Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Limes are really sour but educational

I had two junior chefs helping me make desserts for a New Year's Day barbeque, Cordelia and Olivia. It had been requested we bring a Key Lime Pie and Cheesecake. I got crafty and threw in a homeschool lesson. Junior Chefing (yes, it's a verb...at least with the little ones) is actually a whole section in our curriculum. It falls under Home Economics and resides under that topic with things like Sewing (remember those Tooth Fairy Pillows?) and Gardening.

Things get made mostly from scratch in our house...especially desserts. We crunched graham crackers. And tried some limes.
Cordi is on the left, Livi on the right


I went over measurements and why they're important. Had the girls dig out the right equiptment. We discussed the differences between a Key Lime and a regular Lime. And tried more limes.


We talked about geography of where limes can be grown while little ones spread on the homemade whipped cream. The egg yolk vs. white discussion got a little sex ed. so I steered them back by giving them another lime. After about ten minutes -which is all it takes to make a homemade Key Lime- of "trying" the limes things got a little silly. Maybe the citrus got to their brains.


I'm slowly getting myself out of the learning-from-a-book-is-the-only-way-to-really-learn-and-therefore-homeschool mentality. It's hard. Especially since I excelled at busy work and book work when I went to Public School. I'm getting there though and might just have to make a whole lot more Key Lime Pies along the way. I suffer, I really do.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Love it! I'm drooling over the idea of key lime pie. I should really buy some limes and make one!

My kids aren't school-age yet, but I just know I'm going to have a hard time getting out of the "learning-from-a-book-is-the-only-way-to-really-learn-and-therefore-homeschool mentality" too. I was an excellent student. I particularly *liked* the predictability and stability of "recipe" work -- diagraming scentences was actually fun for me. Though I wasn't a huge math fan, I loved having a neat and tidy page of math homework to turn in. I have a feeling I'll be learning as much as the kids will...only my lessons will be on how to loosen up a bit and go with the flow!