Homeaschooling Year 10: End of the First Month

     Our 2017/18 School year has started out to be a productive one. We are in full swing of our school year schedule.  All of our actives have started or will start next week. This year our boys are in scouts again and our daughter is in American Heritage Girls.  Our church is starting our youth group up again.  All of our other church groups have also started back for the school year.  It feels good to get back in our routine.  Don't get me wrong I love summer break, but I miss some of our weekly actives during that time.

     We started off history learning about ancient Egypt.  We read many books about the pyramids and how mummies were made.  We learned about daily life in Egypt at that time. We will be finishing our unit with make old Barbie dolls into Mummies. The kids were not as interested in the unit as they had originally thought they would be.  That is ok, not every subject is appealing as you start off thinking it would be.

     We are reviewing in Math and will start with new information with in a week. In English we are working with the younger two on writing different types of papers.  K is learning how to write a personal narrative, she is doing very good for her first one.  P is also working on a personal narrative, he is not excited about English and rather do Math all day.  He is doing very well and learning how to fine tune his writing.

     Our two high school kids are doing amazing at keeping up with there work.  We use Switched on Schoolhouse for High School.  They are for the most part independent in their studies.  J is also working on studying for the ACT. He is working on getting everything together for applying for collage.   A is loving his freshman year in high school.  He is enjoying watching the weather channel online to see the coverage of Hurricane Harvey.  His likes weather study, that has been one of his favorite merit badges he has earned, in scouts.

     Also during our first month of school we learned about the solar system and the solar eclipse.  We were able to see the solar eclipse (98% of totality).  I am glad we were able to experience it as a family.   The kids loved seeing the moon moving to block out the sun.  Waiting for the Eclipse and during 98%.

So many adventures await us this year.  I am looking forward to writing about them.  See you all soon.

Spiced Beef with Couscous

 

So I found a recipe in the Food Network Magazine from July/August 2016. I like to basic concept of the recipe but I tweaked it a little.  I share with you my tweaked recipe.

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients:

2 carrots finely shredded

3 tablespoon of extra- virgin olive oil

3 cups couscous

2 cup plain yogurt

3 teaspoons of sweet paprika

4lbs. ground hamburger

8 chopped green onions

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 cups water

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon dill

salt and pepper to taste

1. combine the ground beef with 1 teaspoon paprika, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1/2 teaspoon onion powder.  Mix together and form 8-10 paddies. If you need to adjust the amount of hamburger for larger paddies do so.  Cook on the grill or in a grill pan to your desired doneness.

2. Meanwhile place 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a heated pan.  Place the dry couscous in the pan and cook until you smell a nutting smell. about 2-4 minutes.  Add in the 3 cups of water, 1 teaspoon paprika, 1 teaspoon cumin, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste and carrots, cover and cook for 8-10 minuets. Stir the couscous a couple times during the cooking process.  Add 3 of the chopped green onions and fluff with a fork before serving.

3. the yogurt sauce: mix together 2 cups plain yogurt, 1 teaspoon dill, 1 teaspoon paprika, 1 teaspoon cumin, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and salt and pepper to taste.  You can adjust the dill, cumin, paprika as needed for your taste.  When I plated our food I added a little bit of the remaining green onions on top.

Serve and enjoy!!

We added Pita bread to our meal and ate with our hands for a fun change.