Thinking math

The last couple of weeks we have been doing all sorts of fun things while thinking mathematically. Math is not a subject I enjoy but it seems that my honeypie adores it and I'm excited she will not have to struggle as Daddy or I did. (I'm sure that gift comes right from nana and pop pop). :)
We have been...

Counting with M and M's








Counting with Teddy bears




Making patterns with Teddy bears




Figuring out how to make pictures with geometry tiles




(a boy flying a kite)




Reading some math books. ( This one gave us some great conversations as we tried to solve the math games.
















Working with fractions.







Working with fraction tiles




Making connections!







Drawing and thinking fractions





So far lots of energy, enjoying using a mathematical mind and most important...
Keeping math fun!


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This moment...

~ Half of our lifetime together in love and friendship. I continue to love you more each day. A beautiful weekend together daddy.
Thank you.
Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

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Nutty about hazelnuts

This month, Martha Stewart's magazine has a focus on hazelnuts. Though my only real love of hazelnuts comes via Nutella or Ferrero Rocher ... I decided to investigate this high class nut and it's flavors using Martha's recipes in that issue.
The first thing we tried was her hazelnut pizza dough and the two toppings, butternut squash and the broccoli rabe. The butternut squash pizza was delicious!!! But the broccoli rabe... Not so much. I didn't know broccoli rabe was soooo bitter. Almost to the point of being inedible. So I tried my own topping on that delicious crust, while still keeping it vegan and I think the spinach, caramelized onions and pinenuts was the best tasting. The butternut one came in second.  It was very tasty.
We made vegan nutella and lovely hazelnut cookies too and the hazelnut pancakes were a hit!
This experimentation made me realize that hazelnuts are a great versatile nut!

The butternut squash is best sliced with a mandoline slicer, since it's the only way to get it nice and thin.







Here it is tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, sage and fresh garlic .

And that is it!!

Delicious and vegan!

Here is the broccoli rabe one. The broccoli rabe is blanched first and added to olive oil, salt, garlic, and chopped red onion.

Here's the spinach, pinenut and caramelized onions.

Mmmmm, hazelnut pancakes with a raspberry sauce.

These were devoured by the clan.

Lovely hazelnut cookies. These tasted like short bread.

Dipped in vegan hazelnut chocolate spread!! (nutella)

Home made and Vegan nutella  :)

I'm including the links to the recipes above.  Definitely give them a try!

Thanks Martha ! ~_^

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Nature journal

Last year (here) we started nature journals where we drew things we saw on our hikes or bike rides. We also used them to sit and sketch from observation and it was really a fun project to do together.
This year we will go a little deeper with our journal and add some writing to our observations, reflecting and making connections as the seasons change. We will also continue to add to our collection of found nature objects for our science box and we will use some objects we found to create a nature shadow box for each season, inspired by Joseph Cornell's boxes.
I just bought an amazing new book by Claire Walker Leslie called "The Nature Connection" (here) and I loooooveeee it!
Claire walker Leslie is very well known for her love of nature and nature journals and has a various of books on the subject.  They are a must for any nature lover .
What I love most about this book is the ideas she gives children to help them observe particular seasonal changes and she gives activities to enhance those findings.
We started with September and I will share some favorite activities later on.


















Here are some pages from last year's journal entries...
Sunflower observations.





A plum tree





Here's the same plum tree THIS year shedding it's blooms.





A sun print with herbs from our garden.





And some recent drawings .
A paper wasp nest.





A little robin in our yard .





Our butterfly bush .





And here is another great thing we have started ...
A question box!!
( because mama unfortunally does not have all the answers!!). We made it together after realizing that honeypie had more questions that I could NOT answer and actually i found it a great opportunity for researching the answers together.














Questions and decorations by honeypie .





We are focusing more on earth and sky as the science part of our homeschooling curriculum this year, planets, constellations, and our environment.