Rainbows! *Day 2*

I'm not really sure how long this whole rainbows project is going to take. Right now we are tackling a little tv addiction with Cole and he is very unmotivated to do anything "school". So I'm still pondering possible solutions to this problem. I know one helpful thing is to recruit the older kids to help or play along. This is what I did the other night to get him moving on the rainbow project. He is about half-way done now. For this step of the project he has a glue stick and his little bits of rainbow colored paper. I thought he would love to glue but he was more tolerant of it than anything. He did pretty well with the concept of putting the colors in the right spot on the rainbow. I told him when (if) he completes his rainbow that we will hang it up along with the pictures the big kids colored that night. He was slightly motivated.

Brown Bread

I made this recipe for brown bread right off the box of vital wheat gluten with some minor substitutions and some slightly less minor mess-ups. This turned out so yummy especially for an all whole grain bread. It wasn't bitter at all and had a good texture. Well, it would have had a better texture had I not screwed up during the rising process. I accidentally stuck it in a too hot oven to rise. Not really a good idea. Here's the recipe:
2 1/2 cups warm water
1Tbsp yeast
1/2 cup molasses (I love molasses!)
1 cup vital wheat gluten
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup rye flour
1/4 sesame seeds
1 tsp sea salt

1 to 1 1/2 cups additional whole wheat flour
Combine yeast, molasses and water. Then add dry ingredients. Use additional flour as needed. I needed using the dough hook on my mixer for about 10 minutes. Let rise in a bowl until double. Punch down and shape into loaves. Place in 2 greased 9X5 loaf pans. Let rise about 45 minutes (not in a hot oven ;) ). Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes.

This recipe originally called for 1/4 cup Millet flour which sounded expensive and I didn't use it.

Rainbows! *Day 1*

We are reading The Wizard of Oz together so I decided to design some craft activities for Cole around rainbows. I realize that rainbows have nothing to do with the book but since our project will culminate in the watching of the movie I figured it would work. Cole used to really like cutting so I cut out strips of rainbow-colored construction paper that he could then easily cut into small pieces. I made little construction paper boxes so that he could also practice color sorting. We could then take these small pieces and glue them to the appropriate place on the rainbow. Well, since he is 2 he of course decided that he is no longer interested in cutting especially if mommy would like him to do it! So I did have to help him finish cutting. Oh well. I guess on the upside he did enjoy the color sorting aspect of it. I guess he is just done with the cutting phase for now. I imagine that once he develops a little more he may get interested in cutting more exactly. He is not there yet though.

Tomorrow-day 2 of rainbow making.