The HerdKeeper

Late spring, early summer we met with another family to show them the Konos ropes. We studied orderliness and how that translates into construction/building. We discussed the different trades needed to build a house and the difficulty and skill it takes to build a house. They were not convinced until they were challenged to build one themselves. We first started off by making the foundation of a building with Popsicle sticks and the walls. While we were waiting for the sticks to dry, we moved on to an outside project of building a compost bin out of scrap lumber. They were armed with pallets and a few other scraps. The finished project was a little shaky but it was a great experience. Leadership qualities popped up and everyone had to learn to "cooperate". Our houses were destroyed by a hurricane named Zack (he's two). I understand they finished their houses and used marshmallows for insulation in between their walls. Impressive. check out the link below for a descrip

In our co op class we have been learning about Ancient Egypt. Our first week focused on the geography of Egypt and The Nile River. I just love how this is all coming together. We are reading The Cat of Bubastes by G. A. Henty as our literature for this unit. The description of the Nile and the distinction between upper and lower Egypt hopefully cemented this lesson. I hope the kids are seeing these connections!!!! Currently we are working on learning about the Pharoah's and creating a presentation. These are to be given in the first person, in costume. This past week we worked on creating their own personal sarcophogus. I can't wait to see how this turns out. This will be followed by a feast of primarily vegetables just as the Egyptians would have eaten.

I am teaching a one hour co op class on Ancient History using HOW I (Konos) to high school students and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I have discovered that one hour is just not enough time. In addition to the homework I assign, such as Streams of Civilization and various websites, we have done some really fun things to help the lessons stick. We studied Abraham and his journey and placed him on a time line and plotted his journey. I will say that map work is my weak point. I envisioned beautiful colored maps and frankly it hasn't worked out that way, but we all have the idea. Next we added Issac and Jacob and Esau to our time lines. We ate a traditional red lentil stew. I found this amazing website that gave me history and recipe. http://theshiksa.com/2011/02/23/jacobs-lentil-stew/ You must check out her fabulous website. Finally we studied the tower of Babel and added it to the time line and then we proceeded to build the tower out of sugar cubes. I honestly wasn't sure how w

Some things that I have learned about being a mom of many are that it only takes a minute. So much of the time I put off doing little things my children asked for because I thought I was too busy. This left them feeling like they were ignored or not important. I have come to the realization that sometimes it only takes a minute, or five to do the fun things that make memories. Today I painted my little girls nails pink. Literally it took me a minute for each little girl and they were thrilled. I can heat water for a tea party while I clean the kitchen and when it is done I can call my little girls in to have a tea party. We can have a little tea and with their attention span it only lasts minutes or until the tea is gone. I was watching all these wonderful projects come through on pinterest and thinking that is so great but I don’t have time. One day I decided to make a fall tree project I had seen with our fingers to print the leaves. From setup to clean up it took 10 minutes to do th