Miss Emily has her 10th birthday next weekend, however she has always gotten her celebration during the 4th of July weekend. She has spent a good many years of her life being tickled to pieces that apparently everyone celebrates her birthday along with her :-) Of course she understands the meaning of Independence Day now, but I think there's a part of her that still gets excited knowing while we are celebrating here, everyone else is celebrating as well.
Another reason we celebrated this weekend rather than her actual birthday is with the new job starting to pick up the pace finally, this is probably the last weekend we will have the menfolk home for a while. We had everyone here, grilling out, sharing birthday wishes, and we ended the day with a big fireworks show. Both our married children were here. I love that but it's a touch of sadness also.
I have married children, starting their own families, pursuing lives away from the homestead.
Sure that's what a parent wants for their children, but it's an ending of a era as much as the starting of another. Sigh...they won't always be home for celebrations like this. They will have family plans of their own sometimes. The nest will slowly empty out more and more, even with grandchildren. This will always be home base so to speak, but things are changing. I'm still working on adjusting to that.
Forward motion is what makes the world go round, right? Stand still and things get stagnant quick.
With the menfolk all leaving the homestead this week we will work at getting back to something more reasonable in the scheduling and routine department. We have always been a year-round type of homeschool, taking breaks where opportunities arose. It's homeschool...we are always learning something, working on something, here. The slow start of this new job gave us over a month of hit and miss scheduling around here and I think we shall count that as our 'summer break'. It is time to get back into the routine of schooling around here, for all of us.
Herbal Academy of New England
Vintage Remedies
Herb Mentor
I have done a good deal of reading and study for my herbal courses, but I haven't put any more of an effort into keeping up to date than the children have with their own schoolwork. I have several video courses to get completed and out of the way, a list of books to read, tests to take to move into new study areas, etc. We need to hash out a new schedule for the homestead and the homeschooling here and get cracking!
photo from Little House in the Suburbs
Miss Emily received a geology box as a gift. This has sparked some interest in rocks, minerals, and gems now. I see that as opportunity to help ease us back into schooling here. I have several sites bookmarked and ready to go along with her kit, and they are already collecting "specimens" from the creek and roadway. I see some fun rock collecting times ahead. May even make several trips to the fossil creek down the road here and bunny trail our studies. All of this fun study can guide us back into a more normal schedule for schooling days I believe. No rush, just always learning.
State stone for Mississippi, petrified wood...
Here are some of the sites I have tucked away for use. If you have any suggestions, definitely share them!
Little House in the Suburbs: classification cards
she is in west Tennessee and shares a lot of localized information sets we may just grab as well West Tennessee species cards
Find out what's in your area using the eNature Guide site
Lots of videos on rocks from NeoK12
Geology.com
information loaded site, with Geology and Earth Dictionary, Rocks page...well worth hunting thru
KidsGeo.com
Momma Owl's Lab has a fun crayon rock cycle activity for younger children, a fun site to wander thru, and several great Pinterest leads
YouTube Rocks and Minerals resource videos
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