Happy Birthday to Me

Yesterday was my birthday, the big 3-1. Yep, I'm a Bicentennial Baby. Things here are going well, in spite of the fact that my website bit the dust due to a hacker and I am trying to decide how to proceed. Hosting my blog here is a way for me to keep my steady stream of teaching ideas and What We Did Today online as I know a lot of people enjoy it. :-) I am new to Blogger, though, so I may take a while to figure some things out.

For School, which Officially Began April 9th (I love to begin school years at Easter -- I don't know why but it just feels right... there's actually some Waldorf thing about counting Easters to begin first grade but I'm not sure what it is). Natalie is in Kindergarten now and we are using Gini Newcomb's A Guide for the Montessori Classroom (currently using the Spring book) to guide us, Waldorfizing it a bit. We began the school year with a bang, a family vacation to Colonial Williamsburg for a week. Upon our return, we began, loosely, to study Asia, her recommended theme for the second part of April. I set up a blank display space in the schoolroom for this theme and hung two Chinese paintings above it. Each day we will add something to the table to show what we are learning about. This is good for my hubby to see and also makes me feel proud that we are actually doing something for school! :-)

So far, we have done:

Monday - read People by Peter Spier to introduce the theme (this is a book Sonlight sent us)

Tuesday - made "Authentic Pad Thai" from a Thai Pavilion boxed mix

Wednesday - read postcards from Laos and Viet Nam which my mom sent during her visit. Looked at the souveniers she sent us, also the gifts my Aunt Janet has sent us from Cambodia over the years. Also called my mom to make an appt. to see her vacation photos.

Thursday - took a Nature walk to Lake Anne to see the bamboo; cooked with bamboo ("Thai Green Curry Chicken" recipe from Thai Kitchen).

And in the afternoon I plan to show Natalie some things we have around the house that are made from bamboo (placemats, bowls and other containers) and play Pandabo, which is also made of bamboo.

We've done other stuff too, but that is the Asia part. One thing we did this week was to make Homemade Playdough and the directions for that were in the old Color unit which is no longer online, so I am posting it here.

This is a very easy and fun recipe from Jazzy Jars: Glorious Gift Ideas by Marie Browning:

Homemade Playdough
Combine 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup salt and 2 teaspoons cream of tartar in a saucepan. Stir in 1 cup water and 1 tablespoon cooking oil. Heat on medium, stirring, until very thick and hard to stir. The mixture will resemble mashed potatoes. Remove from heat and allow to cool 5 minutes. Turn out on a lightly floured surface. Divide into three equal parts. Add 1 teaspoon unsweeted drink mix, such as KoolAid, to each part. Knead until pliable and an even color. Wrap in plastic wrap and store in an airtight plastic container to keep fresh.

We did yellow (lemonade), orange (orange), and red (cherry) this time.

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