gain confidence, and then maybe next year, really have at it! So cross your fingers that I know what I'm doing! I'll keep you posted on how it all comes out!<br /><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-56527944399848577132013-07-19T21:13:00.004-04:002013-07-19T21:13:47.493-04:00Mr. Literal<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 13.600000381469727px;">Me: CLB, go find the flashlights you were playing with last week (there's a storm a-brewin' here!).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 13.600000381469727px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 13.600000381469727px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 13.600000381469727px;">CLB goes gallumping down to the toy room and then gallumps back up, sans flashlight. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 13.600000381469727px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 13.600000381469727px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 13.600000381469727px;">Me: CLB, where are those flashlights!?!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 13.600000381469727px;" /><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 13.600000381469727px;"><br />CLB: Downstairs in the toy room.<br /><br />Me: (all exasperated) Well, why didn't you bring them upstairs?<br /><br />CLB: You didn't tell me to bring them up! You just told me to find them!<br /><br />I stare and bang my head against the wall! LOL</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-71862192606928526812013-07-17T18:01:00.002-04:002013-07-17T18:01:30.809-04:00Snicker Bars!One of my favorite candies to eat is a Snickers bar. I love these things! When I was a kid, I had a very difficult time eating first thing in the morning, and this sometimes caused issues when we were travelling. I remember getting up before it was even light out and piling into the car to take the long trip down to Long Island to visit my grandparents. It was so early that there was no way I would have ever been able to eat breakfast, so my mom threw a bunch of Snicker bars into her bag and handed them out as kids became hungry. Let me tell you, there is nothing like having a Snickers bar for breakfast! Fan-Freakin'-Tastic!!<br />
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So the store bought Snickers bars will always have a place in my heart, but I have to admit, they cannot even remotely compare to this handmade recipe from <a href="http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/01/homemade-snickers-bars/" target="_blank">how sweet it is</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q9N5SPrI-Dk/Ueaws0afvQI/AAAAAAAABb8/ZOz6rlmbwWA/s1600/IMG_1982.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q9N5SPrI-Dk/Ueaws0afvQI/AAAAAAAABb8/ZOz6rlmbwWA/s1600/IMG_1982.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drooool!</td></tr>
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This recipe is AMAZING!!! Hands down the best candy recipe I've ever made. It has four layers, each of which is easy to pull together, but because each layer has to cool down in between, it can take a bit of time where you're just waiting. With bated breath! In addition, I have to admit, some of the layers involve dealing with sticky and messy ingredients. Not always fun for me to deal with but perfect for Crazy Little Kid hands!<br />
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So first, I melted milk chocolate chips with some peanut butter, and while I was doing that, the Crazy Little Kids unwrapped all the caramels (First step that I can't stand doing...unwrapping a billion caramels! But my two crazy kids love it!).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LdXHBT4uS_c/Uea0yr0KdyI/AAAAAAAABcY/nDCrhTtefow/s1600/IMG_2341.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LdXHBT4uS_c/Uea0yr0KdyI/AAAAAAAABcY/nDCrhTtefow/s1600/IMG_2341.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unwrapping caramels...perfect for little hands!</td></tr>
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<br />I greased a 9 by 11 pan with cooking spray. I always use an aluminum throw away one, since it's easier to get the bars out of the pan when they're done. Then I poured the chocolate in the pan and the entire thing went into the fridge to cool down.<div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bLB_VMtndAI/Uea032nGFvI/AAAAAAAABco/XJoPmwk2E5k/s1600/IMG_2342.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bLB_VMtndAI/Uea032nGFvI/AAAAAAAABco/XJoPmwk2E5k/s1600/IMG_2342.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Melted chocolate!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Time to cool off!</td></tr>
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<br />While the chocolate was cooling off, we worked on the nougat layer. This is the only layer that requires cooking, and it's also the stickiest layer. It involves measuring out marshmallow FLUFF, which is, in my opinion, one of the stickiest materials ever created! I hate measuring it, but CLB always handles the challenge beautifully! </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CLB can do the sticky work!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fluff, what a mess!</td></tr>
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While he measured the fluff out, CLG and I gathered the rest of the ingredients for the nougat...butter, sugar, evaporated milk, peanut butter, vanilla and peanuts. Seriously, get everything measured and ready to go before starting to cook it. It goes fast and it's nice to have everything together in advance. Oh, and for the peanuts! I put them on a piece of wax paper and chopped them up a bit. The wax paper helped out later, and I just like smaller bits of peanuts in my bars.</div>
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For the next part, I sent the kids out of the kitchen. It involves heating up sugar and fluff, and it goes fast, so it's just better if they're not in there. I melted the butter, and then added the sugar and evaporated milk. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just about to boil</td></tr>
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I brought that to a boil, and then let it bubble away for a little less than five minutes...just enough to get all the sugar melted completely and for it to change color just a bit. Watch it here, though...don't burn it! After it boiled a bit and changed color, I added the fluff, peanut butter and vanilla to the mix and stirred it up. Again, work quickly so it doesn't burn!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mmmm, boil boil yum!</td></tr>
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I took it off the heat and added the chopped peanuts.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chopped peanuts on waxed paper...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JVncXL5kdVk/Uea1bDWtRYI/AAAAAAAABdo/ABPoBfQOlFY/s1600/IMG_2350.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JVncXL5kdVk/Uea1bDWtRYI/AAAAAAAABdo/ABPoBfQOlFY/s1600/IMG_2350.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...slide easily into the pot! See, I told you that wax paper would come in handy!</td></tr>
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<br />I mixed in the peanuts, and then poured the entire lovely concoction into the pan on top of the cooled chocolate.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-owzBJGXeuSk/Uea1dVitRfI/AAAAAAAABdw/_sxu7rgH16s/s1600/IMG_2351.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-owzBJGXeuSk/Uea1dVitRfI/AAAAAAAABdw/_sxu7rgH16s/s1600/IMG_2351.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">YUM!!</td></tr>
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<br />It was spread about and then back into the fridge the pan went to cool down before going on to the next layer! <div>
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The caramel layer is really easy (once all those caramels are unwrapped!). I just melted them with some heavy cream over low heat. Once the mixture was nice and silky and smooth, over the cooled nougat layer it went!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-l3EkCm1CxGY/Uea1j5iCxPI/AAAAAAAABeE/mxhnjMmcioo/s1600/IMG_2352.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-l3EkCm1CxGY/Uea1j5iCxPI/AAAAAAAABeE/mxhnjMmcioo/s1600/IMG_2352.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Caramel and Cream!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6oJV2WjQ8ks/Uea1jLsN8pI/AAAAAAAABd4/kYlf08wA0Ms/s1600/IMG_2353.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6oJV2WjQ8ks/Uea1jLsN8pI/AAAAAAAABd4/kYlf08wA0Ms/s1600/IMG_2353.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Crazy Kids just needed to take a peek. I was right there with them while the heat was on the stove! If Hansel and Gretal taught us anything, it's never leave kids alone when they're near a stove!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-60DyYN4XnOU/Uea1j4ZpTnI/AAAAAAAABeI/wtAVal6p5Kk/s1600/IMG_2354.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-60DyYN4XnOU/Uea1j4ZpTnI/AAAAAAAABeI/wtAVal6p5Kk/s1600/IMG_2354.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oooh, such wonderful stickiness!<br /></td></tr>
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The last step was to melt up some more milk chocolate chips and peanut butter to make the top coating. It's exactly the same as the bottom layer, so easy peasy lemon squeezy!<div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EAl4cxWB6nE/UecIpgTywgI/AAAAAAAABec/r7WMWni0L3E/s1600/IMG_2357.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EAl4cxWB6nE/UecIpgTywgI/AAAAAAAABec/r7WMWni0L3E/s1600/IMG_2357.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CLB couldn't stand waiting for these snicker bars! I held them both off with chocolate chips and tastes of fluff!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SToVlXAp6AI/UecIp1AApsI/AAAAAAAABek/_pB0P_M9J1c/s1600/IMG_2358.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SToVlXAp6AI/UecIp1AApsI/AAAAAAAABek/_pB0P_M9J1c/s1600/IMG_2358.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Seriously, how could you not make these! Look at that!</td></tr>
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Once I had the top layer on, back into the fridge it went to get completely cooled and hardened.<br /><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dk8Zfqld_TI/UecIpzbUhMI/AAAAAAAABeg/bBJkPi1pB_w/s1600/IMG_2359.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dk8Zfqld_TI/UecIpzbUhMI/AAAAAAAABeg/bBJkPi1pB_w/s1600/IMG_2359.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I'll say it again...DROOL!!</td></tr>
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<br />Once the bars were cooled off, I removed them from the pan and cut them into bars of yummy goodness.<br /><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TikTPj_OCSo/UecIsIwGtqI/AAAAAAAABe0/zPOtegXCuJw/s1600/IMG_2360.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TikTPj_OCSo/UecIsIwGtqI/AAAAAAAABe0/zPOtegXCuJw/s1600/IMG_2360.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See what I mean about the pan! I think it would be tough getting this out in one chuck without using a disposable aluminum pan.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2B9nd4jYc2w/UecIuCS41oI/AAAAAAAABe8/0MDiRuwdQbk/s1600/IMG_2362.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2B9nd4jYc2w/UecIuCS41oI/AAAAAAAABe8/0MDiRuwdQbk/s1600/IMG_2362.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And there it is!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5xIY-bjipAk/UecIvD-briI/AAAAAAAABfI/8luDV_Qwm58/s1600/IMG_2363.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5xIY-bjipAk/UecIvD-briI/AAAAAAAABfI/8luDV_Qwm58/s1600/IMG_2363.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You get a lot of bars from this recipe!</td></tr>
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<br />This makes a lot of snicker bars, and I'm not sure if cutting the recipe in half would work out as well because of the timing with the nougat layer. I usually try to make sure to whip them up when I know there'll be plenty of people to give them, too. But, on the other hand, the Crazy Kids and I agree that there's nothing wrong with scarfing these babies up all on our own!<br /><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fabulous!</td></tr>
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<br /><b>Recipe</b><div>
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Homemade Snicker Bars</div>
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slightly adapted from <a href="http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/01/homemade-snickers-bars/" target="_blank">how sweet it is</a></div>
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<b>Ingredients</b></div>
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<b>For bottom layer</b></div>
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1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips NOTE: I often use a bit more than this to get a thicker chocolate coat.</div>
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1/4 cup peanut butter NOTE: If you use extra chocolate chips, just add a tad more peanut butter.</div>
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<b>For nougat</b></div>
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1/4 cup butter</div>
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1 cup white sugar</div>
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1/4 cup evaporated milk NOTE: I have used cream for this, and it works out fine, but the evaporated milk gives it a better texture.</div>
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1 1/2 cups marshmallow fluff</div>
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1/4 cup peanut butter</div>
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1 1/2 cups unsalted roasted peanuts, lightly chopped</div>
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1 teaspoon vanilla extract.</div>
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<b>For caramel layer</b></div>
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1 14 ounce bag of wrapped caramels</div>
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1/4 cup heavy cream</div>
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<b>For top layer</b></div>
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1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips (See NOTE from top layer)</div>
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1/4 cup peanut butter (See NOTE from top layer)</div>
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<b>Directions</b></div>
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Spray a 9x13 disposable aluminum pan with cooking spray. Put the ingredients for the bottom layer into a glass bowl and microwave for about 45 seconds. Mix until all the chips are melted and peanut butter is thoroughly combined with the chocolate. Pour and spread it into the prepared pan and set the pan in the refrigerator until completely the chocolate is completely cooled and solid.</div>
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To form the nougat layer, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the sugar and evaporated milk and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Let the mixture boil for about 5 minutes, until it changes to a light tan shade, again, stirring frequently (NOTE, depending on your stove, you may need to adjust the cooking time for this). Do not let the mixture burn! Once the mixture has changed color and the sugar is completely dissolved, add the fluff, peanut butter and vanilla. Stir this all together, and then take the mixture off the heat. Add the chopped peanuts, and then pour and spread it over the chocolate layer and set the pan back in the refrigerator until completely cooled.</div>
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To form the caramel layer, melt the unwrapped caramels with the cream over low-medium heat. Once the caramels are completely melted and the mixture is smooth and silky, pour and spread it over the nougat layer and set the pan back into the refrigerator until completely cooled.</div>
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To form the top layer, again put the ingredients for the top layer into a glass bowl and microwave fro about 45 seconds. Mix until all the chips are melted and the peanut butter is thoroughly combined with the chocolate. Pour and spread it over the caramel layer and set the pan back into the refrigerator until completely cooled. </div>
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Once the candy is cooled completely, turn it out of the pan onto a cutting board. Cut the candy into bars or bite sized pieces and enjoy!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9009907199650996693.post-50576923764537078042013-07-16T08:36:00.001-04:002013-07-16T08:42:14.780-04:00Fancy NancySo a few months back, one of our libraries was having a Fancy Nancy party. My Crazy Little Girl was sooo excited to go! She wanted to dress fancy and her hair had to be fancy!! So in preparation for this, I started searching for fancy hair styles on Pinterest. There were so many! And so fancy! My daughter was thrilled! Her favorite styles came from the blog <a href="http://www.simplysadiejane.com/search?q=hair&x=0&y=0" target="_blank">Simply Sadie Jane</a>. This lady can do amazing work with toddler hair! CLG's favorite? The one where she made the hair look like little bows!<br />
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So I tried. I really did! But while I was trying, I remembered something...I can't even get CLG's hair into braids!!! Like herself, CLG's hair is just crazy! Straight in some spots and curly in others. And she just doesn't sit still! Or stand still! And, honestly, I am terribly untalented with doing up hair of any sort. I mean, you should hear the words that come out of my mouth when I'm trying to do my own hair! I keep them to myself when I'm doing CLG's hair, but seriously, I'm embarrassed by how long it takes just to put her hair up into a ponytail!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uTRtbV959js/UeU7bGXeXxI/AAAAAAAABbA/K32GxHmv_L4/s1600/IMG_2322.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uTRtbV959js/UeU7bGXeXxI/AAAAAAAABbA/K32GxHmv_L4/s1600/IMG_2322.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A ridiculous amount of time later, a CLG ponytail!</td></tr>
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So I opted out of making CLG's hair into cute little bows. I made lots of ponytails and added lots and lots of clips:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If one ponytail takes <i>x </i>minutes to put up, how many minutes does it take to put 6 ponytails up?</td></tr>
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Her hair was sticking out in every direction possible. I thought for sure she'd take one look at it and accuse me of ruining her day. But you know what? She thought it was the best hairdo she'd ever had! She loved it! Heck, she's looking at the picture now and ooohing and ahhhing and asking for it again. Turns out, as long as it has something pink, fluffy or flowery in it, she doesn't care how it looks. It doesn't need to be perfect for her to love it. So now, I try to breathe a sigh of relief when it comes time to do her hair. It helps to keep the cursing in my head instead of out of my mouth each morning as I look at her head.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06074654796738602720noreply@blogger.com0