Day 4 --It's a holiday; have you LEARNED anything?

Nate, despite not officially homeschooling, had to learn to make waffles on Thanksgiving morning. He asked for them; I said, "If you really want them, you'll learn to make them." He learned:

• How to read a cookbook index to find the waffles page ("This takes so much longer than just typing it into the computer!")
• How to measure milk into 3/4 cup when we don't have a 3/4 cup (only 1/4, 1/3, 1/2 and 1).
• How to pour and level flour (don't tap it down!)
• What baking powder is: "No, it's not the same thing as flour. It just looks like it."
• How to "make a well" into dry ingredients. He created his own method, using a wooden spoon like a drill.
• How to stir a batter "until just combined" and what lumpy batter looks like (even Dad asked, "Is this OK, Ma?").
• How to measure 2/3 cup without a 2/3 cup.
• How to pump the manual spray pump to grease the waffle iron.

 Madelyn continued helping with Thanksgiving prep. She cut the bread for the stuffing into 1/2" squares. We used the ruler to measure and cut a guide-slice (to be used as a template for cutting the remainder). Later we learned that cooking stuffing and stirring it every so often turns it into a sticky, stiff mess. The stuffing was not good this year. My dad advised we "toast the bread the night before." Ah. I won't stir it next time, either. We all learned something today.


After dinner, we played Apples to Apples and Scattergories. The kids played, too (and had to learn to keep up--these were the grown-up versions, not the simplified, kid-versions).

The best and then hardest lessons of all came in the evening. We wanted to see the movie "Tangled," but Madelyn wanted to stay home and watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving again this week. At the last moment, she changed her mind. It was a marvelous movie--one we would all see again. She learned that taking a chance can be a great thing.

During the movie, however, aunt Becca had shared popcorn and Madelyn overdid it. It's the Thanksgiving lesson we all have had: overindulgence. Madelyn went to bed with a bellyache (not the nervous kind).