By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge
the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. ~Proverbs 24:3-4
• Feb. 4, 2008 - German Week and the rest of our week
We just finished up week 21 of school. Only 15 more to go! My kids are starting to count them. Of course, since they love math, they are zooming ahead there. LA has been okay. Mark's spelling started again and that was a struggle to get him back in that groove. Note to self: change that in next year's schedule!
We read about Germany and Poland this week. Mark was really interested in the Berlin Wall, so we read and talked quite a bit about the history behind it. We also had a German meal:
- Wiener schnitzel
- Bratwurst
- Spatzel with an optional German cheese on top
- plain green beans
- plain corn
- French Bread
- Black Forest cake - sort of - see below
I know, I know - but the French bread looked so much better than the hard rolls at the bakery.
My dh's father was stationed in Germany twice - in fact, my dh was born there at an Army base. My dMIL makes us schnitzel whenever we visit, so my children all like it. She usually uses pork because it is easier for her to find. I used veal because my dh and I like it better. The kids decided they like the pork better. The pork sure is cheaper!!
We made the Black Forest ice cream recipe in the CAtW book. We also had some chocolate cake left over, so some of us had chocolate cake with our cherries and ice cream. Regardless, it was yum!
In American History, we started Jed Smith, Trailblazer. My children are enjoying the story. We are also starting Little House on the Prairie this week. I am curious to see how the kids will like it.
Mark had his Pinewood Derby race in Cub Scouts. His last, since he moves to Boy Scouts next month. His car didn't win a race but it got third place Most Original.
Paul got his grades for the first set of classes. They are on block schedule so they have different classes each semester. He got straight A's in the college-level American history, honors Calculus, honors English and Tech Theater II. This semester he has honors French 4, AP Chemistry II and 2 computer science classes.
A boy and his cat do AP Chemistry II:
We had a Chili Cook-off and Super Bowl Party at our church. We had a big crowd all together in the same room, but each doing their own thing. BTW - us ladies just hung out where ever and talked.
The teenagers hung out behind the screen that had the game on it. They did venture out for a commercial or two.
The few serious football watchers. See the young boys in the back playing football on the Xbox?
The Spades tournament started at half-time and continued until ??. We left about 9:30pm. p.s. I used a secret ingredient in my chili that was James' idea this year. It was good, but we did not win. Mark made his own chili. Some people liked his better than mine. His was good too.
We have been growing salt crystals at our house. Here is Mei's: The instructions and cool pictures are here: Science of Cooking
Okay, two weeks ago on Jan 19th it snowed! Our first (and we hope not our only) of the winter. We ended up with about 8/10 of an inch. However, it stayed cold so we got to enjoy it for a couple of days. Mark and Mei were out there as soon as it started. They got really wet. After awhile Mark went up the street to have a snowball fight with his friends. Some of neighbors made mini snowmen, but we didn't.
We studied France the last couple of weeks and had our French dinner on Jan 19. We had:
Baked Brie & French Bread
Penne Pasta with Prosciutto & Broccoli
Fresh Asparagus with Aioli
Chocolate Mousse
Cream Puffs with Chocolate Sauce
It was yummy. In fact, I am making the pasta dish and the asparagus for our neighborhood Supper Club dinner in a couple of weeks. I hope they enjoy it as much as we did.
We finished Lewis and Clark in history and have moved onto the War of 1812. In Children Around the World, we visiting Germany and Poland. Mark got curious about the Berlin Wall so we have been reading up on that. I have to plan our German dinner for this Saturday.
Math is cruising along. I have decided on Jacobs Algebra for Mark next year. Yes, we are skipping 7th and 8th grade math. There are just a couple of topics we will need to cover this fall and then we are off. I plan to take it slow and see how he does. Mei is whizzing along. I do need to break out the flash cards though and help her get those addition and subtraction facts down. I may start 2nd grade math before this year is over; she is so far ahead in her workbook.
I have also been looking for a science course for next year. We are currently considering Apologia's Zoology II - swimming creatures. Mark has always loved sharks and other sea critters. I will probably get the lapbooks for Mei. She will be into that; Mark won't be.
It is snowing! We got almost one inch. The grass was almost covered.
Mei trying to catch them on her tongue. Can you tell it doesn't snow much here? Check out her crocs, shorts, and unzipped coat. I did convince her to come back in for some warmer clothes.
Everyone really liked this.
The asparagus was cold with a herb-garlic sauce. As you can see, we ate half of the Brie that night!
We started Ireland in our Children Around the World study this week. We spend 2 weeks on a country and usually end with the celebration. However, next weekend we are going to be very busy at church with a Missions conference. So we decided to have our Irish dinner last night. I made a quick list of what I was missing and ran out to Krogers. Three hours later, we were eating.
Mark loved the Irish stew. Mei didn't care for it. I used mostly lamb with some beef in the stew. I meant to add carrots to our stew but in my hurry to get it in the oven I forgot them. I loved the Irish soda bread. Everyone liked the Irish potato cakes. We also enjoyed the Irish Cinnamon Apple cake. I don't know how authentic it is, but we ate our cake with vanilla ice cream. It really didn't rise at all. I don't know if that is right or not. It tasted good!
Mei helping to cut out the Irish potato cakes. It turns out that both my grandma and my hubby's grandma used to serve us potato cakes just like these. I never knew how my grandma made them. Now I can make them for my kids.
Potato cakes after they are cooked.
Mark helped me make the soda bread and the cake. He enjoyed using the Pampered Chef apple corer, slicer, peeler tool. I was too busy supervising and mixing up other stuff to take pictures.
Here is the Irish soda bread. My other cross cut on the top didn't work.
Our Irish stew.
The Irish Cinnamon Apple Cake
What Mark thought of our Irish dinner.
It was a good week! We finished up the United Kingdom in Children Around the World. I took an extra week since I felt like we had not given it sufficient time. We searched the web for famous people and famous places. I copied pictures into a Word document and then printed them for their Travel Diaries. Mark enjoyed the wide variety of people he found. Mei picked the Princess and the Queen.
I also shared my photo album of when I spent 6 weeks in London during college. "Here is mom at Stonehedge, Oxford, Canterbury, having tea at Harrods, etc." I quickly skipped over the pictures of me in the pubs. They were fascinated by the coins I had saved and my toilet paper collection. Okay, the TP is better now, but in 1980 some of it was like using wax paper. They were especially amused over the pieces that had "Government Property" printed on them.
We had our tea on Saturday night. I didn't bother to starch the tablecloth and I don't own china or a teapot, but we had fun. I even got the kids to drink or at least try some tea. I made scones from a mix by Cinnabon -- yummy - but much richer than any I ever had in England. I also found some crumpets at Krogers - you know, as in "tea and crumpets". They have holes like English Muffins on one side and are like pancakes on the other. Not all that great, even when toasted, but if you put lots of blackberry preserves on them, they are good. Funny, I have never seen them in England, Scotland, or Ireland. We also had some English cheese with apricots. I liked it, but the rest did not.
My dh said we needed some English music. I had not gotten any from the library, so we went with a classic English group -- or maybe that should be a famous English group -- the Beatles. We played a little of the White album. My youngest two were not impressed. My oldest was grooving and playing the air guitar. I tried to get a picture but he was too fast for me.
We are on to Ireland next!
Paul and Mark enjoying some tea. Paul had at least 3 cups. Mark maybe finished one. He kept trying it with cream, with sugar, etc.
Mark puts some blackberry preserves on half a crumpet.
Mom having tea - my cup doesn't match. Mei took pictures of Dad too, but they were not flattering. Those are the scones in front of me.
Mei loves to pose for the camera. She never did find a tea she really liked, but she had fun mixing them up.
I just returned from WinterPromise's first women's retreat. It was great to enjoy some sun in Fla., hear about their new programs, learn some home school, parenting, and spiritual tips/truths, and meet some online friends in person! It was a very small retreat so we were able to meet with the creator of WP, Karen Brooks, one-on-one to discuss our plans. She is such a great teacher and has wonderful insight on things. My favorite event of the weekend was the prayer and share time we had on Sunday before we left.
Before I went my plan was to use the new geography program for Mei and American History for Mark. Then I saw the new geo program, called Children Around the World (CAW). I am very excited about it! In addition to learning world geography, cultures, brief history, etc. the program focuses on the plight of the children in the countries. It has suggestions for prayer items for the children. Plus it suggests actions the students can take to help these children. How cool is that? But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. James 1:22
Then I realized I was taking on too much, so I prayed about it and the next day, the answer came to me. I could spread CAW over two years, allowing me more time in the week to do Mark's history. I discussed it with Karen and she came up with a plan for me. Oh happy day! I get to do both!
I also had Mark complete the 6th grade readiness test for Horizons since he did well on the 5th grade. He either knew the material already or was able to figure it out enough that he got above the recommended minimum right on it. So we will be doing 6th grade math. I will just teach rather than review the few areas he does not already know. He is pretty excited to be skipping a grade ahead.
So I placed my WinterPromise order today - Adv-K LA for Mei, LA5 and AS1 w/ Native American Focus for Mark, CAW for both. I also ordered some books from Library and Educational Services, a great place to get books for cheap! Now I just need to order the math programs and decide what to do for Mark's Spanish. For science, we are using the resources we already have and Mark is choosing the subjects and the length of time studying each. So we will be ready to go! Unless Mark changes his mind, we will start in August.
p.s. I used a secret ingredient in my chili that was James' idea this year. It was good, but we did not win. Mark made his own chili. Some people liked his better than mine. His was good too.
The instructions and cool pictures are here: 
It is snowing! We got almost one inch. The grass was almost covered.
Mei trying to catch them on her tongue. Can you tell it doesn't snow much here? Check out her crocs, shorts, and unzipped coat. I did convince her to come back in for some warmer clothes.
Everyone really liked this. 
The asparagus was cold with a herb-garlic sauce. As you can see, we ate half of the Brie that night!
