Busy busy day

Started off with caring for three sick bunnies. I'm all out of probiotics now so we'll have to see how they deal with life. It will be a spell before I can find new probiotics in a form easily administered to bunnies so we'll have to see how they do. I don't want to lose them but I have learned that fighting with young kits is pretty much a losing battle. So I'll offer all sorts of supportive care and let their systems sort things out.

Had the joy of holding Mr. Snuggle Butt.
This young fellow is the sweetest most in your face little bit of loving that you'll ever meet. In another week or so he'll be ready to start looking for someone to snuggle up with. :)

Did homeschooling with the lad this morning. It went well for the most part though he does like to whine about doing copywork. :) Instead of getting upset about it I went up stairs and chuckled about it.

Then the lad practiced being an archaelogist. I joined him for a while, and daddy joined him for a while. It was all good. I thought it was cute at one point. "Mommy, when I play digging, am I learning anything? Is it like being in school when I'm playing?" I said "yes, buddy, it is like being in school. You are learning to look carefully through the dirt to find the red clay (red brick bits). You are learning not to stab mommy in the hand (so you are paying attention to your surrounding). You are learning to work with mommy at something. AND you are being an archaelogist because you are finding things that got buried!" He was quite happy and content by that. :)that implement... a pick axe!

he is managing to find his red clay treasures.

I got the front lawn mowed. Spent time with the lad. Got the back yard mowed. Dug with the lad. Removed a variety of things from the garden. Dug with the boy. Did more garden clean up. Then discovered we had a HUGE ant problem. So put ant drops on two nests. Hubby was home from visiting so he raided all the visible ants to death. AND THEN I discovered where the yellow jackets were coming from and that killing them required a different sort of weapon than what we had. So off to Canadian Tire to pick up some more insecticide. WOOT WOOT! No more yellow jackets. No more ants coming in the house. I am one HAPPY woman!

Carrots, peppers, squash and tomatoes.
I brought the ripe tomatoes in the house.
The greens will sit out for a bit.

Woot Woot! he was independent!

My six year was DYING to do an experiment.http://www2.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

I had no protracted time to help him.

I found the site the experiment was on and said here it is. Supercharged Science by the by. :) Even if you don't homeschool...doing the summer program is worth your while.

He did it!

He was VERY happy to have learned how to turn a motor on. And then he went on to learn how to make a dimmer switch. :)

Pretty cool huh? :)

Home School Book Sales

So last night I went to a baptist church in London that was having a homeschool book sale.

I bought some books that were NOT school book related. Just general Christian fiction that I figured was a good price for the book box and that I could resell at more than what I bought it for at our annual yard sale. :) that way I have MORE money to buy more books right? :) and worst comes to worst...I'll have enjoyed doing some reading.

Anyways, picked up a pack of manipulatives. They kinda look like this but in lots of different colours. $4.00 I figured why not. :)

This morning the lad was quite intrigued by them and wanted to be able to add them to his play city and was sadly disappointed when I said NO... these are for homeschooling ONLY. We do math with them.

Being the lad that he is... he still managed to make a game out them. Only to occasionally be called off his play with them in order to do some math. It was interesting to see a light dawn in his eyes when he realized that.. 10 black bomb birds were still 10 black bomb birds even if they were divided into two groups of 1 + 9, or 5 + 5 and so forth. This is why I got them even though I KNOW that I can use all sorts of stuff around the house as manipulatives for math.

I got a bunch of other books as well. A couple of readings, a three book set of bible dictionary, a small reading program, a science book, a music theory book, some learning type books and a few fiction books. All for less than $50. I was overall pleased with what I got.

Irish Meal Day

I freely admit that this is a duplicate post to my post over at the homeschool blog. But this also seemed very family oriented so I thought I'd share it here as well. :) Cheers!

Boy, the lad and I had fun today. Yesterday we did days 2 & 3 of Expedition Ireland put out by Amanda Bennett Unit Studies. We learned prata is potato, that Ireland has beautiful scenery and interesting stories. We had fun colouring their flag and learning about Burren and Crystal.

Instead of doing more studying of Ireland we decided to have a cooking Irish food day.

We started the day off with pancakes of course.

Here is an easy way to make thin pancakes:

---

4 oz/ 125g/ 1 cup plain flour
pinch of salt
2 eggs
1/2 pt/ 250ml/ 1 cup milk
1 tbsp melted butter

---

Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend for about 30 seconds. The batter should then be allowed to stand for 30 minutes in a cool place. Heat a small pan over a medium heat. Grease with a little butter and wipe out with kitchen paper. Fry about 2 tbsp of batter at a time, swirling to cover the base of the pan. Keep them thin and there will be no need to turn. Serve rolled up with sugar.

We did two things with them. MOST we put cinnamon sugar on and rolled them up.
A few we added some gooseberry jam and rolled.
We learned we like the cinnamon sugar best and NOT to be shy with it either. :)

here the lad is learning to apply the cinnamon sugar.
Here I teach him how to roll it. He was a bit hestitant to do it himself as they were quite warm yet.
And the finished product...the cinnamon sugar ones in front, the jam ones behind.
We had thought about dusting them with icing sugar but "Mommy, I think plain is better."

Then off to go grocery shopping for the rest of the days meals....The lad looked hard for the buttermilk, and thought it funny that evaporated milk has a cow picture on the front of the can.

For lunch, due to hunger issues, we decided that the Irish part of our lunch would be GREEN salad. :) The rest we just ate as we wanted to. (sandwiches).

This afternoon we made

Irish Soda Bread

mix together:

4 cups bread flour

1 tbsp double action baking powder

¾ tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

Add 2 c. buttermilk

Mix well

Knead 1 minute

Cut in half and form into two balls

Place on greased cookie sheet

cut an 'x' in the top of each ½ inch deep

cook 350 oven for 45-55 minutes.

We learned that if you subsitute whole wheat flour for white, adding more fluid a good idea.
That it is fun to alternate kneading bread.
That is it HARD for a five year to cut an "x" in the top of a ball of bread with a big knife.

the boy working hard at kneading
I neglected to take a picture of the finished product. Turned out a bit dry, but the inside was yummy. We'll do this again sometime.

I was HIGHLY intimidated by the thought of making candy and was VERY nervous that I would mess it up. BUT it worked!!!! I was delighted.
Grandmom's Irish Potatoes Candy

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups white sugar

• 1 tablespoon butter

• 1/2 cup evaporated milk

• 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, butter, evaporated milk, cream of tartar and salt. Mix well and bring to a boil. Cook to the soft ball stage at 234 degrees F (115 degrees C). A few drops will form a soft ball when dropped into cold water. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Add vanilla and beat until creamy and stiff. Roll into balls and shape like little potatoes. Roll each ball in cinnamon to coat, then press in pieces of chopped nuts to look like eyes. You can also dust with cocoa to simulate dirt.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 62 | Total Fat: 0.9g | Cholesterol: 3mg

They are pretty good. Hubby says they are kinda like fudge, but different. We were supposed to put nuts on them to look like potato eyes, but the lad nixed that idea and I didn't mind since I'm not a huge nuts in candy person anyways. :)

Oh... we also made cookies!

Irish Ginger Snaps

Ingredients

• 1 cup white sugar

• 1 egg

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 3/4 cup shortening

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Cream sugar, egg, salt and shortening together. Add flour, baking soda and spices. Mix well. Roll teaspoonfuls of dough into balls and roll the balls in sugar.

3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 5 to 6 minutes.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 87 | Total Fat: 4.5g | Cholesterol: 6mg

NOTE: in our oven... 15 minutes.

And yes, I neglected to take a pic of the finished product and I doubt they'll last long enough for a picture to be taken.

We spontaneously decided to invite gramma up to share our Irish meal. Apparently all the ladies at the bank wanted to come and share it as well. Gramma turned them down. :) Our Irish meal was ham, potatoes, and bread.
The brown furry guy in the forefront is "super Jeff". He's an all powerful rabbit who helps make all types of things. This time he helped make cookies! He was a VERY curious rabbit and got flour on his nose in the process. :) He isn't the lad's favourite stuffy, but he is a good comrade in arms. :)

For more irish meal ideas.. go here. :)

Today was a good day

Sold some bunnies, bought some new ones.

Visited the dutch relations who were visiting at Mom and Dad's for their anniversary.

Went home, unpacked bunnies, saw how REALLY fuzzy my new buck was and said wow...that's fuzzier than I expected. go figure that one!

Then home to do experiments with the lad.

We did a fair number of them. The biggest hit being experimenting with different ways to put out a fire.

Then tonight I did my download n go review.

Overall.... a decent day

have to admit, could have done without the sore back, but overall...a good day.

This morning we worked on the letter A lapbook after finishing up his big picture he painted yesterday. When it was dry (after lunch) we hung it up in his bedroom. He looks forward to showing it to Gramma on Sunday.

After lunch we went to the library where we read books and played with the train table. We took home almost all the books we went with, and then took home almost as many again. :) LOTS of reading we can do again this week. It's rather interesting...Justin is trying hard to read books along with me...but only if he thinks I'm not really noticing. :) He's a silly lad at times.

After the library we came home where he played and I worked on dishes and finishing up the laundry. Talked with my mom on the phone for a while.

Had a good supper and watched America's funniest videos together for a while.

In the evening Jim had a bible study, so I put the lad to bed and then played some kingdoms of camelot and then got materials ready for tomorrow.

Overall a good day.

Our day today....

Focus...Cleaning the back bathroom and the kitchen and clearing out some of the stuff in the gardens.

We got her done! :)

we also picked a whack of ground cherries, hot peppers, carrots, beets and jalapenos.

Also took time to practice what we learned that tigers do...
We took cat classes.

Little cat learned to stalk prey.
Little cat learned to pounce on prey AFTER running really really fast after it.
Little cat remembered what big cats eat.. buffalo, deer, leopards,etc. and that little cats eat grasshoppers and mice. :)
Little cat learned to play with mommy cat.
Little cat learned to defend himself.. and the importance of protecting his tummy.
Little cat had a WHOLE lot of fun.

Today's Activities

Got to bed late on Monday, so got up a bit later this morning.

before I went out to take care of the bunnies, the lad got up, so I got handy manny on for him and went to do the bunnies, where I discovered one of my kits died overnight...total bummer that. back into the house to see that my hubby was up, tired from lack of sleep.

Threw some sort of breakfast together and talked with mom on the phone for a minute.

Worked through day one of the Terrific Tigers unit study from Download N Go. We had fun doing this. Watched loads of videos and did a bunch of stuff on-line including this cool tiger puzzle that Justin did twice. :)

Did laundry, taught the boy how to pull a fitted cover down over a mattress, and he also learned how to clean a bathtub! :) He had the fun part of bathing the tub clean and then having a bunch of hair bottles end up in the water with him to scrub, and then rinsed it out really well for me. What an excellent young helper he can be.

We had planned to drive the library, but decided it was such a nice day so we walked instead. Good exercise. Got out one tiger book from the library and then played trains for 45 minutes. We had hoped to visit one of the seniors on the way home but we forgot and went to the dollar store for a drink instead. We enjoyed our drink sitting out back of the dollar store and reading books. Very nice to do that with a lad.

Home to work on more laundry and to make supper. I did sausage with potatoes and corn, and the lad did potatoes, corn, tomatoes and cheese since he is not real up on sausage yet. I only did sausage because I'm emptying the freezer of all meat products before I start buying more. They need to be used up! soon I'll be doing the same with the veggie and fruit freezer. I want it empty by spring. Pt the lad to bed and then vegged on the computer for a while since Jim was at a meeting. he came back in good spirits. :) we talked a while and then watched NCIS: Los Angelos together. As Justin would say "this has been a good day, I liked all of it."

NGBTS picnic and other stuff

Today we attended the NGBTS picnic hosted by KLC and A Different Drum from London. NGBTS stands for Not Going Back to School, it's a picnic for homeschoolers.

We had a scavenger hunt which our lad thoroughly enjoyed. :) I really liked how they had this one set up. It went beyond the normal find this find that and bring in all this stuff. It worked with all the five senses... can you hear, can you smell, can you see, can you touch, can you read, can you find. Justin had a lot of fun with it too. He even tried to catch a squirrel to put in his pocket. :)

We picked up some new books. Okay...these were "new to us" book. Most were on science experiments or teaching books. There was a lady there who had five cases of books and apparently has another 90 cases in her home yet. In one of the books the lad found an experiment that he desperately wanted to do IMMEDIATELY! To read how that went, go here. oh the book was this one (101 great science experiments):

After having a picnic lunch and chatting with a lady we met at the HOPE picnic and a couple other people we ended up not going the play area for a play time, but instead ran some errands and went home.

The lad experimented, we had supper and the two of us went to pick grass for the bunnies and had fun with the "pink cats" that like to sneak up a body (and then one needs to hide in the corn field). Only the mommy pink cats are dangerous. The baby ones are fun and like to follow you like friendly cats, and the old ones with purple around their eyes are safe and like to say hi, and be petted. (active imaginations the lad and I have). :)

Then time for bed and book reading and conversation.
Overall a good day.

Discovered when we got home that hubby dear expected we'd be in London late today, whereas I expected to get home by 5/530. So I was delighted with how the day went whereas Jim wasn't quite so. Shoot... what can a person do but learn to communicate these things more clearly......It's always a learning process. :)

How to see God in All?

So as you know, I've decided to study the Sunday's sermons passage before church. Wow...certainly helped me listen better since I knew the basic gist of what he was going to talk about. Even missing the first five minutes due to Justin having to get some crayons which were SUPPOSED to be in my church bag but somehow weren't I still followed the sermon fairly well.

ANYWAYS>>>>>
One of the things Jim mentioned was that we need to focus on God ALL the time. To look for him in things. To make it a point of doing so. It helps us to know God better and therefore to boast in him and our knowledge of him. (I am paraphrasing).

That got me thinking.
As some of you know, we plan to homeschool Justin. A part of Jim's sermon was that folks in school need to think about how God fits in with their schooling. When taking a college course...how do you see God in your art class?

I'm thinking it would behoove me to figure out how to get Justin NOW and throughout his schooling to think about how God figures into it all. I really want to help Justin develop a solidly Christian world-view, so that means helping him figure out how God fits into his world in every way that I can think of, help him shape his thinking.

So now I have to figure out, how can I do that?
It's more I think than using scripture in study - whether that be copywork, or memorization or whatever. Though that's part of it, because the more Justin knows the word of God, the more hopefully he'll learn of it and become drawn to God more as I pray that God will draw Justin to himself. (I probably said that poorly).

But how do I teach him to really think about how God fits in with it all? That's my query. I am NOT a hugely critical thinker. Jim is WAY more discerning about things than I am. I can get the thought that something isn't right, but Jim tends to pinpoint it really quickly. :) I'm quicker at saying where I see God in something, but I don't know..... I feel somewhat unprepared for this aspect of things and want to figure out how to feel more "prepared" to help my boy in this important aspect of knowing and loving God.