Children Are Natural Gardeners

Our seeds have been sewn and the children made little markers for the crops. Every day, we make sure Suaemoc's 'Home's Cool' Farm is watered and free of anything unwanted. We are really looking forward to our herbs and vegetables! :)
Children are curious and learn best with hands-on experiences. Children also love to play in the dirt, which makes them natural gardeners. ;)
By incorporating our 'Home's Cool' Farm into our homeschool curriculum, the children can gain satisfaction that comes from caring for our herbs and vegetables over time, while observing the cycle of life firsthand. :) Learning the life skill of environmental awareness by exploring the workings of nature is something overlooked in standard school curriculums. We are so happy to have the opportunity to experience it in our homeschool curriculum! ;)
It's important to encourage a sense of responsibility and acknowledge the importance of the work the children are doing. Sharing our 'Home's Cool' Farm with you brings attention to their hard work and will hopefully keep them motivated.
As the children begin to see their hard work producing good results, their interests and self-esteem will grow right along with their crops. They are learning that gardening is a lot of fun and they're gaining a sense of pride that they're helping to contribute to our family's well-being by growing a variety of delicious, healthy herbs and vegetables. :)

Suaemoc's 'Home's Cool' Farm Profile

Check us out on the home farming site! :)

Suaemoc's 'Home's Cool' Farm is underway!

Suaemoc's 'Home's Cool' Farm was born today. :)

We worked hard, burying the frame, gathering buckets of soil, and making our sign.
We haven't officially planted any of our herbs and vegetables yet because we need to get a few more buckets of soil. Our Cherry and Better Boy tomatoes seedlings are in biodegradable containers, so they're sitting in the farm. :)

The children are working on making markers for all the herbs and vegetables that will be planted.

We're really excited to have been able to recycle an old sandbox frame to use for our raised farm bed, as well as using recycled horse feed for soil! :P Our farm sign is the stake from another sign that fell apart, and wood from a piece of furniture that broke apart. It's encouraging to know we're giving new life to old things! :)

Keep checking in for more updates on Suaemoc's 'Home's Cool' Farm. :D

Shout Out! ;)

A fellow homeschooling mom filled me in on a site I am having WAY TOO MUCH fun with. :P

It's DiscoveryEducation.com. They have a fantasic puzzle maker that allows you to create your own word search puzzles!

I second her recommendation. ;)

Here are two I created, based on the books of the Bible:

The children are having a lot of fun with these puzzles. :)

These are reinforcing which books are in the "front" of the Bible, and which are in the "back." The children are being strengthened in the correct spelling of the Bible books.

Patience, determination, and confidence are beneficial elements of incorporating word search puzzles into school curriculum. Also, allowing the children to make their own puzzles will allow independent learning and creativity, which makes this site even more fantastic! By being able to invent their own word puzzles, the children gain a sense of responsibility for contributing to a part of their learning activity. ;)

"Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for." - Heb. 11:1

In celebration of the Memorial of Jesus' Death, the children found ways to show their appreciation for the hope Jesus' ransom sacrifice provided to all mankind.
Isaiah 65:21-25: "And they will certainly build houses and have occupancy; and they will certainly plant vineyards and eat their fruitage. They will not build and someone else have occupancy; they will not plant and someone else do the eating. For like the days of a tree will the days of my people be; and the work of their own hands my chosen ones will use to the full. They will not toil for nothing, nor will they bring to birth for disturbance; because they are the offspring made up of the blessed ones of Jehovah, and their decendants with them. And it will actually occur that before they call out I myself shall answer; while they are yet speaking, I myself shall hear. The wolf and the lamb themselves will feed as one, and the lion will eat straw just like the bull; and as for the serpent, his food will be dust. They will do no harm nor cause any ruin in all my holy mountain, Jehovah has said."

This is the theme for the Little Boy's picture, "A Day In Paradise." He spent an entire day, meticulously coloring this attractive scene. His hard work and attention to detail demonstrated how much he appreciates the hope of everlasting life on a Paradise earth. While coloring, he talked about what was happening in the picture, who the people are, and what he looks forward to. The picture came to life so beautifully and is now adorning a wall in the Little Boy's bedroom. :)

Little Miss wrote a poem about Paradise.

"I put my trust in Jehovah God,
That this wicked system will soon be gone.
Times now are critical,
But paradise will be beautiful.
We will enjoy the animals,
As they will pose no threat to us.
The birds will sing,
And bees won't sting.
Predators will lie with prey,
And humans will not sin.
No more sickness,
No more death,
All that stuff will be put to rest.
I look forward to that time,
That perfect time of paradise."

Little Miss really showed from her heart how deep her hope for the future is. It's heartwarming to read her expression of faith in the promise. This, too, is on display for all to enjoy. :)

Little Boy's Going to be a Junior Engineer in July

Mad Science (www.madscience.org) offers tons of programs from after-school activities, preschool groups, summer and vacation programs, workshops, to hosting special events and parties.
Sparking imaginitive learning, the Mad Science summer program "Junior Engineers" offers Kindergarteners through 5th Graders the opportunity to join in discovering how things move with science. For 5 days during the summer, the Little Boy will be taking apart pellets to see what an owl is not able to digest, making a camera obscura, building bridges, domes, cubes, and pyramids, assembling pulleys, levers, catapults, simple machines, and megapinchers, and making his own sidewalk chalk, crystal gardens, and chromatography-dyed T-shirt! :)
How cool is that?!?! :D
What's a camera obscura, you ask?
It is an optical device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen, used in drawing and for entertainment. The camera obscura consists of a box with a hole in one side. Light from an external scene passes through the hole and reproduces the image upside-down on a surface while preserving color and perspective. The image can be projected onto paper and traced. :)
I think the Little Boy is going to have a lot of fun being a Junior Engineer this summer! ;)

A Different Kind of Lesson on Farming

On March 27, 2007, I received a call while I was at work more than 60 miles from home. Little Miss, then 11 years old, was in a panic because her beloved pony was showing signs of labor.

A year earlier, Little Miss witnessed the mating of a handsome Arabian stallion with the Hackney-Arabian-Shetland pony she rode and loved so dearly. She had been told the foal to be born would be her very own horse.

The entire time the pony was in foal, Little Miss was a proud little mommy. She took such good care of her pregnant pony and found herself spending hours in her bedroom compiling a list of baby names.

How could I not go rushing home once that frantic call came in?

I arrived home an hour-and-a-half later, gathered the important things we would need to have with us while at the barn (like the camera), and off we went to help the pony through the birth of Little Miss's baby.

The experience was amazing. Some don't like to see the story in pictures, as the entire event is documented. We, however, love reliving the moment as many times as possible. Especially the one that happened at 9:42 p.m. ~ when Little Miss saw her colt for the very first time.

Though not the first time Little Miss witnessed the birthing of a foal, this was special in more ways than one. The only other time she watched a foal born, the foal was not alive. It was heartbreaking for her. Surely, that traumatic experience contributed to her nervousness this time around. Also, this was the pony she loved so dearly who was giving birth to a horse that would be her first horse. Her horse to name, her horse to train, her horse to ride whenever she wanted, her horse to love and grow up with.

Tonight, Little Miss and the Little Boy are at the barn to once again watch the birth of a foal. This foal is not becoming part of our family, although it is related to Little Miss's horse because the sire is the same handsome Arabian stallion. Still, to watch a foal enter into the world is an amazing learning experience that very few actually get to see.

As I type, the text messages are coming in from the excited Little Miss. The mare's gone down and she's pushing! No, sadly, I am not able to be there with the children to share the thrilling moment with them. We're a one-car family and daddy needs it tonight. There's no way Little Miss will allow anyone to miss out on the action, though! The latest message was, "she didn't break yet ohh..here she goes." It won't be long now...

The Little Boy was only 5 years old for the birth of the colt. This is the second time he gets to see the miracle of horse birth. Being that he's now an 8-year-old, this lesson in farming is sure to make a more lasting impression. ;) I wonder how he's doing?

These kinds of things are true privileges of being homeschooled. It's a Tuesday night - a school night - and the children are able to be at the barn at 10:00 p.m. to watch a horse come into the world. Really, how many children get to do that? Children can read about foaling, watch movies, or see stuff online, but nothing compares to actually being present for such a miraculous event. Not only seeing the first seconds of a horse's life, but enjoying the interraction of a mare with her new foal and watching the foal stand and take its first steps just moments after it's born. I didn't get to take part in such a momentous ocassion until March 27, 2007. I was 29 years old. I loved sharing the joy with my children and will never forget that night. I love that my children are able to see it for the second (or third, in Little Miss's case) time in their young lives and hope that it's something they will never forget having the privilege of being a part of.

...The text has come in ~ the new COLT is here! :D

At 10:10 p.m., Little Miss's horse's half-brother was born. He's a bay colt with a star and a left hind sock, she tells me. Other than the left hind sock, he looks just like his big half-brother. :)

I can't wait until the children get home to tell me all about what happened at the barn tonight.