Because of Our Children

School in "The Place for Boats"

2012-01-20T14:25:00.001-06:00

It’s a beautiful, balmy 70 degree winter day here in East Texas. I’m sitting on the front porch, working on a few projects while awaiting the all important call. Yep, any minute now I’ll hear it – “Mom! There’s a leak! Turn the water off!” I’ll jump up, turn off the hose and wait for the go ahead to turn the water back on.

No, we aren’t working on the plumbing – it’s just another ‘Water in the Place for Boats’ kinda day. Oh, I know, you’ve probably read a dozen posts like this if you’ve read my blog for long. We are a mud loving, outside playing, dig in the dirt, kind of family. But today as I watch the little boys and work on the projects I need to get done, I’m thinking about school.

It's a breach in the dam! Call in the heavy equipment!

Sometimes I have a hard time differentiating between school and life, because we’ve chosen to live a life of learning. I’m not completely sure how we started on this way of life, but I’m so thankful we did. I’ve read a number of blog posts in recent months that have me thinking about the value of a lifestyle of learning.

One blog post by a homeschooling mom of two young boys (both under 6 years) mentioned that although they like to play outside, they rarely get time, due to homeschool. What a sad thought! In the state of Texas, children are not required to attend school until the school year after their 6^th birthday. For MT, that will be September 2013. So, I do not do any school with MT. FRitW is of legal school age, so I do meet the state’s requirements for him. But, I feel that outside, unstructured, creative play has much more value than a worksheet!

A new idea: create an overflow pond in the area most likely to leak.

What value could mud play possibly have? Permit me a moment to share. Our ‘Place for Boats’ as the dirt hole is affectionately called, is a grassless space on a slight incline. This means water does not want to stay in the hole. So each time they decide to have a water day, they have to build some sort of dam to hold the water. This requires some serious planning, teamwork, and hard physical labor. They have learned to come up with new ideas to contain the water and reroute the water. Essentially, they are learning basic engineering skills and putting them into practice. They are seeing, touching, and thinking through problems, and finding a solution. And when it fails? Well they try again. The mud hole is something they want to succeed and they receive a direct benefit when their plans work. The incentive to keep trying, thinking, and creating is tangible and they never give up.

It works! It works!

In addition to these skills, they have encountered several toads hibernating in this hole. When they uncover a toad, the discussions flow. They have learned much about habitat, seasons, and respect for creatures and the environment from this mud hole. I keep a variety of insect and reptile guides available and those guides are in frequent use. They are learning that the ability to read is a valued and desirable goal.

Finally, FRitW and MT are comfortable in the outdoors and they are strong and healthy.

I write this post, not because I think everyone should choose this life, but because sometimes I need a reminder that it’s best for our family. Out in public, I get asked if my children are on grade level, or what textbooks we use for homeschooling. I don’t have ‘acceptable’ answers to either of these. I can’t speak to the grade level, because that depends on the school I compare them with, and we don’t use textbooks. In fact we don’t have any curriculum with a grade number on it. Aaack! Then are my children behind in their learning???!!! Umm, well that depends. Since we are a homeschooling family, I feel they are right on track. They have mastered skills at different ages, and have different strengths than each other. None of them learned to read extremely early and one has simply atrocious handwriting. But, they are all intelligent, creative, hard working, loving, trustworthy people - and that makes me smile.

I'm so glad they're washable!

Texas History: Sam Houston’s Statue

2011-12-15T08:00:00.013-06:00

After completing our Passports to Texas History, we continued exploring some Historical sites along our route. As we drove and chatted about places we’d been, I realized that many of these trips had taken place before FRitW and MT were born. How in the world did time pass that quickly?! It was about time that the little guys got to experience some of these historical site too.

First one on the list? Sam Houston’s Statue. This statue is visible for several miles from Interstate 45, but when you approach him from the visitor’s center – this is what you see:

Walk a little farther though – and surprise!

In real life, Sam Houston was 6 foot, 6 inches – a rather tall man - and the creator of his statue, David Adickes, made sure his statue emphasized his stature! The statue is 67 feet tall and stands on a 10 foot base. It is not an easy task to get a photo that includes the entire stature (especially with only a cell phone for a camera – remember the chickens?)

If you want a better look at his face, you're in luck:

Texas History Sidetrip: Blue Bell Creameries

2011-12-14T08:00:00.001-06:00

Texas History didn’t stop with independence from Mexico, so this stop on our trip encompasses some more modern Texas history! Blue Bell Ice Cream is a favorite in our home – it is simply the best ice cream we’ve tasted and it is made right here in Texas. The factory was opened in Brenham Texas in 1907 and remains open today. They have factories in a couple of other states now too.

Blue Bell Creameries uses ingredients from within about a 200 mile radius of their factory when available and bakes all of the cookies, cones, and other baked goods used right in their own factory. The Blue Bell Ice Cream is handled only by their own employees from the beginning to the shelves of the grocery store. Besides the fact that it is so delicious – I love that the company uses local American products as often as possible. I’m even willing to pay the little bit more it costs to purchase their delicious ice cream – as long as it keeps jobs here in America and supports local farmers.

We had the tour to ourselves this trip and had another wonderful tour guide (we’ve had fabulous tour guides throughout this trip!). The tour takes you through windowed hallways overlooking production lines. We watched strawberries and bananas (washed and cut here in the factory) get added to Banana Split Ice Cream. We saw Ice Cream Sandwiches made and wrapped (cookies baked here in the factory and ice cream made as we watched!). We even saw employees assembling the large ice cream cartons for ice cream shop cases then filling them with 3 gallons of creamy ice cream! Our guide explained the daily (yes, I said daily) cleaning operation. They complete disassemble each and every production line and wash, sanitize and reassemble the lines every single day. The cleaning process takes longer than the production day!

Unfortunately, they do not allow any photography during the tour, so all you get is this:

Kirk had Banana Pudding, Maggie ate Chocolate Covered Cherries

FRitW had Krazy Kookie Dough, MT had Strawberry, and Mom (not pictured) had Spiced Pumpkin Pecan

Then end of the tour and the free, very generous dips of ice cream we enjoyed. What I’m not showing is how many free samples we tried before deciding on a flavor! Even after we finished our ice cream, our guide continued to encourage us to taste another flavor and another. She said she really enjoyed having our family as her tour!

Texas History Sidetrip: Barrington Living History Farm

2011-12-13T08:00:00.002-06:00

While in the Washington on the Brazos State Park, we also visited the Barrington Living History Farm. The Barrington Living History Farm is a working farm representing a farm of the 1840’s. It consists of some original buildings from Anson Jones’ Barrington Farm. Anson Jones was the fourth and final president of the Republic of Texas. After his presidency he farmed near the Washington on the Brazos area. His farm was named after his family’s estate in Massachusetts. Jones farmed cotton and corn, and raised pigs, cattle, chickens, and ducks on his farm. The farm supported him, his wife and four children, his sister, sister-in-law, and 5 slaves. During his time farming, he kept a journal. This has enabled interpreters to reenact his daily life for visitors to the farm.

It is truly a living history farm in that the employees operate it as it would have been run in the mid 1800’s. Our guide was wonderful. She was dressed as an 1840’s woman would dress – she (modestly, of course) showed us her pantaloons and petticoats to prove it. It was windy and cool today so she was grateful for all the layers, but mentioned that this summer was pretty miserable. She and another guide had been seated in the dogtrot of the home while waiting for visitors, but once we arrived she accompanied us throughout the home and yard, explaining, demonstrating, and sharing stories. It was truly delightful!

Since it was Monday and a woman’s work on Monday would be laundry, they had washboard and buckets set up. We washed the scraps of fabric they had for that purpose and hung them on the line. Maggie and I laughed that we would have had good helpers from FRitW and MT if we were back in 1840. By the time we left, the lines were almost full of drying fabric scraps. Our guide apologized for the lack of soap to wash with. Since it is a living history farm, they actually make their own lye soap and with the burn bans in effect, they were unable to make soap and had run out. They don’t just dress up for a day or special events – this is their everyday life. Someone has to come to the farm everyday to let the chickens out or water the vegetables and feed the pigs.

Speaking of animals – we visited the chickens and fed them over the fence. The chickens they keep are varieties that would have been common in Texas in 1850. Their rooster is a funny looking fellow – he is a Crested Polish Rooster. The guide said that the lady of the house would have an elegant, fussy looking rooster – it was a source of pride. Most of these chickens are young and they are looking forward to seeing what the baby chicks will look like.

The farm butchers a couple of pigs each year and smokes the meat in their smokehouse – boy did those hams smell good! There is a kitchen garden and a large garden – all hand dug, watered, and maintained. Herbs are grown next to the kitchen, and large Lamb’s Ear plants were scattered here and there. The Lamb’s Ear leaves were a much nicer alternative to toilet paper than the oft used corn cob – ugh!

Inside the house, our guide spun some of the cotton grown here on the farm into yarn and showed us the corn husk mattresses. We saw where the children would have done their lessons and learned about the many chores the children were responsible for, like picking cotton, cleaning chamber pots, and fanning the cook to help her stay cool. Then we went back and let MT and FRitW do more laundry.

We did wander over the now bare cotton and corn fields and through the workshop/barn, but there were no attendants to tell us about them. We did not visit the slave cabins because there was a sheriff’s deputy guarding some prisoners at work in those buildings.

There were two pig pens made of wood and when we got close, we found a mother pig and her piglet in one and what must have been the daddy pig in the other. He was huge and those stick fences were not too strong looking, so we moved on rather quickly!

Passport to Texas History San Jacinto

2011-12-12T08:00:00.001-06:00

We were almost to the final site necessary for our Passport to Texas History and it was pouring rain. Pouring! There was lightning and thunder, oh, and did I mention it was pouring rain? The weather was absolutely awful!

All day we had managed to stay just a few minutes ahead of the storms, but the wait to cross by ferry allowed those nasty storms to catch up with us. We left the ferry and pulled into the parking lot of The Monument Inn where we had planned to eat lunch. We ran through the rain and settled in the restaurant on the second floor of the building just in time to watch the storm unleash it’s fury right on top of us. We were so grateful to be across the ferry, because when the rain lifted we could see it had crossed during the worst of the storm and was now on its way back across. Whooo! Wouldn’t that have been an interesting ride? The restaurant lost power twice as we ate and we were thankful for the light offered by the large windows overlooking the Houston Shipping Channel.

With a drizzly sky, but no thunder and lightning, we drove on to the San Jacinto Monument. Funny thing about that monument – you can not park anywhere near the doors. The building is designed so you have to walk up a series of steps to a platform, then another series of steps, then a platform. Then if you are me, you realize you parked on the wrong side of the monument and have to circle the building searching for the door. Naturally, the rain had begun to fall again.

This is what the monument looks like. (Photo from a previous trip)

We cheated at this point. Sorry, but it is true. We didn’t ride the elevator to the top (None of us were too keen on being caught at the top when the next storm descended – we’d already been through the electricity failing at the restaurant), we didn’t view the educational film, and we didn’t pay to enter the special exhibit area. We simply walked to the gift shop, got our Passports stamped, checked out the weapons and memorabilia in the main (free) part of the museum and headed back to the car.

The boardwalk over the bayou. (photo from previous trip)

This is a really neat site on a warm, dry, day. The views from the top are spectacular and there is a beautiful little wooden walkway into the bayou. During this trip we learned that the ferry we cross to reach San Jacinto – Lynchburg’s Ferry was used by the Texans in their desperate run for safety known as the Runaway Scrape as well as by Santa Anna’s forces in preparation for the Battle at San Jacinto.

FRitW loved this reflection of the monument in the bayou. (photo from same previous trip!)

Sam Houston destroyed the ferry and the bridge that gave access to the San Jacinto area – leaving Santa Anna (and his own army) no opportunity for retreat or escape. San Jacinto was the battle that ended the fight for freedom. Santa Anna was captured and history was made! Oh, and our Passports were complete!!!!

Passport to Texas History, San Felipe de Austin

2011-12-10T08:00:00.017-06:00

San Felipe de Austin is a small collection of buildings dedicated to the memory of Stephen F. Austin. Austin was an Impresario or land agent. The original contract for land in Texas was given to his father, Moses Austin. Moses traveled to Spanish owned Texas and received authority to bring legal settlers into Texas. As he traveled back to his home in Missouri, he was attacked and eventually died as a result of pneumonia that set in while he recovered from the attack.

Stephen F. Austin obtained permission to take over his father’s contract, but between the time he set out and the time he arrived in Texas with 300 families (‘The Old 300”) Mexico had declared independence from Spain. This rendered his contract null and void, both because it was a Spanish contract and because it was in his father’s name. Austin headed to San Antonio and managed to get a new contract issued to him from the Mexican government. Thus began the legal settlement of Texas by American citizens.

At the time, all of Texas and portions of what is today New Mexico, Colorado, and Oklahoma were owned by Mexico. The southern portion (what is currently still Mexico) was well settled, but most Mexicans did not want to move north to settle in the Texas portion of Mexico. There were many reasons for this, but a huge drawback to settling in Texas was the threat of Indian attacks.

Posing in front of the statue. It was windy!

The missions in Texas, begun by Spanish priests, had converted and ‘civilized’ many of the local Indian tribes. But, these tribes were willing to be under the protection of the priests because they were being attacked by more violent tribes moving in to their hunting areas. The problem now was finding someone willing to brave the Indian attacks long enough to establish ownership of the land for Mexico. Mexico decided to open up settlement to non-Mexican citizens.

Josey General Store - now the Visitor's Center

We had never been to San Felipe de Austin and were pleasantly surprised. There isn’t a lot to do or see, but you could spend a pleasant hour on the grounds. The visitor’s center is an old general store – its history much more recent and completely unrelated to Stephen F. Austin. The attendant was friendly and knowledgeable and we enjoyed visiting with her while we waited for a rain shower to subside. She told a story about Austin and the building of a town using a Jacob’s ladder – it was really cute!

Replica of Stephen F. Austin's cabin

In addition to the General Store/Visitor’s Center, the park includes a statue of Mr. Austin, a replica of his cabin, and a well. The cabin was a traditional dogtrot cabin and one room had wooden toys to play with. FRitW and MT are getting pretty familiar with dogtrot cabins at this point – we saw a total of 4 on this trip.

Thunderstorms were headed our way and we had another stop to make today, so we said good-bye to San Felipe de Austin and headed toward Houston.

Gingerbread Train 2011

2011-12-09T11:39:00.001-06:00

Several years ago I saw the cutest Gingerbread train in a Family Fun Magazine. In fact it was 5 years ago. I was sitting in the pediatrician’s newborn waiting room, a newborn little boy was dozing in my arms. We made that gingerbread train that year. It was fun and cute, but it seemed very time consuming and difficult. Looking back I realize that we made the train when MT was only 2 weeks old - I was tired. Maybe that is why I didn’t try again until this year.

And this year – it only took a couple of hours (plus chill time) I couldn’t believe it was so quick and easy! Click here for the directions – you still have time to make this! FRitW and MT (obviously) don’t remember the first train, but they were able to help a lot this time. They had the job of frosting the graham cracker supports into stacks, attaching the skittle and red hot decorations and adding the wheels. Unfortunately, I had no camera during the process, but here is the finished result!

Passport toTexas History - Washington On The Brazos

2011-12-08T14:14:00.001-06:00

Sunday evening, November 14^th, our family is seated around the table enjoying supper. It is about 6:45 pm.. Talk turns to the trip we need to take to complete our Passports to Texas History. The Passports must be completed by December 31^st to be eligible to receive the commemorative gift. Referring to the calendar hanging on the wall nearby, we discard one week, then another. How in the world will we find time to complete our passports??? “Why don’t we leave tonight?”

Kirk’s casual question, half in jest, began a flurry of preparation! At 7:20 pm we waved good-bye to Dad and headed out with a general plan in mind. (Believe it or not, we didn’t forget a thing!)

Monday morning we arrived early at the Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park. This park encompasses three sites: Washington-on-the-Brazos, The Barrington Living History Farm, and The Star of the Republic Museum. I will report now, that my photos are limited, as I dropped my camera while feeding the chickens at the Barrington Farm.

Chickens – 1, Camera – 0

I’ll share about the farm and Museum in later posts, since the Passport to Texas History part of the park is Independence Hall in Washington-on-the-Brazos. I completely forgot to take photos of our tour. But you really don’t miss much by not seeing photos, because there isn’t much left at WashingtonOTB. At one time it was a bustling boom town because it is situated where the Brazos and Navasota Rivers converge. A man by the name of Andrew Robinson built a ferry here. Eventually a hotel was built, then a town grew at this site. When the railroad proposed to come through WashingtonOTB, they flatly refused to allow it. Who needed some newfangled, fly-by-night form of transportation when they had the never to be replaced Ferry – a trusted and reliable, never to go out of style form of crossing the river? Well as you can imagine, WashingtonOTB didn’t last much longer.

Gorgeous weather, a playground, and peanut butter and jelly - what's not to smile about?

By 1911, it had almost disappeared from history. School children in the area were learning about Texas Independence and learned that they lived near the exact spot where the Declaration of Texas Independence had been signed. They began to raise money and purchased a monument to mark the spot where it was believed Independence Hall had stood. Later a structure to replicate Independence Hall was built, based on sketches and written descriptions from the men who signed the Declaration.

We're Texans - I suppose this is a bit of Texas History now too. ~grin~

Independence Hall wasn’t actually a government building at the time, it was a gun shop. I don’t believe it had opened for business yet, but the owner offered it as a place for the men to meet. A ‘blue norther’ hit the area and temperatures plummeted, but the men remained at work until every matter had been handled. They lived in tents and shanties and met in a drafty open building to create a government for the new country – The Republic of Texas.

Lady or Little Girl? - Thank goodness you don't have to decide at 13.

The park has little to see in terms of historical buildings so most of the tour requires your imagination, but it is a beautiful walk. Our tour consisted of us and the tour guide. There were only about 4 other guests in the whole park. He walked us through the former town site, helping us visualize the town as it had been (right now it is merely a gravel path, trees, grass and a sign or two. Other than the replica Independence Hall, there is one structure and it is original - It is a well.

We were disappointed when we arrived at the river. Normally the river is clearly divided, with one side being muddy (the Brazos) and opaque and the other clear (Navasota) as can be. Today, though it was windy and the channels were mixed together making it just one muddy river.

Unfortunately, I never thought to take a picture until the tour was over and we were at the playground eating lunch - so you’ll have to use your imagination just like we did!

Scrapbooking Supplies for Sale!

2011-11-18T16:13:00.003-06:00

I have too much stuff! I know some of my readers are scrapbookers, so I thought I'd offer some of my ( and my SIL's) excess to you!
**edited to add photos and this note: These are Creative Memories Supplies. **
12 x 12 inch albums:

light blue in front, yellow, and rosey pink in back

Still sealed coversets (no pages included): Brown, Hot Pink, lt silvery blue (tanzanite maybe?), rosey pink, Yellow (Chamois maybe?) - $15 each plus shipping
Older style albums with pages: red (cranberry?), plum (both of these are open, but unused) $15 each plus shipping
I also have:
5 sealed packages of 12 x 12 white pages - $8 plus shipping

6 sealed packages of 12 x 12 page protectors - $7 plus shipping

denim on left, dark blue on right

7 x 7 denim coverset (no pages) - $10 plus shipping
7 x 7 dark blue album with pages - $10 plus shipping

7 x 7 gold dust pages - $6 plus shipping
7 x 7 white pages - $6 plus shipping
2 sealed packages of 7 x 7 page protectors - $5 plus shipping

I accept paypal or will hold until a check clears.
I will combine shipping and consider offers!
I can provide additional photos upon request.
** edited again! - to purchase email me at becauseofourchildren@gmail.com (I reserve the right to refuse to sell to anyone.)**
Thanks!

Passport to Texas History: Goliad

2011-11-12T09:00:00.026-06:00

Example of a guard tower.

Another stop on our quest to complete the Passport to Texas History was Goliad. Goliad is home to the Presidio La Bahia as well as other historical sites. We actually visited Goliad in March of this year, but were not aware of the Passport program at the time (I found out a week later!) Presidio La Bahia was built on this site in 1749. The presidio was involved in a number of incidents during the Texas Revolution, beginning with its capture by the Texians in October 9, 1835. The first Declaration of Texas Independence was signed here, although it was a bit premature.

Shortly after the battle of the Alamo, Sam Houston ordered the Texian Army to leave the Presidio. But as they left the fort, they were attacked and involved in the Battle of Coleto Creek. They were defeated, and Col Fannin and approximately 350 soldiers were captured by the Mexican army and returned to the Presidio as prisoners. A week later, on Palm Sunday, the men were massacred by the Mexican army. The medical staff of this Texian force was spared so they could be used to treat the Mexican soldiers wounded in the battle at the Alamo, but the rest of the soldiers (341 men), and Col. Fannin were separated into groups and shot

The older kids read the information about the Massacre at Goliad. MT looked at the pictures and understood that something horrible happened here. He found it very sad.

The bust of the 'Angel of Goliad'. An incredible reminder that sometimes doing the right thing is very, very difficult and dangerous.

A few escaped, thanks to a woman known as the wife (but probably a mistress) of Captain Alvarez of the Mexican army. She pleaded with Mexican officers to spare the lives of the men, and helped a few escape. She became known as the Angel of Goliad and later, abandoned by Captain Alvarez, settled on the King Ranch to live out her life protected by the King family. A beautiful bronze statue is on the grounds outside the Presidio and is surrounded by benches labeled with the names of her descendants, many of which appear to live in the area near Goliad.

I love watching these guys grow up! FRitW and MT had lots of questions for Kirk.

The doors to the chapel.

The Presidio was restored in the 1960’s, but the church within the Presidio has been in constant use since 1779. While we toured the grounds, we watched as people set up a reception for a wedding to be held at the church that night.

The well in the courtyard with one of the guard towers in the distance.

Maggie loved the unusual keyholes and copper decorations on each door

One of the most interesting things we learned on this trip, was that many of the citizens really struggled with deciding where their loyalty should lay. These people were Mexican born, but most were in disagreement with the current government by General Santa Ana. They desired a change in government, but not necessarily independence from Mexico. The massacre may have played a large part in swaying citizens toward supporting complete independence from the Mexican government.

Passport to Texas History: The Alamo

2011-11-11T16:06:00.000-06:00

This is what we recognize as The Alamo

We’ve been to the Alamo several times in recent years, so on this trip we cheated: we entered, got our Passports stamped and skipped the tour. We do not usually travel on weekends, so we aren’t used to weekend crowds, and the Alamo was crowded! Having recently toured the site and being aware of its history, we opted to avoid the crowds today. So the photos in this post are from past visits.

This informational sign shows what the building actually looked like at the time of the battle. The facade had never been completed.

The first time we visited the Alamo, we were in for a surprise. First, the iconic shape of the Alamo? the recognizable arched shape that has come represent the Alamo? We found out that it was added later, to help it be more interesting as a tourist attraction. Second, that same building – the iconically shaped one? It was not the main site of the battle, instead it is where the survivors were found. The main part of the battle itself was fought where a busy street now exists, and a few hotels and shops are built on top of it too.

These two photos are taken from the approximate position of the original front wall. This would be the location that the soldiers held during the battle of the Alamo. The 'Alamo' that we think of (seen clearly above) would not have been visible to the attacking soldiers.

But the story of the Alamo is obviously a vital part of the Texas Revolution. Most people are familiar with the cry, “Remember the Alamo”, whereas non-Texans may not be as familiar with the other historical sites related to the Texas Revolution. In December 1835, Texians captured the Alamo, forcing the Mexican troops occupying the fort to surrender. But in February, 1836 they were attacked by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana and history was made.

I know, it may not seem like a big deal to many of you, but we were disappointed the first time we toured the Alamo at the touristy nature of this historical site. The second time we came, we researched the battle before arriving and came armed with copies of old maps from textbooks. That visit was a lot more interesting!

The Alamo was the beginning of the end of the Revolution. Approximately 189 Texians (including 32 men from Gonzales that came as reinforcements) held off more than 1500 of Santa Ana’s soldiers for 13 days. All 189 soldiers died in the conflict, but those 13 days ignited a fire in the Texians and gave them time to gather, correct some blunders, and eventually win the Revolution. There were about 30 survivors of The Battle of the Alamo, but most if not all were non-combatants – mostly women and children.

Passport to Texas History: The San Antonio Missions National Historic Park

2011-11-08T09:00:00.025-06:00

The church at Mission San Jose. Services are still held here regularly and had just let out moments before.

The San Antonio Missions National Historic Park was another new site for our family. We visited Mission San Jose, where the visitors center is housed. We watched a film explaining what a Mission is, how they operated, and why they were established. We learned that the Missions were not exactly churches, but protective villages with a church at the center of life. The priests had the job of converting the natives to Catholicism, teaching them the Spanish language and customs, and making them Spanish citizens. They also had to be inventors, creating water powered mills, irrigation canals, and other tools to help provide food and water for the people living in their care.

Approaching the mill

We aren’t completely sure why the Missions were on the Texas Revolution trail, but our guess is that it helped to define who the people fighting for Independence were. Many of the Texians were Native Indians that had become Spanish citizens through the work of the missions, while others were Tejanos, citizens of Mexico living in the Tejas region of Mexico.

Inside the mill

The San Jose Mission was used as barracks at some point during the revolution and the soldiers used much of the statuary for target practice, obviously resulting in a lot of damage. But apparently no battles were fought here.

We added a Junior Ranger Badge to our collection (This is a National Park)

Something we found interesting about the Missions was that in their time, they were painted in bright colors. Now they are mostly gray stone structures, but a portion of the brightly painted surface is still visible. This demonstrates the blending of the Spanish culture (the typical Mission construction and the introduction of the Catholic faith) with the influence of the people they were trying to convert (the bright paint colors made from native plants). The priests also combined some of the images of the native’s gods into their statuary of the saints to help the people assimilate.

The preserved wall of the church

Artist's rendition of what the church must have looked like.

Passport to Texas History: Gonzales

2011-11-07T13:56:00.000-06:00

We are filling our passports! Our Passports to Texas History. This year in honor of the 175^th anniversary of the Texas Revolution, the Texas Historical Commission has created a treasure hunt of sorts. As you visit each of the seven highlighted historical sites with ties to the Revolution, you can collect a special stamp in your Passport. Once you collect the seven stamps and mail your passport in, the Historical Commission will send you a Commemorative gift.

We spent a weekend in the San Antonio area recently and managed to obtain 4 of our stamps. Two of the locations were new to us. We had previously been to The Alamo and Goliad’s Presidio La Bahia, but Gonzales and The San Antonio Missions were new sites for our family.

This post will share our visit to Gonzales, Texas and the Gonzales Memorial Museum.

Our first stop was the Old Jail Museum and Chamber of Commerce. This is where we were to go to receive our stamp. This site wasn’t specifically related to the revolution, but acts as a visitor's center for the area. Since we were here, we went ahead and toured the Jail. I can’t say that any of us found it a completely pleasant experience. The general consensus was that it was an uncomfortable, yet fascinating place to visit. The jailer and his family (oh yes, small children included!) lived in the jail with the inmates and the gallows (last used in 1921 – but restored recently) was in plain sight of the majority of the inmates. That would have acted as quite a deterrent, don’t you think?

The Gallows

These cells looked out on the gallows. MT wouldn't go anywhere without me, so he isn't in the picture. It was very quiet, very confining, and very uncomfortable walking through these cells.

Once we toured the jail and learned a little about Gonzales and its role in the revolution we headed to the Gonzales Memorial Museum to see the actual “Come and Take It” cannon. Hmm…What is the “Come and Take It” cannon you ask? Well, we found out and I’d be happy to tell you about it!

It wasn't a very large cannon.

The citizens of Gonzales had a cannon, issued by the Mexican government, intended for their use to protect themselves against hostile forces (i.e. the Comanche and Tonkawa Indians, NOT their own government). In late 1835, the Mexican army sent 6 soldiers to request the return of their cannon. Gonzales residents took the six men captive and refused to relinquish the cannon. They buried the cannon in a peach orchard to protect it from capture.

The "Come and Take It" Cannon and behind and to the right - a replica of the cannon. (we thought that was kinda funny!)

The "Come and Take It" Flag is right below the Texas Flag.

The Mexican army next sent 150 men to reinforce their ‘request’ for the cannon. This time 18 men from Gonzales managed to keep the soldiers from crossing the Guadalupe river long enough for the cannon to be dug up, mounted on cart wheels, and carted across the river in a surprise attack on the encamped soldiers. They attacked, waving a flag they had quickly created – now dubbed the “Come and Take It Flag”. They did not have any cannon balls, but had gathered metal and fired that, killing one soldier and scaring the remaining ones away. This was considered to be the first shot in the Texan Revolution and was fired on October 2^nd, 1835.

Kirk giving an impromptu lesson on weaponry in the museum.

WW II era uniforms

The museum contains what is believed to be the actual “Come and Take It” cannon, as well as an amazing collection of weaponry that spans the early 1800’s to World War II.

Due to limited time in Gonzales, we skipped the Pioneer Village and some of the other historic sites. We plan to visit those on another trip.

Close to my Heart Stamp of the Month Mini Blog Hop

2011-09-30T19:00:00.001-05:00

Welcome to our Close To My Heart Stamp of the Month Blog Hop highlighing this month's stamp set, Holiday Magic.

We are thrilled to showcase some fun uses for this gorgeous stamp set!

This hop is one big circle so feel free to start here and move through the entire loop. You can also find a complete listing of all 13 participants by visiting Melissa Robinson's blog. If you have arrived here from Lisa Lawson's blog, you are on the right track! So... let's get started!

My project this month is a calendar for December. I know many of my readers are homeschoolers and many of you have a calendar similar to this somewhere on your wall. I like having different shapes for our calendar days, so I used my Cricut to cut lots of stockings from the new Art Philosophy Cartridge from CTMH. The stamp set has two stocking stamps and two 'cuff' stamps. I mixed and matched the stockings and cuffs to make 31 stocking cards for our calendar.

To make the numbers stand out, I stamped them using the Polka Dot Alphabet stamp set from CTMH and embossed them with black embossing powder. I also used my Cricut to cut out letters for 'December' and added an embossed tree from the stamp set. To the left of the calendar is a box I cut to hold the extra stockings.

Supplies:

Elemental Paper Pack

Colonial White Cardstock

Inks: Olive and Cranberry

Polka Dot Alphabet Stamp Set

Black Embossing Powder

SOTM: Holiday Magic

Thank you for taking the time to stop by. I would appreciate a comment or two, if you so feel led. Now hop on over to Missy Kosena's blog where you will find another inspirational use of this stamp set!

Happy hoppin'!

Cricut Cake and Birthday Cupcakes

2011-09-23T12:03:00.002-05:00

I love crafting with Maggie. It is so much fun to have such a creative daughter. She and I got a few moments in a craft store yesterday and purchased these decorative sugar sheets to try out in our new Cricut Cake.

She chose the mint green and rose pink to complement the bold zebra design. The pearl dust is just to add a bit of pizazz!

First we cut a simple shape to look like leaves. Since this was our first time using the Cricut Cake and we did not buy extra sugar sheets, we wanted to try basic, large shapes. They cut beautifully. We even got brave and cut the little fleur de lis.

She put the leaf base on our plain old frosted cupcakes (actually they are a boxed mix called Fun De Middles - they have a filling baked right in!)

Next a new paintbrush to add our pearlescent pizazz!

Look at that sparkle!

Here is the rose pink Sugar Sheet. We rubbed the pearl powder on before removing the excess sugar sheet - I think it was easier and left a lovely sparkle.

Maggie curved the flowers a little before putting them on the leaves so they would stand up a little. It was the perfect touch.

The Zebra sheet, ready to go into the Cricut. It had color smudged around the sides, but I don't think it interfered too much with the designs.

Here is the final cupcake. I cannot believe she is 13! Wow - how time flies!

Now that the easy stuff is out of the way, I've got to get moving on her pie...Sometimes the creativity backfires on me a bit. I'm heading to the kitchen now to come up with a chocolate, coconut, caramel, pecan brownie pie. She has the pie crust dough made, guess it's my turn...

Playing Fetch...with the cat?

2011-09-22T20:10:00.000-05:00

This is Shadow Cloud. She is a cat, but I think she believes she is a dog. Her favorite game? Fetch.

She is very vocal when she wants to play. She has a specific meow that apparently means, "Throw my ball down the hall!"

She doesn't want it to be rolled gently, but thrown hard so it bounces and jingles all the way down the hall. If you don't throw it far enough, she sits and waits for you to try again. If you are successful - off she goes, racing down the hall!

She brings it back and drops it in your hand or on the floor and meows at you to throw it again!

(Sorry for the eye shine - she just wouldn't stop and pose!!!)

Art From the Heart...or the hands?

2011-09-13T20:05:00.000-05:00

MT opted to do some art instead of joining the rest of us for a game of Uno. Excitedly he ran into the kitchen to share his masterpiece.

My first reaction was a gasp of shock. If you're family, you might remember a certain gift on Maggie's 4th birthday that demonstrated a grave lack of parenting skills on my part. If you aren't family, I'll just say that red is not my favorite color to see on my child's hand.

MT apparently interpreted my shocked gasp as rapturous joy. He excitedly told us how he drew around his OWN hand - with NO help!! He was beaming with pride.

I should buy stock in soap.

"It Feels Like Winter!"

2011-09-07T08:24:00.000-05:00

It is 55 degrees this morning! I cannot begin to tell you just how excited we are! FRitW and MT were 'freezing' and raced back inside to find sweatshirts and pants.
As he came in the house for breakfast, I overheard FRitW say, "It feels like winter!" and it does.

Apparently his feet aren't cold...

I think our record hot summer is finally coming to an end. High temperatures have been in the mid 80's to low 90's the last few days. Since that has been our low temperature for 2 months, I am feeling positively chilled! The temperature shift has been sudden but truly welcome.

MT's sweatshirt still has Junior Ranger badges from Carlsbad Caverns and Mesa Verde

Our record hot summer results:
From June 1 to August 31, a total of 92 days - 73 of those days had temperatures above 100 degrees The 19 that didn't had temperatures in the high 90's.
27 days had temperatures over 105 degrees.
A local meteorologist measured the ground/soil temperature on the morning of September 1st: 118 degrees
Overnight lows have been between 85 and 88 since early July.

Coming Soon to a Blog Near You...

2011-09-05T09:33:00.001-05:00

Today is just a teaser. I've been missing from my blog lately and thought I’d give you a glimpse of posts to come.

During the summer, most of the extracurricular activites stop, so we focus on school. I suppose that means I have more time and therefore should have plenty of time to blog, but somehow the more relaxed schedule means I don't get much blogging done. Now that our normal 'school time' schedule is back, I will try to be more faithful.

Unfortunately, since I didn't blog about our activities in a timely manner, and since I blog as a record for myself and as a way to share our lives with distant friends and relatives, I will be going back and sharing photos from spring and summer. So if you have to read a 4th of July post in December – well - I apologize in advance.

We've played outside, built inside, watched the sun rise and set over balloons, and added a new family member. It's been a fantastic summer! And I'll be sharing it all with you!

September Stamp of the Month Mini Blog Hop

2011-09-01T16:00:00.001-05:00

Welcome to our inspirational blog hop, where we are sharing creative ideas with you showcasing this month's Stamp of the Month from Close to My Heart. The Stamp of the Month is called "Limited Edition". It has 21 images and is available for just $5 with a $50 purchase!

I have some wonderful fellow Consultants joining me in this hop, which works as a circle. So, begin 'hopping' and feel free to leave comments along the way!

If you arrived here from Cherri's blog, you are on the right track.

Once again this month I did a scrapbook layout. I used the Level 2 Typeset paper pack to showcase the "Limited Edition" stamp set.

My layout is based on "Unified Whole" on page 68-69 of CTMH's Cherish scrapbook book. I trimmed around the dinosaur's head so it overlaps the frame. The Juniper colored B&T papers in the Typeset paper pack were perfect with the greens in my dinosaur photos. (Click on the photos to see a larger version)

Below you will see my absolute favorite stamp in this set: the tiny words - what, where, and date (the set also includes who and when). I used them on the library card image (also from the stamp set) to record the details on my accordion fold photo book. After filling in the what, where, and when I second generation stamped the word 'recorded' in Cranberry ink. I thought it looked like a file from an office - once the info was entered into a database, the secretary might have stamped it 'recorded'. (A little silly, huh? - but it made me smile!). The closure is a canvas badge button stamped with the clock image from 'Limited Edition'.

Below you can see my accordion fold photo book open. There are also pictures on the back. The idea is based on a layout in CTMH's Magic book (page 118-119.) The Magic book makes it simple to add fun elements and extra room for lots of photos to a basic 2 page layout like the Cherish layout I used.

To make my journaling tag, I used the tag stamp and the library card stamp again. A little black floss and a Juniper button finished the tag, which slides out of the pocket so you can read a few details about our trip. I also used the little corner detail from 'Limited Edition' over and over on my layout. I don't know that robotic dinosaurs are an elegant photo subject, but the little scrolly corner gave my page an elegance I really like!

Supply list:

Level 2 Typeset Paper Pack

Vanilla Cream Cardstock

Cherish Idea book

Magic Idea book

Limited Edition Stamp of the Month (September)

Exclusive Inks Stamp Pads: Juniper, Black, Cranberry, Vanilla Cream

Canvas Badge Buttons

Colonial White Waxy Flax

Green Button Assortment

Embroidery Floss - Neutral Assortment

Thank you for stopping by! The next stop on the blog hop is Sheila's blog. Enjoy her creative use of this stamp set!

Close To My Heart Mini Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

2011-08-04T21:00:00.003-05:00

Welcome to an inspirational blog hop showcasing Close To My Heart’s Stamp of the Month. The August Stamp of the Month is called “Wicked” and contains 9 images. It is available for just $5 with a $50 purchase!

I have some wonderful Consultants joining me in this hop which works as a circle. So begin “hopping” and feel free to leave comments along the way.

If you are working your way through our hop you should have arrived here from Cherri’s Blog.

Now for my project:

Our son got his biggest wish for his seventh birthday – a tiny kitten. The kitten is a little grey fuzzy ball of fun and snuggles and FRitW is enamored! I’ve taken a million photos of Meowy Jr. in the last week and found that the August Stamp of the Month was a perfect match for my photos.

My layout is based on the "Raise the Curtain" layout in the Magic Scrapbook Book from CTMH. I used the kitten stamp from "Wicked" and my very favorite stamp in the set - the curly border. I love that stamp!

The main photo is actually the cover of a mini book. I used the "put your best foot forward" stamp on this photo.

This photo seemed perfect for the sentiment: "Hats off to you"

Supplies:

August Stamp of the Month: Wicked
Magic Scrapbook Program Book
CTMH cardstock: Colonial White, Desert Sand, Barn Red
Color-Ready Alphabets Cork
Milepost Shapes
Metal Hinges
CTMH Stamp Pads: Barn Red, Desert Sand, Black, Autumn Terracotta

Thank you for stopping by! Now hop on over to Sheila’s Blog to see her creative use of this stamp set!

Not Back To School Blog Hop - Curriculum Week

2011-08-04T07:00:00.004-05:00

Heart of the Matter Online is holding a ‘Not Back to School’ Blog Hop. I missed it last year, and am a bit late getting started this year, but here is my beginning post.

This week the Not Back to School Blog Hop focuses on curriculum choices. We actually homeschool year around changing curriculum as we complete it. We do not keep track of grade levels, instead having an ultimate goal and projected graduation date.

Our oldest, Kirk, is 16. He is using My Father’s World –World History and Literature as his core curriculum with a supplement of “The History of Christianity and Western Civilization Study Course” from Vision Forum. In addition to the recommended literature, he will be filling his Kindle (as soon as we get it) with lots of classics and G.A. Henty books. We replace the writing assignments from MFW with Institute for Excellence in Writing’s Student Intensive C and he also uses The Grammar Key. Kirk uses ALEKS for math and is currently halfway through the Geometry course. He is not using an actual Science curriculum, but simply exploring that on his own. He will also be helping teach Science to the little guys. He will be studying Spanish with Rosetta Stone as soon as I work out a few computer glitches, and physical education is covered with Football in the fall, lots of mountain bike riding, and leading the little guys in exercises each morning.

Maggie is 12 (very soon to be 13). She also uses ALEKS and will complete the 7^th grade level this week. She loves the Mystery of History series and will begin Volume two in a month or so. She will also listen in with Doug as he goes through the Vision Forum study course. She began Apologia’s Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day last week. Her writing curriculum is Writesmith Apprentice and she has decided to resurrect our family newsletter to apply some of the skills she’s learned. Spelling is tough for Maggie, so I am looking for an actual curriculum to help her. She has seen real improvement in the last two years with some methods we’ve developed on our own and playing lots of Quiddler, Scrabble, and Boggle. She will be getting a Kindle as well and I’m sure Kirk will have lots of recommendations for her. Our local library is small and its very limited selection only includes abridged editions of literary classics so all of us are excited about the possibilities for our Kindles. Maggie will be using Rosetta Stone to learn Spanish and her physical education of choice is Irish Step Dance – which should begin again very soon.

FRitW just turned 7. He is using Primary Arts of Language from Institute for Excellence in Writing. This covers all of Language Arts. We do not use a written curriculum for history, math, or science – instead using life as his school room.

MT is 4. He does not do school regularly. He listens in throughout the day and I include him anytime he appears interested. He helps build train tracks, k’nex vehicles, and Keva buildings, and plays in the dirt as often as possible.

Planning My Fall Garden

2011-08-03T10:46:00.001-05:00

With the garden languishing in the heat, I’ve decided to turn my attention to planning our fall garden. My first stop in planning our garden is always the East Texas Gardening website. This site is developed by our county extension office and is my favorite resource for planting dates and variety recommendations. Prior to exploring this site, we planted everything in April and just hoped for the best. Of course I never had any success with carrots, lettuce, or potatoes because April is too hot to plant these cool weather veggies.

Once I print out the planting dates, we sit down as a family and discuss what vegetables we want to plant. Then I highlight those veggies, color coding them by the month they should be planted. Once I have a plan, I begin to look for seeds. This year I've heard that, due to the extreme heat, the temperature of the top 6 inches of our soil is around 95 degrees. I plan to call our extension office and see how much difference this might make in what seeds will germinate.

We are learning to grow plants using a natural approach. This is something we are taking one step at a time, but our first step was to begin using heirloom seeds as opposed to hybrid. This means that most of my seed shopping is done online. A few local nurseries and farm stores carry heirloom plants, but few have heirloom seeds. My favorite seed websites are Botanical Interests and Seed Savers Exchange. With my highlighted plant list in hand, I peruse these sites searching for varieties that are known to grow well in my area or that I have had success growing in the past. But, I like trying new things, so I also search for new varieties that grow well in hot humid areas.

Once I have finalized my list I purchase everything I want to plant for both my spring and fall gardens. I find that if I only purchase the seeds I need right now, I will forget to order the other seeds in time to plant them.

With the planting dates noted and the seeds purchased, I turn my thoughts to learning something new. This is where my current favorite gardening book comes in. I’ve blogged about it before because I just love this book: Texas Organic Vegetable Gardening by J. Howard Garrett and C. Malcolm Beck. If we tried to apply everything I read about gardening at once, nothing would ever get done, so I try to limit our experiments each year.

This year our experiments included beginning a compost pile. We also added cornmeal and a purchased compost tea to our fertilizer experimenting and I bought a garlic pepper tea mixture to kill squash bugs, but I’ve been hesitant to use it for fear of killing my beneficial insect population. We’ll eventually find a balance between picking insects off (or shooting them off with water guns!) and spraying natural insecticides. Next year I hope to explore companion planting.

The final step in planning is to actually prepare the garden plot. We have already pulled out all of the cool season plants: potatoes, onions, carrots, and lettuce. The dirt is tilled and ready to be reshaped into beds. We’ll have to decide what needs to be pulled out of the rest of the garden to make room for new fall plants and then we will be ready for fresh plants.

I'm linking up with Briana at The Garden Path. Click here to hop to this week's blog hop and read what other blogging gardeners are doing this summer.

I'm Wilting And So Is The Garden

2011-07-20T12:11:00.001-05:00

It’s hot. We are in day 23 of a above 100 degree streak. This breaks the record set in 1998 which by the way I remember well as I was pregnant with Maggie that summer, yep – that was a hot summer! We have had 36 days so far this year of temperatures over 100, but the 23 days are in a row. Our average temperature for the month of June also set a record. Our low nighttime temperatures hover near 80 degrees, so night does not bring relief. We are also very short on rain – more than 11 inches low since January and a drought two years ago combined with low rainfall for 2010 and this year is increasing the effect. These things greatly affect my garden (and me!)

Because of the heat and lack of rain we are required to conserve water by not watering between noon and 10 pm. We are watering in the morning still, but the plants are struggling to produce fruit because we cannot give them any relief from the heat of the afternoon. I very carefully choose plants that do well in high temperatures and humidity so the garden is surviving, but producing very little food.

Only one tomato plant has produced any tomatoes (FRitW’s Homely Homer) and it is beginning to fruit again. All of the other plants are tall, green, very leafy, and healthy and even have blooms, but the blooms never become fruit. Any suggestions? We’ve never had this problem before – usually I cannot keep up with the tomato harvest. My Serrano and Jalapeno peppers are really starting to produce, but I have no tomatoes to go with them!

My green beans are drying up, but the Black-Eyed peas are thriving. This is my first year growing them, so I am still trying to find the correct time to pick – late enough that they have fully formed peas, but before they are only good for seed. This bumble bee was visiting each flower on the pea vines and he completely ignored me as I snapped several shots of him. However, on the plant right next to this one sat a Red Wasp. He was quite protective and stayed on his flower for more than 15 minutes. I attempted to take his photo several times, but each time I turned the camera toward him, he turned toward me. Having been stung by a red wasp and not desiring to repeat that, I decided you didn’t need to see his photo after all!

I confess that I have not spent much time in the garden myself and the weeds are taking over where there is no mulch. It is hard to find a cool time to get out there and work!

Of Teeth and (little) Men

2011-07-15T21:36:00.001-05:00

MT is the youngest and I think I choose to forget that he is growing up, so sometimes milestones sneak up on me. Today was one of those times.

At lunch, FRitW announced that his loose tooth had fallen out. I knew it was loose so I wasn’t really surprised, but MT was just amazed! He was so excited to see his brother’s lost tooth, and while looking at the tooth, Maggie casually remarked, “MT, you’ll be losing teeth soon too.” Now, that surprised me! How in the world could he be approaching five? Where did those years go?

FRitW has more empty spots than teeth!

He was surprised too. I guess we’d never talked about him losing teeth, so I called him over. “MT, let’s see if you have any loose teeth.” He opened his mouth. He does have one loose tooth – it is right next to the empty space where his first lost tooth was. We don’t know exactly when he lost it, but there is no sign of that tooth anywhere.

Look at that tiny gap!

When Dad got home, MT showed him the empty space and immediately wanted to look at Dad’s teeth. “Your teeth are not gone,” was his remark (made with a mixture of confusion and disappointment). We explained how new teeth would grow in to replace the ones that fall out.

MT is still a little unsure about this turn of events. And looking at these growing children that so recently were tiny babies – I have to admit to feeling a little unsure myself.

Not My Garden

2011-07-13T19:38:00.002-05:00

Well, my title says it all - this post is not about my garden. In fact it isn't really about a garden at all.I simply want to share some photos of some plantings that made me smile.

Last weekend, Dad and I celebrated our 18th Wedding Anniversary! We took a long weekend trip (without kids!) to Little Rock, Arkansas. We had a wonderful weekend exploring the city.

We walked across the Junction Bridge and found ourselves in North Little Rock. We were searching for a pie shop (that apparently had moved to another location) when I noticed the street corners. Each corner was lavishly decorated with these gorgeous plantings.

I loved the mixtures of colors and textures! Aren't these beautiful? (are you smiling?) I have always enjoyed a less manicured, more natural look in landscaping - so these planted corners really appealed to me.

I'm linking up with The Garden Path today and you can too. I'd love to read about your garden, or plantings that inspire you - and I bet others would as well!

Sometimes It's The Little Things

2011-07-07T09:49:00.001-05:00

Sometimes gardening comes down to the little things. Here are a few of the little things I noticed in my garden this week:

The gentle buzz of bumblebees as I walked between the rows of corn

An abundance of ladybugs

Squash blooms hiding under the leaves

Tiny blossoms on the bean plants

Little purple peppers

A tiny butterfly

I’m linking up with The Garden Path a weekly garden link up from Briana at the I Can't Decide blog. Click here to visit other blogger’s gardens or to link up a recent post about your garden.

Summer Doldrums

2011-06-29T20:51:00.000-05:00

I’m linking up with The Garden Path and the Homeschool Village Garden Challenge today. I feel like there's not much to share today, because my garden is rebelling against the heat. We have picked a few tomatoes, some green beans, and this monster yellow straight neck squash. I really don’t know how these things manage to hide under the leaves until they are too big to eat!

We are seeing more and more ears form on the corn plants. I just wish I could find my notes on which seeds we planted where. I scratched them out in a spiral notebook as we planted with the intention of adding them to my planting spreadsheet. Unfortunately, I am a homeschooler and it seems an abundance of spiral notebooks plague our home. I’ll find the right notebook eventually, but in the meantime I’ll have to wait for the ears to ripen to identify the different types of corn!

Some tall corn...

...and some not so tall corn.

I am seeing more and more grasshoppers – this guy is huge – almost 3 inches long. We’re also seeing lots of ladybugs and I’m very glad about that. FRitW and MT got their waterguns out and helped me fight off a few squash bugs this week. We shoot them off the plants into a bucket of soapy water and let them drown. It sounds mean I guess but if you could see what they do to my pumpkins and squash, I think you’d agree that they deserve worse!

I hope you are getting sufficient rain, plenty of sunshine, and a good dose of time in the garden! Check in with the other gardeners at The Garden Path and the HSV Garden Challenge and link up a recent garden post of your own!

Chasing Rabbits, er Birds or, Can We Call This School?

2011-06-27T11:37:00.000-05:00

It all started in a writing assignment. In the first draft of a paragraph about summer, Kirk wrote, “The birds are chirping merrily and shooting hoops in the backyard…” I laughed so hard! When I read it out loud, so did he! Obviously he didn’t intend to portray birds playing basketball in the back yard, but it was too late. FRitW, hearing the sentence, immediately began to create a scenario…

The story had begun. Our family calls English peas – “green basketballs” (I don’t remember how that started, but that’s what we call them). FRitW’s story begins with a dropped green basketball and soon teams of 100 red Cardinals and 100 Blue Jays and playing basketball with a leaf net. They even have numbers on their feathers and a Black Capped Chickadee to act as referee.

FRitW dictated his story to me and has already illustrated it (all his own idea!). He has planned to mail it to someone special so I’ll also discuss addressing an envelope and writing a friendly letter. I think we can call this a successful bit of schooling – don’t you?

Blueberries, Carrots, and Green Beans, Oh My!

2011-06-22T16:25:00.000-05:00

I am joining week two of The Garden Path, a linky created by Briana at I Can’t Decide. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m always fascinated to read about other’s gardens. Briana gardens in New Mexico – which is a neighbor to my state, but her growing season is completely different from mine. Another gardener is up north and growing Kiwi! Can you imagine?

IS it just me? I love reading these stories! I read about gardeners waiting for the soil to warm so they can plant and I can’t imagine what frozen soil would be like. Here I have to wait for the soil to cool enough to plant lettuce, peas, carrots, and potatoes. It is so interesting to see what types of plants gardeners grow, when they plant, and how they use their harvest. Most of all, it’s nice to know that I’m not the only one with failures and weeds.

Today, I’m sharing photos of my much improved garden. Remember last week? Many of those weeds are gone – not all of them – but the mulch is making my maintenance much easier already.

We picked the last of the carrots and will begin preparing the beds for melons, squash, and pumpkins. One of the Dragon Carrots (the purple ones) was hairy with roots. Since this is my first time having any success with carrots I really don’t know why. Did it get too hot? Was it left in the ground too long? If you know, please share!

Maggie and the little boys pulled out all of the dead Sugar Snap vines this week. We let them dry out and plan to preserve the seed for next year. This is a new thing for me. I didn’t do any research, I just thought it made sense that letting the full pods dry would make good seed. We’ll see next year I suppose. Here is our bowl of pods!

We picked a handful of green beans this week and MT and FRitW snapped them for me. We love color in the garden, so Maggie and I chose Botanical Interests Bean Bush Trio Seed this year. The seed packet contains a mixture of Purple Queen (purple obviously), Cherokee Wax (yellow), and Blue Lake 274 (green) beans. The purple beans have such lovely flowers and are a beautiful color. Unfortunately (In my opinion at least) when cooked they are green like all the others.

We picked our first jalapenos this week as well and made a delicious, almost hot enough salsa from FRitW’s tomatoes, a couple of onions, jalapenos, Kirk’s World’s Hottest Peppers, and one of Maggie’s Purple peppers. Mmmm! It was delicious with our taco salad last night!

On a final note, this is prime blueberry time in East Texas and this morning we picked our first blueberries of the year. The blueberries Kirk picked are for Ice Cream, FRitW’s are for Strueberry (or Strawbluey) Jam, but most of MT’s never made it to the bucket – he just picked and ate! Here is our haul from this morning (just for reference: the round pan is 14 inch diameter). We will keep some out for eating fresh and all of the rest will join the strawberries in the freezer for smoothies, muffins, ice cream, and jam making in the fall. Hopefully we’ll get to pick a few more times before the season ends – and then the peaches will be ripe! I love the variety of fruits available at local farms.

Do you have a recent post about your garden or anything garden related? Please join The Garden Path by clicking here and linking your post (I'd love to read about your garden!) - then take a minute to visit the other gardens and see what you learn!

Can I Call It A Green Thumb If I Can Grow Weeds?

2011-06-15T14:38:00.000-05:00

How about a little honesty today? This is my garden right now:

Well, part of my garden anyway. But here is another part just a couple of rows to the east:

Yes, there are corn plants and bean plants and even some peanuts, but all of that other green stuff? Weeds. Yep, millions and millions of big and little weeds. Two days ago the first picture looked just like the second photo. The garden hasn’t looked like this all year, because I’ve really stayed on top of the weeding, but for the last 3 or so weeks we have been busy almost every morning. Morning is the only time to work out in the garden because by early afternoon the temperatures have soared to the triple digits and we don’t see the 90’s again until around 10 pm.

A different row of corn and beans, after an hour of weeding.

I am paying for my lack of attention. I am spending at least an hour each morning pulling weeds. Today while Maggie and I rescued corn and beans from their weedy assailants, Kirk began applying a layer of mulch to everything. Hopefully the mulch will prevent a weed infestation of this degree even if I am somewhat neglectful of my garden.

Yet another row, after weeding and mulching.

On a happier note: Weeds or no – the garden plants are thriving. I’ve spent so much time focusing on the weeds I didn’t even notice these green beans. I’d noticed the flowers, but until Dad pointed them out to me yesterday evening, I didn’t even see that the plants were actually producing green beans!

FRitW’s Homely Homer has produced a dozen tomatoes already and here you can see a couple more that will be ready in a day or two.

Some of the corn is over 3 feet tall and one row is forming ears.

These are peanut blooms. They are such sweet little flowers aren’t they?

Maggie’s Lilac Pepper has two little peppers growing and we’ve eaten three others and Kirk finally picked two peppers from his plant yesterday.

I’m linking up with Briana at I Can’t Decide for ‘The Garden Path’ – a brand new weekly link up to share your garden progress (or struggles). Stroll over to The Garden Path and see what the other gardeners have to share.

Too Many Words For Such a Little Boy

2011-06-10T18:04:00.000-05:00

I swear - this isn't posed! I just snapped it at the park.

Dad and I have four children. Dad is a fairly quiet man and I am pure talk. So as each child has been born, we’ve been surprised to find that all of them have my talk gene. All of them. It is a noisy household. When he was a baby, I worried that number 4: MT, would get lost in the shuffle. I was afraid he’d maybe never learn to talk or that the older ones would talk for him – but no…

Umm... yes - he is exactly that mischevious...

…definitely no. MT talks for himself, for me, and sometimes for the others, and has sound effects to match. He has a vocabulary and a knack for using it that completely destroys the possibility of a serious moment.

Those would be jean shorts on his head - don't ask...

An example: Kirk and MT were working on building shelves into Kirk’s closet. When done, Kirk (all 5’10” of broad shouldered boy that he is) rubbed MT’s little head and said, “Thanks for helping Little Dude.” To which MT responded, “Welcome, Cupcake!” ~gasp - muffled snort~ um, what did you say? “Do you know where I go that? Incredible Journey” (Remind me to be super careful what he watches! Oh, but go watch the movie to get the exact cadence and expression he used.)

I have no idea what this is about.

While he and I were outside weeding the garden, MT began identifying plants – he found Dads, Moms, and kids in the potatoes and lettuce. As he walked along the onion patch brushing his hands over the onion tops –I heard a disappointed, “No kids here…” (All the onions are about the same size).

Cheering for Mimi at her college graduation!

On a walk with Kirk when he was three – “Kirk, You’re a lot of big.”

Some of Mimi's chicken's first eggs - he loved them!

He doesn’t like to overuse a word either. When showing Dad and I the growth in our herb beds he showed me the ‘huge’ plants, while Dad got to see the ‘humongous’ ones.

The hot pink, fuzzy steering wheel cover that makes its rounds at Christmas and other holidays.

He loves to pretend to be an animal – a dog, cat, bobcat, or koala and has a select number of names that he can be called. His favorite name when he is a dog or cat is ‘Sprinkles’. He will say, “I am a cat named Sprinkles” and climb into your lap to be petted. But sometimes he is not an animal – “Now I am Sprinkles, a man”.

Again, I really don't know.

During our recent vacation, Maggie was pulling grapes from the stem for a snack and MT said, "I am so pleased that you are doing that!"

Later in the vacation: "Mom, I am concerned about going to this area." (We were driving past a dormant volcano.)

Walking the train tracks at the Buffalo Village in Abilene. He loved listening to the information about each building.

After a hard run: "I am catching up to my breath."

This would be his 'police man' hat. Actually, when I took this photo he was "Tony Stewart the police man"

When he couldn't remember the word 'tepee': "Mom, I need to tell you what I don't know." (He then described a tepee and asked for its name.)

He was convinced that I thought Santa had arrived...

As he grows up I know he will lose some of the accidentally funny moments, so right now, I’m going to laugh and enjoy listening to him interpret the world around him as only a 4 year old can. Oh, an one little piece of advice – if MT is ‘being’ a koala, keep all of the bobcats away!!!!

HSV Garden Challenge - Month 3

2011-05-27T20:43:00.000-05:00

I almost missed this link up! This is the 3rd post for The Homeschool Village Garden Challenge. The challenge this month is to post:

a current photo of your garden
something you (Mom) have learned
the first dish you have made with your garden produce

From left to right: Kirk's pepper, Maggie's pepper, FRitW's tomato, MT's tomato.
In the background Sugar Snaps with beans planted below.

If you read my blog anyway, you know that I covered the dishes I have made with our garden in a post last week (click here to read that). We are still eating out of our garden on a daily basis and this week again have an abundance of Sugar Snap Peas. We have eaten chicken and veggie stir fry until we are a bit tired of it, so if you have ANY other ways of preparing sugar snaps (besides raw and stir fry) please share! We also had our root vegetable bake again with potatoes, carrots, onion, and herbs. Delicious!

The potato beds tonight

We just spent an hour or so in the garden this evening digging up the final potato plants. We dug up lots of potatoes so they will be a staple in our meals this week. The weather has been getting hotter and hotter and the plants have begun to die. It was time to dig them up.

The potatoes that were in those beds.

The fading sugar snaps with beans growing below them.

The Sugar Snaps are beginning to die as well and probably will be ready to pull up in another week. We already planted a variety of beans under the pea plants so they can make use of the fence.

Squash, melons, corn, and green beans

Dad and I scoured the Home and Garden stores for tomato and pepper plants last weekend and are going to have to look some more this weekend. That brings us to what I have learned this year: Greenhouses can get too hot. Maggie and I started seeds several times and those that came up fried, but many did not even come up. I've learned that you must vent your greenhouse if it begins to get too warm. We went through lots of seed with very little results. The greenhouse will get another chance, but not until I learn a little more about how to effectively use it.

Corn and beans are planted in some of the row middles.

We finally grew carrots!

Thank you for visiting my garden again - I'll be hopping around seeing some of yours too!

TOS Review: Read For The Heart

2011-05-27T14:47:00.000-05:00

Read For The Heart by Sarah Clarkson is not just a book about books. It's a beautiful reminder of why I read. Miss Clarkson does provide parents with a list of whole, living books to share with your child, but she also explores how her parents helped create an environment that encouraged a love for learning through books and in doing so offers suggestions for the rest of us. I truly enjoyed reading her memories from childhood as well as her reading recommendations.

The book lists in Read For The Heart are divided into chapters:

Picture books
The Golden Age Classics
Children's Fiction
Fairy Tales and Fantasy
History and Biography
Spiritual Reading for Children
Poetry
Music, Art, and Nature

The chapters are not just lists, but short 'book reports' to help you choose literature of interest to your child or to enhance your child's studies.

The appendices include lists of Caldecott Medalists, Newbery Medalists, G.A. Henty books, Landmark History Books, the Trailblazer Series, and a listing of favorites for boys, girls, family read-alouds, and audiobooks.

I loved reading this book. The author's writing style is enjoyable and easy to read. As I've already mentioned, I particularly enjoyed her stories of how special literature has been in her life. I've always considered myself a reader and Kirk and Maggie have an unquenchable appetite for books, but I've noticed that with the increase of media, my reading has fallen off. Since receiving this book, I've made it a point to spend more time reading to my children as well as reading for pleasure. I was introduced to some new stories through Read For The Heart, because although I read everything the libraries offered as a child, many new wonderful books have been written in the last, ahem, few years - like Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran. This is definitely a must read and reminded me of my own childhood and the many towns my siblings and I built.

A few especially nice features about this book are:

an index of Illustrators and Authors
a separate index of book titles
Book recommendations often include other books by that author or illustrator or books related by topic

The only thing I missed in Read For The Heart were books for older children. There were some recommendations for High School age reading, but not many. I did however feel it was a wonderful resource for children through the Junior High age and am thrilled to own it! This would also make a very nice gift for a fellow homeschool mom.

Read For The Heart is published and sold by Apologia and available through their website for $17.00.

Several other crew members are posting their thoughts on Apologia's Read For The Heart, click here to read their reviews.

**Any products reviewed by me as a member of the 2010-2011 TOS Homeschool Crew have been given to me free of charge in order for me to provide you with an honest review of the product and/or how we used the product within our family. I do not receive any other form of compensation for the reviews posted on this blog.

TOS Review: enVisionMATH from Pearson Education

2011-05-23T21:18:00.000-05:00

Several weeks ago, I received a rather large box in the mail. I was expecting this package, but not its size. It was supposed to be a 1st Grade Math book from Pearson Education. It was, but I was very surprised by it's size. See?

It is called enVisionMATH. This is the 1st grade level and my intention was to use it with FRitW as he would be in 1st grade if he were in school. He has never used a written math curriculum, so I was interested to see how he would respond to enVisionMATH. But first, let me tell you what I know about this program.

The book is huge! But as soon as you open it, you understand why. Each page is designed to be removed from the book and folded in half, making a little booklet for the student. My first thought was that this would be ideal for homeschoolers that use workboxes or folders for individual work.

Tear out the page

Fold the page in half to make a booklet

After looking further at the pages though, it is obvious that they are designed to be used in a more traditional school setting. The front page of the booklet has no instruction, but does have a note at the bottom that makes it clear that it is designed to be sent home with the student. The note includes an explanation of what your child is learning about and an activity you can do with your child to reinforce the skill learned. Inside the booklet and on the back are some activities with simple directions for your child to complete. There are some full page gameboards (with instructions! Yay!) and tests .

One of the game boards

Upon searching through the box and the website, it became clear that I did not have access to any instructions or a teacher's guide. My husband laughed - "Do you really need a teacher's guide for 1st Grade Math?" Normally, no. But, look at the page pictured below:

Hmmm… No instructions, no pictures, just a few blanks. The "Home Connection" at the bottom says, "Your child used connecting cubes to represent subtraction stories and to write number sentences about the stories." Well, I am a Mom by design and a Homeschooler by trade, so I decided it was time to use this book the homeschool way: Tweak it! I pulled out sheets for MT and FRitW and grabbed some colorful blocks for manipulatives and we created our own lessons. The boys enjoyed using manipulatives to create problems for the first page and to recreate the problems on the inner pages of the lessons. They especially enjoyed being able to doing those worksheets with Kirk and Maggie!

I found the Pearson website extremely difficult to navigate and geared toward a public or private school curriculum buyer, but the math book I received is available for individual purchase. The $34.47 price tag includes the student book plus digital access. As I did not receive the digital access, I cannot explain how that might help.

Overall, I don't see this as something I would purchase for our homeschool. A few things that don't work for us are: the price tag for a consumable product, the obvious slant to a public/private school setting, the number of pages I would have to make up directions for (I can and already do this without a workbook), and the difficulty in using the website. On the other hand, it is 'tweakable'. The pages are colorful, fun, and I'm sure you can come up with activities to teach the concept - Kirk and Maggie actually came up with problems for the first pages when they worked with the little boys.

TOS Crew Members received Reading and Social Studies curriculums from Pearson, in addition to the Math I received. Click here to see what the other Crew Members thought.

From Garden to Table

2011-05-18T19:48:00.000-05:00

Corn and Beans

We got home from vacation Sunday afternoon and the first thing we did was check out the garden. Two weeks ago we planted beans, corn, squash, tomatoes, peppers, and peanuts so we were anticipating lots of new plants. We were not disappointed! Almost everything was up and growing well!

We found lots of Sugar Snap Peas ready to pick, several large potatoes, and plenty of onions ready. We added the overgrown lettuces to the compost pile – they were as tall as FRitW! The smaller lettuces looked great so one came in for supper. Maggie also found a purple pepper on her plant.

One of the overgrown lettuces

Lots of Sugar Snap Peas

Maggie's Purple Pepper

Sunday's pickings!

So far this week, we’ve had some garden produce with each supper meal. Sunday night, we made a chicken stir-fry with sugar snaps and onions and that purple pepper. We also had some of the lettuce for a salad. Monday we mashed some garden potatoes to go with our meal. Tuesday I made spaghetti with fresh onion and basil, thyme, and oregano from the garden.

The first carrot - a Purple Dragon carrot (it's orange inside)

The perfect carrot, a nice length and thickness

A little bit short and stubby, but he's happy!

MT loves picking the onions.

Wednesday's Haul

The herbs the boys and I picked.

Today we pulled 6 carrots that looked big enough to eat! I have never, ever successfully grown carrots and was so excited to find that this year is ‘the year of the carrot’! Maggie, FRitW, and MT each pulled two carrots. I wanted to have them with supper, but 6 short carrots don’t make much of a meal. Looking around, I decided that potatoes and onions added to the carrots would make a nice root vegetable bake. FRitW and MT helped me pick more basil, oregano, thyme, and sage and we mixed everything together with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper for a delicious (and colorful) side dish! We also picked lots more sugar snaps, so tomorrow we’ll have those with supper. Any suggestions for using sugar snaps?

Potatoes, carrots, onion, herbs, and a little olive oil. Yum!

TOS Review: WonderMaps from Bright Ideas Press

2011-05-16T06:00:00.002-05:00

This year, both Kirk and Maggie are studying Ancient History. One of the most difficult things about history or geography studies is finding accurate maps. This is especially true of Ancient history. Look at a current world map. You just might be surprised at how much boundaries have changed since you were in school. Now, just add a few thousand more years of change and that will give you an clearer idea of how difficult it can be to map events in Ancient Greece. The WonderMaps program from Bright Ideas Press has made a huge difference in our family’s history studies!

Do you need to know who and where the Axis and Allies were? Would you like it with color coded and labeled with country names?– WonderMaps has that. Would you rather have your student color and label it? – WonderMaps can do that too. Perhaps you are studying China and want to compare the borders of the Tang and Han Dynasties – WonderMaps has you covered there as well and while you are at it, overlay China’s modern border for a comparison! The variety of maps is amazing!

Maggie has used WonderMaps extensively over the last several weeks. She can print the map she needs in black and white or color, with labels or without, and even compare current borders with historical maps. She is working through Mystery of History, Volume One right now and has been able to print maps in a postcard size to add to her timeline. She has also enjoyed being able to use the ‘modern overlay’ tab to see how modern day boundaries compare to historical boundaries.

A Teacher’s Guide tab offers suggestions for unit studies, activity ideas, and a user’s guide. There are specific maps to align with Mystery of History, Volumes One through Three and All American History Volumes One and Two. The program is extremely simple to navigate, Maggie figured it out with absolutely no instruction from me. WonderMaps is presented from a Creation standpoint which makes it an ideal mapping program for our family and the $49.95 price is very reasonable for a product you will use over and over for all of your children.

I love this quick video demonstrating the features :

WonderMaps is available from Bright Ideas Press for $49.95. If you subscribe to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine - check your latest issue for a 20% savings on WonderMaps!

See what other TOS Crew members thought of WonderMaps by clicking here.

HSV Garden Challenge - Month 2

2011-04-28T21:12:00.000-05:00

Today is the second link up with the Homeschool Village Garden Challenge. Our garden is growing vigorously and I'm happy to share some of our progress:

This month we are to include:

PHOTO: of progress/growth
RESOURCES: any new books or studies being used
PROBLEMS: any speed bumps encountered
INVOLVEMENT: children's participation

Well, photos are NOT a problem! During our Easter egg hunts, many photos were taken of the garden. It was a perfect place to hide eggs!

My dad and uncle hiding eggs near the potato plants.

Maggie finding some of those eggs.

Potato plant bloom!

My husband helping our niece find more eggs in the potato patch.

Eggs hidden in the lettuce plants during our first hiding of the eggs.

FRitW found the egg hidden here in our second hunt. These lettuces will be eaten this week.

From left to right: potatoes, carrots, small lettuces, onions and big lettuces, sugar snap peas.

Sugar Snaps are blooming.

Baby tomatoes on FRitW's Homely Homer Plant.

Resources: We have begun to use Homeschool Creations Garden Preschool Pack with FRitW and MT. It is based around the book, Jack's Garden by Henry Cole, which is a delightful book. The boys love the illustrations of worms, insects, birds, and plants included on the pages. Kirk and Maggie and I have taken turns playing the games and puzzles from the Preschool Pack with FRitW and MT. We've used sequencing cards to retell the story, played memory games with rhyming words and vegetables and sorted seed packets.

Problems: Our first problem has been the grass reclaiming our garden. There is a lot of weeding involved this year!
The second problem has been knowing when to plant. Usually we plant right after Easter, but with Easter coming so late this year, I am nervous that we have waited too long. Time will tell.

Involvement: The kids have been faithful to tend their own plants, but have also been a great help in the rest of the garden. We garden as a family, so they know that they are expected and required to help and each finds something they enjoy doing. Maggie and I pull alot of the weeds by hand, while Dad and Kirk use a hoe or rake to clean up the beds as well as doing some hand weeding. They keep grass from the edges and ends of the rows, while the little boys gather all of the pulled weeds from the middle of the rows and take them to the compost pile.

Coming up next in our garden: We will be planting tomatoes, peppers, squash, green beans, melons, and peanuts in the next week. Hopefully we will have peas to pick in another week as well and maybe a few new potatoes. Some lettuce and onions will arrive on our supper table this week as well!

Honeysuckle

2011-04-22T14:00:00.001-05:00

The Honeysuckle are in full bloom! FRitW and MT don't remember ever trying Honeysuckle, so I grabbed my camera and gave them a quick lesson.

Every child should try Honeysuckle at least once - don't you think?

Easter Baskets

2011-04-21T19:28:00.000-05:00

As of last night, I had given up! I wanted to grow grass in our Easter baskets for the egg hunting this year. I finally got everything together to do so last weekend. (Can you say PROCRASTINATOR?)

We lined the baskets with a trash bag and added potting soil.

The kids covered the soil liberally with grass seed.

We watered and set them in the sun.

Last night I checked them one more time before going to bed and nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not a blade of grass in sight.

“Next year,” I told myself, “Next year, I will remember to plant the grass earlier!”

So this morning, when Kirk checked the baskets, I was surprised at his response. He called me over to look and …

I'll trim off the trash bags before Sunday, and what a lovely nest our eggs will have!

TOS Crew Review: Growing Healthy Homes, Nutrition 101: Choose Life!

2011-04-20T22:32:00.000-05:00

For a few years now, our family has attempted to be healthier. We have made many changes in the foods we eat, attempting to eat more local, fresh, whole foods. There seems to be a trend, probably more like a fad, to eat ‘healthier’ and the stores support the trend with multiple products claiming to be healthy, natural, or organic. It has been difficult to find a pathway to good health balanced with less processed foods. So, I was thrilled to be chosen to review Growing Healthy Homes Nutrition 101: Choose Life!

Nutrition 101: Choose Life! is 448 pages of information about how your body works, how it utilizes or rejects the foods we feed ourselves, and recommendations not only for healthy foods, but for ways to introduce them to your family. The book is divided into six units:

The Brain and Nervous System
The Digestive System
The Respiratory, Olfactory, Auditory, and Visual Systems
The Skeletal and Muscular Systems
The Cardiovascular and Immune Systems
The Endocrine System and Emotions

Each unit is divided into 4 chapters that explain the body system, how it works, how different foods affect it and why. There is a variety of activities included for each lesson to appeal to older and younger children as well as visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learners. We also found recipes throughout the book to help us add the good foods to our diets (delicious, kid-friendly recipes!).

The appendices are a goldmine of information and include a Choose Life! Food Pyramid, information about choosing vegetables and fruits in a store, a breakdown of oils and their properties, and so much more. The Appendices are approximately one third of the book.

Nutrition 101: Choose Life! is exactly what I have been looking for to provide our children with a good basis for healthy eating. I am able to use it with all four of our kids even with their wide range of ages. The information is presented in an easy to read colorful format and there are activities that all of them can participate in. I personally loved the suggestions for encouraging your family (and yourself) to try new foods and was very pleased by the discussions of how and why certain foods affect your body.

A great way to begin incorporating healthier foods are the activities that have the student create a tasty menu that incorporates ‘brain healthy’ or ‘digestive healthy’ foods. For example: Unit One, Chapter Four asks the student to create a complete dinner menu with four times the RDA of thiamin. It must include all of the food groups, include a variety of foods and taste good. Then they are to prepare it for the family. (We haven’t done this one yet, but I look forward to the creativity it will inspire!)

We have already made some changes as a result of this book. We have changed the oils we are using and increased our vegetable intake and I have been inspired to restart my exercise routine. Even the little boys are more aware of why certain foods are a good choice and why others are not.

Click here to view a sample of Growing Healthy Homes Nutrition 101: Choose Life! You will find information about the authors, portions of 3 different units and some of the activities. There is even a recipe included in this sneak peek! Also consider joining the Homeschoolblogger.com live webinar tomorrow (Thursday, April 21st) at 4-5:30 pm Eastern or 3:00-4:30 pm Central.

Nutrition 101: Choose Life! is available as a physical book for $99.95, on CD for $79.95, or as a combination package of book and CD for $129.95. Growing Healthy Homes has offered a 15% discount to my readers! Just use TOScrew11 to receive your discount.

Other crew members also reviewed Nutrition 101 – click here to read what they have to say about it.

Perse Anality Project - March/April

2011-04-18T21:47:00.000-05:00

It is time to share my March Perse Anality Project. (Read this post to learn more about Perse Anality) The March project is a larger bag and honestly, the color scheme is not my favorite, but it turned out nicely. Here is the bag from the kit:

I’m in the habit of washing and drying my fabric before sewing and this time I got a bit impatient. Maybe that is because dedicated crafting time doesn’t come easy around here. So, while the kit fabric was washing, I pulled a few pieces out of my stash and stitched this up:

The directions called for a flat strip of fabric (the red on the kit bag) to be sewn into the purse before stitching the pleats, but I wanted something a little more interesting, so I cut the strip twice as long as the pattern suggested and ruffled the strip on my stash bag. On the kit bag, I decided to pleat the strip.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with all of these purses I will be making…

Abilene, Day Two

2011-04-17T06:00:00.068-05:00

Sunday morning dawned windy – this is West Texas after all – and we planned to spend the morning at the Abilene Zoo. The zoo wasn’t open when we arrived, but luckily the park was! All 6 of us played for almost an hour at this park – oh my it was fun! It was designed to be a frontier town complete with bank, jail, and mountain to climb.

Doesn't this look interesting?

This jail was created for escapes!

Another daring escape

This is MT's idea of a 'mean guy face'

Oh no! Dad is taking MT to jail!

And she's in the air!

For years we used Abilene as a good halfway stop between our home and Dad’s parent’s home. We always stopped at this park and played at the playground when it was just a plain old playground. We never went to the zoo, so this was a first for our family. Several of the animals were put up for the winter, but in the water birds exhibit a flock of ducks was visiting. Due to the wind, the nearby pond was too choppy for them to land, but the bird exhibit was sheltered and therefore perfect for a rest!

Between the zoo and the park was this pond. The wind was strong enough that you could feel an occasional spray from the pond while inside the zoo!

The geese are part of the exhibit, everyone else is a visitor - I think... Oh the noise was something else!

A native West Texan, Dad wasn't bothered by the wind on the giraffe walk. The rest of us were getting blown around up there. Usually you can feed the giraffes from here, but today they were staying low, out of the wind. Isn't the sky beautiful though?

The curious zebra

We enjoyed the giraffe exhibit with its walk over bridge and the zebras made us feel as though we were on exhibit instead of them. A recently opened native exhibit was active with mountain lions, wild turkeys, and a river otter. The indoor reptile and bird exhibits were well-done and a nice break from the continual buffeting of the wind. The animals in all of the exhibits were active and curious like this lion cub, who ran over to us and climbed up to see if we would play. He was very cute, but I think that my boys might play a little rough for him! ~grin~

Want to play???

On the way home, we took the backroads and took a quick detour through Dinosaur Valley State Park. We have wanted to see this park, but just haven’t found the time, so we stopped to see if it would be something worth coming back to see, and ended up wading the afternoon away. We walked in dinosaur footprints, explored the creek, and made plans to return. Finally we headed home, a bit sandy and tired, but thankful for the family time over the weekend.

FRitW, enjoying the cool creek on this very warm day.

Big Brother, Little Brother

I included this one, just because it's cute.

The little guys

and the bigger ones

3 toed dinosaur print

another 3 toed dinosaur print

and more...

Oh, and yes, I did get my sugar!

Heading West

2011-04-16T06:00:00.092-05:00

Sometimes I am meticulous about our trip planning. I like to know exactly when and where we will be and have a plan for every contingency. Sometimes there isn't time to plan. Let me share an example:

It is Friday afternoon and Dad is home. He has been gone a lot and currently there are no problem jobs looming over the weekend. But sometimes, being only a phone call away is just too close, so Dad proposes a quick weekend trip. I am out of my favorite brand of sugar (yes, I am a sugar snob… but that’s another story) and he half-jokingly proposes a trip to Abilene to buy sugar. I say half jokingly because he truly wanted to take a trip far enough out of town to be unavailable for a job call, and Abilene really does have my sugar, but seriously, a 600 mile round trip drive to buy sugar?

By evening we were on the road. We stopped near near Arlington and were headed west again early Saturday morning, really early actually, as we arrived in Abilene by 9:30 am. We started with a tour of the Buffalo Gap Historic Village. This little gathering of historical buildings chronicles the settlement of the Abilene area from 1875 to 1925. We explored barns, gardens, the train depot, and a blacksmith. The old playground outside the schoolhouse was enticing and the cannon ball damage on the front of the courthouse intriguing. We were ushered through the entire experience by recorded narrations, some especially prepared for children. MT and FRitW loved finding the correct number and typing it in their ‘phones’.

Maggie snapped this photo of the rest of us on the porch of the post office.

No one can resist a playground!

The school is in the background

MT loved listening to the recordings!

A little lesson from Dad about Sundials which by the way was not on Daylight Savings Time, hmmm...

Walking on the train tracks

Visiting the Blacksmith - notice that MT still has his 'phone' to his ear.

MT pointing to the numbers to type in the 'phone'

After lunch, we headed to Frontier Texas! an incredible interactive museum/experience. The lady at the desk asked if we were a homeschool family (it was a Saturday, so I’m not sure how she knew) and gave us some great discounts: teacher and student in addition to our coupon – yay! Then we entered this absolutely amazing gem of a museum. Wow!! I wish the photos could tell you what it was like to actually be there. Again, this museum focused on Texas history – specifically settlements in the Abilene area, cattle trails, and relationships with Native Texans.

This painted screen would suddenly dim and the 3D image below would appear...

...complete with war whoops and thundering pony hooves!

While walking through this darkened area...

lightning would flash and you would realize you were in the middle of a longhorn cattle stampede!

Exploring modes of travel

This was actually the beginning. In this room you were introduced to important characters in Texas history and the panels behind lit up with the character discussed

Here the panel for Pedro Vial is lit.

Later in the museum you encountered each character in holographic form telling his or her story. Comanche leader Eshihabitu is pictured here.

Next we headed to the ruins at Fort Phantom Hill. This is a self-guided kind of site, out in the middle of nowhere, with simply an open gate to suggest it is available to tour. But it was fascinating! It amazes me to see these stone chimneys, basements, and storage buildings still intact. We brought with us a brochure explaining the history of Fort Phantom Hill. It included letters from soldiers stationed there, and descriptions of the buildings and their functions. It was especially neat to be able to explore it on our own and being able to touch and enter the ruins.

The storehouse was very low to the ground, so Dad & MT just looked right over the top of the wall.

FRitW & MT inside the storage building

Exploring the cannon. Chimneys in the background were from officers quarters. The buildings were made of wood, so the only remaining parts are the stone chimneys and foundations.

The only standing building on the grounds

We went out on a limb and stayed in a local hotel instead of a national chain and were pleasantly surprised. The kids made friends with other children and a puppy and had a grassy courtyard to play in.

Fit Mommy Friday - The Prodigal Daughter Returns

2011-04-15T14:44:00.000-05:00

I am joining up with Fit Mommy Friday again. I have not participated at all for several weeks and just to be truthful, that is because I haven't had anything to report. I took a week completely off from exercise (in February I think?) and focused on resting and recovery from Dad's job changes and the changes they cause for me. And then, well, I just didn't return to the regular exercise.

I haven't been totally lazy, I've worked hard in my garden, worked out weekly with my trainer, and walked occasionally with my friend. We've also traveled (which always involves lots of exercise!) and done some Spring Cleaning. But for the last couple of weeks I have been reviewing Growing Healthy Homes (more on that Wednesday) and have seen some changes I really need to make in my families diet and my exercise. So I decided to just get up and do it. So here's my week:

Friday: Walked 2 miles
Saturday: Worked hours in the garden
Sunday: More garden work - just an hour though.
Monday: Wii Active & Fit Plus for 35 minutes
Tuesday: Hour with trainer, 30 min Wii Fit Plus
Wednesday: Garden work 1 hour plus, Wii Active - 25 min
Thursday: 20 min Wii Active

I am drinking more water and increasing my vegetable intake although yesterday was a pretty heavy coffee day -ugh! I'll just have to keep trying!

Thank you to Denise at Got Chai? for sponsoring Fit Mommy Friday (and for being honest about her struggles!) and a special thank you to Sister Tipster for keeping on and encouraging the rest of us to do the same - I appreciate it Sister T!

On The Road Again...

2011-04-13T19:38:00.000-05:00

I mentioned in December that we would be traveling more, seeing museums and historic sites as a part of our learning adventure (aka homeschooling). What I did not know at that time, was that God had already set some plans in motion for us to make that more possible. Let me explain…

The kids and I at the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, PA

Until FRitW was about one, Dad had a job that required almost constant travel, and until MT was one his position required intermittent travel. For the next three years he worked in a more ‘desk-like’ capacity (or as desk-like as he could tolerate) and was home most of the time. The best thing about his traveling jobs was that we could tag along when we wanted to and only had to pay for extra expenses we incurred. That meant we only had to pay for our own food, gas, and fun – so we tagged along pretty frequently.

Dad and the kids at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado

We saw the Liberty Bell, Mesa Verde, and tons of historical and scientific places throughout Texas and Louisiana. Then came the desk job. We loved having Dad home each night and settled into some more traditional extracurricular activities: Dance, Football, Tennis, etc. None of us even realized how much we missed the traveling until the little guys were walking, verbal, and out of diapers. But how could we leave Dad at home to fend for himself while we were out gallivanting around the country?

Off and on during his ‘desk-job’ years, Dad was sent out to help during troublesome jobs or job failures. He has the knowledge to correct many problems and his laid-back, calm demeanor helps diffuse difficult, tense situations. He was being sent out more frequently, but still had to maintain his job duties in the office. This was getting increasingly difficult for him and our family. He was actually gone the entire month of December, arriving home two days before Christmas, tired , but with an interesting job proposal.

At Four Corners

Here is where I realized that God had been handling the details. While I had been planning to begin traveling again, Dad’s employer had been planning a new job assignment. The day he arrived home from his December across the state job, his bosses asked him to consider giving up his desk job and being full-time available to handle the problems. No details were given, just a request to think on it. Ummm…Christmas holiday, lots of questions and concerns, absolutely no answers to be had, a husband who had been absent for most of the busiest month of the year… I was stressed! As we discussed and discussed, and after Christmas, got answers, I realized that this solved my biggest concern over traveling. Once again, we could travel when he did. We were ready for this change, and I’d already begun preparing for it, even though I didn’t know it was coming. He was ready for this change as well and has been much happier since – being out in the field is so much more fitting for his personality!

We’ve already been across Texas and down Texas and back again, as you will see if I ever get time to post about our February and March trips. I hope you will join us as we play and learn, and learn to travel again!

The Garden in April

2011-04-10T13:23:00.000-05:00

3 rows of potatoes

Our garden is growing! The potatoes are large enough that we mulched them this week. I purchase most of my potatoes from The Potato Garden and their catalog has helpful tips about growing potatoes. Last year we tried growing potatoes their way and had wonderful results, so I am very excited about our upcoming crop. The Potato Garden recommends piling mulch around the stem of your potato plants, gradually building up the soil as the plant grows. The potatoes will grow in that loose rich mulch and your plants will produce more potatoes. When we were in Atwoods this morning we found a few last seed potatoes on sale for 31 cents per pound, so we bought what was left and planted those today. It is probably too late to be planting potatoes, but I am willing to spend 31 cents to try!

We have a few strawberry blooms and have actually picked 6 strawberries off one plant. Sugar snap pea plants are beginning to climb the fence, but the heat is already here, so I'm not sure we will get many peas. Carrots have sprouted finally and I am hoping for at least one successful carrot! That will be one more than I have ever had…

The lettuces are happy and the onions ecstatic - I can't believe how well they are doing. Soon I will get our main crops in the ground. April is the month to plant in our area. But there is always one last little frost or freeze right before Easter, so Dad wants to wait just a little longer. He hates having to replant!

In preparation for the real planting, Maggie and I refilled the greenhouse today. We planted tomatoes and peppers, a little squash and some sunflowers. Hopefully this planting will be more successful than February's. The greenhouse was left open at night several times (accidentally!) and all of our baby plants froze.

Dad says I need to wait two more weeks… if I can... It's been in the upper 80's to lower 90's during the days and 70's to 80's at night. It is very hard to not plant tomatoes when the weather is this nice!

TOS Crew Review: Kinderbach

2011-04-06T15:21:00.000-05:00

What is Kinderbach? Well, it is a music teaching tool for children ages 3 to 7. Kinderbach uses the piano or a keyboard to teach your child to read and understand music, and eventually to play. There are 6 levels (with Level 7 coming soon!) and each level consists of 10 weeks of lessons. The lessons have entertaining videos, worksheets, and activities or games to reinforce the learning.

My children were a little resistant at first, but quickly responded to Karri - the host on the videos as well as the founder and creator of Kinderbach. Karri encourages the kids to play along and my kids did! They enjoyed following Frisco’s lead and walking the notes or hopping up for high notes and squatting down for low notes. After the lesson that involved listening for high and low notes, FRitW and MT took turns playing high or low notes on the piano and letting the other do the worksheet provided.

The interactive videos were entertaining and short enough to hold a child’s attention. We used our Wii to access the videos, so the kids could see easily and spread out in the living room to do the activities. The variety of activities and worksheets are sure to appeal to many different types of learners. We recently purchased a piano so Kinderbach was a great way to introduce our new instrument. Several times I’ve noticed the kids trying out things they learned from the Kinderbach videos, like rhythm patterns and finger placements.

We did have some issues with Kinderbach in the online format. We had videos stop in the middle of playing and had to wait for them to load – but we live in the country and are very limited on internet service. We also had trouble hearing the piano part of a piece when there were background instruments playing. The background instruments sometimes drowned out the piano notes.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Kinderbach program. Kinderbach offers the first two weeks of lessons free online so you can try it out to see if it is a good fit for your family as well.

The full program is available online or on DVD’s. Online memberships are $95.88 per year (which works out to $7.99 per month) or $19.99 if paid monthly. The DVD’s begin at $40.45 and are a great choice if you have a slow internet connection.

Click here to see what other Crew members thought about Kinderbach.

TOS Crew Review: Go Go KaBongo!

2011-04-04T21:43:00.000-05:00

Go Go Kabongo is a silly, funny, colorful online world designed for children aged 4-7. As fun and silly as it is, it is also a learning experience. Go Go KaBongo helps children develop the essential skills needed to read. The chart below shows the skills learned as they play each game. The games were fast moving and creative, and my little guys loved them.

Go Go Kabongo consists of three ‘habitats’: Laughter Lake, Twister Top, and Galaxy Gardens. Each habitat has a zany character to show you the rules and three games to play. The games start out very simply and grow more difficult as the player’s skills improve.

Laughter Lake’s games are Critter Sizer, Going Buggy, and Scuba Dude. Critter Sizer requires your child to make quick decisions about whether an animal is large or small. Going Buggy encourages the player to listen carefully to recreate a story using bugs and spiders. Scuba Dude tests your memory as you search for the correct shells and starfish and make sure you find them in the correct order without running into sharks!

Twister Top’s games are Desert Dash, Crazy Maze, and Design-a-Door. In Desert Dash the player hears letter sounds and must drive over them in the correct order while avoiding obstacles. Crazy Maze starts with a word family and allow the student to move a beginning sound through a maze to the word ending to create a word. Design-a-Door is a memory game, with the player studying the patterns on a door and after a set time having to recreate the door from memory.

Galaxy Gardens games are Robo Bobo, Rocket Racer, and Photo Safari. Robo Bobo is a puzzle game where you fill in the missing shapes. Rocket Racer is a letter finding race as the player tries to select the correct letter based on its sound. Photo Safari requires a little planning as the player clicks on animals to photograph and then must find a special item for each animal in order to earn more film.

We have really enjoyed these games and Go Go Kabongo is super affordable. Go Go Kabongo is a new site and offers Laughter Lake absolutely free (just click the blue 'play now' circle on the home page.) For a limited time they are also offerning Galaxy Gardens for free when you sign up and Twister Top is available for a one time fee of $4.95. That means that right now you can have access to the entire site for $4.95 per child. That is not a monthly fee, but a ONE-TIME fee of only $4.95 if you sign up now!

Other TOS Crew members reviewed this game too – click here to see what they thought.

Perse Anality Project - Month One

2011-04-03T16:41:00.000-05:00

I decided to join a monthly project club this year. I found a fun one available through a quilt shop, not too far from here. Stitchin' Heaven in Quitman, TX is offering Perse Anality's Tote Club for 2011. The perse designs are created by Cara Quilts. I began in February and received a bright pink, purple, and paisley purse to produce (say that 3 times fast! ~grin~) I always wash my fabric first and when I did, I managed to lose my instructions. Hmmm... now what?

Well, it finally occurred to me that the sweet ladies at Stitchin' Heaven might be able to help me - and I was absolutely correct. A super fast email response from Niki got be right back on track. So, with emailed instructions (saved to my hard drive in case I lose the print out again!) I began this cute little purse.

The whole project took me about 2 hours and Maggie was thrilled with the results! I love the overall shape of the purse, but am not a real fan of pink and purple. Maggie however has been the Purple Princess as of late and even happened to be wearing hot pink and purple as she modeled the new purse.

I have March's Perse to get finished (hopefully before I receive the April pattern in the mail) so watch for another Perse Anality post soon!

TOS Homeschool Crew Review: Z Guide to the Movies

2011-04-01T06:00:00.001-05:00

Zeezok Publishing Z Guides are a wonderful way to turn movies into homeschool supplements. We received a copy of The Adventures of Robin Hood Z Guide to use. This Z Guide is for the High School level, but there are also some Middle School level guides.

Our Z Guide included a 5 day plan for using the guide with the 1938 version of The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn to delve into topics such as Medieval English History, Ethnic Conflict, Chivalry, and Civil Disobedience. The Z Guide provides historical background information, an overview of the movie, and ten learning activities to create a thorough study of the film.

Kirk was the tester for our Z Guide. We rented the correct Robin Hood film from Netflix and printed out the Z Guide. Kirk’s first task was to watch the movie and answer the review questions. These are designed to help your student stay tuned into the movie and pick out important moments or events. Next he was lead to learn more about King Richard and Prince John. This research was completed with an encyclopedia, a G.A. Henty book (or two) and an internet search. Eighteen questions really helped him gather specific, relative information.

Day Two activities were further questions, these designed to help you see the differences between the Normans and the Saxons and the Feudal System. I think Kirk enjoyed the short answer format with occasional fill-in-the-blank questions. I liked the depth of the questions. These are thought provoking questions that uncover historical and cultural lessons.

Day Three moved away from questions to answer. Kirk was instructed to compose and record an oath defining how he would live his life. A discussion of Robin Hood’s excellence in archery further challenges the student to be the best he or she can be and they are given the assignment of choosing an activity they desire to be proficient in and setting up a practice schedule to provide accountability.

Day Four was a word search and a challenge to practice the Golden Rule. Kirk was encouraged to think of someone he doesn’t get along with and work hard for one year to do something nice once a month for that person.

Day Five included a Worldview Activity, asking students to consider and discuss the actions of characters in the movie. These were tough questions! Sometimes the line between right and wrong can be so blurry. The final activity for Day Five was a discussion that brought out many interesting techniques used by the filmmakers.

Finally were questions designed for family discussion. We did watch the movie several times as a family and enjoyed arguing about who was right or wrong and why.

We really enjoyed the Z Guide for The Adventure of Robin Hood and will definitely buy further Z Guides. They were meaty enough to be worth the $12.99 , and simple enough to include in any study. I learned a lot just from watching the movie and the discussions sparked by the Z Guide.

Zeezok Publishing has a number of Z Guides available for movies, some of which are:

They have an amazing variety and also offer the movies for sale (The Adventures of Robin Hood DVD is a very reasonable $12.98). Check out the full listing by clicking here.

Click here to see what other members of the TOS Homeschool Crew thought about Z-Guides.

Garden 2011 - The Saga Continues...

2011-03-31T17:48:00.001-05:00

The Homeschool Village is hosting Garden Challenge 2011 and even though I just posted about our garden, I decided to join the Challenge! I learned about it from WonderMom over at The Fantastic Five blog. Today is the first day of the challenge so there is still time to join in. To share your garden, or potted plants all you need to do is post these four things:

PHOTO — 1 current photo where you will be gardening (actual location)
PLANS – what you are/have/gonna plant – (seeds / starter plants / herbs)
RESOURCES — books, magazines, verses, unit study, etc.
INVOLVEMENT — homeschooler’s reaction / participation / anticipation

Some of this was covered in yesterday’s post, but I will recap that and add a little more information. Oh, in case you are new to my blog, there won't be just one photo! ~grin~

The area we will be gardening is a sloped area to the west of our house. We have had a smaller garden in the past, but tilled up more than twice as much ground this year. Our garden measures about 70 feet by 20 feet. We added composted cow manure and a little peat moss to enrich the soil. Our soil is very sandy and not nutrient rich.

About three years ago we planted our first heirloom tomatoes and found that they were much easier to grow than the hybrid tomatoes we had grown in the past. They taste much better too! Since then we have found Seed Savers and Botanical Interests and order most of our seeds from there. I love to find unusual varieties and I read the description on each seed packet before I buy so I can find varieties that can handle the heat and humidity here in East Texas.

Some of last years potatoes and sugar snaps (2010)

So far this year, we have planted 4 varieties of potatoes, sugar snap peas, 4 kinds of carrots, a couple of types of lettuce, red and yellow onions, and strawberries. Dad and Kirk set up this fencing for the sugar snaps to climb. Since the garden is reclaimed from a field of Coastal Bermuda it is very hard to control the ‘weeds’. If you try to pull up the little grass blades you will pull up your plants as well because they have underground runners. We weed carefully and try to wait for the plants to be well established. In another couple of years there will be much less invasive grass coming up in these rows (hopefully!)

We will be adding lots of tomatoes and peppers, watermelons, cantaloupe, yellow squash, zucchini, okra, beans, corn, pumpkins, and many more vegetables to our garden in the coming months. The weather has been so warm that I am very tempted to get those plants in the ground, but we always get one last little freeze right before Easter, so I am patiently, patiently waiting.

Picking potatoes last year (2010)

We don’t really use specific book studies as we garden since this is something we do each year, not just as a homeschooling project, but to feed our family. However, we have many educational resources. By far the favorite educational garden-related resource is the Texas Bug Book : The Good The Bad and The Ugly. This is where we turn to determine if our pests are beneficial or harmful. Unfortunately for me – those humongous spiders that love my garden also help protect my garden. We have learned which insects need to be water gunned off the plants and which will eat the ‘bad guy’ insects. My new favorite resource (by the same authors as the Texas Bug Book – J. Howard Garrett and C. Malcolm Beck) is Texas Organic Vegetable Gardening.

FRitW with his first Homely Homer tomato (2010)

The kids are very much a part of our garden each year. They participate from the first shovelful of dirt turned to the making of the Salsa and stir-fry. They are learning how to decide which varieties are good for our area, how to recognize a plant by its first leaves, how to control pests and encourage beneficial insects, and ways to use fresh produce. This year for a little added fun, we got each child a special plant. Dad and I were on a date at our local Atwoods (oh yes – we know how to have fun!) and found a ‘Homely Homer’ plant. We bought one last year and FRitW adopted it. He waited and waited for the tomato to ripen - so sure it would form a face like on the picture on the plant spike. He has been asking to plant another Homely Homer and yippee! – on this visit to Atwoods, Dad spotted a Homely Homer. Once it was in the cart, we decided it would be fun to look through the wide selection of 4 inch pots and find a plant to fit each of the other kids.
MT, lover of all things orange, got an Orange Oxheart tomato plant.

Maggie, currently in her purple phase, received a Lilac Bell Pepper.

We chose a World’s Hottest Pepper for Kirk because it just seemed to fit.

Our compost pile is another source of educational involvement. We are learning which scraps are good for creation of compost and watching the breakdown of plants, leaves, and food scraps as they become nutritious soil. All of the kids help with adding scraps, turning the pile, and watering it to maintain moisture.

Thanks for visiting my garden! Click here to visit other participants in the HSV Garden Challenge. I visited a few already and was pleasantly surprised to find a mixture of new gardeners and established gardeners.

Garden 2011 – The Saga Begins…

2011-03-30T15:13:00.000-05:00

Last year you might remember seeing weekly posts about my garden. If so, you might know

…that I get impatient waiting for tiny green leaves to make their appearance.

…that I love to try new things in my garden especially if they are an unusual color or have a fun name.

…that I am not always successful, but keep trying.

…I love to take pictures of our efforts.

planting potatoes

This year we made a few changes to the garden. First it is more than double in size. We ran out of room last year, so I am excited about the expansion! Second, we are using a more traditional (orderly Dad-type) row form. I have a tendency to be more scattered, messy, and creative, but that is not very effective in the garden – so Dad got his way with neat orderly raised bed rows. This will also help conserve water on this sloped surface. The third change is a big one. I’ll call that change – education – and I’ll explain it a little more later on.

We also added some new tools to our arsenal. We purchased our own tiller – and of course Kirk is always available to run it for me (it has a motor – ‘nuff said!) We also found this cute, but very useful little greenhouse for starting plants, and I repurposed an old table for a work surface.

Now back to ‘Change # 3’ – education. It is my education in particular. For the last few years we have attempted to garden in a more organic way. We have resisted the use of pesticides and fertilizers and instead used more manual methods. I chose the manual method because I knew very little about organic fertilizers or pesticides. Our manual methods, although often fun, were not terribly effective and last year by late July, all of our squash, pumpkins, corn, and melons were dead. Admittedly, it was a very hot, dry summer and the plants all suffered because of that, but the cause of plant death was not heat, but insects.

This year I purchased Texas Organic Vegetable Gardening by J. Howard Garrett and C. Malcolm Beck. I love this book. I have another book by these authors and besides being quite entertaining in the way they write (and the humorous anecdotes they share) they are very knowledgeable. I am learning so much about organic fertilizers and natural insect controls and am finding them to be effective so far.

I also started a compost pile. After the Great Compost Failure of 2010 (don’t ask!) I wasn’t sure I would venture in to compost territory again, but I borrowed some books from my sister in law and have been much more successful this time. MT loves to carry the compost bowl out to the pile and dump it and FRitW can usually be counted on to water and turn the pile. I find myself checking on my compost pile almost as often as I check for those sweet tiny leaves to make an appearance!

I end this post with a simple warning: This is not the last you will see of my garden this year…

For last year’s garden posts look for the Garden tag at the bottom of this page.

PTI Make It Monday Challenge

2011-03-23T23:57:00.002-05:00

It’s time for a crafty post. It has been a very long time since I participated in any kind of crafty challenge and I’ve missed the fun! This card is part of my Mom’s birthday gift (Shh! I haven’t given it to her yet!) but it also fits the Papertrey Ink Make It Monday challenge perfectly.

This is PaperTrey Ink's 7th Make It Monday: Adding Color to Non-Neutral Cardstock.

This flower is from PTI’s Flower of the Month: Violets stamp set. It may be a Violet stamp, but I really think it looks like a Pansy too. And, since I love Pansies, my card features a Violet turned Pansy. I paper pieced the violet and leaves using two different PTI papers and one paper I had in my stash, but they were just a little too plain, so I following the suggestion in the Make It Monday video – I shaded them a little using my copics.

TOS Review - ARTistic Pursuits

2011-03-23T21:34:00.000-05:00

ARTistic Pursuits curriculum is written by Brenda Ellis, homeschooling mom and artist. She has written the books to be used independently from 4th grade on. (The K-3 books do require a parent’s help.) At the 4-6 grade, 7-9 grade, and 10-12 grade levels there are two books: Book One is Elements of Art and Composition, Book Two is Color and Composition. I received ARTistic Pursuits, Grades 4-6, Book Two to review. I allowed Maggie free rein of this book for the review period, since she is in the grade range.

I have only one complaint about ARTistic Pursuits, so before I gush on and on about its attributes, I will throw out the one little irritant I found. Maggie and I both had a hard time deciding where a lesson began and ended and what exactly the assignment was. Honestly this wasn’t a big deal once we got familiar with the way the book works – once we got used to the layout, we were fine.

Now that that is out of the way, let me tell you a little about how Book two is laid out. There are 16 units in the book, each divided into 4 lessons.

One of Maggie's observation sketches.

Lesson One in each unit introduces art vocabulary. In our book, vocabulary included primary and secondary colors, Point of View, direction and movement. These were very interesting lessons with examples of the vocabulary terms. In addition to learning the vocabulary, the student is encouraged to creatively observe and record something in their world. Maggie found this part to be quite fun. I bought her a sketch book and she spent a lot of time outside watching and sketching birds, and our cat and dog.

Lesson Two was an Art Appreciation lesson. What that means is there is actually a piece of art pictured on the page with a discussion, related to the current unit, about the art. Here is where I would normally struggle – but Brenda Ellis understands that not all of us can look at art and identify colors or lines or point of view, so she has included what I fondly call a ‘cheat sheet’ for the student. Just below the artwork is a sketch with the colors shaded in, or lines drawn to show movement, or photos of the details. I can see exactly what she is describing in the lesson because of these cheat sheets. Included in this lesson as well is some Art History – with information about an artist or period in art.

Maggie loved the Watercolor Pencil techniques!

Lesson Three is a technique lesson. Here is where the student learns the tricks of the trade. ARTistic Pursuits explains how to properly use a brush, or mix colors, or arrange a still life. Each technique lesson has an assignment that uses the technique taught.

Lesson Four combines all of the other lessons into an assignment as a final project is created to apply each thing learned in the unit.

My favorite thing about this curriculum is its lack of specific directions. There is not a lesson that requires you to draw a shoe or a horse or a flower, instead you are given an assignment and allowed to choose your own subject. I found it fun to see what Maggie chose to draw as compared to my ideas when reading the same assignment. She felt more successful applying the techniques when she was able to follow her own interests.

ARTistic Pursuits books include a list of art supplies needed to complete the program. If you like the convenience of one stop shopping, they have assembled Art Supply Packs for each book and even offer links to two other discount art supply stores that offer supply bundles that correlate with ARTistic Pursuits books. We opted to go to our local store and found all of the recommended art supplies quite easily. We bought the recommended brands and are very pleased with the quality of art supplies.

Each ARTistic Pursuits book can be used as a one year, two year, or even one semester curriculum. They are non-consumable and you can use them with children of multiple ages. Even as an adult I learned a lot from the art appreciation and history topics. The Grade 4-6, Book Two Color and Composition text is available on the ARTistic Pursuits website for $42.95.

Click here to see what other TOS Crew members thought about ARTistic Pursuits. Members reviewed various grade level books.

TOS Review - Brill Kids Little Reader Storybooks - Aesop's Fables Volume 1

2011-03-21T06:00:00.035-05:00

In October, I shared my opinion of Brill Kids Little Reader Learning System (Click here for that post). Today's product is a set of storybooks designed to be used in conjunction with the Little Reader Learning System. Brill Kids Little Reader Storybooks have a simple, but oh so effective format to encourage your child to focus on the words as opposed to the pictures in a book.

I received the Aesop's Fables, Volume 1 to review with my children. This set includes 5 softbound books: The Lion and the Mouse, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Fox and the Grapes, The Turtle and The Rabbit, and The Fox and The Crow.

When FRitW and I are reading together, I have noticed that he does not pay any attention to the words, but focuses on the pictures. Often there are a few words he can read, but I have to redirect his attention for him to notice the words and read those he knows. These books are designed for this exact circumstance. I guess that means that I am not the only mom who has experienced this problem!

BrillKids Little Reader Storybooks have words on the left hand page and a picture on the right hand page. There is a flap built into the book to cover the picture as the words are read. Then the parent uncovers the picture, turns the page and replaces the flap while the words are read. I love the way this works. Since the book is designed to be used this way, the boys didn't seem to be bothered by the flap like they might be if I just used a piece of paper to cover the pictures in another book.

Although I definitely like the concept of these books, there were a couple of things that bothered me:

Some of the stories were modified enough to interfere with the 'lesson' that all Aesop's fables include. For example, in The Boy Who Cried Wolf - the boys cries wolf only once, then the actual wolf comes and nobody helps him.
Even with the modifications they included many words beyond the scope of the typical learning to read child. ( a few examples: quite, cunning, realizes)

A particularly impressive part of these books is that you may download and import an electronic version into your Brill Kids Little Reader Program and your children may have the story read to them. The pictures and words match the physical readers, but there is some animation and an arrow points to the word being read. When using the electronic version, you may choose to have the color and font of the text different with each reading. Also, there are 3-4 different voices that rotate through the story and the text is shown alone, then repeated with the illustration visible (in a different voice).

I really like the ability to use the books both physically and on the computer. FRitW and MT enjoyed the books and asked to read them again and again.

Aesop's Fables, Volume 1 is available for the introductory price of $37.50, normally $50.00. Honestly, I felt that this price was a bit steep for 5 softbound readers, but they are well made, sturdy books, and you are able to use them in conjunction with Little Reader if you have it.

Click here to see what other TOS Homeschool Crew members thought about Brill Kids Aesop's Fables.

**Any products reviewed by me as a member of the 2010-2011 TOS Homeschool Crew have been given to me free of charge in order for me to provide you with an honest review of the product and/or how we used the product within our family. I do not receive any other form of compensation for the reviews posted on this blog.

A Boy and His Toad

2011-03-19T18:33:00.002-05:00

Today was a beautiful day with warm breezes and lots of sunshine, so when FRitW asked if they could play in the 'Place for Boats' (as he asks each day) Dad and I finally said "Yes." In no time, MT and FRitW were dressed in their swim clothes and had the hose wide open filling the mud hole.

They had only been playing about 15 minutes before FRitW discovered a toad sharing the mud hole. Obviously spring is on its way! He has been waiting for the first toad for months and this mud hole has provided a plethora of toads over the years.

But this toad is special. He had the privilege of driving a motor boat. Not all toads get to ~~be subjected to~~ um, 'experience' a special moment like this. He seemed to enjoy being in the driver's seat much more than the bait compartment - which was where he rode at first (until Dad found out and suggested that the toad might need a bit more freedom).

Toad had a lovely day, but after 30 minutes or so of boating fun, Kirk took him to the backyard for a little peace and quiet.

This post is a submission to The Christian Home, a blog magazine produced by Mrs. White at The Legacy of Home. Have something to share? Read this article to find out how to submit your post to The Christian Home.