Busy day

I think I wore Lily out yesterday. It's two hours past her normal wake-up time, and she's still asleep. We did have a full and very active day yesterday: I took the children to the Botanic Garden, and they ran, explored, and climbed trees for a good two hours. Later Lily had her Irish Dance class, which was another of hour of pretty vigorous physical activity. In the evening she wanted to come with me when I went to the gym, and spent another 40 minutes or so running, jump roping, chasing a hula hoop, practicing her dance steps, etc. No wonder she's tired!

Grandpa magic

My dad was here for a short visit last week; we all had a wonderful time! Esther, who was only 6 months old last time we saw Grandpa, climbed right up on his lap the minute we got home from the airport. I think I took this picture one day when she was traumatized from slipping on a wet floor after her bath; I couldn't get her to calm down, but Grandpa did.
It's too bad he lives half way around the world from us... I think it's our turn to visit next!

Natural Weed Killer

There are patches of clover near our home that attract honeybees. I wouldn't mind either the clover or the bees, except that each of my children has been stung mulitple times. So I'm attacking the clover. Last summer whenever I was outside I would work on manually pulling the clover out of the lawn. I decided to try a different approach this year: vinegar. This picture shows my test patch about 24 hour after application--you can see the clover has turned white. Vinegar also kills grass, so you don't want to use it indiscriminately; waiting a week after application and then reseeding the areas with grass would probably work (and help the clover from coming back). I know there are broad-leaf herbicides that work well, but I prefer to avoid chemicals wherever I can. Regular kitchen vinegar I know won't hurt my kids. Just put some in a spray bottle, spray the weed you want to get rid of (it doesn't take a lot), and voila! Good for patios etc., but unless you want acidic soil it might not be a good idea for the garden!

Salt Water Taffy

We made salt water taffy this morning. I found lots of recipes online, I liked this site best, not because the recipe was different from others but because it explained the why behind the different steps and ingredients. It looks like a great site for some more exploring as well.

The kids helped me with the taffy; my 1 cup measuring scoop was dirty (actually, it's currently in use as a laundry detergent scoop...) so we used the 1/2 cup scoop--Lily had no trouble figuring out that 2 cups of sugar would take 4 1/2 cup scoops. Cooking is great for practicing all kinds of math--lots of fractions, multiplication, division, telling time ("this says cook for 20 minutes and it's 9:45 right now, when will it be done?"), conversions between measuring systems, weights and mass, almost any basic math you want to incorporate.

I thought the kids would enjoy pulling the taffy, but only Esther tried it--the older two didn't want to get their hands buttery/sticky--that apparently was mom's job! I enjoyed watching the taffy turn from a transparent honey color to a creamy white as the air bubbles were incorporated through pulling.

Now I've got to decide what to do with the taffy. There's way more than I want my family eating, I guess we'd better distribute some to neighbours!

Morning Devotionals

This week I have been reminded once again that our day goes much more smoothly when we start it off with a morning devotional. I know this is true for my personal devotions--if I spend some time studying my scriptures in the morning, the rest of the day just seems to flow better. I have discovered the same is true for the children.
Last year, I established the habit of having a morning devotional time together either during or immediately after breakfast. I can't say we did it every day, but often enough that the children have come to expect it. I notice now that on days when devotional gets neglected or put off things fall apart pretty quickly--and if I sit down and hold a devotional time with the children the spirit in our home immediately becomes calmer and we are all able to focus better. I think I've learned the lesson--I just have to remember to apply it!

Home Management Binder--First Incarnation

I'm sure there will be lots of tweaking and modifying, but I think I've put together a tool that will be useful for me. Most of the forms and planner items come from Donna Young's website (tons of free printables). Here is what is in my binder at this point (italicized items I plan to add but haven't put in yet):

Schedule and Calendar Section
Master Schedule
Monthly Calendar Pages

Devotional Section:
This year's Sunday School reading schedule (Old Testament)
Book of Mormon 365 day Reading Chart
Homeschool Section:
School Year calendars for 2009-2010 and 2010-2011
Attendance Record (A legal requirement in my state--yes, my children were present every day)
Subject goal planning sheets
Daily task checklists for each of the children
Monthly reports from Simply Charlotte Mason's Online Planner. (This is my record of what we have done)
Copy of Private School affidavit filed with state
Copy of my teaching qualifications (another state requirement)
Copies of children's immunization records (also state requirement, of course I have their record anyway, but it wouldn't hurt to have an easily accessible copy)
HSLDA membership information
Schedules for Art Study, Music Study, and booklists from various sources.

Meal Planning Section:

Menu and shopping planning pages
Favorite Recipe section

Phoenician writing

We met with some friends for a small history co-op yesterday; we were learning about the Phoenicians and practiced writing on clay with the Phoenician alphabet, precursor to the Greek alphabet.