Cooking with Big Sister

I started blogging the fall of 2008.
I'm bringing back some of my favorite posts and reposting here,
especially while my time is tight
and we are so busy getting ready for my aunt's arrival.

I've got a whole stack of posts planned
for the future - I hope you will find them interesting,
so hope you stick around during this lull.



This is a repost from November of 2008.

Scholar LOVES helping. He especially loves to help Story do things like cook. I think they were making a pie. Kind of turned out more like a peach cobbler though.

These helping hands are gooy! Isn't it cool!

Song Shows How to Clean a Dryer's Lint Vent

Friday night,

Song was cleaning the lint trap,

and a clothes pen fell from the shelf and slid right down the vent.

Shocking.

Amid giggles,

Mom? 

How do we get it out.

I told her to go watch a Youtube video on how to take apart the dryer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMP7BW1lLs4

Armed with experience 

(she had helped Aunt K clean her dryer several months ago)

she fell to work.

By the time I caught up to her,

she was unplugged,

away from the wall

and hard at work removing the screws.

EWWW

that's a lot of lint dust!

I sent the back out with Story,

so she could wash it down.

See the black part?

That's the vent.

The lint trap slides down inside.

The clothes pen will be at the bottom.

It was simple to remove the two screws at the top

where the lint trap sits

plus several more at the bottom,

and lift the lid (it pops up - not exactly easy - but give it a hard pull up)

so we could slide this whole piece out

At that point I said,

be careful about the dead mouse.

She freaked.

I assured her that a mouse would be extremely unlikely.

We have a weird sense of humor.

After sending the tube outside with Story

for a thorough cleaning,

she went to work on the back again -

those holes in the white part ...

that's the vent to the drum - 

can you imagine how much dusty dirt was being pulled through the clean clothes?

There was a LOT of sand.

Eventually,

it was as clean as she could get it.

She put it all back together.

She found the clothes pen.

And a blue ink pen.

And two large open safety pens.

Four small safety pens

Six pennies.

A few buttons.

and that was just with NOT getting too friendly with that giant ball of lint!

This is what I call a successful education.

She saw a problem.

Researched a solution.

and then

Made it happen.

Her next dryer goal..

ours is a front inside lint trap,

completely different method of cleaning.

She also learned from the experience ...

Next time ...

Wear a mask if you have asthma.

Cooking Class

Rummaging around in my older posts ...
Here is a memory from 2009.
Story was 14.
Scholar was 4 ... no, he was still 3 there,
as his birthday was another week away.

Sunshine hadn't been born.
And Emmy was living with us.




Story was cooking supper and got a couple of helpers.

I think we had tacos.

It's a common meal here because it is so fast and we try to make them as healthy as possible.
Otherwise, considering the pan on the back burner ... it was probably spaghetti.

Variety is limited when you can't have dairy products.

Peek at Two Weeks - Mayhem and Celebrations

I've been so very busy taking pictures of
"stuff to sell"
that I keep forgetting to take pictures
of the important things in life.

But here is a smattering of what actually did get documented.




We finally made the last piece of the armor of God for Jr. Church.

I'll post instructions soon.

Scholar reading a favorite book.

 

A surprise!
After a long hectic day,
I finally got to my room
and found my bed was made.

And a secret note on my pillow,
telling me who made the bed.

Sunshine LOVES her new bed.
After 2 weeks,
she spends most nights here.

She is overjoyed to have
"her own room".

After 5 hours of the two big girls and I
working and sorting and carefully stacking...

the Ref has a space to go ahead and move into the office.

Then we'll fix his old office up for Scholar,
and get the school computers moved back down into the schoolroom.

We were without water in our entire house for 3 days.
The cold water going to the kitchen sink burst.
Trailers often have only ONE spot to turn on/off water for the house.

Of course we have my dad's house next door ...
but
his kitchen is out of commission until we replace
the hot water heater.

So...
the only hot water in the house
was the bathtub.

Celebrating a 50th anniversary.

Celebrating 3 sons,
3 DIL's
and 7 Grandchildren.


Last week's Jr. Church Craft.

 

Sunshine worked at this tiny shoe
for almost 30 minutes,
trying to tie the laces.

 

Another day,
she put on her armor again...
and continued to vanquish sunbeams
and dust balls.

Now this is a really funny picture.
She wanted me to take a picture of her birthday wish list.
So I told her to hold it up.

But her hands were covering most of the paper.

So I told her to not put her fingers so far onto the paper,
so
she tucked it under her chin and looked down.
Her hair fell over the paper.

I told her to pull her hair out of the way ...
and you can see the result.

What a funny face!



This is how I help the kids decide what they want to ask for,
for birthday or Christmas.

We make a list like this,
cut it apart,
and then they arrange and rearrange
remove and add,
and contemplate for a few days.

Finally, we put the wishes up on Amazon.

Since they don't go to the store often,
nor do they watch TV,
the usually come up with things that
they really DO want,
and  usually they are thrilled with what they get.

Cooking.

She insisted I make her a chore chart,
just like Scholar's.

Take a Bath.

You need water for a bath.

And a fork.

What?????

Whatever.

So she took all of her kitchen toys to the bathtub and gave them a bath.

This is what we took to our church potluck today.
We call it Monkeys in a Blanket
or Monkeys in Bed.

Kind of a cross between pigs in a blanket,
and Monkey Bread.

We start with mini "pigs in blankets"
which are 1/4 biscuit covering a 1/4 mini sausage.

Next we grease and flower a pan - usually a bunt pan.

Set all of the blankets into the pan.

Make a scrambled egg mix,
any way you like,
add extra butter.

Pour mix over the blankets.

We cooked this at 400 degrees for almost 20 minutes.
We watched for the biscuits to look done.

Cool and eat.

A pan this size, will last us close to 3 breakfasts.

Kids in the Kitchen: Story and Song

Teaching Home Ec is almost a lost art in the PSS (public school system),
and many kids (boys and girls) are not getting it at home either.

Years ago, I joined Flylady ... and I was struck by the huge number of women
who just didn't know HOW to cook and clean and plan ahead,
and the nearly constant streams of
"I wish I had learned this as a child."

And so I doubled my efforts to teach my children to be adults when they grow up.


What do I want my kids to grow up to be?

Grown Up Adults.

And one thing that means is knowing what to do in the kitchen.


When Story was born, we lived in a small town house,
but it had a great kitchen,
and Story spent a great deal of her time
under my feet.

She learned to stack using my plastic containers,
and was helping load the dishwasher before she was a year old.
(not anything dangerous)


By the time Song was born,
she considered herself quite the chef ...

She loved cleaning the floors,
and if soap and water wasn't around,
Crisco would do just fine.

(Ironically, my mom has a similar picture of me at about the same age.)

And the very next morning, she made up
for her mistake be cooking pancakes for breakfast.

Never mind the milk and eggs ...
she could reach the pancake mix!

She had a tea party nearly every day.
and sometimes, she even had real friends over
to practice her serving skills.

It wasn't long before Song was included in
Story's shenanigans.
Story was a natural teacher,
and Song was eager to learn.

Story especially liked to help make bread,
and loved to dress up and smell the bread
while it cooled.
Bread Machine's are wonderful.

Story's towers got more elaborate.

By age 5,
we let them start learning knife skills.
Story loved using the knife to cut all of the soft items for the table,
pickles for hamburgers,
bananas for cereal,
cucumbers and olives for salads.

By age 6, she was  using a "real knife"
to cut celery, tomatoes, and lettuce.

My mom decorated cakes.
So she often let the girls use up the left over cake pieces and colors
to practice making their own cakes.

 

 

We gardened.
Well, actually - we assisted relatives
gardens.

At that point in time, we were "homeless".
I'll have to tell that story someday.

Story discovered that the LOVED to shell peas.
She STILL loves to shell peas and beans.
She says it is relaxing.
Which is really something coming from a child
with ADHD.

Another attempt at a cake for the Ref's birthday.
Song did the Winnie the Pooh
Story has the Ref playing golf and has a basket ball hoop.

And cakes for Aunt's birthdays.
She didn't make the whole cake here,
but Gram let her fill in all of the large pieces.

Kids and Kitchens
it worked for us!

Favorite Meals
(they cook)

Spaghetti
Salads
Pancakes
Omlicakes
Chili
Tacos
Breads
Stews


For more ideas
Follow the Linky List
at
http://raisingolives.com/2012/05/teaching-kids-cook-moms/