Is November really almost over?

Time sure is flying by. It seems like I turned around and it was November and now it's about to be December.

We enjoyed our Thanksgiving so much. We spend Thanksgiving with my parents and family every year. My oldest daughter, 9, loves to help Nana make fruit salad.

This year she showed her little sisters how to make it and they basically made it by themselves with just a little assistance from Nana. They were so proud!

I made Crystal's wonderful butterhorn rolls. They were a big hit with my family. Very delicious!

I think the next time I make them- probably at Christmas- I will make smaller rolls since these were so large. The picture shows them before they doubled in size. And yes, I forgot to take a picture after they were cooked :(

Our 2011-2012 Curriculum

I linked up to Heart of the Matter online to post our curriculum choices for this year. This is actually our third year to begin school in July. We began on July 5. It's too hot for the kids to play outside with 100 degree temps.

This is our 6th year of homeschooling. We have a 4th, 2nd, K and Pre-K.

We use My Father's World multi-age cycle. This year we are using Rome to the Reformation.

4th & 2nd together-
Bible/History- Victor Journey Through the Bible, Streams of Civilization: Volume 1, Trial and Triumph
-Readings from Luke, 1 John, Philippians and other books of the Bible, and memory verses from the New Testament
-How the Bible Came to Us
-Ancient World, Augustus Caesar's World, The Roman Empire, and Medieval World
-Map Work, History Notebook, timeline, and hands on projects
-Library books- used for enrichment (when we can find them). We don't have a very good library.

Science
-First Encycylopedia of the Human Body
- The Human Body for Every Kid
- The Body Book
- Exploring Creation with Astronomy
- Weekly nature walks and nature journals

Foreign Language
English from the Roots Up- Latin roots

Spanish- basic course for my younger three using printables off the web

Reading- I use the book lists from Sonlight and Ambleside online as a guide to what books my 4th and 2nd grader read.

Read-alouds-
(currently) The Bronze Bow,
The Burgess Animal Book for Children(all)


4th Grade:

Rod & Staff Grammar 4
Spelling Power
Singapore Math 4A-4B
Mavis Beacon typing
Writing Strands Level 3 (We will be trying this again this year. We only used it a few weeks last year. It didn't work well so I decided to wait a year.)
Reading- currently Heidi and Stuart Little


2nd Grade:

Abeka Spelling 2nd
Primary Language Lessons (and some Abeka 2 Language since I have a workbook)
Singapore Math 2A-2B
Handwriting- some Abeka plus copy work and dictation from Bible and reading
Reading-currently Charlotte's Web


K-
Handwriting- Veritas Press Kindergarten Workbook
Abeka Phonics K and 1
Math- various manipulatives and printouts for copying numbers
Abeka readers 1
various books for reading and read-alouds
various arts and crafts

Pre-K:

Playdough, coloring books, printouts from 1+1+1+1, waterpaints, pattern blocks, cutting and pasting, magnetic letters, read alouds, etc.

Krayon Keeper- Great Gift Idea!

A few years ago I found this website http://www.girlythingsbows.com/
while researching how to make bows. They have lots of super cute "free" tutorials on making bows, hair accessories, bow holders, clips, and of course, Krayon Keepers.

These can also be called crayon rolls. They roll up and you just use a button and ribbon for the closure or you can use two ribbons and tie it together.

When I give this as a gift I like to put new crayons in it. I guess you wouldn't have to even put any in it, but new crayons are so much fun.


And now is a great time to stock up on crayons. They usually run them very cheap in the "Back to School" sales. I usually stock up and buy enough to last me until next year's sales.

These are such cute little gifts paired with a coloring book. My children love to give them to friends on their birthdays. I have made some for boys, too. I just forgot to take a picture :(

Also, if you have an older child that you think wouldn't want one there are ideas around the internet to make art rolls- changing the size to accommodate colored pencils. I've been wanting to try it, but haven't taken the time. Maybe that will be my next project.

Shield Birthday Cake for Knight Party

I'm linking up with Jessica over at http://lifeasmom.com/
to post about cakes to make for birthday parties.

I enjoy making my children's birthday cakes. It's also frugal and is very exciting for them.

I made this birthday cake for my son a few years ago for his knight themed birthday party. It was pretty easy to make and he thought it was great!

I always use a cake mix, but I usually make my own buttercreme icing. Go check out all the cakes http://lifeasmom.com/

Beach Bash Birthday

A few weeks ago my 2nd born daughter turned 5. It always seems that 5 is a significant age. I guess it's because 5 is the age where most children leave home to embark on the journey of "school". Since we homeschool this is not the case for us, but I still find that turning 5 makes a big difference in a child or at least to mom :).

Sewing lessons

Several years ago, I began showing my oldest daughter how to sew. I am by no means a

seamstress or anything near that, but I really enjoy making things. I especially enjoy making

dresses for my daughters.

I tend to take sewing in spurts though. I'll sew for a while and then put it down for a while. I

haven't sewed much lately. Seems school and sports have taken a great deal of our time.

Now that we've completed our school year, I'm planning to set a time each week to work on some

sewing projects.

Last week, I asked her (9 year old daughter) to make a list of 5 things she'd like to make or

complete projects that we've already started. (Yes, we have began things and never finished

them.)

She was very eager to look at her patterns and sewing book she received for Christmas

and make her list.

Today we began working on a doll shirt that we started a few months ago using this pattern:

We worked on sewing the facing to the shirt front and back. I think it looks pretty cute myself.

And she loves it and that makes it worth all the time in the world!

Rain, Rain and More Rain

100 Days of School

We were a little late with this since it's been well past 100 days for us, but here goes anyway! I wanted to try doing this with my children (mainly my 4 year old). Each day she put a sticker on the chart to count to 100. All of my children looked forward to this every school day. Today we had our little celebration. We ate a 100 Grand candy bar. I'd never tried one before, but I might buy them again. It was delicious! We put together a 100 piece puzzle of a hundred dollar bill. We, also, counted 100 beans and shaped it into the number 100, made a paper chain of 100 strips of construction paper, exercised 100 times and several other things. It was fun and I think they enjoyed it. That makes all the difference. If they learned and it was fun then it was worth it!

Making a bow holder

I enjoy finding ways to make gifts that are simple, practical and inexpensive.

I had bought a bow holder from a craft fair a few years ago. It was a simple wooden crown shape painted white and pink with a long wide ribbon glued underneath to hold hair bows.

What a neat idea! A few months ago, I was invited to a baby shower and thought I'd try my hand at making one myself using a wooden letter.

I painted it light green to match the baby's room. Then I added some little flicks of pink paint on the edge of the letter to give it a little more "character".

I also, made some bows for the baby to add to the gift. I thought it turned out so cute that I might do this next time I go to a baby shower for a girl. I don't have any ideas for a boy shower, but maybe I'll find something.

Since my girls have so many bows, I made one for them using colors to match their room. I think it turned out really cute. But the best part is that it is simple, practical, and inexpensive!!

Egyptian Meal

We are studying Creation to the Greeks with My Father's World. http://www.mfwbooks.com/

We are enjoying our study through Genesis. Today we finished up the story of Joseph and have been studying Egyptian culture and life. We had a meal of fish, cheese, pita bread, nuts, fruit and vegetables dipped in plain yogurt.

I borrowed these platters from my mom. I thought it looked nice served on them. :) I'm not usually too concerned about how things look when we're about to eat it, but I tried to make a nice presentation. Plus, lately I am all about some paper plates, which, by the way, we ate our Egyptian meal on, hee, hee. Kind of funny after being served on a silver platter. Oh well!

My eight year old daughter said this was the best meal she ever ate. Not sure if that's a compliment or not considering she eats almost anything.

By the way, the story of Joseph is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. I get teary eyed every time I read Genesis 50:20.

Make Your Own Play Dough

Our play dough stash was in need of some help so instead of pulling out some cash, I decided to try my hand at making it myself. The kiddos were very excited and I let them each pick which color to make. I have these moments every now and then where I try to do fun stuff without getting stressed out about messes. I am trying my best to make these moments more common. Yes, play dough is a mess to make-especially when you let the kids do most of it themselves, but it was worth it. My 8 year old girl and 6 year old boy had fun stirring it and putting in the food color. They had flour everywhere (translation- fun for them!) We made 4 colors. My two year old had to make lella (translation: yellow) since it's her new favorite color. Her 4 year old sister wanted to make red, but it turned out pink (she really loved the color anyway). The older two made blue and green. The mess turned into lots of fun for everyone- even me. I sat and made some shapes with them, too. We got out the cookie cutters and enjoyed ourselves.

Spilled Milk

Yesterday morning began with spilled milk at breakfast-not once, but 3 times by the same child! Yikes! Can I go back to bed and start over? I thought about going back to bed and letting the kids go play. I really didn't do that or even seriously consider that, but it did cross my mind. I was determined to press on and not let a small slip of the fingers determine how my day or my child's day would go. We continued on and I even let them play with play dough. I am trying to follow the leadership of my Lord and not allow myself to get caught up with selfish desires or thoughts. My job is to train and teach, not put down and demean. 1 Peter 1: 5-9 " And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see far off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins." What a wonderful reminder of where these things come from. It is not from within ourselves or any of that psycho babble you hear from the world. It is from the Lord.

Tugging at my Heart

We took a day trip last week to a play place and the beach. We had a nice time and the kids had a blast playing and walking in the water. They didn't want to leave! It's so nice to be able to get away if only for a day. I needed it and so enjoyed it myself.

My heart has been so burdened lately. My children it seems are constantly arguing and fussing. The selfish behaviors are extreme. I have been trying to find the source. Well, I know the source of selfishness is sin, but I guess I was looking more at myself to see where I was teaching them wrong.

My heart has been convicted of my own selfish attitudes and actions toward my children. I realized that they are probably getting a bad example by looking at me. I'm not perfect by any means and I had to confess my sin to the Lord.

This morning before we started our lessons we had a time of individually talking through these things and I explained to them where this begins. Restoration is a wonderful thing! Even though I don't like seeing my own faults, I must as a Christian, turn from my evil ways and seek the Lord to help me and forgive me.

Chores, Chores and More Chores

My children have been doing chores for several years now (well at least the 8 and 6 year old). I am trying to gradually add in things for my 4 year old, but she is still in need of a lot of assistance. Despite the regular assignments of kitchen duty, putting up laundry, etc. their rooms seemed to always be a mess. This brings a lot of nagging and fussing in our home so I came up with a plan. I read a lot of organizing books and articles and they all (or most anyway) say to do a particular chore each day. A light bulb went off in my head one day during one of those nagging, frustrating "your room is a mess" moments. I took an index card for each of them and put this on it: Monday- Desk Tuesday- Bathroom Wednesday- Dresser Thursday- Closet Friday- Nightstand and shelf I explained to them that on each of the days that this is the area you are to work on each day. We put it up in their room where they are able to see it often. It has taken a few weeks to get into the habit, but it seems to work well so far. Yes, they still forget or have to be nicely reminded. I figure if it keeps me from nagging them, and I just simply remind them to check their card it's a good thing for us all.

Christmas countdown

My almost 8 year old daughter tells me every day how many days left until Christmas. Well, here we are and we have 3 days left. I have several more things I would really like to get done, but I'm not going to stress out about them. I try not to do that- it's not good for my health :) Well, here goes. My last few things left: - make 12 dozen cookies ( 6 dozen chocolate chip and 6 dozen rolled sugar cookies) I will freeze some of these to pull out when we need a yummy snack. This keeps us from eating too much at one time. -work on pillowcases for each of my children. I make each of my children a special pillowcase for Christmas each year. I'm very late getting this done. I'm using what I have on hand since finances are tight this year. I'm excited to see how they turn out. I hope I have time to finish. - make more Chex mix. I made a big batch yesterday, but I need to make some more for little gifts. - microwave raw peanuts. My father-in-law used to always give us raw peanuts every Christmas. They are so good cooked in the microwave and then adding butter and salt. Yum, yum! -make domino ornaments with kids. I found the cutest idea on the net one day last week. I'll try to find the site and put up the link. Such a cute idea!

Birthday Meal

As I mentioned in my last post, we have several birthdays in our family this month. My little boy has been asking for red beans and rice with sausage. Since his birthday was coming up I decided to make it for a special birthday lunch. He was so excited and gave me a special hug. Those are hard to come by since he has started saying he doesn't like hugs and kisses. It was a special moment for me. There are many things we Moms can do to make birthdays or other days special for our children without costing extra money. We all enjoyed our lunch, but my 6 year old probably enjoyed it the most because it was his special birthday lunch.

Busy, Busy!!

It's been busy, busy around here over the last few months. We're in the process of moving and that is very chaotic for our family of six. Hopefully we'll be settled in in the next few weeks and things will slow down a little. I am always on the lookout for ways to occupy/educate/keep busy my little ones. Yesterday while trying to teach math, I saw some Uno cards laying on the table. My 3 year old was wanting something to do so I said here sort these by color. I separated them into four piles- one for each color- blue, yellow, red and green. I only gave her a few at a time and it was a hit! She really enjoyed it. It works for me! Even my almost 2 year old wanted some to "sort". Yes, we'll be doing this again soon.

Update

Boy, we sure are busy around here. Last week, my oldest two participated in a theatre camp with our home school group. They had so much fun and enjoyed learning about plays. It was fun to watch them in their presentation on Friday night. It did make for a busy week! This mama was exhausted by the end of the week!

Despite all the fun, I'm glad for a "normal" week around here. Our 3rd week of school is already halfway over. We're playing a little catch up from last week since we didn't get everything done. We're studying cultures and countries this year and the curriculum suggested we make a cake and decorate it like a map or globe. We gave it a go and I was gonna let the kids do all the decorating, but apparently I didn't let it cool long enough before removing it from the pan. It split into. I was afraid it would fall all apart if I let them decorate it so I put a light layer of blue icing on first and then let them help me smooth it out. Then I used an icing pen (that I had leftover from some decorating last year) and tried to outline the continents. I didn't have enough of the icing pen to fill in the continents, but they were happy and that's all that matters. They enjoyed looking at it, but really all they wanted to do was eat it anyway! Of course, as their teacher, I made sure they could tell me the name of each continent and ocean before they could eat it :)

Week One - Review

We have completed week one of our homeschool lessons! The children were so ready to get busy. They always are at the beginning. I tried to take it slow to get them back into a routine, but they just wanted to do more. So of course we did! I had a lot of anticipation going into this year of schooling. I knew having two little ones underfoot was going to be quite the challenge. My youngest took her morning nap last year while we were working. I knew that this year would be quite different. I tried to plan things for my 3 year old to do: cutting, coloring, puzzles, sorting, lacing beads, playdough, etc. What I didn't think about was my 19 month old wanting to do everything big sis did. She ate the playdough and macaroni noodles for sorting (not enough to get worked up about, but...) These weren't cooked by the way! Needless to say, I've got to do a little more figuring and planning. I think the key is organization and patience!

Back to our homeschool

I've gone back and forth on when to begin school around here. Couldn't seem to figure out the best time to start, but we all seem ready so I guess we're gonna plunge in on Monday. A lot of people think we're nuts, but we like to start early so we'll have time to take some extra breaks throughout the year. Plus, in a few weeks we're planning to head to the beach for vacation. We're so looking forward to it! I've been on a mad dash to get everything ready for our start on Monday. I've been reading curriculum, making schedules, straightening supplies, making lists, collecting books from the library, and much more so hopefully we'll be mostly ready when Mon. morning rolls around. :) I've been rearranging around here all summer trying to figure out the best way to use the two rooms I have for schooling, sewing, crafts, scrapbooking, computer, and playtime. They are at the front of the house separated by the front entrance. One is actually the dining room that we use for a playroom. Now I've decided to put the school table in there. I put it in the corner so that there's still room to play. We'll see how that goes. It is still in the works. I moved my sewing machine into the other room that I used to have the school table in. (Confused yet?) It's so nice to have a place to sew without having to drag everything out. I've actually used it a lot this summer. I wanted to do more, but there's still time in the evenings when the children are in bed. Our children are excited about school. Our 3 year old asked me tonight if we were starting school tonight. So cute! I've been telling her that she's gonna be learning more things and she's so excited! She has a pair of scissors, crayons, little workbooks (that I picked up from the dollar *store), stickers, etc. Hopefully, the excitement will continue...:)