Tag: homeschooling

Homemade Vanilla Extract Homeschool Activity

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Making homemade vanilla extract is an excellent homeschool activity. So much learning in one simple project and we get to enjoy the fruits of our labor after it’s marinated a while when they help me bake some goodies 🍪🥧🍰#winwin These also make great gifts for neighbors, coworkers, teachers, etc. You can keep them perpetually by topping them off with vodka as you use the extract.

🔢 Incorporated math while learning about measuring, portions and quantities, and fractions.

🔬🧬 Tons of science and chemistry learning about distillation and fermentation along with properties of food preservation.

🌎Exploring geography using two different vanilla beans from 2 of our continent units.

📝 Reflection and writing while we compared the size, shape, smell, and properties of both beans. Madagascar vanilla beans had less floral sweet notes than the Tahitian beans from Indonesia but were bigger and more oily.

Can’t wait to see how our extract turns out! 🤩

Update: After about 3 months they had turned a nice amber color, after a year and they’re still going strong!


Want to make your own? Here’s our Shopping list:

  • A decent vodka, we opted for Absolute, we got a large bottle since we used 7 oz per jar
  • Tahitian Vanilla Beans this is a pack of 10 which was easy to split into 2-3 beans per jar
  • Madagascar Vanilla Beans also a pack of 10
  • Swing top glass jars these are fabulous and reusable, would also make cute gifts, they also come with the little chalk labels

The Life of Homeschooling

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Well there’s a post I never thought I’d be writing. I tell everyone that homeschooling was never part of my life plan, so I thought. I loved the idea of it in theory but it was one of those “oh good for them, I could never do that” type of things. Until I really had no choice. Thus ensued one of the craziest, challenging, and rewarding experiences of my life that my family will always remember…

Aug 5 2020

Well here you have it folks, my homeschool or more formally known as the dining room. It’s a work in progress as this impromptu idea finally takes hold. Rearranging the entire house to accommodate the desk workspace in the back room was a fun time. As well as digging up anything I could repurpose for this absolutely insane adventure. I have many reasons for making the agonizing decision to do this, it is NOT the path I ever wanted and I’d be lying to say I wasn’t angry at what I feel forced to do here. However, I’m hoping this “mustard seed” blooms larger than life and I’m crossing my fingers to keep a shred of my sanity in tact over the next 10 months. I feel an immense amount of pressure to do this right for the sake of my children’s futures and my perfectionism allows no room for grace for myself. 4 kids. 4 grades. I think I can. I know I can. #operationhomeschoolisback#hangingonfordearlife#dinnerpartieswillhavetowait

The best way to tell the story is to start at the end because it sums up the entirety of this experience and most notably that we survived. The long and short of it is that we decided to pull our kids out of the public school system after the epic disaster that is “remote learning” and homeschool them for the school year of 2020-2021. Our intention was to take it one day at a time with the goal of them returning to the public school system after the chaos of Covid19 had died down. I will detail our year in various posts but the takeaway is the finish line. For anyone considering this, here’s a peek into the last day of our year.

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