Library Day

Library Day

Our Wednesdays are pretty set as far as schedules go.   We rise early to complete barn chores and household tasks and then we are out the door by 8:45 to go to our local library.  I live in a tiny town of 1,500 people.  Actually, I live in the country near a tiny town.  One huge blessing of this town is the local library.  I found it when Mr. C was about 2 and Miss J was just a tiny baby.  I've volunteered as the story time leader, served on the board for a VERY short time, and now utilize it solely as a patron at this busy season of life.  Toddler C is now enjoying the weekly story time and even Miss A enjoys the uninterrupted quiet at the table in the back while she works on Latin or Algebra in peace.  We usually pair this trip with a run through the local grocery store for milk and bananas or a run through the bank to deposit 4-H money.  There is also a little hardware store there and I am thinking I might can get supplies for science labs there, instead of having to drive 30 milks to the nearest Wal-Mart.  Our goal on Library day is to be home by 11:00, when we have lunch and then get right to work on the remaining school work of the day...that is, after, I pry the new library books from their hands and put old yucky math workbooks in their place.  They don't like this part of the day.  School work is followed by an early supper and then AWANA at church and Youth Group for Miss A. 

So my Wednesday Morning Chores are a little different since we are gone most of the morning.

1. Pick up living room
2. Put dinner in the crockpot  (Tonight it is Crockpot Sticky Drumsticks)
3. Sometimes, I put lunch in the crockpot too.  (Today is leftover chicken tortilla soup)
4. Find library books to return, sometimes often a difficult feat!  Oh the places, I find library books!
5. Make sure all kids are dressed, teeth brushed, hair brushed, beds made, etc
6. Pack a bag for Toddler C
7. Make a list of anything else needed to be done in town (bank deposit, milk, etc)
8. Normal Morning Chores (barn, rabbits, tortoise, cat, etc)

And looking at that list reminds me to get my franny moving.  I have lots still to do!

Blessings,
Mrs. P

Home Economics Resources (repost)

Training Daughters to be Keepers at Home

Training Our Daughters to Be Keepers at Home
by Ann Ward

Not everyone celebrates the year their daughter is in sixth grade, but I did.  I’ve been looking at this marvelous 7 year curriculum and waiting for Miss A to get old enough to justify the expense.  Well, now that she is in 6th grade, she has just 7 years before finishing high school.  Oh my!  How can it be?  Time really does fly.  So in my rainbow resource box I found this book just for me Miss A.  Here are the topics that I Miss A will learn about this year.
Year 1
Godly Womanhood (utilizing The King’s Daughter’s and Other Stories for Girls; circa 1910)
Sewing I
Cooking & Baking I (utilizing Sue Gregg’s Lunches & Snacks cookbook)
Gardening I (utilizing Square Foot Gardening, Weeds: A Golden Guide, Weeds and What They Tell)
Knitting I (I may substitute smocking since she wants to learn and I am knitting challenged)
Greeting Card Making I (utilizing various books from the library)

Before Miss A was old enough for this curriculum, I still taught some home economics skills.  I especially loved the books by the Pearables titled Home Ec for Home Schoolers.  I have all three levels and Miss J is thrilled to be old enough for level 1 this year. 
Level 1 Skills:
Nutrition
Baking
Cooking
Sewing
Cleaning
Organizing
Hospitality
for a detailed list see the link below. (my linky thing doesn’t work so you’ll have to copy and paste it.)
http://rainbowresource.com/pictures/018510/c/1/1249415261-1246826

Blessings,
Mrs. P

Middle School Nutrition Unit-USDA

[Photo Source]


Summer time is a great time to get in some short units on all those things you want to teach, but they just get pushed aside because they are last on your priority list.  I was looking up some menu planning forms for my oldest so that she could work on finishing up her Home Economics curriculum for this year.  She still hasn't completed the cooking unit.  During the search I came across this free resource from the USDA.  It looks like you can get a kit to teach in a classroom setting, but they have also provided downloads of all of the workbooks as well as the little mini-magazine on Food and Nutrition.  This would be a great resource for the 4-H student who has a project area of food and nutrition.  It would also work well in a homeschool co-op setting.   It is geared to 7th and 8th grade students, but after looking through the magazine, I think it would be suitable for kids in 5th grade and up.  For our house, we will use it as a short unit to supplement her lessons in Training Daughter's to be Keepers at Home.  And I might read select portions aloud for certain children that think Little Debbie's snacks are deserving of their own food group!

Oh and about that menu planning form....here is a link to 11 different forms free on Money Saving Mom. 

Happy Teaching,
Mrs. P

Etiquette Training

images from Tanner’s Manners

Recently as I was sitting at my dinner table and 5 out of 6 members were texting or playing some sort of game on their technology of choice, I decided to investigate modern etiquette.  (By the way, I was one of the texters, just for full disclosure!)  I wondered if modern etiquette has kept up with the fast pace of technology.  So I started to search the internet for information on modern etiquette.  You see I have a lot of etiquette books, but they are all older…many of them even in the early 1900′s.  I absolutely LOVE to read them.  However, it seemed when I read through them that they weren’t really going to be a lot help in teaching my own children etiquette, specifically etiquette related to computers and technology.  As much as I love to read those early etiquette books, they just don’t reflect our current culture.  For example, I would love to have calling cards and a butler at my door to receive them from friends who call when I am not home.  Reality is that I don’t have a butler, my friends don’t have calling cards, and in our busy world, no one just drops in for a visit.  We schedule things.  We schedule everything.  We have a variety of calendars to prove it…smart phone calendars, pocket calendars, large family wall calendars and even online calendars.  So as I need to brush up on etiquette myself, I decided to do what any good homeschool mom would do.  I started planning the unit on etiquette.  So for a few weeks this summer when it’s too hot to do anything else anyway, my little farm children will be learning etiquette.   So I’m adding a few links here on this post in case you need to brush up on your etiquette, which I’m sure you won’t Dear Reader. (did I sound like Miss Manners???) and also links to some things that I will be using in my etiquette unit.  I think this might even make a nice class in a coop setting.

Links to Good Etiquette
What does etiquette mean? (a video on the Emily Post website, geared to children)
Got a question?  Ask Miss Manners
The Etiquette Website with ALL the answers…Emily Post
And what about that dinner where 5 out of 6 people were texting or using technology?  Modern etiquette says that texting and technology are NOT good  table manners.
Once you get all those iPods, smart phones, iPads, and laptops pried from your children’s grubby little paws, have them set the table family style, using this video: How to Set the Family Dinner Table.
Check out “Tech Etiquette” for all of the rules regarding how to have good manners while online or using technology.
Check out this link for more etiquette rules for home and family life, many of which are geared to children, just perfect for our homeschool unit study.
I will use at least one book in this unit.  I purchased it a few years back and highly recommend it. I also plan to see if my local library has other books on etiquette for children.

Preparing for CC Essentials in the Fall

I will have my first child in the Essentials of English Language at CC this year.  When we started our CC community, my oldest could have gone, but I had a 2 week old infant and we live about 30 miles from our CC community, so I opted to not put her in it and instead go home after lunch.  I had no idea how valuable the Essentials program is to teaching kids to write.  Over the last couple of years I can really see the vision and scope of CC.  I see how all of the programs work together and lay foundations for the future programs. 

This next year I will be directing a Challenge I class.  My daughter really struggled with the writing in the earlier Challenge program and so this year I am using some of the curriculum suggested in CC to help her get ready for this next year of Challenge I.  I am also doing similar work with my son who will be in CC Essentials in the fall.  They are both completing a basic grammar book this summer.  I know, I'm a mean momma!  Miss A is working through MegaWords for spelling (she is dyslexic and this is a spelling text designed for that) and Our Mother Tongue.  I cannot begin to tell you how wonderful Our Mother Tongue is!  Lots of rich literature is used to teach the grammar lessons.  I also love the notes about how Latin influenced various aspects of English grammar.

With my son, I'm using and old (like 1950's) grammar text that I purchased at a library sale.  In our little town, our library is the recipient of many teacher's libraries when they retire so I have found some neat old books there.  For spelling, he will continue with Spell Well. It is an easy to use, phonics based curriculum and he likes it.  In addition, to that I will get the Trivium Tables at the Parent Practicum that I'm attending in a couple of weeks.  I intend to use the Trivium Tables as copywork for both older children.

 My Miss J is only 8 and in our house, we don't do formal grammar studies until they are around 10.  So she spends her language time, with phonics, copy work, draw write now, reading, listening to poems, etc to build up her vocabulary, teach good reading skills and teach her to appreciate good literature.  I love the Ambleside Online for ideas of books to read.  So in a nutshell, here are the main things I'm doing to prepare for Essentials (and also Challenge I)

1.  Copywork using the Trivium Tables
2.  Going through a formal grammar book this summer
3.  Continuing to read good literature
4.  Focusing on spelling, making sure that the spelling learned is applied in daily writing, texts, e-mails, etc
5.  Review English Grammar learned so far in CC Foundations

Meet George Jetson! Houses in the future

 

For a unique learning experience, watch this video of the future of glass and technology.  There are a variety of writing projects that this lends itself too. I think this is most suited for the logic stage of development (ages 12 and up).  However, with my grammar age children (ages 8 & 10) there was some very good discussion about the video, whereas the older student can develop those thoughts into a complete essay.  I found the video fascinating, especially from a Charlotte Mason mom point of view.  I was so sad to see the technology in the forest, however my children thought it just enhanced that nature study.  Call me old fashioned, but I could write a whole thesis on how that could detract from the nature study, rather than enhance it.   Speaking of which, if you have older students in a co-op, this could lend itself to a great debate assignment.  Assign each team to one of the two viewpoints - 1.  technology enhances nature study  2. technology distracts from nature study.  Or better yet, have them prepare for BOTH viewpoints and then draw which viewpoint they will debate. 

Here are some ideas for writing prompts.

How does the technology of the future enhance nature study?  Or does it inhibit nature study?  

Which of the features would be the most valuable to society?

What do anticipate will happen to real life books in this future?  Will people still have books?  Is this good or bad?

Do you see any dangers or negative aspects to this house of the future?  Why?

What do you think of the house of the future?

Blessings,

Mrs. P

Baby Proof Your Homestead!

It's FREE!  It's EASY!  It's a WIN-WIN!  Just place two empty toilet paper tubes on the toddler's hands.  (Just for the record, I found him like this.  A certain 10 year old boy baby proofed him.)

And all is good.  The toddler cannot open drawers as seen in the above photo.  He can't eat Legos off of the floor.  He can't drink carpet cleaner!  It's all good.....until the toddler figures out that he can eat the baby proofers and get free.  A few minutes after this picture he started to chew on them to try and get free.  Double ICK!  So while I don't recommend this baby proofing technique, it did result in about 5 total minutes of peace and quiet at our house...and lots of giggles while I tried to get him to pose for the picture....thus the very blurry photo.

Real Life Science project

In order to have a hands on science lesson in ecology and botany, we are creating 2 gardens. The kids watched this first video and are today making a list of supplies needed and drawing sketches of the garden. They are also forming a hypothesis of what will happen in our garden. What information they do know is that the flower beds in front of our house have soil that is completely devoid of nutrients. Only long rooted weeds will grow there. Here are the resources that we have readily available.
*lots of rabbit waste
*paper/newspaper that we can recycle
*lots of decomposed cow manure in the barn
*a friend has mountains of mulch and will allow us to have some
*tools for gardening
Today is a planning/learning day and tomorrow we hope to implement the first part of the plan and lay down a layer of papers and newspapers and cover it with mulch