Our Workboxes: Funny Cats and Minnie Mouse

Here are the work box pictures I promised. We having been using the Work box system for over a month and it is working well for everyone. Miss K knows whats going on each day, no longer asks how much more she needs to do or what we are doing next. She knows that if she wants to get to art or science we need to get the subjects before it done.

I used the number labels from Robin @ Heart of wisdom. The Subject cards I made myself as a Surprise for Miss K.  We complete 10-12 boxes each day, Lunch, snacks and breaks don't have their own boxes. The day planner shows where they go. As each box is completed, Miss K takes the corresponding card off the planner and has a visual countdown the the end of the 'school day'. We are definitely getting a lot more done each day.

 

Mini Piwi has her own boxes, she might do some or all of them each day depending on her mood. I just let her guide how long she wants to do each activity for. With her own boxes she feels included, is less inclined to mess with Miss K's boxes and enjoys the different activities she finds in there each day.

Mini Piwi has 5 boxes in total. The top one on the Right hand side is a small dish rack that we use for puzzles and books and other over size items that won't fit in the drawers. Below it is one with a click for Playdoh, paint dots etc.

Science for the week: Human Body lapbook

We are so excited about this project I wanted to put up so 'before' pics
The lapbook is abit different this time as it needed to incorporate a life size model. I decided to use a big piece of poster board and trace around the piwis....

 

Mini Piwi                                                              Miss K



The poster board was then folded into a lapbook...

The other side, when unfolded looks like this....

I will add some more pictures as we fill in each section....



Big sister reads...Calm down Boris!

While I made grilled cheese I saw Mini Piwi give her (current) favorite book to her big sister. What happened next made me quickly and quietly grab my phone to record the moment. Miss K got the little chairs and gave Mini Piwi and her 'baby' an impromptu story time.
The book she is reading is Calm down Boris! by Sam Lloyd. New Zealand Grandma and Grandpa sent it over a couple of years ago for Miss K. We rotate our small library of kids books to keep them more interesting. Mini Piwi took a shine to it after seeing it when it came out a storage box. She thinks the star of the book, a little monster puppet (Boris) is hilarious. The story is very cute and all about a monster who loves to give tickley kisses and nibble fingers. Unfortunately everyone thinks he needs to calm down, that is until one day Boris can save the day with his energy.

Afternoon painting

Mini Piwi got to play with big kid paint for the first time...Miss K showed her how to paint a rainbow!

Wuggle Pet Review

After weeks of watching the commercials, and earning enough on their reward chart, the Piwis placed their order for The Wuggles. They took 3 weeks to arrive but that was the only negative thing the kids had to say about the Wuggles. Miss K made them using the cute little filler tool and added their 'personality' (a small piece of card with a personality type on it and some glitter). They were a little smaller than I had pictured but when I watched the commercial again I realised that they were shown as little backpack clip ons. Here is a picture of the Wuggle makers (in amongst all the junk on the table). 

Piwi approved Candy Apple pork

I adapted a recipe from the clean eating Magazine (Sept 09) Here is the original, I just took out the garlic , used honey instead of agave and doubled the recipe so it lasted for a couple of meals. The kids both loved it with brown rice and veges. It is not difficult to sell a food that has Candy apple in it's name! In fact that was what caught my eye in the first place! This will definately become a regular on our menu.

1/2 cup unsweetened apple butter
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. Honey
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
2 lb. pork tenderloin
1 tsp. olive oil
1/2 cup toasted, unsalted almonds, chopped or Panko breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 400. Heat oil in a non stick pan on the stovetop. Season pork buy rubbing it with the oil, salt & pepper. Sear pork until light brown on each side. In the meantime, mix apple butter, vinegar, garlic and cinnamon in a dish. When pork is seared coat it with apple butter mixture. Place tenderloin on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake the pork for 15 min. or until done (a meat thermometer is the best tool to get it right). Remove pork from the oven. Roll the pork in toasted almonds or just sprinkle almonds on top. I used Panko bread crumbs for the Piwi's meat as they aren't too keen on nuts unless it's peanut or almond butter!).

Shared with

Music lessons

This week we purchased three recorders in anticipation of starting Mummy led music lessons. I have not picked up a recorder in 15 years so I hoped it would come back to me. Armed with an instruction book I gave the Piwis their first lesson.
We started by learning the parts of the recorder, how to hold it correctly and how to make a sound. I am proud to say I heard some great 'b' notes from Miss K. Even Mini Piwi gave it a good try. Although the recorder looked nearly bigger than she was. There was no way, as expected, she was going to be left out of music lessons.

We chose to begin with the recorder because of portability and ease of use. The idea is to get the Piwis aware of musical timing and for Miss K to learn to begin sight reading a few notes. As she gets more confident she may want to choose another instrument. Currently she thinks she wants to try the flute and the guitar....at least they are more portable than a piano!

Pizza Pizza Pizza!

The Piwis got a chance to make pizza from scratch today. Miss K carefully measured all the ingredients for the dough and got that started in the breadmaker. The pizza itself wasnt too difficult to make. The hard part for the kids was all the waiting. We started mid afternoon so it would be ready for dinner but when you are craving pizza, waiting for two kneads, three rises and baking the thing is pretty difficult. the recipe we used for pizza dough

The Piwis 'decorated' their masterpiece together. One half was cheese for the piwis and the other half was grilled vege and shrimp for Mum and Dad.

The pizza turned out pretty good, the base of the cheese half was alot crispier than the vege half. The kids ate alot! Prehaps due to the fact the cheese topping wast thinner? Poor Daddy missed out on eating it straight of the oven but will still be able to enjoy the leftovers in a few hours.

Vacation lapbook: The First State

The purpose of this lapboard is two fold 1. Airport and Plane entertainment and 2. we are toying with the idea of Unit studies and a Classical style education so this also 'beta testing'.

This picture is the 'before'. I will post the finished product after the Piwi's complete it on Vacation. I plan to have them scavenger hunt for the answers and information they can add (as opposed to having them find the answers in a book about the state). Hopefully we can convince some of the relatives we are visiting to join in!

Nash Farm, Grapevine Tx, Dairy Days

We found this in Grapevine this weekend:
Dairy Days
June 25, 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Tractor rides $1 per person.
June is National Dairy Month! Learn all about where milk and cream comes from. Meet some contented cows and gladsome goats and learn how to milk’em. Churn your own butter, too! Pick up some delicious and healthful recipes for dairy products.

Mini Piwi fell asleep on the way so it was just Mum and Miss K. We learnt how to milk a (pretend) cow and a goat. We learnt how they made soap from Goats milk and meet and pet a very nice Dairy cow named Gertie. The trip was a great way to finish our first ever Lap book which just so happened to be about farms.

Fathers Day

Piwi Daddy was surprised with a trip to Cowboys Stadium

Empanadas for Lunch



We cooked a classic Pinoy breakfast for Daddy: Spam, eggs and Sinigag (garlic fried rice)



Pandesal

Hermit crab facts

On Tuesday morning we sat down to recall some of the fact we had learnt in reading aloud Monday's Book study. I asked Miss K to recall 4 facts and then she and mini Piwi set about making a card for each fact. Miss K then decided to display then as a mobile. I scrambled around for materials and came up with the ever useful coathanger and some gift ribbon. The facts recalled were

Hermit Crabs:

• Like to shop for shells (they are fussy)
• Have 8 legs
• 4 legs are out of sight as they are used to hold their shell on
• like to eat fruit

Brainstorming for this week's Theme

We have been with California Virtual Academies. When we moved to Texas we could no longer be enrolled in a what is effectively a charter school funded by the state of CA. We have stayed privately with K12 but it seemed crazy to pay for 1 semester with only 8 weeks to go. So for now, we are flying solo.
We had finished all the CAVA K curriculum and we didnt want to move just yet to the next grade level. The remainder of this 'School year' will consist of Phonics and Math practice. Along with this, for a bit of a change, we have been alternating between a science and history theme. To date we have had Rock and Mineral Week, Pioneer Week & Project Caterpillar/Butterfly.

This week is White house week. We hope to take a Summer trip to DC and see it for ourselves.

On Friday night we sat down to think of all the things Miss K wanted to learn about the White house, President Obama and the first Family. Here they are (in no particular order).

• What kind of animals and pets live there.
• Where can they walk their dog?
• How old is the White house?
• Who built it and why was it built in Washington DC?
• How many rooms are there?
• Can we visit?
• What kind of food can you eat there?
• Is it white inside too?
• Does it have a pool?
• How many parties do they have at the White house?
• Can the Presidents children play there?
• How long does the president work each day?
• Does the President get a vacation?

Picnic Menu

Tomorrow we hope to attend a local city event 'Bounce' that is promoting family fitness and fun. Miss K designed a menu for our picnic which included Oven 'Fried' Chicken, Blueberry Muffins and Hotdogs.

The muffins are from Miss K's Food network hero Alton Brown. Blueberry Muffins

The chicken tasted so close to Fried Chicken but it was skinless and Oven baked! It was adapted from an America's test kitchen recipe. This is the recipe

Caterpillar Puppet

Here is the first puppet made for our Caterpillar lifecycle play which we will perform on Friday.

Mothers' day cupcakes

The Piwi's made Mum some cupcakes they are going to decorate for Mothers' day. They used Elmo's Hummingbird Cupcake recipe that was on the Dr Oz a few weeks back. The video can be viewed here

Elmo's Healthy Hummingbird cupcakes

The vegan frosting recipe sounds great but we weren't able to pick up the tofu cream cheese this afternoon, so regular cream cheese will be substituted.

Ingredients
Makes 8-10 servings

Dry Bowl
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, or spelt flour
1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tspn ground cinnamon
1/2 tspn baking powder
1/4 tspn salt

Wet Bowl
1 ripe banana, mashed
1/2 cup crushed pineapple, with juice
2/3 cup organic granulated cane sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/3 cup apple sauce
1 tspn vanilla extract
1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped

Frosting
1 container tofu cream cheese (or non-dairy cream cheese)
1/2 cup soy margarine
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners, or spray with nonstick spray.

In a large bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.

In a separate bowl, mash the banana with the pineapple, then whisk in the sugar, oil, and vanilla until completely incorporated and relatively smooth. Fold in walnuts.

Gently mix the wet bowl into the dry bowl, stirring until just combined. Pour batter in muffin tin lines with paper liners.

Bake for 25 minutes, until a tooth pick is inserted and comes out clean.

Cool on baking rack and ice with icing and sprinkle with walnut pieces.

Frosting Preparation:
Combine the cream cheese and margarine. Slowly add the powdered sugar, then vanilla and lemon juice. Do not overbeat frosting; tofu cream cheese softens easily.

Project Caterpillar

For Easter the Piwi's recieved a butterfly hatching kit. This year they had studied lifecycles in Science so it will be a great opportunity to watch it happening. The kit is from Insect Lore and $14.99 on Amazon.
The kit comes with a certificate for 5 caterpillars which a shipped from Insect lore in 1-2 weeks. We opted to order online rather than by mail. Now we are just waiting for the little creepy crawlies.