Curriculum Resource: Khan Academy

Only a few more days until Monday's webinar with Blockhead author Joseph D'Agnese talking about using his picture book on Fibonacci for teaching math.  (If you missed it earlier, see this post with more details about the webinar and how to participate, or this post about how to win a free copy of the book.)  But is you are looking for an even more multimedia approach to math instruction, along with a wider range of topics, a great place to look is Khan Academy.

Khan Academy has a library of 2,100 different educational videos on a range of middle school through college topics, but focused heavily on science and especially math.  Just the math subjects offered are extensive--Basic or Developmental Math, Geometry, Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Trigonometry, Differential Equations, Calculus.  (In contrast, the History section covers the French Revolution and Napoleon, and that's about it....for now, at least.)  So if there is a math topic that your student could use some help with, it's likely that Khan Academy has a video on it.

And the great thing about Khan Academy is that they are giving it all away for free.  Sal Khan is a man with a vision--to make education freely available to anyone in the world with an Internet connection.  Although he now is getting funding from the Gates Foundation, he started by creating hundreds of video on his own and just making them available via the web.  Khan is committed to keep churning out videos until he has the entire curriculum covered.  So he's going to be busy for quite a while...

In addition to the videos, he has some interactive exercises and assessments, and a mechanism to allow learning coaches to keep track of their learners' progress through things.  It's a wonderful resource for homeschoolers to take advantage of as is appropriate for their students--and the price is certainly right!

Curriculum Resource: French Revolution Recipe--Bastille Chicken

Today in our history coop we were covering the French Revolution.  We had read some books prior to the class, and then we heard various presentations and did different activities related to that time period up through the Napoleonic wars.

Since my son enjoys learning to cook, we thought we would bring the lesson home by making a related dinner tonight.  However, due to our various allergies, we didn't like any of the "authentic" recipes we found.  So we came up with our own dinner, based on our invention of "Chicken Bastille."

We were working on the theme of the French Revolutionary flag.  Red and Blue were the traditional colors of Paris, and White was the color of France.  However, since there are so few foods that are naturally colored Blue, we substituted Green in the form of Haricot Vert, or French Green Beans.

So this is what we did.  Sorry, I'm not a measuring cook, so this is not an official recipe.  But it gives you an idea about how we created a meal that relates to the French Revolution in our own minds, at least.

First, we mixed some of our favorite spices with flour.  Then we covered chicken breasts with the flour/spice mixture.  We selected 4-6 green beans and put them in the middle of our chicken breasts, then rolled the breasts around them.  We did that with all the chicken breasts/green beans.

We had a bag of red creamer potatoes.  We cut them into relatively equal slices, then mixed them with chunks of onions, then poured a little olive oil and salt and pepper on them.  On top of that, we placed the chicken breasts rolled around haricots vert (or green beans).    That gave us red (potatoes), white (chicken breasts in flour), and green (beans) instead of blue.

We also made a cream sauce to pour on top and emphasize the white/French aspect.  We sauteed some garlic in olive oil, then added an equal amount of flour to make a roux.  Once that browned, we added some white wine and then some cream.  Voila---garlic wine cream sauce!  How much more French could you get?

We served this with a salad vinaigrette and a French baguette.   Bon Appetit!

PS--This meal was also inspired by my friend Doug, a master chef, who turned 50 today.  Happy Birthday, Doug!  We love you!