Rainy Days and Nutty Kids

Why is it that when it's gloomy and rainy outside and all you want to do is sip coffee and curl up with a book, your kids are bouncing off the walls? Well we all know the answer to that, but it's just so funny how that dynamic happens!

So of course the school children didn't get to have recess outside today due to the torrential rain we've had and of course the school cafeteria isn't large enough to run around. Basically the kids didn't get any exercise today and even though I already tried to convince them that marching up and down the stairs while putting their laundry away was fun, it just wasn't enough. Enter Pinterest...

I had pinned a really fun homeschooling activity and decided that we just HAD to do it... We made homemade butter! I tried to sneak in some math and science and in the end we had a delicious side item for our bread during dinner.

Here we are with our jars three quarters full with heavy cream and a pinch of sea salt. That's three quarters as in 3/4. I proceeded to draw my kids that lovely pie chart and asked them to fill in what they thought 3/4 was... Enter frowny faces from children.

Next it was time to shake it up! They had no problems shaking their jars while marching up and down the stairs. I should have thrown their clean laundry on their shoulders so that they could have put it away. Nah, it probably would have ended up on the floor.

Well lookey here! After about 15 minutes of shaking, we almost have butter! I tried to explain to them what was happening to the cream as it was turning into butter, but I think they ignored me. Ha ha ha!

After about 10 more minutes of shaking and checking, we finally had butter! It was perfectly whipped and tasted so good! Best of all it was something fun to do and it expelled most of that pent up energy the kids had. Brilliant!

See? A little time on Pinterest isn't a waste of time after all! Today for me, it was an absolute sanity saver. If you want to make your own homemade butter, click here or go here:

http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/how-to-make-butter/

Enjoy!