The Fun of An Unplanned Day

This past week, we continued with our regular studies and completed Creation to the Greeks week 27. However, there were a couple of days when I wasn't feeling the best, so we had a much lighter work load. One day, the kids spent part of the morning drawing and making up their own stories. So, later that afternoon, we stopped at a friend's house (another homeschooling family) and used the opportunity for the kids to practice "public" story-telling. I had them stand in front of their friends with their story notebooks and tell their stories. They both enjoyed that, and it was a good experience for them.

The next day, we spent a good part of the morning reading on the couch. We read various books from the library, and one that I recently purchased at our homeschool curriculum swap. It is one of ten books in the "Tales of Virtue" series for children. This one was called "Stone Soup" and was meant to convey the virtue of cooperation.

After reading the story, and discussing it, my 9yo son said, "Let's make stone soup!" Hmmmm. Well, it wasn't in my original plan but, since he brought up the idea, why not? After all, the only ingredients in the soup are potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and salt & pepper. JJ says he wants to be a Chef someday when he grows up, so why not foster that and begin teaching him how to cook? Just call it Home Economics. Even if he decides to do something else when he is grown, at least he will have some cooking skills, right? So, fortunately, I just so happened to have some carrots in the refrigerator already peeled. They just needed to be chopped up, so JJ got to work doing that...

While he chopped the carrots, I peeled some potatoes and put EL to work chopping those...

We didn't have any cabbage on hand, so I added some frozen green beans to the pot instead.  Then, we added salt and pepper, and I also snuck in some beef bouillon for some added flavor. We did, however, leave out the stone!

Next, JJ stirred the pot and we waited for it to boil...

Once the vegetables were tender, we each had a bowl of warm, homemade vegetable soup for lunch!

I so enjoy taking advantage of unplanned days like this - unexpected opportunities to use for teaching, learning, cooperating, and spending quality time together.

Go check out "Stone Soup" from the library, and have fun making your own memories...



http://whyhomeschool.blogspot.com/