Hey there! It’s been awhile since I last wrote here! I’ve been busy as a bee, but lately it has been on my heart to begin writing again.
My husband began working at his new job around the time of my last post! He delivers medical supplies to hospitals for surgeries. It has truly been the biggest blessing for our family in so many ways after a long season of financial struggles – God is so good. However, like most families we are still feeling the burden of inflation & any chance of having “extra” money has been replaced with double the price of Energy Bills each month. That money had to come from somewhere and, unfortunately, that meant we had to put our girls piano lessons on pause.
Luckily, it didn’t take long before I found Hoffman Academy – a FREE, online piano school providing a complete musical education that is put together with short, easy-to-follow videos. Each of my girls have their own profile that keeps track of their progress & where they are in their learning process, which makes all of our lives easier than if we had to constantly remember who left off on which video.
The girls put the video on the computer and play along on our piano. Each day, I have them each complete one video lesson which are typically around 10-15 minutes long. If they are enjoying themselves and would like to complete more than one lesson, they are welcome to do that. It ensures they get their practice time on the piano each day & keeps us on a good rhythm, filling our time wisely.
It is a really great resource for both children and adults alike – anyone who wishes to learn the piano. If you’re a homeschooling mama like I am, there is even a FREE complete curriculum already put together for us with printables and interactive games to make learning music fun.
Hoffman Academy does offer a paid premium option that includes additional lessons and access to their entire library. We currently are using the free option which works just fine for our family. Don’t let money (or lack thereof) be an excuse to hold you back from living your best life & accomplishing all you want. Where there is a will, there is always a way. Happy learning!
Our friend, Mrs. Mary, invited us out to her beautiful property in Indiana today to go on a Homeschool Nature Hike. They are also into the Charlotte Mason lifestyle.
Her property is that of my actual dreams. She has a beautiful farmhouse filled with all vintage and handmade items. It is so cozy, especially this time of year with her fire burning in their fireplace in the living room. It has the sweetest laundry/mud room with beautiful natural sunlight and vintage & natural decor that would make doing laundry feel so peaceful and joyous.
Out back is a huge nature trail through the woods, a barn, a pond with a beautifully crafted gazebo, large garden spaces, so much room for kids to run around and play endlessly outside. Best of all, her son’s family lives next door. That’s exactly what we dream of!!!!
Before our hike, she fed us all lunch and shared her personal Nature Journal with us, then gifted us each our own new nature journal to get started with! That was so sweet & thoughtful of her to do for us. We peaked through the book that she uses as inspiration for how to create a Nature Journal.
She has been doing this for many years and has fond memories recorded from trips she’s taken where she was able to experience the wonders that the Creator has freely given us. I love the idea of looking back years from now with special memories brought flooding back by pages recorded in our Nature Journal. She’ll jot down notes or places she made an entry. She adds poems & words of wisdom in her journal. I love that.
Afterwards, we took a lovely hike through the woods, then came back and let the kids play outside for awhile. They have a great fairy garden that the kids loved. I’ll have to put a lot more work into ours. They have such cool Nature in their own backyard! That is exactly what I long for in our forever home. We left in time to miss the dreaded Friday late afternoon traffic, came home and the girls took time working on their first Nature Journal pages.
All of us really enjoyed finding mushrooms. We spotted several different types while we were out on the trail. I love them so much! There were really big ones & really small ones and the ones we see the most often: Turkey Tails. It’s fascinating how many different varieties there are in just her forest alone!
The mushrooms definitely made it into the Nature Journals. Mrs. Mary told me that she keeps another book of Spore Prints that she makes. I’m really excited to check that out next time we are invited. She also has a Nature Wall like us too!
We tasted Rosehip. It’s very sweet! I liked the way they looked. We learned that Rosehip is often used in tea. I had heard of it before, but had no idea what it looked like or what it was a berry.
Rosehip has a lot of medicinal purposes, which is why it is popular in teas. Rosehip can help with joint pain & inflammation, lower blood pressure & cholesterol, and aid in digestion. They help improve eyesight & skin. They are also used to treat bronchitis, coughs, & colds and have a ton of Vitamin A and E so they help strengthen your immune system. They also protect your vascular system. I’m definitely going to have to start incorporating this into our diets more.
Besides tea, they are also used to make jams & jellies, syrup, soup, or a sauce. I’m interested to try those!
There was also so much moss on the trail! I really, really love moss. I loved the way this shaggy type looked growing off of the trees.
Athena also liked the tress with moss & the whispy, twirly branches hanging from some of them.
This cool stuff is called Fan Clubmoss. It was popping up all over the trail! I had never heard of it before, but when I got home I looked it up and found they also have so many medicinal purposes! They treat rashes & wounds, skin infections & chafing, urinary Tract infections, kidney infections, and bladder infections. It can also be used to naturally dye cloths & fabrics. It is so amazing what all Nature is capable of & I absolutely love the way it looks!
Another fascination was the animal skulls along the trail. This was a raccoon. There was a second decomposing raccoon later down the trail that still had some of its furry meat-suit attached (Athena thought it was a monkey) and a teeny tiny bird skull that was so cute!
It will be really neat to watch as their journals become more detailed the more they get into it. I am so excited to begin working in mine. This is something that we will definitely be doing for the rest of our homeschool journey & I’m sure even longer as we will then pass it on to their children when that season of life comes around.
I really love Nature so much & am so happy to be raising children who also love and appreciate Nature as much as I do. Ella really gets so into it each time we go on a Nature Hike. She loves using the PictureThis App to find out the names of different plants she wants to learn more about. I’m happy they would rather be outside exploring Nature & the world around them than choosing to plop down in front of a screen wasting their lives away. There is such a big, beautiful world out there and now we have a new way to document the wonders we come across. So grateful for Mrs. Mary sharing this with us.
From Heroin to Housewife 