Family Schooling Summary

The weather was beautiful this week and we spent several hours every day outside.  I worked in the garden and the kiddos played with the chickens.  Here is brother M, feeding them kernels of popcorn off an ear that we grew last year.  Looks like a farmer. 

We did our school work outside on the picnic blanket this week. Having finished the "Addition and Subtraction" workbook, we switched our focus to the "Time and Money" workbook in our first grade preparations. For history we read a book about Samurai and Ninjas (A's choice) and talked about Japan. We went over our flash cards of Kindergarten Sight Words.

Daddy promised the kiddos a backyard campout since big sister A didn't get to go on the Father & Son Campout.

The Father and Son Campout

Brother M's first camp out with daddy was a big hit.  Here are some pictures from daddy's phone:

Recommended Reading: Farms, Farm Women, Cave People, and Heists

No one can say that my reading list is not diverse!  Let's start with the Cave Men.

1. Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

I saw this on a list of modern classics and remembered vaguely that my Aunt Jill once told me that it was a good book, but I was too young to read it at the time. I love historical fictions and recognize that they require extra work to write well because of the amount of research that goes into them.  This level of historic fiction was completely mind blowing. I have never read about this period of history before and I have no idea which parts of the setting are long shot guesses and which parts are supported by scientific evidence, but the plot was very compelling and thought provoking. I enjoyed reading it. It is a slow paced book, but never seemed to drag on.  The ending is unresolved as this is actually the first book in a series.

2. Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter (Heist Society Book #2)
I listened to this book on the way to and from New Jersey for Grandma Jane's funeral.  It was just right for a long road trip.  I was absorbed in the story and the time flew by.  Another great plot, consistent characters with book 1, and plenty of quirkiness made this a fun read.

3. Storey's Illustrated Breed Guide to Sheep, Goats, Cattle and Pigs by Carol Ekarius
Obviously this book is not going to interest a wide audience. But I am happily daydreaming about my future farm and so I thought it would be fun to pick out which types of livestock I would like to have... just in case I have to choose in a hurry or something.  As the title says, it is illustrated with lots of great photos and per Storey's usual level of excellence, it gave me just the sort of advice I was looking for with phrases like "good breed for small homestead" and such.

4. Mama Wears Two Aprons: Women in Farming and Farm Marketing by Margaret Coleman

I chanced upon this title when I was searching for farm books at the library and was intrigued to see that it was about farm women in the DC area.  I read it in an evening and was awed by the farm women's capacities. They took care of their families, with few or no modern conveniences, and still managed to bake 70 cakes, dozens of cookies, and pies to take to market every Saturday...  I spent this week wondering "how did they do it all?" as I waded slowly through my own homemaking duties. Not for the first time, I wished I could have watched a day in the life of a real farm woman. They must have been very efficient with their time and had lots of helpful tricks that have been lost over the years of modernizing.

Reuse Recipe: Fixing a Broken Oven

The internet makes it so much easier to be handy. My oven stopped heating up, but the broiler still worked as did the stove top. I did a little googling and discovered that I could just remove and replace the broken bake element myself. As soon as I started fiddling with it the bake element cracked at the weak spot. See where the bubbles are on it?  That is a sign that it is broken... and the most likely cause is too many drips onto the element over the years.

 I found the model number on a little metal plaque inside the door and googled that.  I found the bake element part number for that model and then ordered it for 15 dollars on Amazon.  I watched a youtube video about replacing that part and then away I went.

First, I took out the racks. Then I used a socket wrench to undo the screws holding the bake element to the back of the oven.

Then I sent the kiddos and daddy away to art & soccer classes.

Almost all unscrewed here.

According to youtube, I was supposed to be able to just gently pull the bake element forward and see the wires clipped to it.  Then unclip and reclip to the new bake element.  It worked perfectly on one side. It was hard to get a picture of this part, can you see the wire sticking out here?

But on the other side the wire was tight and came unclipped BEHIND the back wall of the oven, inside the insulation. YIKES!  I figured there must be a way to reach it from the back. I unscrewed the back panel off the oven and sure enough -- I could see where the wire reached through the insulation. I adjusted for more slack and then carefully pushed the wire with pliers toward the inside of the oven.  

After that it was as easy as it seemed on the youtube video.  Reclip both sides and screw everything back together. TA-DA.  All fixed up for 15$.

Sew Special: Laundry bag

Just a drawstring bag to put dish cloths, cloth napkins, and placemats in (instead of throwing them down the stairs). Made from a vintage sheet, using the original top hem as the casing for the drawstring. Super easy.

Family Schooling Summary

Big sister A's reading is really coming along.  I think this is the first book that she has been able to read all by herself (not having memorized it first).  It is so cool to see her reading to her brothers. We are almost done with the Get Ready for First Grade Phonics and Math workbooks that I mentioned last week.

We took a big road trip this week to New Jersey for my Grandma Jane's funeral.  She was 94 and passed away peacefully in her home.  We were happy for her release from sickness and celebrated her full life.  I was glad for an opportunity to visit with my relatives and meet some cousins that I had only heard about and seen pictures of.

Here we are at the family dinner party before the viewing on Sunday.

 Kids (cousins) making friends and keeping quiet and entertained at the viewing.

 Baby S saying "cheese" for the camera again.  He spent the viewing running around trying to get into things and escape out the front door of the funeral home.

All the kiddos did great in the car.  Baby S with his dolly. He slept most of the way.

We had a field trip to the zoo with our church playgroup. We watched the zoo keeper feed the fish.

We got to know a donkey up close and personal

And we arrived just in time at the elephant enclosure to see that massive mammal put on a show with his trainer.  The kids were completely enraptured with him.

Chicks week 8 and 9: Friendly Pets

Have a mentioned that our chickens are really tame?  Big sister A and brother M have been (making a huge mess) feeding them by hand and enjoying getting gently pecked. 

 The girls are getting close to full grown now (still about 3 weeks to go though). Their combs are still coming up and they are losing some baby feathers as new ones come in. They are still not scratching up the turf much. We have been feeding them grubs and slugs from the garden in hopes that they will learn to relish them enough to find lots in our grass this summer. They won't start laying until August (5 months old)

 Baby S is much more into trying to pet the chickens then actually petting them.

Picnicking with chickens

Garden Progress: Newspaper vs. real weed paper experiment

Last year I found out that I could get myself added to a County list for free mulch whenever they had it available and that they would deliver the TRUCK load wherever you told them to put it.  I signed up immediately with my garden path mulch project in mind.   Of course, they finally called me in late November.  I had them pile it at the back of the driveway and started removing sod, laying down 4-5 layers of newsprint (recycling instead of buying weed paper), and covering with mulch. I made slow progress in the cold and mud, and only got about half done before it got too snowy and cold to do much. This Spring I made the sad discovery that weeds were coming up through the mulch in some spots. 

So sad.  At least I was only half done?  I am using real weed paper on the second half and will eventually try to shift the first half's mulch over so that I can put weed paper under it instead. Uggh.

Sew Special: Madame Alexander Doll Karen Ballerina Dress

As I have mentioned previously. my neighbor is a restorer of antique dolls. She knows how to do everything, from making the body parts to putting in the eyes and changing the wigs.  But she is not as keen on the sewing part of things.  I guess there used to be a lot of ladies who sewed for antique dolls and now it is kind of a dying art. Recently she brought me a very challenging project -- make a new dress for this Karen Ballerina doll.  I copied the original as closely as possible.  I had to make a pattern from the original dress, sew a prototype, dye the polyester mesh fabric myself to get the right color, and be accurate to within an 1/8 of an inch on all my sewing so that it would fit right. It was super challenging. I was glad that I was making 2 of them (for two dolls) so that it would be worth all the effort to figure out the pattern and fabric.

Color matching the original dress against my many dye swatches for the best possible match

Karen Ballerina - Dress Update

Each dress took about 6 yards of gold ric rac and 1 yard of fabric to make the 3 layers of the gathered skirt!

 The drape of the polyester mesh fabric is lovely. Much more like the original material than the alternative option - stiff tulle.

Madame Alexander doll - new dress