I spent 11 years as a child care provider in my home. I took care of kids from 4 weeks of age up to the age of 10. One thing I learned was that giving the children in my care early learning skills helped most of them when they entered kindergarten. They knew their numbers up to 50, could write their own names, read up to 100 words and knew the whole alphabet. They could cut with scissors, color within the lines, knew all their colors and even tell you the names of the planets in our solar system. I taught them these skills with simple house hold items.
When SHTF you are going to become your child's teacher. Starting them off early will help them learn better when its time to graduate them to kindergarten skill sets.
Here is a simple list of common house old items you can use and how to use them to help your child learn at a early age. You might be surprised at some of them.
1. What kid over the age of two doesn't know what a cookie looks like or how about a apple? Using thin cardboard, 3 shower curtain rings and pictures in magazines of items that your child recognizes you can make a simple word book that will teach them reading skills. Cut a picture of an item out of a magazine and glue it to a book size piece of cardboard. Under the picture, using a black marker write the name of the item under the picture. Do this with up to 25 items. Once you have your pages done clip them together with the curtain rings and help the child the first few times to go through the book, pointing to the words as they see them. Once you think they have a grasp of seeing the words use some simple slips of paper and write one of the words you used in the book. Ask the child what the word is and they will be able to tell you. This is their first reading skill. Once they have those words down pat make another book with more words in it. The list is endless. You can do books on different animals, different colors, different kinds of transportation and so on.
2. Use several types of buttons to make patterns for the children to follow. Make sure to have at least 8 of each type of button and use buttons of different colors. Line up a pattern of buttons with no more than 5 buttons. Give your child the same amount , types and colors as you used in your pattern. Tell them to make their buttons lay in the same line as you did. Once they have achieved the same pattern that you made help them count the buttons in their pattern. These are early math skills that help them to learn. Once they learn to count to five, line up 2 buttons of one color and 3 buttons of another color. Have them count the buttons of each color. Once they have done that have them count the total of the buttons. Then remove one or two and have them count them again. Repeated use of this simple task helps them to learn math patterning, counting and subtracting and adding. You can increase the amount of buttons as they advance in learning.
Other items you can use instead of buttons are milk caps with stickers on them. Change such as dimes, nickles, pennies and even quarters. Dried beans of different varieties or beads from old jewelry.
3. Using strips of paper label things around you house and attach the words for the items to them using paper clips or even tape. Kids will see the words when they look at an item and in time learn to reconize the word without seeing item. Label simple things like a lamp, a chair, a picture, the tv and even pictures of loved ones with their names on them such as mom, dad, grandpa and grandma.
4. Cook with your kids. Cooking is a good way to teach math skills. They can count the number of potatoes you will be using for a meal or when they have learned to count to ten and know what it means, have them get you just so many potatoes from the bag. Baking together and helping the kids to measure the ingredients helps them to learn fractions, adding and subtracting. Cooking together also teaches them early science skills such as what happens when yeast gets warm.
5. Felt boards are another great teaching item. Cut out felt pieces to go with your childs favorite story book. The first couple of times you read the book to the child after you have made felt pieces have them lay out the pieces according to how the story is going. After a couple of times have them tell you the story using the felt pieces. Even encourage them to make up their own stories using the felt pieces.
It will encourage their love of learning to read, patterning, math skills and even help their speech and vocabulary.
6. Teaching can help improve their fine motor skills. Give them scissors and scrap paper to cut, a muffin tin and beads to sort into the cups, bits of bread dough when you are making bread for them to knead. Big bolts and nuts for them to screw on and off. Give them a plastic knife to cut dough with, a spoon to scoop dried beans, uncooked rice or even beads from one bowl to another.
7. Teach hand and eye coordination by rolling up some old socks into balls and giving the kids a cardboard box or laundry baskets to throw them at. See how many "baskets" they can make.
Using these simple house hold items will help your child a long way on the road to learning while creating many. many hours of fun for them and you. :)
Prepping Granny
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Once SHTF life is going to be hard enough. You certainly do not want to have to deal with rats or other critters milling around your trash and you do not want to leave signs for others to show that you still have food. Food cans, empty food bags, bottles and more in the trash is a sure sign that you have food in your house.
The best thing to do would be to try and recycle as much of your trash as you can and burn what is left right away. Tin cans can be washed out and used for small planters for herbs. They can be used to make an alarm system. In a pinch they could even be used for drinking out of it you make sure to smooth down the rims so on one cuts their mouth on them. Paper can be used to start fires, make new paper, beddding for small animals and even litter for a cat. It can also be used to mop up spills so you will have less towels to wash. Plastic bottles with caps can be reused to store water, carry water or even as small planters as long as they have been washed very well. You might not want to use old bleach containers and others like them that have held chemicals but plastic food containers will be safe for reuse. Card board can be used to cut down weeds in the garden. Lay them down under a layer of mulch to help keep the weeds at bay. It can also be used in a fire or as a added layer of insulation on walls and windows. Large pieces of cardboard can be cut to fit windows and then painted black to block out the light you use at night so others won't see it. Now matter how careful you are about cooking just enough for one meal at a time there is always going to be food scraps, peelings, bones, shells and so on. Feed what you can to your pets and livestock then put the rest that can be composted in the bottom of the compost bin to hide them. The bones and any other scraps that can not be recycled can be buried so as not to attract critters like rats, mice and others. When SHTF you might not think about your trash first so now would be a good time to figure out just how you are going to handle it and have that plan in place when the time comes. Prepping Granny It's arrived! This time of year its the most exciting thing about the garden and its finally appeared. It's the time when those new gardening catalogs start showing up. I've finally received my first catalog for the new gardening year. From now until spring most gardeners will spend many, many hours thumbing through the pages and pages of the new offerings and longing for the time when the orders are mailed off and those new seeds begin filling the mailbox. This catalog isn't the best or even my favorite but it IS the first and because of that it will probably get more attention then some of the later arrivals. I will spend hours and hours browsing the catalogs, admiring the pictures of beautiful herbs and vegetables and reading the descriptions that accompany them. I make lists of all the things I simply MUST have and those tried and true favorites that need replacing. The lists of seeds I want to order gets longer and longer as all the different catalogs begin filling the mail box. Inevitably, as the time for ordering gets closer I have to get serious about buying seeds and the wants have to be measured against reality. I just don't have the planting space or the money to buy every seed I want. I usually have to reel myself in a great deal by the time I place my seed orders. To do that I find that I have to do several things. I DO mark in my catalogs with a black sharpie pen everything I want to order. Then I take into account and list all the special discounts and free offers they give to tempt me into ordering. I make a list for each catalog and attach it to the front. This list is just a beginning. Next I make a drawing of my garden areas and fill it in with my imaginary plants. This garden is perfect and weed free. Everything grows beautifully and there are no pests or disease. Watering is done easily and all the plants grow in perfect harmony with very little work on my part. I draw in those perennials that are already planted and then note the bare spots where I can plant my annuals. Then reality meets my seed ordering lists and I begin the long "chore" of paring back my wants. First I inventory the seeds that I have already stored for planting. There are tried and true seeds and vegetables that I plant every year and simply can't do without. I pull out my boxes and jars and see if anything is getting low. If I already have plenty of them then there is no reason to order more. Of course, I save seeds from year to year and these seeds are stored in jars and envelopes in quantity. Now my planting areas are shrinking fast and I have the task of deciding which seeds I really should order verses those that just won't fit after all. I will cross off those seeds that overlap from catalog to catalog so that I only order a certain variety from one company rather then everybody who offers it. I try to make sure I order just enough to get the freebies and discounts. Usually, that's not a problem:) I make sure that most of what I order grows well in my area but occasionally I try something new thats not meant for my area just because I can. I order mostly non-hybrids so that I can save the seeds but again I'm not opposed to trying something just for the fun of it even if it is a seed I can't save because its a hybrid. I just make a note that a certain cucumber or tomato is a one time planting and I don't devote a great deal of space to them. My growing space and budget keep shrinking with every seed I choose to order. I do keep in mind that some seeds will need to be ordered not only for planting in the new spring garden but ordered and saved for planting when those spring crops stop producing and its time to rotate, replant or grow the fall garden. I order them in spring because they may not be available later. At last, its time to finalize the decisions and imagination meets reality. My lists are much shorter and realistic. I DO still include some new and unusual things but for the most part I try to order what I know I should. I make a final clean list and staple it to the front of each catalog. There are a few here and there from all the offerings. I fill out the order forms and send off my payment with both regret and anticipation. I hate it that I can't order everything but I can't wait to get my final purchases in the mail. I mourn all the cozy time spent with the catalogs planning and dreaming about my garden but I anticipate the visits to the mail box stuffed with the arrival of all the new seeds which will soon be coming in the weeks ahead. Yes, it's finally arrived. The first catalog and many happy hours of planning and plotting my new garden. I realize it may mean the difference between survival and hunger one day. For now its also an annual time of joy and excitement as those catalogs bring pictures and descriptions of new growth, new adventures in growing and the challenge of planning a whole new garden. The best part is that, for now, the spring garden can be planted from the comfort of my cozy home while the cold and damp of winter are forgotten outside the windows and doors. Southern Wood Elf Every prepper likes to encourage another person to start prepping. It makes our day to know when we have helped some one come to the desision to prep and learn how to survive during any SHTF event no matter how long it lasts.
Below are some nice gift ideas that you can choose to gift to the new prepper in your life if you choose to give them one. 1. A pocket size NOAA weather radio with flashlight that runs on solar powered batteries. Walmart is now selling one for about $20. I have seen it and tried it out. It works very well. 2. Cast iron cookware. You can get a nice cast iron skillet for around $20 and it can be used to cook any where. 3. A good flashlight. Mag lights would be great because they could also double as a weapon if needed. Don't forget to buy some batteries to go with it. 4. A decent oil lamp and a bottle of lamp oil. You should be able to get both for around $15. 5. A good first aid kit that they can carry anywhere for emergenices. 6. A dozen new canning jars they can use for canning or for dry food storage. 7. A camp stove and a bottle of fuel for it. 8. A good mutlfunctional pocket knife that will help them during emergencies. 9. A good back pack and how tos on how to make a bug out bag. 10. Books on canning, dehydrating. candle making, soap making, survival skills and more. 11. A water bath canner to get them started in making jams and jellies. 12. A survial kit with a compass, fresnal lense and firestarter stick. 13. A stove top coffee pot or tea kettle. 14. A manual can opener 15. A long pair of oven mitts to use for cooking over an open fire. Many of these gifts cost under $20 and some are under $10 but all will be good gifts for a new prepper. Prepping Granny When I was a little girl my grandma had a big button box. It was really a big metal cookie tin but she always called it her button box. In it she had saved every button from every article of clothing she had ever repurposed. She never threw much of anything away.
Every time we went to visit Grandma she would let me play with her button box. Each time I opened that button box instead of seeing just buttons I saw shiny diamonds, blood red rubies, pearls as white as new fallen snow, beautiful blue shappires and green emeralds. To me it wasn't a button box but a chest of royal jewels and I was a princess. I would play for hours with that button box, sorting the buttons by color, type and size. Some times Grandma would give me some string or thread and I would make jewerly from the button to wear and pretend I was a royal princess and she was the queen which may have been a sign since in her later years she married a man with the last name of Queen and then she became Grandma Queen. :) When my grandma died in 1995 I was given her button box and her hankerchief boxes which were full of her beautiful, carefully pressed hankerchiefs. Her hankerchiefs were another item she would let me play with as a child. I would use them to pretend I was a bride and they were my veil. I was always very careful when I played with the buttons and kerchiefs knowing full well that if I was not careful with them she would not let me play with them again. Because of my grandma's thriftness I was not only given many, many hours of wonderful times and warm loving memories but also a number of life skills that would help me throughout my life time. I learned math skills through sorting the buttons, patterening skills, my critical thinking skills grew, my ability to imagine life in different scenarios grew. I learned that almost everything can be reused at least once. I learned to never throw anything away without first thinking about how it might be reused. I learned that living the simple "waste not, want not" was a good way to save money. But most of all I learned that money does not by happiness. No amount of money could buy me better memories then those of playing with my grandma's button box. I keep that button box in a place of honor on my sewing table and I see it everyday and remember all those warm memories and life skills that my grandma provided for me when I was growing up. I would now like to share some of those simple skills with you if that is okay. 1. No fat from meat was every thrown away. Grandma kept a grease jar on her stove and she collected all the fat from cooking meat and use it in cooking other things. 2. Very little meat was cooked with the bone on. She would cut the bones from the meat before cooking, roast the bones in the oven then simmer them in water with carrots, onions and celery to make a rich meat broth. Once the broth was done she would take the bones out and pick what meat was still on them and most times would have enough meat for a pot of meaty soup. She always said cooking meat with the bone on and then tossing those bones to the dog or in the trash was a loss of good meat and rich flavor. 3. She never threw out old clothes without first removing the buttons, zippers and some times pretty decorative patches. She would reuse these items to repare other clothes or to make new ones. The patches could be used to cover a stained area on a favorite piece of clothing. Different buttons could be used to give and old blouse a new look. She would also save the material and cut in patches to make quilts. She didn't see the sense in buying new materials to make a pretty quilt when she could make one just as pretty using scraps from old clothes. Stained clothes to stained to cut around for patch work quilts were cut in strips and used to make rag rugs. She felt it was sensless to waste money buying rugs when you could make one just as nice using scraps. She would take old worn out blankets and patch them then use them as filler for the quilts and unmatched flat sheets were used for making the quilt backing. 4. Vegetables were washed throughly and when they were prepared for a meal the trimming were thrown in a pot of water to make a rich vegetable broth. Onions skins and ends, carrot peelings, potaote peels, celery ends and more would all go in to that pot. If she had a package of bones in the freezer then would get tossed into the pot to. 5. All glass jars were saved and reused for canning and food storage to keep the mice out. Back then just about everyone made jelly, poured it into used store bought jars and sealed with a layer of wax. That is not recommend any more but back then it was the norm. The store bought jars were also used to store dry foods in to keep out the mice and bugs. I remember jars and jars of dried beans, sugar, rice and more always lined Grandma's cabinets. Very little was stored in boxes. 6. Not until her very later years did Grandma ever buy ready made foods in the stores. Up until she fell at the age of 80 and broke her hip every thing she cooked she cooked from scratch. From cookies, to pies to soups, stews, roasts, pasta and more was made with her loving hands and tasted a 1000 times better than any store bought ever could. And it was healthier to since it was loaded down with salt, sugar and chemicals. These are just some of the lessons my grandma taught me and I still use them to this day. They have saved me a lot of money over the years and I hope you will get a chance to use them to if you are not already doing so. They are lessons that will come in real handy when SHTF. Prepping Granny A friend asked me to post some of this info. We were talking about some of the recipes I had found in my Grandma's extensive hand-written recipe file after she had passed away. I wanted to try to get them together to pass on to my kids, grandkids and others who might need the knowledge later if TSHTF. I'm not sure where Grandma got the recipes - if they were hers or someone else's. I can remember butchering hogs, making, butter, lard, etc. at her house when I was young. As I got older she used more convenient items in cooking.
Grandma was one of 10 kids. She and her family lived through the Depression and it was hard to make ends meet. Her brothers worked in coal mines or farm laborers their farm included. She and her sisters worked the garden, helped with farm chores, and did household chores. Grandma always loved to cook and people loved to eat her food. I really miss her cooking and never get some of the same recipes to taste like hers! As she got older and could afford to buy more ingredients she tried lots of newer recipes but she still cooked some of the tried and true recipes from the past. So I will post the recipes I found in her file. Here are some for now. I'll post more later. Sassafras Tea Wash the sassafras root. Cut them in 2"-3" pieces. Place in a deep pan, cover with cold water and boil for about 15 minutes. Strain and serve hot. Add lemon and sugar (or honey) to taste. Butter Immediately after the cow is milked, strain milk into clean pans, and set over a moderate fire until it is scalding hot; do not let boil. then set it aside. When it is cool, skim off the cream from the top. The remaining milk will still be fit for ordinary use. When you have enough cream, put it into a clean churn. Churn vigorously until the butter is made, which will not be long. Dip the butter from the churn and pat into butter mold. What's left in the churn is most agreeable to the hogs! Meat Brine for Wild Game 2 c. coarse pickling salt 2 tsp. black pepper 1/2 tsp salt peter 1 c. brown sugar 2 tsp. baking soda Combine all and mix well. Cut meat and sprinkle each piece lightly on all sides with mixture. Pack lightly in crock and weight down with lid. Store in cool place, watching to see that the meat is always covered with brine. In 5-7 days the meat is ready for cooking or whatever. Preparing a Turtle for Cooking First cut off the head and feet; turn upside down nailing the tail to a board. Use a very sharp thin knife and cut the skin from around the back. Cut off the belly plate, skin the neck, tail and other skin off. Remove the internal organs. Also remove the 2 tenderloin strips along the back. Cut the fatty tissue away and wash the turtle in cold water and you are ready to cook it. It tastes like chicken! (We fry it or make soup out of it, but it could be canned or treated like chicken in recipes.) Additional note as to how we cut the head off: The best way my husband and I have found to do this is: Take a piece of "farmer's wire" and wrap it tight around the turtle's tail while another person holds the turtle still ;-). Hang the wire over a post or clothes line. Stick a pair of large pliers in front of the turtle's mouth so he will bite the pliers - and he will! Hold the turtle still by using the pliers and cut the head off with a sharp knife if using the clothes line or an axe if using a post. We let the turtle bleed out so there's less mess. We also cut the feet off later. Outdoor Woman |