We’ve been doing all sorts of hands-on learning during our Colonial History unit and one of the activities I had planned was making butter. At co-op over the years, the kids have had the opportunity to shake cream in baby food jars to make their own butter, so I didn’t think we needed that experience again. We don’t own a butter churn, but I had an idea that the Kitchenaid Stand Mixer might give us a modern day look at the butter making process. And it did!
Easy directions:
Add heavy cream to your mixer
Put on the whisk attachment
Turn it to level 8 or 10 for about five minutes
Be prepared to cover the bowl with a couple of towels toward the end to keep the liquid from splattering
When the liquid has separated from the butter fat, take the butter out and squeeze out the rest of the liquid
You can keep the liquid (buttermilk) for use in other recipes
I’m considering this one of those impromptu fall break days. My house is a wreck. Really. With all the busy fun we’ve had over the past several days, the house has suffered greatly. So, today is a cleaning day. No school – except for those all important life skills called chores. Sadly, the house is in such disarray, I’m afraid we won’t even be able to scratch the surface in one day. How does that happen so quickly? Anyway, here’s a peak into what’s been keeping us busy…..
I forgot to take pictures when visiting with my friend Dawn on Friday. She’s a treat to be around, and if you’re a homesteader, you’d drool over her chicken area. Look for an article by Dawn on entrepreneurship in the upcoming Old Schoolhouse Magazine!
Also on Friday, we attended a benefit chili supper hosted by Nancy to support the Hopeful Farm Foundation. I met Claire Novak, who is a very sweet gal! Above is a video of Eli dancing to the bluegrass band that was there.
Saturday was spent at the Preston Court Days. It’s a HUGE yard sale/antique sale/flea market event that takes place every year. You can’t tell from the picture, but we were there for seven hours and didn’t see every booth!
And Sunday was our church’s annual trip to the pumpkin patch. It’s always great fun!
The camera didn’t pick up the brilliance of these pumpkin colors. The first was bright red and the second was almost a robin’s egg blue. Beautiful!
Yesterday was Tuesday and that means another busy, but very rich day of learning in our house. After a bit of Bible and math, we went outside for nature study from a distance. Instead of observing God’s creation up-close and personal, we took time to view the beautiful autumn trees as they grow in groupings. All the greens, yellows, organges and reds together are just breath-taking!
To record nature study today, we created sponge painted treescapes (a very easy and fun activity.) Take a cheap sponge (I found a bag full of 15-20 sponges at the Dollar Tree the other day) and let your child cut it into various odd shaped pieces. You’ll need a little piece per paint color. Squirt several fall colored tempera or acrylic paints onto a “pallet”.
We started by using a few different blues and a white paint to make the sky. Then we moved on to the ground by using a couple of greens and a gold. Using a thin paintbrush and a couple different colors of brown, we just went along the ground/sky line painting in several tree trunks. Then using reds, yellow, orange and the green paints, we dabbed the edges of the sponges into the colors and gently dabbed onto the paper to create leaves. My explanation probably makes this sound harder than it was! At any rate, the finished product was lovely.
This week started new artist and composer studies. Keeping with the theme of Impressionistic artists, we began studying Edgar Degas.
Since Degas painted so many ballerinas, it just seemed fitting to teach Tchaikovsky at the same time. I found a wonderful site for composers called Classics For Kids. Where have I been, right??? We were able to listen to a couple of biographical stories about Tchaikovsky and hear some of his famous Nutcracker.
And finally, after our tea time and a history activity we headed to the first 4-H meeting of the year. Our homeschool 4-H club is designed mostly as a service-oriented club. The kids packed snack bags for needy children in the area, then worked on fall-themed thank you magnets for our local hospital workers.
Mahayla surprised me this morning with a very yummy breakfast in honor of my 37th birthday. I wasn’t allowed to come downstairs until it was ready – in other words, they made me stay in bed for an extra half-hour! When I was called down, everyone greeted me at the bottom of steps by singing “Happy Birthday”.
And the day is going to get even better, too! Steve is taking me out to dinner. That may not seem like such a big deal to most of you, but Steve and I haven’t been on an alone date since Eli was born – almost TWO years! (Thank you, Jody!)
I hope your day is shaping up to be as good as mine!
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