Milk Allergy Mom

Homeschool: Week 15

2012-01-25T11:08:00.002-06:00

Dec 19-23

PHONICS
Family: ix, ox, ess, ip
Words: six, mix, fix, box, fox, ox, Bess, less, mess, Jess, tip, sip, dip, lip, rip
Service: what
Add to Family: zip, zap, Zack
Grammar: Ending in "s"
Spelling: ap words (cap, gap, lap, map, nap, zap)
Writing: Xx Zz
Reading: The Big Mess

MATH
Basic Skills Book

THEME: CHRISTMAS

We read one of the Little House Books, Christmas in the Big Woods. The boys love all the pioneer stories especially because of our trips to New Salem. Miles always thanks God in his prayers for "a refrigerator instead of a cellar, that we have a stove instead of a fireplace oven, that he has a mattress instead of cords for a bed", etc, etc. ;)

A second round of gingerbread houses so they could eat them up this time.

Riding the train at the mall.

Donating toys to Toys for Tots.

Attending the Journey to Bethlehem at Grandma's church.

Making cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning.

Cutting out sugar cookies.

Dairy-Free Cinnamon Rolls

2012-01-24T11:27:00.000-06:00

I got this recipe from Money Saving Mom. It's so easy in the bread machine! To make these dairy-free, just use Fleischmann's Unsalted Margarine for the butter and almond or soy milk for the milk.

The best idea I had when making these was to cut the rolls using my "bread knife". Wow, it worked great! Much easier than cutting with dental floss!

I like the idea of making these ahead and freezing. Hope to do that soon!

Homeschool: Week 14

2012-01-23T10:29:00.007-06:00

Dec 12-16

PHONICS
Add to Families: rip, rub, red, rid, rug, ran, rock, jig, jug, Jan, job
Service Word: put
Punctuation: Question Mark
Family: am, ack, et
Words: ham, jam, Jack, Mack, rack, tack, sack, back, pack, set, net, wet, pet, get, let, met, vet
Writing: Rr, Jj
Book: The Jet

MATH
basic skills book

READING

I was so fortunate to find the complete Set 2 of Bob Books at the consignment store for $3! So I got them for Miles. And then we made a big deal that Graham gets to have Miles's old Set 1. I couldn't believe how excited Graham was. He was ready to dive in! Graham started reading them! It was his first reading attempt, and he is really a natural. He gets the story, laughs at the plot...I can just tell he has the whole reading comprehension thing. Reading at 4 1/2, not bad. So I try to have the boys each read aloud from their Bob Books to each other often. Then I read them a book too.

FINE MOTOR

Here is Miles re-beading 14 feet of wooden beads for the tree. :)

Graham did some sparkly pom-pom sorting with tongs.

ART

We've made friends with the family of a former art teacher. We have a lot in common! They invited us over one weekend night for games and making shrinky dink ornaments. It was a hit!

The boys sorted foam shapes into a tray and then decorated foam trees.

My boys are so deprived that they think it's fun just to make cardboard ipods. And they really think they are awesome. Sometimes I hear them pretend playing Angry Birds. Very humorous. Maybe sad?

PRACTICAL LIFE

The boys hand drew nearly 100 Christmas cards to deliver around their great grandparents' nursing home. I was so proud of their effort on these cards but even more proud of how happy they were to deliver the cards. They were not scared of the residents at all, no matter what their condition was. We did this along with our small group from church. All the kids did a wonderful job visiting with the residents. Then we sang carols around the piano. And Miles asked if we could do this every year. I'm a proud mom.

My friend Mandy had a great idea to do a book exchange with our kids for Christmas. We met at the library. The boys loved receiving their very appropriate books (Legos and trucks!), but they were also excited to give a gift to their friend.

Dairy-Free Candied Carrots

2012-01-20T13:26:00.003-06:00

This is Jeff's favorite recipe for one of the boys' favorite dinner veggies:

16 ounces baby carrots
2 tablespoons butter (Fleischmann's Unsalted Margarine)
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup water
dash salt
pepper, to taste

In a medium saucepan, combine the baby carrots with remaining ingredients. Stir to blend ingredients. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and continue boiling (uncovered) for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until carrots are tender and the liquid has evaporated.
Serves 4 to 6.

I just did a quick version in the microwave and the liquid was NOT evaporated. But we still gobbled them all up. :) It only took about 5 minutes!

Miles's 2011 Allergy Results & Baked-In Milk

2012-01-18T09:00:00.001-06:00

We got Miles's 2011 milk allergy results, gasp, last APRIL! Basically, his milk allergy went up after being stagnant for three years. But we are now doing one bite of baked in milk daily! Read on to see how THAT happened!

Here are his blood results from the past 5 years:

2007 ~ Class 3 ~ 3.98 IgE

2008 ~ Class 2 ~ 1.07 IgE

2009 ~ Class 2 ~ 1.07 IgE

2010 ~ Class 2 ~ 1.10 IgE

2011 ~ Class 2 ~ 3.33 IgE

Class 3 is 3.51 IgE so dang it, Miles almost went back to Class 3 as he was 4 years ago. :(

Since Miles isn't improving despite "strict avoidance", our allergist decided to try a new route. She asked us to come back with baked-in milk in a muffin so we could try Miles on "baked-in". If he did ok, we could go the route of "desensitizing".

So I baked a muffin for Miles which felt so wrong, and off to the doctor we went. He made it to a quarter muffin, one gram at a time, which lasted about two hours. At a quarter muffin, he started clearing his throat, and we stopped. The allergist looked him over and said that the coughing was from post nasal drip, not throat swelling. So that was good news. We can handle a runny nose! But it was only a quarter muffin. Who knows if Miles was given a whole muffin and ate the whole thing in 10 minutes. Anaphylaxis is certainly part of his history, and it could happen again.

The allergist instructed us to give Miles baked in milk (which changes the milk protein) once a day in a bite or two...bumping it up as we are comfortable. We are still doing just 1-2 bites after 8 months. Miles also takes Flonaze spray at the same time as his milk bites to ward off any runny nose or nasal drip...to allow his body to accept the milk and process it.

Soon after all of this, the allergist learned of new studies that show kids can OUTGROW milk allergy through desensitizing. It used to be that desensitizing just lessened the reaction if there was a big accident.

HOWEVER, desensitizing through baked in is not for all children. You must work with your allergist to make sure your child can tolerate it enough. Some children will

have a major reaction with just one bite of baked in milk. I know we are very fortunate to be at this step. It's really quite shocking considering his blood numbers went UP this year. I really doubted that this would work. But it just goes to show that food allergies are so random, SO VERY RANDOM! So far, we have only braved two types of processed cookies, Target brand Nilla Wafers and Keebler brand animal crackers. Miles has 1-2 of these a day.

Here are the ingredient lists so you can see what we are accomplishing:

I hope this information was helpful and encouraging.

Homeschool: Week 13

2012-01-17T21:32:00.004-06:00

Christmas was in full swing on Week 13, Dec 5-9. We started just doing phonics and writing workbooks to get them out of the way, and then would dive into fun, festive activities.

PHONICS:
Word Families: ock, ob, ent, uff
Service Word: to
Add to Families: vet, van, fin, fed, fig, fat, fan, fit, fun, fell, fill
Blend: nt
Words: bent, dent, tent, vent, went, sent, cuff, huff, puff
Writing: Ff

Miles did a Christmas phonics sheet on his Crayola dry-erase.

MATH

Then Graham did some Christmas Counting:

And Miles did some needed number writing. He still writes several numbers backwards.

They both loved working on these Christmas block pages and wanted me to take a picture of them when all three were completed. I love to watch their little hands make sure that each piece is just so.

ART

I used some of my large button stash to let the boys make button ornaments. They turned out so cute! My favorite is the orange, pink, and white one that just happened to be the leftover colors after the blue, green, and red ornaments were done. They just strung them onto wire.

Speaking of stringing, I bought 14 feet of red wooden bead garland at Target only to find out it was beaded to tightly. So I cut the beads all off, and Miles gladly restrung them all for me. Only then did they dangle nicely on the tree. Good work, Miles!

PRACTICAL LIFE

It dawned on me to let the boys start peeling their own oranges Clementines were especially easy for them, with no seeds to contend with.

We cut sandwiches into Christmas shapes with cookie cutters.

We made lots of hot cocoa. I cheated really bad by just heating up chocolate almond milk mixed with a little original almond milk. Ah well, it was the marshmallows they really cared about anyways! They love their dollar store Christmas mugs from last year, too.

This was a fun little puzzle from the Target dollar section. I don't shop that area too much anymore, thankfully! But this ended up being worth the $1.

I am sorry for my lack of posting recently. Christmas really sets me back, and then catch-up is rough! I THINK I may be caught up with school, stamping work, home chores, finances, goal-setting, etc. this week. That's pretty bad. I don't know how it takes me so long!

Dairy-Free Apple Chips

2012-01-12T22:29:00.002-06:00

We made apple chips the other day. I won't say how many we have consumed this week. ;) What a great crunchy snack. I just sliced them thin and put them in the oven on 275 for about an hour. I check them often and flip them once. You can go for a chewy texture or can let them get nice and crispy. When they come out, let them sit a bit and they will crisp up even more than when they came out of the oven. We didn't season these at all, and they were great just like that.

Sliced apples:

Apple chips!

Now I can't wait to find out if our apple tree will produce this year. I hope so! Last year was a bust.

Homeschool: Week 12

2012-01-09T13:57:00.004-06:00

Week 12 was Nov 28 to Dec 2. Christmas was getting underway, and it was at this point that I lost some control of homeschooling. But luckily Miles kept up with his workbooks for phonics and writing. For math, he mostly did the Basic Skills book and finished up Section E of MUS.

Here is just a quick recap of Week 12:

PHONICS
Families: im, ot, op
Words: Tim, him, dim, not, hot, pot, cot, dot, got, lot, top, hop, pop, cop, mop
Adding to Families: met, mug, mad, Meg, mill, men, mat, man, map

WRITING
Mm
Oo

CHRISTMAS
Grandma and Grandpa wrote daily advent activities again for us this year. Huge help! Through the month they each put together foam nativity scenes, and had a blast. We did not miss a single day this year...thanks to the boys and their enthusiasm.

Dairy-Free Chocolate Fondue

2011-12-20T10:54:00.004-06:00

We have started a tradition of hosting my family for Christmas Eve lunch. And I've been trying to figure out the menu and dairy-free snacks this week.

In the past I have used Enjoy Like chocolate chips for dipping dairy-free marshmallows, pretzels, graham crackers, etc. But the chips just aren't "almond bark" or "candy making chocolate" so after a day or so, the chocolate starts turning colors and getting stale.

So in Target while shopping, I had an epiphany. What would my kids and guests like better than eating stale chocolate covered sweets? CHOCOLATE FONDUE! We have used Enjoy Life Chips in our little crock before, and it's so good for dipping. Then people can eat things plain if they want with no chocolate, and I'm not left with a bunch of stale chocolate covered sweets when the party is over.

Here are the items I will use:

Enjoy Life Chocolate Chunks
Little Dipper Crock
Graham Crackers (check brands)
Pretzels (check brands)
Marshmallows
Cherries
Bananas

Yay, now I don't have to dip candy for a whole day this week! ;) And I can get to work on the Chex Mix, Puppy Chow, and Sugar Cookies. I love to have another simplifying idea!
What dairy-free treats are you making this week?

Natural Candy Store Winner!

2011-12-19T12:51:00.003-06:00

Congrats Sheree Stamper! You win the $25 gift certificate. I will send your email to Natural Candy Store so they can contact you with a promo code! Thanks to all who entered, and I hope you were enlightened to new candy options for the food allergy or organic peeps in your fam!

Last Hours To Enter Giveaway!

2011-12-19T09:42:00.001-06:00

Don't forget to enter to win $25 to Natural Candy Store! I will draw a winner around 12:00pm CST! I'm hoping the winner can order quickly in time for Christmas delivery. :)

Click here to enter!

Dairy-Free Fudge

2011-12-16T20:46:00.003-06:00

ENTER MY GIVEAWAY SPONSORED BY NATURALCANDYSTORE.COM BY CLICKING HERE!

My boys had their first taste of "fudge" tonight. I used to make it years ago with the marshmallow puff, but it contains dairy. So I always thought fudge was out for us. But a stamping friend brought some dairy-free fudge to Stamp Club the other night, and I had to try it!

1 bag Enjoy Life Chocolate Chunks or Chips
1 tub of Pillsbury Dairy-Free Icing (chocolate, white, or cream cheese)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt

Melt chips in microwave. Then add tub of icing, vanilla, and salt. Stir all together. Pour into foil lined and greased 9x9 pan. Let set in frig for 30 minutes.

You can make different concoctions using the different icings. Here I used chocolate icing, and I think I'd like to try the others next time. The fudge does taste a lot like icing to me and Jeff...but for the boys, this is exciting stuff!

Dairy-Free Christmas Candy & a GIVEAWAY!

2011-12-15T15:31:00.014-06:00

I just got my first order from naturalcandystore.com. I can't wait for the boys to find these new goodies in their stockings.

I got dairy-free chocolate Santa suckers, strawberry penguin suckers, gummy Christmas trees, another gummy candy, natural candy canes, and dairy-free M&M type candy! Miles has never had anything like an M&M. I am most excited about these!

The natural candy canes look delicious, too. The ingredients are cane juice, brown rice syrup, natural peppermint flavor, and juice for coloring.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO WIN A $25 GIFT CERTIFICATE TO SPEND AT NATURALCANDYSTORE.COM? Natural Candy Store will give away one $25 gift certificate to one of my lucky readers. They were so gracious to quickly respond "YES" to my request today.

Just visit naturalcandystore.com and leave a comment on this post letting me know what candy you would love to try. Make sure I can contact you via email if you win. Deadline for entry is December 19th at noon. One entry per family, please.

At their site, you can search by many different diets like organic, vegan, kosher, gluten-free, and even ALLERGY-FREE! I loved how easy it was to find what would work for our dairy-free diet. And the variety is wonderful. Right now they are running 20% off holiday candy which makes me want to shop again!

Also, you can register at naturalcandystore.com for email alerts, and you can follow them on Facebook.

Even if you aren't dairy-free like us, you are sure to find some great treats so everyone feel free to enter and good luck!

Homeschool: Week 11 Thanksgiving

2011-12-12T09:02:00.004-06:00

THEME: Thanksgiving

We read Cranberry Thanksgiving, and the boys loved it. :)

SCIENCE: We made the Cranberry Bread recipe from the book. It was delicious!

GEOGRAPHY: We looked at our map to locate New England, where the cranberry bog was located in the book.

ART: The boys made trees using their fingerprints in ink pads.

We also made turkeys by tracing hands. The boys did this over and over on their own.

They colored place mats for Thanksgiving Dinner.

Miles got a vehicle drawing book at the consignment store.

SENSORY: We had a fall rice tub out with colorful plastic acorns and wooden tongues, spoon, and bowl.

OUTING: We went to story time at the library and made this cute pumpkin pie craft. Miles added peas and chicken to his plate, ha.

PRACTICAL LIFE: I let the boys help some with the Thanksgiving cooking. Miles learned how to peel hard boiled eggs. Graham did one until the smell overwhelmed him and made him gag, lol.

PHONICS:
Vocab: help, good
Service: for
L Words: lit, lip, land, let, lick, lid, leg
Family: ill, ell
Words: ill, till, Bill, will, hill, pill, tell, sell, well, bell
Writing: Ll, slant, sentence spacing

Miles and Graham also made these Gratitude Journals. Miles did many pages. He tried to do four a day that week...his own goal.

MATH: Basic Skills Book for Miles & finished MUS Section 13. Graham did these cut and paste Thanksgiving counting sheets.

GAMES: The boys got into game mood that week, big time. They started with the Candy Land Rug Game.

Then Graham said he wished he had a construction game. So hey, I took that as a challenge. Check out the construction board game we made, using clip art from the computer! The game pieces were actual plastic construction trucks that drove around the board. I might go get this laminated, even though I wrote it in pencil, lol. The boys really like to play it.

Then Miles requested a Lego game. So we put a green base to use. The vehicles are just for decoration. The game pieces are two police men, who try to get to the end to catch the "bad guy" who stole money from that Lego ATM. I made a die by putting colored circles on a wood block. Again, it was another hit. I think I could make homemade games for Christmas, and my boys would be happy!

If you are a sibling reading this, remember when I would try to invent board games and none of you would humor me by playing? Ha! I'm so glad I have my own kids to play along now! ;)

Dairy-Free Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bar

2011-12-08T22:55:00.000-06:00

I still had some cranberries left from Thanksgiving so I decided to make Megan's Cranberry Bliss Bars. I skipped the icing because it called for cream cheese, and I just did the drizzle. I also didn't have enough cranberries to add some to the top. But that's ok. These were pretty good. Perfect for breakfast. ;)

I left out the ginger powder. We couldn't do dairy white chocolate chips so I did Enjoy Life chips instead. The dairy-free margarine used was Fleischmann's Unsalted Sticks. And I was able to use the 3 eggs because Graham is no longer allergic. I'm not sure how easy it would be to replace 3 eggs.

I want to make cinnamon rolls soon!

Christmas Decor 2011

2011-12-07T13:49:00.001-06:00

I feel like I'm more on the ball this year with Christmas preparations. I'm just in the mood! Starting after Thanksgiving instead of somewhere in mid-December is a lot more relaxing. :)

Here is our Christmas Countdown. I did this as a Stampin' Up! Class. I used chalkboard vinyl so we can countdown each day. The tree is made with designer papers cut into scallop circles, cut into quarters, and layered into a tree shape. The little buildings were bought on CVS Christmas clearance last year for 50 cents or maybe $1 each. It's a coffee shop and a toy shop. And the glitter tree was from Walmart for under $1. I also offered the stocking bunting as a project at my Christmas Class. The papers match the countdown.

I was silly and UNframed the fabric I just framed a month ago in order to make a place to hang Christmas cards. I framed packing paper and strung twine across. We will clip cards with mini clothespins.

I got this tree at Target Christmas clearance last year. It goes with our new "organic" looking decor. I'm overly excited about felt decorations this year. :)

Here is the kitchen window. The big hanging ornaments were from Target Christmas clearance last year (do you hear a trend going on???). The snowman was from Walgreens, the shiny trees from Walmart (one propped on an upside-down candle holder), and silver cookie cutters! :) I have seen people hang cookie cutters from windows, and I liked the idea of using the cutters for decor. They are handy and right there for baking and cutting sandwiches.

In the living room, I put Target dollar-spot ornaments in milk glass on the speakers.

In the basement, I wanted to work with the fabric and designer papers I already have on the walls. How to make pinks and pastels Christmas-y? I just added silver.

So the top of the bookshelf got a nice little silver and white vignette. The boys and I went on a nature walk to find greenery and pine cones. I love it!

I carried the fabric from the walls over to the chunky candles, just ripping strips and tying them around.

This is our mini countdown that I did with my Stamp Club members. Gold Goodwill frame painted white.

This is the framed banner tags I put at the bottom of the steps into the basement. I used the same papers used in my big Countdown and Stocking Banner. I used a clean baby burp cloth I had on hand for the background. The images are stamped from Stampin' Up!'s Everyday Bits. Stampin' Up! twine and clothespins are also used.

Next I will have to show you the advent we are doing and our new tree. We still have ornaments we want to make. Hopefully we will get them done soon. :) Colds are slowing us down a bit around here.

Happy Christmas Season!

Dairy-Free Cranberry Bread

2011-12-04T09:24:00.001-06:00

I am so sad that we didn't get a picture of this lovely bread. We used the recipe in the book, Cranberry Thanksgiving. We chopped the cranberries in the blender. I can say this is my first venture with cranberries, and it was as good as what I get at the bakeries. Mmmmmm!

2 cups sifter flour
1 cup sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup margarine (Fleischmann's Unsalted)
1 egg, beaten (or do flaxseed + water replacement)
1 tsp grated orange peel
3/4 cup orange juice
1.5 cups light raisins (I left those out)
1.5 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking sodea into a large bowl. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Add egg, orange peel, and orange juice all at once; stir just until mixture is evenly moist. Fold in raisins and cranberries.

Spoon into a greased loaf an. Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 10 minute, or until a toothpick inserted in center comesout clean. emove from pan; cool on a wire rack.

You may substitute cranberries for the raisins to have all cranberry bread.

And on a side note, the boys really liked this book from the library. It is out of print and sells for only $100+ online as used, NUTSO!

Dairy-Free Cheese Omelet

2011-12-04T00:15:00.001-06:00

Here's another Daiya cheese concoction for Miles. Did I mention I bought a whole case of this cheese? I need to come up with many more ideas! :)

Miles liked the omelet, but here is what Graham thought about the egg....

Homeschool: Week 10

2011-12-03T20:17:00.002-06:00

PHONICS:
Blend: nd
Words: and, band, sand, hand
Service Words: father, are
Family: ug, it, ag, eg
Words: dug, bug, tug, hug, dig, pig, wig, big, bag, tag, wag, beg, peg
Add to Families: get, gun
Reading Book: #10 The Three Cats
Writing: nd, and, Gg

MATH:
Miles liked working out of his Basic Skills Book.

Graham also worked in his Busy Town book. So far Graham has drug along a workbook every single day when Miles and I start school. Graham even starts to sing songs like "it's time to do school!". I really love his enthusiasm and willingness to join in!

ART:
Both boys enjoy drawing pictures now as much as they like coloring sheets. They also got into the puzzles a lot that week. Here they were doing both activities simultaneously on their own.

PRACTICAL LIFE:
Miles likes using our fall spreaders to make lunch sandwiches.

The boys love raking leaves. We even raked and bagged the whole front yard one nice day while Jeff was hunting. Surprise, Daddy!

They also loved playing in the leaves too.

Dairy-Free Quesadillas

2011-11-29T13:55:00.000-06:00

Miles got to have dairy-free quesadillas with his Daiya Shredded Mozzarella. It's tapioca based. These are easy to make on a griddle with tortillas. We added spinach and chicken to the "cheese". He dipped them in salsa. We've been buying salsa at Aldi.

Homeschool: Week 9

2011-11-27T10:19:00.001-06:00

THEME WORK:

Because the boys liked New Salem so much, I thought we would read one of the Little House books. I happened to have this one from the Homeschool Conference in St. Charles. The boys liked it! Then we happened to catch a Little House show on tv, the one where Laura meets Almonzo. So that was perfect as Almonzo is the character in County Fair. The show had horse and wagons, log houses, and a MILL so the boys were enthralled.

The BJU theme was Nursery Rhymes. I had already put these little nursery rhyme cards together and as it turns out, many of the rhymes were about things we saw at New Salem. So that tied in well too....wells, sheep wool, etc.

We also played a nursery rhyme CD when we were out in the car. The boys were learning them pretty fast.

We made a Little Miss Muffet spider with pretzels, Nilla Wafers, and icing. Nilla Wafers contain milk. I will explain that soon!

PHONICS:
Word Families: ad, at, an, ap
Phonics Words: bad, dad, had, pad, sad, pat, cat, bat, sat, hat, at, pan, can, tan, an, cap, nap, sap, tap
Service Word: come
Writing: Aa, word spacing
Book: #9 In The Tub

The boys played alphabet bingo. The game level is perfect for both of them right now!

MATH
MUS 13A-13B
Miles is getting a little bored with MUS. So I have started to let him do some kindergarten basic skills books with colors, shapes, counting, etc. It seems a little easy for him, but he does need to work on writing numbers correctly and on the spelling of numbers.

PRACTICAL LIFE
I found the boys some small rootbeer mugs at Goodwill. Well, they are "small" compared to Jeff's mug! The boys have been drinking from real glasses since they graduated from sippy cups, and I can't recall but one getting broken. I do believe they learn gentle hands this way. However, I also opted for linoleum over tile in the new house, ha! ;) That does help with the breakage stats.

Dairy-Free Sweet Potatoe Casserole

2011-11-26T12:28:00.003-06:00

We made this for Thanksgiving, and it was great! Recipe from allrecipes.com.

5 sweet potatoes, sliced
1/4 cup reduced fat margarine (dairy-free Fleischmann's Unsalted)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons orange juice
1 pinch ground cinnamon
1 (10.5 ounce) package miniature marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Place sweet potatoes in a large saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain, and mash.
Place mashed sweet potatoes in large bowl, and use an electric mixer to blend with the margarine, brown sugar, orange juice, and cinnamon. Spread evenly into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Top with miniature marshmallows.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until heated through, and marshmallows are puffed and golden brown.

Homeschool: Week 8

2011-11-25T09:36:00.001-06:00

This was Trick-or-Treat Week. This year I nixed most all Trick-or-Treating except for walking the neighborhood on the 31st. And we only did that for 30 minutes. Miles is 6 now, and it's just not fun for him to collect a bunch of candy that he can't eat. I've also learned that my boys just don't love dressing up for other people. They love dressing up at home. But they get embarrassed about putting on costumes to go out. That's why they always default to their most comfortable dress-up, hunting and fireman, that is in our dress-up buckets all year round.

However, I did finally convince them to put on the knight costumes I got on clearance last year. Now those are a staple in our dress up buckets, and we are set for another 2-3 years of Trick-or-Treating, ha!

Things our family DID enjoy about Halloween were going to the library for story time and a craft.

And having neighbors over to enjoy food and games with us. Here are the boys with Kaden and Lilly. Kaden was a homemade Ghostbuster costume. It was pretty cool.

After treating for 30 minutes, the kids were ready to go home. Then we had another lovely family over. We call Ethan and Nolan the scooter kids. ;) It was time for some UNO.

It ended up being a beautiful week so we headed to Lincoln's New Salem TWICE that week. Being a history major, I do love being surrounded by all the local Lincoln sites. And New Salem is one of my favorites as it's also outdoors. I was an intern there my senior year of college and did my senior thesis paper on that time-period. :)

This was the first year the boys could really appreciate and learn about the time period. I was thrilled when they asked to go back a second time so we went again. They liked seeing the log cabins, learning about all the trades and lifestyle, and really appreciated all the things that Lincoln had done there.

Not only did they enjoy the village, but they actually liked the museum too. They really liked the model saw and grist mill. They couldn't wait to walk down to see the real thing. :)

Here's the real thing! They were amazed that the river had powered the mill, and that now the river isn't even close to the mill. It's changed course over the years. We also learned about the carding mill powered by oxen. I've actually seen it being powered, but it doesn't happen very often.

The boys liked talking to the blacksmith. They also had a couple chats with the cooper who was working on a wooden bucket.

They liked the doctor's office because there was a knocker on the door.

On our way down to the saw and grist mill, we found huge leaves!

A shot of my explorers. That's the log cabin with a loft in the background.

PHONICS
Word Families: ick, eck, ed, id
Phonics Words: tick, kick, sick, pick, Nick, neck, peck, bed, Ted, hid, kid, did, dip, duck, den, deck
Writing: ck, Dd, sentences

MATH
MUS 12D-12F

Miles still writes some numbers backwards so I got out a number strip to help him.

Graham counted out pumpkins.

Graham turned an empty box into an airplane. Sometimes Miles is impressed with his little brother's innovations like this one. ;)

Dairy-Free Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T11:43:00.004-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all my allergy friends out there! If you are looking for last minute food ideas, be sure to look around on my blog. I have several pumpkin and apple recipes that are egg and milk free. Here are a few posts:

Allergy-Free Thanksgiving Meal Plan 2010

Allergy-Free Thanksgiving Meal Plan 2008

Pumpkin Dump Cake

Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Pumpkin Cake with Dairy-Free Cream Cheese Icing!

Apple Crisp

Apple Tart

This year we can add egg to our dishes because Graham has outgrown that. He won't eat eggs straight, but baked in works great. I think I'm gonna introduce him to deviled eggs and hope for the best. ;)

A couple new dishes we will try are:

Deviled Eggs
Cranberry Bread (from our homeschool book, Cranberry Thanksgiving)
Homemade Rolls (using egg)
Apple Salad (we can use mayo with egg now)
Pumpkin Bars (with eggs) & Dairy-Free Pillsbury Cream Cheese Icing

Let us know if you have an allergy-safe dish that you are excited to do this year!

Blessings to all my readers!

Homeschool: Week 7a & 7b

2011-11-22T08:59:00.005-06:00

Week 7a was actually our vacation to Branson, MO. We didn't do much written school work except for a few worksheets on the drive. But the boys learned and explored a lot in the beautiful autumn outdoors.

Silver Dollar City was full of good old fashioned fun. The boys learned about and watched woodworking, water power, birds, blacksmiths, and much more...in addition to riding rides. ;)

We drove to see a large dam.

Took a nature walk.

Saw forked rivers from scenic spots.

Watched a large river boat go by from the shore.

I think Jeff did more explaining and teaching that week than me. It was nice to have teacher dad for the week. :)

Since I had scheduled vacation as a "week off", the next week was actually our "Week 7". But we were slow at getting back in our routine.

PHONICS
Vowel: Uu
Consonants: Tt, Bb, Cc
Word Families: un, up, ub, ut
Words: sun, bun, up, pup, tub, sub, Ken, Kit, nut, hut, but, cut
Service Word: his
Reader: #7 Good Night

MATH:
MUS 12A-12C

We took advantage of some last nice days by doing school outside.

The boys took down some Melissa and Doug vehicle puzzles to do together. I encouraged them to get out their activity rugs.

Miles's reading skills are picking up. And Graham is still voluntarily joining in on school every time Miles does work. :) I am encouraged.