Category Archives: Homeschooling

Dandelion Pancakes

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So, some of you are going to think I’m crazy, and maybe I am. We made Dandelion Pancakes today. With actual dandelion petals in them. How did this happen?!

It all started when I was listening to an interview that John Gallagher from learningherbs.com did with Aviva Romm entitled Outdoor Kids. I tried to find a link for you but I couldn’t find it. If I find it I will add it here.

In the interview Aviva mentioned making dandelion pancakes with her kids. I was thinking “We have a yard full of dandelions, maybe we should make dandelion pancakes, I’ll never get my kids to go for it.” So I say to the kids, “Hey kids, should we make dandelion pancakes?” and they all said “Yes!!” (What?! that was not the reaction that I expected at all!)

So today we made dandelion pancakes. I looked for a recipe on Aviva Romm’s website but could not find one, so I turned to trusty Google and found these two:

Dandelion Pancakes – Wintergreen Farm

Dandelion Sourdough Pancakes – Montana Homesteader

We decided to try the recipe from Wintergreen Farm first. This recipe calls for 6 to 8 cups of dandelion blossoms. That is a lot of dandelion petals! Picking all of the petals off of that many dandelions took a really long time. Cowgirl and I sat and picked them all off, Princess helped a little. We sat outside in the sunshine (finally some sunshine!!) and listened to one of our new favorite podcasts:Eleanor Amplified

Cowgirl, Tank and Monkey liked the pancakes, Princess tolerated them (with a lot of jelly on top), I did not mind the flavor, but I could not handle the texture, there were a lot of petals.

We may try the other recipe, (there are fewer petals in that one) we may not, it depends on whether or not the kids ask me to make them again.

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Mere Motherhood

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Several months ago I read an amazing book, one of the best homeschool/motherhood books that I have ever read. The book is Mere Motherhood by Cindy Rollins. I heard about it from several bloggers and instagrammers and went searching for it. Suddenly “Mere Motherhood” and “Morning Time” were buzzwords on all the homeschool blogs and I had to see what they were talking about. I remember having a hard time finding the book because it was not available on any of the sites that I usually buy books from (it is now available on Amazon).  I finally found it here and discovered that there is a companion book “A Handbook to Morning Time” I ordered them both. I loved the book, it has become one of the books that I recommend to other moms when they ask me about homeschooling and how to get started, or for advice on what books they should read. I also found the handbook to be very helpful, it includes a sample schedule; suggestions for songs, bible verses, and poetry to memorize; and suggestions for how to get started with Shakespeare and Plutarch; book suggestions; and more.

We started doing Morning Time as part of our day, usually right after breakfast, I will start reading as the kids finish eating, and they will clear their dishes and pull out coloring books, handwriting, or math worksheets to work on as they listen. We LOVE Morning Time!! If we forget or our morning gets busy my kids will pull out the Morning Time box at lunch and ask if we can do “Afternoon Time” instead. Morning Time is a great way to start our day, a good way to get in some extra read-aloud time and do our history, art or science lessons as a family before we separate to do individual math and language arts lessons (we haven’t started on Shakespeare or Plutarch yet, but I plan to soon). I will write some more about our selections for Morning Time in another post.

A few weeks ago I discovered that Cindy Rollins has a podcast through the Circe Institute and I have really enjoyed listening to that as well.

DIY Paper Pattern Blocks

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We love pattern blocks! Before I had the space or money to buy a traditional set of pattern blocks, I made some paper pattern blocks for my girls. I printed the outlines on colored cardstock and then cut them out (this was a little time consuming). This was several years ago, so Cowgirl and Princess were about two and a half at the time and they loved these! I was worried that the paper would be too thin for little hands to handle, but it wasn’t an issue at all, my girls were able to handle the pieces just fine. We have found several uses for these paper pattern blocks over the past few years, and even though we now have a set of pattern blocks similar to this one

, and this magnetic set

, we keep finding new fun things to do with our paper ones.

The first time we used them I printed out some pattern mats for the girls to lay the pieces on. I recommend putting the pattern mats in sheet protectors or laminating them to make them more durable. I organized all the paper pieces in a dollar store muffin tin. This was a very popular activity for several months.

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For Cowgirl’s and Princess’s fifth birthday party I used masking tape to attach clear contact paper to the wall with the sticky side facing out. Then I put the muffin tin with the paper pieces on the floor underneath. I used this as an activity for the kids to do while we were waiting for the rest of our guests. They had so much fun! Most of the pattern pieces came off of the contact paper neatly so the kids could rearrange things if they wanted, and we were able to save the pieces for another activity.

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We have also glued our pattern pieces to construction paper to make collages and to decorate drawings, worksheets, plain wrapping paper, and coloring pages.

Want to make some?

  • Printable blocks from Jessica’s Corner of Cyberspace – she has several different templates including traditional colors, black and white outlines to be printed on colored paper and several other colors and patterns.

How about some free printable mats and inspiration cards to go with them?

Here are more ideas for using pattern blocks

Libraries of Hope

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I discovered the most amazing website yesterday!! “Libraries of Hope is dedicated to restoring the lost arts of educating hearts of children.”

I’ve listened to the audio and watched the video on the Training page, and watched “History of the Well-Educated Heart: Part 1 Roots” and begun watching “Part 2 Stems” on the Archived Training page. I’ve loved everything that I’ve heard so far. I love the education philosophy that the founder of the page Marlene Peterson teaches: that it is more important to educate a child’s heart in the early years and educating the heart will lead to a well-educated mind. (She explains it much better than I do, I’m very new to the concept). I also love the concept of teaching in layers, that an education looks more like a spiral that slowly builds on itself rather than a straight line. Marlene explains this concept in the video on the training page, and the entire website seems to be built upon this concept.

There are links, also, to a ton of free online content, sorted by age group and subject. I haven’t explored these very much yet, but it seems as though it will be very easy to navigate and find exactly what I need for each topic.

All of the information and resources can be a bit overwhelming, so start by watching the videos on the main page, then do the Introductory Course, then jump right in! Learn as you go and your kids can learn with you.