Woodwater Farmhouse

Road Trip – preparing 101 August will be here in less than 24 hours as of this blog post.   I am preparing my mind, body and soul for being away from our safe happy home for more days than we will be home -  in August.   Picture I took from my trip to Relevant Conference a few years ago.   We have two road trips scheduled!   (One of which hubby is coming along and the other – longer trip – it’s me and my 4 children!) We have taken road trips before….DVD’s were our saving grace. However, this time the children seem to have outgrown the DVD novelty and I need to come up with other ways to keep them from melting down, fighting…asking “are we there yet?”   Sure, we will bring the old stand-bys: the IPads, DS and LeapFrog products…but I want some more…learning fun…activities that will spark conversations among the family. Planning a road trip with three kids under 10 can be a mind boggling task.   There are a ton of helpful blogs, websites and advice from veteran ro

Happy 9th Birthday to our oldest boy..   Zachary turns 9 today!   Where did the years go?   Make a video - it's fun, easy and free! www.onetruemedia.com

  Hi Y'all....it's a tired Melissa here...so glad you had a minute to stop by and say hi!   We have been keeping ourselves busy here at The Joys of Home Educating.   Last weekend we camped (for the 3rd time in our travel trailer - no "issues" this time! - HUZZAH!) with our BFF's and the theme of the weekend was Christmas in July .   Last year we won the site decorating contest. (gave up our title this year - sadly).   This year we even brought a tree with us and decorated it on "Christmas Eve" (Friday night). There were presents around it on Saturday morning for the kids.     One super fun activity that we did was to Christmas Carol at the Jellystone Office.  We were so lucky to have Cindy bear there to witness The Jelly-Tones in action!  In fact, they loved it so much, they asked US to sing in front of the entire park crowd (100's of people) to "bring in Santa" when he arrived at the lodge to hand out gifts to t

TGIF - it's been a HOT HOT Week here in NY.  Thanking the good Lord for our central air!  We have been to the beach (lake) twice this week...bowling....bike a thon at church (last Friday) and getting ready for Christmas in July - camping trip (leaving in an hour or so)....WOW - we did find time for some school this week - talking about fire safety and first aid. Last Friday morning my children participated in a fund raiser/Bike A Thon for the MAD group at church (Making A Difference).  Alone - my children raised over $ 140 in collections.  Zachary himself did 77 laps!  So proud of the kids!   (thanks to Bubby and Daddy for sponsoring the kids!) Last year collage from  - Camping  - Christmas in July at Jellystone!  We are the reigning Site Decorating Champs and will be defending our title this weekend again!   I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and why not join me and others over at Homegrown Learners for Collage Friday! Today is my

  Here we are again recapping a week that seems like a blurr. Still on and off thunderstorms here in NY and very hot and humid. We have been inside more than outside this week....     Last Friday night we attended the Birthday Luau of Zachary's BFF. It was at their "property" ( which is not where they live ) it's 16 acres of woods with some awesome views of the valley  The kids had a great time and hubby was glad to have some steamed clams!     For school this week we started (and ended) a Dinosaur Unit . Using the Bible as our reference we learned that Dinosaurs did not live millions of years ago, that in fact they only lived thousands of years ago when Adam and Eve were on the Earth. It was fascinating to learn about all the Bible references and facts that back up the Creation Scientists on this subject!     This Wednesday started a 5 week program at our church (Drop in with a Dollar).   The kids are team building and having fun.  It runs

This week we started a week long summer unit on Dinosaurs .   When I started researching about these marvelous creatures,   I wanted to stay focused on the Biblical true (Creation Science) and not what the Evolutionists say.   I will tell you now, it was VERY difficult not to find books, flash cards, movies etc that stayed along the path of evolution.  Growing up I heard about dinosaurs but did not take much of an interest in them.   I was more into the Barbie’s and dolls. However, having a son who is almost 25 and another son is is almost 9, you can bet dinosaurs have come up a few times in our household discussions! I always had the mind set when I was growing up that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago and that no human ever lived at the time of the dinosaurs.   Once I became strong in my faith and really   understood the Bible better, I knew that could not have been true.  Genesis 1:24-25 clearly states that God made all the animals, big and small.   So

I have finally mastered what I call "Grilled Plantains Ala-mode"   I have tried several different ways of making this Summer time dessert, but it just never tasted quite right.  Well, now it is perfection!   I hope you try it out and enjoy! What you need: A large plantain Caramel Sauce Cinnamon Nutmeg Honey Brown Sugar Prepare the Plantain: Split the Plantain in half length wise, keeping the peel on Brush the open exposed flesh with honey then put on a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg Preheat the grill: I allowed 10 mins on medium heat Once grill is ready, put plantains on the grill, flesh side UP. Let them sit on the grill until peel is falling off and honey mixture is caramelized. (about 10 mins or so) While on the grill, get our your vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce (of course you can make your own, but I preferred, semi homemade sometimes...lol) The Plantain will be hot..let cool f

Happy July everyone!  It's Friday and that means time to tell ya what's been happening over here at The Joys of Home Educating. ... It's rained almost every day for 3 weeks around here...my plants are all water logged...the kids have not been out to play much with the heat and humidity so high....we have been doing art projects and other "in home" stuff...we have been "schooling" everyday and I already had to hand in my Letter of Intent, to school Molly and Zachary, to the district.  We did make it to two minor league baseball games in the last week though!  One was with a large group of friends and the other was just our family.  The kids had a great time and we will be back for more I am sure! I did not take many pictures with my camera this week...more with my phone...so if the pictures are not the best...I apologize. The girls made cards for several people (birthdays coming up this month) using the bottom of a celery sta