Week #3

Caden started out the week with a cutting exercise.

The letter of the week was Mm! Caden also worked on writing his address.

His bible memory verse was 1 John 1:9.

PB&H

One of Caden's assignments was to identify the ingredients in a

peanut butter sandwich and to then make it all by himself.

He did a wonderful job!

AND he's made a peanut butter and honey sandwich every day since...

for lunch or snack, basically whenever he has

an opportunity to flaunt his independence!!!

Caden also had his first creative writing assignment.

He dictated his own version of What Happened in the story

based on what he observed in the picture.

Nuts and Bolts

Creative Story Making

By Caden Clinton 8-24-11

Typed by Mom

Once upon a time there was this guy who made a robot. He didn’t have any oil left, so he threw the robot in the junk yard. The robot just had a little oil left so he walked to this little boy’s house. And then he fell down right on the front porch stairs. This little boy was playing with some cards. The boy’s name was Jake. He went to play cards with his friends when he saw the robot just laying there. He put some oil in the robot to make him move. The robot shredded paper so the boy named him Shredder. They became friends. The end.

We did math each day and Caden's is working diligently on his addition. We were at the grocery store and he was in the cart working problems from his book. He asked me about an addition problem and so I got out my trusty dusty fingers to show him the addition...

here is how the convo went:

"MOM! Put your fingers down!"

"What? I can't use my fingers to add?"

"I don't want to USE my fingers!!!"

"Are you embarrassed to use fingers?

Do you think only little kids use their fingers to count?"

"Yes!"

"Well, I'm 31 years old and STILL use my fingers,

especially in the GROCERY store

and I DO USE them in front of other adults."

So he began using them again, low in his lap, VERY discreetly.

Super Duper Fun Stuff!

This week we made brown bread in honor of our wrapping up the Boxcar Children book. The recipe comes from my best friend's mom, Karen who is a super cook/nutritionist. Caden and I had this bread while home this summer to Lincoln. To say we snarfed it would be a HUGE understatement.

We inhaled that bad boy. It was SO good!

So we attempted it at home and found all the ingredients at HEB.

Vocab word of the week:

Biga: p

ronounced bee-gah

is a type of pre-ferment used in Italian baking.

Using a biga adds complexity to the bread's flavor and is often used in breads which need a light, open texture with holes. Apart from adding to flavour and texture, a biga also helps to preserve bread by making it less perishable. A biga is made from a mixture of flour, water, a small amount of commercial yeast, but no salt, and typically uses a hydration sufficient to achieve a generally quite stiff, dough-like consistency, much like the final dough into which it is to be incorporated. It is allowed to ferment and ripen at room temperature for several hours (typically 12–24 hours or more) before incorporating into the final dough.

NUTTY WHEAT BREAD

from Karen Creswell

(The biga allows the bread to rise more.)

For the biga combine in a bowl:

2 ½ cups bread flour

1 1/3 cups warm water (100 – 110 degrees)

¾ teaspoon instant or rapid rise yeast

Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for at least 8 hours or up to 24 hours.

When the biga is ready add the remaining ingredients to the biga

and mix with a stand mixer on medium speed until combined:

1/3 cup wheat germ

3/4 cup unprocessed miller’s bran

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons instant or rapid rise yeast

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons potato flour (optional)

1 teaspoon molasses

¼ cup powdered buttermilk

Line an 8 ½ x4 ½ glass loaf pan with parchment paper. Put the dough in the lined pan. Brush the top with oil and cover with saran wrap. Let rise in the microwave at 10% power for 20 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes, cover with foil and continue baking until the internal temperature of the loaf is 190 degrees (about 15 more minutes).

OUR BIGA!

The Final Product!!!

Brown Bread and Wild Blueberries are what the boxcar children eat for Supper one of the

first nights they are in the Boxcar. This was Caden's snack for our final chapters.

He learned the difference between Supper and Dinner.

WE finished

The Box Car

Children today!!!

Caden LOVED

the book.

We truly enjoyed

this little jem and

I am so thankful

that it

was a

part

of our curriculum!

Week 2

This week Caden and I worked on the letter Bb and writing his last name. Last week was letter Ff and his first name. Caden's penmanship is really great. Grant says it already is better than mine!

We do a bible story each morning and then I ask him comprehension questions to make sure he's remembering the story. The one we spent the majority of time discussing was the story of Lot and his wife. He did not like that she turned into a pillar of salt.

Sonlight comes with a Book of Time timeline book.

We've filled in dates like Noah and the Ark, Abraham,

and will also use it for Presidents, wars etc.

This week we also studied the ancient Egyptians. We learned that the Egyptians would sometimes wear perfumed cones of grease on their heads for parties. The cones would melt and smell nice. Caden thought that was very interesting. They also had pet dogs and cats like us. When someone's cat would die, the owner would shave off half of their eyebrow to show how upset they were! We also studied the pyramids and what they thought about their Pharaohs' in the afterlife. We watched the 10 Commandments animated movie to see it all in action.

I made Caden this collar that looks similar to the gold ones they once wore. Egyptians LOVED jewelry! They wore cuffs, bracelets, earrings, rings and pendants of all kinds.

I put on Egyptian make-up to show Caden what it looked like. The men and women BOTH wore make-up. They put red on their cheeks and lips and grey, green or black "Kohl" thick around their eyes as well as eye shadow.

AND his math finally arrived! We received his first grade work book, text book,

Intensive practice and Challenging word problems books.

They are all really great and we've started the first lesson in each book.

For an impromptu TEXAS HEAT science experiment, we found a dead earwig bug and decided to see what would happen if we placed it's body under a magnifying glass in 102 degree heat. Well, after about 5 minutes the shell was a bright orange color and it was smoking.

After about 15 minutes it's little

legs actually burned off.

Then we proceeded with the HEAT experiment and cracked an egg on our driveway. Nothin!

We were disappointed to say the least. Hoping to fry the egg for our dog Maggie, alas, it was not to be - not today anyways!

First Week of School!!!

I am calling it a dry run, so to speak. We are waiting on his math curriculum to arrive. The K level stuff was too easy for him, so I had to order First Grade level. While Caden is not super advanced in that area, he is beginning addition and subtraction which this curriculum did not cover for the Kindergarden year. It's crazy to think that I can move at his pace and skip the busy work once he's mastered a concept.

Doodoodoodoo (twilight zone music).

Handwriting bored him, but the Box Car Children, Bible Stories,

Verse Memorization and Science stuff were very exciting.

AND he napped for 2 hours the first day of school. He NEVER naps...

I guess we really exercised his brain!

Caden Memorized

Romans 3:23-24

this week:

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely

by his grace, through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

We learned about the world's first people. We studied their culture, clothing, food they ate and where they lived. Caden made a necklace with an arrowhead and bear claws like the mighty men from these ancient tribes. We also learned about an African man named Hosi who learned to read, a very rare thing where he lived. He came back to his tribe as a story teller in their village gathering place called the onjango. Hosi taught them about Suku. Suku is God who is the creator of all things. This God loved them and protected them. And through stories about men like Abraham, David and Jesus the village came to love and trust in Suku and no longer lived in fear of evil spirits.

Caden's tough man necklace

He will be learning about frogs over the next month so we surprised Caden and got him two African dwarf frogs. Their names are Piglet and Fighty. They are a whopping 1 1/2 inches long!

This week we worked on months of the year. Caden and I worked on our August calendar and we also skipped rope to memorize the months. He got up to two years and I was able to do four- I've still got it! We also worked on understanding time concepts. What two weeks looks and feels like. We also talked about how many days are in each month. And what a schedule looks like for gymnastics. He really seems to be getting these concepts which is neat to see things clicking.

This is Caden with his buddy and fellow homeschooler, Matthew...

more adventures with him are sure to follow!

Ready. Set. Go!

For the last couple of weeks I have been trying to figure out the best way to get organized for this whole homeschooling thingie... Hmmm...WWMD(What Would Mother Do)? My mother is not only one of the best (toughest) teachers I know, but also the most organized person on. the. planet. Not OCD or anything, just simplified and organized. This beautiful giftedness in organization helps her in her prep work. I hope this gift has rubbed off on me. I can start out nicely, it's just the whole maintaining that I struggle with. So, WWMD?

Pens, Scissors and Sharpies...Check! Bible Memory CD Library... Check!

Caden's Kindergarten books not currently being used will find a

home on the book shelf in his room.

Our Weekly stuff will go in a clear rolling box under his bed.

My Instructors Binder...Whoa Mama!

Making sense of the madness.

Pictures from Lindsey

Click here to view these pictures larger

BOX DAY!

What is Box Day you ask? It's the day our box of books, curriculum, and goodies arrive from Sonlight! The much anticipated Box is opened, explored and celebrated. Box Day is a super duper exciting day in the life of a Sonlight homeschooler.

It's Not A Box...its a pirates treasure chest filled with unimaginable goodies, books more precious than gems! Argh!

Box Day is the equivalent of the exciting and much anticipated first day of school. Unfortunately the box arrived the day we were leaving for Nebraska. So we waited two whole weeks to open our special package. Caden asked EVERY DAY about THE BOX and asked what we would do on the day it would be opened.

Wow! Who knew a box could be so exciting?


We made it back to Texas and the 14 hour drive home was riddled with questions about what was in THE BOX. When would we open it. What would be in it. Could he keep the box after we opened it to make a chicken coop... You know, those standard questions you get about packages and empty boxes.

Caden was SO excited for Box Day. He requested his favorite home cooked meal. TACOS!

He also asked to take a bubble bath. Not just ANY bubble bath, but the kind you see in the movies where an entire bottle of bubble bath is poured into the tub.

After the bubble bath and dinner, we opened the precious package.

It was like Christmas morning!

And his favorite book was the Eggs and Chicks science book.

He also loved the Fun Tales readers and the Patternables block set.

We are so excited to get started!