Wednesday 13 May 2015

Flying the Flag


I think we need a "Home Educating Pride" flag, or perhaps T-Shirts. I know such things are available, commercially, but I don't have a spare £15 for a single T-Shirt. Plus, probably, import duty from The States.

My little darling has been flying the flag high this week, and I'm incredibly proud of her.

Personally, I've been having a hard time trying to find a way to keep track of what we actually do, some weeks it's almost nothing, some weeks we do loads but she has what's basically a very well rounded education. The reason this is important is partially peace of mind, and also we lost our lovely home ed contact lady at the council this year. I know, most home educators are very anti local authority, but I personally really liked the Advisory lady we had. The most disturbing thing is that the Council home education advisory service has been transferred to Education Welfare. Yep. The Truancy team. The Truancy team who are known to be incredibly anti home ed. See my issue?

I have no way to begin to explain how inappropriate this is, but there we go. Through the grapevine, it seems that they've already been seen to be unlawfully throwing their weight around with newly deregistered families in the area, less than a month after the changeover and I basically want to be covered just in case. I do NOT trust them as far as I could spit them.

Also, they'll expect at least an educational philosophy letter next April. They want information? Oh believe me they'll get information. I'm actually planning to send them a typed, padded out copy of my full diary, plus a monthly spreadsheet of what's been covered... it'll cost me a fiver in postage for the pages and pages I'm planning to send and for it to be a tracked delivery, but what the heck?

Anyway, my problem is finding a quick-view version of my daily diary that really works. Apologies for my handwriting. The code on each entry tells me the basic subjects covered. This wasn't even a busy week!!

I'm thinking... spreadsheet. Eventually I hope to make record keeping Squidge's job.


I'll find something that works eventually. And hey, at least I can read my writing.

After watching me hem and tape some new curtains for my friend, and mend and service my friend's sewing machine this weekend, Squidge had a hankering to get her Yule gift out for a play. Using a set of teatowels from the 99p shop, she very competently made a tote bag for her her "Bestie".



On Monday we had said "Bestie"over for giggling and fun. After lunch, we took a short walk to the park, via the shop for ice lollies and vimto. Both girls found other kids to play with at the park, were polite and friendly and basically awesome. Proof that home ed kids are not isolated and weird. ok, mine's a bit weird..... Well, no. individual.

Yes, even when they were climbing trees and looking like monkeys, they were still flying the flag high for the awesomeness of our lifestyle.

This was on the walk home, they're just so sweet together. The height difference reminds me of myself and my "Bestie" at the same age; only I was the short one.



Squidge and I have been walking much more, it's been so much fun. We've done at least 4 miles a week recently which to some isn't much, but to us is epic. This was Squidge walking home from a fun session of swimming last week. A fun session where she'd plucked up enough courage to get in the deep end and then swam 5 lengths!!! Bear in mind that this time last year, she couldn't swim at all. 

This is her entering the parkland beside the sports centre. Awww. 


Beginning to walk to swimming lessons has revealed stuff I never even knew was in our town. I've been living here since 2005, how did I not know this was here?!



Just lovely. 

Going back to the fun day with Bestie, she spent pretty much the whole afternoon in a tree and no injuries were sustained. Later in the evening, she decided o run through the house to get a second helping of pudding... and fell awkwardly on her foot. The pain she was experiencing really scared me because it was similar to the pain I sustained when I broke my foot a few years ago. So, after an hour of having ice on it ,we went off to A+E.

Two nurses, one radiographer and a doctor agreed with me that it seemed broken. The XRays however, didn't!!! the Doctor actually reviewed the things TWICE because Squidge's pain didn't tally up with a clean XRay. But eventually it was decided that she's not broken it. I'm incredibly thankful, we go on holiday in just 6 weeks and for her to miss the joy of staying on a chalet park with an indoor pool would have been tragic. 

The Doctor informed me that I have to keep her off school for the rest of the week. She told him she's home educated, so he said "well, just... erm... stay off your foot."
So this has meant she's missed gymnastics, we've got to rearrange two playdates and she's missing a trip to a room full of trampolines. Poor Squidge is not happy. This was her yesterday. Today she's able to put more weight on it, but it's still not right. She's angry at not being able to go for our every-other-day-walk, and frankly, so am I. HEAL QUICKER!!!


Aside from the educational aspect of a late night in the hospital and fun days walking in the local parks, the other things from the last couple of weeks that are vaguely educational are knitting, using my yarn bowl; and finding out that my 9 year old can make a mean mayonnaise and no longer panics if it seizes because she's amazing. 



Here's to the future, to the healing child and to me working out how the heck to keep track of everything. 






Tuesday 17 March 2015

Come to the dark side, we have cookies...

I made cookies. And they taste like (and more to the point feel like) real cookies. More about that later. Be patient. Alright, the recipe is at the bottom. 



The Child is still improving at writing, her reading is now awesome with lots of practise and she's finally discovered a true love of reading to herself.

Writing... not so much. She'll write if she has to, for instance if there's a reward involved like a Brownie Badge (in this case Cook : Advanced).



But even this took some serious coaxing. And even after that, all she did was the titles. I do think, however, that her choice to use Insanity Prawn Boy from Weebls-stuff's On The Moon series to explain "Crustaceans" was genius. nicely rendered too.

For this particular badge she not only had to produce a poster about allergies, but also to cook a two course meal from scratch (one course being hot). She made a slow baked lamb curry with help and supervision, and cupcakes with no help, but some "OMG HOT THINGS!!" supervision. She did all the reading of the recipe, weighing of ingredients etc all on her own. Let's just say, I've got competition in the kitchen.




Next the curry; economy lamb chops are much more frugal and delicious when curried. She likes to claim she "killed two birds with one curry" because one optional clause was "cook with an ingredient you've never used before" (i.e. spices) and another was "cook a dish from another country". 

Yes, ok so this was a somewhat bastardized, British curry but what the hell. It was STUNNING. I took photos of all processes, but here's the highlights. Oh, and you may notice Child wearing something that looks like a nightshirt throughout the process. It looks like one because it is one. Home Education FTW.





And finally I get to the point of the cookies. well, soon. One of the teaching tools I use most for maths, comprehension, reading (and generally not being a knob around things like knives and heat) is cooking. However, these babies (the cookies) were not made by her. They were made by me to cheer her up. Poor little thing has a cough and has been denied her favourite social and sporting groups this week because Mummy is a cowbag and doesn't think damp air or dust are a particularly good thing to be inhaling when you're asthmatic and have a chest infection.

Here we go, the purpose of this post. Peanut Butter Cookies. Ever since having to go gluten free myself; not for hipster or food fashion reasons, I am a genuinely diagnosed celiac, I've been searching and trying out gluten free recipes. Mostly, though, they're a disaster. UNTIL I stumbled on a blogger (Laura at http://petiteallergytreats.blogspot.co.uk/) who uses pectin as an aid to the gluten replacer, xanthen gum. Xanthen gum tends to make mixtures go... well.... a bit like snail mucous to be honest. And never seems to work properly on its own BUT when used in combination with dried pectin, you get a flour that so closely mimics wheat flour that breads, pastries and cookies feel and taste like "the real thing". Cakes I've found don't need the pectin. Joy, as pectin is not cheap. 

This revelation about pectin has, honestly, changed my life as I have a job lot I bought cheap from Approved Foods last year with a view to making my own jam. Yeah. That happened. NOT.
Anyway, Laura changed my life. Pizza bases WORK. Flatbreads WORK. Pastry is AMAZEBALLS and finally, I have COOKIES!!!!!

This recipe is modified from a wheat based peanut butter cookie recipe. It contains no dairy if you use the right margarine, but it does contain eggs and obviously it contains nuts. 

Here's my tasty photo again... 


oooohhhhhhh yeaaaaaahhhhh.

You'll need a set of US cups for making these, available from all decent cooking shops, most supermarkets and Poundland or the 99p store. 
If you're a martyr, one US cup is 8FlOz. That's Fluid Ounces, not weight ounces, so I suppose you could use a jug but... use the cups, mmmkay?


1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup margarine or butter (butter will render these not dairy free, dont feed them to someone with a dairy allergy or lactose intolerance)

1/3 ish cup lightly packed granulated brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar (granulated, caster, whatever. just not icing/confectioner's sugar)

1 egg

2 cups Gluten Free Self Raising flour blend/ normal SR flour (obviously, don't feed normal flour ones to a gluten free person)

1.5tsp dried pectin powder; sorry but this is an actual essential in a gluten free version, with the xanthen gum in the SR flour, it makes something very much like gluten. Leave out if using normal flour. DO NOT use liquid pectin.

1tsp vanilla extract; (if making GF, be warned, most vanilla extracts are made using nondescript grain alcohol which may or may not be over the <20ppm limit for gluten content which most celiacs seem to react to, so you might be better off just buying and using a vanilla pod, using home made vanilla sugar instead of the white sugar OR planning two weeks ahead, buying two vanilla pods and 1/4 pint Red Square or Smirnoff vodka, or another molasses/potato/rice based vodka and making your own extract. It really is that simple. Use the middle paste of the seeds in something like a cake, stick a couple of the empty pods in a clean jar, pour on vodka and wait...).

1/4tsp salt optional; I like it. They're cookies. They're not meant to be healthy. They're meant to be an occasional treat. That's why they contain a lot of sugar and fat too.

mix peanut butter, butter, sugar, salt, vanilla and beat until fluffier and lighter in colour.
add eggs, beat again. 

in another bowl, mix flour (and pectin) and salt, sprinkle dry into wet and mix well. If it's too solid, add a little more peanut butter. If a little liquid, add a little more flour. It should be a soft yet malleable dough.

put in fridge for at least an hour, overnight apparently works best, but mine were lovely after just an hour.

preheat oven to 180 degrees C ish, you know your oven best. whatever YOU normally cook cakes and stuff on, that'll do.

Line a tray with greaseproof, place balls of the cookie dough about 1.5" diameter on a tray, preferably 1.5" space between them. They don't actually spread that much, but leave the pace just in case. This dough makes about 25 cookies. 

Press on top lightly, until they're a bit less than 7.5mm high. Don't bother measuring, but just know if they're too high, they stay kind of cakey in the middle even after cooling. I did the design on the top of mine using a fork.

Put them in the oven and Watch them. They're crafty little buggers. They go from lovely golden brown to burnt in no time at all. Get your bum off Facebook and sit by the oven for 15-20 mins, ok?!

Bake until golden, put on wire rack to cool and dry out, warm they will still be cakey in the middle but if cool, they should snap and be deliciously short.

Only keep a couple of days if making gluten free, gluten free flour blend products tend to taste a bit stale after about 2 days. If using wheat flour, they keep about a week in an airtight jar.

Would probably work equally as well with any nut butter, I reckon cashew would be delicious.
 
Would also be awesome with chocolate chips or chunks mixed in once everything else is combined. I can recommend MooFree for this kind of thing, it's pretty heat stable and tastes almost like the real thing. Would also work if you use half smooth and half chunky nut butter.  


Go. Make Cookies. Enjoy. 

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