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Carrot and Sweet Potato Smoothie?

Have you read the The Sneaky Chef by Missy Chase Lapine? Wow! I love this book. We have one picky eater in our house. Of course, I'm grateful that he love broccoli, but that's the only veggie he'll eat. Well, today, thanks to the Sneaky Chef, he had carrots and sweet potatoes in his strawberry smoothie, and he LOVED IT! They are having cauliflower and zucchini in their broccoli and cheese soup tonight, too. Besides all of her clever ideas for sneaking healthy food into our kids "kid food", I love her ideas about how to get your kids to actually like the foods that you are sneaking into their foods. Click the link above to order a copy of this amazing book for yourself.

Here's what went into our smoothie:

1 cup frozen strawberries
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 banana
2 capsules of fish oil supplement (without the capsule - poke a hole in it and squeeze the oil out)
1/4 cup sweet potato/ carrot puree
handful of frozen blueberries

Delicious!

Today's Learning

This morning, Andrew and I began rowing Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. He like the book and thought it was fun to find the mouse in the last few pictures of the room. When Nicholas joined us, we put paint (the three primary colors) on paper plates for each of them and we colored balloon pictures to match the 4 colors in the story. They enjoyed mixing blue and yellow to make green.

Next we read Follow the Drinking Gourd for Nicholas' FIAR book. It was so neat to see N realize that the drinking gourd is the Big Dipper. Both boys were spellbound and enjoyed the book so much. When we finished, we looked at a map of the United States and talked about the route that was probably taken in the story. Next, the boys packed a lunch of cheese and crackers in a bandana, tied it to a stick and set out to follow the drinking gourd. They played as though they were following the route. They slept in trees (climbed a tree in the back yard and "slept"), drank from the river (hose) and slept in barn cellars (in the workshop). They had so much fun, that they did it again when we were finished. Then they asked for their playmobile sets to play underground railroad. I just love when a subject catches their attention so much.

We looked up slavery and the slave trade in the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History and looked at some of the links ( www.Usborne-quicklinks.com p 325 ). We also found the song Follow the Drinking Gourd online and we listened to it a few times. We've found ourselves singing it through out the day. They also used glitter glue to make a Big Dipper constellation on black construction paper. It amazes me how much they enjoy this sort of thing.

We are doing this experiment right now and as I was explaining that the calcium carbonate and acetic acid combine to make carbon dioxide, they boys were reminded of baking soda and vinegar volcanoes, so they are currently outside making volcanoes for their Lord of The Rings characters to play in.

I think I know Why

I think I know why I'm so mentally exhausted. I recently read that the average 3 year old asks 400 questions a day. What about the average 8 year old? Anyone know? Me either. But, my (very soon to be) 8 year old asks question after question all day. I decided today to get an idea of how many he asks, so I counted. During one 5 minute period, he asked 23 questions (almost 5 per minute!). During another, he asked only 15. Here is how he does it.

Cute 8 year old: "Mom, why does water put out a fire?"

Mentally Drained Mom: "Water cools the fire and deprives it of oxygen, so it dies."

C8YO: "Why?" (sounds like a 3 year old, here?)

MDM: "Why do you think?"

C8YO: "I don't know. Do you think yogurt would put out a fire?"

MDM: "What do you think?"

C8YO: "I think it would. Mom, why doesn't Obi Wan just use water to put out the fire on Anakin?"

MDM: "I don't know."

C8YO: "Do you think its the Jedi way not to help someone?"

MDM: "No, I guess not."

C8YO: "Me either. How do you think the "lava robot" can hold boiling lava without melting?"

MDM: "Maybe its made of something with a higher boiling point than the lava."

C8YO: "Like what?"

Okay, you get the idea - each answer begets a new question. So, of course this is in now way scientific, what with the small sample size and all, but if he asks only 3 questions a minute for 1/4 of the time he's awake each day, he would ask 720 questions! (16 hours/4 = 4 hours * 60 minutes = 240 minutes * 3 question per minute = 720 questions).

Now I understand ::::yawn:::::.

Seeds

Lately, our learning has had many references to seeds. We had a presentation on the parable of the mustard seed. We read Down, Down the Mountain in which the children planted turnip seeds. We read The Carrot Seed and talked about how long it takes carrot seeds to germinate (on average 21 days) and we watched as our carrot seedlings began to push through the ground. We read How Flowers Grow this morning and today, we found a sprouted acorn in the garden. Don't you just love it when life provides so many opportunities to explore a concept.

A poem

I always wanted to be a Caterpillar
By
Nicholas



I always wanted to be a caterpillar,
I always wanted to make a cocoon.

And when I’m in a cocoon I will wait until spring
to become a butterfly.

Then, I will spread my wings
And soar.

Today's Learning

Today's learning started at 7:00 this morning with Andrew's request for read aloud time. Nicholas was still asleep, so we chose some things especially suited for Andrew. When Nicholas was Andrew's age, we read through the Usborne Children's Bible and used it as a guide for science reading. For example, when we read the creation story, we read books about the sun, moon and stars (and did corresponding projects), then plants (and projects), animals (and projects) then the human body (and more projects). I thought Andrew might enjoy this, too, so today, we read the creation story then read a book called Sun, Moon and Stars, which is also an Usborne Book. We also sang:

I see the moon and
The moon sees me.
God bless the moon and
God bless me.

Andrew really enjoyed this, especially the song, which he has been singing ever since. We also did another lesson for him in Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Andrew is really enjoying these lessons and learning well from them. Its so funny how different each child is. We had this book for Nicholas and he hated it. So, I sold it - lol. Then had to get it again for Andrew when he ended up liking it.

Once Nicholas got up, we read Down Down the Mountain by Ellis Credle and talked a little about the author Ellis Credle. It turns out that she had to work and rework this book several times before she could find a publisher willing to print it. I love how her experience with persistence on this book is also the theme of the book. I told the kids the story and am hoping that they will make the connection. If not, I will mention it on Thursday. Nicholas also noticed several things in the book, such as the poetry mixed in with the prose, onomatopoeia, personification (the tables groaning with vegetables). I love how Five in a Row introduces all of these things because it helps our children to be more observant when reading or being read to.

We then made log cabins out of Lincoln Logs and talked about how in the story, their log cabin was snug. We put a candle inside their cabin and blew on the outside to demonstrate how air went through the spaces in between the logs. They remembered from reading Little House on the Prairie that Pa Ingalls chinked the log cabin to keep it snug, we we chinked our log cabin with play-doh. Pictures will come as soon as I get my computer photo editor working right again.

We are taking a break to run some errands and will return this afternoon to finish reading our books. I'll try to update later if time permits.