This week we kicked back for a Valentine’s party. One of the other moms, a SAHM homeschooling mom who used to teach kindergarten, planned the party a did a fantastic job.
Building a nest on the rocks of faith and family
by Amy
This week we kicked back for a Valentine’s party. One of the other moms, a SAHM homeschooling mom who used to teach kindergarten, planned the party a did a fantastic job.
by Amy
This week we were visited by Mr. Earl Fuller, of Earl Fuller’s Tai Kwon Do Center. He taught the kids the basic principles of the martial arts.
Since the term ‘martial arts’ means ‘the art of war,’ I was a bit worried about this one. I know very little about the martial arts except that they require extreme discipline and strength, and while I believe those are both great things to possess, I was a bit worried about introducing my very impressionable son to them.
Once again, I worried needlessly.
Mr. Fuller started out by explaining that the basic tenets of the martial arts are the same as those that govern all of life. He talked about the importance of goal setting and then moved on to stranger danger. He emphasized that the only time someone should use their martial arts skills are in times if immediate, physical danger – and when running away has not worked.
Mr. Fuller showed the kids six blocking techniques that they could use to stop people from touching or harming them in various ways.
The first, putting your hands up and facing out, means “Stop!”
Another, if someone is swinging at your head, involves ducking and turning from the waist.
Mr. Fuller showed that you should never try to stop someone reaching for your leg or foot with your hands, as this leaves your head exposed.
Instead, he recommended bringing up your knee to stop them.
Lastly, if someone is kicking down low at your feet or legs, simply jump up and over the attack.
Finally, Mr. Fuller spoke about the importance of exercise and proper nutrition.
I was very impressed with Mr. Fuller’s presentation. He gave the children information about martial arts techniques, but also gave them practical information that they can use every day. He was careful to emphasize the proper purpose of the martial arts and how they incorporate into everyday life.
If we ever decide that our children should have martial arts lessons, we will definitely go to Mr. Fuller. And if you’ve never considered it, check it out. Mr. Fuller even gives three free classes to people who want to try it!
by Amy
Last week was gorgeous and we spent much of it outside. This week we’re suffering from extreme high heat and humidity here in the Carolinas – but Monday was an in-between kind of day. We knew the heat was coming, but the humidity hadn’t caught up yet. Enter: water fun.
We traveled to Staunton River State Park, which is about an hour north of us, and spent the day in their beautiful pools. With an Olympic-sized big pool, several water slides, and the largest kiddie pool I’ve ever seen, this is a GREAT place for families to come. It’s also the cleanest public pool I’ve ever visited. I like that a lot.
The pools have a few awesome features – like this foam froggy waterslide in the kiddie pool.
There’s also this tree-shaped “shower.”
The pool sports lots of these foam animals, that float and work for riding – if you’ve got good balance. Mine like to wrangle them like cowboys!
With a full day in the water, My Little Man and my Big Helper made big improvements in their water skills. Both got comfortable with going underwater, and both enjoyed the medium-sized water slide in the big pool (which I couldn’t take pictures of because I was too busy watching them). They were creative and brave and shared their toys and played with old friends and made new ones. Summer just has to include a few carefree water days like this one!
After a day of fun in the sun, we were all tired and hungry. We picnicked at tables beside the pool, but we stopped for a picnic-type simple supper on our way home – at Sheetz! This is the closest one to us, so our stop there was a treat.
We had a wonderful day in the water with our friends, relaxing and hanging out together. It was great to spend one last day outside before the humidity settled in, making being outside just plain yucky (at least to this Pennsylvania girl).
How are you beating the heat??
by Amy
by Amy
My Little Man was particularly excited about the pictures and souvenirs. He liked looking at the writing in Russian inside her Russian passport, …
and he loved the nesting dolls. Known as a Russian item but coming originally from Japan, these dolls are hand-painted with special colors and flowers to indicate in which state they were created.
February 23rd is a Russian holiday – Military Appreciation Day, when parents and teachers give all males gifts to show their appreciation for military service. Even young boys who have not yet served receive presents for their future dedication to their country.
In honor of this holiday, our guest brought cupcakes decorated in the Russian national colors for the children to enjoy – and they did! The vast amount of icing on his cupcake amazed My Little Man. ๐
Have you met anyone from another country lately?
by Amy
Sharon and Johnny Rogers are the operators and sole workers of this operation, and they went the extra mile to show us how their farm functions – they drove us in a haywagon! It was a great way to tour the farm and visit with the animals.
The ewes were neat. Knowing that it was their normal eating time, they came running to greet us. A type of sheep that shed their hair naturally, they closely resembled the few goats sharing their pen.
We just happened to visit this one mid-shed. I’ve never seen sheep that didn’t need to be sheared!
The rams seemed a bit antsy today. Perhaps, with the cooler weather, they knew that mating season will soon be arriving?
These young bulls were content to hang out under a large tree and watch us watching them. They seemed very calm and will not go out ‘dating’ for a while yet.
Of course, the heifers and the calves were my favorite.
Unfortunately, these are some of the animals that provide this farm with their livelihood – fresh beef. Mr. Rogers shared that in order to sell fresh meat, they had to be inspected by the Department of Agriculture and that the meat had to be processed in a USDA-approved facility.
The turkeys were another story. The first crop of turkeys for this farm, they arrived on site in mid-June and are growing quickly. Mr. Rogers farms with a type of plastic-polymer fencing that he moves around the farm to give the animals fresh pastureland. To keep the turkeys safe from predators, they remain inside their smaller enclosures except when there are people around.
They eat a type of crushed grain, which Mr. Rogers was happy to show us. The children decided that this was much like the chickens some of them have at home!
Immediately after commenting that the turkeys didn’t resemble the ones we typically see displayed at Thanksgiving, this one decided to strut his stuff. After puffing out those tail feathers, he took off across the pen. I couldn’t get a shot from any other angle!
These birds will be kept until early November, at which time they’ll be available for purchase.
At the conclusion of the tour, the children enjoyed digging in this large pile of rocks. Why buy toys – they need only sticks and stones to be happy!
Of course, seeing a few hundred farm animals makes their day, too.
For more information about Rogers Cattle Company or to order meat, visit their website.
Where do you purchase your meat? Have you ever gone straight to the source?
by Amy
How do you cook good Asian food? This was a question that we really wanted answered as we worked our way through a recent Chinese unit. It became even more urgent as we realized that we were going to host a Chinese New Year party and had no idea how to make a good Chinese meal!
Fortunately, we knew where to go to find out. Pei Wei Asian Diner is one of our family’s favorite places to go for dinner. The food is good, healthy, and comes at you fast, but the best part is the open concept kitchen. If you’re lucky enough to sit at the bar/counter, you can watch the cooks preparing all of the food – and with the flames rising and the food flying, it makes quite the dinner show.
Fortunately for us, Pei Wei’s general manager was up to the challenge of teaching us – and about 25 of our friends. We headed out to crash their restaurant during their prep time one morning before opening.
The general manager, or GM, greeted us in the dining room and explained the format of our tour. Because most foods are cooked to order, the kitchen is very small, and we toured in small groups and rotated through.
Our group started here in ordering line. We learned about their computer system, the menus, and what happens if you order to eat in vs taking your food away.
Then we moved to the back. In the kitchen, we learned that there are two dedicated tasks. This is the protein man. His job is to prep all of the protein for the day. While we visited, he was carefully cleaning chicken and cutting it into pieces that were the right size and shape for stir-frying.
There’s also a dedicated spring roll woman. She also makes the rangoons and won-tons. Each one has to be the precise size and weight so that it cooks properly in the time allowed. The way that she could eyeball this was amazing!
Aren’t all of these veggies beautiful? This is what goes into the stir fries and noodle bowls.
This is the cook’s set-up. It takes six months to learn how to be one of the line cooks! That’s an amazingly long time – but they have a very difficult job. Their woks range in temperature from 350 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit, and each dish cooks in minutes. Here the GM was explaining how they blanch the veggies prior to frying them so that they reach the perfect texture.
By then Pei Wei was open for lunch and, after sampling lots of yummy dishes, we ordered our meals and settled in to eat. Everything we tried was fantastic and the crew couldn’t have been more kind or generous.
We can’t wait to go back to Pei Wei – and maybe our own Asian cooking will be just a bit better from now on.
What’s your favorite ethnic cuisine?
by Amy
The Oreo Olympics are here! We spent a morning playing around with Oreos – and doing a lot of math, too. To do this activity, each family brought their own package of Oreos – or imitation Oreo cookies – to work with. Each pulled out a few to eat later, and the rest were used for this project.
We started out with Oreo towers. The kids assembled themselves into small groups and began working with their package of Oreos. The idea was to see who could create a tower using the most Oreos.
(I had issues with my camera that day – mainly because I forgot it – so I used my cell phone. I apologize for the blurriness.) First, the groups started stacking Oreos ….
but even the smallest ones quickly began to get creative with their towers.
A few people stuck with single towers …
Many others began to experiment with foundations to their towers.
The towers started to get wider …
and then taller …
and then even thicker as the groups began to find ways to incorporate more cookies into each tower. It was great to hear the kids counting their cookies over and over again (using one-to-one correspondence) and finding stopping places to begin later (counting on) and adding like towers (addition) and balancing cookies (symmetry and physics).
After finishing our towers, we used the cookies as a means of nonstandard measurement. Instead of measuring with rulers, we measured with cookies! This is easy for very young children to do and also encourages counting and one-to-one correspondence. This group didn’t quite have the same vision, so each child measured the length of the table going in a different direction!
Another group did the same thing. In the end, this is how their measurement looked.
Next we competed for the longest Oreo roll. This used more nonstandard measurement, because we used the floor tiles to determine how far each cookie went instead of inches or feet. One talented youngster rolled her cookie for a grand total of 21 tiles – and they weren’t tiny ones! (We did find that the REAL Oreos worked best for this part of the project. The generic ones were just too bumpy along the edges. Just a hint.)
And then, finally, we ate those cookies being held in reserve. One can only stand to be in a room smelling of Oreos for so long without eating them, you know? ๐
Other activities you could do with Oreos:
– write an “Ode to an Oreo”
– research the history of Oreos
– determine how long you are in Oreos
– determine how heavy you are in Oreos
– make “dirt” pudding
– write an original recipe using Oreos
– determine how many Oreos it would take to cover your desk/table
– write a fictional story about Oreoland
May the best Oreo Olympian win!
by Amy
Many of the beds were very simple – almost cradle-like in structure – but this one was elegant and beautiful. My Big Helper particularly liked this one!
The Fire Engine House was a neat building. There were two small pumpers inside, and the kids were amazed to see a fire ‘truck’ without an engine. Seeing the horse stalls in the next section of the building was enlightening, as well.
The demonstrators had extra brooms so that the kids could try them out. Both of mine agreed that it’s easier to use a broom with a handle than this kind!
by Amy
This week we journeyed to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. This is a fabulous place for kids to learn while playing! From animal exhibits to science, nature, machines, safety, sounds, and more, this place just rocks. (Even adults get caught up playing here. You can’t help it – it’s just too fun.)
With 25 in our group this week, it was too difficult to stay together, so we splintered off into little groups and began to explore.
The dinosaur trail is our favorite part of the museum. My Little Man headed out in search of Troodons (we read a book about them the day before) and he found this guy hiding in the grass.
We had a whole discussion here about whether these eggs would really hatch – at which point we reviewed what extinct means. ๐
I can’t remember this dino’s name, but just look how big he is compared to MY little guy!
Of course, we had to dig for fossils. I’m not sure how much My Little Man cares to actually find anything – I think he just likes the digging.
Later we headed to the butterfly house.
Aren’t they beautiful? Look at the speed of those wings!
Our final exhibit before leaving was a mathematical volume exhibit inside. My Little Man began pouring beads into one container and then into others to see which was bigger.
The tiny beads are fun to dig into and pour, and this exhibit is always surrounded by kids.
There are many fabulous exhibits here, and with all you could prepare your kids in advance, teach them directly with the exhibit in front of them, or remind them of what they’ve seen at home to study. My children are so excited when they’re there that we usually discuss what we’ve seen after the fact.
What’s really great about these types of museums is that you see something new each time. The animals always do a new thing … you notice a facet of something under the microscope that you’ve missed before … or you understand something in a deeper way. In fact, our children seem to learn there best by building on their experiences a bit more each trip.
An annual membership fee for this museum can be recouped in only three visits. With reciprocal privileges at hundreds of other children’s museums around the country, joining this type of museum is well worth it.
Do you have a great museum near you? Can you recommend one?