Vacation Education

  To enjoy the Vacation Education lifestyle, it takes time and money. Making money takes time and energy too. To help my family earn our way to free time and vacation education, I like to find ways to NOT spend the money we have worked so hard to earn. Making laundry soap is one of those projects that pays for itself over and over again.  I invested $17 in these two items, Washing Soda and Borax. That was nearly five years ago. I have made enough laundry detergent to do laundry for our family and still have lots of these ingredients left for years to come. We do about 15 loads of laundry per week for comparison. (This seems excessive to me, so I am looking for ways to reduce this, but for now my best strategy is to save on the soap itself) You can DIY this laundry soap too. There are lots of variations of this recipe on the internet since making laundry soap was made popular by the Duggars tv show. I can get a bar of Fels-Naptha at my local grocer for about $1. Walmart has the...

 One of our favorite activities as a family is to read books aloud together. Even the teenagers still come and listen sometimes. This last week we read a wonderful story that fits right into the Vacation Education theme of this blog. Reading together is not only a free activity, it is educational, enjoyable, and gives you shared stories for life. We just finished the lovely story of Paddington Abroad  There are various options on Amazon, such as a 19 book set on audio or hardcover. This particular copy came to us via a yard sale - my favorite way to get books. Your local library likely has a copy as well. Paddington Bear has been a popular character in children's books for a long time. In Paddington Abroad, the Browns take a trip from London to France. We read about the planning and packing process for Paddington, as Mr. Brown has put Paddington in charge of the itinerary. A huge responsibility for a little bear. Then, there is the whole passport fiasco at the airport. But, of...

Vacation Education Books are about getting out of the textbooks and into the world for some hands-on learning. Plimouth Patuxet is a great place to do just that. This past summer, our family went on an adventure from our Wisconsin home to explore the eastern seashore of the United States. You can read about the whole journey, including how we planned it and budgeted it in our travelogue 15 States in 25 Days. One of those days was spent at the Plimouth Patuxet Museum.  It is a living history village where they populate the outdoor museum with actors who play the parts of the actual people who lived in the colony. The children were mustered into the defense of the colony and learned how to use a pike. We spent a long time watching a pair of women cooking the supper. We watched in awe as she only had an open fire to put the pan that cooked the pumpkin while she waited for the men to come back with "those delicious urchins that crawl on the floor of the bay." It took the kids a w...

  In a previous post, here , I told you about our pear picking trip. Today, we met our friends with their truck full of pears at the local cider mill where we learned about the pressing process. We helped with the bottling. We got to bring home 13 gallons of fresh cider for our efforts.  Our friends freeze theirs, but my freezer is still full of the cow we bought in the spring, so we needed some other ideas. I have more basement pantry shelves available than I do freezer shelf space. So, tonight we canned some using the water bath method, processing 20 minutes.  If you are just learning about canning, I suggest buying a Ball Canning Book.   I prefer the older versions if you can find them because the recipes are often simpler and require ingredients I usually have on hand.  If you've never done any canning at all, and aren't ready to buy a book about it, then I suggest Taste of Home's online directions to help you start your first time. This is my first ti...

  Just the recipe? Go HERE Whenever someone says, "Raid my garden?" I say yes. And, I take my kids along. We are not farmers, we are city people. We like living in town, just blocks from playgrounds and beaches. But, we also love to visit our country friends and see the bounty of their harvests. This week, we ventured out to pick pears. My teenage boys climbed up into the high branches to shake them down and then we all worked together to gather them up.  We put about 8 bushels worth into the back of our friend's pickup truck and then we packed up a bushel to take home. That's a LOT of pears. But, they don't last long, as is true with most fresh produce. You must use it up or put it up for the winter. We try to do a little bit of both. So, I usually start by asking the internet for recipes. This one from Taste of Home was our first choice to try and it was delicious.  I did make mine just a little bit differently than they did though. I used my Crockpot instead of...

 It took me many years to learn to be content in my own home. But, now that I am, it takes more to draw me out of the house than it did when I was young. After years of running to this sport or that, and to this lesson or that, I have very little desire to do such running, and we are careful to choose activities that fit into our life rather than trying to fit our life into a child's activities. One such program that has consistently felt worth the work is American Heritage Girls. This is the 6th year that we have been involved with AHG, and it is our second year with Trail Life - it's male counterpart. I do not just send my daughter, but I volunteer too. I am at every meeting, involved in every fundraiser, helping with every event - it is a commitment for both my daughter and me. There have been many social benefits to an all-girl club for my daughter who laments being home with four brothers and no sisters close to her in age. But, she is also learning skills and confidence a...