Last night both girls were very busy in their workbooks, English, German and Maths. So we just let them be and did our own things, some knitting, tv watching etc. We were there for them for questions and help they needed, but we didn't stop them. They took their time, hours went by. After midnight one of them announced she was tired and was going to stop. The other one joined. This meant that they had been working in their workbooks from right after dinner until after midnight. They were extremely focussed and made a lot of progress. It was very interesting to watch them be so busy and make that much progress in those hours.
Trying doing that in school, working from after dinner to midnight. I doubt one teacher will go for it.
We do, and we see that it really pays off. Motivation is, as always, the key factor.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Magnet experiments - physics
Today we have had a nice session of magnet experiments with the kids, they were fascinated by what is all possible with magnets. We had some paperclips floating in the air and stuff like that. We also had water with it, and paper, made a paper doll dance, moved a magnet ball around and iron filings. It was really great and very educational. The magnetic field was explained and it was showed how it worked. We also looked at the wikipedia entry on magnetic field to have more of an understanding on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_field.
We have found that we love wikipedia, as there is always a lot of good information on there.
We have found that we love wikipedia, as there is always a lot of good information on there.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Kitchen appliances
Since Monday I have been ill, so I haven't done much around the house. Some of the things were coming down to the kids, as my partner needed to work.
This resulted in them asking a lot of questions about kitchen appliances.
They have made dinner for the last days and have used the kitchen machine for that, this thing comes with quite some gadgets, so they hadn't been interested in using it. Now, as dinner was involving quite some cutting they decided to give it a try. They have learned a bit now about how this kind of stuff works and how easy dinner can be.
They have started enjoying cooking and baking. They also made a nice dessert a few times, just coz they had fun doing so.
This resulted in them asking a lot of questions about kitchen appliances.
They have made dinner for the last days and have used the kitchen machine for that, this thing comes with quite some gadgets, so they hadn't been interested in using it. Now, as dinner was involving quite some cutting they decided to give it a try. They have learned a bit now about how this kind of stuff works and how easy dinner can be.
They have started enjoying cooking and baking. They also made a nice dessert a few times, just coz they had fun doing so.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
St. Nicolaas
Last night we celebrated St. Nicolaas. During the day we wrapped the presents, hid them all through the house and I made list of what was where. The kids were to find it all and then unwrap it. There was something for everybody.
We also baked kruidnootjes in the afternoon. This year I didn't make borstplaat or taaitaai or pepernoten, maybe somewhat later in the year.
Some presents were just toys, others were more interesting, like the "experiments" boxes. We have 5 and my partner will do those with the girls. This will be quite educational.
Some of the stuff I bought on e-bay, others in the shops. I tried to keep the spending a bit down this year. The kids were involved in picking presents for their siblings, I do consider it important that they try to put themselves in the minds of theirs siblings to see what they would like. It worked out really well.
Some recipes:
kruidnootjes:
250 gr flour
2 gr baking powder
5 gr cinnamon powder
2,5 gr. clove powder
2 gr. cardamom powder
1 gr. ginger powder
125 gr butter
125 gr demerrera sugar
50 gr golden syrup
3 gr salt.
Put flour, baking powder and spiced in a bowl. Mix in a pan butter, sugar and syrup with salt and melt it all. Mix both mixtures together to a well mixed batter. Leave this until its more firm. Make small balls out of it and put those on a greased baking tray into the oven, 180C for 15 minutes. Take kruidnootjes out of the oven and leave to cool.
Taai-taai & pepernoten
250 gr flour
100 gr honey
1 tbs syrup
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp anis powder
1 tsp nutmeg powder
1 tsp clove powder
Warm the honey until soft and put syrup into it. Mix flour, spices and baking powder. Stir honey into flour mix to make a firm dough. Make large shapes for Taai-taai and very small balls, really close together for pepernoten. Put it on a greased baking tray and bake on 160C until done, for about 15 to 20 mins. Taai-Taai is usually made in the shape of dolls.
Borstplaat
12 tbs white sugar
4 tbs cream
some taste, like: vanilla, lemon, cocoa, raspberry aroma or instant coffee. I basically only use vanilla aroma or cocoa powder as the kids love those tastes. mix sugar with cream and cook it slowly, let it cook for about 5 minutes. When a drip becomes hard in cold water it is right. When you want to use instant coffee or cocoa powder you have to use that while cooking, the rest comes in when the pan is taken off the stove. You can make circles out of this or use cookie cutters to make shapes. Make sure the cookie cutters are heat resistent. You can do this in 1 ways: 1 way is
to put the cookie cutters flat on baking paper and pour a bit of the fluid in there. The other way is having the fluid on a baking tray and cut them out of that.
Speculatius
50 gr self raising baking flour
50 gr flour
75 butter
50 gr demerrera sugar
1/2 tbs speculaas spices **
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs almond shavings
Preheat oven to 160C
Put all ingredients in a bowl, cut the butter in small chunks with 2 knives. and knead the lot to a nice dough. Roll the dough out to 1 cm thick. Put cut out pieces (either with cookie cutters or just squares) on a greased baking tray and bake for 25 to 30 mins in preheated oven. Let cool for 10 mins.
** speculatius spices=
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp cardamom powder
1/2 tsp ginger powder
1/2 tsp clove powder
Well... now we will go prepare for Yule / X-mas.
I will post some of the recipes for stuff we use for Yule as well in one of the next posts.
We also baked kruidnootjes in the afternoon. This year I didn't make borstplaat or taaitaai or pepernoten, maybe somewhat later in the year.
Some presents were just toys, others were more interesting, like the "experiments" boxes. We have 5 and my partner will do those with the girls. This will be quite educational.
Some of the stuff I bought on e-bay, others in the shops. I tried to keep the spending a bit down this year. The kids were involved in picking presents for their siblings, I do consider it important that they try to put themselves in the minds of theirs siblings to see what they would like. It worked out really well.
Some recipes:
kruidnootjes:
250 gr flour
2 gr baking powder
5 gr cinnamon powder
2,5 gr. clove powder
2 gr. cardamom powder
1 gr. ginger powder
125 gr butter
125 gr demerrera sugar
50 gr golden syrup
3 gr salt.
Put flour, baking powder and spiced in a bowl. Mix in a pan butter, sugar and syrup with salt and melt it all. Mix both mixtures together to a well mixed batter. Leave this until its more firm. Make small balls out of it and put those on a greased baking tray into the oven, 180C for 15 minutes. Take kruidnootjes out of the oven and leave to cool.
Taai-taai & pepernoten
250 gr flour
100 gr honey
1 tbs syrup
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp anis powder
1 tsp nutmeg powder
1 tsp clove powder
Warm the honey until soft and put syrup into it. Mix flour, spices and baking powder. Stir honey into flour mix to make a firm dough. Make large shapes for Taai-taai and very small balls, really close together for pepernoten. Put it on a greased baking tray and bake on 160C until done, for about 15 to 20 mins. Taai-Taai is usually made in the shape of dolls.
Borstplaat
12 tbs white sugar
4 tbs cream
some taste, like: vanilla, lemon, cocoa, raspberry aroma or instant coffee. I basically only use vanilla aroma or cocoa powder as the kids love those tastes. mix sugar with cream and cook it slowly, let it cook for about 5 minutes. When a drip becomes hard in cold water it is right. When you want to use instant coffee or cocoa powder you have to use that while cooking, the rest comes in when the pan is taken off the stove. You can make circles out of this or use cookie cutters to make shapes. Make sure the cookie cutters are heat resistent. You can do this in 1 ways: 1 way is
to put the cookie cutters flat on baking paper and pour a bit of the fluid in there. The other way is having the fluid on a baking tray and cut them out of that.
Speculatius
50 gr self raising baking flour
50 gr flour
75 butter
50 gr demerrera sugar
1/2 tbs speculaas spices **
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs almond shavings
Preheat oven to 160C
Put all ingredients in a bowl, cut the butter in small chunks with 2 knives. and knead the lot to a nice dough. Roll the dough out to 1 cm thick. Put cut out pieces (either with cookie cutters or just squares) on a greased baking tray and bake for 25 to 30 mins in preheated oven. Let cool for 10 mins.
** speculatius spices=
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp cardamom powder
1/2 tsp ginger powder
1/2 tsp clove powder
Well... now we will go prepare for Yule / X-mas.
I will post some of the recipes for stuff we use for Yule as well in one of the next posts.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)