We’ve just finished the third week of a ten week summer unit ‘A Summer of Little House Living’. Click on link for a peek at week one and two. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to come close to replicating the success of this summer. Everybody is enjoying it so much and we all feel like we are learning new skills. It is not only gratifying seeing the products of our hard work, it is also really exciting each week sitting down as a family discussing what our goals will be for the following week.
This week has felt a bit lazy because it has been so hot here, and with no air conditioning or means of bringing the temperature down we have flaked a little. Poor Gary has to work outside in the blazing sun all day and he has come home and just flolopped on the bed each afternoon! That said, as I look back I can see we achieved everything we set out to do, with the exception of painting the floor. No one is volunteering for that job surprisingly enough! Oh, and our yogurt didn’t take. It’s funny I can find a beaker with some milk in from the night before which has found its way under a chair and it has turned readily to yogurt, but when I leave some out on purpose to do just that, nothing happens. Isn’t that always the way?
Anyway without further ado here is our Little House week in pictures…
The house as it was in the beginning:
Here it is this week:
Here is the inside as it was in the beginning:
And here it is now, only from a different aspect:
We all got to planting the vegetable patch and everyone has been very good at watering as the weather is unbearably hot here in the uk at the moment. The beans are struggling a bit but the rest of the veg look to be growing well. The planter that Gary made looks fantastic since A4 painted it and is just the right size for a kitchen garden. We have beans, carrots, cabbage and radishes:
Our neighbours kindly gifted us with some pottery containers. Their plainness immediately led one of the twins to say how perfect they would be for the Little House. I tended to agree and whilst I don’t think they would stand up to very rough handling, they do seem fairly robust. Maybe I’ll get T11 and his Daddy to put up a shelf for us in the next couple of weeks so we have somewhere to store them:
T11 has been net making, which he has really enjoyed. He had learnt the knots needed the week before so when it came to actually making the net he found it very easy:
He turned the net into a hammock for Baby Carries rag doll and hung it in the Little House:
He also made the curtain pole for the top floor window. He did this by painting a plain pine dowel with brown wood preservative. He then screwed simple cup hooks into the area above the windows to hold the dowel:
The girls made one curtain each by hand:
Here are the curtains before being hung:
And hung up at the window. How great are they?
A4 kept herself busy making hay sticks with her Daddy, twisting raffia:
and twisting some more:
Until a hay stick was created:
And then she made even more:
We’ve not done much baking this week as it has been too hot. L10 managed some soda biscuits:
And we did attempt, but failed miserably, to make yogurt the old-fashioned way. We’ll try again though. I’m not one to give up easily!
Next week will be full of wood chopping, stacking, embroidery and basket weaving. And we can’t wait!
I just LOVE the before and after house pictures. You must all feel so excited and proud of yourselves when you see what you’ve created together! LOL about the milk under the seat. C(9) is pretty good at making that kind of yoghurt in her room 😀
This is definitely one of our best summers, we’re having a ball. I’m sure interest will wane at some point though!
Oh my! Everything is coming along so nicely. What a fun time you all are having. I wish I could come to your homeschool.
Blessings, Dawn
Thank you Dawn. I really appreciate the lovely comment!
It is so much fun to watch this project take shape! This is just wonderful…. your children will remember this for the rest of their lives. Thanks so much for sharing it at Collage Friday!
Thanks Mary!
This is so awesome! I’m so inspired!!!
Thank you so much!
I am amazed at all you accomplish. Look what a difference there is in your Little House in only three weeks. What fun learning.
I jut hope I don’t run out of activities to do, otherwise our ten week unit may end up being a little shorter!
And that would be okay…homeschooling is a constant state of going with the flow, isn’t it? Look at all you have done.
I just love this project. It is amazing what you have done. What a great memory for your kids and you all! Love it!
Thank you. And I hope it does give them some lovely memorable moments!
Oh my goodness, what fun this is!
Thanks Jamie, it has been rather fun!
Oh that little house is looking simply amazing. What a fabulous project.
Thanks Kylie. We are having a tiny bit of fun!!
Looks like another fun week on the prairie!
It was, although the weather is so hot at the moment we are getting a bit lazy!
I love all the hands on learning that is going on. The hammock is adorable! Thank you for sharing this unit on Read.Explore.Learn. I will be sharing this post on Google +.
Thank you so much!
For a lazy week, you all seem to have gotten quite a bit accomplished! The house looks great, and it must be so gratifying knowing the kids are enjoying learning skills they will be able to use, practically, the rest of their lives.
It really did feel lazy, yet we plodded on and did achieve loads. It just felt like we achieved lots without very much effort on our behalf. Just think what we could do full pelt!
That is amazing – what a great project to do together as a family. I’m in awe!
Thanks Tonia, we are having rather a lot of fun!
Great job on the hay sticks and soda biscuits. The house is coming along nicely.
Thanks Julie.
I have a friend who makes yogurt, so I’ll check with her how she does it. I believe she makes hers in a slow cooker.
Thank you Ticia, but we already make all our yogurt using the very very reliable slow cooker method. No problems at all. We were, in this case, trying to replicate making yogurt using things available in the 1800’s. It is a little bit harder! We are having absolutely no success…
We had success! We left it over night this time, and had lovely yogurt in the morning!!
What did your son use to learn to make the net. My son wanted to make one a few weeks ago but everything I found was so detailed we moved on. I would love for him to be able to do one. Love your unit studies a lot of good ideas. I can’t wait until we get to pioneer days! Thanks for all the great ideas.
We bought the SAS book of survival for pennies from amazon. It has a great chapter on knot making and all its applications. Each activity they explore is accompanied by very clear and precise directions. T11 has learnt a lot so far. HTH