God With No Hands - cooling layer

We make our own yogurt and the last few times, we've been using a simpler method that we LOVE - it's so easy!

When removing the milk from the pan and placing the jars on the counter, we always notice the layer of cooling milk on top.

This layer is mentioned in the first Great Lesson - The Story of God With No Hands - right before introducing the volcano... so it can easily slip into the recesses of one's mind when confronted with that *awesome* volcano!

This last yogurt-making was interesting though...

We were both working quietly in the living room and continued to hear a pop - pop - pop. Ever so slight.

Dreading the possibility of a mouse in our apartment, we crept into the kitchen....

and found...


This....



If you listen very carefully you can hear the quiet pop-pops - just barely. There are two other videos as well - both showing the same thing, but we couldn't decide which one to post!


Give it a try! Boil some milk in a glass jar by placing a 75-90% filled with milk jar into a saucepan of water and cover with a lid. Bring to a boil until the milk is about 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Now use a mitt to remove the jar and place it on the counter. Just let it sit. It won't take long!

Neat, huh!?


Wanna make yogurt while you're at it?
If you don't have a nice consistently warm place, do what we do and place that pan of hot water in a cooler which has been lined with a thick towel. Close the cooler for now to get it nice and warm in there.
(if you want to use raw milk and keep it raw, to make yogurt, you'll heat only to 110, but will not get a skin on the milk)

When the milk is about 105-110, mix in a spoonful of yogurt with active cultures. Put a lid on the milk culture and place it in the cooler next to the pan (best not to let them touch if the pan is still too hot - you don't want to kill the yogurt culture). Close the lid.

Come back in 24 hours (usually less but the 24 hours part is easy for us!).

To a pint jar, we add about 1 1/2 tbsp of sweetener (powdered sugar, honey, maple syrup, fruit juice concentrate) and whatever other ingredients you'd like. We are out of vanilla (still waiting for it to finish up) so we've been using almond extract - YUM!

Or mixed with homemade granola. YUMMIER!

It's pretty thick to start, but gets a bit runnier with stirring, so minimize your stirring if you want thick yogurt.

No pectin, no preservatives, our own sweeteners.

AND science!

Can't beat it!


Yes, those are wide-mouth Ball glass jars - we have been slowly switching over to just using those, instead of re-using other glass jars, because, well, we're not buying as many other glass jars as we make more and more of our own food from fresh produce. I chose wide-mouth because 1) the food doesn't clog up underneath a lip and 2) the same lids and rings fit on both pint (think jam) and quart jars - I really need ease of use and mis-matched lids have been hair-pullers in the last year! ;) Now I have multiple sized jars and just one size of lid that fits on all the jars. And everything looks so NICE in the cupboard, fridge and freezer!

After stirring it is just a bit runnier than organic yogurt.
Just as thick as well-stirred non-organic yogurt. 

In the cooler; we make 4 jars at a time.
Saving the last half of one jar as the culture for the next batch.

God with No Hands - Some Follow-Ups

We first did the Story of God with No Hands when Legoboy was 5 1/2. He was just very, very ready for it!

But many people wonder - what do we do after? Follow the child? But how? What materials should I have ready?

Don't REQUIRE anything. Let it sit. Let it fizzle. Let it percolate. I promise in most cases, you won't be waiting long! If at all!

• Have ready everything you have demonstrated to the children - so the children can repeat. 
• Have lots of large paper on hand if they want to copy the charts. 
• Have beautiful colored pencils or watercolors on hand. 
• Have some flexibility in your schedule so you can hit up the library on any given day. 
• Keep an open, trusting mind - and have some questions of your own you'd like to research, perhaps side by side. 
• It is probably best to just have on hand what you need for the remaining geography album pages and don't worry about much else - because honestly, NO one can tell you where your child's interests will go - even I've been surprised by own son! 

My son's original interests were in the volcano (go figure!) but he didn't get into the parts of volcanoes like most children - he wanted to know about types of volcanoes, which necessitated learning some of the parts, but in a different way from a child who wants to directly know that information - and where active volcanoes sit today - and where inactive volcanoes sit. And could one be where we live. We then got into Pompeii. And two years later, our local museum hosted the Pompeii exhibit! Oh my! It was WONDERFUL! We went twice! He had other minor questions which were not as polarizing at the time.

And we moved into the other Great Lessons, instigating a study into ancient history. We began reading through Mystery of History in our own manner - reading a "lesson" each evening, creating an index card for it, then he could select any of the suggested activities from any of the listed age groups to do during school time in the coming week. Well, 2 1/2 years later, we've not quite finished the book because this study branched into Ancient Middle East, Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece - leading to a study (when I say study, I mean reading lots of books and watching videos and having lots of discussions) of the multiple gods of their religion, leading to an interest in astronomy because of the connections of all those names, leading into a study of clocks and time-telling through history, back into astronomy. And then back into Ancient Civilizations (only reinforced since joining the level 3 atrium a year early). He really has little to no interest in modern history. Ah yes, then he discovered there were more suggested activities in Mystery of History, so he's gone back time and again to review the past stories and add more work in.

And one wonders why I post so little about the direct use of the Montessori materials ;) because it's ALL Montessori materials - the whole world! ;) 


In the meantime, we did another re-telling of the first Great Lesson when he was just past his 6th birthday, with follow-ups that time being the states of matter - heavily into the states of matter. Repeating ALL the demonstrations

At 6 1/2 to 7 1/2, with 2 more tellings during that time, the focus shifted to the layers of the earth, mostly focusing on different types of rocks. Here, he went back to the volcano to discover types of rocks around different types of volcanoes and the use of some of those rocks. Pumice and its uses; some volcanic rocks are great for closet deodorizers - put them in your closet or a polluted area, it soaks up all the smell and pollution and gets really heavy - put it out in the sunlight and the sun's rays burn out all the pollution and you can use the rocks again and again and again. He told me, "Let's buy me a bigger pair of shoes, so I can keep a stone of this stuff in each toe!" (he has raunchy-smelling feet!). I am purposely not telling you the name of this rock so you'll go look it up yourself ;) Isn't it interesting this type of rock would be spewed forth by the very volcano that it helps to "clean up". Kind of a nice balance to nature there, eh!?



Since then, he still continues to come for re-tellings of the original story - told just the same as the first time (with glass test tubes now) - and now he ponders questions of morality: how all these particles have particular laws, obey those laws, and the human race has these choices even though made from the same particles as everything else. He also ties in elements from the later Great Lessons and his own personal research, relating the particles to the planets, or to human peoples and their various methods of migration. His follow-ups these days are not as distinctly coming from just this one lesson, because he has the grand overview, told many times in the last 3 years and he is making connections and discoveries.


Some people suggest changing the story up from time to time - while focusing on just one small section has been a positive experience, I have not once had a positive experience with changing the story at all. The children seem to thrive on hearing the SAME story told over and over and over and over - much like when they were preschoolers! And each time they can listen in for a new detail, a new enticement, a new discovery, a new learning path, all from the same old story.


In upper elementary, children explore other creation stories and make comparisons, exploring how the culture and their stories tie together - what do all of these stories reveal about the Truth and about the ways of life of the people holding to their own story. At this time, it might be feasible for a child to re-write the Great Lesson, modifying it. Or they might enjoy coming back to an old friend.

First Great Lesson: God With No Hands

This is one of those posts I'm not quite sure where to put. Perhaps I should really do a blog over at Keys of the Universe - but I'm not sure I can do one more blog ;)

So I'll do my best to focus this on OUR home and OUR co-op ;)

Many times, I have stated that I strongly prefer the AMI albums over AMS albums and I provide several reasons, repetitively ;) It is because I feel SO strongly about them! AMI albums are keys-based, so to use the First Great Lesson, there just won't be as many demonstrations the first time around. They USED to have a WHOLE BUNCH in the initial presentation, but over the years of careful observation, several of the demonstrations have been separated out from the first Great Lesson of God with No Hands, into their own follow-up album pages. Thus a child can focus more on the main points at hand, then have plenty of review later for follow-up and emphasis on new or additional points. States of Matter, Further States of Matter, and Attraction and Gravity are three such "additional" album pages. Hence those album pages are as brief as they are!


(I say "demonstrations" here and need to adapt my albums to say the same thing - these are truly demonstrations much more so than experiments - we know the outcome and we are seeking to demonstrate a scientific principle - when the children are working to answer a question, form a hypothesis, set up a test, see it through and evaluate, now THAT is an experiment ;) ).

AMI uses art-forms instead of photography
so the children get the emphasis on *impression*
thus providing opportunities within
their research for finding real photos
 of the various principles in action.
And it encourages the children to re-create,
thus encouraging creativity.
There are a variety of stylistic versions.
Keep them simple!

In our home, we stick with that. I at first thought I would add in all the great ideas from Miss Barbara's site (since I'd been reading that long before I had elementary training, and despite being overwhelmed by it all before going into any Montessori training, I thought it was still great and easily adaptable to my own family's needs)... but after observing and working in several Montessori classes during and after the elementary training, seeing the variety of ways the story was done, and the children's reactions....

Well, I stuck with my album page. It really hits home, focuses in, incites interests, and gets personal studying going. It didn't NEED anything else. Just those SIX demonstrations: see this link for the six.

And especially being at home, with an only child, and a part-time (one half-day a week) co-op, the minimal keys-based approach with lots of review just really made sense for us, allowing me to present in short bursts, leaving lots of time for follow-up and research, opportunity for me to observe and present another focal point of interest at the appropriate time, without feeling like I had to have to just *everything* in place at once, or (potentially) overwhelm the children with too  much information. Focus - concentration - didn't I spend all of primary focusing on keys - focus - and concentration development? ;)


So at almost age 6, my son received the first Great Lesson, along with two young ladies (ages 10 and 12 at the time) - and they were hooked!

I wish I had taken photos at the time - I didn't :(


I had my large charts from training - at-home versions are good at half that very large size - 12x18 or so is perfect when feasible, but I used what I had ;)


We also had some supplies from Magic School Bus science kits - the test tubes are not the best idea for later work when you want to hold a test tube over a heat source or place it in hot water (the plastic melts), but it all worked for the first Great Lesson. I love test tubes for demonstrating layers (introduction to density) because you such a small amount and the children LOVE to repeat this work! They can use SUCH control using just small quantities and pouring into the narrow tube - or using eyedropper to transfer various liquids - lots of fun! LOTS of concentration!

We changed up some of the stuff to be melted - I did not have time to find non-lead solder (a little goes a long way when you do buy it though - so it IS a worthy investment) so I think I used a chunk of plastic; and I used an old key for the non-descript metal (broke the rules there, but again, it is what I had!). Another alternative to the solder is that plastic craft stuff that you can melt in hot water then shape into what you want - a bit of that starting to truly melt is perfect. The idea is to use different items to demonstrate the principle at hand, without getting all technical and detailed. Display, and move on with the story.

I also subbed in quinoa for the bebes or iron shot - because it was on hand ;) No other reason! You want particles that can be seen as they roll over and around each other.



When the children have a question, write it down for them so they don't forget. These questions become their research.

RESEARCH? At age SIX!? YES!!! Research at this age is as simple as asking a question and finding resources to answer that question. As they get older and are comfortable with knowing that they CAN do this research and that their questions WILL be honored, then we started with simple steps towards what we adults think of as research. (more in the next post!)


Want to know our follow-ups to the first Great Lesson, the first time around? And other times? See two posts from now ;)