Getting into the school swing

I homeschool my children, which means for me constant change. Every year sometimes even multiple times a year I change up what I am doing and how I am doing it. If a certain textbook is not working I find something new. If a certain way  of teaching is not working I find a new way. Each one of my children is so very different from the rest. That means constant change. what works for one may not work for all of them.

That means lots of work on my part. I do not just buy a box curriculum and follow along daily nor do I use an online school. I write my own lessons, come up with my own ideas and that means lots of work and change. I spend countless hours searching pinterest, my favorite art blogs and the library for just the right things I am looking for.

Why? because my kids are worth it. When they remember things is great detail from years before I know I am doing it right.

This year is the first year we have taken a pretty long break.When I added baby #5 to the mix and bought a farm at an auction spur of the moment it really set me back. Baby Canary is now almost 18 months and we have lived at the new farm for about 7 months. We usually school year round but I found that impossible to do when the house was in boxes and we were still working on getting the old house ready as well as getting the new house livable. So much went wrong at first: We ripped all the heating out and found our new heating was not working, we had to dig a new well, so many things went wrong the list is soooo long.

I am still unpacking we are STILL remodeling, painting and shufflings things from room to room, we still do not even use every room in the house yet because they are not ready - baby steps we are moving forward.

My homeschooling stuff is finally ALL unpacked and sorted through well mostly so now I am excited about teaching the kids because I will be able to actually find what I need.

Back to schooling- back to lesson plans -learning is fun!

When are we starting school? Not sure, I hope to be ready next week *if all goes as planned*

Hot July!

"Hot July brings stormy showers

Lemonade and Lazy hours" ( not so much the lazy hours here!)

Well it brings lots of rain, we have had a record amount of rain this year. I feel like I am in the rainforest.

I do love the rain and big windy storms!

Now that the ticks are dying down the mosquitoes are CRAZY, TERRIBLE this year, we almost cannot go outside it is so bad.

Yummy Blueberry mint Lemonade (fresh squeezed of course)

Homemade Popsicles- the only way to eat them and know they have wholesome ingredients. Mostly they have been yogurt and fruit, next week I am making carrot, beet, strawberry and apple-kale popsicles.

First real swim in the pond this year, it has been too cold or rainy

Canary loved watching everyone else play but did not want to go in today.

Canary chasing chickens.

Trying to feed the dog pine chips.

Now trying the chickens.

The babies in their not quite finished home. They will be trapped in there for 48 hours so they get acclimated to their new home and want to go there at night to roost instead of the crammed brooder in the barn.

Hmmmmm, both eggs from my chickens they all free range the same 15 acres and have access to the same feed. One seems to be a much better forger than the other.

When boredom strikes build your own slide from debris on the farm.

Papabird off to TSC

Here and now

 My new motto- good reminder - everyday

 Words from Robin "Can we tie dye everything and live like hippies?" "Uh ya, Robin we kind  of do!"

 Rainbow Tie dye for our Girl Scout Zoo overnight.

 Nature find by Owl.

My favorite place to be.

 The start of my garden, unfortunately it is all DEAD now. I think I planted in a bad spot I need to  get my soil tested.

 Read aloud outside in the hammock

Project on canvas the littles did last year, finally up on the wall. Each child did their own quarter of the sun with provided paints and scrap book paper. They had some rules but each expressed their own individuality in each section. This will be the focal point on the kitchen wall that I am doing a college gallery on.

Example of a a bright fun gallery wall.

Fairy fires = survival skills

Fire building for kids

We were reading Little House of the Prairie and Pa was talking about fire building so I thought what a great time this would be to teach my children how to build their very own fire. I saw a post on Pinterest a awhile back about making small  fairy size fires so thats just what we did.

Each child was sent out site to find Fuel, Tnder, rocks and a good dirt area to build the fire at.

Fuel - smal twings
Tinder -  dry pine needles and leaves
 Rocks were gravel from the driveway to make our safe circle.

I ended up using lint as our tinder,  I seriously cannot start a fire without it, I am totally screwed if I need to start a fire in an emergency without dryer lint!! I need to work on that.

This is what I use to start a big fire outside!

They found a dirt area ( our driveway)

 Falcon helped Robin by showing her how to make a teepee style fire.

  Small Fairy fires!  After a lot of frustration and saying "I cannot do it" Robin successfully built her tepee style fairy fire.

Owl sat very still and watched as Falcon demonstrated, he needed more help ( the youngest) but he did it too!

Duck was being stubborn ( as usual) he just basically threw all his stuff in a pile. His dd not stay lit for more than 30 seconds.

The kids learned to use matches safely today as well.

As soon as we were done the kids were begging to do it again later today.

We will work on these fairy fire for the next few weeks and move up to big fires.

Building a fire-= a necessary= skill for all people to know!

I can't wait to do these fairy fires with my Girl Scout Troop this fall.

Bed blogging - ramblings

Surround yourself  with those you want to be more like.

I believe I was always who I am right now but I was always afraid to really show my true self. I was even afraid to admit to myself who I really am.

I am still trying to figure out who I am, but I am on my way.

Who am I?

I am love, peace, magic, happiness, laughter, silliness, joy, believer in  the power of the moon.

I  am the woman who walked through the mall today and smiled at everyone. I was so blissfully happy. It was an ordinary day nothing exciting happened. Hmmmmmm, wait.... I guess something exciting did happen. I just came home from going to my first Mom and  Me Girl Scout camp  with my 9 year old. It was her first time there. I have been there many times with my own mom as a Girl Scout.  It was fun revisiting a place my mom and I shared memories at. I had so much fun with my daughter we really did need some alone girl time. I know you read my blog dear Robin, I love you and had a blast hanging out with you at camp.

My sweet Robin is sleeping in my bed right now next to me as I type with her arm flung across my back. ......I should sleep as well.

So I shall end my rambling for the night

-goodnight

Focus on the family and farm next school year.

So the school year is ending for a lot of my friends but we just keep chugging along always. Especially after buying a farm unexpectedly and having a baby, Schooling has been pretty light during the last 18 months or so.

After doing  our yearly assessment tests I was happy to discover no one  is behind and still rather ahead. Yay! I still rock this homeschooling thing!

Evaluation of  myself this last year..... things have been quite hectic trying to get 2 houses ready Our new  house was was not move in ready nor  was our old house ready to be rented. 6 months later we just got our house rented they move in next week and our new house is slowly coming along. We still have rooms under construction and many room still need to be painted, but all but 3 boxes are now unpacked. I am still trying to figure out where to put it all though. It is a bigger house but there is not much room for storage totes, so I having to take the time to re organize and configure where these items will now go.

  Starting now I vow to have less of this in my life

And start having more of this

I don't care if my house is messy, go ahead judge me I do not care. At the end of the day I want to look around and know I had fun with my kids.

Moving forward: schooling will be a bit more different. More hands on messy stuff that takes lots of time and mess. More imagination play that includes me in it. Less  group activities with others. Our house needs to be re centered. We need to focus on our  family and our new farm.

Harry Potter schooling! Book 1 ~ first half

Potion making with natural elements
Some fresh air and potion making, I gave them containers and set them outside to create a potion.
Rules: They could put whatever they wanted in it from outside but they had to tell me what their potion does.

Potion #1 ( Yellow cap with yellow flowers) made by Duck
This potion makes  plants grow faster.

Potion #2 (middle bottle) made by Robin
This purple elixir can make the user invisible.

Potion # 3 (The one with a missing cap)
This complex potion was a mix of many elements found around the pond including toad juice ( no toads were harmed during this potion making session) This potion makes tornado.

Mr. Toad who generously offered some goo off his back for potion #3!

 We started  reading and making stuff from this herbal book, yes it is 2009 but the information does not change.

A great book to get kids into herbal crafting.

You can click HERE to check out their website  we only have the cinnamon issue but I am considering buying more issues, they are great fun for adults and kids.

Doing some fun blind tasting of jelly beans having kids figure out the flavor. I got some interesting flavor answers but the ones everyone got right was: Coconut, bubblegum and pear. 

The little boys did a Harry Potter worksheet and came us with some new flavor beans Minty mint, Double orange and Burrito

I only bought the yummy flavor beans not the Harry Potter ones. I have tried those with Falcon 7 years ago and they most certainly taste like what they say: vomit, dirt, earwax etc... Yup  I tried them all thinking there was noway they would actually be accurate, They were Every time!

Choosing the tree in which their special wands will come from. I let me choose whichever tree they liked the look of best then we did some nature studies on each.They looked through pictures in this book to choose their tree

Duck: Birdcherry

Owl: Giant Sequoia

Robin: Crab apple  

Falcon: Hickory

I will be making wands next week  like these 

pretending it is from the special tree they chose.