Preparing for next school year

I have started planning for next years school year.  I always do it at the end of the current school year, just to give me that boost of excitement to finish strong!  Actually, our school years are blended together and we usually start and stop different curriculum or activities throughout the year.  But I do like to have a general plan of action for the following year.  Next year my oldest will be a 9th grader, so I have mostly been planning for her.  The rest of the kids will pretty much be doing the same routine.  Here's what things look like so far...

Maddie (6dd) - Math U See, 100 Easy Lessons (phonics), violin, Five in a Row (I hope to get some done before the baby gets here in Dec.  Hannah (3dd) can join in on the fun.)

Tristan (11ds) - Math U See, Phonetic Zoo (just started it this week and have really seen great results so far.  My son struggles with reading and spelling, but does great with the auditorial learning), Institute for Excellence in Writing (I let him type his work on the computer and use an electronic thesaurus - he loves using both!), still doing cursive writing, Homeschool in the Woods (he really enjoys the hands on activities.  We just bought a KONOS wall timeline chart, so I am hoping to be more diligent with timeline figures.  I like the KONOS one because it doesn't stretch out from here to the next town over.  It is compact, althought you have to have a large area of wall space to hang it.  We hung it above our white board.)

Kendra (14dd) - Jacob's Geometry, Apologia Biology, Latin Road to English Grammar, Cornerstone Curriculum's World View of the Western World, IEW (my challenge is going to be spending enough time with her to at least go over her work, grade it, and help her when needed.  She is pretty independent with her work, and because of that I sometimes move on to more pressing needs.  I just want to make sure to spend enough time with her.  Any suggestions from mother's of high schoolers would be greatly appreciated!  I am swimming out to uncharted territory!)

I guess that it in a nutshell.  I do want to add that I have been very blessed to have bought most of my curriculum used on www.vegsource.com/homeschool.  I am sure there are many used curriculum sights, but have had great luck in finding what I need here.

Rosetta Stone for Free

Just wanted to pass along a freebie.  You will have to check your libraries for availability.  Our county library offers Rosetta Stone online for its patrons.  You simply sign in using your library card number, and can do your lessons from home.  Our library currently offers Spanish, German, French, and Italian.  If you happen to be military, the base library now offers the same priviledges with even more languages available.  It would be worth checking into if you are interested in saving a bundle.  It is also nice because we can each learn different languages.  My oldest daughter is learning Latin and Spanish, my son is learning Spanish, and I am learning German.

Auf Wiedersehen
Tschus!

The Results Are In...And You Will Be Surprised!

As some of you may remember, last week, the kids and I did a "germ" experiment.  We took five samples of possible "germy" material.  We rubbed our samples or placed them in our petri dishes on top of a gelatin/sugar mix.  After a week of observations and waiting, here are our results...

Fellow Homeschooler in Need

Germ Experiment

Just a quick "science experiment" we did this week.  Very easy and fun for all ages.  We read a bit about germs (bacteria, viruses, fungi).  Afterwards, we made a gel solution and poured it into 5 petri dishes.  We let it set for a couple of hours to gel up, then comes the fun part.  Each of the kids picked 1 or 2 germs they wanted to grow.  You can use a q-tip to harvest the germs, or just place items directly on the gel.  Our germs included cat hair, moss, inside the 5 year olds mouth, milk, and dirt.  The lids were place on the dishes and taped down.  Now we are waiting for our germs to grow--checking daily of course.  I will try and post a picture of our germs soon!

Here is the solution we used to make our gel.  The germs eat the sugar and the protein from the gelatin in order to grow.  Would anyone like to make a guess as to which substance has the most germs???

Germ Gel
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
1 teaspoon sugar

Boil water, add gelatin and sugar, stir for 1 minute, remove from heat.  Pour into petri dishes and let cool for 2 hours before adding germs.  Enjoy!

What's been happening here...

Wow, has been a long time since I have had a chance to blog!  I have wanted to get on here many times, but life has kept me so busy.  I guess that is good though--better to be living life than writing about it!  So here is what I have been doing...

Cheesemaking
Tried my hand at making some mozzarella cheese.  I got the recipe, rennet, and citric acid from the New England Cheese Making Supply.  I didn't buy their mozzarella kit, rather their hard cheese kit.  I just tried the mozzarella cheese first.  I used raw cow milk and didn't pasturize it first because I wanted the benefits of the raw milk to be present in the cheese as well.  I just heated it up to the 88°F and followed the directions from there.  I didn't use the microwave method though.  I heated up my whey and dipped my curds into it.  I don't think I let them get hot enough.  They never were as stretchy as the pictures suggested.  Another blunder on my part was not adding salt.  The end result was a dry, non-flavorful cheese.  I think I might be able to use it on pizza and just salt it before it melts.  Will give it a shot.  I did continue to heat the whey and get some nice ricotta cheese from it, and because I had salted the whey to dip the curds in previously, the ricotta was plenty salted.  Next, I am hoping to make some farmhouse cheddar or colby cheese.  One thing I didn't realize about making cheese is how much milk it takes to make such a small amount of cheese!  1 gallon of milk produce 3 small balls of mozzarella and about a cup of ricotta!

Soapmaking
I have been working on a new line of soap for my kids' business.  Their business is called Crazy Critter Soap, so our new line is called "Little Critter" and is geared toward babies and children.  My daughter is also knitting some washclothes to go with this line.  Can't wait to get it all together!  I am brainstorming ways to market and sell our soap.  Any of you successful soapmakers have any suggestions?  I thought about craft fairs and possibly trying to get into a retail baby store?

Homeschooling
Well, we officially started up about the time I stopped blogging, imagine that!  I consider myself a very relaxed homeschooler.  The older kids do much of their work on their own, and we take every opportunity to learn things naturally.   I feel that we are a pleasant blend of classical and charlotte mason--in other words, a hodge podge (what's the word, eclectic?).  We have had some wonderful opportunities to take some coop classes this year.  The older kids are taking speech, art, and pe.  I am so thankful for the opportunity, but I am really a stay at home kind of person, so being on the go tires me out.  I am also thankful that the speech is only 12 weeks long.  So I can consider this a busy season rather than a busy lifestyle! 

Hope to be able to post more later.  For now, life calls...

Heavy Heart

Five years ago, when we moved to California, the Air Force base didn't have a homeschool support group.  After a three year season of "quietness", I decided to start up a support group on the base.  Over the last 2 years, the group has grown by leaps and bounds and has taken on a life of its own.  This year, after much prayer and council from my husband, I decided it was time for me to step down as leader. 

As a bit of background info, here in CA, independent homeschoolers must file an affidavit and are considered private schools.  Another option is to sign up with a charter school, which is a public school entity.   This past month, the new leader (with my blessing) decided it would be best to only allow independent homeschoolers to become members of the group.  There were many reasons we felt lead to make this decision.  Legally, charter school members are public school students.  What this means for our group, is that when we have our coop classes, we cannot teach any public school student (either directly or indirectly) any sectarian or denominational doctrine.  We just didn't want to make the comprimise.  Now I know that there are many people that feel that we are pushing out people we could be helping.  The reality for our group was that we didn't feel we could be as upfront "this is the wrong way to homeschool".  However, the charter school members had no problem touting the wonders of "free curriculum, free computer" and such.  We just didn't want to give the appearance of endorsing this type of education.

Anyhow, I just feel a heaviness for the group.  There are a few people that are so opposed to our decision.  I can understand their point of view, really I can.  This wasn't a decision that was made lightly.  I just pray that our group would have unity despite our differences of opinion on this issue.
 

Back to School

Getting ready to start back to school full-time.  We have been doing some schoolwork throughout the summer, and actually have done quite a bit of learning, so I guess what we are really getting back to is a more structured routine.  I am finding that the older I get, and the older my children get, I am really starting to like having a routine.  Now I have read Managers of Their Homes and think it is great in concept, I just haven't been diciplined enough to put it to practice.  So rather than a schedule, we have a routine.  The kids know that they are to get up, get ready, tidy up, do their chores, then have breakfast.  After breakfast, we have our together time - Bible, Memory Verses/Public Speaking, The Fallacy Detective, Institute for Excellence in Writing.  After this, my older daughter goes to do her math, Latin, science, history, etc.  They each have a check off list with things such as typing, spanish, guitar/piano, or any other extras.  I work with the younger kids on various things, such as reading/grammar, and I read to them for quite a while.  We then have lunch, cleanup, then have quite time.  My youngest takes a nap, while the others read or look at books in their rooms.  I really try to have a relaxed environment with as little stress as possible (isn't that everyone's goal).

As I am starting my new website, I pray that it will fit in nicely with our routine and that I would be a wise steward of my time.  I am going to try to check emails in the morning for half an hour, then do any work to the website during quiet time.  One of my goals for this year is to be consistent in getting up earlier.  I like to get up between 6:30 and 7:00 (I know this is late for some of you true homesteaders!), but I find it such a struggle to get up that early.  Another goal for this year is excercising.  I have determined to do more activities with the kids.  They are tickled to do "fun" stuff with mom, and mom gets the excercise she needs.  So far we have been riding bikes in the evenings, going swimming occasionally, and playing kickball.  I really like the kickball cause I am a bit competitive!  In the heat of battle, I don't even realize how much excercise I am getting, but boy does it hit me later!  I think I need to create a goal list on my sidebar.  I always enjoy reading everyone's goals and what they have accomplished so far.  Maybe tomorrow during quiet time I will work on it : )

Blessings,
Jasmine