Our Week

We had a week of wrapping things up this past week. It was our last week of studying the solar system. I think we'll wait to add some more science until after the Holidays, and spend extra time on Holiday stuff between now & then.

We also finished the Really Reading Curriculum. I want to spend some more time reviewing some of the concepts, but we worked through the whole curriculum. We're doing review work now, and reading the easy reading books & continuing with the phonics worksheets.

And finally, we finished our study of Jamestown and moved on to Plymouth. One of the books I'd planned to use hasn't come in at the library yet, I'm HOPING it will come in sometime this week so we'll have it ready to use when we get back from our trip, if not, we may end up skipping it, we shall see . . . In the meantime we read another book, Three Young Pilgrims , and started Squanto. I was nervous, since Squanto was another chapter book, that it would be above the girls' head like the Jamestown one was, they got into Jamestown as we moved through it, but had trouble following it. But it's written at a younger level, and when I finished reading 2 chapters, L asked that I keep reading, so it was a hit. I'm hoping to read a bunch of it to them in the car on our trip, it should pass time driving and help us keep moving forward with the curriculum at the same time. We also started our first History Pocket book. When I first looked into this curriculum, the library system shows that they have all the History Pocket books, but when I tried to actually reserve one, it wouldn't let me, so apparently they're considered a reference book or somesuch at the library that actually has them. So we've skipped the History Pockets up to this point. I did want to try at least ONE though, and determined that the Plymouth one was used extensively & is geared for the younger kids, so I bought this one. I think it'll be a hit. We made the first pocket yesterday, and the girls thought it was great fun :)

I'd planned to take this next week off completely, since we're getting ready for our trip, but we have a good momentum going, so I think we'll try to go ahead & do Bible, Reading & History the first 2 or 3 days this week. But I reserve the right to change my mind if I start stressing about getting everything else done LOL.

They're Constantly Changing

I'm amazed at how something the girls weren't interested in a few months ago can now hold their attention so completely. Last fall we got a couple Nest videos to take with us to watch in the car on a trip, the girls weren't interested in them (on that same trip, I also introduced them to Mary Poppins, they weren't interested in that either). We tried the Nest videos at various times during last winter, and then kind of set them aside since they continued to not be a hit. Then a month or so ago dh discovered that there's a TV station here that plays a whole bunch of religious kids programs on weekend mornings, so he set the DVR to record a bunch of them, including NEST videos. And the girls love the Nest videos! So I thought, perhaps they just didn't like the particular video we'd tried watching before. Tonight I went back into the DVR list & chose a NEST video for them to watch (and it doesn't tell me which one is which, so it was just whatever was recorded last weekend) and it's John the Baptist (the one we have, that they didn't like). They did mention, as it started, that they'd seen this one before & I asked if they wanted to watch a different one but they didn't reply, so I left it on. They're completely engrossed in it!! So I guess they just weren't old enough for it (or something) last winter. Along the same line, Mary Poppins is now one of their favorites and they watch it probably at least once a month on trips to & from the grandparents' houses.

Doing a Happy Dance!!

I'm so excited!! One of the many blog giveaways I entered recently was for the complete set of Liberty's Kids DVDs. For those who don't know, Liberty's Kids was a PBS series a few years ago set during the Revolutionary War. Great history in a kid- friendly format! The series has been cancelled, but they did re-play at least some of them on one of the Discovery Channels a year or so ago, I recorded them and watched one or two with the girls but they were still abit too scary (war is like that LOL) for the girls at that point. I think I did keep them on our DVR in case we wanted to watch them later, but then we moved, so that kinda ruined that LOL (and even if I'd known how to record off the DVR, there was way too much chaos at the time of the move to think of recording a show we might someday want to watch). Now we're studying American History and I'd been thinking what a great resource that would be when we get to that period in history. And I THINK they would be less scared now, especially if we were also reading about it at the same time (we used to have to ff through the scary scenes in The Little Mermaid and Beauty & the Beast, and now we don't). So anyway, I was excited when I found the giveaway for the DVDs, but figured chances were slim that I'd win, but I got the e-mail this afternoon, I DID win them!! So we'll have them to watch when we're studying it & if they ARE still too scary, we can save them to watch when the girls are older (obviously even if we watch them now, we'll likely pull them out in the future when we cycle back around to studying that period in history). Yay! I can't begin to tell you how much this made my day (and yes, I realize it's a little thing, it doesn't take much to make me happy LOL).

Last Week's Wrap-Up

We had a productive week last week, stayed on track for "school", the girls are definitely picking up the reading, and after a slow start, are into the Jamestown book now (& we'll finish it today or tomorrow). We also figured out to fit a visit to Jamestown into our upcoming Disney trip (had planned to stop in Williamsburg for Busch Gardens anyway), and I think it will help alot for them to SEE what we just read about.

As already mentioned, we went apple picking, we also had a rather applesauce filled week, with making 2 small batches here at home (the apple corer/peeler/slicer is pretty cool!!) and then yesterday at my parents' house we made & canned 9 1/2 quarts (and the girls & I probably ate at least another pint while we were there LOL). I'm so excited to have those all sitting on my shelf for this winter :) I still have probably a bushel & a half of apples sitting in my basement too (some of the empires still, most of the staymens we picked, and then I got a half bushel of yorks (YUM!! My all-time favorite!!!) while we were at my parents. So will have to keep an eye on them & may make some more applesauce &/or dried apples &/or apple leather w/ some of those.

We were at my parents' this weekend and spent a good part of Friday at a pumpkin patch, corn maze, etc. near our old house. I'd taken the girls last year & we'd enjoyed it, but had gotten horribly lost in the corn maze, so we attempted it again this year with more adults along. We didn't get lost but it confirmed for me that it wasn't any great lack of directional ability on my part that got us lost last year, this year we did lots of one adult stay at a crossroads w/ the girls while the other 2 check out 2 of the options and then take our best guess, and even then we went in circles a few times. We had found 6 of the 10 clues when we came to a lookout tower & discovered that we were still about as far from the beginning as it's possible to get and it was approaching sundown, so rather than risk having to find our way out in the DARK we abandoned the maze & followed a straight line (through the rows of corn) to the hay wagon path that ran around the outside of the maze and followed it back to civilization LOL. Besides that the girls had a great time jumping on a huge moonbounce type pillow (they especially enjoyed it when Papa got out & jumped w/ them LOL), going down huge slides, seeing the farm animals (they had some itty bitty baby pigs that were ADORABLE!!!!), playing in a big bin of shelled corn, and racing rubber duckies down chutes that you pump water down. And of course the hayride to the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins. L found a "peanut pumpkin" and was/is quite proud of it.

The girls amazed me with how well they did learning the Lord's Prayer this week. I wasn't 100% happy w/ either version of the song that I bought (but at $0.99 ea it wasn't a great loss & did help them learn it). Soon after we moved here we had a longish (nowhere near this long, but longer than most) memory verse & I found it odd (but assumed it was just a coinicidence) that L seemed to learn it faster than she does she shorter ones, but again this week, she had the Lord's Prayer down to needing one or two prompts by TUESDAY!! It is often Thursday before she can say the typial one line memory verses w/o hearing the whole thing first. I just don't get it! But by the end of the week both were saying it to my satisfaction to be able to tell Teacher Cindy next week that they said it.

Now we're home, ready to fit in our last week of school before our Disney trip (taking some time off either side of the trip to keep from stressing me out too much LOL). This week we have friends coming over this morning, books to pick up at the library, a new source for raw milk to find (the farm we've been going to put up a sign a week ago saying they were moving, sigh . . .), I'd really like to find some new shoes for Disney, but am beginning to resign myself to just wearing my crocs, they look less that lovely w/ skirts & dresses, but they're comfortable . . . still hoping to check a couple stores this week though. . . so it's a busy week. I also need to reserve videos from the library to take w/ us on the trip.

I'd planned to get corncobs from my parents' house to use to make corncob dolls this week, but realized halfway home last night, that I forgot, so we'll be skipping that in this week's school . . . and try to remember to bring the corncobs home after our disney trip.

Apple Picking

We went apple picking yesterday. Since the apples at the u-pick place were $1.19/lb, and the apples from an orchard near my parents' house are $16/bushel (a bushel is 40+ lbs, do the math!!!) or $8/bushel for seconds (which means trimming a spot out now & then, many of them are "seconds" because there's no stem, which doesn't affect anything except how long they'll keep). This was definitely filed under "educational experiences" NOT "frugal shopping" LOL. But the girls had a blast & would have happily picked apples for quite abit longer than we did. Conveniently, the apple variety I wanted was small trees that included branches that were literally inches from the ground. And apparently had, up until that point, been picked by people about my height. The low branches were still loaded, as were the tops of the trees, the branches I could easily reach w/o squatting to the ground or standing on tiptoe were pretty sparse. So it worked great, plenty of apples the kids could reach, and at that price, I wasn't doing much picking anyway LOL.

We also got apple cider while we were there (yum!) AND the most exciting part of the trip for me, the little "market" there had raw honey for prices I'm willing to pay!!! I'd about given up, I got raw honey from the same farm I got raw milk from when we lived in our old house, and all the prices I was finding here were at least double what I'd paid there. I was hesitant to just keep buying it there (though we go w/in a mile of that farm when we drive to/from my parents' house so it's not a big deal to stop there), because I prefer truely LOCAL raw honey for the added protection against environmental allergens (bees make honey out of local wildflowers, that's the same pollen that's floating in the air making people sneeze, if they eat the pollen as honey, they're less likely to react to the pollen in the air, at least that's how I understand it . . . I think it's the same principal as homeopathics?) , although so far the only one in our family who has any environmental allergies is dh & he doesn't eat honey (or anything else sweet) anyway. But still . . . I was excited to find local raw honey for only slightly more than what I'd been paying before.

So it was a rather expensive day all around, but the girls had fun LOL.

Review & Giveaway

Ore-Ida sent me a coupon for a free package of their new Steam & Mash potatoes.

We tried them for supper last night. I chose the garlic flavor, it was abit to garlicky &/or salty for my taste but everyone else ate them w/o complaint, the girls each asked for seconds. Both dh & I agreed that while they weren't bad, they tasted more like instant potatoes than homemade from scratch ones. They also seemed pricey to me (but I'll admit, I don't normally buy "prepared" potatoes), it was around $3.50 (I don't remember exactly) for a package that was barely enough for a side dish for our family of 4 (after we each had one serving, each of the girls ate a 2nd serving and there was an extra spoonful for dh to finish up).

While it would be a selling point for most people, the fact that the potatoes are prepared IN the plasticy bag didn't appeal to me either, I question leaching issues w/ those "steam in" bags for the microwave.

So all around, it's not a product OUR family is likely to purchase again, but we are far from the average American family LOL. IMO homemade from scratch win out hands down from a cost & flavor standpoint & plain old instant potato flakes taste comparable, are equally easy to make, and while I haven't specifically priced isntant potatoes recently, I assume they'd be a cheaper option.

That said, Ore-Ida also sent me some $1 off coupons to share w/ my readers. So . . . if you'd like to try these for yourself, just leave a comment on this post before next Monday, Oct 13:00 at 8pm Eastern Time.

Gratituesday - Faith of a Child

Yesterday dh took the girls to his mom's house for the day. Since the church near her house has a big open field, perfect for shooting off rockets (as opposed to all the trees around us), they took their model rockets along to finally shoot them off. I'm alittle unsure of the specifics (having 2 excited 5 1/2 yr olds telling you about it is rather . . . confusing LOL) Well, when they shot A's rocket they somehow lost track of it & had NO IDEA where it came down. The girls prayed that Jesus would help them find it, and they started looking. Just when dh had said it was time to give up, the pastor & a neighbor came along. The pastor had been standing in another part of the property & thought he'd seen it come down (but hadn't known what it was until he came over to talk to dh, MIL and the girls), so they went and looked where he thought he'd seen it & sure enough, they found the rocket but not the parachute/top piece. Well today, the neighbor called MIL, he & his wife went for a walk today & the parachute/top piece literally blew right across their path. The girls are SOO EXCITED that Jesus answered their prayer! And honestly, that's what I'm most thankful for! That God cares enough to honor such small, inconsequential requests (the rocket was easily replaceable) and remind all of us of His love & the power of prayer!