Easy chic scarf

There are so many beautiful scarves out there right now at the stores, and many come with a hefty price tag too.  Not only do I want to make this scarf, but it would make a wonderful gift as well.  Everyone loves something handmade and every time they are asked where they got it, they can mention your fabulous name of course....click here for the tutorial, thank you Sewing in no mans land!

Shabby picture display...love it!

This is a great idea and pretty affordable too...thank you Shanty2Chic a great gift idea or just something beautiful for the home, click here for the tutorial.

Burlap rose picture frame

Thank you again Shanty2Chic for more fabulous ideas love this so much click here for the directions...happy crafting!



DIY Cupcake stand

I LOVE this cupcake stand and I also love the Shanty 2 Chic blog....check out the tutorial here and you could get so crazy with this!



Super chic (and cheap!) curtains

Another great idea from Reckless Glamour!

I have seen these for sale, and while the DIY version is more time-consuming, I love knowing that I picked something up for a song and turned it into something wonderful...

Tulle Garland

Love this darling idea from Reckless Glamour perfect for a little girl's room or party...in fact I want one myself!!!



Getting creative with sponges!

I found this fabulous idea at http://countingcoconuts.blogspot.com/2010/06/montessori-monday.html and my kiddos absolutely loved not only making them but playing with them too.  And...we have not even gotten them wet yet.  They always want to play catch and throw the ball back in forth inside (it rains a lot in SW Washington and you have to have a battery of good indoor activities for the winter months) and these do not hurt when you get hit with one.  Important for my 12 month old who isn't quite playing catch yet!

We bought a large package of regular household sponges and some colored zip ties at the dollar store.  Using different colors of zip ties helped up tell them apart from each other once they were finished.  We cut the sponges lengthwise and I stacked the pieces up like you were playing Jenga so the centers were all aligned and tied the zip tie around the center and pulled it tight which created the ball shape.  I trimmed the zip tie closely so they wouldn't be sharp and ta-da...a new, affordable toy that we had so much fun making!

Why DO ice cubes float?

The solid form of almost all liquids is typically more dense, and an easy way to learn about liquids, density and mass is to save those two-liter pop bottles and get creative.  Not to mention just about any other subject you are introducing your kids to.  I find that if I fill the day with worksheets, mine do not stay engaged and learningg, but end up just limping along through the activity (the whole reason I am home schooling to begin with to avoid this and instill a love of learning.)

I keep a handful of them under my kitchen sink and have a book I refer to this great book for tons of ideas that are inexpensive and fun!

Today we filled a clean pop bottle about three-quarters full of water and drew a line at the fill mark.  We froze the bottle overnight, upright and measured the difference the next day.  My Kindergartner thought this was pretty cool and not only did we take a simple question about why ice floats and turn it into an opportunity to learn, we incorporated math, measurement, estimation, prediction and already had the supplies readily available.

Easy Fall Pillow

While I called this a Fall Pillow, it could be made out of any type of fabric and altered to fit the season, or your decorating style.  Super easy...here is what I did:

Start by covering a pillow form you already have or a new pillow form with your fabric of choice.  I used a fun fall print that would coordinate with my fall colors.  Next I used about six squares of brown craft felt, cutting them in half lengthwise and scalloping one long edge that would be the outside of the flower.  I then sewed the ends together so I had one long scalloped piece of felt to create my flower out of.  From there I circled the felt around on the pillow until I liked the placement and size of the flower.  I then stitched it together and also to the front of the pillow.  I did use a bit of hot glue (yes...when you are addicted to hot glue it must be present in every project possible) to get the look just right.  I attached a fun, big button to pull the colors all together in the center and now I have a super cute pillow that I am trying to keep my kids from eating.

                                     Happy Crafting and send me pics of the pillows you come up with!

Make Your Own Fossils

I found this activity at the site below and it was a great project to improve fine motor skills, measure ingredients (math), discuss geography and where different fossils large and small have been discovered.  Not to mention another wonderful science experiment that my kiddos loved...

http://www.education.com/activity/article/fossils/

We used shells from the dollar store that we will be using for future presents, crafts etc...one in particular left a great impression.  If the dough seems really dark, don't worry it will lighten up quite a bit when it dries.

We let these dry on cooling racks (like you would cool cookies on) as the under side of each stay damp for a few days before they dried completely.



Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

This is super easy, and always turns out great.  Awesome dish to make ahead, and great for company.  If you have a nice casserole dish that has a wrought-iron holder it really makes it looks fancy schmancy.

Get started, you need:

One dozen flour tortillas
6-8 boneless skinless chicken breasts
One can of cream of mushroom, and one can of cream of chicken soups
One cup heavy whipping cream
Half cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
Sliced olives

Saute your chicken in a bit of olive oil and some seasoning salt and pepper until done and tender.  Cut into pieces when cool and shred the chicken.  Spray baking dish with cooking spray and place shredded chicken in each tortilla with a heaping tablespoon of the cream soup, heavy cream, sour cream mixture.  Fill all the tortillas and place seam side down and cover them with remaining cream mixture.  Cover with sliced olives and shredded cheese, bake at 375* for about twenty minutes or until bubbly and golden.

***I like to serve this with a fresh spinach salad topped with cucumbers, dried cranberries, honey-mustard dressing and bacon***

Enjoy an easy new dish that even your picky eaters will enjoy!!

Burlap Wreath

I must admit that I am probably not as detailed as I should be in the post, while these are instructions it is not really a tutorial.  However, if you are even mildly crafty...you can make this blindfolded and while paying bills and making dinner.

1. Start out with a plain wreath, you can use grapevine, or any kind of basic wreath that you can glue the burlap to.
2. Cut about 15-20 (depending on how large your wreath is) 6" squares out of burlap.
3. Fold each square into a smaller square (in half then half again) and glue each burlap fold in a circular pattern around the wreath.
4. Decorate with any sort of pre-made Fall picks, ribbon, felt flowers and leaves (super easy to cut out and sew around the edges with black embroidery floss), raffia, with your glue gun. 
5. Glue a loop or ribbon or raffia on the back and hang to enjoy your fabulous new wreath!

The humble bean

To round out our unit study on plants, I decided to try an activity I had read about.  We soaked some kidney beans overnight, and the next day removed the skin from the beans and split them open.  We had already sprouted beans weeks before which at this point had grown over 9 inches tall (see picture below) and been watering them and tracking their growth. 

We were amazed to see the tiny "baby plant" inside of the bean, waiting to either be planted and become a new plant, or eaten by bean loving folks like us.

I have found that we can incorporate scientific hypothesis, prediction, observation, reading skills, measurement, and have some fun while performing even the most simple experiments. 

Break out your rulers, paper and some simple supplies that you already have on hand and explore the wonderful world of science and home schooling...happy learning!



Unity in The Home School Movement...Article from Focus on The Family

Focus on the Family: Unity in the Home School Movement

Written by: Chris Jeub

Tuesday, June 24, 2003

"The parent-directed educator has the wonderful opportunity to work with his and her children to become everything God wants them to be. That is the privilege we, as parents, have to mold our children's character and direction for life." - David and Laurie Callihan

"Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." - Psalm 133:1

Homeschoolers are often quick to attack other homeschoolers, deriding alternative methods of home education as "not real home schooling."
Throughout the past 12 years of homeschooling I have heard comments like these:
"She orders a boxed curriculum, so she isn't really homeschooling."
"They take classes at a local university, so those kids aren't really home-educated."
"Those parents subscribe to an online curriculum, so they aren't really home educating their children."
"That family is not the same denomination as mine, so they are aren't really educating their children in the truth."
Such squabbling derails the momentum of the powerful movement of home education, a movement that has been bold enough to bring back representation and authority of parenting to pedagogy. These will ruin any movement, especially one as diverse as home education.

The homeschooling movement is now into its second generation, and it's more vibrant than ever. Many homeschooled children now have kids of their own, and they are choosing to educate their children at home. The future of home education is an exciting one, but the unity of the movement must remain strong.
After all, it's not as if home educators are all alike. Look at the variety of teaching styles: classical, unit study, Charlotte Mason, text-based, curriculum-based, and Internet-based homeschools are in many cases sharply different from one another. Our theologies, too, differ almost as much as our lifestyles. Yet, amid all our diversity, there is one unifying element.

What is this element? It is the element that says parents are the directors of their children's education. Homeschool authors David and Laurie Callihan state it well in an article they published on Focus on the Family's website:
"The parent-directed educator has the wonderful opportunity to work with his and her children to become everything God wants them to be. That is the privilege we, as parents, have to mold our children's character and direction for life."

This is a luxury home educators often forget. You, as parents, have chosen to educate your children at home. You bear the responsibility and the burden of that education. There are plenty of ways to do this, but this distinction bonds you with every other homeschool parent.

Ideas on improving fine motor skills

Here are some great activities that we have used to strengthen hand muscles and work on fine motor skills.  While you may be tempted to place a pencil in your Pre-schooler's or Kindergartner's hand and expect them to be able to hold it in the correct position, doing so too early can actually delay their writing skills.

I have noticed with my Kindergartner that writing, tracing the alphabet, coloring out of a coloring book, or any activity in which he is trying to control his writing or coloring exhausts him quickly.  So, we continue to work with different manipulative's in order to strengthen his hands and encourage fine motor skills.  When we do work on a "writing" lesson I am trying to incorporate it into something he considers very fun, and keep it quick for now.  This is why all of us probably remember doing so much cutting, pasting and coloring in the first couple years of school.  The goal is to develop hand muscles and increase fine motor skills in preparation for writing.

We have found lacing cards to be an excellent activity in addition to sorting and counting beans and any small objects.  Another fun activity is to fill a mixing bowl with a few inches of water and place some different items your little ones can pick up with kitchen tongs and place on a towel next to the bowl.  We did this at four years old and I think that the activity lasted about forty minutes!

My two year old likes to join in as well and name the animals, the sounds they make and swing the animal cards around by the laces in the air when he is done.  I believe that is two year old speak for "I'm done!"



I found this website today that also had some great ideas, actually written by a Mom who is an Occupational Therapist.  Happy learning!!!

Home School field trip to Bizi Farms

Our field trip day to a great local spot, Bizi Farms.  Wonderful market during the warm months, and in the fall a huge pumpkin patch, corn maze, hay rides etc...We will be going back for that in a few weeks.  I discovered with my daughter many years ago that an adventure did not need to cost very much and could include a destination that most would not think was adventure-worthy.  However, I believe life is little about what actually happens and mostly about what you do with what you have.  So, we began to look for fun and adventure in the simple things, and found that doing this we learned a lot about each other and what is really important. 

Ok, who can resist a fabulous armload of fresh cut dahlias?  I love the vibrant array of color, shape and design.  Thank you Lord for the beauty that you have left for us to enjoy...and, not a bad lesson in art/color and science for the "students" too.

Mama hen was busy in the September heat today, digging out a cool spot under the flowers for her and her sweet babies.  The boys loved watching her work and asking questions about what she was doing.  I have not mentioned keeping chickens yet in my blog, but it is coming.  I have a dream of having more space than suburbia offers when we are able.  The freedom for the kids to run and roam (I grew up on a small farm/orchard and I miss it) and learn a whole lot about taking care of animals, respecting what has been entrusted to you, and good old hard work

The boys each doing some shopping for fresh fruit and veggies at the market.  We ended up with Hermiston cantaloupe, beautiful apples, peaches, sweet corn, juicy cherry tomatoes and of course some fresh blueberries.  I continue to find that teachable moments lie in the simple parts of our lives when running a home, watering a garden, cooking a meal or curling up together with a stack of books to read together.  These are the times that they ask "why" and if I wasn't with them answering all of their questions and encouraging them to question and learn to love learning, who would be? Would they continue to have this wild curiosity that consumes my day sometimes, would they keep their wonder and excitement over finding a cool spider in the backyard? Or would it possibly slowly slip away as they began to act more like their peers in an effort to fit in as a form of survival?

I thank the Lord every day that I have the amazing blessing to be with my children and teach them. 

What happens when we turn the TV off, get out of the house and go someplace fun? We learn, we learn about our planet, and our Creator, and what makes flowers grow, and what is inside a seed, and what bees do all day, and, and, and.....

Today's bounty.  We covered just about every subject today, we learned about science when we studied the mama hen and her babies, discussed the different types of broccoli at the farm, and cut the flowers down and arranged them in a vase.  We worked on math when we shopped in the market for our fruit and veggies, and most importantly we learned together and had a wonderful day. 

The day my freezer and I met...and fell deeply in love

Quite a few years ago I was hitting some local yard sales with my running "look for" list always in the back of my mind (among many other things which get jumbled and sometimes completed.)  It was a beautiful day in Washington State (it doesn't always rain here) and I made my way through the countryside on the outskirts of town following the crude "yard sale" signs, hoping that there would be a good reward for all of this driving.  So far the day had not offered much, a few over-priced Tupperware items, some scantily clad Barbies, and it was turning into a nice drive, instead of an aggressive hunt, which is what my intention was that morning. 

Until....I saw her.  She wasn't much to look at upon turning down the country road, but as my car crept forward and I parked and jumped out, I knew immediately she was mine.  Before you get the wrong idea, I am referring to my fabulous used freezer.  It was true love, and I knew my life, cooking-in-bulk, and shopping would be different from that day forward.

So, after an exciting trip to drag her home (sounds like fun huh?) I woke up the next day with a soapy bucket of water on a mission to make my new (new to me) freezer sparkle.  There was a catch however, and this applies to many things you purchase used.  It had been what I like to refer to as "gently used" by the previous owner, a fisherman.  He must have been a dedicated fisherman too, because he flash froze all of the fish he caught on the wire shelves in the freezer (did I mention that she is about 25 years old?) and didn't seem to have worried about cleaning it before he sold it.  Well, the soap turned into bleach, and I plugged her in and fired her up.  I threw on a baseball cap and headed for the grocery store.  I just had to stock my fishy-bleach freezer with a few goodies that I could dream about that day.

Well, that was about eight or nine years ago, and she has made it through three moves, being accidentally turned off (yes, all food inside was lost,  I needed  a moment to recover upon discovering that) and still going strong.  Right now she is chock full of homemade chili, soups, casseroles, frozen veggies, meat I buy on sale (using the Food Saver...that torrid love affair will have to make it into another post) and anything else that makes running a home and managing a family of six while working part time and home schooling just a bit easier. 

I have had the opportunity to purchase a new freezer a few times, but I just can't bring myself to say goodbye yet.  That is kind of the problem in our world, that when something isn't as fast, starts to get old or doesn't look as great as it used to, we get rid of it.  She is safe here, and will continue to be greatly loved by this mom until she is ready to retire, only on her terms of course.