Homeschool week in review (week 4)

Bible: This week's Name of God was El Kanna, which means Consuming Fire and Jealous God.

For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.  

Deuteronomy 4:24

But be assured today that the Lord your God is the one 

who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire.

Deuteronomy 9:3 

Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, 

let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God 

an acceptable service with reverence and awe; 

for our God is a consuming fire.  

Hebrews 12:28-29

Math: Fractions still, and they're going really well. (This is significant, because last year, we just about killed each other trying to teach or learn this same stuff.) We're also beginning to move into decimals, which this book describes in a totally different way than I've ever seen before. I held my breath, but either Will didn't remember having it explained differently last year or this explanation made more sense to him. He was able to sail through it, thank you God.

Grammar: Katie had a test over subjects and predicates and did very well on it. Will started a chapter on nouns, which he could do in his sleep. At least, he could do it in his sleep until we got to plural nouns. He made a noun plural by adding apostrophe-s and I freaked out on him. (Apostrophe-s is one of my biggest grammar pet peeves. You never make a word plural that way! NO WIRE HANGERS!!) I don't know if he thought it was funny or if I scared all the previous pluralizing knowledge right out of him, but next he wanted to "drop the Y and add -ing." That would be strike two for Mom. "I.N.G.??  The plural of city is citing??" Thankfully, next we moved on to collective nouns, which we always think are fun. A pride of lions, a class of students, a murder of crows, what's not to love?

Literature: Everybody is still finishing their biographies, and I'm working on a template for their final projects on these books. I predict Katie will really get into the final project and Will will do the bare minimum, which is a shame, because I think C.S. Lewis (Will's book) could yield a fascinating end product.

History: We talked about Ireland, the IRA, Sein Fein and also India and Mahatma Ghandi. (I was surprised to learn that Ghandi's famous hunger strike lasted only 3 days. Did you know that?)

Science (co-op class): The General Science class was focused on the scientific method. It could have been pretty straightforward, but I'm noticing the textbook repeats itself by restating what it previously said regardless of the wordiness of the section being repeated. Or restated. For clarity. I find that distracting, confusing and irritating.  The other class--Physical Science--was covering air pollution. Also in exhaustive detail.

IEW (co-op class): They each had two paragraphs to write, and they did great work with them. Each paragraph had to contain two clauses, which is a surprisingly sophisticated construction, because a clause has to have a subject and a verb. See what I did there? "Which is a surprisingly sophisticated construction"is a phrase, but "because a clause has to have a subject and a verb" is a clause. Okay, enough nerdy grammar talk. They're using strong verbs and adverbs like old pros. It makes me so proud.

Homeschool Week in Review (week 2)

Phase Three of our homeschool launch is complete.  First the kids started their co-op classes, then we started Will's pre-algebra and grammar, plus Bible and History, which we do as a family. This week, Katie started her math and grammar. By the end of next week, we'll have all kids doing all subjects!

In Bible, we studied the name of Jehovah Rophe, the God who heals. This particular name was challenging for me, because we lost a beloved family member to cancer in June. Some of my favorite verses we looked up were these:

Praise the Lord, my soul;
    all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
² Praise the Lord, my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits—
³ who forgives all your sins
    and heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit
    and crowns you with love and compassion,
⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103:1-5)

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

Math--everybody's on track and it seems to be going pretty smoothly. Will has already finished his first chapter and did well on the test. (Yay!) 

Grammar--I love grammar; I really do. My kids are reasonably proficient in it, so it's a subject that nobody really minds doing. We're still in the simplistic early days of "simple subject vs. complete subject," but their Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) co-op class gives them practical exercises to apply what they've learned in grammar. The instructions for IEW will say, for example, "add a who/which clause to your rough draft." The nerdy grammarian in me just gets all giddy over things like that.

History--This week we covered the Mexican Revolution & Pancho Villa; Porfirio Diaz and his 30-year presidency, Francisco Madera & Victoriano Huerta (still called the Jackal or the Usurper by modern-day Mexicans!) This all happened immediately prior to the beginning of World War 1, which we'll begin studying next week. Unless I spend a couple more days on the Mexican Revolution--I found it really interesting!

Science--This is a co-op class, and I really want to stay out of it as much as possible, so there probably won't be much to report on this. I think I saw on the syllabuses (syllabi?) that both kids have their first science tests next week.

In preparation for beginning our study of literature next week, everyone chose a biography to read. Katie chose Milton Hershey; Will chose C.S. Lewis; and I chose Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I'm kicking around a couple of ideas on fun projects we might do, either as we read or to wrap up this unit.

Thanks for reading! I hope you have a wonderful weekend. 

It's like a dream come true!

 I have, according to my husband, "too many books." Scott and I are very much alike in very many ways, but as the saying goes, if two people are exactly alike, one of them is unnecessary.  This would be one of the areas that keeps him from being unnecessary. I mean, is that a crazy idea or what--too many books?? (Just typing that, I was a little surprised that spell-check didn't squiggly-underline "too many books" because it just does not compute.)

Fortunately for me, Scott stopped fighting that battle a couple of moves ago. He gets that my books make me happy, and he gets that getting between me and my books makes HIM unhappy. So when I saw this idea on Pinterest, I just about swooned with delight. Then I spent about a week thinking about nothing else. Finally I decided it was worth mentioning to Scott.

 We converted the closet in the office/schoolroom into a library! Cutest thing ever, right??

Originally I had envisioned actually building shelves in the closet, which would have made the whole project way more complicated. (And more expensive, I learned after a fact-finding trip to Lowe's.) We happened to be near an IKEA a couple of weeks ago and found these bookcases, which were the perfect height and width for the closet. (Bonus: there are few things my son loves more than assembling something from IKEA.)

After Will & Scott got it the bookcases assembled, they took out the plastic closet rod and shelf, slid the bookcases into place and stood back to admire the finished project. Scott said it looked so good that he wanted to just leave the closet doors open all the time now. Then he looked at the paned doors leading into the office and I could see the wheels turning in his mind. I just stood quietly, holding my breath, because he was on his way to deciding on his own to do what I secretly wanted. (Don't you love when that happens?) In no time at all, he had switched the doors and started congratulating himself on his brilliant idea. Love. That. Man.

 The books are divided into broad categories that fit most of the books we have or are likely to buy (Children's, Faith, Homeschool, Fiction, Reference, Writing/Creativity, etc.). I toyed with the idea of the Dewey Decimal system, and then I remembered that nobody in this house, including me, would make any effort at all to maintain a system like that.  Obviously, I have a long way to go before I'm completely moved into it. Right now I'm just enjoying sitting at my desk, looking into my library.

I'm saving up for one of these and then I don't think I'll be able to stand the perfection.

A glimpse into our homeschooling day

We were 90% finished with school for today when we took a break for lunch. Once our tummies were full, Will wanted to finish his last subject and then play; Katie wanted to play for 20 minutes and then finish. Then, in a twist that no one--especially the dog--saw coming, Katie decided that nothing else was going to happen until she brought Krypto up to speed academically.

She had a few questions first:

"Mommy, what grade is Krypto in?"

"Mommy, what grade did you say Krypto is in?"

"Mommy, can I teach Krypto Kindergarten?"

"Mommy, can you tell William that he has to hold Krypto while I teach Kindergarten?"

"Mommy, can you tell Krypto to pay attention?"

"Mommy, is Krypto allowed to stand on the desk?"

At this point, there was really nothing to do but start recording the insanity.

Snapshots of our First Day

Like many families, one of our back-to-school traditions is to take pictures. Here are a few of my favorites from this morning:



"Take one like I'm going into school, Mommy."

Will spent a lot of time striking poses to look cool. Last year it was silly poses. I would be sad over that, except that I have a strong feeling that silly will be back in vogue with him soon.


Miss Thing, though, needs to stop looking so grown up. Right. Now.


I love these kids.

Another tradition we have is to try to capture a snapshot of who they are as they begin a new school year. To that end, I have them tell me some of their favorite everyday things. They call it The Interview, and they take it very seriously.

Katie's Interview, as she begins first grade:
Favorite book: The Gingerbread Girl
Favorite movie: Hotel for Dogs (which the rest of us hated with the fiery passion of a thousand white hot suns.)
Favorite TV show: Hannah Montana and Sunny With A Chance.
Favorite color: pink & purple
Favorite breakfast: scones
Favorite lunch: a salad, with no dressing (which, to my knowledge, she has never had.)
Favorite dinner: lobster (which, to my knowledge, she has never had.)
Favorite snack: celery (which, to my knowledge...well, you know the rest.)
Favorite thing to do with our family: play Fancy Nancy
Favorite thing to do alone: play dolls
Favorite song: The Dream of Diamonds (an original song by Katie)
Favorite toy: Sunshine, a stuffed dog
Favorite restaurant: a French restaurant (Undoubtedly one that serves lobster and celery.)
Favorite drink: waterwithice. She says it as one word and orders it in restaurants like that. As if they would bring her warm water without ice.

William's Interview, as he begins third grade:
Favorite book: Copperheads (a non-fiction gem he picked up at the library last week.)
Favorite movie: Transformers 2
Favorite TV show: Suite Life on Deck (Interestingly, last year's answer was The Suite Life of Zach & Cody, which spun off itself to become the Suite Life on Deck. I'm embarrassed that I just told you that.)
Favorite color: orange
Favorite breakfast: muffins
Favorite lunch: Famous Dave's
Favorite dinner: chicken fricassee (He admits that he likes saying the name of the dish as much as eating it.)
Favorite snack: Fruit Gushers
Favorite thing to do with our family: swimming
Favorite thing to do alone: watch TV
Favorite song: Bad (Are you kidding me?)
Favorite toy: Transformers (any of the thousand he has, I assume; he didn't specify one.)
Favorite restaurant: Playtime Pizza (which is located, rather inconveniently, in Little Rock, Arkansas. He also struggled briefly with whether it could properly be defined as a restaurant.)
Favorite drink: Orange Capri-Sun

It's almost time!

I've cleared all of last year's stuff out of our schoolroom. This was no small feat. (I also cleared out some stuff from the year before, and even some preschool stuff from when we lived in another state. But let's not focus on that, shall we?)

I've purchased school supplies. For the first time in four years of homeschooling, neither child insisted on a new lunchbox or backpack.

I've sketched out what an ideal day would include and what I need to do to make that happen.

I've planned First Day activities and the first three weeks of lesson plans.

I've penciled in art, music, writer's club, extra-curriculars and field trips.

I've read up on teaching cursive to left-handed writers.

I've set goals for each child and set goals for myself.

I've chosen a verse for the year. Psalm 25:4-5 Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.

So I think we're just about ready to kick off a brand new year of homeschooling. I'm pretty excited! I hope I can sleep tonight.

Oh, wait.

The only thing that remains to do is the chopping and dicing for my personal favorite muffins. That's a sacred tradition in my family: first day of school muffins. My mom made "Everlasting Apple Muffins" every year, and eventually we began calling them "First Day of School Muffins." They are delicious, but I'm partial to the Morning Glory muffins with a smear of pineapple cream cheese.

Hope you all have a wonderful Monday!

Martha Stewart Doesn't Live Here. Adjust.

Katie, my sweet Kindergartener, was working on a worksheet for the letter V. The page had several pictures of things that began with the letter v that she was to identify, color and cut into flashcards. She easily recognized a vase, vegetables and a vest. But one picture had her stumped. "It's... a... Don't tell me...it's... I don't know, Mommy, what IS that?" I sighed. "It's a vacuum cleaner, honey." Just further proof I haven't quite found the right balance between homeschooling and homemaking!

A Katie Two-fer

I haven't shared many Katie stories lately (Not that there haven't been many; I just have trouble putting hers into words!) but here are two that still have me smiling.

After we saw Prince Caspian on Saturday, we decided to go to the Japanese steakhouse for dinner. (If you know my kids at all, you're wondering what the heck we were thinking. Trust me, we're wondering, too.) The greeter asked whether we wanted to be seated at a regular table or a grill table. Um, hello--grill table! I thought that was the point of Japanese steakhouses. Anyway, the guy said, "Right this way," and Katie bowed to him. I don't think he saw.

We get seated and a lady comes to take our drink order. "Water with ice, please" Katie said, with another bow. I know that lady saw her, because I saw her trying to hide her smile. The chef showed up and verified everybody's order. Katie bowed again and then said in a conversational way, "Tae Kwon Do." I choked a little, trying not to laugh out loud.

To set the tone for his show, the chef started off by setting the grill on fire--WHOOSH! Katie didn't care for that at all. She leaned waaaaaay back in her chair and kept feeling her face and saying, "He burned me, Mommy!" I assured her that she hadn't been burned, but had just felt the heat from the big flame. She gave the chef a little bit of stink eye. A little later he started setting up the onion ring volcano. I should have warned Katie that more fire was coming; I don't know why I didn't. After another WHOOSH! of fire, Katie raised her hand and said, "Excuse me! Mr. Chef, I don't like the fire and I don't want you to do it any more." Fortunately, he took it in stride. "OK, honey, I won't." Then....wait for it...she bowed and said, "Tae Kwon Do."

I will never forget the time I took Katie to the Japanese Steakhouse. But then again, I doubt the Japanese Steakhouse will ever forget the time Katie was there.


Katie Story Number Two.
Katie, God bless her, loves to talk. It doesn't matter if anyone is listening to her; it doesn't even matter if anyone is in the room with her. Some days it is my cross to bear that I have a constant--and I mean constant-- hum of conversation in the background. I'm sorry to say that the last few days it has been especially grating to me. Earlier today I was trying to read something that required concentration and there it was, the hum in the background. I was about to tell her to please be quiet when I noticed what she was saying: "...Joshua, Judges, Ruth. First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, First and Second Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther..." She has memorized the books of the Old Testament while I taught them to Will!!!

Joys of homeschool, part 874

OK, so I was teaching Will about adding -ed to words. I had never really stopped to think that -ed makes three different sounds: -ed (painted), -t (worked) and -d (rained). Will wasn't feeling 100% healthy, and I was trying to help him along as much as possible by covering the -ed with my finger so he would first see the root word and then showing him the -ed. I was also saying, "Today I smile; yesterday I..." and he would supply "smiled."

"Today I help; yesterday I... "

"Helped."

"Today I jump; yesterday I..."

"Jumped."

"Today I rock; yesterday I..."

"Rolled."

What am I going to do with this child??

From our spring celebration

I had wanted to take pictures of the kids and their friends making this little candy flower pot--homeschooling is, in many ways, a giant scrapbook photo-op--but unfortunately, helping four kids complete all the various steps left me with no free hands for picture taking. This is Will's completed craft. Katie's is still in progress. Meaning that she just can't bear the thought of pushing the popsicle sticks into the styrofoam--it's just too final for her. She likes to carry the flowers around and present them as a bouquet at random intervals throughout the day. That's one of the challenges of doing crafts with my kids. No matter what the project is, they are going to make it their own in one or more ways. That's the definition of creativity, is it not? So I'm learning that I just have to let go of the outcome. Note: I am learning, present tense; not I have learned, past tense.

I have a reader

Technically, Will has been reading for almost 2 years now. But in the last few days, he has realized that he can read. I caught him reading for pleasure after I had tucked him in. That was a glorious moment for me, and not just from my perspective as a homeschooling mom. I have loved to read for as long as I can remember and it completely thrilled me for him to make that leap from "reading is a chore to be endured during school time" to "I think I'll read this book until I get sleepy." I was still high from that incident when I got blessed with another one: we went out for Chinese food after Tae Kwon Do and at the end of the meal, he cracked open his fortune cookie and started reading it instead of passing it to me. He thinks of himself as a reader!!!

Then yesterday, more homeschool joy: he decided--completely on his own--that he wanted to write a book report on one of his favorite dinosaur books. Not realizing what he was doing, I asked if he wanted to come do something and he responded, "Yes ma'am, as soon as I finish my essay." Imagine the size of my smile. He's saying yes ma'am and writing voluntarily. Oh, life is good.

Definite signs of spring

It blows my mind that my friends in Illinois and Arkansas are getting snowed on when I'm having the most delightful spring weather here. Ah, well, their weather always heads over here after they're done with it, so I better enjoy the sunshine while I've got it.

Yesterday we went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History to see their butterfly exhibit. It was absolutely delightful; there were hundreds of butterflies fluttering all around you as you walk through. I thought Katie would be totally into it. Sadly, she thought they were "disgusting flying bugs" Then we watched a entomologist feed a cricket to a tarantula. What do you think Katie thought of that?? This is what I'm learning: never try to anticipate what Katie will think or like. She loved the tarantula, but Will "thought he was going to vomit" so he & I went down to see the dinosaurs....again.

Here's a dead leaf butterfly:
That's the only name that jumped out and stuck in my memory, but there were some seriously gorgeous butterflies in there. One that I wish I had gotten a good picture of was a huge royal blue & black one. It was breath-taking.

This one, I think, had a tiger-y name.
I thought this one was interesting: yellow and black on the underside, and black and yellow on the topside.
Here's my mom and Katie looking into the bug lab where they raise (hatch? not sure about that terminology) new insects for the live exhibits. Apparently their lifespan is just as short in captivity as it is in the wild. Ha!

I never would have thought Katie would be transfixed by a tarantula, but here's photographic evidence.

We walked right past the exhibit with the Hope Diamond and all the other amazing gemstones, but we had seen them the first time. Yes, that's right--with all the Smithsonian museums available to us, the only one we've seen so far is Natural History, twice.

Big Birthday Tomorrow

Tomorrow is Abraham Lincoln's birthday. Woo-hoo! Party! Yes, I'll take any opportunity to have a little cake and call it homeschool enrichment. And I'm totally fine with that, because one of the newest additions to my burgeoning RSS feed is By Sun and Candlelight, and apparently Dawn feels the same way. I am planning to add a couple of her linked activities to our day tomorrow. I was a link-clicking lunatic until I came to not one, but two Lincoln Log Cake links. The painful memories are still so fresh. I just cannot in good conscience make a Lincoln Log Cake for Ol' Honest Abe when my darling husband had only cake shards for his birthday. So I'm going to be content with the stovetop hat craft, building a log cabin out of pretzels, the coloring page, word search and reading a book. (All those links are available at the By Sun & Candlelight post I first linked to.) We may even have pseudo-Lincoln Log Cakes. Little Debbie to the rescue!

Thank you so much,Dawn, for hooking me up with a full day of Lincoln fun!

And, And, AND!!

My sweet darling daughter is beginning to read. And I'm tearing my hair out. You know how to teach reading, right? First you teach the sounds, then you start combining the sounds. Pretty straight-forward stuff. So every day we practiced the letter sounds. "What does 'D' say?" "Duh, duh, duh" "What does 'M' say?" "mm-mm!" Now we've moved on to combining the sounds. But she has this...this...verbal tic. And it's driving me nuts.

Yesterday, for example, the word was "dad." This is how my sweet darling initially sounded it out: "duh, duh, duh... aaaaaaa... and duh, duh, duh." OK. I simply pointed out that one D just says one "duh."

She grasped that easily. "Oh, right!" she said brightly and tried again. "Duh... aaaaa... and duh."

OK. Let's get rid of that 'and,' shall we? "Good, honey! Now let's try saying the sounds together. Listen to Mommy: duhAAAAAAAduh. Now you say it."

"DuhAAAAAA...and duh."

Me: (thinking "OK, move the pause) "OK, listen to Mommy: duh... AAAAAAAduh. Dad!"

Katie: "Duh...and AAAAAAduh. Dad!"

Me: (eye twitches) "OK, listen to Mommy: duhAAAAAA...duh. Dad!"

Katie: "DuhAAAAAA...and...duh. Dad!"

Me: (begging) "Listen to Mommy: duhAAAAAduh. Dad. duhAAAAAduh. Dad. DuhAAAAAAduh. Hear it? DuhAAAAAduh. No and, just duhAAAAduh."

Katie: (looking at me like I'm mentally deficient.) "Are we done with school yet?"

She'll get it; I know she'll get it. In six months I'll reread this post and just howl with laughter.

Science Experiment Friday (part 1)

We built this volcano out of clay earlier in the week. I must have pulled up the wrong bookmark, because this was not the clay recipe we've used before. If you have a good salt & flour clay recipe, please let me know.

After our volcano finally dried, I spent the next few days worrying that it wouldn't erupt properly because the crater* was so wide. I was insanely pleased that Will noticed that the "lava" realistically oozed over the edge and down the side of the volcano. Very Kilauea. (See our dramatic St. Helen's eruption in part 2.)

*Crater is the technical term for the hole thingy at the top. And did you know that one who studies volcanoes is a vulcanologist?

Science Experiment Friday (part 2)

Well, as usual, I had my camera pointed at the wrong thing. I wish I had gotten Will's face when we got all the eruption he had hoped for and more! He didn't know whether to watch the excitement or run from the volcanic devastation. (When he doesn't know what to do, he usually tries to do both at the same time. That's why I was laughing so hard.) I love Katie's unimpressed, "Now can we go inside?" in the background. It was about 22 degrees this morning.

I think I should start looking now for next week's experiment. We may have to dissect a frog to hold Will's interest after what happened today.

I'm so huuuuungry...

William & I were just about to start working on his reading one day this week when he announced that he was "very close to starving to death." I carefully assessed the situation and determined that we could probably finish out his lessons for the day without losing the student, so we pressed on. That day's phonetic focus (I just made that phrase up; doesn't it sound important and oh-so-official?) was the blend ch. William repeated that he was very close to starving to death, but bravely began reading his word list. "Number 1... chip; number 2...cheese...what are they trying to do, rub it in? I'm so huuuuuungry."

"It's just a coincidence, honey, keep going."

"Number three...chill, as in chili....number four...chop, as in pork chop...number five... ranch, as in ranch dressing..."

"All right, drama queen, all right."

"Number eight...child, as in the one who's starving to death. Number nine... chick, as in chicken, as in something to eat."

By now we were both laughing pretty hard.

"Number eleven...rich, as in I wish we were rich enough to have somebody make us some food. Oh, good grief, number twelve is lunch; they really are trying to kill me."

I cannot wait to start creative writing with this child.

I dunno.

What a day! I'll skip the chaos of the morning, although it's at least as interesting as the chaos of the afternoon. Let's just summarize by saying that I have a new haircut, I did a good deed (and had a lot of fun in the process) by helping collate the women's ministry newsletters and public schools in our area had a snow day today.

Will checked out a VHS cartoon version of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe from our church's library today. On the way home, I stopped at Safeway to get a handful of ingredients for the co-op potluck tomorrow. My mind was going in 100 different directions, mentally ticking through my grocery list, while also thinking of what needed to be done first when I got home, trying to distinguish between the "urgent" and the "important" (Final score: urgent 4, important 1).

I had a couple of Christmas gifts tucked in the back of the van, so I had to squeeze the groceries in between the children, who were jabbering about this and that. (Who, my kids--jabbering? Oh, yeah, my kids.) Finally get the cart returned, exchange niceties with a random lady, and jump back into the van. While I was backing out and trying to decide whether to grab some drive through cuisine, I heard William asking me, "Why does it always say the? The Lion, The Witch, The Wardrobe?"

Every moment is a teaching moment. It's practically the homeschooler's mantra.

"Well, honey, the is called a definite article. When we use the it means that we are talking about one specific Lion or Witch or Wardrobe."

Only I didn't say that. I was trying to not back into the cutest, slowest moving little blue-haired lady you ever saw.

I said, "I dunno, why do you think?"

I hate it when I cop out.

Luckily, he asked again when we got home, and I gave him the sparkling, precise answer about definite articles, and you know what he did? He snored. Little bugger.

Oh, and PS: If anybody ever asks if you would like to receive a newsletter or membership roster or whatever, by email instead of receiving a hard copy, think of the people who will be preparing the physical version for the mail, and say, "Yes! That would be great!"

Home Ec in the Button Factory, part 2

(scroll down for the first part)

Most of you probably know that I sold Pampered Chef a year or so ago. Will was probably as into it as I was--he knew all the products and the selling points to go with them. One of my favorite stories of Will's Pampered Chef career was the time he went up to a lady in the cake mix section of the grocery store and told her, "If you have a Pampered Chef Rice Cooker, you can have that cake ready in only 8 minutes. Talk to my mom, she can hook you up." So you can imagine my dismay when I had to prompt him--twice--on the name of the cornerstone of the Pampered Chef family of products.

Making jam is the kind of thing that makes me feel like Martha Stewart and Caroline Ingalls all rolled into one. Canning has its own special tools and its own language; most of the recipes I found said "process for 10 minutes" and I had no idea what that meant. Even when I found out that it was shorthand for "process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes" I wasn't completely sure what it meant. My husband's family, on the other hand, has been making jam and homemade pickles, and canning salsa and who knows what else for years and years. (Oh, they're crunchy, my husband's people. The stories I could tell you!) My sister-in-law taught me how to make strawberry jam one summer. Did she teach me out of pity or did she want extra hands helping? I'll never know, but I'll always be grateful.

Home Ec in the Button Factory, part 1

My children seem to genuinely believe that if you cook with a camera pointed at you, you're the star of a televised cooking show.

An aside: What do you think of my sweet darling's tattoo? It's leftover from her Shrek princess Halloween costume. Except that she decided the morning of to be a ballerina. It strikes me as funny that I didn't even notice a big honking tattoo on her arm until I got ready to upload this video. Now I'm trying to remember what she wore to church on Sunday. I really do wonder what they think of us at "1B"!

Anyway, we were making jam with some of the apples we picked last week. Since the Ratatouille DVD we just bought came with a chef's hat and apron, Will & Katie were more than willing to help. In fact, at a couple of points in the process, I thought we were bordering on having "too many cooks in the kitchen." Quite literally.

I have part 2 coming up in just a second...