Piano Recital

Braedi and Corbin preformed in their first piano recital today. I love seeing them overcome fears and do something even though they are nervous. They did awesome!


I would have posted the video, but it wouldn't upload.

Emergency Preparedness Challenge Days 5, 6, and 7

I hardly participated in the last 3 days of the challenge--mostly because it didn't fit into my schedule and a little because I couldn't.

Day 5 was a natural disaster. We were to pretend that a disaster that matched where we lived just occurred. The only thing I could think of for Phoenix was HEAT, but I again refused to turn of the AC. And I wondered how that would affect electricity. I could see how it would keep you indoors, though.

The Tasks:
1. Prepare all of your meals INDOORS without using electricity.
2. Entertain your family without using any electronics
3. Do not leave your house.
4. Do not use food from your fridge
5. Do not use anything requiring natural gas.

I couldn't use my gas stove, I couldn't go outside to grill or try my solar oven again and I had nothing else to cook with so I skipped that one. We almost always entertain without electricity. I HAD to go outside because I had work to do in my garden AND I had a family activity at my parent's house. I think I even used food from my fridge. I think I'm going to look into ways to cook indoors, though I don't think I'll have this problem while living here.

On Day 6 I was supposed to take a drive and pretend that a tire blew on my van. Also, the battery died and we were out of cell phone range. So, I was supposed to change a tire. I was wearing Sunday clothes and didn't want to try it that day, but I think it would be a good idea to see if I can change a tire on our HUGE van. Another thing that we were supposed to be able to do was entertain and feed our families while waiting for someone to come help. I don't have a car kit, but know I will add that to my list of things to fix. I'll be sure to post about my adventure when I get around to changing a tire.

Today was day 7 and the last day of the challenge. THANK GOODNESS! 3 or 4 days was enough for me and I didn't even do it fully. We were basically supposed to organize and inventory all of our food storage. This included organizing your pantry, moving some long-term storage into the kitchen to encourage it's use, check supplies and refill containers, and check disaster kits and replace/exchange items. This is something that I need to do, but I didn't do it today. When am I going to do it, though? This week. I have a list and I'm sure there is stuff that I need to add to it. I've got to get busy!

Emergancy Prepardness Challenge Days 3 and 4

Yesterday's challenge was pretty tough. It was a worst case scenario. We had to pretend that our country had just suffered a terrorist attack--a series of bombs were fired off causing an EMP that rendered all electricity and electrical devices useless (no lights, cell phones, generators, water pumps).

Our tasks:
1. cook and clean up all of your meals without power or water. we also had to pretend that all the food in our fridge had gone bad, but the stuff in the freezer was OK.
2. walk or ride a bike anywhere you need to go today. we could only drive if the car has a non-electric ignition.
3. entertain yourself and family without electricity the entire day
4. keep your family warm (or cool)
5. hold a pretend evacuation (on foot to a nearby park for 2 hours)--you have 15 minutes to collect your grab list items.

We didn't do so good on this challenge. I already knew that I failed with my water storage, so I didn't even try that task. I have a gas stove so I pretended that I lit it with a lighter--it didn't say anything about the gas lines being out. I did try to cook something in my solar oven, but it didn't cook--the rice was still crunchy. (PS I want to sell my oven so if you or anyone you know wants to buy one, let me know.) I felt like I ate poorly. Most of my produce was in my fridge and we didn't eat anything that was in the fridge.

We pulled out the flashlights and when it got dark the kids and I read by flashlight. But, I gave up on the no electricity after the kids went to bed. I used a flashlight to get a movie started then sat down to enjoy the power of electricity.

There was NO WAY that I was going to turn off the AC--it's still 100 degrees. But, we turned off the ceiling fans in the bedrooms and didn't use the little fan in the kitchen. We also used the van to go to our PE activity and didn't do a true evacuation. I need to work on my grab list and alternative cooking sources. I also want to look into how people stored foods with out refrigeration.

Today's challenge was a lot easier. We had to pretend that a family of 6 was going through financially hard times and was coming to live with us. Were we prepared to provide for us and them--food, toiletries, bedding, cleaning supplies. Also they were vegetarians so all the food had to be meatless.

Our tasks:
1. cook lunch for your family plus two adults and four kids. plus you've run out of raw milk and eggs.
2. provide sleeping arrangements for two adults and four children in your home.
3. The family did not bring any hygiene items, provide them with toothbrushes, shampoo, soap, etc.
4.evaluate your tp, paper towel, laundry detergent, and dish detergent stores … do you have enough to last with this many extra people for a few days?

Cooking for more is hard for me. I made a vegetarian meal, but only enough for my family. I knew that I had enough food if I really needed to, but I would sure go through it faster. Without being able to go shopping I would run out of fresh stuff quickly. Sleeping would be tight, but we could find the space and there would be enough sleeping bags and blankets. The thing we lack is pillows. As for hygiene items, I wouldn't have had enough toothbrushes, but fingers are OK for short amounts of time. We would have had enough paper products. I probably would have run out of laundry detergent, but I have stuff to make more. This challenge made me think of when we visit my sister and how much bread we go through to make sandwiches for all of the kids. It also made me think about when my kids will be teenagers--they will probably eat that much food just amongst themselves.

Emergency Preparedness Challenges Days 1 and 2

Last September my friend participated in an emergency preparedness challenge in honor of national preparedness month, and this year she challenged me to do it, too. I decided that I would participate so I could see where I was on my food storage. It's put on by Food Storage Made Easy, and today is day 2. Yesterday's challenge was to pretend that our water supply had been contaminated. Also, it was the 3rd day without water, so we had to take that into account when looking at how much water we had stored.

Our tasks:
1. shut off the main water supply to your house
2. find a way for you (and your family if applicable) to bathe or shower
3. cook all of your meals with only the water in storage
4. locate the nearest source of fresh water to your home
5. learn about alternate water sources and water purification

I only had water for drinking and sanitation and not enough to last me to the 3rd day. I failed on all the rest--I don't know how to turn of my water, where is the nearest water source?!?, how do I clean dishes with water from water bottles? But, I learned what I need and I'm making a list.

Today's challenge had to do with dietary limitations. We had to pretend that we had an allergy to a preservative and needed to avoid all preservatives. That meant cooking everything from scratch.

Our tasks:
1. Cook breakfast from scratch
2. Cook lunch from scratch
3. Cook dinner from scratch
4. Bake a loaf of homemade bread
5. Do not use ANY pre-packaged or convenience-type foods. No mixes, boxed cereals, canned soups or sauces etc. If you can’t pronounce all the ingredients and say where it came from, it’s probably a NO go.

I did alright on this one. We don't do a lot of packaged meals/sides, but there were some things that have preservatives that I didn't know how to get around--sandwich meat and condiments. We had eggs for breakfast, fruit and popcorn for snack, homemade macaroni and cheese for lunch and meatloaf with mashed potatoes for dinner. Today's challenge made me want to learn how to make cheese and cut my own meat for sandwiches.

I did make some bread this morning. I also made banana bread and zucchini bread. All from scratch. It was a busy baking morning!

Have You Ever Written With a Quill?

We have. . .




We learned about the early Christian Monks in Britain. One of the jobs of the monks was to copy books. They did this using quills and homemade ink--not a ball point pen or computer with a printer. A talented monk could copy 2-3 books in a year.

We looked at some pictures (luminaries) and talked about how ink was made. I also showed the kids how to make a quill with a feather. We didn't make any ink--we just used grape juice concentrate. The kids were taught how to use the quill and then given a piece of paper to practice. It was hard. You had to hold the quill just right on the paper to get it to write well and even then it didn't always work. Most of them were frustrated with how hard it was. I guess they are used to our way of writing--it's a heck of a lot easier. Thank goodness for modern day inventions!

Toothpick Math

We worked on an activity from A Collection of Math Lessons by Marilyn Burns & Bonnie Tank. First the kids took 4 toothpicks and found all the ways to arrange the toothpicks following 2 rules. Rule number 1: each toothpick must touch the end of at least one other toothpick. Rule number 2: each toothpick must be placed end to end or forming a square angle.

They glued their designs onto pieces of construction paper. Then they drew the designs onto paper divided into squares filled with rows of dots.

This next step only Braedi completed, but I gave Corbin a modified version. Braedi arranged the construction papers with the glued-on toothpicks in a line so that each design could be changed to the next one by moving just one toothpick. For Corbin I had him pick a design and then find all the designs that it could be changed to by moving one toothpick.

Then we played a game. Braedi cut apart her paper where she drew her designs then glued each square to an index card. This made a deck of cards. One card was picked out of the middle then the design was made with toothpicks next to it. The remaining cards were dealt out. (These rules are for 3 people. For 4 people put the original card back in the deck and deal it, too. 5 cards each for 3 people, 4 cards each for 4 people.) The first person had to look at their cards and find a design that could be made by moving 1 toothpick from the original design. They move the toothpick and lay the card down in a discard pile. Then the next person does the same for the new design. If they don't have a card that will work, then they pass. The first person to get rid of all their cards wins a point and the game can be played again.

Corbin and Braedi had fun playing the game. It was a great activity for developing spatial reasoning.

The Last of the Habitats

We FINALLY finished our habitat unit. It always seems to take us a long time to get through our "themes", but we have fun and I like to think that the kids are getting a lot out of it.

I already talked about our trip to grasslands/forest/pond. The desert was easy for us--we just took a little drive and went for a walk. We looked at the desert plants, felt the desert heat, and tried to hold still and be quiet enough to find some desert animals.

My plan for the polar habitat was to turn the thermostat way low and make it freezing in our house, but I totally forgot. The kids had to settle with the blubber glove. First, we filled the sink up with icy water. Then the kids each put their hand in to feel how cold it was. Then I made a blubber glove. I filled a ziploc bag with shortening then turned another bag inside out and stuffed it inside the other bag and zipped the two bags together. The kids could then stick their hand in the "glove" and put their gloved-hand into the icy water. We compared the difference. I was amazed at how well it worked.

After studying the ocean habitat, we took advantage of some BOGO tickets to the aquarium at Arizona Mills. My original thought was to go to California and spend a day at the beach searching for tide pools and after our trip to the aquarium I wished that we had stuck with that plan. There were some neat things to see there, but it wasn't worth the money. My favorite part was the tide pool.

We didn't go anywhere for the rain forest habitat. We used unfix cubes to compare the amount of rain we get here in the desert to the amount in the rain forest (8 inches here to 70-100 inches there).

I tried something new with this unit--lapbooks. Each of the kids made a lapbook to document the things that they learned. The lapbook is a file folder folded a certain way that is full of mini-books and papers folded in different ways. Each thing in our lapbook contains information about habitats in general and something about each habitat.
We finished off our unit by sorting all of our animals into their correct habitats and talking about why each lived there and not another habitat.

Indoor Games

Wanna know what to do when it's too hot to play outside? Run around inside and make lots of noise! The kids have been playing made-up games of tag and chase--toilet tag, carrot tag, get out of my universe--and even a real game of hide and seek. They make a lot of noise, but I don't mind too much because most of the noise is laughter and I love seeing the kids get a long and playing nicely.

Ancient Civilizations

My kids and I have been reading The Story of the World: Ancient Civilizations as part of our history learning. The Story of the World is broken down into 4 years. The first is Ancient Civilizations, the second is Middle Ages, the third is Early Modern Times and the forth is The Modern Age.

At the beginning of the school year we met once a week with another family and learned about a civilization or a person from history. We learned about a lot of places and people--the ancient Egytpians and their pyramids and mummies, the people of Mesopotamia and how they thrived between 2 rivers, the Babylonians and Assyrians and they kept changing power, the Spartan warriors and educated people of Athens, the Greeks and the Romans and all that we use now that came from them, ancient China, and many more.

Sadly, that family moved and we have been doing history on our own. But, luckily, I learned that 2 other families wanted to study history with us. The only problem was that they hadn't started the first book. So while we finished the first book, they started and finished the first book, with the goal to end the end of August and start the second book the beginning of September. We did it! And we decided to have a party to celebrate.

My friend that moved came for the party. One of the families was sick. The kids dressed as a characters from history. Braedi was Confucius, Corbin was Alexander the Great, Dyllan was a mummy and Ephram was Romulus. Test yourself: what do you remember about these people? To be honest, I knew about mummies, but the others were just names--no details. I learned a lot this year, too. We are all looking forward to what we will learn this year and looking forward to having a party next year!