Making Butter...

We've been using raw milk for several months now... The milk we've been using comes from Jersey cows and has a very high cream content... I decided to finally use the cream and try my hand at making butter... I had made butter before using the Mason Jar method, but it took too much of my time and I didn't like the results...So I went looking for "OTHER" methods...

 

I asked my friends over at the HomeschoolShare forums if any of them made butter and got a great idea from one of the wonderful ladies to use my KitchenAid stand mixer...(they are a wonderful group of ladies for ideas, activities, or just a shoulder for support) ... It worked great and in less than 20 minutes, (without me doing anything) I had butter...

Here's how I made mine:

Butter

Ingredients

2 cups heavy cream (at a temperature between 60 and 68°F)

a 1/4 tsp. of salt (optional)

1. Place cream in the clean, cool bowl of your stand mixer...Mix on medium speed (I set mine on 4 using the wire whisk attachment) ...

2. Basically, you begin by making whipped cream.... Once the cream is in the stiff-peak stage, slow the mixing down a little (I set mine to 2) ... The cream will now start to clump in the bowl...

3. What you have in the bowl will quickly turn from creamy white to buttery yellow...After a short while, the buttermilk will begin to separate from the butter fat....

4. Pour off the buttermilk...rinse the remaining buttermilk from the solid bits, by pouring cold water over the butter, and squeeze and knead... Repeat until the water runs clear..

5. The Finished Product!!!

Our first family opera experience...

Last night I took the kids to see an encore presentation of the Metropolitan Opera performing Mozart's "The Magic Flute"  on the big screen... It was a fabulous performance!!! It was done in English and had subtitles so the kids could understand the story behind the singing...The kids loved the costumes and the huge puppets, and stage backdrops were wonderful... We went with some homeschool friends and had a great time... The kids enjoyed the performance and it was a great way to introduce them to opera in the comfort of the move theatre...

Prince Tamino and the Dancing Bears...

Sarastro at the temple..

Papagano and a swan...

HomeschoolFreebie!! Great for those field trips!!

Today's great Homeschool Freebie of the Day is one that most of us can use as we try and make the most of our limited home education time by suppling educational field trips for our children and homeschool groups... This great resource explains how we can plan, and participate in great "GROUP" field trips that will leave the kids excited and wanting to learn more, providing leadership and planning which makes a success instead of just playtime... and another biggie is it has ideas like group discounts and others as ways to save money...

You can find this great FREEBIE here...

August Book Bag from Teacher Book Bags

I have been chosen as a reviewer for Teacher Book Bags... I like their products and look forward to the opportunity to review them and share what I think with them and others about each product..

For the lst few weeks, I have been reviewing the August Book Bag 2009 (1st-3rd grades)...

It is really a great product... Each book bag offers something different for that particular month or season... They are a great way to add more to your monthly / thematic studies or to add something new to workbox systems... focuses on six main areas. First, you and your child will explore seasonal adaptations and the reason for seasons. In the math section, there is practice graphing and place value skills. Incorporating a seasonal theme, you play games to practice short vowel words and punctuation usage...Gail Gibbons is the selected author/illustrator of the month... then an investigation into the seasons with studying the art element of color...Handriting practice and copywork skills reflects on "monthly" character trait: truthfulness.

The graphics are excellent... The literature selections are right on target for the age group  and my 6yo daughter and my 9yo son are thoroughly enjoying  them... and I must say that Gail Gibbons is one of our favorite authors, so seeing her in the spotlight is also great...
The information on the animals is concise and informative... And as you can tell, I am truly loving the World Explorer section... My daughter loves the Teddy Bear math (scoring big points in her  rating system)... All in all, a tremendous value and well worth the price for all  that is included...   

These can be purchased from Currclick or from the Teacher Book Bag site directly (where you can find other great book bag products also)...

Ok.. Week 1~ Day 3 of FULL-TIME school!!

It's been good and bad...

We've almost completed the Ice Cream Unit we started the last week of July (which happened to be National Ice Cream month) and we have also started our composer studies...

Most of our time has been great... The hurdles that we have been working on for the past couple of weeks getting into our full schedule have been tackled and some new ideas have come my way to fix the problem spots...

First, my DD HATES MUS... I thought it would be great for her, a perfect fit... Well, apparently, I was WRONG!!  So, after several days of trying it and listening to her finally cry, I decided to try some old Abeka 1 math worksheets I had that my son had never completed ... and she is in heaven...Loves it...so, I am gonna be doing that and also supplement with the fun stuff from Hooked on Math and Family Math(which we used some last year and they both love) Both of which I got for some real deals last yeat.... I gave $25 for the HOM at a clearance sale (much cheaper than the $150 price on the website) and less than $5 (including shipping) from Amazon on Family Math...

Next on our fix-it list.... We are not going to be able to accomplish "EVERYTHING EVERYDAY" .... So I worked on a schedule yesterday (which I will post a little later after a few tweaks) in which we divide up several items (like history, science, and geography)  ...Also this year, I am dividing up my history and science by semester... I like use unit studies so, I pick and choose info from living books, science books, textbooks, and other sources to meet our needs on the topic we are studing... I try as much as possible to use a chronological approach (more for my sanity) and the kids each have a book of centuries they are putting together, using a 3 ring binder....

So wish me luck and HAPPY LEARNING!!!

Our New Year Is About To Begin!!

Yes, it is that time again... and after a VERY busy summer we are heading back to school in the morning...

My plan for this year is much more relaxed and easy... I am of course really not much of  planner, but went into more detail this year than normal with hopes of easing the stress and increasing the fun...

I also let the kids choose several fun 1 week units to do this year... (around the 2 week plans I made) and of course there are always the "rabbit trails" which take us all over the spectrum...

My plan starts with our schedule.. We basically did a "school year" round plan this past year and it worked well for us as we were able to take off frequently and did light work (very light) during the summer... (and we still were able to take the month of July off for FUN) .. So this year, I am expounding on that schedule and going with a 4 week on and 1 week off schedule...This will allow me the needed time to order library books, gather supplies for science experiments and CLEAN THE HOUSE!! (need I mention catch up on the laundry? )

We love living books, so we are doing several short unit studies with lots of rabbit trails I am sure...Some of my favorite places for finding resources for these are:

 Homeschool Share

Homeschool Helper

Easy Fun School

The Homeschool Mom

I will be posting several other sites throughout the year as I use them in my plans and units...

Here's  rundown of the various other curricula I am using for the kiddos:

Tommy:

Horizons Math 4

Rod&Staff LA 3

Spectrum Spelling (he loves it)

Various reading materials (living books, Junior Great Books, and CLP Nature Readers)

Latins Not So Tough

HWOT

Libby:

Math-u-See (Foundations)

First Language Lessons

Spectrum Spelling

Hooked on Phonics and various readers

HWOT

I am combining science, history, art, and music into our group studies and hope to introduce some Spanish once a week (that's a maybe, we'll see where it goes idea)

I am going to be using information and ideas from SOTW, Galloping the Globe, Apologia Astronomy, FIAR (Vol1-3) and the Explorer's Bible Study this year in many of our units... I like to pick and choose where to go and follow my own path, so I find it easier to pull out things that go along with what we are wanting to do at that time...

I also have started making out my meal plans again, only this time, I am planning for the full 4 weeks, which should make things much run smoother in the kitchen...

On my shopping list this year, I ordered several great games and am really looking forward to the chance to incorporate them into our year... 

I bought Banagrams for spelling and LA

 

This is a great game from Highlights..It helps kids expand their knowledge of world geography. Each player is an agent on a top secret mission. Be the first to collect a correct set of data cards by answering geography questions and then reveal the suspect, the place and the missing item to successfully complete the mission and win!

The third game I ordered was this..It's called Map Tangle and it like a "Geography Twister"... We've already played with this one and the kids love it!!

Since Electricity was on the plan this year, I ordered these 2...Tommy is gonna have a blast with these...

Well, this is a brief rundown from the school on the "Windy Hill"... We are looking forward to a great year!!

 

July 4th Homeschool Fun...Free Activities!!!

 

There are so many resources on the net that homeschoolers can access and use... I am always looking for fun and CHEAP!! things for the kids to do... Here are some of the things I have found for July 4th..

Stories of the War of Independence    a great free item!!

Miscellaneous unit studies and lesson plans from the HOMESCHOOL MOM

another great unit with lots of resources

Here's some links for crafts...

Enchanted Learning crafts

Coloring pages and more crafts from DTLK...

HAPPY JULY 4th!!!

Homemade Laundry Detergent...

I have been trying to do better about the cleaning agents I have been using... I have been making my laundry detergent for some time now... For several reasons...

1. It is certainly cheaper!!!

2. I know what is coming in contact with my family...and that they are harmless products...

3. It helps to cut down on the amount of chemicals I expose myself and my family too...

Here's the recipe I use and with great results...                               

12 cups Borax
8 cups Baking Soda
8 cups Washing Soda
8 cups Bar soap (grated)  I use Kirk's Castile which you can buy at any grocery store...

• Mix all ingredients well and store in a sealed tub.


• Use 1/8 cup of powder per full load.

A great Freebie!!

This is a great freebie - ONLY TODAY!!           

The House You Live In is a great supplement for a study in anatomy /human body fo grades 1-4...

Check it out at Homeschool Freebie of the Day      

TAX DAY TEA PARTIES

As homeschoolers, sometimes we are not able to participate in all the things we would like to...

I was wanting to attend one of the Tea Parties going on around the US today... Unfortunately, I don't have child care and do not wish to take my little ones out, so I am gonna be watching from around the country on the PJ coverage here...

Maybe you will join me!!

Have a great day!!

Our Easter Lesson...

This year instead of taking a week to study a holiday, we have been taking just a couple of days to reinforce what the kids have already learned...

So here is what we did for Easter...

We of course had our Resurrection Eggs... (here is a website where you can learn more on how to make your own or you can do like I did and just buy a set)  and then we watched the movie "The First Easter" and read several books:

1. The Legend of the Easter Egg

2. The Story of the First East

3. Easter by Aileen Fisher

4. Benjamins Box

and we also read about the "Three Trees" online..

and then to top it all off, the Easter Bunny visited on Sunday morning and filled the kids baskets... and  I celebrated and ate a Cadburry Egg - gotta have one every year..

 

Easter Sunday...

 

We have had a wonderful holiday weekend...DH was up early to go to the Sunrise service... the kids and I slept in and went to church later... We stayed up to watch "The Ten Commandments"  (which is one of my favorite movies)... DD was bothered that there was 2 kisses in the movie - she said "there wasn't any kissin' with Moses in the Bible"... *LOL*

But the kids loved watching it and when the parted seas collapsed on the Egyptians, DS said "that's what they get for not setting the people free"... *L*

Sometimes it's the things kids say that makes everything so memorable...

Coloring Eggs..

One Easter tradition that we stick to every year is to color Easter Eggs... This year we only colored 12 eggs, but the kids actually did it on their own with Paul and I watching..

We made our own dyes using food color and vinegar... It was fun and science all wrapped into one...

Food coloring dye

Food coloring
hot water
white vinegar
small bowls or cups
slotted spoon


For each color measure 1/4 tsp. food coloring in small bowl. Add 3/4 cup hot water and 1 tbsp. white vinegar to each color. Add eggs and allow to sit until they are the desired color. Remove with slotted spoon.

Here are some pictures of our fun...

 

Celebrating Easter with Friends...

Today we went to some great friends of ours and celebrated Easter with lunch and an egg hunt for the kids...

We had so much food and fellowship...it was wonderful...

 

Each family brought a dozen eggs per child and of course they were filled with candy... the adults had as much fun hiding them as the kids did finding them...

This was wonderful and hopefully a new tradition has been started... Definitely get-togethers like this should be done more often..

 

Adventures with Dinosaurs..

We have just finished our unit on Dinosaurs... It was a long one, because there are so many wonderful resources out there... The only thing left to do will be a field trip to the "Gray Fossil Museum"  ...

Here are some of the wonderful books and movies that we used for this unit...

Here's some more:

 

This is one of the fun things we did..The kids got to be "junior palentologist" using these wonderful kits..They get to "excavate" a dinosaur skeleton...Fun but a little on the messy side...*L*

 

and here is some of the drawings the kids made...

                                           Tommy's Allosaurus

Libby's Apatosaurus

and here are some of our notebook pages...