Tasty Pickles! Garlic, Cinnamon, Rosemary, Ginger, and More.

Our family enjoys pickles. Dill pickles, sweet pickles, bread and butter pickles. But not the type you find on the shelves of the grocery store. Those are just a poor imitation of the real thing. Pickles were originally fermented. Fermentation was one of the few methods available to preserve foods in the days before refrigeration.

I've written before about the basic procedure for making real pickles. We've been making different varieties of dill pickles for several years now, and they are delicious! This year we branched out a little bit and tried several other varieties. I promised I'd share our results with you, so here they are!

Weekly Focus 5/28: Kitchen & Dining Room

Now that we've made it through all the trips, year-end activities, and so forth, and are settling into a summer routine, I'm going to resume my weekly focus posts to set goals for my weekly household zones.

A Unique Classical History Curriculum: Heritage History

The great home education products just seem to keep coming lately! The latest one that I've had the chance to look at was a Heritage History Classical Curriculum CD. There were several collections to choose from. I chose Ancient Greece to go along with the ancient history study I'll be doing with Karate Kid (11) this fall.

Heritage History takes a "story-based" approach to learning history, meaning it's basically a living books or literature-based curriculum. By using stories and literature, students absorb knowledge organically, without the need for test or worksheets, and can go at their own pace.

An Incredibly Thorough, Engaging Writing Program: WriteShop Junior

Karate Kid (11) is not a natural-born writer like his older sister. He can take paper, some tape, and a couple of paper clips and make a model of just about anything from an airplane to a shark to a superhero, but although he's an excellent reader, he struggles a bit with putting his thoughts on paper, and even with the mechanics of grammar, punctuation, and so on. He's done well with the language arts program we've been using this year, although I admit we've skipped more of the creative writing assignments than we probably should have. 

Spiritual Strength Training: Disciplines of a Godly Young Man (Family Bookshelf)

It seems like there are a number of books out there aimed at young Christian women, but relatively few aimed at young men. There are a handful, but not a wide selection. One of these is the brand new  Disciplines of a Godly Young Man by R. Kent Hughes and W. Carey Hughes.