Special Connection Homeschool

Since Gess has special needs we really focus on life skills math. So this summer, instead of just doing "math" we are making sure we do fun stuff that involves math. Part of that includes cooking! Gess loves to help in the kitchen but now that she is almost 14 I am trying to make sure she starts doing things more on her own. This summer we are focusing on following a recipe. To help with that I got her some easy to read measuring cups and spoons. I really don't like the plastic ones because I know that the numbers will wash off soon but stainless steel ones are hard to read.Still, these will work for now. I think I will order the Cake Boss ones soon as they look really easy to use. So far we have baked some cakes. I tried to really let Gess take control of that one! The only thing I did was help her scrape the batter out of the bowl and even out the pan once she poured it in. I was very proud of her. Oh and the cake was so good I caught her sneaking some ...

Our celebration of the Passover led us to look for some activities for Gess to do to help her learn about the holiday. I found Chabad.org had a site for kids called the Jewish Kids Club . There you can find lots of visuals, videos, and craft ideas. The Passover Holiday page has lots of great information. Of course this is solely from a Jewish perspective but it really helps to get a feel for how it has always been done. We did two of their crafts, colored some printable pages , and used one kid friendly recipe. I really had trouble finding many of the things I needed for our Seder meal, including a matzah cover. Their Matzah Cover Craft was a great idea! Now I didn't need to buy anything. We used our own stencils and materials, but the idea came from them. We ended up doing the stenciling just like we did our Challah Cloth . Next I found a video teaching the kids to make an Afikoman Bag . I had no idea what that even was! You see during the Passover meal you break a ...

This year as we are studying the Biblical Holidays which of course included the Passover. I really wish I could have kept up with blogging about it while we were celebrating it but there was so much to prepare and do that I just didn't have the time. I still want to share what we did and how we did it so next year I can pull these posts back out for both your sake and mine! The Passover Week celebration had many elements. Each Friday I will post a specific blog for each one.  As they are completed the links below will work. For now just know they are coming. Check back every Friday for the next six weeks to learn more! 1. The Preparation - (Coming April 24) This required work a few weeks ahead of time. It basically was the task of removing unleavened bread from your home and what we learned in the process of the cleansing. 2.  Passover Crafts & Activities - (Coming Soon) We did two crafts, some fun pages, and watched some videos to help our daughter be a ...

I think I have found my staple Challah Bread for our Sabbath meals.  It is called Easy Challah Bread and it is " a six-ingredient, simple recipe for Challah bread." They were certainly right. This is easy to make and tastes so much better than the other version I made. Our family can't seem to get enough of it!  I found it at Allrecipes.com . I find most of my recipes there. The only difference I made was I let it rise a second time after shaping it and placing it on the pan. Now I am working on a freezing technique for the dough. Since I have Co-op twice a month I make one batch of bread on the week that I don't have co-op and use the frozen portion on the week I do. It didn't rise as well the second time but it was still delicious! 

I made my first attempt with Challah bread this week because I wanted to try it before our first Shabbat. I used the Challah I Recipe from Allrecipes.com . It was pretty good but I was low on honey and think I needed more. It turned out beautifully though. You can find the recipe online. You can also watch a video of it as well. It was helpful to hear and see the instructions. There were things added there that weren't in the text.

Gess helped me make this yummy dessert for our church 4th of July picnic. I thought I would share.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for snow cream!  Well, when we are supposed to get pounded with 6 to 8 inches of snow you have to think of something to do with it all!  Fortunately we only got about 4 inches in the end, but still, it was a great time to try our first attempt at snow cream. We found a recipe online that called for 4 cups of snow 1 cup of milk 1/2 cup of sugar 1 tsp of vanilla To get our snow we just set our measuring cup outside and let the snow fall. It was this full in about one hour! Then we brought it inside. You just mix and serve so that was easy enough for any kid to do. We ate some right away and froze some.  It was the best consistency after about 1 hour in the freezer.  It was a little too soupy when fresh made and way to solid after several hours.  Still, it was delicious each and every time.

We are doing some school over the summer so this week for our Summer Reading Program Gess read some books that go along with our lessons.  Right now we are studying about the land and are learning about the various resources that come from it.  One of the greatest and most important resources is food. This week we are focusing on food that comes from animals and so Gess chose several books about cows, pigs and chickens.  She started with books about cows and after she read the book Hooray For Dairy Farming she was excited because at the end of the book it had a recipe to make a banana milk shake.   Using milk, that comes from a cow, and ice cream, which is also made from milk that comes from a cow, we added a banana, which comes from a tree, and made a delicious snack.  While I said we , the only I thing I actually did was assemble the food processor and pour the shake into the glass.  Gess could have done it totally by herself if we had a blender...