"Study to Shew Thyself" ~ Free Inspirational Art Printable

As many of you are starting a new school year, I thought it would be fun to decorate the school room with a splash of inspiration. Perhaps this little verse with big meaning can keep us focused on our ultimate goal, to raise godly children and teach them the beginning of real wisdom.

"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world,

and lose his own soul?"

~ Mark 8:36

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom:
and the knowledge of the holy is understanding."

~ Proverbs 9:10

This printable would be perfect in the school room, office or study.  You can find frames inexpensively in second-hand stores and simply paint them to match your decoration. We printed ours on white card-stock, cut it down to size (leaving some white border as a "matting") and placed it in an 8 by 10 inch frame. To use, simply download from the link HERE and print. Happy homeschooling, ladies! 

You may also be interested in some of these unit studies to start the new school year with a smile:

Alphabet Unit Study

Apples in Autumn

Bees Unit Study

Calendar Unit Study

Dinosaur Unit Study

Garden Unit Study

Owl Unit Study

Pilgrims Unit Study

Running the Race

Strawberries ~ A Summer Study

Trees Unit Study

What is a Unit Study?

All the fine print. This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Monday's Musings, Make Your Home Sing Monday, Good Morning Mondays,  The Scoop, Tuesdays with a Twist, Raising Homemakers, The Homesteader Hop, Wise Woman Link Up, Homestead Blog Hop,  Wow Us Wednesdays,  Coffee and Conversation, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Our Simple Homestead, Awesome Life Friday Link Up and Shabbilicious Friday. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these. This post may contain affiliate links (which are merchant links that help to support this site at no additional cost to you if you purchase an item through them). Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these. Image made with PicMonkey.

The Blessings of Old Fashioned Work ~ Part Two

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

~ Genesis 3:19

Ever since sin entered the world, work became a sweaty and toilsome event. Most people go out of their way to avoid it... But is the fruit of idleness that sweet?  I think it may be costing us and in many different ways. In fact, it may be that old fashioned labor yields the sweetest fruit.

“There is nothing wrong with God's plan that man should

earn his bread by the sweat of his brow.” 

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder, Writings to Young Women (Volume 1: Wisdom and Virtues)

Working with our hands blesses our emotional, financial, spiritual and even physical needs. A good dose of honest labor keeps us healthy with its therapeutic and stress relieving abilities along with the common, everyday use of our muscles for exercise. 

“Gardens are not made by singing 'Oh, how beautiful!' and sitting in the shade.” 

~ Rudyard Kipling, Complete Verse

For example, the act of growing your own produce creates a gentle workout for the homemaker, in slow and steady movements. It affords us a moment of fresh air, a de-cluttering of our over-stimulated minds, and a splash of sunshine while stretching out our burdened bodies to keep ourselves agile and strong. The outcome is much more than just vegetables.

We can also consider the sweet blessings of sweat. Our loved ones are being subjected to many diseases in this modern world. An overload of toxins in our body is said to be a major contributor to many of our health problems. Can it be that we are depriving ourselves of the healing powers of sweat since much of our lives are being spent sedentary in front of a screen? Are we removing that opportunity to release excess toxins that are brewing havoc in our bodies when we pass on that old fashioned work?

(Note: What is Making Me Sick? and Your Genes are Not Your Destiny are both favorite videos featuring Dr. Micheal Bernui which shares this thought along with some other encouraging ways to live healthy lives from a godly perspective.)

"Labor, honest labor, is mighty and beautiful. "

~ The Royal Path of Life, 1882

The act of sweating also: "improves circulation, accelerates metabolism, opens skin pores, cleanses the skin, boosts the immune system, uses energy and burns calories, relaxes body and mind, great for stress relief, helps body release toxins, sweating is a form of exercise, helps body to regulate its temperature and cool down, anti-aging – produces softer skin, releases endorphins that help with pain, improves tone and flexibility of skin, critical factor in body’s hydration process, contains natural antibiotics that destroy harmful skin bacteria, can reduce cholesterol and sodium levels and may improve sleep."  (source)

It makes one wonder, what have we given up?

There is also our physicial need of vitamin D (which is actually a hormone) to consider. Sunshine cheerfully gives this to us! Fifteen minutes of time in the sun without sunscreen is recommended by the Nat'l Institution of Health. This is especially important for older women because it gets harder for your body to produce vitamin D as you age. This time in the sun will benefit in the following areas including an overactive immune system, heart disease, osteoporosis, breast, colon cancers, helps fight insomnia and depression. It also aids your body to absorb calcium and utilize magnesium which affects many areas of the human body (source).

“Go on with your work as usual, for work is a blessed solace.” 

~ Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

Old fashioned labor is also a wonderful stress-reliever which promotes health in its own right. There is healing power in scrubbing and scouring as we release bottled up emotions, hurts and pains. It can be quite soothing to the soul! One can even bring some indoor work to the outdoors in order to breathe in the fresh air, soak in the vitamin D while applying some elbow-grease to those long awaited household tasks.

“There's nothing like active employment, I suppose, to console the afflicted.” 

~ Anne Brontë

It is so easy for the modern-day homemaker to curl up and hibernate in our cozy and comfortable cottages but is this the healthy lifestyle that God intended for His people? While I am not suggesting that women go out and break their backs like some of our ancestors were forced to do because of poverty and survival, I have been contemplating my own level of activity on our farm. I have been consciously attempting to labor more in the outdoors with the fresh air, in the clean earth and surrounded by God's fascinating creation. Are you interested in rebuilding an old fashioned lifestyle consisting of a daily dose of gentle womanly labor?

A good start would be to spend at least thirty minutes each day in some form of physical, outdoor work:

Some ideas could be picking fruit from a bursting tree, purposely stretching your limbs to find that ripe tender piece and gently lowering it into a basket.

Perhaps you can do some foraging by taking a brisk walk in search of medicinal plants. Harvest your herbs by the bunches to be dried into teas and/or made into tinctures. Or use your findings to prepare a fresh, daily brew of herbal tea for your family. You can call the moments spent searching, your "tea time". Bring the children along!

For some of us it could be the useful act of hanging clothes to dry in the sweet summer sun!



Consider raking up leaves, pulling of weeds, sweeping the sidewalks, stacking up firewood, pruning, planting an herb garden, or even doing some decorative landscaping.

Last year I took over the lawn. My husband was struggling to keep it up during the busy harvest (when hay grows, grass grows!) so I adopted that old push mower as my own. Since our back yard is large, it takes me between 3-4 hours to complete. In the summer heat I am exhausted and sweaty, but it feels so good! I listen to inspirational music and the process is very therapeutic. (It is also toddler friendly since at the time, my little nephew was with us, and it kept him busy playing "run away from the mower" the entire time.)

Let us look around and see what we could be contributing with our hands that will in turn, contribute to the health and happiness of our body, soul, and ultimately our future.

"Industry has a physical blessing; limbs strengthened by exercise, and sinews braced by exertion; every organ performing its legitimate duty, and kept in its appointed office; the blood circulated by motion, and the joints pliant from use; disease repelled by internal vigor; appetite created by the calls of increasing strength; rest rendered welcome by previous labor; sleep becomes acceptable after busy working..."

  ~ The Royal Path of Life, 1882

{See part one , part two, part three, part four and part five of this series.}

This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Homestead Barn Hop, Amaze Me Monday, Monday's Musings, Marriage Monday, Titus 2sdays, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Raising Homemakers, Make Bake Create, Wise Woman Link Up, Wow Us Wednesdays, Wildcrafting Wednesday, The Scoop, Coffee and Conversation, So Much at Home, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Hearts for Home Thursdays, Growing in Grace Thursdays, Home Acre Hop, From the Farm Blog Hop, Farmgirl Friday, Front Porch Friday Blog Hop, Simple Meals Friday, Cultivate Nourishing, Simply Natural Saturdays and Clever Chicks Blog Hop. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these. Paintings by George Faulkner Wetherbee, Julien Dupre, Camille Pissarro, Berthe Morisot and Daniel Ridgeway Knight.

Just Peachy! What to Make with All Those Peaches ~ Link Up Love

"Mr. Hale had been peeling a peach for his wife; and, cutting off a small piece for himself, he said: 'If I had any prejudices, the gift of such delicious fruit as this would melt them all away."

~ Elizabeth Gaskell, North & South

Today we are featuring five posts from our 13th edition of "The Art of Home-Making Mondays" link up. They all concern that luscious fruit which we call the "peach". My taste buds were tantalized by all of these seasonal recipes! If you need some ideas, here is what you can make with them:

If you are interested in saving some sweetness for the fall and winter months, Angi at A Return to Simplicity shares how to freeze and how to dehydrate your peaches.

She also gives us her mouth-watering recipe for peach and praline pie! If you were to add some home-made vanilla ice-cream to this, it would be a taste of heaven...

Homesteading on Grace teaches us how to make a peach cobbler (whole foods style)! I think the picture says it all!

Peaches aren't just for eating! Heather at My Overflowing Cup shares how to make a peach flavored simple syrup. Doesn't it look refreshing?

And lastly, we are going to include a post from the earlier week, how to can peaches for yogurt (by Making Our Sustainable Life) since it looked so delicious and I loved the concept!

After reading these recipes, I hope you take advantage of the lovely peach while she is in season and in her best advantage!  You will find some pretty labels for your peach related projects here (shown above). Thank you ladies for sharing your wisdom with us! I invite you all to join us this upcoming week at the Art of Home-Making Mondays. 

“... the richest-coloured peaches,— the freshest vine-leaves. They were packed into a basket..."

~ Elizabeth Gaskell, North & South

This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Homestead Barn Hop, Amaze Me Monday, Monday's Musings, Marriage Monday, Titus 2sdays, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Raising Homemakers, Make Bake Create, Wise Woman Link Up, Wow Us Wednesdays, Wildcrafting Wednesday, The Scoop, Coffee and Conversation, So Much at Home, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Hearts for Home Thursdays, Growing in Grace Thursdays, Home Acre Hop, From the Farm Blog Hop, Farmgirl Friday, Front Porch Friday Blog Hop, Simple Meals Friday, Cultivate Nourishing and Clever Chicks Blog Hop. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these. Peach illustration by William Hooker.

Restocking the Cleaning Closet w/Lavender ~ Odds and Ends Series

"Second. Examine the store-closet, and see if there is a proper supply of all articles needed there."

~ Catharine Beecher & Harriet Stowe, The New Housekeeper's Manual, 1873

Welcome to our continuing saga to follow the Victorian Era advice of the Beecher sisters! A portion of the second step on our "Odds and Ends" Monthly Home Maintenance Series has been completed.  We have restocked our cleaning closet with reserves that should last a few months. While I don't have a cleaning closet "per se" (items are located under the kitchen sink and leftover surplus is stored on our pantry shelf ), I like the old fashioned sound of it, don't you?



What did we accomplish?

• We added a few quart jars of all-purpose cleaning solution to our "store-closet". This can be used in a squirt bottle as an all purpose cleaner (with the addition of water) and it can be added to a bucket of warm water to wash floors, clean ceiling fans, etc. 

• We also prepared a few jars of cleaning powder which can be used as a gentle cleanser for scrubbing sinks as well as a carpet deodorizer.

For fun, we have included our recipes and free printable labels to inspire you to stock up on the cleaning supplies for your "cleaning closet"!

Since lavender is abundant right now, we prepared a large batch of cleaning products with it (you could use fresh lavender, dried lavender (make some or buy some) or lavender essential oil for all of these recipes).

Not only is lavender filled with many antibacterial properties, it is also a wonderful cleaning solvent since it contains limonene (the same active ingredient in citrus products). It imparts a lovely fragrance while also being an insecticide. And let's be honest, it adds a romantic touch to homemaking! 

{Note: In the autumn and winter, I like to make Citrus Infused Cleaning Products.}

Here is how we prepare each item:

1. Lavender Cleaning Solution ~ You will find our tutorial here to prepare a solution using lavender flowers (or if using lavender essential oil,  simply add 10 drops of oil to every cup of vinegar). Add a cup of this solution to a hot bucket of water to clean floors and surfaces. For tough cleaning, use pure without diluting.
2. All Purpose Cleaner ~ Place one cup of "lavender cleaning solution" (shared above) with one cup of water to a spray bottle. 
3. Lavender Carpet Deodorizer ~  You will find our tutorial here (or if using lavender essential oil, add 15 drops of oil to 1 - 2 cups of baking soda and stir until combined).
4. Gentle Lavender Cleaning Cleanser ~ Pulse 1/4 cup of dried lavender flowers with 2 cups of baking soda until smooth. You could also mix in 10 drops of lavender essential oil oil to the baking soda if you don't have lavender flowers. For a stronger scrub, add in equal amounts of borax and salt.
5. Room Spray ~ Mix together 1 cup of water, 10 drops of lavender essential oil and place in spray bottle. To preserve the solution better, add 1 tsp. of vodka.
6. Window Cleaner ~ Pour into spray bottle 1 cup of water, 1 cup of vinegar and a few drops of lavender essential oil  Wipe clean with newspaper or a microfiber cloth for best results.

Note: If you have granite countertops, I would advise against using vinegar based cleaning products on them as it can do something called "etching" (which can leave white marks on your counters).

Now it is time to label our lovely lavender products (can you say that five times?). We have also included two blank labels at the bottom of the printable for other cleaning products you may want to prepare. Simply press download or print from the link HERE.

Now that we have completed a portion of step two, here is what we have left on our "Odds and Ends" Monthly Home Maintenance Series (note that some steps were placed together and altered to make for modern day needs):

Complete Steps in Series:

Step #1 ~ What Needs to Be Done in Your Home?
Step #2 ~ Restocking the Cleaning Closet
Step #2, 3, 5, 6 ~ Examining the Store-Closet, Pantry, Cellar and Such
Step #4 ~ Examining the "Table Linens"
Step #4 ~ Examining the "Bed Linens"
Step #7 Examining the Toolbox and/or "Junk Drawer"

Checklist for Preparing Your Own Maintenance:

"Odds and Ends" Monthly Home Maintenance ~ Printable Checklist

Are you ready to begin your monthly home maintenance?

"A housekeeper who will have a regular time for attending to these particulars will find her whole family machinery moving easily and well; but one who does not, will constantly be finding something out of joint, and an unquiet, secret apprehension of duties left undone or forgotten, which no other method will so effectually remove."

~ Catharine Beecher & Harriet Stowe, The New Housekeeper's Manual, 1873

All the fine print. This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Monday's Musings, Make Your Home Sing Monday, Good Morning Mondays,  The Scoop, Tuesdays with a Twist, Raising Homemakers, Wise Woman Link Up, Homestead Blog Hop,  Wow Us Wednesdays,  Coffee and Conversation, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Our Simple Homestead, Awesome Life Friday Link Up and Create, Bake, Grow & Gather. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these. This post may contain affiliate links (which are merchant links that help to support this site at no additional cost to you if you purchase an item through them). Lavender clip art was found here.

You may also be interested in What to Make and Do with All Your Lovely Lavender {DIY List}.

What Needs to Be Done in Your Home? ~ Odds and Ends Series

"First. Go around every room, drawer, and closet in the house, and see what is out of order, and what needs to be done, and make arrangements as to time and manner of doing it."

~ Catharine Beecher & Harriet Stowe, The New Housekeeper's Manual, 1873

The first step in our "Odds and Ends Series" for our monthly home maintenance has been completed. How about you, did you go through the house last month and see what was out of order and what needed to be done? Did you make up a list?

Here is what I came up with. In cases like these, it is a blessing to live in a smaller home! (Ms. Beecher also suggested making arrangements on when to accomplish these tasks. And I have done that as well... whenever I had the time!) Items were completed prior to month-end so that the next monthly home maintenance can be made on schedule (and hopefully with little effort now that the "machinery is moving easily and well" to quote her once again).

Note: This is not to be confused with a spring cleaning. This is more of a monthly organizational upkeep and maintenance of your inventory of household goods to make your home run smoothly. Like our Victorian Era ancestors, we will also try to add some special homemaking touches along the way.

1. The Living Room ~ Straighten up the bookshelves.

Our living room is kept in pretty decent order at all times. It is the entrance and therefore the first impression one gets when walking into our home. We like it to be tidy so that hospitality is always available. The one thing that needs constant maintenance is the straightening up of our many bookshelves since they are constantly being used. We like to keep all the series grouped together and keep the larger books to the sides of the bookshelf since they are the strongest. From each of the two sides, we place books in size order so that by the time we get to the middle (the weakest part of the shelves), it will contain the lighter books. The heaviest of books get placed on the bottom shelves along with some wicker baskets full of blocks and puzzles. 

Little Touches: When I completed my task, I surveyed the scene... I rotated the cushions on the couch, fluffed up the pillows and clipped a little bouquet to place on our fireplace mantle.

What needs to be done in your Living Room?

2. Kitchen ~ Organize refrigerator.

The kitchen is the most used room in the house and it is important to me that it is also kept in order (if you want to maintain sanity). The one thing that is hard to keep up with is the ever changing contents of the refrigerator. At least one a month, we try and asses the situation, regroup the contents and remove anything old (hopefully we have been vigilant and there isn't much loss).

Little Touches ~ We regrouped our glass canisters to give a cleaner appearance and placed our kombucha bottles in the pantry for a less cluttery look.

In the past our monthly maintenance required us to organize our silverware and utensils, to organize our bakeware and organize our pantry with some pretty labels. What needs to be done in your kitchen?

3. The Bathroom ~ Restock supplies such as toilet paper, cotton balls, q-tips, shampoo/conditioner.

Our bathroom stays in decent order. We keep our excess toiletries in plastic "dollar store" baskets in our shelf behind our "skirt" curtain where we also store our stash of "bathroom inventory". There wasn't much to do besides check our supplies and restock said items.

Little Touches ~ We changed the shower curtain. This is something we do every season to freshen up our surroundings. Whenever I find a pretty shower curtain on clearance or second hand (under $5), I add it to our collection (we don't wallpaper or remodel in our home so this is the closest I get to re-decorating). I also made a batch of lavender room spray for the bathroom.

What needs to be done in your bathroom(s)?

4. The Master Bedroom ~ Organize under the bed storage bags, clean out wardrobe of unseasonal clothing that was left behind, organize my personal space in wardrobe such as books, essential oils and toiletries.

We keep our room clutter free as it is very small. It has our bed, our wardrobe, a yard-long picture of roses, and a small table by the bedside. With that being said, there isn't much to maintain besides some small organizational projects of the areas I mentioned.

Little Touches ~ I made some simple and sweet sachets (we will share these in the future). With our humid climate, we can get a musty smell so I am continually airing out the wardrobes. The sachets will add a nice fragrance and freshen everything up.

What needs to be done in your master bedroom?

5. Children's Bedroom ~ Evaluate what can be done about lack of storage and attempt to remedy (our home has no built in closets), remove clothing that no longer fits, organize bookcase, pack up younger aged books and place in storage, fine tune odds and ends.

We were able to find a broken antique wardrobe at an auction house for a small price (my husband revived it with a few extra nails and inserted additional shelves). My daughter painted the closet (inside and out) and we added some pretty glass knobs. This really helped to organize the room better now that everything is tucked inside a closet. We also straightened up the bookshelves and removed items that are no longer in use (such as small clothing, etc.).

Little Touches ~  We layed rose-printed shelf paper inside all of the drawers. It looks lovely inside!

What needs to be done in your children's room? Here are some printable labels to help you organize their room in case you need some inspiration.

6. Laundry Room ~ Refurbish supplies of laundry solutions, organize under laundry station, fine tune operation.

The laundry room had gotten pretty grimy since it is near the mudroom off the house. I did do some spring cleaning in there and fine tuned my operation. I prepared larger batches of fabric softener, changed out some of the canister jars and prepared an area exclusively for kitchen linens so that those can be washed separately when I have a loads worth (before I had to dig them out from the main laundry in the laundry basket, now they go directly in their own pile in the laundry room).

Little Touches ~ We refreshed our laundry room and will share this in a separate post since laundry rooms are so fun! Here is a look at the laundry room before which also includes some printable organizational labels in case you are interested.

What needs to be done in your laundry area?

7. Garage/Mudroom ~ Organize and relabel any storage boxes which lacked labels.

We made sure all the labels were visible and the area is orderly (so hubby is happy). Items that haven't been used should be donated or given to someone who can use them. I have learned that if you aren't sure about an item, place it in a box with the date. If you haven't used it in over a year when you happen upon it again, then it is time to say "goodbye".

8. Spare Room/School Room/Office (all in one) ~ (work in process, no photo) This is a new addition for us so we are slowly organizing it into an efficient space where we can homeschool, do projects and keep the home office. 

Now it is your turn! Are you ready to assess your situation? Victorian Era author, Ms. Catharine Beecher, had given us 7 steps to home management success (found here). Here is what we have shared on our "Odds and Ends" Monthly Home Maintenance Series (note that some steps were placed together and altered to make for modern day needs):

Complete Steps in Series:

Step #1 ~ What Needs to Be Done in Your Home?
Step #2 ~ Restocking the Cleaning Closet
Step #2, 3, 5, 6 ~ Examining the Store-Closet, Pantry, Cellar and Such
Step #4 ~ Examining the "Table Linens"
Step #4 ~ Examining the "Bed Linens"
Step #7 Examining the Toolbox and/or "Junk Drawer"

Checklist for Preparing Your Own Maintenance:

"Odds and Ends" Monthly Home Maintenance ~ Printable Checklist

You will find more home organization ideas here if you are interested.

"A housekeeper who will have a regular time for attending to these particulars will find her whole family machinery moving easily and well; but one who does not, will constantly be finding something out of joint, and an unquiet, secret apprehension of duties left undone or forgotten, which no other method will so effectually remove."

~ Catharine Beecher & Harriet Stowe, The New Housekeeper's Manual, 1873

This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Homestead Barn Hop, Amaze Me Monday, Monday's Musings, Marriage Monday, Titus 2sdays, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Raising Homemakers, Make Bake Create, Wise Woman Link Up, Wow Us Wednesdays, Wildcrafting Wednesday, The Scoop, Coffee and Conversation, So Much at Home, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Hearts for Home Thursdays, Growing in Grace Thursdays, Home Acre Hop, From the Farm Blog Hop, Farmgirl Friday, Front Porch Friday Blog Hop, Simple Meals Friday, Cultivate Nourishing and Clever Chicks Blog Hop. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these. Painting by George Goodwin Kilburne.

Wilderness Survival Stories and Movies for Boys (and Girls Too!)

Prologue: With summer in full swing, I contemplated a home education post titled "How to teach your children to play outside". It seemed too sad to type so the title changed. But the theory, in this electronic-deviced-age, is still the same.

"...boys' leisure should be spent in the open; that the blue sky is the only proper roof for a normal boy's playground; also that the open spaces are the places where God intended young people to live, work and play."

~ Dan Beard, Founder of Boy Scouts, 1930

Like all great ideas in our home, our child's interest in wilderness and survival started with a book. We saw it coming during the reading of My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. So what did we do? We nurtured it! 

               

When a child is interested in something is when they absorb the most. We would go to the library or bookstore and provide resources to feed this wholesome pursuit of knowledge (which in turn increased the fervor for outdoor play). While your children may think that they are on summer break, the wise parent will know that school is still in session. Learning is a way of life, not simply a season in your life.

"Of course, it is only now and then that a notion catches a small boy, but when it does catch, it works wonders, and does more for his education than years of grind." 

~ Charlotte Mason, Victorian Era Educator

 

We purchased non-fiction books on wilderness and survival such as The Survival Handbook: Essential Skills for Outdoor Adventure and The Encyclopedia of Survival Techniques.

Our very favorite book of hands-on crafts and activities was Kids Camp!: Activities for the Backyard or Wilderness by Laurie Carlson. This is a great tool for some outdoor family fun! It includes projects such as how to sew your own camp clothes, make your own camp gear with milk jugs, tin cans and such, craft a camp journal, make a soap on a rope, recipes for easy on-the-go snacks and suppers, simple tent making, knot tying, nature study suggestions, games like how to make your own golf course, sailboat, kite, scavenger hunts, you name it! I love this book!

   

An excellent source of survival-style fiction we enjoyed was The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare. This story takes place in the colonial times (so they are learning history and nature at the same time). There is a movie, based on the book (The Sign of the Beaver DVD) that you can watch together on your family film night.

                     

It was also the perfect opportunity to read The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss. This is a challenging book so we downloaded the audio version to lighten the load of our lips. There were many Christian principles taught in this classic family survival story while being very informative (this book is a nature study in itself!).

                      

Don't exclude your young ladies! Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell would be an excellent survival themed book for 9-13 year olds. Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink (7-10 years) would be great for younger girls who are reading chapter books. Acorn Pancakes, Dandelion Salad and 38 Other Wild Recipes by Jean Craighead George is another fun choice for daughters as it teaches about cooking with foraged food.

"Education is not filling a pail but the lighting of a fire."

~William Butler Yeats

Outdoor activity ideas might include making and/or using bows and arrows, building tree forts, safely building an outdoor fire, walking your property to identify edible food, doing a nature scavenger hunt (I love this idea!), making small traps and hunting small prey, etc.

          

Our family movie night included Frontier Skills with Little Bear, Wilderness Family Trilogy (family adventure drama), My Side of the Mountain (based on award winning novel) and The Endurance (this biographical movie is geared toward an older audience as the survival story of Ernest Shackleton is very dramatic).

  

          

These books and movies inspire knowledge in forgotten areas of life! They will teach boys to be industrious men, protectors and providers… They will encourage girls to be skilled, resourceful and courageous in unforeseen circumstances…

Though this interest lasted a year in our home and does flicker back once in a while, the knowledge will last a lifetime. When a subject captures your child, encourage it and watch it grow (this is pain-free education at it's best)! You will be amazed by how much they learn by themselves when you provide the "tools". And a knowledge of outdoor survival and appreciation for the great outdoors is certainly worth its weight in gold. Go ahead, open a book together and live the adventure!

"A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting."

~ Henry David Thoreau

"So, Boys of the Open, throw aside your new rackets, your croquet mallets, and your boiled shirts—pull on your buckskin leggings, give a war whoop and be what God intended you should be; healthy wholesome boys."

~ Dan Beard, Founder of Boy Scouts, 1930

This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Homestead Barn Hop, Amaze Me Monday, Monday's Musings, Marriage Monday, Titus 2sdays, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Raising Homemakers, Make Bake Create, Wise Woman Link Up, Wow Us Wednesdays, Wildcrafting Wednesday, The Scoop, Coffee and Conversation, So Much at Home, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Hearts for Home Thursdays, Growing in Grace Thursdays, Home Acre Hop, From the Farm Blog Hop, Farmgirl Friday, Front Porch Friday Blog Hop, Simple Meals Friday, Cultivate Nourishing and Clever Chicks Blog Hop. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these.