Episode 6

Lily  told her mom that they had to leave the house by 10:15 so they would be on time for the flight.

They got to Genevieve and Dylan's house at 4 in the afternoon.  Everyone was excited to see each other.  They hugged and screeched until all the adults sent them outside to play.

Genevieve wanted to show Lily what was growing in her garden.  She had six rows of plants.

The first row contained 8 pepper plants.  The second row contained 12 heads of lettuce.  In the third row there were 9 long poles with bean vines curling around them.  In the next row there were 15 carrots.  Next to that row there were 10 strawberry plants.  In the last row there were 16 sunflowers with their faces turned to the sun.

"Wow" said Lily.  "You have a farm here!"

Genevieve giggled.  "It is not as big as a farm, it is just our vegetable garden.  When the crops grow we harvest and eat them."

How many plants did Genevieve have from which she could get crops?  Answer in the comment section or by emailing me at dvale.helpinghand@gmail.com.

Episode 5

Lily found out that Ava could buy the Easy Bake Oven and one of the refills.  Then she got $3.00 change!

The next morning, Lily's mom called her to the kitchen table.
"Guess what?" Lily's mom asked.  "Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Rudy invited us to Boston for a visit.  Would you like to see Genevieve and Dylan?"

Lily got very excited and screeched out!  "Whoopee!"  She jumped up and ran to her room.

"What are you doing?" Mom asked.
"I'm packing" cried Lily.

"Slow down, we don't go to the airport until tomorrow.  I want you to help me figure out what time we have to leave to go in the morning."

"OK" said Lily.  "What time does the plane leave?"

"Well,  out flight is at 1:30 in the afternoon.  We have to be at the airport 2 hours before the flight and it takes one hour to get to the Tampa airport.  We have to park the car too, so that will add 15 minutes to our trip."

Can you help Lily figure out what time she needs to be ready to leave her house for the airport?
Let me know by clicking on the comments or emailing me at dvale.helpinghand@gmail.com.

YouTube

I have a new youtube channel.  I will be posting crafts, lessons and cooking ideas to do with children.  I will be taping my first official segment tomorrow, but for now I have put up a fun video of Ziggy.  Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/user/HelpFromDebbie/videos

Episode 4 - The Shopping Trip

Episode 4

Lily and Ava were lucky to have Torin help them measure the correct distance from the donkey.
It was 6 feet which is the same as 2 yards.

Ava got a lot of gift cards to Toys R Us for her birthday.  She asked Lily to help her go shopping with the cards.

At the store, Ava looked carefully up and down every aisle.  Lily suggested some items that she thought Ava would enjoy.

"Look, Ava, an Easy Bake Oven.  I always wanted one of those."  Lily pointed out.  "It's only 49.99.  And there are refill kits for 6.99, you could get red velvet cupcakes and chocolate ones too."

"I wonder if I have enough gift cards?"  Ava said.  "I have one for $20, one for $25, and one for $15.  Is that enough for the oven and the refills?"  Ava wondered.

Lily said, " I don't do math anymore."  Ava thought that was silly.  If Lily didn't do math how could she help her figure out if she has enough money.

"Let's bring everything up to the register to see if we can buy the oven and the 2 refills."

"Okay" said Ava,  The carried everything to the cash register.  

Did they have enough money?  Did they get any change?  Did they have to put something back?
Answer by clicking comments below!

Episode 3

Lily made one batch of cookies but then realized she would need another one in order to have enough bottoms and tops for the ice cream sandwiches.

Everyone at the party loved the ice cream sandwiches.  Lily was very proud of her work.

Ava, the birthday girl, wanted everyone to play Pin the Tail on the Donkey.  She asked Lily to help her hang up the big picture of the donkey.  Ava said, "Lily, it says we have to measure 2 yards from the picture so we can have a starting line.  How long is one yard?"

"That can't be right, Ava," Lily giggled.  "Then we would have to start down the street in your neighbor's yard.  That's too far away."

Torren, one of the boys at the party, heard the conversation.  He said, " A yard is 3 feet."

Ava looked at her feet.  "You mean 3 of my feet?" she asked.

"No, I mean three feet, like 12 inches each.  You know, the size of a ruler."  Torren replied.

"We have to measure 2 yards," continued Torren,  "So that would be 6 feet."
Lily and Ava said, "Thanks for the help."

The girls asked Ava's daddy for a ruler.  He said, "I have a yardstick, will that work?"

Lily said, "We need a ruler.  If a yardstick is a ruler it should work."

Lily and Ava took the ruler over to the picture of the donkey.  They measured out six lengths of the yardstick.

Ava said, "This looks too far."

Was Ava correct?  How many lengths of the yardstick should be measured out?

Episode 2


"Lily, is there anything you want to bring to Ava's party?"  Lily was very pleased with herself because she bought some nice gifts for Ava, and it only cost (2x2) + (3x4)  which is the same as 4 + 12 or 16 dollars.  So she got to keep the $4.00 in change.

"Mom, can I make ice cream sandwiches for the party?"  Lily continued, "I have made them before and I can mix the recipe myself, but I will need your help to take the cookies out of the oven.  I will clean up and I will put the sandwiches together all by myself."  Lily thought her mom would let her do this if she promised to clean up and do a lot of it by herself.

Mom thoughtfully gave her consent.  "Here is the recipe.  It makes 12 cookies."

"That's good," Lily said, "because there will be 12 kids at the party, so I will have the right amount."

Here is the recipe from Tyler Florence of the Food Network for 

My Big Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 (8-ounce) bag of chocolate chips
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

Place the butter, sugar, and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer; cream together on medium speed until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat in the vanilla and eggs. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and continue to mix until a smooth batter forms. Turn off the mixer and fold in the chocolate chunks using the spatula.

To form the cookies, scoop about 1/4 cup of cookie dough into your hands and roll it around into a ball; place them about 3-inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets; you should get about 4 cookies on each pan. Press down the tops of the dough slightly and bake until the cookies are light brown, 12 minutes for chewy cookies, or about 15 minutes for crispy cookies.

Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough/cookie sheets.

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence

Will Lily have enough cookies to make 12 ice cream sandwiches?  What will she have to do to the recipe to make sure there are enough bottoms and tops for the sandwiches?

Enter your answer by clicking on "NO COMMENTS" below.

"Face it, Mom," Lily said when she got a "D" in math on her report card, "I am just not a math person."

Lily's mom looked at her and thought for a moment.  "Hmmmm, well, if you have made up your mind, I guess there is nothing I can do about it."

Lily was ecstatic!  Her mom was not going to insist she learn addition, subtraction and, heaven forbid...multiplication!  Lily was going to enjoy her summer vacation and not do anything that involved math.

Lily couldn't wait to begin her glorious summer.  She was excited to go to her cousin Ava's birthday party and play in the Bounce House.

Mom called, "Lily, let's go pick out a present for Ava."
"Ok," Lily replied.  They got into the car and buckled up.

When they got to the store, Lily's mom said, "I am going to allow you to spend $20.00 for a gift for Ava.  You have to spend at least 3/4 of the money on Ava, then you can keep the change if you tell me how much change you will get."

Lily was happy with that arrangement.  She was going to get to keep the change.

She looked at the toys and the books and the games. "Ava likes sparkly things and make-up," Lily thought, "I will look at the make-up and jewelry."  So, off she went.

There was sparkly nail polish for $2.00 and some pretty bracelets for $4.00.   Lily selected 2 bottles of nail polish, one was a sparkly blue, the other a sparkly pink.  Then she picked out a gold, a silver, and a shiny  purple bracelet.  She also picked out a card for $1.00.

She brought everything up to the register where she met her mom.  "Did you pick out some nice things for Ava?" mom asked.

"Yes, and I got a card too."

"Great, the rules were that you had to spend at least 3/4 of the twenty dollars.  Help me count this out."

Mom took out four $5.00 bills.  Lily counted, "Five, ten, fifteen, twenty."  Mom said, "There are four bills, so your total has to be more than these 3 bills."

Did Lily spend enough?  How much change did she get?  Answer in the comments and come back for Lily's next summer adventure with NO MATH!

If you are the first one to answer in the comments you will be a part of the next episode.