Elementary Round Up

“Mom?”

Yes, buddy.

“Mom, I’m really sad,” (as he tried to slightly hide some tears waiting to spring down his cheeks if my answer proved insufficient.)

Why are you sad?

“I have toys.”

If you are a parent, I’m sure you probably had a similar thought run through your head. 

He’s sad about toys? Seriously?  Is something wrong?  The next thing to come out of his mouth with either be radically silly or deeply profound or not make sense. 

And where did this come from?

Here we were sitting at a stoplight on our way back from an insane trip to Lowes for an emergency dehumidifier that would immediately reside in our basement .  . . . and some seeds and dirt “accidentally” jumped into our cart.

Not that there was any room.

Umm . . . buddy, why do your toys make you sad?

“We are going to throw them away when I get older.  I don’t want them to go into the trash after I have loved them.”

Sigh.  Toy Story.  I am living Toy Story. 

Nevertheless, a precious comment.

First grade is consisting of being a helper.  A huge help.  UGE without the H, that’s how big. 

• folding laundry
• getting diapers
• training the dog
• setting the table
• getting Gabe out of his big boy bed after naps
• praying . . . lots of praying for mommy

And when Asher’s not being a helper, he’s being creative.   Like building a house in the middle of my garden. 

If there is any other time . . . geography in South Korea, Saxon Phonic, Saxon Math, Grapevine Studies, and A Reason For Handwriting.  (See my resources here.)

We’ve scaled back big time. We’ve had too.  In the past 4 months we’ve acquired a new baby and a new dog! 

__________________________

What has been going on in your school room – and if you don’t have a blog to link up with . . . leave a comment and tell me what your family did in the Learning Room!

Guidelines: 

1. Write a blog post about your elementary aged child(ren), first through fifth grade, comprising the activities you did the prior two weeks.  You can include pictures, bullet points, tools used, learning gained, God moments, etc.
2. Be sure to include a link back to my blog.  By doing so, other like-minded readers can hang out in a central location if they are looking for Elementary School ideas.   Publish your post and then head back to my site. 
3. Provide the exact link (URL) of the Elementary Round-UP blog post you wrote, not your blog’s home address, through the provided MckLinky.
4. Optional:   I would love it if you grabbed my blog button over on the side.
5. You can combine this with other meme’s if that helps you to save time (as long as it is OK with the other blog owner). 

BIG IMPORTANT HEART MOMENT:  This isn’t a blog post to WOW other moms . . . the point of this is to help YOU document on YOUR blog what you and your child(ren) are learning.  My link-up is only to provide some accountability.  I won’t come and leave nasty comments on your blog if you don’t link up. 

Grapevine Studies for You and Your Littles

The only book that NEVER mentions God’s name in the Bible.

Yet, His fingerprints and provision are uniquely imprinted all over this story.

Esther. 

We almost named Naomi . . . . Esther. 

But we didn’t.  As you well know.

Preschool and Kindergarten Bible students will stick figure the book of Esther and learn about Queen Esther and the origins of Purim.  Your 5-7 year old Bible students will journey to the ancient Persian Empire, as King Ahasuerus chooses his a new queen.

Discover how God used Esther to defend the Jews from Haman's evil plans.  Teachers and students will learn how God protects His people and the origins of the holy days of Purim in an engaging way.  Stick figure the book of Esther today!

Great for preschool and kindergarten Bible students! 

Save 30% on all books and ebooks.  Learn more by visiting Grapevine Studies.

And if you wanted to study Esther at the same time . . . perhaps in greater detail . . . or you wanted extra credit points, I highly recommend Kay Arthur’s inductive Bible study,

Overcoming Fear and Discouragement:  Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.

Or you could just stick figure along with your student using the Level 5 study of Esther ($6.25)over at Grapevine Studies. 

Me . . . I do my Bible reading with colored pencils in hand.  I think that is why my kiddos think that my Bible Study time is always so fun. 

Probably. 

The Truffle

What is a truffle?  It can be an edible fungi or a chocolate confection.  I’ll go with the confection.  Especially because it involves chocolate.

It broke the Hottie’s fast from said brown substance.

Last night we contemplated the multiple people we could bless with our new indulgence.  For we quickly discovered that this prodigious nugget of chocolate failed to take up enough real-estate on our tongues. 

In the end, we decided to keep them for ourselves. 

We may not even tell the boys. 

Is that wrong?  To hide the chocolate . . . the truffle . . . the delectable, solidified nugget of exquisitely blended mixture of sweet and bitter?

Probably.

We will let them have one. 

 

Mayan Chocolate Truffle

compliments of Jenny at Nourished Kitchen

(*but I did make a few changes)

• 10 ounces chocolate with 100%* cocoa content, chopped coarsely
• Young Living Orange Oil**
• 1-2 tablespoons raw honey***
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
• 1 vanilla bean (use it to make extract later)
• dash unrefined sea salt
• 1 cup full-fat coconut milk (learn how to make coconut milk)
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• cocoa powder, for dredging truffles

Directions

Break apart chocolate and slam dunk it into a mixing bowl with the Young Living orange oil, cinnamon, chipotle chili powder, the contents of one vanilla bean and a dash of unrefined sea salt.

Bring coconut milk and coconut oil to a slow simmer in a saucepan over a moderate flame.

Pour coconut milk and oil over the chopped chocolate, honey, and seasonings.  Then stir continuously with a wooden spoon until the chocolate is thoroughly melted and the mixture, or ganache, becomes thick, uniform and glossy.  (Mine remained lumpy.)

(Expect some help to magically appear.)

Transfer the mixture to a plate lined with parchment paper, molding into a log as best you can, and allow it to harden in the refrigerator for eight to twelve hours, or overnight.

My first attempt at forming a log:

And my second more effective attempt at forming a log . . . that unfortunately received some choice comments from certain young lads and a not-so-young man living in my house . . .

After the Mayan chocolate has hardened in the refrigerator for eight to twelve hours (umm . . . less if you live in our house), remove it, unmold it from the parchment paper and carve it into irregular bite-sized chunks.

Toss the chunks with cocoa powder and serve.

Naomi really enjoyed it to.

Inadvertently, that is. 

Changes from Jenny’s recipe:

*85% cocoa content (I wanted to avoid a chocolate bar with sugar.)

**You can use the zest from an orange peel

***I added raw honey to sweeten the 100% cocoa ever so subtlety.

Wordless Wednesday: Big Boy Bed

If you don’t want the words, just skip them and look at the pictures.

As I was reading this during our morning Quiet Time,

I saw this,

And I realized that something was different . . . hmm . . . .

Could it be the overabundance of Dr. Suess books in his bed in honor of Dr. Suess’ birthday?

Nooooo . . . . . hmmm. . . . could it be his brothers are getting along?

Though nice, nope. 

Oh, I know . . . Gabe’s in a big boy bed!  (Finally!) 

Mr. Smiley would have been content to remain in his crib . . . but I figured we should bump up his status since his 3rd birthday is drawing close. 

Congrats, Gabe!

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, head on over to 5 Minutes for Mom.

(Special thanks to Kristen for loaning me her camera while mine is in the shop!)

Do Your Homework and Win

When you don’t know how to do something . . . it’s pretty hard to do something right.

Like train a dog. 

My dog is different from a few days ago.

I went to Puppy Kindergarten.

She didn’t.

I got trained.  I was given the tools. 

I went to Puppy Kindergarten.

You can get the tools too.  (You don’t have to go to puppy kindergarten.)  Although I hear that all we need to know in life we learned in kindergarten.

It’s called the Bible.  But you can’t just look at it.  You’ve got to read it.  You’ve got to put it into practice.

Much like, I can just put the leash on Ruth and expect her to sit . . . . come . . . or even heel.  I have to work with her.  I have to do the homework. 

This applies to a lot of things in life. 

Like cooking.

Like fermenting. 

Insert commercial: Get Cultured:  How to Ferment Anything.  (By the way, two people mentioned that you signed up for the course . . . if you did . . . and it was through my blog or you aren’t sure . . . can you contact me . . . I’m groveling . . . . but I am trying to go to a silly (not really) little (not really) blogging conference . . . and my affiliate sales for the course are enabling me to do that.  I’d kind of like to get credit.

Just saying.  Just whining.

Drum roll . . . .

• Nourishing Traditions Cookbook winner . . . . Jennifer who wrote:

I would like to learn how to make more fermented foods - specifically kefir! My hubby might have Crohns and this would be good for us to learn!

• Water Kefir Grain winner . . . Joy . . . who helped me fix a link on my giveaway!!
• Always True Giveaway winner . . . goes to Michelle of Munchkin Farm and Carisa of 1+1+1=1! 
• Granola winner . . . (not all of you were reading – caught ya!) . . . goes to Sela of The Young’ns! 

This was supposed to be a short blog post.  But it wasn’t.  As usual.

Here is a picture to make up for all my words.

And that was one random post.  Must be because I used www.random.org to pick the winners.