State-by-State Baking :: Massachusetts’ Boston Baked Beans and Bouncy Basketball Treats
Inspired by The United States Cookbook: Fabulous Foods and Fascinating Facts From All 50 States
the girls decided to make Boston Baked Beans for with our Sunday dinner:“Early colonists learned to make baked beans from their Native American neighbors. Native Americans flavored the beans with bear meat and maple syrup. The colonists substituted salt pork for the bear meat and molasses for the maple syrup. Baked beans on Saturday night became a Massachusetts food tradition in colonial times. The tradition started because Puritans were not allowed to work on Sunday, so beans were cooked on Saturday and served for Sunday’s dinner as well. Some women who were not so crazy about beans served them only on Sunday.”
We had a few children, Chiquita included, that were not so crazy about these beans. Maybe if we would have cut back on the onion…
Boston town and Bunker Hill,
and bouncy, bouncy Basketball,
played first in Springfield –
What a thrill!”
To go along with our Beans and Burgers, the girls also made an extra treat, inspired by some Basketball Cupcakes, using mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups instead of the cupcakes:
Cream Cheese Frosting
Orange Decorator’s Gel
Mini Basketball Chocolates
For each basket, trim the cookie flush with the wrapper’s edges, if needed. Unwrap the peanut butter cup and pipe a ring of decorators’ gel around the edge. (We forgot to do this last step. Oops!)
For the backboard, frost half of a cookie, then add decorators’ gel details. Keeping the cookie flat, dab frosting where the basket will go and gently press the peanut butter cup in place.
Use another dab of frosting to secure a chocolate basketball. Let the treats set for at least a half hour before standing them up. (We stood ours up right away and didn’t have a problem.)
United States Coloring Book (Dover)
State Birds and Flowers Coloring Book (Dover)
The United States Cookbook: Fabulous Foods and Fascinating Facts From All 50 States
State-by-State Scrapbook
State-by-State Scrapbook :: Massachusetts
State-by-State Baking :: Connecticut’s Red Robin Hamburgers
It has been a long time since the girls have made any recipes to go along with their United States Geography Study this year. We got off to a great start in the fall, making Delaware Peach Crumble, Pennsylvania Hershey’s Chocolate Breakfast Cake, and a New Jersey and Georgia inspired lunch, but then I hit my third trimester and due to a number of extra pregnancy challenges the first things to go were the weekly State-by-State Baking with the girls and all the fun Little Saints Pre-school Activities for Snuggles. The girls continued studying the various States (in the order they joined the Union) and I promised them that after the baby was a couple months old we would go back and review each state and catch up on their baking.
Well, our little Bud will be 3 months old next week (on the feast of St. Joseph), everyone is starting to recover from the flu, and summer will be here in no time. Sooo, if we hope to finish at least half the States this year, we had better get busy. The girls agreed, and were more than excited! 🙂
We started with a recipe for Connecticut today, along with a couple for Massachusetts (I’ll post about those next), and hope to make quite a few more this coming week, before their Daddy leaves for training next weekend. I guess we will see how it goes!
Inspired by The United States Cookbook: Fabulous Foods and Fascinating Facts From All 50 States
“The hamburger was probably first made and sold in New Haven in 1900. The owner of Louis’ Lunch made hamburgers from the trimmings of steak used in steak sandwiches. He served the hamburgers on a plate with onions and home fries. When a customer was in a rush, he asked the owner to put the hamburger between two pieces of bread so he could get going. Even in 1900 there was a need for fast food!”
a lovely little fellow.
He sings a pretty tune,
musical and mellow.”
And with the state bird being the American Robin… we had to go with a “Red Robin” inspired burger, right?!? We used the following recipe for Teriyaki Burgers from Bless Us O Lord. (Thank you Barbara!) Everyone LOVED the burgers and we will definitely be making them again!
Ingredients:
8 – 1/3 pound frozen hamburger patties
Marinade:
1-3/4 c. water
1 c. soy sauce
1 c. light brown sugar
1/2 t. onion powder (we substituted 1/2 tbs. onion flakes)
1/2 t. garlic powder
8 canned pineapple slices
8 slices cheddar cheese
8 sesame seed hamburger buns
mayonnaise
8 tomato slices
8 iceberg lettuce leaves
Directions:
Begin by preparing the marinade and defrosting the hamburger patties.
Combine all marinade ingredients in a small saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes, or until sauce thickens. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.
Place burgers in a baking dish or a large storage container. Baste with marinade; flip and baste the other side (be sure to reserve some marinade for the pineapple slices). Cover container and refrigerate 4-12 hours. Place pineapple slices in a separate container with the remaining marinade, cover and chill.
(Ask Daddy to…) Preheat grill to medium heat. Cook hamburgers 3 to 5 minutes per side, or to desired doneness. When you flip the burgers, add the pineapple to grill and cook until the grill marks show, turning once. About 1 minute before the burgers are done, place a slice of cheese on top of each patty to melt.
Spread mayonnaise on the top and bottom of each bun.
Place hamburger patty on bottom bun and top with a tomato slice and a grilled pineapple slice on each. Cover with a lettuce leaf and place top bun on sandwich.
United States Coloring Book (Dover)
State Birds and Flowers Coloring Book (Dover)
The United States Cookbook: Fabulous Foods and Fascinating Facts From All 50 States
Other Posts of Interest:
State-by-State Scrapbook
State-by-State Scrapbook :: Connecticut
{this moment}
Simon and the Easter Miracle {And Other New Books for Easter!}
With Easter coming up in just one month, I have started making a few little purchases to add to our children’s Easter Baskets this year. I wanted to take a second to share a lovely new picture book that I happened to run across on Amazon titled Simon and the Easter Miracle: A Traditional Tale for Easter. I think it’s the perfect book for our little 4 year old (Snuggles) this year!
Simon and the Easter Miracle: A Traditional Tale for Easter is written by Mary Joslin, author of a number of other books we already own and love including: The Story of the Cross: The Stations of the Cross for Children, Mary, Mother of Jesus, and The Good Man of Assisi. This beautifully illustrated book is the story of Simon of Cyrene — “a man coming in from the country,” as the Gospels refer to him—who was ordered to carry Jesus’ cross.
(This year I have chosen two books for each basket, though they are not all Easter/Faith based.)
Easter Babies: A Springtime Counting Book and The Tale of Sir Prance-a-Lot (for Bud)
An Easter Gift for Me and My Favorite Things (for Rose)
Simon and the Easter Miracle: A Traditional Tale for Easter and Easter In The Garden (for Snuggles)
Beautiful Butterflies Stained Glass Coloring Book and Fancy Nancy’s Elegant Easter (for Chiquita)
Kat Finds a Friend, a St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Story and Zita the Spacegirl (for Twinkle Toes)
Saints Stained Glass Coloring Book and Treegate’s Raiders (for Rascal)
Amon’s Adventure: A Family Story for Easter and Sea Captain from Salem (Treegate) (for Captain)
I am also trying to decide on one of these for Palm Sunday:
(Do any of you have these? Any favorites?)
Humphrey’s First Palm Sunday
Little Colt’s Palm Sunday
The Donkey Who Carried a King
Problems with Pinterest
Don’t get me wrong, there are quite a few things I definitely love about Pinterest. It’s such an easy way to save projects and ideas that I find online (I’ve never been good about using bookmarks to save links), not to mention the inspiration I’ve found through the pins that have been shared by those that I follow. I’m very glad to hear that Pinterest is working on coming up with some solutions!
In the meantime, Charlotte has an excellent post today on the Pinterest Predicament.
Lap Booking {and Timeline} Questions Answered
Lap Booking {and Timeline} Questions Answered
I’ve had quite a few questions over the past few months about Lap Booking, so I thought I would post my answers here for anyone else who might be curious. If you have any other questions to add, please leave them in the comment box and I will do my best to answer them as well.
“The quality of the cutting, pasting, coloring amazes me. Do your children do it all themselves, or how much do you assist?“
I do help my children with some of the cutting. I’d much rather my children spent their time working on the content on the Lap Books. I also assemble the base for the lap books (the file folders and any additional pages). They do the rest of the pasting and all the coloring themselves.
“How did they learn to cut so well?”
Lots of practice. Our children love to cut up paper to create little projects, books, etc, which I often find all over the house. It sometimes drives me crazy! 😉 We also have a paper cutter (an older version of this one) that we use all the time.
“Where do you buy your colored file folders?”
Locally at Staples, or online from Amazon. I have purchased a few 100 count boxes (including this box of assorted primary file folders) and probably have enough to last a very long time!
“Do you use just regular glue sticks for the pasting?”
Yes, glue sticks work wonderfully. We go through a lot of glue sticks in our home! I always stock up during the Back-to-School sales in the fall. We also use some double sided tape as well. Oh, and also regular tape or packing tape to attach extra pages.
“Does the history CD include all the lapbook components as printables?”
All the products we have used made by Homeschool in the Woods have been amazing! So far my boys have completed their New Testament Lap Book, and New World Explorers Lap Book, and a Colonial Life Lap Book, using the mini-books found on the corresponding Time Travelers CD-Roms. These CD-Rom’s are a little on the expensive side (I’ve purchased most of ours discounted on Amazon) but worth every penny! Homeschool in the Woods is not a Catholic company, and I haven’t used or read through any of the included lesson plans that also come on the CD’s to be able to tell you if they contain any anti-Catholic material, but the mini-books are so detailed and well made, plus I can easily modify our Lap Books to add a bit of Catholic History as well. (We added Our Lady of Guadalupe to our New World Explorers Lap Book and Inspirational Catholic of Colonial Times to the Colonial Life Lap Book.) The CD-rom’s also include creative writing activities, recipes, time period craft instructions, file folder games, and so much more.
{Merchant Marauder Game made by Rascal using printables from the New World Explorers CD-Rom}
“Do you print everything out and do just one or two elements of the lapbook per day, or do you have large chunks of time devoted to it periodically?”
Both. Depending on how organized I am at any given time, I will pre-assign certain mini books to go along with what they are reading that particular week. Towards the end of each unit we do end up spending a whole afternoon, or two, finishing up any projects/mini-books that are not yet completed and then assembling the lap book. Oh, and I do try and print out everything we will need for the whole lap book at one time…
However, I quickly learned that there is absolutely no need to print out EVERYTHING, like I did when we first started creating Lap Books! Now I just scan through the documents on the computer, if we are using a purchased lap book with various options, only printing the select pages that are needed for each particular lap book. This saves so much ink and paper!
“We like lapbooks here as well but I find it’s a lot of work to try and get mine to focus on the whole process and not just the end result. Maybe they need to get older?”
We had that same problem when we first started making lap books. Over time I found that if I begin with just assigning one or two mini-books at a time (instead of a whole lap book project), in addition to some corresponding picture books/reading material, it isn’t nearly as overwhelming. That way it is much easier to focus on each topic and before you know it you have everything you need to assemble your lap book!
“How do you store your children’s lap books?”
Even though it make not seem like it, we really don’t make all that many lap books. The ones we do make we spend plenty of time on, really making them worth the extra effort. My children are all very proud of each one of their lap books and just love to pull them out and share with any visitors that come over. Up until now, one magazine file box for each of the boys, and one for the girls to share, has been plenty. Probably sometime this year I will pick up 3 more, so the boys will each have two and the girls will each have their own. We keep them on a bookshelf in the school room, right next to our Draw Write Now and Draw and Write Through History Collections.
“Do you have any other hints so we can get our lapbooks to look that good?”
Also, since I do assign the mini-books individually, we store them in gallon sized ziplock bags until each unit is completed and the Lap Book is ready to be assembled. This really helps prevent the individual mini-books from getting lost or damaged. I also oversee and help (when necessary) with the layout and assembly.
“I was looking at that same timeline book recently, so I wanted to ask how you like it… does it include enough space for every century? Is it in a 3 ring binder so the pages can be taken out or more can be added as necessary? Do you have one for the whole family, or does each child have his own?”
I would have to say that not only do I like our timelines, they are at the very top of my list of favorites. I LOVE these books! Each of our school-aged children has their own Record of Time, and Chiquita received one this year. She was very excited! (They are available directly from the publisher, Amazon)
The beautiful 3-Ring Hard-Cover Binder measures 12″ x 9″ and lays flat when open. It comes with 122 ivory colored cardstock pages which are dated from 5000 BC to 2025 AD, as well as an additional 17 pages of maps and a signature page to personalize the Record Book.
For the most part they create their own illustrations (rather than using pre-printed timeline figures) to add to their timelines. They will continue adding to their books each year, creating quite the keepsake by the time they graduate!
You can find links to our various completed Lap Books here.
My Daybook :: February 29, 2012 {Leap Day!}
I am thankful…
for such wonderful holy brother-in-laws, and that got to talk my husband’s youngest brother (Father D.) for a few minutes today, for the last time before he enters a cloistered Benedictine Monastery tomorrow, March 1st. I wasn’t able to talk very long, since tears were streaming down my face and I didn’t want him to hear me start sobbing. He will be missed dearly!
I am thinking…
about raising our children. Father told me yesterday that not only must I raise good and holy children and adults, I must raise them to be good and holy mothers and fathers! I hadn’t thought about it that way before. Thankfully he will be praying for us al!
Learning all the time…
and today we learned all ABOUT time! Beginning with Charlotte’s links, we did a little research on leap day/leap year and the Gregorian Calendar. Did you know that we are also going to have a “leap second” this year too?
Living the Liturgical Year at Home…
It is definitely Lent! We will be making a few plans for some of the March feasts days as well, specifically the feasts of St. Patrick and St. Joseph. You can find some of our past posts in the Links for March, which I just updated. Additional ideas can be found over at Catholic Cuisine.
From the kitchen…
fun Fruity Frogs for our afternoon snack on Leap Day!
I am creating…
Leap Day Time Capsules with my kiddos. We ran across these free printables and have been having so much fun! We still need to add a photograph to each, as well as a piece of string measuring their height, and then we will put them in an envelope to open on Feb. 29, 2016. I loved seeing how my children choose to answer the questions… Here is a sneak peek at Chiquita’s:
I am working on…
Shaking off the Bonds of Stuff with my children. Someone must have told the mailman that we had just thrown out the old catalogs since he has delivered 12 more that very afternoon… What a waster of paper and postage!
I am going…
to read In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb to my children tomorrow. I happened to run across it at the library the other day and think it is one that I’d like to add to our own collection. So sweet! I think we will read it again at the end of the month as well.
I am hoping…
that someday we will get to travel to Oklahoma. Perhaps for Father’s final vows in 5 years?
I am reading…
a couple books from the library, The Doctor’s Lady and The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity. They had been on my “wish list” for awhile, and I finally decided to just put in a request for my library to purchase them. I was excited at how easy it was to do, and sure enough they purchased the books and held them for me once they arrived! I need to do that more often.
I am praying…
for Amy’s little boy, who has RSV at just 4 weeks old. Please keep him in your prayers!
Pondering these words…
from St. John Climacus:
I am listening…
to Johnny Tremain again, as we study the American Revolution. This is one of my boys’ favorite audio books.
Around the house…
I have been enjoying those St. Valentine flowers as long as possible. I still have a few left, sitting in our little Babushkups
One of my favorite things…
Making Bud smile, and seeing the adorable little dimples around his mouth.
A few plans for the rest of the week…
We only have a few more weeks of hockey left, and the older boys really want me to come and watch a few of their last games. We’ll see. Since Bud was born, and since he really hates the car, I usually just stay home and snuggle with him on Saturday mornings.
A little peek at my day…
*I fell asleep last night before having a chance to upload pictures to this post, so I am adding it now. 🙂
Colonial Life Unit Study and Lap Book
Colonial Life Unit Study and Lap Book
This year we are making Lap Books to go along with each of our six Unit Studies for American History. Our second Unit was based on Colonial Life. While the girls were working on their Felicity Lap Books, the boys were busy making their own Lap Books with printable mini books from the Colonial Life (Time Travelers History Study Series) CD.
Resources and Books for Unit Two:
You can print our Unit Two Plans/Booklist here.
Core Text
- From Sea to Shining Sea (Chapters 4-5)
- From Sea to Shining Sea Worksheets
Additional Books read by the Boys:
- Jamestown, New World Adventure
- James Towne: Struggle for Survival
- The Pilgrims of Plimoth
- Three Ships Come Sailing
- A Lion to Guard Us
- Who’s That Stepping on Plymouth Rock?
- . . . If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620
- Pocahontas
- The Thanksgiving Story
- Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims
- “I Want to be a Christian!” Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (Glory Stories)
- Kateri Tekakwitha: Mohawk Maiden (Vision Books)
- If You Lived In Colonial Times
- Saint Isaac Jogues: With Burning Heart
- St. Francis Solano
- Benjamin Franklin
- What’s The Big Idea, Ben Franklin?
- Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin by His Good Mouse Amos
- Ben Franklin of Old Philadelphia (Landmark Books)
- Benjamin Franklin: Young Printer (Childhood of Famous Americans)
- The Courage of Sarah Noble
- Madeleine Takes Command (Living History Library)
- The Padre on Horseback: A Sketch of Eusebio Francisco Kino, S.J. Apostle to the Pimas (The American West)
Coloring Books and Activities:
- Colonial Days: Discover the Past with Fun Projects, Games, Activities, and Recipes (American Kids in History Series)
- Life in Colonial America
- Indian Tribes of North America Coloring Book
Timeline Entries:
- 1607 Jamestown Established
- 1549-1610 St. Francis Solano
- c. 1595-1617 Pocahontas
- 1580-1681 – John Smith
- 1620 Mayflower – Pilgrims land at Plymouth
- 1621 The First Thanksgiving
- died 1622 Squanto
- 1607-1646 St. Isaac Jogues
- 1645-1711 Fr. Eusebio Kino
- 1656-1680 Blessed Kateri
- 1706-1790 Benjamin Franklin
- 1713-1783 Bl. Junipero Serra
- 1773-1838 Nathaniel Bowditch
I asked the boys to choose 5-10 from the list above to add to their History Through the Ages Record of Time timeline book during this unit. The listings in bold are the ones that they choose to include this year. Here are a few pictures:
Additional Activities:
- Make a Hornbook to include in Lap Book
- Build a Diorama of a House
- Create a Jamestown Replica
- Go on a Field Trip to a Water-Powered Grist Mill
- Assemble a Colonial Life Lap Book
Colonial Life Lap Book
The Front Cover
Inside View #1
The dark yellow center page/flap addition contains the following three mini books:
Plantation Crops Layer Book
Rice, Cotton, Indigo, Sugar, and Tobacco
Flax to Linen
Round Book of “Bees”
On the Left Flap:
The Pharmacopoeia
What would you find on a Colonial farm?
On the Right Flap:
Inspirational Catholics of Colonial Times
Illustrated by Rascal
Illustrated by Captain
Instead of using the suggested “The Great Wakening: Men of Faith” we created our own mini-book with 4 inspiring Catholics that traveled to America and lived during Colonial Times: St. Francis Solano, St. Isaac Jogues, Fr. Eusebio Kino, and St. Kateri.
Hornbook Craft and Pocket
Inside View #2
Houses of the Early Settlers
Make a Dye Chart
The Center of Actual Lap Book Folder contains a pocket titled Clothing of the Colonist.
The boys created overlays using transparency paper, and gluing on the different layers of clothing worn by Colonial Men, Women, Boys and Girls.
This Colonial Woman has four different overlays, each one adding another layer to her outfit!
The boys were especially intrigued by the “pudding” worn by colonial toddlers! “While learning to walk, toddlers wore a “pudding,” a soft pillow around their waist to protect from falls.”
The boys finished this unit in January and have since moved on to Unit Three. They have been studying the American Revolution – one of their favorite time periods! I know I haven’t answered all the questions I was asked after my last Lap Book post… I’ll be back sometime this week with a few answers.
{Precious Moments} “All Ready” to Play Outside
Shaking off the Bonds of Stuff :: A 40-Day Plan for Lent
This is the first time in a few years that we are not doing a 40 bags in 40 days challenge during Lent. Our home is slowly becoming more and more organized, and I have gotten so much better about getting rid of all the extra stuff year round. So, this year, my (lenten cleaning) plan was to just focus on the couple challenging areas that I have left and then some spring cleaning just before Easter. However, when I saw this post about Shaking off the Bonds of Stuff I thought this might be the perfect Lenten project… to assign to my older children! 😉
We breezed right through the first week. We are, or rather I am, not going to make any impulse purchases until after Easter, the boys did an amazing job cleaning out the car, all the unpaired socks have been rounded up and put into a plastic bag for later, and we threw out the newspapers.
Day 5 (Monday Feb. 27): Empty your laundry room completely. Wash, fold, mend, iron, and return every item to its proper place or give it to your parish St. Vincent de Paul Society or Goodwill.
I know I’ve posted pictures in the past of our old laundry room, before we remodeled it, but I don’t think I have ever shown you a picture of it completed! (Not that you are even interested, but I took some pictures to post anyways!) To be able to make our kitchen a little wider, we had to make the old laundry room/bathroom longer and narrower, and so we ended up separating the bathroom from the laundry room with a pocket door. This bathroom is the one that my boys use, as well as any guests. What was I thinking having our boys bathroom for guests as well?! Thankfully they are pretty good about keeping it clean.
The cabinets and sink that we had hoped to install in the laundry room were cut from the plans due to our limited remodel budget, but it still is so much nicer than what we had before. Not only am I still able to fit the washer/dryer and the freezer, we were also able to add our old refrigerator as well.
Thankfully I somehow managed to catch up our laundry(!!!) this past weekend, and with the three additional loads we did this morning, we are still caught up! Captain took the old rugs that had been rolled up in the laundry room for months to the car to drop off at St. Vincent’s, took the paint buckets to the garage, and steam mopped the floor. In the meantime Chiquita helped hang up the last load of laundry to dry and then organized the caddy that slides next to the freezer, holding our laundry supplies. We got rid of a few items off of it, but looking at the picture I see a couple more that can go.
I’d like to get one more laundry sorter, but it won’t be until after Lent. I have my eyes on this one, which has a hanging bar attached to it as well (I like to hang dry quite a bit of laundry), but until then, I have still managed to find a way to dry clothes inside using an old shower curtain tension rod hung between the wall and the refrigerator. 🙂
While we are in the laundry room, I think it might be the perfect day for a little Dryer Fire Safety project. The vent outside (covered in lint) is making me just a little bit nervous at the moment!
Believe it or not, my children are really enjoying the extra projects each day, and having one more way to make little sacrifices and to count down the days until Easter!
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