How to teach your child to write; practice your sourdough; links!
I am back in business now! Sorry to go dark here. We had server issues but now they’re fixed, I am hoping!
So now we have lots to talk about.
Let’s start with something on my mind — teaching a child to write.
Let’s avoid a syndrome that’s quite pervasive across our society; it involves identifying a problem, marshaling experts to address it, seeing that things are getting worse, and then layering on another system requiring more experts.
I’m thinking of the decline in our population as a whole and our students in particular of literacy, religious education, math and science skills, and so on. There’s always another credentialed entity weighing in… meanwhile, colleges everywhere have pretty much given up on the idea of requiring students to write capably (and they know students don’t read).
Add to that the incentive to monetize the system — that is, the evident demand eliciting purveyors with shaky credentials who offer ever more complicated systems — and you have what amounts to a trap for innocent consumers.
These sellers assure the rather panicky homeschooling parent that the purchase of this new curriculum or hire of a tutor will do the trick.
But actually, all that can’t really be true.
How is it that in the colonial and 1800s eras of our country, those with a third-grade education had more literacy than we, and in the last century, even a rather poor so-called “disadvantaged” high school student’s vocabulary, syntax, and diction were better than ours?
It’s precisely because we are making things so complicated that we are failing.
In one way (thanks to those monetizing experts), we expect way too much from young children. It’s a truly rare child who can write an essay, for the great majority simply have nothing to say yet — they are still absorbing. It’s a kind of malpractice to ignore and even thwart this normal development.
In another way, we don’t expect enough. We allow them to be passive in their oral and written expression and we don’t help them with the years of reading and handwriting needed before a good sentence, much less magnificent treatise, can emerge on paper.
That “good sentence” should be your first goal.
Remember how I said, before school started, to set your goals for the year?
Your goal for your seventh grader should be to write a good sentence — if he doesn’t already. But does he?
The experts want that child to write a five-paragraph essay comparing two works of literature. I want him to emerge in the spring able to write sentences with subject-verb that agrees-object, sentences with dependent clauses, sentences free of dangling participles, and sentences in which the normal word order is inverted.
In eighth grade, the goal should be to write a good paragraph.
The paragraph should express and develop one thought and the sentences in it should, in general, have the same subject and not jump around. The paragraph should not begin “I think” or “There is” or “There are.”
If in elementary school your child develops good handwriting, makes lists, copies dictation, writes notes, jots down funny things his sibling says in a family log book, and copies poems into his journal, he will be ready to tackle his seventh- and eighth- grade goals.
In ninth grade he will be able to make a quick list of three things he wants to say about a thesis he has stated; he will write a five-paragraph essay developing it. The truth is, if he masters the paragraph and counting to three, he will absolutely be able to write an essay. My husband, an excellent writer and college professor, says so!
In the upper level of high school, the student should write an essay of two or three pages every week in this manner — using his good sentences, paragraphs and thesis statement. I promise you he will then graduate as a literate person who can either successfully start a business or learn a trade or perform well at an institution of higher learning.
I have chapters and chapters on the details of all this in my book (volume 2). There are lots of posts here on the blog.
It’s a process that takes confidence on your part — the confidence of sticking to the simple but not flashy process of setting the goals without trying to micromanage or overwhelm your child with managerial procedures; he’s not a machine! He has to figure it out for himself, by means of tested methods with far better results than what we have now.
You need the confidence of not feeling inadequate when others wave around their new shiny expensive packages. Look at me — I have a whole blog about homeschooling and I keep posting about tattered old texts from the 20s — the 1920s. But my (grown) children can write! It’s not easy to have confidence in the face of all those experts, but you can do it.
Do search out the old primers and writing texts. Much less expensive, much better.
Sourdough Corner
I hope you are practicing your sandwich bread! The reason to make this bread as you are learning is its ingredients: the milk and sweetener give you a lot of wiggle room for achieving a satisfying loaf. Success breeds success. You start to understand the bread developing under your hands. So keep at it — soon we will be tackling crusty loaves.
To develop your intuitiveness and emphasize how I do not discard, ever, I want to show you what I have in my jar before the feeding:
And in the bowl:
I have tinkered with the KA recipe to increase the volume. It could even be more. Try making it, if you would, and let me know how it compares. (The recipe is typed out below, and I’ve included a printable PDF file!)
Meanwhile —
Notice how full your bowl is when you put in the flour! Try after a while to just put in that amount without measuring.
Put the amount of salt called for in the recipe in your hand. Feel how it feels, look at it. Try just pouring it into your hand without the measuring spoon. See how the bread turns out.
Sourdough Sandwich Bread Like Mother, Like Daughter
Printable PDF: Sourdough Sandwich Bread
For the levain:
65 g. starter (1/3 cup)
85 ml. water (1/3 cup)
11 g. rye flour (1T) (if you have it)
80 g. bread flour (about 2/3 cup – a little more if you didn’t use rye)
Let that rise for about an hour, up to three hours or so. You want it to look lighter than when you mixed it, but you won’t be able to see it doubling or even really rising, because it’s a small amount in the bottom of your big bowl.
Once it’s looking active (bubbly, airy, lighter), add the following:
750 g. bread flour (if you have found that your loaves from the KA recipe seem small, you could go to 800 g. or even a bit more and add a bit more liquid) (6 cups)
350 ml. water (1 1/2 c.)
50 g. dry milk powder (1/3-1/2 cup)*
25 g. salt (1 T)
60 g. honey (~3 T) or sugar
*full disclosure: I used some leftover French toast mixture as my liquid — I mean, you know this is how I roll! I can’t even follow my own recipe…
Mix up your dough, adding the liquid slowly if you are using a stand mixer or all at once if you are mixing by hand.
Allow it to rest for about 25 minutes.
Turn out onto a clean counter and knead for 1-2 minutes until it’s smooth and cohesive.
Rinse out your bowl — no need to wash it! Bits of dough are fine. You just want the interior to be wet so the dough doesn’t stick after it rises.
Put your dough back in the bowl and cover with a warm, wet, wrung-out towel. Place the bowl in a warm spot (my oven’s light warms things up sufficiently that I actually set a timer to turn it off after about 1/2 an hour — watch this because you do want the dough warm, about 75°F, but not warmer than about 90° for very long).
When the dough has risen 60-100% (stopping short of losing its integrity on the surface, which indicates over-proofing), gently turn it out onto your very lightly floured counter.
Using a bench knife, divide it in half. Gently form your loaves by patting each piece into a flattened rectangle the width of your pan and rolling it up rather tightly, tucking in the sides, or by dividing each piece into three, forming strands, and braiding.
Try not to use much if any extra flour. It’s better to wet your hands than to add more flour, which will not have fermented and so will add a flat taste to your bread if you use too much.
Place each piece in a greased bread pan (8.5″ x 4.5″). Let rise for about an hour or until each loaf has filled in the pan about halfway; you can also let them rise for about 40 minutes and then put them in the fridge to bake the next day. In that case, take them out of the fridge and let them come up to room temperature for about 30 minutes while the oven preheats.
Bake at 375° for about 40 minutes, until the tops are golden and a thermometer reads 200°.
Let them cool for at least an hour! To freeze, let them cool for at least 6 hours before putting them in plastic bags.
Again, here’s how much I started with for the levain:
I detest the idea of using plastic wrap to cover my dough and never do it. And I don’t understand using a dry towel.
Instead, I use old, very clean kitchen towels and old, very clean cloth napkins in the case of individual loaveSourdough Sandwich Bread Like Mothers and wring them out with hot water — the dough does not stick:
It is helpful to slash the tops of the loaves, but a bit easier to do if they’ve rested in the fridge:
Before or after you’ve mixed the levain, feed your starter.
This is how much I end up with in my jar, after removing what I need for the dough I’m making:
Just add the same volume of water and enough flour to make a stiff dough.
Can you see how thick it is?
When it’s risen like this, stick it back in the fridge unless you’re making more dough at the moment!
On, at last, to our links!
bits & piecesI will add these two book lists to my LMLD Library Project (I usually hesitate to add lists as most compilers feel obligated to include edgy books of no or worse than no consequence): The Regina Coeli one and Good books for Catholic Kids.Lots of marijuana bills on ballots around the country. It should be obvious that we don’t want our parks and sidewalks (and roads!) filled with people who are high, and that it’s not good for people to use this drug.Let’s just sigh over Cotswold houses.
from the archivesKeeping your child warm this winter Keeping your house warm this winterYou’re doing your dishes wrong (and doing them right is a good opportunity for conversation with your child)A Royal, Holy MarriageMob rule
liturgical living
follow us everywhere!
Here is all the info:
Visit me at The School for Housewives and recommend it to your young friends!
My “random thoughts no pictures” blog, Happy Despite Them has moved over to Substack! — receive it by email if you like, or bookmark, so you don’t miss a thing! The old one is still up if you want to look at the comments on past posts. It will take me a while to get things organized, but you’ll be patient, I know!
There you will find the weekly podcast done by Phil and me, called On the Home Front. Do let us know what you think!
My book, The Summa Domestica: Order and Wonder in Family Life is available from Sophia Press! Also in paperback now! All the thoughts from this blog collected into three volumes, beautifully presented with illustrations from Deirdre, an index in each volume, and ribbons!
My podcast, The Home Truths Society, can be found on the Restoration of Christian Culture website (and you can find it where you listen to such things) — be sure to check out the other offerings there!
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