Totschool Yearend Review

Since we are wrapping up our 2019/2020 school year, I thought I'd take some time to review some of our academic experiences. I've always done some form of preschool, which I prefer to call 'totschool'. For our family, it's just a part of our day where the younger children learn basic academics. I prefer to call it totschool, so as to include some of my middle age children who enjoy that time of our day too; but may not want to participate if I called it 'preschool'. This year our totschool included my children who were two, three, five, and seven. 

In years past I have used a variety of different preschool (totschool) systems, most of which included 'calendar books'. These books went over a multitude of different facts. But over time these little notebooks ended up taking upwards of thirty minutes to complete with each child. Now that I'm educating eight children, my time is stretched thin. Even though we lean towards unschooling, I still like to do some form of learning with each of my children each day. After much prayer and research last year I decided to drop our daily calendar books and create a totschool board.

In an effort to explain our tot school program in it's entirety I did a post at the start of this school year; you can fin it here. I titled that post Homeschool Preschool because that's what most people would call that specific type of lessons. Today I'm going to elaborate on what exactly was a success in our totschool program that I custom designed to meet our younger children's academic needs. 

The most important key component was my planner. Y'all that planner was a LIFESAVER!! I've always planned our school years, but this year I went into detail overdrive and planned every single minute detail of our lessons. Since I'm pulled in so many different directions each day it was a huge asset to just open my planner and plug and chug! It was also was great for the few times when I was out of commissions and my husband or one of my older children stepped in to facilitate our totschool lessons.

My favorite part of our totshool was the totschool board. I loved this board so much that I've decided to expound on our board next year ~ well actually I'm going to do two boards. This year's board covered: calendar, counting, shapes, color, letters, alphabet, seasonal song, months, days of the week, and the weather. Next year I'm going to add: skip counting 2s, 5s, and 10s, sight words, number words, seasons, and personal facts like address and phone number. I plan to continue to use our totschool board with the same four children, but Abby Lou will be added to the bunch; yes, even a baby can participate. 

Honestly, there isn't anything I plan to drop from our totschool lesson plan. I feel like after 15 years of homeschooling, I have finally figured out a younger children's academic program that works for our family. If there's one homeschooling truth that I've learned over the years, it's that what works for one family may or may not work for another family. Keep trying new programs or styles and continue tweaking until you can figure out what best fits the needs of your family. 

There was a few components to our totschool program that I hope to improve upon. The first being our table time totschool activities. I have educational toys boxed up which I had planned to rotate each day, unfortunately this did not happen consistently. Second, I was not committed to assembling our weekly sensory boxes. And third was our educational game time, or rather lack thereof ~ sigh. As you can see our totschool wasn't perfect, but we had a goal we were working towards, and I'm confident next year we will further refine our totschool .  

The good thing about homeschooling is it's a never-ending learning process for everyone involved, especially the parents. Sometimes the lesson plans do not go accordingly, but sometimes they do, and that my friends is a really good feeling. There are plenty of extended seasons of homeschooling when nothing goes right. But, when we do experience those rare unicorn moments of success, its those sweet little victories that are at the core of what encourages me to keep on doing whatever it takes to create the best learning opportunities for my children. 

 With another year of homeschooling under my belt, I can say without a shadow of a doubt: I wouldn't change a thing. I'm so grateful for the gift of homeschooling. It truly is a blessing to get to watch my children learn and grow in wisdom and truth. I especially cherish the fun we get to have learning together, whether it's with my younger crew of totschoolers or my older children of highschoolers ~  its all a gift from the Lord.   

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Freedom Rally

Our family had the privilege of visiting our state capitol where we participated in a Freedom Rally this past Saturday. We met up with some dear friends to caravan the two hours it took to get down to the capitol. Thankfully, it was an absolutely gorgeous spring day in the South!

Anytime we venture out of the house, especially when the trip is going to be longer than just a jaunt around town, it is an event!  A day trip of necessities for us is like what most people would take on a week long vacation, lol. We have two diaper bags, a change of clothes for my five year who almost always gets carsick, and of course food. It takes a lot of planning and preparation for us to go on a day trip. But this adventure was one for the books and one I will always remember. 

We brainstormed as a family to come up with the best rally signs. Since the only stores open to buy craft supplies was Walmart and Dollar Tree, we were unable to find large markers so we had to paint the signs, which took about four hours to make four signs. Sheesh, talk about a lot of work, but we were all pleased with how well they turned out and we even received complements on them. The camaraderie was amazing at the rally and we were able to share our signs with others to use once our younger crew got tired of holding them.

It took a little while for us to actually find where the rally was located, but we managed to get there on time even if we did have to walk a fairly long way from where we parked. As we were walking up to the gathering, one of the other protestors had a nasty fall. An elderly lady missed the curb and fell and smacked her head on the sidewalk. She had a horrible gash on her head as well as terrible swelling to her face. The paramedics came to patch her up, be she opted to stay for the rally. Talk about an encouragement in patriotism! One of her family members was treating her wounds with essential oils which let me know she was in good hands. (Love it when I see folks who know how to use natural medicine.)

There was a decent amount of people at the rally. People from all walks of life passionate about preserving the Constitution of the United States, pleading for the reopening of Alabama. People who want to work and to choose how they protect themselves and their family from illness. Several news outlets were there taking pictures and videos. There were even people protesting the protest. There was a strong police presence. They seemed nice and did not interfere, they even stopped traffic when the rally finished with a march up and down the sidewalks on the road where the rally was located. 

We had plenty of opportunities to explain to our children a myriad of different subjects. From what people meant by their signs, to why people were protesting the protest. It was a perfect homeschool field trip. We engaged in conversation with several different families. We shared our stories and why we were there, and what we hoped to achieve by attending the rally. It was amazing to see so many young folks there as well as family's with children. We all have a stake in this country and desire to see it moving again.

Brent Sheridan was sharp on the megaphone at the rally. He definitely managed to capture the heart of the message we all desired to make clear. Our country is not facing a health crisis but a Constitutional Crisis. We value our freedoms and hope to preserve them at all costs.

The rally lasted an hour. We had planned for a picnic lunch which we had packed the night before, unfortunately we forgot it in the chaos of getting out the door. {{Goran}} There was a fun little family owned cafe on the road where the rally was held. They let us use their bathroom a couple of times during the rally for our little kiddos who just couldn't 'hold it'. My husband promised we would come back and purchase lunch from them. 

Apparently the cafe owners didn't believe him, because when we returned to buy our lunch, they said they were shocked to see us back. My husband responded with he was a man of his word. Sadly we live in a day and age where people don't mean what they say. It is one of our deepest desires to teach our children to keep their word. Their character means something, and when you say you're going to do something, you do it. Children learn best by watching what we do.

The Alabama Capitol is absolutely beautiful. We arrived early enough that we had time to walk around and explore. The government buildings were gorgeous with emmaculant grounds. We've never been to the capitol before, but our brief experience this go-around is enough to encourage me to plan a trip down there just to explore the buildings. 

It's an unusual time for our country. Unprecedented measures have been taken to revoke Constitutional rights from the American people. While we understand there are people sick and dying, there is never an excuse to void the Constitution. Removing the ability for Americans to work and provide for their family's is unacceptable. It's time we all worked together as a united front to reach a solution that values all humanity as essential and not just a few. 

It was truly an honor to be able to express our Constitutional right to assemble and protest the current state of affairs. Lord willing it will not be too much longer before the masses realize we don't have to sacrifice anyone to effective disengage this 'silent enemy'.

With Love and Hope,

Jennifer

Easter Funschooling

 This year's Easter funschooling week was full of blessed family time making treasured memories. As I mentioned in my Easter Totschool post, my husband was off from work, so he was able to join in on our special Easter activities. Thankfully, the weather was beautiful and we were able to do all kinds of fun projects inside as well as several outdoor family projects. Easter in the South is typically a wonderful time as Spring is in full force which makes the celebrating all the more enjoyable.

This year we made a cross silhouette project. The children painted a sunset scene with paint onto white construction paper. Then we cut out of black construction paper a mound with three crosses and glued it on top of the dried painted sunsets. I think this is one of my favorite Easter projects we do.

Y'all know I love our directed drawing projects. Well here was a cute bunny that we drew for our Easter funschooling week.

Everyone really gets into the directed drawing projects around here. Seeing everyone's creative personalities come out into their drawings is so special to watch and experience. There's something so amazing about watching a child grow and evolve in their creative abilities. While we don't do regular art lessons, I do try to give the children opportunity to be creative with making sure we have necessary supplies and the encouragement to explore their creative nature.

Of course no holiday is complete without making cut-out sugar cookies.

And yes we start them young in this house. It was really sweet too, because as is usual I was multitasking when we were making cookies this year, but everyone was made sure Abby Lou got a turn to make her cookies (and no, she is not eating them yet, lol).

While it is a lot of work and mess making cut-out sugar cookies, I wouldn't trade it for anything. All the special memories we have created over the years making cookies at each holiday are priceless.

There was a time my OCD, perfection side would want to 'fix' all these cookies and make them esthetically appealing, but I've come a long way, and all I see is love, joy, and happy times with my family. It's more important for my children to have the opportunity to participate, make messes, and explore life than it is for their creations to meet the 'world's standards'.

My older children made these editable bird nests. Well, Lydia helped too by putting the eggs on, but mostly they were made by a collaboration of my big kiddos. These candy/cookies were a big hit with everyone. They were a combination of no-bake oatmeal cookies and Rice Krispie treats. Obviously a perfect combination. 

Our family dyes eggs every year. Only two dozen since we have hundreds of plastic eggs. Even though we own a ton of plastic eggs for hiding, it's just way too much fun to let go of the tradition of dying eggs. Being present and doing things with my family really is my happy place. It's not work or a burden to do these things; it's a privilege. 

Abby Lou had her first experience in dying eggs. She acted as if she knew what she was doing ~ go figure. These babies just keep getting smarter and smarter.

Finally we played a minute-to-win-it game where everyone had to stack and unstack plastic egg halves. This wasn't what I had planned for our Easter minute-to-win-it game, but it's what ended up happening when I realized the game I had planned, the younger children would not be able to play. For me it's all about including as many family members as possible in our activities. 

Life is strange and different now, I don't know if life will ever resume to what it was two months ago, but I do know that I can make an effort to keep my family's life as normal as possible. I'm thankful that this Easter we were able to pretty much keep life the same as it has always been. Did we go to church? No. but we did have church; it just happened to be at home. I refuse to stop living life amongst these uncertain times. I am 'keeping on keeping on' for the sake of my sanity and for the protection of my children. They deserve my best, and that is what they shall have. When I look back on all the pictures and videos of our Easter funschooling week, I'm so very grateful that I can create AND make these special memories with my family.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer 

Easter Totschool

Our Easter week this year wasn't really much different than other years except for two things. The first being my husband wasn't working due to being furloughed, and the second being we could not attend physical church. Thankfully, we are not newbies to homechurching and have done it many times throughout the years. While we did miss celebrating the resurrection of our Savior with like-minded believers, there definitely was no shortage of our family acknowledging the significance of the Easter holiday.

As y'all know we love to celebrate the holidays. When planning for this year's Easter totschool week, I decided it would be a perfect opportunity to do some spring crafts along with our Easter projects. The children and I were super thrilled to have daddy home for our Easter fun week, even if it wasn't under the best circumstances. 

Our Easter week sensory box included felt bunnies, plastic grass (Easter basket filler), rubber bunnies, cloth carrots, small plastic carrots, and a wooden scooper.

Y'all know my kiddos love making the marbled pictures so for one of our Easter crafts we made marbled eggs. I cut out egg shapes from white construction paper, placed the paper in a shallow cake pan with paint squirted on the egg. We put three marbles in the pan and the children moved the pan to make the marbles roll through the paint.

I didn't realize the paint colors I had chosen resembled Mardi Gras colors until after the fact, but they turned out cute and the children had fun making them.

Next the children took plastic eggs and painted with them. 

To make sure the 'stamps' resembled eggs it took a minute to dig through all my plastic eggs and find ones that were cut long ways and not across the middle. To be honest I had never really paid attention to how plastic eggs were cut until we did this project. But, if you were curious, not all plastic eggs are cut the same way. Daddy was super sweet to get involved with several of our Easter projects this year, which made our children super happy.

I found this awesome Easter Story snack mix on Pinterest and had the children make it. As the children added each ingredient we talked about the symbolism of how it related to Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.

I love making snacktivities with my children. It's so much fun learning through different avenues. Not all learning must be done with a text book, even if they are valuable resources. 

Making the Easter Story snack mix was a big hit with my people and I think it will be added to our Easter traditions for the foreseeable future.

Last we made these cute handprint chicks. I must admit this was not the easiest project for my age group of children. I prefer to do projects that the children can do mostly on their own. This one required a good bit of big kid/adult help.

We did quite a few Easter projects as an entire family. I will share about those projects in my next post which will elaborate more on our Easter Funschooling week. Today's post, is focused on our Easter projects that were done mostly by our youngest children. 

I know I say it pretty much every time I post about a totschool fun week, but I will say it again; I really love that I planned for these fun schooling weeks. It's allowing us to break away from our normal schedule and do some focused unschooling activities. While I will always consider us purposeful unschoolers, our normal academic routine does include a little bit more structure than our funschooling weeks. I do not consider our funschooling weeks, non-learning weeks, they're just learning weeks with a different approach.  I'm so thankfull God has given us the ability to learn through a myriad of different venues and outlets, but mostly I'm thankfully I GET to be present for all of my children's learning experiences. Homeschooling truly is the BEST.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Homeschool Routine

If there is one thing I've learned in the nearly 16 years I've been homeschooling, it's having a set homeschool routine is critical. Without a 'set in place' routine for my children and myself, we wouldn't get done half of what we get done. Our homeschool routine changes every year, and even more so when we add and graduate children. 

I keep our homeschool routine posted on the fridge for all the children to see which helps to keep the squabbling to a minimum. No one can argue whose turn it is to do what. If my older children are not scheduled to be doing something then they have free time (within reason) but they must remain in the house in the event I need them for something. 

The above routine is my personal homeschool routine. We first start the day with table time (which I will be going into more detail about in my next post). Table time includes all members of the family who are under the age of 18 and still officially in 'school'. Next I do tot school group lessons. These lessons are currently done with my five children under the age of seven. Then I have one-on-one time with each of my children to go over their individual lessons.

I do one-on-one time with each child in a separate room, with the intentions that we will be undisturbed, but with a house full of children this does not always happen. Some of my children require more of my undivided attention than others when it comes to lessons. I evaluate this yearly and make adjustments to the schedule accordingly. 

I have gone to great lengths to teach my children to 'own' their education. For the most part, my older children do their lessons independently, and their one-on-one time is mostly for accountability and for me to review their work. While I consider us to be relaxed homeschoolers, and maybe even unschoolers compared to some; I do require my children to partake in some form of academic lessons daily.

This second chart is mostly for how I strive to keep my younger children occupied during my one-on-one time. I would love to say my younger group of children were well behaved during our lessons; but honestly, if they're not scheduled to be doing something constructive WITH a supervisor they will most likely get into trouble. {{sigh}} Which is why I have devised the above routine. 

My big kids do not need this chart/routine. They are very well behaved and have learned how to use their time wisely, my younger crew not so much. This chart helps all of us stay focused and make sure everyone is doing their part to make the day run as smoothly as possible. After table time and tot school, my oldest son sits in the living room while the littles as they watch a scheduled educational movie. Next, they go to the girl's room to play puzzles, educational games, and play in the weekly sensory box with my oldest daughter. Then they rotate to play in another room where our blocks and play kitchen are located. Last they play outside on our back porch where we have riding toys and for the warmer months we have a water play station set up.

I have times posted for this routine, but they are really just for a guide. We begin the day when we are able  and then proceed in order of what the schedule indicates. Each of the big children are required to watch/play with the younger kids for 45 minutes ~ and YES I set a timer, because if I don't, there will be arguing about who did what for how long. {{insert eye roll}} Real life here y'all ~ I refuse to sugar coat the way things are, that doesn't do any good for anyone.

Our homeschool routine is a suggested guide. We do not live our days in bondage to it. We make adjustments as we need to each day. But, it's great to have a plan, a goal to pursue each day. I've been doing some variation of this routine for many years. When I had just littles we would do 'blanket time' where the children not doing lessons had to sit on the blanket and play quietly with a designated toy. But as my children have gotten older I'm able to adapt the routine to fit our ever changing needs. 

I'd also like to add that I've always 'scheduled' play times for my children. It's real easy in large families for certain children to group together, alienating other siblings. Some children like to play with just the babies, while others don't like having anything to do with the babies; or children born close together had rather play with just themselves. I think it's important to be intentional to cultivate sibling relationships across the board. By scheduling my children to have playtime with all their siblings, it insures they're building relationships with each of their siblings and not just one or two. 

This is our current 2019/2020 homeschool routine. In August I will reevaluate and make adjustments as needed. For the most part it will probably stay the same in for the next school year since we will not have any children graduating and I don't officially add children to lessons until they are two. While it can take some time figuring out a viable homeschool routine, it has been well worth it for our family for many reasons. But, I especially love our homeschool schedule because it allows me to spend adequate time with all my children, making sure they are getting the academic help they need. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Thanksgiving Fun School

I can't believe I'm actually getting this seasonal post up before the actual holiday, lol. Mercy, it's been a whirlwind lately of trying to do all the things! I've got two Thanksgiving homeschool posts coming your way; one for the little ones and one for the bigger kiddos, but both can really be used for any age bracket if you so choose. This first post is more for the younger crew.

I love doing the fun crafts and unschooling projects, but fitting them into our already busy schedule can be a struggle. This year I think I have finally figured out the perfect system for incorporating crafts and projects. I planned in great detail every week of our homeschool, including all those awesome projects I want to do with my children. This way, I can fit the fun seasonal activities into our days without feeling guilty. It's all about balance and I'm convinced us homeschooling mamas can find the right balance for each of our own unique families.

I know I haven't shared in great detail about our sensory boxes, but they are apart of our homeschool. Each week we have a new themed sensory box, especially on our fun schooling weeks. This week's sensory box included orange and yellow dyed white beans, faux turkey feathers, brown cotton balls, a small metal tin, and some pinchers.

 We have collected hundreds of books over the years, especially children's books. Our Thanksgiving stash is fairly large. These are the storybooks I read for our Thanksgiving fun school week. 

We read my absolute all-time favorite storybook this week ~ Louisa May Alcott's, An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving. This book is about a large family and their Thanksgiving celebration. When I first started reading this book to my children we only had a few kiddos, and now we have more than the family in the book. It's a very touching story of the selflessness of a house full of children who choose to serve their family with cheerful spirits. It melts my heart every year!

Our first craft was sponge painted turkeys. I let the children sponge paint assorted fall colored paint onto a white paper plate and then I cut out and glued a turkey body and face to the plate once the paint had dried.

No, the little ones didn't get much hands-on with this project, but my littles love to paint and were content with that part, and of course they were delighted with their turkeys once we got their bodies and faces glued on the plates.

Our second project was to make corn on the cob with construction paper and oat cereal. 

Our third craft was to make construction paper pumpkin pies. I cut a paper plate into quarters and tore orange and brown construction paper for the littles to glue onto their 'slice' of the pie. Then they glued a cotton ball in the middle to represent whip cream.

Our last craft was to make 'turkey tracks' with chenille stems bent like a turkey foot stamped into paint and then onto construction paper. 

Our snacktivity for the week was pilgrim hats made with fudge bottom cookies, mini Reece cups, and Reece's Pieces. The little ones had to have some extra help with this activity, but I can assure you they did not need any help gobbling up their treats!

Many years ago, I would have majorly stressed about their imperfect little cookies, but now I just want my children to do as much as they can on their own and know the feeling of personal pride in doing their very best, regardless of how whatever they're doing actually looks. There's so much more to life than striving for perfection. Doing your best is far more important.

I feel like at the end of each one of these 'fun school' posts I have to put in a disclaimer. For the most part doing projects with children is like trying to catch a muddy hog. You're going to get messy and they're going to fight you ~ FACT! But, every once in a while they do the projects without fussing, everyone has fun, and the craft turns out somewhat like you had envisioned. 

This week we did have those rare moments, where it was actually 'fun' doing our crafts, but truthfully they were not all the 'warm and fuzzy' family bonding time I had hoped them to be. And dear sweet friends, it's in those struggles that we learn and grow as mothers. Yes, we could give up and never do these elective projects again, but that would be such a terrible travesty. Don't let Satan get the last laugh ~ keep on keeping on, doing the best you can to make those treasured memories with your babies.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Exploring the Clarkson Covered Bridge

Well, I told y'all in the last post that I was going to split our Friday the 13th 'family fun' into three separate posts, so today I'm sharing our adventures to the Clarkson Covered Bridge in Cullman, Alabama. 

The last time we went to the Steel Apple Orchard we had the lovely privilege of touring with a preschool class full of amazing mamas who graciously welcomed our family into their close-knit group. They so kindly invited our family to picnic with them at the Clarkson Covered Bridge (which I had never even heard of before). Since we had so much fun picnicking there during that little adventure, I knew we had to visit there again this year. We're big fans of picnicking and rarely eat out when we go on our little road trips. Feeding this crew via dining out could get quite expensive pretty fast; and to me, picnic food just tastes better in nature anyways.

There aren't any trails at the Clarkson Covered Bridge (that I know of), but there is plenty to explore; especially with the creek and large rocks blanketing the area.

I love when the children go searching through nature to see what they can find. One of my boys turned over a rock to discover this little frog. Another one is convinced he saw a snake head! {{YIKES!}}

During our last visit to the Clarkson Covered Bridge, there was plenty of water flowing, turning the giant water wheel. This year we are experiencing a major drought so the water wheel was not moving. My middle boys thought it was a prime opportunity to see if they could make the wheel move. And yes, y'all they could make the wheel move, lol!

So much to touch and feel and discover! Even though it was hot and I had cranky littles, we still had fun exploring the area. I was kind of sad to see that in the two years that have past since our last visit, the park seems to have been neglected. There was quite a bit of trash and debris littering the scenery. But, on a positive note, the bathrooms were maintained and in working order ~ a major bonus when you're in the middle of nowhere, have a bunch of littles, and are pregnant!

The last picture of my kiddos did not go as planned, especially since we had to wait for two other families to finish taking photos on the bridge. The little bitty ones were in dire need of a nap while the rest were just done taking pictures! One of these days I'll learn to take my "must-take" pictures at the start of our adventures and not at the end. (sigh)

I love this picture, even if we were being silly. My three little photo bombers in the background give y'all an idea of how long the bridge really is!

Here's a little clip showcasing the profile of the covered bridge. Quite amazing for something that was built in the early 1900s! Yes, it has been restored, but still, men originally built a similar bridge with very limited tools and resources in the exact same spot ~ I'm totally impressed!

We really didn't stay long at the Clarkson Covered Bridge, just long enough to eat and stretch our legs before we headed back home. I love traditions, and visiting the Steel Apple Orchard and Clarkson Covered Bridge is a perfect back to school tradition for our family (even if the drive is LONG). While the day didn't go exactly as planned and none of us really felt 100% well, it was absolutely worth the effort to stick to our plans and immerse ourselves in nature for a short time. Thankfully the drive home was relatively uneventful. We made it home with just an hour to spare before we kicked off our final family fun event on Friday the 13th of September; which I will share all about in my next post!

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Homeschool Fun at Steele Apple Orchard

This past Friday was brimming over with family fun! So not to make my posts lengthy and drawn out; I've decided to break the day up into three separate posts. Our Friday adventures began with a trip to the Steel Apple Orchard in Cullman, Alabama. 

It took us a solid two hours to get there, and folks let me just tell ya, it was a l-o-n-g two hours!! All you mama's out there know those 'fun' road trips that just don't go as planned ~ well this adventure certainly started out a little rocky to say the least! We had two pit-stops (because hello, 27 weeks pregnant and I have the bladder the size of mustard seed - insert eye roll), a detour in downtown Birmingham through the projects, a puking (carsick) child, and crying babies ~ yeah it was a blast!!

Once we finally arrived at the orchard the day started to get a little better, but it certainly wasn't without it's struggles. I still had sour attitudes and cranky babies. Lord willing my kiddos will remember the highlight real and not all the drama, because the Good Lord knows the drama meter over runeth on our trip to the apple orchard that's for sure!

The real culprit to all our road trip troubles was a nasty head cold we all seemed to be nursing. Unfortunately, I couldn't cancel our apple orchard tour, or we wouldn't have been able to attend this year. Since we missed last year, I really didn't want to forgo the experience, especially for the little kids. 

We were supposed to 'piggy-back' on with another group for the apple orchard tour since our group did not total 15 people, but the other group never showed up. I was a tad bit anxious we were NOT going to get to do the tour, but the folks were super kind and basically gave us a private tour despite us not being a 'full group'. 

Steel Apple Orchard is a family owned, small farm that began in 1985. They have 15 acres and over 200 apple trees including 20 different varieties of apples. The wife actually does part of the tour with another farm worker. The tour began in their processing room where they share about how they pick, sort, and store the apples as well as what they do with all their apples. 

This particular apple orchard sells all their apples to patrons visiting the farm. They also make a variety of apple products including apple cider, apple butter, and fried apple pies which they sell in their country store.

Once the children get a lesson on the farm operations, everyone is taken outside the 'shop' to learn some more fun facts about the health benefits of apples, how the honeybee is beneficial to the apple, and of course no apple orchard tour is complete without a thorough education on Johnny Appleseed. 

To conclude the tour the children have a blind apple tasting of different apples and the kiddos try to guess what kind of apple they were eating.

The folks at Steele Apple Orchard are just as sweet and down-to-earth as they come. While it was a long and difficult drive, it was absolutely worth it, and I'm glad I was able to take the children on this little adventure. (Even if half of them didn't really want to go.) I'm quite used to my people giving me grief over road trips ~ most of them are homebodies, but they usually have a great time and admit it once we've get home from the crazy escapades I drag them on, lol. So, I reckon I'll just continue planning these 'fun' trips and giving my children a taste of adventure; after all getting out of our comfort zones is good for all of us!

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer