The Carrot Seed - BFIAR

I home school Ellie, for those who aren't aware; and I love it! But her "Schooling" at this point in her life is anything but structured. We play, play, play and read all day! Her work is playing, exploring, moving, creating, and imagining! She LOVES books more than any other thing that we play with. Books are the best way to play and explore! The concept of Before Five In A Row per their own website is the following: 

"Dedicated to protecting and nurturing the early years of childhood, Before Five in a Row opens up the world of learning through great books and creative play, and builds a solid foundation for more formal education to come.

This important product has two sections: the first presenting 23 Five in a Row-style mini-units (plus an extra mini-unit) based on outstanding children’s books for ages 2-4+.  The second presents an entire treasury of learning readiness activities intended to be used in your every day life: things to do in the kitchen, at the store, at bedtime, bath time and more".

So, it instills in children the love of reading, classic stories, comprehension, and following a FUN theme! It is not a "curriculum" or "work". It is reading, bonding, and learning through playing. Which is exactly how a toddler should learn- not through worksheets...but through PLAY and hands on interaction!! I love it!

Our very first adventure in diving into the Before Five In A Row book list was "The Carrot Seed."

This was the perfect one for us to begin with as our family is currently also starting our own garden and we have sown many carrot seeds over the last couple of weeks which are now beautiful seedlings. 

Ellie and I began our adventure with first reading the classic story. Then, we baked carrot cake cupcakes!!

We made a very healthy recipe so they were guilt free! My favorite kind of food. Here is a link for the recipe we used: Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Ellie got to measure, crack eggs, stir, divide, and ice the cupcakes! She loves baking with mommy in the kitchen and she is quite good at it!

We also cut the tops off all our carrots to attempt to regrow carrots! We simply cut the tops, placed them halfway deep in water, and sat them on the windowsill so they can soak up the sun! We will wait a few days and soon, God willing, see some regrowth begin!
After I had cut them, Ellie sorted them by counting each one and moving them to the side. We counted a total of 9, and therefore counted out 9 bowls to place them each in. Ellie found this a very interesting project and got so tickled at her responsibility of placing each carrot in a bowl and carting them to the window. It will be awesome to watch them grow!

We also used an egg carton and pretended it was a field. We sowed the field with our make believe carrot seeds! (toothpicks). This is a fine motor skill and wildly entertaining for a 2 year old. She on her own, when finished and satisfied, asked me to count them with her. That we did! More math!

We also made an art project with carrots! We painted using carrots. Oh, Ellie found this very fun!! We used baby carrots and rolled them in the paint and across the page. Great messy fun! We cut the carrots into circles and stuck toothpicks in them so they may be used as paint stamps! I think this was Ellie's favorite method. And we also used a large carrot like a pen or brush! We both made pictures...Ellie helped me with mine too! And at the end, she used the carrots to paint her hands and arms! 

And last but not least, to finish our carrot seed themed day, we observed our own growing carrot seedlings!! We have a large excess of seedlings, so I pulled a couple out to show Ellie how our planted seed had grown. We observed the root, stem, and leaves. We talked about how eventually that would become a carrot, which is a root vegetable that grows under ground! 

Our bible verse for this book is Romans 8:25 - "We must wait patiently." 

Above all the things I will ever teach Ellie as her teacher in home school, the most important thing is Jesus first. In everything we can see Jesus and He is the reason and purpose  of our lives. We want to glorify Him in all we do-even in school and gardening. It takes patience (a huge lesson for a 2 year old) to grow our plants and vegetables. What a great way to help steward that fruit of the spirit. No pun intended! Also, In the book of Mark, which we happen to be reading through during our bible reading every morning together, there are two parables Jesus uses to teach the crowds and His disciples that use sewing seeds and harvesting a crop. Of course these parables are to paint a picture of what it is to reap what we sow, and to follow Jesus and be "rooted" in Him. 

Healthy Guilt Free Carrot Cake Cupcakes!

Ingredients: 

* 2 large eggs
* 1/3 cup refined coconut oil melted
* 2 tsp vanilla extract
* 1 8oz can crushed pineapple in juice, drained
* 1 1/2 cup grated carrots
* 2 cups almond flour
* 1 tsp baking soda
* pinch of salt
* 1/2 tsp cinnamon
* 1/4 tsp ground ginger
* 1/2 cup chopped pecans

      Cream cheese frosting

* 8 oz cream cheese or dairy free-cream cheese softened
* 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
* 1/4 cup refined coconut oil softened
* 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
* pinch of ground ginger

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F

2. In a large bowl, whisk eggs. Stir in melted coconut oil, and vanilla extract. Stir together until well combined. Add in drained crushed pineapples, carrots, and dry ingredients: almond flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger. Whisk well until well combined and smooth, then fold in chopped pecans.

3. Portion out batter into cupcake tin, filling each completely full. Recipe will make about 10 cupcakes. Bake 20-25 mins or until a fork inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool.

4. While letting the cupcakes cool, make your cream cheese frosting. Combine softened cream cheese, maple syrup, softened coconut oil, vanilla extract, and ground ginger in a medium bowl. Beat with a hand mixer until completely smooth. Set aside.

5. Once cupcakes are completely cooled, use a spatula to ice the cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting.

Voila! Bon appetite!

Getting into Gardening

If I could, I'd live on a farm and I'd name it something like, "Gladden's Green Pastures." There would be goats, chickens, and cows. I'd also get into bee keeping. Alas, I still have an HOA even though we have been blessed with much more space and privacy. Therefore, Farmer Em is only able to keep gardens going.

Gardening is very satisfying to me! I find satisfaction, happiness, and calm in nature and working with a shovel and digging my hands in some fresh dirt. I love goals. Watching something grow and be successful is rewarding to me personally. I also really love and believe in a healthy lifestyle. I hated vegetables pretty much up until age 22. I actually still do not like salad and will never choose to eat one unless in extreme circumstances. But I love vegetables. I love to incorporate them into the dinners I cook. Roasting them or using them as the main course/entree is the best.

So I am following my dreams to have my own vegetable garden. Eventually, I'd like to grow this garden to be a cozy spot in the yard to sit and read a book and it be like a place of peace and solace.

I don't want to do it alone though. I want Ellie to have a garden for herself! Under her playground, she has started a flower garden. She is so proud of it; it is precious. She has started hers with some pink and red daylillies. We were given bulbs for free from McLean Maple Farm so that is what Ellie used to get started. I let her choose where she wants to place them. It does not need to "make sense;" it just needs to be exactly what she wants. Her creation. We recently went shopping for seeds together as well for some flower seeds she can scatter in her garden. She was SO happy and tickled to pick them out! She held them so safely in her hands as we ventured around the garden section. "These are Ellie's," she said. We will plant those in a couple months. As a home school lesson with gardening, Ellie and I have been reading several books regarding plants, plant lives, seeds, and anatomy of a flower. From these books she has been able to understand, retain, and explain to me at any random time that it is too cold right now to plant a seed. She also can explain that a seed can't have too much water or too much heat. She understands the basic needs of seeds. I was only ever taught seeds need sun, dirt, and water. If only it were always that simple. There is a lot to learn and pay attention to.

Ellie has also helped me as we begin to create our vegetable garden. It will not be finished this year, however; the vegetable garden will get off to a good start this spring. God willing!

I plan to have 4 large, L-shaped cedar raised beds that widely surround a Japanese Maple I planted this fall. We may only be able to financially build one of these beds to start. We will add the other beds as I save our money. This vegetable adventure is not just something that makes me happy; it is also a way to eventually be able to save a bit of money by harvesting our own produce and freezing and canning some as well.

So, I have a lot to learn and I have been doing research for close to a year. Even with that, I learn by doing and by making mistakes and improving on my skill. I started seedlings this month (February) to plant in a few weeks - to each vegetable's recommended guideline. I started with carrots, broccoli, peppers, onions, beets, and tomatoes. All organic seeds and organic soil. I started the seeds in small greenhouse systems. Each species has its own greenhouse to begin its growth in. I want to have an "Aerogarden" eventually, but first I need to learn exactly what I am doing. Therefore, I purchased individual pellets and pods to plant the seedlings in for germination. There are two types I purchased, both by the company, "Jiffy." The first one I used for the broccoli hosted 36 pellets. The pellets were cups of dehydrated soil wrapped in a netting. To use these, I had to hydrate each pellet slowly and patiently with 1/2 a cup of warm water. The next step was to gently pull away a bit of the netting at the top, and then bury 2-3 seeds into each hydrated pellet. Cover with soil, then cover with a clear lid to create a greenhouse effect and keep indoors and follow through with other steps as they begin to grow. I made the mistake of removing the entire netting on like 24 of the 36 soil pellets after they were hydrated. This won't be problematic, but potentially may cause roots to expand a little wildly. It is indeed a learning process. This particular germination process was really, really time consuming. So for the other 5 vegetable seeds, I chose a similar but different system. I bought a tray with biodegradable empty cups in which I filled with organic seedling specific soil. Being able to just fill the cups with soil instead of waiting for each one to hydrate by slowly dripping water made the process move much faster. Messier but faster. This suited my needs much better. So, currently our seedlings are planted and "greenhoused." We will watch them as they grow and follow the next steps!

 (Above: First system in which I had to hydrate each soil pellet)
(Below: Second system in which I filled each cup with soil; time and money efficient)

(All 6 vegetables in their "greenhouses")

We still need to build our first raised bed, too! We will get on that soon.

Things I am learning:

*Companion planting
*Natural pesticide
*When to plant what
*The needs of each species

I'll keep recording our progress and what I learn and how I grow as I grow our veggies!! So excited for this adventure!