RADDISH

The best part of our homeschool exploration so far is discovering the personalized learning that can be designed. At a neighborhood elementary school you are provided with all the opportunities that the school offers, has designed, and planned. With homeschool we are developing our own methods and opportunites for our individual kids' needs and interests with the guidance and recommendations of our Homeschool Teacher and wonderful charter school team. :)

One of the coolest homeschooling projects we've started this fall is a Raddish Kids subscription box!

(I didn't even know before we started homeschooling that these subscription boxes would be eligible for our charter funding, but there are TONS of varieties, and so much fun already!)

Raddish Kids is a monthly cooking box that gets mailed to you. Inside there is a kitchen tool for the month, and recipe cards that outline your shopping list, there are games to play, dinner table conversation cards, and a patch to iron on to your very own apron!

The goal is to help kids find the joy in cooking healthy meals, but also to build safety skills, help with reading comprehension, learn organization, some cool geography, and how to plan.

First of all, Kate LOVES getting mail. The kids enjoy checking the mail with us, even if it's just flyers and junk. When Kate saw a package show up with her own name on it, she was thrilled! The surprise of things inside was a major bonus. haha!

The boxes are themed for the month, and October was all about Monsters. :) A potato masher is the tool, and all the culinary dishes were monster themed: 5-Eyed Breakfast Bake, Broccoli Swamp Fritters, and Monster Mash Meatloaves.

Together we looked through her box of supplies and she got to pick which recipe she wanted to make first. It was really cool to see her naturally take ownership of the box and tell us what days of the week we would be making each meal. She would also "read" her recipe cards to anyone and everyone. The artwork and pictures in these menu cards are adorable! It makes the steps easy to follow, and even with a 5-year old she was able to easily tell me what she needed and what ingredients to use first.

Kate was very confident that the 5-Eyed Breakfast Bake would be the best meal to start with. This dish is inspired by traditional Shakshuka of North Africa.

We practiced writing our "S" and wrote "shakshuka" on a post-it, then located Tunisia/Libya/Israel on our world map.

We wrote a grocery list together and went to the store. Kate picked out all the food she wanted and we used the self check-out so that she could scan all of her own groceries. :)

At home I was there to assist her, but let her lead on getting all the food out she needed and all the kitchen tools.

I helped with some of the chopping work, like the onions... While covering her eyes with her hands Kate said, "Why do they put so many spices in onions??!" haha. I think it was quite the surprise for her. Kate mixed everything together with a spoon, poured ingredients into the skillet, and cracked the eggs all on her own! She has never been so involved in making an entire recipe from start to finish. 

It was wonderful to see Kate so excited about her food. She helped clean up the counter and asked me to take pictures of her with her dish.

If this was a dinner I decided to make for the family, she hardly would have touched it. But because she got to choose the dish and make it herself she was excited and ready to dig right in and eat lots of bites!

 The very next night Kate wanted to make her Monster Mash Meatloaves for our friends. They turned out amazing! Individual meatloaves cooked in a muffin tin with mashed sweet potatoes on top <3 best="" definitely="" dinners="" ever="" had.="" nbsp="" of="" one="" span="" the="" ve="" we="">

I really appreciate these Raddish boxes already. As a mom of two young kids (who are sometimes very picky eaters), as a homeschooler, and also as a studying nutritionist, it is really cool to see how Raddish has developed these learning tools. I'm sure it takes a lot of research, planning, and preparation, but the result is SO well worth it. Kate has been raving about her meals, and loves to tell everyone about it. We can't wait to keep cooking together!