It has been two weeks since you've heard any ramblings about our homeschool. We were visited by a rather unpleasant stomach bug last weekend. Due to his visit, I didn't get my blog post out last Friday and we missed a few days of school. However, we are all better now and back to normal. Thank-you, Jesus, for health & strength! We wrapped up our study of cows last week with making our own butter. I began the butter experience with some doubts - Will this really work to use store-bought heavy cream to make butter? Will we be able to stick with this long enough to see if it works? We put the cream into a pint jar with a lid and ring on it and began shaking. I explained what "cream" is to the boys because we drink goat milk (which does not separate like cow milk) and store-bought milk that is homogenized. We took turns shaking the jar as we reviewed the letter c, our verse for the week, and the character lesson about cows - God's word helps us grow. (Our curriculum has a character lesson or truth for each unit.) After about 10 minutes of shaking (and several peeks into the jar), it seemed like the cream was too thick to shake. We opened the jar and were delighted to see that the cream had thickened into "whipping cream." I eagerly sampled some, but the boys were rather hesitant. Mmm...it was delicious, but I knew we weren't at the butter stage yet. The cream wouldn't shake in the jar because it was too full. I dumped it into the blender and tried whipping it, but that didn't work. The whipping cream just sat there in the blender. So, I dumped just a bit of the whipping cream into the jar for easier shaking. After about 5 more minutes of shaking, suddenly we had butter!! I was surprised how quickly it happened. There was also a liquid in the jar with the lump of butter. I've heard this liquid called "buttermilk" and "whey." I'm not really sure what it is (can anyone help me in the comments section?), but I dumped it out and we had our butter and 3 proud boys! This week, we began studying horses and the letter h. I love the lesson to go with the horse - I will obey right away! We discussed how important it is for a horse to obey his master immediately for his safety and well-being. Of course, I related this to how they need to obey for their safety and well-being. We began our unit with making a clay model of a horse. As we made them, we discussed some parts of a horse - hock, withers, quarters, muzzle, etc. MJ was delighted to take part in this activity! We compared and contrasted horses and cars today. The best part of that discussion was in what "waste" they both leave behind. The boys got a smile out of that. We will continue horses next week. For now, I'll leave you with two of my favorite baby EJ photos. First, a smile!! He's been smiling since 3 weeks old, and I finally captured one. Second, a precious moment between brothers JJ and EJ. Blessings on your weekend! This post is linked to the weekly wrap-up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
4 Comments
11/20/2016 07:13:29 am
We went on a field trip to a farm and the kids all made butter from cream. We were told by the farmer that the leftover milk from making butter is buttermilk.
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Vanessa
11/21/2016 02:53:51 pm
Thanks! That's what I always assumed it was called. Next time I will save it and make buttermilk pancakes!
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Colleen
11/24/2016 09:33:20 am
GREAT BLOG BUT THEN I REALLY ENJOY AND LOOK FORWARD TO ALL OF THEM. THE CHILDREN ARE ALL GETTING BIG & HELPFUL I AM SURE.
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Vanessa
11/25/2016 02:15:08 pm
Thanks, Colleen! Happy Thanksgiving!
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AuthorVanessa from Russell Homestead. Follower of the Lord Jesus, wife of my knight in shining armor, mother of 5 wonderful children, and joint-keeper of the Russell homestead. Thanks for stopping by! Archives
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Vanessa Russell
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