Homeschooling Saturday Weeks Four and Five - Naan Bread

Welcome to Homeschooling Friday (well, looks like it's turned into Homeschooling Saturday), week weeks four and five! Homeschooling Saturday is a recap of our week in homeschooling, with any new or exciting crafts we've tried along the way.
So I think I am going to make Homeschooling Saturday a biweekly thing. I think I am going to share one craft or recipe we did those weeks instead of an overview of everything. It's just too hard to take pictures of everything! This week I will do a general recap of what we did, then start the new format next time.

Last week, we reviewed the letters A, B and C. We made them out of clay as reminders so we can look back on them.
We have been having lots of fun with sand lately, too:

The kids draw what they want in glue, then sprinkle with sand. I think it's a little like magic to them. Then mommy is left with the cleanup, which isn't so magical to me.

I like this project because not only does M love it, but it's something that can be touched as well as looked at later. The sand has a funky texture, which M likes to trace when the glue is dried. It really drives home the shape of the letter we are learning that week.
It requires only two things, plus whatever you're gluing the sand onto:

Well, those two things and a cleanup crew.
I taught M about mixing two colors to make a third:

This coming week I will add the third primary color, and gradually teach that those three colors can be used to make any color imaginable. She likes smooshing the water around on the wet paper.
Last year, my friend Amber taught us about Diwali. We celebrated for the first time a holiday I plan on celebrating the rest of my days. Amber has since moved off island, but we still celebrated with friends last week. I was thinking of her and was grateful that she had shown us such a rich and beautiful tradition.
In celebration of Diwali Magdalena and I made naan bread to bring to the party:

I love this bread. It is one of my favorite things to make. I would recommend trying it, and maybe consider making it a staple in your home! After all, it's only about 150 calories per piece and pretty low in fat. Magdalena loves these and cannot get enough, and she's one tough cookie when it comes to what goes in her gullet. Here's the recipe I use:

Ingredients
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons fat free milk
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Directions * In a large glass, dissolve the dry yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar with 3/4 cup warm water (about 100 degrees F). Let it sit on your counter until it's frothy, about 10 minutes.
* Meanwhile, sift the flour, salt, remaining 1 teaspoon of sugar and baking powder into a large, deep bowl.
* Once the yeast is frothy, add the milk and the olive oil into the glass, and stir to combine. Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and gently mix the ingredients together with a fork. When the dough is about to come together, use your hands to mix. It will feel like there isn't enough flour at first, but keep going until it transforms into a soft, slightly sticky and pliable dough. As soon as it comes together, stop kneading. Cover the dough with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel and let it sit in a warm, draft-free place for 2 to 4 hours.
* When you're ready to roll, separate the dough into 6 equal portions.

Shape the naan. Using a rolling pin, roll each piece out. It should be 8 to 9-inches long, 4-inches wide at its widest point and about 1/4-inch thick. Once you've formed the general shape, you can also pick it up by one end and wiggle it; the dough's own weight will stretch it out a little. Repeat this method with the rest of the dough.
* Warm a large cast-iron skillet over high heat until it's nearly smoking. Make sure you have a lid large enough to fit the skillet.
* Gently lay one of the naan in the skillet and set your timer for 1 minute. The dough should start to bubble.

* After about 1 minute, flip the naan. It should be blistered and somewhat blackened, don't worry - that's typical of traditional naan! Cover the skillet with the lid and cook 30 seconds to 1 minute more.
* Remove the naan from the skillet, and sprinkle with a little coarse sea salt. Place the naan in a tea towel-lined dish. Repeat with the rest of the naans and serve.

* Adapted from: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/naan-indian-oven-baked-flat-bread-recipe/index.html

What did you and your homeschooler learn about this week?

Homeschooling Friday - week three, Fall Inchies

Welcome to Homeschooling Friday, week three! Homeschooling Friday is a recap of our week in homeschooling, with any new or exciting crafts we've tried along the way.
This week we learned about the letter C and continued learning about fall. We read lots of books about deer and cats, made cupcakes and homemade crescent rolls:

I read the book Millions of Cats to M and her friend Mr. T. Then I had them draw cats and act like cats - makeup and everything. Lots of fun ensued - the book is a great one, definitely recommend it!
This week, one of the kids I babysit had a birthday. So, we made pumpkin muffins:

I used a box mix which I doctored up with some Ghiradelli chocolate chips and chopped walnuts. They quickly turned into cupcakes (it was pointed out to me that cupcake, not muffin, started with a C):

I got store bought tubes of black and orange frosting, black sprinkles and cream cheese icing, and let the kids go wild. I have to say, they're mighty awesome looking.
We made some Very Hungry Caterpillars:

Once again, I got the idea from that artist woman. Magdalena's friend, Ms. C was here for the afternoon, after we had taken pictures (I don't have a printer so we had to go to the library) so she made one without a picture, which is just as cute:

This is something we've been loving to do lately:

Wet paper painting a solid color, then covering it with plastic wrap to make a cool effect!

The base of the caterpillar.
Once again, we made inchies! I love making these with Magdalena. They're like nine mini art projects, and each one is so close to instant gratification.
My professional way of cutting out inchies:

That Dora book was the straightest thing we had on had! Or I was just being lazy. You pick. Magdalena loved a new technique we tried. Put some watery paint in the corner, and blow with a straw!

Makes a very cool effect.

Once again, we didn't have everything that artist woman used, but used what we had. I do need to get more art supplies, though.

Not sure what that one in the middle row all the way to the right is supposed to be. I told her to do what she wanted, so she did another straw blowing exercise. We're calling it a spider!
Once again, it was all mounted on poster board:

The bottom one in the right-hand corner is just a list of all of the things we love most about fall. We didn't have what was used in the example we followed, and using construction paper instead would have made it look too similar to a couple of the other ones we'd already made. Or, once again, I was being lazy at the end of a long project. Not sure sometimes!
We are getting quite the little gallery going!

How was your week in homeschooling?

*****

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Homeschooling Friday - Week One

It has been an exciting week of homeschooling here! It's the close of our first full week, and our first week following Oak Meadow's curriculum. We learned all about the letter A. (Very picture heavy post!)
I found myself stressing over my lesson plan too much, like on Monday morning, I hadn't planned enough to do. So I took something from Tuesday morning, and we baked bread in the shape of A's and things that start with A:

And I had a minor panic that we then wouldn't have enough to do Tuesday morning. I had to take a deep breath and remind myself that; A - lessons are only supposed to be about 45 minutes at a time with lots of creative play, and B - homeschooling is flexible. I can change things last minute, I can improvise things.
This week, we did lots of things.
We wet paper painted:

We made a ton of that bread I mentioned earlier:

We made pine-cone critters and pine-cone bird feeders:

We hung them up right outside the kitchen window, so we can watch for any birds.
Note to self: remember to tie the string on before you let the kids add the peanut butter and bird seed, next time...Otherwise it results in a very long and messy 15 minutes of wrapping string around messy pine-cones...and for some reason, all of your little helpers have miraculously disappeared. Only to reappear again when it's time to hang the bird feeders up.
We painted pumpkins and made this awesome garland, for our nature table:

I love this garland! This fall on Nantucket is really unseasonably hot, and so the leaves haven't been turning at quite their normal rate. Thus, there are almost as many green ones as red and yellow. We added some green to the garland to really show the contrast.
We followed the directions for ironing leaves in wax paper found here: http://crafts.creativebug.com/iron-leaves-wax-paper-1323.html. (I found they didn't come out as clear as I had expected. Not sure what I did wrong.)
I also drew some leaves on construction paper, then had the kids color them and cut them out. Then we strung everything up with some pine cones. (There is no shortage of pine-cones on Nantucket, any time of year - can you tell? Unfortunately I can't find any acorn caps this year, which I love working with also.) I think the nature table is coming together quite well!
I couldn't let a week in which we were leaning about A's pass us by without making some Mini Apple Pies! (Great way to learn about fall too - or maybe that's just my excuse for making them. I cut the apples up into quarters and had the kids slice them smaller, gave them brown sugar and butter dots, and let them create their pies however they wanted.)

We went to music class at the library: (she's imitating a chicken, by the way)

We also got outside plenty. I pick up some kids after school and hang out with them for a while, which is built in playground time:

And we got to help build a labyrinth!

We got to the beach:

Plenty of nature walks happened, too:

We also went on a long walk and looked for all the A's we could find. We took pictures and made a collage out of some of them:

I am really proud of us and our homeschooling adventures this week! We did a lot more than what is included in this post, but it's already long enough! Plus, most of it is things we're going to be doing every week, and I need to leave something for next week.
What did you do with your home-schooler this week? Please feel free to leave links to any other homeschooling/craft type linky parties, or links to any awesome home-school websites.
See you all on Monday!

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