Had our daughter & family over for dinner. She needs an occasional day off with four children & a full-time job. (Don't think God intended Moms to work!)

While Mom relaxed in the library, the kids had fun preparing surprises for her.

The five year old rolled oats in the oat flaker. The seven year old ground cranberry bits into a handy powder. The nine year old sliced and scraped vanilla beans and combined them with Vodka for vanilla extract. The fifteen year old ground wheat into flour. They all made artistic labels which included an internet search about wheat.

The kids really enjoyed doing this and it was a nice alternative to watching a video.

Planning for next visit: Perhaps roasting peanuts and making peanut butter. Also, making paprika from my dried peppers.

Would appreciate any other ideas for educational kid projects!!

My husband helps them make things like mason bee blocks and bird houses.

Will never forget when the youngest was about three -- he discovered lots of overwintered carrots in a raised bed. He worked himself into a sweat pulling all he could find and hosing them down. Then he proudly presented them to Mom, saying proudly: "I PICTED these for you!" He even loved pulling weeds, attacking them with a passion. Had to put a stop to that when he would shout "WEED!" and pull my plants.

His first day in kindergarten was such a disappointment that he told the teacher: "I quit. I'm goin' home and be a farmer!"

-- HV (veggie@ourplace.com), January 21, 2002

Answers

watching milk turn into butter while its being rolled in a mason jar back and forth

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), January 21, 2002.

Oh my HV, I want to come and spend the day at your house doing neat stuff!! (can you hear me whine?) But please tell me about your how you do your oat flakes.... Lynelle in South western VA

-- Lynelle (x2ldp@aol.com), January 21, 2002.

Stan beat me to it. Make bread(or muffins) with homemade butter.

-- DW (djwallace@sotc.net), January 21, 2002.

Hi Lynelle! You're very welcome to come do some neat stuff, that is when you are in the northwest.

The oat flaker is German made, Schnitzer brand. Very good quality, made of wood, metal and two stones. You crank the handle and the oat groats roll between the stones. When my daughter saw how much the kids enjoyed doing it, she wondered how much it cost. She couldn't believe it was about $180. But, it should last a lifetime. Not very big. Attached it to the snack bar. Husband thought it was too much to spend, also, but we all love it. I'm sure he's glad we have it. I know there are different qualities of stones.

Another German made item which I love is my terra cotta sprouter. Never had success with sprouting in jars and any of the plastic stuff. For some reason, everything spoiled easily. Never does in the terra cotta. Another item that looks like it costs too much. Found mine at a reduced price in health food store. Guess people thought it was too expensive. So glad to have it.

-- HV (veggie@ourplace.com), January 21, 2002.

Stan & DW -- About making butter, don't think that would work with our goat milk, but good idea.

-- HV (veggie@ourplace.com), January 21, 2002.

Think I will let the kids make butter with the jar method, using purchased whipping cream. Never did it that way. How long does it generally take? Just wondering how labor intensive for a kid.

-- HV (veggie@ourplace.com), January 21, 2002.

Smear large pinecones with peanut butter then roll them in bird seed. Attach a piece of yarn and you have a bird feeder.

-- Charleen in WNY (harperhill@eznet.net), January 21, 2002.

Plant seeds indoors in small containers. Kids love to watch things grow. Since you do so many things, you may have already did this. This is a family site with kid ideas: http://www.teelfamily.com

-- Jo (farmerjo@kvalley.com), January 21, 2002.

Charleen, will be hunting for pine cones on our property.

Jo, will check out that website.

Thanks

-- HV (veggie@ourplace.com), January 22, 2002.

I don't know how "country" this is- but I'm teaching both my kids to sew. I started out punching designs in cardboard that they could run yarn with a large plastic needle through. Now they are up to doing plastic canvas work-even my ten year old son does it becuase I found some cheap little kits that had cars and space ships. Although my daughter is much more interested, I want my son to at least know how to do simple repair and sew on buttons.

-- Kelly(KY) (homearts2002@yahoo.com), January 22, 2002.

Make ice cream, patchwork quilts, start vegatables from seed, start trees from cuttings...

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), January 22, 2002.

Lotsa great ideas. Boy, am I going to be busy! And have fun, too!

-- HV (veggie@ourplace.com), January 22, 2002.

the butter shouldn't take to long my freind did it with her class of three yr olds. make sure it's COLD.

Also, if you can get your hands on some wool try making felt. It is easy enough that even our kindergarten 4Her's had no problems and my 3 rd grader made a pair of mittens for fair (special award of excellance).

If you have a sheep neighbor you can take the kids through the steps of washing, and carding first. If you aren't going to get into it seriuously a couple small dog slicker brushes will work fine. You can die the clean wool in your favorite shade of Kool-aid! You don't need a mordant to set ht e color, the kids like the bright colors, but if you think about it, you won't ever want to drink kool-aid again! Or you can purchase prepared wool from supplier and dive into a project.

A flat piece is easiest at first. They can lay differant colors on for a marbled effect) Then cut simple stockings and a simple blanket or even running stitch and ...Voila. You can also can cut a shape from plastic (hearts are good, stars are hard) and form the felt around it to make into an ornament (plastic stys inside)decorate with ribbon, lace, buttons...

and so on.....

-- Novina in ND (homespun@stellarnet.com), January 25, 2002.