In our part of the Northwest, meat prices have doubled.   What is a family to do on a modest income with a house full of men?

This weekend we visited our local restaurant supply store about 30 miles south of town – United Grocers.  We purchased a 23.89 lb Chuck Roll for $2.66/lb – or $63.55.  It was sort of a “God Thing”, as hubby really wanted to, I wasn’t so sure, and then a friend came into the store wanting to do the same thing. The two of them spoke, our friend gave us half the cost in cash in the store, and we brought the Chuck Roll home to process for both families.

Here is what we ended up with – no, not a dirty kitchen, the Meat.

The pieces on the board are for our family, and the pieces wrapped in plastic are for our friend. Before I packaged the rest, I wanted to weigh and match marbling to make sure we were both equal.  I weighed his, matched shapes and sizes, figured out the ounces, and then pkged them.  Then it hit me.  This is what the boys have been doing in math!

They were surprised that I had cut the meat so quickly, and I got to talk about geometry – weight – observations.

We pulled out the scale and measured to the exact ounce.  We have been working with Fractazmic, a fractions game from iseecards.com this week – and our biggest struggle has been the 1/16th’s.  The ounces to make a whole on our scale is 16, so we got to add those to find the total weight of the meat.  When our total came to 9.33, Jon knew that .33 was really 2 lbs 1 ounce.  Instantly!  WOOO HOOO.  Fractions/Weight/Decimals/Adding/Division.  Living Math.  I Love It.

Both boys were now excited to measure all of the pieces. Nathan was impressed that I got the weight almost exactly equal. He has been reasoning through Geography with Mathematical Reasoning 2 from Timberdoodle. We had a natural conversation of seeing shapes and sizes.

In the end, we each got 5 nice roasts, that could be cut to steak, or made into lean burger.  There was an extra .12 ounce cut – that we will throw into a stew – so 11 bags total.

The boys helped me to make these little charts so that I could offer one to our friend.  I think this will be the way we purchase meat through these rough times.  We are excited that the Beef Brisket was less than 2.00 per pound, – I am going to pick one up for Resurrection Sunday!

I thought you might like to see in action – what a normalish morning before church for us looks like – and how although I use the term UnSchooler – we are never Un Learners. A lifestyle of learning, conversation and discovery!

This post was written to be submitted to The Christian Home, Issue 10. Please join us at The Christian Home as we share our tips and tidbits!