Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Bread is one of my family's favorites, so I needed to figure some ingenious way to modify my recipe to accommodate our new diet.  I made this recipe this evening and it turn out wonderfully.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread

1 (15 ounce can) of Libby's Pumpkin

1 cup of white sugar (you can use 2 cups if you have a sweet tooth)

1 cup of brown sugar

1 cup of water

1 cup of coconut oil ( or vegetable oil)

4 eggs or egg substitute

3 1/3 Cup of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour

3/4 teaspoon of Xanthan Gum

2 teaspoons of baking soda

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Heat oven to 350 degrees

In a large mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, white sugar, brown sugar, water, oil and eggs.....beat until well mixed.

Measure the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, nutmeg, xantahm gum and cloves into a separate bowl and stir until combined

Grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans and dust with flour

Evenly divide the batter between the two pans

Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Slice and serve with butter or cream cheese

Reading Words with Two Consecutive Vowels

     My daughter has been really struggling to decode words with 2 consecutive vowels.  I kept repeating the phrase from the Letter Factory, "When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking."  For some reason this was meaningless to her.

    A few weeks ago she was trying to read something in the car.  And she stumbled upon one of these blasted words.  I was really frustrated and this analogy came to me, so I told her in my gangster voice , "The first vowel tells the second vowel to shut up and let me do the talking....yo....my name is letter A".
Ethan and Hannah were hysterical after I told them this.
 
     Hannah no longer has trouble remembering the rule.  It's not the most delicate way to teach the rule but it works.

Why Poetry?

Last fall I met a fellow homeschooling mom who had her children memorizing poetry.  When our children were performing their weekly presentations for Classical Conversations, her son would recite large volumes of poetry.  I was floored, how could this 8 year old be reciting these incredibly difficult poems and seem to comprehend them.

I decided right away in addition to memorizing scripture, we would start to memorize poetry.  I was entering into a world I knew nothing about.  Poetry has always seemed like a foreign language to me.  So as I ventured into the unknown territory, someone told me about the Excellence in Writing Poetry Memorization curriculum.  I immediately bought it and we started. (I didn't buy the disk, just the book and I don't feel like the cd was necessary and am glad I saved the extra money)  

So why memorize poetry.  It is beautiful, helps build vocabulary and my kids love reciting it for people.  It's funny how after you memorize a difficult poem you can understand it easily.  Here is a quote from Christine Perrin and her book The Art of Poetry,


"When you read a poem, you must take time and learn to be observant. Like sea diving, there are fathoms of depth. You go to one level for awhile, then deeper, then deeper. You discover there is a vast ocean to explore in any piece of art, that continues to deliver something new and unexpected with each encounter."
 

I haven't seen my friend Christine Perrin in over 10 years yet, I've know her since I was a child.  I found out today that she wrote a Poetry Curriculum called, The Art of Poetry.    And she is planning on coming out with poetry put to music cd, which all of my fellow Classical Conversations moms will appreciate.    My kids can learn anything put to music!  Here is a link to her  poetry curriculum  that you can check out.  And she has a  blog called The Art of Poetry.

A book progression that make sense!

I don't know about you all but I find those step readers really annoying.  The levels are all over the place, some books contain words that we rarely use and aren't basic.  So I am trying to make a list for when I start teaching Noah to read.

I think the Margret Hillert books are great for beginners.  They are very repeatative, a perfect beginning readers book collection.  We loved these after we finish Headsprout Reading Program.

Some of the basic Dr. Suess books, such as Hop on Pop and Snow would be appropriate.

Mercer Mayer is next, I love the Little Critter Series, they have interesting pictures and I even can have Noah search for the spider while I am having Hannah read me the story.

Now, we are starting on Syd Hoff books, they are about Danny the dinosaur and various horse books.

I will continue to update our book progression as we go....

Nova Hunting the Elements

We watched this program this evening and really enjoyed it.  I'm sure it will be on again so set your DVR's
Hunting the Elements

My Favorite Salad Dressing!!

I don't know the name of this dressing.  I got it from my sister.  I am putting it on the blog because I am so afraid of misplacing the paper.

I did decrease the amount of salt in the original recipe

2 Cloves of Garlic, although I use 3 or 4
1/4 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp dry mustard
fresh ground pepper
2 T wine vinegar
1/2 C of salad oil

Classical Conversations Week 21 Supplements

Math
Associative Law for addition  Khan Academy Video (2 minutes)
Associative Law of Multiplication Khan Academy Video

History
Phases of the Moon- this is a really cool website that gives a visual to explain the phases of the moon (thanks to Adventures of the Kotlii)
When We Left Earth- this is a great series, we watched them a year or so ago...I'm not sure if they are all here on youtube or not.


Geography-
Great Basin National Park Pics

Presidents
President learning games for kids
President Coloring Pages
Animaniacs Presidents Song

For more ideas go to Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood