C is for Cow

We continued our farm theme this week.  We have been doing some general farm things, and this week's focus was on cows and milk.

One of the things that was a much bigger hit in theory than reality was making our own butter.  We get cream delivered from a milk company here, and most of the posts on other blogs I had read about making butter said how it makes quite a small amount, so I ordered extra cream, and I think we ended up doing a liter and a half.  We put some clean marbles in with the cream in this container, and we shook it.  Let's be honest, that thing got heavy, so I did most of the shaking, and I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I was actually sore after 25 minutes or so of shaking our butter.  It did eventually work, and they were really excited to look at it and taste and then decided they liked the butter we buy better to eat anyway!  Ah, well, it was an experience.

Our big event for the week was a field trip!  We have gotten to know some great people doing a business here to support a children's home here in Kathmandu area.  The business is called Milkmandu!  They deliver pasteurized milk and some milk products.  Getting good milk can be a challenge living here, so we have really enjoyed their products and think they run a great business, but they also are really great people, doing great work!  Seriously, if you happen to be reading this, check them out here!

Anyway, my little one especially gets REALLY excited for the milk and for the delivery!  He hears the truck (used to motorcycle) and runs to the door to collect it!  

I asked them if we and a couple other friends who homeschool here could make it a little field trip to visit them, and they were super gracious to have us invade with our littles!

It seemed fitting on a field trip about something with farms for my boys to wear their John Deere hats they got from my Grandpa (not a super common site in Nepal)! :)

They had some cow coloring for the kids while they waited for parts of the process to be ready for them to watch.

They also, very sweetly, gave the kiddos a yummy treat! :)

The main process the kids got to watch was the separator, which separates the milk from the cream.  That's the machine on the far side of the room with a pink bottle catching the cream, and a green bottle catching the milk.

I had also seen this idea from several places, like here at Life with Moore Babies, to use latex gloves to pretend to milk a cow.  I had no idea where to find latex gloves here (unsuccessfully searched several places), so I bought a pair of think rubber "kitchen" gloves and figured we'd give it a try.  Well, my youngest is scared of balloons, and he thought it looked too much like balloons, so he had no interest!  Isaiah got really into it, but the gloves were not quite right for it, and I have yet to find tape here that actually holds the way I hope it will, so the whole glove popped off, and our "milk" went everywhere.  Isaiah was so sad because he didn't get to milk a whole "cow," so I held the second one in place for him to finish.  Sometimes things seem just a bit more complicated to pull off here!

One of our activities from our curriculum this week was to cut out pictures of dairy products and make a collage.  But, Isaiah doesn't ever really just settle for a "simple" project.  He did not want to just glue the pictures on the paper.  He wanted to make a whole scene of a dairy party with the food on the tables.  He even (reluctantly) allowed Zeke to add some of the lights to the picture for the decorations.  I can't say I don't where he gets it that he insists on taking everything to another level, and I love that about him, but sometimes, it does seem that it would be easier if he was just content to complete the "simple" version of a task!  Look how pleased he is with his masterpiece, though!

We also did some work on our letter of the week, which was C.

Zeke is always a fan of dot markers.

For Isaiah's handwriting this week, I let him write on the big white board.  After his letters, I found this that he had made.  He said he didn't really know what it was, but I thought it was cool that he came up with this systematic little drawing of symbols.

Linking up over at Tot School Gathering Place!