Thursday, February 25, 2010

Learning, Walking, Pretending, Playing...

The weather out here has been so beautiful lately - up to 17 degrees Celsius and bright and sunny! June weather in February!
I took advantage of it while Jaymi was in ballet, and went for a walk. Her ballet class is right by the ocean and a castle, so it was a fantastic, scenic walk.



Thinking Day Celebrations for all Girl Guides were this week, so one of the things they did was to raise money for Haiti. This was a great opportunity to teach so many things, like selflessness, community, counting money, disaster relief & preparedness, etc.

Also, Jaymi's unit earned a few badges in the past 2 weeks. She also earned two badges herself (the My Room badge and a Recycling badge).


We put together our world map puzzle and have been referring to it during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. In school, her classmates have each been assigned a country. Hers is Germany. They keep track of the medals won by each country, and we have been watching bits and pieces of various sports. Her favourite so far, is the figure skating. Of course, in typical Jaymi fashion, she has been putting on 'shows' for us, complete with announcers, a skating show, sometimes a fall (and a bounce right back up), waiting for the results, and presentation of a medal. :)

It was interesting, however, watching the big hockey game the other night, between Canada and Germany. If Canada had lost that game (which they didn't), they would have been out. So of course, we were cheering for Canada. Jaymi, on the other hand, was cheering for Germany because that is 'her country' right now, and was disappointed when Germany kept getting scored against.



We baked yummy Lemon Chocolate Chip Loaf yesterday, and ate it for dinner! It was extremely sweet, though. We couldn't eat too much of it in one sitting.
So much fun to make.

We have a rule that if you help to bake something, you get to taste test everything. Jaymi insisted on that rule, and wanted to try a taste of shortening, a taste of flour, and a taste of sugar.

Here is the recipe:

Lemon Chocolate Chip Loaf
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 2/3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup chocolate chips
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 to 1/2 cup powdered sugar
melted chocolate (optional)

1. Cream together shortening and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing between additions.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to shortening mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and zest.
3. Spoon batter into prepared greased baking pans of some kind. (We used small, heart and circle pans.)
4. Bake at 400 degrees F until toothpick inserted in the middle, comes out clean. I think it took our loaves about 25-35 minutes.
5. Mix together lemon juice and 1/4 cup powdered sugar. Pour glaze over loaf. If desired, drizzle with melted chocolate.








We also made crockpot applesauce last week, that was soooooooo good!

5 medium Gala apples, peeled, cored, quartered and sliced
5 medium Golden Yellow Delicious apples, peeled, cored, quartered and sliced
1 teaspoon cinnamon - we put more in - yum!
¼ cup apple juice

Place all of the apple pieces in a large bowl and stir in sugar and ground cinnamon. Pour apple juice into the bottom of a large crockpot (slow cooker) and add the apple mixture. Cover, turn the crockpot setting to Low, and cook for about 8 hours (or on High for 5 hours), stirring occasionally and breaking up the apple slices with a wooden spoon as they soften.
Serve warm or room temperature.


We have been doing an Art Study this week, and it has been so much fun. Jaymi loves to draw so much, and it was the perfect theme for her.

A friend introduced us to Zentangles. We have spent many evenings sitting at the coffee table, doodling away, and getting inspired by each other's Zentangles.

Here are a few of mine:




Mark's:


And Jaymi's:


Yesterday, Jaymi learned about various drawing techniques like shading, creating textures, perspective, light and dark tones, using pencil crayons, and trying to make a drawing look 3-D and realistic.





We also borrowed these art videos from the library, and watched them.



Jaymi's best friend has introduced her to the Powerpuff Girls. Apparently there was a library book in school about them, and ever since reading it, she has been heavily involved in pretending that she is a Powerpuff girl. Of course, she has to dress like one of them.

Also, the words of the week seem to be "fashionable" and "stylish". Jaymi is constantly heading up to her room saying, "I have to find a fashionable outfit", or "That's very stylish".
;)

Belts are a big hit right now as well.


Powerpuff pose ;)


On Valentine's Day Jaymi got all dressed up and Mark did her hair for her (hair-sprayed and everything) to go for lunch at Gramma's house.
Before we left, we put a trail of little red plastic hearts around the house for her to follow, with different things inside, like marshmallows, chocolate chips, a note, and heart magnets for her wall. At the end of the trail, was this stuffed ladybug that we call a "love bug".


Jaymi has discovered that the library has Magic Treehouse books and Rainbow Fairy books. I set a limit of 10 per visit, and she went through 18 books in 3 days!

No comments: