Shelf Work Report ~ Garlic Tea

Shelf Work Choices:

It's time to get back in gear. We had Spring Break; then a crazy but wonderful youth fair week; and now it's time to get back into gear. Oh wait, that was last week when I started this post. Okay, it's time to get back in gear - again!

We had one good, solid 3-hr-work period last week with shelf work and it was wonderful and interesting. It's almost like they have to get normalized all over again. I don't know if we've ever truthfully been completely normalized because we aren't very consistent with our work periods due to other scheduling/work commitments and curricula choices. Mondays are our best days right now (along with laundry, cooking, etc). Anyway, I worked really hard on keeping my mouth shut and letting them choose (although I did ask youngest dd beforehand to eventually go through the low cubby so she can tell me what she really doesn't need/like anymore). Here were their choices:

- Oldest Dd actually worked on her algebra for at least an hour even though I had told them beforehand that they *could* do math as part of their 3-hr-work period at any point but didn't have to do math at all. Then she spent the rest of the time going through old lapbooks. Technically not a work but I figured her brain was tired from math and she wasn't feeling that great. Anyway, I was keeping my mouth closed!

- Middle Dd spent most of her time using the snap circuit board (and making a little propeller thingie fly around the study).

- Youngest Dd spent the entire 3 hours going through the basket of homemade books written by them over the years. Again, not technically a work, but, again, I was keeping my mouth closed. Plus, I thought it might inspire her in her own story writing and book making.

Skip ahead a week and we come to this week. We ended up only having an hour for shelf work Monday because I was determined to have a good writing lesson and by golly, we were gonna enjoy it :). So, after doing our maths, rebooting/loading laundry, finishing youngest dd's math, religion, handwriting, and coordinating all of the governments of the free world, everyone was ready for a writing lesson at the same time (phew!). I'll post that below. For now I'll stick with the work period.

-Oldest Dd: Zoology box and the world ball

-Middle Dd: snap circuit kit again and the world ball

-Youngest Dd: Hammer Tick (you hammer geometric shapes into a corkboard to make pictures), tangram card game with me (neither one of us could figure it out without the answer!), and the world ball.

The world ball is simply a ball with the globe on it. They roll it to each other and the receiver calls out whatever is under their right thumb. I got it years and years ago at Wal-Mart and they still enjoy it.

Writing Lesson:

In brief, this is what we did for writing workshop: I read a little from Ralph Fletcher's book Live Writing; I read a sort of tall tale called the Texas Stampede; we read some from a book called Short Tall Tales; we referred to a picture book I couldn't put my hands on at the moment about Davy Crockett saving the world that all 3 have already read; and brainstormed some tall tale exaggerations orally. Then the olders went back to write in their writer's notebooks. Originally I was going to have them write tall tales but realized while we were in our lesson just how hard that is. Instead we shifted and talked about exaggerations, which they used for their title on that page. Then they just focused on coming up with exaggerations. Youngest dd went back to write about whatever she wanted. Here are a few they generated:

-So skinny that... There's a fellow in Montana, who can slide through an air vent. And when he takes a shower he has to run around to get wet.

- So fast that... George Mayhill is so fast that when he runs over a bridge his reflection doesn't reach the water until about four minutes have passed.

- There was a librarian who was so small, by the name of Mrs. Molt. And to put a book upon the shelf she must use a catapult.

- There was a ball that was so bouncy, no children were allowed to touch it. For if they did the ball would bounce and come down in Kentucky.

It's all part of being a writer. These are in their writer's notebooks and who knows what inspiration will come of them.

Garlic Tea:

I'm sick, I'm tired, I'm frustrated, I'm desperate. I'm on day 4 of a nasty stomach bug and need some garlic tea. I've been taking garlic pills (among other things) but the garlic tea is what I need. So, I go to the website where I know I'll find a recipe - a wonderful candida site called healing naturally by Bee. I'll link her garlic tea recipe which I made with the following changes.

First of all, her recipe says that the garlic should be "preferably certified organic." So, I stumble out to the back porch and retrieve the garlic head that I never planted. Yes, from the feed store. It's been out and has a few black mold dots. Great. And some green sprouts. Great. So I pull it apart and manage to find 2 teeth (or cloves) that are clean, dry, with no sprouts. The other ingredients are grated fresh ginger and juice of a lemon. I dig through the freezer and pulled out some lemon slices and ginger slices that I keep for water kefir. I steep it all together for 20 minutes. I resist the temptation to let it sit longer to make it more potent, but I save the chunks of lemon, ginger, and garlic to make some more. You know, had I known that I would be out for the count for 4 days with fever, cramps, etc I would've been better prepared and gotten more groceries! Here's her recipe.

http://www.healingnaturallybybee.com/recipes/recipe175.php

Honestly, I kicked the swine flu much easier than this! Come to think of it, garlic tea was part of my arsenal for that. Why did it take until day 4 for me to get to it this time? Ugh. I think I'll make an extra batch and freeze it for another time hopefully in the faaar away future.