A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

TOS

For Horse girls

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TOS sent out this as well,

The Girlhood Home Companion’s Happy Trails Horse Club™ is a one-of-a-kind resource for girls who want to learn more about horses and explore the many positive ways to get involved with various riding disciplines. Each month features a different breed and discipline, weaving together a collection of fact and fiction about equestrians from the past and those who are making a difference in the world today.

So know any horsey folk? Perhaps that website might interest them. 🙂 Here’s the direct link.

TOS freebies

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Have I ever told you to go the The Old Schoolhouse and get on their email newsletter lists?

Good way to get free stuff you can use when you homeschool.

yes, it’s a pain to try to figure out the whole storage space thing, but it’s free!

And what does it cost yah to get a couple of discs to store things on? not that much!

I’m on one list that sends me out stuff every Friday.

This past week they sent out their October Module from 2008 that normally you’d have to pay $7-12 for. And just by waiting a spell…I got it free! can’t beat that now can you? 🙂

if you go here, you can even see what they’ve sent out. Happy looking!

Israel Unit Study

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don’t want to lose this TOS freebie on an Israel Unit Study.

Things to consider when doing a unit study

Books to use:
Welcome to Israel – Lilly Rivlin
Israel – Debbie Smith

History and Timelines
Learn more about Israel by compiling historical facts and events from its long and eventful history and adding them to your timeline. If you do not have a timeline on the go, you can construct one by following these directions – How to Make a Timeline Easily. Here is a link to a wonderful resource for timeline entries about Israel – http://contenderministries.org/middleeast/timeline.php. Here is another one that you may enjoy perusing or using for dates & events – http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Facts+About+Israel/History/Facts+about+Israel-+History.htm.

Maps:
A unit study would not be complete without taking a good look at the lay of the land. Click here for both a labeled and unlabeled map of Israel. Have your students mark some of the major cities, the neighboring countries, and the sea to the west, at the least. For older students, have them use your teacher’s map and fill in the rest!

Recipes of the land such as

Fava Bean Spread

Ingredients

  • One can of fava beans, drained
  • 1 Tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon pepper (more if you like pepper)
  • Pita bread, torn or cut into triangles

Procedure

  1. Drain the can of beans, and empty the beans into a saucepan.
  2. Heat over low heat, mashing the beans against the side of the saucepan with a wooden spoon as they heat.
  3. Continue mashing until the beans have become thick, pasty, and warm.
  4. Add lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste.
  5. Serve warm or at room temperature with triangles of pita bread.

Felafel

Note: This recipe involves hot oil. Adult supervision is required. Many grocery stores now sell prepared felafel in the deli section.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup canned chickpeas, well-drained
  • 1 clove garlic
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ⅛ teaspoon pepper
  • ⅔ cup fine breadcrumbs
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 Tablespoons oil
  • Oil for deep frying, enough to fill the pot about 3 inches
  • Pita bread

Procedure

  1. Mash the chickpeas in a large bowl.
  2. Cut the garlic into tiny pieces. Add the garlic, salt, pepper, and bread crumbs to the chickpeas. Mix the ingredients together.
  3. Add the eggs and oil to the mixture and mix thoroughly.
  4. Heat oil in the pot until little bubbles rise to the surface.
  5. Shape the mixture into 16 balls, each about 1-inch across.
  6. With the mixing spoon, gently place a few of the balls in the oil—do not drop them in because the hot oil may splash.
  7. Fry a few at a time until they are golden brown—about 5 minutes.
  8. Remove the felafel with the slotted spoon. Drain them on a plate covered with paper towels.
  9. To serve, cut pita bread in half to make pockets.
  10. Put two or three felafel balls into each pocket and drizzle with tahini sauce (see recipe).

Serves 6 to 8.

Tahini Sauce

Some grocery stores stock tahini sauce, already prepared, or packaged tahini mix.

Ingredients

  • ¾ cup tahini (sesame seed paste; can be purchased in stores that sell Middle Eastern foods)
  • 1/3 cup lemon juice
  • ⅛ teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/3 cup water

Procedure

  1. Mix tahini, lemon juice, and garlic powder in bowl until you have a smooth sauce.
  2. Add the water, 1 teaspoon at a time, until sauce is thin enough to pour.
  3. Pour tahini sauce over pita sandwiches; can also be used as a dip for raw vegetables.

Hamentaschen

2/3 cup butter 1/2 cup sugar 1 egg 1/4 cup pulp-free orange juice 1 cup white flour 1 cup wheat flour – no substitutes 2 tsp baking powder Jam

Beat butter and sugar thoroughly. Add egg and mix until well combined. Add the orange juice and mix again, until well combined. Add flour, ½ c at a time, alternating white and wheat, blending thoroughly between each addition. Add baking powder with last addition of flour. Refrigerate until chilled thoroughly – a few hours or overnight. Roll dough as thin as possible without tearing (you may want to roll it between two sheets of flour-dusted wax paper). Cut out 3-4 in [7.6 – 10 cm]circles. Put a dollop of jam in the middle of each circle and fold up sides to make a triangle, overlapping as much as possible so only a small amount of jam shows in the center. Pinch corners to seal. Bake at 350 F [176 C] for 15 – 20 minutes until golden brown.

Sesame Candy

Ingredients

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 24 ounces honey
  • 24 ounces sesame seeds
  • Juice squeezed from one orange (or ½ cup orange juice)
  • Grated rind of orange
  • Peanut oil

Procedure

  1. Measure honey and sugar into a saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat until the mixture boils vigorously.
  2. Lower the heat just enough to keep the mixture bubbling. Add the sesame seeds, orange juice, and rind.
  3. Cook, stirring constantly, for about 10 minutes.
  4. Lightly grease a 9 x 13-inch baking sheet with peanut oil.
  5. Pour candy mixture onto it and press down on the surface with a wooden spoon to flatten it.
  6. Set baking sheet on a cooling rack and allow to cool for about 10 minutes. Cut into rectangles or diamond shapes.
  7. Allow to cool completely. Wrap pieces in wax paper to store.

And then doing some crafts of toys from there
Hebrew Calligraphy – Learn to write like a Sofer using these handy tutorials! Before long, you’ll be drawing like a pro. Here’s the link – http://www.babaganewz.com/activities/index.cfm?cat=22&sub=calligraphyMake your own dreidle – Chanukah Dreidels (spinning tops) are a tradition going back to the beginning of Judaism. Here’s the link – http://www.chadiscrafts.com/fun/claydreidels.html

WorkSheet Works

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The Old Schoolhouse sends out weekly emails with freebies listed in them.

This week the freebie they sent out sends folks for the The Worksheet Works website.

From the email sent to me:

…. try this new educational website that I recently found. Worksheet Works is a website with free printables in Math, English, Geography, and Puzzles of all kinds. There are also other printables such as calendars, graphic organizers to help with the writing process, graph paper for math, and many more. The best part is that it’s all free for you to use!

Having gone to the site I have learned they have math, English, geography, a variety of puzzles, miscellaneous stuff, handwriting sheets, and such like. looks like a nice little site to keep track of.

I thought the secret map puzzle was just neat! hadn’t thought of that idea before. 🙂

NOW… if you want to get the store freebies ….. go to The Old Schoolhouse website and subscribe to the emails yourself. 🙂

Mother’s Day – 2008, freebies

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TOS has sent out another Friday freebie newsletter. This one focuses on Mother’s day. So here are some Mom’s Day activities for children to do.

A homemade card – this one actually looks kinda neat, meant for older children though I think as it’s more along the idea of a scrapbooked card. As TOS says :

This card will be a lovely keepsake. There are pull out cards where the kids can write a list of the things Mom does for them. Then, there are three other pull outs (That spell out M-O-M) for your kids to write things they appreciate about you.

Some Mother’s Day coupons. These are strips of paper that children fill out with things they will do if requested.

Homeschoolzone has a whole whack of mother’s day crafts that children can make. From magnets to paperweights to plants. Check it out. 🙂

Other on-line resources (I just plugged mother’s day crafts into the search engine and this is some of what it came up with).

Enchanted Learning is much like homeschoolzone in that it provides a variety of activities for children to do. and then there’s Danielle’s place and Dltk’s spot. For some other ideas you can go here or over to amazing mom’s.

If none of those ideas work for you do your own search and see what fun stuff you can come up with. 🙂

Happy crafting!

Oh……while I was at it I thought hmm…why not research how Mother’s Day came about. This is what I discovered:

The majority of countries that celebrate Mother’s Day do so on the second Sunday of May. On this day, it is common for Mothers to be lavished with presents and special attention from their families, friends and loved ones. But it hasn’t always been this way. Only recently dubbed “Mother’s Day,” the highly traditional practice of honoring of Motherhood is rooted in antiquity, and past rites typically had strong symbolic and spiritual overtones; societies tended to celebrate Goddesses and symbols rather than actual Mothers. In fact, the personal, human touch to Mother’s Day is a relatively new phenomenon. The maternal objects of adoration ranged from mythological female deities to the Christian Church itself. Only in the past few centuries did celebrations of Motherhood develop a decidedly human focus.

That makes me wonder….where is all the hullabaloo about Mother’s day that there is about Hallowe’en? Both started from pagan roots. 🙂

Wikipedia says much the same thing:

Different countries celebrate Mother’s Day on various days of the year because the day has a number of different origins. One school of thought claims this day emerged from a custom of mother worship in ancient Greece, which kept a festival to Cybele, a great mother of Greek gods. This festival was held around the Vernal Equinox around Asia Minor and eventually in Rome itself from the Ides of March (15 March) to 18 March. The ancient Romans also had another holiday, Matronalia, that was dedicated to Juno, though mothers were usually given gifts on this day. In some countries Mother’s Day began not as a celebration for individual mothers but rather for Christians.

Regardless of the history, Mother’s Day today is just a day where we can say to the important women in our lives….hey thanks! what you do means much.

So happy crafting for Mother’s day!

Easter is coming

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This time of year is hard in a pastor’s family, especially in a church that celebrates the day’s of Easter…. Good Friday service, Sonrise service and so forth. Means extra work for pastor, and less of having daddy around to help and play. 🙂 But I was thinking about it, and as God would have it, so was This Old Schoolhouse, they sent out their Friday Freebie, and it’s all about Easter. So here are some links on Easter to help with the teaching and crafting of it.

Perhaps first I’ll give you an email that was sent to me though on the facts of Easter for this year.

Easter this year is: Sunday March 23, 2008
As you may know, Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which this year is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.
A couple more things you might be interested in! Based on the above Easter can actually be one day earlier (march 22) but that is pretty rare.
This year is the earliest easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives. And only most elderly of our population (aged 95 or more) have ever seen it this early. And none of us have or will ever see it a day a day earlier.
Here are the facts:
The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you’re 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!) The next time it will be a day earlier (March 22), will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!
ENJOY THE UNIQUENESS OF THIS SPECIAL DAY AND THIS LITTLE PIECE OF HISTORY!

Now for other Easter stuff 🙂