By Holly Giles | Florida , Great Outdoors
How do I plan a Family Camping Trip? The anticipation of cooler days is approaching. Our annual fall family camping trips come to mind. This past spring, we seemed to hit a camping marathon, three trips in five weeks, that left me pondering the ideal versus the reality of family camping trips! Just the word “camp” sounds fun doesn’t it? […]
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By Holly Giles | Boy Crafting , Florida , handicrafts , homeschooling
County fair There is more to the county fair for the family than candied apples, fried Twinkies, and the Ferris wheel! It can be used to educate your children and learn new skills. As a child, I loved going to the fair. My grandparents lived very close to the property where the Central Florida Fair took […]
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By Holly Giles | Simple Living , southern homestead
Broody and molting hens Henrietta is in broody chicken jail. However, I assure you it is for everyone’s benefit! Broodiness happens to hens when they decide to sit on their eggs and hatch young. If you would like more information on the subject check out My Pet Chicken. In our hen house, there is no […]
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By Holly Giles | Florida , homeschooling , Nature Study
Backyard Nature Study We were busy today. Staying on track has been hard this week. I was on drill duty to keep the boys on task, yet a backyard nature study became the day’s focus. Grant needed a break, so I gave him 20 minutes outside to use his homemade bow. When I went out […]
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By Holly Giles | Family , homeschooling , popular
Learning to Read I have been frequently having days where lessons don’t seem to get complete, the laundry is covering the furniture, my youngest won’t read a book and every errand seems to turn into a much longer excursion than necessary. Today, was no exception! I spent most of the day irritated, not that anyone was misbehaving, […]
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By Holly Giles | Field Trips , homeschooling , Simple Living , southern homestead
4H Fowl Fun The Volusia County Fair is in 2 months and we are gearing up for our entries! The fair association and 4H were offering a “Fowl Fun Day” to teach you about entering chickens. The flyer I received sounded too good to pass up. They would teach anatomy, breeds, disease, and pest control. In […]
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By Holly Giles | Field Trips , Florida , Florida field trips , Great Outdoors
Alexander Springs Last week we had family in town. My husband’s Aunt and Uncle from Tennessee were here for a few days. We decided to cool off at Alexander Springs. We were going to meet them at spring, which is located in the Ocala National Forest. The Forest was established in 1908 as the FIRST national forest […]
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By Holly Giles | handicrafts , popular
Make your own feed sack tote Have you seen a feed sack tote? Throwing out these adorable feed sacks was breaking my heart! I saw a feed sack tote and knew I had to learn how. During the depression, My great-grandmother made dresses and field shoes for the grandchildren from burlap and cotton feed sacks. […]
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By Holly Giles | homeschooling
Our homeschool day What you don’t see in the photo above is a hawk, off to the left, that just flew up with his morning snack! This is our real-life homeschool day in our own backyard. This is a day from nearly the beginning of our homeschool journey. From this, you can see how far […]
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By Holly Giles | Family , hen house , Simple Living
My niece is the oldest, and the only girl out of the five grandchildren, unless you count the chickens. So, most of the time, our activities revolve around boys. She is a good sport about it, and when she has had enough, she retreats to her dark lair with her computer. As teenagers go, she loves […]
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