Breakfast is the first order of the day.  My girls are pretty self-sufficient when it comes to breakfast.  They enjoy choosing what they want to eat and preparing it.  I just have to supervise and veto the occasional cake and ice cream for breakfast thought!  I’ve found that if I keep a few simple breakfast items on hand, mornings go much smoother.  I generally just have a cup of tea for breakfast, so I can do any last minute lesson preparations or gather needed school supplies while the girls are eating and cleaning up their breakfast things.  

Here are a few things I keep in the kitchen for whipping up breakfast in a snap: oatmeal, Cream of Wheat, granola, yogurt, fresh fruit, dried fruits and nuts, bread, honey, jams & jellies, eggs and cheese.  With these things, you can make a variety of breakfast foods that are simple to prepare.  This no-cook Berry Good Breakfast is a favorite of my oldest daughter these days. 

After breakfast, we gather back at the kitchen table.  The books come out and we get our morning devotions, memory work and basic subjects of reading, grammar & math covered. 

Lunch follows our morning table time, and we again eat very simply.  Thankfully, my girls have pretty much moved beyond the picky eater stage these days.  We seldom do much cooking at lunch time, leaving that for dinner.  Salads, sandwiches, cheese & fruit; perhaps a quesadilla, tortilla wrap, or taco, are common lunch items for our family.   Like breakfast, these simple lunches can be make quickly and don’t create a huge mess to clean up, a real blessing when the great outdoors is calling you to come outside for a little Nature Study! 

My girls’ favorite “meal” of the day is snack-time.  They all watch for the clock to near 2:00 pm every day.  If they don’t already have some idea of what the snack of the day will be, they start asking, “What’s for snack?” shortly after lunch!  We often have a simple “tea time” with tea, cookies or scones, and perhaps some fresh fruit.  Baking cookies, scones, or other treats for snack time is often incorporated into our afternoon lessons.  It is fun for the children to look through cookbooks for a new goodie to make.  After they’ve chosen their recipe and had it approved by Mom, they determine if we have all the needed ingredients, and then they can start cooking.  

When the snack is ready, we gather back around the table to enjoy our snack and afternoon read alouds.  I usually read a bit of poetry, a literature selection or two, and our Science or History passage for the day.  I sometimes also incorporate Art and Composer studies into afternoon snack time.  This week we will be reading from Charlotte in London, a lovely little fiction book that incorporates art, history, some geography, and even a recipe or two into its beautifully illustrated pages.  I’m sure we will serve the Raspberry Fool recipe from this book at snack time this week, and will read the rest of this series of books in the coming days.

When snack time is over and the kitchen tidied once again, the girls have free time, and I usually start my dinner preparations.   Dinner is more involved, as it is the one meal that Dad is home to enjoy with us.  We have a few family favorites that can be prepared fairly quickly that are our staple menus.  My Kitchen Adventures are often tested out at dinner time, too! 

After dinner, the kitchen table is often utilized for games, art lessons, craft projects, and other family time activities.  As you can see, our tiny kitchen is utilized to the fullest, and is “Command Central” for both the home and the homeschool.   

Please share your own thoughts, tips, meal plans, menus, recipes…whatever works to make your time in the kitchen and your homeschool days easier, with us. 

Finally, here is an excellent example of cooking to learn:  Chas and her family made this fabulous map cake to coordinate with their History studies.  She wrote, “It was a really fun project and it helped the information stick…..I LOVE it when that happens.” I love it when that happens, too!  What a great method of hands on learning that began in the kitchen, thanks Chas for the inspiration.  That cake would definitely make a tasty snack time treat!

Blessings,

Catherine

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