Teriaki Venison Jerky

One of the things we did today was make our first batch of venison Jerky from Patrick's hunting foray's into the forest here in the fingerlakes. The meat is fresh and the kids made their own mix with black pepper from the minced venison and we have venison steaks marinading in Teriaki for another batch..... 

Between the lesson in hygiene and food preparation and a discussion of microbes and germs it was both an informative and productive afternoon's work. The boys took an active role in preparing and forming the venison onto the dehydrator trays and of course will get to eat the results.... they LOVE Jerky! Venison is apparently the best.

More photos to come of the finished product....... 

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

Over the past few days i have been updating and reworking my official artist website. One of the difficulties of having an online presence is the need to stay up to date which takes away from time to create and of course time is a very valuable commodity and has to be used to the best effect. So consequently this workover was more than due. Please have a look and leave a message in my guestbook so i know you have passed through.

Thank you all for your time ..... i know it is indeed valuable.

MY WEBSITE

Bright moments.

GEOGRAPHY AWARENESS WEEK

This week our main focus in homeschool inquiry will be geography and science as we like to take chunks of learning over a week to really get our teeth into the subject and the content. It really helps with interest and learning tends to be very much more connected to experience.

CHECK OUT THIS cool link: FINDING YOUR OWN LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE

 Test your GLOBAL IQ!

 How much do you know about the world?

Can you name the world's most spoken primary language? The largest consumer of oil? The most heavily fortified border on the planet? The current population of the U.S.?

We tested the geography knowledge of 18- to 24-year-olds across the U.S. to see how much they know about our world. How did they do? More know where the TV show CSI is set than can find Iraq on a map. The survey shows that too many young Americans have a limited understanding of the world.

Why Is It Important?

Geographic literacy is more than knowing state capitals. It's understanding how people and places interact, where things come from, and where we're going. Without geography, our young people are unprepared for an increasingly global future.

There is a daily geography quiz to take at two levels..... for the beginner and advanced. 10 questions against the clock.... multiple choice answers. A fun activity that also exposes kids to great language and exploration points of areas they need to explore more.

GEOBEE 

GEOGRAPHY GUIDE    

Lots of games to make learning fun. Looking forward to exploring with the boys this week. 

HANGMAN  

AUGUST MOON SPA ITHACA

 I had a really nice Swedish Massage yesterday...... made me miss my daughter Caroline's skull massages...... and remember how cool they are. It was a relaxing interlude with a very classy and comfortable atmosphere....... i really liked the physical surroundings and the staff were friendly and professional. Altogether a great experience..... still have some value on my gift voucher left how cool is that! Thanks Patrick!

Blogging and Homeschooling in Action.

Today i am showing Drew and Jye how to make their own blog for an on line journal. The most important part in setting up a blog is to understand how versatile and how simple they are to create and maintain.

Part of the reason i want to do this is to have a place for their writing and learning experiences. They are also fantastic photographers and i would like their photos to be seen. 

I will add their links when we set them up.

I think this is the beginning of a good learning experience.

 

http://www.drewaidan.blogspot.com                  


http://www.jyebraydan.blogspot.com

HOMESCHOOLING IN SEMPRONIUS...

Since returning from Australia and being reconnected to my root's i had a very strong sense of wanting to control the education of the boys since i was extremely unhappy with their public school education since moving to Moravia.

It was mostly a clash of philosophy and also content. There was very little in the way of critical thinking or arts being taught.... thinking how to think (metacognition) and also there was a formidable and unwanted sense of cog in a machine. As an educator I could no longer tolerate it. Initially the disequilibrium i felt I attributed to my need to 'connect' to a new way of doing things. It is only with hindsight it becomes apparent that while that may have initially actually been true it disguised the reality that it was a bad fit. A case of should have listened to my instincts as they were correct........ at least for Drew and Jye. So after some extensive research and investigation i decided that it was time to intervene. It had gone on some 3 years and enough was enough...... nothing had changed for the better. I had an issue with the system not the people delivering the system. Time to move on.

So we began...... once the decision was made it really was simple to implement. I contacted the school with my intent to home school. I created a program of learning (merely a scaffold for the beginning) and began on day one of the school year,

Happy Ducks and Chickens.....

Halloween, All Hallows and that Autumn

Well i have a feeling Autum or as some people around here call it 'Fall' is going to be a really short season in 2009...... but i could be wrong... there is a definite sense of impending winter in the air.

Seasonal cards are a great way to celebrate the changes and mark the occasion and some of my artworks are available to purchase.... support the fine arts and keep your money out of big mass produced conglomerates by buying from the people that actually create the images.

Here is some of my favourite Fall and Halloween creations..... have a look and let me know what you think. All are my original artworks.