Beach Safety

The Natural Resources Defense Council issued a report on beach water quality in 2009 called Testing the Waters.  They just released their 2012 update on their webpage here.  We're frequent beach goers and our beach has occasionally had problems.  It's worth a check if you're planning a trip to your favorite local sandy spot.

Also, if you've never researched sunscreens, head over to Environmental Working Groups 2012 Skin Deep 2012 sunscreen report here to research the best sunscreen for your family.

Exotic Tropical Fruit

One of the best things about living in Florida is the exotic fruits you can grow.  Gardening overall is a big challenge between the bugs, poor soil and opposite seasons of everywhere else but you persevere despite the steep learning curve.

One of the best organizations we have is the Tampa Rare Fruit Council.  They put on great plant sales and a huge citrus tasting at the FL State Fair (in February since gardening is different here).

Today was their annual cooperative meeting with the Manatee & Sarasota rare fruit chapters.  One of the highlights is always the buffet table but today it included dragonfruit, ice cream bananas, jackfruit, lychees, longans, 5 varieties of mangoes, mangosteen, rambutan, sapote and lots of other 'normal' foods.

Some of these were provided by the Fruit & Spice Park in Homestead, FL.  If you plan a trip to Miami and you're tropical curious, you should plan a trip there.

We Are Paper Toys

I picked up the book We Are Paper Toys at an author reading at Inkwood books, one of independent bookstores in the Bay Area.  You can visit their website here.  Even if you don't live in western FL it's worth visiting the website for their staff suggestions.  I love other people's reading lists and their staff has good taste.  It's been a fun book because it comes with a CD that has many of the projects in PDF that you can print out.  We've made all kinds of little critters.

The author reading I went to was for Lauren Buckner's Parentwise.  It's been a helpful book.  It's thin but takes awhile to get through because the author requires a lot of reflection through journaling or other ways to see yourself better. I've read quite a few books on how to make the toads 'better' but not enough on both taking responsibility for and care of myself.

Ways to Save Money on Homeschool Curriculum & Supplies

 Here's a list of ways I've saved some money on our homeschooling adventures.  Hopefully there's something in here that can help you keep your costs down.  They are in no particular order.

Groupon and Living Social - You've probably heard of these, but 8coupons will list these and all similar deals by your zipcode, making it easier to keep track of them.  I've been able to get deals on Little Passports for social studies and deals on admissions for field trips.

Gift Card Granny - This is a site that compiles gift card resellers.  I've used this for office supply gift cards.  Depending on the store and the site you'll get a certain percentage off your purchase.  Since these get mailed to you snail mail this requires some advance planning.

Refillable Ink Cartridges - I can't imagine homeschooling and using off the shelf manufacturer ink cartridges.  I think that cost alone would pay for private school instead.  I use refillables but even remanufactured represent significant savings. 

Sharing - I shared my All About Spelling vol. 1 with a friend.  She liked it so much she decided to use it as well and said she'd let me use her vol. 3 so we each saved the cost of a volume.  For longer distance sharing try http://market.swap.com for books or movies.

Buy used - There are several options here.  Are you signed up for your favorite yahoo homeschool group?  Many of them allow selling items on certain days or exist just as curriculum listserves.  Homeschool classifieds, home educators resource, Educator's Exchange are all options online.  Addall and Alibris (emails coupons frequently) are online used booksellers for mass market books.  Also, be involved in your local homeschool organizations and coops, they often have used curriculum sales.

Buy in bulk - Homeschool Buyers Coop is an option that many have heard of.  Also, you can organize your own group buys.  A person at our homeschool coop organized a group buy for Nova Natural toys for a 15% savings for example.  Contact a publisher and find out what kind of deal they can give you for a certain number of copies to organize your own group.   Even if you only pair up with a friend, you split the shipping.

Free curriculum options - Homeschool Launch is a file sharing service for homeschoolers.
Currclick - has weekly freebies as well as frequent larger giveaways.  Many curriculum providers have email blasts or facebook freebies so sign up with your favorites.
 
Free classes & free audio books - The list here is rather long so I'm going to break these into a separate post.  Here is the post for free media.  Here is the post for free classes.

Please post a comment with your favorite homeschool money saving idea!

Update Oct, 2012
Try Freeshipping.org to save too.

Happy Fourth of July

Fourth of July means fireworks and BBQ of course but when it comes to celebrating the country and patriotism, I can't think of anything more patriotic than Woody Guthrie's populism.  Google agrees with me, since I wrote this post Tuesday, and Wednesday had Woody's title above.  Google your favorite Guthrie image today and salute this land!

This Land Is Your Land
Words and Music by Woody Guthrie

This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and Me.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway,
I saw above me that endless skyway:
I saw below me that golden valley:
This land was made for you and me.

I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding:
This land was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me.

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

The Woody Guthrie Foundation has free curriculum on how to integrate Woody's life and themes into the core subject areas for elementary and high school students here.  I found the curriculum researching for this post and I'll definitely be working it in to our studies this year.  The toads wore out a copy of Daddy O Daddy and we had to replace it, so they know his music and the curriculum would provide a great format to learn more of it.



 Have a safe and happy holiday everyone!

Spiced Lentil Salad

If you've got a solar oven, you're always on the hunt for recipe ideas and adaptations.  Since I've had mine several years, I'm getting pretty solid at producing reliable food from it.  I thought I'd start sharing my successes occasionally to help other people get the most out of their ovens.

In general solar ovens are like regular ovens with no dehydrating properties.  So anything you can do in an oven you can do in a solar oven with less water and more time.  Ditto crockpot recipes.  Anything crockpot works with less water and less control of the timing.

July in FL is usually hot and a great time to not cook indoors but the rest of the country is fairing even worse right now so take as much as you can outside.

This recipe is adapted from A Kitchen Safari. My mom got me this cookbook on her safari to Africa which she summed up as 'amazing'.

Spiced Lentil Salad

Preheat oven in the sun to bring it up to temperature.
Rinse and sort for rocks 11/4 cup lentils.  I used small french green ones.
If your oven didn't come with cookware, choose a dark saucepan and put in the lentils and 11/2 cups water.  Cook til soft but not mushy.  For me this was 1 hour 45 minutes in the noon day sun.
Finely chop 2 cups onions.  Saute in 2 TB olive oil in skillet on stove for 5 minutes til soft.
Add 2 garlic cloves finely chopped and 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon, 1/8 tsp. anise, 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric, 1/2 tsp.  ground coriander, and 1/2 tsp. ground ginger.  Stir and saute for another minute.
Add 2 skinned (I use the potato peeler instead of dipping in hot water) and diced tomatoes and 1 TB brown sugar.  Cook on low until you have a nice sauce.
Add the lentils and salt to taste.  Stir until mixed and then let sit.  It gets better with age so if you have time, make this the day before serving.  It's great spread on poppadums or on crusty bread.
Serves 4-6

Alternative to Montessori Dressing Frames

Dressing frames are a great teaching tool, however having a whole set is both space and money consuming.  Outside of a preschool environment it can be hard to justify for just one kid.  Some time ago I made up this substitute for older toad.  I thought it would be a great thing to take on a flight across the country; light, space efficient, cheap if lost and fun.  While it was certainly those first three, toad wasn't very interested.  The only thing that taught him how to dress himself was a lot of patience on our part and time.

Fast forward three years later and we're at the same place with younger toad.  However, he actually thinks using this is kind of fun to learn about these things.

This is too long to fit in a regular picture but starting on the left there is:  velcro, a zipper, lacing, buttons, hooks and eyes and finally snaps.

Some of these things are hard to do for a beginner.  However, if you went to the library and got a basic sewing book this kind of project is a great one to learn on.  It's super cheap since the materials can be leftovers, it doesn't have to fit anyone special, and no one will notice any sewing mistakes.