More Raised Beds & Chicken Changes: Part 1

We made the decision to add more raised beds to our garden.  We will be building two more the same size and width near our others that we recently made.  We purchased more tin screws and more metal flashing and that is all we needed.  All is left is to assemble them, fill them with compost, and plant in them.  This is very exciting to me.  This year I will have a full out garden.  I did not get to do that last year with it being our first year here.  My husband is being such a good sport about it.  This is really not his thing but he knows it is a good thing.

We also carried our old recycled wood raised beds out to the chicken coop.  They are each about a foot deep and I plan to plant wheat in one of them and cover the bed with chicken wire.  As the wheat grows up through the chicken wire the chickens can eat the tops off the wheat and supplement them with some extra nutrition.  The other raised bed could be the same way or I might put some sand in it for a dust bath area.  Any thoughts or other ideas on that would be greatly appreciated.  I could always make a different area a dust bath area. 

Other things we will be doing this season will be building a bigger coop.  Our chickens have lots of changes in their little world right now.  A few weeks ago I cut old limbs from a tree and built a long climbing and perching area for them.  I also plan to do something creative with an old basketball hoop in their coop... maybe make it a nest. We have turkeys and added quail to our flock this year.  We have the quail in our old rabbit caging right now inside our chicken run.  We will be assessing whether this setup works for them and changing as needed.  What are you doing new for your chickens and other flock this year?

Gardening: Two New Raised Beds, Take 1

This picture shows the two raised beds we added this year.  The vines on the ground in front are from a nearby Venus grape bush that I need to stake up soon.  The bed has tomatoes planted in it with sunflowers at the front.  Clearly I need to weed a little, but the weeds are smaller than they look. 

The picture below is a closer pic of the one in the back.  It also has tomatoes in it with sunflowers and I added some lilies to it that needed to be planted. 

I will be needing to get the tomatoes staked up soon as the last rain we had weighed them down.  I can not wait to watch this grow. I'll will keep you posted.   

About eight years ago Hurricane Rita came over our house and knocked down a privacy fence that divided our property and we stacked all the wood up.  We have used it a little at a time for some random things.... a tree house, raised beds, etc..  So, save that old wood.  You never know what you might need it for.

Learning Numbers with Puzzles And Trash

This is not a "how to homeschool blog" (trust me when I say I am not the one to go to for that... ha!), but I thought I would share a little quick project I did this week to help my daughter learn her numbers.  

You see a lot of those little popsicle stick puzzles that you can make by laying a bunch of popsicle sticks (craft sticks) down side by side and gluing a picture down to the top.  After you dry you cut it apart and you number 1-10 along one end of the popsicles sticks.  When the child puts the numbers in order they will have the puzzle picture put together.  That one is great, but I wanted to do it slightly different and without the popsicle sticks even though I have those on hand.  

 

First, I dug around in my paper recycling trash can and found a couple of things that had large pictures that I liked.  I thought a little kid my like a sandwich picture and the picture from a Lucky Charms box.

When Sahara saw her completed puzzles she said, "A hambugger!"  And, of course, she liked the cereal one.  I gasp at the thought that my kids eat that toxic stuff, but my husband likes to buy them "fun" cereal.  We kind of meet in the middle on that little issue.  I don't buy it on a regular basis, but will buy it on sale or as a special treat.  I am totally not keeping the cabinets stocked with it.  But it makes a fun puzzle picture!

In the pic above you can see that I used a glue stick to glue the sandwich picture to a piece of cardstock paper and left a small edge along the bottom to write the numbers.  

 

For the Lucky Charms one it was already cardboard so I did not back it with anything.  I simply cut it in the size square that I wanted, added little stickers across the bottom, numbered those, and cut it in different patterns.  Look closely at the numbers 8 and 9 that I cut straight.  I actually recommend not doing that.  They could easily mix those two numbers up and the picture still looks mostly "right" to them.  So, zig zag them and do the curveys.

 

 For the sub sandwich one ... or "hambugger" as Sahara calls it... you will cut the picture down to the size you want, use a marker to write numbers along the bottom, and again cut in random patterns to make your puzzle pieces.  

The idea is to focus not on putting the picture together, but to focus on putting the numbers in order and then, seeing what the picture reveals.  Have fun turning a little trash into a little learning treasure.

Learning to Do the Sashay

And no, I am not talking about dancing.  That is what the name of this yarn and these scarves reminds me of, though.  I have seen so many of these scarves and was thinking about buying my girls some, but I wanted to save money.  I decided to learn "to do the sashay".  I am going to use some pics that are not mine, because it is easier than taking my own pics for this post.  For using my borrowed images if you click on the pic it will take you to a person's etsy shop that is selling them.  I don't know the person I just chose pics that I liked, but if you want to buy one check out the seller and let her know you heard about it here.  

 

Etsy link (not me) for this scarf.

I think she uses the crochet method which is why I chose this pic.  It makes a looser lighter scarf and I think this is great for children, teens,... and anyone that lives in Texas.  ;)  Seriously, I love the look of the fuller ones, but they are a little bulky around the neck to be wearing in a warm, humid climate.  The crochet ones are by far the easiest to make and you can learn pretty easy watching a youtube video or going on the Red Heart yarn website.  The ones we are making we pick up 10 loops with the crochet hook and pull the 11th loop through those 10 loops.  We do this until we have a scarf the length we like.  I think you can get 3 or 4 scarves using that method.  Keep in mind I make some pretty short to fit pre-teens.

There are also some that look much fuller and they are very pretty.  They are made using a knitting method and are very pretty, but use a whole skein of yarn or possibly more.  I played around with those a bit and found that for the fullness I wanted that I only needed to pick up 4 loops on my knitting needle and and knit in (totally wrong terminology, but I am not an experienced knitter).  You can watch a video online, but I could not understand it that way personally.  Thankfully, my cousin came over and showed me.  And she blessed me with some supplies, too.  

Anyway, if you are intimidated by how fancy these scarves look, don't be.  All the work is mostly done for you because it is all about the yarn.  This is a simple project and makes a great gift.  You can turn one out in less than an hour, also.  So, I think it might be a good time to "learn to do the sashay".  Cha-cha-cha!!!

Plans for Our Little Acre for Spring 2013

We are more of the hobby farmer/gardener/homesteader types.   I just want to be clear about that.  Sometimes what we are doing here might sound big, but really we are just beginners going through a lot of trial and error.  I would love to produce all our food right here on this little one acre in the middle of town and I know it can be done, but we are not doing that, yet.  In fact, I am pretty sure we would starve.  I grew up in the country.  All around me were corn fields and cattle grazing, but I did not grow up that way....  none of that sort of thing was going on at my home.  My daddy worked, my momma went the grocery store and bought what we needed.  End of story.  I can remember a small garden one time, but we were not really a part of it.  I don't remember that being a shared venture for the family.  My daddy bought three cows once to raise to eat.  He kept them a few months and sold them after deciding not to mess with that any longer.  I had a horse for a couple of years strictly for fun.  I lived on 11 acres.

Do you see the irony here?  Pretty funny because now I live on one acre in the middle of town and have limited space and now I want to do those things that I grew up with endless space for.  Ironic.  So, now without having any experience we are trying to figure it out.  Well, I have been.  Cody is just getting on board.  Last year he started taking part in more of it even though his interest is not really in it.  This year he seems to be interested.  I think it was good for him to realize how much we benefited from the harvest over the past several months.  I think he had to see some of the rewards to appreciate the journey.  So, this year we are plowing up more dirt and looking at it from a different perspective.  It is more about sustainability.  What would we need to be able to do if we ever had to provide for ourselves.  All the creatures we have now have to have more purpose than just ""science" for our kids and a bunch of eggs.  That's all fun, but I told my husband it is too much work and we are spending too much money on it.  This is the sort of discussion that led to the first culling of the duck flock.

All that being said, I will try to detail what we have going on:

I will start with the garden areas. 

• We are using what we learned last year about where the sun falls on our property and trying to plan with that in mind.  We have a small garden patch by our house that is currently planted with two types of potatoes, two types of onions, and a wheat patch.  The wheat is an experiment from some wheat that spilled and got dirty.  It is growing well and is already about 6 inches high after only two weeks.  
• We will be tilling up a bigger garden in our back quarter (that is the back of our lot that is a 1/4 acre that we purchased a few years back).  This will be a variety of vegetables.  
• I will be putting in a long narrow garden, as well.  
• I am considering doing a raised bed corn method that I saw at a local Expo.  
• For fun I am considering planting a long row of sunflowers that will also provide a natural boundary on one portion of our property.  We have some neighbors that are bothered by our chickens (and everything else we do), so we might add a simple fence. 
• I am trying to use all organic methods and heirloom varieties, as well.

 I will refer to this part as "Orchard Items".  That does not mean we are planting an actual orchard.  We just have one acre and it is heavily shaded and orchard items like sunshine. 

• Currently, we are working on adding various fruit trees.  I have seven blueberries (four different varieties), two apple trees (two varieties) , a plum tree, two pear trees (two varieties), three grape bushes (3 varieties), a peach trees, a nectarine tree, mayhaw, satsuma, and navel orange. Some of this should have some production the first year I am told, but much of it will require waiting for the second or third year.  

We are considering selling off all of our rabbits as our children seem to have lost interest in them and they were really just for pets for us.  We are not rabbit eaters. If we were hungry, yes... but we are not, so they are our pets.  We usually sell the baby rabbits, but this has never actually been a profitable thing considering all the feed that the rabbits use.


The "birds":

• We currently have nine ducks left in our flock.  They are messy and eat a lot of feed.  Overall, they are not the best choice for raising for meat.  We have enjoyed the experience, but we are going to cull the flock.  We might keep one or two, but likely they will all go, so we do not have to deal with their messes.  They house nicely with all the other birds, but they make messes by trying to swim in anything they can which keeps the chickens water nasty all the time.  
• We have nineteen chickens for the purpose of laying eggs.  Really, we were not ever supposed to have this many, but my husband was not ready to kill the chickens for meat.  Our hens are "our ladies" and we have grown quite fond of them around here.  I am considering isolating some of them for a few days and seeing which ones are laying and which are not to consider culling some of them because we really do not need this many.  The feed bill needs to be lowered and I am not really one for selling the eggs because I would rather bless others with them.  I am uncertain of our plan for "our ladies".  They are not a bother, so it is not urgent to decide either.
• We recently added turkeys to our flock.  We have a Tom and two gals.  They are all full grown and about three years old.  I thought we were getting them to butcher, but Cody is the one that got them.  He says we are raising turkeys now.... so we are raising turkeys now.  Once they start laying we will let them hatch out their eggs and raise the babies for the meat.  The Tom is beautiful I must say.  It is quite interesting to watch him protect and guard his ladies with his feathers all spread in the air.  
• I have been trying to convince Cody that we should be raising chickens for meat, but he has not been easy to convince.  Our most popular meat in our home is chicken.  It makes sense that we should raise our own for meat if we are raising chickens.  So, I was sitting here one night and just for kicks I was looking at Murray McMurray's website and IDEAL Chicken Hatchery's website and IDEAL had a sale on Straight Run Black Broiler chicks for 90 cents a chick.  I told Cody and he said to order them... REALLY?... really.... so I ordered 30 and shipped and everything was $34.  That was just too good of a price to pass on.  We received 31 chicks, but have lost four... still a bargain.  They are about two weeks old and are growing really fast.  We will plan to butcher them in May when they reach full size.  They are supposed to be ready within 7-8 weeks, but I have heard that they take a little longer and I am okay with it take a little longer.  I also am considering keeping one rooster and a couple of hens from this flock to use for raising our own broilers without having to order.  We will determine that after seeing how well these birds do for meat chickens in the end.
• Our most recent addition was quite accidental really.  A lady in my Sunday School class mentioned that she had three roosters to give away and I made a mental note of it, but told her that since we live in town we were not going to have a rooster that would make noise and bother our neighbors.  One of my neighbors sent me a message wanting to know if I knew someone that had a rooster and I told her I would check for her.  I contacted the lady with the roosters and she said she had one and he was a friendly Buff Orpington.  Hmmmm... I have two female Buff Orpingtons and so now we have a rooster.  I have separate area in our chicken coop and so I have put the three Buff Orpingtons in there to mate and hopefully hatch out their own eggs.  I must admit I am considering pulling the eggs and putting them in the incubator because the hens have over a dozen eggs in there and they are not sitting.  These chicks will be raised for meat or sold as hatchlings.  

I think that sums up our Spring 2013 plans.  

Simple Sewing for Modesty: Part 2

You can read about Part 1 of this series and an explanation here.

I will try to keep these posts short, but do more of them.  The type of modification I will be discussing in this post is simple and frugal.  I think Savannah's outfit cost under $5.  The skirt was worth spending a few bucks on, but I usually do pick up skirts to modify for under a dollar.  I think this one cost me $3.99, though.  It has been well worth it. 

My biggest light bulb moment came when I realized that I could find long skirts in ladies sizes much easier than you can in the children's department.  The problem, of course, is that the waist is too big since Savannah is thin.  And sometimes they are too long.  This time it was not, so I will focus on this outfit this time and discuss the "too long skirt" in a future posting.  Back to this one.  Being that the skirt is corduroy it was made with a fitted waste and a zipper in the back.  We both liked the fitted look, so there were a couple of options here.  One was that I could turn in wrong side out and take up the side seams.  That would work, but it was not what we decided on.  Instead I had her try the skirt on right side out like normal.  I then used my fingers to pleat the waste and pin it in place in two spots along the front.  After surveying the results in the mirror I asked Savannah what she thought and she liked it, so I simply hand stitched the pleats in using a hidden sewing technique.  I could have just place it on the maching and topstitched it and that would have done well.  It is a matter of preference really. 

The shirt looks innocent enough..... that is... NOW.  I loved the color and print of this shirt and the fabric is an easy care stretchy polyester and lycra blend, but the neckline before was split to below the breasts.  Yes, wide open!  This was a ladies extra small shirt and it was clearly made to show all the cleavage a person was willing to show.  I knew I could.... and WOULD fix that!  Ha!  I did decide to leave a small split at the top, but not enough to show a thing!  I once again used the same method of sewing with a hidden stitch that I used on the skirt pleats by handstitching.  I encourage you to look close at an outfit to see if it is something you could like if you were to modify it. 

Just this past Sunday morning when I was getting ready for church I had to take my own shirt up two inches in the back of the neck to keep it from showing my bra straps.  I will do a post on that during this series.  We are living in an age where you need to learn some simple sewing techniques or your options for clothing will be slim to none. 

{NOTE:  There will be about six postings... or more in this series, but there will be other posts.  If you see other posts that does not mean the post series is over.  I will state in the last post that it is the final post in the series.}

Simple Sewing for Modesty: Part 1

Modesty... such a strange word in our culture today.  Gone are the days when most people even care.  The less you are wearing the better seems to be the thinking of today.  Why is modesty so close to my heart?  Because it is an area that I have had to "deal with" in my life.  I was raised to be pure in some ways, but it was very contradictory.  As my parents were preaching at me to stay "pure" they were also encouraging impure behaviours.

Let me stop right here and define "pure" for the purposes of the above paragraph.  What that meant to my parents was not to take part in the "s" word.  Cuddling with your boyfriend on the couch... allowed.  Kissing your boyfriend.... allowed.  Having a boyfriend.... allowed.  Looking a bit promiscuous for the boys... allowed.  Dressing in a way that showed off the body... allowed.  In fact, I can remember many times being told I should "flaunt it while you've got it", insinuating that that thin body would not be something I would have forever so I should put it on display.  While that may be a true statement in that that scrawny little body I used to have would one day be a thing of the past I can assure you it was of NO benefit to my well being to put it on display for all to see.  I don't want my girl to live with the damage that immodesty causes.  For this reason I have increased my sewing, although I am mostly making adjustments to items that I purchase retail or resale. 

Reality check... my preteen is probably note going to want to wear just things I sew for her forever.  Also, she needs some fashion freedom to display her own personality.  My oldest little girl will be a teenager in less than a year.  I am holding on to her innocence and preserving it as long as I can, but at the same time I know I have to find a balance.  When she goes to church and is around her friends there (who mostly attend public school) I don't want her to feel like an outcast.  This is not such an issue with her homeschool friends.  And I want to say here that this is not a moment that I am casting judgement on public schoolers.  This is just a fact.  Those kids are living a life that is about competing to fit in.  In that world you do not want to be the outcast. 

One thing that I have found that can make the wardrobe options go a little further is to buy a few "muscle shirts" (AKA tank tops).  Every year you can pick up a few of these for $1 a piece on clearance. 

They also sell them in a 3-pack online.  The ones I get on clearance sometimes have a graphic on them or they are solid.  I am not picky about it because they are going to be covered anyway.  I just make sure they do not have anything on them that goes against our standards.  Event though I purchase these for modesty, guess what?  They are not modest as they come.  I take up FOUR WHOLE INCHES in the shoulders.  If I did not they would plunge way too low in the front and in the armpits.  Notice the ones that are made like the picture above have a high back.  If they are made that way you have to make the modification in to the front portion of the straps.  If you are uncertain of how to do this you can experiment of just make sure you purchase shirts with a scoop back. 

These can used to make a trendy shirt modest.  An example is the butterfly style shirt my daughter recently got for Christmas.  It was perfectly her!  It was zebra print.... her favorite animal.  It was purple... her favorite color.  It was sequined... because most girls like some sparkle.  And it was a butterfly style shirt... that she loves, but that can sometimes be hard to find in modest styles (many are see-through or very gappy under the arms). 

Three of my girls loving on the neighbor's PUPPY.

(Yep, that is likely to get more attention than my blog topic... HUGE puppy!)

The main point of the tank underneath is that when the girls lift their arms or bend over the tank underneath protects them from others seeing their bodies.  Another alternative is to wear a long sleeve tee or turtleneck underneath.  Savannah has worn this shirt several ways and all work well. 

I will continue this series with different topics.  I want to keep it kind of short, so I don't burn anyone out in one huge post. 

Toilet Paper Pumpkins for Fall -- Picture Tutorial

I have been seeing a lot of these cute little pumpkins around the web, but they have been made with fabric.  I wanted this to be more of a kid craft and with less expensive materials.  My first thought was to use tissue paper, but I was not able to locate any close by, so I looked for another option and found a orange party napkins. 

Supplies Needed:

20 count pack of orange party napkins in dinner size (available at Dollar General for $1; you will use 2 napkins per pumpkin)

Glue stick

2 Plastic Grocery Sacks per pumpkin

1 small roll of toilet paper per pumpkin

Construction Paper in the color of your choice for leaves & stem

Scissors

I missed taking one picture and that was the first step... (sigh)... Anyway, the first step is to open up two of the napkins and lie them on top of each other as pictured.  Lift TOP napkin back and apply glue using your glue stick to the top side of the BOTTOM napkin... just a small amount around the edge. Fold your TOP napkin back into place and that is where we start in the pic above.

{keep your eyes open or you might not get this step... ha!}

 Straighten out two plastic grocery sacks and lay them in an "+" on the center of the napkin.  Place a roll of toilet paper in the center. 

Wrap the ends of the top plastic grocery bag over the toilet paper and stuff the ends into the center.... do the same with the bottom grocery bag.

And stick your finger in the hole just for good measure.  Not really.... but you do want to make sure the bags are stuffed in as they will barely reach (and that is the reason you use small toilet paper rolls).

I am not gonna lie to you.  This is the step that got a few, "I can't do this!" comments out of my perfectionist child.  I just had to calm her down and tell her there is no wrong way here.  Start in one spot and start tucking the napkin in the top hole of the toilet paper until you get all the way around.

Again, stick your fingers in the hole to make sure it is all stuffed in.

One last time to make sure it is in there... and you can stick a tiny piece of tape in there if you have a wild piece.

I handed out all my kids a piece of brown construction paper about 2 inches wide.  I told them to crumple it up.  GASP!!!  They thought that was crazy.  You want your stem to look like a stem, though. 

So, you crumple it up and then uncrumple (you may have some tears... now worries)  and roll it up and there you have your stem. 

Stick your stem in your pumpkin hole. Again, you can add a little tape, if you want to.

We used green construction paper (one sheet did all five of our pumpkins) to make leaves and curlies. I cut out the leaves for my little ones and I cut our all our curlies. To make the curlies you cute little strips about 1/8" wide and lightly run the back of your scissors down them... very lightly... several times... and you may have to shape them a little... or you may know a better way. 

Attach leaves and curlies with a little tape as you tuck it in the hole with your stem. 

Your done!  Put them on your toilet or dining room table.  They look really cute and pretty classy for a kid craft.  Sierra added a jack-o-lantern face to hers using crayon.  I was thinking of doing this and we may still do it.  I was going to cute out peices of black construction paper eyes, noses, and mouths and simply attach them with a glue stick. 

I just want to add a couple notes: 

My little helper is my three year old, Sahara.

Also, at the end of the Fall season when you take down your decorations this little project is very recycleable.  ;)  Obviously, the main thing is toilet tissue and we all know what to do with that.  The shopping bags can be used for garbage, etc..  Hey, you could use that really big orange napkin to clean up a mess.  And if you want to be really frugal you can save that toilet paper tube for another craft.  The only thing that HAS TO go to waste are the construction paper leaves and stem (unless you can find another use for those as well). 

Summer is....

Everyone is talking about Summer.  School is out for public schoolers and many homeschoolers.  Everyone is talking about plans... plans for vacations... plans for their schooling during Summer and in the Fall.  It seems there is so much to think about.  For us Summer is....

Going to be a time of slowing down a bit in some areas.  Our regular school plan will change.

My husband will be off work after next Tuesday, since he is a public school teacher. 

We are not planning a vacation this year; however, you never know when that might change.

My brother, his wife, and their daughter are moving bake to Texas this Summer.

I might rip out all the carpet in this house (my big fantasy).  The problem with this little fantasy is that there is only plywood underneath and since we want to try to pay off our mortgage within one year we don't want to spend money on flooring.  So, we have to decide if we can hold off until the mortgage is paid off or if we can find a cheap or temporary flooring solution.  I despise carpeted floors.  Upstairs we have some painted floors, but it looks "right" because it is a board floor.  If I had a faux flooring solution for plywood that would look nice I could live with that for a year.  That would allow us freedom to be messy with our artsy craftsy time.  After the mortgage is all gone bye-bye we could change if we wanted to hardwood floors. 

We will do some special schooling...  I am planning to use "Consider God's Creation" (Science) some.  I would also like to do some art curriculum that we have not been faithful to complete (or really even begin).  We will continue to keep math "fresh" for Sierra and read a lot.  Savannah will actually finish up her Grade 4 math and possibly begin her Grade 5 math.  She does not know it yet, but I have decided to detour that plan a bit, though.  I am awaiting the arrival of the first book in the Life of Fred series.  This Summer I am going to let her try that.  I originally thought it was just a supplemental thing for math, but have recently learned it can be a complete math curriculum.  I also hear that the kids who put up a fight to do math actually beg to do this... It's worth a try!  Sewing is top on the list to do with my older ones.  There should be no excuse to not have time since my hubby will be off and there are no scheduled vacations. 

And if it will ever rain I would love to focus some more on growing veggies!

Oh yeah.... we HAVE to build a chicken coop.

And we will be selling seven baby bunnies. 

And I would like to have some lazy days like this little momma (Sahara) and her babies.

Lobster and Maps Discussion and ... Skeletons

Today, while the rest of the homeschool world is making Christmas crafts we made lobsters!  You can follow this link to find some super cute directions for egg carton lobsters.  We studied Maine in our Adventures (My Father's World curriculum).  As I am not one to stick to the "plan" I added this cute lobster craft.  You are supposed to use PAPER egg cartons, but I had the styrofoam ones.  I just went outside and spray painted them red.  Within 10 minutes or less they were dry. 

Also, we discussed directions on the map.  The curriculum says to have the child(ren) find the state that is farthest east on the map.  The problem is that my kids know which way is north at our house, but they had the idea that on the map north changed depending on where the map was at.  Confused me a bit.... so, I thought this would be a good time to try to correct their misunderstanding.  It was quite funny, though.  Great teaching/learning opportunity! 

We might just have to hang those lobsters on the tree....  Hey!  They are red!  I am thinking that they will look very cute alongside our skeletons on the tree.  Well..... I guess I will have to explain that, also.  ;)  A couple weeks ago we started studying Colossians 1:18 for one of our memory verses ("And he is the head of the body, the church...") and the study extends to science and the body some.  I thought it would be great to do a skeleton craft that I saw here and label it with some "members" of the "church" (the people in our immediate family and extended family, church leaders and teachers, etc.... click on the pic to enlarge to see labeling). 

Pre-Packaged Ornament Kit Fun

All too often I think that sometimes we forget that it is OKAY to take the easy road sometimes. We don't have to whittle the wood to make homemade ornaments with our kids. And sometimes it is even better to just do it rather than worry about doing it well.... and you won't hear that from me often. I am a perfectionist and it is my worst personality trait. :)

I found this little kit at Michael's for $1 (each kit makes 3, so I used 2 kits). Notice we gave our angels haircuts to make a boy for Caden and left Daddy's bald. We have one angel for each member of our family and I wrote their name and year on the back. Super cute. I did use a glue gun, so this one required a bit of assistance.
These little wooden plaque ornaments are the most fun for the kids, because they do it all without assistance. Well, technically Caden did some scribble on his and Momma colored the rest for him. This was purchased at Michael's for $1 a kit (each kit comes with four wooden plaques with pre-attached string, four markers, two glitter glue tubes... we used 2 kits). Notice the little jingle bell snowman? We did that kit, too. I had to do most of this one because it was small and required hot glue... not a good choice for little kids, but would be great for teens. Kit makes 3.

All those for $5 and I didn't have to pre-cut foam and gather jingle bells, string, or whittle the wood! Love it!

Sentence Building Activity

Need a great sentence building activity for your little ones? I think this is the best thing I have come across. Take the 5 minutes to make this one and you are going to love it!

I just did this print-out and just wanted to share another way to do it for those of us that do not have a laminator. I used clear Contact paper to laminate page ONE on the front and back. For page TWO and THREE I simply slid them into the clear shiney page protectors. On page THREE they will be able to draw their picture and then simply wipe it off for their next sentence they build. Note: I did not use the Contact paper for pages TWO and THREE because it is not as easy to wipe away the dry erase on.

I saw this idea on Confessions of a Homeschooler and loved it! I discovered her blog a couple of months back and if I did not have a Pre-K or K Curriculum I would use this as our curriculum (not that I do not like My Father's World, but this one is great, too...). Be sure and read this post about her Terms of Use. She wants her stuff to remain free and wants to give it freely. What an awesome gift!

Revision: I just did this with my five year old, Sierra. Page TWO and THREE can be turned back to back and placed in one page protector. This will save page protectors (and money ... frugal!) and make it easier to store and use.... It becomes just one part! I love LESS (less really is more!). You can also store all your pieces in that same page protector. The other thing I want to point out is that you do not have to feel like you have to do every part of this activity when you do it. If you have a child that is not wanting to do the drawing part or the writing part , then skip that. My daughter drew two of the pictures and wrote one of her sentences and then her "hand was hurting"..... which is the story of our lives here, but I remember sitting in a desk at school and my hand hurting, my rear hurting, etc. and that is not want I want in my homeschool. The wonderful thing is that we can do it "our way". Even without the complete set of skills she got to feel like she was reading... which she was!! This is a great activity.

Let the "Adventures" Begin... And "K" (MFW)

Name Art

Pics first, and then you can read about it all...

Savannah, Caden, and Sierra making their Jello for dessert prep.

Sierra being silly with her Red, White, & Blue dessert.... She played with it, but wouldn't eat it even though she thoroughly enjoyed being silly with it and making it.

More of the sillies.... Sierra thought it was hilarious to give her dessert "the bunny ears".


... and more of the sillies... Sierra had band-aid stickers all over her face when her daddy came home from work. On the table you can see they are working on their forever long coloring of the U.S. map. Notice how silly their daddy is! I can't imagine why the kids are so silly, can you!!?

Seriously, I did not realize until this moment how silly they were being and that I uploaded all silly pics! They said this experiment was stinky. I thought they were referring to the eggs... and where just acting silly. They were saying the salt water was stinky... strange children!

And here we have a non-silly pic... because my kids are NOT in it! ;) This is our egg experiment on density. VERY interesting! I might just graduate from elementary school myself!!

This is Savannah's bracelet. Notice the little cross charm to remind them that God guided us in choosing their names.

_____________________________________________________

NOTE: I wrote this post at the end of last week & have not had time to add the pics to it. We are no longer sick... yippeeeee!! ;)

I'm not so sure about that last schedule just, yet. I am starting to think that that finding order may not happen for awhile with my sickly kiddos. And yes, they are sick, again. I say it that way because everyone was fever free as of Monday, so we are having some (Caden & Sahara) with a relapse or possibly a sinus infection... or a different virus. This week was supposed to be our first week using My Father's World Kindergarten and Adventures In My Father's World. I knew at the beginning of the week that we were fever free, but we still had some kiddos that were feeling pretty rough... and a Momma needing more time to prepare and needing rest. :) With all that in mind, I made the decision that we would just wait until next week to begin with My Father's World.

... That was until.... Monday and Tuesday came and went... and I realized how bored the kids were with "just being". I was letting them lay around and rest or move around playing as they felt up to it. They never said they were bored, but it was obvious they were feeling better and needing more to occupy their day. I decided that we would just jump in and start My Father's World K and Adventures and see what we could do. I already knew that next week will likely not be a full schooling week, so I was thinking that we might accomplish one week in that two week time period. So this is what we have done this week:

My Father's World Kindergarten
I found it very helpful to make my self a "daily cheat sheet" for the activities, so I would not need to look at what the book says to do next (nothing fancy... just a handwritten posty note):
1-->Read the days Creation verse
-- Child Retells
-- Briefly Discuss
2-->Cut / Color the Creation # & Glue Up
-- Play "I Spy" for the #
3-->ABC Chart & "ABC Song"
-- Point as you sing
4-->Teach the Letters of the Day using ABC Game Cards
--(We did the whole alphabet because she knows this with few errors)
5-->ABC Chart & Button Games
--(We did the whole alphabet because she knows this with few errors)
6-->ABC Chart & Shuffled ABC Cards for letter name recognition
--(We did the whole alphabet because she knows this with few errors)
7-->Creation Book Page (Art)
8-->Music
--"This Is My Father's World"
(Note: We have already done a similar study of Creation for K this year using A Beka, so I am thinking I will double time this portion as I see fit without losing the "lessons". Also, some of the Alphabet and Numbers learning games are just too simple for Sierra, so we are going add difficulty.)

9/30/09 Wed = Week 1, Day 1 & 2 (double lesson sessions)
We followed the 8 Step plan above and we did two lesson sessions. I read the verse and we discussed it. As they do the Creation # and the Creation Day art page we are continually discussing the verses further, so that works out well. We really do not do too much of the "I Spy the #" game because Sierra has known her numbers for a couple of years. The focus for her with the numbers is ordinal (1st, 2nd, 3rd....). We are doing Steps 3 through 6 to reinforce what Sierra already knows and to test the ABCs that she is still stumbling with (t, g, h, m, n). We add our own hand motions to the music, so they really focus on what they are singing about and not just memorizing the words. For snacks today we had Oreo cookies to represent that God divided the light from the darkness on day one. Thank you to all you MFW bloggers out there for that tip. We also had water to drink to represent that God divided the water above and below the sky on day two (and having water was easy).
10/1/09 Thu = Week 1, Day 3 & 4 (double lesson sessions)
It went pretty much the same as the previous day. Again, we doubled up and did two days sessions. We included fresh apples and oranges in our lunch to represent the fruit that God created for us to enjoy.
10/2/09 Fri = Week 1, Day 5 (one lesson session)

Pretty much the same, again. We slowed down to one session today, because this momma is tired from the two little ones having fever, again. I also thought the Day 5 lesson could stand to get a little more attention. We spent more time with the art portions.

Note: Caden participated in some of this with us, but the little guy was feeling yucky and has a very short attention span. He did enjoy some art, but was much happier to lay in bed mostly in the bedroom next to us.

<---- I will post some pics for this next week when we have finished the Creation Week lesson.--->

Adventures In My Father's World

I am really getting into my little posty note "cheat sheets"! I tend to re-read things over and over as if I am going to miss something, so making myself a little mini-outline on a posty note is working well for me.

9/30/09 Wed thru 10/2/09 Fri = Week 1

This week I am going to journal "Adventures" a little differently than I did "K". We were working with a 3 day time frame, but we did get most of it squeezed in. I rearranged some of the activities to suit our crazy week (i.e. staying up to write the kid's a letter happened later in the week rather than at the beginning).

We talked about Savannah and Sierra's names, but this is a discussion that we have had often in our home. There is no Biblical significance in our choosing our children's first names, so this was something I really had to think hard on how to adapt for my children. Also, I have written a lot to my children in their baby books and I write in a journal occassionally for each of my children. I did not really feel I need to repeat the same information in this letter. I do like the idea of presenting them with a letter from Momma, though. So, I started the letter like the book's example and adding to it:

"When you meet someone new, one of the first things you learn is their name. Everyone has a name and names are very special. Names have meanings. Some parents choose their child's name strictly for the meaning and some parrents choose a name for other reasons. Either way, I believe God leads us in naming our children and He guides us in choosing just the right name. This is what I wrote in your baby book about your name....."

I went on to write the reason we liked each of their names and the story about how God gave their names to us. I also included various meanings/origins and a little personal story of some nicknames from their baby days. We wrote their names using a name art tracing technique and we made the name bracelets. We added a tiny little cross charm to their bracelets to remind them that God guided us in choosing their names. These little charms can be purchased at Wal-Mart (dz. for approx $3). I made and colored the timeline pieces ahead of time and we added the figures each day as we did our history. We started placing all our papers in their notebooks, but we still need to cutesy up the notebooks... we can do that throughout the year. I have already explained the Pledge to the kids, but it was nice to break it down a little more and reinforce what they have already learned. They really enjoyed making jello parfaits for dessert for lunch. I choose this version of the red, white, and blue snack idea because it would be so easy for the kids to completely make. We made the jello around 10:am and had it for lunch at noon. We did a lot of map tracking when we talked about the Vikings and Leif Ericsson. And on that topic... Boy, does it take a lot of time to color those maps!! I think I would have liked to have just colored the water and our individual state and then have the kids color the other states as they are studied later on. I am really liking the idea of reading the history lesson and having the kids use narration and dictation (Sierra just listened in on this part). My kids L~O~V~E sceince, so the egg experiment was a big hit... and I was pretty happy that this experiment did not involve anything but floating the egg. The girls were totally understanding this and predicting what would happen. Savannah knows that I check eggs in a glass of water to make sure they are not spoiled, if they are past the date on the carton. They will float if they are bad, so that was her first thought when we started the experiment and when the one egg was floating. It was fun to show her that that was not why it was floating by switching the two eggs. The same egg that was floating was now sinking and vice versa. ... and then, we stuck those eggs in fresh water and boiled them on the stove for dinner. ;) For the name thing I had planned to write the letters of their names on Ritz crackers with "squeeze cheese" and for a dessert write their names in marshmallow creme on graham crackers, but we just ran out of time (and energy ...and concern). :) I'll try to be better next week!

With all our sicklies this week there were some things that got totally left out, but all in all I think it went well for what we had to work with. The things that got total skipped were: 1)handwriting practice, but they do that when they write for other things; 2)Book Basket because I was not going to give the librarians and others the flu and we read some other stuff; 3)Nature Walk and Art, but we did drive around to yard sales on Saturday... does that count? No, well... we got more learning games, etc... so it's not all bad and we did get OUT of the house and had a chance to breathe fresh air!!! Works for me!!

Schedule Change... Plan "C" & MFW & Library

I am guilty of not adding enough photos to my posts... trying to reform!!

Not the best, but you just can't always get that perfect pic when you are always running late. ;)

Savannah was too distracted by Sahara fussing that she could not smile because they all worry about her every whimper. Look close because Caden is ready to get someone with his "sword" (plastic toy knife).

Okay, so the point of this post is my most recent SCHEDULE. I really am not totally difficult, but I am really trying to get our schedule just the way I want it.... the way it works well for all of us. And I so desire for my kids to be working together and learning together and teaching one another through it all. We do this already, but I want to tweek the details so that it has a great flow.... and a joyous, harmonious flow. So, here it is:

By 7:00 a.m.
Kids Awaken!
Dress Routine
Come to Breakfast / Set Table
Prayer Requests & Commitments / Prayer Time
Breakfast with Parent Lead Devotional
My desire for this is that the kids will be eating breakfast WITH Daddy. They can start the morning praying with Daddy, etc. and not just me.

By 7:30 a.m.
Singing (during Breakfast Clean-up)
Story Time / Read Alound (Our Choice--not based on curriculum)
Motto Chant (“I homeschool because I want to be with you”)… then, move to school area.
Read Alouds can just take place gathered around the table making a smoother transition into schooling.

By 8:00 a.m.
Minutes
5 Calendar Time (Month, Day of Week, Date, Year, Special Days, Upcoming Events, Weather & Seasons, 100 Day Chart)
Pledges
ART TIME (I Can Do All Things or other) Not too sure about this Art Book just yet... thinking I would have preferred something a bit more "elementary" (translation=easy).
=1 hour

By 9:00 a.m. (Order should depend upon the season/weather)
60 Begin MFW Kindergarten with Sierra & Others join in w/ Savannah being a Teacher’s Helper
60 Group Study for MFW Science & History, Etc.
60 Outdoor Activities & Physical Exercise & Chore Time *

By 12:00 p.m.
Morning Activities End
LUNCH & Clean-up & Chore Time & Meal Planning for Dinner /Home Ec. ;)

1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Naptime for Caden (2 hours) & Sahara (varies)
Independent Studies for Savannah -- Bible Verse / Memorization; Math, Grammar, Spelling, Reading, Etc.
Individual “Centers” Time ** (Savannah/Sierra)

Note: (Can vary daily… just ideas)
* Outdoor Activities & Physical Exercise:
· Gymnastics & Trampoline
· Ballet Class
· Bicycling or Walking
· Games: Kickball, etc.
· Yard Care & Plant Care
· Swimming
** “Centers” Time
· Computer Time
· Puzzles
· Typing
· Games (Cards, Board Games)
· Bingo
· Science
· Library
· Music
· Books of the Bible
· Handwriting
· Math
· Journaling

And on a final note for the night I am totally ready to get started using My Father's World (Kindergarten & Adventures), but since we have been hit so hard with this flu bug I am going to postpone for one more week. I was planning to take off most or all of December, but that might not happen now. It is great to have the freedom to change things up. I think this week is going to be a "make some messes/art/organization/get better week"! I am eager to start sharing some of our MFW schooling, but it is going to have to wait just a bit longer. One thing I will share is that I have been working on a Home Library Listing of all our books. I have also included the various puzzles we have and it might just eventually grow to include games or any other learning items we have on hand. The idea is that I can do a search on the database for our topic and it will show me what I have on hand. Sometimes we forget that "penguin" puzzle or book, etc.. I am also discovering that I own some books that I did realize we had. ;) I am getting very familar with the various authors of children's books, so it is a learning experience for me, as well. The main reason I am mentioning this is that in the MFW Kindergarten curriculum it says to make 27 file folders for the letters/topics of study and to start placing things in the folder to use. Well, I do not want to pull the "Penguin Reader" now for that folder. I want my kids to have access to their books on their bookshelf; however, I am planning to write a list directly on the file folder of things that I think of that I would like to use. Using the "Penguin" folder as an example again... I already know that I have a couple of fictional storybooks involving penguins and I have some easy reading Science readers about penguins. I also have some Pre-K level wooden puzzles that have penguins and other animals that would be great. I know that I have some various textbook type books that have penguins in them and I plan to write down the title of the book and the page numbers. I might make a note of an additional craft for penguins and note the website or write down my own craft idea should one come to mine. So, that is how I am planning to use the MFW Kindergarten file folder system. Hope that gives someone out there an idea! Goodnight all!!

How fitting that today I would blog about a Togetherness Secret and I would be reading my blog reading list and see that there was a post for a free eBook called Fun, Fabulous and (Mostly) Free Preschool Projects. Go get yours free for the taking. There are some great ideas in there. I have not read it all since I just downloaded it, but one of the first tips was to put all the ingredients for making cookies into a large zipper lock bag and let your preschooler squish away until it was all mixed up! Now who wouldn't love those kind of ideas!! I really want my kids to love schooling and all be in the same area together..... and not even just in the next room within earshot. I really have a great set up where the next room is the main kid bedroom and there are plenty of age appropriate preschool toys and I can hear them well. I can't see through walls, though. ;) ... even though the kids think I can! Sssshhhhh! I would love for the younger ones to grow up in a natural learning environment. I don't want to have to "rope them in" and have to try to "get their attention" like I seem to have to do with my oldest. I am having a bit of a breakthrough with her, though.... I think. I just think if this whole schooling just becomes a way of life for us and we eliminate some of the distractions, then they will want to be in here....

Also, thanks to those who have left comments on the earlier post! You are so great! ... please take time to read their comments if you have not done so already. Goodnight all... my mind need some sleep... probably obvious, right?! :)

Just a Funny Observation

My husband thinks the kids need to have lots of "Other Stuff" in our homeschooling day. "Other Stuff" can be field trips, reading, art, science experiments, journaling, etc.... all the fun stuff. My kids have had a full week off for Summer break and I thought it would be good to give them some "Other Stuff" in the form of Art Time. So, I bought some tissue paper in a eight colors. I took the time to cut it into 2"x2" squares and set up a simple art project for the kids, but with Cody home I asked him to assist with Caden The Destroyer. Caden was quite smiley and as all two years usually do he lost interest with joyful enthusiasm quite quickly. My wonderful patient and art loving husband (~sarcasm~) continued to "complete" Caden's project. Now I would have just let Caden be done. I mean, he(Caden) was happy. He got to participate and he was ready to move on to playtime. :) Not Daddy... Daddy thinks you have to actually do the whole thing... LOL! So, Daddy is in there mumbling and grumbling and do it!!! Funny! BUT I did have to point out to him that he was the only one complaining about how hard it was, how it was taking too long, how he thought it was too much of a project for little ones, etc.. I told him (and the kids) that it did not have to be finished all at once. It could be a project that is broken into smaller time segments. It is a rainbow, so you could talk about one color at a time and do it as a Unit Study thing. You could read the kids a book while they do the project. Anyway, he is in there and I think he has stopped complaining now. Maybe we will do another project tomorrow! (~Snicker-snicker He-he-he~)
(I will post art pics later after they are dry, so come back to see their beautiful rainbows!)

ONE Simple Summer Project

We have been really busy and trying hard to really get a good routine with homeschooling... Ahem, we are failing miserably, but maybe by mid-August we will get it figured out. I have one that does not like to cooperate, so a five minute assignement stretched easily to 30 minutes and on days like today it is even worse... Seriously, a 15 minute writing assignment turned into 55 minutes of complaining and whining and then, when I finally told her that homeschool momma's can make their kids repeat a grade level and order the same book for next year she promptly did her writing assignment in 5 minutes!!! ARGHHHHHHHHH!!! Anyway, that is all the complaining I will do tonight on here... Moving on! As I was saying we have been busy and I have tons of pics and topics I could blog about, but I am going to stick with ONE Simple Summer Project that we did last week. Nothing grand..... just simple fun!

Supplies:

Permanent Markers (i.e. Sharpies)

Roll of Aluminum Foil

Clear Tape

Scraps of Cardboard or Heavy Paper

Hole Punch & String (optional, if you wish to hang it)

This probably does not require instructions, but cut your cardboard the size you want. Wrap in foil being careful not to wrinkle it up. Tape the foil to secure it in place. If your kids are young, you may want to draw them some designs to color in. That was the route we took. I asked what they wanted on it and drew VERY ABSTRACT images with the Sharpies plus added my cheezy little saying on it. After that I gave it to them to color and add any more details they wanted.

My kids had a great time with this. I know it is simple, but sometimes simple is best. They loved how shiney it was. Another spin on this could be to make different shapes and string them together like a mobile and hang out in the yard for and watch them sparkle in the sun. I have been following a tip that David Hazell* passed on at the homeschool conference... It is better to do a simpler version of a project than not to do the project at all. I totally agree! He used an example of making a sundial. If you can't manage to make the sundial, then rather than skip the sundial project altogether just simply stick a stick in the ground and observe the shadow throughout the day. It is still teaching the concept and you did not drive yourself crazy and stress out to do it! ;) Did I mention I REALLY like him. (*My Father's World @ www.mfwbooks.com)