Kaake Family Blog

Here you will see the second round of plant starting for the Kaake family this year :) I was watering my plants the other night when I realized that they were not holding in water as much anymore.  Every day they were drying out.  This was a huge clue that they needed to be repotted into something bigger.    The other clue was in the picture above; they were root bound.  If these plants do not get repotted, they will die from lack of water because they will lost it very quickly.  Here's a few steps in repotting your plants you've started for the garden. 1. Purchase a potting mix - not garden soil.  Potting mix has special components in it that will help your plants grow strong.  It was also keep the water in better. 2. Purchase or use either smaller pots or you can use something deep and large enough for your plants to all sit in and then cover them with the potting mix.  Make sure your plants roots have plenty of room to spread out...

My big helper! Using a seeder to make littles holes for the seeds. Some of our plants on the mini greenhouse shelves. Bottom of the "planter" labeled so I know what's in each one.  I write down what seeds they are and when they should germinate by.   I recently ordered seeds through Seed Savers Exchange.   They have been my favorite company to purchase seeds along side with Mountain Rose Herbs.  The quality is always great!  Today I planted my tomato and pepper seeds.  I have provided a list of what I used today, how many plants it will yield should they all survive and what I paid.   I still have to plant my bean seeds but they have not yet come in the mail.  However, the price below will reflect the beans. Supplies: 2 boxes Jiffy Refill Pellet's = $5.30 1 Jiffy Professional Greenhouse kit (w/36 pellets) = $4.24 1 package each of Ancho Peppers, Jalapeno Pepeprs, Tomato Plants and Bean Plants = $11.66 3 (3-pack) pack...

My daughter and I had so much fun planting more seeds today. I planted 28 pepper seeds and will hopefully have 100% yield. Ok even 50% would be cool. She planted 72 seeds consisting of Impatiens, Marigolds and Zinnias. As you can see above, she had a lot of fun doing this. There are a lot of sites out there for kids activities for earth day. I'm only going to give you one link. The below link is celebrating the creator, not the creation. Let's keep that in mind as Earth Day approaches. I do feel as Christians we do need to take care of what he has given us in any way we can or know how. :) http://www.christianpreschoolprintables.com/EarthDay.html In lieu of the coming Earth Day 2010, we're going to have a giveaway. We will send you the leftover seeds of what we're using this year and a few from last year. So far the mix includes marigolds, basil, a few organic pepper seeds and more. There's the possibility there may be some other goodies in the...

Kids just love to garden, there's no doubt about that. I was trying to figure out what to do with Jon this year to get him more excited about gardening and being more hands on. I decided on bean plants since they grow quickly - which is key in getting younger children more excited about gardening. If it takes too long to grow, you might as well hang it up. The next thing I needed to figure out was how to make things simple as well as little mess as possible. Because of that and cost, we decided to pick up some soil pellets from Walmart. We got 36 pellets for under $3! Not bad. We next picked up some organic bean seeds. We'd only need 3 for what we were doing. Here's what we did. 1. We found a plastic container we didn't care much about and put the pellets in there to rehydrate. Jon loved watching this part! 2. Next, we took 3 bean seeds out of our package (we got organic from WalMart). We took one seed at a time and pushed it down a bit into t...

I've found over the years more often than not it's easier to get a little one out of a bad mood not by hammering to stop, but by adding a bit of humor or distraction. As you can see from the pix, it works like a charm most of the time

Here you will find fun and non-toxic/less toxic recipes for your children. If you have one you’d like us to try out and possibly add, please send your name and recipe to homeschoolingthem@gmail.com Enjoy! ******************************************************************************************* Bubbles What you need: 2 cups cool water 1/2 cup dish liquid 2 tablespoons sugar or agave nectar What to do: -Mix all together very slowly trying to not form bubbles. -Dip wand in - do not stir. Depending on the type of dish liquid you use - some can be much more toxic than other’s. I used a natural brand along with agave nectar instead of sugar. I actually purchased premade bubble’s, dumped out the containers, rinsed and used those to put my bubble solution in. ******************************************************************************************* Glitter What you need: 1/2 cup salt 5-6 drops food coloring What to do: -Mix together 1/2 cup salt and 5-6 drops food...

photo borrowed makesandtakes.com Sometime's you just need a little chocolate:) That's how we felt last night. I was searching for something sweet and naughty, then it hit me - SMORES! Here's how you do it when you're not outdoors. I took one full graham cracker and split it in half. I put just one half on a plate, topped it with some milk chocolate chips and mini marshmallows. I then microwaved for 13-15 seconds - just till the marshmallows puff up. Top with the cracker and eat. Mmmm! Who doesn't love smores? I just found another idea online. Take each graham cracker half and put some chocolate on. Nuke in microwave till the chocolate starts to melt. Add sliced bananas and make a sandwich out of it. Mmmm!

This was something I threw together today in 10 minutes. IT was so yummy! The kids loved it as well. With it we had some leftover chicken rice and cheese soup. Perfect for this day! I however, was not able to take pictures because Matt had to take the camera to work today. So, the pix above is borrowed. Enjoy the recipe below! This is very satisfying, the flavor is very good and it's super easy to make. This is one of those perfect meals to make for an unexpected guest. I used some chicken I had cooked in the crockpot heavily seasoned with garlic powder. You could also use a rotisserie chicken. A lot of chicken caesar salad wraps have croutons in them. I didn't feel this needed it. This is great for those people who don't prefer spinach. Because it's mixed with a lot of chicken and some dressing (and of course a bit of cheese and onion), it's more like a lettuce most people are used to. The flavor of the spinach is not overwhelming. Chicken Casea...

I have seen ideas for preschool activity bags that I thought were just darling. Lately it's annoyed me that I don't do nearly the amount of crafts that I'd like to with my children. So, my way of making this easier for us is taking the concept idea for the activity bags and using it for holiday themed crafts. I first find ideas for crafts I like from online, then print of the directions and templates needed. Make sure if you're doing these for more than one child, that you print out enough templates for each child. Only one set of directions is needed. If you have a totally awesome craft supply stash - Great! If not, I suggest going to the Dollar Tree (not Dollar Store) and Big Lots to pick up these items. IF you can't find what you need there, Walmart also has a good selection and great prices if you're on a strict budget. Also never underestimate freecycle and craigslist.org Get together your large zip lock bags - the freezer bags with labels w...

Today was quite the fun, new experience. While we didn't quite get the taste we were hoping for, we had lots of fun. We're going to try more combinations in the future. Jon with the dough. Jon trying to knead the dough. Jon rolling out the dough. Dough that had been sprinkled with sea salt and dried onion flakes. Dough in the oven. The recipe we used is as follows. Jon's Crackers Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups flour 1/2 cup wheat flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 2/3 cup water 1/3 cup evoo Directions: 1. Mix all together in a food processor - dry ingredients then slowly add in wet. Process for 1 minute after dough forms a ball. 2. Knead till dough is just elastic then cover and let rest 1/2 hour. 3. Roll out dough very thin. It will be easier if you cut dough into 3-4 pieces and work with only one piece at a time. 4. Put on pan, spray with just a bit of water (or get hand wet and rub over dough just a bit). Sprinkle with your fa...

We went today to get some weed and feed at Home Depot. They had a little kids craft and I, being a poop, told Allysha she could not do it because they looked too busy. I knew she was disappointed and was thinking it over as we walked through the store. Well, I had forgotten about the craft and as we were checking out, my husband asked the checkout lady about it. She said it was totally open and free to anyone who wanted to participate. We both looked at each other, turned around and headed in the direction we came from. Lyshie was beyond excited. When she got there, her and her brother each got a Home Depot Apron, a craft kit (which daddy helped them work on), a pin that showed which craft they did, a certificate of completion and a sucker. Lyshie had the time of her life. I wish very much that we had a camera there. The craft they made was a little wheel barrow with a potted flower of their choice to put inside it. We found out they have one of these on the first Saturday o...

Here are just a couple I have. If anyone else has some I'd love to hear them. We're not taking video games.... Ideas: Photo Scavenger Hunt - I will of course be with the kids but it gets my oldest thinking. Puppet Shadows Flower Pressing Nature Journals Identification - we'll be taking our field guides:) Identifying constellations - I've actually never done this before. I'm very excited! Drawing messages in the sand and taking pix. Rock and shell collecting. We'll also be doing all the "normal" stuff like playing at the beach, etc...