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Month: March 2011

A Week of Green Smoothies

Monday: Purple Smoothie
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Handful of frozen red grapes, a banana and mixed berries (all frozen)
2 glasses of cold water
Handful of cos lettuce
Handful of baby spinach
0.5 Tsp Vital Greens

** Caffeine: only 4 cups of tea or coffee for the day.

Tuesday’s Green Smoothie was even better!
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Handful of frozen banana and 2 handfuls of frozen grapes.
Handful of cos lettuce and baby spinach.
1.5 glasses of cold water
0.5 Tsp Ultimate Greens
Half teaspoon honey

** Caffeine: only 4 cups of tea or coffee for the day.

Wednesday’s Smoothie
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2 apples (peeled and cored)
2 handfuls grapes
2 handfuls baby spinach and 2 handfuls of cos lettuce
0.25 avocado
1 tsp Ultimate Greens
1tsp honey
1.5 cups cold water

** Caffeine: only 4 cups of tea or coffee for the day.

Thursday’s Smoothie
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2 handfuls frozen grapes
2 plums
1 handful baby spinach
1 handful cos lettuce leaves
1 tsp Ultimate Greens
Splash lemon juice
1 tsp honey

Friday’s Smoothie
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Handful of frozen banana and 2 handfuls of frozen grapes.
2 cups of Carrot/beetroot juice
Handful of cos lettuce and baby spinach.
1.5 glasses of cold water
0.5 Tsp Ultimate Greens
Half teaspoon honey

Weekend Smoothie
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2 handfuls baby spinach
2 handfuls full grown spinach
2 stalks celery
2 handfuls grapes
2 kiwi fruit
A splash of lemon juice
0.5 tsp Ultimate Greens

Bookwork Learning Through OAC

Master J is enrolled with OAC this year. There were a few reasons for this decision… but it wasn’t one made lightly. I believe we shoulda/coulda/woulda done this last year but, but, but…

For some time now I have wanted to simply be his mum! I have, at times, found it difficult to be stern enough with him to get his academic work done and yet a few moments later be the one to whom he turns for a heart-to-heart chat. Relationships comes first in our home yet the logistics of me being his primary educator were working against that. Now I am free to support him, encourage him, guide him, listen to him without nagging, setting deadlines or being the hard task master (or is that mistress?).

I want him to be accountable to someone else for his academics. This is an important step in him taking responsibility for his own education. Deadlines are set by his class teacher and he has to meet them. There’s no excuses if he doesn’t meet them.  All too often I have let him off the hook because we’ve had an exceptionally busy week or other life happenings. But deadlines are a part of living in this world! Just because I, as a SAHM, don’t have too many deadlines doesn’t mean that he won’t. He isn’t always going to be 15 and at home. He will be a man. In charge of his own own family and life. I don’t want my weakness (lack of consistency) to be his downfall.

I desired to see his horizons broadened without going to school. In a perfect world I’m sure we could have facilitated that without the need for OAC but we don’t live in a perfect world, regardless of how idyllic the homeschooling life appears. For a large part of the time I am without a car or my health hasn’t been good or we’ve been moving…

I had to let go and seriously consider what are the needs of this child. How can I best meet the needs of this young man? As much as I love his company and having him home this is not about me – it’s about him.

So, how does this OAC thing work? We are finally starting to settle into a routine where he knows how to use the online system and the phone system and has all his books in order. Again, it was me who had the most difficulty with this as I have to find activities to do that are quiet while he is on the phone attending his class. Classes are held over the phone. He calls the number and is connected to his classroom where he attends the lesson with the other students. Sometimes a lesson takes 30min and other times it can take an hour. Many/most times he will be on the phone listening and talking whilst also studying from his online textbook. Other times he will attending the lesson on the phone whilst also logged into the virtual classroom. The classroom has a whiteboard and chat facility and is very similar to a real-time classroom setting. Some kids muck up. Some kids talk. Some kids doodle. Some kids work. So far, he is enjoying it.

Classes
Monday – Maths and SOSE
Tuesday – Health/PLP
Wednesday – German and Science and IT
Thursday – English
Friday –

During the rest of the day he works on completing assignments and studying.

Bookwork learning for 13yo

Subject and resources for Master C, who is 13 years old.

ENGLISH
o Copywork and Dictation, Poetry, Writing and Writing Guides.
o Jump In by Sharon Watson
o Basic Skills English Workbook Grade 9
o Shakespeare Stories by Lamb and Garfield. (Reading the story, do activities with mum, then read the play and watching an appropriate movie version)
o Wide range of age appropriate fiction and non fiction
o Cyberguides to be used with selected literature.
o Writer’s Inc.
o Basic Skills- Developing Your Thinking Skills
o Walker Book of Classic Poets and Poetry

MATHS
o Math U See – Epsilon and Zeta
o Mathsonline (for reinforcement and review)
o Life of Fred- Fractions by Stanley F. Schmidt

SOSE
o Living books, TV, Movies, general community, museum trip, art gallery trip, Internet research.
o A Child’s Geography: Explore the Holy Land – by Ann Voskamp & Tonia Peckover
o Australia, The Wide Brown Land for Me! by Linda Maher
o Special days, public holidays, Christian holidays, festivals, community events, etc.

HEALTH & PE
o Discussion
o Appropriate movies and TV with discussion
o Appropriate fiction/non fiction books
o Abeka Health Semester 1
o Home and community
o Air Force Cadets – drill and activities.

DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY
o Fixing computers.
o Caleb maintains a web-log where he records his thoughts and daily activities as well his observations from his hobby, Astronomy.
o Continue proficiency in computer usage and various programs such as MS Word, Excel, WordPress, PowerPoint presentations, etc.
o Photography Unit Study from CurrClick
o Continue with photography, editing and uploading of images.
o Father (John) is a Fitter/Turner Cert IV Mech Engineering and OH&S Rep in the Defence Force.

THE ARTS
o Wide variety of music is listened to in the home where we use narration and discussion to analyse, interpret and simply enjoy the style.
o Various artists are studied each year, where we learn a little about the artist’s life, completing a biographical sketch of their life and view several pieces of their work and learn a little about the techniques used and discuss our thoughts on the piece.

SCHEDULE… on a bookwork day.
o Maths – MUS – daily
o Maths – Life of Fred – once per week
o English – copywork, literature, poetry, and workbook – daily.
o Shakesepare stories – one story per term
o Geography – 1 chapter per 2 weeks
o Logic – Develop Thinking Skills – one page per day
o Science – Basic Science Mysteries – daily
o Science Astronomy books – free time
o Art/Music Appreciation – once per week
o Bible reading – four times per week
o Chores – daily
o Exercise – 4-5 times per week

It all looks rather official, doesn’t it? It sounds like a lot of bookwork but it isn’t really. It is simply part of our life, documented and set out in such a way as to meet any state or legal requirements.

A Shiny Sink

The view in my kitchen this morning at 9am.

Click for larger image

It has only taken me over 20 years but finally am able to manage a clean and shiny sink most days of the week. Yes, this has been regularly happening since before Christmas but I didn’t want to get overly excited too quickly and have egg on my face. But it’s been a few months now and I love it!

How did this happen?

1) My children grew up! No longer do I have toddlers, rather children who can contribute to the running of the home and do chores.
2) Clearing off most of the benches in the kitchen. I don’t know why but having a clear kitchen makes me more likely to go in there.
3) Getting rid of the dish drainer! The dish drainer was always full of clean dishes, just begging to be put away. But we never did. Put them away. We simply used the drainer as more of a second cupboard. So I got rid of it by hiding it in the cupboard. Now it only comes out for special occasions like a large family meal. So my mother as right all along. Who woulda thunk it? She always told me to dry the dishes as soon as you wash them. There, it’s quite simple really. Pffft! Easier said than done. Of course it also helps having a dishwasher.   :yes:

An apology

To the mums of younger children – I apologise. If I had read a post like this a few years ago I would probably have wanted to spit chips. But please don’t be cross with me for sharing my little celebration with you. One day…. a few years from now, you too may have a clean, tidy sink. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe it’s just a hangup of mine. 😉  I remember often feeling that while the years seemed to fly by the days seemed to drag- nappies, mess, meals, laundry, etc. the never-ending-ness of it all is quite wearing. But… take heart, this too shall pass! Enjoy the journey, whatever stage you’re at.

Disclaimer

I don’t believe it is possible to be a homeschooling mum of more than one young child and have a clean, tidy sink. If you do- you need to stop fussing with the sink and go and be with your children!

Motherhood Matters

I have been chewing over an article by Mary K. Mohler, wife of Albert Mohler. The topic is Motherhood Matters. It is very encouraging and I urge all my friends to read it. I love her perspective. She is an older woman who has traversed the road of womanhood (being a wife and a mother) and is writing from her experience based on her life as a believer.

Think about what it must have been like for Eve. She could not consult the ever-popular volume What To Expect When You’re Expecting. She had no mother or mother-in-law to consult. Ponder that! No one could tell her horror stories about labor. She only had Adam to confirm that she was getting quite pudgy around the middle. Finally, she gave birth to the first baby. What a moment that must have been!

Yes, motherhood is God’s idea. No improvement is needed. He purposefully created women to carry, give birth to, nurse, nurture, teach, and tenderly love our children in a way unique to our gender.

Lest you fear that I am about to beat up on mothers who work outside the home, let me be clear in stating that there is no biblical mandate that requires women to be at home full-time. We know Leah, Dorcas, and Priscilla were employed in some form. It’s a personal decision and should not be made in haste.

If you are a stay-at-home mom—live up to the title and don’t make it an oxymoron! If you find yourself in the car, at a meeting, at a practice, at a game, at a lesson, at a performance, or at a church event so often that you seem rarely to be at home, there is a problem. Families thrive on routine, structure, and schedule. Family meals should not be an event and should not be centered around the drive through at the local restaurant. Just because you are not employed, don’t fall into the pit of being so busy doing good things that you miss God’s best things about being at home.

Motherhood is all about balance. These are complicated issues. No matter where you come down here, we all want to be, by God’s grace, the best mom we can be. I don’t know any mother who says, “I want to be a mediocre mom.” How do we really strive for excellence?

  • First, be a lover of God’s word.
  • Second, we must be women of prayer.
  • Third, we must remember that we are called to be godly wives first.
  • Fourth, we should be students of motherhood.
  • Fifth, make every day count.
  • Sixth, pace yourself!
  • Lastly, resist the temptation to compare your personal motherhood philosophy with others, either in a superior or inferior way.

Don’t let the mundane get you down. Right now in your home, there may be dishes piling up, pesky socks that don’t match, a potty training set back, lunches to pack, and a long list of things to do. We start thinking that our job as mothers is little more than one menial job after another. Don’t forget that today has also been full of monumental opportunities. Did you take advantage of them?

Motherhood matters because it’s God’s idea; because he wants us to train the leaders of tomorrow; and because he has lots to teach us as moms as we allow him to teach our children with excellence.

Mary K. Mohler is the wife of seminary president R. Albert Mohler Jr. and the Director of the Seminary Wives Institute at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

But please, go and read the entire article or download it via pdf to print and read later.

Homeschool Mother's Journal

In my life this week…

I don’t have a car. A car that works. So I don’t go out. At all. This makes for a slightly frustrated mumma come the weekend. not saying that I need to get out for ‘me time’ rather just to go to the grocery store and pick up fresh ingredients so that I can get an early start with tea. As it happens, I haven’t been getting to the store until after 4.30pm, then home again to star tea… not eating until late which means I leave the kitchen cleanup for the morning!! Shock! Horror! But who likes jumping out of bed in the morning to be greeted by a messy kitchen?

In our homeschool this week…

For the first time in thirteen years we have applied to the Ed. Dept for an Exemption of Attendance from School. Yes, remember my I-will-never post? This was one of the lessons I’ve learned. Anyway, it took some sorting out to get all the paperwork assembled and written (remember we’ve been Delight-Directed, Relaxed, Semi-Unschoolers for years) and then to go to the local school and enroll the boys whilst also asking for a Principal’s exemption just in case this whole process took longer than four weeks.

Anyway, the visit happened and that is a whole ‘nother story in itself. The *guy* wasn’t real interested in hearing about Master J as he is enrolled with Open Access College (herein referred to as OAC)  and doing all his lessons through there. He was more interested in Master C. Funny thing is that Master C has been doing a lot more bookwork and learning with his homeschool program that Master J. Oh well, I guess it’s that enrollment and proper education that matters, eh? [sarcasm over]

My favorite thing this week was…

Aside from being with family (duh!) I enjoyed the most delicious, richest, chocolatiest, Italian Hot Chocolate that I’ve ever had when we went shopping.

Watching the DVD presentation, Indescribable by Louie Giglio. Not only does this video fit in with our Astronomy theme and 2011 being the Year of the Solar system but it is simply a powerful message. I loved it because he wasn’t preaching at me. He didn’t feed me a bunch of rules or a list of things I must do as a Christian. Rather he showed the works of God… he showed us how big God is. How can I not be totally in awe of God after catching a tiny glimpse of His awesome majesty?

What’s working/not working for us…

x Having the house we live in up for sale! All these house inspections are doing my head in. We have another one on Monday. I want to get into planting autumn veggies and ripping out the front garden to make way for some floribunda roses but the open house days means I can’t.
x Health. My health, my body is not working as it should, hence my need for a detoxification of caffeine and some healthy green smoothies. John has also been unwell with a fatty liver (an ongoing syndrome that we usually manage through diet and exercise).
✓ Thursday was THE most amazing night for star gazing and using the telescope. Okay so *I* don’t exactly do any star gazing but John and the boys do. This however excites me.
✓Master C devised his own ‘lesson’ schedule and he sticks to it! I’ll share this is another post.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as if they were great and noble.” ~ Helen Keller

Life skills

OAC lessons

God’s desire is not to make us happy, but rather to make us holy ~ Israel Wayne

Web Wanderings 5-3-11

Sunset Beach by Diane Romanello

Freebies

NASA has a four Solar System Math lessons available for free download.
Solar System Math – http://quest.nasa.gov/vft/

Remember when I raved on about the Wives of King David series? Well, if you have an e-reader you can download the first book, Michal, for free! What? Don’t have a Kindle? Neither do I! But you can download a kindle app to read on your iphone, computer or android phone? Just do a google search for ‘kindle + your system‘ and you should find it.

Christian reading

How to make your child a false convert

We haven’t even got the foundation straight by Paul Washer

Signs you are growing in grace

What Life In Jesus Looks Like

Homeschool

Khan Academy
A library of videos covers K-12 math, science topics such as biology, chemistry, and physics, and even reaches into the humanities with playlists on finance and history. Each video is a digestible chunk, approximately 10 minutes long, and especially purposed for viewing on the computer.

The Relaxed Homeschooler – Mary Hood’s blog
I’ve read a few of Mary’s book and my favourite is The Joyful Homeschooler.

Chris Davis from the former Elijah Company has a blog! Although not every one agrees with him, he writes with insight and perspective. Interesting reading. He has done a 10 part series called ‘Please Don’t Homeschool Your Children’. Part One starts here. Once there you can follow along through the ten posts- http://chrisdavis.wordpress.com/2011/01/12/please-dont-homeschool-your-children/

Humour

The Manslater

Caffeine confession

Just in case anyone ever thought that I had ‘it’ all together this is one of those posts that you’ll want to read.

I fail. Consistently. I throw myself into a new project… and then drop it after awhile.

Confession One
I stopped juicing.

Confession Two
I stopped making green smoothies.

Another confession
I’ve stopped exercising.

Expense. Time. Mess.
All these things combine together and gradually I just stopped making these healthy drinks. Instead I reached for a cup of tea or a coffee. Problem is, those aren’t just quick fixes – they get soaked up by my caffeine addicted body and slowly tear it apart.

I’ve been feeling so lousy that I was forced to do a stocktake of my body and its health. Sadly, I am consuming anywhere from 8 through to 12 cups of black tea per day. On top of that, I have two milk coffee‘s per day but have been noticing that some days I have had FOUR! And it’s not even winter yet.

I’m scared. I know what I’m like in the colder months. I sit in front of the heater and drink caffeine, in its different forms. And way too much milk.

Oh! On top of the daily caffeine intake is the social caffeine drinking- a latte or cappuccino with friends or family.

I can’t even imagine what my insides must look like! But I’ve been feeling tired, not just tired but very fatigued. I’ve been quite light headed, which I mistake for hunger so have a milk coffee. (Yeah I do know how stupid that is) And I feel bloated. So bloated.

Energy Friends has told me that it will only take 543.99 cups of Instant Tea to kill me. Shocking! Maybe not true… but this site has some good info on caffeine in foods and drinks.

Jo (Princess Warrior) has, like me, had health issues for years. She is kicking the caffeine habit. I am inspired by her posts. I’ve been concerned about my caffeine habit for awhile and thinking I need to do something about it… and Jo has been posting on her blog and on Facebook which has motivated me to go beyond the thinking stage.

John would love me to get back into juicing and smoothies… my own health needs me to… so it’s about time I got off my butt and did something about it. Next week, I know I will be a cranky mumma for a few days while I deal with this addiction, but I have to do it. Goodness, I’ve done it before I can do it again – before winter.

Exercise? Gosh, one thing at a time, eh?

Any tips? Ideas? Thoughts? Have you ‘been there, done that’ and have anything to offer me?

Homemade Yogurt is EasiYo

Don’t you just love yogurt? We do. I don’t like paying the exorbitant prices for it though, even though we only buy the natural yogurt it is still expensive enough for me to ration it out for the children. Unless… I make it myself! John takes a small tub of yogurt with him to work… and the boys snack on it during the day. Usually I don’t add sugar or honey to it before putting it in the Easiyo maker as I like the yogurt to be as natural as possible – when it is out and in the bowl for eating it can be flavoured according to individual taste. I put a teaspoon of raw honey into each bowl or container and then I also add frozen fruits like blueberries or mixed frozen berries. Even a teaspoon of apricot or raspberry jam is quite nice. And who doesn’t love homemade muesli with spoonfuls of yogurt rather than milk?

easiyo yogurtNo added sugar. No added preservatives. No added flavours. Have you looked at the container of store bought yogurt? It has either sugar or worse still artificial sugar (poison) as well as preservatives and artificial flavourings. How is that good for the human body? I’m not a food purist but with something that is so easy and inexpensive to make at home it doesn’t make sense to buy store bought.

I used to make my own yogurt from scratch… but honestly, who has time and energy to do that when it doesn’t always turn out perfectly? Not so with EasiYo satchels.And if you keep a few tablespoons of the natural yogurt as a starter you can make another batch just using powdered milk! (See recipe below) How cheap and easy is that? I do understand that for some this method is not the most natural or organic or pure… but for me it is a matter of sometimes second best is really THE best.

Aside from it being fairly healthy, I can have a batch of yoghurt to go in 12 hours, flavoured to taste but the best part is the cost. It is SO much cheaper than buying store bought yoghurt! Apparently, it can keep for up to 2 weeks in the fridge but I really couldn’t say… one litre doesn’t last more than 48 hours in this house.

Our favourite everyday salad dressing uses unflavoured yogurt:

Delicious Dressing

    • 1/4 cup Olive Oil
    • 1 ts Balsamic vinegar
    • 1 TB Dijon mustard
    • 2 TB Plain, whole yogurt or Greek yogurt
    • 1/2 glove garlic or sprinkle of garlic powder
    • 1TB (or to taste) Orange Juice
    • 1ts Maple syrup or honey

Homemade Yogurt using an EasiYo yogurt as a starter

  • You’ll need an EasiYo Maker
  • 2 cups milk powder (either full cream or skim)
  • 2 tablespoons natural yogurt from previous batch (this is the starter)
  • Cool water (not too cold- room temperature is fine)

Half fill the EasiYo maker with cool water, add the milk powder and the 2 tablespoons natural yogurt. Put the lid on and shake well to combine. Make sure there are no lumps of milk powder left. Fill the jar to the top with more water, seal and shake well.

Place the EasiYo container in the EasiYo thermos. Pour boiling water around the jar until it reaches approximately 2/3 of the way up the sides. Put the lid on the thermos, sealing it tight.

Set aside for about 12 hours, depending on how thick you like your yogurt. Once it has reached the consistency you like, place the jar of yogurt in the fridge to cool.

Save 2 tablespoons of the unflavoured yogurt to act as a starter for your next batch.

Sweeten to taste with sugar or honey, maple syrup, jam, fruits, etc.

 

Do you make yogurt at home? If you make it differently I’d love to hear about it.