Category: kids

Long time no post

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, homeschooling, kids, life, mini-farm

Hello! Happy May.

It has been about 2 years since I have posted. I currently have a 4 year old and a 5.5 year old. Both very active and very smart. Life is busy. I am home full time with the kids and we are homeschooling.

Recently we moved to a smaller town about 30 minutes from where we were living and are even outside that small town. We have just over 2 beautiful acres that feels like paradise…..the house, not so much. But you can’t have everything can you?

This is my view while I type.

I am hoping to start blogging regularly again. I will still be mostly a lifestyle blog. I will still talk about health and fitness; especially my fitness journey (nothing new there). After having 2 children less than 18 months apart the weight never really came back off. Currently, I am, deep breath, 185 lbs. and I am only 5’4″. I got really sick during my pregnancies, so it was always more just about eating than worrying about weight gain. Though I did gain weight. Since then it has been survival mode. Since having kids I have run 2 half marathons but have never managed to outrun my diet hahahaha. I am working on that. I did do a chest and triceps workout this morning and even resting my arms on the table to type this is starting to hurt.

Part 2 of the blog will be our life and anything that may encompass; travel, gardening, what I am reading, mom encouragement, and who knows what else.

Last, but by no means least, our homeschool journey! We just finished out first year with Classical Conversations and I love it. I will do a whole blog talking all about it. I will also talk about the homeschool philosophies I sort of adhere too and anything homeschool under the sun. We are done with our co-op for the summer but in the fall I will post about our weeks each week. I am working on a summer rhythm for us right now and once I have that nailed down I will tell you all about it.

If you are still here from before I hope this continuing and new content interests you; and if you stumble upon this blog now HI!

My daughters birthday party this past weekend. We have been reading Little House in the Big Woods and that is the theme she chose.

What a week

by Ariana Peters, posted in homeschooling, kids, life, school/studying

In the span of 10 days we had upper respiratory infections, stomach bugs, an ear infection, a stolen truck, and delayed flights.

My husband was out of town for work when this little man went down.

Then my little girl went down
When my husband was supposed to fly home it turned out he didn’t have a ticket! That was fun.

Then we found out the truck was stolen and towed

Got to spend a day going to the tow yard and police station and talking to insurance
Off and on recovery but we finished little man’s pre-reading program
Had some fun outside time sprinkled in
And went strawberry picking!

Traveling for a death in the family

by Ariana Peters, posted in homeschooling, kids, life, travel

Boy oh boy has it been a crazy few weeks.

Currently I am sitting in a rental car outside my aunt’s house while the kids catch a quick nap in between the funeral of my grandmother and the open house after. But let’s start back at the beginning.

A few weeks ago my little man stayed the night at his Grammy and Papa’s house for some one on one time, before going to pick him up I got the call that my stepdad died suddenly. Then comes the flurry of activities to try and figure out a last minute trip for the funeral.

At the last minute my son got an ear infection so we didn’t go……days later, very few days later my grandma went on hospice and went downhill FAST!

This was just 6 months ago

Enter another flurry of plans to try to get down and see her before she passes…….I booked plane tickets for a 2.5 week trip to hopefully spend time with her and also make the funeral that was probably soon to happen. I booked the tickets and 20 minutes later got the phone call that she died.

We are 2 weeks into the trip, just finished the funeral and fly home midweek……I cannot wait to go home. 2 weeks is a long trip with kids when we don’t have a schedule and have moved houses twice.

We have spent a lot of time outside looking at nature, have done a little bit of workbook stuff and spent lots of time with family

Did I also mention I am solo parenting this trip? Lol. This mama is TIRED!

On the plus side we are going to Disneyland before we leave….had to throw some fun in.

Homeschool curriculum pt 6

by Ariana Peters, posted in homeschooling, kids, life, school/studying

Science!!!!!!

We mix Blossom and Root’s nature study with The Good and The Beautiful’s little hearts and hands science Wind and Waves and Fields and Flowers. I try and pair them loosely to the seasons and things we might see or experience.

My oldest is a smidge young for both but if I find a good connecting book or something he really gets into it. My youngest is just a long for the ride at this point hahaha.

For example we just did the water cycle. I found a great library book that my son loved about a drop of water going through the water cycle and that brought it alive for him.

Water cycle experiment

Homeschool Curriculum Pt 2

by Ariana Peters, posted in homeschooling, kids, life, Uncategorized

This is another curriculum I use with both kids

This curriculum has

A seasonal song that we don’t do- the kids just weren’t feeling it

An emotional intelligence section that I really like. You never think about needing to teach kids to identify their feelings and the feelings of others.

Weekly inquiry – this is a short section on something in nature that they say you can feel free to explore further at the library. I try and find a few simple picture books each week on this at the library that we can read through

Literature, Literacy & Poetry- there is a weekly book to read with a question or two to ask in response to the book, an excerpt out of a seasonal poetry book ( i did the poetry at first but the kids weren’t into it so I stopped) and a letter to study from a book called doodling dragons but we already have a pre-reading curriculum we use so I didn’t get that book.

Art- some of the projects from the art book are really cool but they are a little advanced for my kids. I have the art book but don’t really use it. I do like a lot of the projects though so I think in a year or two we will start working our way through it as an extra fun thing to add into our weeks.

There is a math curriculum they suggest but we use a different one I’ll tell you about in another post

Science – they use the ‘look I’m a scientist’ and ‘look I’m a ln engineer’ books which I have but I only sort of like them. Some of the experiments are a bit older for my kids and some just seem like a waste of time.

Connections project – each week there is a little something to do to connect to the week’s theme and reading.

They also suggest some videos you might like and some supplemental reading on the main subject

Crappy Garden update for 2024

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, kids, mini-farm, Uncategorized

One word: E. Coli

Well I guess that’s two words. The neighbor diagonal to our backyard has a pipe that likes to overflow. Apparently. It overflowed when we had a big storm surge and our backyard was flooded. The city took some tests and there was high E coli levels.

Once the sun hits the top layer of soil after a couple hours, the E coli will be killed off by the UV rays, but the underlayer can be contaminated for months! So that takes away half of our backyard for planting food.

Our side yard had no flooding and there’s nowhere near the contamination zone so our raised bed that we do tomatoes in should be fine. Also the little area where we do snap peas should be fine.

My neighbor has a row of grapes that come every year and she lets us eat as much as you want. So for the month of September the kids gorge themselves on grapes and those are still fine

Thankfully our raspberries are fine. They’re on the complete other side of the yard from the contamination

We have this area that’s already 3/4 of the way fenced off from the chickens but it’s solidly in the contaminated area. So what I think I’m going to do is get a couple above bed, just kind of garden planters. The cheapest ones I can find and some cheap trellises to do cucumbers and a few other vining plants, not 100% sure what yet.

Thankfully garlic doesn’t have super long roots so these ones planted in the above bed gardens should be okay.

My husband actually cleaned this area out about 2 years ago. Took all the dirt out and we never refilled it between being pregnant and having newborns and babies. But this year I think I will put more cardboard down and fill it for a raised bed garden again and that should be good to plant in.

We won’t be planting any root vegetables this year just to be extra extra safe.

We are also inquiring about getting a permit to tie into the city storm drain to stop the flooding in our yard but is prolific and happens every winter so hopefully that’s a process that will be happening this summer as well.

I will keep you updated.

Weekly Workouts

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, kids, life, training, Uncategorized

Monday – 1/2 hour of bowling

Tuesday – arm workout

Wednesday – ran 2 miles (not an improvement on time but not much slower, I was tired.)

Thursday -3.25 double stroller miles

Friday – at least 7100 steps

Saturday – 1 mile run outside ALONE!! So nice lol did it for time 12:36! Working on that speed

Total miles this week: 6.25