May Prairie Primer: "The First Four Years" - And It Is Finished!

 With bittersweet feelings, I write my last Prairie Primer co-op post for this year. I plan on doing this unit study again when Hailey is old enough to read the books for herself and Josiah can participate in all the writing activities that we skipped this time around. One thing I can say, is we are Prairie Primer Fans!

              Hailey attempting to recite Psalm 46.

                                                My friend, Cora, with her charge.

Painting their own tic tac toe stones to use outdoors.

This was such a fun exercise! I helped Hailey answer questions about what she learned this year and what her favorite and least favorite things about the Prairie Primer where. It was so fun to hear what my kids wrote and the things that made an impression on them.

Sunny (one of the involved grandmothers) helped Josiah with his Prairie Primer paper.

This is a new way to make lemonade (or should I say an old way?). You soak lemons in warm water, then roll them in a towel until they feel soft, without breaking the skin.

                                             The little girls rolling their lemons.

Getting those lemons soft!

Josiah had a turn, too.

After the lemons were soft, Stephanie, sliced and layered them in a bowl and sprinkled sugar on them. After sitting for 30 minutes, she added water and strained it. Yummy lemonade!

 Below, Beth is giving out the final Trivia Questions. This was always a favorite for the kids. Also, not pictured (I wish we would have got a video of it) is everyone singing while I played, "Happy Land" on the fiddle. What fun song to fiddle to.

I tried making bird's nest pudding. Josiah helped me peel and core all the apples which took quite awhile. This is basically a baked apple dish with "pudding" batter over it. I thought it was delicious. You pour sweetened heavy cream with nutmeg over the top of each slice as served.

Josiah did a presentation on his own about St. Bernards and their history as rescue dogs. I let him do it completely on his own. Josiah is getting to be a confident presenter, as are all the children.

My beautiful fellow school marms, Beth and Cora. Love this pic in sepia

Standing in line (ladies first), and praying before we dig into the delicious food.

Tomatoes with cream and sugar, half a bird's nest pudding piece, lettuce with sugar and vinegar, baked spare ribs and potato salad. Plus we had fresh lemonade to drink.

Only group picture we have of all of us. Sooo glad we took the time to do this. The kids have made some really good friends and us ladies have become very close over this past year.

A bittersweet co-op day for sure. I'm going to miss it so much. It has been a privilege and honor to have worked with some amazing ladies this year (Beth, Cora, Stephanie and Christine). I have learned so much and will be forever changed by this experience. I did the math and believe we tried around 60 recipes between us moms. 80 presentations were done for the group between our five families! We did around 20 different pioneer-related arts and crafts together and I don't know how many activities. That isn't including all the scripture we memorized, as well as memorizing states and capitals, and presidential reviews, poems, etc... And learned 20 different old-time songs. I would definitely recommend doing this unit study with a co-op if you can :) We only met twice a month and managed to get all this accomplished. We've made friends for life. Thank you, Margie Gray, for writing this study. The memories will last a lifetime!

Homeschool Arts and Letters Program 2013: Magician, Musician and Poet

This was our fourth annual Arts and Letters Program. Is is an opportunity for homeschoolers to show off what they've been learning through projects, talents, recitations, etc.... to friends, relatives and our homeschool support group. It just gets better every year and the kids draw inspiration from each other.  This year, I let my kids choose what they wanted to do themselves. Josiah decided he wanted to be a magician since I had bought him a children's book of magic tricks at a yard sale a couple of weeks before the program. He came up with this all on his own. After watching the video, he realized he needed to work on his entrance and exit, but other than that, I thought he did really good. I didn't not help him at all with this, although I think he might have received a few tips from his Grandma Kricket right before his little show. He even came up with his costume himself.

Hailey recited a funny short poem called Grungy Grace by Jack Perlutsky. For some reason I can't get it to embed, so I'm just adding the link. Click here to watch this very short, cute video of Hailey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRub_AvKr7U

Since her poem was so short, she also played Hot Cross Buns on the fiddle. Again, click the link to see that short video. I'm so proud of her! She even got to wear the pretty dress that her Aunt Abby and Uncle Nathan gave her for Christmas. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=YU5-EqJGZU4&NR=1

Here are a couple other favorite performances.  Two families had their kids dress up in Colonial clothes and play "Yankee Doodle". It was adorable.

Josiah's friend, Kelton, made an "Indian Fire Bow" and demonstrated how it worked WITHOUT actually setting anything on fire. 

Kelton's sisters tap danced and sang, "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off". They did a great job!

One family did a presentation about all the presidents who had been assassinated. I love that my Civil War outfit was used. She looks way cuter in it than I do. What a beauty! I love the beard my friend, Christine, knitted for her son, President Lincoln. She also knitted the hat on his brother. Josiah borrowed that same hat for his act.

At the end of their presentation, they did a little skit, reenacting Lincoln's assassination.

 Not pictured are a lot of fun verbal presentations, teen testimonies, recitations of poems, scripture and even the books of the Bible.

 At the back of the room, we always have tables set up for those who want to display arts, crafts or presentations. Some like this option as they are uncomfortable speaking in front of a large group. It is always fun to see what people come up with. This was our table. I decided to show some projects we did and some of the curriculum we used throughout the year for the Prairie Primer unit study. Josiah made a picture dictionary. also pictured are paper quilt blocks and button bracelets and practice stitching. Josiah even displayed one of his Lego creations.

Another homeschool student showed off a display board about growing plants in water. I love to see what other homeschoolers are doing. 

Afterwards, we always have a wonderful time of fellowship, eating finger foods and catching up. A big thanks to my home church, Calvary Chapel, for letting use their building, and a huge thanks to all those who helped make the evening possible through set up, take down, programs, etc... Looking forward to next year!

God Bless,

Jackie

Wannabe Butchers - First Time Butchering a Pig

Well if the neighbors didn't think we were crazy before, I KNOW they do now. We bought a whole pig from a local farmer and decided to do the butchering ourselves to save money. After reading Little House in the Big Woods, my children wanted to try some of the things considered "treats" by Laura and Mary. So we saved weird things like the whole head, tongue, bladder, heart, fat and even the tail. We wanted to waste as little as possible. We even took the carcass back to the farmer for their chickens to peck on.

 Josiah wanted to save the head to make head cheese. He didn't understand that isn't like the cheese you make out of milk. When I looked up the instructions on-line, he changed his mind and instead decided to just eat the jowls and tongue. I made him wash it really good. There was an amazing biology lesson in just the head, let alone the rest of the pig. He located where the spinal cord goes into the brain, and all kinds of other things.

I gave him an old hair brush to scrub the pig's head clean, and after he scrubbed it, he did the pig's hair. Not sure that the pig cared about it's hair-do at this point! We brined the pig's head overnight in a bucket just to be sure we got all the germs killed.

Josiah and Hailey dissected the heart, then fried it up into chunks and ate it. They made samples for everyone, complete with toothpicks. We were just learning about the heart in Farmer Boy so this was another wonderful biology lesson.

In Little House in the Big Woods, one of the special treats Laura remembered was roasting the pig's tail. Michael skinned it and then we bbq'ed it. Josiah proclaimed it delicious!

I know it looks like Josiah is licking the tongue, but he was actually holding his tongue up next to the pig's to compare how big the pig's tongue was to his. Josiah and Michael really liked it bbq'ed, too. They both said it was very tender. 

This was such a great father/son project. They both worked at getting the fat off of everything so we could cook it down in the crockpot and have lard to make our favorite milk soap recipe. 

Michael is figuring out all the cuts. We didn't have the right equipment, so some of it was hacked up pretty good, but we learned a lot and did much better with the next half of the pig that we cut up for my sis. Michael is cutting the pork belly to make bacon out of. That is my project for next week.

Cutting pork chops. All he had was a skinning knife and a dull saw he's meant for cutting up an elk in the field. We will be on the lookout for some better tools next time. Still, I was impressed at how well Michael did with what he had.

This is Josiah's plate of bbq-ed meat that night. he had tongue, tail and cheek meat. I had some cheek meat, and it was very good, but after cutting up the pig all day, it was just a little too much for my squeamish self. I learned that I need to wait a day or two after butchering to enjoy the meat. It was just a "fresher" than I was prepared for. 

It is nice to have some meat in the freezer and we saved over a $100 by doing it ourselves. We aren't done yet. We have all the smoking to do next and sausage to make. I got about 15 lbs of lard off this pig, which will make our soap for the year. 

I hope I haven't grossed you at too much. I made sure there weren't any bloody pictures, so hopefully it wasn't too much if you are squeamish like me. 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

God Bless,

Jackie

April Prairie Primer: "Farmer Boy"

 I think Farmer Boy just might be my Prairie Primer favorite simply because of all the wonderful foods we got to try this month. We had some great activities both times we met. The first meeting started out with the kids singing "Battle Hymn of the Republic" with the fiddle. I've always loved that Civil War song. We sang "Amazing Grace" during our second meeting of the month.

Hailey worked on her recitation of 1 Cor 13:1-8. She had it down by the second co-op meeting. Such a great verse to have hidden in your heart.

Josiah, doing the same. Oh wow, his shirt is tucked it! Maybe THAT is why I took this picture, LOL.

Each family did a great job on their presentations. Josiah did his on different types of woods and what each was used for. He explained the differences in hard woods and soft woods. It was very interesting. I gave him the reins on this one and let him do the whole thing by himself. He did a great job and has done his own presentations with minimal help from me since then.

We did a tongue/taste activity. Each child was blind-folded and guessed what they were tasting. The kids really enjoyed this.

As they day wore on, Josiah's hat kept changing. He looks like a 1960s cowboy in this photo. The kids were drawing different stages of the American Flag. I love how even the littlest ones are able to be involved.

Such a poser ;o)

Oh the joy of getting your hands into squishy doughnut dough!

I'm showing the kids how to twist the doughnuts. Making doughnuts in a hoop skirt is not for the faint of heart!

 These are so good! Click here for Almanzo's mother's doughnut recipe. We've been making them for breakfast every couple of weeks, only we use whole wheat pastry flour.

Aw the food! I think this was everybody's favorite Little House potluck yet. Christine is cutting the Rye 'n Injun Bread.

I thought this would be really weird, but after trying it, I can see why Fried Onions and Apples over Bacon was Almanzo's favorite dish.  None of the kids liked it, but the adults loved it.

 Clockwise: Fried Apples and Onions with Bacon, Doughnuts, Ham, Sausage Cakes with Gravy made from Drippin's, and Rye 'n Injun Bread. Are you hungry yet?

Two weeks later, we met again. This is the day Josiah decided NOT to tuck in his shirt, LOL. We had done some candle making as a family earlier in the year. Click here for that post. Again, I let him do the whole thing and I was surprised at how much he remembered. I was very proud of him and HAPPY to not have to do so much work in preparation for PP co-op day.

My friend, Christine, and her boys, talked about different types of wool and brought a beautifully handwoven  wool cloth for the kids to admire.

Hailey and Josiah rocked it on the scripture memorization this time. Going to have to work on not leaning on the podium while talking ;o)

I was in charge of homemade ice cream in a bag. This was really fun and not too hard. Each child was able to make their own small bag which we stored in the freezer to eat after lunch.

 I used masking tape to secure the ziplock bag so we didn't have any ice cream explosions. The brown batter you see is the for Buckwheat Pancakes. Not a favorite with the kids, but the adults liked them.

Each child got to decorate a pot and plant a pumpkin to try growing just like Almanzo.

 The key is to get as much air out of the bag as possible.

The kids worked on identifying the seeds to a plant in the picture. They really enjoyed guessing.

Josiah made everyone homemade eggnog. I confess we did not do it the way the cookbook said too. We cheated and used a blender with my sister's tried and true eggnog recipe. Click here for that. My sis's recipe is also low fat. Josiah HAD to use a dipper just like Almanzo.

Hungry children! As always, ladies first!

Another delicious meal. Clockwise: roast pork, eggnog, apple turnovers, bacon, buckwheat pancakes with maple syrup and succotash. I thought it was all wonderful. All these foods were in "Farmer Boy".  Oh and don't forget the ice cream (not pictured)!

AT the end, after eating our delicious homemade ice cream in a bag, Miss Cora gave the kids the answers to the seed activity. I was surprised at how well they did. 

Well, that is it for Farmer Boy. We are coming into the last leg of our journey as we begin The First Four Years, the last book in the Little House series. I'm beginning to feel nostalgic already and we aren't even done! Thanks for coming along on this journey with us.

God Bless,

Jackie