Holding Firm

Today I asked Sweet Potato to do a character study on her reading book. I really can't do Dithor (Drawn Into the Heart of Reading) with her at her level of comprehension. Recently I found a book of folk tales from India, she has actually been interested in these. So knowing repetition is the key to her success, I decided to have her read these for her interest study and reading comprehension.

Yesterday she did a fantastic job of giving me an over view of the story in a written narration. Today I wanted her to pay attention to detail hence the character study assignment.  Over all she found plenty of details on the main character. Since we covered paragraph creation in grammar yesterday, I asked for a paragraph.  I'm always looking to kill 2 birds with one stone, not to mention repeat, repeat, repeat is so critical to her learning. I feel may be emphasizing the repeat thing a bit to much? 

Do you think she gave me a paragraph??? do you huh huh huh? Of course not!

In fact there were 5 incarnations of the words on the page but not in paragraph form.  I know part of my problem was I was tired. School went fairly well today, only a 45 minute hiccup over math. I thought she could  Do This With Out Me Being Present. (un-clench the teeth mama)  She did take it up to her bunk bed and close the door, I really felt I was free to have some Facebook free time.

She brought down a page of bullet points, all starting with the word Gopal.  I did remember to sandwich my criticism of not a paragraph and use pronouns, in between praise of handwriting and detail work. but man this child would not write it into a paragraph form. After the 2nd odd form of paragraph writing and reviewing how to write a paragraph.  It dawned on me... Shes playing me!!! Shaking off the afternoon lethargy I cleared my head and realized this is just more of the same.  Ohh she is good Miss Manipulation is poking her head out again.

Gratefully I didn't lose my temper or get mean (and say something stupid), I just realized she is not doing as I requested "on purpose." So I played along. I mean what is the fun of parenting if you can't turn the tables on em every so often.

I  kept sending her back to rewrite it from the beginning, in a paragraph form.  It took 6 tries before she decided she didn't want to do it again and chose to do it correctly.  After she handed in a acceptable paper I had her sit down next to me.  I praised it, corrected one mistake and said Good Job! and asked "Now tell me what made you choose to do it right this time?"  after some hemming an hawing she replied "because I didn't want to do it again."  Score!!!! one Mom child um well er never mind... lets not go there.  Wow Great choice ok now you have piano practice and chores then you can have free time.. Oh look Daddy is now home dinner in 20 minutes.

We have prayer meeting tonight and we try to go early so the kids have time to chat and play four square. She was 10 minutes late to dinner, 10 minutes late to doing her vest time, and 10 minutes late to prayer meeting.  It was so Awesome that she did this to herself.  Like Kevin Leman says, sometimes you just have to pull the rug out from underneath them and let them fall.  What you had no free time today? Oh well. What you missed chatting with your friends??? Sorry not my fault, you got to look in the mirror for that one.

Was I frustrated yes, but only because I hate to watch it. No one likes their child to fail. Although Sweet Potato seems to have turned it into a art form? hobby? lifestyle? I'm glad I stuck it out I'm hoping that standing firm, and letting her make poor choices and dealing with the consequences now. Will help her make better choices in the future.

Thanks so much for the positive feed back on the water color tutorials. I'm so glad you are all stepping out into new territory with your kiddos. I find this the fun-ist part of school!

My Campaign over at GFA is a bit neglected so if you want to enrich the lives of women who can't read you can donate here https://www.mygfa.org/gardenforsara/ 

An Experiment With Naan

For those of you foodies out there that Love Naan... and don't own a tandoor!!! Home cooked naan can be a serious problem.

I love the taste of home made Naan, but not having a tandoor! I have resorted for years to a smoky house and pulling all the batteries out of the smoke detectors before I commenced cooking.  Cooking it in the oven just doesn't cut it. Stove top cooking is do-able but also lacks that cooked over coals flavor.  So today I have played around with Naan and Tandoori Chicken  (You will have to wait for my next blog post to find out how I faked a tandoor with my roadside grill).  Today's Blog is about Naan that chewy, lovely, yummy, buttery, garlicy, super special bread from India... I love so much!!!

You may notice my missionary style grill... its a roadside recycle :-) a gift from a man with a truck, who knew we didn't own a "real" grill... we added the bolted on handle and rearranged the stuff inside to make a recycled charcoal grill.  Also, I love my Tortilla griddle but alas it does have a crack in it and I have a new griddle I don't love as much, so I keep my old one around. Because its so handy to use in these types of situations and my Mommy gave it to me, and I think of her when I use it. Thanks Mom!  

Use your favorite Naan Recipe and if you have my old one could you send it to me??? I didn't like this recipe as much as my old one from 2003 but alas my email server purged it and Recipezaar seems to have become some other website! So I'm not sharing the recipe here, just the technique on how to cook Naan without a tandoor.

1. Get coals nice n' hot
2. Put on a griddle so you have a good flat surface for the naan to stick too. Close lid and let the griddle get really hot.
3. Roll out naan, open up your grill and toss naan on griddle, close lid.
4. Pre roll another naan peeking at your naan, half way though your rolling out the next one.
5. Flip naan if it is starting to puff, and it looks happy.
6. Brush on butter, close lid.
7. Finish rolling out naan... if you can before the one on the griddle finishes cooking...
8. Open grill and pull off perfectly cooked naan.
9. Use tongs and wet towel to remove any burnt flour or butter from griddle.
Repeat till your out of dough.

Special Thanks to my Knight in Shining Armor for stitching together all those segments of naan cookery.