Lesson #15 Enjoying our Woods and taking Mushroom pictures.

Last Friday Evie and I hiked around the woods on our own property. Now Evie really only spends time in the woods during Autumn and Winter. She hates ticks and the heat, so that rules out Spring and Summer for her in the woods...no matter what I tell her she is missing out on! This is our third Autumn on our property. It is truly amazing to watch how nature changes when untouched by human hands. Now the Earth has caused changes through storm, drought, rain, wild growth, ect. but much of our little piece of Earth remains untouched, except perhaps by our feet. We also had a fabulous time searching for mushrooms and taking pictures of all the different specimens we found. It was a beautiful day with my beautiful child surrounded by our lovely and wonderful homestead.

Lesson #14 Celebrating Bread Baking Outside!

Our good friend Steve is a potter and a bread maker. The two really do go hand in hand, they are very similar forms of art. He recently completed his outdoor oven. It is beautiful! To celebrate his accomplishment several friends got together to bake...of course! Everyone brought some sort of bread to bake. It was fabulous. After we had partaken of several types of bread we all began to experience foggy brain from carb overload. Some of the breads we devoured were; rye, beautiful white loaves, homemade pretzels with homemade beer cheese (to die for), stromboli (with vodka sauce), a sausage stuffed bread (wonderful with the cream cheese and homemade pepper jelly on top), Evie's sweet bread, a skillet apple pie, and a lovely creamy pear dish. All cooked in Steve's fabulous oven. We stayed warm by the fire created from the oven. You actually remove the wood/hot coals before baking. So we transferred the hot coals to the fire pit for a great time sitting outside around the fire. Evie's bread was delicious, and she was very proud of it. She made a sweet bread with dried apricots, dates, and walnuts. Since I forgot to take a pic of her bread, bellow is the recipe she used. I had made homemade pizza dough for the kids to make pizzas and there was so much other food they just never got around to it, so the pics of the pizza was my creation with the dough at home. I am sure there will be more baking days and we look forward to it! I only took the one pic at the bread celebration party, and will add a pic of the oven soon.

Evie's Sweet Apricot/Date bread:
 makes one loaf-bake at 350 for 55-65min.

1 cup chopped pitted dates 
1 cup chopped dried apricots
1/4 cup softened butter
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 chopped walnuts
2 eggs
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Directions
combine dates/apricots/butter/baking soda
pour in boiling water-stir well and let stand for 15 min.
beat sugar/walnuts/and eggs into fruit mixture
combine rest of dry ingredients and stir into fruit mixture until blended
cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes

Lesson #13 Pictures in the Woods with BFF

A few years ago I took some pics out in the woods on Evie's birthday. I took some of Evie alone and several of her and her BFF Destiny. They have been friends since birth and Destiny is 11 months older than Evie.  Her BFF's mother is my best friend. The girls would obviously be stuck together regardless, but their friendship is a beautiful relationship all on its own. Since the first photo shoot we have taken several shots in the woods. Here are some I took yesterday....they are so beautiful. Also I just have to mention they are both wearing beautiful 5$ Goodwill dresses :) I think the last pic of them laughing is my favorite.

Lesson #12 Bear Wallow Farm

Today we went to Bear Wallow Farm with some friends and fellow homeschoolers. Bear Wallow Farm is a farm that is open during the Autumn only. Fun things to see and do such as; feeding sheep/goats/fish/ducks, observing other animals like long horn steer, emus, pot belly pigs, donkeys, rabbits, other birds and more. Also there is a corn maze, a pumpkin cannon that shoots pumpkins about 3000 ft., and lastly a wagon ride to the pumpkin patch.Autumn is our favorite season as a family and October our favorite month of the year! This is the first of many Autumn fun things!

Evie and Friends

Lesson #11 Art Work Constructivism

Our art work last week was centered around Constructivism-using line and shape. Some of the artist we studied were Tatlin, Vasarely, Mondrian and Kandinsky. We are great lovers of Kandinsky's work. Fun as always, with proportionate messes!

Info for Constructivism artworks:
A modern art movement developed in 1917 by the Russian sculptor Vladimir Tatlin (1880-1938). The aim was to construct abstract sculpture suitable for an industrialized society, and the work pioneered the use of modern technology and materials such as wood, glass, plastics and steel. Constructivism was introduced to Western Europe by Antoine Pevsner in Paris, and his brother Naum Gabo in Germany. The principles of Constructivism were highly influential in twentieth century Western art, although for political reasons its influence in Russia ended by 1921

Watercolor/Acrylic on Paper

Acrylic/Watercolor/Soft Pastel on Paper

Lesson #10 Sound and Music

 Homeschooling is fun, seriously fun. If it wasn't there would not be so many of us going down this wacky road of education! Just a quick statement about homeschooling, it isn't the "easy way out". The easy path of education is sending your child to school. Homeschooling is not always easy, but it is so rewarding that the hard days are worth it. Most often the best times are the things you didn't plan. The sudden field trip somewhere, because you/your child had an idea and you were able to follow it somewhere, or days like yesterday when siting in the bed giggling and Youtubing traditional instruments across the globe becomes a big part of your Science/History/Geography "lesson". We began looking things up on You Tube after reading in our Physics book about sound/how it is made/music/pitch/travels through the ear ect. and it discussed some interesting instruments from all over the world. Below are a couple of our favorites! Homeschooling is also about getting creative and enjoying your children as you both learn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hnXjJ64xRQ
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy20c53RV2c&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsC6NyyOJCc

Lesson #9 Autumn Equinox Hike at Bee Rock

Celebrating the turn of the year, change of the seasons, and our connection to nature is very important to our family. This year we spent most of the day with friends hiking around Bee Rock, climbing rocks, and frolicking in the sunshine. It was fantastic weather, a truly great day for a hike. We finished up the day with a pot luck, celebrating the turn of Autumn with great food! This is my favorite time of year, although I dread winter. Evie LOVES winter, we certainly differ when it comes to seasons. I love the heat, but nothing smells, sounds, or "taste" quite like Autumn and all the great things that come with it...like fire pits and Halloween!

Bee Rock

Friends

Evie after triumphantly braving a HUGE rock 

Her  face was hot...but the water was FREEZING!

Evie and Friends, I hate Evie has her eyes closed, but I love the sky above them.