Question....

Okay, first let me say this. We do not homeschool for religious reasons. That actually had nothing to do with why we homeschool. I originally thought about homeschool because I worried about negative influences, bullying, drugs, violence and because I wasn't ready to let go, but I did.

When we finally started homeschooling 6 or 7 years later, it was because something terrible happened to my son at school. We don't know what, he still won't talk to us about it, but it was bad enough that when you mention him going to that school for just a few hours for a test, he has a panic attack. So we pulled him out and now DD has joined us and it's wonderful.

Don't get me wrong, our religion and beliefs are often brought up in our homeschooling but that was not the "purpose". I love that as we read ancient history, the kids will say, "Hey! That's in the Bible!" or "Hey! We have a story like that in our Bible!" when we are talking about other people's legends or myths. They probably would have noticed this in public school too but wouldn't have had a Bible handy to go and find it and reread it there too. I think that is very neat. And of course our values are always being covered one way or another but they were before we started homeschooling.

So it does influence our homeschooling a lot but that's not "WHY" we started and it's "WHY" we continue either. It's an added bonus.

That being said, has anyone tried the Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach? I'm very curious about it. I wish I could check out the book from the library but they don't have it. Anyone want to loan me theirs??? ;o)

My only thing is that I want the kids to get to see all sides of things and issues. Yes, I will show them evolution and they already know what the Bible says too. I want them to be exposed to it and other things too so that they can be educated enough to make their own conclusions based on the Bible, science, history, and all of it.

So that being said, I can't decide if the Heart of Wisdom is for me. But it seems very interesting and seems to be a wonderful way to teach. So... has anyone tried it? Is anyone using it? What can you tell me about it? What do you think?

Butter

Well, we made butter the other day for our Pioneer unit. It was lots of fun and the kids loved it! I have to tell you about it though.

We took some heavy cream and put it in a jar. Then we shook it and shook it and shook it some more. They had so much fun. DD came to me after a while and said that it wasn't making any noise any more. So we opened it and it was nice and thick and had an interesting texture. There was only one thing wrong, where was the buttermilk? We really didn't care because we had some nice whipped butter that tasted wonderful! We used it on our toast, pancakes, potatoes and so on and it was Divine!!

Today, we sadly ran out so the kids asked to make more. We did. But this time we must of shook harder or longer or something because we had butter milk and the texture of the butter was more like butter.

Very sad. We liked it the other way AND it made more the other way. I know we are crazy. I guess what we made the first time was more of a "whipped cream" with no sugar. The other way was soooo wonderful!!

I even fried an egg in the first "butter" and oh my goodness, was it wonderful! I mean, it was one of the best eggs ever!! It was sunny side up with all the white done and the yolk had a beautiful white color on the outside but was just absolutely runny on the inside. DELICIOUS!

Anyway, it was fun and the kids know that now when they go to make our butter they want to stop when the "noise" stops.