Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Life

I am amazed at how busy a life can be on a remote and quiet mountain.  Granted our lives here are all about becoming as self dependent as possible.  Yes, when you have kids, that adds an entire dimension to life you wouldn't otherwise have!  On top of that, being self employed, self motivated, self taught and self sustaining, we are also homeschoolers.  Truly, if it wasn't for this marriage being the awesome team that it is, neither of us could go on like we do now!

Harvesting zucchini 8/15/11

Trouble holding onto harvested zucchini 8/15/11

Drying our onion harvest in mid August.

Homeschool began on 8/22.

Science experiment in the first week of school.  Floating eggs in heavily salted water and comparing with egg in fresh water.  Kids loved this experiment, they didn't realize just how effective it would be!

My 5 year old son is having a little fun-time on the internet playing a math game called "Save the Whale."  It's free, it's so easy and gentle that it makes learning/remembering math facts seem more like, well, a game!  I got this idea from my chosen math program called "Math Mammoth."  We all LOVE IT!!!  I highly recommend it to anyone!  Check it out if you're floundering in the math department!

Here my 2nd grader enjoyed the study we did on Leif Ericsson and the Vikings so much that he designed his own long ship with pipe cleaners!  It wasn't an assignment, it was simply the sheer joy of learning at work!

September 13th was amazing winter-like weather.  It was a much needed change from the relentless heat and the "non-soon" we got in place of typical summer monsoons!

The weather was unpredictable and the scenes equally surprising!  Here we are at sunset!

The children joyfully display their handiwork.  We studied North American Indians last week.  They made paper wigwams and teepees!
This week we are studying the Pilgrims.  We even did an activity which demonstrated what the Pilgrims did in place of glass for their windows.  Each one oiled his own sheet of printer paper with veggie oil, then compared it to a regular clean sheet of paper.  We held them both up to the light and saw how much more light could get through the oiled paper.  Then we placed both sheets on top of newsprint and they could see the newspaper through the oiled paper.  We then made it 'rain' on both sheets of paper and saw how much more durable the oiled paper was!
On a side note for any of you homeschoolers out there, I'd like to recommend checking out the curriculum offered by "My Father's World."  It makes it possible to teach one curriculum at each child's level, freeing you from having to teach multiple and widely varied curricula.  I'm difficult to please, and this one has got me leaping for joy!  It's Biblical while implementing the best of classical education, unit lessons, and Charlot Mason approaches.  It's great.  I am even free to start teaching the children beginning Latin for their foreign language.  For that, I'm using Memoria Press' "Latina Christiana."

The apples on the tree are ready for harvest!  Tasty homegrown apples!

It's official, I've been bitten by the Autumn bug!

I'll sign off now, but not without sending out a great big, THANK YOU to Candy at the Lazy J Bar C.  Even though it appeared I was MIA in blogger world, she up and bestows me with the Liebster Award.  Then as if that wasn't a miracle unto itself, two hearty sweat souls join me in my followers list!  Thank you MamaTea and Dr Momi for your faith in me!  So happy and humbled that you would come join me!  Thank you!

In your honor, I will pass on the love and the award in my next post!

Joyously linking to Farmgirl Friday blog hop #25


6 comments:

  1. Hey Tatiana!
    Love seeing the kids in the garden! The clouds in the valley are eerie looking! Looks like the boys are having fun with school! Did you ever try to "balance" an egg at exactly the fall/spring equinox? Supposedly it works, might be another science project?!? Google it, I'm sure there's lots of info out there! Glad to see you! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks like everything is growing well at your place...EVEN the kiddos!

    Love the school inspired projects-- that little pipe cleaner depiction of the Vikings is so cool and reminds me of my boys, when, they were that age.
    I'd love to have some apples! Those look so tasty...
    Make it a good one, Pat

    ReplyDelete
  3. We missed you Taso! Happy Fall and welcome back to blogland! Did you enjoy your rest from blogging?
    I love love love your approach to homeschooling. It takes me back to our early hears of hands on homeshcooling days... and just the sheer joy of living and learning together... You are doing a wonderful job in all areas! Your harvest is so impressive and I couldn't agree more with what you said on my blog.. Autumn was made for an artists imagination.. .Like the leaves this time of year, my mind is equally on fire with new ideas to sustain me all winter long... love this time of year just for that! Be well my dear and I'll see you next Friday for the farmgirl friday hop!

    Deb

    ReplyDelete
  4. Where have you been? Miss you and hope all is well! Happy Thanksgiving!
    Deb

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello, I had been absent from blogging for a while and am just now getting caught up. I came by to see how you were doing, hope everthing is great and your just busy, busy, busy. Hope to hear from you soon. God Bless

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi there Tatiana~

    Just wanted to pop in and see how everything was going out your way.

    I know you're probably busy as ever with the kiddos and the holiday. Haven't seen you post in a while.
    I hope all is well for you and yours...

    chat me up when you get chance...or you could post at your leisure. Don't you just love how I'm giving you permission...LOL!

    No really-- have a great start to a wonderful New Year, was just checking on you and wanted to say Howdie,
    Pat

    ReplyDelete