Learning Adventures with Dad

Don't forget The Homestead Blessings DVD giveaway here!!

Jeff recently took Aaron, Kaelan and Jackson on an overnight camping trip at the state part just a mile from our house.   The boys and Jeff have been camping several times with former Contenders for the Faith group, but Kaelan has missed out on those adventures and has only gone a couple of times. 

Kaelan made a list of all the items that they would need to take plus a shopping list of foods for her dad to purchase.  The day of the camping trip found them hustling to gather up sleeping bags, pillows, tackle and rods for fishing, filling jugs with water, loading the tents and many other needed items.  With the exception of hooking the boat to the truck and shopping for the groceries, they did most of the planning and the work.   Planning, packing, organizing, building fires, cooking, boating and fishing....all great learning activities.

I thought I would let Jackson tell you about their camping adventures today.  Jackson used the pictures to tell me what happened.

In this picture, I (Jackson) was chopping wood for the fire.  

I was still chopping wood when I saw Dad come up to take a picture.

So I stopped and smiled for him!

Aaron and Kaelan were boating.

I was fishing with a stick because my pole wasn't ready yet.  It was tangled and Dad had to untangle it.

Kaelan and Aaron love boating.

I am drinking coffee.  (not a every day thing, I assure you!)

I was still drinking coffee.

Aaron and Kaelan are cooking breakfast.  

Dad took a picture of Aaron cooking breakfast.

Aaron is flipping the pancake on Kaelan's plate.

I am drinking coffee because I like coffee.

Homeschooling Update

Yes, we are still homeschooling!!  Even though I (we) have been busy with early gardening and milk production the book learning is continuing.   I thought I would give you a run-down of what is going on in the homeschooling arena at Busy Hands Busy Minds.

Together we are studying the War Between the States.  In our group time we begin the day reading a chapter of Proverbs and a chapter from the Psalms.  We review our Latin or Greek root for the week from English from the Roots Up.  I have then been reading through Facts the Historians Leave Out A Confederate Primer by John S. Tilley.  We finish that up today and will begin Walt Whitman's Civil War Poetry and Prose.  We had started Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, but just couldn't stand it.  I decided it was fine if the children just had a small taste of it and knew the history of this fictional story written by Stowe using second and third party sources.  It is said that upon meeting Stowe in 1863, President Lincoln said, " So, this is the woman that wrote the book that caused this war."  We are also reading Two Little Confederates by Thomas Nelson Page and Call of Duty:  The Sterling Nobility of Robert E. Lee by J. Steven Wilkins.  We are using All American History Volume 2 by Celeste W. Rakes as our spine for our history studies and hope to finish up our two year stretch of American history this fall.   The older two boys and I are also studying the rather hefty volume The War Between the States:  America's Uncivil War by John J. Dwyer.  This is a fascinating book and has lots of great quotes that you most likely have not read in any other modern day textbook.  Devin (22) is taking the children through A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers by Melissa E. Craig and Maggie S. Hogan.  She meets with them once a week for this and we are supposed to listen to the music selections throughout the week.

Jordan (18) is studying Biblical Economics by R. C. Sproul, Jr. which he is greatly enjoying.  He has edited several programs for The Homeschool Channel on economics and many of R.C. Sproul's talks as well and finds them very interesting and beneficial.  He is also studying American literature through Learning Language Arts through Literature, doing an algebra review using VideoText and is doing lots of research on homesteading topics.  He is pretty much in charge of our gardening endeavors this year and has started hundreds of plants indoors and out and has built all of our raised beds and some planters by himself.  He is quite the handyman.  In addition to his film editing responsibilities at The Homeschool Channel, he spends a few hours a week taking and editing photos of his own.  He also has a huge stack of homesteading, theology and historical works that he is reading through.

Aaron(14)  is plugging through Apologia's Physical Science.  This has been a stretch for me to prepare and keep up with as most of our science studies have previously been through unit studies as a family.  Aaron feels led to study medicine, so we felt he needed to have a more formal science curriculum.  I am interested in looking at other science curriculum to see if I can find a better fit.  He has recently started VideoText algebra with Jeff and is finishing up Learning Language Arts through Literature (green).  He also using Daily Grams for daily grammar review. He is also using Building Thinking Skills Book 3 and doing some spelling review through Natural Speller.   Typing and Quarter Mile math drills are done on the computer.  He does Spanish independently using PowerGlide.  I hope to move him to Rosetta Stone this next year.  He also greatly enjoys reading through the Ballantyne books of world wide adventure stories and is reading some theological works, historical fiction and biographies.  Practicing piano, drawing, painting, chores,  and editing audio programs for his dad's home business round out his days.

Kaelan (11) is studying plants through Answers in Genesis God's Design for Life series.  Jackson is tagging on this study at times. She started a pressed flower collection and will be doing some identification of plants as well.   She is working through Teaching Textbook 6, typing and Quarter Mile math drills on the computer.  She also likes to email extended family members frequently.  ; )  She keeps up with family members all over the world!  She is studying Learning Language Arts through Literature (purple) with Daily Grams for daily grammar review.  Spelling lists come from Natural Speller and she is also using Building Thinking Skills Book 2.  Kaelan also has a tall stack of books that she is reading from based on our history studies, but usually pulls some old favorites from the bookshelves to read as well.  I think she is now reading Little Women...again!

Jackson(6) is finishing up the primer level of Math U See and will be starting MUS Foundations (the old version) as soon as it comes in.  I decided to put him in the older version because we already have the teacher's edition and I have already gone through it myself, ummm, like three other times and it won't be something that I have to relearn. ; )  We are s l o w l y making our way through Alphaphonics.  Little by little, bit by bit, I am seeing progress.  One of the great advantages of  homeschooling is that we can go as slow or as fast as we need to.  Right now, for this child and his phonics studies it is slow going.  And that is OK!!  He is using the Italic Handwriting Series as have all of my children.  I think I like it much more than any of them do.  Jackson participates in most of our group time and usually enjoys coloring a page from a historical Dover coloring book while he listens in.  I am trying to have some time each week where he is listening to audio books like Charlotte's Web or programs such as Your Story Hour or Jonathan Park.  He is read to daily by either me, Jeff or one or more of his siblings and he "reads" books by himself several times a day.  His favorite right now is  David Macaulay's The Way Things Work.


Two year old Caedmon is now enrolled in Potty Training 101.  He is now 2 1/2 (as of tomorrow) and as the weather is warming and he can now go half dressed without getting too chilled, big sister Devin has declared it TIME!.   We have been putting him on the potty for several months before bath time and he has had some success.  We are now going into full mode with training pants (no pull-ups here).  Diapers are still going on at nap and bedtimes.  Caedmon enjoys books, puzzles and most of the activities in his daily boxes.  Some of my favorite resources for this age come from Lauri and Melissa and Doug.   Some of the activity bags and folders have become too easy for him and I need to reorganize his materials.  He is a genius, I tell you, a genius!

So, that is what is going on in the homeschooling department of Busy Hands Busy Minds.  If things weren't so busy around here I would have linked all these wonderful resources so that you could look at them and purchase from my affiliate links, but my children need more time from me than this blog does.  If you have a question about any resource, please leave me a comment and I will get back to you ASAP.    Thanks so much for stopping by!

 

Around, About and All Over the Place with a Couple of Recipes Thrown In

This weekend I had so much that needed to be done.  It seems that it is utterly impossible to get my to-do list done when Saturday rolls around, especially this Saturday when I discovered that our perishable food items were dwindling severely.   So my to-do list was dropped and Jeff and I headed out to Sam's.   We really like to stock up at Sam's.  Having cabinets and freezers full  of ingredients that we can use to make  good wholesome meals for our family is important to us.  Every time Jeff goes to Sam's with me he comments about how there sure is a lot of food in that one store.  LOL!  I very rarely buy any frozen or instant foods, sticking mainly to single ingredient foods like fresh fruits and vegetables and the HUGE cans of green beans.  I also stock up on toilet paper, oils, yeast, spices, sugars, honey, flours and dairy products.  Oh!  We can't forget the coffee, either!

Thankfully the skies were clear so we were able to put all of our groceries in the back of the truck.  We have a system.  I call home when we  leave Sam's and have the children make sure the kitchen is clean, countertops wiped off and floor swept.  When we pull onto our country road we again call home and have the boys and Kaelan meet us out at the truck with the wagons.  The kids load everything from the back of the truck into the wagons and haul the groceries inside.  I then unload the wagons putting the food either in the cabinets, in the freezer or in the fridge.   Then they take the wagons back out for another load.  This time, however, I wound up missing a large bag of fresh broccoli.  K says she knows it got in the house, but I have  not found it.  Jeff was looking forward to a large batch of my broccoli salad.  One time we found a roll of sausage that had been left in the truck for several days in warm weather.  Thankfully, it did not stink.  I have no idea where that bag of broccoli landed!

Saturday was a beautiful warm day and the children were able to be outside for most of the day.  Jordan has been making more boxes for our raised bed garden.  He has been busy researching and planning for our garden.  It will soon be time to gather seeds, amend the soil and start planting.  He is excited about eating some fresh tomatoes!

While all the younger children were out playing or working Devin decided to get creative.  A few months ago she bought a painted canvas at a small boutique and paid over $30 for it.  She decided she could make another one herself.   She has never really painted before except for school projects, but once she decides to do something, she does it well.  In fact, a friend encouraged her to start drawing when she was in her mid-teens.  We were studying the Civil War and she was inspired to draw a portrait of Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson.  Her drawing placed at a local art contest and at a state wide contest.  And we named our next child Thomas Jonathan Jackson Chamblee!!

In case you can't read the scripture:  "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, 

in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  Romans 5: 8

And I tried my hand at making poptarts from scratch.  Although I suppose you can't really call them poptarts, so I'll just say tarts.  Look for the recipe and pictures here.  You must know that I changed the recipe!!  It calls for yogurt and I was out (making some tonight), so I substituted buttermilk.  I used mainly fresh ground whole wheat flour, but next time I will use more all-purpose flour as the crust was a bit heavier than we would prefer.  I wound up making two batches.  One batch was with my homemade strawberry jam.  The second batch I made with my homemade applesauce to which I added some brown sugar and cinnamon.  We sampled them for dessert Saturday night and I got the biggest compliment!  Kaelan declared they are do-overs which means they liked them well enough to want them again!  We had some for breakfast Sunday morning and I froze the rest of them for breakfast another day this week.

I know a lot of you are expecting some very cold weather in the next few days, so I will leave you with a delicious broccoli soup recipe.  You know,  just in case you find my missing bag of broccoli.

Broccoli Cheese Soup


5 cups broccoli florets
6 cups chicken broth  (I use homemade)
1 1/2 cups of milk
1/2 cup flour
3 cups finely grated cheddar cheese

Cook broccoli until tender in the chicken broth.  Remove broccoli from broth with a slotted spoon.  Place into your blender.  I can do about half of the broccoli at a time.  Add some of the broth to the blender as well.  Blend until you reach the desired texture.  My kids don't want to see chunks of broccoli, so I pretty much puree it.  Add back to  your pot.  Add milk and flour to your blender and mix well.  Add this to your pot and stir with whisk.  Add 1 t. of salt, freshly grated pepper and any other seasoning you desire.  I've used thyme, red pepper flakes and Spike seasoning at different times.  When soup has thickened add your cheese and continue stirring until melted through.  Serve.  I think a small dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of chopped bacon would be very pretty on this soup.  Sour cream and bacon would probably taste pretty good, too!  LOL!

I have been bagging up the leftovers and freezing them.  I will pull out a bag or two for lunch this week and let you know how it turns out from frozen.  I don't see why it wouldn't be just as good.

More Fun in the Snow

Later this morning Jeff took some of the kids back out for more snow play.  I finally got Jackson to put on a coat.  He actually has on two coats in this picture!

All wrapped up

Making snow balls

Ready, set....

Aim!

Snow bunny!

Do you think I had him bundled up enough?

He had to pick his knees up to his waist to get around in the snow.  He would stop and say," Help it!"   That means please help me in two year old language!

Snow study

A little closer

and a taste!

And another taste.

And another, just to make sure!

Yes, it tastes....cold!

He is thinking about it!

Should I?

Nah, no more tasting.

I'll just throw it on the dog!

Now, Caedmon, that's not nice!

I'll show you what to do!

Let's work together to build a snowman!

Our house covered in snow

How did he get here?  The C family from down the road rode their four-wheelers down to our house.  

Snowball fight!

Kaelan is going to get Mr. Tommy

Mr. Tommy is going to get Rebeccah

Now, they are all going to get it!

Kaelan made a huge snowblock.  Now who's going to get it?

Caedmon needs some help getting up from the snow.

Mr. Tommy to the rescue

A cold Kaelan