Club Tutu

I guess our "school year" is beginning to gain steam. 

Funny when people ask "So, when are you guys starting back to school?" ... 

I'm always thinking, "Well, I guess some of the "stuff" we do is starting this month, but we've really been "doing school" all along".

I mean, the Hippie reads daily.  
    
    She reads for pleasure ... fiction.
    She reads for pleasure ... non-fiction.
    She reads for knowledge ... historical events, places, people.
    She reads for knowledge and pleasure ... artists, scientists, topics of interest.


The Princess draws daily.

    She draws horses, every day.
    She draws dogs.
    She draws her family.
    She draws mermaids.

We play games and keep score. 

We read stories aloud.

We watch shows about science and cooking.

The Princess practices reading.


We cook.


We bake.


We paint.


We pretend.


We listen to music, read lyrics and play music on our instruments.


We go places like the library
    and the post office
     and gardens 
      and historical sites 
       and art museums 
        and science museums 
         and friends' homes.


Each girl has started a book ~ the Hippie is writing one (typing one) called "Mermaid Dreams" and the Princess is drawing one about a horse and herself (bet you didn't see that one coming, did you?).


Anyway, I have veered way off topic here.  I guess, what I'm trying to say is that when you set up your home and life to support life-learning, school just doesn't start and stop.  It is on-going. 


But ...


School-like activities do tend to start up in the fall.  


We are looking forward to many of ours.


But, today I wanted to share with you about our very first "Club Tutu".


Club Tutu will celebrate all things Spanish ... food, clothing, culture, dance, games, art, music, movies, history, geography, language. 

The goal is cultural exposure and I'm super stoked about that.


Today was simple. 
    
    CUBA
      
Perfect, really.  My good friend, Coco is Cuban-American (among other things), so she figured she'd start with what she knows best. 


She served us a traditional Cuban meal ... peasant food ... 


    Black beans (super yummy)
      Rice with a little olive oil and garlic and Celtic Sea Salt
        Picadillo (we didn't eat this because we are vegetarian, but it smelled good)
          and Tostones 


Wonderful.  


And, whether the children learned anything or not, Momma did.  


I learned the difference between Maduros and Tostones and how to make both.  I'd tried to make the sweet plantains (Maduros) before and failed miserably.  


Now, I know why.


If you want to make Maduros (the sweet plantains), you need your plantains to be completely black ~ like, so ripe you think you need to throw them away.  


That was my mistake years ago when I tried ... my plantains were not ripe enough.


To make Tostones, you use green plantains.  


Fry them up once, smash them in your trusty "tostonera" (a wooden tostones smasher), run them through a salty ice bath and fry them again ... drain on paper towels and salt them.  


Yum


Anyway, kids played, Mommas talked, we learned, we laughed.  The Princess smashed tostones in the tostonera.


Up next, tomorrow ... Art Museum tour and activity. 

So blessed to be a homeschooler ...