of Mentors and Metal

Most changes a child goes through are of the infinitesimal sort that you might only notice if you're the relative from out of town paying a visit. Once in a while there are days when a momentous transition occurs (it may have been building up slowly out of sight for years) and a child enters into a complete new phase of metamorphosis! Such was the case today. Furthermore, a parent's dream come true, my son has a new mentor!  

Let me back up a few years. When John was six he saw a metalsmithing exhibit at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan where we were visiting his sister. High school students used torches to melt smelting compound then poured molten globs of it into pails of water where it hardened into "gold nuggets." John was invited to keep one. The dream was born.

Last year when he was ten I took him to a glassblowing and metal-smithing demo which showcased local artisans. He was entranced. I began to think along the lines of someday finding him a mentor whom he could work under and learn from in the tradition of a Medieval Guild. Perhaps when he was in high school, or college-aged, he could work with a local blacksmith and learn a useful trade. 

Then John's dad found a local jeweler and teacher who was willing to work with children. She even remembered John from the demo a year ago, and was eager to meet with him, right away, this week. When he came home he was ebullient with enthusiasm and sporting the beautiful band pictured above.

"I came in expecting to see how it was done, look at the tools, and basically walk around and see stuff. Instead, I got to make a bracelet! I now have a talent for something exciting and useful! It's like one of those cheesy movies where someone discovers their talent!" 

So now something he dreamed of doing in the distance future has suddenly become a reality. "When I started, I was a bit nervous, and I thought I might think it was boring after a while. But it turns out that the parts that are the funnest are the parts that take the longest, and call for more concentration!" He is now keeping a notebook of design ideas, eagerly anticipating the next weekly lesson.

As a parent, especially a homeschooling parent, I am thrilled that there is a new adult in my child's life who can teach him something I know nothing about, and who can honor and model the process, recognizing and bringing out his talents, while providing the experience and perspective to scaffold him through the many subtle processes involved in bringing his visions into form.  The alchemy of an eager student and a talented mentor working together is the real gold.

The Bored Box

The hoped-for play date got cancelled at the last minute. The rain turned to snow. Daylight Savings Time brought darkness an hour earlier. Mom was tired and ready for a solo break. Child was bereft and bored.

Solution? The Bored Box. It had been waiting in the wings for months. Inside were many envelopes full of secret ideas, made up as inspiration presented them, not labored over when Mom was already tired and Child was already fed up.

Each envelope contained an index card with an idea. Each idea was assigned some academic credit worth substituting for the usual day's work. Examples:

"Open the box of saved shed snake skins, put them in order from shortest to longest. Measure each one and chart the growth on a graph. Worth one science and one math credit."

"Use a box of sugar cubes to build a building, then draw one view of this design on graph paper at one block=one sugar cube scale. Worth one art and one math credit."

Today's lucky draw was "Make a bowl of popcorn and watch a movie." Lucky us!

Classic Chemistry

Making baking soda and vinegar volcanoes is a classic childhood activity! The project above was conducted years before I officially homeschooled John. He spent hours making volcanic scenes, some with a bottle buried in the clay or in a mound of sand outdoors, and sometimes using jars at the sink.

Homeschooling need not be reserved for those few children whose parents can afford the time to be at home all day with them. I attended a public elementary school in Michigan from Kindergarten through eighth grade, but much that I draw upon now as a homeschooling parent originated with the wonderfully creative activities I recall doing at home after school, on weekends, and during summer vacations. I still remember my dad lighting a candle and having us observe what happened when it was covered with a drinking glass, but most of the projects seemed to take place with adults off to the side. Many projects were done on my own, or with my sister, or with a few neighborhood friends. 

Besides baking soda and vinegar, we must have gone through hundreds of pounds of clay, cloth, and wood, and gallons of paint and glue! During childhood I learned to conserve my allowance for months in order to save up for desired toys, but I also learned that art and science supplies were considered by my parents to be as essential as bread and butter. I even got rolls of tape in my Christmas stocking!

Sometimes I have been a cheapskate with my kids, explaining how many hours of what kind of work I would need to perform in order to afford a desired item. But still, when it comes to art and science supplies, I always seem to have enough money. It comes down to priorities. Considering the hours of engagement a gallon of vinegar and a big box of baking soda can provide, the investment is a deal! 

Gluten-free Pumpkin Spice Cookies

On Friday for art class(and math and chemistry and fun) we made a care package of cookies for the big sister away at college. Having turned up my nose at all the "Pumpkin Spice" products on the market this month, I didn't see it coming: that I would be happily indulging in testing various recipes involving these ingredients! 

It all started with seeing a facebook post for pumpkin-banana "ice cream." I'm not sharing the recipe here because it's buried in the depths of old posts, and really you can count on your own taste buds to help you decide how much pumpkin and spice to use and whether to add more sweetener to the mix besides frozen banana. Simply a frozen banana, smashed about long enough in a food processor, can be the base for many fine frozen desserts. It has the rich, creamy mouth-feel of gelato. Baked goods, however, involve chemistry, so I've included the exact cookie recipe we invented. It was extrapolated from a banana bread recipe, substituting pumpkin pie filling for the banana.(It took three tries to get this recipe down, but we didn't mind the work involved in research and development.)

Another special thing about this cookie recipe is that it is gluten-free. That's another food trend I had not appreciated personally until this past summer, when my son was sick enough for long enough that I was willing to do anything, including changing his diet almost completely. Improved digestion and reduced joint inflammation for both of us was significant enough that I'm now a dedicated gluten-free baker. Learning to bake gluten-free has been an interesting and tasty learning experience.  

Xanthan gum is the magic ingredient that holds these soft cookies together in place of the strands of gluten. We played with a pinch of xanthan gum and a few drops of water, finding out how slimy and sticky it becomes. It is hard to wash off––kind of like slug slime! 

I would like to experiment with an egg-free version of this recipe by substituting flax seed meal, a dairy-free version using coconut oil instead of butter, and a lower sugar version using banana as well as pumpkin puree. For now though, these cookies are great for making the whole house smell good, and fun to decorate and share. Enjoy!

Gluten-free Halloween Cookies

mix together well:
2 cups Arrowhead Mills Gluten Free Baking Mix (plus some to use on hands when rolling dough balls)
1 T. pumpkin pie spice
1 t. baking soda
1/4 t. xanthan gum

mix together well:
1 c. butter, melted
1 c. pureed pumpkin (I bought pumpkin pie filling but you could cook a pie pumpkin.) (Alternatively you could use less pumpkin and add mashed banana.)
1 c. dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla

Mix dry and wet ingredients, let dough rest at least 1/2 hour because the non-gluten flour needs time to take in the liquids.
Roll dough into 1" balls, flatten. Draw lines for pumpkin effect, decorate with chocolate chips and candied ginger. 

Bake 30 min at 350 degrees.

Rainbow Order

Click photo to enlarge and see if you can find:

   miniature sushi
   2" baby doll
   coyote skull
   deer vertebrae
   Maine sea shells
   Florida coral
   view from the cockpit of a small space craft

   Aramaic alphabet inscribed on a clay tablet

   Mom's agenda
   Child's agenda

You're right if you think the little red cards on the rainbow clothespins are Mom's agenda. The order, however, was the homeschooled student's choice. Last year I wasn't certain that we would continue to homeschool another year, so I wanted keep up with the public school 4th grade curriculum, just in case. But I wanted John to have some choice in what activities to do when. After breakfast I would select the cards representing the activities I thought should happen that day. Then, as the day went on, he was allowed to choose (mostly) in what order to accomplish those activities.

This year, having assessed what we covered last year, I felt confident that we would still accomplish what we needed to do with a simplified agenda, including fewer subjects per day. More unscheduled time and fewer transitions work better for both of us. I didn't want the day's agenda to appear as complicated, but I did want to keep track of what we were doing each day so that there was a record at the end of the year and a sense of progress. Also, a goal for John was to be more involved in keeping track of what he was learning.

Our new method of organizing is a single-page chart (a different beautiful color each week) showing the days of the week and the subjects currently being studied, with an empty grid in between. John has taken ownership of making a check in each box as it is finished. We both enjoy a sense of accomplishment and closure. For subjects he loves there is no time limit, we could both read aloud fiction and history all afternoon! But for tougher subjects, such as math, where there simply are things he needs to learn, like it or not, I like knowing we've put in enough attention to call it a good school day. Really, any activity he is into can count for some sort of credit, and it's not necessary to label it all. But the professional teacher in me gets the satisfaction of knowing that day by day, week by week, over the course of ten months, in an unstressed-out way, we are "covering" math, reading, writing, foreign language, health, science, social studies, viola and orchestra, and art. Beyond this there are still vast tracts of hiking, biking, playing outside, gardening and other life skills, and open creative time.  

75 Carrot Gold

Amount of time it took John to dig up and rinse off all the rest of our carrot crop for the year: 1 hour.

Amount earned in Minimum Wage in the State of Maine: $7.50.

Number of carrots nice enough to sell, (if we did, but we're saving them for family and guinea pig): 75.

Cost to pay a young laborer to dig and clean each carrot: 10 cents per carrot.

Value of spending a warm Autumn afternoon outside in the garden for math: priceless.

Homeschool Harvest Soup

shelling pole beans

mincing herbs

working together to make soup

Homeschool Harvest Soup Recipe

Invite at least 2 eager children to harvest whatever is still in the garden. (Hint: do it after the first frost when the pole beans need tearing down and there are still fresh herbs and scallions.)

Give them scissors and knifes and trust them to use them. (Hint: start them off with scissors and knives very early in life, such as 2, so that by the time they are 8 or 9 they are knife and scissor-savvy.)

Add plenty of herbs and season with good cheer. (Hint: don't try too hard to make this activity about math or measuring or following a recipe book, just let them invent the soup as they go along.)

Cook in a big pot for as long as it takes. (Hint: let them make corn husk dolls while you keep an eye on the stove.)

Serve warm with hugs and smiles and call it a day well spent!