Live and Learn

My blog has moved to http://www.ericalehman.com/blog/ thanks to my husband. Tumblr wasn’t working out well from the iPad and it’s good to get my blog back on my own site. I won’t be updating this old one anymore and my new one still has all my past posts.

Thanks!

- Erica

We’ve been enjoying some extra special reading time lately,  each day right before nap. I get the kids set up in a cozy spot on the floor and they listen to me read. Surprisingly, BOTH kids can stay focused on it and enjoy it (I didn’t realize my three year-old was capable of such a thing).  Elliot has been enamored with chapter books for quite some time, so I knew he’d totally love it.  He’s listened to the entire Mouse and the Motorcycle and Henry Huggins series on audio book over and over again and has decided that Beverly Cleary is his favorite author, so I decided we’d get started on the Ramona series together.  We saw “Ramona and Beezus” the movie last week, so Caroline is well aware of who Ramona is and loves hearing about her crazy antics.  

“Can you read just one more chapter, Mommy?”  

And speaking of chapter books, this week Elliot began his very first real chapter book (real as in most of the pages do not have pictures)! I found the perfect first chapter book called Two Times the Fun (and it just so happens it’s by Beverly Cleary!).  He’s so proud of himself and he really enjoys reading in it!  After this we’re going to try out the Nate the Great series and see how he likes those.  

Since I’ve been so bad about posting recipes in the last month, I’ll go ahead and share one more we’ve been making lately. This is our current favorite green smoothie recipe.  

Apple Kiwi Green Smoothie

Several handfuls of spinach

1/2 of a medium cucumber

1 rib of celery

1 apple, sliced

1/4 cup kefir 

1 T lemon juice

2 T lime juice

1 generous squirt of raw honey

2-3 T flax seed meal 

1 kiwi

1 handful of goji berries

1 handful of ice+ a few T of water

Instructions: Blend!  

It’s VERY green! 

Happy, healthy girl! 

This boy takes smoothie-drinking very seriously. 

Ok, so I obviously haven’t been keeping up with sharing a recipe each week like I was doing during the school year, but I have two that I’ve made recently that I felt were worthy of sharing.

This first one I just threw together myself and it turned out great.  I love it because I’ve been trying to get my kids to eat more soups with my homemade broth (since it’s a nutrient-rich traditional food).  It also offers a nice serving a vegetables, which we try to include in as many lunches as possible.  It also doesn’t include any fake processed cheese like most Broccoli Cheese soup recipes! 

Easy Lunchtime Broccoli Cheese Soup (As opposed to a more complicated version I make for dinner which also serves more people)

2 T butter

2 T flour

1/4 cup diced carrots

1/2 cup finely chopped broccoli

1 cup chicken broth

1 cup milk

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 tsp onion powder

Salt and pepper

Dash of nutmeg

Add butter and flour to the pot. Add milk and broth. Bring to a boil and add vegetables. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Add cheese, onion powder salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

I served it with a slice of sprouted grain toast for dipping. 

Homemade Graham Crackers 

 3 cups whole wheat flour  (preferably freshly ground) 

1/2 cup untoasted wheat germ

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup unsalted butter softened (preferably one from grass-fed cows, like Kerrygold) 

3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar  (I reduced it down to about 1/2 cup. I may experiment with reducing it even more and increasing the honey) 

2 tablespoons raw honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk flour, wheat germ, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon in a medium bowl; set aside.

Put butter, brown sugar, and honey into the bowl and beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Reduce speed to low. Add the flour mixture, and mix until combined.  Add a little extra flour if needed.

Turn out dough onto a floured surface, and divide into quarters. Roll out each piece between 2 sheets of floured parchment paper into rectangles a bit larger than 9 by 6 inches, about 1/8 inch thick.

Using a pizza cutter, cut into rectangles. Pierce crackers using the tines of a fork. Transfer  crackers on parchment paper large baking sheets. Bake, rotating halfway through, until dark golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough. Let cool on sheet 5 minutes; transfer crackers to wire racks to cool completely.

We’ve had quite an exciting week of learning about all sorts of things from the solar system to Sam Houston to the Everglades.  

Here’s my little knowledge-hungry guy enjoying a book about the Everglades. 

Caroline prefers to just let it all soak in this way.  

Elliot’s weekly writing project

I’m currently reading “Bringing Up Girls” by Dr. James Dobson (given to me by my wonderful Mom on Mother’s Day).  I’ve been wanting to read it for quite some time, seeing as how I’ve had a beautiful daughter for three years now and she’s growing up before my eyes.  We own “Bringing Up Boys” and have read through it a couple times and found it to be extremely helpful in understanding boys and what makes them who they are.  What I’ve found really interesting is the fact that boys and girls are so very different when it comes to how their brains work and how their bodies are made up chemically. I personally don’t really understand how people could argue that they are the same and that it’s only the way we nurture them that makes them behave differently when there is scientific evidence that there are so many physical differences that have a direct effect on behavior.

I really love both of these books and find them to be extremely valuable, but I will say that while reading each of them, I was initially hit with a feeling of discouragement and frustration.  Dr. Dobson is very straight forward about the unique struggles that young boys and girls face and the lies that this world will feed them from very early on (such as the idea that marriage is an outdated institution that should be discarded, that life should be all about pursuing your own pleasure and success, that men are fools and a woman’s value is wrapped up in what her body looks like, just to name a few.).  Being made aware of that reality can really get me down, but it’s definitely important to know what we’re up against if we are going to protect them and shape them into strong and secure people of faith. 

 One thing he emphasizes in the importance of strong relationships with both parents.  I’m encouraged by the fact that, because we homeschool, we are going to be spending so much time together building those family relationships that are so essential. I know that does not make us immune to the problems, considering this world is full of influences that are going to contradict and challenge what we teach them, but I feel like it at least give us a little bit of an advantage.  We are also going to have more of an ability to protect their minds and hearts a little more than if they were outside of our home five days a week. I know people claim that homeschooling overprotects and shelters kids, but I would argue, “What’s so wrong with that?”  I have a strong desire protect their innocence as long as possible. My two young kids are not even close to being able to distinguish lies from truth, so I do want to avoid exposure to things that would cause confusion and discouragement for them.  So despite being reminded of the  hard reality of growing up in the world today, I still feel really hopeful that we’re going in the right direction and that our efforts will, by God’s grace, ultimately produce good fruit.  

After completing our first year of homeschooling, I’ve definitely been made aware of some of the challenges of having your kitchen double as a classroom.  One of my biggest gripes has been the difficulty in finding a decent way to use a marker board when I’m teaching something new or when Elliot is doing something like copy-work where he needs it in front of him. I’m really not a fan of hanging a big ugly board in my kitchen.  During Kindergarten year, I used a small magnetic refrigerator marker board and I would lean it against something on the kitchen table to get it to stand. I can’t tell you how many times Elliot would be working on something when it would flop over on top of his paper. It was definitely not an ideal situation, but I didn’t know what else to do. There were times when I seriously considered moving upstairs and changing our playroom into a school room, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I really needed to be able to do other things, such as prepare food or clean, while still being close to the kids while they worked. I also came to the conclusion that it would get really old being pent up in a small room all day.  Not to mention the cost of buying all the necessary furniture to go in the school room!  So then Josh and I brainstormed about how we could set up board in the kitchen but discretely conceal it in some type of cabinet he could build.  Again, after much thought, it seemed like a much bigger and more expensive project than it was worth.  So I began hunting for a solution online and found the Educational Insights Portable 3-in-1 Easel!  I think it will really help us use the space we’re in much more effectively without making my kitchen look too “schooly” all the time.  

Not only is it much bigger than my current refrigerator marker board, it stands up on it’s own!  It’s got two sides with marker board surface.  

It’s also magnetic. 

You can turn it inside-out and it’s got a felt board surface too, which is great because I’ve been wanting to have a felt board to use with some of Caroline’s preschool stuff for next year!

It’s super light, so I can move it all around.  Fits on the table nicely with plenty of room to spare. 

And the best part is I can hang it right on the side of my island (a.k.a. our homeschooling cabinets) where I can easily get it out and put it away, and though it’s visible, it’s not too obtrusive. 

My goal for summer is to keep Elliot improving on his reading skills, while still making it seem fun and different than how we typically do things during our school year.  He’s really getting into “I Can Read Books”.  He is reading through them so fast so I have to stay on top of keeping him supplied with them. I’ve recently noticed a big change in his excitement for reading. While he has always enjoyed it, he used to be happy to be done with his chapter and he would mention something about his brain being tired.  Since beginning our summer reading, he often asks to keep reading more than I require of him.  He really surprised me the other day when he wanted to keep going and going and he read for about thirty-five minutes straight!  I’m so proud of him and I want him to be proud of his accomplishment, so we decided to make him a card where we can keep track of all the books he reads this summer.  We’re hoping to be able to fill it up! 

He’s currently reading level 2 books, but I think we will be able to move up to level 3 in the next few weeks.  

We were recently able to add a lot more to our collection when Half Price Books had their 20% off sale.  Once Elliot has read a book with me, he often enjoys reading it by himself again and again during quiet time, so we like having plenty that we own.