REVIEW - College Common Sense

I have a confession to make: I try to pretend that my children aren't growing up. I *like* having them around. I don't want to be one of those women who is at a loss when their children are grown and gone, but I wonder sometimes if I'm headed in that direction. I get a little panicky when I think about it, so I try not to do that. :-) In the last few months, though, I have heard the Holy Spirit starting to speak in that still, small voice. He's bringing things like College Common Sense to my attention, reminding me that pretending my children will never grow up will not make it so, encouraging me to get my head out of the sand and focus on important things.

When the opportunity came up to review the Going to College and Paying for it Online Video and Workbook, I didn't really want to take it. I'd prefer to believe I don't have to worry about college for my children just yet. The reality is, though, that my oldest will be in 8th grade next year, so it would be a good idea to start thinking about it and gathering information. 

Denise Ames is the author and creator of this program, and she comes with several years' experience in a university financial aid office. Her goal is to educate students and their parents about the financial aid process, choosing the right college, and ways to finance a college education beyond federal financial aid. She offers a free monthly newsletter, as well as free lesson plans via email, full of great information and ideas. The lessons are broken down into activities for parents, seniors in high school planning to attend college in the upcoming fall, high school students, middle school students, and elementary students. Additionally, you can purchase her Going to College and Paying for it workbook and DVD for $50, or sign up for 12 months' access to the online workbook and videos for $25. For the purpose of this review, I was given access to the online video and workbook. The program can work for all ages, but I think junior high and high school students will get the most benefit from it. It would most certainly be best to start before your senior year in high school!

First, I printed off the workbook files for myself, so I had a copy in front of me. Then, I proceeded to work my way through the videos. I felt a bit overwhelmed at first - there is a LOT of information to process! However, she presents it all clearly and sequentially, giving specific steps to follow, which helped me feel much more knowledgeable and confident. Then, I had the girls create notebooks as she directed, proceeded to work through the activities she gave us in the weekly lesson plans. 

For example, in Week 1, she told us about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) website, where if you are a high school senior, you should get a PIN number (both the student and the parents do this), and fill out the application for federal financial aid online. We didn't do this yet, but there is also a link to the "FAFSA4caster," which allows anyone to put in their current information and see what their expected family contribution, or EFC, would be if they were applying for college in the fall. It's great information to have, because even though the numbers could change over the next few years, at least you have a starting point for planning.

Another great suggestion was to have my kids practice taking a timed test. There are tricks to them, and it's a good time to get them familiar with how they work. As homeschooled students, they don't really have timed tests. I did give my girls a timed math test, and it brought forth much weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Apparently we need to do them more often, which will require much exercise in patience for me.

She describes lots of ways to go about gathering information for each child, and says it's never too early to start - she's seen a scholarship given to a child as young as 6! Even if college is a few years (or many years) away, there is something you can do to increase your knowledge about what your child wants to do and how to get them there.

One great idea is the "All About Me" notebook. Your student takes a spiral notebook, nothing fancy, and uses it to write down things they like to do, things they don't like to do, volunteer experience, etc. It's a place to collect their thoughts about their interests, dreams, and goals to help them figure out what kinds of scholarships might be a good fit and which college might be best for them. This caused a great deal of stress for my girls, who seemed to be intimidated by it. I believe it will be an invaluable tool for them once they are used to the idea, and I'm glad we started it now. It will be interesting to see how they refine their interests and goals over the next few years.

When I applied for college, I was clueless. I was the oldest in my family, so no one had been through the process before. I knew nothing about scholarships or financial aid, and depended solely on what came through my university's financial aid office. I found that my family's income was enough money that I didn't qualify for much aid, but not enough that we could just fork over the cash, so I ended up with a lot of debt. I've watched the cost of attending college skyrocket over the years, and know that it is more important than ever to plan ahead as much as possible. College Common Sense offers an excellent way to start the path to college - reminding all of us that it begins MUCH earlier than January of senior year in high school! I hope you will check out the website and DVD/workbook. It's an invaluable resource.

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REVIEW: Wet, Dry, Try App for Handwriting Without Tears

I live in a family that loves technology. Since my husband is a computer guy, we have a lot of nifty tech devices. As is often the case, my children know how to use these things so much better than I do! My five year old, in particular, thinks it's big fun when he's allowed to use "his" iPad. 

We've been trying to do some school work with him this year, but he's been resistant - particularly when it comes to handwriting. Does he sound like a typical boy, or what? 

Enter the Wet- Dry-Try app, from the creators of Handwriting Without Tears handwriting curriculum! For the purpose of this review, I received a download code for the app for the iTunes store, regularly $4.99. It works with all versions of the iPad, even our old "first generation" one. The app is also available for Android devices from Google Play. It's aimed at Pre-K and kindergarten aged children, and could also be used with older children for remediation. 

There are two choices for how you'd like to use the app: "Pick and Practice," which allows you to choose whichever letter you'd like, and "HWT's Winning Order," following the order in the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum. There are three levels of difficulty for each letter. Once the student achieves 3 stars for a letter, they earn a "letter card." Children seem to like to collect cards, don't they? I know Isaac does!

Isaac had a LOT of fun with this. We used the "Pick and Practice option." I had him do the letter of the week from our K curriculum first, and then allowed him to try any other letters he wished. The app mimics the Handwriting Without Tears chalkboard activity, in which the student has a small chalkboard, a wet sponge, a paper towel, and a piece of chalk. First, the "personal instructor" (or, as I like to think of the voice, the Invisible Person) inside the app demonstrates how to form the letter correctly by writing it with the chalk on the virtual chalkboard. Then, the student uses their finger to make the letter shape with the wet sponge icon, then with the paper towel icon, and finally writes it themselves with the chalk icon. In the app, you trace with your finger each time, and the screen shows the sponge, the paper towel and the chalk on each successive turn. Once the student completes the letter successfully three times (wet, dry & try), they get a star, which Isaac thought was pretty cool. He also had me try, and was ever so proud when I achieved a star for my letter-making. :-)

When he first started using the program, I thought it might be a little too sensitive to error. I watched him try to make a capital "B," for example, several times, unsuccessfully. However, he did learn to pay closer attention and be more careful, and eventually he got it right. It was good for him to have to work at it a bit. I read in the FAQ section on the website that "After testing, [they] landed on the degree of sensitivity that is most helpful in preparing children to write well." Look at that! They agreed with me. Oh, wait. Maybe that should be the other way around . . .

I like that the personal instructor encourages the student. If they make an error, it says something like, "Let's give that another try." When you get it right, it says something like, "Great!" or "Cool beans!"  It might sound a little silly to me, but Isaac responds well to the encouragement. Sometimes, Isaac's teacher forgets to be encouraging and might indulge in more frustrated sighing than is strictly necessary. Ahem. The Invisible Person In The App is very nice, all the time. Her voice is pleasant to hear, also. That's important. Isaac talks all. the. time. I don't know if I could listen to him chattering and handle a grating voice coming from an invisible person.

This is a great app. Isaac enjoys it, and it teaches correct letter formation, which he needs to practice. He can't practice reversals or starting his letters in the wrong place with this app, like he can with pencil and paper. He argues far less with the Invisible Person than he does with me, and he doesn't seem to get frustrated at having to start over. I also love that he gets the practice of the chalkboard activity without using an actual chalkboard. Chalk is so messy, and as we do a lot of school on the couch, I much prefer the iPad option.

I've been considering cutting back on "school" with Isaac to math and handwriting, and after using this app, Handwriting Without Tears is one of my top handwriting choices. Even if I don't end up purchasing the curriculum, the app is great for painless handwriting practice.

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(re)Learning Hard Lessons

The last two weeks have been a little rough at our house. Around Christmas, we learned that one of our cats, Twink, was in the beginning stages of kidney failure. He'd been losing weight for over a year, but this was the first time anything showed up during his annual exam to indicate a problem. Our vet had him start taking a probiotic, which seemed to be helping, so I decided to pretend that he would be fine and thought very little about it. About two weeks ago, I noticed that his lips and nose were white instead of pink, which is never a good sign. I took him back to the doctor, and he said that his numbers (which indicate the level of bad stuff in his blood) had gone up quite a bit, and had me leave him there for IV fluids for 3 days. He felt better after that, but within two days, his symptoms had returned - he was pale again, and his breath smelled like urine (that had been going on for a long time, I just didn't know what it meant - that his kidneys were not filtering waste out of his blood, so I could smell it on his breath).

I decided to ask our vet from Raleigh for a second opinion, and she encouraged me to ask for an ultrasound of his kidneys. We had that done Friday, and the results were not good. Without going into gory detail, he's reached the end stages of his illness. After discussing it briefly with our old veterinarian, she agreed that he would likely not survive the surgery and we should make quality of life decisions for him now. We know his remaining time with us will be short.

It's hard to have the kids at home with me right now. In many ways, I would prefer to shield them from seeing me cry and having to talk to different people about what we're going to do about this cat we all love so much. However, I think they've learned some good things from all of this.

They have learned that having a pet is a huge responsibility, and at some point, it is a painful one. We've all had a hard time watching this loving, active cat decline until he's hiding away in a corner, just trying to get through each day.

They've seen me be an advocate for my pet's health, asking for more information than my current vet was offering, challenging some of his assumptions when they didn't sit well with me. I'm glad I did; he's much worse off than we'd thought, and without the ultrasound, we'd still be trying to figure out what was going on, probably trying to treat him with things that wouldn't help and would only cause him more distress.

They know that it is okay to grieve, and in fact, that it is important to do so. My girls are being very sweet to me, because they know this is my special pet who's dying. I cry a lot; I can't help it. Sometimes they hug me, and sometimes they cry with me. We're not pretending everything is fine. I'm finding it difficult to get on with our regular things, like school, so we're taking it easy today.

They are learning to be grateful for the gift of this little animal, this tiny piece of God's creation, one of His many gifts to us, even though our time with him has been cut short. I want them to remember to be grateful in all things. It's hard, today, to feel grateful, but we remind ourselves that we do give thanks for the love and laughter we've shared thanks to this sweet boy.

My public service information for pet owners:

1. If you pet starts losing weight, and there have been no changes in diet or activity level, something is wrong. Don't listen to your vet if they want to appreciate the weight loss in a formerly plump pet. Ask them to figure it out.

2. Once any animal (or person's) kidneys are bad enough that numbers show up in blood work, their kidneys are already functioning at less than 25%. I did not know that. I thought it was an important piece of information. The time left was so much shorter than I thought.

3. If your pet's head smells like urine, it means their kidneys are not filtering the toxins from their blood properly. Time to go to the vet. Twink's head smelled like urine for a long time and I didn't know why. It didn't occur to me until far too late that I should ask the vet.

That's all I can think of for now. As my friend Dy says, kiss those babies, and I will add, hug those pets.

REVIEW: Apologia Anatomy & Physiology

When the chance to review Apologia Educational Ministries' Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology curriculum arose, I was intrigued. We haven't used any of their books before, but I have heard many good things about them from homeschooling friends. We use Charlotte Mason's principles in our homeschool, and I had heard that the Apologia books would work well with the approach while providing the structure of a textbook.

Apologia's textbooks are quite different from anything I ever read in school, and are written to the student in a narrative style, rather than simply presenting facts. The books are written with Charlotte Mason's philosophy in mind, incorporating narration and notebooking activities. The Young Explorer series, directed at elementary students, follows the days of creation in its topics: astronomy, botany, flying creatures, swimming creatures, land animals, and finally, human beings. Apologia is a Christian company, with lots of resources available in addition to their science products.

The publisher offers the following items with this curriculum: the  Human Anatomy & Physiology textbook, $39.00; Anatomy Notebooking Journal, 4-6,  Anatomy Junior Notebooking Journal, K-3, $24.00; and the Human Anatomy & Physiology MP3 Audio CD,  $29.00.  There is an optional Blood Typing Kit, good for one student, available for $14.00.

For the purpose of this review, I received a copy of the Human Anatomy and Physiology textbook, regular Anatomy Notebooking Journal, and MP3 audio CD. I did purchase an extra Notebooking Journal so my girls would each have one. The Young Explorers series is generally for children in grades K-6, but Apologia does recommend Anatomy & Physiology for upper elementary students, 4th-6th.

The textbook is a nice hardcover, which I love. There are 14 lessons, and they are designed to be done over two weeks each. The topics covered are:

1. Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology
2. The Skeletal System
3. The Muscular System
4. The Digestive and Renal Systems
5. Health and Nutrition
6. The Respiratory System
7.  Life in the Blood
8.  The Cardiovascular System
9.  The Nervous and Endocrine Systems
10. The Nervous System Extended
11. Your Senses
12. The Integumentary System
13. The Lymphatic and Immune Systems
14. Growth and Development





The notebooking journals come spiral-bound, which works well for writing and drawing in them. They also contain the schedule, directing them to narrate what they read, which makes sure we discuss their readings. The schedule also has all activities clearly listed, so you know if there is an experiment to do, etc. There are lots of fun activities: drawing, crossword puzzles, mini-books (like you'd use in a lap book, but they go in the journal) and - EXPERIMENTS! See below to check out some of the fun we had.

Because the CD contains an MP3 audio book, you need an MP3-compatible CD player, or you can play it in your computer. For a PC, there is an auto-run program. On a Mac, you double-click on the CD icon and then double-click on the MP3 file you'd like to hear. I love having an audio book to go along with the text. One of my girls gets headaches from reading (we're working on finding a solution for that), so having the option available for her to listen to her assigned pages is wonderful.

We enjoyed doing the projects together. First, we learned how to mummify an apple, to show us what happens when you mummify an organ. We made a mixture of salt and baking soda, and put one peeled apple into that, and left the other one open to the air. We looked at them a week later, and see what happened? The smaller, darker one on the left is the mummified apple, and the one on the right is our control apple.

Then, we learned about cells, and all those nifty organelles that live and work inside them. This time we got to make our own model cells with Jell-O and candy.  It was a good time to review the function of each organelle, and remind us what they looked like as we compared them to the candy we used to represent them in the Jell-O.

The best part was, once they were finished, they got to each all that delicious (?) candy and Jell-O. I believe that was Isaac's favorite part. 

My girls, who are 11 and 12, have learned a lot during our time with this curriculum. Apologia's book is well done for its intended age group of older elementary, 4th-6th grade. It's written to the student, so they have the schedule and can read on their own. I would love to be able to read everything with them snuggled up on the couch with me, but with a very busy 5-year-old boy in the mix, that doesn't happen as much as I'd like. I was able to utilize the CD to keep up with what they were reading. I found the notebooking journal to be a valuable addition, because it keeps all their work in one place. We've had some difficulty keeping track of our studies in binders during previous studies. I've been able to have the girls read on their own, narrate to me, and then have us all meet at the table or in the kitchen for the activities, since Isaac enjoys being a part of those as well. 

If you're looking for a gentle, easy-to-follow science curriculum, I recommend taking a look at Apologia. I will be looking at some of the earlier books for use with Isaac, when we start more formal school with him next year.

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The Eyes Have It!

The kids and I went to the eye doctor this week. Usually, this is not a significant event in our lives, but this time there were several surprises.

Isaac, who is 5, needs glasses. Apparently, he has quite an astigmatism in one eye. This could explain why school has been such a struggle this year. Thinking back, he does try to write with his face up close to the paper, like I do when I am not wearing my glasses, but it wasn't until the day before our appointment that I had an inkling of his near-sightedness. He was thrilled to choose his frames, and almost immediately identified a bright blue pair. Of course, he had to try on as many kid frames as he could reach, he didn't break anything, and it did serve to keep him occupied while we completed the order. I feel a little guilty for not noticing that he couldn't see. I feel I should have expected it, given our family eye history. The very nice young woman who fitted our glasses told me that children often don't know they can't well, because they don't know any differently. I am sure she's right, but I still wish I'd been paying more attention. It also makes me more than a little sad to put those big beautiful eyes behind glasses, but I'm thrilled that he will be able to see better now. These are supposed to be "boy-proof" frames. He's not the first little boy to wear glasses, to I'm sure manufacturers know how to make them so they last longer than 5 minutes. We will see!

The girls had appointments together on another day. Abbie has worn glasses for 3 years, and Emma has never needed them. According to the eye doctor, Abbie should NOT need glasses at all, and Emma does! He was pretty confused to see Abbie with glasses on.

Abbie was quite distraught when she was told she didn't really need her glasses. She gets a lot of headaches, and she says her glasses help. Also, she doesn't want to "look different," she told me. I think she has a fair amount of her identity wrapped up in wearing glasses. Most kids would be delighted not to need them, but not my girl. We did get her a new pair, since she's grown quite a bit since she got her old ones, and they look pretty rough. The optometrist also recommended a pair of very low strength reading glasses, +.25. He thought they might help with her headaches, since they often come on when she's reading. Those are not easy to find, and I may have to order them online. If you've seen some, please let me know where!

Emma, who does need glasses, insists that she doesn't want any. She said it will be too much responsibility and she's sure she will lose them. The doctor said she doesn't need them badly enough to insist she wear them, but she should prepare herself, because she will need them in a year or two, almost certainly by the time she starts driving. I'm going to pretend he didn't say that. I'm fine with glasses, but I refuse to think about her driving yet. God is really challenging my place in the land of denial lately!

Why is this worth blogging about? I don't know. Lots of unexpected things happened at our house this week, so perhaps this is a bigger deal than it would otherwise have been. My children certainly keep me on my toes and make life interesting!

Off to a Rough Start

This has not been one of our more productive weeks. My husband is on a business trip, which never helps, and Monday I took my very favorite cat, Twink, into the vet. He hasn't been feeling well. He's lost weight over the last two years, and at his checkup in December, was diagnosed with kidney "issues." He started taking some probiotics, which seemed to be helping, and I went back to pretending he was fine.

Last week, I noticed that his normally pink nose and lips were white. That's not a good sign. So, Monday afternoon we were off to the vet's office to see what was going on. They repeated his bloodwork to find that the numbers (which I can't list for you, or explain well) had doubled or tripled into a much worse range - in just a month. The doctor could fee that one kidney was larger than the other, and told me that Twink had lost another 3/4 lb - we were trying to get him to gain weight. We decided that he would spend 3 days at the vet's office receiving IV fluids in an attempt to flush the toxins from his system that his kidneys aren't processing. If that helps, we will start him on another medication and see where to go from there. I left the office feeling like he'd get better, but I have to say, thinking on how quickly he's gone downhill since December, I have my doubts.

Then, Tuesday morning, Emma woke me to tell me that her cat, Thomas, was limping. This was no slight limp; he didn't want to put weight on his front foot and was holding it up while she held him. Off to the vet we went again, to discover that he had a wound on his foot and was running a fever, so he got to stay and have his foot operated on, cleaned out and stitched up. This is not turning out to be an inexpensive week, can you tell?

To make things even more interesting, Isaac is on quite a tear these days. He throws a LOT of tantrums, for reasons I do not understand. He seems to be tired most of the time, even when he's had a nap (which he tries so hard to refuse, even when he desperately needs the extra sleep). I can only surmise that he must be growing again, this 5 year old who is already the size of your average 8-9 year old boy.  Good thing I bought his clothes big (so when he agrees to wear them, they will fit).

How do we homeschool during weeks like this? Well, to be honest, it's not been my best teaching week. I've been letting the girls do what they can independently. Monday, we did manage to read our poem and some of Robin Hood, I think. I can't recall if we read the Hobbit. Today, I did school with Isaac while the girls were upstairs reading. I've been avoiding thinking about the cats by reading my own book. At about 11:45 pm I remembered to make the Jell-o for making our cells tomorrow, and even made an extra one for Isaac. I got the kitchen mostly cleaned up and the dishwasher is running, so we won't have a mess to face in the morning. Now, I'm sitting here typing, because I do hate to go to bed by myself. No worries though - pretty soon Isaac will join me! Ha!

All right. I'm mostly just complaining, and I do apologize. I wanted to let you know, in case you're in need of encouragement, that not every day goes as planned, and somehow, my children still learn things. :-)

Merry Christmas to Me!

One thing I love about my sister, is that she doesn't mind when Christmas gifts are a little late. That's a good thing, because I still haven't sent anything to her family. I have some knitting projects that I'm frantically working to finish. Hopefully they will all be done for the twins' birthday in another week or so.

Anyhoo, my gift was the only one that wasn't shipped from Amazon. My sister mailed it after Christmas. It arrived this week, and I was so excited! One of my "love languages" is gifts, so I'm fine with presents whenever they might arrive.

She sent me some lovely Christmas ornaments, a nifty little clock, and some KISS Pez dispensers. That last item is a little strange, I admit, but I used to be a huge KISS fan before I learned better. My brother-in-law found those for me. It was pretty funny to open that box.

My very favorite thing, though, is this little owl nesting doll, or matryoshka. I love nesting dolls, and have a small collection. I bought my first one as a child in Frankenmuth, Michigan, at Bronner's - my very favorite store in the world, where it's Christmas all the time. Here are a few of my dolls:

The tallest one I have is about 7 inches high, and has 7 dolls. My very best friend, Michelle, brought it for me from Alaska. Isn't she pretty? (I apologize for the quality of the picture. I'm not quite sure what happened.)

My favorite is one that my mother-in-law gave me. She's decorated with wood burning and gold, which makes her unique among my little collection. She has 10 dolls, and the largest stands about 5 inches tall. The smallest doll is about the size of a chick pea. The girls named the tiny one "the teeny-teeny."

My sister sent me the smallest nesting doll I've ever seen, and it is painted to look like an owl. Here it is next to a small spool of thread:

And here it is next to the smallest doll from the lovely blue Alaskan matryoshka:

And here is the smallest owl, standing next to the "teeny-teeny."

I was amazed by this tiny doll! It even has a face. In addition to matryoshkas, I also love tiny things. Do you know what I mean? I have a miniature tea set that was a gift from my aunt when I was a child, and the tea cups are about 1/4" tall. I don't know how I still have all the pieces, but I do, and I love it. See? Tiny things.

My girls loved to play with the nesting dolls when they were little. They got some of them out yesterday when I was taking these pictures, because Isaac wanted to play with the little owl dolls, and I wouldn't let him. Emma, who is 12, said, "These are our childhood toys, in my opinion." I giggled. They did love them, but they might have a few other toys around the house. It made my heart smile to see how happy they were to see the dolls, though.

And, lest I end this post on a completely self-indulgent note, there are some lovely picture books about matryoshkas. One is called The Littlest Matryoshka, by Corinne Demas Bliss. It tells the story of the smallest doll in a set, who is swept off the table and has many adventures before she finds her way back to her sisters. Another is The Magic Nesting Doll by Jacqueline K. Ogburn, written in the style of a fairy tale with strikingly beautiful pictures. Both books include a bit of history about nesting dolls, in case you'd like to earn more. And, just for fun, click here to go to a page with printable nesting dolls you (or your child) can color. Enjoy!

Loving Legos!

Last night, we went on a family outing to the closest Lego store, about an hour away, to build their monthly free kit. We learned about this monthly opportunity when the kids and I trekked down there in November, seeking Christmas gifts and hopefully pieces to make Christmas ornaments from this site (we didn't get the ornament pieces; we have to special order those). I confess that I wasn't thrilled to drive all the way down there, but Todd came with us, so that made it all right. I learned from another mom in line that the mall we visited is the main tourist attraction in North Carolina, beating out the beaches, the Outer Banks, the mountains, and everything in between. Isn't that a disturbing thought?

When we arrived, the line from the door was a rather lengthy snake that looped around the kiddie rides in the middle of the mall hallway and back past another store. I should have expected that, I suppose. The good news was that once it hit 5 o'clock, the designated start time, the line moved quickly. It was REALLY long when we got there and we only waited about an hour, including the 15 minutes we were early.

The kit for this month was a cute little igloo with penguins. Each child got to build one.  Well, the age range is from 6-14 (although they were quite lenient). "Big" Lego-loving children, like Todd, just got to help the little people.

We also had little gift boxes they'd given us on our previous visit, one for each child, which we were allowed to fill for free from the brick wall. If you've never been, each Lego store has a wall filled with containers of various Lego pieces, and the pieces change over time. Isaac had a wonderful time filling the little boxes - that's how he kept busy during the hour wait to build our little kits. We also have a refillable container from the Lego store, and Todd filled that one. He still loves Legos and was impressed with some of the pieces he found. He said he chose the "higher-end specialty pieces," and said he would go back on a regular basis to refill the little bucket. He even said we could make this a monthly family thing!

Isaac asked me to take his picture at the store. I think he likes it there. :-)

We had dinner afterwards at Steak n' Shake, which is one of our favorite places to eat. There isn't one close to our house, so we usually only get to stop there when we're on our annual trip to Michigan. Everyone was excited to find one closer to home.

Isaac looks a little manic. Apparently all that time in a Lego store can affect one's brain.

This morning, all three kids spent quite a bit of time poking through the Legos, making random things. I love watching them do that. Isaac loves to build cars, and he has elaborate explanations of the things he makes. I do not have the "Lego gene," if you know what I mean. Todd does, obviously, and Isaac seems to have inherited it, too. In addition to building, Isaac has been sorting pieces into plastic bags. He loves to put just about anything that will fit into plastic bags. I get a kick out of watching him.

Have you been to the Lego store for the monthly kit? What did you think?

Got Poetry?

Happy New Year! I am a little slow in getting my New Year started. :-) Todd's parents were here for Christmas, and we all had a nice time. When they left, we all got sick. We've spent a week recovering from a rather strange virus. I think we're all getting over it now, but we certainly needed a week to get better.

As I look forward to starting school up again, I'm considering what changes might need to be made. For one thing, my girls need a bit more supervision in their school work. I have not been as on top of everything as I should, so we're behind and have some catching up to do.

Our Charlotte Mason co-op went well last semester, so Sara and I are considering adding more to it. She asked if we might like to learn Latin together, and perhaps add in Plutarch. Her boys love Plutarch, but we tend to forget to do it, so that would work out really well, I think. I would also love to have someone else helping with Latin. I'm a little intimidated to teach it, which is why we haven't started before now.

One thing that's on my heart is reading more poetry. We need to read a poem every day, but we have not been doing that. We studied Emily Dickinson in our little co-op, and that was wonderful. It helped me see that poetry doesn't have to be hugely complicated or hard. I found this great poem by Billy Collins on the Poetry 180 website:

Introduction to Poetry

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

I took an "Introduction to Poetry" in college, in indeed, it did seem as if the instructor wanted us to "beat each poem with a hose" and be able to define every nuance and identify any potential instance of symbolism.

Now, I am not good at literary analysis. I love to read poetry, but I do not enjoy trying to figure out "what the author meant." It's not that I don't like to think; I do. However, I believe Billy Collins' poem, above, describes more accurately how Charlotte Mason would have approached poetry.

She said this:

He should have practice, too, in reading aloud, for the most part, in the books he is using for his term's work. These should include a good deal of poetry, to accustom him to the delicate rendering of shades of meaning, and especially to make him aware that words are beautiful in themselves, that they are a source of pleasure, and are worthy of our honour; and that a beautiful word deserves to be beautifully said, with a certain roundness of tone and precision of utterance. Quite young children are open to this sort of teaching, conveyed, not in a lesson, but by a word now and then. - Vol. 1, p. 127, emphasis mine

"Words are beautiful in themselves. . .they are a source of pleasure, and are worthy of our honour." That quote, right there, inspires me to read more poetry with my children, and for myself. We've made a good start with our co-op readings, but I hope to add even more into our homeschool, and our lives. I am not one for New Year's resolutions, but this is one thing I'm determined to do.

What's Cooking at Your House?

Do you like to cook? I do, but usually feel like I don't have time to do anything terribly fancy. I have my standard recipes that my family likes and I don't tend to veer too far from them. The exception to that rule is my love for most kinds of Asian food. The down side to living in a more rural area is that there are not as many restaurants - no Indian places, and there is one good Chinese place but it's not all that convenient. So, I'm learning to cook the things I like myself.

One limitation, as I mentioned, is time. The kids all have lots of activities, most of which take place in the late afternoon, so I'm not often home during my normal dinner preparation time.

Enter my trusty crock pot! Todd's parents very kindly gave me a new slow cooker for Christmas, and I love it. I've already used it for salsa chicken and it did a great job. Today, I decided to try a recipe from Slow Cooker Revolution from America's Test Kitchen. My friend Mary recommended this book to me, and I'm trying to add in a recipe from this book now and again.

Tonight's experiment was Thai-Style Chicken Soup. Here is the recipe:

2 onions, minced
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp minced or grated fresh ginger
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth (I used regular)
2 (14 oz.) cans coconut milk
2 stalks lemon grass, bottom 5 inches only, bruised
2 carrots, peeled and sliced 1/4" thick (I actually had big carrots this time, but normally I would just throw in a handful of baby carrots)
3 Tbsp fish sauce
10 cilantro stems, tied together with twine (had no twine, it wasn't hard to fish them out)
1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed (I had chicken breasts)
8 oz white mushrooms, trimmed or sliced thin
3 Tbsp fresh lime juice from 2 limes (I had reconstituted)
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp Thai red curry paste

Garnishes (I didn't have these, but you might like them, so here you go)
1/2 C fresh cilantro leaves
2 fresh Thai, serrano, or jalapeno chiles, stemmed, seeded and sliced thin
2 scallions, sliced thin
Lime wedges, for serving

1. Microwave onions, garlic, ginger, and oil in a bowl, stirring occasionally, until onions are softened, about 5 minutes; transfer to slow cooker.

2. Stir broth, 1 can coconut milk, lemon grass, carrots, 1 Tbsp fish sauce, and cilantro stems into slow cooker. Season chicken with salt & pepper and nestle into slow cooker. Cover and cook until chicken is tender, 4 to 6 hours on low.

3. Transfer chicken to cutting board, let cool slightly, then shred into bite-size pieces. Let soup settle for 5 minutes, then remove fat from surface using large spoon. Discard lemon grass and cilantro stems.

4. Stir in mushrooms, cover, and cook on high until mushrooms are tender, 5 to 15 minutes. Microwave remaining can of coconut milk in bowl until hot, about 3 minutes, then whisk in remaining 2 Tbsp fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, and curry paste to dissolve.

5. Stir hot coconut milk mixture and shredded chicken into soup and let sit until heated through, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve with garnishes.

I liked this soup! I am excited to taste it again tomorrow, because soup is always better on the second day, don't you know. It has a nice, fresh coconut flavor, which I appreciated, but I know my husband didn't care for it as much. He's also not a fan of mushrooms, so I made sure I didn't get any in his bowl. The kids all ate it without complaining, so that was good. It didn't seem to be a terribly hearty soup, which makes me wonder if I didn't have quite enough chicken. Also, more carrots would have been fine.

This is not a "throw everything in and walk away" slow cooker recipe. It was great for a lazy Saturday, since we weren't going anywhere and I was home to do the extra steps. This is not one that I will probably do during the week. 

It was fun shopping for this recipe. I got to go to the local Asian market, which I love to do. I had never seen lemon grass before, nor had I ever purchased fish sauce. If you've never used fish sauce, and you're considering this recipe, I will warn you that it doesn't smell very nice. Also, the mushrooms took quite a bit longer to soften up - more like 25 minutes. I got pre-sliced ones, so that may have been why. Also, because I didn't use low-sodium chicken broth, I found that I didn't need to add extra salt when I served it.

If you try this, you will have to let me know how you like it!

SchoolhouseTeachers.Com Review

The folks at The Old Schoolhouse Magazine have put forth a new venture: SchoolhouseTeachers.com. I've been exploring the site, and whether you are a seasoned homeschooler looking to fill some gaps in your current curriculum, or a new homeschooler wondering where to begin, you will find great information and resources at SchoolhouseTeachers.com! The goal is to have everything you need to homeschool your children, from kindergarten through graduation, in one place, at a price you can afford. The teachers are experts in their field, and many are names I recognized: Michelle Miller, Terri Johnson, and Diana Waring, just to name a few.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com aims to be a versatile resource, and you can use it not only from your desktop or laptop, but from your mobile device as well. I could, conceivably, run my entire school day using my iPad. If you want printable lesson plans, each lesson is set up to download as a PDF file. (Well, not the videos. That would be tricky.)  You can do whatever works best for you - paper you can hold in your hand, or electronic format.

The site debuted back in March 2012, and has already grown significantly. There are 24 subject areas, including everything from core subjects like grammar, math and science, to great opportunities like film making and college choice guidance. In addition to teaching materials, they offer plenty of extras for the teacher, too, like access to ALL FIVE Schoolhouse Planners. The Schoolhouse Planner for the teacher is normally $39.95, and the student planners vary in price. That alone is a great value for the price of your membership!

One thing I *loved* at first sight was the Monthly Reading List by Michelle Miller. Michelle is the author of Truthquest History, and has a private lending library of living books in Michigan. I am delighted to have access to her monthly recommendations, both for library visits and as possible books to add to our home library. She gives books for all ages, and I can see all of my children enjoying the books, whether I was reading to them, or my big girls were reading to my little boy.

Another feature that I would find immensely helpful is the daily checklist. In my never-ending struggle to become more organized, I find checklists to be so useful. Because of the volume of information on the site, I can see that having the checklist handy would be the ticket to keeping me on track and remembering to do each thing I wanted to cover with my children.

One feature I'd like to point out is the Special Needs section. There are lessons available for parents with a struggling/special needs student, to help you learn how to work with them at their level, choosing the right curriculum, etc. I know many families with at least one special needs child. If I were figuring out some issues with one of my students, this would be a huge help, I would think.

In our Charlotte Mason homeschool, there would have to be some tweaking for us to use this as our primary curriculum. I could use the history section, for example, but I would use the timeline and find living books for us to read and discuss. There are some great activities that go along with the history studies that I would certainly pull in. The copywork, as given, is great for handwriting practice, but I would want to pull it from our readings. I would be the "seasoned homeschooler" that doesn't need a full curriculum, but could find lots to use.

It's impossible for me to completely describe this website in a brief review. I hope take a look for yourself. The cost for membership is $1 for the first month, and $5.95 for each month after that. Right now, they're running a special promotion, which includes a 1-year membership for only $49, AND  you also will receive the Old Schoolhouse 2013 Annual Print Book and a TOS tote bag. I love tote bags. Do you love tote bags? Can you ever have enough tote bags? Oh dear, I may be wandering a bit off the point. There are some other nice bonus gifts that you would receive with your membership, too. Head on over and check it out!



Disclaimer: I received a free membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC regulations.

Some of My Favorite Christmas Books

Continuing along the same vein as my previous post, I thought I'd share some of my very favorite picture books to read with my children during the Christmas season. I have had a passion for children's books since long before I had children of my own, and have collected quite a stack of Christmas books. The ones I will mention here are not new for 2012, but they are such beautiful stories, I hope you'll take a look.

A fairly recent discovery of mine, which I learned about from someone at the Well-Trained Mind forums, is Santa's Favorite Story: Santa Tells the Story of the First Christmas by Hisako Aoki.
I confess that we don't "do" Santa. My girls asked me years ago if Santa was real, and I had to tell them no. I love the idea of Santa, and we watch all the Santa Christmas specials (and own most of them on DVD), but we prefer to focus on the birth of Christ at Christmas. However, this book touched my heart and I love to read it aloud. In the story, Santa goes for a walk in the woods, ends up farther away than he realizes, and sits down to take a nap. The forest animals come across him sleeping, and become quite concerned, because it's Christmas Eve, and they are sure there can be no Christmas without Santa. When Santa wakes up, he soothes their fear and tells them of the first Christmas when Jesus was born. The illustrations are lovely watercolors, which add to the charm of the book.

Another favorite is called The Greatest Gift by Melody Carlson. This book is about a little angel named Grace. As the time for Jesus to be born on earth approaches, God asks for an angel to volunteer to be the star that shines in the heavens to light the Son's way. The angels are reluctant to volunteer, because they have to give up the glory of heaven, and whoever becomes the start won't be an angel anymore. Grace cannot bear the thought of the Son going to earth alone, so she comes forward. After the star is done shining, it falls to earth, and becomes a stone. Grace is still aware of everything, even as a falling star and then as a rock. She ends up being the stone that covers the door of Christ's tomb. This story has a fantastic ending, and I don't want to spoil it for you. It's out of print, but perhaps you can find it at the library, or even purchase it used. It's worth owning.

The last one I will mention here is called The Littlest Angel, by Chris Tazewell. This story is about a little boy who died on earth and is now an angel in heaven. He has a hard time being an angel and doing all the things angels are supposed to do; he wasn't really ready to be done being a little boy. He is allowed to return to earth and retrieve a box of his special mementos from earth, and that helps him settle in to heaven a bit better. As Christ is preparing to leave heaven to be born on earth, all the angels want to present Him with a gift. The one He chooses as His favorite is what makes this story so precious. I cry every time I read this book. I hope you have the opportunity to read it with your family.

These three are at the top of my list. I have many more Christmas books that I love, and I may pull them out and share them with you sometime, but if you're looking for some new stories to read with your family this year, these are wonderful!

A New Christmas Book Find

We go to Sam's Club every weekend to do the bulk of our grocery shopping, and I always look at the books. I don't often find anything exciting, but occasionally I come across something worth having. For example, a couple of weeks ago, I found The Miniature World of Peter Rabbit. These wee books contain original pictures and unabridged text, and I simply could not resist getting them for my littlest niece, who loves tiny things, like I do. I am sure she will enjoy hearing these lovely Beatrix Potter stories, assuming her parents can read the miniscule print. Ha.

This week, I found The Twelve Days of Christmas in North Carolina. At first glance, I thought it would be silly, but as I went through it, I was pleasantly surprised. There is a lot of great information about our state in this book, and it's written in a lovely narrative style. It starts out with a little girl named Abby receiving a letter from her cousin, Mark, stating that her Christmas gift this year is a trip to NC to hang out with him and his mom. They proceed to fly all over the state, visiting some of the tourist highlights, and also working in things like the state bird (cousin Mark has a pet cardinal), state flower (dogwood), state insect (the honeybee), and the state carnivorous plant (the Venus flytrap). I had no idea there was such a thing as a state carnivorous plant. She even mentions some festivals, including the Statesville Balloon Festival, which we attended this past October. Abby describes her trip to her parents by writing them a letter each day, describing what she's done.

I don't often come across contemporary books that qualify as living books, but I like this one. I learned things about NC I didn't know, just skimming through it. This book is one in a series called "Twelve Days of Christmas in America," and as far as I can tell, there are 20 books available so far. You might check and see if your state is available. I like the North Carolina book, and will probably also get Michigan book, since Todd and I are Michigan natives. I may try to collect the series, because I think they are nifty!

If you love Christmas books like I do, this one is worth checking out. You're not going to find anything about "the reason for the season," but you will learn about North Carolina and some reasons you might want to visit. If it makes you feel better, consider it a geography lesson.

Edit: I just read this to Isaac, and on day 5, they talk about shipwrecks and pirates. They tell the legend of Blackbeard, and how his head was cut off and hung on the prow of a ship, and that his ghost is still there. I have no idea why this is mentioned in a Christmas book, and Isaac didn't bat an eye, but I thought I'd mention it.

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

When I first heard about homeschooling, my oldest child was getting ready to enter Kindergarten. When I was young, children went to Kindergarten for half a day. Nowadays, most public schools have full-day programs for 5-year-olds, and I must confess, I was not impressed with the idea of sending my girlie away from me for that many hours per week. The friend who introduced me to the idea of homeschooling also introduced me to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. What a blessing it was, when considering homeschooling for the very first time, to read a magazine filled with articles written by people who actually knew what they were doing! I had a subscription, and it was lovely. It's a magazine for Christian homeschoolers, and I appreciated the words of faith and encouragement I found there from people who were in the trenches, so to speak, doing this thing that scared me even as I knew God was leading me down the path to teach my children at home.

Alas, I am *terrible* about reading magazines. I love the idea of them, but somehow, I never quite get around to reading them. After a while, I let my subscription to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine lapse. I tried ripping out the articles I enjoyed, thinking I would file them. Guess what? That never happened either. I ended up recycling everything when the paper mess became too much to deal with.

Enter The Old Schoolhouse ELECTRONIC FORMAT! There are some smart people in charge of The Old Homeschoolhouse these days, and not only have they gone paperless, but every issue is FREE. That's right: FREE. You can read to your heart's content online (see The Old Schoolhouse Magazine December issue), or download a free app for your Apple, Kindle or Android device. You can also download a PDF to your computer, if you prefer. I have been reading on my iPad, and it's wonderful. I can bookmark articles, and share them via email, Facebook or Twitter. Since I have the magazine on my iPad, it's easy to take with me, so I can read anywhere, any time.

When I started reading the December issue, I was beyond thrilled to find spelling and grammar are highlighted with several articles. My passions are spelling and grammar - just ask my husband and children. Ruth Beechick discusses "Who Needs Grammar?" (p. 66). I love this quote: "Children use mostly correct grammar as they copy the speech of the people around them." This is true, particularly the "mostly" part. I am a linguist by education, and I find child language acquisition fascinating. That is a post for another day, perhaps. (Then again, maybe not.) Her final paragraph is interesting:

The word grammar sounds scary. And some of it is complex. But it really is not hard. Children use mostly correct grammar as they copy the speech of the people around them. Later on, then, it is fairly easy to learn from grammar books the definitions and rules for grammar. The books just describe what the children already use and understand.

I will have to ponder that. I would not say that my children find grammar easy at this point in their education. She suggests that many parents start too early teaching grammar; I don't think it's too early for my girls, who are in 6th & 7th grades, but we're not having an easy go of it. I'm considering looking for a different program, even though I was excited about the one I chose.


There is an entire article on when to use lie vs. lay ("Lie or Lay . . . Which Word Should I Say?", p. 68), with an extra inset on effect vs. affect. The very next article is on the parts of speech ("Parts of Speech: Building Blocks of Beautiful Sentences", p. 72), and later on, I found "The Spelling Apologist: Why Good Spelling Is Essential and How to Select the Right Curriculum" (see p. 98).

The main focus of the issue is high school: options for homeschool graduates, financial aid, preparing for college - even what a homeschool mom might do when this stage of her life is done. I confess that these articles make me panic a little because I am not quite ready to think about any of my babies leaving home, but with a child in 7th grade, it's not as far off as I'd like to believe. I need to "go there."

Perhaps the most fun article for me to read is titled "Astronomy in The Hobbit," written by Jay Ryan, author of Classical Astronomy. The girls and I are currently reading The Hobbit, and are trying to finish before the movie comes out. I'm also trying to establish astronomy as a family hobby. To be honest, I paid no attention to the details discussed in the article, but as I read them, I thought, "How COOL!" and I will most definitely point them out to the girls. I will likely have them read the article, but not until we've read past all the parts mentioned from the book. I don't want to spoil the story!

Overall, this is a great magazine for Christian homeschoolers. There are well-written articles of encouragement and information written by people who are well-known in the realm of home education, from all different paradigms: classical, unit study, Charlotte Mason, and so on. There are excellent reviews of curricula and other products that homeschoolers may find useful. I hope you will take a look and see what there might be in it for you.

Click the link to check out reviews by The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew!

--> Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

Advent Traditions - What Are Yours?

At our local homeschool co-op, during a "free" hour, some moms were discussing what we do for Advent.  I have a confession: I don't do much.

I have wonderful intentions. I have Jesse Tree books, Advent calendars, Advent devotionals, and an Advent wreath. I want to do ALL THE THINGS. What typically happens is that I try to do several things and none of them get done. Last year, for example, I tried to have the girls work through a Bible study with me, and make Jesse tree ornaments while reading a book, along with reading another book. We finished none of them.

Back before we had kids, Todd's mom made us this beautiful Advent calendar. I love it, and I particularly appreciate that it has wooden ornaments that don't break when they hit the floor. When small people are trying to hang them, you're going to have a few misses and some are going to fall. These have held up very well, and it's an extra-special thing because Grammy made it for us.

My sister-in-law, Jennifer, gave us this beautiful Advent calendar one year. Her mom, Mary, made it. It is beautiful. I don't have words to describe how much I love it. However, the ornaments are ceramic, and they *do* break when dropped. I'm sure you can guess how I know that. Sigh. I haven't been hanging it these past few years. Isaac is a little too enthusiastic, and doesn't have a great deal of self-restraint when it comes to things like this. I can see him collecting all the little ornaments in his garbage truck and driving them merrily around the house, dumping them when necessary. It would not bode well for those fragile pretties.

Another idea I love is the Inductive Advent Study by Eleanor Zweigle. I've taken an inductive Bible study, and it's a fascinating way to study the Word. We did try it last year, and didn't make it all the way through. I think we will wait another year or two, until Isaac is ready to work through it with us, before trying this again as a family.

My current plan is to hang Grammy's Advent calendar, and have the children take turns hanging the ornaments. Also, we will read Jotham's Journey, one of three books written for the Advent season by Arnold Ytreeide. I've heard lots of good things about these books, and hope that we will enjoy reading through this first one together.

A wonderful resource for Advent ideas is my friend Jennifer's blog, Advent Idea Box. She and her husband have put it together, and it's a wonderful collection of resources for Advent. I may try to pull out some of her craft ideas.

I hope you are gearing up for a joyous holiday season with your family! Do you have any Christmas/Advent traditions you'd like to share? I would love to hear them!

Homeschool and Co-Ops

One of the "big" questions I hear from other homeschoolers is whether or not they should join a co-op. A homeschool co-op is a place where classes are offered for homeschool students, usually taught by homeschool parents (most often moms). Occasionally we might have a teacher who is not a parent, if we find someone willing to teach an area out of our expertise. It's a great resource, and a good place to hang out with other homeschool families.

In our area, we have a great co-op. My kids have enjoyed going, and we've made some friends, which has been a HUGE blessing to us since moving here two years ago. However, as the girls get older, I find that while it's good for social purposes, it's not accomplishing things that we aren't getting done at home. In fact, it's making more work for me, because I teach two classes. Truly, I have no criticisms of our group, but over time, I've seen that it has not been working well for our family.

At the CLUSA conference this past June, Nancy Kelly met with some of us to discuss a Charlotte Mason-style co-op, or community. Hers is called Truth, Beauty, Goodness. Isn't that lovely? She described what they do, and told us that her group meets and covers things that we all find it too easy to let slide: Shakespeare, poetry, folk songs, hymns, composer study, artist study, handicrafts, and nature study. Until this year, I didn't know any other Charlotte Mason homeschoolers in the area, so I was not sure that we would ever be able to participate in such a group.

However, God answers prayer, and I met my friend Sara at the conference, who lives quite close to me and has 5 boys. They live out in the country off a dirt road with lots of nature and chickens. We have been meeting twice a month for our own little CM group, and it has been LOVELY. I can't tell you what a difference this has made for our homeschool and our family.

We printed off the schedule from the Truth, Beauty, Goodness group, and follow that for the most part. We've made a few small changes; we start later, for one thing, because neither of our families gets going quite as early in the day as 8:30 am. We listen to our composer's music while we do our handicraft, because we're studying Debussy and no one likes just listening to the music. Heh. We're talking about perhaps changing things up a bit and doing nature study in a different time slot, because we've found at the end of our day, sometimes our little people have had enough and we don't quite get to it.

For the most part, though, it's working very well. We've been reading and listening to Shakespeare's  Merchant of Venice. We were fortunate enough to be able to see the play in August, and I think that has helped the kids understand the readings quite a bit. We're able to talk about what we saw in the play, and that's a fun shared memory.

Our poet is Emily Dickinson. I'm using the Poetry for Young People book, and found some riddle poems, which we have enjoyed. (Our first poem was "Hope is the Thing with Feathers," because it has a special place in my heart from the CLUSA conference. There is a lovely song that goes along with the poem, and all the kids enjoyed that.)

We've been using the Ambleside Online selections for most things. Our artist for the term is Renoir. Our handicraft, thanks to Sara, has been calligraphy, and I've enjoyed that a lot. The kids have struggled with it a bit, but it's been good for them. We're choosing our own folk songs, and so far we've learned This Land is Your Land, Mairi's Wedding, If I Had a Hammer, and Where Have All the Flowers Gone. Sara is choosing our hymns, and we have learned Dona Nobis Pacem (in a round - lovely), Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, and And Can It Be that I Should Gain.

All the children enjoy our time together, and I have to say that having 5 boys to play with has been great for Isaac. We've all been making our own connections, and it has been such fun! For example, Renoir, Debussy, and Emily Dickinson were all "rule breakers" in their genres. I didn't know that when we started out, and it's been fun to look and listen for the ways in which they break their rules. We learned about slanted rhyme in poetry, and look for that in each poem.

Overall, it's been a great experience. There is one more family interested in joining us, and I'm excited about that. I hope, in time, to be able to include more people.

Scents of Autumn - Homemade Apple Sauce

I love fall. It vies with spring for my favorite season of the year. It's become ever more dear to me since moving to the south, because it brings cooler temperatures and a blessed reduction of the intense humidity. I love the sound and smell of autumn leaves as Isaac and I crunch through them on our "nature walks." (These involve the two of us each pulling a wagon through our yard and picking up sticks, leaves and acorns.) And, I love to make homemade apple sauce! I don't want an apple-smelling candle - I want the real thing.

This year, a friend picked up a box of Winesap apples for me when she went to an orchard, as I didn't think I would have a chance to go. Then, another friend wanted to get some Pink Lady apples, so the kids and I tagged along, and we got a box of Pink Ladies as well as a bag of Fujis. This added up to a large quantity of apples in my garage. Time to get cooking!

My husband does not like "chunks" in his apple sauce. After we were married, his mom gave me his grandmother's Foley food mill. I had never seen one before. Have you? It looks like a little pot with a piece of a propeller inside.

The blade squishes the applesauce through the sieve-like holes in the bottom, keeping the peels inside the pot. It's a wonderful tool. I love that I don't have to peel the apples first. My sister-in-law told me once that she is "lazy," and doesn't want to use a food mill, so she peels all her apples first. Her family doesn't mind the chunks. That's not lazy! Peeling apples is time-consuming work! I would rather not peel them and use the food mill.

I've made many batches of apple sauce using my "vintage" device. However, Grandma Hollmann's old food mill has been dripping rust into my applesauce for the last few years, and I finally decided to replace it. (Also, it makes my arms very tired.)

There is a fabulous website that tells you what produce is in season in your area, and where you can go to Pick Your Own. They also describe any equipment you need, as well as providing instructions for preserving. While I was looking for places to pick apples, I saw this wonderful attachment for my KitchenAid mixer.

It is called a Fruit and Vegetable Strainer. You have to have the grinder attachment to go with it, and I had that, also thanks to Todd's mom, who gave one to me several years ago for Christmas. You put two bowls under it: one to catch the applesauce, and one to catch the peels.

I tried this out for the first time yesterday, and I LOVE it! It makes apple sauce much more quickly than using the Foley. Even with a sick boy, I was able to make three batches yesterday. After the first batch, I thought I might need to run it through the strainer twice, because I thought I saw apple still in with the peels. I tried that, and ended up with bits of peel in the sauce. Not what I was going for.  The old Foley is a great tool; you can keep turning that handle until every last bit of apple is off the peel. However, the KitchenAid attachment is a great time-saver, and doesn't drip rust, which is a major point in its favor.


The best part of getting locally-grown apples is not having to add any sugar to the apple sauce. I just throw in a cinnamon stick while it's cooking. Winesaps and Pink Ladies are listed on the Pick Your Own site as "good" for apple sauce, as they are not as sweet as some varieties, but since they were ripened on the tree, they are plenty sweet enough for us. I don't have a particular "recipe" that I use, but so far, I've used 5 Fuji apples and 10 Winesap apples per batch. The kids decided they'd rather eat the Pink Ladies, so I will save those for last if we don't get them eaten quickly enough.

Can you get apples in your area? Do you make homemade apple sauce? If you've never tried it, you should consider it. It's not difficult, and it's so much better than anything you can get in a store.