Time4Learning Review

We have all really enjoyed our month with Time4Learning.com.

 I was really doubtful in the beginning just how well it would teach. I wondered if it was going to be like so many other learning sites that just gloss over topics and call it a review. I was pleasantly surprised to see just how well the topics where actually covered. Jacob loved the Social Studies so well he actually took notes! Matthew actually enjoyed the Language Arts portion and that is an area where he really struggles. He especially loved Word Herd and actually uses several of the new words he learned. Abby loved all of it, and usually did more work that I actually assigned her. The way the Math was presented she seemed to really understand better than the previous math curriculum she had been using. Sam loved the Science and Math portions, but didn't care too much for the Language Arts portion, which didn't surprise me. He's really struggling with his alphabet. The only thing that I didn't like about Time4Learning was if you started a lesson and had to leave it, you had to start over from the beginning. There was no picking up where you left off. It really frustrated the kids.

 We will be continuing to use Time4Learning.com. Between work, and farm chores, and everything else that goes on on top of homeschooling, it is nice to have some of the burden of planning and grading removed. We won't use it as our entire curriculum, I don't think the kids need that much screen time, but we will use it to supplement and to fill in when things get really hectic.

 The opinions of this review are entirely my own and was not written by Time4Learning.com. I was given a free trial as compensation for my review.

Pinterest - Great ideas, very little follow through

As I was cruising Pinterest tonight and re-organizing my boards I realized I have yet to actually used any of the ideas I have pinned. So I have decided to pick one or two recipes per week and at least one homeschool activity and one craft and do them. First up:

Corn According to this blog post you can throw corn in the oven at 350* for 25-30 minutes STILL IN THE HUSK and it will cook perfectly. Better yet the husk and silk will peel off easily. The corn in our garden is just now getting ripe. The kids and I spent several hours yesterday shucking corn, cutting it off the cob, and freezing it. I still have corn silk all over the house.

Second recipe: Potatoes I love, love, love potatoes. But I get tired of doing the same thing over and over. We'll see how this recipe turns out.

Craft idea for this week: Soap! Matthew bought several bars of soap so that he could carve them. He ended up with a whole bowl of soap slivers and wanted to melt them together so that he could have another bar of soap. I thought this idea would be fun to do instead.

Homeschool idea for this week: This game is called Flip Ten. You use Uno cards and try to make a match that adds up to 10. I've been wanted to work with Abby to get her to rely more on memory and less on counting with her fingers and this looks like a good place to start.

My kids' favorite syrup

In our family we try to stay away from processed foods, especially HFCS.  This means making most of our food from scratch and eating foods that are as close to their natural form as possible.  My kids love pancakes and it is a cheap and easy breakfast.  However, they really miss their Aunt Jemima.  They don't care for the stronger flavor of real maple syrup and frankly, as much as we eat pancakes, I can't afford to buy it either.  I found a recipe online for homemade buttermilk syrup a couple years ago that the kids love, but ever since we started milking our own cows I never have real buttermilk on hand.  The other day it occurred to me that yogurt would make a good substitute for the buttermilk.  The kids love it!  It will still just be a treat that I only make occasionally as it does contain a lot of sugar, but I feel more comfortable feed this to them than the store bought junk.

Homemade Yogurt Syrup

1/2 c butter
1 cup yogurt
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda

melt butter, yogurt, & sugar together in a medium saucepan.  (Do NOT use a small saucepan, you will be sorry.)

Bring to a boil an let boil for 7-8 minutes.  Stir constantly or you will have a big mess as it tends to boil over easily.

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and baking soda.  This is where you are going to be sorry if you didn't use a big enough saucepan.  The baking soda will bubble up like you mixed it with vinegar!  Stir with a wire wisk until it quits foaming as much.

I usually try to pour it on the kids' pancakes right away while it is still foam.  It goes a lot further that way.  This syrup is really runny and super sweet, so it really doesn't take a lot.   If it's still foamy when I pour it on the kids' pancakes they think they are getting a lot, but they really aren't.  If you actually happen to have leftovers stick it in the fridge and use it for apple dip later.  Good stuff!

Time4Learning Review coming soon...

We have been officially homeschooling for one year now.  It has been a journey to say the least.  This year really has been a learning experience for all of us.  We have learned what works and what doesn't.  Originally I wanted to teach all three older kids together as much as possible. Over the course of three curriculum changes I have discovered that it just isn't going to work that way with my children.  Everything we have gone over together has been review for Jacob and he seems to just skate by doing the bare minimum just because he can.  Despite their age difference, Abby and Matthew are at about the same grade level.  Instead of using the competition to motivate Matthew to work harder he has a tendency to give up when it looks like she's getting close to catching up to him.  They really need their own space to work separately.    


On top of everything, I've been so busy lately with the cows, 4H projects, the garden, work, and just general household demands that getting schoolwork done is pushed lower and lower on the list.  We get math & spelling done everyday because it is computer based, and the kids can do it without a lot of undivided attention from me. But history, language arts, and science are suffering because I just haven't had the time to sit down for a couple hours everyday with them to get it done.  When we do get it done, I'm really bad about not checking their work because I'm rushing to get chores done before I have to go to work or take the kids to their various activities.  I need to start working with Sam on a regular basis, but I just haven't had the time to do that.  When I found out about Time4Learning I thought maybe this is what we need as it looks like it will help solve several of these issues.   We shall see....

Disclosure:  I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichmentand for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

Our Chickens

This is one of my oldest son's Turkens, or Naked Neck chickens.  They are funny looking chickens, but good layers and friendly birds.

Part of the flock.  The black chickens are called Black Sex-links.  They are excellent egg layers and make up the majority of our flock.  They are very friendly and inquisitive.

Our nest boxes are designed so that the eggs roll to the front of the nest when the hen gets up.  This keep the eggs clean and dry.

Some of our birds refuse to use the nest boxes and prefer to nest on the ground.  We try to keep fresh, dry pine shavings in the coop to keep the birds healthy and the eggs clean.  My daughter's Easter Egger in this picture is aptly named.  Not only does she lay green eggs, but she likes to hide them as well.  We usually find her eggs out in the yard instead of in the coop.  Unfortunately this is the reason we rarely sell our green eggs.

Our rooster Roscoe.  Roscoe is a Silver Laced Wyandotte.  He is not a very good example of what a SLW should look like, but we love him and think he is beautiful despite his flaws.

One of our Silver Laced Wyandotte hens.  I took this picture just seconds before she pecked my camera.

At the moment, we are getting about 2-1/2 dozen eggs a day from our 38 hens.  We try to gather eggs three times a day.  Around 1pm when I let the chickens out of the coop to free range, at 4 when the kids get home from school, and again at 8 when I close the coop for the night.  The eggs are inspected for cracks, sorted, and refrigerated.  I try hard to keep the coop clean so that the eggs to not have to be washed.  This protects the bloom.  Most of the time this works, but occasionally after a rainstorm we have hens with muddy feet in and out of the next boxes so we do have wash the eggs and let them dry before putting them away.