Scientist's Creamy Pasta Salad

Scientist made dinner for us again tonight. He loves to be a helper in the kitchen, and I really like when I find recipes that he can mostly do on his own with supervision. Tonight we made Creamy Pasta Salad I found the recipe for it in our May Highlights High Five Magazine. (Which we still love, and I still recommend to anyone with 2-6 year olds at home.)

Scientist's Creamy Pasta Salad

2 cups sea shell pasta
15 oz can of corn, drained
15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed (the real recipe called for chick peas, but we don't like 'em)
1 cup frozen peas
1 small package of cherry tomatoes
4 oz block of goat cheese
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

*Have an adult boil the pasta until tender, drain and keep warm.
1. Put corn, black beans, and peas in a large bowl.
2. Cut cherry tomatoes in half and put them in bowl.
3. Crumble goat cheese into bowl. Add olive oil, vinegar, and salt and pepper.
4. Add the warm pasta. Stir until goat cheese has melted into a creamy sauce.
Delicious warm or cold!

I'll admit, I wasn't a big fan of the semi-warm pasta salad, so I dumped our salad back into the pan the noodles cooked in and heated it until it was hot all the way through. This helped the goat cheese melt better too. It made a very tasty dinner! I was impressed. We were in such a hurry to eat that I didn't get a picture of the final product. The only downside was that after all that work, Scientist wasn't a big fan of the meal. But we'll definitely have it again. It would be good with pieces of cooked chicken cut up in it too, I think.

I linked up with:

What an Unschooled Teen Can Do

Between a week long road trip and my two brother's weddings I missed the recent Internet explosion about GMA's unschooling report. I won't go into the absurdity of such biased reporting because that's clearly already been covered. What I think is interesting is the seemingly unrelated reports about Abby Sunderland, the teenager who is attempting to be the youngest person to sail solo around the world. There's been all kinds of talk about sailing records and the technical difficulties of the trip but I haven't seen anyone mention the fact that Abby is an unschooler.

I have no official documentation on Abby's educational status but I think it's safe to say that because she is on a boat in the middle of the ocean, she is not in school. I also sincerely doubt she is pouring over grammar and math workbooks in her freetime, so that would make her an unschooler. Even though she is living in a world without school, I don't hear anyone questioning her ability to work hard, her exposure to new things or her preparation for college. I just wish people would make the connection between Abby's unschooling status and her amazing accomplishments. Maybe then they would see what an incredible opportunity unschooling is!

M Day: Monkeys, Magnets, Marble Mazes, and Milk Mixing

Today for M day, I introduced the letter M by reading the book Five Little Monkey's Sitting in a Tree. It's one of Lincoln's favorites right now and he can sing along with the whole thing. Then we played a simplified version of Barrel of Monkeys. I had tried to teach Scientist the regular version earlier in the week, but he didn't seem to have the coordination for it yet. So, instead the boys took turns seeing how many monkeys they could chain together. They both did really well. Then they each got to color their own monkey.

After that, I got out Scientist's Mag-Neato set, which is basically just a bunch of big toddler sized magnets. I explained how magnets stick to some things that are metal. Then I gave each boy a magnet and brought out a pile of different kitchen utensils. They boys took turns picking a utensil and deciding if the magnet would stick to it or not. We made one pile of magnetic things, and one pile of non-magnetic things.

Next we went into the kitchen and made marble mazes. I got the idea for those here. I decided that the boys would be less competitive if they each had their own maze, so we made two small ones instead of one really big one. And, due to time constraints, we did not decorate ours like they did in the example. But the boys had a great time with the mazes. I think it was their favorite part of the day. If I do it again though, I'll try and find something better to catch the marbles in, since I think I still have about 30 marbles back behind the washing machine. :)

For our snack we "mixed milk", meaning I poured normal white milk for the boys, and then showed them how to make it chocolate milk by letting them mix in some Ovaltine. I think they enjoyed their snack, but once they were finished they went right back to the marble maze. I think we're going to have to do that one again one of these days.

Home Schooling, Minus the Home Part

Summary of a recent conversation:

So, your husband works from home?

Yes

And you home school your kids?

Yes

So, you're pretty much all home all the time? (Said with that you-poor-crazy-hermits look)

(This is the point where you know you have not met a kindred soul)

Pretty much, yes.

Only the truth is we're rarely home. When I first started home schooling I kept saying the only thing I don't really like about home schooling is the being home part. So we don't stay home much. Really who would when there are so many other things to do? Of course we're involved in all the usuals - scouts, science club, classes, youth group, piano, sports and field trips, but then we have the unique advantage of being self-employed, so we travel. This school year we've been to Yellowstone, Arizona and the Oregon Coast, tomorrow we're heading to Utah and next month we'll be in Illinois.

When people realize how much we travel they often say with longing, "I wish we could do that!" The ironic thing is, that was me five years ago. I had a husband who worked long hard hours and I was rarely brave enough to leave the house for more than a morning with my three small children in tow (and one on the way). My husband and I both felt like there had to be more to life. Taking the leap to make that happen was the hardest thing we've ever done. My husband quit his job just one year short of partnership and started his own practice. It was very stressful and scary but it was also successful and has liberated us from the rat race.

I know not everyone can make a leap like that, but I really do think most people can make choices that give them and their family more freedom to do the things they really want to do. For example, I have a friend whose husband saves up vacation time all year so they can take a long road trip each fall. Camping helps them to save money, and has allowed them to share some amazing experiences with their children. Even if you can only travel to your nearest state park, I am a believer in giving your children homeschool experiences away from home!

College Without High School

Legos seem to be of far more interest around here than school, but with eighth grade looming before us, I've started ramping up my research on homeschooling or "unschooling" high school. A few weeks ago I came across College Without High School by Blake Boles . What a great read! His educational research was inspired by Grace Llewellyn and John Taylor Gatto, both of whom I find to be a bit extremist and not terrible concrete in their advice, but thankfully, Blake's book is very practical and inspiring. His approach to unschooling is very similar to my own. It's all about following your dreams and studying the things you love but also making a plan and setting goals. I found this so much more helpful than just a lot of talk about living wild and free. He even talks about how occasionally you may need to buckle down and learn something you don't love because you know it will be useful in helping you accomplish your goals. He provides in depth guidance in how to establish your goals and carefully explains what you need to do to satisfy college entrance requirements. I would recommend reading this even if you don't have teenagers yet, just to give you an idea of the possiblities that unschooling can provide. Now if I can just figure out how to make legos a legitimate subject we'll be all set!

Spring Science

We are really looking forward to spring at our house, and have been trying to encourage it to get here as quickly as possible. Today we did a spring science project, that can be started indoors. We took an egg carton and filled each space with half an egg shell. Inside the egg shell we put potting soil. Then I showed Scientist how to use his finger to poke a hole in the dirt in the middle of each egg shell. We put a few wildflower seeds in each hole and covered them back up again. (I chose wildflower seeds because they are drought tolerant and require very minimal care. I wanted something that was almost guaranteed to grow, so that Scientist could see how seeds work. I've heard that marigold seeds, bean seeds, and grass seed, also work really well.)

Next we put a teaspoon of water in each shell. When we were done we put the lid on carton (so it would stay warmer) and put the carton in the window. Every day until the seeds sprouted, we would open the lid while the sun was out, and close it at night. After only a few days, we were rewarded with results.


Once the sprouts are a little bigger and the weather a little warmer, we will take these outside and dig a small hole and plant each egg shell. The nice thing about using the eggshell as a container is that you don't have to remove it before planting, just lightly crush it in your hand, and place in the hole.

L Day: Letters, Licking, and Lambs

L Day today at Suzy's. Suzy started the kids off writing letters to their grandmas. It was more like drawing pictures for their grandmas, but the concept was the same. Scientist did really well, I was very impressed with his drawings. For the first time ever all on his own, he drew a head with hair, gave it eyes, a nose, and a mouth, and then drew some legs on it as well. (Don't mind that the mouth went in between the eyes and the nose, and that the legs were coming out the top of the head. He's got all the parts down, just not their exact locations yet.) That was his first picture. On the second picture he did even better. He got all the face items in the right place. This one didn't have legs though, but it had lots and lots of hair. When the kids were done drawing their letters, they got to fold them up and put them in envelopes to mail.

Next we did a really cool licking activity. Suzy had taken popcicle sticks and on the end of each one put different kinds of things to taste, like grape jelly, syrup, sugar, and a few others. The boys got to pick up each stick and lick it and try to guess what was on it. Scientist loved the licking, but did not do so well at the guessing part. :)

Once the sticks had all been licked to the boys satisfaction, we started on the next activity. Suzy gave each boy a paper with a lamb on it. They got to take Q-tips and dip them in blue glue and then paint part of the lamb with the glue and then stick a cotton ball to it to give the lamb some wool. I think they turned out super cute. And the boys seemed to really like working with the glue and cotton balls. Later, I wrote L is for Lamb on the bottom of his sheet and hung it up in our window with the rest of the Spring decorations we've been working on. Maybe if our windows say it's Spring, the weather will start cooperating. :)

For the last activity we all got in a circle and sang "Here We Go Looby Loo". Here are the lyrics:

Here we go looby loo

Here we go looby light
Here we go looby loo
All on a Saturday night

You put your right hand in
You take your right hand out
You give your hand a shake, shake, shake
And turn yourself about

Here we go looby loo
Here we go looby light
Here we go looby loo
All on a Saturday night

You put your left hand in
You take your left hand out
You give your left hand a shake, shake, shake
And turn yourself about

Here we go looby loo
Here we go looby light
Here we go looby loo
All on a Saturday night

You put your right foot in
You take your right foot out
You give your right foot a shake, shake, shake
And turn yourself about

Here we go looby loo
Here we go looby light
Here we go looby loo
All on a Saturday night

You put your left foot in
You take your left foot out
You give your left foot a shake, shake, shake
And turn yourself about

Here we go looby loo
Here we go looby light
Here we go looby loo
All on a Saturday night

You put your whole self in
You take your whole self out
You give your whole self a shake, shake, shake
And turn yourself about

The kids really like turning themselves about and by the end were asking to do variations of their own, like sheep. Suzy did a good job of improvising, and came with "put your sheep self in..."