The heroine for our homeschool history club’s March study was similar in many ways to February’s.
Off the top of my head:
1. Julia Child was just one year older than Lucille Ball; both were born in August (1911 and 1912).
2. Like Lucy, Julia’s husband, Paul, was investigated by the Committee for Un-American Activies.
3. Both women were pioneers in television entertainment and both were truly funny ladies.
4. Lastly, most of the girls in our club had never heard of either woman before but really enjoyed learning about both.

Julia gave us many wonderful things to discuss. She did not start cooking seriously until her 40s. Before that, her meals were often disasters. We talked about the importance of life-long learning. At 6’2″, she stood out in a crowd, but never seemed to be bothered by it. We talked about how being different can be an asset. Mostly, we talked about how her “no fear” attitude was inspiring.
Most of the girls had taken time before the meeting to watch episodes of The French Chef. It was a big hit.

After a brief meeting for our discussion, we loaded into my car for a field trip to Oregon Culinary Institute in Portland. We ate fancy food, prepared by chef students, in the school’s restaurant.
Note: If you have plans to be in the Portland area, make reservations. Nine dollars will get you a wonderful three-course lunch, eighteen will get you a four-course dinner.

The girls sampled such fare as Grapefruit and Fennel Salad, Smoked Salmon Mousse, Lamb and Potato Gnocchi, and the delicious, if not exotic, Chocolate Dream Torte. Although they did not all love every single thing on their plates, each girl tried new things and no one uttered a single “gross!”. Success!
After lunch we were treated to a tour of the school kitchens by one of their female executive chef/instructors. It was a fantastic way to cap off our study of Julia Child.

Newt is going through a "I don't smile in pictures" phase. One consequence of being a blogger-mom.

Feel free to use the notebooking pages and writing prompts I created. Non-commercial use only, please.
Writing Prompts for Julia Child
Julia Child Notebooking Pages

Bon Appetit!

Next month: Annie Jump Cannon

Newt is a planner.
She wants to know what’s going to happen, when, where, why and how.
Every night, she has to check the calendar to see what’s going on the next day and Walt’s iPhone for the weather forecast before she can go to bed.
Even with all her advance preparation, Newt still starts each day with:
What’s happening today Mama?
and
What are we doing for school today?
I bought her a planner to help her keep track of her schedule, but it never really caught on. For one thing, it kept getting misplaced. Then I’d get:
Mama, I can’t find my schedule.
and
What are we doing today?

In an effort to help preserve my sanity her keep track, I created a big magnetic board that holds all of her activities and lessons for the week.

I looked around for a big magnet board, but they were all more expensive than I wanted to spend. Instead, I contacted a local heating and sheet metal place and asked them to cut me a 3′ x 5′ piece of sheet metal. That cost me $34. Walt and I hung it using six picture-hanging strips (click link to see product on Amazon).
I made a list of our main subjects and activities and figured out how many I might need. For example, we do spelling three times a week, so I planned for three spelling cards. I also planned for several blank cards that I could use to write in subjects or activities as needed. I created the cards in a word document using a business-card template, with Newt helping to choose fun fonts. In order to make things easier on myself, I added a light colored border around each card to aide in cutting.
I printed the cards on plain white copy paper, cut them out and stuck them to self-adhesive business card magnets .
A strip of packing tape over the top (which just happens to be the same width as the cards) turns them into little dry erase boards.

Every weekend, Newt and I take a few minutes to review the upcoming week’s calendar. We place cards for activities (horseback riding, girl scouts, 4H, etc.) on the appropriate days then fill in the rest of the week with the lessons I have planned. Each day as Newt completes the lesson, she moves the card to the “Done” column. Any that don’t get completed for whatever reason get shifted to another day in the week.
My total cost for this project was about $50, but it’s worth so much more. Though it has given Newt a new thing to check before bed every night…

How do you keep track of your schedule?

A short time ago, I was a freshman in high school.
Okay, it was last century, in 1989. Anyway, all those years ago, I took a beginning keyboarding class, intended to teach me touch typing. We click-clacked away on ancient brown electric typewriters while an even more ancient Mr. Something-or-Other (who always wore brown pants) walked around calling out, “Remember students, don’t look at your fingers!”
I cheated.
To this day, I still look, though not all the time. In fact, I just typed that whole last sentence without peeking. S-l-o-w-l-y…
The one thing that really stuck was developing the habit of always typing two spaces after a period.
That was a tough habit to break. Dangit.

Newt has expressed an interest in wanting to learn to type as fast as me (ha). I wanted to find a typing program that was online, free and kid-friendly. Dance Mat Typing from BBC Schools fits the bill nicely.

Here is more information from their website:

Dance Mat Typing [is] an introduction to touch typing for children aged 7 – 11 years.
Each of the 4 levels are divided into 3 stages. Begin at Level 1 and build up your skills gradually through to Level 4.
Stage 1 introduces the home row, and stages 2 – 12 will:

• Recap the previous lesson
• Introduce new letters typed with the left and right hands
• Practise all previously learnt letters
• Reward the typist with a mini song and dance

Newt really enjoys the characters (and their British accents). None of the stages are timed, so she does not feel pressured or stressed; she is able to move at whatever pace is comfortable for her. Best of all, she really is learning to type.
Without cheating.
I may want to give it a try myself…

This was an unsolicited and uncompensated review. I just like the product and thought you may too.