Kid's Gardening

I came across this "Kinder-garden" challenge on the Inadvertent Farmer's blog. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

Anyone else joining in the fun? I look forward to getting inspiration for more fun ideas to bring to our own garden!

Changes and Growing

This past fall we took a family bike ride on the local river front trail. One of us pulls Cora in a little bike trailer, and Chloe rides her own bike. That first ride was... well, it was long. Chloe was scared of even the slightest little hill, she rode so slowly that it was very trying on my patience. Finally by the end of the ride she was gaining the slightest bit of confidence, but there was still lots of "C'mon Chloe! Hurry up! Let's go!" going on.

Fast forward to today - a lovely, sunny spring day and we decided to try another stretch of the trail. Apparently, Chloe has forgotten her fears. (Mostly). She was riding like the wind, zig-zagging all over the place, racing down hills and up. I found myself this time tempted to say, "Slow down, kiddo. Be careful!" A far cry from the last ride, to be certain.

I love these very obvious bits of growth in my kids - being able to see so clearly how beautifully they are growing!

Carrot-kraut

"Honey, what's the orange stuff on the counter?"



"It's carrots," I say, as if it wasn't obvious.

"Why are there carrots in a jar on the counter?"

"Umm, they're fermenting."

"I see. And why are you making rotten carrots?" he asks.

"Fermenting! Not rotten!" I reply, indignant.

"Fermenting is synonymous with rotten."

"Point taken. They're supposed to be good for you. And I needed to use up some whey. Will you eat them when they're done rotting? I mean, fermenting?"

"Have I ever not eaten anything you've made?"

He's such a good sport.

The rotten fermented carrots, which he dubbed "carrot-kraut" were finished fermenting today. I have a weak stomach. I made him and the kids taste them first. I'll tell you that the texture was sort of like limp grated carrots saturated in snot - sort of a mucous-y, stringy sort of substance. Probably the result of, well, rotting.

Chloe's response was something along the lines of, "Wow! Those gave my brain a zap! I like them!" Another bite..."Mmm. Well, I maybe kind of like them, but not very much." Another bite... "Those are really yucky, Mom."

Hubby dutifully ate them. He's amazing. Cora and I opted out.

We're throwing the rest of them away.

I know this whole fermented foods thing is supposed to be really healthy, but there are some things I just can't force my family to do, and eating rotten vegetables is one of them.

Turnip Success!

I recently posted on my Facebook status asking of any of my friends had favorite turnip recipes to share.

The first response was "Eww. Nope."

The second response included "Double Eww. Good luck with that."

Well thanks ladies, that's encouraging.

I'm feeling all gung-ho in the kitchen lately, trying all kinds of new things (and, admittedly, failing frequently.) Why not turnips? Surely there must be a way to eat them that tastes good, or people would not still be going to the trouble of growing them... right?

I Googled "how to cook turnips" to get some ideas. Creamed turnips definitely did NOT sound appealing. Neither did boiled ones. I did read a nifty tip that if you put a potato in the water when you boil turnips, it takes the bitterness out of them (which is apparently quite overpowering.)

Here's what I did:

I peeled and diced two large turnips. Then I diced a couple of small red potatoes and left the skin on. Then, I made mashed "potatoes" the normal way (in our house. Which is not really normal. But it's good.) I drained them in the colander, then put them back in the pot with a couple tablespoons of homemade butter, and I poured in enough homemade ranch that when I smooshed them up they were nice and creamy.

You couldn't tell there were turnips in it. It was just like mashed potatoes, only a lot softer and creamier. Really, seriously, pretty darn good.

And this, coming from the Girl Who Doesn't Like Vegetables.

I'm gonna see if our local nursery carries turnip seeds.

Homeschool Science - Skin

We're still making our way slowly* through our book about the major organs of the body. Today's subject was skin - not something we normally think of when we consider the primary organs, but in fact, the skin is the largest organ of the body.

After reading about how we are constantly losing dead skin cells, and how our body produces a whole new layer of skin each month, we used the following as an illustration of washing our body to slough off dead skin cells.

Materials needed: sand paper, a bar of soap, and a plastic plate or a piece of colored paper.

Method: Use the sandpaper to scuff the side of the bar of soap while holding it over the plate.


Note the flakes of soap that land on the paper.

Explanation: The soap is the skin on our bodies; the sandpaper acts as a loofah or wash cloth or any other rough surface our skin comes in contact with. Upon rubbing, the soap (skin) is flaked off. But underneath that layer of flaked off soap is more soap - just like there's more skin under the layer that flakes off when we wash.

*Charlotte Mason was a big proponent of slowly and we've adopted her policy after seeing how well it works. Learning small bits at a time, instead of reading whole books or chapters in one sitting, allows the child to really digest the information and consider it before moving on. Many times after reading a small part of a school book, I'll find C playing it out later, or talking about the information with her toys. This is a good example of allowing that material to "settle in" before moving on to more facts. More info on quality over quantity can be found at simplycharlottemason.com and amblesideonline.org.

Book Review(s) - Michael Pollan

Back at the beginning of March, I won a drawing at Not Dabbling in Normal, and in the package, Kim also included a copy of Michael Pollan's Food Rules.

Great. Book.

It's one of those little books with a paragraph or two per page that can easily be devoured in one afternoon. And it is fantastic. It's a simple guide to the foods we should be eating (and avoiding) and a little bit about the way we actually eat them. I think every American should read that book - maybe more than once, to get it to sink in. There were a few bits in there I might not completely agree with, but the majority of it was spot on, and written in a wonderful way and presented in the type of format that makes it a book people actually can read.

Food Rules was spawned from Pollan's earlier book In Defense of Food (which came following The Omnivore's Dilemma. I'm reading them in reverse order, inadvertently.) Being one to never be satisfied with only bits of a story, I'm now about 3/4 of the way through In Defense and I'm thrilled with it.

If you've ever wondered what the big deal is about high fructose corn syrup or soybean oil (aren't soybeans supposed to be healthy?) you should read this book. If you're overweight and have cut all the fat out of your diet and still aren't losing weight and can't figure out why, you should read this book. If you wonder whether or not organic is really that much better than the produce that comes from modern agriculture, you should read this book. If you want to learn a little bit more about the politics of our diet and the Food Pyramid, you should read this book. If you spend too much time thinking about what you're eating and have a terrible relationship with your food because of it, you should read this book. If you're a Real Foodie and just want to learn more and get more ideas on what you could be eating, you should read this book.

I won't tell you it's an easy book to read. It's journalistic, it's full of citations and footnotes and some science jargon (though he tries to make it easy for average folks to understand) There are times to I have to re-read a paragraph because I didn't quite digest the information the first time through (which reminds me vaguely of my college anthropology text.) But really, if you make the effort to read it and understand it and apply it, this book has the potential to change the way you eat, and by that medium, to change your life.

So many people I love dearly suffer from "Western Diseases" - friends and loved ones struggle constantly with obesity; my dad has cancer and my brother died of it; my grandfather has diabetes; my mom has diverticulitis; my grandma had a stroke; my other grandfather died of leukemia. These diseases are everywhere we turn, as long as we're looking in America.

I'm willing to bet most of you have a similar list. If you do... you should read this book. (And so should the loved ones on your list.)

I haven't even read Omnivore's Dilemma yet, and I'm pretty sure (from reviews and reactions online) that it might turn out to be even better than In Defense of Food. I've got that Dilemma on the shelf next to me, and I'll read it next. But for now, put in a request at the library for In Defense. It's so worth taking the time to read, no matter who you are.

Smiles

I know I already posted pictures of rag curls, but these made me smile.

Observations in our Home School

We've been WAY off track now for a few weeks. Not that it's a bad thing... a break is good for all of us. It started when we took a week off for "Spring Break" once the weather turned nice. And then we took another week off because we were still enjoying the sunshine... and then, if we're being honest, I just got a little bit lazy.

Our break times aren't really a full-on vacation. It's sort of like we turn into unschoolers for awhile, still learning, but without structure. Life presents so many fantastic opportunities for learning that you can't help but find new sources of knowledge, even when you aren't looking for them.

In these three weeks off, I've had the chance to observe my kiddos in their "natural state" and figure a few things out about them.

Observation 1: The seven year old thrives on structure and routine. Without a specific plan and guidance from me as to how to spend her time, she wanders around the house aimlessly, complaining of boredom. (Which befuddles me, because I'm not generally capable of boredom, and our house is jam-packed with things to do.)

Observation 2: The two year old thrives on freedom and free time. She likes someone to be playing with her, but is great at forming her own ideas and playing them out. And she actually might have a longer attention span than the older one.

So here we have... well, the beginnings of a problem. Child A needs structure, Child B needs the opposite. Thankfully the youngest isn't "in school" yet, so we can work around her needs easily. But we'll have to see how it goes in a few years when we settle in for some more structured schooling with her.

And as for my first grader, we're picking back up on our schedule. I made up a new schedule reflecting our plans and goals for this last 8 weeks of our school year. I can't say we'll follow it to a T - we never do, there's life to be lived - but it gives us a goal to reach for, and that's helpful. We're sticking with the general Charlotte Mason curriculum, with our own activities and twists thrown in as they fit.

I've got some sort of activity planned for nearly each day for the next 8 weeks - something fun, something she'll want to do. And I've scheduled each one for right after math time. My hope is that she'll be more inclined to do her math more quickly - if it doesn't get done, there won't be time for the "fun" activity.

To outline the basics of our next 8 weeks: copywork focusing on letter formation, punctuation and capitalization; the last segment of A Beka Arithmetic 1, plus memorization of addition and subtraction facts to the 12's family; complete our study in Ancient Greece; Complete the study of the human body and primary functions of organs; Nature study/Garden study once per week (includes drawing, flower and leaf pressing and rubbing, identification of animals, plants, etc.); Classical Music - Chopin; Literature - completion of Little House on the Prairie, with the option of starting up with Farmer Boy or going on to different lit.; continuation of handiwork and home ec skills (knitting, sewing, cooking); Complete the Child's Book of Character Studies... and I think that might be it.

It kind of looks like a lot, doesn't it? Most of that comes so naturally though that it doesn't feel like school. This puts us at about 4 hours of structured school time each day, not including four hours set aside each week for "kitchen time" that has both girls helping with things like cheese making, bread baking, etc. It's definitely doable, and I'm hoping the structure gets her back to her version of normal.

Is there hope?

I might just be crazy optimistic. I realize that. But it really seems to me that more people are making The Change. A lot more people.

This stuff is making it big. There's a whole TV show about it now, this crazy idea of actually eating real food. There are fantastic journalists writing books and articles that people are really reading, there are bloggers lining up like crazy to share the things they're learning and doing in their kitchens.

For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, people are starting to question whether the scientists really have any clue what they're talking about, and they're doing it en masse. As shoppers, we're learning that just because the Wheat Thins box tells us they're healthy, or the Oreo package says it's only 100 calories, does NOT actually mean this stuff is okay to be eating. As moms and housewives, we're donning our aprons and wielding rolling pins, baking our breads and muffins from scratch again, after finally figuring out that the pre-made mixes our mothers adopted are actually probably killing us. We're shunning the aluminum cans and learning to make broth, we're insisting that huge corporations like Wal Mart start providing us with organic yogurt and whole grains. And they're doing it.

There have been movements like this before - people trying to tell us that this "modern" way of eating is probably making us very sick, telling us to get back to eating actual food. Remember the "Back-to-the-Landers"? But we've never listened the way we are now. Maybe it's because we have more tools now - we have access to articles online, we have the means to share the knowledge we gain with huge quantities of people easily. People don't have to listen to their doctors regurgitate outdated, incorrect nutritional philosophies anymore if they don't want to.

I'm excited. I think it's cool to be a part of this. It thrills me to see so many people joining forces, using every outlet, to get these ideas out to the general public. To the many bloggers, to the TV chefs, to the journalists willing to shun politically correct "nutritionism" in favor of actual fact - a big Thank You. Little by little you're creating hope that our species could actually survive, that our children might not die of Western Disease.

We're starting to stand up for ourselves - do you see it? Or am I just optimistic crazy?

Springtime Babies

Know what the best part of spring is?

Baby animals.





If you have the time, it's definitely worth taking a drive through the country to ooh and ahh at all the baby sheep and cows and horses. Something about watching baby animals run and play gives you warm fuzzies, doesn't it?