Anyway, while most of the strawberries will be going into jam, I did want to use some for fruit leathers. My plans for the mangos were to make fruit leathers for the kids, and I thought to mix in the remaining strawberries to clear out the fridge of the rest of the bulk produce.

I sliced up 12 mangos, avoiding the fibrous material closest to the pit. I squeezed as much pulp out as possible. I put into a saucepan with approximatley 3 cups of sliced strawberries, and heated on medium for just a few minutes, until the strawberries softened up a bit and released their juice. I then pureed in the food processor in batches. I poured onto the fruit leather trays for my Nesco dehydrator. I actually did not have enough leather trays so I spread wax paper over three of my regular dehydrator trays.

I set up at 135F overnight and into the next day. I did have a little trouble getting the leathers to release from the wax paper (I should have lightly oiled the paper first!) but I brushed a little water on to get the paper to release, put back on the dehydrator trays for an additional hour and then they were ready to go into a bag.

These are a great snack!

My mornings don’t really start, however, until I have a cup of coffee, so I needed a backup plan. I went rummaging into my camping gear and pulled out my trusty percolator. We’ve been using this ever since.

I love using my percolator. My only complaint, if you can even call it that, is that my percolator pot doesn’t have the little window on the top. Growing up, our camping percolator had one, and I always loved to watch the coffee bubbling in the little window.

I think initially I may have pulled out the percolator thinking it would be a short term solution while we decided on a new autodrip. But honestly, after the first pot of coffee I decided that there wasn’t any reason to replace the coffee pot.

The only thing missing from the percolator is the timer function for having a pot ready when I first wake up. But I can set everything up the night before and then turn the burner on, and have coffee within 10-15 minutes. I think I can handle that. Who else ditched their autodrip?

Kids need to learn through different experiences how to take in all the information available, process it, and come up with whatever “answer” is required. In many situations there is no one correct answer, but it is the process of working through the information that is important.

There are many different ways to “teach” critical thinking skills to children – basically we are providing various situations and scenarios for our children to work through. The methods we use to present these scenarios can vary.

Workbooks/Worksheets

I think I am lucky in that Kyri loves to do fun worksheets. One resource we have used this school year is Lollipop Logic. These workbooks cover a variety of exercises: sequences, relationships, analogies, deductive reasoning, pattern decoding, inference and critical analysis.

Games

We have some really fun games we enjoy around here. These are not your typical Monopoly-type games. I have tried to build up our collection of logic games so that we can play and have fun, but still have an educational experience. These games from FoxMind are awesome – they are challenging and a lot of fun. Even for the tougher levels, you can work with your kids and help a little, but still have them do the bulk of the problem solving. Metaforms is a logic game where you follow a set of sequential instructions to fill in a 3X3 grid with colored geometric shapes. Tanagramino is a tanagram game where you are given a list of pieces to use and a final shape to build. Equilibrio is essentially a 3D tanagram game much like Tanagramino.

Computer Games and Apps

National Geographic Kids – lots of games here. Kyri LOVES the Dung Beetle Derby, where you have to make paths for the dung beetle to roll… you guessed it… dung!

Minecraft – We just put this on the iPad (the Pocket edition) and Kyri really loves it. She build houses and fences and has fun tormenting zombies. There is a lot of thinking and planning that is required playing in Survival mode.

National Geographic GeoDash – This game involves jumping and maneuvering around to collect animal traits, and collecting animal cards along the way. We just downloaded the second Habitat, which has twenty additional levels to explore. She loves this game, and as an added bonus, she is learning about animals and their habitats at the same time.

Flow Free – This is a really cool app where you connect colored dots in a minimum number of moves, and without crossing paths. The puzzles increase in difficulty as you go up in level.

CDC Solve the Outbreak – This is definitely a lot tougher for Kyri’s age and experience. This app puts you in the role of disease detective. You are tasked with solving a disease outbreak, and as you read details about the case you have to decide what to ask (from a short list of choices) and how to proceed in the investigation. You ultimately determine what caused the outbreak. It is a lot of fun, and it is one that we work on together. I do a lot of the heavier reading (it is designed for slightly older kids) and we talk about the options we are presented with. Even if it is still a little advanced for her, she really enjoys it!

This post contains affiliate links. Purchasing through my Amazon aStore helps support this site!

The recipe is so simple and once the dough is mixed up, they only take 12-15 minutes to bake. We don’t have a goldfish cookie cutter, so I have been using my pizza roller. I simply cut my rolled out dough into little squares, making what little “cheese nip” type crackers. **In my most recent batch, I somehow forgot to add the salt to the mix, so after removing from oven, I lightly sprinkled the tops with sea salt. Worked just fine!

Honestly, the shape doesn’t matter for these treats. Just make them in large quantities and enjoy!

A friend recently suggested Reading Rainbow for the iPad. I grew up with Levar Burton and Reading Rainbow, and I have always loved the way the show brought stories to life.

The Reading Rainbow app is more than just a continuation of the now-retired television show. It is an interactive library of books which have had animations added, and field trips which are video clips covering a wide range of topics. Many of these video clips are from the original show, and there is also new content as well.

When you subscribe to Reading Rainbow, you enter the names and ages of all the children who will be using the app, as well as three areas of interest for each child. Each child then has their own “backpack” where they can have up to five books downloaded at a time. Books are recommended based on the child’s age, but you access to all the content. You return books to the libary in order to check more out. There is no limit to how often you can check out a book. Backpacks can be personalized by choosing from a selection of patterns and designs.

In order to select a book, your child clicks on one of the several floating islands on the main screen. Each island is basically a category of books to choose from. The islands include:

Action Adventures and Magical Tales

Genius Academy

Awesome People

National Geographic Kids

Animal Kingdom

My Friends My Family

There is a new island that is labeled Coming Soon – I am excited to see what the new content will be!

When the child select an island they are presented with a sliding selection of books in that particular category. Below the book selections are relevant video field trips.

After choosing a book to read and downloading it to the backpack, the child can choose to either read it themselves, or have it read aloud. Often it is Levar Burton who is reading the book.

As the pages are turned, the words are read and there are select animations that have been included. These animations may be as simple as the wagging of a dog’s tale, but for many of the National Geographic Kids books geared toward younger kids, there is a lot more interaction with the book – selecting items on the page, counting items, etc.

Each book has a game that can be played as well. This is a matching game, with snapshots from the book covered under each tile

When a book is finished, the child gets a sticker for their sticker book. The sticker book is accessed through the reward ribbon icon, and each island category has its own page in the sticker book. Stickers can be selected and placed on a picture of the island – and these stickers can be removed and placed again as often as the child wants.

This is a great app – there are plenty of book selections, the animations really capture the imagination of the reader, and the sticker rewards are a big hit. I love having book categories presented as islands to be selected. As an added bonus, I can go into the settings menu and check on her reading progress. There is a report that tells me what books have been read and what length of time was spent on each book.

Now the details… downloading the app is free. When you download the app, each child you list will get to select one book to try it out. Reading Rainbow has a paid subscription to continue downloading books. The regular rate is $9.99 a month, but you can get six months for only $30 – this is a great deal! I am always a little hesitant about spending money on apps, since there are plenty of free ones out there. In this case, though, I think it is worth the investment. A lot of effort has been put into the app, making it easy for children to use and enjoy.

This weekend we participated in a Barter and Swap meet. Several of us got together with (mostly) homemade goods – jams, bread, soap, herbal extracts, etc. We spent a little more than an hour chatting with everyone else, bartering for goods, and getting to know folks.

I brought a few jars of Blueberry jam, fresh-baked bread, peanut butter granola and chocolate syrup to trade. I also brought a few Mason jar terrariums to trade with. I came home with soap, beer, strawberry syrup, fresh onions and a few other things that Kyri traded for.

This was a great learning experience, and a wonderful opportunity to get involved in the local community. I am really excited about participating in the future. I’m already thinking ahead to what I can bring!

The kids explored several book selections and discussed whether the animals in the books were 1) real animals doing real things, 2) real animals doing imaginary things (like wear cloths) or 3) imaginary animals doing imaginary things. Kyri had a blast!

After the classroom portion, everyone went for a nature walk at the park, exploring the plant and animal inhabitants there. I managed to keep up with Kyri even though I was wearing Julian the whole time and carrying Ender a fair amount too. He loved the nature walk!

If you haven’t checked out the classes offered through San Antonio Natural Areas, you are missing out!

This trip we focused on mammals, and we kept track of all the animals that we saw. As we observed the different animals and their names were recorded, we discussed if their names came from their looks, or where they were from.

Kyri and Ender had a fun time seeing all the animals. Kyri says her favorite was the elephant, though I know she was enthralled by all the different wild cats.

The ostriches put on quite a show! They were in a gated area and you could only see their necks and heads from behind the fence. They kept dropping below the fence line and then slowly raising their heads up to peep at the folks watching them. It was very funny!

Kyri really enjoyed our field trip. She loved seeing all the animals. Even though we do not usually go to zoos, I have been trying to use our visit(s) as an educational opportunity. Kyri thought the cheetahs were incredible and was amazed to find out how fast they run in the wild (70 MPH!). I asked her later if she thought they were able to run that fast in the zoo. I explained to her that while it is nice to be able to see the animals and have a chance to study them up close like this, a zoo enclosure is no substitute for their natural habitat.

I was honestly a little nervous to see the elephant exhibit. Captive elephants make me very sad, and I hate seeing how trainers hit them with metal hooks. The last time I saw that was at the renaissance fair in Maryland (had I known they were going to have an elephant there to give rides I would not have gone). Anyway, Lucky, the elephant at the San Antonio Zoo did show off some “tricks” for people, lifting her legs in response to her trainer. In the picture below, you can see the sticks he used to tap her legs – they were long bamboo poles with plastic covers on them. He would lightly tap her leg and she would lift it in response. 

Academic Excellence

I have spent a good two-thirds of my life in school in some form or fashion. With more than a decade of post-secondary schooling under my belt, I know the value of education, and the hard work that is required. Note that I said education, not school. Going to school does not ensure getting an education. I think it is vital to encourage a love of learning, starting at a young age. When a young person gets that spark, they become motivated to pursue education in many forms. A child can sit in a room or building and “do school” for 8 hours a day, but if there isn’t a passion for learning and a self-motivation for pursuing education and personal excellence, going to school in a formal setting is a waste of time.

Home education gives families an opportunity to encourage this love of learning and continue to build on our kids’ natural curiosity. Homeschool allows us to pursue education for the purpose of education, not to fill a block of time during the day or meet some minimum attendance requirement our state has, or to be another checkmark on a roster to ensure funding for a school. I don’t want my kids to feel that learning “just enough” to get by according to school standards is okay. I want them to be driven to learn out of an inborn desire for personal knowledge and personal excellence.

The World Around Us

One of my (many) criticisms about our culture today is our tendency to glorify “rock stars” – and not just in a literal sense. We put sports stars, musicians, actors, and reality stars on some pedestal, and our young people see this and grow up wanting to be like them. Scientists, engineers, inventors, entrepreneurs don’t get this fame and we as a culture don’t make it “cool” to be smart.

It’s only recently that Nerd Culture has been seen as remotely cool, thanks in part to the very popular show The Big Bang Theory. There is still peer pressure among kids to not be the smart kid in class, or interested in something others see as uncool.

I want my kids to be around peers who value being smart, and for whom being nerdy is more likely a badge of honor. I may be painting homeschool kids here with a wide brush, but in all our interactions with various homeschool groups and co-ops, I haven’t seen the negative peer pressure and negative ideals (or nearly as much) that I see in many of the kids going through the public (and even private) school system.

Now I know that some people view (incorrectly, in my opinion) that by homeschooling, we are “sheltering” our kids from the real world, and ultimately doing them a disservice. I disagree. I think our schools are a vortex of suspended reality, with no resemblance to the way the world really works. In the real world, we aren’t lumped together with peers based on age or even intellectual ability. We don’t get ahead in the real world by towing the line, doing the bare minimum, not being driven to succeed, not thinking critically or outside the box.

And honestly, if we are “sheltering” our kids, so what?! Isn’t that our jobs as parents? Up to a certain age, we shelter our kids from violence on television, images of smoking and drug use and sex in the media, profanity and explicit lyrics in music. We are criticized if we don’t shelter them from these things. So why is it, if we choose to shelter our kids from a culture of narcissism, bloated consumerism and personal inadequacy, we are somehow bad parents.

Just The Facts, Please

Producing textbooks for public schools is a big business, and is driven by the needs and desires of the school districts. There is a huge market for textbooks that are used in the public schools, and they are written to meet standards that are set by state boards of education, and now of course the federal Common Core standards will have a major impact on textbook content. I don’t want to have my kids taught using textbooks that are biased, whether that bias is liberal or conservative. I want to use actual books, living books, primary sources – free from bias dictated from school boards and departments of education and common core standards. I want to be able to choose the material we are using in our homeschool so that I am confident that the content is accurate and well written.

Less Stress, More Learning

I remember the stress of taking standardized testing when I was going through public school. I always got test anxiety and struggled to stay focused. When I was going through school we had standardized testing every couple of years, and there wasn’t a huge build up during the year as testing approached. There was some preparation closer to the testing dates, but there wasn’t this feeling of anxiety, pressure and fear. Now it seems the focus of schools is to prepare for this ever-looming test that will determine whether your student, teacher, administrator, school, even district fails. That’s a lot of pressure! This pressure ends up on the shoulders of the students ultimately. And so what if your student does well on the standardized test? Does that mean he or she really mastered the content, or rather learned how to be a successful test-taker?

I would rather evaluate my child’s progress throughout the year, using a variety of methods to determine if they are retaining and fully understanding the material. Writing assignments, quizzes perhaps, narration, presentations and demonstrations– there are so many ways we can track our student’s progress without the stress of standardized testing.

Student-directed Learning

When I was going through middle and high school, I hated Shakespeare. Hated him. I resented the fact that every year my teachers found a way to make me read his works. For the record, I do actually enjoy Shakespeare’s writings, having read many of his works in college. My resentment came from him being forced on me at every turn. It wasn’t like I didn’t read. I have always been a voracious reader. But I prefer to choose what I am going to read. I didn’t enjoy reading Shakespeare in secondary school because I was being forced to, in addition to having the teachers tell me how I was supposed to read it. Had they backed off or given me a choice, I may have felt better about it.

Anyway, what I have learned from my own experiences, as well as with my kids is that we learn better when we are self-motivated. When our kids take ownership of their own schooling and get to pursue their own interests, that is where real learning happens. We call Kyri our little entomologist, because she is really interested in bugs. She loves to explore and find insects and collect them in jars (don’t worry… it’s catch and release around here) for observing. She remembers interesting facts about the bugs she finds and is motivated to look up information, draw sketches, and build small habitats for her “friends.” This is what she is interested in and her passion motivates her to learn more. If she wasn’t interested in bugs, I couldn’t force her to go bug hunting, or pick up beetles to examine the different features.

Square Peg, Round Hole

Kids have different learning styles – some are visual learners, some are auditory learners, some are tactile learners. Some kids have trouble sitting in one place for too long and need to pace while doing school. Unfortunately, in a class of 20+ other students, there really isn’t much room to accommodate every student’s individual needs. It’s just not realistic. I wonder sometimes how Kyri would fare in a formal classroom setting. She struggles with staying on task and likes to wander around as she does her schoolwork. But at home, the teacher-to-student ratio is MUCH smaller, so as I figure out what schedule works best for us, and what learning styles she favors, I can modify my teaching method to suit her needs best.

Experiencing the World

I’ve mentioned in the past the abundance of educational opportunities around here. We love library classes, field trips with fellow homeschoolers, co-op classes. The dynamic learning environment keeps things fresh and excited, and this keeps Kyri engaged and wanting to participate. She remembers things she learns from some of these outside-the-home opportunities a lot more readily than when she just does a worksheet.

Educating at home gives us the freedom to take advantage of opportunities in our community, without fear of repercussion from the school for days missed, and without having to ask permission to take my daughter to an event.

Learning happens all around us, and the world really is our classroom. I don’t want Kyri to be so beaten down with her head stuck in a textbook or a test-prep guide, that she misses out.

Lifestyle Considerations

Raising my kids the best way that I know is my number one priority. I have strong feelings on what I should be teaching them (and not just academically) – I am sure this is true for most parents. I want to teach my kids about what I think is most important. I don’t want to have to weed through what indoctrination is occurring at the public school and try to counter it. The truth is, indoctrination is going to occur – if we raise our kids vegan or as meat eaters, we are indoctrinating them in what we think is right. If we are Christian or some other faith and raise our kids to follow the same faith, we are indoctrinating. If we teach our kids about politics from our particular viewpoint, we are indoctrinating. If a child goes to public school and is told or shown through example time and time again that this particular “something” is the truth, that is indoctrinating.

So you see, indoctrination is going to occur, it is only natural I suppose. But as parents, we need to decide what we think is right for our family. That’s our responsibility.

The Family Unit

Call me odd, but I’m one of those folks who actually likes to be with my kids. When I was working full time and Kyri was in daycare/preschool, I missed her terribly during the day. I was missing out on most of her new experiences and the highs and lows of each day. We would come home in the evening after picking her up, and have maybe an hour before it was time to start our bedtime routine. She wasn’t getting quality time with either of us, and her behavior reflected this. One of the big pushes in the beginning, when deciding whether I would stay home, was her behavior. While we still have our struggles, as most parents do, being home with Kyri (as well as the boys) has been the best decision for us.

I get to spend my days with my kids, and have an active role in raising them, educating them, helping shape their development. I am grateful that I can do this.

***In case it sounds like I am bashing public school teachers, please know I have the utmost respect for educators in all forms. I think most teachers enter the field with a desire to teach and make a difference, but the education system itself and the way our schools are organized and run make this very difficult.

The kids loved watching them in our habitat. It was so exciting to release them, and watch them explore the flowers in the front yard.

For our formal lesson, I spent a little time going over the body parts of both caterpillars and butterflies. We labeled our diagrams and talked about the lifecycles of butterflies.

Finally, the kids did a simple craft – coloring butterflies to hang as a butterfly chain.

This has been a great learning experience for us, and I know we will order more larvae. This may end up being a spring tradition for us, since it was such a hit around here!