Fun Friday!

Homemade Strawberry Jam

We have been reading Little House in the Big Woods together at nap time and bedtime and the kids are enjoying it.  They loved the chapter on how they store up food for the winter and are amazed at what they have to do since there's no grocery store (enter Ford's need to carry a gun around in case of bears or panthers...pretty good to make it this far in life without weapons!).  We checked out the Little House recipe book and decided to make strawberry jam together.  I figured it couldn't be too bad since there are only 4 ingredients and if we messed up, sugar and strawberries would still be good enough to eat :)

Here Ruby is mashing up fresh strawberries.

Rachel stirred in the sugar and then we let it sit for 20 minutes.

We took a little juice and mixed it with cornstarch before boiling the berries.  Then we had to let it cool and put it in the fridge.  We added a little lemon juice and:

Ta-Da!!!  Homemade strawberry jam!!!  I guess next we need to figure out how to make peanut butter!!

Already changing it up

Three days into this chaos and I already feel the need to change some things.  I've got two school age children (Rachel and Ford) who I have certain topics and units that I'd like to follow for the year.  Then there's Ruby, the preschooler, who is doing great to get some letters, numbers, tactile activities and read-alouds daily.  Plus, we throw in a dose of crazy, just for fun, with Baxter, the seven month old.  I'm not going to lie, it's hard to accomplish everything every day.  For my own sanity, I've been trying to come up with ways to get to Science and Social Studies for the big kids at a time when Ruby and Baxter don't need a lot from me, like nap time.  Unfortunately, that means I lose my "planning" time so I have to do more work at night (on top of dishes and laundry!).  Well, using nap time is great for Rachel who will rest and read for about 30 minutes and then re-focus.  However , it's not going so well for Ford...he can't seem to handle just resting and then re-focusing.  If he takes a nap, he's up all night.  If I can get him to finish all of his work before nap time, he can just rest and then get up and play.  It's a mess.  Lately, Ruby's been having trouble going to sleep at night and I think it's because she's napping too long.  So, next week I'm going to try just getting through with all school work (except maybe Rachel's) before nap time.  Then, letting Ruby and Ford rest for just a little while so that I can get Baxter to sleep.  If everybody can handle that, then we can just start bed time a little earlier and try to play harder to keep everyone from getting too cranky!  Of course this could all change again after soccer and ballet start up next week but one day we'll get our groove... Oh, yeah, and I've decided to alternate units of Science and Social Studies instead of keeping them both going all year long...Now if I can just convince Baxter to sleep through the night...

Art Class

First day of school photos

Back to School

We survived the first day!!  Baxter is definitely going to throw a challenge in our ability to get school work done, but he was a pretty good sport!  We started our day by getting chores done after breakfast and heading downstairs at about 8:00 to get started. Each kid had a writing assignment waiting on their desk.  Rachel had to write about what she did this summer, Ford wrote his full name and our new address, Ruby traced the word Monday, and then we all shared our work.  We looked at the calendar together and browsed all the new books and folders.  Rachel and Ford each watched a math lesson and completed a lesson in their books (Rachel started a new book and Ford picked up where we left off.).  Ruby and I worked on counting to 20 and read a book with those numbers.  I showed Rachel her reading log where she writes a summary about the book she reads independently.  She has chosen to read the American Girl series about Caroline and summarize a chapter each day.  Ford started a new box of Bob books.  Each kid got a workbook with activities they can complete independently while I'm working with another kid, so they each tried a page in that.  Ruby and I read Curious George's First Day of School together and I used the story to help Ford see how we would be filling out his story chart in Language Arts.  For Social Studies Rachel made a Venn diagram to compare maps and globes while Ford looked at them and told her things he noticed ("the map is flat and the globe is round").  Ruby practiced her city, state, and country and we all located each on the United States wall map.  Baxter hung in well and ate a snack and took a short 20 minute nap.  Then we went out for recess and took a walk around the neighborhood and climbed trees.  When we got home it was lunch time.  The big kids played outside for a little while so that I could eat some lunch.  We read a chapter from Little House in the Big Woods and Baxter and Ruby went to sleep. I let Rachel get up after resting 45 minutes and we read about her science unit together on Living Thngs and Habitats.  Then Baxter woke up, so we entertained him, then Ford got up and we read his information about What Animals Need.  He drew a picture of a monkey and things monkeys need (bananas, trees, air, water) and Rachel drew and labeled a picture of a forest.  Then it was back outside until Ruby woke up.  Somewhere in there we also did some handwriting exercises and practiced violin.  I feel like we accomplished a lot when I write it all out like this, but we definitely had our challenging moments!!

Can't Keep Up!!

Today is the last official day of summer vacation.  School starts on Monday for Allen, so we decided to officially start that day, too.  I've been trying to find bits of time to get organized and it's hard to do!  I definitely have a good grasp of our year-long plan and what all we need to accomplish but getting down to the every day details is hard!  I'm going to set aside some time this weekend to get next week lined up and try to have a certain time each weekend when Allen can be solely in charge to do the same for each week.  I also have to find time on weekends to run, grocery plan and shop, wash all the sheets, and relax before the next week starts!  It's hard to keep up!!  But let me tell you what else is hard to keep up with:
Rachel's reading...the girl is flying through so many chapter books!!
The diving board...I'm kind of shocked that Baxter hasn't gone off yet, everyone else is addicted!
Ford's emotions...swinging back and forth like a typical 5 year-old boy...
Baxter's accomplishments...pulling up on his crib and jumping like a trampoline!!!

Summer School

We have learned a lot here at Ingram School this summer...not so much the 3 Rs, but a lot of life lessons, such as...
--Rachel learned (in five minutes) how to tie her shoes and is getting better at roller skating
--Ford learned how to drive an excavator and read
--Ruby has learned to sleep on the top bunk and can read a few words
--Baxter has learned to crawl, pull-up, mash on solid food, and get teeth
--Allen and I have learned how achingly painful and slow it is to close on land, get a construction loan, and start building a house!  The good news is that the land is officially ours and we have a building permit...just waiting on the bank to finalize the construction loan so we can get on with this!!  We have a house plan and a builder, we even have a swing set up and play areas in the future back yard, just need a house now!
--Rachel, Ford, and Ruby can all swim by themselves now!  About a week or two ago, Ruby finally let go and swam to the wall all by herself!  It's so exciting to watch her swim at the pool.  I am just constantly amazed at these kids who wore puddle jumpers and were terrified to take them off at the begininng of the summer.  Thank you to Robin and Mary, their swim team coaches, for teaching them and encouraging them.
--We have all learned that patience is hard and frustrating and each of us, in our own way, has had to find patience.

Hopefully in a few short months we'll be moving our things into our new home (Ingram Family Farm as we like to call it).  We will be rid of so many stresses that we have right now and we will be able to focus on creating our homestead and creating memories that will last a lifetime.  When we pull into our (very rough) driveway to go out to where our house will sit, so much stress just washes away already.  I can only imagine how comforting it will be when we actually get to live there!