In the flurry of the move I forgot to post a link to the new home of this blog!

VEGANHOMESCHOOL.COM

We are having a family picture taken tomorrow. Yay! I am so terrible about having pictures done. I know I will regret it when the kids are grown.

The weather has been just gorgeous here so I have been outside and not near the computer. I hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Exciting stuff today! We’re going to visit a local farm here in TN that belongs to another homeschooling family. Their story is pretty cool! You can read all about it at TNfarmgirl.com. It pretty much mimics how I am feeling drawn to live sustainably, minus all of the meat and dairy of course. 

We are going to buy handmade soaps and salves! I will absolutely report back how they are. I am very picky about soaps and any herbal/homeopathic remedies we use, so it would be awesome to have a local source for these. Bonus: the herbs all come from her garden or are wildcrafted! Plus, she just sounds really nice. That’s saying something nowadays.    (<— I do that a lot!)

I hope the boys will get a lot out of this trip. I am wanting them to be comfortable on a farm as I to one day have our own. We have started growing some foods and they are very involved in that. Baby steps, m’dears!

Yesterday was one of those wonderful family times that just make your heart ache with happiness! We spent the evening preparing a couple of spots in the yard for planting. We weren’t going to plant anything because we may be done at this current project at the end of August. But I just couldn’t resist! I keep feeling the need/urge to grow things.

It started when we ordered the reel mower (should FINALLY be here today!). Of course we had to go to Home Depot and get a weed whacker. And gloves. And a little trowel thingy. And then I saw this cool little herb thing for the window. It has chives, cilantro, oregano and parsley. I use them all regularly so I thought it would be a great way to start the kids out easy. Well, right next to the herb garden there was a tomato plant starter. It has a cute pot and everything! Bonus, it was wicked cheap.

Fast forward a couple of days and I see a farmer in front of a church that has tomato plants from her place for sale. They were four for a dollar. Seriously. I pay more than that for tomatoes!! So I bought four Mr. Stripey, four Yellow Brandywine and four Fat and Sassy pepper plants! Enough you say? Nay! Yesterday we grabbed two strawberry plants and some organic lettuce seeds and carrot seeds. I think that’s all we grabbed. We do have to hurry up and get everything in the ground, though.

This is all absolutely going to be the bulk of our school day for the entire week. Let’s do a little breakdown of what is involved in working in the garden:

• Science, of course:  How do plants grow, what do they need to be healthy, zones, soil, composting, nutrition, erosion, practicing scientific writing, Eco-warrior lessons
• Math:  row spacing, tracking height,  ratios, counting buds, figuring out slope, monitoring amount of rainfall, estimating
• Reading:  gardening books!
• Writing:  all of the tracking and lists, gardening journal, labeling the rows and stakes
• Health/PE:  working in the garden and yard is a GREAT workout, reel mower = tons of pushing, weeding, pruning, watering, nutrition
• FUN!
• learning about sustainable living VS the grocery store (this is extremely important to me and it I am feeling drawn to it more and more each year)

I think it’s safe to say that we will absolutely get in a full week of learning without opening a single one of our books. Unless it’s about gardening.  ;)

I’ve decided to make a posting schedule for myself. This will help me to remember to write down what we do and ideas that are floating around in my head before they disappear.  ;)

Regular posts will now be made on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. There may be extra posts sometimes, but those are the days that I am designating “Post Days”.

See that? Capital letters and all. Makes it official sounding, eh?