Bread-Making Made Easy

// 4.15.09 // 5 Comments » // Food & Fitness, My Daughter

I used to make homemade bread with a bread machine quite often. Then the bread machine broke and I never replaced it. A few weeks ago someone in my homeschooling co-op posted this link, which has apparently made the rounds on lots of news programs. Who knew making homemade bread could be so easy?

Here’s my result:

And my little girl who loves the bread, as well as getting her hands all messy making the dough:

It Took Me 10 Years to Discover the Clear Shower Curtain

// 3.19.09 // 7 Comments » // My Daughter, Parenting

Not literally, of course. I mean, I knew clear shower liners existed, but I’ve always used a beige-colored anti-mold type (which, really? no such thing as anti-mold in a shower liner). Then a week ago when Target was out of the beige-colored anti-mold shower curtain liner, I bought a clear plastic one. And – whoa – let the bath fun begin!

My daughter is a splasher. She kicks and flips (like Ariel, the Little Mermaid) and splashes and gets everything wet. And I get really annoyed because I have a whole bathroom to wipe down. But with the clear liner, I just close the curtain, duck my head under the outer cloth curtain, and let her go crazy with the water. I put my face right up to the clear liner and she throws sponges and cups full of water at my face. And yet, I stay dry! And so does the bathroom. I am a genius.

Homeschool Science: Capillary Action in Plants

// 2.25.09 // 1 Comment » // Homeschooling, Parenting

My son is studying biology this session in his homeschool co-op science class. I’m really not a science person and particularly not a biology person. Hated it in high school and had to take it twice to pass in college.

Luckily, my husband loves science and has this baffling ability to remember everything he learned in school. (Just realized my daughter has an incredible memory, too. Here again with the cloning.) But I did manage this fun experiment that shows kids how capillary action works in plants.

Celery has special tubes called xylems which pull water from the ground up through the stems and leaves. Just cut a stalk of celery and put it into a cup of water with food coloring. Leave it for a day or so and you’ll soon see the food coloring has been drawn up through the xylems.

Read more about this experiment here.