Five in a Row ~ A Pair of Red Clogs Breakfast

While Jared is in his 3-hour history/humanities/worldview class on Tuesday mornings with Mrs. Carla Fritz , Gracie, Jack, and I are enjoying turning back the clock and revisiting our Five in a Row (FIAR) literature days. I have wonderful memories of this series when I went through it with Jared & Gracie - more laid-back learning & captivating stories. This is one of my favorite methods for homeschooling (and one of the most effective) - filling our minds with beautifully illustrated, living picture books that we never forget! Jared & Gracie loved it when they were younger; now Jack gets to experience it as well. Even though he is a little young for some of the discussion, he really enjoys the wonderful stories and participating in some of the hands-on activities.

Even if you never go through the formal discussion guides, I would encourage you to get the books from your library and read through them with your kids. Some of them were not as well-loved as others, but all were a delight to me! For a list of the children's books used in the Five in a Row series, you can go to the following link:

http://www.fiarhq.com/FIAR/FIARBL.html

We are also going through this wonderful children's book on poetry, which includes a CD of various narrations of the poems. I love that I don't have to read all of the poems and we can play them over and over again until we're more familiar with them. (Sorry about the "Click to Look Inside" - you really can't, but I copied the picture from Amazon.com :-)

A few weeks ago, we were reading through a wonderful FIAR book called A Pair of Red Clogs (set in Japan.) I loved this book so much the first time, I purchased our own copy. So, one Sat. when Paul & Jared were helping some friends move, Gracie and I decided to make a quick biscuit type cinnamon roll and enjoy a Japanese-style breakfast. Although a little sugared-out by the end, we had a wonderful time. Here are some photos from our experience.

Gracie kneading the biscuit type dough. (We made this all from scratch and had so much fun doing it!)

What it looked like after rolling out and spreading on the filling. (Excuse the mess! :-)

After rolling up into a jelly roll and cutting into the traditional cinnamon roll shapes.

Putting them in a muffin pan with some of the filling on the bottom to form a crispy, cinnamony coating on each!

What they looked like after coming out of the oven.


After flipping them out onto the plate. We made a powdered sugar glaze to put over them. Here you can see Jack in his "kimono" (Gracie's old spa robe,) eager with anticipation. Not sure why he is playing with a pair of scissors, but that's what Jack does! :-)

Yum!

Our "low" table (our ottoman) with cushions on the floor. Gracie is dressed in one of my silky type robes for her "kimono." (We added the chopsticks for effect. Can you imagine eating cinnamon rolls with chopsticks? :-)

We made tea and served it in a tea set that Paul had brought back from one of his business trips to China.

The kids decided they didn't like the tea, so they had apple juice instead.

My plate

Gracie tried her hand at photography . . .

Me reading the book to the kids - the page is turned to the family having dinner around their low table. Of course, they probably would never eat cinnamon rolls for breakfast, but we had fun nonetheless!