Thursday, April 30, 2020

COIVD-19 Homeschool, Day 32

Another day when I am too focused on packing and cleaning to do much supervising of homeschool. I am basically giving the kids the following assignments to do on their own:

My daughter:

  • 20 minutes of reading
  • 30 minutes on Zearn or other online math of her choice
  • 15 minutes of cello practice
  • Google Classroom meeting at 1pm
  • 10 minutes (minimum) writing in her journal
  • Optional: Write or copy a poem neatly to be shared during the Google Classroom meeting and/or posted in our window in honor of April being Poetry Month
  • Her own addition: 30 minutes of typing practice on Typing Club
My son:
  • 30 minutes of reading
  • 30 minutes of Zearn or other online math of his choice
  • 15 minutes of trombone practice
  • 1 coding project
  • 10 minutes (minimum) writing in his journal
  • Optional: Write or copy a poem neatly to be posted in our window in honor of April being Poetry Month
I also told them that at some point before lunch, I would read them some more from The Diary of Anne Frank for 15-20 minutes. (Well, re-read, considering that they fell asleep last time, so we needed to back up a little.) I told them they could set any schedule that they want, and could take breaks any time they want, provided that they have everything finished by 2pm. 

I checked in with both of them during their lunch break to see if we needed to buckle down to get everything finished, but they were both in very good shape. My daughter had finished everything other than her Google Classroom Meeting and the optional poetry assignment (which she chose not to do), and my son had already set a timer for trombone practice starting at exactly 1:45pm, and was working on his coding project while he ate his lunch. He also opted out of the poetry assignment. It was a good exercise in time management and self-discipline to figure out on their own how to fit everything in, and they both did surprisingly well with it. 

So that's it for the day, although I'll probably also recruit them both to help me with dinner. So really, not that much of a throw-away day after all. And you should see how neat and organized (and empty) our house is getting! I'd say we all got a lot accomplished today. 



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COVID-19 Homeschool, Day 31

More like Day 30-1/2. Or Day 30-1/4. Let's get real, I'd be generous calling it Day 30-1/16. In other words, we didn't really do homeschool today. I mean, it wasn't a COMPLETE waste of time. I did have them read for 30 minutes and do online math for 30 minutes, my son had a Google Classroom meeting that lasted an hour, and my daughter had two 45-minute dance classes. But I let them do it all on their own, basically unsupervised. And I'm still going to give them credit for time served.

Today and tomorrow, I have decided, are simply throw-away days. This afternoon, my brother-in-law offered to come by and help my husband move some heavy furniture to the curb (tomorrow is trash day, and God bless our city trash guys who will take literally anything that will fit in their truck, provided only that it is non-hazardous and not currently on fire) and some other pieces into the POD. So my husband and I spent all morning making those pieces accessible, and also cleaning rooms in preparation for our realtor's walk-through on Friday.

In case you've never had to do it, clearing out a house that's crammed full of 20 years of (beloved) clutter is daunting. I mean, like, overwhelmingly daunting. I stand in front of our 2-story-plus-finished-basement house with the 17-foot-long POD looking abysmally tiny next to it, and wonder, 'how on EARTH will we fit most of our stuff in there?" Clearly, the answer to that question is, "Throw out a lot of our stuff."

And that really is what we need to do. I am the borderline hoarder in the family, the one with a sentimental attachment to everything, so I am the one who needs to ruthlessly let go of things. And surprisingly, I have been able to do that. I've flipped through huge piles of my children's school papers and projects and reminded myself that I have photographs of most of them, pulled out one or two (ONLY ONE OR TWO!!!) to save, and then mentally bade them farewell and thrown them in the trash.

It is terrifyingly cathartic.

My daughter, who is an unrepentant slob like her mother (well, to be fair, I'm more of a repentant slob), was delighted at the sight of her pared-down, neat and clean bedroom. "It's amazing!!" she blurted as she spun around in the center of her nearly-empty room. I told her to think about how much she loved the look of a neat, organized room, and plan on keeping her new room that way. I suspect that she and I will have a roughly equal level of success with that, but we'll both try. My son, who is something of a minimalist at heart, looked at his slightly emptier room and only commented, "I'll probably fall out of that smaller bed a few times before I get used to it." (We moved his queen bed out and unbunked the twin beds in my daughter's room so now they both have a single twin bed. Being something of a sprawler, he's probably not wrong with that remark.)

Right now, getting our house ready takes priority over schoolwork for two kids who are well ahead in their work, and who have a mom with free time to make this up later in the summer. So I don't feel guilty for giving them some time off. It'll all be worth it in the end. Right? Right.


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Tuesday, April 28, 2020

COVID-19 Homeschool, Day 30

Day 30 - really?!?? Really. Everyone is in a bit of a mental stupor today, partly because of the week 6/7 crash that so many of us are experiencing, and partly because of everything that's going on with buying our new house and thinking about moving. So my expectations for today - and this week, and maybe the next couple of weeks - are pretty low.

So here's our laid-back accomplishments for the day:

7-8:30am: Get up, have breakfast, get brushed and washed and dressed. This was all performed reluctantly, with slow motion, and in some instances to a limited degree (once again there are fewer pants present than there are people).

8:30-9am: My daughter asked if I would read from the Diary of Anne Frank to start the day, and my son requested that we snuggle in blankets in my bedroom while we did it. So we all got cozy and I began to read. After half an hour, I stopped and asked them a question. Silence. They had both fallen asleep while I read.

9-9:30am: Nap time!

9:30-10am: My son woke up and volunteered to write in his journal; 15 minutes later my daughter woke up and I had her write in her journal as well. I asked if either of them wanted to share anything they'd written. My son declined; my daughter read her description of one of her friends.

10-10:30am: Circle Time for my daughter and Atlantic White Shark Conservancy for my son!

10:30-11am: I asked both kids to look at their Google Classroom assignment lists and choose something from their list to work on. They both chose Typing Club.

11-11:30am: My daughter chose to continue writing in her journal, and read us some of it when she was done. My son grabbed a quick snack then worked on math on Zearn.

11:30am-1pm: Lunch break and free time!

1-2pm: My daughter has a Google Classroom meeting with her class, followed by chat with her classmates. My son set up for his 1:15pm band practice. We hit a slight snag when both kids' Chromebooks were low on battery and they could only find one charger, but we managed to hand it off and then back and everyone got through without running out of juice for more than a minute or so.

2:15-3pm: My daughter participated in an online dance party hosted by her former dance studio (which, conveniently, is owned by my sister-in-law), and was thrilled to see (and dance with) her former classmates and one of her cousins.



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Monday, April 27, 2020

Leopard Bread

I stumbled across a photo of leopard bread on line somewhere and I knew I just had to make it. I didn't even care if it tasted terrible, as long as it looked as adorable as it did in the photo. Now that I've made it, I will say that it is not only adorable, it is also delicious! It does take quite some time to make, and there are quite a few steps, but none of the steps is especially difficult. Scroll to the bottom for the summary recipe.

The ingredients are pretty basic: Cornstarch, milk, yeast, sugar, flour, unsweetened cocoa, butter, vanilla, and orange zest (I substituted lemon, because I don't like orange and didn't have one hand).

Warm 1 cup of milk to 110 degrees ("handwashing warm"). My milk was straight from the fridge and I gave it 1 minute in the microwave at full power.

Dissolve 2 tablespoons of cornstarch in the milk.

A wire whisk works well, but be sure to use a spoon to scoop the cornstarch out of the corners of the measuring cup.
Melt 4 tablespoons of butter and allow to cool to room temperature.

 
Pour the milk into a large mixing bowl, and stir in 2 tablespoons of yeast and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Allow to sit for 8-10 minutes until foamy. 






Whisk in the melted butter, a generous 1/2 cup sugar (2/3 cup less the 2 tablespoons already added to the yeast), a teaspoon of vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of orange zest (I used a scant tablespoon of lemon zest instead).





Using an electric beater with a dough hook on medium speed, gradually add 3 cups of flour, frequently scraping the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase speed to medium-high until the dough forms. I found it easiest to knead by hand in the bowl for a bit to pick up the last bit of flour.

Allow the dough to set for about 10 minutes.

Turn the dough out on a lightly floured board. Knead for 6-8 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Form dough into an even ball.

Using a sharp knife coated with flour, cut the dough ball in half.

 Set one half aside, and cut the other half into two even pieces and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa and 1 tablespoon milk. (Warm milk will combine more easily.)

In a second small bowl, combine 2 teaspoons cocoa and 1 teaspoon milk.


Stir both bowls thoroughly to form a paste. I found that mashing with the back of the spoon worked better than simply stirring.

 Place the two smaller pieces of dough into the two bowls.

Using your hands, knead the chocolate paste into the dough. The chocolate didn't work its way into the dough as thoroughly as I expected, and the two doughs were not noticeably different in color, but I didn't want to overwork the dough, so I left it as is. (The final result was just fine.) Dust all three balls of dough lightly with flour and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for 60-90 minutes.





Remove the dough from the refrigerator and divide each ball into 7 roughly equal pieces. I found it easiest to form each ball into a cylinder and score it before cutting.

Begin with the lighter of the two chocolate doughs, and form each piece into a cigar shape.

With a rolling pin, roll each piece of darker chocolate dough into an oblong about the same length as the "cigars." Using your finger or a pastry brush, dampen the edge of the oblong with milk.

 Wrap each cigar with the darker pastry and seal tightly.

You should now have 7 fat cigar-shaped pieces of dough.
 
Roll each piece of white dough into an oblong about the same length as the larger cigars and wrap as above.

You now have 7 three-layered cigars.

Line your loaf pan with parchment paper, with excess over each side to aid in lifting the baked bread from the pan. 

Roll each dough "cigar" between your hands and/or on the floured board until you have formed a rope about twice the length of your loaf pan (conveniently, my wooden bread board is exactly twice the length of my loaf pan).


Cut each rope in half, roll to smooth the cut end, and stack in the bread pan. Cover with a tea towel and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled, at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. When ready to bake, reduce heat to 350 and place bread in oven. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until inner temperature reaches 190 degrees. (My loaf took about 40 minutes.) If top begins to brown too early, cover with foil.  


Remove from oven and cool in pan on a wire rack for 5-8 minutes. Lift bread from pan using parchment paper and cool on wire rack for an additional 10 minutes.

Slice, admire, and enjoy!

Leopard Bread (original recipe here)

For the dough:
2 Tbsp Cornstarch
1 Cup  Warm Milk plus more for brushing on dough
2 Tsp Active Dry Yeast
2/3 Cup Granulated Sugar, divided
4 Tbsp Butter, melted
1 tsp Vanilla
2 Tbsp Orange Zest (I substituted 1 Tbsp lemon zest)
3 Cups Bread Flour (I used all purpose flour)

For the dark chocolate paste: 
2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
1 Tbsp Milk

For the light chocolate paste:
2 tsp Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Milk

Stir cornstarch in cup of warm milk until dissolved. In a large mixing bowl, combine milk mixture, yeast, and 2 Tbsp of the sugar. Gently stir together and let sit for 8-10 minutes until frothy. Add melted butter (cooled to room temperature), the rest of the sugar, vanilla and orange zest to yeast mixture using the dough hook attachment mix on medium low speed. Slowly spoon in flour on medium speed, and then turn up to medium high until dough has formed. The dough should be very slightly tacky, with a soft and smooth texture. Once formed, let the dough rest for about 10 minutes.
Turn out on floured board and knead for 6-8 minutes. Divide into two halves. Lightly dust one half with flour, wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge. Take the second half and evenly divide it into two halves.

In two separate bowls, stir cocoa powder and milk for each paste together with a spoon. Place one of the remaining halves of dough in each bowl of paste. Work the chocolate into the dough with your hands, kneading to incorporate all the chocolate into each dough. Lightly flour each ball, cover in plastic wrap and set in the fridge. Let all three dough balls chill for about 60-90 minutes.

Remove all three dough balls from the fridge. Divide each ball into 7 equal pieces. Roll each of the light brown pieces into a small hot dog shape. Then using a rolling pin roll each of the dark chocolate hunks into flat oval. Place the light chocolate sausage onto the flat dark chocolate oval. Using a pastry brush lightly coat the edges of the dark chocolate with milk. Then fold the dark chocolate over the light chocolate as if you were wrapping a hot dog bun around a hot dog. The result should look like a chocolate cigar. Now take the white dough and toll into an oval with the rolling pin. Repeat the process by placing the dark chocolate wrapped ‘sausage’ onto the white dough oval. Paint the edges of the white dough with milk and then fold it over the dark chocolate, closing the seams. The result should now look like a log with a light chocolate center, a wrapping of dark chocolate, and then a final wrapping of white dough. Repeat this process with the remaining dough until you have 7 logs.
Now, roll each log lengthwise with your hands, until it becomes doubled in length. Like a long snake.
Slice in half. You should now have 14 skinny logs.

Prepare loaf pan with parchment paper. Stack dough logs into the pan. Cover with a light tea towel and place in a draft free warm location to puff and double in size, at least an hour. Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C), then turn down to 350 F (176 C) and place loaf into the oven. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until inner temperature reaches 190 F. Place pan on a cooling rack for 5-8 minutes. Remove loaf from pan. Let bread cool another 10 minutes.

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