homeschooling – Copper Acorn

by Alexis - January 29, 2012

DIY: Succulent Greenhouse

As a child, I thought that as an adult, I would naturally have a winter flower allowance. Because, obviously, one still needs flowers in the winter time. Sadly I did grow up, and realized what nice flowers cost in the winter time. $$$ More money than I can spend.

So I made some winter succulent gardens in some vases which I will enjoy for months. 🙂 These are not roses or lilies (my favorite) but they have a rustic beauty that is so attractive.

These are also not the best pictures, but honestly I haven’t been motivated recently to take nice pictures so this is what’s here. Enjoy! lol

Here are the ingredients (Why yes, I think in food terms)

I didn’t end up using the moss ($1 store find) because the rocks (also $1 store find) were enough.

Beauties. Thank you Brianne for raiding your back yard and giving me these!

There is a small possibility that we will be in Pheonix in May and I would LOVE to bring back some from the dessert. Not sure how I would bring them here…carry on?

Just put the soil in, situate these hardy little cuties and water to make sure they transplant well.

Try it! Just keep in mind:

1. Have pet friendly plants.

2. Clean glass well before transplanting- and after

3. This is a great learning tool (homeschooling mamas) about growing things even in the winter months!

4. If you do do this with kids, make sure it’s a touch friendly plant/cactus. (*shudder, I had a bad childhood experience with a small ‘cute’ cactus…evil little plant)

Emma is learning a lot through this buy helping me plant them, watering them, seeing their little shoots (we call them ‘the mama plants children’) and seeing the roots through the glass. I have one more huge tall vase that will have a bulb planted in it. Gotta get ready for the Spring!

(Yes I’m aware it’s still January but I’m in winter denial)

by Alexis - March 25, 2011March 25, 2011

Growing Plants

Emma has been so excited every morning to come down and look at our yellow daffodils that we bought a few days ago. They were only small buds when we brought them home and now she is getting the chance to see them bloom. Pretty cool. My sister is in town visiting and Emma yelled about how the flowers are getting bigger. 🙂

So I am capitalizing on this discovery by growing some plants ourselves. In teeny tiny pots. From the dollar section of Target. 🙂

I bought one for the each of us. Travis doesn’t count. (actually he just said he didn’t mind) I bought pink flowers for the princess and green peppers for myself. Pretty exciting huh…yeah, not. But I seem to use them a lot in most of my dishes and here we are.

I don’t know how you learn. I am first a kinesthetic learner. Learn by seeing and doing. Secondly, someone needs to tell me in detail. Like at an elementary level. So, I am going to explain to you now, how I am using this tool for learning in our pre-pre-school. And if this helps and gives you ideas cool.

Going to let her fluff the dirt pellet things, water and place in the window.

Then we’re going to talk about how plants grow and how they need sunshine…um which we don’t really have now and rain (which we have tons of). And then we’ll talk about how everything grows. People, animal and plants.

If she’s tracking really well and it’s easy for her I will then show her the beautifully made scrapbooks I spend way too long making and show her how she’s grown. From baby to now.

We will eat carrots and dip and talk about them growing in the ground. How we take them out, clean them and then gobble them up. 🙂 And of course how they are good or our bodies.

In what ways do you teach your child about things that grow?

by Alexis - March 25, 2011March 25, 2011

Today is brought to you by the letter ‘E’

I am definitely felling more and more motivated to be teaching Emma more things during the day. And it’s mostly because of my friend who is homeschooling her 2 princesses. Just her normal way of explaining where her children are is really a wake up call for me.

I’ve looked up a couple things online as to what is age appropriate and start there. Here is the link. I have a friend too who asked me what Emma’s favorite activity was and I had to think…it was hard question for me. But then I start to question myself- I should know as her mommy what her favorite activities are. But I will not beat myself up over it, but will use it to motivate me to try new activities, do some school work and do my best to get her ready for school.

OK, and on that subject: I have tons (and I mean tons) of friends who are homeschooling their children. That’s fine with me and I don’t think anything negative about it. Each child is different and requires different learning techniques. For my Emma, she loves being with kids her age, learning things from other people and being in ‘school’ (her childrens class at church. Wherever she learned that I have no idea but it doesn’t bother me.) 🙂 My thoughts are that if fear is my motivator to want to home school, I need to let go of the control I want over her little life. I have some concerns about her in school, but no more than any other parent I think, however my job is to not only support the school/teacher but to walk through hard life moments with Emma. “Why didn’t sally want to play with me?”, “why is someone is being mean to me”, and explaining how other families need to see Gods love through her. That is, what I believe, my calling to her. To pour out whatever Godly wisdom, compassion and love into her spongy heart.

I have friends who are teachers and I am constantly impressed that our teachers/schools need our help. The help of parents. I have heard horrible stories about schools and teachers which makes my skin crawl and want to lock Emma away from all bad people, but the greater majority of the teachers I know love their jobs. They have a huge amount of compassion for their students and often are forced into a part-parent role. Very sad. If I can help out in any way to show I support what they do and also support my daughter, I would be happy do whatever is needed.

Which brings me to another topic. Pre-school and potty training. I am so excited for her to start school (even though I will bawl like a baby when I drop her off), but she has to be potty trained first and I’m using that as a motivator for me as well as her. Telling her about school but the requirement is she has to go potty in the toilet. It’s helping. And I’m betting she’ll be out of diapers by the summer.

As it is today, I get to be her teacher and teach her her numbers, letters and spiritual lessons which will form the foundation of who she is. Pretty cool. Scary too. 🙂 We parents have loads upon loads of responsability and at times it’s overwhelming. Thank goodness we have those silly moments when our kids do/say crazy things to break any frustration or tension.

OK, now off to make the letter “E” (for Emma) in a cookie sheet filled with flour. Bath time will follow.