Review of the Betsy, Tacy Series

One of the joys of having a daughter is passing on to her things that I loved when I was a girl. She's received dolls and dresses that were mine, and I've taught her how to braid her hair. But perhaps most special to her are books. Now that she's of an age to read and comprehend more in depth chapter books, we enjoy sharing many stories together. With each trip to the library, she begs me to find her something that I read when I was a little girl. One such find for her was the Betsy, Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace.

Betsy, Tacy and Tib is the second book in the series, but so far it is M-girl's favorite. Perhaps that is because she, like the main characters in the book, is now eight years old. Although it was written seventy years ago, and the story takes place a century ago, the girls in the book act just as girls do today. M-girl was charmed, just as I was when I first discovered these books as a girl
The antics that the characters get up to will have you laughing out loud. M-girl and I giggled so much about their attempt at cooking, that soon the boys were wondering what was so funny. We also shed some tears, as only the best books can cause to occur.

Throughout the book (and the series) the girls grow in maturity. Their friendship and  their relationships with their families are portrayed in a realistic manner, that young girls of today can completely relate to. Betsy and her friends struggle to follow the rules, but sometimes end up unintentionally causing trouble. These are not static characters, or the perfect but boring young ladies of some older novels.  Lovelace endowed them with humanity by giving them both flaws and strengths, sorrows and joys.

Together, M-girl and I read through the first four books in the series, covering the childhood of Betsy and her friends Tacy and Tib. We started the fifth book, that gets into the teen years of these characters. M-girl was not as interested, so we stopped. To me there's no reason to push my daughter out of her own childhood quite yet. I know that when she's older, she will enjoy reading about these characters as teenagers, just as she enjoys reading about their childhood adventures now.

I plan on purchasing the entire set for M-girl. If she's anything like me (and I believe she is) she'll end up reading through the series multiple times. These are the sort of books that become forever friends with their readers. Someday, I'm sure, my grand-daughters will fall under their spell. These are books that every young girl should read.

Shots of Spring

My husband was given pretty, rainbow hued shot glasses at an office gift exchange one year. Since life with three kids doesn't really lend itself to indulge in drinking shots very often, they've been sitting on a high shelf in the kitchen cabinet, forgotten.

The other day M-girl came running in from the backyard with the shortest stemmed bouquet ever. All of my vases were far too big, but I didn't want to disappoint her. What a happy surprise to find the shot glasses!

I sent M-girl back out to gather more tiny bouquets. Soon we had some lovely shots of spring!

More Homemade Yogurt Tips

Since I wrote about my disappointing batch of runny yogurt, I've been on a mission to find the source of the problem. At first I thought that perhaps my kitchen was too drafty, since the heat had been turned off during a warm spell around here. Then I wondered whether my starter had gone bad.

Now I've found the culprit (I think). A friend of mine tried my recipe and raved about it. She mentioned that she only uses whole milk. Yum, that sounds good! I don't want to switch from skim though, or my waistline would never recover.

That got me to thinking...hhmmm, maybe the fat content effects the end results. Lately, I've just been using plain, fat-free yogurt as the starter, mainly because I stocked up during a sale. The starter that I originally used was plain, organic, low-fat yogurt.

On my kid-free, speed shopping trip to Target last week, they didn't have that brand. As a test though, I bought a single serving size of another brand of low-fat yogurt. Already the batch that I started yesterday, using that is coming out well. It's thick and creamy, and soon it will be the Greek yogurt that my family loves.

That settles it, the fat content is key. It seems to work better to use at least low-fat yogurt as a starter, rather than fat-free. The end result will still be very low fat.

I thought I'd share two more tips while I'm at it.

1- You can add fruit at the end of the process, if you wish. I puree frozen fruit in the blender and stir   it in.

2- This one sounds weird, but it's a good one. I can't remember where I read it, but I saw a tip saying that cloth diapers work better than cheesecloth for straining yogurt. Obviously use diapers that are strictly set aside for this purpose, they can't do duel duty as baby apparel! Get the kind that are flatfold. The advantage they have over cheesecloth is that they can be washed and reused again and again. They're also sturdier than cheesecloth, so instead of multiple layers, one diaper really does the job.

Remember, if your first attempt at homemade yogurt doesn't work, don't give up! It really is easy and so much more economical to make yogurt at home. See my links below for more about yogurt making.

http://worstmome.blogspot.com/2012/02/crock-pot-greek-yogurt.html
http://worstmome.blogspot.com/2012/03/homemade-yogurt-troubleshooting.html

Teacher Mom

I was chatting with another parent last night, while M-girl was at ballet. His daughter is currently in a small, private school, but next year will be attending the large, local, public school. From the sounds of it, he and his wife are agonizing a bit about the decision. Knowing that I homeschool, he declared that he could never manage to do it. Then he asked me,"How do you maintain discipline in your home? Are you more the teacher or the mother?"

It's a valid question, but I had to laugh. As any parent knows, life with kids is a balancing act sometimes. Each of us has multiple roles to play, nutritionist, nurse, coach, chauffeur, etc. Homeschooling parents are just taking on another role that society recognizes as one of great importance. I'm always the mom around here, and yet my kids respect me as their teacher too.

I told him that the fourth bedroom in our home functions as our schoolroom. For us it works to have a designated area to go and do our schoolwork. It also helps somewhat to have a room to store all of our school supplies (not that they don't tend to migrate to other rooms in the house anyway).

A couple of weeks ago, K-boy did well on a concept that we'd been struggling a bit with. As a joke I placed a star sticker on his paper, something that I usually reserve for the younger kids. He broke out into a big grin and said, "You're in teacher mode right now. I'm going to hang this on the fridge so you can see it when you're in Mom mode!"

It was funny, but true. Downstairs I'm more relaxed and in mom mode. Up in the schoolroom, I'm in my teaching zone. That's the balance that I've found. I may switch personas a dozen times a day (with each trip downstairs to throw in laundry) but it's what works for me.

By the way, when I got downstairs I gave K-boy a big hug for doing well in school. I'd had a good report from his teacher.

Alphabet Scrapbook

When M-girl was younger, she wanted to do schoolwork of her own. She enjoyed sitting on my lap and working on her workbooks, but sometimes I needed her occupied independently so that I could teach her older brother. That's when I came up with the idea of making her an alphabet scrapbook.

First I wrote each letter of the alphabet on a separate sheet of colored paper. Each day, I would explain the sounds of one or two letters. Together we would think of various words that started with that letter.

Then I'd set her loose with old magazines, child scissors and glue sticks. She enjoyed finding pictures of things that started with her daily letter. It was a great way to keep a pre-schooler occupied while I taught her older brother!

I recently dug her old scrapbook out again. Sometimes D-boy needs a project to work on while the older two are still working. Never underestimate the power of a cutting and pasting project to keep a homeschool running smoothly!

Easter Basket Cupcakes

Easter is almost upon us. In my house that means that it's time to make a batch of these cute cupcakes. My mother used to make them every year, when I was little, and we all looked forward to helping her. Now my kids are the ones begging for them.

Easter Basket Cupcakes

24 cupcakes, baked and cooled
1 batch of vanilla frosting (or 1 can)
1 or 2 cups of coconut
green food coloring
chocolate eggs or jelly beans
colored pipe cleaners, cut in half

Tint the frosting green with a few drops of food coloring. Place the coconut in a plastic sandwich bag, add a few drops of green food coloring, and seal shut. Shake until the coconut turns green.

Frost the cupcakes generously. Sprinkle on a layer of coconut.

Place several chocolate eggs or jelly beans in the center of each cupcake.

Bend the pipe cleaners into curved handles. Gently slide into cupcakes.

Serve and enjoy.

This Mom Runs on Hugs

It all began with the word pink. M-girl was supposed to write a sentence in her grammar book, describing a cake. Ever one to look for a short-cut she asked,"Do I have to write that the sprinkles are pink?" I replied, "Only if you want to get 100% correct." They don't call me the worst mom ever for nothing!

M-girl started whining to express her annoyance at having to write those four extra letters. This began to bother D-boy who had been busily working with his math box. He approached M-girl (who was still in mid-whine) and told her, "You are starting to make me angry, so you'd better stop!"

She didn't. Next thing I knew, D-boy conked M-girl on the head. She did kind of deserve it, but I can't condone violence, so I calmly said, "We don't hit," before I went on to give K-boy his next spelling word.

Alas, my soothing words were to no avail. M-girl leaped from her seat and tackled her little brother. He squirmed out of her hold and grabbed a pillow from the futon to clobber her with. She grabbed another and....well need I go on?

It was evident to me that we needed an early lunch break. Tired, hungry kids aren't at their best for learning. We finished the lessons they'd been working on and prepared to go downstairs to the kitchen. First though, I called everyone in for a group hug. I had to force the issue a bit so I told them, "This mom runs on hugs. My cookie baking powers don't work without hugs."

We all felt better afterward. M-girl and D-boy went on to play together after lunch, the best of friends again. Hugs are amazing. So are cookies.