Queen's Edge Farm: Homeschooling Schedule for Preschool

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Homeschooling Schedule for Preschool

This is my 3 year old Hannah, she will be 4 in two months. She is a handful. She loves watercolors, puppies, jumping on the trampoline, cheerleading (ask her she will show you her "jumps"), chicken strips, iced tea, and tormenting her 18 year old brother.

I think it was yesterday that I posted that Hannah was home full time from daycare/preschool. I began working with her right away on her "homework" as she calls it. Around 10 a.m. we sit down and I write her name on a piece of paper and she copies it, her way. Hannah's way is to flip the paper over and copy it from the back, backwards. I finally caught on today to what she was doing, as yesterday I wasn't really paying great attention and thought she was dyslexic or something. No, just silly. She only wants to copy her name and alphabet from the back side of the paper by tracing what I wrote. After finally getting her to write the letter A and B by herself the right way on the right side of the paper, we went to www.starfall.com again, and reviewed the letter A and worked on the letter B. We also had to do the letter H, as it starts with her name.

Hannah and I went outside to give the chickens fresh water. While getting the waterer filled, I noticed the smallest frog I had ever seen. It was about 1/2 inch long! I called Hannah over really quick to see it, and we watched it hop through the mud by the spigot. She asked me where the baby frog's mom and dad were, I confessed that I thought he was lost, because I didn't know where they were.

Afterwards we watched the "Little Einsteins" cartoon, which I like for it's classical music emphasis. I can tell she is paying attention because tonight I was doing my homework in Music Appreciation and played a portion of Beethoven's 5th Symphony and she looked up from her painting and said "Hey that's Beethoven! Are you watching the Little Einstein's on your 'puter?" I told her no, and then showed her the computer monitor with a picture of Beethoven. I then played a portion of Mozart's 12 variations in C and asked her what it was....do you know?
It's Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star! She got it and was very excited. She wanted me to play more, so I played Tchaikovsky's the Waltz of the Flowers and she said "That's from the Barbie Nutcracker!" She has a very good ear and memory. It would be great if she played the violin like I did. (Lauren has expressed an interest, but there is no way I could teach her, she is too sensitive.) Anyway, my schedule with Hannah looks like this for now:

Writing
Phonics
Computer
Math
Music
Reading (I read a Patriotic story at lunch time, and a Bible story at bed time)
(Except for the reading, this takes 30 minutes, then we sit and read.)

It's funny how much they hear when you think they aren't paying attention. Last night's story was the first in the book about Adam and Eve, and the Creation. Well, she came to me around lunch time and said "Momma, Bubba (that's Taylor) said that God didn't make the puppy, but you said last month (she meant last night) that God made all the aminals (that's how she says animals). Tell him Momma, tell him he's lying." I reassured her that yes that God did make all the "aminals" and "the peoples" too, and asked Bubba to stop messing with his little sister. He just chuckled. He just loves to get a rise out of her!

Well, that's it for now, it may change later once Lauren is home schooling with us too.

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Grandma's Yummy Cinnamon Rolls

2 pkgs active dry yeast or 5 tsps if using bulk yeast
1/2 cup warm water (not too hot)
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup shortening, butter, margarine
2 tsps salt
2 cups milk, scalded
1 1/2 cups cold water
10 to 12 cups flour (white or whole wheat)

Yield: 4 loaves

Soften yeast in warm water, springkle in a tsp of the sugar
In LARGE mixing bowl blend sugar, shortening, salt and milk until shortening is melted. Add cold water, cool to luke-warm. Stir in yeast. Gradually add flour to form a stiff dough. Knead on floured surface until smooth and satiny, 5 to 10 minutes. Place in greased bowl, turning dough to grease all sides. Cover with foil or damp towel. Let rise in warm place (85 to 90 deg) until light and doubled in volume about two hours. Punch dough down by plunging fist in center. Knead dough for about 5 minutes.

Roll out one fourth of dough to a 16 X 12 inch rectangle. Brush with 2 TBSP of melted butter. Combine 1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar, 1/3 cup sugar and 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon (or more to taste). Sprinkle mixture over dough. Starting with 16 inch side, roll jellyroll fashion. Either cut into 16 1 inch slices or leave as a whole loaf. Place on a greased pan, cover and let rise in warm place until light, about 30 to 45 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees about 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Mix one box 10X sugar with 2 tbsps water. If too stiff, add more water until icing consistency, add a drop of vanilla too. Spread on baked bread while bread is still warm.

2010 Homestead Stats

Laundry Soap

Homemade Laundry Soap:
1/3 bar Fels Naptha or other type of soap, as listed above
½ cup washing soda
½ cup borax powder
~You will also need a small washpan or bowl that holds about 2 gallons.

Grate the soap and put it in a sauce pan. Add 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts. Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups hot water into the washpan. Now add your soap mixture and stir. Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir. Transfer soap (using a funnel if necessary) into empty plastic laundry holders, milk containers (I use my empty glass milk bottles and old Fab containers) Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel. You use ½ cup per load.

Wild Mustang Grape Jelly

Wild Mustang Grape Jelly

5 cups grape juice (about 3 1/2 pounds of ripe grapes)1 (1 3/4 ounce) box of sure-jel pectin7 cups sugarBefore getting started it is best to clean the entire kitchen, making sure the sink is empty. Bleach the sink and all utensils used in making jelly (I do this as I sell my grape jelly as part of my homesteading business.)

Wash the canning jars in warm soapy water, and rinse well. Set off to side.

Place a large pan of water on the stove to heat. Once it starts steaming, place lids and rings in the bottom, and 2-3 jars (depending on if you use actual jelly jars or pints) to sterilize.

Next make the grape juice using clean washed grapes (make sure you use rubber gloves when picking or washing wild grapes)To 3 1/2 pounds of clean grapes (6 cups of grapes) add 1 1/2 cups water.Bring to a boil and simmer covered for 10 minutes.Strain and squeeze out all of the juice with cheese cloth (see paragraph below)
I didn't have cheese cloth, so I poured the grape mixture into a large spaghetti strainer with a large pan underneath. I had to stir it around some as the skins and seeds would sink to the bottom, and clog the colander up. Stirring allowed the liquid to drain out. I then used a large metal spoon and squished it some to get more of the juice out.

In a very big pan, put 5 cups of the juice (it’s okay to add no more than ½ cup water to even out amount)Add the fruit pectin to the juice.Mix well.On high heat, bring to a full rolling boil, and boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.Stir in sugar all at once, and bring back to a full rolling boil, again boil hard for 1 minute stirring constantly.
Remove jelly from heat, skim off foam
Use a large spoon inserted inside the jar to lift CAREFULLY out of the water. DO NOT TOUCH THE INSIDE OF THE JAR OR THE RIM WITH YOUR HANDS.
Ladle jelly into hot jars, place a lid and ring onto jar (do not tighten yet).
Set jars to the side. After a while you should start hearing “pings” as the jar seals.
When jars are completely cool, tighten rings and store on pantry shelf.**SIDE NOTE: Wild Mustang Grapes are normally ready the end of June, so be prepared. Keep an eye open for vines on the side of the road, or any that friends and family may have growing in their yard. Many people just let them grow and don’t do anything with them, so it shouldn’t be hard to find a good supply. Also, the more you pick off the vine, the more the vine produces new grapes, so you probably won’t EVER run out of grapes to use until the vine dies or you get sick of making jelly. Good luck and feel free to contact me at queensedgefarm@yahoo.com for questions.