Week 22 ~ The Long Winter

On My Mind ~ I am continuing to think about healthy eating. This week we tested duck eggs and asparagus. Everyone liked both (for the most part). The duck eggs were more popular, but the asparagus was received better than Brussels sprouts or cabbage. I also attempted to make my own yogurt, but it flopped. I will have to try again another time. I did have success with making homemade chicken and beef stocks. I have several quarts stored away in the freezer. I am also transferring everything in the kitchen cabinets into jars. We have had mice issues, and I want to take away their desire to visit my kitchen as much as possible. It is nice to see the jars all full of food in the cabinets.

Literature ~ We finished The Long Winter this week. I think this may have been our favorite Little House book so far. There was so much to learn and talk about in this book! We discussed in great detail perseverance, sacrifice, reasons for risking one's life, and getting through a terrible trial with a cheerful heart. We had lots of conversations about how blessed we are to have a bounty of food. We also did several activities.

• Made a snow covered town during a blizzard on our window
• Discussed emergency preparedness and reviewed our important information
• Learned about the Earth's water cycle
• Watched the movie, Stanley and Livingston
• Learned the medicinal uses of Ginger
• Learned about the battle at Wounded Knee
• Watched You Tube videos about the rotation of the Earth
• Made a button lamp
• Completed a lap book for The Long Winter from Homeschoolshare
• Ate a loaf of sourdough bread and thought about what it would be like to eat only water and sourdough bread for two to three months like the Ingall's family did
• Discussed what happens to one's body when they are starving or becoming malnourished

We plan on having a pioneer day soon with no electricity. It should be lots of fun. The kids really love the Little House books. I was going to stop here and maybe come back to the books next year. However, the kids really want to continue with the next book, so we will.

In Other School Topics ~ We received the next level of All about Spelling  and should get the next level of Teaching Textbooks next week. The kids really enjoyed having a spelling bee and they did a great job. I am very pleased with the spelling program we are using. I do think I am going to change course for Goldilocks in math. I have tried more than six math programs with her, and she is making very little progress.  I think I need to admit that she is not college bound and that she is very learning challenged. She is still struggling on a second grade level in math. It seems, at this point, that I need to start moving her into consumer math and using a calculator. Fortunately, the careers she thinks about doing some day do not require a college education.

This week we did ~

• Math every day (mostly word problems and multiplication)
• Read three chapters in the Life of Fred (dogs)
• Worked on two chapters from Social Stories
• Listened to Al Capone Does My Shirts
• Finished The Long Winter
• 15 minutes of writing every day
• 20 minutes of reading every day (more for some kids)
• Lots of science videos on You Tube
• CNN student News (the kids favorite time of day)
• Explode the Code
• Multiplication games
• Prairie Primer projects

Where  We Are Going ~

• Dance classes
• Aerial Arts classes
• Cartooning class at the library
• Doctor appointments

The Rest ~  We sure aren't having a long winter around here. Our weather seems to rotate between warm spring days and ice/sleet/rain mix. We woke up to ice all over the yard one day this week. All of the garden tools were frozen together and made a perfect popsicle for Boomer. Also, several of the wine bottles we got from Freecycle to decorate our secret garden were full of water and broke. The ice was still in the same shape as the wine bottle.

I am joining  Homegrown Learners.

Blesings, Dawn

A Cow's Eye!

Dissecting the cow's eye is perhaps my favorite dissection item.  The piglet is a close second.  I have enjoyed teaching my children biology with dissection for years now.  Tom Sawyer has been pressuring me to do a dissection each quarter this year.  I missed doing a dissection with them the first quarter, so I either have to do two this quarter or forgo my promise to him.  Perish the thought!  We are finishing up On the Shores of Silver Lake and have had many conversations around blindness and the blessings of sight.  I thought this would be the perfect time to start catching up by dissection of a cow's eye to give a hands on look at the eye.

We studied the eye and found the optic nerve on the bottom of the eye. Then we cut the cornea away from the eye. We also identified the iris and the pupil.

The children then studied the lens.  The lens can be put on a paper with printed words to show it's magnification powers.

Little Red Riding Hood was a bit grossed out at first but really got into it before long.

The eye is really very beautiful.  The kids got so much out of this lesson.  Goldilocks was our photographer today.  She was having nothing to do with wearing gloves and touching any of this lesson. LOL!

I am joining Friday Fun School!

Blessings, Dawn

Week 5 ~ Mostly On the Banks of Plum Creek

On My Mind ~ I am glad that we finally came to a decision about dance this fall.  We are going to put the kids into dance and prepare for the Nutcracker.  Hopefully, Timothy's surgery will not interfere with the performance season, but if it does, we are ready to relocate and be his support team.  It is a relief that our little dance studio understands that we cannot make a definite commitment this year.  Goldilocks also will be in the homeschool choir, and Little Red Riding Hood and Tom Sawyer will be in homeschool chess class.

The World of Charlotte Mason ~ In years past I have had difficulty getting Shakespeare into the kids lives (as Charlotte Mason so strongly suggests).  This year I wanted to make sure that we were getting exposure to Shakespeare, which I happen to love.  Our local city does Shakespeare plays in the park each summer for the nominal fee of a donation.  This year we decided to go even though it was King Richard II (not anyone's favorite in our family).  The stage was very impressive and the kids were excited to be out at night.  I told the kids the synopsis and told them to try to hear as many delicious words or phases as they could.  That is one of the joys of Shakespeare, is it not?  Little Red Riding Hood was still not impressed, but the others found some enjoyment in the storyline. 

Some of the lines the kids caught (at least parts of) ~

• Through the false passage of thy throat, thou liest
• Desolate, desolate, will I hence and die; The last leave of thee, take my weeping eye.
• So be thy fortune in this royal fight
• Too far in years to be pupil now!

I am pleased with their first Shakespeare experience and look forward to taking them next summer.  Next time, I'll find out what the play is in advance and spend some time learning the play with them in more detail.

After the play we went to slide down the really tall slide in the dark at the park around the corner.  Sliding at night adds a whole new level of excitement.

Our Unit Study ~  We finished our study of On the Banks of Plum Creek .  Below are the projects we did to accompany the book.

• Made dry fruit
• Did individual book reports
• Played cat's cradle and other string games
• Drew the food chain of a grasshopper
• Watched YouTube videos on water purification
• Studied a willow tree
• Learned geography terms
• Studied lichen
• Talked about water safety in a river and a pool
• Made instant snow with polymers
• Ate plums and turnips
• Made a button string
• Used Draw Write Now to learn how to draw horses and barns
• Played in a stream
• Had a mini-Christmas celebration
• Made a food bag and donated it to the hungry

What Is Working ~ I love my new to me "to go" bag.  We spend lots of time on the road, and with "out of the home" classes starting in a few days, it will be nothing but busier.  This great bag has so many pockets.  I can fit all of the kids' stuff, snacks and my own reading/to do work. 

Counting Blessings ~ I am so thankful that we built our lives around a small radius of our home.  I do drive in a lot of circles, but I am able to get everyone where they need to be, and we are doing much better than expected with one car.  I am glad to be getting such good mileage with our little car now that gas prices are going up.  Little Red Riding Hood was discharged (for now) from physical therapy.  She has lots of exercises to do at home.  I had the opportunity to go out to dinner with seven women in our adoption support group this week. 

Blessings, Dawn

Week 3 ~ Friday Wrap-Up

On My Mind ~ This week was filled with questions and very few answers.  I am going to have to let go (again ~ this seems to be a hard lesson for me) and remember that God will take care of us.  We did get an answer to our most important question and the rest I will just have to wait and see.  In other news, our minivan seems to have died.  For now we are going to explore the bus system and continue to save up for a new vehicle.  We shall see how well it all goes and how long we can hold out.

Where We Are Going ~ We just returned from a few days at Duke and Ronald McDonald House.  Timothy's pacemaker is wearing out and will need to be replaced in the near future.  The most important question was whether the cause of his tiredness was the pacemaker battery being so low.  Apparently, he isn't tired because of his heart or pacemaker.  It seems the nasty virus our family had just took a real toll on him.  The doctors believe that he will need a new pacemaker some time in the next 6 months.  We will check his pacemaker by phone monthly, and they will let us know when it is time.  We should get a few weeks notice.

While at Duke, we visited the Life and Science Museum.  We love this museum.  We only did the outdoor exhibits and butterfly conservatory this time.  The kids loved the butterflies.  We went on the train ride and played in the "catch the wind" section as well.  We also got to see the kids' grandparents who came down for the few days at Duke.  That was an extra special treat.

The kids had a blast swimming in the hotel pool where their grandparents stayed.  They are really getting better at swimming and could have stayed in for hours, if time had allowed.

People We are Seeing ~ Besides seeing the grandparents, we saw my husband's sister and family earlier in the week.  It was wonderful to see them.  They had not seen our younger set of children since they were toddlers and preschoolers.  We had a great time showing them around our moutain city.

In Our Homeschool ~ Remarkably, we got math done every single day of the week.  The kids love math that much!  We also started our unit study, On the Banks of Plum Creek from the Laura Ingalls series. We are using Prairie Primer just as we did with the earlier books and still enjoying it.  The first three days we made it through our entire routine of learning.  The last two days of the week we were at Duke Medical Center and only did math, P.E., field trips and lessons in patience.  Our nature study this week was willow trees, and we were lucky to have one right in our neighbor's yard.

Counting Blessings ~ Timothy is safe in the care of good doctors.  We are blessed to have a bus system in our town to explore while we adjust to one vehicle (the vehicle does not hold our entire family).  We were blessed with safe travels.  We were able to see relatives we had not seen in a long time.  Everyone has returned to good health.  We managed to get lots of school done even with all of the extra happenings.  We were able to stay at Ronald McDonald House (RMH) once again.  This is such a wonderful blessing.  In the more than a decade of staying there, we have seen RMH go through so much growth.  They are currently doubling their size and the renovation is amazing.  Even during this massive renovation, the house has stayed open.  With the help of volunteers, the growing pains of the house is smooth.  What a blessing all of the volunteers are to the house and people who are staying there!

I am joining Homegrown Learners.

Blessings, Dawn

The Prairie Primer ~ Little House In the Big Woods

We just completed Little House in the Big Woods today.  We used The Prairie Primer as our guide.  The Prairie Primer is meant to be a complete unit study covering almost every subject.  However, I am only using it to make our literature come to life in a hands-on way.  Since I hardly know how to sew, I am skipping all of the sewing projects for now.  I decided to use the history, science, music, life skills (cooking), Bible, and field trip portions of the curriculum.  Someone asked me if it was worth the cost.  I bought it at a used curriculum sale for $20, and yes, it is worth that cost or a bit more to me.  Even though we are not using the entire unit study, it gives me a quick reference point of what is coming and ideas to use.  Then I can easily build on the ideas in the book.

Here is a list of the activities we did to go along with Little House in the Big Woods. 

• We watched a great video on defending ourselves from germs. I think this was the kids favorite YouTube video.
• We ate maple sugar candy given to Tim as a gift for taking care of a neighbor's cat.
• We watched maple syrup being made on YouTube.
• We went on a field trip to the Mast General Store, a store modeled after the 19th century general stores. 
• We made delicious butter.
• The kids made grain-free bread.
• We made sugar snow.
• We learned the songs, "Pop goes the Weasel" and "Buffalo Gals".
• We talked to the cheese seller at our local health food supermarket and bought small amounts of four kinds of cheese (goat and cow).  We then sampled the cheese and studied the different rinds (wax and cloth).
• The kids watched cheese being made on YouTube.
• We learned all about Louis Pasteur.  We watched several videos and read three books about him.
• The kids learned about the phases of the moon and learned about craters on the moon.
• We practiced hand washing and how to be a PDI agent ("protect don't infect" agent).
• We studied the germ theory and learned how germs are spread.
• We read about honey and sampled various honey.
• The kids used the Bible verses in the book as copy work.

I still plan to read some books about the California gold rush to the children and take them on a field trip to a gem mine (the closest thing we have to a gold mine around here).

We look forward to moving on with Little House on the Prairie.  I will continue using The Prairie Primer as our guide.  It is nice to have a plethora of ideas right at my fingertips.

Please join Learning all the Time  and Read Explore Learn for more great entries.

Blessings, Dawn