It's Canning Time!

So glad I got some canning done this year.  It's been quite some time since I have canned this much.  I wish my tomatoes had produced even more so I could have put up more than just salsa, but grateful for what we got for sure.  We are certainly stocked up on jalapeno jelly I think!  Tonight's agenda was more apple butter in the crockpot and some pear butter.  I have never made pear butter so hope it turns out.  I don't think I let it cook down as much as I should have, but I was getting so tired and just wanted to call it a night. Hopefully, it will be okay.

Tomorrow I will try the pear honey and probably more applesauce.  Not sure what else I might come up with.  Oh, I also wanted to get some apple pie filling put up too.  I really hope I can pull off getting a pressure cooker for canning this year (for canning next year).

The garden is winding down and really needs to move towards winterizing.  I was going to try to put in some fall crops but decided not to since I can't seem to keep up with everything else right now.  The extra babies in the coop have kept me busier than I care to be with the coops right now.  My once 30 min or less routine has become a 90 min job by the time I am done with everything.  Will be glad when this crew is either grown or processed.

What's new on your homestead?  Any plans for your fall garden?

Harvest Time!

Oh my goodness. So many blessings of harvest lately.  Received leftover apples from son's apple pie making workshop, more apples from a friend at church, then pears from another friend at church.  So much goodness!  Also just picked up MORE apples for $5 a half bushel (they are seconds).  Have made applesauce and apple butter.  Getting ready to make more of both plus some apple pie filling to boot.  Yum, Yum!!  The pears are about ready to process so I will also be making some pear butter and perhaps some pear honey with them.  We have already been sampling them as some start to turn bad and they are yummy!!

I love this time of year.  Our weather just suddenly took a turn for MUCH cooler temps and I am loving it!!  I love fall.  I love the cooler weather.  I don't always enjoy the preserving part of the produce, but sure do enjoy the fruits of it! I would also like to try dehydrating some apples and possibly pears.

What have you been canning, preserving, or drying?

Roman Roads Media Vocabulary Builder REVIEW

I'm always looking for ways and programs that can help to either strengthen or stretch my son's vocabulary.  We had the opportunity to review a neat classical education online program from Roman Roads Media called Picta Dicta Vocabulary Builder.  It is an online language arts program that builds vocabulary through teaching Latin words and picture associations to enhance learning.  It is geared for Jr. High to College students and was meant to teach fluidity in Latin reading.  It is a self-paced program so there is less stress of having to mold to a strict timeline structure.  We accessed and used the program on a laptop running Windows 7 and Chrome as the browser.



Setting up the account wasn't too tricky.  Once you get your subscription you add your students (learner profiles).  To begin your lesson you click the "go" icon.  If you click the "train" icon it gives you a list to choose from so you can practice on a specific area if you need or want to. The program automatically advances you to the next step as you progress through the lesson.  Once completed you can see your score for that lesson.

Login screen

Create account and learner profiles (students)

Click on "go" icon to begin lesson

Each chapter lesson focuses on a topic and then has activities that you complete to learn words related to that topic.  There are a total of 31 chapter lessons.  The activities include Learn, Choose, Spell, Forms, Test Forms, and Review.  During the "Learn" phase you learn the words with picture associations.  The "Choose" activity has you matching the pictures with the word or phrase.  The "Spelling" activity has you filling in the blank and spelling the word.  It's challenging but a lot of fun.  "Forms" presses you further.  The definition from the program is as follows:

Forms

In this exercise, you will practice writing out any extra forms for the words you have studied. For nouns, you may be required to give a genitive form and/or a gender. For adjectives, you may be required to give feminine and neuter forms or sometimes a genitive form. For verbs, you may be required to give the third and fourth principle parts.

Finally after forms comes either "Test Forms" and/or some "Review" activities.

Learn activity (word association with pictures)

Learning Latin words with picture association

Types of lessons in student dashboard

Sample forms screen

I am finding this program to be fun and challenging.  I really think it is important for our kids to learn at least a little bit of Latin and I really feel that learning Latin roots is invaluable to expanding their vocabulary.  This program does a good job of stretching their vocabulary skills. I'm not sure that I quite follow the train of thought as to the words we are learning, but I'm sure as we progress through the program it will come together.  My son, of course, is not enjoying it so much and it really does challenge him quite a bit.  He is a struggling learner and programs like this can be a bit much for him.  That being said, I know that he is still learning and gaining some good vocabulary skills despite his challenges.  I do also have him working on it every day so he keeps the flow going.  You could easily just use it 3 days per week and progress just fine.  It is self-study so there are no deadlines to meet.  I think it is best for your student to take their time and work on mastering the words and their forms.

At work on his Latin vocabulary

I would recommend Picta Dicta Vocabulary Builder by Roman Roads Media if you would like to incorporate some Latin into your curriculum and help your students to have a good tool to help build their vocabulary.  The recommendation for Jr. High and up seems fitting because it is a more complex program.

You can connect with Roman Roads Media on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, YOUTUBE, and PINTEREST.

My fellow crew members are also reviewing some of their other wonderful programs so be sure to check out all of the reviews at the link below by clicking on the graphic.  You can read what others have to say about Picta Dicta Vocabulary, Picta Dicta Natural World, and Fitting Words.