The Lorax Unit

Head on over to Sub Hub to get their FREE printable Lorax unit and Mustache printable!! We also had a Lorax snack! Here are a few more great snack ideas! Brown Barbaloots The Lorax and Truffula Trees We also made a paper Lorax and W did some descriptive writing: More Lorax writing (from Sub Hub): And then we planted some seeds! (peas and spinach, not Truffula Trees...

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Recipe: Roasted Cauliflower Soup

 I promised a recipe if this turned out and it was YUMMY! So here it is! Ingredients: 1 large head of cauliflower cut into pieces 1-2 potatoes cut into large chunks 3-4 cloves of garlic 1/2 onion diced 2-3 celery stalks diced 1-2 carrots diced 4 cups chicken stock 2-3 cups water bay leaf Italian seasoning salt and pepper to taste EVOO Cut the cauliflower into small chunks, and place on a baking sheet with the garlic, drizzle with EVOO. Roast at 375F for about 1/2 hour or until the florets start to caramelize and get brown on one side, turn if needed. In a large pot sauté the onion, carrot and celery in EVOO until soft. place all ingredients into the pot and cover with liquids. Bring to...

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Recipe: Spicy Meatloaf

This was quite possibly the best meatloaf I've ever eaten! MMMMMMMMM!! Ingredients: 1 1/2 to 2 lbs ground meat (beef, pork or turkey) 1 egg 1/2 c bread crumbs 1/4 c milk 1T Chili powder 1T Cumin 1 T garlic powder 1 T onion powder 1T Italian Seasoning 1/4 c tomato paste 1/4 c brown sugar pinch of red pepper flakes salt and pepper to taste Mix together with hands and form a large loaf on a baking sheet, or place in a loaf pan. Bake at 375 for about 45 min, until juices are no longer pink. Serve with ketchup and a napki...

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Volcanos! Part 2

We continued or volcano unit with this fun mini coloring book from Crayola! And some volcano coloring pages for L (preschool). We took out our big maps and looked at where volcanoes are located all around the world using this map as a reference...

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Potato Stamps

Do you remember making potato stamp art when you were a kid? If not, you need to try it now! Our stamps were pretty simple but I've seen some very creative ones out there!Check out these ones: Skull (Hallowe'en treat bags) Leaves Fabric Prints Here is how we did our potato stamps!   Using a small cookie cutter, gently press into the center of a cut potato. Then turn cookie cutter down and gently hit it against a hard surface like your counter or floor until the cutter is pushed all the way in. With a sharp knife (parents should help here) cut around the cookie cutter about 1/4 of an inch from the top. Add paint and enjoy! We found they worked best if you used a paper towel to dab...

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Fire Place Make Over!

Our house is old, and when we bought it, it was in severe need of some up-dating. Fast forward 5 years... and FINALLY we are getting around to making some changes. After some research, and some convincing (of my husband) we decided to paint our old dingy fire place. The best instructions that we found for this DIY project were from Young House Love. If you follow their instructions you will have no trouble at all!  I can tell you what NOT to do: DO NOT use a water based paint, any leftover soot stains WILL show through! Use a brush! We tried using a sprayer and there were plenty of places where the paint didn't cover. Our brick was very textured. Plus we got paint splatters all over the...

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Volcanos! Part 1

This week we are learning about Volcanos! Here are some of the resources we are using this week! Check out the Winecup Christian Academy for their Kindergarten volcano unit! Today we watched these videos about volcanos and made volcano art! (pictured above). Erupting Volcano Mount Kilaiea - Hawaii Lava Stay tuned for more molten f...

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Adventures in Making Maple Syrup: Part 2

So, to this date we have collected over 86 gallons of Maple sap! It's seriously getting out of hand! We had to clean out one of my husband  "storage" garbage cans (these hold his tree climbing and cutting gear for his business, not garbage!) to store the sap because we were running out of containers! We have probably boiled down about 30 gallons so far and our syrup is dark brown and sweet!  First I'm going to explain how we tapped our trees. You can purchase spigots from places such as this, but they are kind of expensive if you are doing a small scale operation like we are, yes 90 gallons is small, remember it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup! Plus we are cheap...

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Adventures in Making Maple Syrup! Part 1

I'm Canadian, but I live in the US midwest. My neighbors think our family is crazy sometimes. We like playing outside in the snow, we made an ice rink in our back yard, and this winter we are going to try and make maple syrup! This isn't totally foreign to me, but I did have to do a little research. Last spring we had the pleasure of going to a sugar bush and seeing the process of making maple syrup. I've been before, but my kids hadn't and they thought it was great! Their favorite part was the four wheeler ride into the bush!  These pictures are from our experience last year: They had the whole set up, an actual syrup boiler inside their little sleep camp! They make syrup for their...

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