Littles Learning Link Up: August 15, 2017: Featuring Our Australian Meal

 Each month you will find:

• A seasonal round-up (usually toward the beginning of the month)
• Posts where I share what I have been up to with my preschoolers and/or early elementary children (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme.  Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up. 

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child(ren).

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

What have we been up to?

We have officially finished our My Father's World ECC year! We didn't quite get all the activities done that I hoped to, but we read lots of books (as usual), watched a couple of movies, and even had a "leaving the country" meal, complete with a Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen time. 

You can see a partial list of the books we read on Australia and Coral Reefs on my first Picture Book Saturday (on a Monday) post. I completely forgot to post this week's Picture Book Saturday as I am still trying to get into the routine, but I plan to share the rest of the books we read on Australia and Coral Reefs this coming weekend. 

The movies we watched were: The Rescuers Down Under and Blinky Bill the Movie (a never before heard of character for us). I was looking for a movie about kangaroo that I watched many years ago but couldn't remember the name. Found Kangaroo Jack thinking it was the right one. Started watching it, realized it wasn't the same movie, read reviews real quick, and promptly turned it off and searched for another movie. 

For our meal, I made four different dishes, utilizing three books. 

One of our curriculum books, A Trip Around the World, had a recipe for Australian Meat Pie. There was also a recipe for Damper Bread, but it called for self-rising flour which we don't have. So, I found a different recipe for the Damper Bread in Foods of Australia by Barbara Sheen. And in Cooking the Australian Way by Elizabeth Germaine & Ann L. Burckhardt, I found Sunshine Salad with Vinaigrette Dressing plus Glazed Kiwi Tart. 

As I was in a bit of a rush because daddy had to get to work, I made the Damper Bread and the Australian Meat Pie by myself. While the meat pie cooked, the children helped make the tart and the salad. 

Glazed Kiwi Tart

Ingredients:

1 9-inch unbaked refrigerated pie crust

1 8-oz package cream cheese (room temp)

2/3 cup sugar (I used 1/3 cup Pyure)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 Tbs heavy cream

3 ripe kiwis

1/4 cup apricot preserves

1 Tbs water

I followed the directions for baking the pie crust while the children were occupied in other activities. Then I let it cool. After the meat pie was in the oven, I called the children to help with the tart.

Tabitha and Hannah started getting the glaze cooking by combining the apricot preserves and water in a small saucepan. We heated it on low.

While that was heating, we worked on the filling. We mixed together the cream cheese, Pyure, vanilla extract, and heavy cream.

I love that Amelia helped pour while the others held the spoons.

Harold and Hannah helped mix the filling together with the electric mixer.

And Hannah sort of helped spread the filling. I ended up taking over because the crust kept sliding and I was afraid it was going to break.

While all this mixing and stirring was taking place, the older girls were in the dining room cutting kiwi.

Then Harold and Hannah helped arrange it on the tart.

And mommy poured the "glaze" on top. As you can see, it wasn't quite glaze consistency. I think it ended up cooking too long while I was moving back and forth between children.

Here is our Australian meal:

Let's take a look at that review schedule:

Last week I posted my review for Hey Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! from Greek 'n' Stuff . Next week I will post my review of The Everyday Family Chore System from Everyday Homemaking. In September I will be posting reviews of the Charlotte's Web E-Guide from Progeny Press, four books by Carole P. Roman, a book from Barbour Publishing called Imagine. . . The Great Flood by Matt Koceich, and Let's Go Geography.

Some things I would like to share with you:

I recently started a new weekly feature called Fun Fiction Friday, where I share the books the older girls and I are reading, sharing their thoughts on the books, and possibly even a review of a Juvenile book I am reading. 

Last week I started Picture Book Saturday (though it posted on Monday). These posts feature the picture books we read during the week, with the children each sharing which one was their favorite. Last week I shared the books we had read about Australia and Coral Reefs.

Hoping to make both of these consistent, weekly features here on Tots and Me...Growing Up Together. 

The 2017 Back to Homeschool Blog Hop brought to you by the Homeschool Review Crew started yesterday. I posted Our 2017-2018 Curriculum Choices. Later today I will be sharing Homeschool Supplies I Can't Live Without.

Also, in case you are interested, this post is from last years Back to Homeschool Blog Hop.

Littles Learning Link Up : Back to Homeschool Blog Hop Day 2 - Back to School Round Up

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 13 wonderful posts linked up. I will be picking one randomly selected post to share, plus the top clicked-on post.  

Please, don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's randomly selected post is:

Sara from A Mama's Story shared 3 Ways to Set Up Your Homeschool Space

And here is this week's top clicked on post.

Kelli from 3 Boys and a Dog shared Educational Toddler Activities for Homeschoolers.

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on one of my relevant boards, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

No button currently, and there won't be one until I can figure it out seeing as Photobucket has changed things. Feel free to still share the picture in place of the button. Just link it to my Littles Learning Link Up permalink please.

An InLinkz Link-up

Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen #128: Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies

Time for Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen

I can not believe it has been over a year since I have posted a Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen! Granted, we aren't in the kitchen near as much as we used to be. I hope to be able to spend more time in the kitchen with the children this coming year. It may be a bit easier with our Exploring Countries and Cultures curriculum from My Father's World. We are traveling around the world, learning about different countries, and when we finish up each country we are supposed to make a meal with some of the foods popular in that country. For instance, we did have tacos at our Mexican fiesta when we were done with Mexico. Hopefully soon we will have some dishes from Canada. And maybe, just maybe, I will find the time to post.

Today's recipe has nothing to do with our ECC lessons. Melk the Christmas Monkey has been helping us to focus on the coming of Jesus this Advent season, and yesterday he wanted us to make Candy Cane Cookies. I used to make these with my older children. We would take them to church for the cookie trays we gave out while Christmas caroling, then we got to eat from the leftovers everyone brought while having hot cocoa when we got back to the church.

While we were reading The Candymaker's Gift a couple of weeks ago, I was reminded of these cookies, and was just waiting for the right opportunity for Melk to ask the children to make them. This recipe comes from the book, though I did tweak it by adding the peppermint extract.

Here is what you need to make these cookies:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar 1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks) 1 tsp vanilla 1 tsp peppermint extract 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp baking soda 2 1/2 cups flour 1 tsp red food coloring

They are a bit excited to be doing Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen again. Will have to do this more often.

First we combined the powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, peppermint extract, and egg.

The children each got a turn to use the mixer.

(By the way, powdered sugar tends to fly all over the place, oops. Amelia wasn't impressed.)

Then we set the sugar/butter mixture aside. We combined the dry ingredients in a smaller bowl.

This includes the salt, flour, and baking soda.

We then combined the flour mixture in with the butter/sugar mixture.

It sure did take a while to get that flour all mixed in so it would form a ball.

Then we separated it into two equal parts. I added 1 tsp of red food coloring to one half.

After it was nicely mixed in, I took both dough balls and covered them (separately) with wax paper.

It was supposed to be in the fridge for 1 hour. We had to wait several hours as dinner was in the oven and then we had to eat.

We finally got a chance to make our cookies. I separated both balls of dough into 1-tablespoon sized portions, all ready for the children to roll out into pencil sized ropes.

Yes, Melk got to help too.

We twisted the strands together and gave it a hook to create a cane or a J, depending on your perspective.

They were baked in a 350 degree oven for about 9 minutes. I switched the cookie sheets halfway through the cooking time.

Directions:

1- Mix sugar, butter, vanilla, peppermint, and egg in a bowl. 2- In another bowl mix dry ingredients, then add to sugar/butter mixture 3- Stir (and stir and stir and stir) until it forms a ball. 4- Divide dough in two equal parts. Place half in another bowl and add red food coloring. Mixto incorporate well. 5- Cover with wax paper and refrigerate for 1 hour. We kept it in the fridge for several hours til we were ready to make it and it was fine, though it took a little extra playing to make it soft to roll out. 6- Heat oven to 350. 7- Using a tablespoon of dough, roll with hands and fingers into the shape and size of a pencil. Place one red and one white strand side by side and twist gently. Curve one end to make cane. 8- Bake on an UNgreased cookie sheet 8-11 minutes. I switch the cookie sheets around halfway through. It took about 9 minutes. You don't want them to turn brown, so watch them closely

I am linking up to:

   

Melt in Your Mouth Monday
Friday Food Frenzy at Close to Home
Family Fun Friday at Happy and Blessed Home