A Week Without TV

Last week, as most probably know, was TV turn off week. I must say, I have really enjoyed it, and I think the kids have too. Now, don't think that TV has been a long time addiction that we began working on for TV turn off week. I actually caved and got cable back in December. Sadly, in just those few short months, my kids have taken quite a liking to the TV. I really was hoping that I could get cable so my husband could watch the games he wanted and we could watch an occasional family show, but was I ever naive. I am all the time turning off the TV pulling my kids away to do life. So, when National TV turn off week was upon us, I told the kids we were going to celebrate. We made up lists of things we wanted to do and got my kids to live life again. Our week consisted of nature walks, making nature bracelets, painting, building. playing games and just exploring and imagining. It was great. Now, we have gone to a show a day on the TV and rest of the day, enjoying life!

The science of making bread

Today the kids and I tried a fun experiment using yeast, sugar, warm water, a pop bottle and a balloon.





First you need 1 cup of warm water in a dish. To this you add 2T sugar and a packet of active dry yeast. Once it is dissolved, you pour the mixture in the pop bottle, we made a funnel out of a piece of paper to do this. Once it is in the bottle, stretch a balloon over the top of the bottle. Now, you are going to want a larger balloon and you may want to blow it up a couple time ahead of time so it is stretched good. Then just sit back and watch the balloon blow up. The yeast feeds off the sugar and releases carbon dioxide which is blowing up the balloon. Now, see if your little ones can tell you why bread is so light and airy. Now, I must tell you, I did mess up a bit on ours. I don't get my yeast by the packets, I get it in bulk from our natural foods store, so I measured out a packet worth, I believe 2 1/2t. Well......I used a tablespoon by accident. So our yeast mixture also filled up our balloon. You can imagine how eager the kids were to take that outside to pop it!! If you are interested in experiments like this, I would recomend this website to you. It's called the science of cooking, and it is full of lots of fun experiments related to cooking. http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/index.html

What a Beautiful Week

This week was such a perfect fall week. No rain, mild days, beautiful leaves, good friends and pumpkins!! How wonderful are weeks like that. Some of the kid's friends had a couple days off from school so they joined us on our nature walk Tues. We made the comment about this is our phys ed, now they want to come to our phy ed all the time :). We truly are blessed in the manner in which we are able to have school. We spent Wed. at Pumpkinville, a local fall attraction. The kids watched cider being made, went though a corn maze, shot a corn cannon, and had lots of fun. Add that to impromtu puppet shows, real life bussiness math lessons, and lots of crafting, we had a really nice week. Hope yours was equally as blessed.

Fall Days

Today was such a beautiful fall kinda day. We never got to any "real" schoolwork. We made a batch of elderberry elixir and elderberry syrup, for the upcoming flu season. I love the idea of making our own medicines. It is so empowering to feel that we can take care of ourselves, nature provides us with the remedies. I love giving my kids the opportunity to be able to be part of that too. The days they are not feeling so well, they know that they had a hand in making that that is going to help them feel better. Of course we got enough elderberries to make a couple batches of jelly too :). That is a must for the rest of the days we already feel good and are ready to start the day with homemade goodness.
On our nature walk today, we notice the subtle smell of fall in the air. Since Fall is by far my favorite season, I must say, this smell does wonders for my spirit. Soon the hills we be ablaze with fiery reds and oranges and yellows. I didn't take my camera along with me today, but I am going to leave you with a picture of my oldest son's bees. He is very enthusiastic about his bee keeping and he is now also starting his own blog, Bee boy's 6th grade adventure. I am having him keep it to journal his school this year. Stop by and leave him a comment, that will make his day :) http://beeboys6thgrade.blogspot.com/

Getting back in the swing of things

I must say, I have had such a sad attempt at this blogging stuff, but I really need to get into it, so we can have a nice visual of our homeschooling experiences and day to day living. I really enjoy sharing our love of homeschooling with people. I have fallen in love with Waldorf education. I am trying to switch to that way of teaching my children and living. It makes me sad that I didn't discover this when my oldest was younger, but he is still young enough for it to appeal to him too. We just love nature and to be outdoors. Here are some pictures from todays outside schooling. We went ontop of a local landmark, a hill called Old Baldy( it was bare for many years after a fire, thus earning it's name) What a view! My DH does some seasonal work in a stone quary on the hill side, so he was giving the kids some lessons on rocks and minerals.

Valentines

Valentines!!Lots and lots of valentines. My kids and I found a valentine exchange on a post in one of the yahoo groups I belong to so we decided it would be fun to participate. Fun it is. We loved getting the list of names and seeing where we would be sending them out to. One was to China, so exciting. But then, yesterday they started coming in and oh my goodness, the excitement hasn't stopped. Kalamazoo, 2 from MA, LA. The really cool thing is we all put a little something about where we live in with the valentines, and It is so much fun learning about so many places. My 2 older boys went to school for the 2nd half of last year because I was having blood pressure issues with my pregnancy and was on bed rest. We got nervous they would fall behind (know better now, wouldn't really have been the case) but they got to participate in the school valentine exchange and today said, "this is so much better! We know all the kids we got them from last year, but this time, we learn about new kids and places." If you homeschool, I would deffinatly recomend looking for a valentine exchange like this next year. It is so much fun.

Kanin turns 1

My youngest had his first birthday this past week.I thought I would share some pictures from his celebration.