20. March 2009 by Shannon.

WELL!  We had my neice, Bethanie, staying with us this week to give her mom a little break… and what a blast we had!!!  We visited a museum, went to a nature preserve (kinda, it’s for wounded animals from the St Lawrence Seaway), made the St Patricks’ Day lapbook from Hands of a Child (our favourite school activity!), played games, played outside in the wonderful spring weather, laughed a LOT (Beth has a contagious laugh!) and just enjoyed having her as part of our family for the week.  It makes me want to steal her more often! *grin*

Here are Greyson and Chaeli’s First Ever in their Lives LAPBOOKS! *applause*

Blessings!

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23. May 2008 by Shannon.

That is the title of the “project” I’ve been wanting to work on for years.  For those who haven’t figured out that the name of this site (little homeshool on the HILL) might mean something… well, it does.  We live on a small mountain.  And as such, we have very, very rocky land.  The only way I’m going to have a nice veggie garden is if I build UP.  SO, that’s where Square Foot Gardening comes in.

This is not a new concept either… it’s been around since I was a wee babe.  I even think my Grandad was using a variation on it (from my childhood memories… mmmm… I loved puttering with him in his veggie garden, probably doing more damage than good, but he was ever patient and ever kind - I miss you, Grandad!).  Anyhow… we’ve never managed to “get it going” here in the spring because of all the blackflies on the mountain… but this year we finally decided to just DO it - and surprisingly, we weren’t bothered that much by the blackflies after all.

I am NOT sorry!!!  My garden looks fantastic!!!

What we have planted.  Well, in that first box (and I am sure later on I might be sorry with the volume, but I really love them… ) are 4 zuchini plants.  The second box (the big one) are 9 cucumber plants, two tomato (one grape red, and one yelllow) plants, 3 squares with bean seeds planted… we’ll see how those work out, and one brocolli.  The last box has 4 more tomato plants (cherry, pink, big red and an orange variety), one green pepper plant, and three more brocolli.  I know, not too much variety there, but I really don’t like growing lettuce, hate red peppers, have a kid who is allergic to carrots, and well, cellery probably wouldn’t work in these boxes… so besides cauliflower, I couldnt’ think of anything much else to plant. 

There are pots too, which we did a day or so later, which aren’t in this picture.  one big pot has strawberries in them, and three pots have eggplants (one plant each pot) and one additional  pot has chives planted in them.  Now to week, watch, tend, and wait and see what our harvest yields. 

This was a fantastic homeschool project… we did it with the Littles (the Bigs were out for the day).  they had SUCH a kick out of mixing up the 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss (they called it PoppaMoss, since their Grandfather “Poppa” ’s name is Pete) and 1/3 compost (we used composted sheep manure… and thanks to Dad who didn’t think the first time he did it, spent the day calling it sheeppoop).  They got really dirty, as did Mom and Dad (guess that’s part of the fun, eh?)!  But at the end of the day, we felt so accomplished.  We had built boxes, and since we bought 4 10-foot long pieces, we were able to cut 2-foot long ends, then split the rest into a bunch of 4-foot lengths…which gave us exactly what we needed to make the three gardens.  We put them together with L-brackets (actually, I have to admit, at this point our oldest son, Ev *was* still home and helping… ).  It went very fast, the hardest part was digging off the top layer of the ground.  We wanted to get rid of as many dandilions roots as we could - and BOY were there a LOT! 

OH!  We also had a pleasant surprise!  A few years back I tried a pseudo-SFG (not really planned out at all) and had planted asparagus into one corner (being perrenial and all)… well, we were about to take apart that mess and Lo and Behold, guess what???  We had a harvest of asparagus buried under all those weeds and grasses!  So, it pays to pay attention, Lord only knows how many years that’s been harvestable and we just let it get overgrown.  Live and Learn, eh?

So.  That was our foray into Square Foot Gardening for this year.  I will keep y’all posted on how my garden grows!  I cannot recommend this enough to all you homeschoolers out there who might be interested in a “plants” project for the kids… all you need is a couple of planks of wood, some mix, some plants (or seeds, if you like)… and you can easily make a couple of the small gardens… maybe one for each child? 

Now, if I could only get the SUN to shine on my pretty little garden, that would help! *grin*

Blessings!

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22. March 2008 by Shannon.

We have snow. Crazy Snow. It actually is so incredible it *needs* capitals!
Here is the “snow pile” outside the front of the house (sorry for the dark pictures)… and that is my 5 year old climing up on to the ROOF! How on Earth can I explain to him that just because he CAN get onto the roof - he probably shouldn’t be up there? Mind you, looking at the pictures, what difference does it make if he’s on the roof or on the snow pile?

And of course, Little Miss Fearless had to follow her brother up the hill… YIKES! She never made it onto the roof, she slipped and fell (about two feet) between the house and the pile. She wasn’t hurt at all - she thought it was kinda funny… she said she was going in her window (yes, that’s her window BEHIND her.. which the poor girls can’t even look out anymore!

I missed the shots of Ev and Tony jumping off the roof (yes, that is how they got down)… I wish I had it! That was my only consolation, that even IF Greyson fell off, the worst that would happen would be that he’d be up to his neck in one of our many snow drifts! Luckily he didn’t fall off…

My friend Jill Novak wrote a book called “The Gift of Family Writing”. I absolutely love this book… I’m starting to help my Littles write their Life Stories now… and this is one I definately need to have recorded… how many five year olds can tell a story of climbing a hill and onto the roof? Or how many two year olds, for that matter?! As much as I am tired of the snow… this has been a precious winter for memories!

I am a little concerned about the upcoming melt though. Not as much for my own home, since we’re up on the hill… but I am a little worried about my family and friends DOWN the hill… I’m thinkin’ there might be a lot of flooding this year.

Anyone got an Ark handy?

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11. February 2008 by Shannon.

Well Well Well!

 McKenzie has decided to WRITE a BOOK!  MY daughter… the one with dysgraphia.. the one that loathes writing ANYTHING …. a BOOK!

 Are you getting the feeling I’m stunned?  I am!  Why would she want to write a book?  Well… many reasons.  She wants every kid she knows to know something she knows… something she loves and knows they will love too - if they only knew what she does!  Heehee… I’m being evasive on purpose.  I will unveil more information as the project moves forward, but keep your eyes peeled for the release of a soon to be Best Seller!  LOL!

I’m such a proud Mama!

And that is today’s GLORIOUS View from the Hill!

Shannon

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24. October 2007 by Shannon.

Today was a bad day.

… till a few minutes ago. Let me tell you why.

I suck at math (oh, and before you tune this story out, this has very little to do with math) always have… but I’m forced to challenge my non-mathematical brain into grasping grade 6 math every day. I do *not* like this part of homeschooling. History, YES! Literature, YES! Reading, Writing, Grammar, Geography, Art, … EVEN SPELLING, YES!!!!! But Math, no.

SO, we were doing math… it wasn’t going well. I feel so stupid and imcompetent as a trudge around despretely trying to help Kenzi figure out some answer to some stupid math problem.. feeling like maybe I should reconsider this whole homeschooling thing after all. Well, we made it through (well, till Dad comes home and tell us we did it wrong.. LOL! Then it’s back to the kitchen table with us!). I was burnt out. It was about 10 in the morning and all I could think about was why bedtime was so far off.

Then we moved on to French. I am GOOD at french, conversationally… but written grammar, well… let’s just say I have to stop and think sometimes. But we managed to get through it with no real bumps or bruises. Then Kenzi was off looking for a book she’s misplaced and we’re supposed to be reading. The littles are just hanging out, making messes, playing loud (through this whole time, I might add). Kenzi finds her book (or one like it?) and starts reading. After about half an hour or so, she comes to me asking if she can make lunch for her and the littles. Of COURSE I say “yes!”. I decide to take the time to check my emails.

Fast forward half an hour. Kenzi comes to the door of the bedroom looking pale as a ghost. “Mom, I don’t feel well.” Okay… what’s wrong now? “I ate some of Greyson’s egg that I made him for lunch” - “but, Kenzi, you are ALLERGIC to eggs” - “I know, I think that’s why I feel sick. Do we have any benadryl?” - “no.”… so off goes Mom to the pharmacy to buy some allergy medicine… grrrrr’ing all the time over how kids do the dumbest things, and WHY is this kid at home anyhow, am I TRYING to make myself crazy?!?!

I get back home, she takes some medicine… half an hour to an hour later she’s feeling a bit better.

Now comes to “Reason” part. While I was out, I noticed the Metro store had some nice pumpkins for sale, cheap! So, I decided to get a pumpkin for them to gut and roast the seeds. We don’t do halloween, but fresh pumpkin seeds and the promise of making some nice pumpkin pie filling to can just sends shivers up my spine (literally!). How cozy, how warm…

So now it’s about 1:30 in the afternoon, there’s me doing dishes, the pumpkin is now on the floor of the livingroom, with Kenzi, Greyson and Chaeli digging around with their bare hands, pumpkin guts pretty much everywhere, sorting seeds and guts” into different containers. I was just about to … um… reprimand, remind, I don’t know, about all the pumpkin strings on my floor and how there is sticky stuff getting rather near my freshly folded laundry sitting in the basket nearby, when Greyson - sweet, wonderful Greys, up to his elbows in orange, stringy, sticky pumpkin guts - looks up adoringly at Kenzi and says, “I wuv you, Matenzie”. I shut my mouth. Kenzi replies, “you do?” “Yeth, I wuv you becauthe you are my betht big thithter” (I love you because you are my best big sister). I almost tear up. Then Chaeli, not to be outdone, pipes up, “I love you ME TOO, Kenzi!”. Now my eyes are stinging with tears.

THIS is my reason for homeschooling. All this happened in the peaceful quiet of the afternoon, before the schoolbusses started passing by dropping off this student or that student laden with bulging backpacks full of homework. It happened because Kenzi was home, IS home… experiencing life with her little siblings who get to spend time with her while they are at their best, not only late in the afternoon when the whole supper hour craziness is upon us.

Thank you, Lord, for leading me to homeschool McKenzie. Today was a lovely day.

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