From July 7th

Yesterday we worked on school, but took a break to go to the summer library program.  The library program was about colors.  The kids got to pick two colors of paint to mix in a ziplock bag and make a butterfly.  They came out really fun looking.  I hung them up in the window where the sun shines through in the late afternoon and evening and they looked really neat.

 

Before we went to the library Lissie and Clark were learning about Joshua fighting the Battle of Jericho.  We built the "city of Jericho" and they got to march around and knock the walls down.

 

Jeff thinks its crazy of me to keep a 2 ft. + stack of open egg cartons in the closet upstairs, but they are just perfect for building things for school.

Football Helmets

Kent has a football helmet that he made out of paper plates.  It has been a source of contention lately, because Clark thinks it is cool and he wants to play with it.  Clark will go to Kent's room and take it and Kent will get mad.  They are both wrong, but trying to get Clark to leave it alone and Kent to stop getting mad at him wasn't working out very well.  I suggested that Kent should make a football helmet for Clark and maybe that would solve part of the problem.  He set to work with Clark making a helmet.  Clark was very excited and helped color the paper plates with blue and orange crayons.  He likes the Denver Broncos.  The result was a very excited Clark and now he has been wearing his helmet around the house for all kinds of play.  Clark having his own helmet hasn't stopped him from liking Kent's helmet and trying to play with it, but the incidences have greatly decreased.

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Handmade Christmas

We have been very busy this month making Christmas presents.  I have been enjoying spending one on one time with each one of my children and my husband as we complete the projects of their choice.  I wasn't sure if we would be able to get everything done on time, but I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  My goal for the kids is to have their projects completed by Saturday.  That means we only have three days to finish.  I think we might make it.  We have been busy hammering, stirring, painting, gluing, building, stuffing and sewing.  I'm unable to show you any actual pictures of products due to their secretive nature, but I did get a couple of action shots.

World Map Project

I've been wanting to complete this project for a long time, so I finally worked on finishing it this week.

It started with a world map on the wall in our kitchen area.

Then I added laminated paper strips for a border and a fun multi-colored border to the edge of the laminated paper.  The multi-colored border gave it a nice finished look.

I really like the border.  It adds interest to the wall and just isn't boring anymore.  Then I added pictures of friends from around the world and labels to what county they live in.

I will also add ribbons that go to each country and a title for our map.  We will enjoy being able to see our friends pictures and where they live in the world and understand where they are in relationship to where we live.  We have lots of room to add other friends that aren't on there yet, too.


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Around the World in 60 Days - Week One

Introductory Post
We started before the dates on the itinerary, but we will probably lose a day or more along the way and end up behind.

We took pictures for the kids passports on day one.

On day three we played a hide the sheep game.  They've played it several times since then, too.

On day four we all worked together to make a picture with all kinds of landscapes.  Felicity drew the beach.  Kaomi drew a volcano.  Katy drew the mountains.  Kent drew the farmlands.  Jeff drew the forests.  I drew the glaciers and fjords.

On day five the kids drank hot chocolate while I read The Lost Milk Jar to them.

On day six we a had a dance and sing.  Everyone "dressed up".

On day seven we packed school kits to put in our shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child.  We won't pack our boxes until October, but the school kits are ready for 5 boxes.

Over the last seven days we were in Oceania and we visited New Zealand, Australia, and Papua New Guinea.  For week two we will be heading to Asia.

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Paper Plate Lion

Last week Kaomi was learning about Daniel in her preschool.  When we learned how God sent angels that closed the lions mouths she had fun acting out the story and making a lion craft.  She painted it and I sketched the face with a crayon.

I've also enjoyed playing with her craft because it makes Clark laugh.

When I was taking pictures of Kaomi, Felicity wanted me to take her picture too.  She started telling me "butter, cookies" (peanut butter sandwiches and cookies, two of her favorites). 

Week Before Christmas

Christmas lights reflecting on the wall made neat patterns.  We made a Gingerbread playhouse with a washing machine box and we made our own paper candies to glue on it.

Clark got into the Christmas presents early.  Thanks Pa and MiMi for the new outfits.

We let the kids watch a Christmas movie and sleep in the living room with the Christmas tree.

 

 

 

Jeff rocking with all the girls and Clark.

We also had another baking day.  Katy made gluten free ginger cream cookies, Kent made chocolate meringue cookies and Kaomi made Taco Chex Mix.

Library, Laundry and Lego Day

This morning we went the library for story time.  Santa was there and he read Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer to the kids.  Then they could get their pictures.  I only had my phone camera so most of these were taken by a friend of ours.  Katy and her friend Michaela wanted their picture together.  Felicity didn't want to have anything to do with Santa.  Kent was quite pleased to get to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas.

This afternoon we are working on getting laundry washed and folded.  Then I gave the kids their Lego assignment.  They were to make something from the Christmas Story with their legos.

Kaomi also has baby Jesus in her set.  He is under the manger, thus not visible.  The manger is the door laying down on the green stable floor.

Making Crayons

Peel and break old crayons into small pieces.

Melt in 250 degree oven.  Cool.

Fun new crayons.

Fall Craft

We spread a great big piece of paper on the table.  Got out the fall stamps.  And had fun!

A fairly easy fall craft.

After it was dry I hung it on our wall across from the kitchen to decorate our home for fall.

Don't forget the Pilgrim Activity Giveaway ends tomorrow morning.

Playing

On Wednesday Jeff took Kent and Katy to VBS.  I stayed home in the morning to play with Kaomi and Felicity.  I played with Felicity for a little while and them we all sang a few songs.  After that Felicity went down for her nap and Kaomi wanted me to string beads with her.  I made a bracelet for both Kaomi and Katy.   Kaomi made a necklace.  Than Kaomi wanted me to read to her.

On Thursday, I worked on getting stuff ready for school.  Kaomi sat at the table by me to color.  She was so excited that she gets to start school soon.

On Friday after we dropped the two oldest off at VBS Kaomi and I went to Micheal's to look around.  Then we went to the mall and Felicity and Kaomi played on the playground.  They had so much fun and it was air conditioned :)

Celebrate Spring!

Today we took the day off from our regular school lessons to focus on celebrating spring.

We read some books about spring (Storytime).

Looked for signs of spring on the drive to the library.

We went on a signs of spring hunt outside in the yard (Science).
      I gave each of the kids a Ziploc bag and they got to collect some of the signs of spring to put in their bag.

The kids brought their signs of spring in and then drew pictures of at least three of the things they collected (Art and Science).
       The things they drew were new leaves, dandelions, dandelion seeds, green grass, jungle weeds (a weed we have here, I don't know its real name), Grape Lupine, and fresh tilled dirt.

Then they played outside enjoying the spring day.

We continued our spring celebration in the afternoon with a flower craft for the girls and a piriate craft for Kent.

Then we had another springtime bird house craft they got to complete (More Art).

St. Patrick's Day Activities

I wanted to post this yesterday, but I was having computer trouble. 

Yesterday the kids had an exciting leprechaun search which they continued into today.  We had a paper leprechaun that we kept hiding around the living room and whoever found it got to hide it for the next person to find.  We also had a St. Patrick's day coloring sheet that we could only use greens to color.  I set out various colors of green markers, colored pencils and crayons.  After they finished coloring they got to use a green wash of food coloring and water to paint the rest of the paper green and when the paper had dried they got to use thee different colors of glitter glue to embellish their artwork.
We also made sure to have something green with every meal: green sprinkles in their cereal, green spinach in their lunch, and lime zest on their desert at supper.

My Dry Erase Marker Holder

Yesterday I got some new dry erase markers.  Then for lunch I had some Chinese Vegetable rolls, from the freezer section.  I thought the box my lunch was in was kind of a neat shape and was trying to think of something I could do with it when I remembered that I was going to need a container to keep my dry erase markers in.  I thought I could cover the box and make it pretty.

So I found some pretty fabric that reminds me of my Grandma.  I had it in my fabric drawer.  Then I set the box on the backside of the fabric and traced around the bottom, then laid it over on both sides with the flaps open and traced around them, too.  Then I cut out two pieces of fabric from the shape I had traced, making sure to leave a little bit extra around the edges to fold over as I was working on my project.  Then I used tacky glue to carefully glue the fabric to the box and I folded the fabric edges over the edge of the flaps to help keep it in place.  After I had glued both pieces of fabric on the box I glued the flaps down into the box.  When I was finished I added a little ribbon trim to cover up the cut edge of my fabric.

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It is just the right size for our dry erase markers, and I didn't have to buy anything to make it.  You could also to the same thing with pretty paper.