Baking Class

We had a great time at the baking class on Jan 18th.  It was held at the church in the YW room.  The first presenter was Libby Christensen, who taught us about decorating cakes with fondant.  She demonstrated  making the fondant and laying it on the cake.  She taught us some of her tricks to making the cake turn out nice.  

First you microwave the marshmallows, water, and criso at 30 sec intervals, stirring in-between, until it is melted and smooth. 

Then, you knead the dough.

And then you roll it out flat.  You can use a regular rolling pin, or they have special fondant rollers at the store.   She said instead you could use a large piece of PVC pipe cut off and it would work just as well.  

Then, you transfer it by rolling it onto your roller and laying it out over your frosted cake.   Smooth it out with your hands, or they also have a special smoothing tool you can buy (it looks like a small plastic iron).  

Then you decorate the cake by adding shapes or words, whatever you want.  You can do multiple layers.  If you cut the cake into different shapes beforehand, you can create almost anything.  A simple piece of ribbon around the bottom is an easy way to make it look nice.  

We also got to sample some of her yummy cupcakes with her super secret frosting recipe- mmmm! Thank you, Libby, for teaching me a new skill!   I have had a lot of fun with what you have taught me in the past and have been able to make some fun birthday cakes for my kids!    

(The recipes for cake, frosting, and fondant, are posted below in the next post or look under "Desserts")

Next Susan Jensen taught us about baking homemade rolls.   She makes a pretty tasty, buttery batch of rolls and we always enjoy them.  

First Susan activates the yeast in the warm water.  Then, she warms (don't make it too hot) the milk and adds the sugar.  

In her mixer, she kneads in the ingredients, adding the yeast last.  

Next she kneads the dough.  The dough may seem like it is a little too sticky, but that is what makes them so light.  (light, meaning airy, not low-fat- sorry!)   Knead them in a small amount of flour, but you don't need to make it a stiff dough.  

Next she rolls it out and cuts the rolls out with a biscuit cutter, stretches them out into an oval shape, dips them in a  little melted butter, and then folds them (butter side in) with one end crimped over the edge. 

And then you let these sit covered until they double  in size.  And then, of course, you bake them.  

And, here is the finished product!  We all got to taste a sample (or two) with some jam or honey butter and they were delicious!!    Thank you, Susan!   You have made a roll baker out of me!   (Well, at least now I have a start :)

(The roll recipe is posted below in the next post or you can look under "breads")

Pam's Math Class

On Sept 22nd, we had a great experience at Pam Jensen's Math Class.  I went home very excited about helping my children with their math and learned some tricks to help them.

Pam said we need to break the mold that math is only add, subtract, multiply, and divide.  We can make math fun by making it into a game.  

We learned some great finger tricks to remembering difficult multiplication problems.  

The class was divided into 2 sections- pre-K to 2nd grade and then 3rd grade to middle school.

For the first group,  she talked about practicing estimation with the kids during routine activities.   She said we use estimation so much on a daily basis as adults, but don't teach it as much when they are younger.  Ask them, "How many blocks do you think are in the box?" or "How many buns do you think could fit in this package?"  Practice at the store.  At the store, you could also talk about how much things cost and have them say which one is bigger, smaller, etc.  or which one costs more or less.  

You could involve them in cooking, having them help you measure or count what goes into the bowl, etc. 

She gave us some ideas with learning toys such as unifex cubes, which are good for counting or sorting into groups.  Also, toys that link together can be good for teaching math.  An abacus can also be good for counting and grouping.   If you don't have an abacus, you can easily make a counter from items at home, such as tinker toys or a string and some beads, etc.  

Kids can also have a lot of fun measuring things.  Give them a little tape measure and let them carry it around and measure things around the house .  

We learned a fun trick with "the perfect body measurements" which was really interesting and could be fun with measuring.  Our bodies are actually very proportionate and with most people, certain things will be the same, such as your arm span should equal your height, and twice around your neck should equal your waist.  Very interesting.

She talked about graphing.  You could have the child sort out a cupful of a variety of snacks (cheerio, nut, raisin, etc) and see which one has the most or least, or how many more of one than the other, etc.  

For teaching, you could use a cookie sheet and then glue magnets to the backs of things such as coins so they could move them around.  

Math does involve some memorization.  She said that a good thing to have them memorize that will help them a lot later is all the 10's partners  (3+7 or 5+5 both equal 10).   Also, their doubles are really important to memorize:  2+2 or 6+6.  

Another idea was to have a "fact of the day".  You would probably need to have a different one for each child due to differences in understanding.   Examples are:  Your name starts with an "H" or "H is for Heidi"  or  it could be a new sight word (this spills into reading, I guess) or "I have 5 fingers on my hand" or 3x3 is 9,  I live in Utah, etc.  And you remind them of that "fact" all day long.  "Before you can go play, tell me what 2+2 is..."  

You could make a game out of counting up and down with thumbs up or down so when your thumb is up they keep counting up "1,2,3..." and then when pointing down they have to go the other direction- "2..1.."  This could be a good game in the car.  

Another fun way for kids to practice math is called "Try a Tile".  You purchase 10 tiles that are only about 1" wide square and then write numbers 0-9 on them.  I have also found that it works just as well to buy a bag of wooden squares this size and write on them- You can get them at Hobby Lobby.   The tiles are nice because then the kids don't have to feel frustrated with erasing over and over and in using all 10 tiles, it involves some critical thinking.  She gave us some worksheets to use for different age groups.  You have to use up all 10 tiles and put them into the empty boxes in the math problems.  If you google "try a tile" there are multiple websites from which you can print these worksheets out.  

We learned a trick with order of operations for older children with a complex math problem involving many different kinds of problems (multiplication, addition, etc.)  example:  2-3 (3+7) / 27

The phrase to help remember which one to do first is "Please excuse my dear aunt Sally"  Please- P= parenthesis, Excuse- E= exponents (the little number above a number or a number times by itself), My-M= multiplication, Aunt- A= addition,  Sally- S=subtraction.   Doing it in this order will make the problem easier to tackle.  

Here is a link to her website if you want to access it to learn more: 

 http://mathwebsites-pam.blogspot.com

Pam has a list of other websites on her blog that you can reference in teaching.  

There are a lot of good children's books that teach about math, too.  Here are a few:

Math Curse

Diary of a Worm

And then the doorbell Rang

This is all I had from my notes, but we learned so much more.  I'm sure Pam would be happy to answer any questions or even teach another class if anyone is interested.  

We want to thank Pam for all the time she put into the class.  It was a great success.  

Amber

To add,  I have also been using a website called IXL math for my kids so they can do a math quiz once a day.  This is free, but they are limited to only one quiz a day.  If you want to become a member for 9.99 a month then you have unlimited access.  Anyway, this is just another website to look up if you're interested.  

If anyone else has any other websites or math tips, be sure to email it to me and I can post it on the blog to share.  aparkinsonmom@gmail.com