The debate about vaccines being a cause of Autism has been going for over a decade now. Why do people make this link? What do doctors and the medical industry have to say about this? To date there has been no significant evidence that vaccination are the cause of increasing rates of Autism. Still there is disagreement How are people weighing in on this issue?
The medical industry insists that vaccines are safe, and important for children to get. They state that most people today are unfamiliar with the devastating effects than an outbreak of these previously prevalent, and severe childhood diseases, and may become complacent about the issue. Vaccination not only protects the child, but also the community. There are some individuals who can not be inoculated because of other health concerns. If someone who is infected comes into the contact with the community, the idea is that those who have been vaccinated will be immune, and will stop the disease from being able to spread to those who can not be. The more unvaccinated people there are, the greater the chance that the disease will have a vector to spread. Further, the medical community refutes the few studies that have linked vaccinations, and primarily thimeriosal, to Autism, based on the scientific soundness of the studies, conflicts of interest, and a perception of correlation instead of causation.
Those who advocate against vaccinations do so for many varied reasons including religious beliefs. Some do so because they believe there is a link between vaccinations and Autism. Their fear of Autism drives them to avoid vaccinating their child(ren). Although there has been no reliable scientific proof that there is a connection between the two, the idea persists. Thymirisol is a mercury derivative that was widely used as a vaccine preservative. Many claim that it is the cause of their concern. Some claim that there is a conspiracy to cover up the truth about thimerisol, ostensibly to prevent those whose children may have developed Autism as a result of vaccinations to seek damages from pharmaceutical companies. They also question why thimerisol was phased out after this correlation was made, despite the industry's insistence that it is safe, and that there are still no standards set by the federal government for a safe dosage of ethyl mercury (thimerisol). There has been renewed vigor to their arguments since a case was decided that gave compensation to a family for thier child's Autism based on it being an underlying condition that was aggravated by her vaccination.
Although I understand the adamacy about the herd vaccination concept, I have to question how much the industry really believes in this claim. I read a book this summer titled The American Plague, that was about the history of Yellow Fever in America, and how it has affected our history. The reason this is important is that today there is a vaccine to prevent people from getting yellow fever. It could be readily available, but is not administered to United States populations at all. It is recommended for those travelling to regions where the disease is still a problem, but isn't required. According to CDC (Center for Disease Control) regulations even a single case of yellow fever is to be treated as an epidemic. It is a ruthless disease and spreads rapidly via direct contact with infected blood (like with AIDS), or through the vector of mosquitoes. If something as serious as yellow fever doesn't still need to be vaccinated against, then why are other diseases that are just as uncommon and not nearly as virulent, so important? It just provides an area of skepticism and something to think about. I agree that although there seems to be a correlation between when children are vaccinated and when symptoms of Autism are typically identified, there isn't strong scientific evidence that the relationship is causal. To me, the important benefits that vaccines offer outweigh the risks. There is always the risk that a vaccine could have an adverse affect on a person. It does seem like we cram a lot of shots into a very short period of time for children who are extremely young. Perhaps simple overload stresses the body more than any particular ingredient.
There are two very different views when it comes to the potential connection between Autism and vaccinations. While medical professionals maintain that there is no correlation, many parents remain unsure and demand that there be further investigation. One thing that both agree on is that Autism is a growing challenge for youth, and something that should be addressed.
Despite the differences in opinion, a link to vaccinations as the cause of Autism is unverifiable. At best there is a correlation between the timing of childhood vaccinations, and the identification of Autism symptoms. Autism is an extremely varying condition. Some of the increase in identification in recent years may simply be due to people looking for it. Children who used to be labeled differently are re-categorized as having Autism. It can run the spectrum from children who would have simply been called introverts, to those classified as having opposition-defiance disorder. The truth is, that we live in a time when people what to be able to label everything. They want to have a diagnosis so that they can push for extra services for their child, and for an IEP (Individual Education Plan) with their school. And then they want to have someone, or something to blame. It has become unacceptable to many people that sometimes people simply get sick, or in the case of Autism, that some people just function differently. Too many people see these, likely normal variations in the human condition, to be defects. Parents on both sides of the issue are passionate, but both want to do what is best for their children. The medical industry has tried to address people's concerns, and further research has been conducted that shows no linkage to vaccines or thimerisol as the cause of Autism. There will always be those who won't accept these answers, and they will continue to spread rumors about the alleged connection. The best thing that parents can do is to do some research, and educate themselves about this issue before deciding not to vaccinate their children for this reason.
Sources:
Vaccines and Autisum: Separating fact from Fiction
http://www.babycenter.com/0_vaccines-and-autism-separating-fact-from-fiction_1470554.bc?page=1
Accessed 25 January 2013
Vaccines & Autism: Controversy Persists, But Why?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/11/vaccines-autism-controversy-why_n_1586898.html
Accessed 25 January 2013
WebMD Special Report: Autism- Searching for Answers
http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/searching-for-answers/vaccines-autism
Accessed 25 January 2013
The American Plague by Molly Caldwell Crosby. Print.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Thursday, January 17, 2013
News and Updates
Just a quick update on the blog. I'd like to let any followers know that I'm going to be using this blog for my own school projects during this semester since I will have some blogging assignments in at least one of my classes. Though I am not home schooling myself, since I am taking all of my courses online, I am schooling at home in a sense! So don't be surprised when I start posting biology labs and such!
If you're interested in all the things the kids have been up too... they have been very busy school-wise this year. Reagan has adapted very well to skip to 2nd grade. She has many friends in her new class and continues to do very well academically. She was just on the honor roll for the 2nd straight quarter, and was so very proud to have brought her grades up from 4 A+s on her last quarterly report, to 5 this time (the rest of her 17 grades were all As too)! She certainly pushes herself to achieve! We only ask that she does her own best, and her best continues to amaze us. At school she also submitted an op-ed for the school paper that is published by the middle schoolers.. we are awaiting the next issue to see if she gets printed, and is preparing for the school-wide spelling bee. At home we have continued our schooling as well. She has been working on skip counting and converting this skill to use for her times tables. The way she manipulates equations to factors that she knows better is just amazing. (Instead of 9x5, she converts it in her head to 3x15.) She also has really enjoyed watching the beginning portion of the Mental Math course form The Great Courses, and is obviously picking up some of the techniques! We are supposed to do some science Saturdays, but we'll have to work on those around my school schedule. A few other activity highlights for her include continuing in Girl Scouts. She is a Juliette, meaning that she has no troop, and all of the badges and stuff are done by her individually with me. It's a lot of work, but provides her a lot of flexibility She just recently was able to earn some patches while we were on our winter break vacation while learning about the sea life of the San Francisco bay area, about light houses, and about the California Missions. As well as Girl Scouts she began 4-H this year and is very active in rabbitry.
Adam is doing well with his early start into Kindergarten. He is well liked among his peers and excelling in the classroom. He is reading avidly and has shown great skill in mechanics as he builds some amazing things with his Legos. He follows kit directions that are recommended for much older kids, but then goes back and builds incredibly creative things of his own later as well. He is also involved in $-H and although he enjoys the rabbit is not yet ready to really participate in that, so he is just doing the Clover Buds project this year. While on our winter break he participated in 3 National Park Junior Ranger programs with Reagan and they earned badges at Alcatraz, The San Francisco Maritime Museum, and Muir Woods. He continues his interest in cooking and recently helped to bake his sister's birthday cake. We have also cone some other really interesting kitchen projects this fall like making our own cheese!
Catie is almost 3 now, and is starting to really want to do home schooling while her siblings go to standard school. She knows all of her colors and many shapes. She is working on her alphabet, and can usually get as far as G without help. She also counts to 10 most of the time. She's started doing some shape and color sorting projects with puzzles and preschool workbooks at home and is very curious! Of course she is also still a 2 year old and very grumpy when she doesn't get to do just what she wants! Thankfully she mostly wants to learn, dance, and help out in the kitchen!
Kyllie at almost 1 1/2 isn't really ready for any formal schooling stuff, but she pays a lot of attention to what Catie is doing and her vocabulary is always growing. She understand so much and her abilities seem to increase by the day!
So there's a quick update on the kids, and on what to expect to be hapening on the blog in the coming months! I will try to post an update on what we are doing now and then among the biology discussions and labs if I can!
If you're interested in all the things the kids have been up too... they have been very busy school-wise this year. Reagan has adapted very well to skip to 2nd grade. She has many friends in her new class and continues to do very well academically. She was just on the honor roll for the 2nd straight quarter, and was so very proud to have brought her grades up from 4 A+s on her last quarterly report, to 5 this time (the rest of her 17 grades were all As too)! She certainly pushes herself to achieve! We only ask that she does her own best, and her best continues to amaze us. At school she also submitted an op-ed for the school paper that is published by the middle schoolers.. we are awaiting the next issue to see if she gets printed, and is preparing for the school-wide spelling bee. At home we have continued our schooling as well. She has been working on skip counting and converting this skill to use for her times tables. The way she manipulates equations to factors that she knows better is just amazing. (Instead of 9x5, she converts it in her head to 3x15.) She also has really enjoyed watching the beginning portion of the Mental Math course form The Great Courses, and is obviously picking up some of the techniques! We are supposed to do some science Saturdays, but we'll have to work on those around my school schedule. A few other activity highlights for her include continuing in Girl Scouts. She is a Juliette, meaning that she has no troop, and all of the badges and stuff are done by her individually with me. It's a lot of work, but provides her a lot of flexibility She just recently was able to earn some patches while we were on our winter break vacation while learning about the sea life of the San Francisco bay area, about light houses, and about the California Missions. As well as Girl Scouts she began 4-H this year and is very active in rabbitry.
Adam is doing well with his early start into Kindergarten. He is well liked among his peers and excelling in the classroom. He is reading avidly and has shown great skill in mechanics as he builds some amazing things with his Legos. He follows kit directions that are recommended for much older kids, but then goes back and builds incredibly creative things of his own later as well. He is also involved in $-H and although he enjoys the rabbit is not yet ready to really participate in that, so he is just doing the Clover Buds project this year. While on our winter break he participated in 3 National Park Junior Ranger programs with Reagan and they earned badges at Alcatraz, The San Francisco Maritime Museum, and Muir Woods. He continues his interest in cooking and recently helped to bake his sister's birthday cake. We have also cone some other really interesting kitchen projects this fall like making our own cheese!
Catie is almost 3 now, and is starting to really want to do home schooling while her siblings go to standard school. She knows all of her colors and many shapes. She is working on her alphabet, and can usually get as far as G without help. She also counts to 10 most of the time. She's started doing some shape and color sorting projects with puzzles and preschool workbooks at home and is very curious! Of course she is also still a 2 year old and very grumpy when she doesn't get to do just what she wants! Thankfully she mostly wants to learn, dance, and help out in the kitchen!
Kyllie at almost 1 1/2 isn't really ready for any formal schooling stuff, but she pays a lot of attention to what Catie is doing and her vocabulary is always growing. She understand so much and her abilities seem to increase by the day!
So there's a quick update on the kids, and on what to expect to be hapening on the blog in the coming months! I will try to post an update on what we are doing now and then among the biology discussions and labs if I can!
Monday, August 20, 2012
So far the kids have continued to be excited about school and homework!
Reagan has completed reading the Jr. classics of Moby Dick (in under an hour), and The Wizard of Oz, and also read Charlotte's Web. She's a good portion of the way though another E.B. White book now, The Trumpet of the Swan, and is also concurrently re-reading the Bunnicula series. I believe she finished up Howliday in on Saturday. I still can't get over how fast that kid reads!!
Reagan has completed reading the Jr. classics of Moby Dick (in under an hour), and The Wizard of Oz, and also read Charlotte's Web. She's a good portion of the way though another E.B. White book now, The Trumpet of the Swan, and is also concurrently re-reading the Bunnicula series. I believe she finished up Howliday in on Saturday. I still can't get over how fast that kid reads!!
This weekend we took the kids for a special trip down to Phoenix. We spend Saturday evening, and Sunday morning at the water park of the Arizona Grand Resort, but Saturday morning and afternoon were spend at the Challenger Space Museum! This was a great experience for all! The trip to the museum was all planned by Daddy, who also found out on the museum website that there was an opportunity to earn a special Girl Scout patch there for Reagan. They have a Boy Scout patch program as well, but Adam isn't old enough to join the organization until next year. (He can't wait!) There is a mobile planetarium that they have at the museum on certain dates, which is why Reagan was able to do the program. We attended a showing and all the kids loved it.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Soccer, Homework, and Grandma Cookies
One of the things that I love about doing a home school/ Montessori blend with my kids is that I don't have to stress about making sure that they are getting all the "necessary" stuff from what I am teaching them. We do a lot of traditional style learning at home as well as doing lots of practical stuff, hands on, and teachable moments. Basically we can just have fun and learn as we go. There are some who continue this kind of approach full time with their kids while home schooling, but that just isn't for us. And when I say that, I mean both for me, and for the kids.
My kids are total academic workaholics! They work on grade workbooks for fun and LOVE to read. They were really disappointed last week that they weren't getting any homework from school until Friday! When they came home yesterday with their first homework of the school year, they each munched a celebratory Nerds rope and spread themselves out on my bed to get started right away. My Kindergartener was done in under 10 minutes with his entire packet for the week, and my 2nd grader completed all of her spelling homework, including a practice spelling test and writing spelling word sentences. Boy is 2nd grade homework different from the Kindergarten homework of last year!
While they were in school yesterday, the 2 year old and I had some fun preschool time drawing pictures with marker (a special treat). She did several, including one of a dolphin, one of herself, and one of her Christmas list (the kids are getting an early start this year). She also helped make Jello. We did some counting practice, and though she gets mixed up after 5, she can get to 10 with only a little help now.
This morning I took the older 2 kids to a pre-season soccer clinic put on through the kids' soccer league by the soccer team from my college. We ran into some friends there, and the kids had a great time getting back out on the field, and brushing up on their skills. After a quick lunch, and stop at Sam's Club, we came home and it was nap time for the younger two, so the older ones were looking for some fun quiet time activities. Reagan started with her daily reading time for her school homework. There's a minimum of 20 minutes a day. Right now she is reading The Wizard of Oz specifically for this so we can track it per the teacher's requirements for reporting pages read, title, author, and synopsis, but she reads plenty of other things still too! Adam sat down with a Disney math workbook and did 4 pages with me. Two were addition, with which he is familiar, and two were subtraction, which has sounded scary to him. It's amazing what a picture of Lightning McQueen on the page can do for a daunting new math topic. He was thrilled to do it, and found that with the assistance of pictures representing the subtraction, that it was easy for him to do! :) Those "I knew you could do it, and now you know too," moments are awesome.
While the cookies were in the oven, the kids sat down in the library for a game of Word Shout, but Adam was tired, so it wasn't a very long one. He headed off for a nap, so once the cookies were done, I helped Reagan set up for some time on Vocabulary Spelling City. Her teacher set it up for all the kids in the class so that they can practice writing and spelling with their weekly spelling words at home if they have home or library Internet access. So far, I would really recommend it, especially for home schoolers. In our case the teacher is providing the lists we work with, and if you sign up for a paid account, you can set up your own lists, and track your child's work without having to actually sit with them while they do it. But even if you don't have your own word lists they give you grade appropriate general ones that you can work with. There are also many of their game features that are free for your child to work with. Certainly worth checking out! Reagan spent a LOT of time on there, which gave Adam a chance to work on his Web Ranger program through the NPS once he got up from his nap too.
I will be starting back to school myself in just over a week and a half, so who knows if I will manage to keep up with the blogging.. but since I am trying to plan on actually having more planned activities ready to do with the kids, and need to have things for Catie to do on a daily basis now that the older two are back in school.. I should at least hopefully have something to write about and be on a better schedule to share those things as well.
My kids are total academic workaholics! They work on grade workbooks for fun and LOVE to read. They were really disappointed last week that they weren't getting any homework from school until Friday! When they came home yesterday with their first homework of the school year, they each munched a celebratory Nerds rope and spread themselves out on my bed to get started right away. My Kindergartener was done in under 10 minutes with his entire packet for the week, and my 2nd grader completed all of her spelling homework, including a practice spelling test and writing spelling word sentences. Boy is 2nd grade homework different from the Kindergarten homework of last year!
While they were in school yesterday, the 2 year old and I had some fun preschool time drawing pictures with marker (a special treat). She did several, including one of a dolphin, one of herself, and one of her Christmas list (the kids are getting an early start this year). She also helped make Jello. We did some counting practice, and though she gets mixed up after 5, she can get to 10 with only a little help now.
This morning I took the older 2 kids to a pre-season soccer clinic put on through the kids' soccer league by the soccer team from my college. We ran into some friends there, and the kids had a great time getting back out on the field, and brushing up on their skills. After a quick lunch, and stop at Sam's Club, we came home and it was nap time for the younger two, so the older ones were looking for some fun quiet time activities. Reagan started with her daily reading time for her school homework. There's a minimum of 20 minutes a day. Right now she is reading The Wizard of Oz specifically for this so we can track it per the teacher's requirements for reporting pages read, title, author, and synopsis, but she reads plenty of other things still too! Adam sat down with a Disney math workbook and did 4 pages with me. Two were addition, with which he is familiar, and two were subtraction, which has sounded scary to him. It's amazing what a picture of Lightning McQueen on the page can do for a daunting new math topic. He was thrilled to do it, and found that with the assistance of pictures representing the subtraction, that it was easy for him to do! :) Those "I knew you could do it, and now you know too," moments are awesome.
So, after some more traditional school work, we headed for the kitchen and the kids baked up a batch of cookies from a "cookies in a jar" mix their grandmother made and gave them for Christmas. Admittedly, there wasn't as much measuring math as there usually is for these kinds of projects since the mix was pre-made, but they had a ton of fun mixing the dough and rolling the balls for the cookies. And I bet after dinner tonight they will have a great time eating them too!
While the cookies were in the oven, the kids sat down in the library for a game of Word Shout, but Adam was tired, so it wasn't a very long one. He headed off for a nap, so once the cookies were done, I helped Reagan set up for some time on Vocabulary Spelling City. Her teacher set it up for all the kids in the class so that they can practice writing and spelling with their weekly spelling words at home if they have home or library Internet access. So far, I would really recommend it, especially for home schoolers. In our case the teacher is providing the lists we work with, and if you sign up for a paid account, you can set up your own lists, and track your child's work without having to actually sit with them while they do it. But even if you don't have your own word lists they give you grade appropriate general ones that you can work with. There are also many of their game features that are free for your child to work with. Certainly worth checking out! Reagan spent a LOT of time on there, which gave Adam a chance to work on his Web Ranger program through the NPS once he got up from his nap too.
I will be starting back to school myself in just over a week and a half, so who knows if I will manage to keep up with the blogging.. but since I am trying to plan on actually having more planned activities ready to do with the kids, and need to have things for Catie to do on a daily basis now that the older two are back in school.. I should at least hopefully have something to write about and be on a better schedule to share those things as well.
Monday, August 6, 2012
So it's been almost a year since I posted on here.. I've been a little busy though...
Today is the kids first day of school for the year at the Montessori School. It may seem somewhat confusing that this is a home schooling blog, and that I have children who attend a public school. I get that. We do home schooling as well as the regular school. There are a couple of reasons for this. The most important reason is that the kids LOVE it. Another big reason is that I really believe in teachable moments and that almost everything in life is a learning experience. So today my oldest starts 2nd grade and my second is starting Kindergarten!
Today in their lunches I'm sending along a note for each of them to let them know that we're thinking about them, and how proud we are of them. I got these card last year and love them for kids for all kinds of events at school.. spelling test, student of the week, end of the school year, or just because! They're made just for kids and are really great quality because they're done by Hallmark, but not too pricey (2/ $1.00 if I remember correctly), and are smaller so they are prefect for little hands and fitting in lunch bags. Of course if you're crafty, you can make them too!
Today is the kids first day of school for the year at the Montessori School. It may seem somewhat confusing that this is a home schooling blog, and that I have children who attend a public school. I get that. We do home schooling as well as the regular school. There are a couple of reasons for this. The most important reason is that the kids LOVE it. Another big reason is that I really believe in teachable moments and that almost everything in life is a learning experience. So today my oldest starts 2nd grade and my second is starting Kindergarten!
Today in their lunches I'm sending along a note for each of them to let them know that we're thinking about them, and how proud we are of them. I got these card last year and love them for kids for all kinds of events at school.. spelling test, student of the week, end of the school year, or just because! They're made just for kids and are really great quality because they're done by Hallmark, but not too pricey (2/ $1.00 if I remember correctly), and are smaller so they are prefect for little hands and fitting in lunch bags. Of course if you're crafty, you can make them too!
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Raisins
This week's Saturday School we studied raisins. First let's take a look at what you'll need to get together to do these projects.
Reading:
How Do You Raise a Raisin? by Craig Brown
ISBN: 1-57091-397-8
The Sunmaid Raisins Play Book by Alison Weir
ISBN: 0-689-83230-7
Recipes:
Ants on a Log (celery, whipped cream cheese, raisins)
Tasty Sweet Potatoes (2 large sweet potatoes, 1-2 oranges, 1/2-3/4 c. raisins)
For lots more tasty raisin recipes check out the Sun Maid Raisin website where they are offering free downloads of cookbooks they have put out over the last 100 years. For children, I recommend the 1990 My Favorite Baking Book, 2001 book, Kids are Cookin', and 2002 Get Cookin' Together Kit. You can also find fun snack ideas for kids and a word scramble for older kids on the California Raisin Growers website.
We started out the say by sitting down together and reading How Do You Raise a Raisin? It was a really fun book for the kids that smoothly integrates fun rhyming poetry with lots of good facts about raisins, how they are grown and used etc. The information was good and teaches a lot about grape history, how grapes are grown, how raisins are harvested and dried, the packaging process and different uses of rains products. I even learned some things about raisins from reading the book, which is always a plus!
After reading the book we talked about what we had read. The kids were able to relate to where raisins are grown because we have driven through the San Juaqine Valley on trips to visit family in California. We also took a mini field trip to the back yard to visit our own Thompson's Seedless grape vine. We talked about when we planted ours and how old it is, and how much longer we would have to wait to have grapes on our vines. They were very excited when they realized per the book, that if grapes bear in the 3rd year, and we planted ours last year, that we might have grapes next year! You can have this conversation even if you don;t have your own grape vines, but I'm sure it contributes a lot to the enthusiasm. It was a great way to integrate math into things before even getting to the cooking part. One thing mentioned in the book is how many pounds of fresh grapes are required to produce 1 pound of raisins. We talked about the scientific process of evaporation and how that made the grapes weigh less.
While I was getting things ready for the kids to make Ants on a Log for part of their lunch, my oldest decided that she needed to do a raisin craft. She cut a giant raisin out of purple construction paper, then on a separate paper she drew a raisin box from memory, complete with the red bonneted Sun Maid girl, and next to it, a bunch of Thompson's Seedless grapes. Then she glued the raisin on and it was time to make some logs! I had looked for some printable activity pages to go along with this week's raisin theme, but didn't find any that were specifically grape or raisin oriented. So I was glad that the kids were so enthusiastic in coming up with their own activity to do.
Ants on a Log
What you'll need: Celery ribs, whipped cream cheese, raisins, sharp knife, butter knife, cutting board.
Wash celery ribs and trim. Using sharp knife, cut into manageable pieces (we like about 1/3s of a rib) and use butter knife to fill with cream cheese. (Raisin bread was identified as a use of raisins, so of course we had to add a raisin bread English muffin to the plate.)
Now comes the fun part of the kids getting to put their ants onto their logs. This is a great time to integrate some counting or basic addition into your project. Ask your child to put a certain number of ants on their logs. For counters you can say put 3 ants on the first log. Now put 5 ants on the second log. This covers both counting and ordering. For adders you can say put 3 plus 2 ants on your log. You can even do this with some basic multiplication to tie older children into the snack fun.
My somewhat OCD children insisted that there must be exactly 4 ants on each log.
Looks good! Time to eat!!
The kids later enjoyed a raisin snack while working with The Sun Maid Raisin Play Book. It's a fun interactive book and always popular with the kids. (We also have a couple of Cheerios ones that they enjoy immensely.) This book provides some good early reader material that you can read to your child, or if they are a beginning reader, you can help them to read on their own. The raisin interative play on each page provides a nice break for them from the reading if they are having to sound words out. IT provides a nice instant reward when they are done reading the page and allows them some recovery time before tackling the next one!
The interactive portion of the book is fabulous to copying patterns, counting and following directions. And eating the raisins after makes for a healthy and delicious snack!
We also made the Tasty Sweet Potato Recipe, but I'm going to post that part as a second blog post because this one is already so lengthy and with this all being so picture heavy it makes it easier to get through to break it up some. So look for that soon!
Reading:
How Do You Raise a Raisin? by Craig Brown
ISBN: 1-57091-397-8
The Sunmaid Raisins Play Book by Alison Weir
ISBN: 0-689-83230-7
Recipes:
Ants on a Log (celery, whipped cream cheese, raisins)
Tasty Sweet Potatoes (2 large sweet potatoes, 1-2 oranges, 1/2-3/4 c. raisins)
For lots more tasty raisin recipes check out the Sun Maid Raisin website where they are offering free downloads of cookbooks they have put out over the last 100 years. For children, I recommend the 1990 My Favorite Baking Book, 2001 book, Kids are Cookin', and 2002 Get Cookin' Together Kit. You can also find fun snack ideas for kids and a word scramble for older kids on the California Raisin Growers website.
We started out the say by sitting down together and reading How Do You Raise a Raisin? It was a really fun book for the kids that smoothly integrates fun rhyming poetry with lots of good facts about raisins, how they are grown and used etc. The information was good and teaches a lot about grape history, how grapes are grown, how raisins are harvested and dried, the packaging process and different uses of rains products. I even learned some things about raisins from reading the book, which is always a plus!
After reading the book we talked about what we had read. The kids were able to relate to where raisins are grown because we have driven through the San Juaqine Valley on trips to visit family in California. We also took a mini field trip to the back yard to visit our own Thompson's Seedless grape vine. We talked about when we planted ours and how old it is, and how much longer we would have to wait to have grapes on our vines. They were very excited when they realized per the book, that if grapes bear in the 3rd year, and we planted ours last year, that we might have grapes next year! You can have this conversation even if you don;t have your own grape vines, but I'm sure it contributes a lot to the enthusiasm. It was a great way to integrate math into things before even getting to the cooking part. One thing mentioned in the book is how many pounds of fresh grapes are required to produce 1 pound of raisins. We talked about the scientific process of evaporation and how that made the grapes weigh less.
While I was getting things ready for the kids to make Ants on a Log for part of their lunch, my oldest decided that she needed to do a raisin craft. She cut a giant raisin out of purple construction paper, then on a separate paper she drew a raisin box from memory, complete with the red bonneted Sun Maid girl, and next to it, a bunch of Thompson's Seedless grapes. Then she glued the raisin on and it was time to make some logs! I had looked for some printable activity pages to go along with this week's raisin theme, but didn't find any that were specifically grape or raisin oriented. So I was glad that the kids were so enthusiastic in coming up with their own activity to do.
Ants on a Log
What you'll need: Celery ribs, whipped cream cheese, raisins, sharp knife, butter knife, cutting board.
Wash celery ribs and trim. Using sharp knife, cut into manageable pieces (we like about 1/3s of a rib) and use butter knife to fill with cream cheese. (Raisin bread was identified as a use of raisins, so of course we had to add a raisin bread English muffin to the plate.)
Now comes the fun part of the kids getting to put their ants onto their logs. This is a great time to integrate some counting or basic addition into your project. Ask your child to put a certain number of ants on their logs. For counters you can say put 3 ants on the first log. Now put 5 ants on the second log. This covers both counting and ordering. For adders you can say put 3 plus 2 ants on your log. You can even do this with some basic multiplication to tie older children into the snack fun.
My somewhat OCD children insisted that there must be exactly 4 ants on each log.
Looks good! Time to eat!!
The kids later enjoyed a raisin snack while working with The Sun Maid Raisin Play Book. It's a fun interactive book and always popular with the kids. (We also have a couple of Cheerios ones that they enjoy immensely.) This book provides some good early reader material that you can read to your child, or if they are a beginning reader, you can help them to read on their own. The raisin interative play on each page provides a nice break for them from the reading if they are having to sound words out. IT provides a nice instant reward when they are done reading the page and allows them some recovery time before tackling the next one!
The interactive portion of the book is fabulous to copying patterns, counting and following directions. And eating the raisins after makes for a healthy and delicious snack!
We also made the Tasty Sweet Potato Recipe, but I'm going to post that part as a second blog post because this one is already so lengthy and with this all being so picture heavy it makes it easier to get through to break it up some. So look for that soon!
Saturday School
Since my oldest two will be starting regular school next Monday, I've been working on coming up with a good scheduled time to continue our home schooling adventures around their school schedule, and my crazy 2 kids still at home schedule. My oldest will be in school 5 days a week, and the second will be in pre-K 3 days a week. Daddy is usually home from work on Sundays, so it makes sense to do our intensive home schooling stuff on Saturdays. Soccer games will be starting on Saturdays next month, but that's only the mornings, so hopefully we can continue with projects in the afternoons them. My plan is to post a weekly post here that covers what we have done and how my kids have been doing at school as well as at home, as well as a second weekly post that covers our major study activities so that others can do soem of the same things that we are. I'm a big believer in learning everyday skills, especially cooking, and think they are a great way to incorporate math and science into our children's daily learning diet. It is for this reason that I am planning to start out our Saturday schooling with learning in the kitchen. I'll be posting recommended reading along with activities and at least one recipe. I hope that our learning is fun, and that some of you find it helpful for yourselves as well! (I'm hoping to do our first activities this Saturday, so look for a posting Sunday, or the beginning of next week with all the details!)
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