Eileen on Him . . . at least, I try!

A Princess, a Frog and a Couple o' Beignets

Last night, our library hosted a free showing of The Princess and the Frog. We hadn't seen it yet, so it seemed like the perfect Saturday "Family Night" activity!

The children were encouraged to dress up like princesses and princes (there were a lot of cute Cinderellas there!) We went minimalist, ourselves: Junie B. wore a headband decorated with gold beads and a couple Mardi Gras necklaces; Taz wore a foil-covered crown (with a little frog sticker as the crown jewel!), and Sunny-boy wore a frog headband (modeled after my favorite amphibian, of Frog and Toad fame).

Frog-shaped cookies were served, and the children camped out on blankets on the library floor. It was a lot of fun! I must say, the movie itself was absolutely wonderful -- everything a Fairy Tale should be. And the music is great, too!

My favorite movie reviewer, Steven Greydanus, cautioned that because the Bayou voodoo lady is portrayed as a good figure, there is confusion between good and evil; but for once I must say I don't agree. The evil guy in this movie is truly and obviously evil -- and totally gets his comeuppance -- and the the Bayou voodoo lady never consorts with evil spirits as far as I could see. Certainly not in any obvious way that would lead children astray, any more than say, Glinda the Good Witch in the Wizard of Oz. Eccentric, yes; evil, no. "Spells" are a part of Fairy Tales, and I'm good with that -- especially since pretty much all she does is stir up a pot of gumbo and then tell the travelers how to break the spell that binds them. That's my take, anyway. (He does say that she practices a form of divination during her big number, but it went right over my head -- I never saw it. Perhaps a second viewing would make me less comfortable?) I almost didn't allow the kids to see this movie because of that review, but I think it would've been our loss.

Tiana, the movie's "Princess," makes a mean New Orleans Beignet ... so, naturally, I thought it would be fun to try to whip some up for breakfast this morning! Beignets are a kind of fried dough, usually made from a yeast dough that is rolled out and cut into square shapes before frying; but I found a quicker, no-yeast recipe online and went with that instead.

I can't vouch for their authenticity, of course, but they were good! The dough is made from water, butter, flour, salt and eggs, and of course,they're liberally doused with sifted confectioner's sugar.

In the movie, Tiana drizzles something that looks like honey over the beignets just before sprinkling on the sugar; I couldn't find a recipe that made them that way, but it looked good to me, so that's what we did! The results were almost like a cream puff: crispy on the outside; light, moist and airy on the inside, and very flavorful, even without the sugar.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c butter
• 1 c water
• 1 c flour
• 1/4 t salt
• 4 eggs
• vegetable oil for frying
• honey for drizzling
• confectioner's sugar for dusting

Place the butter and water in a saucepan over medium heat, until the butter melts. Sift the flour and salt together in a separate bowl, then add to the saucepan all at once, beating well. Continue to cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until a sticky dough forms into a ball in the center of the pan. Remove from heat and beat in the eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated (it takes some doing, so don't give up!)

Pour at least 1/2" of oil into a frying pan, over medium to medium-high heat. Drop the dough carefully into the hot oil in small batches, about a tablespoonful each, at least 2" apart. Keep turning them as they cook, for about 6-8 minutes, until deep, golden brown. (Don't let the oil get too hot, or the outsides will burn before the inside is cooked). Drain on paper towels.

Place the beignets on a serving plate while still hot; drizzle over all with honey, then dust liberally with confectioner's sugar tapped over all from a sifter or sieve. Serve immediately. Makes about 16 beignets.

Yum!

Kids Say the Darndest Things Friday: Sorry, That's Not in the Budget.

 

... My sweet little 4 yo sleeping peacefully in his new "Big Boy Bed" in his very own new-to-him room.

Note the high profile of the bed.

Note the low profile of the ceiling.

Too bad Sunny-boy didn't!  A couple nights ago, despite all the warnings, he decided to test his new bed's jump-a-bility quotient.

Head, of course,  met ceiling, and Sunny-boy theatrically collapsed to the bed with a shocked howl.

Looking up through the mist of pain he declared, "We gotta move that thing."

For more Kids Say the Darndest Thing Friday posts, head over to Mystical Rose Design -- and while you're there, join the fun! 

Awesome Series on Nature Studies for Kids

In homeschooling, it's easy to see that we stand on the shoulders of giants.   I have been blessed over and over by the amazing people who have paved the way for our family -- I could never have done this without the help of many, many trail-blazers, including many people I've never had the pleasure to meet!

In my case, I can safely say that no one has had a greater impact on how we homeschool than MacBeth, and her inspiring and eminently doable suggestions for making Nature Studies a focal point of children's education.  MacBeth's now transferring her truly classic posts on introducing children to nature from an old website to her blog, and they are not to be missed!

Few things have given me greater joy in these first 6 years of our homeschool journey than discovering the wonders in our own back yard, and seeing my children immerse themselves in the beauty of God's creation.  And it hasn't been terribly complicated:  Mostly, it's just been about getting outside for an extended period (in our case, at least once a week for "Nature Monday" -- I haven't posted nearly enough about this and hope to begin correcting that soon), bringing along a decent field guide or two, and seeing what there is to see.

And, oh, there's always something!

If you haven't already seen these, head over to MacBeth's Opinion and check out these three posts -- overflowing both with excellent ideas and fantastic book suggestions -- and get started on some great explorations!

Why Study Nature?

Spring

Backyard Nature

... And Occasional Speech Therapist, Too

Sort of, anyway!

Taz has had the cutest little speech impediment -- if you even want to call it that -- substituting /f/ sound for /th/.  I really wasn't worried about it; kids usually outgrow such things.  I even had a preschool speech therapist once tell me that a lot of the milder speech errors kids make in preschool and kindergarten drop out when they learn to read, due to the emphasis on the actual sounds made by each letter. 

Here's where it was really getting in his way:  When he was counting, the "fuh-ties" sounded an awful lot like the "foe-ties" and he would often "short-circuit" somewhere in the middle, skipping from, say "fuh-tee fwee" to "foe-tee foe".  (I'm still not too worried about that r-w substitution!)

So here's what I decided to try:  I pulled out a small mirror, and showed him how the /th/ is a "bite your tongue" sound, whereas /f/ is a "bite your lip" sound.  After just a day or two (just a couple of minutes of silly exaggeration each time), he totally "got it" and now bites his tongue with pride whenever he comes across a number with a 3 in it.  Not only that, he looks for other opportunities to use the sound correctly -- you should hear him belt out his ordinals!  It's also made it easier for him with reading, since we emphasized /th/ as a special case -- he not only correctly sounds out/ pronounces words he sees that include /th/, especially at the beginning, but he's quickly caught on to other digraphs, such as /wh/,  /ch/ and /sh/, too!

Little successes like this just make me feel good. :)

Note:  After a long career as a preschool special ed teacher, I have tremendous respect for the "magic" that speech therapists are able to accomplish with very young children.  Both my little boys, in fact, have benefited directly from professional speech therapy intervention.  Little stuff like this probably wouldn't qualify for direct speech therapy; but if a child has a serious speech and language delay, I'd never recommend going at it without the help of a professional.  You'd be amazed at what they can do!

Just Popping In to Say "Hi!"

I am really starting to miss this oh-so-neglected space!

The reason I haven't been here of late is simply that, somewhere in the middle of everything else that was going on, it lost "priority."  That, and I made up my mind I wasn't going to move on in posting until I got my Advent/Christmas posts done.  But Christmas is so ... three months ago!  Who's thinking about Christmas now, except for those amazing people who get all their shopping for next year done by June (of which I am decidedly not one)?! 

Well!  When I make up my mind to stubbornly follow a certain path, I guess I stick to it, do or die!

(If only I could apply that to areas in my life where I could really use some self-discipline!!)

There's really nothing extraordinary going on around here; just life in all its usual busy glory.  This Lent, I decided what I needed to do most was make a commitment to getting to bed by 11:00 (yes; longtime blogwatchers may recall that I made that one of my 2008  New Year's resolutions.  Then, having failed miserably on that score, I apparently gave up on New Year's resolutions altogether.) :)  My husband and I have also begun praying Compline together every night after putting the children to bed.  Most nights, I sit down next to him to prepare to pray, say a few responses, and promptly fall asleep.  (Since we're new to this, we've been using the podcasts from divineoffice.org to help us along, and they play such pretty music ...)  He wakes me up sometime around 11:00, and helps me stumble off to bed.  (How did I manage to stay awake until 1 am or later every night before now?  Yikes, I've been exhausted.)

Thanks to everyone who's been commenting and sending me emails asking what happened to me.  I'm fine; I'm here ... and if you can indulge me a couple more Christmas posts (!), I may even get back to regularly-scheduled blogging soon.

Merry Christmas! ;)