Vacation Education

  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...

  In " A Thomas Jefferson Education, " DeMille suggests that we look not only to our heroes, but to the educators of our heroes to learn how they became the great men they were. So, with this in mind, I was intrigued when I came upon  The Dupin Stories. If you have ever had the pleasure of meeting Arthur Conan Doyle's character, Sherlock Holmes, you will certainly appreciate the character that inspired Doyle to create Holmes. Sherlock Holmes is not an entirely original character, but rather is almost identical to the character of C. Auguste Dupin, investigator extraordinaire. Both characters are acutely observant and shrewd in their deductions, but also have personality quirks that bristle those who meet them. Each character has a sort of sidekick that documents their exceptional abilities in solving crimes and mysteries, and then share those stories with us. Dupin is the creative genius of Edgar Allan Poe.  The Dupin Stories  is a collection of three mysteries solve...

Disclaimer: This post has to do with Vacation Education and homeschooling only in so much as I set an example of being a lifelong learner to my children, by always reading new books and looking for ways to learn new things myself. This particular post is a rant about a book I read and didn't like. Just FYI before you dive in.  I thought this book would be therapeutic. I thought it would address the nagging insecurities we all have about reaching for something great. But, it wasn't therapeutic at all. It was annoying, all the way through to the very end. I would have returned it to the library after a couple of chapters, except I have this thing about finishing books I start. I can count on one hand the books I've started to read and refused to finish. I want to keep it that way. I believe in giving an author a chance to make his point, to hear him out all the way to the very end. So, I gave it a chance, all the way to the end.  I wanted it to be hopeful. I wanted it to be w...

This post is a little different than what I normally write about. It isn't directly related to travel or homeschooling, but if you are passionate about saving money like I am, you may appreciate what I have to say here. And, sometimes, I get sick of hearing something so much that I get a bug in my ear and write until it's satisfied. Here is t he link to the article  from CNN that has me up and typing like mad this morning. It begins something like this: "... inflation can actually be a good thing for many working-class Americans, especially those with fixed-rate debt like a 30-year mortgage." She argues that your house is increasing in value while your mortgage payment stays the same. This is true. However, this would be happening even if the prices on every other thing you buy wasn't tripling in price at the same time. And, this ONLY applies to that specific situation - renters don't benefit, those with variable rate mortgages don't benefit. And, if your ...

 We started out on an adventure to see some baby ducks. We'd heard there were lots at the Horicon Marsh. We started out at the south side of the preserve, in the Wisconsin State Park section. The views from the Marsh were extraordinary. It is always good to get outside and see God's creation firsthand. It reminds me of how great a God we have, who not only made all of this, but watches over it, and keeps it moving in its cycles. The changing of the colors reminds us that time marches on. We get older, our children grow up, our time here is limited. It is good to be reminded of these things sometimes. Instead of seeing baby ducks, we went on the Storybook Trail. We followed clues, read the story, and then when we returned to the Visitor Center with the correct answer, we got a prize. We also visited the National Preserve Visitor Center and learned even more. We never did see any baby ducks, but we did see a little garter snake. I pointed it out and my daughter said, "Can I ...

Even when you're on a mission to get  15 states in 25 Days , you still have to make time for the little things. No matter how many things we see and do and how many experiences we make for our children, it is often the little spontaneous moments of joyful play that instill the happy memories we are trying to make.  Boston Common is the oldest public park in the United States. We learned this from our tour guide on the Freedom Trail Tour. It was established in 1634. The park itself was a British military camp prior to the American Revolution, and the ponds were used for grazing animals, and swimming holes for little boys too, whether the city intended that or not. The ponds were replaced in the 1970s with a modern splash & spray pool, then an ice rink was added the 1990s. The park itself has a long history of being a gathering place for events, festivals, protests, and more. We found the pond to be a lovely stop on our long walk on a hot August day. It was just right for sl...

 First, I have to put in a plug for Kohl's Cash! The department store is mostly overpriced in my opinion, but if you need something, like dress shoes for kids to wear to church, that you can't find at the budget options, like Walmart, then you might as well go when they are offering Kohl's Cash. Usually, it is something like $10 when you spend $50. It is easy to spend $50 on a pair of nice men's shoes. The catch is you have to use the $10 coupon at a later date, usually the following week. I am guilty of forgetting I have these coupons in my purse and not taking advantage of them. But, sometimes, I do well with them. Like this week.  Sneaky Statues of Easter Island was on the clearance rack for $7.39 (original price $36 and some change). So, with my Kohl's Cash - FREE! The question is, was it worth it? I did have to drive over the store and spend the gas and the time to get it, so was it a good use of my coupon? Sneaky Statues is a head to head strategy game for two...

Day One of our trip across the east coast was spent packing and planning and buying lots of things we thought we would need. Day Two and Three were spent just getting across the Midwest to our first Eastern state of New York. Then, we had to figure out how to use all the cool gear we'd brought along for our life on the road.   We arrived at our chosen campground, “ Niagara County Camping Resort ” – it was $58 for a tent site, not our best bargain, but more reasonable than the hotels in the area. The tent sites are on a loop around a small pond which does have a playground and swimming beach. We were late in the day when we arrived, so we did not give the beach a try. The bath houses were just down the road a bit in the center of the RV sites, and they were clean and had everything we needed. This was the first time we saw any Covid signs. They looked old and just reminded people to stay six feet apart and asking them not to loiter in the bathrooms. Our big Coho cooler that we ha...

 It is finished. You can buy it HERE . Three years of planning and saving and working towards the goal of getting stickers on our van map, we set out on an adventure to try to see and experience 15 states in under 30 days. It was a BIG goal, and we did it. And, then I wrote about it. If you would like to follow us on our journey to see how we planned it, how we budgeted it, and how it all turned out, then buy the book now. It's called 15 States in 25 Days by Corinne Johnson. It is currently only available on Kindle. I share all the details of our adventure, including what we paid for gas - that's the question everyone asks. You can read it for free if you have Kindle Unlimited. If you want to follow us on the rest of our homeschooling adventures, including as we post pictures and learn more about the places we visited, then follow me here on this blog for updates to our vacation education adventures.

 This is our final harvest of our very first season ever growing tomatoes. We are super excited to try some recipes and can some sauces and salsas in the coming weeks. Here is what we learned from our first time. 1. We should have planted them farther apart. When they are little, six inches seems like a lot of room, but they just grow and grow and tangle all up in each other. It's a big mess. Next year, we will give them plenty of room. 2. We should have spent the money on the tomato cages. This would have helped with the tangling. We did try attaching them to straight metal rods that we already had thinking that it was better to use something we had on hand rather than buying something new for just this one purpose. But, if we had used the cages, we would have had a better harvest throughout the season and not had so many green ones buried in the mess. 3. It's good to pick them green. They will ripen on the counter over several days. Those ones in the middle were picked green ...

 On our visit to Plimouth Patuxet , in the 1700's English Village, we learned many things about life in Massachusetts for the first colonists. We learned about mixing mud to repair the homes, grinding corn to make grits, beating laundry, training militia to defend the village, and more.  During our time there, we learned that the days are not all work. Parents made time to play games with their friends and children, just as we do today. But, they couldn't just run over to the local market and pick up a new game to try, and supplies were limited. New materials that were needed for the colonists only came by ship from England and that could take months or years to arrive. So, they used their imagination and invented a game to play in the dirt, with sticks and stones that they could find all over the ground. This villager was showing us how he had taken a board and carved lines into it to make a more permanent 'board game' because his sons loved this game so much they were...

 There are some things that are really hard to do as a homeschool family without seeking help from outside your home. For some families, it might be musical lessons, although there are great resources for that like Hoffman Academy , which we use and love.  Another is team sports, for which some states have homeschooling sports programs and other states allow homeschoolers to participate in public school teams. A love for me, that I have found difficult to experience without outside help, is that of theater. We have attended shows through Educator Series Programs and paid for Broadway Across America tickets as well. I have enrolled my children in dance and drama programs and taken them to community theater auditions so they can have those opportunities. But, it has been missing in our family for a long time now. When my oldest girls were young, they loved the stage and the shows so we were always looking for opportunities and as they got older, they were motivated to keep up wi...

 Another food post? Well, it is harvesting season.  I've got a book in the works so I'll switch gears to talking about that soon, but even if you are in your pajamas, snuggled on the couch, reading a beautiful story with your loved ones, when a friend calls and invites you to come raid her garden before the coming freeze, you rush right over.  We were given boxes full of produce in exchange for our labor cleaning out the garden and prepping it for freezing nights soon to come. One of those mysterious items to us was collared greens. Of course, when we don't know what to do with free food, we ask Professor Google. He gave us some ideas like creamed collards greens - yuck. But, then I saw a recipe that called for frying it up with some bacon and that gave me an idea. One of my favorite Sunday brunch options is fried potatoes. I saute onions in olive oil until they are fully cooked, then add chopped potatoes and chopped bacon to the pan - they need about 8 minutes, turn, the...

 I'm going to write another post about saving money on food. It is the easiest category for me to control and so it is the place where I have spent the most time being creative. You might ask what the grocery budget has to do with Vacation Education? The answer is everything. First, there are so many things you can teach your children in the kitchen, and second, until someone is willing to pay me to take my kids to see cool stuff, I have to find a way to pay for it, and every penny I don't spend is a penny I can use toward something else I want. In  Your Money Or Your Life , Robin teaches that money is all about trading. If it takes you one hour of your life to earn a $20 bill to trade, then you use that $20 to buy an admission ticket, then you have actually traded one hour of your life for that ticket. I read that book when I was about 20 years old and I have been evaluating trade value ever since. Even this week as I process apples into applesauce and pie filling, I am consi...

  It's Wednesday Night, and we are eating a smorgasbord of Pot Roast, Chili, Egg Salad, Spaghetti, Apple Crisp, and some veggies. It's Garbage Night! Every Wednesday we clean out the refrigerator to get rid of anything that might be getting smelly and get it out to the trash cans for morning pickup. That also means we try to eat up whatever food will likely end up in next week's garbage bin if we don't. My meal plan is simple and frugal. We eat the same thing every night of the week, sort of. Monday - Stir Fry - rice goes in the rice cooker at lunch and I toss some meat and frozen veggies in the Wok so we can all eat before we head out to American Heritage Girls and Trail Life. Tuesday- Tacos, if course - but that really means any pseudo Spanish/Mexican dish. If I am feeling ambitious, enchiladas, and when I'm not, we eat beans and rice. Wednesday - Soup/Casserole - Leftover casserole usually, but sometimes when we we have a variety of leftovers, I make a Garbage Ni...

 Today, I had a God moment. These are those little bits of time when I think I understand God. It happened while I was searching for canning supplies. It has been a couple of years since I've done any significant canning, and we moved in that time so I have supplies in the basement and in the attic and I wasn't sure exactly what I had or where it was. So I was searching. My plan was to take the kids to the apple orchard to get apples and then to spend the day making and canning applesauce and pie filling. First, I needed to collect the supplies so I would know if there was anything I needed to buy at the store. I had tasked the children with carrying items up from the basement to the kitchen as I found them. But, we have devices. And, those devices are ALWAYS calling out to us. Always saying look at me, listen to me, talk to me, pay attention to me. So, when I called the children and they did not answer, I suspected that they had been drawn in by some sort of electronic distrac...

  It’s tough right now. I know it. A cart of groceries at Walmart cost $250 yesterday. We didn’t even buy meat. It can be really devastating to look at your budget, to look at your life, and see that all the hard work you put into your career to get to where you are, and all the hard work you put into cutting bills and expenses so that finally the income exceeds the expenses more often than it doesn’t… and then see the prices of everything you need skyrocket so fast that all that work is lost. It feels like a punch in the gut, and then the government follows it up with an uppercut by telling you that inflation isn’t really that high. If you’re young, you still have a lifetime of earning to make up for it. But, if you’re over 50 you’re looking at some harsh realities. You can’t afford to dip into savings now and you don’t have a lot of opportunities to increase earnings. If you are still working, you can still be saving, so there’s no time like the present to figure out how much...