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Far From Normal

Parenting, Homeschooling & Life Lived Happily Outside the box

Home » Maple Sugaring at Home {an educational hobby!}

Maple Sugaring at Home {an educational hobby!}

December 9, 2015 by Krista 1 Comment

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**This post is a review of Tap My Trees. I received a free product to review and was compensated for my time. All opinions are 100% honest and my own.
Making maple syurp is easy and fun! It can also make for great homeschool lessons!

I have always wanted to make maple syrup.

 

It’s one of those things. Like gardening, raising chickens, making things I could just as easily buy. I wanted to make maple syrup. I’ve even looked into it. What supplies are needed, how the process works… all of that. But it seemed a little intimidating.

 

Until I was introduced to Tap My Trees.

 

These lovely folks have not only put together a kit that includes everything a wanna be maple sugarer would need but they’ve taken it one step further. They’ve made it educational.

 

That’s right my friends… A kit to make maple syrup and lesson plans to go with it. This is a total homeschool, do it yourself mom’s dream!! And my kids are super excited about it too!

 

We love real maple syrup at our house, we attend a maple syrup festival every year…we’re big fans. So when I told the boys that we were going to be able to make our own they were all about it!

 

Exploring the Maple Syrup Supplies

 

Now the sap won’t be running until late this winter so we have to wait to start tapping but in the mean time we’ve been exploring all the tap my trees kit has to offer.

 

It comes with everything you need. A drill bit & spiel for tapping the trees, a sap collection bucket, cheese cloth and filtering material, a great book all about the maple syrup process and a nice little bottle to store your finished product in. It’s a complete kit for all your tapping needs! (If you’ve got lots of trees to tap you can even order extra kits!)

Maple syrup kit, make your own maple syrup, syrup making at home

In anticipation of being able to tap our trees we explored each and every part of the kit and read up on what each thing does and  how the process works.

 

We also made sure to make a note of where our maple trees are in our yard because when it’s time to tap they won’t have any leaves! It’s a great idea if you have a lot of trees to mark them with a ribbon or paint or draw a map of your yard and take note of where your maples are.

You’ll need a nice healthy tree, at least 12 inches in diameter (um can we smell a math lesson??) We’re lucky to have a big ol’ maple in our yard that is kind of 3 trees in one, each that fits the bill.

There are lots of different kinds of maples and the cool thing is that you can tap all of them (see we’ve already learned something!)

 

Making maple sugaring educational

 

Now I know this whole process is going to be super fun and interesting for me and the boys, we’re really looking forward to it.

 

I never would have realized how many educational aspects can be incorporated into makin maple syrup!

 

Thankfully thought Tap my Trees did and included it in the kit.  The lesson plan material includes ideas on how to include Art, language Arts, Math, Science, and History! They include a list of resources for further research, learning objectives, and even field trip ideas!! I know my kids always love unit studies where we connect our learning to a hands on experience so I’m excited to use these resources!

So since we have our trees marked we’ll be spending the next few months learning even more about the history and process of making maple syrup. The book included with the Tap My Trees kit is a wonderful place to start! It has a ton of information about maple trees, the syrup making process and more!

DSCN2944

Nathan has been doing a lot of work with volume and percentage this year in math so I’m excited to incorporate those concepts into real life experience.  The great part about this experience is that you can tailor it to whatever grade level and subject you want!

I’ll be stretching our lessons out, bu you could also do a couple concentrated ones during each step of the sugaring process… the possibilities here are really endless!

Already we’ve talked about identifying maple trees, why they have sap and how it’s made and a little bit about how the process is going to work! Even just unboxing the kit and exploring it’s contents has started this educational journey.

DSCN2946

So like I’ve said this is something I’ve always wanted to do, and something I know my boys will really enjoy so having a complete kit to get us started is just about the most awesome thing ever!

 

If you want to be ready this spring to make your own syrup make sure to order your kit today!!

 

Want to know more about Tap My Trees? Make sure to check them out and follow them via social media!!

~~Facebook~~ Twitter~~Instagram~~ Pinterest

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Filed Under: Homeschool, Uncategorized

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  1. Making Maple Syrup At Home | Far From Normal says:
    March 20, 2016 at 6:00 am

    […] at home complete with everything you’d ever need to make your own syrup. (you can read my first post about the kits here)   I thought it was a sure sign from the universe that I was meant to make my own syrup… […]

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