Perceptive Perspective: Fall



Time once again for Peceptive Perspective hosted by Hollie over at 2 babycakes 1 Happy Family

I decided to take some shots of the park from a different angle.  In the following pictures I am looking out the window of my son's room.  I wanted to be able to get the tops of the trees in as well as the carpet of leaves on the ground.

And this is a sure sign of fall in our little town (even though there is nothing else to do and the weather is fine)

:(

Tiny Talk Tuesday: October 26th, 2010



One day while we were getting started with our Lesson Time, I was getting ahead of myself and almost forgot the Pledge of Allegiance.  This is what Tabitha said, "First we have to say the Flag of Allegiance."

This next one is actually an old one, I found the scrap of paper while cleaning.  I don't think I posted it before.  Tabitha likes to be the one to pray, though I can't remember if this was a prayer at mealtime or to begin lesson time, I think lesson time.  She prayed, "Dear God, Please help me to obey, 'cause i really love my mom and dad."  It just touched my heart so. 

The other day the girls were playing some silly games and I discovered how Amelia pronounces her name.  She was saying, "Sissy me me ah."  Can't remember what the sissy part was about.

On Saturday we made our tactile S using sunflower seeds.  So of course the girls wanted mommy to shell the seeds so they could eat some.  I insisted they wait until lunch.  As we were eating, Tabitha said, "Oh, we eat the nibble from inside."

The girls were really concerned about this spider that was found under the counter, mainly because it was right by where they eat.  However, at one meal they found it was missing.  I was asked, "Where do spiders go?"  I suggested, "In cracks in walls or in cupboards."  Tabitha said, "Oh yes to make their babies."

One day Tabitha requested some time to type on the computer.  After she typed random letters for a while I had her type, "The bat can fly" and I had her add a period. (I would tell her the word and have her sound it out, obviously she needed a little help with "fly.")  I explained that she had typed a sentence.  I then let her type again.  After typing letter after letter and adding a dot (period) she said, "See that dot right there? I just readed a sentence."

This morning Tabitha was looking at a book we got last year called Up, Down and Around by Katherine Ayers.  This book's illustrations show vegetables growing down (below ground), and up (above ground).  Tabitha was on the page where the "corn grows up."  I was trying to see how much she could read, but somehow we ended up in an interesting exchange.  She was discussing how the corn grows and then we get to pick it to have corn on the cob.  Then she said, "If it's not corn on the cob, it's corn in the can."

One last comment, this one by Amelia.  She was using our paper towel cardboard roll pointer this afternoon to show me our lesson time poster.  She pointed to the fall card, with its picture of a couple of leaves and said, "This says fall.  I can reee (read)."

To see what other children are saying, head on over to Not Before 7.

Don't forget to check out this week's Words of Wisdom Wednesday.  This week's question is:
Why do the leaves fall off the trees?

Muffin Tin Monday: Pumpkins



Whoa, I have never posted my Muffin Tin Monday post so late before.  What can I say, I had a busy day and a slow computer.  So with out further ado, here is, not only our muffin tin meal, but the making of the muffin tin meal.

We made our pumpkin muffin tin this week because we don't celebrate Halloween, which is what the theme was supposed to be.  And because we made a Columbus Day themed tin a couple of week's ago when we were supposed to be making the Pumpkin one I figured this would be a good compromise.

So, this morning we made Old Fashioned Soft Pumpkin Cookies.  We made these while we were on the letter P, but I figured they went well with the tin.

First we focused on a little bit of math.  I asked how many of the 1/2 cup measures it would take to fill the 1 cup measure.  Tabitha wasn't sure, so we worked it out and found out that it takes 2. (We needed 2 1/2 cups of flour)

So I reinforced this concept as we used a 1/2 teaspoon to measure out all of our ingredients that needed 1 teaspoon (baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon)

And I made sure they knew we only needed one half teaspoon measure to make 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg and salt)

The dry ingredients got stirred together and set aside.

The girls were excited as they moved their stools over to the side counter to help mix with the mixer.

We beat together 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1/2 cup butter.  Then we added 1 cup of pumpkin, 1 egg and 1 tsp vanilla.  When that was combined we slowly added the flour mixture.  In the next two pictures the children were enjoying the flour as it blew upward, though it didn't show in the picture.

Moving the stools back.

We had our lesson time while the cookies baked.  Then it was time to make the pumpkin soup.

I peeled and cut up 1 apple into small pieces.  Then the girls helped me add it to the pan with 2 Tbs of butter.

I cooked the apple over medium heat for 5 minutes.

While it cooked we stired the following together:

2 cups pumpkin

1 Tbs sugar

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Then I added it to the apple:

Next I slowly added 2 cups (actually a 14 oz can) of vegetable broth and 1 cup of apple juice.

After it heated thoroughly (but didn't boil) I added 1/2 cup half and half.

Stirred

And served in the muffin tin:

From the bottom up clockwise:

pumpkin soup

grilled cheese sandwich cut with a pumpkin cookie cutter

pumpkin cookie

3 pumpkin candies

green bean pumpkin vines

carrots to represent pumpkins

And look what hubby had found:

Tabitha ate hers really well.  Even though she was disappointed we didn't have tomato soup to dunk the grilled cheese sandwich into.

Amelia on the other hand was not happy with the soup and it took a lot of persuassion for her to even eat the other veges.  She didn't seem to like the candies either.  At least she ate her sandwich.

Monday Blog Hops

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Time for Scavenger Hunt Sunday hosted by Ashley over at Ramblings and Photos

This week's list had a couple that had me stumped for a bit.  Hope you like my interpretations, I do.  This is the list:

5 Senses

Child/Children

Dining

Night

Sky

5 senses

I was really at a loss at what to do for this one.  Last night the girls had ice cream, and I felt this was the perfect picture.  I can see from Amelia's face that she was eating (taste) chocolate ice cream.  I'm sure it smelled delicious.  I really didn't want to touch her because she was so sticky.   And I'm sure she heard it from daddy, how she is supposed to eat the ice cream, not wear it.

Children

My first ever You Capture theme , when I learned about these photo challenges, was "signs."  I used one from my archives at the time and then thought of using the sign in the park.  The other day I took the children to the park and decided this "Watch Children" sign, with the children in the background would work perfectly.

Dining

The girls have recently requested to eat at the kitchen counter on occasion.  When Tabitha was younger and  the only one eating with me we did eat out there.  Now we eat breakfast and sometimes lunch out there.  

For the next two pictures I tried using a slightly different angle than I usually use.

The evening of these two pictures we also ate at the counter because daddy was working the 2pm-10pm shift, so we had less people.

My girls:

Night

For my night pictures I decided I wanted to walk around town at night and take shots of some of the things I had already taken pictures of for previous Challenges.

This one was for Vivid Color

As was this one:

I took this picture for orange:

And of course, last week's jack o'lantern

I loved the building in the background.  In the dark it looks kind of spooky. It is really our fire hall.  This guy actually looks spookier at night too.

Sky

Look really close and you can see the rainbow.  I had just come out of the store and it was sunny, but looked foggy or like it was raining.  It was sunny and raining, so I decided to look for the rainbow.  Woohoo, there really was a rainbow!! It was a whole bow, but by the time I prepared my camera it was fading.  It ends by the trees behind the flag.

Then on the way home I saw this awesome sky.  There were gray clouds and white clouds.  I thought the narrow wispy cloud under the gray clouds was awesome.  Then I looked behind me to the left and saw the sky was still blue.

Night and Sky

Saw this full (or almost full) moon through the branches while over at the park. I have wanted to take a shot like this for a while and was pleased with the way this turned out.

Sunday Followed and Featured

Until further notice I have removed this button as it appears to have been hacked.

Check out Giveaways 4 Mommy's Sunday Followed and Featured blog hop.  Head on over to join the hop and while there you can sign up to be featured on her blog.

If you are here from the blog hop, please leave a comment and if you like what you see please follow as well.  I don't expect everyone who comes around to follow me.  Mine is primarily a home (pre) schooling blog (with a bit of Montessori included), with some book reviews, recipes, and photography thrown in.  I love to create and find hands on activities to do with the girls. One of these days I will be adding reviews and giveaways, hopefully.  So, take a look around and get to know me.  I would love if you would like me on Facebook as well, there is a button on my sidebar.  And if you would, could you vote for my blog on Picket Fences, also on my side bar. 

I will head on over to your blog as soon as possible to visit you.

School Time: Week 7

This week we did not accomplish very much.  Seems we have a "tummy bug" zinging around from family member to family member.  We had one day of real lessons, but no one was really interested in doing much this week. 
Of course we had our muffin tin meal on Monday, but we didn't really do anything else.
Tuesday we colored our Ss pictures.  Our Ss words are: slide, skunk, sandwich, snake, socks and seal (and they all have ASL signs for a change)

Tabitha is getting very precise in her cutting

Our new routine at lesson time goes like this:
Prayer
Pledge Allegiance to the Flag
Pledge to the Bible
Sing B-I-B-L-E with all three verses I learned at our old church.  Here are the words for anyone who is interested:

The B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me
I stand alone on the Word of God (we stand on this line)
The B-I-B-L-E

The B-I-B-L-E, I'll take it along with me (we walk around the dining room table on this verse)
I'll read and pray and then obey
The B-I-B-L-E

I'm H-A-P-P-Y, I'm H-A-P-P-Y (We continue to go around the table, leaping for joy)
I know I am, I'm sure I am
I'm H-A-P-P-Y

Then we read our Bible verse
(This week's is: Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:2)

Next up is calendar.  I have a free wall calendar that the girls take turns holding.  We sing, "There are 7 Days in a Week" and they take turns pointing to the days.  Then we put the day, month, date and year up.  Then they take turns pointing to each part. 

That is how we start our lesson time.

This week, I also wanted to do some sand art.  Not having access to sand I decided to color salt (which I keep insisting is sand).  I wasn't sure if coloring it with food coloring would work, but I found the instructions here that informed me otherwise. 

The girls took turns helping measure in the 3 Tbs of salt and holding the bag open.

Then I added 2 drops of food coloring to each bag and the girls took turns smushing the bags.

Here is our rainbow of colored salt that we have yet to use in a project.

Hopefully we will get a lot more done next week. 

Special Tiny Tot Time

Something I started when Tabitha was a baby is a As I Grow Book.  Every 6 months I captured a painted hand and foot print and some scibbles.  As they get older the plan is to get them to write their names.  I realized this week that I needed to do Hannah's 6 month page.  I still haven't gotten her prints but here she is making her scribbles.

She did them all herself.  Of course, when daddy went to get the camera she decided to eat the crayons more than color.

She is also now officially on baby food (the homemade kind).  The last time I posted about this she was starting rice cereal.  Unfortunately we needed to stop because she got constipated.  This time around I am making her food.  We started with apples and moved onto acorn squash.  She is loving it.  She eats a cube of apple and a cube of squash each night for dinner.

Don't forget to check out this week's Words of Wisdom Wednesday question.

I am linking up to