Weekly Baking Project: Blueberry Tart

The boys really love baking. In fact they want to grow up and go to pastry school. Once a week we are going to bake something or make something that they want to make. I told them it could be anything- healthy or less than healthy. They will be involved in as many aspects as possible in making the treat. This week Dagan wanted to make a blueberry pie. I asked him if he wanted it in a pie pan or if he wanted to use the new tart pan I bought. He opted for the tart pan.

The boys learned everything from measuring and mixing to weighing and rinsing. They cooked a sauce out of blueberries, used a hand mixer to whip the cream cheese, and rolled out the tart dough. They learned as did I that if you have a lot of butter in the crust that it will drip into your oven and cause it to smoke. We discussed when to put a pan underneath, how to clean the oven, and what to do if your oven starts smoking.

My mother always made blueberry cream cheese squares. I thought I'd try a different recipe, one with fresh blueberries. Hers was much better though. Next time I'll make it with the kids and pass down the recipe from one generation to the next.

Bringing up Bebe

A friend of mine recommended this book to me while we were chatting during a playdate. It was a funny read. It was snooty at times while insightful at others. It is hard to adopt French habits all the time when you aren't living in France and have not had any French influences in your life, however, I did learn a lot from this read.

Since I've read this book I  now have the kids eating 4 times a day at 8, 12, 4, and 8 just like the French do. We no longer snack all day long or carry baggies of pretzels and granola bars around just to appease the kids when they are feeling out of sorts.  Breakfast is fresh fruit and then grains. Lunch and dinner start with a raw vegetable appetizer which is followed by protein and grains and ends with fresh fruit for dessert. Snack time at 4 is the only time they are allowed to eat sweets. But they are allowed one sweet and the rest must be healthy snacks. All beverages are either soy milk or water. Now they are really hungry for meals. They try new foods and don't balk as much about what is served. And I don't spend the whole day trying to prepare food for them. The eating is much more relaxed on the weekend when we sometimes go out or have special treats.

I've also started to make more decisions and I've been saying on occasion, "I'm the one who decides." I try to get the kids to realize that greeting people is important. I'm working on making the "big eyes" to get the kids to take me seriously when they are doing something I deem unacceptable.

I do spend a lot of time with the kids and even more so now that we're homeschooling. The French send their children to school and to wilderness camps so they will become more independent. Maybe one day I'll feel that they are old enough to go to summer camp or to stay with the grandparents for a month.

 Like the French, I do make sure that I have time for myself and time for my spouse. Life can't be all about the kids. It is adult time at 9 pm and the kids must stay in their rooms even if they are not sleepy.

There are still the temper tantrums, loud voices, and messes to clean up . Things are not always perfect but they are definitely improving.

Disney Cruise Alaska

 

 

 

This was our first cruise ever and we had a blast. We ate a lot and relaxed a lot. It also provided an opportunity for lots of fun learning. Here's a list of some of the things we did.

- spent lots of time together as a family

- the boys made new friends

- went for a hike

- saw glaciers and icebergs

- saw an eagle up close

- rode a tram up the mountain

- saw totem poles

- did science experiments involving volcanoes

- practiced swimming skills

- touched wild animal pelts and saw wild animal skulls

- walked around Alaskan towns

- learned to play chess

- experienced what it's like to be on a large cruise ship for 1 week

Great Fights By Dagan Age 6

Great Fights By Dagan 

Great and his brother Guild find a guy who needs to go to the hospital.

He drives him to the hospital. ZZZsssshhhh.

He tests him with all his tools. He's o.k.

He drives back to go fight.

He slashes the big bad guy.

He reflects all the guns.

He finds a dungeon door.

The map of the dungeon temple.

He jumps over the lava.

He finds a group of friends. "Pop!" came Little Weenie. Then "Pop!" came Clean. He finds Great who went through a hole earlier.

All of them were sad except for Great and Guild because Great found a button.

Can you find what it equals?

Can you find what it minuses?

Can you find which one is different?

I will fight this monster. Hiiiiya! Great wins and his friends win too.

Great walks home to do more art.

Passion Fruit

Purple and Granadilla at the top. Golden at the bottom.

Purple, Granadilla, Golden

 

 Juicing the passion fruit and tasting the seeds

Chocolate Passion Fruit Profiteroles

I found 3 varieties of passion fruit at the local grocery store. The boys observed each one, sliced them with their kid's chef knife, scooped out the seeds and extracted the juice. The juice was used in the making of chocolate passion fruit pastry cream which filled chocolate profiteroles I made this week. We also ate the pastry cream spread on scones for breakfast. 

They tasted each variety of seeds as well as the juice blended all together which was sweet and tart. We talked about Aunty Eri's passion fruit flowers and also discussed other flavors that pair well with it such as mango, chocolate or coconut. They were surprised that the seeds were the part that were eaten and that the rest is thrown away since a fruit like apples, the skin and flesh are eaten and the seeds thrown away.  They described passion fruit seeds as crunchy, sour and sweet.

Rainbows

Sage loves drawing in rainbow colors. This week we studied rainbows. We sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "Rainbow Connection". We learned that you can put c.d.'s on the floor upside down in the sun and create rainbows. We saw a science project where you use flashlights and water to create rainbows. We colored rainbow pictures and made rainbow cupcakes. We talked about color mixing and used blue and red to make the purple in the cupcakes. We used the scale to measure out ingredients and he had so much fun placing other things on the scale as well.

More rainbows:

Piano Keyboard

 

Fruits and Veggies