afarmhouselife: 2013

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Homeschool Term 4 2013

Here's the run down on what we've been up to during Term 4...

English

Amy (Early Stage 1/Stage 1)
Reading Eggs
Learning Language Arts Through Literature- Blue level
Targeting Handwriting -1
RIC Publications Spelling - Book A
Downunder Literature Copywork

Lili (Stage 1)

Reading Eggs
Learning Language Arts Through Literature- Red level
Targeting Handwriting -2
RIC Publications Spelling - Book B
Downunder Literature Copywork

Nathan (Stage 3)
Basic Skills Creative Writing Years 3-8 workbook
Time for Better English 6
Nathan has read the entire series of The Rangers Apprentice, among many other books.

Plus loads of reading- the librarian told me that between us we had borrowed over 1000 books so far this year!

Maths

Amy- Math-U-See Alpha
Lili- Math-U-See Beta
Nathan- Math-U-See Zeta

Both the girls will be finishing their books very soon, while Nathan may have a few pages left until next year. Because we went back to cover some gaps in his learning when he first came home from school, he has been doing a double workload of Maths to catch up.

HSIE

Aboriginal Studies using:

Australians All by Nadia Wheatley and Ken Searle. Australians All is Australian History told through stories about children and adolescents. We found it's format very accessible.

We read about Aboriginal life around Lake Mungo in Australians All, which formed a springboard for learning more about Mungo Man and Mungo Woman, as well as a re-cap on what we have learned previously about Australian Mega Fauna.

The children did a visual response to the story in Australians All...

and watched these videos:
Archival footage from 1968 following the discovery of Mungo Man
ABC Catalyst report on Mega Fauna archaeological dig

and explored this website
http://www.visitmungo.com.au/mungo-different

Watching parts of the SBS Series First Australians

Plus the Medieval Re-enactment day in October, where we got to see armour, swords and knights....

Clothing, utensils and customs of the time....

Lili was chosen to pick an item that was from medieval times.

My favourite part was the mounted archery, jousting etc.

Science and Technology

Watching episodes of The Surfing Scientist and Scope
Nathan has been learning about the Scientific Method, and all the children have been doing experiements with the Thames and Kronos Physics Kit.

Nathan- CSIRO Helix club 2 day workshop
Nathan- Minecraft challenges at DIY.org

Sport & Health

Amy & Lili- Horseriding, including a day at Pony Club to try it out. We have a new pony, Mini. She is a gorgeous Welsh Mountain Pony.

We have been enjoying Indoor Rock Climbing...

Nathan- Archery

We watched pro-BMX riders, as well as scooter riders and skateboarders at Newton's Nation- an extreme sports event at Newcastle Harbour.

Creative Arts

Amy & Lili- Art lessons at local gallery
Nathan- Urban Art

Nathan was inspired by the work of Marco Luccio, after seeing his exhibition Cities, Stories and Landscapes at the local Art Gallery.

We saw and enjoyed Roald Dahls The BFG performance by Hunter Region Drama School.

Other

Various websites on the girl's weebly site
and Nathan's weebly site

Making a scarecrow (Mr Hayman) to keep the crows from stealing our eggs.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Going Gluten Free- an update

We've been gluten free for several months now and I thought some readers might be interested to know how it's going. I wrote about the start of this journey here

I have taken all gluten out of my diet virtually all of the time. I have loads more energy, have stopped falling asleep on the lounge in the evening and have lost several kilograms. I am still eating raw muesli for breakfast, because oats contain a slightly different kind of gluten which some people, including me, can tolerate. At first I found that I craved bread and got really hungry without it, but that passed and now I don't really miss it. I did try to make gluten free bread quite a bit at first, and I found that too much bread type foods even with other grains would make me feel bloated and tired.

My son, 12, is also gluten free almost all of the time. He has less issues with bouts of nausea and other bowel problems. The most amazing thing is that he is happier! I didn't realise that food can impact on emotions so much.

Both my son and I have noticed that if we do have gluten now we react to it noticeably. Nathan can eat two lollies containing gluten and immediately feel nauseus. I react to wine unless it is organic. I probably always had a reaction but now I can detect it.

My husband has greatly reduced the gluten in his diet. He has found that he has more energy, particularly in the afternoon when he would usually have quite an energy slump. Did you know that the old song about baked beans and flatulence is wrong? Or at least it doesn't tell the whole story, because it is really gluten that causes all that wind :)

My daughters still have gluten but again much less than they used to.

It has been a difficult change to get used to but it is getting easier all the time. The main challenges for us were replacing bread for lunches and also cutting back on pasta. Lunch now tends to be salads with eggs, cheese, veges and nuts to help fill us up. It is harder if we need to be out and about as I find I need to be really organised to make sure I have something that we can take out with us. We eat more meat than we used to as we needed to replace bread and pasta with something filling.

I have slightly given up on gluten free bread because it just isn't the same and tends to disappoint. I think the key is to not try to recreate wheat based foods without wheat as it just doesn't work very well. I have found and tweaked a good recipe for gluten free pizza dough and I'm happy to report that it makes a really tasty pizza. The secret is buckwheat (which has nothing to do with wheat- not sure how it got it's name!) which I really like the taste of.

Packaged gluten free foods are expensive and full of additives so I avoid buying them, although at first I did buy some just to try to help get through the initial stages of our dietary changes. I experimented with different flours to find the ones we liked. I mix our own gluten free flour mix which we use for baking, pancakes and any recipe that calls for plain flour. It is like a wholemeal flour in that it is heavier than a white flour.

150g tapioca flour

150g potato starch

200g brown rice flour

200g buckwheat flour

150g millet flour

150g quinoa flour

So, is it worth the trouble? Definitely yes. I need to be more organised for breakfast and lunch, but as I gather a new repertoire of GF recipes it is getting easier. The results for Nathan and myself in particular have been significant.

I recommend anyone considering removing gluten from their diet to give it a go. You have nothing to lose and it may be a life changing decision.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Around the "farm"...

Actually, I took these photos a few weeks ago and didn't get a chance to post them. At the moment we are experiencing hot westerly winds frequently and have had very little rain. The paddocks are dry and crispy and we really need some rain soon.

I harvested 2.5kg of beetroot and pickled and bottled it. We have been loving it with salad for lunch and I'm hoping the new crop grows quickly as we are charging through the bottles I made!

The apple and pear trees were flowering and now have fruit growing. They were here when we came so I have no idea what variety they are or when I should expect them to be fruiting.

We have five new chicks- supposedly Black Australorps but in reality a cross breed by the look of the mix of feathers they have. They have grown so much since I took these photos. We deliberately bought large, heavy birds this time, so that any that turn out to be roosters will be good for dinner.

Our lambs have also grown. They have gotten out a few times lately and caused trouble trying to catch them, so I have been thinking how plump and juicy they are looking! But...we are keeping these ewe lambs as our new breeding stock, so no roast lamb yet. It turned out that the other ewe we bought was not actually in lamb (just fat!!) which is disappointing. If she doesn't lamb next season she will have to go.

We got rid of the other rooster, who was a bit cranky, so now Shadow rules the roost. He is an Ancona, and most handsome!

Hope your garden is growing well, and your animals thriving! My thoughts are with all those whose homes, gardens and animals have been affected by the NSW bushfires.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Grow. Harvest. Eat.

For the first time I am making an effort to really grow all our own vegetables, rather than just have a few growing to supplement what we buy. I need to dig more vege beds so I have enough space, and I know I still need to sharpen my skills in seed raising, succesion planting, pest control and so on. That's "Grow".

But what about Harvest and Eat? It may seem strange to you, but I realised that I was leaving things in the garden longer than I really should instead of picking it. Perhaps because it's so nice to walk past and see a plant producing successfully and I want to savour the success? We have lovely soil here at our new house, and after struggling to grow veges for years in hard-packed-clay-with-no-top-soil, having veges grow well is still something of a novelty.

So I have made some conscious harvesting expeditions in the garden. If I pick it and it's inside ready to go then I will use it. I have also stopped buying most other vegetables, except for a few staples like potato and carrots. This forces me to use what I have growing in new and creative ways.

Just how many different ways can you eat brocolli, kale and spinach? How many lettuces can we get through in a week? How many days will little girls refuse half their dinner, because it's green, before they realise there's just more greens coming?