Six in the Northwest

Friday, May 28, 2010

The Pioneer Lady's Country Kitchen

It's book review time again...sort of. More like becoming reacquainted with a favorite cookbook of mine, The Pioneer Lady's Country Kitchen by Jane Watson Hopping.

I selected this cookbook a long time ago when joining a cookbook book club. Back when I seemed to have time to keep track of membership cards, book returns, and the like. I recall returning the book to the publisher and asking for a new one because the page edges were ragged. They did send out another one, just like the first. I apparently wasn't able to pick up that it was to be part of the book's charm and character from yesteryear.

But the real character of this book comes from inside. Jane Watson Hopping grew up during the Depression years in a farming community. They learned to cook with what they could obtain locally and with what was in season. The book is arranged by season which makes it all the more valuable when looking for new ways to prepare seasonal foods. Of course there are almost no commercially prepared ingredients which makes things healthy. And perhaps the selling point for me is that the cookbook is full of stories from a simpler time. Stories that remind me of the ones my grandmother and my mother told me from that era.

So in my renewed interest to aspire to eat healthier, cook seasonally, and use as few commercially prepared ingredients as possible, I plan on referring to The Pioneer Lady's Country Kitchen quite often. I leave you with Mrs. Hopping's final comments from the cookbook's introduction:

"Could it be that my tugging at the heart strings plays upon a universal need to touch base with our past, to feel our continuity with those who have gone before, to be reminded of our roots, of home, family, and the simplicity of a not-too-distant time?

If so, I do hope that the fruit of this book will bring warmth and pleasure into your life, good food, and a sense of strength and comfort."

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Homeschooling with Work Boxes - Math - 8yo

Part three in my series on homeschooling with workboxes. Today's post relates to our math workbox.

This is a work box that I have scads of resources for. I often need discipline on my part to keep away from the easy-to-do worksheet rut. We generally will cover math in two different workboxes. My 8yo is a strong hands-on learner and relies heavily on manipulatives at this time.

The first box is for our curriculum. We were marching through Saxon 2 quite nicely but then seemed to hit a wall. Some concept that we crossed earlier apparently did not stick and math became a horrendous part of our day. As much as I love Saxon, it was not working for my 8yo. So back we went to an older version of Math-U-See I had from my son who learned similarly to my 8yo. We are going to do hands-on exclusively until she's conquered her stumbling block and then will transition back into where she was in Saxon. I do love the way Saxon spirals through all the concepts so that are continually refreshed.

With our structured program out of the way, the second box is helpful for reinforcing concepts difficult for her...mainly money values and math facts. I do love Family Math or Peggy Kaye's Games for Math. At this age, there are not too many extra math activities with real learning that I've come across that she can do alone. Math worksheets are not the answer for this child. I have a list of online math resources that I do like. Some require a monthly or yearly subscription but a trial subscription will get you some free time on the site. Here they are:

IXL.com
FactMonster.com
MathStories.com
DreamBox.com
SchoolExpress.com
MathGoodies.com although this is for higher grades

A sheet of paper in a sheet protector with a visual clue as to which site to go to (with my help of course) works as the work box item for these online sites.

We also have a MathShark which I will sometimes slip into the box for fun.

Again, math is one of those core areas that just needs to be and cannot always be accomplished by making it all fun and games, but we do our best to try.

How do you wake up your early grade math program? Do you find certain activities work better with certain learning styles? What have you found that works best for struggling learners?

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Pulled Pork on the Traeger Grill

Are you intimidated by preparing a big ol'hunk of meat? Well I am. Ever since that fateful Christmas when I ordered a spendy piece of beef for Christmas dinner which totally flopped...of course I had just had our third child several days before, was entertaining our in-laws, had said baby with a severe case of jaundice, our oldest was coming down with chicken pox, and an ice storm was brewing outside...so I guess I can claim an excuse or two. But regardless that beautiful chunk of meat was overcooked and tough. I think I decided then and there to just stick with the elk and venison that came home from my husband's hunting trips.

Truth is we do mainly eat game meat, and it is rare that I purchase beef anymore. But the meat that has fascinated me most lately is a pork roast. The kind that fall apart, get pulled apart, and slathered with sauce and served on a bun...pulled pork some call it. So I bit the bullet and bought a 7 pound or so pork shoulder roast and decided to go for it.

Now to be fair, I must say that my hubby purchased a Traeger wood pellet grill last year. This machine is capable of cooking most any meat without drying it out and giving it the most wonderful smoky flavor, so I did have some help on my side.

But here's what I did. Took the pork, rubbed it with Traegger Pork and Poultry seasoning, and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator. The next morning I fired up the grill with hickory pellets in it and kept it at the smoke setting. The roast was put on the grill about nine o'clock and forgotten about until ten or so when I brought out the vinegar mop sauce that I found in the Traeger cookbook. It is nothing more than a sliced onion bathing in a 2:1 ratio of vinegar to water along with a few tablespoons of brown sugar, some kosher salt, and pepper.

Every hour I brushed the roast with the sauce. Why do this? I'm not a grill king to know the scientific reason, but I do know that when the meat was done, the outside crust was beautifully crispy with a wonderful tangy kind of bite to it. About nine hours later, the meat had reached its target temperature of 170 degrees. I let it set as long as the mob at home would allow it and then began to shred it up and serve it on buns with some coleslaw.

It was incredibly moist and tasty and salty and smoky and just plain good. I was pretty impressed. Served up plain on the bun it was good, but with just a little bit of sauce added to it to zip up the flavor, it was incredible. The down side was that there was just one container of meat left over and here I had big plans on how to use the remaining meat. Guess that's a good thing though.

While writing this post I thought I would check to see if I could gather any other tips that would would help produce fantastic pulled pork and came across this YouTube video by BarbequeWeb.com. I was rather excited to see that my pork shoulder looked liked theirs so I guess I was on the right track. I didn't let the internal temperature get as high as theirs and did not wrap the meat in foil to let it rest for 45 minutes. I have a feeling both of those items together would have made my pork-pulling a little easier, but I don't think you could have improved on the taste at all. Nope. It was still pretty tasty.

Next chunk of meat for the grill? I'm not sure yet. Any suggestions? I think I'm getting the hang of it.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Homeschooling with Work Boxes - Reading - 8yo

Part two in my series on homeschooling with workboxes. This time around, reading workbox with our 8yo.

I don't know about you, but this has to be the easiest box of all if you are following a prescribed phonics/reading program. Pop in the current reader, and off you go. Reading has slowly come to my 8yo, so we don't do anything fancy. The Sonlight series of beginning readers had type difficult for her to follow, so I picked up some used Abeka readers for Grade 1 after she had some basic phonics instruction. Even when those seemed difficult, some days I would have her dictate a story to me which I would in turn use as a reader for her. It worked remarkable well and took a lot of frustration out of those early decoding-phonics days.

Currently, we are working through the Abeka level 1.4 reader at one point during the day and then come back to reading later on in the day. We have just again picked up Sonlight at Grade 1 and are reading through the Beginner's Bible according to their schedule. I find that the extra reading time is helping cement her reading which came to her slower than my other children.

I also have a stack of her previous readers plus very easy beginner books including some of the easier Seuss titles which ideally she picks from to read to her dad in the evening. Note the comment...ideally.

How do you spice up your reading work box? Or do you feel the need to? At this early reading stage, we're happy with working through the readers and getting a good foundation for later down the road.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Homeschooling with Workboxes - Bible - 8yo

Last April I posted about using Sue Patrick's Workbox System. We having been following her guidelines since then and have been loving it with our 8yo and 13yo.

As this homeschool year starts to slow down, I thought I would share my thoughts on our past year of using the workboxes with our 8yo, and specifically for this post, the contents of our Bible work box. Each consecutive post will feature another one of our boxes.

We are fortunate to have a wonderful Sunday School curriculum. It happens to be available to download online if anyone is interested in checking it out. The lesson sheet usually shows up in the boxes Monday and Tuesday as it is read and the activities done over those two days. The included memory verse is worked on all week. As my 8yo's writing abilities increase, I plan on using the verse as additional copy work on Tuesday so that the verse can be put in the box Wednesday through Friday for continued memorization.

As I loosely follow Sonlight Curriculum, we always read through their suggested Bible curriculum for the approximate age group. This year we are working through The Awesome Book of Bible Facts, so it is put into the box for Wednesday.

Thursday's box hopefully contains a related storybook to what we read in the Awesome Book of Bible Facts. Most often it is from the Golden Children's Bible. Love their classic illustrations, and of course it is the children's Bible I remember growing up and reading myself.

Friday's box is supposed to contain access to my Betty Luken's felt characters from the Bible which had originally been purchased when I was teaching Sunday school. However...I sometimes don't muster up the courage to get them out as no 8yo ever spends just "a little time" with them or makes just "a little mess". Something we both need to work on. Alternatively I will read a character building story from my Goodwill volume of Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories. Classic goodness.

What I would really like to do would be to find some more hands-on resources to put into her Bible box. KidsTalkAboutGod.org seems to be a great supplemental resource for those kids who like to illustrate Bible stories. I plan on adding that in this summer perhaps.

Even though school may be officially over soon, Bible study is never over so it will be ongoing.

With my 8yo and 13yo being the only ones schooled at home at this time, it is difficult to find topics that are applicable to both girls so we tend to do our Bible studies individually. Another goal would be to incorporate at least one day a week working together on their Bible boxes together.

How do you handle your Bible curriculum? If you school multiple ages together, what works for you? Do you continue Bible study throughout the summer?