Three Things I Love This Thursday

I have been wanting to share some fun little things we are using in our homeschool which I LOVE, so I thought I'd pick three of them today. The awesome thing is that one is FREE and one is $.99 (the other is $9.63 - oops!).

KANOODLE!

I bought this game at a toy store last weekend. Wow! The kids have played it a lot and it's fun for adults, too... it is awesome for spatial awareness and logical thinking. It can be alone or with two people, and it has levels from very easy to VERY hard. I've left it on the coffee table and when people walk by they play. Very fun. I found it for $9.63 on Amazon (see link above) ~ I was a sucker and paid $13.99 at the toy store. In my opinion, it is worth it.

Stack the States

is one of the most valuable apps we have purchased for our iPad at a whopping $.99! It's a fun geography game for all ages - teaching state location, capitals, trivia, etc... You can get the lite version for free to see if you like it. It was voted the Best iPad Kids App. of 2010 (how did I miss it in 2010?!?)

image courtesty iTunes

The Wonder Clock
by Howard Pyle - you can read this book FREE online. It is a book of 24 (one for each hour of the day) beautifully crafted fairy tales and exquisite illustrations. Pyle wrote and illustrated this book in 1887 and it really is a gem. Both of my children are enjoying this read-aloud. We are reading it on our iPad (I cannot tell you, by the way, how beneficial the iPad is to our homeschool... much more so than a laptop, in my opinion).

image courtesy Goodreads.com

What's For Dinner? Story of the World Feast

Today's What's For Dinner? post is about a FEAST we had to celebrate a study of Ancient Africa (as done in chapter 11 of The Story of the World). I used two recipes from the activity guide and they were wonderful, so I wanted to share. If you click on the link you'll see a sample of all the activities from a chapter, via The Well Trained Mind website - awesome!) I'll also share a cute and easy craft idea, and a sweet idea my daughter came up with on her own.

As always, if you have a recipe you would like to link up, please share at the end of this post! All I ask is that you link back to my site, either by linking to me in your post, or grabbing my cute What's For Dinner? button and placing it on your blog or in your post. Thanks!

On to the recipe: (this appears in the activity guide for Volume 1 of Story of the World)

Chicken With Figs

3-4 lbs. chicken legs
1 lemon
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup water
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
8-16 oz. dried figs (we used Mission Figlets)
salt to taste
parsley

Preheat the oven to 400.

Peel and slice the lemon. Place lemon slices and figs in the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan. Add the chicken legs.

In mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar, vinegar, water, and lemon juice.

Pour mixture over the chicken. Sprinkle chicken with salt and parsley.

Bake, covered with foil, for about 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake for approximately 20-30 minutes. Baste frequently during the last 20-30 minutes. Remove chicken, figs, and lemon slices and place on a serving tray.

Skim off any fat and use the remaining juices as a sauce for the chicken.

* We served the chicken with green beans and rice. The chicken was amazingly juicy and the baked figs are a new found love of mine! For dessert we made fried plantains. We used a recipe from Food Network instead of our activity guide, and it was delicious! My nine year sliced the plantains - I fried them in the oil - then she sugared them and added whipped cream. YUMMM!!!!

For fun decorations we printed and colored African Masks. To print them, go here. I thought they turned out really cute.... we laminated and taped them onto a straw so they can be used in the future. We also read a little about the history of African Masks/art here. My daughter also looked up African proverbs, copied some onto little pieces of paper, and set one at each person's place. (I wish I had gotten a picture of them, but here is a wonderful list of proverbs -- perfect for copywork!)

My daughter's mask - done to perfection, just as she likes it!

Isn't this guy cute? My six year old is an enthusiastic artist

Once again, The Story of The World proves itself to be an invaluable resource in our homeschool. I can't recommend this enough!

Feel free to share a recipe with me via a comment or by joining the linky. I look forward to seeing What's For Dinner in your house!