The Nature of Grace

Homeschool Theme of the Week: Valentine's Day!

2012-02-22T22:07:00.005-08:00

As you can see, I am still running a bit behind on the posting - but better late than never, right?
Here's the fun Valentine snack my daughter enjoyed recently!

Snack details:

Nutella and strawberries in heart cookie cutters.

Red muffin cup 1: vanilla yogurt with heart sprinkles.

Pink muffin cups 2 and 4: raspberries and dried cranberries mixed together.

Red muffin cup 3: yogurt covered raisins and heart sprinkles.

Garnishes: candied hearts and heart sprinkles.

Our Valentine's Store was a sweet success! My daughter thoroughly enjoyed selling and even purchasing Valentine packages for members of the household. People would come to her and tell her what they wanted to send and dictate a message. She would add up the cost on her little receipt form, give it to them, check the payment or help them come up with the correct amount, and then we would package it all up and set it on the shelf to await delivery for Valentine's Day. Oh what bliss when the heart-filled event finally rolled around, and she delivered all of the packages!!! It was fun for her as well as for the rest of us, AND it gave her practice with life skills, money, and writing (the dictated messages).

To download your own deluxe store setup (there are two designs in the deluxe version as well as some fun extras not available in the free version) for only $1.50, head over here (I also have a smaller free version in my TPT store)!

Window clings are so much fun - but I wanted to do something extra with them so I glued some rhyming words to a few of the hearts and cut them apart. My daughter then had to match the pairs that rhymed.

We were also working on compound words a bit this week, so I wrote some compound words on heart doilies, cut them apart, and let her match them up correctly. Unfortunately I seem to have lost the photos of this activity. :(

This was a fun matching symmetry lesson using mittens. I saw this idea on Pinterest and decided it would make a cute winter or Valentine activity. I drew a design on each of three mittens and then my daughter had to try to copy the design on another mitten to make a matching set.

For some handwriting practice, I had my daughter complete each "You are" sentence with the words from a candy message heart she randomly picked from a small bunch I had given her. She would then write the words on the line to complete the sentences.

We graphed some candy hearts by color and.....

by message.

And I leave you with a fun craft that is a great companion to the book "Guess How Much I Love You!" I think these pictures show what we did better than I could tell in a bunch of words.
My daughter decorated this to look like herself. We glued traced cutouts of her hands to the accordian fold sentence strip arms. I wanted to make handprints and cut those out instead to attach, but it didn't happen.

She brainstormed her own way to say how much she loves mommy and daddy ("as fast as I can twirl"), and we wrote that inside the paper. I loved her response - it just sounds so much like her. :)

Linking up to:
http://www.whipperberry.com/
http://www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/
http://www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com/
http://www.toysinthedryer.com/
http://www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/
http://www.kitchenfunwithmy3sons.blogspot.com/

A Friendly Friday: Missing Our Friends "SNOW" Much!

2012-02-10T22:08:00.000-08:00

Remember these yummy guys from my earlier winter activities post here?

Well, I had something special in mind for them. I wanted to let our church family know how much we would miss them so my daughter and I made bundles of these snowmen cookie faces and some hot chocolate mixes (see below), and using my daughter's crayon resist painting as a background, I set up a little area in the church for our gifts where I knew they would be found on Sunday morning. The sign I posted above them stated: We will miss you "SNOW" much! And we do...

Linking up to:

www.tatertotsandjello.com

Homeschool Theme of the Week(s): Winter!

2012-02-07T21:47:00.000-08:00

I have not been posting as much lately, but I hope to catch up and get back into a routine soon! Here's some of what we've been up to over the past few weeks with winter being our main theme...

A fun winter themed snack!

Snowman face: peanut butter and marshmallow creme sandwich with a carrot nose, raisin eyes, and chocolate chip smile. The scarf was made of kiwi and mini tomato slices.

Muffin cups 1 and 3 (sides of plate): yogurt covered raisin "snowballs".

Muffin cup 2 (top): vanilla yogurt "snow" with a dried cranberry snowflake design.

Muffin cup 4 (bottom): More kiwi slices and dried cranberries for decorating the snowman further as desired.

Garnish: gumdrops.

One of our activities consisted of playing roll a blizzard! To do this with your own child, have him/her draw a snow scene (or any sort of outdoor scene). Throw two dice and add the numbers together to see how many snowflakes you will add to the picture. Keep going until the picture is covered in snowflakes! For younger children learning to count or learning about numbers, you may just want to roll one die.

For our blizzard picture, we used snowflake stamps and silver ink but using foam snowflakes, snowflake stickers, etc. would be other great options as well.

We also enjoyed some hot chocolate math with real marshmallows - I saw this idea on Pinterest (here is a link)! To play this game, simply roll a die or draw from a stack of numbers to determine how many marshmallows you may add to your cup. Then do it again and write a number sentence to show the problem and the solution. (Optional: eat one of your marshmallows after you finish each problem).

You can't go wrong with a classic, right? I think the same holds true for classic school activities like practicing one's spelling in shaving cream "snow".

Speaking of snow, we explored real snow (saved in our deep freezer from the last big snow) and made a miniature snowman indoors.

We also attempted to make an igloo out of ice cubes and snow outdoors (attempted being a key word).

At least if one does not do so well in the igloo building department, one can always explore one's strengths in other areas such as baking and decorating cookies. These little snowman cookie faces (more on what we did with those later on a Friendly Friday post) were "snow" fun to make! ;)

Snowball fight anyone? Too cold to go outdoors? Wellllll, then why not have one inside instead! Simply gather up all your white socks, roll into balls, aim, and fire!

Needing a little winding down activity? Try a crayon resist painting! My daughter drew her snow scene with a white crayon on white paper and then painted over it with blue watercolor. It was neat seeing the white snow scene pop out suddenly on the paper when blue was added!

One of my daughter's favorite activities for this theme was to open her own hot chocolate shop! Great for reviewing money, practicing interpersonal skills, dramatic play and more - a pretend and play store is a wonderful hands on learning experience. Sandwich shops, beauty salons, pet stores, mechanic shops, etc. - the sky is the limit for the different kinds of stores your child can own and practice running. :) I know our family members were very willing to visit my daughter's store and to participate, purchasing their hot chocolate drink of choice and enjoying each sip.

And speaking of shops, here is a sneak preview of one activity we have planned for Valentine's week - a Sweet Shop where family members can come and secretly order some sweets for someone else and/or send a message or purchase a coupon for helping someone in the family (doing dishes for one night, etc.). My daughter will help keep track of the orders and will be in charge of delivery on Valentine's Day. Judging from the success of her hot chocolate shop, I think she will really enjoy this new venture!

Love this idea and want to make a Sweet Shop of your own? I have posted a very simple version for FREE on my Teachers Pay Teachers website here. The free set includes a customizable wording sign and matching write-in price tags. A deluxe version is available here for $1.50 which includes TWO designs (hearts and one with dots which is more general for everyday use) and items such as sale signs, frequent shopper cards, receipts, and coupons (heart design only for the coupons), etc. I hope that one of these sets (free or deluxe) will provide hours of fun and learning for you and your child!

So what do YOU have planned for Valentine's?

Linking up to:
http://www.houseofhepworths.com/
http://www.bearrabbitbear.com/
http://www.momontimeout.com/
www.handsonaswegrow.com
www.whipperberry.com
kitchenfunwithmy3sons.blogspot.com
www.tatertotsandjello.com
http://www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com
http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/

Travel Toys!

2012-01-16T21:16:00.000-08:00

This is another one of those posts that I never actually got around to posting last month...

This is a travel toy inspired by this post. It is SOOOO easy to make with lots of possibility. If you are a crafter or a sewer, then you probably have tons of scrap fabric lying around. To make this toy, you simply tie or sew long pieces of fabric together end to end and stuff them in a container or bag with a small opening just large enough to pull the length of attached fabrics out slowly.

I used lots of bright colored fabric and textures (felt, satin, netting, etc.) to make this toy more fascinating and fun! I love how it turned out! :)

To make my travel toy, I sewed the ends of my fabric together really quickly and then also folded a piece of felt over and sewed along the edges to create a bag. I left one small opening along one edge for the fabric to come out. I also sewed the end of the long string of fabrics into the green felt bag so that when my child finished pulling the entire length out, it did not separate from the bag and would be easy to stuff back inside.

Important: Do NOT leave your child alone with a toy like this as it could pose a strangulation hazard.

Would you like to know what other things we took on our trip to keep the kids occupied and happy?

Well, this for one.... See how to make these here.

Some other things we also took:

** our trusty travel DVD player with an ample supply of dvds

**aqua doodle pen and pad (see the link below if you are not sure what this is)

**play magnetic boards and pieces (make sure the pieces are large enough that your child won't swallow them)

**WASHABLE markers and drawing pad or coloring book

**Little toys (miniature dolls, animals, etc.) that are trip-only-toys so they don't just get to play with them every day like their other toys (makes the toys more attractive when they are new or rarely played with until the occasion of a family trip)

**small books with flaps to open

**snack trap (see below) - these are AWESOME for helping to contain the mess of snacks!

**thermos stainless steel sip containers

Linking up to:
www.cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com
www.gingersnapcrafts.com
www.momontimeout.com
www.houseofhepworths.com
www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/
www.whipperberry.com
www.toysinthedryer.com

Travel Toy: Velcro Story Blocks

2012-01-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

We won't be starting up our homeschooling again for a few more days as we are still in the process of moving and settling into a temporary spot until we are able to find a new home to purchase. In the meantime, this is something I wanted to post weeks ago for people who might be traveling over the holidays - but, due to illnesses in the family and Christmas craziness, it just didn't happen.

SOOOO, for those planning a family trip soon (with toddlers in tow), here is something I came up with for one of our own car trips: Velcro Story Blocks! The idea for these came after seeing some velcro blocks. I liked the concept but thought they would be much cuter if they were colored. Then I thought they might be even more fun if some of the sides had pictures so they could be used to make up stories as well. We had an empty laptop box that looked like the perfect fit for said blocks, and I decided to jazz it up with some color and a little scene of its own to enhance the story making capabilities of the blocks! :)

Voila! A new car toy! :) And the beauty of it is that the velcro helps to keep the pieces together instead of having them all over the car, so your little construction worker can build towers IN THE CAR without them toppling at every little bump.

If you would like to make your own, these are pretty easy to make.

IMPORTANT: Examine your blocks each time to make sure the velcro is not detaching from frequent use. Do not give these to your children if you suspect they will try to put them in their mouths or try to eat the velcro.

Materials: Velcro (I used colored as well as black), large wood blocks, paint (non-toxic), glue (super glue or hot glue).

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN BLOCKS:

1. Paint your blocks (solid or with pictures on two sides). Allow blocks to dry.

2. Measure the amount of velcro you will need to wrap around each block once. Cut two pieces of velcro (you will want one with hooks and one without so that the velcro sides of each will be able to stick to all the other blocks. If you only used one side of the velcro such as the hooks side, it could only attach to a block with the other side of velcro such as the loop side. However, by using one strip of each per block, they can all stick together).

3. Glue both pieces of velcro around each block.

4. Find a container in which to store your blocks, then PLAY!!!!! :)

Linking up to:

www.houseofhepworths.com

www.momontimeout.com

www.handsonaswegrow.com

www.bearrabbitbear.com

www.tatertotsandjello.com

www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com

www.whipperberry.com

http://www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com

www.makingtheworldcuter.com

www.delicateconstruction.blogspot.com

www.diyhshp.blogspot.com

www.letkidscreate.blogspot.com

www.polkadotsonparade.blogspot.com

www.gingersnapcrafts.com

www.cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com

More Christmas....

2011-12-19T12:54:00.000-08:00

It has been CRAZY around here! Not only is Christmas only a few days away, we are in the process of moving AND have kids sick, sick, sick including one with an allergic reaction to the antibiotic he was on. SOOO, needless to say, blogging has not been a top priority for me the past couple of weeks. However, the kids are now asleep for a few minutes, so I thought I would hop on and post some things we had done before a bunch of the chaos descended once more. :) Enjoy!

A fun and festive snack for the holidays! :)

Snack Details:

Christmas tree: slices of green pepper and pear with a pretzel trunk and a cheese star.

Muffin cups #1 and #3 (sides of tree): apple and pear circle ornaments for the Christmas tree and green/red M&M's to be used for ornaments as well.

Muffin cups #2 and #4 (top and bottom): mini marshmallows and string cheese circles for snow under the tree (or more ornaments for the tree).

Garnishes: gingerbread men marshmallows and winter edible confetti.

Originally I had intended to post this fun little book as a freebie on my Teacher Pay Teacher site, but unfortunately I made it on a program that apparently does not change over well to the format supported by Teacher Pay Teacher. I would have spent more time trying to figure out an alternate method to post it or remake this in pdf but alas, the craziness and sickness in our house has not allowed me much time for that sort of thing so perhaps it will be available in time for the holidays next year.

I love this picture of how my daughter helped the elves find the missing presents - that is her finger pointing to them off to the side (barely visible). Ah, if only the elves had thought to look by the Christmas tree...

This was what my daughter drew under the gift flap on the last page of the book - notice there was not sufficient room for the head of the mermaid doll at the top so she improvised.

We call this "Sweet Spelling" - I gave my daughter a jar full of different types of festive candy or sweets and allowed her to use them to form her spelling words. If she did it correctly, she would get to pick one of the pieces from the word to eat. I must say, it was not hard to get her to practice her spelling when this jar was part of the process! :)

I'd love to post more, but I must be off to work on some more moving stuff before the kids are up and about.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!! :)

Linking to:

www.momontimeout.com

Homeschool Theme of the Week: Christmas Anticipation!

2011-12-03T22:00:00.000-08:00

The month of December is stacking up to be a busy one for us! We have family flying in for the holidays - yippeee (parents just arrived stateside today)! AND we just found out we are going to be moving almost immediately after Christmas (a good kind of move that we are happy about)! :)

So things are going to be a little crazy around here for a while - but we still plan to find time for some schooling and fun! Take this past week for instance - full of Christmas anticipation....

Our pink Advent calendar forest - idea courtesy of www.familyfun.com. Their forest wasn't pink - but if you know my daughter...well, let's just say pink is a very important part of her life. :)

This was a miniature snowman ornament I found that somehow seemed like he belonged in our forest. He doesn't have a name...yet.

In addition to some normal schoolwork - we made another pattern block book - this one for Christmas. For those of you who have scrapbook paper you need to use up, this might be a good idea for you. Just trace your pattern blocks and make up some Christmas designs with your kiddos!

(P.S. For anyone interested, I have made my pattern block book available here for $1.50.)

This was great practice for not only pattern block designs, but positional words as well. Most of the pages use positional words to describe where something is or where it was being placed.

This was the final (bonus) page where my daughter was challenged to draw a complete picture showing where all the objects should be (by the way - the cookies are on top of the stool). I love her picture - she did such a great job! :)

This had to have been one of the yummier parts of our week! Chocolate chip candy cane pancakes! Just add some chocolate chips and crushed candy cane pieces to your pancake batter, stir, and make just like you would normally. Serve with whip cream, candy cane pieces and chocolate chips for garnish!

We ate these for breakfast today and then burned some of the calories (not enough, I'm sure) by decorating our Christmas tree and hanging some Christmas decorations outside. All in all, I would say a great start to the Christmas festivities! :) I hope your season's beginnings are rich with memorable times together as well! :)

Linking to:
www.singingthreelittlebirds.blogspot.com
www.diyhshp.blogspot.com
www.letkidscreate.blogspot.com
http://www.delicateconstruction.com/
posted on "No Ordinary Blog Hop"
www.craftyconfessions.com
http://livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com
www.gingersnapcrafts.com
www.momontimeout.com
www.handsonaswegrow.com
www.houseofhepworths.com
www.bearrabbitbear.blogspot.com
http://hammockhomeschool.blogspot.com/2011/12/1.html

A First "Bear"thday Celebration!

2011-11-24T20:23:00.000-08:00

Several weeks ago I mentioned I would be posting some pictures from the first "bear"thday we celebrated a while ago, but it never seemed like I had the time to get said post together. However, because this is Thanksgiving vacation for us and thus a break from school, I decided it was the right time to pull up the pictures and share them! Enjoy!

These were the invitations made by the talented Andrea from "The Green Grass Grows" - an Etsy shop! Ginger"bear" cookies were also given out with invitations. :)

This was the hat I made for the birthday boy and one of his favorite bears holding it. The mini banner in the background is another item I purchased from Andrea and it says "I'm GRRRowing Up!"

Upon entering the house, the guests were greeted by some stuffed bears on a table. One was draped over this quote I love from Winnie the Pooh which I wanted to incorporate with the bear theme.

This was the "guestbook". I had seen thumbprint guestbook ideas on Pinterest and loved how unique they were. Thus I came up with a version for this little party - guests used brown ink to place their thumbprints on a mat around a copy of the birthday invitation (all to be framed later). They then each drew a bear with their own thumbprints being the bear bodies and signed their names near their bears. I love how it came out!

This was a moss covered number one on one of the tables with some balloons attached. Just a bit of fun earthy decor!

We had "bear"gers and other yummy bear themed food at the party! These were some food signs. :)

This is a picture of one of the "bear"gers! :)

This is a photograph of the dessert table laden with cake and cupcakes of different flavors and colors set up on burlap cloth. The frame behind them contains a collage of pictures showing the birthday boy when he was born (in between the letters spelling "THEN") and the birthday boy as he is now.

Here is another view of the table. I swirled two flavors of cake together to make the wooded look you see for the stump. The outside of the stump (dark part) was pure molded chocolate. We also included some cupcakes made to look like toadstools and some made to look like two ponds with some fish jumping in and out (red swedish candy fish).

For favors, I made Hibernation Preparation bags for each family because visiting bears should never return home hungry, right? The fun mix inside included honeycomb cereal (for honey), swedish candy fish (for fish), and spiced gumdrops (for berries).

I'll leave you with one of my favorite parts of the birthday planning and decoration - the birthday boy's very own first "cub"cake (that was one of Andrea's brilliant ideas)! :) The cupcake container is one of the Wilton bear ones (I posted a link below if you are interested). :)

Linking up to:
http://sunscholars.blogspot.com
www.tatertotsandjello.com
www.craftyconfessions.com
www.mushkiloves.com

Thanksgiving FUN!

2011-11-19T19:35:00.000-08:00

This week was a particularly light week in terms of schoolwork as our family was preparing for a vacation, and I was recovering from eye infections. However, we did manage to squeeze in a few fun activities....

My daughter enjoyed fingerpainting....with pumpkin pudding!!! Yep, if you have never tried it, you should. It is fun AND delicious! Although ours was a seasonal flavor, any variety will do! :)

I saw this idea on Pinterest or on a blog somewhere a while back and decided to try it. First we collected some colorful fall leaves. Then we glued and stapled them to a sentence strip creating our very own fall harvest crown!

This is our handsome little turkey! His tail feathers are made up of different things I had in my cupboard: flax seeds, lentils, etc. We then added his body on top and some fun accordian fold legs. Dashing, isn't he? ;)

And here is our melted crayon turkey! I printed a coloring page from the internet, peeled the paper back from some old crayons, lit a small tea light and showed my daughter how to carefully melt the crayon and then color with it before it hardened up again (which seemed to be rather quickly). Once she got the hang of it, I think she enjoyed the experience. Please note that this is a CLOSE supervision activity if you are doing it with small children!!

And last, but not least, FEATHER PAINTING! Yes, it is just what its name implies - you paint with a feather, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it went! Hey, we did a lot of turkey stuff so I figured this might be fun to try, and I love the colorful result. :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! :)

Linking to:
www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com
www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com
http://diyhshp.blogspot.com
www.letkidscreate.blogspot.com
www.makingtheworldcuter.com
http://www.toysinthedryer.com/2011/11/introducing-fun-stuff-fridays.html
http://www.gingersnapcrafts.com

Homeschool Theme of the Week: Thanksgiving & Native Americans!

2011-11-14T22:32:00.000-08:00

One of the positives of homeschooling is the amount of things I learn as I teach and prepare activities. :) This year, I have discovered so many interesting details and facts about Thanksgiving! We spent a good deal of time one week on the Pilgrims and now have spent some more time learning about the Native Americans involved in the story.

When reading about the Wampanoag indians, I learned they would make belt and headband designs from purple and white shells. Thus, one of the first things we did was to make a purple and white headband. Here is a picture of mine (top) and my daughter's headband (below). If you would like to make one too, you can download the pattern for free here.

I also decided this seemed like a wonderful unit for encouraging my daughter to learn how to perform simple hand weaving (only we used paper to make our indian basket). After some guidance from me, she just took off with this and did a terrific job!

To make our woven mat into a basket/purse, I simply folded one end up a bit, glued it in place, hole punched the edges and added some jute. :)

I saw a cute activity on Pinterest involving bubble wrap and indian corn and thought we would try it as well. Unfortunately, I could not find some small bubble wrap, so I improvised and glued some cheerios to a piece of cardboard. We then painted the cheerios and stamped the paper. This seemed to work just fine for us and when they were done drying, my daughter cut out the corn shapes, and we glued the corn and leaf pieces together to make our very own indian corn!

What better place to store our indian corn than in our very own handmade indian bag/basket? :)

Another of our activities was to make a real purse from suede. I found a kit at our local hobby store and helped my daughter complete it!

Of course, good books are a must, and we learned SO much from reading some of the ones below! :)

Linking up to:
www.abcand123learning.com
www.letkidscreate.blogspot.com
www.gingersnapcrafts.com
www.houseofhepworths.com
www.momontimeout.com
This post is linked to No Ordinary Blog Hop
http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/
http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/
http://www.toysinthedryer.com/2011/11/introducing-fun-stuff-fridays.html

Homeschool Theme of the Week: Thanksgiving & Pilgrims!

2011-11-09T23:32:00.000-08:00

My daughter and I had very different plans for the last small pumpkins upon our table. She insisted we make more pumpkin houses with them, but I was able to convince her to wait as I thought she might enjoy what I had planned for them. I was right! :) She was smitten with the little Pilgrim pumpkin people we made, and I don't think I've heard another peep about pumpkin houses (although it is probably only a matter of time).

As an extension of this activity, we brainstormed appropriate names for our pumpkin Pilgrims (I believe we finally settles on Loving-Merciful for the boy and Sarah-Love for the girl) and also spent a little time thinking about what we might ask them if they were REAL and could answer our questions. It was neat to see what her little mind came up with!

One fun thing we learned during this theme/study was what the Pilgrim children would use for writing purposes. Instead of a pen or a pencil, children used quills and made ink by mixing mud, water, and charred wood. Intrigued, we decided to try it for ourselves.

My daughter used our homemade ink and our homemade quill to copy a Bible verse (I gave it a try as well - the word "complaining" is my handiwork). After this exercise, we decided we were thankful for pens and pencils! :)

This teacher's website has some great Thanksgiving ideas - her class must have so much fun! http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/2010/11/pilgrim-projects.html. One such activity I really liked and decided to use this week was to give my daughter a paper trunk (the teacher used paper suitcases for her class) and have her write and draw inside what she would have taken on the Mayflower for the long journey to new lands.

Her items of choice: clothes, toys, and pillows. Hmmm, I think if I were to do one of these - maybe I would have to use some of that precious trunk space for chocolate.... ;)

Part of our week was spent completing "A Pattern Block Thanksgiving" which is a book that I designed and made. It took a bit of work and by NO means is it perfect - but it was a fun idea! :)

If you are interested in downloading a copy yourself - I have made it available for $1.50 on the Teachers Pay Teachers site here.

I ended our week of learning by surprising my daughter with a fun-filled day of Pilgrim pretend play & activities. In one of her workboxes, I placed a letter I had written informing her that she was going to pretend to be a Pilgrim girl named "Patience" for the day, and then I detailed what her Pilgrim family looked like (a baby sister name Joyful, a brother named Determination - and trust me, this name really fits him, etc.).

Another workbox contained a list of her Pilgrim chores for the day as well as some costume items to help her get into character - as if she needed the help... ;) Of course she was very pleased, and had fun performing her role and completing activities...

She began her Pilgrim day by mending her apron and helping me make homemade bread. For the mending portion, I gave her a real needle and thread for this and she LOVED it! I had left a very small part of her apron undone so she could finish it herself and I think she felt pretty accomplished when she was done!

One thing we learned this week was how the children sometimes made mattresses by stuffing linen bags with feathers or pine needles, etc. So here my daughter is stuffing a "mattress" (it is a pillowcase) with pine needles. The mattress was a good size for baby Joyful (a doll whom my daughter had to help tend as well throughout the morning).

Of course a trip to a nearby stream or brook was required for some fresh water to use for washing clothes. Thus, I put our hose a little ways from the house so my daughter would have to walk a bit to carry her bucket to and fro. As you can see in the above picture, Determination was living up to his name as he tried to help with the washing.

I put one of our pumpkins and a toy corn in what remained of our garden from spring and had my daughter "pick" vegetables from the garden. She also picked some real oregano which we used to make a concoction to put on a scrape/cut that Joyful somehow sustained. I did not have the kind of herb growing which we had read about in one of the books so I guess you could say that oregano was a stand-in.

That evening we enjoyed our homemade bread and homemade butter - yum! A wonderful ending for my little Pilgrim's day! :)

Recipe for homemade butter:

1. Pour heavy whipping cream into a sealed container (the amount is up to you).

2. Optional: add a pinch of salt.

3. Shake! Shake! Shake! (It may take several minutes of hard shaking before you see results but just stick with it!)

Linking to:
www.momontimeout.com
www.houseofhepworths.com
http://www.bearrabbitbear.blogspot.com/
http://www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/
http://www.sunscholars.blogspot.com/
www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com
http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com
This post is linked to No Ordinary Blog Hop
http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/
http://www.toysinthedryer.com/2011/11/introducing-fun-stuff-fridays.html

Homeschool Theme of the Week: Scarecrows!

2011-11-07T07:09:00.000-08:00

For those who have been wondering if I will be posting Thanksgiving activities anytime soon, the answer is - YES! I had not planned to post those until next week but will try to speed up the process so I can post something earlier for those of you interested in ideas for your own class or homeschool. Until then, please enjoy our humble scarecrow theme and activities... :)

We made these guys to go along with our wooden spoon scarecrow activity (see pics below).

Cute, are they not? And easy to make - just paint some clothespins black, add black feathers, wiggly eyes, and a paper beak. Yes, I know crows don't have orange beaks. However, my daughter pointed out that if we made the beaks black, they would be hard to distinguish from the rest of the crow body. So, orange the beaks remain. :)

Here is our very own small scarecrow we made from a wooden spoon and one of my daughter's doll dresses. I attached a craft stick (popsicle stick) to the wooden spoon to make the arms, and we dressed her and stuffed her. :)

Isn't she lovely and friendly looking! Even the crows seem to enjoy her amicable presence! :)

This was our "crow" (as in "exult") can. We wrote down all sorts of things my daughter is able to do and at least a couple of skills that she has not quite yet achieved. The ones she has already accomplished, we glued to the can. The skills which we are still working on are being held onto by the crows until she proves she has mastered them at which time we can add them to our "crow" can and rejoice together! :)

This type of thing might be a good activity and eye-opener for a parent and a child (especially for one who is struggling) of how accomplished the child really is. Sometimes we forget how far our children have come and how much they have learned - it is good to be reminded (for both parent and child). :) By the way, not all of what we wrote on the can is academic (I can play nicely, I can do my chores, etc.).

My daughter is not often called upon to write her last name, so this is an area I know needs a tad bit more practice. Thus, the crow is hanging onto it for us until we can happily add it to the other mastered skills on the "crow"can.

This was a fun accordian style book made from paper bags and snippets of items (I was inspired in part by this gorgeous blog: www.katherinemariephotography.com). Each page contains a descriptive sentence stating what the reader sees. The final page - the surprise - is that all of these items have come together to make a scarecrow (BTW - I believe all those black squiggly lines are crows flying away).

Scarecrow Pete is a really cute story we read about the friendship between a boy and a scarecrow. The scarecrow helps to instill in the boy a passion for reading as the two embark on imaginary adventures with the help of many wonderful books!

This activity became an extension of that tale. I call it "scarecrow painting" because the point of it is to wrap up a bunch of straw, raffia, etc. and use it to paint with (pretending you are a scarecrow painting with your arm - your arm is the brush).

In this case, we talked about where Scarecrow Pete might like to go if he could get down off of his pole. My daughter thought the beach would be a good destination for him, so we pretended she was the scarecrow painting a picture of where he would like to travel.

This was a watercolor painting my daughter made. We then did some texture rubbings of things and used the rubbings to cut out a small scarecrow, gluing him to her picture.

This is a picture of one of the stories we read and also of our fun little pointer for the week! Basically it is a small autumn pick and we just use it for a calendar pointer (or anything else which might need to be pointed out).

We have several different "pointers" which range from decorative picks to fun eraser toppers on pencils. I try to keep them somewhat seasonal, and it just seems to add to the excitement of a new theme when I pull out a new pointer. (Picks are great because if you get them for sale at your local hobby store, they are SOOO inexpensive. I think this little scarecrow only cost $.50 to $.60!!!)

Linking up:
www.runwithglitter.blogspot.com
http://www.delicateconstruction.blogspot.com/
http://diyhshp.blogspot.com/
http://www.singingthreelittlebirds.blogspot.com/
www.makingtheworldcuter.com
www.letkidscreate.blogspot.com
http://www.abcand123learning.com/
www.momontimeout.com
www.houseofhepworths.com
http://www.amommysadventures.com/
www.bearrabbitbear.blogspot.com
www.whipperberry.com
www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com
http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/
http://www.sunscholars.blogspot.com/
www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com
http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com

Friendly Friday: A Pumpkin Surprise!

2011-11-03T21:38:00.000-07:00

For our Friendly Friday - we made a Pumpkin Surprise to give to some friends of ours whom we don't get to see very often. My daughter painted the outside of a paper bag orange (we left the top part brown for the stem), and the brown pumpkin lines are actually the message we wrote to the family (my daughter thought of something nice she would like to say, and I added a few friendly words as well). We then stuffed it with hot chocolate packages and a small bag of pumpkin marshmallows and twisted the top closed, using a green pipe cleaner for a vine. :) Very easy and very friendly! :)

Linking to:
http://www.sunscholars.blogspot.com/
www.tatertotsandjello.com
http://momto2poshlildivas.blogspot.com

Cute Pumpkin Book and Tea Painting Activity!

2011-11-02T18:53:00.000-07:00

I bought the sweetest little book the other day to go along with our pumpkin theme! The title of it is, The Very Best Pumpkin, and you can find my story synopsis near the bottom of the post. If you have never seen it or read it, I think it is definitely worth finding, borrowing, or buying a copy (there is also a link below if you are interested in reading more reviews about it).

The tea-stained, rich illustrations especially caught my eye, and I decided we would attempt our own at some point during the week. :) And that is exactly what we did! Both my daughter and I chose our favorite illustrations in the book and attempted to make a copy of them (mine is the pumpkin one).

I took step-by-step pictures of mine so I could post them here for those interested in making one of these kinds of paintings as well. :) See below...

First we used tea (just make a cup and then use it to paint instead of drink) to paint over the entire picture. I sprinkled some regular coffee grounds on top of the wet paper but found later on that instant grounds work SOOO much better for getting those smaller dark splotches of stain (so we added the instant grounds after we tried the regular grounds).

After the tea stains had dried, we watercolored our sky and ground. When that dried, we drew our pictures and then traced over them heavily with crayon (this creates kind of a wall effect which helps keep the paint from spreading to other areas if you are using watercolors). If you have younger children, you may need to help them (as I did with mine) with this part to make sure the crayon is heavy enough, AND to just give those little brains and fingers a rest.

Then we painted our pictures with watercolors! I LOVE how they turned out - especially my daughter's painting! BTW - she needed some white for the snow so I used some acrylic paint and just watered it down a little because her small tray of paints did not contain white. This worked really well for us!

Hope you enjoy the pictures and feel inspired! :)

Story Synopsis:

Peter is a young boy who lives with and helps his grandparents at Pumpkin Hollow Farm. One day, as he is tending the pumpkins, he finds and follows a vine which leads him to a pumpkin all by itself in a field. He faithfully tends to it and is so busy that he apparently does not notice when new neighbors move in. Their daughter Meg, loves to read and quietly watches Peter from her yard as he cares for his pumpkin.

When the pumpkins on the farm are ready for picking, Peter helps various people find the perfect pumpkin for their needs. One day, Meg and her family show up. Meg searches the pumpkin patch but cannot seem to find the right one until Peter leads her to his lonely (but now beautiful) pumpkin and offers it to her, confessing he knew she was watching him all along. Meg and Peter become friends, and the next summer finds them tending pumpkins together! :)

Linking up to:
www.houseofhepworths.com
www.bearrabbitbear.blogspot.com
www.momontimeout.com
www.noordinarybloghop.blogspot.com
www.amommysadventures.com
http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/
www.whipperberry.com
http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/
http://www.sunscholars.blogspot.com/
www.tatertotsandjello.com
http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com
http://momto2poshlildivas.blogspot.com
http://www.abcand123learning.com/

Homeschool Theme of the Week: Pumpkins!

2011-10-31T21:55:00.000-07:00

Our "Pumpkin" homeschool theme has to be one of my favorites. :) Of course, I could probably say that about almost every theme we do that is autumn related. :) Here are some pictures of a few of our activities:

When I caught sight of a pumpkin carved house on Pinterest, my imagination took off and I knew we should make one. Can't you just see all the possibilities for fun dramatic play, writing stories, etc.! :) I wasn't disappointed - my daughter loved it!

I knew a story activity would be just the thing to go along with our pumpkin home so I gave her a little writing prompt and this is where she ended up (see picture below - and yes, she wrote this herself with very little help from me)...

During the week, we also made and used three spinners and a graph to decide how we would carve the classic pumpkin face. We chose four different eye, nose, and mouth possibilities. Each day we spun the spinners and graphed the results. At the end of the week, the eye, nose, and mouth with the most squares colored were declared the winners and carved into another of our pumpkins!

I had been eyeing the dyed pumpkin seed pictures and jewelry showing up on blogs and Pinterest and finally decided our pumpkin themed week would be a great time to try making something as well. I dyed the seeds (I found that the method of boiling them for about 15 minutes in food coloring and water worked best for us), and my daughter used some watercolor paints to make a sky, ground, and bare tree. When the painting was dry, she began gluing the colorful seed "leaves" to her picture and I just love how it turned out! Notice all the leaves falling from the tree...

We enjoyed some free printables from www.2teachingmommies.com and www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com and used some fun pumpkin marshmallows for one of the graph activities. Of course, sampling these delicacies was a must following the activity's completion! :)

For a fun and simple math activity, I made a pumpkin patch out of candy pumpkins and some twisted green pipe cleaners (I wrote the words on the plate using food safe markers). Each day my daughter would have to brainstorm an idea of how one pumpkin was lost or taken from the patch. I would write down her idea on a story form I had made up beforehand, and she would write a number sentence to match it (see pictures below). Then she would eat the pumpkin! :)

For a bit of science and computer fun, we made a pumpkin book from a piece of thick cardboard, and my daughter typed out words describing the inside and outside of a pumpkin. We then printed, cut, and glued the words into the appropriate places of the book. My daughter also added some yarn for pumpkin strings and real pumpkin seeds onto the portion of the book depicting the inside of a pumpkin. Finally, we added the sticker letters to the front to make a title for the book. I was super pleased with how cute it turned out! :) See for yourself...

We also completed an art activity to go along with one of our pumpkin books: "The Very Best Pumpkin". This is such a sweet book, and I love the tea-stained style illustrations! We each chose a favorite picture or part of the story to illustrate and then made our own copy of the picture using real tea and paints and crayons! I hope to post a more detailed tutorial later this week...

This is a picture my daughter painted of her favorite illustration in the story! I LOVE it!

Definitely a keeper... :)

Need some good book suggestions? Take a look at some of these! :)

Linking up to:
http://www.abcand123learning.com/
http://www.cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com/
www.gingersnapcrafts.com
http://sweetpeasandbb.blogspot.com
www.bearrabbitbear.blogspot.com
www.momontimeout.com
www.houseofhepworths.com
www.noordinarybloghop.blogspot.com
http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/
www.whipperberry.com
http://www.sunscholars.blogspot.com/
www.tatertotsandjello.com
http://momto2poshlildivas.blogspot.com

Eats & Reads: The Very Best Pumpkin!

2011-10-31T07:14:00.000-07:00

For our pumpkin theme, one of the books we enjoyed was The Very Best Pumpkin by Mark Moulton. A small portion of the story depicts various people coming to Pumpkin Hollow Farm trying to find the perfect pumpkin for their particular needs (decoration, prize pie making, etc.). The main character in the story, a young boy named Peter, helps them to do just that! :) This is a very cute book with beautiful illustrations and well worth a snack along those same lines!

Why I Like This Book:

I love this sweet story which follows a boy who faithfully tends a lonely pumpkin he finds on his grandparent's farm and which tells of the friendship which develops between himself and his new little neighbor. The book's tea-stained style illustrations are a beautiful complement to the text as well! :)

NOTE: Later this week, I plan to post about an art activity my daughter and I did together to go along with the story.

Snack Details:

Main pumpkin - cream cheese and brown sugar dip (colored orange) with Nutella details and fruit roll up vines sitting on a patch of peanut butter "soil" (peanut butter for dipping or just eating straight).

Muffin cups # 1 & 3: mandarin "pumpkins" with pretzel stems. I found the cute idea of using mandarins here: http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/2011/10/muffin-tin-monday_16.html

Muffin cup # 2: orange slice "pumpkin" with pretzel stem.

Details: Nutella wording and mini candy pumpkins.

Linking to:
http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/
www.letkidscreate.blogspot.com
www.makingtheworldcuter.com

http://www.delicateconstruction.blogspot.com/
http://www.singingthreelittlebirds.blogspot.com/
http://www.abcand123learning.com/
www.amommysadventures.com
www.tatertotsandjello.com

Friendly Fridays: Sharing S'more Bars!

2011-10-28T14:50:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't it be nice to end each school week thinking of how to enrich someone else's day?

I would love for my daughter to know the joys of encouraging and and appreciating someone else! SOOOoo, I have decided to start a series of "Friendly Friday" posts showing something we made or did to help or encourage someone else or just to give them a happy surprise! Note: I cannot promise a post EVERY Friday - I just don't have that kind of time and life right now with homeschooling, family, etc. BUT, I will try to get something up at least one or two Fridays a month and maybe more. :)

Here was what we did for our "Friendly Friday" during our camping theme. There was a burn ban where we went for our camping trip at the end of the week which meant no campfires thus making it rather difficult for many campers to make s'mores. I knew this in advance so we made s'more bars to take along and share with our friends at the campsite. I found this great recipe here: http://www.endlesssimmer.com/2011/08/30/smore-than-you-can-handle/

I encourage you to consider making your Fridays friendly ones too! :)

Linking to:

Homeschool Theme of the Week: A-Camping-We-Will-Go!

2011-10-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

I know camping is sometimes considered more of a summer activity - but if you lived where we do and stepped outside into the intense heat of just one summer day, you would probably turn tail and wait for autumn's fine weather as well! :) Thus, we found ourselves planning a camping trip with some friends, and I knew a "A-Camping-We-Will-Go" theme would be just the right one for this particular week! See for yourself...

To get us started off on the right foot, I slipped a "map" into one of my daughter's workboxes. Not just any map - but a map directing her to a campsite in our very own living room! I selected a special spot and there I secretly placed a real cooler, a flashlight, a campsite sign, a faux fire, sleeping bag, and items to make a tent. This went over VERY well when the map was followed and the camping treasures were discovered. Thus, our camping week began with a flourish! :)

Our fishing pond near the campsite... :)

Of course no camping trip would be perfect without a little stargazing, so we made a few of our own constellations using glow-in-the-dark paint (I printed some dot-to-dot constellation pages on black paper and we just used the paint on top of the dots/stars. If I could not find a printable page for the constellation I wanted, I just tried to draw the dots/stars myself).

It is always wise to be aware of your surroundings and know a little about what NOT to do when camping, so we made a little folding accordian book titled "Be a Safe Camper". Some "DON'T" pages were: Don't touch poison ivy, leave snakes alone, don't eat berries and mushrooms, etc.

Another fun camping themed activity was to identify and make animal tracks using some free printable cards from http://www.montessoriforeveryone.com/.

We also enjoyed using some FREE camping printables from http://www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/ and some online games here:
http://www.kidsastronomy.com/ (Find constellations in a night sky.)
http://funschool.kaboose.com/preschool/amazing-animals/games/game_animal_tracks.html (Match animal tracks to the animal which made them.)

Of course, the culmination of our week was when we went on our family camping trip to a beautiful park! Joining up with some friends, we had a wonderful time! :)

Below are some books we read for our theme as well as some that seemed like they would be a good possible addition for the future. I also added a camping game and a play set that looked like a lot of fun! :)

Check back Friday for our first "Friendly Friday" post which goes along with this theme! :)

Linking to:
www.bearrabbitbear.blogspot.com
www.momontimeout.com
http://www.houseofhepworths.com
participating in "no ordinary blog hop"
http://oneartmama.blogspot.com/
http://www.whipperberry.com/
http://www.sunscholars.blogspot.com/
http://www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com/
www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com
www.makingtheworldcuter.blogspot.com
http://www.diyhshp.blogspot.com/
http://www.delicateconstruction.blogspot.com/

Snack/Lunch: A-Camping-We-Will-Go!

2011-10-24T07:32:00.000-07:00

In honor of our theme this past week (camping theme - I'll post thematic activities/crafts in just a few days...), I made this fun little plate of snack/lunch items.

Snack Details:

Fire: Large pretzel stick logs and fruit roll-up fire.

Muffin Cup #1: Baked apple stuffed with walnuts and dried fruit.

Muffin Cup #2: Snack/Trail mix.

Muffin Cup #3: Hot dog slices.

Muffin Cup #4: Miniature Nutella smores.

Details: Fall leaf confetti and Scrabble Cheez-It crackers.

Linking up to:
http://www.makingtheworldcuter.com/
http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/
www.mushkiloves.com
www.abcand123learning.com
www.gingersnapcrafts.com
http://cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com/
http://sweetpeasandbb.blogspot.com/
www.bearrabbitbear.blogspot.com
www.momontimeout.com
http://www.houseofhepworths.com
http://oneartmama.blogspot.com/
http://www.sunscholars.blogspot.com/
http://www.whipperberry.com/
http://www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com/
www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com

Mommy and Me Activity - Acorn Necklace

2011-10-19T21:38:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are some pictures of an acorn activity we completed together! If you only have boys at home and really wanted to do this activity - by all means, DO IT! Grab the chance to teach them a lesson about being unselfish, chivalrous, etc. by having them make one for grandma or a cousin or a friend or a woman at church. You get the idea! :)

ACORN NECKLACE:

You will need: acorns, buttons, thread or jewelry wire, and a hot glue gun.

HOW TO:

1. Make sure your acorn tops are secure. If not, hot glue or super glue them to the acorn body.

2. Wrap some wire/thread as tightly as you can around the acorn stems. Hot glue or super glue it in place and make a loop with the other end (this is how you will hang the acorn on your necklace UNLESS you are handy with a drill).

3. Lay out your buttons and acorns as you would like them to look on the necklace - patterned or otherwise.

4. Thread your necklace and tie it closed - you're done! :) If you are using jewelry wire, check for sharp ends when you cut it. You may want to consider putting hot glue on the ends to keep it from poking your child's neck.

Consider making matching necklaces if you are doing this with your daughter and wearing them out somewhere together! :)

Linking up to:
www.houseofhepworths.com
www.bearrabbitbear.blogspot.com
http://oneartmama.blogspot.com/
http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/
http://www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com/
http://www.whipperberry.com/
http://www.tatertotsandjello.com/
http://www.momontimeout.com/
http://www.makingtheworldcuter.com/
www.mushkiloves.com
www.gingersnapcrafts.com
www.abcand123learning.com
http://cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com/
http://sweetpeasandbb.blogspot.com/

Homeschool Theme of the Week: Fall & Leaves!

2011-10-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

Autumn is a favorite season in our house! The gorgeous colors, crisp air, cozy sweaters, steaming mugs, and of course all the fun activities! :) Recently, we completed some leaf and acorn activities together in school. Today I will post pictures of two leaf activities and later in the week I will post an acorn activity. :)

The poor weather in our area may have ruined our chances of finding brilliant autumn color outdoors, but it certainly could not dampen our attempts to recreate the beautiful colored leaves indoors. We borrowed the idea of painting our own leaves from this blog: http://lovelydesign.blogspot.com/
Hers are perhaps far more realistic, but we like ours just fine too! :)

To make your own, collect leaves from outside (or use a leaf cutout/stencil/cookie cutter/etc.) and trace the shapes onto thick paper. Cut these out and let your kids smother them with paint - reds, yellows, orange (just mix your red and yellow together), etc. Don't forget to paint both sides. Once the leaves are dry, hot glue them onto a real branch and display in your home!

Leaf rubbings are fun and one of those classic fall activities. I decided to try something a little different with my daughter this year and we made some using only black and white colors. I love the way they turned out - great contrast! Tip: if your white crayon rubbing does not show up as well on the black paper, use your white crayon to trace over some of the lines that are more visible after you have done the initial leaf rubbing.

BTW - If you would like a simple explanation of why leaves change color, this site gives a great one:
http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/leaves.html. I am thinking we will go into more depth regarding this next year!

What is almost as deliciously wonderful as Autumn? FREE printable packs! We used some of the activities in this pack for our Fall/Autumn theme. Here is the link for all those interested:
http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/2011/09/fall-fun-learning-pack-free-printables.html

Below are some Fall/Autumn book ideas!

Linking up to:
www.abcand123learning.com
www.hiphomeschoolmoms.com
www.sweetpeasandbb.blogspot.com
www.gingersnapcrafts.com
www.letkidscreate.blogspot.com
www.houseofhepworths.com
www.bearrabbitbear.blogspot.com
http://oneartmama.blogspot.com/
http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/
http://www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com/
http://www.whipperberry.com/
http://www.tatertotsandjello.com/
http://diyhshp.blogspot.com/

Homeschool Theme of the Week: Fall & Apples!

2011-10-12T18:34:00.000-07:00

With all of the fun surrounding Apple-onia last week (our apple visitor - see earlier posts), one might wonder if we got around to any other "apple" theme activities. Yes, we did! Here are some pictures of a few - take a look...

Making patterns with free apple printable cards (from 2 Teaching Mommies blog) and using those same cards to play "Apple Splat!"

APPLE SPLAT Directions:

1. Write apple related words on the back of apple cards and place on the tree.
2. Child turns an apple card (on the tree) over and reads the word as well as gives a definition for it.
3. If correct, the child gets to pick the apple and place it in his/her basket.
4. If incorrect, parent takes the card and places on the splat pile - basically showing that the apple fell off the tree and "splat" on the ground. (Make sure you or your child says "SPLAT!" when you do so.)
6. Game ends when no more cards are left on the tree.
5. Optional - at the end of the game, the child counts the apples in his/her basket and trades them in for the same number of M&M's or Skittles (think mini apples) or stickers.

Speaking of M&M's - we sorted and graphed a package into "apple" stacks of red, yellow, and green. The others we munched on (come now, wouldn't you?). :)

One of the apple books we read was The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree. For a follow up activity, my daughter made her own "The Seasons of A_______'s (here is where you would insert your child's name if you were making this) Apple Tree" book.

The supply tray.

The four seasons of her apple tree. :)

The book cover - how do you like those silly stems (I think that is the word she used). :) Make apple fingerprints for your border or just let your child dip a finger in red paint and dot some apples around the edges.

IMPORTANT: Don't forget to change the word "Arnold's" into your child's name instead (ex. The Seasons of Jerry's Apple Tree").

The inside cover (NOT shown) boasts a storage pocket containing a small felt figure (this is my daughter) attached to the book via a ribbon (keeps the figure from falling out and getting lost). Now my daughter can maneuver her way through the pages as each is read and admired, adding her felt figure to the story. Note: one side of the figure is dressed for cooler weather (think red snowsuit and cap) and the other side is dressed for warmer seasons.

We also had a fun snack/lunch to go along with this book. See more snack details here: http://thenatureofgrace.blogspot.com/2011/10/eats-reads-seasons-of-arnolds-apple.html

This paper was from an "Apple Variety" hunt we came up with. We used a sheet from a FREE printable pack (2 Teaching Mommies blog) to look for different kinds of apples in the store. When we found an apple that matched one of the labeled types, we would mark it on the sheet and eventually color in that square.

In addition to the above activities, we worked on some FREE printable packs from 2 Teaching Mommies blog and Homeschool Creations blog and went on an "All Things Apple -y" hunt in the grocery store (writing down the items we found that had apples in them or were apple related).
We read books too, of course. Below are ones that I have either read or might one day like to add to our collection based on review. Feel free to suggest some more in the comment section or share some apple craft ideas! :)

Linking up to:
www.mushkiloves.blogspot.com
http://www.somewhatsimple.com/
http://www.bearrabbitbear.blogspot.com/
http://www.houseofhepworths.com/
www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com
www.hiphomeschoolmoms.com
www.sweetpeasandbb.blogspot.com
www.gingersnapcrafts.com
www.abcand123learning.com
http://www.cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com/
http://www.amommysadventures.com/
http://oneartmama.blogspot.com/
http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/
http://www.whipperberry.com/

http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/
http://www.tatertotsandjello.com/
http://www.letkidscreate.blogspot.com/

Homeschool Blog Awards Time!

2011-10-11T09:54:00.000-07:00

As a homeschooling mommy, I love finding other moms out there who are involved in the same learning process as I am and full of creative ideas for teaching their children! I recently stumbled across a blog with this announcement:

What a great way to encourage AND enlighten homeschooling mommies everywhere (enlighten because it gives mommies like me a chance to find some pretty great blogs to view and/or follow)!

If you have a favorite homeschooling blog - please take a moment to nominate them! NOMINATIONS ARE GOING ON THIS WEEK! Hip Homeschool Moms blog has a blogroll full of potential candidates if you need some suggestions. :)

Eats & Reads: The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree

2011-10-10T10:29:00.000-07:00

Today begins a new type of post that I hope to come up with at least once or twice a month: Eats & Reads. These will be snack or lunch related posts that go along with a book we have read or are currently reading! :)

This past week, we thoroughly enjoyed the book "The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree" (see link below) during our "Apples" theme. I decided I just had to make something fun to go along with the book, and it HAS been a while since I posted one of these (snack/lunch ideas), so here you go! :)

What it looked like before my daughter began the seasonal transformations below...

SPRING!

SUMMER!

AUTUMN!

WINTER!

SIDE NOTE: I love the craft/activity we made to go along with this book as well and will be posting it later in the week with some other apple related activities. :)

Why I Like This Book:

I love how Gibbons portrays the seasonal changes, not only with the tree itself but in Arnold's activities and wardrobe as well. I also enjoy the subtle tie that Arnold has with this tree - it seems to be his special spot for playing, imagining, etc. Perhaps it speaks to the child in me.... :)

Snack Details:
Tree Trunk: peanut butter and apple butter sandwich with Nutella details. Fruit roll-up tree leaves.
Muffin cup#1: string cheese flowers and celery leaf buds.
Muffin cup#2: cut up snow pea leaves and M&M red apples.
Muffin cup#3: carrot and dried cranberry leaves for Autumn.
Muffin cup#4: marshmallow snow!
Wording details: Nutella

Linking up to:
http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/
www.gigglesglitzandglam.blogspot.com
http://www.craftyconfessions.com/
http://www.gingersnapcrafts.com/
http://www.sweetpeasandbb.blogspot.com/
http://www.bearrabbitbear.blogspot.com/
http://www.houseofhepworths.com/
www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com
http://oneartmama.blogspot.com/
www.tatertotsandjello.com

Apple-onia - El Fin (The End)

2011-10-08T14:15:00.000-07:00

We awoke this morning to a wonderful surprise!

Thank you Apple-onia and thank YOU boys and girls who helped us along the way!

We hope you had as much fun as we did! :)

P.S. I will be posting some other apple activities we worked on sometime next week!)