Q is for Quarter

We had another "take it easy" week.  Did we do a lot of academics?  Not so much.  Did we have fun?  Yes, of course!  During our learning time, we worked with the letter Qq and the theme of quarters.

The roll the dice, cover a letter game that we did for Rr week was such a hit with the girls that I repeated it for Qq week, except I made sure there were more spaces to cover this time. 

To make this game, simply cut out squares (or whatever shape you'd like).  Write a lowercase q on half of the squares and an uppercase Q on the other half.  Glue the squares to a larger piece of paper, alternating the upper and lowercase letters. 

To play the game, each player is given one playing board and a pile of quarters.  The first player rolls the die and covers that amount of letter Qq's on their playing board with quarters.  Then the play goes to the next player.  The first player to cover her board wins.  So simple, but the girls seem to really enjoy this game.

Next, we did a quarter toss.  I cut out a large letter Q and laid it on the floor.  One at a time, the girls took 10 quarters and tried to toss them into the center of the Q.  I tried it too and it is harder than it looks.  Arin was good at it and she was able to get three of her quarters into the center.

Arin really had fun with a game of Heads of Tails?  She made her prediction of which she'd flip the most.  She guessed Tails.  Then, she flipped a quarter ten times, recording the results each time.  She was right, tails won.

Then, we played a quick game of drop the quarter in the jar.  The girls took turns.  Each had 10 quarters that they were to drop into a jar.  Ella went first and she sat for the beginning of the game.  It proved too easy while seated, so she stood for a bit more challenge.  She did really good at this and Arin thought it would be a piece of cake.  She was a bit surprised when she stood and was not able to drop every quarter into the jar.

Finally, we worked on a very special project.  If you've read my blog for any amount of time, you know that we try to teach our children the importance of giving.  We make and give things to our family and friends, but we also want to teach our children that it is equally important to give to those that we do not personally know.  Now, when we lived in Georgia, we had a great homeschool group.  We all miss them and Arin especially speaks of them often.  A few weeks ago, I read of this fun project that they were doing.  From January until May, they are collecting money to give to an orphan assistance agency.  When I learned that they were doing this project I thought it'd be perfect for us too.  It'd be a way to continue our "Better to Give..." lesson as well as stay connected to our friends.  This project is especially dear to us as many of our homeschool friends were once orphans themselves or their families are in the process of adopting orphans.
I gave each of the girls a jar and some stickers.  They had so much fun decorating the jars.  Once they were done, I gave them each some quarters to put in their jar.  Eventually, we will be filling the jars with other coins/bills as well, but for now we wanted to tie the project in with our quarter theme!

Over the past couple of days, I have been trying to explain to the girls (especially Arin) what an orphan is.  She cannot wrap her four-year old mind around the fact that not everyone has a mom and dad or enough food to eat, toys to play with, etc.  Yesterday, she suggested that we buy the orphans a television so they can watch kid shows.  Funny little girl.  I told her that I'm sure they would love a tv, but food and clothes were more important.  So as she was decorating her money jar, she asked if she could send the kids a snack along with the money.   She is sweet and her heart is in the right place even if she can't fully understand what an orphan is.

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Jam Thumbprint Cookies

We worked on the letter Jj a few weeks ago, but at the time, we did not do our "More Blessed to Give Than Receive" Lesson.  We have family members whose names start with the letter J and we wanted to make them a special treat, but at the time, I could not think of something to make for them.  Yesterday, I saw this post for Jam Thumbprint Cookies.  The recipe looked simple, which I knew would be perfect to use when working with the kids in the kitchen.

While Ella napped, Arin and I made these cookies for Aunt Jessica.  They were so good that we also made a second batch to have here!

Oatmeal Thumbprint Cookies with Jam


1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
1 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup quick oats
jam (we used strawberry All Fruit)

Preheat the oven to 350°. In the bowl of a food processor (we don't have a large food processor, so we used a mixer and it worked just fine), combine butter and brown sugar. Pulse until blended. Add vanilla and egg yolk. Blend until smooth. Add flour, salt, and quick oats. Pulse until blended.

Roll dough into walnut-sized balls. Arrange on a baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Press your thumb into the center of each cookie, making a depression.

Bake for 10 minutes. Fill depressions with small spoonful of the jam. Bake for another 10 minutes or until golden. Cool the cookies on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container, separating the layers with waxed or parchment paper. Can be frozen.

 

I think this was the first time she's turned on the mixer.



We've had our grain mill for three years.  It claims to be "The Quietest Mill" on the market, but it is still pretty loud.  This is the first time that Arin was brave enough to pour the wheat into the mill.  She normally has to have both hands free to cover her ears!



 



Arin was so happy about her accomplishment that she insisted that I take a picture of the flour!



Rolling the dough into balls was a lot of fun!

  

Making thumbprint indentions was also fun. 


 

Eclair Cake

During Ee week, we had two choices for our Better to Give than to Receive lesson:  Ella or Ellen.  We just don't know a lot of people whose first or last name begin with the letter E.  I thought about having a special day for Ella, but we didn't do something out of the ordinary for Arin for Aa week (it was her birthday week, so we did celebrate her, but not specifically for a school project).  I thought about having Arin make something for Ella because I want my girls to be kind and generous to one another as well, but that would have left Ella out of the project and I didn't want that. 

So, we ended up making something for Ellen.  I thought this would be a bit confusing to the girls since they only know her as Grandma, but we told the girls that her real name is Ellen which starts with an E, so they seemed fine with it.  (Grandma said she was so happy that we didn't wait until Gg week!)

I found this recipe for an Eclair Cake.  This cake is so simple to make with the kids and it is so yummy (just not so healthy!). 
Eclair Cake
2 - 3.5oz boxes of vanilla pudding (we made our's with french vanilla and "Ellen's" with regular vanilla)
3 cups of milk
8oz Cool Whip, thawed
graham crackers (we used honey flavored ones)
1 can of chocolate frosting

Mix together pudding and milk.  Fold in Cool Whip.  Layer bottom of 9x13 baking dish with graham crackers.  Spread half of the pudding mixture over graham crackers.  Add another layer of graham crackers.  Top with the remaining pudding mixture.  Add another layer of graham crackers.  Microwave the frosting for 30 seconds.  Stir.  Pour over the top layer of graham crackers.  Spread with a spatula or knife to evenly coat the top of the graham crackers.  (Andy said the chocolate was a bit much for him, so you could just drizzle it over top if you are not a big chocolate fan).  Refrigerate for at least four hours before serving.

Dark-Colored Dessert & Dd Cookies

It wasn't as easy to come up with something for the girls to make for Dd week's Better to Give Than to Receive lesson.  Yes, there's donuts, but I didn't want the girls around hot grease.  Yes, there's danishes, but I have never made one and didn't want to make something that might or might not be good.  Yes, there's deviled eggs, but the food had to travel a couple of hours to its recipient, so that was out.

In the end, we ended up making a dark-colored dessert for Uncle Don.  These were devil's food cake cupcakes, with dark frosting (fudge flavor) and dark decorations (semi-sweet chocolate chips).

I love how Arin helps her sister without anyone telling her to.

We also made a dozen D and d cookies for David.  We took a big shortcut and bought the cookies from the bakery.  Then, the girls frosted them and Arin (with my help) wrote the D or d on each cookie.

Yes, we were reaching a little this week!  As we were packing the cookies up for David, Arin looked at me and said, "cuh, cuh, cookies.  Mom, we should have made these for c week!"

(we also used this week to donate some of our unwanted items!)

Cupcakes and Crazy-Colored Crayons

During Cc week for our Better to Give Than to Receive lesson, the girls made confetti cupcakes for Aunt Candace and for Cameron.

They also made crazy-colored circle crayons for the children of three families whose last names begin with the letter C.  We had to mail the crayons, so we are hoping they arrived in tact and not as a melted crazy-colored mess!

Bread and Bracelets

For Better to Give Than to Receive during B week, Arin made braided bread for Uncle Brian.  She quickly learned the braiding pattern (over two, under one).  I did have to help tighten up the braid, but otherwise she did that part.  Arin thought the greatest part of making this bread was when she painted the bread with a beaten egg.  Ella also helped brush the egg on the bread.  We also made a second loaf of this bread for our family and it was so good.  The recipe can be found here.

She also beaded a black and blue bracelet for Brianna.  This bracelet was more difficult than the amethyst anklet that she made last week.