• Archive for November 2013

    Herbal Viral Syrup

    Thursday, November 28, 2013

     
     
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    It comes to this family with force, five coughing, dripping, flushed, cranky kids. It often heralds it's arrival sometime during the darkest parts of night, you know that restless cry that wakes a reluctant parent  and soothing a little-one will be the fallowing mission of mid-night.
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    And if any of you mama's treat the common winter ills naturally you will know the wild expense of the smallest bottle. The last cold our family had, we were travelling, so I bought a bottle from a natural food store, it took two bottles of this remedy to get all five kiddos back to health. Thirty dollars my friends, for one simple cold!
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    Once the snowflakes start falling I prepare a  winters worth of herbal remedy. It works for nearly all symptoms, fever, coughing, sneezing, earaches, runny or goopy nose, sore throat, restlessness, immunity builder. It works, and my kids love it, like candy like it. If one of the babies see it in the fridge they will bring it to me and plead for some 'tandy'. It is easy to make, and affordable, two canning jars worth cost me ten dollars. 
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     I had the pleasure of using some of the herbs I harvested this spring from our woods, which saved some in cost, but most herbs for this recipe is less than half a cups worth, which keeps costs affordable even if the loose herbs are purchased from a health food store.
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    My children love being involved, Marion did most of the work (while I took pictures) she said after a slow-dramatic inhale that it smelt like winter, she associates the smell of this recipe with the coming of winter.
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    Herbal Viral Syrup

    1 cup Alder-Berries

    1 cup Rose Hips

    1/4 cup Chickweed

    1/4 cup Dandelion Leaf

    1/4 cup Devils Club

    1/4 cup Sorel

    1/4 cup Bedstraw & Yarrow

    1/4 cup Echinacea Flower

    1/4 cup Echinacea Root

    1/4 cup Astragals Root

    1/4 cup Chamomile Flower

    1/4 cup Elecampane

    1/8 cup Fresh Ginger, peeled and diced

    1/8 cup Cloves

    A few fresh sprigs of Rosemary

    Ten Cinnamon Sticks or 1/8 cup powdered Cinnamon

    Mix all the above ingredients together.

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     Pour into a sauce pan, cover three times the herbs with water.
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    Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer off the majority of water.
     It will turn dark, once the herbs have expanded and the water level is half the size of the herbs (this will take around 4-6 hours, the longer you simmer the more nutrients  will seep from the herbs) remove the herbs from the heat, let cool.
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     Strain the herbs from the liquid, I use a milk bag but cheese cloth works just as well. Make sure all the little pieces of herbs have been strained out of the liquid. When the liquid is clear of herb particles put back in a cleaned sauce pan, add a shot of whisky or vodka and two cups of honey, bring back to a boil so you simmer off the alcohol, and the honey is dissolved. You may add more or less honey if you prefer, you need enough for a preservative  which works alongside the alcohol, and too add a pleasant taste for your children.  Put in a clean jar, label and place in the fridge. I give a tsp 4-5 times a day to my four years and younger kids and a TBSP 4-5 times a day for my older ones.  This recipe has always lasted me six months before going bad.
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    This recipe is safe for little children, I have seen how quickly my children recover from an illness when taking this recipe compared to battling a cold without.
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    Enjoy
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    Lachlan & Jeriah's Room

    Thursday, November 21, 2013

     
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    My heart is still held in great wonder at a God who's blessing were given in boys.

    Two fine boys may I add.

    Healthy, plucky, strong and noble.

    Lachlan
     finds his way to me early, before the sun, he puts his hand's to my cheek and whispers "Mom, are you awake,  do you want to talk about hunting or guns?”

     I know to cherish these times with my son, in those dawn breaking moments, because some day he won't come to my room, or need early morning whispers.

    Jeriah
    can laugh, boyhood tumbling from his belly.

    When it starts its contagious, it is best just to join him on the floor and let his joy run over you. Take him, the giggles and joy onto arms and treasure a moment of child laughter.

    These are my boys

    Another thing  I am enjoying, while it lasts, is a nursery for two, a boys room to share.

    Some day it will be a smelly mess filled with beds for  lengthy teens, a place where a mother no longer treads.

    Now in this room there are treasures, a wardrobe I refinished for Roger long before he took me as his bride. A wooden train sent from relatives in Holland three decades ago, a gift for my older brother generously passed down to my boys, quilts from London, a bunting sewn from thrifted material stitched by this mama who loves details. Pictures and nick-knacks all telling a story, collected with thought, some saved long ago while my boys were still a prayer!

    When night comes and two boys get tucked in,

    lullabies and prayers,

    in a cozy room.

    I feel content and full with the love of a Mother of boys.
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    Solar System

    Thursday, November 14, 2013

     
     
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    I teach in a gabled room built with wide windows at tree-top level, a river rock fire place warms the room, walls lined with books, this is our lovely learning place. I think this is my favorite room of the house. This year in science we are covering astronomy. I decided last year we were going to approach science as an immersion subject, taking the full school year to cover just one topic of scince. I wanted to be able to have the time to immerse ourselves  into a subject and come out of the year impressed and enriched by the subject. The girls were given a few options for science subjects and they agreed on astronomy.
     We are loving the depth and understanding of space and a God so majestic in his creation.
    We cover  the book learning portions Monday until Wednesday, Thursday the girls read about an astronomer, Friday we do a project. Making a model of our solar system was the first project. During the babies nap time we painted various size Styrofoam balls (purchased at Michelle's and Wal-Mart) we mixed watercolour paints to get the desired affects of colour for each planet. We were all pleased with the outcome and have enjoyed having a solar system model hanging from the ceiling of our gabled school room.
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    Styrofoam balls we used.
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    My three little scientist/crafters.
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    The Paint
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    Planets drying
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    No one said home-schooling was a tidy business!
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    Hanging from our gabled ceiling.
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    If you would like to see the beautiful felt hands-on solar system my sister Katelynn made and gave my kids take a look at her blog Captivated. These planets have been such a delightful tool to use when teaching my young children.
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    In Need of Dazzling Love

    Thursday, November 7, 2013

     
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    There is not a day that goes by that I do not think about adoption. It could be that my daughter is a visual reminder of how adoption has touched our family. It may be that adoption is a deeper calling within my role of Mothering. It may be that so often when all is quiet in the house and the world around slumbers and a silent home affords a moment for my own thoughts, I think on the vast number of displaced children we have in this world, I'm told there are millions, a numerous gathering of little faces, tiny hands, pattering feet, and expectant innocence. Millions of names, children unique and precious yet alone in the tossing current of an overwhelming statistic.

    I personally know some of those numbers, they have names, hopes, hurts, fears, laughter,  to me some in that number are friends, people I call my own. Tunde my boy across the oceans, he will be a young man soon, he has done childhood on his own, raised himself. He is the face of the brave-broken. And that little one, a girl spilling with matted curls and lice scratching about, she was feral, harsh towards any adult hand, she would glare fifteen feet from me as I placed the clean water and loaf of bread upon the sand, she stood the age of seven, had a baby on her hip and two toddlers hid behind her frail body. I asked the locals, another story of the same kind, alone, caring for the only three left alive.  What of the innocent baby we left behind in a dusty home on the equator, his child-mama crippled and desolate.

    I carry these children with me. They are part of my heartbeat, each leaving an imprint in the luxury of my freedom.

    They taught me how utterly broken this world is.

    Tunde

    Innocence

    Lydia

    Sarah andher siblings

    These are names of the children of the millions.
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    I listen to my daughter asleep under her hand stitched quilt, she is clothed in clean pajamas, her bottle is filled with warm organic milk. Today she was parented, peppered with a thousand displays of love, her Daddy worked hard to provide for her, and her Mama cradled her in arms, gently bathed and fed her, she had a day filled with laughter, play and security.

    As the moon rose and night's shadows danced over our home the parent's prayers surround our sleeping babies, we thank the Lord for our little treasure who was

     snatched from the fire.

     We know the promised power of prayer preserved her life from abortion, and when neglect threatened her very existence God led and placed her in a home safe and where love surrounded her. And when her brokenness came from her depth, she was in a family willing to learn the art of healing.
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    During the hours of night I think of all the travesties that will be inflicted upon the young and vulnerable of our world, starvation, rejection, abuses and fears.  

    I can see a God who's tears slip freely for everyone of these orphans. Because He knows the number of hair upon their heads, He knows the stories behind their scars.  Within His heart came the words of His Holy Book, He says "I will place the lonely in families" and commissions families to care for the needs of the orphans!

    With fear I can picture our daughter if she had not been spared, living the life of one of those millions. I can imagine her alone. I can imagine another like her still left in darkness. This alters my view of life and luxury and the all-American dream. It alters my grasp on faith and the great commission,

     to love one another.

    To boldly flee the trap of self-focused comforts and embrace a little girl covered with lice, or take a teen boy home for Christmas knowing your holiday perfection will be greatly tainted, who will love the infant screaming in agony as alcohol and toxic drugs leave his body and his shrilling lasts from one sunrise to the next.

    As the body of Christ we are losing the battle against abortion and abandonment. We have cowardly ran from the fields of this battle. This year in Canada far too many babies will be born dead. This year in Canada more children will join the ranks of orphans then there are permanent families available. This year in my affluent and wealthy city the government will build another orphanage to house children, because the need for foster families is so great. This is my city, my county, these children are on my watch!
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    And church, these precious young God has given us, they are our responsibility also.  As you plan and strategize to grow your congregation what about accepting  thirty-thousand waiting children that live within our county and the millions beyond our borders.

     I can see a church filled with the colours of the continents, bubbly and alive. How about sharing a pew with a few children with ADD or who were born addicted to drugs, what about a little girl saved from child slavery, she may be rough around the edges, but can I tell you a secret? They need the love of our Lord!
     
    Body of Christ, we are to be the dazzling light of love and holiness here to this broken world, may I suggest we all sharpen are battle tactics and face the enemy who is snatching our young from us. We must start with prayer, fervently, for the women today and tomorrow who feel the need to rid their bodies of life. We must be willing to open our homes to their young.

    Let each one of us become involved with adoption and fostering.  We can  make meals for a weary foster mom, mow the lawn for a father who has adopted a sibling group, babysit for an adoptee couple in need of some time alone, ENCOURAGE  those who have welcomed young-ones into their home,  find an adoption agency and help cover the costs of a family desperate to bring their child home from overseas.   We could fill the forms, open our arms, make room in our homes, we can foster, we can adopt, we can each start the ripples of healing in a ocean of pain.
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    And if we don't we will have to answer to a great God who formed each one of these children, he sculpted them with his very heart and had to watch as darkness stole around them. And if you listen you will hear our God's tears, if you follow His leading  you will be guided to His heart, there He holds the wounds of this world and those millions of children each with a name and a destiny far above the mire they have been offered.

    Let us not be the ones who look away from their plight.

    Let this be the time in history when a bridge is built between the injustices towards children and the safety of God's love.
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    Home-School Binder

    Monday, November 4, 2013

     
     
     
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    We are now settled deeper into fall, and school is set, the days filled with learning.
     I am pleased, this year seems to have an ease about it. It could be we have past the learning-curb years, this being the fifth year of educating at home.  Or that we waited until the cool of October to start book learning, Autumn's beauty and pleasant weather kept my young ones enthralled, why pull them indoors when the sun still warms and nature is displaying her beauty with enticement?
     But I think it may have more to do with a little organization. This year I planned more thoroughly then I have in past years.  I find once I start school I quickly forget all I wanted to cover, what books, topics, pages, poems and activities I want to teach on and from. It also seems that once school gets started finding time during the week to prepare next week rarely happens.
      This year during schools long break and my mind wasn't consumed with the daily teaching I planned every term, month, week and day.  Looking ahead with my hopes still a thought, it seemed somewhat ambitious, yet it was easier than I thought and has provided me with a certainty that all is in order for the next school week, month and term.
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    Scope & Sequence
    I started with a scope and sequence. This is a scope and sequence I tailor made for our family, you can find many on the internet and books,  we fallow the Charlotte Mason approach to education which mostly employs high quality reading materials, narration and dictation as opposed to work books/curricula/tests.  As a teacher I then must organize the materials we will cover,  where as many home-school programs come with teacher and student outlines. A scope and sequence has become an essential part of my school year planning once I have made one for that school grade I can glance at what materials we need, and what we should be covering that grade, also I then have it for future children when they come to that school grade.
    On the left side if the page I list all the subjects we will be covering that year with the recourses we will use as a group. The next column is the resources just Marion is using (she is in grade four) and then the next column is for Davina (she is in grade one). I try to cover as many topics together as possible as this cuts down my teaching load.
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    Terms One, Two and Three
    Next step I  take a calendar decide when we will start and finish the school year and all the breaks in between, then I calculate how many weeks we will have at school, then break those weeks into terms. Our school year usually covers three terms. I make three rough draft term pages and jot down the  subject list.  With each subject I gather the recourses all ready written out in my scope and sequence, taking those resources I will break it into three terms, placing the book, chapters, page, poem, movie, audio story, field trip and all other teaching materials into which term I will use it in. At this point my table and floor is covered with stacks or teaching materials all pulled from the shelves and put into subject piles. It's a mess!
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    Weekly Plan
     
    Now is the fun and most helpful part! Breaking your terms into weeks. This year my week schooling is different as we are doing all our academics Monday-Wednesday. Thursday we have a fine arts day. Friday we take off or plan our outings and felid-trips on this day.  This has worked beautifully for us.
    I work with the first term, breaking the already divided recourses into days, how many pages or lessons we will cover and on what days. Again I list the subjects on the left with the days of the weeks along the top. Each subject has a box under the day. This part I color coat ,group subjects are in black, Marion dark green and Davina light green.
    If I am going to cover three chapter books a year for geography I will take the first book, count out the chapters. Let's say there are ten chapters , I will have put the first book into term one, now when dividing into days I will take each chapter and break the pages into days, fist chapter has 6 pages so in the subject box Geography, Week One, Monday-Wednesday I will put two pages per day. The I want each girl to color in their map book ( a binder filled with maps of the continents, blank except for country borders, when we read about a country or region, we will find it on our globe then the girls will identify it on their map, color the place we have learnt and write its name) I may have Marion give me an oral narration of the two pages we read and Davina look at a picture book about the person or place we read about. All this is written in the subject box for that day, and their specific work highlighted in their own color. This means in seconds I can glance at the day, subject recourse, and know exactly what  I need to teach, and what the girls need to be doing.
    So term One has twelve weeks. Each week has the days running along the top. With the recourses needing to be covered in its subject and day box.
    I have our Bible, Memory, Math, Writing & Language Arts, Literature, Poetry, History, Geography, Science, Foreign Language, Art & Art History, Music & Music History, Nature Study, Shakespeare each of these subject are broken down into days! This has truly saved me any thought once school gets started. I just turn to which week we are on, look to the day, then the subject and know what we are doing.
    At the bottom of each week I have two boxes for me to jot down any notes, one box is for Reminders and the other is Extras. I have this so if we  need a supply or a library book I can jot it down right when I'm thinking of it. Or if something's not working like I hoped, I will make a note so I can adapt it for the future.
    Once all my terms were divided into weeks and my weeks organized into days I move on to the final few steps.
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    School Schedule
    We do our schooling right after lunch when I put the babies down for their naps. We usually have three hours before nap time ends.  Our school schedule is from 12:00p.m until 4:00p.m. 12-3 I am working with the girls and from 3:00 on Davina is free and Marion has an hour of independent learning time. She covers the school-work she does not need my help with.  As I stated earlier we teach based on Charlotte Mason's philosophies of education, one of her key beliefs is that there should be a broad spectrum of subjects covered, yet each subject should be kept to short lessons, 10 - 20 minutes. The only subject we spend more time on is math which is closer to 40 minutes an academic day. Now that we are covering all our academics in three week days our lessons are 20 minutes, except for math.
    Our schedule will be in twenty-minute segments, moving quite rapidly through the four hours of school. Marion and Davina are color coded again and I can see what each should be doing at the different times.
    I also include their full day schedules into my home-school binder.  So I can see what comes before and after school for that day.
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    Assembling my Home-School Binder

    The fun and easy part. I used the same layout as my home-management binder. I use a white three ring binder. I put every page in a plastic page protector.

    These are the steps from front to back
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    I made a cover and labeled the spine.

     
    In the front I put a envelope for my pens and labels, I have a note pad tucked into the binder holder along with my key Bible verse selected to encourage and keep me focused this school year.
     
     
    First Page is our Home School Schedule

     
    Second Page is the girls individual schedule
     

    Scope & Sequence
     

    Term One - Three: twelve weeks behind this label


    I have placed my important documents from our umbrella school in the back pages, such as the field trip list, phone directory, reimbursement policies.
     

    Then I have two large binder envelopes labeled for each girl, In these I place important notes and papers I receive about or for their schooling.

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    Homeschooling is a unique adventure, personal to the feel and flare of every family.
    It is not as readily available to find easy organization tips, trades and tools for the homeschooling family compared to planning for kids regular school.
    Each year I adapt and change what I have previously done, because every year my family has grown in size, and every year my students have gotten older. Every year we adapt because every year we change.
    I am always wanting to improve and iron out the weak spots in our busy home. Most often this means working on my discipline, doing my work efficiently and as smoothly as possible. A plan has always helped me with this and provides a simple structure for my bustling family.
    I am always amazed at the freedom that comes when time is not wasted on wasted time.
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    And so this year there is a Home-School Binder to add to my Home-Management binder and I am pleased because order and eliminating guess work is a blessing to this busy mama with a bustling brood of babies!
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