Homeschool Elementary Science

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Laura

Greetings from the Focused Learning Institute (aka the Braley homeschool). Larry and I have been home educating from over 13 years. We have graduated our eldest son James. He is completing his International Business degree from Thomas Edison State College facilitated through CollegePlus. Olivia, Emma, Gideon and Theodore continue to investigate God’s world and His story through home education.

In this post we want to share with you the incredible science book that Emma has been learning from. We mostly use the Apologia series for our children’s entire science curriculum. Apologia Educational Ministries publishes science text books for the elementary through high school levels.

Apologia presents scientific truths in a challenging and in-depth manner. The mom-friendly curriculum organizes the list of items needed for each experiment at the beginning of the text book. You can also purchase the experiment kits from Home Science Tools.

We bought all of our science kits for this school year from Home Science Tools. They are a one-stop-shop for all items needed for various science curriculum. We have also used Nature’s Workshop Plus! in the past as well. They too are a very good source for science items.

This year Emma has been working through “Exploring Creation With Zoology 3: Land Animals of the Sixth Day” by Jennie Fulbright. She has enjoyed learning about bears, dingoes, jackals, lions, tigers, primates, rodents and many more. Emma journals in her science notebook after each lesson. Currently, she finished a fascinating chapter on primates.

Each lesson asks the student to “map” the location of the animals being studied. Emma especially enjoys this project. The picture below shows Emma and the primate brochure she made as an advertisement for an African safari.

Emma Apologia Zoology 3 Primates Project

What science curriculum have you used?

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Potato Planting Time!

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Larry Braley

Sugar Grove Seed Potato Bin

It’s time to get ready to plant potatoes! I’m so excited! Potatoes are some of the first crops we plant in spring.

Potatoes are the “funnest” crop my kids like to grow. It’s easy for them to plant and they really have fun digging up and finding the large, underground treasures at harvest time.

My target plant date here in mid-eastern Missouri is Saint Patrick’s Day (USDA zone 6a). We just recently made our annual stop at our favorite local produce store and seed potato provider, Sugar Grove Growers. We love this store. These folks know their stuff and have been in business in our local community for a very long time.I usually plant Red and Yukon Gold potatoes. This gives us a good variety of flavor and storing options and they do well in our soil.

I select potatoes a little bigger than a golf ball or a little smaller than a baseball. These are easier to plant with less potential problems. You can also get bigger ones and then cut them into these smaller sizes with 2 to 3 eyes each. You need to let these cut pieces “cure” for a day or two before planting.

When you plant seed potatoes, you need to ensure the eyes are pointing up. The eyes are what produce the foliage above the surface of the ground. The underground planted seed potato will provide food for the plant while it gets established. New potatoes will grow from the underground stems that develop as the plant matures.

Our garden is structured mostly using 5 x 20 foot wide-row beds with walking paths in between. I plant potatoes about 8 – 9  inches below the loosened soil surface on 12 inch centers evenly spaced throughout bed.   One bed can plant about 8 pounds of seed potatoes.

After planting, I put a thick layer of straw or hay on top of the ground to retain moisture and keep the weeds down. As the plants develop over the growing season, I add a little more hay mulch. At harvest time, I just move the hay aside and fork out the potatoes.

I highly recommend a quick soil test be done in preparation for planting. I used to not concern myself with soil testing, thinking my composting routine would make the soil “good” without testing. Over time I started losing yield and “discovered” soil testing is best to ensure the right balance for the specific crop.

Potatoes like more acidic soil. The PH should be between 4.5 and 6.0. If my soil is not at this level, I will lose yield. I grow all-naturally and use Martin’s Disper-Sul Elemental Sulfur to bring the PH down if it is too high. I get this from our nearby organic grower supply store, Greene’s Country Store and Feed.

Happy planting! What are some of your potato planting tips and secrets?

 

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Homemade Cake Doughnuts

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Livvy

My dad loves cake doughnuts. So I was really excited to learn how to make them. Give one of these to your dad or brother after they have been working all day and they’ll love you forever!

Ingredients

Canola oilFinished doughnut.

2 eggs, at room temperature

1/4 cup of butter

1 cup sugar

1 can evaporated milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more as needed

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon fine salt

For glaze (optional): Combine 2 cups of powdered sugar with 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 6 tablespoons of milk.

Directions

Pour enough oil into pot to cover about one-third of the way up. Heat on low.

Melt the butter. In an electric mixer beat the sugar and butter together on medium speed until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each egg. Add the milk and vanilla, a continue beating for 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, sift the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt in a bowl.

Switch the mixers’ speed to low, then add the flour mixture one spoonful at a time. ( If the dough is really sticky, add more sifted flour a little at a time until smooth.) Pour dough onto a lightly floured surface.

Nead the dough a few times just to make a ball. Roll out with floured rolling pin. Roll out dough 1/2 inch thick. Cut out doughnuts with doughnut cutter (or with a big glass and little glass in the middle.)

Plop doughnut into oil (be careful, very hot!) and flip when the doughnut rises to the top of the oil. Turn the heat up if the doughnut take a while to rise to the surface. Turn the heat down if the doughnut gets brown and rises a right after it hits the oil. keep flipping till golden brown on both sides, remove and put on paper towels to cool.

Dip doughnuts in glaze then serve. Enjoy!

What’s your favorite homemade doughnut recipe?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Meet the Family

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Larry Braley

We’re glad you’ve come to our home. We love visitors and sharing some down-home, country hospitality. Our blog will include posts from various family members. Let me introduce them to you.

This is a slightly older picture of our family but we like this one a lot.

Our oldest son, James, was married last year. Here is his engagement picture and our wonderful new daughter-in-law, Ellen. They are blessing us with our first granddaughter very soon.

James has been our adventurous son. We’d always find him in the shop or in the woods tinkering or blowing things up. He was one of the primary reasons we moved to the country. That boy needed some space and room to explore and destroy. Check out his simple webpage about the wooden boat he built.

Also, this boy needed heavy equipment. Check out his video of the tractor he bought when he was 14 (please ignore the adds if they come up).

He is also very business minded. I started our small farming company, Promise Land Acres, LLC, to give him an opportunity to develop his business skills. He raised chickens and sold eggs and pastured poultry. Here are a couple pictures of our frist year on-farm butcher days. I’ll talk more about this in later posts.

Our daughter Olivia is our musician, outdoor helper and cook. She has really excelled at the piano and mandolin and is now working on the violin. She loves bluegrass and is our “southern country girl.” With James starting his own family, Olivia is now my outdoor garden and logging helper. No city girl in this one.

She is also transitioning into our primary cook and canning helper and will be sharing several posts on her favorite recipes. She makes some mean homemade cake donuts (Dad loves cake donuts).

She is also great at crafts and crocheting. Check out some of her work on her Etsy store, Basically Beautiful.

Emma is our princess. She loves everything princess, sparkle and party dress. Being our “sunshine girl,” she adds color to our life. She is also a big help in the kitchen with her sister and makes some delightful cakes and deserts. And, she is another one of our business minded children. She has started her own candy store business and makes lots of money from her siblings.

Gideon is our preacher boy. He loves the lord, praying, singing and talking about God. We are excited to see what the Lord has in store for him. He also loves to make up stories and is very creative in playing with toy cars, animals and trains.

Theodore is our up-and-coming farmer, zoologist and botanist. He loves the farm, garden and animals. He is my primary worm helper, loving to see and feed the worms. He is excited about raising our new batch of laying hens this year and getting some ducks.

There you have the Braley family. What are the special talents of your children?

 

Posted in About, General | 2 Comments

Country Skills…Family Values…Family Fun

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Larry Braley

Laura and LarryHi there and welcome from the Braley’s!  Every journey has its beginning…ours started with a call back to the simple life of family, land and self-reliance.  Country Living Family is a blog about our journey from fast paced corporate suburban life to a slower more focused life style that promotes family values, personal responsibility, hard work and lots of family fun.

Join us as we discover and share lessons learned in growing a strong family through country living skills.  We will share posts on

  • gardening,
  • farm animals,
  • cottage businesses,
  • homeschooling,
  • crafts,
  • cooking,
  • composting,
  • favorite videos, websites, games, books and
  • much, much more.

Holding nothing back, Country Living Family combines the sometimes hilarious ma-and pa-kettle-like antics with tips and how-to’s on country living.   From time-to-time we’ll weave in more serious topics on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (or as I prefer the word “property”…aka private property and land!).  We believe these topics have a direct relationship with country living and training freedom-loving, god-fearing future generations.

With over thirteen years of homeschooling and eight years of practical experience in working a mini-farm in rural Missouri, we share the good and tough times of raising five children in the country.  We believe that the country life, with all its adventure and enterprises, is the perfect incubator for growing mature, responsible children—and having lots of fun.

We are excited to get to know you and share our experiences together.  So, come along and meet the family in the next post.

 

Posted in About, General | 2 Comments