Ticking Along Like Clockwork

We have established a pretty solid weekday routine here on the farm that includes all the necessary activities: farm animal chores, homeschooling, laundry, bread baking, outdoor play, meal prep, and nap time.  Even though things are running like clockwork, it is very useful to have a seven year old helper as my right hand man.

Today we were budding botanists (pun intended). 
We did this experiment to show that leaves really do "breathe".
Note the condensation on the inside of the upper glass as evidence of the invisible process of photosynthesis.  Way cool.

After working alongside me for the duration of this year's growing season (and several others before), Liam has become very familiar with the kinds of plants we grow for food.  It is fun to now teach him beginner botany and see him really begin to understand and appreciate the crucial role plants play in our ecosystem.

There is an added bonus of Liam being really interested in plants - armed with a bowl and a pair of scissors, he was able to completely independently harvest all the stir fry appropriate vegetables (broccoli, kale, carrots, daikon, chinese cabbage and borage) that we have growing and then clean them all in the kitchen sink. This freed me up to supervise Ali, make the rice, mix up a stir fry sauce, and chop and saute everything.

Liam's healthy stir fry straight from our autumn garden.

What's more, he bakes!  Liam worked really hard at school today and so we decided to spend the afternoon baking a (human food) birthday cake in honour of Charlotte (the dog)'s upcoming 12th birthday.  Liam took the reins and did all the flavour and colour selection, mixing, icing, and decorating.  Charlotte was not actually allowed to eat any of "her" cake but she did get to look longingly at all that blue icing!

It was another busy day here on Gael Glen Farm but it was also a good one.  Hopefully we just keep ticking along until the weekend.