Older Kindergarten Week #4 Monday

I can't believe it is week 4 all ready!

I added onto our St. George circle. Brother really loves it and gets sucked in immediately. It is so wonderful to see since he really hated the squirrel and apple circle. Baby isn't so interested in circle right now, but at 2.25, he is only along for the ride.

I didn't remember to start reading and meditating on a Fairy Tale last week. I've been listening to podcasts from Melissa at A Little Garden Flower. She is very clear that if you are not prepared for an activity - don't do it. So, we did not read an Enki Fairy Tale this week, instead I chose an Enki Folk Tale that I have read to myself many times called "The Foxes Proof". On the bright side, Brother asked me to read it two times because it just wasn't enough for him. So, I do know that he needs Fairy Tales now, and I will be prepared next week.

Today was Baking Day. I made 2 batches of Granola with help from Baby, milled 1 batch of applesauce, cooked another batch that is cooling and made 2 batches of muffins. Brother helped make 1 batch of muffins. Baby was asleep so it was much easier. It was so nice spending that time alone with Brother. We don't get much time without Baby. I'm sure that will shift as Baby gets older and can play more by himself.

I swear, I have been cooking almost all day! Back to the kitchen for me. I still have to mill a batch of applesauce and prep tomorrows dinner - And do dishes. Yikes!

Making Pizza

Part of Waldorf education is the experience of baking bread. Since I am gluten free, this has been a really big struggle for me! Today instead of bread we made Gluten Free pizza crust. It was delicious! My husband even said that I could pass it off as a wheat crust and no one would know.

It was our first time making the crust, so it was very challenging. I used yeast, dissolving it in warm water with sugar. It was so fun watching it rise. We had to pour the mixture into another bowl so that it didn't overflow onto the floor. Brother has shown me that he can take baking seriously, so I let him level the top of the measuring spoon off in addition to dumping the dry ingredients into the bowl. I have a really hard time letting go of the control of that part of the process, so that was a huge step for me. On the other side of things, we did use the mixer (as the recipe instructed) instead of a wooden spoon. So, we missed out on the kneading and mixing of the dough. The dough is really, really sticky so I don't know how feasible it is to mix it by hand. Is it that sticky when you use wheat?I am going to ask my friend for advice to see how we can make the process more manual. 

Monday - Process Not Product!

Today was Co-Op day, and the last day of our turn to host for a while. The kids were very relaxed and the play went smoothly. It was very peaceful for me. 

This afternoon we baked gluten free blueberry muffins with brown rice and buckwheat flour. The kids love them! I have a hard time with baking because I am a perfectionist. I practically have to say "Process Not Product" over and over in my head to stay calm. But the kids had a lot of fun making them, and I was a little more relaxed when flour was spilled on the counter. I am always afraid that if you don't get exactly the right amount of flour in the dough, then the muffins won't turn out.  Fortunately, this is a very forgiving recipe. It also helps if I can get the ingredients out on the counter, in the order they need to be put in, before calling the kids in to bake.  Hopefully as we bake more, I'll loosen up a bit.

I should do some Tonglen practice focusing on flour spilling before next Monday!

Monday

This morning we hosted Kindergarten Co-Op. The kids had a lot of fun digging and running in the trees. Of course building trains is always a hit!

In the afternoon Brother and I started baking, but I had no eggs! Oops, so when Grandma came I ran out to the store and finished up the Zucchini cake myself. Then Grandpa joined us for dinner and we celebrated St. Patrick's Day a day early. 

I guess this week I get to count 1/2 of a baking day. We just started adding in the baking, so I need to cut myself some slack. Until now, I really hadn't been doing much of it. We're gluten free, so it is a bit of a challenge. Actually, I'm gluten free. Everyone else just gets stuck with my GF food. No one is complaining though. 

My favorite cookbook is Bette Hagman's  The Gluten Free Gourmet. It's an oldie, but a goodie. I tend to substitute brown rice flour for white rice flour though. So my baked goods do come out heavier.