Pioneer Living

Life as an early pioneer living on a Florida pineapple plantation wasn't an easy one. Today we went to the Savannas Preserve Park in Port St. Lucie which is near an area that years ago used to be a pineapple plantation. The kids got to experience what life was like back then and truly have a greater appreciation for the comforts and conveniences that we have today. They learned so many things, and I did too, but in a nutshell, we learned about pineapple farming by hearing stories and seeing a slide show, and learned about pioneer life by various activities that the kids participated in. They gave them a number of chores that needed to be done, so off to work they went...

Colton and his friend Christian, scrubbing the clothes

This sweet lady actually grew up on the Treasure Coast so she had so many neat stories to share with us.

Scrub it girl!

Fletch and his little buddy Wyatt playing in the soapy water

They learned how to ground coffee and corn. It was smelling good around there!

"Am I doing it right?"

As the kids were doing their chores, Fletch had fun too!

Fletch and Wyatt coming back from a little hike

Fletch and his little mischievous face that he gives me when he knows he's doing something he shouldn't be.

Hi sly little fox!

Gobble, Gobble!

The kids played several games that the pioneers used to play. This game their playing is called Game of Graces (seen here: http://fairetymetoys.com/pmwiki.php?n=Main.Graces). The girl in the green tank top that's playing the game with Colton, is Sherice. She is the granddaughter of my midwife Lori Nelson, who delivered Gracie and Fletcher.

We went on very long hike through the Savannas to gather things that we needed back at "home". We gathered spice for the soup, veggies for scrub chicken stew, a sedge to mend the broom with, something for the fleas and even something to dye the clothes with.

While on our hike, we came across this wild blueberry bush. The kids ate all the blue ripe ones and said they were yummy!

Always take the time to stop and smell the flowers.

Just before leaving, we stopped to check on the clothes then we headed to Langford park for a little more fun!

Guitar Lovin' Boys

These two boys of mine LOVE playing the guitar. They have a special CD that I made for them with all their favorite songs and they go in their room, put on their CD, and have a "jam session" at least three times a day. It's hilarious! Colton actually sounds like he knows what he's doing and Fletch is right there with him, strumming away, head bobbing, with an occasional lift of the foot for the added guitarist effect. He always uses a guitar pick too and will flip his room apart until he finds one. He amazes us how well he plays and how he never seems to tire of it. Some mornings when Colton sleeps in, Fletch can't wait for him to wake up so he can drag him back to their room to play their guitars. It's so sweet how even though Colton is still half asleep, he'll say "oh, man", then he goes right in and begins playing with him. I think them sharing a room has really helped them to bond as brothers.



My sweet friend Karen, who's a manager at Gymboree, surprised Gracie at church on Sunday with this new outfit. Gracie loves it just as much as I do. When we got home from church, after visiting my dad, the first thing she did was run in her room and put it on. When daddy told the kids to "get on the 4-wheeler, we're going fishing" I had to make Gracie go inside and change. She said "mommy, I won't get it dirty!" Yea right! So she changed but as soon as they got home, she immediately went inside to put it back on. She hasn't worn any other shoes except for these, ever since. Thanks Karen! We love it!!!





*** Also, my Dad came home on Saturday and is doing well. Still trying to get adjusted to all the medication he's on, but overall, I think he's doing amazing for all he's been through.

Day at the River

We felt the need to get out of the house yesterday and do something relaxing yet fun so we took the kids to the river. They had so much fun playing in the sand, swimming, seining, and fishing. It was so nice to be able to lay out in the sun, read a book, and just relax while the kids entertained themselves. We tied Fletch's floaty to a rope which was tied to a weight so he enjoyed floating in the water for quite awhile. After the day was over, it was a big reminder to me how important it is for me to reapply sunscreen on myself, and not just the kids. I'm always so worried about keeping their skin protected but I forget to keep applying it on myself too. I don't think I'll forget next time because... ouch, my sunburn hurts!




Colton changing the world, two bottles at a time.



We spotted several horseshoe crabs in the water.




They caught shrimp, needle fish and tons of these small pin fish.


Colton's awesome Crowder Rod, made by our friend Rob Crowder.

Does Santa Pay Taxes?

While we were doing school a few days ago and studying Luke 5: 27-32, our discussion on Matthew the tax collector prompted us to do a little learning about taxes. After our discussion, Colton comes back with, "so... there were no taxes on Spike (his stuffed Bulldog Webkin) since he was from Santa... right?" So that lead us to the question, "does Santa pay taxes?"

Homegrown Success

*** This is a rather long, but very encouraging article regarding homeschooling that I wanted to share***

HOMEGROWN SUCCESS

By Robert Stacy McCain

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Home-schoolers are more likely to attend college and be more politically active than their peers, a study says. The survey of more than 7,300 adults who were home-schooled found that among those ages 18to 24, 74 percent had taken college courses, compared with 46 percent in the same age group among the general population. About 12 percent of the polled home-schoolers had received bachelor's degrees, compared with about 8 percent of their peers.The study, by the Oregon-based National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI), showed higher levels of political involvement for home-schoolers in several categories. The poll shows home-schoolers are more likely than their peers to vote (74 percent versus 29 percent), to make political contributions (9 percent versus 3 percent) or to work fora political cause, party or candidate (13 percent versus 1 percent).Some of the findings were not surprising, given earlier studies showing high levels of academic achievement by home-schooled students,said Tom Washburne, director of the Virginia-based National Center for Home Education."We expected to find that they were getting good jobs, going on to college at a high rate, that they were involved in their communities ?all of those come as no surprise to a home-schooling parent," Mr.Washburne said."However, we are excited by the findings about the civic involvement of the graduates. Their voting and their involvement with campaigns and political parties is astounding compared with the general public."The idea for the study "had been percolating in my mind for at least a decade," said NHERI President Brian D. Ray. A proposal for the study was turned down 10 years ago, he said. But noting the growth in home education, he said, "Now we have a much larger population [of home-schooling alumni] from which to draw, [so] maybe it was good to wait."NHERI estimates that more than 1.7 million U.S. children are home-schooled.The new study "is one of the few attempts, maybe the only attempt,to get at the question of what do home-schoolers look like after the home-schooling process," said James Carper, professor of educational psychology at the University of South Carolina, who reviewed Mr. Ray's findings. "On most measures, they look better than the general public."Home schooling has been criticized by the country's largest teachers union, the National Education Association (NEA), which passed are solution at its national convention declaring that "home-schooling programs cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience."An NEA spokesman yesterday said the organization had no comment on the NHERI study.Mr. Ray said critics "have claimed that adults who are home-schooled would be social isolates, disengaged from civic life and perhaps uncaring about the world around them. The findings of this study,however, indicate just the opposite in terms of these adults' behaviors."Among the study's findings:?About half (49 percent) of home-schoolers ages 18 to 24 were full-time students. In that age group, 50.2 percent had "some college but no degree," compared with 34 percent of the same age group in the general population. In that group, 8.7 percent of home-schoolers had two-year associate degrees (compared with 4.1 percent in the general population) and 11.8 percent had bachelor's degrees (compared with 7.6percent in the general population).?Among various measures of community activity, home-educated adults were more likely than their peers to have read a book in the past six months (98.5 percent compared with 69 percent), participated in community service such as volunteering or coaching youth sports teams(71.1 percent compared with 37 percent), and attended religious services at least once a month (93.3 percent compared with 41 percent).?Asked whether they agreed with the statement that "politics and government are too complicated to understand," 4.2 percent of home-schooled adults agreed, compared with 35 percent of the general population.?In six measures of civic involvement, home-schooled adults consistently ranked higher than the general U.S. population.?Home-schoolers also ranked higher on measures of personal satisfaction and psychological health, reporting more contentment on the job and with their families' financial situations. Asked about happiness, 58.9 percent of home-schoolers reported they were "very happy," compared with 27.6 percent of the general public.?Home-schoolers differed significantly in their responses to the question: "Some people say that people get ahead by their own hard work;others say lucky breaks or help from people are more important. Which do you think is most important?" More than 85 percent of home-schoolers said "hard work," compared with 68 percent of the general population.?About 74 percent of the home-schooled adults with children said they were home schooling their own children.The thousands of home-schooled adults who participated in the survey were found through "a highly connected network of home-schooling organizations, " Mr. Ray said. Their responses were compared with data for the general U.S. population from the Census Bureau, the Department of Education and the National Opinion Research Center.The study did not compare incomes of adults who had been home-schooled with the general population, Mr. Ray said, because of a shortage of age-based income data plus the fact that the average age of the home-schooling alumni in the survey was 21 and nearly half were full-time students."If we can come back to a substantial portion of this sample in five to 10 years, we'll get a much better idea of comparative data regarding occupation, income and completed level of education," he said.The study rebuts one of the most persistent criticisms of homeschooling, Mr. Washburne said."Home-schooling parents have known for years that home schooling works," he said. "What we always knew to be a myth regarding socialization has turned out to be just that, a myth. Home-schoolers appear to be active, engaged, happy adults."