More Monday Motivation . . .

. . . for homeschooling from Steve and Jane Claire Lambert. Jane Claire is the author of the Five in a Row curriculum that we use here at God Seekers Academy.

We're not trying to do ‘School at Home’; we're trying to do homeschool. These are two entirely different propositions. We're not trying to replicate the time, style or content of the classroom. Rather we're trying to cultivate a lifestyle of learning in which learning takes place from morning until bedtime... seven days each week...

GodSeekers Academy this week . . .

We are having such a fun week so far! Here's what we have going on:

• We are reading How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman . . . we usually read it every year about this time just because it's such a fun book! We're working on an apple lapbook filled with all kinds of "delicious" information to go along with this great book! We'll also be taking an apple-picking field trip to wrap up our week of learning about apples


• To tie in with our apple book, we've been looking at "Still Life with Apples" by Paul Cezanne, as well as some of his other artwork. This afternoon we are planning to try our own apple still life drawings with oil pastels . . . I'll be sure to post some pictures afterwards!


• Jaden has been enjoying his phonics program so much! I am using the Explode the Code primer series with him, and he is doing so well! The letter of the week for this week is S -- the first thing Jaden asked me when he woke up this morning was if I could print out an S book for him that he could read. (I use Reading A-Z's website for those.) So I printed out his book and he had it down pat before breakfast so he could read it to Daddy!


• Lael started Horizons 2 math today . . . and it was "easy-breezy" (her words)! Today's lesson even had a cross-number puzzle, which was new for both of us -- but lots of fun!

I have some other things I want to do this week, including:

• apple prints -- that's just a classic "must-do" project in fall


• History for Little Pilgrims - continuing on with the history in Genesis, including placing pictures on our timeline for the Tower of Babel and the flood


• writing apple cinquains


• cooking with apples -- maybe some apple bread or apple dumplings (yummy!)

Our week with "When I Was Young In the Mountains"

This week, the book we've been focusing on has been When I Was Young In the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant. The story takes place in the Appalachian Mountains and is a sweet story of a simpler time. We've enjoyed so much about this book and have learned alot at the same time!

Some of the things we've discussed include:

• where the Appalachian Mountains are located
• the importance of being content in whatever circumstances we find ourselves
• the literary device of repetition
• the use of details in illustrations to help tell the story
• the differences between life in the story and our lives today -- things like having to pump your water, use an outhouse, cook on a woodstove or take a bath in a tin tub
• what coal is, where it comes from and how it is used

A highlight of the week was making a meal from the book. We made baked pinto beans and cornbread. (The family in the book ate pinto beans, cornbread and fried okra, but I'm not an okra expert, so we left that out.) I forgot to get the camera out while we were making the baked beans, but here we are making cornbread . . .

Our cornbread recipe came from Titi Ramonita and it's so yummy! It starts with two boxes of corn muffin mix (we used Jiffy brand) . . .

. . . and one can of cream-style corn.

Other ingredients include: 3/4 c. sour cream (or plain yogurt), 1/4 oil and 2 eggs

Once you mix all ingredients together . . .

you spread it in an ungreased 13x9 pan and bake in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Then you poke it all over with a fork and pour 1 stick of melted butter all over the top and let it soak into the cornbread (told you it was the yummiest)!

And here are my little chefs with the meal they prepared: baked pinto beans, cornbread and fluffy lemonade salad. They are great cooks -- it was a fantastic meal and a fun culmination to our week of learning!

Now, don't you wish you could have been here for dinner? :)