The Great Cooking Experiment

Did you grow up cooking?  I did not.  Don't get me wrong, my mom cooked a lot - I just did not spend a lot of time in the kitchen helping her.  That was during a time when I was heavily involved with dancing and was happy to just come home and be served a good meal.  Sad, but true.

One of my most fond memories of preparing to get married was my mom and me sitting around the kitchen table trying to write down all of her recipes so I could feed my then husband-to-be.  The problem was she never used a recipe so we spent a lot of time laughing at her directions of "a handful," "just a little," and "you will just know."

Needless to say, I have spent the past years making sure I not only wrote down the recipes I love and use often, but also making sure the girls could follow those recipes.  (The boys aren't quite ready) Luckily, my girls cook.  One enjoys baking and one prefers cooking meals, so it works out quite nicely when they are both home.

But some reason, I recently had a mommy panic moment - had I actually taught my girls how to plan meals from start to finish?  Could they budget, shop AND cook for a week for a family?

Thus began, The Great Cooking Experiment.

They were thrilled.  Ok, not really, but at least they were pretty good sports.

Their assignment: plan a week's worth of meals, shop for the ingredients on their own, stay within my budget, and cook for our family of 6 for a week.

Now before you think that this momma got off completely for the week, I will remind you that we homeschool and that means those kids still have to eat breakfast and lunch here.  Darn them. ;)  I often dream of sending them to public school just for lunch hour.

Anyway...with the help of our favorite cookbook Supper's On the Table, Come Home, they chose a week's menu, checked to see what staples and meat we already had and made their list.  Off they went to the store and back again - under budget!  I was so proud.  And amazed since my budgeting for meals has not be stellar lately.  I would have loved to seen them going up and down the aisles with the calculator, but decided that would embarrass them too much.  We did talk later about how the next time they could use their excess money (again, wow!) to stock up on things we use regularly that were on sale.

And then there was the cooking part of The Great Cooking Experiment.  Not much to report here. As I mentioned, my girls are can hold their own in a kitchen so this was not really where they needed the practice - though it was a fun break for me at night.  We had a week of delicious meals, one special dessert and even a special snack.  One of the great things about Rachel Master's cookbook, Supper's On the Table, Come Home, is that she gives start times for each step of the meal. In my experience, getting everything on the table at the same is the hardest trick to learn, so the times listed are a great help to newer cooks.  If you have not checked this cookbook out, I encourage you to do so.  I am getting nothing in return for telling you about it, just passing on what we love!

So, the final word on The Great Cooking Experiment?  I would say it was a huge success.  The girls say I got out of cooking for a week.  And the boys were well fed.  Not too bad for a mommy panic moment!

Next time, I think we are going to have them budget a monthly paycheck - rent, utilities, groceries, car payment, etc.  Who knew Home Economics could be so fun?  shhhh, don't tell my kids!

Never a dull moment with homeschooling!

Blessings,

Doing it a second time around!

I have talked about homeschooling high school HERE in an earlier post, but now that we are five weeks into our school year I wanted to share some pictures and a few more details.

Roo is our second daughter in high school, and while it is technically her freshman year, she did complete 3 classes last year that count towards her high school transcript.  If they are doing high school level classes, even in 8th grade, IT COUNTS!

Here is our goal for a transcript:
4 English/Literature
  Classics of Literature
  American Literature
  20th Century Literature
  British Literature
3-4 Science
  Physical Science
  Biology with lab
  Chemistry
  Human Anatomy or Marine Biology (her choice)
3 History
  American History
  World History
  Civics/American Government
4 Math
 Algebra 1
  Geometry
  Algebra 2
  Consumer Math/Stewardship
Bible (4 years)
Physical Education (2 years)
Spanish (3 years)
1/2 year Art Appreciation

1/2 year Music Appreciation
Home Economics
Electives (her choice)

And these are the books that are required... for just this year!

 

With our first born, we allowed her to dual credit her senior year.  In reality, she did not need any of the classes she took for her high school transcript.  They simply allowed her to complete her freshman year at home, on-line.  Lesson learned, with Roo we will begin on-line classes in her Junior year and truly allow her to take classes she needs to graduate as well as count for any general education college classes.  (ie. British Lit)  Hey, one less class for me to teach- works for me.


As a side note, remember that online classes are less expensive and many colleges offer up to a 50% discount to high school dual-crediting students.  You simply cannot beat the savings!

Yes, it is the Sonlight IG!

A real quick rambling- This year I allowed my daughter to make her own decisions about her writing program.  She did a great job!  With the encouragement of a few friends and fellow Sonlighters, she chose to try The One Year Adventure Novel.  It is, by far, her favorite part of the day.  Yes, Roo likes to write, but this guides her step by step in the writing process, with a full length novel being the goal at the end of the year.  No humdrum, boring instruction and time wasting activities.  I encourage you to take a look at this program, and NO, it does not help me out in any way.  Just passing on a tip to a friend!

Overwhelmed. Me too! If I think long term. But friends, I encourage you to not think long term daily. Yes, you must look ahead and have a general plan of action, but for each day- enjoy! Spend time together, talk about the work your child is doing, interact and learn together. Don't waste a precious minute...it goes by quickly!

Homeschooling high school is no greater challenge than homeschooling Kindergarten or 5th grade, it just requires a few more hours and much bigger books! ;) There is plenty of help out there if you need it and plenty of fellow moms and dads in the trenches doing the same thing you are. Seek out like minded people and encourage each other.  Together, we can make these some of the best years of their lives!

Happy Homeschooling!



This post is part of our Schoolhouse Review Crew Blog Cruise!  Come back on Tuesday and click here to read what other CREW members have to say about home schooling the highschool year!