So if you’ve been following my blog for a long time you may have noticed something.
I L O V E moss. It is my favorite plant, hands down. I would rather have a pretty moss than flowers any day. 2 weeks ago I noticed that my Moss garden container had rusted through the bottom and had started to fall in so that the soil was actually falling through it onto the ground.
Rather than risk it damaging the moss garden itself, I decided to relocate it into a different container but also into my backyard instead of in the front of the house. Mostly because the only container I had for it that would be big enough was my daughter’s old kiddie pool. So I took an afternoon and moved it. It’s new container doesn’t look the nicest and because there’s actually more room now then there was before, the Moss is going to have to grow back together to cover any bare spots.
Nevertheless, it is another step on our journey. 🙂 I have several different mosses in my garden that I collected from our home forest. Several of them came from our forest school spot that we don’t get to visit much anymore since Daddy Maxwell and I got Lyme disease. The ticks out here in Tennessee are outrageous and keeping them off of you 100% is a pretty impossible feet. I’ve been too nervous to go back into the forest sadly but at least I still have my little moss garden to look at and to remind me of the beauty that can be found there.
These are some of my photos my little garden that I wanted to share with you today! Maybe it will brighten your day as well. Most of my photos are taken using a camera app called Foodie that my sister introduced me to for photographing cookies that I sell. It takes the best pictures I’ve ever taken and even has the ability to edit those pictures in the app.
Moss isn’t just pretty though, it’s pretty fascinating! Did you know that even though moss is a plant, it doesn’t have roots? That’s why you often see it attached to rocks and the sides of old stone stairs, etc. It gets its moisture and nutrients from the air and from the water that falls above it. That’s why moss is always so bright and green and lush after it rains. It’s color often tells you how much moisture it’s had. Even though it might be brown, it may not be dead, just dehydrated! Kind of like a rows of Jericho but to a much lesser degree of extreme.
This time of the year, the home school method we use for our nature school has a whole week dedicated to mosses, mushrooms, lichen, and fungi. It’s one of my favorite units!
This was what my moss garden looked like when I started it this second time. Once it fills in a little more, I plan on doing something pretty with it like making it into a fairy garden or a zen garden. Something like that.
This is my garden as of posting this. 🙂
Already my garden is filling in really nicely and the moss is settling. I also collect abandoned birds nests after their particular species has finished with them (if they don’t come back the following year) so I added two of them to the garden just for something extra.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this up close view into one of my favorite things! Maybe next time you see a little moss patch, you might stop thinking ‘bleh’ and start thinking ‘awwww’! You never know what you might come to think is adorable when you stop and take a closer look!
Today, readers, here in our bustling Heartlake City, it is an especially auspicious day! Today, we welcome the Snuggly Barker Shack to our Fair City!
The Snuggly Barker Shack is a non-profit organization that gives dogs who are deemed unadoptable based on medical conditions a sanctuary where they can live out their best years in a place where they are given appropriate medical treatment as well as all of the love and care that they can handle!
It’s bath time!All the sticks and bones a sick pup could chew!
Today is a very special day here at the Shack! Today is one of our pups rescue-vrsery! Only the finest snacks and treats will do and they have top of the line Pup Chef Camilla on the job!
Everyone is getting ready for Henry’s very special day!How about that drone footage, eh?! 😉
Our very own Shack was inspired by the Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary, place that provides a forever home sanctuary and fosters for old and sick dogs who would otherwise be euthanized. It’s only through the contributions of kind donors like you that Old Friends can cover the costs of every day expenses and veterinary care for so many senior pups!
Please consider donating or buying merch at their website https://ofsds.org/ or:
Checking out their upcoming DOGumentary
Reading their book, Homecoming Tails available here
Or play the mobile app game to support the shelter and devs! Play and set up your own senior sanctuary and care for the actual Old Friends pups to learn about their stories! Here
We here at the Heartlake Lego City Herald hope that you will help to support the Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary in any one (or more!) of the many ways we’ve listed above.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this second edition of the Heartlake City Herald! Please join us again next week to see what’s the brick deal in our Lego city here at home! Here to give you the big connect, this has been your hostess with the mostest, signing off!
Our learning never ends! Learning about babies when her new cousin was born! Braving a rock wall at Girl Scouts camp! This was an amazing opportunity that continues to make our days wonderful. We attended a Me and Mine camp for the younger kids that allows a mom or older sister to attend with their Scout. It was SO much fun for us both and we met so many new friends and had such wonderful experiences! Us both learning archery! Now we want to keep learning now that we’re home! 😉 There’s a tiny froglet in this picture! Can you see her? This is Junie, one of my beloved spring peeper froglets. She has three other sisters: BB, Hazel and Juniper!We went to our first amusement and water park! Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana. And yes, that is ACTUALLY the name of the town and the whole place is Christmas themed!So. SO. MANY. LEGOS. We set up a brand new Lego City using all Lego Friends sets that were given to us. Each day there’s some new happening going down in the City!Doing a copy work card that she wanted to make for her Pops who’s been quarantined while he undergoes radiation. She asked me to write down what she wanted to say and then copied it down onto the card in her own writing. Copy work, especially when in their own words, is an invaluable learning resources when it comes to reading and writing. We spotted this gorgeous lady on the wall by our front door and gave her a photoshoot that she rocked!Nana’s house has a whole flock of hummingbirds that constantly flit between the feeders and flowers. We had fun watching them, seeing their behaviors and noticing differences between the different hummingbirds!
These are some snaps from our last month of our unschooling and homesteading journey! We took a field trip to one of our local state parks this month so join us on our adventure! Maybe you’ll get some ideas for things to do with your own children or even for yourself. Ta!
This was an activity about dental hygiene. Learning about how to care for our teeth! We started with some yellow and orange squares for teeth, an old toothbrush and some white “toothpaste”paint! Lots of fun!Our blueberries! Little Maxwell’s new favorite outside snack. 🙂This is a really cool dry erase kindergarten learning book. 🙂 Today, we practiced letters and numbers!Our first tomato flowers! Our whole homestead is in bloom and every day things are different. Bigger, brighter, and more magnificent than the day before. Every day is a new treasure to feast the spirit upon!
These are our snapshots from our morning spent at Radnor Lake State Park! The area truly was a vision of beauty, a wildlife reserve for so many species! We saw so many wonderful things and I would love to go back! Maybe on a day when the temperature wasn’t set to Broil though!
Nothing says ‘FUN’ like adventures with friends! A bracket fungus! I…think. Honestly, I’d never seen one like this so if anyone can chime in, please do!A particularly droopy mushroom on a fallen tree!This was an enormous uprooted tree! This black snake found it to be a particularly nice resting place.While watching these turtles, we ended up counting ten of them! There were so many hanging out on these looks in the water that I couldn’t even get them all in frame.“Exxxcusssse me. Do you have time to hear about our lord and ssssssavior, Lord Voldemort?”The Littles were so concerned because they thought this little worm-friend was hurt. ❤️
We had such a wonderful adventure together! I would definitely recommend seeing if you have any state or national park nearby. It really makes for an amazing and educational day!
So obviously these are from before my isolation. We are still quarantining in our home since I am on immunosuppressants (and had a pretty shitty immune system before anyways). I did want to bring you guys another of these photographic glimpses into our day to day though. They are so much fun and I always hope that our activities might inspire some of you as well! So with further ado, here’s a look into our life.
We watched the sunset together from our driveway! Have your littles noticed that the sun is setting later and later now? Tell them why!
Backyard camp out day? Yes please! Little Maxwell is having some quiet time in the tent here after a long day of play. On top of the homesteading farm we’ve begun in our spacious backyard, the yard is also fenced in so there’s a lot less worry when it comes to just letting her play and social distancing.
An unlucky cousin had to come stay with us for a bit one day from Murfreesboro (about an hour away from us!). But Little Maxwell and K-Bug are the best of friends! We all enjoyed some quality snuggle time while watching Charlie Brown! 🙂
Who can have any education when there hasn’t been a baking soda and vinegar volcano involved? After reading one of her favorite books about Pete the Cat and his supercool science fair volcano, how could we resist? We used some leftover Easter Egg dying kits to make colorful, glittery volcanoes after sprinkler play! Pro-tip: Do these before the sprinkler!
We explored Google’s VR animals! This was so much fun! Here she is pretending to be asleep while a creepy croc comes and does a sneak! 😉
We drew a frog and caterpillar we saw in the bushes this day! Have your child draw what they see in nature. Not only does it make them aware of the world around them but fine motor skills are crucial for learning good penmanship!We found a caterpillar and made a little habitat for it so we could learn about their growth. I can’t wait to see it become a pupa! Did you know that they actually liquify in there?!Peek-a-boo!
Hello, friends! This morning, I wanted to lay down some homeschooling tips that I have found helpful lately. These are my ten favorite ways to sneak some learning in every day for Little Maxwell (and me!) and it’s my hope that they might inspire you to come up with new and fun ideas too! Enjoy!
Number One: Storybots!
I love these little robots! I get that jaunty theme song stuck in my head all the time and I don’t mind it in the slightest. Ask the StoryBots is a tv show that we watch on Netflix and Youtube but they also have books, music, and a holiday special.
From their own Wikipedia page, ‘Subjects cover a wide range of topics and feature a cast of characters called the StoryBots, who are tiny, colorful robotic creatures…that live within our computers, tablets and phones and help humans answer questions.‘
They’re silly, fun, and so educational! Each episode centers around finding an answer for a video question from an actual kid. Seriously, I’ve learned so much from this show that I never expected and that is always a big plus in my book! Little Maxwell’s favorite episode is the one that talks about how the eye works, done with a Frankenstein-Mary Shelley-style twist! And the one that explains what happens when you flush the toilet.
Yup. What happens to the…solids.
Number Two: Horrible Histories!
Horrible Histories! My goodness, can I talk this up enough? This actually is a UK-based kids show featuring hilarious but educational takes on peoples, cultures, times, and places in history. It’s the avid brainchild of Terry Deary and was illustrated by Martin Brown. The book series was published by Scholastic and Horrible Histories has won 21 different screen awards (nominated for 19) including multiple BAFTA Children’s Awards. And the wildest part? Those were awards are only as of 2014.
20-HEKKIN-14!
I can believe it though! It’s so much fun for kids and adults! The educational value is paired with catchy music and dark, gross-out comedy that one can expect from something inspired by Monty Python. Horrible Histories celebrated their 25th anniversary in 2018 and, let’s face it, they’ll never be short of material! They even have their own Monopoly game!
I love love love these! Our first phonics book set was the BOB Books set from our local library and my nephew and Little Maxwell were so tickled when they were able to read all of each book after going through it once or twice. Those grins of triumph on their faces are worth every penny of the $13 these tend to cost.
That’s right! Simple. Inexpensive. Meaningful.
Reading to your kids!
Who knew, right? But studies have shown the huge benefit that reading to your little crotch goblins can have on their ability to acquire language.
That’s proper speech and learning to read, y’all!
Ugh. Can’t believe I said that. Okay, stereotypical backwoods yank lingo aside, reading to your kids does have clear, proven cognitive benefits, not just in language areas but in social, cognitive, and emotional ones as well. Check out this piece from PBS on exactly that.
Besides, couldn’t we all really benefit from more one on one time with our children? I know that Little Maxwell tends to act out, to be extra aggravating on purpose, when she feels that she hasn’t had as much time with me or Daddy Maxwell as she needs. Granted, she doesn’t have the emotional intelligence to recognize and tell us that herself (She IS only 3). That just means it’s even more important for us to make that time to avoid those situations altogether.
This leads us into our next option!
Number Four: Read-Along Books!
How is this any different than reading to your kids? Well, first of all, you aren’t doing the reading. What a Read-Along book does is display the pages of a book while reading out loud, usually highlighting the words as they are read. This allows the kids to make a cognitive connection between the words they’re seeing and hearing.
We read these all the time! There are some on YouTube but most of ours we get from the library on the Overdrive app. I did a previous post on Overdrive and I still stand by how much of an asset and a phenomenal resource it is for reading and learning purposes. Most of the books that do a read-along format are the Step Into Reading and I Can Read! leveled reader books that help kids pick up sight words and ease them into reading with their favorite familiar characters as well as the classics.
Number Five: YouTube and Netflix!
There is simply no shortage of topic-specific learning videos between the two of these. Netflix has gems like BBC’s Earth, Word Party, Super WHY, and many many more! YouTube is how we get our Daniel Tiger fix along with treasures like videos that teach languages to kids, Signing Time (a big deal in our house!), HomeschoolPOP!, and more than I could even count! This was how Little discovered and came to love Peter Rabbit through a read-aloud video. She also went through a period where all she wanted to watch was HooplaKidz, but only the Spanish version.
Not the English. Just Spanish.
It was actually fascinating to see! It was as if I count see her brain working and processing the different sounds and differences. It was so cool.
Number Six: Target dollar bins!
These. These are gold.
I am an admitted Target junkie. That’s right. Starbucks in hand and all. During the summer, especially at the beginning since that’s when a lot of homeschool years start, I spend way too much time going through those bins. All of the workbooks, activities, flashcards and so much more! It’s a goldmine!
Target is apparently very pro-homeschool because their dollar/discount section is always spilling over with home-ed items that time of year. I was so mad that I missed out on picking up some of the bilingual fairytale books they had last year! And the best part? It’s so inexpensive!
$1. $3. $5 at most!
Seriously, check it out. You won’t regret it.
Number Seven: Baking!
This is the most delicious way to teach practical maths! And that’s right. I say maths, because there isn’t just one overarching type of math! This is the best example, too. Different kinds of math can be learned while baking a simple batch of cookies or cooking dinner: weights, fractions, measurements, counting, etc, but also science!
Chemical reactions are a big part of baking after all and you have to learn what the properties of your ingredients are and how they affect the recipe as a whole.
Can you substitute baking soda with baking powder? No. Why?
“Baking soda is basic and will yield a bitter taste unless countered by the acidity of another ingredient, such as buttermilk. You’ll find baking soda in cookie recipes. Baking powder contains both an acid and a base and has an overall neutral effect in terms of taste. Recipes that call for baking powder often call for other neutral-tasting ingredients, such as milk. Baking powder is a common ingredient in cakes and biscuits.”**
Well, shit, I’m out of eggs. What do eggs do in the cake? They bind it all together. So what can I use that will also do that? Bizarrely enough, peanut butter or applesauce.
I could go on but I’m sure you get the idea! There is so much that an be learned and explored with cooking and baking. Encourage them to ask why and then discover the answers together! Don’t be afraid to experiment either! So what if some things come out a little…inedible. You’ll still have a wonderful memory and a bucket full of life skills learned as well! There will be no worries about if they’ll starve when they leave home!
Number Eight: Khan Academy/ABC Mouse
Okay, so I have a confession to make. I try so hard to be good about screen time. I do not think, for us at least, that too much screen time is healthy. Every single one of us in our household struggles with sleep. Well, Little Maxwell less so but Daddy Maxwell and I both have struggled with insomnia for as long as we can remember. Too much screen time for us tends to exacerbate those sleep disturbances.Also I’ve found that Little tends to get crankier and irritable the more screen time she has.
However, as any parent knows, the best laid plans of mice and men and all that rot.
Khan Academy and ABCMouse tend to be my exception to that rule. Of course a lot of us have heard about ABCMouse. It’s essentially a digital school for kids. No joke. Reading, maths, you name it. Also it tracks your child’s progress so that you can see where their strengths lie and which areas may need more attention, at least if you’re following a more traditional learning style.
Khan Academy Kids is much the same with two exceptions: it doesn’t track progress and it doesn’t cost anything. ABCMouse is subscription based and for that fee you get the personalization. Khan Academy Kids seems to take a more laid back approach. It tends towards the more minimalistic as well.
Little Maxwell tends to prefer KAK over ABCM. She loves the library section with it’s interactive read-along books!
I’ll actually be doing a deep dive comparison between these two so drop me a follow if you want to stay updated on my latest posts!
Number Nine: My First Atlas Book!
I try to incorporate maps, globes, etc. whenever I get the chance. I wasn’t taught much by way of geography in public school and I always considered that to be a huge failing. So now, Little Maxwell and I can explore and learn it together! We found this atlas at Barnes and Noble! It is just too freaking cool with it’s fold out pages and sections about the peoples, places, cultures, and animals.
Finding a “My First” atlas or similar book that’s specifically geared for kids can be essential! They usually are made to capture the child’s interest and that can be so important. Geography isn’t always the most fascinating subject. Then again, if you approach it with the mindset that it is, and you keep in mind what captures your child’s attention, it can turn into a fun and intriguing activity rather than a chore!
There are also plenty of games that utilize geography. The Ticket To Ride board game, Oregon Trail (also great history experience!), and several others!
Also, where in the world is Carmen Sandiego, anyway?
Number Ten: The Magic School Bus!
That’s right! The show that many of us watched as kids still stands up well today! The little ones in my family love this show and you know what? I love it too! There isn’t a single episode that goes by that I don’t come away from it feeling like I learned something. Currently, as of this post, the Magic School bus television show is available on Netflix. There’s even a reboot found there that is actually not horrible!
The Magic School bus is full of puns, 1990s cringe fest fashion, and of course, The Frizz herself! And of course you’ve got your expected dose of science.
So much science!
Little Maxwell loves dinosaurs! Photo by icon0.com on Pexels.com
So on your next rainy day, swap out that Sparkle and Shine with some OG Magic School Bus instead! You never know what they might learn next!
And that’s my 10 favorite tools for homeschooling Little Maxwell! I hope this list can be helpful to some of you as well. Let us know in the comments any of your favorite tools that you might want to share!
Hello all of our journeyers! Today, we’re bringing you more snapshots from our unschooling days! Just a few snippets from the things we’ve done over the past month. I hope you enjoy them and you’re able to get some ideas for yourself and your own family’s journey from these little pieces of our days! Enjoy!
Little Maxwell has become intrigued by words in books lately and she said she wanted to do school things this day. We went to her easel and worked on a letter of her choice: the letter K!
This was a very cool gift for Christmas from her Nana. It’s a blank puzzle that you can color or decorate however. Then you have a personalized puzzle! A perfect gift for the kid who adores a good jigsaw puzzle. These can be found online but this one in particular was actually found in the craft section of Target!
We can’t forget fun with friends! Little Maxwell has plenty of playmates in her cousins and friends. Seriously whoever believes that home educated kids aren’t ‘socialized’ has clearly never home schooled one. These kids will talk to anybody and make friends in any age group!
It’s never too early to start teaching them life skills. Even small things like helping do chores around the house. Young children especially love this because they love doing anything that they see you doing and that makes them feel ‘big’.
On our hanging map of the US, we’ve been going through slowly and adding the cities and towns of the people that we know who live in other states. It’s a great way to introduce some basic geography to kids that they can make a connection to that is relevant to them at this age.
This day we took recycled cans and turned them into seedling planters! Little Maxwell put polka dots on hers.
Little Maxwell decided she wanted to build the creation on the front of her magnetile box one day. Since some of the magnet tiles have been a little scattered around the house by now, we got as close as we were able. She was so proud!
It’s my hope that some of these might inspire you in your own journey, so please let us know in the comments if they do!
Today, I’m diving into Zen As F*ck, a mindfulness journal by Monica Sweeney! So let’s pull out some deep breathing exercising that you use with your screeching tots and finding our f*cking center.
The first thing you notice, and that I have to say about this journal, is that it is absolutely f*cking beautiful. Every page is ornamented with watercolors in a stunning array of color that makes even the staunchest of grouches pull out their phone to snap a quick new background pic.
The second thing? The gratuitous swears and “happy-ass vibes” that fill every page to bursting like a rain cloud exploding into a rainbows raining multicolored candies down from the heavens!
What is the maximum velocity of a Skittle anyways?
The point of all of this is, go buy this f*cking book. It’s beautiful, packed with moments for your happiest and most frustrating moments, and a hilarious way to get all of that bullsh*t off of your chest!
Hello, friends, journeyers, and truth seekers! Today’s feature is the talented Curawaka, back with their song He Yama Yo, a song of the Lakota tribe. This song has been a star favorite in our home for a long time, rivaling even the Frozen soundtrack as Little Maxwell’s favorite! Just like with Noku Mana, I wanted to share the songs that have had an influence on our house. Any of you parents out there who have had to sit through a million-and-one replays of Baby Shark can attest that the songs our children love do indeed impact us in unexpected ways! So without further ado, enjoy! A recorded playing of this song can be found at Curawaka’s official YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SofBQbI38PQ . Lakota lyrics are in thanks to genius.com! Translated lyrics in thanks to screenname danfreaka at YouTube!
He yama yo Wana hene yo He yama yo Wana hene yo
He yama yo Wana hene yo He yama yo Wana hene yo
Wahee Yayana Hey hey hey ho Waahee Hey hey hey hey hey ho Wahee
Even on the nastiest, muddiest winter days, spent between hospital and doctors offices, there are beautiful treasures to be found if only you open your eyes to see.
Nashville has some truly stunning architecture!Playing and hanging upside down during a visit to ID at Vanderbilt’s Childrens Hospital! Play is the best way to keep kids from getting too anxious during these visits. Laughter keeps the mood light and for Little Maxwell, hanging upside down is a necessary sensory experience and is something she craves during the day. If your kids keep doing silly things like that, let them! It may be that their brains and bodies need that in that moment for crucial developmental growing.
Little Journeys Everywhere 