Our New Homeschool Year Starts June 2, 2014

This summer we will try Heart of Dakota's Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory.  We homeschool year-round and this looked like just the right thing at just the right time for Little J.  N will be following along.  He will read the Boy Interest Set and I will read the Classic Set aloud.  What I like about this program immediately, is that I already have many of the listed books. :)  Hooray!!  We are switching out their devotions for one we have been wanting to do called Five Minute Devotions for Children.  Right now N has allergies too bad to venture out but he is mending fast. (The birch pollen is slowly finishing up.)  We are waiting to go out on our nature walks.  I am really wanting to use both Heart of Dakota and My Father's World this fall.  So, I think I will.  We also will add in our standard fundable books and textbooks.  It will be a fun year with many good reads ahead. 

N's Kandinsky painting done while listening to five different kinds of music

J's Lion Painting (note the people quickly climbing up the vines)

I am busy planning out our extra activities.  Please come back and check-in with us.

Our First Year of Using My Father's World

We are excited to start our first year of homeschooling with My Father's World.  We are using Exploring Countries and Cultures for J, Grade Two and N, Grade Four.  I am gathering materials to start week one.  We will start in early July.  I can't wait!  Join up and follow along. :)
http://www.littlenaturalcottage.com/mfw-blogroll/

Frogs and Insects

We are using Home Science Adventures Science Learning Kits from a publisher in Seattle.  (Just talking about what we like- no money or advertising involved, ever!)  We have just started our unit on Insects.  We are quick to hop on our topic before the insects go for the Winter.  So far we love this add-on to our science program. We just finished studying honeybees.  Here is a bumblebee perched on a Mountain Aster bloom.

You can see the bumblebee sipping flower nectar.  We have also been studying our only local frog, the Wood Frog.  It is interesting because it has a unique sugar in its' blood that allows it to overwinter under forest debris.  The frog goes through cryogenics and its' blood is rather like antifreeze.  They have found some mutations in the Wood Frog here near the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge adjacent to us.  The University of Alaska has an interesting factual page on Wood Frogs that can be printed out.http://aknhp.uaa.alaska.edu/herps/pdf/spec_acct_wood_frog.pdf  Here is Little N with a Wood Frog.

Happy learning!

End of Summer, Hawks, Bears, Owls and the Chickens

     It is almost time for our home school to start.  The boys and I are both attending a teaching (for me) and activity time (for them) workshop put on by I.D.E.A.  We are all excited to start our year.  J will be in Kindergarten and N will be in second grade.
     We are close to the end of Summer.  It doesn't seem to be a very good wild berry year here and the bears are hungry.  One tipped over our entire chicken coop yesterday!  I was very thankful to find all seven of my chicken girls.  One had hidden herself in the bushes.  One was hiding in the nesting box in the back of the upside down coop and the rest were huddling under their day shelter in the fenced chicken yard.  Thank goodness for the chain link fencing, the bear couldn't get in to the yard.  We righted the coop and tied it into posts sunk into the ground.  The bear tried again last night, but gave up. :)
     The poor chickens are quite nervous.  Beside the bear, a red-tailed hawk watches them in the day.  (The yard is topped by fencing after last year's hawk incident.)  I let the hawk out.  I did not let it eat the chicken that it killed.  It was an angry bird.

In the evening time the chickens are assaulted by bears and our new friends, a family of great horned owls.  There is a mother, a father and a baby.  The parents will spend up to five months teaching their offspring to hunt.  J loves owls so he is very happy.  At night the baby perches on our roof to hunt.  Baby Owl makes lots of little screechy sounds.  We are surprised that it can catch something with all of that racket!  There is an over population of snowshoe hares here as well as some domestic rabbits that have been let free.  The owls seem to be eating quite a lot of rabbits judging from the remains we find up near the garden, rather grisly.

This is the baby owl.

Here are pictures of a black bear and a grizzly bear.  We have both here.  The pictures are from our July trip to the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage, Alaska.

Black Bear

Grizzly Bear

I hope the bears go on their merry way.  The poor chickens will probably lay better when not surrounded by predators.  Here is Mama Owl.  Daddy Owl is just a little smaller in size and camera shy.

It's not easy being a chicken!

One Graduated, Four to Go!

My oldest son graduated from homeschool this last Wednesday!  I'm so proud.  He went through some of his years in public school and some in homeschool.  My favorite year was his 2nd Grade Homeschooling year!  I'm excited to see what he does next.  Congratulations, Son!  Love you now and always, xxoo Mom.

New Pet Rabbit

Here is Yoshi the rabbit.  He's the newest pet.  He really likes apples and is nice and calm.

We are waiting for the leaves to come out.  Little N says May 8th and I say May 10th.  The winner gets to pick a dessert.  We are going through the family pictures and picking out some of our favorites for a living room display.  Everyone here is still getting over the flu.  We just got finished reading about the Root Children.  The timing is just right.  There are only small patches of snow.  There are a very few patches of grass sprouting up.  The edges of the lake melt in the day but it is still frozen.  I'm busy looking over last year's garden plan and thinking about what I'll plant where this year. :)  The pair of Great Horned Owls are back.  We usually hear them in the Spring and Fall.  Now we know that Spring is here.  Happy Spring!

And in April...

Spring is coming.  We've still far more snow than ground.  Here is a pretty winter sunset.  The chickens are happily catching flies.  The little boys are stomping in the water puddles.  I chipped a giant iceberg out of the trampoline (gingerly).  The boys said that I was the best mother ever!  I've been putting the woodstove ashes on my snowcapped garden beds.  I can hardly wait two more weeks or so to see what has wintered over nicely.  We've two cockatiels, Mario and Luigi.  They were a gift from someone who could no longer care for them.  They can whistle tunes and Mario lets little N pet his head. 

Mario is the grey and Luigi, the yellow. :)

 Following directions from the book, Footsteps In Time, The Romans, the boys (with a little Mama help) made these fabulous Roman sandals from cardboard and yarn.  They held up for two whole days!

 We had so much fun with that book that we are hoping to use Footsteps in Time, the Vikings next year.  Here are the boys at our IDEA homeschool office.  They are on an antique dogsled.  We raced to read as many pages as there are miles in the Iditarod.  Both boys made it to the finish line.

 Grandma is such a talented seamstress.  She sewed this waldorf style doll for little J. and this sock monkey for Little N.  She has a shop on etsy called "A*Dollshop*of*My*Own"  please go and check out her dolls.

 Here is the winter sunset picture that I promised.  I did not use a filter or color this one bit!  You know what they say.  Red sky at night, sailor's delight.  Everything may be white with snow but sometimes the sky is brilliant.  My favorite color of all is the bright, light green of the first new Spring leaves.  It's coming.  Happy Spring and Love to All.

Back in February

Today was a fantastic day.  My first grader, LittleN and preschooler, LittleJ, both made books today.  We have them set aside for Daddy to read when he gets home.  I am trying to make the boys little booklets of watercoloring paper and with cardstock covers.  We are going to do some Waldorf, some Charlotte Mason and some Classical Education for this next year.  I am working on being calm and counting my blessings.  I can hear N reading to J. :)  Homeschooling is a blessing!  I like to cook, craft, learn and garden and love my family.  I love and thank God for this life.  How great is His love for us.  Life is like a choo choo train with ups and downs and if you just keep chugging along it all works out.  Smile!  (This picture is from this last summer.)

Busy Days

We have been busy.  Although the weather hasn't been that nice recently, cold, rain, wind, we have been outside in it.  We found a recipie for a nice salve for little N.  He has psoraisis on his scalp and this has been working wonders.  I found the idea at a natural remedy site.  We made our own formulation of calendula, oregano, olive oil and a bit of beeswax and just a drop of geranium oil for scent.  This has been more effective than his prescription medicine.  Yay for herbs!  Yesterday we gathered puffball mushrooms, washed them, sliced them thinly and put them in our food dryer. :)  They smell yummy.  The little boys don't get any though.  There is a wild mushroom rule that says that under 11 years of age wild mushrooms are not the best.  Each to their own, but it makes sense to us.  (Plus the husband and myself will get to have more, hehe.)

Little J went off of the diving board yesterday, all by himself.  He is very proud and so are we!  The swimming instructors here are fantastic.  The boys take swimming lessons just about everytime they come around.  I have scads of nettles and will be drying them for nettle tea.  Also, happily and for the first time here, my chamomile is almost ready to bloom.  I'm so excited to have real chamomile tea. :) 

Will write more soon.  We are off to look for more mushrooms. Happy Friday to everyone!

It's Almost Summer

Here are some cute pictures of the kids and baby Springtime animals.
J and N are in TBall this year.  Sometimes they pay attention to TBall and other times they're into the dirt on the outfield and that's fine.  They're learning and having fun.
We saw a Mama Moose with new twin babies.  Here they are:

Moose babies are so cute!

We made a trail down to the lake.  The boys found last years pushki stalks and had a lot of fun.

Yup!  Those pushki grow very large here.  They make good swords because they usually break apart fairly easily when dry.

I think J is blowing me a raspberry.  He sure likes those just now. :)

I helped the boys set up their painting materials and we had fun painting in the sun.

Red, Yellow and Blue are SO exciting!

We're working on our paintings here.

J is done and his painting can dry in the sun.

N is ready to let his dry and both boys are pleased with their work.

The first dragonfly is here.  They're beautiful and they eat plenty of mosquitos!  There is a giant snowshoe hare eating every bit of our garden so we're working on putting in a fence.  We tried sprinkling our greens with hot pepper.  I think he prefers his chard hot and spicy.  We've decided to try chickens again.  We're butting the chicken pen up to the garden fence and making the fences strong and tall.  I hope it works and so do the chickens.  We got our first order from Wolf Lake Wellness and everything was fantastic!  Yum!  I love fresh tomatoes sliced with salt pepper and olive oil.  Pollen allergies are done with for me now and I'm full of vim, cleaning house, weeding the garden, playing with the boys and my hubby and getting things done.  Hope all are having a happy and productive summer.  What a beautiful world!  We're finally moving past the family bed.  N is now making a go of it in his bed all night.  J still comes in at about 4 a.m.  It has been sweet and I've enjoyed being a big cuddly bunch; but it is time for the boys to move on and M and I are relishing our evening time together.  Hello to everyone! xxoo  Love you, family. 

Love You Mom!

You're the best, Mom.  We're hoping to come and see you when school gets out.  I wish we lived down the road, but that's not how it is.  I've already hung my kitchen angel and I love her.  Thanks so much!  I love everything you ever made for me. :)  She's very sweet.  Here she is:

She is very cheery and perks up the kitchen with her sunny ways!

I just love her to pieces.  Thank-you, Mom.  Love you.  Miss you!

Here's an update on the recent goings on....

The moose have headed to the local bowling alley.  You should see them bowl.  I think they're getting a team together....

The bald eagles are keeping an eye on things... Here is a bald eagle perced on a dead spruce tree.  

 

Look  at those talons...yikes!

Our Dad is now a college grad!  My husband finished his Bachelor's Degree.  He went back to college and has worked very hard.  We are so proud!  He wants to continue on and get his Master's next.  Go, Dad!

Diploma in Hand!

Mum is so proud of Dad!

The boys are proud of Dad, too!

Yay, Dad!

Here's to getting an education- Salute!

Hi family, here are the pictures we promised!  Love and miss you.  Happy Spring!

A Cuddly Pillow for J

This morning it was just little J and I.  We worked together and made him this cuddly pillow.  We got it all done.  He is a happy little camper and an excellent pillow stuffer.  I did the embroidery first.  Then J. colored the ladybug in with Fabric Fun Pastel Dye Sticks.  It was easy for him to color inside the embroidery and he was very careful.  We heat set the cloth pastels by ironing it with a piece of paper over top.  It worked like a dream.  We'll use these again!  The embroidery pattern is by Jack Dempsey Needle Art of St. Louis, MO. (Made in the USA since 1949).  This is not an ad.  I just like to give credit where credit is due.  They have lots of easy patterns for beginners.

 I haven't sewn or stitiched in awhile so my blanket stitch is quite rusty.  But we had lots of fun.  James rolled in the stuffing and said, "It is like being in a cloud."  I agree.

  The cloth is part of a set of fabric bits from the 1930's.  We'll have to make a few more.  :)Yay!  I love completing a project.  Have a nice weekend! 

Spring Gathering...

Yesterday, little N and I checked the buds on the cottonwood trees.  They were ready, firm, slightly sticky with thick yellow resin, and barely opened.  We live on a parcel with quite a few cottonwood trees.  You can spot them by their very rough bark.

I have heard several opinions on when to gather the cottonwood buds.  One person said that you should get them before they open and are still slightly frozen.  Another said that they should be half-open.  I decided to go with the middle of the road.  We gently threw a rope up and over the lower branches and pulled them to our height.  (These are some tall trees.)

And more branches....I love these trees!  We are always careful to take only a few buds from each of the branches and to spread our "gathering" out over quite a few trees.  We don't want to hurt the trees.

Here are the buds, ready to pick!

The resin (sap-like) is very yellow and sticky.  It is also very aromatic.  To me it smells a bit like tea tree oil.  My kitchen still smells springy :).  If you don't wear gloves be prepared to get sticky, yellow fingers.

I pick carefully through the cottonwood buds.  I put about a cup full of cottonwood buds into the top of my funky homemade double broiler.  This time I added about 1 1/4 c. almond oil.  (I have made this with olive oil and added a bit of beeswax after it simmers.  It ends up more like a salve.)  Cover and simmer on lowest heat for at least 2 hours.  Do not make this in your favorite pan!  It is a sticky mess to scrub when you're done.

Here is the double broiler and the cottonwood buds are ready to simmer.

When it cools I strain it into a clean jar.  You can use it on small cuts, scrapes, rashes and skin abrasions.  I like best to warm the oil and massage it into my wrists and hands when they get achy.  Hi family.  Are you picking your cottonwood buds there?  I hope so. :)  I now feel like spring is here.  Here is the finished oil.  I cap mine and store it in the fridge.  When I make the salve w/olive oil I store it in a cleaned, recycled tin also in the fridge.  My fridge is an exciting destination. :)  Try warming gently and massaging into achy wrists.  Happy Spring!

Finished Oil