Those Crazy Homeschoolers blog. Charlotte Mason, Eclectic, fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants learners.

Science Experiments: Density

2011-07-29T07:30:00.013-05:00

Does anyone else have a tendency to think small for their children? Not that I don't want my children to do bigger, better and harder things, it's just that my brain thinks they're not old enough for things, subjects, etc... They're still little kids in my mind! lol

We've been working our way through the first module in Apologia General Science. I don't know why I thought dd would hate this or not comprehend. I need to think BIGGER for my children. She is loving it, and thriving. I thought I'd share a bit of step by step of the experiment we did yesterday, in picture form...

Density

The experiment calls for corn syrup, water and vegetable oil. Also a grape, a small rock, an ice cube and a piece of cork. We'll be learning about density and connectivity of atoms.

Pour oil in a glass, 1/4 full. Do the same with the water and then the corn syrup. You'll notice the corn syrup has atoms that are more tightly connected so it all sinks to the bottom, thereby passing through the atoms of the other substances. The water settles in the middle (atoms more tightly bound than oil, but less so than syrup) and oil at the top.

When we dropped the following items they did different things:

Grape - drops through oil and water and sits on surface of syrup.

Rock - drops through it all and lands on the bottom of syrup.

Ice Cube - floats in oil and/or settles on top of water but not in it.

Cork - floats on top of oil.

Daughter also wanted to see what a lava rock and a strawberry would do (lava rock hung out with the grape in the water on top of the corn syrup while the strawberry was only as dense as the oil. Go figure. I thought it would be like the grape!)

We learned which items have more density (corn syrup and rock) and which have less (oil and cork.)

I'll be sharing more experiments as we do them. (For more tutorials, click on the page link at the top.)

*This homeschool post is linked to the Homeschool Mother's Journal.*

Planning, Boiling and Waiting...

2011-07-27T09:00:00.026-05:00

HOMESCHOOL UPDATE:

Homeschool planning is in full swing. And to make matters more immediate, I decided to just jump in, without so much as planning one day. No really. The only reason I did this was because I was insane. Just kidding. But we have a friend whose daughter is beginning the Apologia General Science like we will be using this year and they started it last week. We thought it might be fun to try to keep pace and occasionally do experiments together. So this is why we find ourselves immersed in homeschooling. In July. In the middle of homeschool piles. In the middle of a heat wave. What was I thinking? Heat stroke probably.

Monday we had our first day. No problem on the science. Latin we reviewed since we haven't done any for months and we're in the middle of the Latin for Children book A. Math, we did review times table sheets and a Saxon Placement test to see what level we should be at. For English a friend loaned me a McDougal English program. Basically a public school's textbook. We jumped right in with minimal complaining. I also printed spelling lists from online although we didn't get to any of those.

Tuesday rolls around and I'm sick and we're both tired. Just great, on our 2nd day back to homeschool. So we read. All day. We started The Hobbit last fall but never finished it. I picked up The Lord of the Rings trilogy on tape and in 3 books at a garage sale so we plan to read those soon. Time to finish Hobbit first. And here is what I realized on our 2nd day of homeschooling. I don't want to shove textbooks at my child just to make sure we have 'something' to cover a subject. I don't want to have it all planned out. I want to be free to explore, to try out new things, to spend a whole day reading if I feel like it! I like our science program, daughter needs experience with textbooks a bit if she is ever going to go to college (you know the backwards way they learn there, right?!) Latin is going okay, but its mostly chanting and fun things. I'm okay with that. I don't want to use a stale ole' English program or generic spelling lists from online. I realized while we were reading Hobbit, there were words we both didn't know. We started a list. Those definitions will have so much more meaning because we can apply them to what we've read. I like that. I have no plan for history yet. I keep looking at Sonlight's Core 100 just for the basic fact that it is all about reading, and is similar to a Charlotte Mason style of learning. We can do dictation and narration from the readings. We'll read up and discuss current events from magazines such as The Economist, Time and Newsweek. We don't have to be entrenched in boring ole' textbooks. Don't ask me what I'm planning on doing for math. Winging it???

Boy, oh boy. I can foresee an interesting year if I'm already feeling this way. Check back with me in a few months to make sure I haven't slipped back into textbook mode after I panic about whether we're learning enough or not. I'm praying that doesn't happen!

* This homeschool update is linked to Back to (Home) School 2011. *

GARDEN UPDATE:

It's been 2 weeks of scorching hot heat. It's a miracle if I get out to water the garden and don't die from heat and mosquito bites. Basically it's so hot out, I'm surprised plants aren't boiling! But watering hasn't seemed to matter. Our wonderful plot of squash looks like a meteor landed in the middle of it. I guess it can't take the heat. It's still producing but it seems only a matter of time.

We have, however had a few good points! The okra is FINALLY starting to bud! It is the slowest growing plant I've ever seen! But it's making up for lost time. See the adorable buds. I can't wait to have some!

The tomato plants look like Brer Rabbit's brer patch but they are still producing green tomatoes. This week I found one adorable red tomato! Yay! Finally. I'm counting on many more. I think they like this heat. I glad someone/thing does. All in all, the garden this year has been 'okay'. We've harvested some things but not as much as I had hoped. I have canning supplies all primed and ready but no use for them yet. We plan to do a fall planting soon. Maybe mid August? Need to read up on that. I also plan to Lasagna garden so the beds are ready for next year. All in all its been a good learning experience. I'm thinking we need to look into a watering system as well, maybe underground? We'll see...

*This garden update is linked to Tuesday Garden Party and Homeschool Village Garden Challenge. *

CHICKENS UPDATE:

We're in waiting mode. We're 13 days into the 21 days for our incubating eggs. So far so good. The temperature in our homemade incubator is doing pretty well. We've candled the eggs twice. First time we couldn't see anything, so hard with brown eggs. We candled on Monday as well and saw these.

Don't know if they mean chicks or boiled eggs. We'll candle again on Monday August 1st, our 18th day and then we go into lockdown with hopeful hatchings on August 4th. Check back for an update!

Also, the other day we drove past a guy putting this at the end of his driveway.

We stopped and asked if it was trash, it was, so we excitedly offered to come back with a truck for it. FREE! Doesn't it look like a start to a great coop?! Our backyard is filled with scrap woods and paneling. Can't wait to get started creating a coop-de-ville!

This Week's Gardening...

2011-07-19T09:00:00.002-05:00

Last week we only had one day that dipped below 95. This week the forecast is for 100's all week. Guess where I am? Yup. Inside. Guess where I'm not. Yup, the garden. I do go out and water, and the family picks various produce but we're just not spending the time outside, lest we be cooked to death. Our pledge/goal is to work outside a couple nights this week, ie: after 8 pm where hopefully God's fan will help us work cooler. We'll see.

(linked up to Tuesday Garden Party and Hip Homeschool Hop.)

In the mean time, we're growing sweet potatoes. Yes, I know they take 100 days (November 1st!) Yes, I know I'm behind and too late and foolish. I don't care. Someone posted this video on Facebook last week and I couldn't quit thinking about it.

So when we stopped into Trader Joes this past weekend, I grabbed up a bag of organic sweet potatoes and I'm determined to make them my own! We'll grow them inside for a few weeks until they vine and then my goal is to plant them in 5 gallon white paint buckets. This way, when October rolls around and we can potentially have some freezes, I can pull all the buckets in the house, into the dining room to line the wall under the window for the last few weeks of growing. I'm determined. Can you tell?

I had the pre-teen watch the video and explained about pesticides and how they can harm us. She helped me fill jars (given to me for canning by hubby's boss. So thankful.) with water and stick toothpicks in the sides. I put them up on top of the hutch, hoping the cat doesn't find them. He's awfully curious and will want to pull them all out!

Chicken update: We've had a couple crackages. We're down to 10 eggs now. We tried candling on Sunday night but couldn't see anything. I think we'll wait until next Sunday (at 10 days) or maybe even the next Friday before we candle again. We're just nervous Nelllies, being that this is our first time hatching. Crossing fingers.

Okay, back to planning our homeschool. An update on that coming soon...

They're Heeeerrrreeee!!!

2011-07-15T14:32:00.000-05:00

Talkin' about chickens here. Okay, not chickens really, but fertilized eggs. We decided to go a different route on our chicken farming adventure. And what better homeschool learning than raising your chickens from scratch!

I ordered eggs last week and they arrived yesterday. I spent all the time inbetween, building our very own incubator (you can see the progression of hits and misses of building it here). The eggs are resting comfortably in said incubator, being turned every 5 hours or so.

There is so much to learn about chickens, and eggs and incubating and such. So I joined the forum boards at Backyard Chickens. Everyone there is so helpful! I feel like I might actually be able to do this endeavor! My main goal is not to kill the chicks! lol We have a mix of chickens: Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orpingtons, Barred Rocks, Easter Eggers (blue/green eggs!) and Blue Laced Red Wyandottes. Should be fun.

Pre-teen comes home from camp today and I can't wait for her to see them. Now I need to do something homeschool-ish and teach her about chickens, eggs and such. Any suggestions on a unit study or something to use? She's going into 7th grade so I want it to be age appropriate if possible.

Anyway, just had to share!

July 8 - Homeschool Mother's Journal

2011-07-08T02:00:00.001-05:00

(This post is linked to Homeschool Mother's Journal)

In our homeschool this week…

We've been researching our new pet (see favorite things below), habitats, foods, etc... We've been researching care and feeding of chickens and searching for where to buy some. We've been researching how to build an incubator if we decide to hatch eggs. My daughter has been reading a lot. She made a deal with the teen to take over the teen's job of changing the kitty litter and feeding the animals, for pay. She received her first salary and promptly spent it on the first two books in the Kane Chronicles. I love when she finds a series she wants to read over and over.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

The pre-teen (formerly the little one) is heading off to camp on Monday so the excitement for this has been immeasurable. However she came down sick on Wednesday, fevers, chills, cough, etc... We're praying she is all better by Monday. Grandma heads to camp with her to be a counselor. Cross your fingers for good health.

My favorite thing this week was…

A new pet has joined our menagerie this week. We're not sure if we'll keep him or just study him and release again soon. Another favorite is Saturday. Hubby and I will celebrate our 23rd anniversary.. I'm thankful to God and all his workings in our lives. Without him, we would have never made it past the first year!

Things I’m working on…

Okay, I'm going to say it out loud... I'm planning homeschooling. I know, I'm not mentally ready for school to start but I'm feeling the need to begin some planning. I've been researching My Father's World, revisiting Sonlight, or trying to wing a history program. I'm a bit confused but I'm on a mission. I'll share our curriculum list when I figure it out. We usually start again in mid-August. We'll see. Maybe it will be after Labor Day. Who knows.

I’m reading…

A few books at the moment grace my bedside table: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Year of Plenty and Have a New Kid By Friday. All are wonderful so far and hard to put down.

I'm Cooking...

We hit the farmer's market last week and bought tons of veggies. Today I'm making a rhubarb pie. Actually two. One is rhubarb and peaches (for hubby who is allergic to strawberries), the other is strawberry rhubarb. It's my first foray into using rhubarb. Wish me luck!

I’m grateful for…

A few families we know from church have been getting together on Friday nights to hang out, play games and do a bible study. We've been studying our way through Philippians. What a blessing to my life, to my spiritual life that has been floundering in a desert without water. I've needed this so much. I've been rereading through Philippians as much as I can and seeing where I can apply it to my life.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...

We attended Maker Faire in Kansas City the weekend before last. An event full of robots, inventions, science and art. It was amazing and very inspiring for the pre-teen. Here she is working one of the robots. (They have Maker Faires all over the country. Check it out for a city near you. Not to be missed!)

Peace & Gentleness School

2011-07-07T09:00:00.006-05:00

I was at a bible study slash games party this weekend and someone mentioned they were planning out their homeschooling this week. I immediately threw my fingers in my ears and moaned, "lalalala, don't talk about homeschool yet!" The rest of the weekend I was thinking about my reaction. Sure, some of it was to be funny because I can't help myself. But the rest was pure unwant. And that had me thinking all weekend. Do I hate homeschooling? No. Is it the planning? Maybe. But once I get going, I'm good. Am I enjoying my summer freedom too much? Probably. lol Are there other problems with our homeschooling? I think this is the kicker.

My pre-teen (aka: little one not so much longer) has such a different learning style than my own. She does NOT revel in writing everything down, making lists, perfecting her cursive, researching details. If we did things her way we'd read all day and play with Legos, Playmobile or outside for the rest of the time. Oh, and some science experiments or inventions thrown in for good measure. She hates structure. How am I supposed to school around that? Plus we're moving into 7th grade this year and I'm getting scared. Scared that I won't cover everything, scared that we'll continue to fight about everything. Scared scared scared.

However, I keep trying to embrace this scripture:

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4: 4-7

He does not want me to worry, but to just rejoice in him and to enjoy the peace that he gives me. Why is that so hard? Gentleness is another part of me that is not always evident in our day to day homeschool exchanges. I want to just get it all done quickly so our day can continue. This will be a year of changing things up. I want school to always be a positive experience, for us both!

I happened across a post by Classic Housewife with the challenge to post what our school looks like and what works for us in our homeschooling. Here goes:

OUR SCHOOL

Well, we're down to one child. The teen graduated last year and is working full time and attending college. The pre-teen (formerly the little one) is growing up. In August she will turn 12 and enter 7th grade homeschool. She is a hands on learner I think. Hates repetition. I keep trying to pigeon hole her into a certain learning style but as of yet have not been successful. It's probably one of the reasons I have so much trouble teaching her sometimes, even though she is super smart.

WHAT WORKS

1 - Reading. My daughter loves to read. Granted, she wants to read what SHE wants to read but she will eventually settle down and read a book I assign. I think if I make more of our schooling into reading (history books, biographies on scientists, artists, mathmaticans, short stories, etc...) it will make a big chunk of our school easier.

2 - Latin. This was enjoyable in the beginning of the year. Then we got a bit behind and I kept pushing the Latin at a faster pace and it lost its appeal. I plan to bring it back and make it enjoyable.

3 - Baking. My daughter plans to be a baker when she grows up. Why not incorporate this into a few subjects? For example, history/geography? We could cook from different lands and time periods. We could also use baking as a way to reach out with missions. I realized the other day we've lived here for 16 years and I don't know the neighbor's names behind me. I've waved occasionally but that is it. It's time to meet the neighbors, why not bring cookies?!

4 - Science. My daughter LOVES anything science or inventing. This is where I really fail. I like science, but organizing activities and experiments is not something I usually do. This year I'm scheduling at least 3 activities or experiments a month, outside of our science learning lessons. I must foster this love for science she has.

5 - Art. The preteen is always asking for art supplies for holidays and every time we're near a craft store. I'm an artist for criminey's sake! I should be teaching her more about artists, different techniques, and providing opportunities to visit places with art; to enhance her love of art.

** This is a post for the second annual “Back to (Home) School” blog carnival **

Wordless Wednesday... Hydrangea Blooms

2011-07-06T21:26:00.002-05:00

** Linked with Tuesday Garden Party **

CONTEST - Name That Turtle

2011-07-04T13:30:00.002-05:00

While we're waiting on chickens (planning/building our coop), a new friend has wandered into our lives.

He is a Three Toed Box Turtle, indigenous to our area of Missouri. He has three big toes on each back foot, not to be confused with the 5 toes on the front. We wandered into the middle of the road where my teen was driving. He's a lucky lucky turtle. lol She couldn't stand to have him run over so he came home with her.

Within 5 minutes of looking up what kind of turtle he might be, the little one had seen this habitat and had made a makeshift facsimile in the basement (the red 'thing' is a washcloth on top of a shelf where he can crawl under to hide.) He's especially fond of black and blueberries. We want to go to Wally World to pick up crickets today. We plan to tackle an outdoor arena for him this afternoon.

He has a propensity for swimming in the little paper making tray we repurposed. And the little one put an old rag shirt on top of his hidding corner only to find later he had dragged it out to under the heat lamp and was laying under it. He's a funny little sort (or she, who knows really.)

The only problem with him is, he/she doesn't have a name. Mr. Turtle is what we're calling him at this point. I told the little one it should be something Greek, since she likes Greek myths but so far we haven't named him. That's where you come in. We need help naming our fat little turtle. What do you think?

The winner will receive a one of a kind drawing by the little one of 'Mr. Turtle' complete with the chosen name. I'm also throwing in a Swagbucks $5 gift certificate code to Amazon (you use it like money on Amazon when you check out.) Anyone is welcome to answer, children too!

Name him well! Good Luck!

Eating Local: Farmer's Market

2011-07-02T16:20:00.000-05:00

We have this garden, see? And I don't like to use anything that isn't healthy for the garden. We bought organic seeds as much as we could, organic dirt with compost and used untreated wood for the beds. If there are problems, we try to handle it with natural remedies (like the soap and water with the caterpillars.) And now that we're getting chickens, I've been thinking more about eating healthier with no pesticides, growth hormones and the like.

The problem is, I was reading this book. Two books actually: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and the other Year of Plenty. Now I want a farm! But seeing as we can not move to a farm at this time, I'm thankful for the room we have in the backyard. But it got me thinking about all the foods we DO purchase that are not pesticide free and are not local. I mean, do we really know where our food comes from? I live in Missouri and my cataloupe is from Florida, strawberries from California and the tomatoes are from Chile. I mean really... CHILE? We do have gardens here.

(trucked in fruits from who knows where)

So today we went to the farmers market. It's a bit of an eye opener when you're used to frequenting Wally World and most everything is so cheap. Some things were a bit more, but I think this just made us choosier, hopefully we'll waste less food (did you know American's throw away about 253 lbs of food per person, a year? I bet most of it's produce!) They did have part of the farmer's market for non-local produce. It just seems so wrong to go to the farmer's market to buy the same trucked in, pesticide sprayed goods I can get at the grocery store. I tried to buy as much local as possible.

I was excited to see there were a few meat farmers who raise grass fed cattle and chickens with no growth hormones, no pesticide ridden feed. We didn't buy any meat at this time but maybe sometime in the near future we'll try it out. I like the idea of going to farmer's market and purchasing my foods for the week. You can really get to know the farmers if you chose, they always say 'come on down to the farm' so you could actually SEE where your food is from. What an opportunity, especially for us homeschoolers, to be more conscious of what we're eating. To learn why our local farms are dying and where our money for food goes. '85% of every food dollar goes to the processors, marketers and transporters. Only 3 nickels per buck go back to the farmers.' (quote from: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, p.13)

In the excitement of being at the farmer's market, and the fact that it was the July 4th weekend and everyone and their mother were at the market today... I didn't get many pictures taken. None of vegetables. But the flowers and herbs were so beautiful! I wanted them all.

I brought home local: tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, rhubarb, beets, blackberries, eggplant, lav ender plants, pepper plant starts. Hubby didn't get the idea really, and bought blueberries... from New Jersey! lol Oh well, it's a start in the right direction. I'd rather support local farmers than big business money makers. Just sayin'...

Happy Independence Day!

2011-07-02T09:00:00.001-05:00

We have freedoms here in this country that other countries can not fathom; such as choice of religion, freedom of speech and the right to homeschool our children how we want. And for this I am thankful. May God bless your lives during this special day.

I'm posting this a bit early so you might take advantage of the links if you wish. Happy July 4th weekend!

July 4th Unit Study

Online Games

Flag Tag Relay game

Vintage Crafts

Recipes

Homeschool Village Garden Challenge

2011-06-30T21:00:00.003-05:00

This evening we spent a fair amount of time in the garden. It has been neglected because of wet and then hot weather. Today we hit 100 degrees so an evening of weeding is what we had to do.

(see the empty bed back there? Swiss chard is now planted.)

The turnips we pulled last week have been replaced with swiss chard seeds. My mom says the plants are beautiful reds and purples so I can't wait to see them. Not sure how you eat them, but I'm game!

A couple garden posts ago, I talked about our worm problem. Someone suggested using soap and water and spraying it on the plants. I did that. However, I think they did not like it or something, especially the cauliflower because the leaves are now all brown.

We went out and tied all the cauliflower leaves (what there was left) around the cauliflower heads to blanch them. Some were already turning purple and while you can eat that, I read that the purple parts are more bitter. So its best to stop that as soon as possible.

The little one is not a fan of gardening this week. She's not really a fan of heat though so you can imagine what she feels like today. She does, however, enjoy harvesting things! We found several LARGE squash today. They're special striped type squash. I can't wait to cook with them. Tonight I found this Squash Bread recipe, hoping its similar to zucchini bread. I'll let you know.

I've been reading the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and it is an eyeopener. I plan to teach the little one the difference between organic, heirloom, genetically modified plants. I don't think she had much of a clue where our food came from before we planted a garden. We plan to shop more organically and locally from here on out. Read the book, wonderful.

Our tomatoes are growing so wonderfully, although they're like a wild fire bramble bush! Hubby tied up the plants he could, by scrounging around for sticks to use. He got a bit inventive when he found a broken old broom handle.

Pretty soon we'll be doing a fall planting. Things you can pick in the fall such as lettuce, spinach, peas, beets and swiss chard. I'm looking forward to beets. Have you seen some of the ones you can plant? Stripes, like a candy cane! I can't wait. No one in my family will eat them but me, Yay me.

Believe it or not, I'm already thinking of next year's plantings. I've decided to go with organic heirloom vegetables and have been ordering catalogs. I shouldn't be so eager for another planting. I should be crossing fingers for this year's crops! lol

Feel free to follow me through Google or Facebook to be updated about my gardening and homeschool adventures. I'll follow you back as well. Have a great weekend!

* Linked to Homeschool Village Garden Challenge *

Chicken House & Mealworms for Dinner

2011-06-28T14:00:00.002-05:00

(chicken house model, imagine a chicken wire part underneath)

Last night the little one and I sat down and perused these chicken trailers. We found quite a few that we liked but wanted to make out own. Pulling out scissors, cardstock and pencils we worked on making a model.

(see the roosting boxes section planned?)

We still have a ways to go because I need to plan out double walls and what I need for those since we'll be insulating in between for winter warmth.

Here's a pic of the plans for cutting pieces out of a sheet of paneling. Thankfully we have two we pulled off walls in the teen's room but we'll still buy two to use on the inside (since we're doubling the wood for insulated walls.)

The little one drew a picture of what she thought it should look like. I've drafted a bit over it and I've kept a tally of measurements and am working on what pieces we need to cut for the supports of it. We're getting real technical here! lol Can't wait until we actually build the darn thing!

Speaking of chickens...
I just joined the very informative Backyard Chicken Forum boards. Oh my goodness. I could stay on those boards forever. So much to learn! So much I did not know!

For instance, chickens like mealworms. They're expecially good to have in the winter when the chickens can't find worms. We grew a few for a very short time while studying bugs one year in homeschool (they grow into beetles). I think its been about 3 years? Anyway, I found out that you can continually grown them and freeze the larvae to have chicken feed in the winter. Who knew! I plan to do this, although my family is going to balk at having frozen worms right up against their frozen veggies, meat and fruits in the freezer. I better start praying for a separate upright freezer! lol

Mealworm Links
Live Mealworms

Mealworms - Grow Your Own

Raising Mealworms

Mealworm Breeding Project (Youtube)

I'm also learning about all the different things you can feed your chickens: cucumbers, and kale, lettuce, and cheese. Did you know they'll eat yogurt and it's really good for them? They also like melons, celery tops, pumpkins and bananas. Who knew that either? I expect if I keep researching, we probably wouldn't have to buy much feed for them at all.

Feeding Chickens Links
Chicken Feed - An Introduction
Chicken Treats chart
How To Feed Chickens
Grass Fed Chickens?
Feeding Chickens

I'm off to do normal things like dishes and laundry, cutting up and freezing peachs (and making a peach cobbler!) and quit dreaming of little chickens in my backyard for now. The little one is playing with Playmobil and listening to a dramatized version of the Chronicles of Narnia books. Summer homeschooling at its best!

Hungry for Garden Food!

2011-06-27T22:00:00.012-05:00

This past weekend I took a few pictures of the garden with the cell phone (since I was too lazy to come in and get the camera.) Things are growing!

I forgot we had planted bush beans. With all the squash hoopla, I neglected to go look at the beans/pea bed very much. The peas are dying because of the hot weather but we will replant sometime in July I think, to have a bumper fall crop. (Did you know beans had adorable little purple flowers?!)

The tomatoes have started forming and I can see that although I stuck sticks in with the intention of tying the plants upright, I have not done that. Didn't I say I was a terrible gardener?! The plants are hanging over the side of the beds, not good. It's on my list to do today!

Squash, squash, squash! I counted 12 different little baby ones and some about 4" long. I can't wait to eat some squash! I'm already planning meals and dishes with it. I'm looking forward to using my squash, tomatoes and basil to bake a homemade lasagna. I'm thinking vegetarian so everyone in my house can eat it (teen is veg) but hubby might want some meat. We'll see.

Last fall I made my own Basil Ricotta (which is perfect for vegetarian lasagna.) So easy and SOOOOO good! You have to try making some (although, to be technical, real ricotta is made from leftover whey, not fresh milk. So we're really making a paneer or queso-fresco cheese.)

BASIL RICOTTA

Supplies:

large pot for cookin'

cheesecloth lined colander (or use 2 layers of paper towels)

stirring spoon

reliable thermometer (I used a candy one)

milk

fresh basil

coarse salt

acid based item (ie: vinegar, lemon juice)

* Note: As to measurements, I don't do a lot of that (aka: precise measuring), but you can start with 4 cups of milk, or if you want a creamer, less dry ricotta, subtract 1/2c milk, add 1/2c cream.*

Steps:

1 - Pour the milk, (and opt: cream) and salt into a 3-quart saucepan. Chop up the fresh basil and add to the pan. Add the candy thermometer to the edge and watch for a temperature between 175 to 190°F.

2 - Make sure to stir it occasionally with a non-metal spoon to keep it from burning on the bottom. When it reaches the desired range (shoot for somewhere near the middle numbers), turn off the heat, remove from the hot burner and add about 3 tsps acid based item.

3 - Stir in slowly. Then let the pot sit, no more stirring. Curds will begin to form and the whey will start to separate. Let sit for 5 minutes.

4 - Carefully spoon curds you see into your cheesecloth/paper towel lined colander (make sure to have it sitting in a bowl to catch the whey.)

5 - Let it drain for 15 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the consistency you desire. The longer it drains, the drier it will become. DO NOT pull a rookie mistake and squeeze the whey out. You will get dry, gritty, coarse cheese.

Eat right away or store in a container for up to 3 days. Enjoy!

P.S. If you're like me and hate to waste, remember that whey you were straining and catching in a bowl under the strainer? It can be used in a variety of ways. It is an acidic whey and I found this great article on uses.

Blog is linked with: Tuesday Garden Party and Hip Homeschool Hop.

Un-Chicken Update

2011-06-22T14:39:00.001-05:00

Yes, I know. We are still chicken-deficient. I have wonderful excuses; I was out of town on and off for two months, hubby redid the floors and all extra stuff got moved to the basement where we planned to house the new chicks, we've had other problems to take care of, it's been hot...

(my mom's friend has chickens)

But truth be known, we just haven't gone to get any chicks. Finding the exact breeds we want locally has proved not as easy as we would think. Plus, the little one wants to see the baby chicks grow up but I'm getting to the point in my thinking that I might want pullets that are about ready to lay. We could use some free food about now. As I see it, if we get chicks, they won't start laying for another 6 months. We're talking December. Eggs for Christmas. That seems like a long time away! Then, to add insult to injury, if they come into maturity (ie: 5-6 months old) during the winter months, they won't start laying until spring. What's up with that?!

I've read if you provide a light source in their winter home that stays on longer than the sun is out, like it is summer, they will continue to lay. All this information and I'm confuddled as to what I should do. I think the best thing to do is to start building a coop. And a winter coop as well. Then, after I've felt like we've committed well enough by building the coops, I will feel happy to get the chicks. The other idea was to get a couple pullets and a couple chicks. Although I'm not so sure the pullets won't start pecking the chicks to death. Anyone know?

(I want my chickens to be helpful like these!)

I found this wonderful advice today at 2nd Generation of Homeschooling, for if ever I get me some chickens; "We rake the fall leaves from our many trees into a one-foot pile in the chicken run. When the leftovers from our kitchen (rinds, peels, scraps, scrapings, etc.) and chicken scratch are thrown into the run for the chickens to eat, the chickens scratch around, trampling and tearing apart the leaves, which mixes with their manure. After a few weeks, the one-foot pile is just an inch or so high and it is raked out and into our compost bin for use in the garden in the spring! This is wonderful fertilizer that we make for free."

See? Something else for free! Poop!

Summer Wouldn't Be Complete...

2011-06-20T15:08:00.003-05:00

Without a little entrepreneurship.

The little one has her cousin over today and we've been all over. But one stop they insisted on was a trip to the store for lemonade stand supplies. Dollar store here we come! $4 later and we have cups and lemonade. Perfect activity for a little homeschool summer math brush up: Making change.

The little one has been working on an idea for a club for a couple days now. Ever since I printed out a coloring sheet for her by MadeByJoel, she has been planning.

Posters colored, sign up sheets written. She wants to print shirts but I'm not sure copyright laws would be on her side! lol

I glanced at them before coming in and they're so adorable looking back and forth up the street for customers! Cross your fingers for good sales!

** This post is linked to this week's Hip Homeschool Hop. **

June 17 - Homeschool Mother's Journal

2011-06-17T07:40:00.002-05:00

(This is linked to the Homeschool Mother's Journal.)

In our homeschool this week…

Although our official all day schooling is over for the summer, we do a fair bit of learning still. Things we've learned, studied or talked about this week:

Egypt (little one is reading the Kane Chronicles series, Book 2)

Bugs (see garden post)

Tornadoes (we picked up Sim City 3000 at the thrift store and tornadoes can destroy your city!) plus our church is going down to Joplin, MO next week to help with the devastation there from tornadoes, so we've been discussing all of that

How to blanch greens (see garden post)
history of Winston Churchill (we're still discussing him, and need to order books, but the discussion started because I named my dog Winston Churchill because our first dog's name is Clementine. Winston's wife's name was Clementine, it seemed fitting. Also, he came up in some book the little one is reading as well.)

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

All we've been doing the past couple weeks is go to the pool, go bowling (free games through Kids Bowl Free!), go to church, walk the dogs, paint, draw and read. What a life. What a lovely lovely blessed life!

Questions/thoughts I have…

I'm curious what others use for 7th grade anything? I really have no plans yet except we'll keep our Latin for Children going and I plan to study American history, as well as the World's history during the time America was settled, up until now. Other than that, I'm open to suggestions. Could use a good foreign language program. We might study Spanish or mandarin Chinese? Who knows. :)

Things I’m working on…

Spring cleaning. Doesn't everyone use a bit of their summer to catch up on the things that get sloughed off during the school year? I've cleaned out my bedroom of all piles, clothes that don't fit or have stains, piles of books, papers, mail mail mail. It's so nice to have my room back! On my to-do list: Help the little one pare down her toys and clothes, clean closets, clean basement, hang curtains and new shades.

I'm Praying for...
I've been praying for guidance this week. Some things have been changing at hubby's work that mean less money for us and some expenses have come up that we're trying to pay for. So I'm trying to decide if I need to find a job, or start selling on Ebay again, or what? Not sure how to balance homeschooling and having my child home with me all summer, with working. Plus we're down to one car so I'd probably have to work in the evenings which takes away all my time with hubby. Like I said, just praying for guidance...

What we're reading…

I was excited to find a few good books to read at the thrift store last night. The little one is anxious to see the Pirates of the Caribbean movies but as of yet we have not let her. I found several Pirates of the Caribbean chapter books, some a spinoff of when Jack Sparrow was younger. For now, that will appease her interest. I found these for me:

10 Stupid Things Couples Do To Mess up Their Relationships by Dr. Laura Schlessinger

The New Glucose Revolution (I've been reading extensively on eating to the low glycemic index so this was a great find for me!)

I also picked up Ida B for her to read in the fall.

I’m cooking…

We've had such an explosion of Kale in our garden this year. I've given tons away but still it grows. So yesterday we blanched at least 4 Walmart bags full, plus one bag of Turnip greens. we then vacuum sealed them and froze for future eating. It's so nice to stock up food I've grown for when we might need it in the fall, like when I run out of money before I run out of month! lol

What are you doing this fine day?!

Garden Update - Buds & Bugs!

2011-06-14T22:02:00.004-05:00

Basil

A couple weeks ago I did a life update of what had been going on with our homeschooling, our garden, our lives. Since then, things have changed in the garden tremendously!

lettuce, almost done

We're seeing massive growth on many things, and some have gone to seed just about. You know, those cool weather plants like lettuce, turnip greens and even our peas are starting to wilt. I'm thinking tomorrow I might make a makeshift cover out of sticks and cheesecloth for the peas, to see if we can get them to last longer.

The massive growth that was so astonishing is the squash. Who knew it could grow so TALL! It's so big its threatening to overshadow the kale and it IS overshadowing the okra behind it. Who knows if that will grow enough to get plants.

The squash even has little flowers growing. Now that I look at the squash, I think I bought a special kind that is yellow in the middle and green on both ends. Very cool. I wonder if it will taste the same?

The tomato plants we planted long ago never grew. We finally broke down and bought plants. By the time we went to get some they were on sale for 25 cents and $1.25 for some bigger plants. So it pays to wait I guess!

cabbage

cauliflower

I was excited today to see little tiny cabbages and cauliflower finally budding. I was starting to worry that would never happen and we'd just be eating the greens.

The only thing I'm concerned about is our cabbage has holes galore. I found one of these little worms on one leaf. I need to research them to see how to get rid of them. Mom suggested to spray with soapy water, maybe that would work.

We have been regularly harvesting lettuce and spinach, although today we pulled up the last of the spinach. It was going to seed. The kale continues to produce profusely so we have been sharing it with mom and a friend regularly. The turnips went to seed so I pulled them up today and cut off all the greens I'm going to blanch them and freeze for another time. I need to do that for 2 bags of kale as well. I think we might plant swiss chard or flowers where the turnips were.

A garden is such a wonderful thing to work on for our homeschooling. Learning to identify plants, how to care for a garden, looking up the bugs and remedies, and even what to cook with our harvested vegetables. What a wonderful garden we are having this year. Now if only we'll get some tomatoes!

*This post is linked to the Hip Homeschool Hop.*

(P.S. Next time I make raised beds, I am SO using this idea!)

Week 22 - 52 Books/52 Weeks Update

2011-05-30T09:00:00.001-05:00

Happy Memorial Day, America! Since life has been crazy I have not updated my 52 Books/52 Weeks list. I have, however, continued reading. Some weeks I read several books, some only one. It's fun to keep track of what you're reading!

Here is what I posted last time, the first 12 weeks:

Week 1 - The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan also The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
Week 2 - The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan as well as The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

Week 3 – The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Week 4 – Roast Mortem by Cleo Coyle

Week 5 – Brush with Death and Shooting Gallery by Hailey Lind

Week 6 – Sew Deadly by Elizabeth Lynn Casey

Week 7 – Truly Madly by Heather Webber

Week 8 – Bookplate Special by Lorna Barrett

Week 9 – Fundraising the Dead by Sheila Connolly

Week 10 – A Woman's Call to Prayer by Elizabeth George

Week 11 – Throw Out 50 Things by Gail Blanke

Week 12 – The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer

I find that I like non-deep books, if that is understandable? Life is deep already, I like my reading to be fun.

Week 13 - Sketchbook confidential
Week 14 - A Biblical Home Education
Week 15 -Juicing, Fasting and Detoxing for Life

Week 16 - The Beekeeper's Apprentice (Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series)
Week 17 - A Monstrous Regiment of Women (Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series)
Week 18 - A Letter of Mary (Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series)
Week 19 - The Moor and Justice Hall (Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series)

Week 20 - The Secret of Zoom (read to see if its something for my child.)

Week 21 - The Game (Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series)

Heading into Week 22, what is on my list to read in upcoming weeks? The rest of the Mary Russell series; O Jerusalem, Locked Rooms, The Language of Bees, The God of the Hive, Pirate King. I picked up a few books at a garage sale: The Pickwick Papers (by Charles Dickens) and The War of the Worlds (by H.G. Wells.) I've reordered Ken Follet's Fall of Giants that I didn't get to and I'm thinking of rereading Bodie Thoene's Zion Chronicles series I read oh so many years ago. Wonderful thought provoking Christian Historical fiction about the Holocaust and WW1. I see they have a newer series, Zion Covenant. Might have to read that as well. Also on my shelf: Coop, and The Price of Everything.

What are you reading this summer? I'm always looking for new books to add to my library pile.

Fizzle Fizzle Crash Boom Boom

2011-05-26T08:45:00.008-05:00

Where has the time gone? You'd think I ran off to my homeschool conference in the beginning of April and never returned! Boy life has been busy. I'll try to sum up what has been shakin' , what's been going on in the past few weeks with our garden, our homeschool, places we've been, things we've learned, etc... (Linking this to this week's Homeschool Mother's Journal, Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap Up and the Homeschool Village's Garden Challenge.)

Homeschool Conference - Every year I go, there is so much to learn. Every year I'm surprised and something speaks to me. This year I was surprised to find the classes that spoke to my heart the most were the ones that talked about how we are called to homeschool, Convictional Faith, another on raising Godly children in a pagan world and one more on strong knit family units. I was blown away by some of the ideas. I think my focus has always been the teaching or curriculum classes. This year I was blessed by others.

Cruise - I ran off on a cruise with my mother on April 15th. I dragged another homeschool mom with us and we traveled around the Caribbean for 8 days. Oh to be able to do that all the time! But I'm thankful for the free cruise as I could probably never afford it otherwise. The countries I visited took my breath away. You can see my posts with pics here: Caribbean Cruise on my other blog.While I was gone the little one was homeschooled by the other mom's husband. Surprisingly the little one completed everything!

Garden - The garden has had its problems. Seeds we potted, most wilted and died. Seeds in the garden, only half came up (you can see some blank spots in the pic). We've replanted and are seeing more growth. We need to buy tomato plants. I've learned that while going organic is a nice idea, keeping bugs and animals away is another story (still being organic though.) Hubby put up a rabbit fence because our rabbit neighbors thought the plants were their own breakfast buffet. All the rain we've been having has made it a very stress free garden so far with no watering. Time to weed today though. We've been eating lettuce, spinach and kale left and right because there is so much of it. In fact, the other morning I woke up thinking about the wilting bowl of the three in the fridge so I looked up a recipe for a smoothie I could make. Here is what I found: Lettuce Smoothie and it was good! I modified it and used strawberries, blueberries, 1/2 a banana, splenda and 2 big handfuls of the lettuce mix.

Road Trip - A couple weeks ago the child and I went on an impromptu road trip with mom to Atlanta. We spent 10 days in their house they still haven't sold. Fixed up several things and put it back on the market. We also took in the new Coca-Cola Museum and the Atlanta Aquarium. Since they don't live there, there was no TV or internet. We visited the library several times and read many books. I really liked that slow pace. I need to do that more. I've been reading my way through books that continue the Sherlock Holmes series: The Beekeeper's Apprentice. I recommend it highly. The child was interested in reading Sherlock Holmes but much of it is still older reading so the librarian found us a kid's Sherlock Holmes series that she is enjoying: Enola Holmes Mystery series.

Forgot to mention we drove through the Memphis area and saw the devastating flooding. At one point in Alabama (near Birmingham I think?) we came over the hill and stumbled upon the path of where a tornado had ripped through. You know, you see it on TV and are stunned but it's even more shocking in real life. We took a few pictures. Just amazing the power of the wind. Praying for both those areas.

Chicken Update - Unfortunately we have not bought our chicks yet. It is still on our horizon but seeing as we've been out of town off and on for 2 months, it really wasn't the best time. We plan to be home all summer so we will get them soon. On our road trip we were driving down the highway in Arkansas and at a light saw chicken trailers! We immediately pulled into this little craft shop that also sold sheds. They had one trailer. While we were there ohhing and ahhing at the $600 house, the builder of the coop drove up dropping off another coop. It was fun to talk with the people about the construction. We reluctantly left them there. We couldn't see ourselves dragging it all across the country and back or paying that much. But it did give us ideas... Oh,and we've discovered that a sorta neighbor around the corner has chickens. So each Sunday on the way home from church we ask dad to 'slow down' so we can see 'our chickens'.

Homeschool - As the title of this post states, Fizzle. just once I'd like a definite END to our homeschool year. Have a party, celebrate packing away the books and the beginning of summer. It never happens that way. We get busy or tired and just... fizzle out. We plan to do reading and Latin this summer but I haven't scheduled it out yet so this week we've been reading and playing Monopoly on PS3. Yes, very educational. Oh yes, and hiding out in the basement...We have been watching the tornado coverage extensively, discussing how and why they form, watching footage of them and being shocked over the devastation. The one that ripped across Joplin was only 2 1/2 hours away. Yesterday we spent almost 2 hours in our basement because of sirens going off and the teen watched one touch down near her work. I hate tornado season. For those in tornado alley. Stay safe!

I'll be back soon with more about our schooling, garden and chickens. Have you ended your school year yet?

April 8th - Homeschool Mother's Journal

2011-04-08T00:01:00.004-05:00

In my life this week...
As I type, I'm sitting in a swanky (well, swanky to ME) hotel with a fellow homeschooling mom and we're chillin'. We're picking out the classes we want to attend at the homeschool conference that begins this morning. Do I want to learn more about Charlotte Mason, the different writing programs I could use, WHY we homeschool, learning styles, raising digital natives, or my personal favorite 'How highly distractable moms have a real and God-given edge over the naturally organized mom.' Do you think that last class is tailor made for me or what?! lol

In our homeschool this week...

Let's be honest. This was a throw away week as far as planned, sit down, get er' done type of schooling. This was garden week. A gardening post is in the works for next week but I will tell you that hubby got our new raised beds built. The huge dirt load came on Tuesday, so you can imagine what the little one, I and our trusty wheel barrow were doing most the day. Plus I paid the teen's boyfriend to do most the dirt and the little one, grandma and I spent the day cleaning the yard of its winter sleep. Wednesday was spent all day planting seeds, in the beds and in pots for those vegetables that need to wait until after the last frost. Thursday was a clean up day, some Latin and lots of reading. With me at conference the end of this week, the little one has a relaxed schedule of reading, Latin and art today.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...
Next week is going to be interesting for us. I have the opportunity to run off on vacation with my mom and a friend so the little one will be homeschooling with another family. I'm wondering how well that will work with our relaxed style of schooling and their 'follow the list, get it all done' type. It will be interesting to see what gets done.

My favorite thing this week was...

Seeing all the baby seeds going into the gardening and dreaming of a full blooming garden. The little one can't wait for her rainbow carrots to bloom! And this year we're trying peanuts. Crossing fingers they actually grow.

What's working/not working for us...
Time is not on our side. So much is going on that the school slacked this week. The attitude is still needing work but we're praying about it.

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...
I'm at conference this weekend. If you could go or are going, what would you be interested in looking at? What curriculum do you want to see with your own eyes? I'm going to be looking at writing curriculums as well as maybe a grammar. Those are high on my list.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...

I was thinking last night, 'why do I really need to go to this conference? I've homeschooled for 10 years, what do I plan to gain from it?' But then I thought, 'I can always benefit from learning something new.' Here's a few favorite learning quotes:

Get over the idea that only children should spend their time in study. Be a student so long as you still have something to learn, and this will mean all your life. ~Henry L. Doherty
I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma. ~Eartha Kitt

Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned. ~Mark Twain

You learn something every day if you pay attention. ~Ray LeBlond

Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere. ~Chinese Proverb

All the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind. ~Martin H. Fischer

Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn and you will. ~Vernon Howard

April 1st - Homeschool Mother's Journal

2011-04-01T19:41:00.001-05:00

It's wrap up time for this week's Mother's Homeschool Journal.

In my life this week...
I'm getting excited for the homeschool conference that commences next Thursday. It has been a week of researching the different things I want to look at during the curriculum fair.

Our conference is only about 25 minutes away but I'm staying in a hotel, just for a little get away. This year I invited another homeschooling friend to stay with me. Two mothers with no children, no responsibilities, no dinners to cook, no nothing. But seeing as we're working hard to plan next year's homeschooling for our broods, its a small well deserved break from the norm. Don't you think?!

In our homeschool this week...
It's hard to explain my feelings about our homeschooling this week. I'm feeling... energized, on track. Usually by April we're so done with school. We don't want to look at another book, another video, another anything.

I really think the change in plan this year has made all the difference. Knowing that we have eventual burnout after February, I planned lots of time off. We work hard Monday through Thursday so we can have Fridays off. Still, on those days the little one reads a lot and we usually have a day out with grandma which includes the farmer's market, baking, game playing, antique shopping (lots of history discussions going on there, ) and occasional visits to the museum and such.

We also have been doing school for 6 weeks and then taking a week off (you can see the schedule I made up here.) This has worked wonders for us! Love it. I will continue it next year.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...
Today, Friday was our day off school. Hubby ended up back at home by 830 am saying the little company he works for had closed down due to most of the people being sick. So that's the nice thing about working for a small company. A bonus was that the teen did not have work. So we had a lovely day of being together, one we haven't had in a long time. We went to Lowes, bought wood for 4 more raised beds, stuffed a wheelbarrow in our car, cut wood and managed to put together 2 of the beds so far. The kids went to the park, walked to McD's for ice cream and hubby and I spent some quality time together outdoors. It was one of the best days in a long time.

My favorite thing this week was...
Listening to the little one practice memorizing Romans 12. She says it like she is a southern bible thumpin' preacher with vim and vigor (this is how hubby memorized it years ago and we find it so funny. Helps you remember it.) I swear, when she has it all memorized, I will be taping her. So funny. And what a good lesson Romans 12 is.

What's working/not working for us...
Right now most everything is working for us. I'm crossing my fingers, eyes and toes that it stays that way until our school is done for the semester.

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...
If anyone else is a Charlotte Mason follower, we have tried to do things her way this year but we did almost nothing with nature. Until now. We're planning and executing the garden, getting chicks in a few weeks. I'm wondering what we can do to make this nature stuff we're doing more meaningful and more in line with Charlotte Mason way. Any suggestions? I'm thinking we need to start Nature journals. The little one loves to draw so she can draw things as they start to grow in our garden.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...

Today while outside building raised garden beds, the sun was peeking around clouds and was just stunning. Had to take a picture. You can kind of see how big our yard is. See the fence WAAAAAYYYYYY back there? Yup. About 200 feet. Time to clean the yard up. Spring is here!

Almost Ready to Plant!

2011-03-31T17:05:00.001-05:00

Okay, so I totally forgot I was supposed to be doing a real gardening post for The Gardening Challenge over at The Homeschool Lounge (note the fancy schmancy button they created just so I could share this challenge with you! Come join me in this challenge.)

I wasn't sure what new to say about our garden, seeing as we haven't started it yet and its 50 degrees out. Crossing fingers for a nice warm up this weekend!

I talked for the first time about the garden here, the previous years of gardening, the plants we want to have, the beds we'll be making, the lovely dirt we'll be ordering (Monday!!) It also had wonderful links to seed catalogs to order, studies for homeschoolers, great gardening information.

Here, I talked about the seeds we actually ordered, the people who will be gardening with us, successive gardening practices, my daughter's love of carrots... Oh yeah! I also showed you the free online gardening planner I found. That was a great link! I even mentioned the highly addicting, complete time waster of a game you can play that has nothing to do with gardening but is garden related: Plants vs. Zombies. Real important that. lol

I think even at one point I talked about the fact that we'll be getting chicks soon, and to be honest, their poop is magical. For the garden that is. Can't wait for that natural fertilizer to start appearing!

Today I posted a quick post mentioning that Seeds of Change is GIVING AWAY seeds, so hurry on over there to get your seeds for your garden.

AND, last but not least, if I haven't mention before (and I think I have), I put up a Gardening Gurus page full of links to gardening blogs, videos, companies, ideas, books and fun gardening activities for the kiddos.

Now, as I mentioned in my first post on gardening, last year we built two raised beds using these plans. Tomorrow mommsy-dear is picking the kids and me up for some shopping at our local Lowes. It's time to create 4 more beds, time to buy the wood. Time to find a nice helpful Lowes person who will cut all the wood pieces to my specifications so I can just bring it all home and slap together 4 more beds. That's the easy part. After that we have to dig a few post holes to sink the beds in. THEN come Monday, I'm ordering a load of dirt to magically arrive and be dumped on my poor unsuspecting driveway. I guess I better pick up a wheel barrow tomorrow as well. How else will we get the dirt into the back yard, unless by bucket brigade? Who wants to help with that one? Huh? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

So, I'm off to write up the measurements for the bed pieces I need to order, so I can measure twice and cut once, instead of the highly probable but very irritating opposite. ** mumbles to herself, 'now was that 4 posts at 12" or 12 posts at 4"? Hmmmm...' **

Happy Gardening!

FREE ORGANIC SEEDS ALERT!

2011-03-31T15:04:00.001-05:00

It totally figures I just did my $85 seed order through Gurneys on Tuesday. But for others just getting started and needing seeds, Seeds of Change is offering 25 Certified Organic Seed Packets for just $4.99 shipping. I was looking on Amazon this week for seeds and saw their packets. They retail usually for $2.99-$3.99 each, so this is a fabulous deal!

** This is also a chance to give back! For every seed request, they'll give a matching donation of seeds to the American Horticultural Society. Now doesn't it feel good to donate?! **

There is no guarantee what seeds you'll receive but if you're just starting out and want to have the growing experience with the kids, any free veggies/flowers are great!

Wouldn't this be a great start to a homeschool garden or a co-op neighborhood garden (especially if several of you and your friends ordered packets, you'd get a wide variety!)

What seeds are you wishing for?

Pictorial Tuesday (Cuz I'm Never Very Good at Wordless Wednesdays)

2011-03-29T13:30:00.001-05:00

I always think, 'I should take a picture for those Wordless Wednesday posts people are always doing.' But then I think, 'When have I ever been wordless?!' So here is a Pictorial Tuesday, kinda has a ring to it, right?

Want to see all the hard work we are doing today in school? All the massive hours of time spent learning, and soaking up and expanding our brains?

Yup. You guessed it. She is reading. Has been since 830 am (we're going on 5 hours now.) But you know how sometimes a book just grabs you and you can't put it down? It just seemed wrong to rip the book from her eager reading hands and say 'Do you math, pick up your Latin!' There will be other days. Today, we enjoy the lazy rain soaked dreary day and read.

(Note: She finished up The Battle of the Labyrinth this morning and is now reading The Last Olympian.)

Garden Update + Need SEEDS Cheap?

2011-03-28T17:34:00.009-05:00

As I've mentioned before, I get obsessive about a subject when planning. That's how the garden plan has been this weekend. I noticed, after checking here that we're a few weeks behind on getting our seeds going. Most of them we should have planted 6-8 weeks before the last frost date for our area, which is between April 15-21st.

Seed Starting Calendar

There is so much to think about when planning a garden. The little one and I sat down and looked through gardening company's catalogs. It was a good lesson in Science as we discussed plant spacing, growing season, potentially doing a doubling planting (planting another round of plants later in the season, also called Successive Planting) and how much room we will have.

Article on Intensive Gardening

Video on Successive Planting (ie: Autumn Harvesting)

One thing I recommend as you're going through a catalog is to write things down. I kept a list of the Vegetable Name, what catalog it was in, how many seeds in a packet, cost, page number and item number. I then input it all into a table and sorted by vegetable name. This way I could see which catalog had the best price in what vegetables. Yes, I'm weird like this.

My mom as well as a fellow homeschooling family are considering joining us in planting the gardens in our back yard. We have a large 30-70' area that we're adding 4 beds to (we already have 2.)

One of the seed companies, Jung Seeds, has an online program for planning your garden, free for the first 30 days. Imagine my delight, planning out a fancy schmancy plan and I was even able to print it! It told me how many seeds I need, when I need to get them in the ground and I even set the program for two growing rounds, some of the plants can be replanted sometime in July/August for a fall harvesting. How wonderful!

Here is what we decided on finally:

Peanuts

Regular and Tiny Peppers

Spinach

Yellow & Zucchini Squash

Heirloom, Roma & Red/Yellow Cherry Tomatoes

The little one is looking forward to the watering and caring of the baby plants. We will be starting some indoors after the seeds arrive this weekend. She has claimed the carrots as her own, her special food. I told her she had to share in the bounty but I'm not sure she's buying it!

I realize even though we have a huge space to plant, the packets come with SO many seeds. So I thought, after the seeds get here, I could split them up and split the costs with probably 2 people. If anyone is interested, just holler and I'll tell you how much and how many seeds you'll get of each (approximately.) No need to waste them. I don't think seeds are good next year. Who wants to grow with me?!

P.S. I'm ignoring the fact that there is late snow on my ground once again. It will warm up this week!

P.P.S.S. For those frivolous minded people like MY family members, you can play a game that really has nothing to do with gardening at all but is wildly fun: Plants VS. Zombies - link is a reputable company, CNET (it's a trial version). Can also be found as a free demo download on your Playstation 3. Oh yeah, I forgot the teen has it as a download on her cell phone so you might check your phone's market for free downloads, if you have 'nothing' to do.

NOTE: Don't forget to see my new 'Garden Gurus' page at the top for more gardening information and links.

March 25th - Homeschool Mother's Journal

2011-03-25T00:30:00.005-05:00

The Homeschool Mother's Journal began as a single post on a Friday morning (at The Homeschool Chick), and turned into a link-up for homeschool mothers across the blog-O-sphere to share a piece of their journey with one another each week. .
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To visit the most recent Homeschool Mother's Journal post, please click HERE

In my life this week...

So, we've made a family decision. Chickens will be our new pet! Hopefully this weekend we can start building a coop. Perhaps after a nice long yard clean up. I've created a Chicken Farmers page on this blog where I'll keep info I come across as we figure out this new endeavor.

In our homeschool this week...

Some days I see a dedication to the little one's work, others it's a struggle for immediate obedience. We've hit the puberty stage and stubbornness reigns. We're constantly discussing what God would want us to do and how he would want us to act. We're currently memorizing Romans 12 and the topic of 'Do Not transform to the patterns of this world' has had many a discussion. I consider the world's focus to be a selfish, me-driven, do what I want, give me give me type focus. I do not want that for our family. Our homeschool has been very focused this week on obedience. We're practicing the term I read on someone's post from the Charlotte Mason Carnival this week that said 'I will obey immediately with a happy heart.' We talked about how the little one doesn't want to get in trouble, and really does want to do what is right but is letting her anger and selfish thoughts get in the way of obeying with a happy heart. It's an ongoing process. This week's carnival was all about obedience. Very enlightening. All homeschooling must have a base of obedience or its so much harder to accomplish.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...

Sunday we did spend with our whole extended family for a birthday party. My nephew turned 13. Why do they have to grow up? It was a wonderful relaxing time. Chili, cake, ice cream, lots of laughter, beautiful sunshine, riding bikes, jumping on the trampoline. I love those type of get togethers. Found out on Monday that the teen has Strep Throat so I'm hoping against hope that no one contracted it on Sunday.

During the week we did not go many places. We tend to hole up in the house, doing our homeschool and spending leisurely evenings at home. The little one has a major part in the church play so on Wednesday night she had choir practice for the songs and on Saturday they will rehearse the lines. I can't wait until her play on April 30th and May 1st!

My favorite thing this week was...

Honestly? Reading books about chickens and planning the new gardening beds and what we'll plant in them. I think I'm ready for spring!

What's working/not working for us...

We're pretty much up to speed on all our subjects, including all of our homeschool paperwork and records. This is a coup for me as I'm never up to speed on records in March! Our Latin for Children is going slower than I'd imagined. I didn't pick up the curriculum until October so we started late. We should probably be in chapter 18-20 and we're only on 10 but I feel confident in what she knows, and we didn't do much Latin during December.

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...

We've used so many math programs over the years, I just don't know what to look at for next year. This year we used 2 different books. One a regular textbook used in public schools and then we're finishing up with Saxon 76, in which I'm catching the things she did not know on the placement test she took at Saxon to see what book to use next. Should I go with Saxon 87, Saxon Algebra 1/2? What about Teaching Textbooks. I like that one but my pocketbook does not. Just don't know. Don't want to buy the wrong thing and then it not be the right thing for us...

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...

This week I feel pulled in many directions. With gardens needing planning, a coop needing to be built, I'm going to conference in two weeks and then hopefully on a vacation with my mom for a week or so after that. While I'm gone hubby is refinishing our cruddy wood floors so all our rooms need to be organized so they can be moved out. I feel rushed and stressed and sometimes want to just chuck it all and say forget it. But I'm reminded of one of my favorite Thoreau quotes. While I choose to find my Eternity in Heaven, the rest applies:

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.
- Henry David Thoreau.

Chicken Farmers - Update!

2011-03-24T09:50:00.000-05:00

The inevitable has happened. We've perused a dozen books (in we, I mean the little one and I, while hubby stood by and shook his head.) about chicken raising. We've picked out and re-picked out what chick breeds we'd like to own, which produce the best, which will lay the longest. We've discussed and sketched and eyed the contents of the house for any stray wood that might go into a chicken tractor. We've even shown the books to the teen who is never here and wouldn't be a part of the care and upkeep of chickens, but none-the-less has picked out what type of chicken she wants.

But finally, behind closed doors without little ears to hear and a convincing whine to color our judgment, the hubby and I have sat down and discussed the possibility of a chicken coop in our yard. The pros and cons have been weighed (I'm an optimist, he's the opposite so you can imagine which side of the room more cons were coming from).We've talked of coops, feed, letting them roam as opposed to being 'cooped' up all day, wintering them, brooders (the little one already set up a homemade one in the basement), having wood to build a coop, what they eat (bugs and scraps, corn and feed) and the types of eggs they produce.

His argument: it will probably be a mistake, things like this usually don't turn out okay.

My argument: it's worth a try, to at least have tried the opportunity, for the little one at least. If all else fails and we hate it or its not for us, we can find a nice farm the chickens can go live on and sell or give away our coop.

With a sigh, a boast that 'of course' he could build a nice coop but that I better find out the code of ordinances for our city, on chickens... hubby agreed for us to become a chicken farming family! Yay us!

Note: I added information to the 'Chicken Farmers tab above' on how to find out the Municipal Code of Ordinances for your city, as well as how your house lot is zoned (this info matters as to how many chickens you can legally house.) We're zoned residential and we can have 2. I'm going to call City Hall tomorrow to see if we could have a few more if we paid a licensing fee. That is permitted in other cities, so it doesn't hurt to ask...

Okay, who's ready to throw on some overalls, grab a bale of hay and raise some chickens?! Anyone, anyone, Bueller??!

** Stay tuned for more exciting updates **

Better Late Than Never? 52 Books/52 Weeks

2011-03-23T09:00:00.034-05:00

Yesterday I was blog hopping. It was such a wonderful spring day, why not hop around?! But I digress...

I was visiting and linking up with this week's HipHomeschoolHop and found the Winecup Christian Academy. After hopping around her blog a bit, I found a post about reading 52 books in 52 weeks. I thought 'I read a lot, I could probably do that.' So I visited the 52 Books blog for more details. As my luck would have it, they started January 1st. I'm late. Then again, when am I ever on time for anything? I can still do this!

So with library list and NookColor in hand, I can figure out and share the books I've read so far, and maybe a few that will be for upcoming weeks.

Week 1 - The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan also The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan

Week 2 - The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan as well as The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

Week 1 and 2 were all about catching up on the Lightning Thief series that the little one and I had started last year. She received the new book in the new series for Christmas and I was dying to read it, so I had to read read read! This series is so good! The little one loves learning about Greek Myths. In fact, one of our favorite books is D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths.

Week 3 – The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Week 4 – Roast Mortem by Cleo Coyle

Week 5 – Brush with Death and Shooting Gallery by Hailey Lind

Week 6 – Sew Deadly by Elizabeth Lynn Casey

Week 7 – Truly Madly by Heather Webber

Week 8 – Bookplate Special by Lorna Barrett

Week 9 – Fundraising the Dead by Sheila Connolly

Week 10 – A Woman's Call to Prayer by Elizabeth George

Week 11 – Throw Out 50 Things by Gail Blanke

This week we are obsessed on deciding if we will add chickens to our family. So several books I'm perusing are all about chickens. But I probably won't put all of those down in my little list. My plan this week is this:

Week 12 – The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer, as well as possibly finishing up Frankly My Dear, I'm Dead by Livia J. Washburn

For upcoming weeks: I have Ken Follett's Fall of Giants sitting on my shelf to read, right next to The Body in the Ivy and The Body in the Gallery both by Katherine Hall Page.

What are you reading this week? My choice of books seems to be all about mystery! lol I need to throw in some worthwhile books as well. Any suggestions?

Maybe 3rd Time's A Charm for This Gardener!

2011-03-22T09:00:00.002-05:00

Once upon a time, a long long time ago. Almost 16 years to be exact. We bought this house we live in. We were so excited that it came with apple trees, pear trees and a 30x70 foot space for gardening that the former owner had used year after year until he and his wife had grown too old and feeble to attend to it. We were excited to pick up this tradition and make it our own. We forgot who we were talking about here. Us. The new house owners. The ones with a toddler, 2 full time jobs. 2 unmotivated people who like their relaxing time. What were we thinking?! We did the humongous garden for two years until we came to our senses.

Last year I was missing the gardening experience. Surely we were older, wiser, less lazy. But just to be on the safe side, we decided to build raised beds (here are the free plans we used.) No back breaking tilling, no terrible clay dirt. Just pretty wood beds filled with bags of lovely dirt. And we did do this. Raised beds. We had 9 tomato plants, beans, cucumbers, watermelon, hot peppers, sweet peppers and some herbs. The cucumbers and hot peppers grew like wild flowers. I think we got maybe 9 tomatoes total. So yeah. Not a hot year for tomatoes for us. I also don't think we had completely conquered the laziness in ourselves either. Note the 2 beds way in the back and a stack of dirt bags in front of one. Yeah, we only got one filled and kept saying we were going to do the other and plant plants. The summer got away from us. So we still have room to grow.

Last week mom called and said she wanted to garden with us this year. I'm assuming this means she will be driving over weekly to help weed and water and pick? I might need to keep my house clean regularly then. This might be a good thing. (We've started a NEW way of doing chores I'll share in a later post.) Hubby and I talked about it. I'd like to add at least 2 more beds back there. Maybe one to the side of the concrete patio where our shed used to be, right next to the house... It gets dappled sun so I'm thinking maybe only herbs and lettuce grown there? On the south side of our house is a sweet sunny spot and the little one wants to revive the area we had there years ago to plan watermelons. It's shaping up to be a banner gardening year! Oh, and this year I'm getting smart. I'm ordering organic dirt and compost mix to be delivered and dropped on our driveway. We'll have no excuse but to wheelbarrow it to the gardens or be the embarrassment of the entire neighborhood.

Today I learned about a new FREE curriculum for planting a Victory Garden, based on those they planted during WWII. You can read all about it here on this site. You can also order a free poster here.

Do you garden? What do you plant? Here's our potential list:

Tomatoes

Cucumbers

Zucchini

Potatoes

Sweet & Hot Peppers

Bush Beans

Kale

Lettuce

Cauliflower

Herbs

Still planning my list with the help of these catalogs:

Burpee

Direct Gardening

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Gardener's Supply Company
Gurney's Seed & Garden Company

I'm thinking we'll make this gardening project into just that. A project. A homeschool project. The little one will help plan everything out. Maybe do square foot gardening? (Here are some worksheets and some more worksheets I found for planning that.) We need to get seeds soon and get them growing indoors to get a head start. We can study the life cycle of a plant, what bugs are harmful and organic ways of helping our plants grow naturally without chemicals. It should be a fun spring. Now let's see if it all comes to fruition. Maybe third time's a charm!

Some more great links:

Almanac (great for planning planting dates)

Square Foot Gardening Unit Study (to purchase)

Gardening with Kids

Common Garden Pests

Organic Gardening

Math In The Garden

Garden Journal (download, great for kids)
Build Your Own Hot Compost Box

P.S. I also found 'The Lazy Gardener's Seed Starting Chart' to use. You KNOW that has my name written all over it!

Chicken Farmers - What?? Who??

2011-03-16T09:00:00.019-05:00

Our house is a never ending wealth of hair brained ideas. The latest being one of our biggest. We had a discussion the other day. Don't ask me how we got on the crazy-train idea of chicken raising. Maybe when I was visiting the RiddleLove blog (which happens to be my maiden name, no, not the 'Love' part.) All of the sudden, the idea of having chickens to raise, just a few mind you, seemed feasible. As if we don't have enough to worry about with 2 ornery dogs, 3 fat cats and 1 dwarf hamster (we won't mentioned the fish that made it 6 months and then went belly up.)

But think of the wealth of information the little one could pick up (not to mention ME), consider the homeschool topics we could study (nature, science, animal husbandry) as well as the responsibility she could be building. Yes, I know she could to that by helping take care of the animals we already have. WORK with me here!

(Note: She does already help feed and walk the dogs. Just wanted to mention in case you thought I might be slacking in my parenting... *smile*)

The little one and I excitedly talked about raising chickens, and looking up pictures of chickens on Murray McMurray Hatchery and Meyer Hatchery. Then we were off and running with the idea of building a chicken coop and OH NO, it would need to be a chicken tractor instead. Hubby, over in the corner was saying 'We are not going to get chickens!' He knows that sometimes the work will fall on him. We ignored him. We discussed buying wood to build a chicken coop and the next thing you know hubby is saying 'You don't need to buy wood, I can find enough to use around here to build one.' Didn't he just say we aren't getting chickens? Talk about wishy-washy.

To be fair, I don't think he is sold on the idea yet, and I'm still thinking through it; the logistics of ordering them, raising them, taking care of them, feeding, watering, cleaning, the local laws (we are zoned agricultural but are chickens even allowed?), the amount of daily time necessary and how much food (ie: eggs, since we're NOT eating these chickens) they will produce for us, which are the best summer or winter layers, if you need a rooster or not for just eggs (no babies.) So much to learn! I'm determined, if we decide to become chicken farmers, to be prepared and know the risks and commitment ahead of time.

I ordered several books from the library to learn as much as we can:
Barnyard in Your Backyard
Keep Chickens!
Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens
Chicken Coops
Chick Days

Stay tuned as we figure this out. The Meyer Hatchery catalog just came and I'm like a kid in a candy store. Yellow chicks, black chicks, brown? White eggs, brown eggs, blue? One of each?? So many choices!

Update: The little one found the chicken catalog this morning.

And in the Quiet, HE Speaks...

2011-03-03T09:00:00.003-06:00

I don't know what it is with being sick. My schedule just gets off track. I nap during the day, sleep a ton at night, or, in the case of yesterday, I was up after about 5 hours of sleep. I woke before 8 am, to the quiet sleepiness of a house. No child or dogs awake. The sun peeps in through the curtains. Can't go back to sleep. 'Oh goodie!' I think, 'A bit of quiet time for me!' I grab last night's leftovers, tissues, and a hot cup of lemon ginger tea and settle in to catch up on Facebook and emails.

Yet in the quiet, HE speaks.

We've been attending the revival services at church this week. If you knew me, you'd know this is rare. First of all, I've been disillusioned with church lately. Not sure where we fit in, not comfortable there, purposely pulling away until I figure things out. But we went to the first revival service on Sunday Night. I felt this overwhelming need to come back. As fate would have it, I became very sick on Monday. Again, if you knew me, I don't move from my home when I'm sick normally. But I felt like I should be at services. So me and my tissues and cough drops have been going to services all week. And HE has been speaking to me.

Oh, not the audible noises we would want to hear. But through the speaker's words, through the commitment of others serving during revival and the spiritual renewal I've witnessed others have at the alter.

I've been taking notes on my phone during service (I'm sure the older couple behind me have been frowning, thinking I'm texting during church! lol) The speaker has asked thought provoking questions, so as I sat there yesterday morning perusing Facebook and eamils, HE was speaking to me about revival.

'What is it that is keeping me from fully devoting my life to God?' Hard question that. I thought I had. But I notice that I've let life's situations and homeschool and other devotions creep in on my time, my focus. I don't visit with God as much as I should, or even as much as I want to. There is always some excuse.

1 Peter 5:8-10. Be self controlled and alert. your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith.

Yesterday I was thinking about what the speaker said about this. He didn't say the devil wants to trip you up, or mess with your life, or cause you problems. He wants and desires to DEVOUR you. And each step I take away from God is a step towards the roaring lion. That's a scary thought. Yet if we 'stand firm in the faith' and to me this means actively persuing a relationship with God, the devil can NOT devour us. Even homeschool and the rigors and worries of getting everything done and accomplished can and have pulled me away from God, in my effort to do it all 'myself'. HE wants to be in our homeschool. Not just at bible time, not just at scripture memory time, but in the planning and the executing and the discussions; and the worry.

It's like having a glass of ice and the devil is the air and space around the ice cubes. If I fill the glass with liquid (aka: God) there is no room for air (Devil.) I want to always keep my cup full.

The speaker also addressed the word ALERT. We need to be attentive to where the devil can attack us. We must not let our attention waver. The devil will take advantage of any opportunity we will give him. As in the case of my frustration levels. The devil knows this is one of my weaknesses. When I'm frustrated at my children or situations, he takes that opportunity to bring in doubt, doubt that I'll never get it right, that I'll never be the mom/wife/homeschool teacher/cleaner/cook/Christian that I want to be. I allow him to bring that doubt. Instead I should turn to God and ask him to remove the doubt, to instruct me in where I can do better and find encouragement in the things I do accomplish and get right.

And in the quiet, HE speaks.

NOTE: I found out the church made Podcasts of the Spiritual Renewal Services from this week. You can listen to them here (2/27/11 - 3/2/11)

3 Months Free Membership - HSLDA

2011-03-02T15:34:00.002-06:00

I was blog hopping today and found a good deal on HSLDA, Home School Legal Defense Association membership. If you're unfamiliar with them, they're the legal firm that has Homeschoolers best interests in mind. Right now they're running a 3 month trial membership, through March 31, 2011. I suggest you sign up.

Go to their website and a little pop up will... POP UP with the link to the free trial.

I used to be the go-to person for newbies in our area. My name and address were on the internet for our local homeschool association and I would receive weekly calls about homeschooling in our area. One of the first things I did was refer people to HSLDA's website for our state's laws. They have many other aspects to their website including lists of your local homeschool associations, laws they're working on, homeschool cases in court, help with homeschooling, and more things you should be aware of.

It's been a few years since I belonged so I went ahead and took advantage of this deal. You should too.

A Sorry Day In the Life...

2011-03-02T09:00:00.014-06:00

(Winston)

This is how my day went yesterday...

923 am - I wake to a scraping noise and my brain is trained to think this might be a dog who needs to go the bathroom and it sure as heck isn't going to be in MY house, so I jump up to let them out. It's a cat playing with a toilet paper tube... I see the child wrapped up in a blanket on the couch, reading her acting script (for a play at church).

me - 'Good morning, smooch! What are you doing?'

smooch - 'Practicing.'

me - 'How long have you been up?'

smooch - *looks at clock* '23 minutes'.

me - 'have the dogs gone out?'

smooch - 'no.'

me - 'have you fed them?'

smooch - 'no.'

me - *sigh* 'Okay, let's get school started. Grab your blanket and let's go.' I put the dogs out, grab a bag of grapes and head to the bedroom. Pull out my schedule. No child forthcoming.

me - 'where are you?'

smooch - 'I'm hungry. Going to make food.'

me - 'why didn't you do that when you got up?'

smooch - 'I wasn't hungry then.'

me - 'Grab a cup of cereal, some grapes, some cheese. Let's get started.' I'm in school mode. I'm sick, and want to get some stuff done before I crash back into my pillow again.

smooch - 'I don't want any of that, I want a burger.'

me - 'Okay, pop a burger in the pan, make an extra for the dogs and do your Flash Dash Latin on the computer while you're waiting for it to cook.' Cough, hack, blow my nose, I proceed to lay my head back on the pillow. One hour lapses. I pop up in confusion.

me - 'Smooch? Where are you?'

smooch - 'I'm cooking.'

me - 'It's been an hour. Where have you been? What have you been doing all this time?'

smoooch - 'Well, I cooked my burger and one for the dogs, and then made some rice. I brushed the dogs hair and put them outside. I went out with them. It's muddy out there.'

me - *sigh* 'Did you do your Latin?'

smooch - 'no.'

me - 'Did you do any reading?'

smooch - 'no.'

me - *double sigh* 'So we haven't started school yet...'

smooch - 'What? None of that counts for school?'

I swear, some day we'll get it right.

(Clementine)

Note - the day did not get any better. Normally, when I'm sick or something she is so good getting stuff done. Today I kept resting while she was doing her schoolwork and she would get sidetracked. We only got half of it done. But sometimes you can't help it when you're sick.

Book Confession

2011-02-25T10:00:00.002-06:00

I have a confession.

(current library books/videos)

I have a tendency to order a lot of books and videos all at once from the library. It's really their fault, putting it all online where I can sit in the comfort of my cozy home and click order, order, order! If only they delivered their books too. You know, like the UPS guy or something. Actually they do deliver, but only to homebound people. This is good information to know for whenever I'm old and gray and unable to leave the house. At least I'll still be able to read. I won't be able to see, but I'll be able to read.

That isn't the confession part.

(More books, these we own, I need to sell them.)

So, when I click on my account and see that I have 58 books and videos to pick up, I take stock. No, I haven't showered yet for the day. No, I have no car now that we're down to only one. Hubby should be coming home soon and maybe he can stop by the house, pick up my library card and bags and just 'run over' and pick them up? Oh, and maybe since he is going already, he can go ahead and return these 3 bags of 40+ books to the library. Since he's going 'anyway'.

Here comes the confession.

(recent thrift store finds)

I call hubby and say 'Please oh please can you go by the library, you know, after you stop by and get the bags and the library card? I'll make the teen go with you, to make it easy.' He agrees most of the time because he's sweet like that. Here's the confession part. I DON'T tell him I have 40+ books to return and I DON'T tell him it will be a massive pile of 58 books & videos for him to bring home. Yes, I'm evil like that.

So he goes to the library lugging the books. He drops down the book shoot. He and the teen lug the massive pile of books from the 'HOLD' shelf to the counter to be checked out and hands over my library card.

'You're homeschoolers, aren't you?' the librarian says with a chuckle.

Should I be offended by this statement? Hey, at least I didn't have to be there when she said it.

Purpose. Conflicted...

2011-02-23T21:00:00.003-06:00

Do you know your purpose in life. I question mine all the time. After all, what do I do? Homeschool, mother, be a wife, artist sometimes, blogger sometimes, confidante when needed. And I'm not very consistent with any of them. I always feel like I should be doing something different, something more. I pray about it and what my purpose is in life but don't feel like I have a clear answer from God. Sometimes I think maybe that IS my answer. What I'm doing is where he wants me to be at this very moment. Maybe my purpose feels undefined because I'm not meeting the potential of the purposes I'm purporting to do at the moment.

The little one an I are studying Romans 12. Verse 1-2 says:

¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

I question my committment to not conforming to the pattern of this world. I eat too much, I complain too much, I'm lazy a lot of the time, I watch too much TV, and its not all gospel TV either. I'm a CSI fanatic and anything close to it. Am I conforming if I watch all this stuff? I profess my hatred of the news and don't watch it but by watching these other shows, isn't that just as bad? Oh, it's my entertainment, I say. Doesn't hurt anyone, I don't let my kids watch it. Then I get to thinking, if I don't let them watch it, why am I? It's like rated R movies. Some of them are so good, but have language I don't care for or bedroom scenes I don't need to see. I don't let my kids watch it, why is it okay for me? Am I a conformer after all?

And another thought, maybe I'm not hearing what God's will is for my life because I'm conforming? It does say 'be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.'

Conform:

1. To correspond in form or character; be similar.

2. To act or be in accord or agreement; comply:

3. To act in accordance with current customs or modes.

God calls us to not be like other people. He wants us to be so different in our deeds and everyday life that people will take notice and say 'I want to know what they have and how I can get it.' We live in a flawed world, if I'm doing the same things the world does, aren't I a part of the problem? If I do nothing to fix a problem or injustice in this world, aren't I really agreeing to it?

My problem lately is thinking I want to make changes in how I am and then trying to reconcile that to a whole family changing our ways. Everyone in the family might not be on the same convicted pages as me. Where do I go from there?

² Do not conform to the pattern of this world... This world is selfish, angry, encouraging others to only lookout for 'el numbero uno'. Our children are pushed into adulthood at young ages by the things they see, the things they hear, the relationships they are allowed to participate in, the situations we stand by and allow them to handle on their own. Our children can not learn to 'not be of this world' if we're not setting the example for them. If not us, who will they be looking to? Other children? Is that where we want them to learn all about life? I think not. But when I think of all the changes I think I should make, quit watching TV, not be on the computer mindlessly, should be more organized, more of a housewife/cleaner/cook, setting the example for my family, volunteer, mission somewhere, be more involved in my church and my extended family's lives; I get overwhelmed. I mean I don't think we have to step back into the stone ages or into a quaker lifestyle; there must be a happy medium where I still feel like I'm NOT conforming to this world. These verses convict me more than I really care to say.

I got off track here about purpose, which is really pertaining to further verses. Maybe that will be another blog post. I'm feeling conflicted tonight. Okay, off to plan my history lesson (that's a whole other blog post as well.)

Homeschool Conference with Open Eyes

2011-02-17T09:00:00.003-06:00

So I've already signed up for the local homeschool conference. For quite a while I did not go, thinking, 'I know what I'm doing, it's just basically a big SELL fest.' But last year, since I was wrapping up and graduating a teen and would be back to having only one child to teach, I thought it might be prudent to attend again.

I also made the decision to stay up by the conference. Even though it was only 20 minutes away, hubby thought it was a good idea and I could get a couple nights away by myself. So that's what I am doing again this year. I've already booked my nice room. A local friend stays up there every year as well so I invited her to share my room if she wants. It should be a fun time. No kids, nobody to take care of but myself, NO COOKING!

I'm looking forward to classes. This year we tried to embrace the Charlotte Mason way of doing things and we did well for several months. But in the interest of getting more work done (catching up for our less than stellar month of December), we went back to longer times of schooling for each subject. I have still managed to keep in some of the subjects we picked up during our months of CM. We're still enjoying Latin and scripture memory. Writing is doing well. I need more structure in it though so we're learning key grammar things. Basically I just go let her write on her story.

Last year my favorite speaker was Andrew Pudewa (he has great YouTube Videos here). He was amazing and made me think of homeschool and teaching writing and spelling in a whole new way. I was not able to purchase his writing program but I learned so much from him. I need to pull out last year's notes and relearn what he taught. If you get a chance to hear him, GO! P.S. Just looked up his website and remembered that he reminded me a lot of John Cleese! lol)

I'm hoping this year to see classes on Charlotte Mason and maybe a Grammar/Writing class that isn't all about worksheets and boring assignments. That works for some people, but not us. Plus the little one will be moving into 7th grade schooling. Middle school. I might cry, she is growing up so fast. Not sure what subjects we need to cover or how that will work. So I'm heading to the homeschool conference with open eyes. Looking for new ideas...

I wonder if others attend homeschool conferences still. What do you hope to get out of it?

NOTE: This post is linked up with Golden Grasses' post about Conferences.

I have to do what? Yeah. Chores.

2011-02-16T09:00:00.001-06:00

So, as most families go, except for the real annoying ones that have all their stuff together and get their chores done daily... we're not regular in that department. And we fight about it too. Whose turn it is, who is in charge of what. And I have to follow children around and constantly nag nag nag. I told hubby one time that one of MY chores is to make sure the children do THEIR chores. Because really it was a chore. They're easily distracted or they're disobedient. It's a constant struggle.

Lately we've been hearing the comment that 'we' don't work as much as they do, and why do they have to do 'everything' (when it's really one or two chores a week.) Hubby and I laugh at the absurdity of this statement. Children have no clue. But what bothers me about this statement is its said in disrespect. We've had many a grounding, talking to and yelling match about this very statement. I remind them that their job is not to question, but to do. I have also been praying about their attitudes because the constant fighting and instances of disrespect have been weighing on me.

To be fair, they don't always see all the things we do. If they had to do all that we do when they're not looking, they'd faint from exhaustion. I was making a list the other day of what I had been doing all day because I was starting to think maybe i didn't do as much. But I realized I do more things sitting down than physical labor, which is what they look for.

Here's my recent list:

make grocery list, plan loose menu, organize coupons, read ads for sales, find coupons, plan bills for the paycheck, pay bills online, call insurance about cell phones, car repairs, schedule doctor appts, order medicines, schedule dog grooming, order gift certificates, homeschool child, research homeschool projects, plan upcoming homeschooling, deal with homeschool paperwork, grade papers, cook food for dogs, feed dogs, walk dogs (several times), throw in laundry, pick up trash, straighten bathroom when I'm in there, replenish toilet paper holder, hang up clothes, make bed, put up homeschool books after finished, wipe off toothpaste tube, organize bookshelf, make lunch, make pitcher of crystal light, turn off lights (often), lock doors at night, change trash, remind family of chores.

So, all this wordiness to say, we have a new plan. I know, I had a plan here, but it just didn't work for me. I tried, but didn't make it more than a week or so. However, NOW we're using My Job Chart. Someone on Facebook recommended it and I'm so glad they did. What made it even more enjoyable was sitting with the little one planning out jobs for EVERYONE in the family (hubby and me included.) That way she sees what we are in charge of on what days. We even worked out what would be rewards for accumulating a certain amount of points from doing her jobs (she opted for dad/mom time, rent redbox, game night, video game time, and movie tickets as her rewards. Some will take awhile to work towards.)

I highly recommend this program. It's free, and she just goes to the computer, logs in and checks off the things she has completed. At the end of the day I get an email telling me who has completed what. We introduced hubby and the sister to it this evening and after a lot of frowning, they're on board. This also helps me be more accountable. She gets all excited about helping me check off the things I've completed.

I'm curious to know how others keep up with their chores, divvy up the chores, etc... What's working, what isn't?

Worry NOT Dolls

2011-02-07T17:18:00.001-06:00

The little one and I are studying our way around the world through 7 continents. Right now we're stopped at our own, North America. This study includes books on America, Canada, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbeans. It's been a very interesting study as I personally don't even know much outside of America.

As we were reading the book: Traditional Crafts from Mexico and Central America we came upon a section about 'Guatemalan Worry Dolls'. Here is what the chapter said: "In Guatemala dolls are made from scrap materials. Children may take them to bed with them at night. Before the children fall asleep, they tell their worries to the dolls, one at a time. It is believed that the dolls take away the problems while the children sleep. Traditionally, about six dolls are kept together in a tiny wooden box."

What an opportunity to talk to my daughter about our faith! I told her "We have no need for 'Worry Dolls', do we? We have a God that meets all our needs, hears all our worries and cares, and especially our fears. " She said "These dolls could remind of us that God is who we can talk to when we are worried." I said "We could name them our 'Worry Not Dolls.'"

I love when opportunities crop up to talk with my daughter. God knows what we need, when we need it.

(To Make: Make the body of a doll with either twist ties or wire (which we used). The book recommends wrapping the wire in paper next. We skipped that step. Wrap yarn around body areas. The book tells you to make a cardboard head, but we didn't like that so we made a loop of wire and wound it for the face. We need to go back and glue the little strings in. The book had dolls made of various wraps: string, yarn, fabric. You could also add hair, hats, etc...)

Dilly-Dallying

2011-01-26T08:00:00.005-06:00

I discovered a secret yesterday!

As I noted, we've restarted our homeschooling with a different schedule. Monday we were having the worst time with arguing and the basic dilly-dallying that all kids who don't want to do their work like to do. I'll admit I got a bit frustrated. And since I was keeping a minute by minute handwritten schedule that day (basically too lazy to go print a schedule) I announced I was writing down all the times my daughter dilly-dallied. She asked 'what is the purpose of that?' all smart eleck like. I said 'so I can show your daddy just how much time you waste and when you have trouble arguing with me.' Well, she promptly picked up her work and went off to do her math problems. hehe

She had quite a few times of dilly-dallying. I don't think even she realizes how much time she wastes. But at the end of the day I did praise her for all the work she did get done. Her daddy reviewed the list and I think she was properly embarrassed of all the time she wasted.

So today, when I pulled out the notebook to start noting her minute by minute work, she said 'Today I'm not going to dilly dally as much.' She wants to do better than she did yesterday. It's like a challenge to herself against her own self! I found this astounding and very enlightening.

I think the chart will also show me where she has the most problems and I might need to modify the schedule, put in small breaks then, etc... The best thing I can do for her is pray for her continued willingness to work harder and happier.

I'm not telling her that I (unknowingly) tricked her into wanting to do better. I'm just going to enjoy this new drive she has. Thank you Lord.

Hands-On Memorization

2011-01-25T08:00:00.006-06:00

This is how we're learning the scriptures this week! lol

The little one was having trouble remembering the order of the 'Love is' and 'It Does Not' in the 1 Corinthians 13 scripture. I figured, she's looking at her hands all the time anyway, might as well 'advertise' on them!

Worked so well, we need to trade out the information today, since she has learned all that I wrote on there yesterday! Not that I'm condoning writing all over yourself but I'm kind of condoning writing all over yourself for a good cause.

Hey, whatever works, right?! RIGHT!

Restarting the Party

2011-01-24T13:06:00.003-06:00

So yeah. Homeschooling. We're a bit more relaxed this year. I'm not breathing down the little one's neck with a pile-o-textbooks clutched at my already tense side. But the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is always an 'epic fail' for me. Regular school was a misnomer.

When it was time to go back to schoolwork after our week off for Thanksgiving, I just... didn't. We spent the next two weeks doing who knows what. I look now at our daily activities chart and had to write stuff down. We read a lot, listened to books on tape (our favorites being written by Richard Peck; see list below) while playing legos. My little one built lego forts, pyramids, had faux battles between warring parties of playmobil people. We did a good amount of baking, cooking, a few field trips to local Christmasy areas. The little one's singing group sang at one shopping area.

We did do bible, occasionally review our scripture we're trying to memorize (1 Corinthians 13) and visited the Latin DVDs and workbook sporadically. Science did play a part in our time 'off'. We bought a soldering kit as well as a bug robot kit and with her dad she learned how to solder and all about wires, circuits, etc... They're getting ready to work on a robot soon.

So yeah, not the monumental amount of work I had scheduled. But it felt relaxed. Now begins the climb back out of the hole of relaxation. The last couple weeks here of January we've struggled. Plus having two cycles of sickness go through our house back to back has not helped with regular schooling. Much reading has been going on but that is it (we did discover the game of Phase 10 though and it has become a favorite!)

Today we restarted. We began our day at 8 am (yes, I know. I was as shocked as you are.) I'm redesigning our schedule. The Charlotte Mason little times of learning worked for us for a bit. Right now we'll try something different. Cutting out many CM things or actually combining them, while keeping some in (such as scripture memory and Latin.)

Here's our new schedule (beginning at 8 each morning):

History/Geography 1-1 1/2 hours
Latin 1/2 hour

Math 1/2-1 hour
Piano 1/2 hour

Scripture Memory/Bible Lesson 1/2 hour

Writing/Dictation/Spelling/Typing/Grammar 3/4-1 hour

Literature/Poetry 1/2 hour

Science 1/2 hour

Reading 1 hour

I'm thinking on average, history will be 1 hour, Math 1 hour. The writing portion will have creative writing, words dictated, proper grammar practiced and most of it will be typed so she can practice typing at the same time. After science we'll be done for the day and she is responsible for 1 hour of reading sometime in the rest of her day. I don't care if it's at night.

I'm also introducing homework. Yes, that hated word from public/private school. But she is getting to the age where next year she'll be in 'Junior high' and additional work will be needed outside of the times I'm instructing her. For now it will include:

Extra Latin practice

Extra history projects (chosen by her)
Extra scripture memory practice

Crossing fingers this works for her. I know in a month or so we'll probably have to change it up again. Just need to get some work done now.

Books by Richard Peck that we've enjoyed:

A Year Down Yonder

A Long way from Chicago

A Season of Gifts

Fair Weather

Here Lies the Librarian

We also have listened to:

100 Cupboards

Dandelion Fire

The Chestnut King

Starting The Day...

2010-10-20T10:19:00.001-05:00

I realized today I have not had that stressed feeling for most of this school year so far. What a release. What a joy. Maybe its all smoke and mirrors in my head because we cover so many subjects a day (with the Charlotte Mason approach we're trying this year) and I just 'think' we're moving forward, but I really feel like we're doing well.

Gone is the stress of not feeling like we're getting anything done.

Gone is the worry about getting up SO EARLY in order to accomplish all we need to do.

Gone is 'most' of the arguing about school subjects and length.

Gone is the desperation in my child's eyes during an hour long (or more) math lesson.

Gone is the desperation in MY eyes, counting the days until Thanksgiving vacation.

A friend reminded me of something today when she posted a quote on her Facebook wall:

"Tomorrow I plan to work, work, from early until late. In fact I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer." - Martin Luther

I forget, most days - if I were being honest, to start my day in prayer. Sure, we do scripture memory and a bible story. But real honest to goodness prayer for our schoolday and my family, I tend to push that duty aside. It should be a joy to talk to my Lord about my upcoming day, not a' have to' thing. And how much better would my day be if it began with God?

I plan to experiment with this 'morning prayer' phenomenon (haha) and see how it improves our day!

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival!

2010-10-19T11:00:00.002-05:00

(Image is of a print you can purchase here: Alicia Bock)

Yay! One of my articles made it to the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival (I'm sure all articles make it, but I'm excited just the same! hehe)

The blog post I submitted was the Scripture In Pictures post about how we're memorizing scripture these days.

To see all posts featured in the Carnival, visit the hosting blog here: CM Blog Carnival.

You can submit articles here too: CM Carnival Blog Submission.

P.S. I ran across another Carnival on Homeschooling today. Although I haven't submitted any articles to it yet, I thought I would share. Lots of great links. Carnival Of Homeschooling. To submit articles for this one, go here: Blog Submission.

TRACKING Schoolwork, Hours & Days

2010-10-18T11:00:00.003-05:00

Regular homeschool record keeping has always been my downfall. But it is also my greatest joy. Seeing all those little numbers lining up makes me so happy. Why don't I do it more often? Who knows. But when I get around to it, I do keep pretty good records so I thought I'd share samples of some and then link you to blank sheets you can use yourself. If you find you don't want to print these and fill in by hand but would rather fill in with Microsoft WORD, just email me and I'll send the WORD documents to you. I couldn't figure out how to attach files you can revise with your own information.

Since we're new to this Charlotte Mason way of doing things I was a bit concerned as to if we were getting in the hours we needed in certain subjects to make sure we cover that subject for the year. We've always spent hours on each subject almost daily so I still feel like I'm copping out, doing shorter lessons (although it seems to cut down on the stress and boredom of the child.)

Here is a sample of our Weekly 'What To Do' chart. I write in pencil what we'll do and we go back and highlight the subject matter when we finish it. NOTE: The hours add up to about 29 1/2 hours (includes church and singing class). We're in school 30 weeks (36 really, but 6 are holiday weeks) so we need to do about 33-34 hours per week. We always are adding something in on the weekends: PE, Reading, Baking, etc... so we have been meeting those goals so far. We also add in hours on Fridays when we do art or games.

Here is my monthly hours chart, split into core and non-core subjects. Our state required hours be kept of how you spend your time. 600 hours must be in Core subjects, 400 can be in anything you want; more Core or Non-Core.

Here is my new sheet that keeps track of our weeks on and off, as well as the hours each month in specific core subjects and then one column for non-core subjects. I'm seeing that our science and math are lower than I want it to be so I'll be upping those in the weeks to come.

Below you'll find the spreadsheets for each, that you can download and print. Let me know if you decide to use them and if they help.

Charlotte Mason Weekly What To Do Chart
(NOTE: We have Fridays 'off' from regular schooling to focus on art, math games and/or field trips.)

School Year 2010-B

Monthly Hours Chart
School Monthly Hours Total SAMPLE

School Weeks, Holidays & Hours
School Weeks Holidays Hours SAMPLE

Egg-stra Special Science

2010-10-07T14:00:00.003-05:00

Last week I picked up Janice VanCleave's Biology For Every Kid. We've been lacking in the Science department. A little studying here and there (beavers, fish/seas/Jacque Cousteau, magnetism, laws of motion, circuits) but no real structure to our learning. Anyway, I know how the little one loves doing experiments and I thought we could at least find a few in here.

We decided to try out the Naked Egg and the Shrinking Egg experiments.

NAKED EGG EXPERIMENT:

Ingredients:

2 jars (preferably with lids, because this house is full of spillers)

vinegar

corn syrup

1 egg

measuring tape

6 days time

1. Take one jar and fill it with about 2 inches of vinegar.

2. Measure the length (and circumference if you want) of the egg . Write them on an observation chart you make up on paper. We didn't do this part, we were lazy but it sure would have been nice to compare sizes at various times.

3. Carefully slide the egg into the vinegar jar. Check to make sure the vinegar is deep enough for the egg to be covered. Our egg sank to the bottom. Add more vinegar if necessary to cover egg.

4. We then labeled the jar with a day and time we should finish the experiment, 72 hours later.

* Check your experiment every day and note any changes on your chart. *

* You'll note that bubbles immediately begin forming on the egg. Over the next couple days those will multiple and the egg will be covered. *

72 hours (3 days) later:

SCIENCE INFO: The bubbles seen throughout the 3 days are carbon dioxide gas. Vinegar is an acid, the shell of the egg is carbon carbonate. The carbonate and the acid react and you get carbon dioxide gas. You'll notice the egg has taken on a yellowish look, no more bubbles really and no real shell left. The vinegar reacted with and dissolved it away. It has the feel of a water balloon. Some of the vinegar sneaked in through the cells' membranes and made the egg bigger. This is called Osmosis.

1. Carefully take the egg out, sit it on the lid while you measure its length and CAREFULLY measure circumference, noting on your chart again. You'll determine the egg has grown exponentially in size.

2. Use same egg for the Shrinking Egg experiment.

SHRINKING EGG EXPERIMENT:

1. Pour 2" of corn syrup into the 2nd jar.

2. Slip the bloated egg carefully into the corn syrup. Put on the lid. Add more corn syrup if necessary to cover egg.

* You'll note that unlike the shelled version of this egg, the bloated one floats. More buoyant. (Here you'll see we did the experiment a 2nd time, to show the difference in the eggs, side by side.)

72 hours (3 days) later:

*You'll note, as you probably have if you've been watching your experiment everyday (and i would recommend that you check it every day around the same time, noting changes) that the egg has lost a lot of its bloatedness. According to the experiment it was supposed to shrink up like a shriveled raisin, but it didn't really get that small.*

SCIENCE INFO: This is once again a case of Osmosis. The water (and some vinegar) moves where there is no water, in this case into the corn syrup. The corn syrup can not get into the egg so the egg takes on a shriveled appearance.

Great, easy learning experience for the whole family. DH enjoyed getting involved as well (note his finger putting the egg in the corn syrup. :) ) We picked out a few experiments to do in the coming days. The little one read many of the experiments and the science behind them and I heard her telling her dad all about different things. So even if you can't get to all the experiments in a book, make sure you let the little ones read through it as they 'pick' which ones they want to do. They'll learn a whole ton of information from this book. I know I did!

Scripture In Pictures

2010-09-29T14:40:00.003-05:00

(Psalm 100: 1-3)

This week we've been experimenting with how we learn scripture. I'm sure we've tried memorizing things before but with this year being our first year using Charlotte Mason methods, we're memorizing scripture. We started our homeschool year memorizing the Lord's Prayer. I thought that was an easy one to start with since the little one had heard it and probably tried saying it a few times in church. So memorizing that one went pretty well.

Then we moved on to Psalm 23. What a soothing, comforting passage! The little one took right to it and we had no problems memorizing it. I think because its kind of like a story. I used this scripture passage to teach inflection in speech. The little one has a habit of just running through the sentences as fast as she can remember them but I had her learn it like she was giving a speech. So others could understand what she was saying. I've also told her how excited her grandma is going to be when she tells the learned scriptures to her. This added incentive creates more pride in the learning and speaking.

After that we tried memorizing Psalm 100. Something about that scripture was hard! A lot of praising, gladness, joy and faithfulness. Don't get me wrong, wonderful words of wisdom. But words that don't conjure up immediate pictures in your head. So, after several frustrating days of not getting anywhere, we turned to picture-grams. This took the fun of learning up a notch and made us forget the drudgery of repetition (that my children seem to hate with a passion.)

(Psalm 100: 4-5)

We took liberties with some of the words (one of my favs is dd's interpretation of 'good' as a thumbs up! lol) We used a face to indicate 'his, him or he' and an up arrow to mean 'Lord'. I think my daughter got more out of the experience than trying to memorize a scripture by rote.

We have some ambitious scriptures passages coming up I'm hoping we are able to get through:

1 Corinthians 13

Romans 12

Deuteronomy 5: 6-21 (Ten Commandments)

Matthew 5: 1-12 (The Beatitudes)

Luke 2: 1-20 (birth of Jesus)

Proverbs 31: 7-31

How do you learn scripture? What passages do you learn?

(Sorry about the picture quality, taken with the cell phone and written on a white board.)

Frustration

2010-09-22T11:59:00.001-05:00

So today I'm blogging my frustration. I'm at the end of my rope. My wits are fried. The devil has ahold of my day and I don't know how to take it back. All of my frustrations are bubbling to the surface and I feel like crying. How do I go on from here?

The child is a walking contradiction today. Everything is making her upset, every subject is the one she hates 'the most'. I'll explain what to do and she'll say 'what? I don't know what you mean?' or 'I didn't hear you." when I clearly know she did. She is trying to make me insane. It is definitely a test of wills.

It's at these moments I don't know what to do. My tendency is to talk to her about her attitude, which she resists. I then assign a punishment for the continued problem (ie: extra chores, grounding) and I try to move on. I finally gave up today and said school was done until she got up and did all her chores. And maybe the chores would work the attitude right out of her. Then she is like 'okay, I'll do them.' I don't know how to respond to that. She is talking in a manner of 'no problem, I don't care what you say, you're not upsetting me with chores.' You know the attitude. UGH. She wasn't saying 'okay' because she was happy.

Every time she has a problem with her schooling and attitude I'm at a loss. I feel like stopping the subject she doesn't want to work on is like affirming her attitude as a good thing. Like I'm approving of it. Yet pushing on through the subject is torture at its best. And before someone tells me its the subject and maybe i need to change up what we do in it; It's not. She is having attitude about every thing.

I'm going to go ball up in a corner to cry and pray. Where is my chocolate?

Make Your Own Grammar Bingo

2010-09-09T08:30:00.019-05:00

Under the guise of trying to make grammar 'fun', I created a grammar bingo this past Monday. I'm sure there is something already out there that I could buy but I wanted something now. I thought I'd share what I did in case anyone could use the same.

I first went here to 5x5 Bingo Card Maker to make my own card. You can put in 25 words. I put in the 8 parts of speech over and over until all 25 where full. (Noun, Pronoun, Adjective, Verb, Adverb, Conjunction, Interjection, Preposition). It will randomly make you a card. I changed the 'free space' into another part of speech spot. I then randomly generated several cards, printing in between on cardstock. Yes, it prints all those words at the bottom. Doesn't matter, I just cut out my cards. I personally left an 1" on the left so I could punch holes and keep the cards in my 3-ring binder.

Next I looked for a concise list of words for each part of speech. Difficult to do for some since there can be upwards of 800 words on a part of speech. I randomly chose words and put them together on a paper. You can print it from the PDF document below:

Parts of Speech

I plan to highlight the words I call on the list, making sure to call from each part randomly. I can always print out a new list for when we've crossed off all the words but I imagine by then, she'll know them perfectly!

We used our set yesterday. It was a bit harder to describe what conjunction and prepositions were so we watched the Schoolhouse Rock Conjunction video and Grammar Rock's Preposition video. Be forewarned though, the catchy little tunes will get stuck in your head.

If this works out to be a fun way to learn, I may be doing a Types of Sentences one next!

Household Cleanliness

2010-09-08T15:37:00.005-05:00

I think it is time to make a household cleanliness chart (aka: chores to be done, but I hate the word 'chores' so household cleanliness it is!) Or should it be called responsibilities? That word, even though it shouldn't, has bad connotations as well. Chores, responsibilities, duties, jobs... all these words put a frown on even the most stalwart of countenances. I've tried to talk with the family about what a joy it can be to keep the house clean, to honor each other as being important enough to keep it clean for. But its hard when I have trouble finding joy in the jobs myself.

Colossians 3:23 - Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. (NIV)

We're sporadic cleaners. No, the health police can't be called in but we don't always get to the dishes TODAY and the laundry is usually in piles to rival the Rocky Mountains. Having too many clothes is a known side effect of shopping at thrift stores most of the time. Our sporadic cleaning changes into organized spring/fall cleaning when we plan to have someone come over. I really don't mind these behemoth cleaning efforts because everything gets done. Then when its over I'm always lamenting, 'Why are we comfortable living with cobwebs, or never seeing the light of day on the children's floors, and oh how nice it is to have clothes in our DRAWERS instead of living out of baskets."

Laziness.

I can't complain about overstuffed schedules and responsibilities and never being home to get anything done. We're always home. I don't over schedule us. Evenings are spent on the computers/TV, reading books, art time or playing games. It's laziness pure and simple. It's about time to work in regular cleanliness.

Proverbs 12:24 - The diligent find freedom in their work; the lazy are oppressed by work. (The Message)

The girls and I had a nice talk the other night about being responsible. I had them both make lists of things they could/need to be responsible for without being asked. I've grown tired of telling the little one: brush your teeth, change the fish tank, take a shower, pick up the living room. Or telling the teen: do laundry, take your medicine/vitamins, shouldn't you be studying, time to find a job... So far I have only seen a glimpse of them taking on their responsibilities. So far I have not figured out how to instill in them the WANT to do these things for the good of the family. Working on it...

The little one and I are reading Everyday Graces. It really is a nice gentle way to discuss not only manners but responsibilities. We've been reading the chapter on Helping Out At Home. The poem called 'Why Do I Have To Clean My Room?' by Jack Prelutsky is funny and very pertinent. I'm hoping this book will help us, especially with the attitude about cleaning, manners and cleanliness in general.

Okay, so here goes. I don't know what is best to put on what days and I don't know if I should be including the responsibilities the kids have on their lists but I'm just gonna wing it. I've kept Sunday clear because its Sunday and I've left minimal things for Wednesday since the little one and dh have to be at church by 515 pm.

Sunday: Day of rest, just keep up with the day's dishes/kitchen

Monday: Dishes/kitchen, 1 load laundry/wash dry, clean living room, fold/put away clothes

Tuesday: Dishes/kitchen, 1 load laundry/wash dry, clean bathrooms, clean dining room

Wednesday: Dishes/kitchen, 1 load laundry/wash dry, sweep all floors, dust all electronics

Thursday: Dishes/kitchen, 1 load laundry/wash dry, clean living room, mop tiles/floors, clean bedrooms

Friday: Dishes/kitchen, 1 load laundry/wash dry, change kitty litter, change sheets, fold/put away clothes

Saturday: Dishes/kitchen, 2 loads laundry/wash dry. Sweep all floors if necessary. Cook the majority of the week's meat. Get DH's clothes ready for the week.

Now... anyone want to be my cleaning accountability partner?!

(This post is included in the Homemaking Link Up over on Raising Homemakers.)

Week 2: Car Schoolers, Questions & Manners

2010-09-07T09:00:00.007-05:00

(Books picked up at Half-Price Bks over the weekend.)

Wow! I've always heard about those superhuman people who end up doing 'carschooling' (basically they have so many activities, they're doing all their sit down work in the car!!!) but never thought we'd really experience it for ourselves.

But Monday, we were carschoolers. A favorite aunt died and her funeral was 1 1/2 hours away. I was determined not to make our Monday our Friday free day so off we went with car school to do. It was actually quite fun. We were able to recite our scripture we were learning (Psalm 23), work on math, read the bible, listen to Haydn for music. I was able to download a typing program to my laptop so she had fun practicing with that. We listen to a book on tape for literature (Farmer Boy) and read when we got home for a bit. All in all, we still got in 5 hours of work! See, who said you can't get anything done on the road?

Enthusiasm Level:

This week went by in a a whirlwind. We got most of our schooling done Mon-Thurs, swapping out some of my reading to her, with her listening to some Cds on tape (Farmer Boy, Just So Stories, Arabian Nights, ) Friday was supposed to be our art day but hubby and my planned evening out turned into a mini getaway so Friday was spent straightening the house and packing everyone up for overnights. We'll get to the art this week. I think the week was enjoyable, just hectic. I enjoy slower days.

This Week's Questions:

What happens if you're cremated?

Can I get paid for each load of laundry I do? (NO.)

Why didn't you tell me Nancy Drew was cool?

Did you know beavers build their house with mud and save up air inside like a bubble?

Did you know there are fish that can fly? They do it when they're scared.

Rhode Island is so small. Do I have to memorize its capital?
Did you know Christopher Columbus was not the first to cross the Atlantic? Why didn't you tell me?
What does gaff-ee (gaffe) mean?
Isn't a bar code cool? I bet there are millions of them.
Do you know that magic trick where the girl is sawed in half? That's fake. She scrunches up in one side and wiggles feet attached to sticks out the other end. No one gets sawed in half really.
What is a Fibonacci? (Let me tell you, the new Do Not Open book I got her is cause for lots of questions...)

What's Working:

The Charlotte Mason style of smaller concentrated time frames are working still. We love them. I'm also learning to be flexible in when we do things even though I have everything written next to 'certain' hours on my chart. Flexibility is key to keeping things enjoyable.

Learning is becoming more self lead, more independent when she is working on a subject. I used to have to stand over her or be sitting nearby for her to continue working. I think this had more to do with inattention than disobedience, because of the long times for each subject we used to follow.

What's Not:

Attitude still. We had a nice intense talk yesterday about attitude. I let her know that every time she huffs and 'OH NO!' a subject or selection of book I've made that she doesn't agree with, it doesn't help the situation. Especially when she hasn't even looked at the books yet. And every time she says she hates school, one, it hurts my feelings because I work hard to make it more enjoyable and two, she's lying. We discussed all the things we've been working on and she enjoys quite a bit of them. We also talked about the fact that responsibility has a place in homeschooling. There are some subjects we just have to do so she doesn't grow to be 20 and still be at a 5th grade level. She doesn't want that. We talked about the things that do interest her and incorporating them in more. It was actually a very good talk. She wasn't pouting or crying afterward. I thank the Lord for directing how I explained things to her.

Down time. I really need to make some 'set in stone' electronics rules. I've told her she has to read an hour to get a 1/2 hour of TV time. On Monday I kept finding her watching TV or playing computer with no hours earned yet the rest of the family was doing the same thing. It's hard to have a child stick to rules the rest are not following. I need to rethink how we do things in this house.

For the upcoming week, its a 4 day-er since we took Monday (Labor Day) off to laze around. The above books are some we will be using in our studies. The little one's assigned reading right now is Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. We're jumping off into a study of fish/sea, mainly because a friend gave the little one some fish a couple weeks ago and amazingly they're still alive! So unusual for our household.

We're talking about getting a frog or turtle or something but it has to be earned and it won't be until October sometime, if at all. I expect to see responsibilities being done, attitude changing, schoolwork being completed, etc... She seemed eager to earn this and we plan to look for a small tank at a garage sale.

Everyday Graces - I picked up a book at the library on manners and graces. I plan to read a bit of it each morning during breakfast, and use some of the quotes and verses inside for our copywork/dictation. Has anyone used this book before? Is it a keeper? It looks wonderful. It has sections aptly named: Helping Out at Home, Taming the Tongue, Telling the Truth, Washing, Dressing, Working Hard, Caring for the Sick, and a whole section on Table Manners as well as other great topics.

Books on my sidetable:
Homeschool Open House
Charlotte Mason Education
Raising Bookworms
Giving Your Child the Excellence Edge
The Rodale Whole Foods Cookbook
Home Cheese Making
My Bread

Atmosphere Schmatmosphere...

2010-08-28T09:00:00.001-05:00

Schoolroom or no schoolroom. That is the question...

Our school has played out in many rooms of the house over the years. I've never felt the need to set up like they do in schools with actual kids desks and a large desk for the teacher. The closest we came was some posters on the wall in the dining room when it was my art room, and part of the art shelf held our books. The rest of our supplies: school pencils, art supplies, etc.. were in an old wood jelly cabinet in the hall. We used the art table to do our work.

Now the dining room is back to being a dining/computer table room with a nice sideboard that is stuffed to the gills with last year's school books, papers, reports and all my bills stuff. Yes, I have not cleaned up stuff from last year. I'll get to it eventually.

The room has been recently painted and artwork has been added to the walls. No more homeschooling posters, no more charts. I found that we didn't use them mostly EVER. So what was the point. Just to look like a schoolroom?

This year, seeing as I'm down to one kid and we're trying the new Charlotte Mason method, we have less items to use. I'm not using textbooks right now, just books from the library, bible, hymnal and some printed sheets. We keep doing school on my big king size bed so today while cleaning up the week's schooling, I gave in and dedicated a drawer in my dresser to the homeschool cause.

(See the second large drawer? I shared it for storage.)

(Current homeschool 'table', my bed.)

However, lately I've been seeing pictures of all the homeschoolers around who are getting their homeschool years started. Some have posted pics of their school rooms. It makes me think, is atmosphere important for a better learning experience? If things are organized by containers instead of shoved in drawers, will they grow up to be little organized beings? If a child is sitting at a desk surrounded by schooling papers and books does their knowledge grow exponentially? Am I stunting my children's growths by not providing this atmosphere? Just curious...

I've always tried to let the children find the space that was comfortable for them. Beds, couches, tables, floors. There have been a few seasons where I made them both sit at the kitchen table to actually get stuff done because much dilly-dallying was going on and we were behind. But for the most part, any room was game for some schooling. But seeing everyone's pretty rooms, I keep thinking maybe my little one would enjoy having many manipulatives on hand, and being able to find a pencil without having to dig through a drawer. We do have a designated spot for library books, let me tell you, this idea was a lifesaver. I don't know how many times I would get all set to go to the library and we couldn't find half our books because they were stuffed under beds, piles, laying on tables, under pillows, in the bathroom, stuffed among the cookbooks or hiding in drawers. Now, they can be found. This also means I pay less of the librarians' salaries since we're late less. Don't get me wrong, we're still supporting them with regular 'paychecks'.

Here are some examples of wonderful homeschooling rooms:

Pioneer Woman (last year) and this year

New Stamp Room/Homeschool Room

Child Led's Homeschool Room

Molding Minds Room
Heart of Wisdom Dining/Schoolroom (they have my cat!!)

Learn As We Go's Classroom

Our Tidbits of Learning Room
Satori Smiles Homeschool Room Photos
Joyful Chaos Room
My3Boybarians Homeschool Room (I want the built in shelves!!)

A Wise Woman Builds Her Home Classroom

Counting My Pennies Room & Organizing Tips
The Painted House's Before & After (stunning!)
Warm Cup of Coffee's Rooms

KatieScrapbookLady's Pics of her room are great!

Seedpod's room is scrumptious!

Okay, this might come out wrong but should I set up a classroom if I only have one child to teach (the teen is off to college during the day)? I see the benefit of having a room for multiple children since they have different programs, curriculum, supplies, etc... but for one child it seems frivolous. But then am I penalizing her just because she's a classroom of one? Hmmmm, so many things to think on.

I asked this question of my homeschool comrades at the HomeschoolSpot forums and here are some of their responses:

Jenny: Well, we will soon be moving into a new house, & today my husband suggested using one of the basement rooms as our classroom, and it really got me thinking. I was thinking about how dingy & dark the room was, how cramped it felt, how creepy it was... & I decided that I would much rather have school stuff cluttering my dining room then making my kids go down in to the dungeon. lol. I do not think my ds would have done well down there at all. We will have a classroom space set up upstairs, where it's bright & sunny & you just feel like you're living. We also do a lot of reading on the couch, etc. I think comfort, good lighting & a positive feeling in the room are key to having great things happen during at home homeschooling.

Birbitt: Sure atmosphere matters, the more comfortable the child is the easier it is to learn! We often do our reading snuggled on the sofa, or my bed. They write at the dining room table or on clipboards on my bed, or their bed, or the sofa. Many days we have school in our jammies just because we can. They learn better when they are comfy, and what's more comfy than your own home?

What do you think?

I found these interesting articles:

Creating a Homeschool Area

A Homeschool Room
This is NOT a Schoolroom
Homeschool Room Makeover
How to Design a Homeschool Room
A Video on Organization for Parents & Homeschoolers

Do YOU have pictures of your Homeschool Rooms to share? Feel free to add a link to your blog post and pictures here!

Week 1: Charlotte Mason & the Newbie

2010-08-27T09:00:00.002-05:00

Can you say sleep deprivation?! That's what the first week back to homeschool always means to me. We're night owls and its hard to switch your body from staying up til 2 am or whatever all summer and now getting up at 830 for homeschool. I am still going to bed way too late and wanting to take naps after our day is done! Hopefully I work that out soon.

Charlotte Mason method is a new concept to us. This was our first week trying it out. I was thinking it would be more like unschooling but I did a fair amount of prepping for our first week. Although now, I have us all set up for several weeks in advance. Okay, I say that, but don't have any illusions it won't all fall apart next week.

Enthusiasm Level:

Very high right now. We worked well for 4 days and now she has today (Friday) 'off'.' We did make plans: library visit in the morning and all afternoon board game playing but to her, that's 'off'. ' I know I will still be counting this day according to what subjects the games covered.

Week's Questions:

"How do you draw an ankh?"

"How would a mist come up from the ground? Is that like fog?"

"I was practicing J and F in typing and it says I have trouble. (me) What did you miss? (child) J and F."

"What is a wretch?"

"Can I learn Dari language? What about Greek?"

"Can I look up the Egyptian god of death?"

"What does ren-dez-vooz mean?"

What's Working:

Shorter lessons. Genius! My daughter may not like to do cursive (copywork) practice but she knows its only for a 1/4 hour so she is able to handle it. She's really enjoying the learning of new hymns, the foreign language and latin and the history book we're reading: The Door In The Wall. I also ordered some books on monks, nuns and a disc on gregorian chants we are going to listen to.

What's Not:

I find our hardest obstacle to overcome is the get up and go hour. We set a goal of up by 830, school by 900 and be done with everything by 245. That way the little one would have several hours in the afternoon for more reading, playing, inventing, baking, outdoor playing, library visits, etc... We are so not morning people! But we've stuck to the plan almost every day. Except for one day I woke up with a migraine and the little one did 2 hours of reading in the morning before I finally started her on the other schooling. She also did some of the things we have scheduled to do on her own, such as foreign language, typing, grammar and piano. All are on the computer and the piano. I like that there are subjects she knows exactly what to do and doesn't need me. Not that I don't like helping her and working along side her. But she is learning independence.

I'm thinking math time might need to be extended from one 1/2 hour slot in the morning to two 1/2 hour slots, one at the end of our day. I printed out worksheets covering the topics we learned last year. Kind of a review to get us ready for the next learning but at this rate of one sheet per day, we won't start 6th grade math until December! Gotta speed us up a bit.

Being a definite CM newbie, I'm only cautiously optimistic about how this week turned out. I'm praying that next week will hold even more exciting times and discoveries for us. I'll report again after week 2.

Some helpful Charlotte Mason links I've found:

Simple Charlotte Mason

Simply Charlotte Mason forums

Booklists by Grade

Charlotte Mason Education

Into to Charlotte Mason Methods

Charlotte Mason's Methods (add'l site)

The ABC's of Charlotte Mason

Ambleside Online (free curriculum that closely follows CM methods)

Charlotte Mason & Dictation (also list of links)

Charlotte Mason & Classical Education

Narration Ideas