Groundhog Day {A Quick Stop}

Happy Groundhog Day! Did you hear the news? Spring is right around the corner! 

I'm in the middle of working on a math post, but I couldn't resist sharing the fun moment we had this morning when it was time to find out what Punxsutawney Phil predicted for the remainder of winter. I had reminded the kids that February 2nd was coming right up and we'd have to find out whether or not the groundhog would see his shadow. My kids are a bit beyond the age to really do up a big unit on the little holiday with printables and crafts, but it's still fun to mark the seasonal transitions and to acknowledge the day on the calendar. Besides, I do still have a second grader and Groundhog Day is just a fun time. 

R12 has been working on making Zines after reading the book Watcha Mean What's a Zine? She publishes a new edition every other day and it's just plain fabulous. Today a special Groundhog Day edition is due out and to greet us at the breakfast table were Groundhog finger puppets on the napkin holder. We are all waiting with great anticipation the release of the special edition!

Photo Credit: accu-weather.com

In the meantime, what's a homeschooler like me to do when you want to find out what happened to groundhog Phil without all the printed materials and rather on the fly after her kids show some interest? We turn to the internet- of course! I regularly read the CNN homepage along with The Washington Post and I knew both would have some headlines regarding Phil.

The Washington Post had a great article from Accu Weather which is so worth reading aloud to your children. In it, there is a brief historical reference to the origin of the holiday along with some weather facts- it's a humorous and informative article.

Visit the Official website of Punxsutawney Phil and you can read about the history of the day and all about the Inner Circle who are the royal protectors of Phil the groundhog.

For a real kick, click on the Groundhog Day live stream at the top of the page and you'll see video from 7:35 this morning. You would not believe the crowd there today- seriously go and look! You can see the members of the Inner Circle arrive and the handlers take Phil out of his den to make his proclamation.

Among the highlights of these impromptu moments were noticing Jim Cantore of The Weather Channel on stage with the other members of the Inner Circle- wearing a top hat but in place of the black wool overcoat was the tell-tale blue LLBean Weather Channel parka whipping out his iPhone to get a picture of Phil and his handlers. The other was E14 standing in the background saying, "This has to be the craziest little American holiday there is." Indeed!

The point of this blog post? To remind my readers that not everything in the life of a homeschooler has to be formal with printed materials and notebooked items. Sometimes it's ok just to recognize a special day with some fun learning together and following links. Didn't get a chance to make that groundhog puppet? Who cares! Just get to the moment- and follow a little treasure hunt of links on the topic.

I'll be sure to share R's special edition Zine (along with her others) and that math post is coming right up. I just couldn't resist the chance to share a little easy holiday fun today!

Spring's just around the corner!

Holiday Cheer

We finished our cards! Most are on their way. Holiday cheer for family and friends. Every year I contemplate my infatuation with hand made cards. They are time consuming and sometimes more expensive than you think they will be. Occasionally they add to the stress of the holiday. But in the end, as I suspend time and sit with my paper crafting, I remember...I do it because I really like making them! Maybe not all the stuff that goes with it, but the actual sitting down and handling paper and doodads? VERY high on my list of fun things to do with my time. Also, now that R11 is a serious crafter, we have fun working together. Last year I used watercolor my kids had done and cut the sheets into smaller elements for the card. It's fun to piece together things the kids have done for our holiday cards. I'd better start thinking about next year...

I thought you might like a peek at this year's design.

Scrap fabric, cardstock in handsome Christmas colors, stamps, ink and tape...lots of tape both single and double sided. R11 helped me out this year- she drew the template for the tree and helped to cut the fabric. She also cut the paper after I measured where to cut.

How fun are these fabrics? My personal favorite is the evergreen with cardinals, but that one in the middle with the gold holly? Mmmm....

I think my favorite part about this card is how the fabric changes the whole card. Plus, I luv the texture of the fabric with the paper. This was an idea from Art Projects for Kids from last year that we made into a whole larger piece of art last year. But I went back to the cards and thought about how to change things up with the fabric. Very satisfying results.

And there you have it...Dan and I just celebrated our 16th anniversary- more on that next time and the week before Christmas is always so busy. Next year I'll start earlier. Sure I will. I say it every year. Now if I could just keep a decent address list. It would go that much faster.

Merry Christmas! Remember, there are 11 more days to celebrate this season!

Christmas Crafting

We've been busy like bees over the last week or so working on Christmas fun. The kids and I had two days in a row the first week of December devoted to making Christmas crafts as a group. I offered up a chalk drawing the first day at our homeschool group event which was enjoyed by the younger crowd. The next day we participated with our 4H group and I had the kids make the textured tree project we did last year. Some of the projects were very creative. I learned that the events are back to back every year. I think next year we'll do the homeschool group and skip the 4H event. Simplify! Besides, I don't even know what to do with all this stuff!

Clearly, this one wins the prize! It's a lantern made from recycled bottles, doodads, and Christmas lights inside. Batteries make them shine in the bottle and the tuna can on the bottom hides the batteries and switch box. So clever! We have three at our house now.

All of my kids enjoyed the beading!

We have a wreath for the front door.

This was also a hit- wrapping wire and beads around the candles. We have some nice accents around now.

I also have some really fine swags of greens to put up- not sure where! But it was fun to see the kids enjoy the process of putting together some traditional holiday decorations and now we get to use them. We are getting the tree this week- behind on this one this year- we ended up sick after our big lego finish so here we are!

You all might enjoy some posts over at Simple Homeschool- there's an article on a Christmas Bucket List that I think is a terrific reminder on how to stay stress free during this season. Just a couple weeks left really until the big day. Enjoy staying focused on the Advent of our Savior.

Christmas Treasure: Science Kits

J5 loves to figure things out and observe things. So, he was the recipient of some fun science/mechanical oriented items. Among them, a few Myth Busters kits. His brothers also cut up the rest of some C-PVC pipe from a recent plumbing project to give to J5.

C-PVC pipes and joints for J5 to configure. He's also really good at making different sounds with them. I turned this picture around...I really did, but here it is misbehaving. I'm ok with it.

Once this kit was opened he popped the directions open and made himself a marshmallow shooter. This is a kit on air pressure. He has the Forces of Flight as well.

 He's been having a good time and we get a lot of good old fashioned science fun in because of him!

Christmas Treasures: Sewing Machine

R10 is the proud owner of a new-to-her sewing machine! Thanks goes out to our personal shopper (you know who you are!) for helping me to pick out just the right machine for our budding seamstress! Introducing the Bernette 82e which is an electronic machine. R10 can control the needle with a button on the front of the machine along with the speed and the needle position. She noticed right away that no matter when she stopped the needle was always in the upright position. She is already at home with it...my machine is also a Bernette though mine is older obviously and has the precursor to the drop in bobbin. This one drops in!

It's just perfect! We bought a refurbished machine and I feel pretty good about it should it need servicing and I can have mine tuned up at the same shop.

We set it up Christmas evening and she used it to sew two drawstring bags and two pillows before leaving the next day.

She has fallen in love with it and was missing it the week we were away! Stay tuned for some updates on Miss Bliss and some more sewing news here. I helped her to reorganize her art desk yesterday and very soon we'll post the new pictures of her secret lair to share with you all. She is so excited to have a machine in her own space where she can enjoy the creative process without making a mess in our "office" area- Dan has less patience for fabric and notions all over his man cave (computer desk area) than I do in my secret lair!

Christmas Treasures: Frontier Kit

Now that we are slowly getting back into a routine, I have some time to blog and share some of our Christmas Treasures with you. I8 has been into pioneer living/frontier adventuring for some time now. His big gift was the Frontier Craft Pack from The Corps of Re-Discovery. We even added a replica of Davy Crockett's Old Betsy rifle to his collection.

This stuff is so cool! It's all real leather and the raccoon tails are real! J5 received the same pistol and a raccoon tail to attach to the cap I've already started to make.

I8 has requested help with this one, but the string is a waxed thin string that is easy to work with. His grandparents gave him a leather stamping kit as well. He's pretty excited.

This was a big hit and other than nearly leaving it at the post office through Christmas (due to a failed delivery to our home), it went off without a hitch! Now we're having a good time making the coin bag with the fringe.

All the kids are excited to revisit Lewis and Clark in the spring and follow their dreams to the west coast. We are looking at following the unit study at the end of the Trail Guide to US Geography in which we'll read The Captain's Dog. So, I8's Year of Adventure continues and he is now well outfitted for the journey!

Christmas Tree Art

We finally took a moment and traded out our dining room frame projects. This one was a really fun textile art project that I modified from another idea. Thanks goes to Betsy for the fabric scraps!

Materials: cardstock (two pieces), scissors, pencils, fabric, red paper, eraser, and tape

You'll need some fabric that has different patterns and colors in a monochromatic theme- in this case we chose green for Christmas trees.

First, we made the templates by drawing trees and cutting them out. Then we traced the templates onto a new piece of cardstock. I cut out the tree shapes with an exacto knife and the kids chose fabric to fill the windows. They cut it and taped it to the backside of the paper and we glued the whole sheet to the red sulphite paper.

I really like the textures in this project- you could see it even more without framing it.

Don't these look terrific? From left to right- R10, I8, J5, and E12. I just love how the different patterns make a great design. So much fun!

We had a great time on this project. Personally, my favorite part was working with the fabrics. The original project was from a Christmas card idea at Art Projects for Kids. I think this might make a great winter project with blue fabrics and snowflake windows.

Christmas Crafting

I've been working on a few crafty items this season. One of them is this garland. I first found this idea at The Homespun Heart. Every year I also make our Christmas cards which are shaping up. The kids have been helping with some watercolor painting.

The garland features the names of Jesus.

We packaged it for gift giving using a fun little canister.

You can adjust where the names are on the garland.

R10 has also been working on some Christmas crafting. She was invited to sell a few things at a local craft fair being sponsored by her sewing co-op. She's preparing just a few things, but it has produced some Miss Bliss tags complete with an email and I even created a little blog for her to share what she is making. Stay tuned for more on that once we go over some guidelines. While I was setting that up for her, I inadvertently changed my own profile so I had to make a new one. Check out the updated me!

Happy Christmas Crafting!

Gratitude

I wanted to make sure and share our gratitude tree before showing off the Christmas decor! Our pencil tree is here year round and I make some efforts to change its decorations to match the seasons. Each of us made a list of the things we are thankful for to reflect on at Thanksgiving time. This year we were at home and had the pleasure of some local company for dinner.

The pencil tree- a year round friend

Our turkey friend made by R10 at her sewing co-op class. She reports he was fun to make!

The tree's lights are on, though I'd love to add another strand, and we are about to put up our Jesse Tree ornaments there in addition to the FIAR ornaments. Stay tuned.

I hope each of you had a lovely Thanksgiving and I hope you are enjoying this season of Advent as you await the coming of Christ!

Advent 2009

The Advent "wreath"- dollar store candles and next year I think I'll add some greens so you know...it'll be more wreath-like.

Our Advent calendar, made by my mother in law, is an Advent staple. Throughout the four weeks of Advent, the kids pull out a part of the Christmas Story to put on the flannel section at the top. This week all the big deal players have come out to play. Mary and Joseph have showed up and now we await only baby Jesus himself!

We had to hit the special reserve field for our Douglas Fir from the tree farm- in the pouring rain we walked and walked to finally find a tree we all liked. I think we are about to become those people who get their tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. Last year we missed the chance the first weekend of December, don't remember why now but we had to hunt in the dark late one afternoon/early evening. This year Dan and I were sick and then sick again and missed the chance. We leave for the week between the holidays so we like to have our tree early to enjoy it. When we get home, we'll strip it and kick it to the curb! Anyway, we finally had our day and it rained. Blah.

Dan takes Christmas tree slaying very seriously.

We baked Christmas cookies using some vintage cookie cutters- and new ones too.

Cut out cookies are a favorite. Dan likes to bake with the kids.

Our Advent was somewhat wobbly this year because Dan and I getting sick and the van going crazy. We sort of fell behind and I definitely had trouble getting in all the fun things that I thought would be fun.

We did spend a lot of time talking about the birth of Jesus and answering all kinds of questions about it and the what was going on at the time. We are still looking forward to completely our Jesus Garland during the remaining portion of the 12 Days of Christmas. Liturgically, the season of Christmas really does last 12 days and ends on The Epiphany which is when the church year celebrates the arrival of the Kings to see the baby Jesus.

So, if you are like me and Advent got away from you, take advantage of the next 9 days of the Christmas season. We are away visiting with our families, but when we return home we'll still have time to finish the garland and prepare for the 3 Wiseman.

Poem of Thanks

So, I found this idea for Thanksgiving Poems at Let's Explore. I knew it would be fun to try it at our house. When the kids were finished writing their poems though, they were too long to follow the original idea of putting the poem inside a large leaf shape. So, I modified.

The kids used a writing template to do their poems.

I am thankful for _____ and ______ .

I'm really thankful for ________.

I'm thankful for ________. (repeat this as many times as you need)

But most of all I'm thankful for ______.

The three older kids wrote this out for themselves which went very well even for I7. J4 dictated his list to me which he was very eager to do.

Then I stalled for a few days because I needed to figure out how I would do it differently. Here are the results and because I love my new little phone and its video capabilities, you get a new video!

I used these Tupperware templates for the leaf shapes. I traced them onto the backing of contact paper and then cut them out to put on the edges of the watercolor paper.

I7 's design- we used tube watercolor's which are always so vibrant.

J4 colored only around the leaves which made a nice final design.

After the paint was dry, I peeled away the contact paper.

The finished product- not all the gallery frames are the same size and I didn't cut the paper down ahead of time.

We put the poems in the middle. The original idea had the poem printed on the watercolor paper, but the paper I have is too big for the printer so again we modified.

close-ups- didn't J4's leaf only design turn out cool?

Halloween- Narnia Style

For the last several years our kids have gone in together on theme costumes. Two years ago they were a campsite complete with a camper, a tent, a campfire, and a skunk.

Last year they were Batman, Robin, Riddler, and Catwoman.

This year it was a toss up between Star Wars and Prince Caspian. Caspian won out!

Here we have Reepicheep the Mouse with his valient (Fiddlestix) sword. High King Peter with a (yardstick) sword, Queen Susan with a quiver of arrows (also fiddlestix) in a Today's Kids golf caddy, and finally good King Edmund.

Not bad considering the dress up box was the main source of disguise. I think the Aslan sheilds helped to know they are. That Reepicheep looks ready for a fight!


The kids also did some pumpkin carving this year. We went on a hayride to the pumpkin patch last Monday and we came home with these and to my delight I just want to mention that it was a terrible year for pumpkins in this area of NY. So...it wasn't just me!!! I'll grow a pumpkin. You'll see!
This boo pumpkin is inspired by one of our all time favorite Halloween books- Too Many Pumpkins. Dan is talented, yes?

Easter

Finally getting around to putting up our Easter photos...these are snippets from the whole week. On Palm Sunday we went to visit former neighbors and friends of the family who moved about an hour away or so. What a fun time we had!

On Saturday morning we went to an Easter breakfast at our church. Wow! It was really packed out and there was a great egg hunt for the kids. We had a nice time and when we got home it was still really early so we had a day of working and playing outside. Dan made a window sill for our dining room and I stripped a window I've been working on as a gift. That was the day of the Cherry Bomb too. It was cold but it was a good day!

On Easter Sunday the kids did their Easter basket scavenger hunts and then we went to church. Our dinner did not turn as planned whatsoever, but we did end up with ham. I was hoping for braised ribs...

J3 had a grand time coloring eggs. He just dyed them over and over. He didn't care he only had four to work with!

I-6 was very patient and got some really deep colors.

Mr. D tries his hand at a tie dyed egg- a technique highly criticized by his wife. Notice he protects his hands from the delicate procedure.

The kids follow and elaborate scavenger hunt to find their Easter baskets. R8's basket was in the oven this year. She found an American Girl felt craft book and some felt along with some much needed white Sculpey which reminds me that she has some Sculpey creations to share.

E10 found a new game- Castle Keep, a Scrabble dictionary which he adores (so look out competition), and a Scrabble puzzle book

I-6 found his basket in the dryer and in it was a reading game, a Star Wars book, and a timer bookmark. We made sure to tape the back of it since that battery door is lame. I'm just sayin'. If you haven't seen this before they time kids while they read. They can time up or down and there is a clock with an alarm. It's all very cool. R8 loves hers. The kids got these at Christmas one year and the resident toddler proceeded to pop all the batteries out. There was only one working left. Now I'm inspired to seek them out and replace their batteries.

J3 is all about his bubble gun. All about it. He also found a Curious George book and The Runaway Bunny on CD.

Some of you might remember the carnage from last year involving store bought bubbles. So, J3 knew he could do bubbles with a bubble gun and of course I need to keep up with the homemade bubble solution. No bubbles near the mouth J3! Since that day he has spent most of the week outdoors blowing bubbles. Indeed.

Valentine Treats

I've been so busy with my MOPS work lately, that I'm missing out on some blogging moments. I'm not going to let this one go by!

Valentine's Day is a day I meet with some caution. I have had some not-so-lovely ones in my time. Let's see...1995 brought an emergency surgery- a big one. The upside is that I had been dating Dan for six weeks at the time. Three years later in 1998, we were expecting our first child and we had gone house hunting for the day. We returned home after a splendid day of looking at houses and having a romantic dinner to find that our condo had burned. As in there had been a fire. One that had broken out only moments after we'd left. There was an 8 x 8 hole in our living room floor and while we were gone everything in there had been thrown on to the front lawn and thrown back again. While we lost nothing to flames, we lost a lot to smoke and water damage. Thank goodness for renter's insurance! (note- that is a PSA...if you are a renter, get insurance!) We had been discussing when we'd put a contract on our favorite house. Dan wanted to wait and I wanted to do it right away. Guess who won? Having no place to live trumps any kind of hesitation when considering the timing of purchasing a home.

Thankfully, this Valentine's Day was uneventful. I like those kind!

We did treat bags for the kids. Each one received some chocolates and some coupons. They each get to go bowling and have pizza, they each get a "date" out with one of us on their own doing something they love, and the last is for something they enjoy doing at home with us. Now as soon as they all feel better after whatever is making them slog, we'll get to have some fun.

My gift speaks for itself. He spent the weekend scraping and papering the kitchen walls. I won't tell you how long I have waited for this! The paper is the kind that you can paint over and we did that together the next day. Let's just say that when we moved in here 9 years ago now, we bought a quintessential 1970s home in the year 2000. Honestly, it was the second time we'd bought a 1970s era green aluminum sided home from an elderly smoking couple. Yes. The second. Only this time I would say they hadn't done anything to the house since the early to mid- 80s! (the first house was a gem, but if I ever get to buy another one, I'll go with a newer home or at least one that comes in contractor white. period) This last bit of paper in the kitchen was like the original layer under about six other layers. Oh the stories I could tell. This handsome paper below was adhered directly to the drywall so Dan has just been so excited to rebuild everything he has to remove around here. The paper worked well though and hopefully next weekend we'll paint.

R8's focal point Valentine

Dan got this really cute, puffy heart picture frame with a picture of us in it for his desk at work and I notice that it hasn't quite made it there yet. Ahem. His coupons included a desk cleaning (my attempt at making his computer space his own man cave area) and a chocolaty dessert- a total sacrifice considering I don't like chocolate too much myself.

I hope yours was a great day!