Welcome to Mexico

Welcome to Mexico....
 This week we left our study of the USA behind and ventured into our southern neighbor. We  are taking our time in Mexico and spending 3 weeks instead of 2. I am mainly adjusting the schedule because of our extracurriculars taking such a chunk out of our time I have been feeling majorly rushed and find myself turning into "Monster Mommy." This weeks more relaxed flow has been so much nicer. We started our week fresh off vacation with  "Art day". We made banner "papel picado" (Paper banners) and tissue paper flowers that we used to decorate the living room and the dinning area chandelier. Theser were our final products.

 I am also chaning up how we study the country.  We are going to swtich to doing lapbooks on most countries I think because my girls seem to prefer it. Maybe its more "primary" grades then I was thinking this year to be but its fitting. We are using a free version through Homeschool Share.: Mexico Lapbook The most fun we had this week was with food. We got adventurous and tried new things. Had some successes and some failures..lol.. but everything was edible. we started our week with a delicious Chicken Tomatillo Soup. Recipe available here:  Slow Cooker Chicken Tomatillo Soup. Got 6 thumbs up from the pack and we had leftovers enough to drain and try to use as a filling for our empandas. Unfortunately, I did not master emapanda dough. We will try again in the next two weeks. The dough I did make fired up nicely into disks that we served with the leftovers. Below is Hulk assiting with our empanda attempt. And then our final "sell your mistakes" dish..lol

                          

We made bean burritos for lunch most days.... Kids loved them...

We had breakfast burritos with Egg, sausage, & cheese served with a side of Papya.

Our Biggest Adventure was Ceviche de Pescedo with Cilantro Lime Rice. This got mixed reviews. Ying judged in edible, Yang asked for it never to be served again, and Hulk ate it like it was going out of style. Both girls were a little off put by the uncookedness..lol

We went out for Ice cream for desert that night as a reward for everyone trying so many new things this week.

Saturday night we tried Carne Asada with Elote ( Mexican grilled corn). It was fabulous.

Here are links to some of our recipes:

The Ceviche de Pescedo and Carne Asada were from a cookbook called Not just Tacos I got a while back for free on Amazon.

Cilantro Lime Rice

http://www.chefandherkitchen.com/2013/06/cilantro-lime-rice-recipe-easy-mexican.html

Elote:

http://www.iwashyoudry.com/2013/07/05/elote-mexican-grilled-corn

Also here is a link to the pintrest board I have created for Mexico and Central America:

http://www.pinterest.com/lettinghimlead/mfw-ecc-mexico-and-central-american/

We were also blessed this week by obtaining free access to Discovery Education streaming via our local PBS stations. This has been an amazing source for us of video about Mexico and our science topics.  Hulk has been watching episodes of Reading rainbow on Mexicican folktales, and the girls  are informally teaching themselves some Spanish via some videos. This week it has really taken the place of our bookbasket.

I thank the Lord for his mercy and sticking with me through the last few months. I was really getting frustrated and angry, feeling pulled in too many directions, and second guessing my choice of having the kids at home. He put his hand on me and carried me through the storm, and I am seeing the light again. Praise Him and His Glory. He is so good to me.