Prayerful Pretzels Proffer Number Practice

Pretzels arranged from 1 to 10.

In a house full of little boys, I have found that having five or six smaller meals throughout the day (or three meals and two or three snacks, as others might call it) is almost a necessity. Thus, inadvertently, food is a daily learning manipulative in our household. Whether extravagant or simple, consider ways to turn your snack time into a learning experience, too.

Joey and Ezra love activities. They get so excited to learn - it's quite heartening. And, when music, food, or science are involved, they're doubly ecstatic! Perhaps your children love learning experiences as much as mine - or perhaps they dread them. Whatever the case, see if you can adapt these lesson ideas for your own experience.

During the Lenten season, my snacks have been

Joey's pretzel concept of three & his 3 card.

much simpler: apple wedges, carrot sticks, ants on a log, etc (all of which Joey shuns) - and, of course, the prayerful pretzel (which Joey doesn't shun). It's fun to find ways to make us of snacks for learning. So, in order to practice number concepts in 1 to 10, I had Joey write and cut out numbers and then use the correct number of pretzels to illustrate the idea. They had so much fun and even my almost-three-year-old Ezra got in on the excitement. Joey matched his personal set of number cards to pretzel displays, created his own arrangements, and organized them from 1 to 10. In fact, this activity was so successful, that we all got creative and started making the pretzels into the numbers themselves. Any time we have a fun activity, Joey loves to find ways to create his name, so those pretzel numbers soon turned into pretzel letters.

Although this activity is geared to preschoolers, there are ways to adapt it to older children. Introduce addition and subtraction into the equation and you can have a hands-on manipulative for mathematics principles. Have your budding spellers practice spelling words with this or other snack foods. Consider the gloriously-cuttable consistency of cheese, for example, or squeeze peanut butter through a plastic bag onto bread "slates." Delve into artistic endeavors by using an array of colorful diced fruit to build a mosaic illustration of whatever historical facts you're currently learning. The ideas really are endless.

From patterns to number practice and other creative learning opportunities, food is the perfect manipulative. Just think outside the box, consider what's in your pantry and fridge, and dare to let learning become a fun-filled experience at the kitchen table, instead of a desk. Take a moment and reply in the comments to give your ideas of incorporating food into learning.

Ample Opportunities

Joey with a lime green caterpillar.  senk 2012.

In life, exposure can lead along different paths. Ultimately, though, it either leads to an unhealthy saturation centering on apathy or to a passionate pursuit of learning, exploring, and sharing such joy of life with others. In any educational environment, exposures to themes, events, and activities need to be cognitively, emotionally, physically, and socially appropriate, as well as interwoven with the interests, strengths, and weaknesses of a child. When compassion and passion collide, learning becomes positively formative for a child...

And when it does not? If we are honest with ourselves, we all know what happens to the desensitized child. Just conduct an Internet search on public school shootings or violence in video games and cartoons to assess the ways in which humanity inappropriately manipulates a child's innocence. When our children are raised with excessive exposure to violence in any form - via media, commandeering conversation, entertainment, etc - we are subliminally approving of that behavior and promoting it. Do we really want to promote violence in a broken world?

Life has myriad beauties, too. Learning about other cultures (especially new food recipes), exploring nature's intricate delicacies, maintaining a positive familial environment deeply rooted in a tradition of faith, acquiring life skills that are equalized with intellectual development (such as balancing academic, technical, trade, and other avenues of learning), etc. A life well-lived is beautiful. That is what we should be promoting for our children.

I am not promoting naivety. We define our world by opposites, whether right or wrong. But, cultivating an honest understanding of humanity's sinful self, as well as providing examples of people that have fought for a positive change in the injustices that inadvertently bubble up in life, are key accompaniments to such exposure. Even more important is waiting to expose the child when s/he is ready for such exposure. It varies from child to child, which is why homeschooling can promote the most positive environment for a child's education. The public school system in America does not allow for anyone else to follow the education of the child more than the parent. As parents, we have obligations to do our part for our children. So, if you participate in a violent video game with your child and do not implement means in which the child knows killing for killing's sake is not appropriate, your child will become another spectator at a gladiatorial event - or even a participant in the ring. Do we really want a generation demoralized to violence?

Joey in Central Park, NYC.  senk 2012.

In all, each of us assumes too much. Parents assume children learn right from wrong in the school system; while, educators assume children learn right from wrong at home; and even media assumes it's someone else's responsibility. So, take a moment and assess the exposures your child has in life. Consider how many opportunities there are in your household for encouraging healthy dialogue, promoting compassion, and developing a love of life-long learning.

Promote exposures to life adventures that integrate compassion and passion for learning. Let your child explore the beauties of life, develop positive habits, and participate in acts of caring that will help them contribute to compassionate solutions, rather than enhance the problem. This will be different based on the opportunities where you live. But, look for them and get your child involved in ample life opportunities. Often, your child will lead the way in participating in compassionate activities - don't be afraid to embrace life (even the unfamiliar) and let your light shine, too.

Eggs-tra! Eggs-tra! Read all about it!

Last Lenten season, our family was caring for 42 fertile chicken eggs, which hatched into fuzzy chicks over Easter weekend. We had borrowed an incubator that gently rocked the eggs and bathed them in warmth. The last days of their incubation, the chicks' ovular homes rested calmly on the wiry base. As sharp bills cracked the white casings, Joey and Ezra shrieked with delight. Once hatched, dried, and energetic, the chicks provided endless fun for the boys to view, but more importantly, the entire experience gave them firsthand understanding of a chicken's life cycle. Today, some of those chickens are in the freezer (ready to provide our family with nourishment), a few found a home with others interested in raising chickens, yet others have free range over the yard and their own chicken condo in exchange for eggs, and one (Chanticleer, of course) protects the rest.

Although incubating your own fertile eggs may not be what you had in mind for a fun family activity this Spring, there are lots of alternatives. The key is to find something that inspires your family to learn as much as to have fun learning. Two such ideas are: the bounceable egg and all-natural dyes for boiled eggs.

Using a clear glass, an egg, and white vinegar, you can create a bounceable egg. Carefully, place the egg into the glass and cover the egg with vinegar. After allowing the resultant chemical reaction to work for a full day, you can remove the egg and gingerly bounce it. I carefully wiped the film from the outer membrane before letting my boys play with it. You'll notice I also made them bounce the egg in a container, so that when it did break (hey, I have energetic boys after all!), it was a contained mess. This science experiment led to tons of questions and the boys were eager do it again. Maybe your family could experiment with different types of eggs to see if various bird species have differing thicknesses to the outer membranes? Or, maybe your family could work out the chemical formula and consider what other liquids would work for this experiment? There are lots of other ideas - brainstorm how you can use this experiment in your homeschooling adventures and list them in the comments section.

Another grand idea is to make your own dyes for Easter eggs. Research the types of herbs and vegetables that create those glamorous colors you love to splash onto hard-boiled eggs and try them out. For example, beets are great for pinks, and boiled ground turmeric for yellow. For a unique idea, arrange wild violet heads and sprigs of dill, sprinkles of turmeric, and other favorite color-producing bits around a clean raw egg. Wrap the decorated egg with either yellow- or red-onion skins (the former produces a yellowish tint; the latter, a lovely bluish), and then swaddle with a square of simple white cloth, which you hold in place with rubber bands. Once you've mummified several eggs, place them in boiling water and cook for about 12 minutes. Cool them with cold water and carefully unwrap for a dazzling display. Experiment with the recipes and post your favorite results in the comments.

Marvelous egg experiments are sure to delight your children. I know I was just as excited by the results as my boys were. Ah - life-long learning is egg-cellent! I do hope you agree.