Frontier Living

September 23, 2007

Today is the first day of fall. I just love fall. I enjoy the colors of the changing leaves, the home cooked meals and the cooler days. Here in California it is a rare treat to see the changing of the leaves. It is not unusual to see yellow or green leaves here in fall. Red and orange ones happen when Christmas time is upon us. Hopefully, we will have cooler days and we may see them earlier this year.

Our family is enjoying the Frontier unit. There is just so many crafts and ideas to do with this one. The possibilities are endless. This week we learned how the people who lived during this time of the year ate. How did they store and prepare their food. The kids had fun shaking cream into butter. Baba was surprised to see little chunks of butter inside his jar. It was so cute to watch him shake his jar because he would get his whole body involved into it. We also tried to dry out apples. I had Coco prepare the apples by washing them and squeezing lemons to use for the apples. We don't have an apple peeler at home. I was it. I peeled the apples they ate all the discarded peelings and broken apple rings. We dried two patches of them. One was dried the old fashion way by hanging them to dry next to a window and the other dried in a dehydrator. The kids noticed two things that the apples in the dehydrator took less time and the apples hung up shrank and curled up. Both were a treat to eat and would love for me to make more real soon!!! The kids also got to make johnny cake or as some people called it "journey cake". Even with butter and honey on the cake they didn't care for it too much. They asked why they called it cake when it didn't look or taste like cake. To drink we made a drink called "switchel". It tastes like a flat ginger ale. It was very sweet. Too sweet for my taste buds. Here is a sample meal eaten on a journey...

On Tuesday the kids worked on their display boards for the end unit party. They had a lot of fun and creativity with this one. I gave them a large piece of cardboard. They need to make a landscape for their log, sod houses and covered wagon. They made dolls out of wooden pegs found at the craft store. Here are some pictures to share.....




These pictures don't capture all the creativity that the kids put into these boards. By the time they were done they added shavings from their rabbits to use for the animals. Luckily we had a bunch of plastic farm animals. They were very resourceful. Coco even drew a mud pen for her pigs to play in and a pond for her ducks. I love moments like this when the kids use their creative juices to explore and create.

God bless you with a great week. I look forward to sharing more photos and project ideas with you next time.

Our Fourth Week of School

We began our next unit study this week.
We are now studying about Resourcefulness: Frontier Life. Coco is very excited because she loves Little House on the Prairie. On Monday we started reading our first Little House book, Little House in the Big Woods and we discussed what it meant to be resourceful, i.e. the differences between natural and unnatural resources. Pioneers had to be courageous and resourceful to prepare and to travel on their long journeys. We learned that these journeys would take five to six months. Timing was critical to avoid snow, muddy landscapes and a lack of grass for their cattle to feed upon. I had the kids list the things that were necessary to pack on their wagon for the journey. They thought of everything from today's standards. I had to back up and explain that they were travelers from the 1800's. What would they need to bring and who would they want in their wagon train group. They caught on.


We did a lot of building projects this week. The first one was to have the kids construct a covered wagon. I didn't purchase a pre-made kit. I wanted the kids to make one from things we already had on hand. The only thing that I needed to purchase was the spray paint and the bottom box for the bottom wagon part. I picked up some truffle type boxes sold at a party store. They cost just $0.55 each. They cut off the top portion. Then I had them glue on wooden sticks. After the sticks dried I sprayed it brown for them. For the tent hoops we used pipe cleaners. The kids taped them in place. Here is a closeup view.
Once the pipe cleaners were in place we glued a piece of muslin on top. After it dried I had the kids stitched it closed.

On Thursday, our co-op day, we made two different types of pioneer homes. A log cabin and a sod house. We talked about living in each and if they lived in a place that had trees vs. not having trees. To make the sod houses it was a very messy undertaking. Coco loved to get messy with the cotton balls and glue. Baba even did a great job making one. I found the idea on the Internet. It said to use Popsicle sticks and clay to build a simple frame structure, which we did on Monday, leaving it to dry. After the frame was dry and set. I had the kids dip cotton balls into glue and make a wall on each side. It said to make a flour and water paste. I was short on flour so we just used glue. For the roof the kids just glued tongue depressor sticks together. I still need to spray their houses brown. Here are a few pictures of them:

Here are some pictures of the log homes that the kids made. We just made them out of brown construction paper tubes cut to size. Baba was very good at rolling the construction paper tubes and I taped them in place.

On Wednesday, the kids started up again in AWANA. Here are some pictures of them in their uniforms with their books. They were very excited. Chip is now in his second year in T & T, Coco is in her last year of Sparks and Baba in his last year of Cubbies.

As if our week wasn't busy enough...........on Friday afternoon we went to the local fair to find all the things we have been learning about this week. We found so many things there that we are going back next Thursday. Here is a cute picture of the kids.

Here is a list of the books that we are currently reading:

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Clara Barton by Matthew Grant

Trouble River by Betsy Byars (Chip)

Meet Kirsten by Janet Shaw (Coco)

If you Traveled West in a Covered Wagon by Ellen Levine.

Our Third Week of School

Saturday September 8, 2007

The kids and I continued our study learning about the five senses. On Tuesday, we learned the sense of smell. We learned that a child has a far better sense of smell than an adult. I tested their little noses with different things. I used a cotton ball sprayed with perfume, a lemon, strawberry, cedar shavings, timothy hay, a cotton ball dipped in vinegar, coffee grounds and a cotton ball dipped in vanilla. After blindfolding the kids they were to guess what each item was by smelling it. Poor Chip didn't due to well on this once his nose was stuffy. CoCo did great and figured out several of them. Baba just had fun smelling them without a blindfold on.

On Wednesday the kids learned about their tongues. Coco memorized the taste buds and their location on the tongue. We tested their taste buds with salt, lemons, lollipop and red wine vinegar. They thought the red wine vinegar was disgusting. "YUCK MOM!" They loved the sweet part of their tongue.


On Thursday we learned about the sense of touch. Did you know that there are over 12,000 nerve cells in a 3/4 of an inch of skin. The kids and I were truly amazed by this. There are heat/cold and pain sensors. I tested their sensor nerves by blindfolding them and having them place one fist in ice water and the other in tap water. They both knew that each one was different. One bowl was colder than the other. I also blindfolded them and had them touch different things such as velvet and sandpaper and describe how it felt. It was a great way to use adjectives. We also fingerpainted. They loved this one. My kids just enjoy getting messy. I have to admit I loved this too as a kid. I was always in the mud making mud pies in the backyard and playing with worms.




After the touch experiments were done the kids cooked up a fun five senses lunch. To make this I had the kids roll out some cookie dough, trace and cut out the shape of their hand. This represented the sense of touch. They also added sprinkles for texture.

Then I had the kids take a flour tortilla and spread peanut butter all over it. They used bananas and raisins for eyes, a walnut for a nose, licorice for a mouth and cheerios for ears. The kids had fun creating and eating their finished creations.

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Here is a little fun project I found on the internet to do with Baba. For the hands we traced them out of sandpaper. The mouth was licorice. The nose was a cotton ball dipped in perfume. The eyes were the jiggly crafting type. Here is a finished picture of it.

Here are the books we read this week:

Smelling & Tasting by Alvin & Virginia Silverstein

Look, Listen, Taste, Touch & Smell by Pamela Nettleton

Body Detectives: A Book About The 5 Senses by Rita Gelman

Taste by Maria Rius

Our week of studying the EYE....

We have almost every eye color represented in our home. All we are missing is a brown. The eye itself is a fascinating and marvelous creation by our Heavenly Father. Did you know that there are 59 Bible verses on the eye alone. God had a lot to say about the eye and its' importance. Just like He did about the tongue and heart.


This is our second week learning about the five senses. Last week the kids had fun constructing the parts of the ear with household stuff. This week we labeled diagrams of the eye, played games, learned about Louis Braille, constructed an eye with food and yes we even dissected a cow eye. All of us were quite squeamish at first about the dissection endeavor but once we gotsee the inside we were simply amazed and awestruck.



We are so glad we did not chicken out on this one. My oldest son Chip asked why do we have to dissect a cows eye why not a human eye. I tried to explain to him that many Scientist use animals to learn about their study of medicine. To use a human for this we would have to have someone killed. I think he was just trying to reason his way out of the dissection. Nope, it didn't work....


Here is a picture of our eyes made out of food. I got the idea from my walk again that morning. I had heard about using an orange and an olive from something I read. The other items I came up with after praying to God to lead in this matter. He gave me some inspiration and the picture of it speaks for itself. To make this peel one orange. Take a green olive and insert it to one end of the orange. Use a toothpick to keep stable. At the other end insert a cut straw piece. The straw piece is the optic nerve of the eye. Then use a small piece of plastic wrap and place it over the olive side. This is the cornea. Lastly, take the thin type of licorice ropes (three per piece). Cut six of them and wrap from the plastic wrap side to the other end. The licorice ropes are the muscles in your eye. The human eye has six muscles. These muscles help us to move our eye in all directions even to roll them. We learned that cows only have four muscles. They are not able to roll their eyes.

Soccer schedule also began this week for Chip. He had his first practice on Thursday. Thursdays will be kind of crazy around here with co-op, soccer and ballet practice. Ballet practice doesn't end until 7:15 and I'm trying to figure out when Coco and I will be able to eat dinner. I don't want to have to eat fast food every Thursday night. I know we may have to in some cases when my hubby works late and wont be able to pick up the boys for me. Oh, we shall see...

This weekend is Labor Day weekend and the high temperatures are suppose to continue until Tuesday. Yesterday, on our outings it was 101 degrees at 2:00. This heat wave wreaks havoc on my head and my ability to sleep because it is so hot. I can't wait for cooler weather days!

The books we read for this week if you are interested in picking them up at your library are:

Helen Keller by Margaret Davidson

Me and My senses by Jan Sweeney

Look at your Eyes by Paul Showers

My Eyes by Kathy Furgarg

The Magic School Bus Explorers the Five Senses by Joanne Cole

The Blind Colt by Glen Rounds

We also read articles from the internet about Louis Braille, color blindness, myopia, and hyperropia and why are tears are salty.

Our First Day of School

August 20, 2007

School is Here, once again! The dog days of summer are now coming to an end. We celebrated our first day of school today with a more relaxed and fun feel. After morning devotions, I had the kids create a poster of them and their grade level in school. I took a picture of them both individually and together. We played Math baseball to see where I should start them in their math books. Baba was in on the action too. He is starting Pre-K. I gave him some Math questions geared to his level. The kids also brainstormed some ideas for a summer vacation writing assignment. We read books about the ear. The Konos unit we are beginning this school year is Attentiveness and the Five senses. We did it years ago when Chip was in Kindergarten. I thought I would revisit it again for Baba. I will have to make it a little more challenging for the older ones.

For lunch the kids got to make their own pizzas. They had lots of fun rolling and tossing the dough. Later in the day, I had the kids make their handprints with air drying clay. I now have all the kids handprints.

Everyone is excited to begin the new school year. I am a bit hesitant and slightly overwhelmed at homeschooling all three. Chip is now in fourth grade, Coco is in second and Baba is in PreK. Just like every school year I pray that the Lord will give me direction and guidance. It is a real walk of faith to homeschool the kids each year. I have the assurance that He will, just as He has each and every year. Our Heavenly Father is faithful.

Blessings,

Amy

More about our Vacation.....

After camping for three nights in the Rocky Mountain NP. We traveled to Denver. There we visited the capital building and took in a Rockies game. Luckily the game didn't get rained out due to rain and nearby thunderstorms. We took shelter under an awning for five innings. The Dodgers beat the Rockies. The family was excited. Sadly, our Dodgers as I write this are now in fourth place. We did take a tour of the stadium. The stadium is very similar to both Padre and Giant stadium. They used the same architect.

Our next stop was Colorado Springs. There we visited Focus on the Family. The kids had fun playing at Wits End. The slide was huge and their hair was full of static when they reached the end. They had a dress up room filled with puppets and clothes for the kids to act out scenes from Odyssey. They also had a Narnia room. We couldn't resist a stop to the Soda Fountain Shoppe. The kids ate yummy ice cream sundaes and Kirk and I had root beer floats. Yes, vacations hurt those girlish figures. I think I have added on a few pounds from our vacation. Hopefully I can lose them before the holidays roll in.

From Colorado Springs we went to Canon City. We spent a whole day at the Royal Gorge Amusement Park. It was lots of fun. If you are scared of heights this place is definitely not the place for you. They are famous for their highest suspension bridge in the United states. It was scary at the middle of the bridge looking down through the wooden planks to the Arkansas river below. They have hanging gondolas that take you across as well. I had to close my eyes when we took off. It really didn't affect the kids because most of the way they had a hard time seeing over the cart out the window. Another exciting thrill that they were able to see was the incline railway. It is a basket type train that lowers you down by cable slowly into the gorge. After a day of exciting thrills we made our way back to our hotel.
The next day, we traveled into New Mexico and stayed a night in Las Vegas, NM. There was nothing exciting in this town. It was old and many of the buildings were in need of repair.

We had a chance to visit family again in Albuquerque, NM. Kirk has some cousins that live there. We were a little hesitant at first about our visit since we haven't been good about keeping in touch. Happy to say, we had a great time visiting them and their family. They are very delightful people and a Christian family too.
The two last stops we traveled many miles and spent long hours in the car just trying to get back home. Here are a few pictures. Hope you enjoy!

Blessings,
Amy

Summer Vacation

August 5, 2007

Today is my husband and I are celebrating our 12th Anniversary. Wow, how time flies! I am so richly blessed with such a great man to share our lives with.

We just got back on Wednesday from a two week trip through six states. We left here on day one and stayed in Mesquite, NV. The whole family had fun swimming in the pool. It felt like it the temperature had to have been up around 105 or more. From there we traveled trough Utah and stayed in a town just outside Capital Reef National Park called Torrey. The red rock there was beautiful and there was plenty of greenery. The kids were amazed on the size of the rocks and mountains as we traveled through the National Park (NP). We saw plenty of wild life and took a quick tour of the original Mormon homestead there at the NP and a hike by the Fremont river.

From Utah we headed for Colorado and visited Amy's cousin in Hotchkiss. We had a nice visit with family and the kids had a lot of fun with their cousins. Their kids are cute and very well behaved. Coco has now been asking to wear skirts everyday after seeing her girl cousins wearing them.

From Hotchkiss we traveled to Dillon. The drive up their was beautiful. It was green and lush filled with plenty of wildflowers. The kids had fun on brief stops along the way to skip rocks in the rivers. We saw plenty of ski areas on the mountains nearby. Our hotel was located on Lake Dillon in Dillon, CO. Before dinner we took a walk around the lake. The kids liked to watch the local dogs play fetch and swim in the lake. Baba collected many rocks and CoCo and I loved the purple flowers we saw.

From Dillon we headed up to the Rocky Mountain National Park for a three night camping stop. There we met friends and the kids had lots of fun playing with them. On July 24th we celebrated Chip's birthday with a special breakfast, balloons and presents. In the afternoon we hiked around Bear Lake and up to Alberta falls. The falls were an amazing sight to see. After a salmon dinner we had a bonfire with cupcakes and ice cream sandwiches. We had a scary experience at the end of the day. Chip lost his retainer. Everyone stepped into action searching for it. After prayer Chip found it himself on the ground buried in the dirt. We gave God praises and thanks.

There is so much more to share with you about our vacation. I hope to post pictures soon too!

Blessings