Queen's Edge Farm: Homeschooling

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Homeschooling

Well, we have passed the first six weeks of schoolwork. I used this first six weeks as a review of last year and to determine where the girls are academically.

I think they are doing great, but hey I am their mom LOL!

I had started out planning to use all the E.D. Hirsch books, Preschool, Kinder and first grade for Hannah, and all of them up to sixth grade for Lauren. I didn't plan to teach out of all of them for Lauren, but have her read all the information in them as part of her reading, to refresh her and to make sure we covered all areas. But somehow all of the books have been misplaced with the exception of three. I cannot locate them for the life of me, and I had them at the beginning of summer.

So, while I am using the 5th grade book for Lauren to make sure she has covered those areas, I have moved on to using the established curriculum of the Old Fashioned Education site. I like their schedule as they have a 40 week schedule. It uses the McGuffey readers. I already have the 5th reader, and I ordered the 2nd and 3rd from paperbackswap, but all are located on the site as PDF files, along with many of the texts used in the curriculum. It's a little fast paced, which I like, and Lauren excels at. I plan to do the 5th grade schedule this first semester and the 6th grade next semester. Lauren is a mixture of grade levels in different subject, which is natural, as most kids are this way.

She is about a late 5th grade on her math, and we just finished reviewing, and are heading into Chapter 6 of her Basic Math text. She tests 6th grade in everything else (though one of my sister's disagrees. Go figure.)

I have a classical reading list that Lauren chooses books at the library, plus we have lots already. Her current book she is reading is Swiss Family Robinson. Next is Treasure Island, which I found at an antique shop yesterday.

Today was a long day in school work. I try to take two days a week and extend them to 5 hours of school work, as opposed to our normal 2-3. Hannah's goes fast, as she is in kindergarten and her schedule is not that taxing for her. Lauren's takes the longest, but she is older and can work on more.

If you are interested in seeing what they are working on you can go here:

For Hannah - http://www.oldfashionededucation.com/0_kindergarden_schedule.pdf

and Lauren - http://www.oldfashionededucation.com/5th_grade_schedule.pdf

The site itself is at http://www.oldfashionededucation.com/

I really like this curriculum and if it goes well this year, maybe I'll use it for the rest of the girls (and baby James ;-) when the time comes) grades throughout the years.

P.S. I wanted to share this site with you also, it's an awesome blog! http://proverbs14verse1.blogspot.com/

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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.