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Frugal Homeschooler, music

Frugal Homeschooler: Music

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Ok folks, you know how we all have a couple of subjects that just aren’t our gifting? Mine are art and music. Well, we can’t use that as an excuse to not teach them so today I am looking at some music education resources. Remember that this isn’t just learning an instrument but also about great music. So let us jump in!

First up is Classics for Kids. They have a radio show, which you can listen to online, about specific composers and other classical music items. They also have samples of orchestral music instruments. They have activities, online games and just recordings of classical pieces.

For those of you brave enough to buy you kids a drum set, Free Drum Lessons has everything they will need to know in order to learn to play. They have beginning lessons that cover how to set up your kits and how to buy a set. This site also seems to have great advanced lessons as well as tuning lessons and certain types of cultural music lessons.

There is a section at About.com on Musical Crafts. These don’t seem to difficult. They seem to mostly be made with used household items and kids, at least mine, will love playing with them afterwards.

My last offering is for those who do know a little music. Here is a link to print blank sheet music with a Treble Clef. This way your creative geniuses can write to their heart’s content without having to go out and buy expensive paper.

This is just some of the wonderful musical freebies out there. I hope you will all go broaden your kid’s musical horizons. Look, explore, use and if you have any great resources please share with me. As always remember homeschooling doesn’t have to be hard or expensive!

headlines

Doctors and Universal Healthcare Survey

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So I heard on Rush, while coming home from the doctor, that a survey would be released today saying that 1/2 of all doctors want Universal Health Care. This sounded shockingly untrue so I came home and googled it. So there has been a survey released today. Here is the “big” news according to Reuters:

Of more than 2,000 doctors surveyed, 59 percent said they support legislation to establish a national health insurance program, while 32 percent said they opposed it, researchers reported in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

Well, I have serious doubts about the veracity of this statement. First of all it was done in 2002 in Indiana. What took so long to get the results out? Oh, thats right an election. Secondly, I also don’t believe that these 2,000 doctors out of Indiana are representative of the 800,000 in the US. I find it boggling. Will Universal Health Care really fix the problems facing doctors today. Isn’t Oregon one of the states that malpractice insurance for OBGYN’s is so high that they are leaving the state? I think this would just make it harder for doctors to make a living and pay for insurance.

That is separate to the issue of patient care. If choice wasn’t positive we would all choose to be on the existing Universal Health Care system, Medicare. Then look at Canada. If Universal Health Care is so great why do people cross the border to come here? We must be doing something right medically because people from all over the world come here to be treated for serious illnesses. It is the fact that medicine is a private industry that motivates and pays for medical research. It is also the private industry aspect that enables us pick and choose our doctors, our hospitals, and encourages speed of service that isn’t seen in countries with Universal Health Care.

Well, that is my rambling on this. What do you all think?

Technorati Tags: Universal Health Care, Reuters

Food

Easy and Cheap BBQ Chicken Thighs

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Ok, here is another easy and delicious recipe for the summer. Now I need to preface it with the fact that the Nerd Family is not the biggest fans of BBQ sauce. So I have needed to employ other flavor and moistening techniques. So I take cheap boneless chicken thighs(preferably with the skin) and marinate them in just plain old bottled marinade (I use Lawry’s Garlic and Herb). Now before everyone starts sreaming about dark meat being bad for you. Because dark meat has a little more fat it doesn’t dry out like a chicken breast. Also you can get thighs at a fairly low cost. So leave this to marinade and go heat up your grill. When it is nice and hot take a old dishcloth or cheesecloth and roll it up lengthwise so you have a nice bone size towel. Then dip it in a little oil and use your tongs to rub it on the grill. If not the thighs will stick pretty badly. Cook about 7 minutes on each side (checking for doneness). During that time you can make Quick and Easy Aspargus and put a little bread on to warm. Voila, you have a great and easy meal that didn’t heat up you house!

Food

Freezer Friday: Chocolate Chip Zucchini Loaf

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Welcome to Freezer Friday. The goal here is to make our lives easier. Due to the fact I have 4 little ones and homeschool, I need all the help I can find. Simply post a recipe that can be made, frozen and then later reheated(thawed, etc) and consumed. Make sure that you include freezing and reheating instructions in your post. Then come here and add you post (not your blog) into Mr. Linky.
Now for some disclaimers:
If it isn’t a recipe, I will delete it.
If it can’t be made ahead, I will delete it.
If you don’t have a family friendly site, I will delete it.
Now onto the food fun!


Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

Now that spring is on its way so is all the fresh produce. Here is a good way to enjoy it and hold on to it for the future. This recipe is very easy to double, triple or more.

Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup AP Flour
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 cup Mini Chocolate Chips

Wet Ingredients:
2 Eggs
1/4 cup Oil
1/4 cup Applesauce
1 cup Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 cup Grated Zucchini (unpeeled; if frozen do not drain)

Process:
Mix all dry ingredients together. Then beat eggs until frothy and mix in all remaining wet ingredients. Mix in dry ingredients. Dump batter into greased loaf pan. Bake for 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry (except chocolate chips). Let stand in loaf pan for 10 minutes and then cool the rest of the way on a rack.

Make ahead directions:
You can just wrap tightly in plastic wrap and aluminum and place in the freezer. Then just sit out to thaw. If your freezer is full you can store the dry ingredients in a freezer bag on the shelf and freeze shredded zucchini.

Technorati Tags: zucchini, Freezer Friday, Make Ahead

Homeschoooling

Heart of the Matter

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“Clearly there is an appropriate kind of sheltering. When those who are opposed to homeschooling accuse me of sheltering my children, my reply is always, ‘What are you going to accuse me of next, feeding and clothing them?” ~R.C. Sproul Jr

Heart of the Matter asked us to comment on this quote. I am constantly amazed that education is not put in the same category as food and shelter. I have many friends whom I respect that send their kids to public school but… I am really frustrated with these people who think that homeschooling is doing a disservice to our children (versus it just not being a choice for them). If I wanted to be a homeschooling extremist I could make a strong case for public school to not be the norm.

In the US it is our responsibility to feed, clothe and shelter our children. When we are unable or unwilling to do that the government will step in. It means you don’t have as many choices as to what your child eats, wears or lives but it gets the basics done. Public school can be viewed similarly, as educational welfare. When you send your child to public school you are ceding both some of your responsibilities and your privileges as a parent such as time school starts, the standards, the curriculum, etc. Now that is fine if that is the choice you make but how is it that I am the one failing my kids? (Is it obvious that I have heard a lot of homeschool bashing lately?)

organizing

Tupperware Joy

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So for those who don’t know, I am a bit type A. But without the time to act it out as much as I would like;). To further my organization attempts I purchase some Tupperware containers to organize my pantry. I was inspired to share with you based on a blog post I read some where quite a while ago. So here you go!

I even used my labeler!

Food

Top Chef 3/26/08

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I finished the 3rd episode this season and am the only person a little disappointed with this group? So if you haven’t guessed, I have a lot of grousing to do. First off, I am so sick of Andrew and his smack talk. Can he please be the next one to go?

This week’s quick fire challenge was to make fine dining tacos. Not many of them seemed to really branch out in order to make tacos into fine dining. But Richard seemed to impress Rick Bayless (this week’s guest judge) with a jicama shelled taco. Richard seemed to deserve to win because he seemed to pair traditional flavors with a cool twist.

The chefs got to split themselves into teams for this week’s challenge and I thought that in itself was very interesting. This week’s elimination challenge was to cook for a block party and to get the food from the neighborhood’s own pantries. So the chefs go door to door to get food and some of them thought that the people who be wary about letting in strangers. This was a huge block party and there was TV vans and cameras on the block. I have a feeling that all the neighbors were warned prepared to have their doors knocked on. Then the red team went to a house with a woman with a large well stocked pantry and seemed shocked. Maybe this just strikes close to home but come on, your a chef. You have a well stocked kitchen, don’t you?

Nikki is really get on my nerves also. She wasn’t sure about how she could melt down Velveeta in a sauce and it not dry out. Is she really a chef? Then, for a 2nd week in a row, she is trying to camouflage another bad dish and fails. Luckily for her she was on the (narrowly) winning team. Richard, who had immunity, was called on the carpet for making a dish that wasn’t paella and then calling paella. I think that the only reason the blue team won was that fruit crumble with the sweet wonton that Stephanie came up with. Let me just interject here, a sweet wonton was so impressive? I have been making those and variations upon them for 2 years, yet I digress.

I found the pompous nature of the red team galling. I understand thinking that you were better than the other team but they couldn’t come up with one single reason that they were in the room as the losing team. They already knew that their corn dogs were soggy even if they didn’t realize that their Waldorf salad wasn’t crisp and that their pasta salad left something to be desired. I was applauding (on the inside, I had napping kids) when Tom told them that if they didn’t taste anything wrong with their food that they all had bad pallets. Then Andrew (I believe) said that if he was kicked out that security was going to have to take him out and that this was his house. I was blown away that someone did say something to him much less that they didn’t kick him out.

But, alas our corn dog maker, Erik, got kick to the curb and didn’t seem surprised at all.

Technorati Tags: Bravo, Top Chef