Winter Wonder About

Wondering what is going on inside the Reed Academy school program while the world outside is a snowy, cold, winter wonderland? Lots of learning and fun is the answer. Having survived the holidays we have been heading forward keeping updated on the changes in our government and the inaugaration of Barack Obama. The students have read about, researched, and discussed what our 44th president will face when he takes office as well as in the next 4 years of his presidency. The students all wrote a letter to the president asking him questions that they felt were meaningful to our country, the world, and particularly to them individually. Their teacher sent the letters off and we will now await the response to their efforts. Congratulations to all their teachers for enlisting the students in becoming involved in their future and starting early to become knowlegeable and involved citizens.
President Obama is making a clear statement for our citizens to become involved in what is being termed as the "call to service". It can honestly be said that the students at Reed Academy have been and continue to be exposed to and asked to take an active part in helping others and helping society (and in the long run themselves, too). We have a variety of community service projects that impact people/organizations outside of Reed Academy in a small way as well as impacting our students with the ever important theme of helping others and character development. The boys are continually kept involved with activities both within and outside the classroom. Their most recent project involved recycling cardboard tubes and creating play toys which were donated to a needy cat shelter. As always, we continue with the project of to ticket tearing for a local Emergency Fund Bingo program. These volunteer efforts help those less fortunate to stay warm in the winter. It also helps the boys learn that caring about others is an important life lesson.
Our history "explorers" are off on an adventure to discover the history of various world explorers and their footprint in history. Each student is participating in an individual creative multi -media project which, when copmplete will be shared via a presentation. The boys are excited about the process and inspired to discover every tidbit of information.
The adjunct project of the school day (AKA) "The after-school book club" continues their journey reading "The Chronicles of Narnia". They have finished "The Magician's Nephew". In this book is revealed how the magical wardrobe was created. The students then enjoyed watching the movie, "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe". Now, the book club continues to read about the adventures of Susan, Peter,Edmund, and Lucy in "Prince Caspian". It's quite an adventure...we'll keep you posted (or should I say, BLOGGED!)
Until next time, keep blogging.

Easy cookie recipe to make with your child

Super Quick Vegan Choco-Chip Cookies



dry Ingredients

1/2 cups whole wheat flour (regular flour works too but produces an anemic looking, less wholesome cookie)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips



Wet ingredients

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla



Directions:

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Mix together all the dry ingredients in one bowl and all the wet ingredients in another. Once they are combined in the two separate bowls, make well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix the two together until they are well combined then spoon the batter into good sized lumps on a baking sheet and then put them in the oven and let them bake for about 15 minutes. Cool and enjoy.



The best part about these cookies is that since there are no eggs, you can go ahead and eat as much dough as you want. YUM!. A great recipe for those with kids who like to help to cook.

*Variation: you can easily turn these into vegan oatmeal raisin cookies by using only 2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup of oats, and 1 cup of raisins instead of the choloclate chips. They are equal.



Serves: about 20