Teaching This Year

I know it may not be super interesting to some, but I am posting my outline to teaching my boys this year.  Warning:  Super long post...sorry.

It helps me keep track, and maybe it might help ideas for you, or something.  :) (the links are for your reference, not because I make money from them...because I don't.)

Grade 9: My Oldest

English

• Book study - The Hiding Place, My Mothers Secret, "Fake" Holocaust links (1 & 2)                  - Compare and contrast with opinion on what really happened.  Maybe watch a movie like Schindler's List After.
  -Beowulf or The Last of the Mohican's 
• Vocabulary Book C (BJU) - Bi-weekly
• Wordsmith Craftsman - Weekly
• Daily Grams - Daily
• Reading Detective - Weekly
  - Stop & Jot
  - Photo of the day for storytelling/creative writing - weekly on blog
  - 7 Steps to a Perfect story, then write me a story.
• Spelling Bee - weekly (use the 100 words for HS)
• Journaling on blog - at least weekly

Math

• Teaching Textbooks

Typing

• Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing

Misc "Home" Skills

• Money Management for teens - bi-weekly

Art

• Once weekly art class with co-op
• 52 weeks of drawing prompts
  OR
• Drawing Lab

Science

• Once weekly class with co-op (I am teaching)

Home Ec

• Once weekly class with co-op (I am teaching a year long in depth cooking class)

History

• Once weekly class with co-op (they are doing story of the world)

Phys Ed

• Twice weekly class with co-op

"Extra's"

• Thursday School with our school board (they go all day to learn what our teachers have prepared once per week.  This gets the hours with the board to qualify for "teacher led" even though it is 100% me leading the rest of the week)
• Piano lessons once weekly

Grade 7: My Middle  (all links that are the same book have been left out)

English

• Book Study - Treasure Island
  - Chains OR Fever 1793 
  - Door in the Wall OR Farmer Boy
• Wordsmith Craftsman - weekly
• Reading Detective - weekly
• Apples - bi-weekly
• Daily Grams - daily
  - Photo for storytelling/creative writing on blog - weekly
  - 7 steps to the perfect story - then write me a story
  - Newspaper Generator - to use for a weekly newspaper for a month, reporting whatever he feels the need to report on! 
• Vocabulary A - weekly
• Journaling on blog - weekly at least
• Spelling Bee - weekly

Math

• Teaching Textbooks

Typing

• Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing

Misc "Home" skills

• Money Management for teens

Art (my son who loves art, will be doing some extra art things)

• Once weekly class with co-op
• 52 weeks of drawing prompts
  OR
• Drawing Lab book
  - Draw in Faces
  - Comic book printable
  - Foam Armor
• Creating a Masterpiece

Science, History, Home Ec, & Phys Ed

• Once weekly class with co-op

Extra's

• Thursday School
• Guitar Lessons once weekly

Grade 3: My Baby (again, all links that repeat are missing)

English

• Book Study - Frog & Toad Together
  -The Mouse and the Motorcycle
• BOB books 
• Kids Kit Magnets for storytelling
• Story Teller Magnets for storytelling
  - Photo of the day for story telling - weekly on blog
  - "I am as..." starters for teaching similies and metaphors
• Reading Detective
• Daily Spelling 
• Journaling on blog - weekly
• Spelling Bee - weekly

Math

• Teaching Textbooks

Typing

• Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing

Art, Science, Home Ec, History, & Phys Ed

• Once weekly class with co-op

Extra's

• Thursday School
• Piano lessons once weekly

So, there is my plan.  I hope it all works out.  I have ordered a tonne of things from this new company that I found.  They will direct bill to my school board so it does not come out of pocket for me.  I kind of got out of control, but there were so many new things I thought would be fun to try, plus after schooling for so long, I am running out of things to spend my funding on.  :)  Just kidding, but it is getting kind of that way.  We end up spending the last thousand or $600 on books or something at the end of the year.

What are your plans?  What do you think I should include?  

Are you excited for school?  I am so excited to gear up for this year.  I can hardly wait!

Cheers 

Teaching Grade Eight and Nine

For my records, and in case it might be of some help to some of you, I thought I would list by very basic plan to teach my kids.

This is the first one.

My oldest is going to do two grades this year.  He wants to do Grade Eight and Nine. 

I think I am going to do Math for sure and English, but he may not totally finish the last bit of Grade Nine.  He can do Nine and Ten next year.

So, for Language Arts/English:

For our Book Studies:  The Giver and The Hobbit (Grade 8)
Diary of a Young Girl and ?? - Suggestions anyone?? (Grade 9)

Three times weekly Creative Writing - done in Notebook format or Blog format

Daily Sentence structure and Usage book
Daily cursive/copy work

Weekly Spelling Bee (with English from the Roots Up cards)

For Math:

We do strictly Teaching Textbooks.  They have a level for each grade.  It does the lecture, testing and grading all in the program.  A bit pricey, but fabulous.

For Science:

I have two Thames and Kosmos boxes we are doing for sure:
Solar power
Hydropower
and we will also start doing Nature Study Journals twice weekly this year.  (here is my pin board where I am collecting ideas for it)

History/Social Studies:

World War 2 History Study (Using Diary of a Young Girl as a spring board to more discussion and research)
Photo of the Day - the photo is used to make 5 inferences, 5 observations, and 5 predictions.  Then discuss it.  We have a couple Photo of the Day apps from National Geographic that are amazing!
Government Terms and Forms Unit study.

Music/Art:

Piano Lessons
Artist Cards with Artist studies
Creative lettering Unit
Photography Course (with a photo he must submit to me once weekly and post on his blog)

Misc things he wants to learn:

Sewing (Jean Slippers, Bandanna Quilt)
Embroidering
Ancient Egypt (I have one of The Great Courses course on that.)

So hopefully that wasn't an overload of stuff for you.  :)

We will be using lots of things from my Pinterest Boards to flesh out the year, and to make learning fun, but this is the very basic outline of things he will be doing.

How about you?  Are you teaching Junior High this year?  What are your ideas?

Cheers

Links and Lists - Back to School

We all know that no matter how you school, it is the time right now to start gearing up for another year of it.

 

Today I thought I would share my favorite resources that homeschoolers and public schoolers could enjoy for supplemental in different subjects.

Starfall is a great place for emerging readers to start. 

Zac Browser is amazing.  It is a web browser that was developed with autistic children in mind, but it gives all children a safe place to browse the internet.

The Ultimate List of Online Music Activties is a large list of music enrichment things to access.

Have you ever had your child ask you about something and they want to learn more?  "Mom, what is paper made of?"  and your simple answer of trees is just not good enough...This is a list of Unit studies that will make answering those questions a bit easier.

And if unit studies are not your thing, Teacher Tube has videos.

And if you don't want videos, a virtual field trip might be the answer.

OR you might want an app to enhance your stuff.  I personally LOVE my iPad for that.  There are so many interesting apps you can download, even for free!

Sometimes you need to help with handwriting.  This cool tool lets you type in word and choose the way you want it to work.  It then generates a sheet for your child to trace.

If you have a high schooler (and *gasp* that is me as my son is doing Grades 8 and 9 this year...Where did my baby go??!) there might be some extra reading you want them to do.  This list is an excellent resource.

Pinterest is taking the teacher world, and pretty much every world, by storm.  I have boards on pretty much everything.  (Please follow me...I would love to connect there as well, or if you need an invite, let me know and I will pass one on.)  Here is an idea I am going to adapt for lots of things.  I can do this for meal planning, farm planning, garden planning, school planning and so much more!  What a great idea.

I would love to know your favorite places/links to visit for school helps.  Pass them on in the comments or feel free to email me!  I hope that back to school is less stressful, and more exciting this year than any year previous!

Cheers

Book Talk Tuesday - Lessons from a Beehive (giveaway)

I was in a few stores the other day and realized it is ALMOST BACK TO SCHOOL!!!  Where did the summer go? 

Seriously, where did it go?!

I know for some this is not a big surprise, but for me it was a little bit.  I was so happily going along, and then all of a sudden it was time to start gearing up for school again.

Then I saw that Carol had a new book out.

Lessons from a Beehive is awesome.

I have always wanted bees. 

The honey alone is a huge draw for me, but the rest of the benefits are great too.

You don't have to OWN bees though or even homeschool to enjoy this great new book.

Carol has broken it into subjects and given you enhancements and age appropriate things to do for each subject.  Here are a couple examples:

Science

• Research what makes honey crystallize. You might try this experiment found at Education.com to enhance your study.

• Compare the characteristics of honey with other liquids. Pour a small amount of honey, corn syrup, and pancake or maple syrup in individual bowls. Blindfold the child. Have him smell, taste, and feel each liquid to determine what it is.

Geography

• Put some powdered sugar in a shaker container. Wait by the flowers until a honeybee lands. Shake some sugar on her. Now you will be able to see her better. See how far you can follow her.
• A bee will travel up to two miles from its hive. Using a map, place a red X where your house is. Then using the map’s scale and compass, draw a circle with a two mile radius around your house. Your bees will travel inside that circle.

Math

• The daily death rate in a colony of 50,000 bees is about 500. What percentage is that? If your colony only had 30,000 bees, what would the daily death rate be?
• A honeybee beats its wings about 11,500 times a minute. A fly beats over 62,000 times a minute. How many times a minute does a fly beat more than a bee?

Art

• Have your older student do a research assignment on the symbolism of the honeybee and include where the bee was pictured in ancient artwork.
• Do you have hives? Have your children paint or draw on them.

Language Arts

• "Busy as a bee" and "You attract more flies with honey than with vinegar" are both proverbs that speak of either bees or honey. Define "proverb." Research other proverbs that mention bees or honey. Have your younger children copy them for handwriting practice. Have your older ones write a paper discussing a meaning of their favorite bee proverb.
• Find five scripture references to honey or honeycomb. Use them for copy work for your younger child. Have the children memorize the Proverbs that mention honey. Have the older ones write a paragraph to explain the meaning of the Proverbs.

Home Economics

• After washing a cut or scrape with soap and water, apply raw honey with the bandage. Record its progress and healing time. Treat a second wound with an over-the-counter preparation. Record its progress and healing time. Which wound healed faster? Which one healed without scarring?

And so much more.  This book is a treasure trove of excellent ideas if you have bees or not. 

Want to win your own copy?

This is open to anyone, anywhere.  It comes as a digital download and is so very worth it! 

Here's how to enter:  (Separate comment for each please!)

1. "Like" Lessons From the Homestead on Facebook
2. "Like" Welcome to the Madness on Facebook
3. Check out Lessons from the Homestead and tell me which one of her lesson books looks most interesting to you.
4. Leave a comment telling me about your favorite school curriculum or what you love most about school.

I also need a way to contact you, so please make sure you leave an email.  You can even leave it spelled out.  (eg.  kgm3boys (AT) gmail (DOT) com) 

The contest will end on Monday (August the 13th) at 8am Mountain standard time, and the winner will be contacted by email.  Good luck.

Cheers

Book Talk Tuesday - Shadow

When walking through the library the other day, we saw this book and it helped me remember doing an exercise once when I was a young girl in school.

The book is full of illustrations and you make up the story.  On one side of the book is an illustration of what this little girl is doing, and on the other is a wonderful shadow world. 

Eventually that shadow world ends up leaking into her real world and she even changes places to go play in the made up world.

I thought it would be fun to make our own shadow world things.

First we needed a blank piece of paper folded length wise.

Then we wrote our name on the fold (if you do it in cursive it is even more fun...but my baby only knows how to print so we did printing) and traced an outline around our letters.

Then cut out along that outline and open your shape up.

Inside you draw a creature of some sort.  Be creative.

After you are done, admire your creativity and go play with your shadow creatures.

I love how fun this was and how perfectly it went along with the shadow book.

Cheers

Summer Fun Reading Chart

Last year I saw a really cute little "bingo" type reading chart on a friend's blog.  She always has amazing ideas and I love her virtual space. (if you click on the bingo link she also has a great list of books) 

My boys did the reading chart and were all pleased with the new books they discovered.

This year as I was sort of loosely planning what we were going to do this summer, I asked my boys what they enjoyed most last year.  Of course they mentioned our Summer Fun Chart (which seems to look a little different each year!) and then they surprised me and said the summer reading chart.  Then they surprised me further and asked for another only with MORE books on it!  Knock me over with a feather!

This year I thought I would share with you what we are doing for our chart.  (and here is the chart just for you if you want it for your kids, just click on it for a bigger version)

There are 50 different words or phrases on this chart. 

The deal here is that they must cross off the ones they read.  For example, if they read a book like "The Red Pyramid" by Rick Riordan, there are a few things they could cross off.  Pyramids, A Boy Hero, A Girl Hero, Action/Adventure, just to name a few.  The trick is that they have to cross it off on their own.  They can not ask me what I think the book is about.

They must eventually cross off all 50. 

I am letting them do this from Mid-June until the end of September.  Then I will let them pick a large prize if all three boys complete their charts.  Last year they were trying to earn a trampoline but one of them didn't finish his.  I extended the deadline and made it so they could cross off multiples for each book.  Hopefully they can all complete their charts.

I hope your kids enjoy it.  I tried to make it friendly for both girls and boys and to make it all age friendly so your elementary and your high school children could all use it.  (of course rules could be changed for each age group as well)

Rules could change for your family too.  If you want to have the complete 20 or something, or choose to have all the blue colored words...the choices are endless.  You don't have to reward your kids either.  Make it work for you.

Please let me know if your children enjoy it.  I would love your feedback.

Cheers

Update...Black and White Version is here

Summer Camp - Summer Fun Chart

To kick off this series of Summer Camp ideas, I thought I would start with something my boys love.  I really hope that you are all like me.  I hope that when summer comes, you try to find things to keep your kids occupied because they need to have something to do each day!

My boys love looking forward to summer though because that means that I make up our summer fun chart. 

For the past few years I have been printing out a list of activities, putting it in a cheap frame (think dollar store) and each time they do one, they cross it off with dry erase markers.  The beauty of having it in a frame is that I can just wipe it off.  Easy Peasy.

This year I thought I would get fancy and make all of you (who want one) a printable list as well.  Just click the photo for a larger one to print out.

Coming up these next few weeks, I have some wonderful guest posts.  These ladies have some really cool ideas for you to try out.  I will be posting summer camp ideas every Monday and Thursday.   Come check them out, and...

Enjoy summer!

Some of these things are just links to a photo, or an idea on Etsy and I figured I could totally do it (without buying them) I hope you will also find them useful.

Make a Catch a Ball             Learn How to Embroider (this is a link for 100 Stitches)
Learn How to Quill            Make a Tin Can Mug
Fishing Tackle Bracelets (for a more "manly" version leave off the beads)
Yarn Dolls                        Salad Spinner Art
Yarn Book Worm               Play Tent (with a hula hoop) and here is another one
Family Dolls (Nesting)          Monster Pillows
Take Close Up Photos (then make a simple book out of them)
Monster Page Corner Bookmarks
Marshmallow Popper           Monster Dolls
Baked Marbles                    Province/State String Art
Bag of Toy Soldiers             Make a Fork Ring
Make Tie Tacks/Earrings out of the end of a spent bullet casing
Make a Giant Flower            Make a Flower Press
Make Rock Candy                Make Rubber band Guns
Tiny Bubbles with straws        Bath Boats with Ice Cubes
Catapult with Popsicle Sticks  Frozen Treasure Dig
Water Hose Gun                   PVC Sprinkler
Flour Tag                            Glitter Balloons
Clay                                   Sumo Wrestle with Cushions
Drums out of Cans                   Fabric Bowls
PVC Periscope                     Superhero Masks
Jellybean Bracelets               Make a Jellyfish in a Bottle
Lip Straws                           Redneck Waterbed
Tape Ball                             Laser Tag with Balloons
Shaving Cream War               Popcorn War
Bubble Wrap Hopscotch         Pudding Painting

Cheers

Worth the Trip - House of Mystery, MT

While travelling through MT we found this little hole in the wall place that was amazing.

The Montana Vortex.

There were some amazing things we saw.  Let me tell you about them.

That house above was a really cool "playground" for us.  The vortex causes electrons to move about in a whirlpool type motion.  This causes some effects like distortions in the way you can stand (think twirling around on a merry-go-round), how tall you are, and how the trees grow. (there was also talk of auras and personal energy)

This yellow platform that my son is standing on is level.  He is not.  It is super hard to stand without tipping over.

There was a ladder standing straight up, when you gripped it and let your feet off the ground, it made you fly!

The trees were growing so funky.  Where the lines of the whirlpool were the strongest the trees grew the funkiest.

We had such a blast checking out the energy in the place.  We had never seen or been in a place like this before.  The tour guide was full of energy and information.  The tour was interesting and so much fun. 

For just over $30 it was a tour well worth taking.

Cheers

Kind of Creepy

The other day when cleaning out our hermit crab tank we found out that one of the ones we had gotten was dead.  Sometimes that happens. 

So, we couldn't leave Grandma Jenny alone.  We needed to get her a new playmate.

The one we chose was a decent sized little guy and was so friendly.  Sideways Bill had on a shell that was kind of funny as it was sideways when he walked around.  We thought it was fun to watch.

Well, today we caught Sideways Bill naked!

I could hear scratching and looked over to see him digging around.  It was kind of creepy looking.  He looked like a spider and I hate spiders.  They give me shivers.

I could see the white part behind him and thought it was his funny little sideways shell until he started digging his way out...

...then I figured out it was that he was missing a shell!

I gathered my boys and we all watched with fascination (and a little bit of grossed out on my part...because it is really creepy gross) as he crawled over to another slightly larger shell and put it on!

Gross but oh so fascinating!

Seriously they are amazing creatures. 

I am so excited that we have had this chance to study and observe them. 

My boys have looked up many things on these little creatures and watched a few videos.  We are now almost hermit crab experts!

Cheers

Floral Foam Carving

The other day for a field trip we travelled to a school art exhibit that happens here each year.  There were some amazingly talented young artists pieces displayed.

One thing that we really loved was the sculptures.

One of the kinds of sculptures that we saw were made out of floral foam.

I thought you might like to do them with your kiddies.  Mine loved it!

First you need some floral foam blocks.  I got mine in a pack of 6 from Michaels for only $5.  You could even make that cheaper by using your coupon. 

We experimented with a few different ways of carving.  Butter knives were great for cutting off large chunks.

I had an iTunes card that made a great tool for the finer details.

Their first sculptures took them about an hour and a half.  Their second was a bit longer as now they took care.  They knew what to expect with their carving tools and had a better idea of how to do it.

We will be doing this again.  They loved it.

Super cheap and easy.

Cheers

Lessons from the Tree House - Review

One awesome treehouse we saw at the Enchanted Forest in BC

A dear friend of mine keeps an eye out on the WWW for me.  She sends me links that she thinks I would enjoy and we have a great little email friendship going.

The other day she sent me a link to this page.  I was excited as I checked out this lady's two e-books that she was offering.  It seemed it was right up my alley.

I mentioned in a post a few months ago about my math/practical gardening lesson I was teaching my boys.  I also had a post about some of the catalogues I order each year.

Take these two things, add them together and you have a perfect mixture to want Carol's e-book on Lessons from the Seed Catalog. 

Then I saw that she had another called Lessons from the Hen House.  HEY, I want chickens!  So I clicked on over and checked that one out as well.

If you are anything like me and you love what you see, you go checking to see if there is more...

...so I found her blog.

Then I read an announcement that her next installment called Lessons from a Tree house was coming out soon and she needed some people to "test" it out.  Hummmm, check out something that I already think looks awesome, or not...tough decision right?!

I got my copy and sat down right away to read it.

It is simply amazing.

I am totally in love. 

In it there are three sections, the design stage, the building stage and the enjoyment stage.

Each section includes many wonderful activities to do with different suggestions for each age group.  For example: In the Design stage she suggests  to draw up your plans.  Under that there is a breakdown for older children (Using a computer aided drafting program) and younger children (drawing by hand).  This takes all the thinking out for me.  I often want to have my older two do something and am left floundering as I try to think of an easy way for my youngest to also be involved.

At the end of the e-book you will have a completed tree house.  How cool is that?!

Just in case I was totally out to lunch in the "knowing what kids like" department, I checked with my boys, reading a few things to them and asked them if it sounded like something they wanted to do.

My oldest was particularly excited about the research that she encourages in the book.  He wants to go to a garden center and check out the trees.  My second son was especially excited about the design phase.  He even went so far as to ask me if we might use some of our funding for buying a drafting program for him.

I am excited to implement a few of the ideas now, and then when we finally have a place to call our own, let them have a few months of just learning in this new hands on sort of way.

Cheers

Disclaimer:  I was provided with a free copy of all three e-books for my review of this new Lessons from a tree house.  No matter what my opinions were, I was able to keep all of the lessons.  All opinions expressed are my own and have not been influenced by the author of the e-books.

Teaching English

One of the things I struggle with in Homeschooling is coming up with really good ideas.

I pin stuff like crazy, and use some of the ideas, but sometimes there isn't anything out there that I like or can use with the type of learners I have.

My baby is in Grade One.  He is just learning how to read and loves it.  He HATES printing though. 

Just in case you have one like that, (I really hope I am not the only one!) I thought I would show you something that we are doing that he enjoys.

First, I write him a silly little story using some of the words he has practiced.  (I use the Dolche Sight Words up to Grade Two right now)

Then he reads his silly story to me, and copy's it out below each line.

After much grunting and groaning, and singing of songs, he finally finishes and grabs a piece of paper.  We use blank paper for this.  We divide it into 4 sections on each side and write the little "action" segments in each one.  (eg.  "OK I am going to make some red eggs" goes in one section)

Then he draws me a picture of the little bit of action that is on the section.

This has been great for learning the progress of things happening, thinking of how things could be represented in picture, and encouraging him to write.  It makes for a fun little activity as a "reward" to his dreaded printing!

Cheers

Growing Gunk

A few months ago I ordered a kit for science. 

I wanted to teach my boys about bacteria and all the kinds of stuff that is microscopic on stuff we touch (or live in) everyday.

I knew that my Mom wanted to teach it for me anyway!  She is a lab tech and know stuff like this, so I figured she wanted to do it for me.  Turns out I was right!  :)

So, my kit came in the mail.

It contained everything we needed to do a really basic room temperature bacteria growth experiment.

We prepared our dishes by warming up the agar and pouring it in a thin layer on the bottom of each dish.

But, because I didn't know any better, my first batch had some lumps in it...this is not something you want.

We had 20 petri dishes when we were done.

We divided them so my boys each got 5, and my Mom and I got 2 each.

We labeled them with names (or nicknames) and where we were swabbing, making sure to choose places that were room temperature.  (ex.  armpit is out, but arms are in...rim of nostril is in, inside the nostril is out)

We also made sure that we kept the swabs fairly sterile, opening from the stick end, and only bringing it out to swab. 

(Didn't get a photo of this step)

Using a gentle zig zag motion, swipe all the way across and down the surface of the agar, and close with the lid.

Make sure that you have a control (just in case you math geniuses caught that above, that is where the missing one is)

This may grow things (ours did) but at least you know what to rule out as your "air" bacteria or other contaminants from just making them.

We divided ours into three places to try growing, on top of the fridge (for the warmth), in a box (to keep it dark) and just out in the open.  Not having swabbed all the same things and having 3 controls, this was just something for us to play around with...not a "true" experiment.

Having a control was very useful though because it gave us ideas as to what the contaminants were in the agar, petri dishes, and air.  What we grew there, we knew was not from our swabs.

We then swabbed a tiny bit of "gunk" and smeared it onto our slides.  I just had disposable slides as this whole thing creeps me out.  Germs are not my forte, I do not like knowing what germs grow on my stuff.  :)

We just have a simple little microscope, but we were able to find some fun things on our slides.

Here are a couple views of the fun stuff we saw.

If you get a chance to do this, it was really fun for us to try out. 

We grew some nasty stuff, learned what was germy that didn't necessarily know.  (like my boys really didn't know how dirty the dishcloth was, it spreads the germs each time you use it too.)  We now know how to be more clean.  We also know what kills those germs.  Try it out.  We loved finding out about the stuff that lives on our bodies.

Cheers

Planting Potatoes

Have you ever grown potatoes in your house? 

No?

Me either....until today.

I had this lovely growing sweet potato sitting on my counter.

Why did I have a growing sweet potato on my counter you ask? 

Well, because I hate sweet potato and I am trying to overcome my dislike.  It worked so well that mine was growing before I got a chance to use it!  ha ha

Anywhoo...

What do you need to grow it properly?  Well, let me show you what we did for school in Grade One today.

First, gather your BIG ice cream pail, (mine were stuck together, you only need one) soil, and your growing potato.

Get you lovely helper to fill a bucket to just a little below the rim of the bucket.

Cut your potato so that there are at least two growing eyes per segment.  One of mine came off, but I stuck it in anyway just to see if it grows.

Plant so that your huge growing parts are the only parts sticking out of the soil.

Water well.

Place in a nice sunny place (or under a grow light) for several months. 

Sweet potato vine is one of my favorite vines so even if this doesn't yield potatoes, I will at least get a fancy vine to look at!

When spring finally decides to show up (seriously, it is snowing today!), I will put this outside for the summer as well.  Heat is good!

Sweet potatoes need a big area to grow in.  Make sure that you are using at least a 5gal bucket to grow them in as they will shoot way down and grow deep.

I will update when it starts to grow a bit better.  I hope we actually produce something out of this whole thing!

Cheers

Field Trip: Cross Country Skiing

I guess this is more like a PhysEd outing...or something, but we used it as a nature "walk" / PhysEd / "let's get Mommy out of the crazy house and burn off some energy" sort of thing that I am going to call a field trip!

Our local nature preserve park has snowshoes and cross country skis for rent.  Super cheap ($4 per person per hour)  and fun.  Great workout too!  (my butt was sore for a week!)  So, when we finally got some snow for the winter we took off and enjoyed it.  The weather was nice and warm too so we didn't have to bundle very much.

I haven't been skiing for over 20 years so I was super excited to find out that I could still do it!  (even though I did manage to fall on a hill...)

My baby just picked it up like walking.  He wasn't super fast, but he was a little trucker.  The loop was about 10km and he did the whole thing in just over an hour!

Our snow has since disappeared, but it sure was fun to take my boys out for a ski while it was here.

Cheers

Sometimes You CAN Eat Yellow Snow...

...when you make it with maple syrup!

Have you ever had maple syrup candy?  We had to wait a long time to have ours this year.  The snow finally fell though so we headed out to make some up.

Here is what you need:

1 Cup 100% Pure Maple Syrup

1/4 Cup Butter - not margarine, Butter

Put it all in a medium sauce pan, and heat (while stirring) to 220F.  Measure it with a candy thermometer.

Let sit while you get dressed for winter...

Head out and pour onto your CLEAN snow.  You really want to make your OWN yellow snow!

Scoop with a popsicle stick (or spoon or whatever...heck you could just lap it up with your tongue if you want!)

Enjoy!

Super fun treat for the winter.

Total side note...

Do you like my new boots?!

I really like the look of them, kind of steampunk meets cowboy.  They look great with your jeans pulled over them.

Go out and eat some yellow snow!

Cheers