Pottery Painting Studio

This week, we went to a pottery painting studio with one of our homeschool support groups. I had never been to a pottery studio before and it was so interesting to see all the different choices of pottery, as well as some finished projects.

My girls took several minutes choosing what they wanted to paint. My oldest finally decided on a small bowl, and my little girl selected a coffee mug for Daddy. Then, they got right to work on their projects.

Some of their friends painted one project all together as a family.



There were so many colors to chose from, and so many different sizes of brushes!

This was a very relaxing, enjoyable field trip for my girls. They have always been very fond of craft activities and this was right up their alley! I liked just watching them work silently and skillfully. Once finished, their projects went into the kiln.

Daddy is really going to like his coffee mug and bowl. Shhh! Don't tell him- it's a surprise!

Keepers at Home

Today was our first Keepers at Home meeting. For those of you who are not familiar with Keepers at Home, it is a club for girls. There are all sorts of achievement awards that can be earned and the girls also learn about different good character traits and qualities. What I love the most about Keepers at Home is that it teaches girls practical skills that they can use and take with them as they grow up and have a family and home of their own. There are also Bible memory challenges that they can earn awards for. Our Keepers club has 10 girls ranging in age from 5 to 13.  We practiced the club song Stepping in the Light and we started working on our first skill- card making.

The first type of card we worked on was the "praying for you" cards, and so the girls made collages out of bits of paper. Once dry, they will cut heart shapes out of them and glue them onto the actual card, and then write their messages.

These cards are being created for a missionary family in South Africa. As part of the Missionary award, our club has "adopted" a family doing missionary work in South Africa. We will be making cards for them, writing letters, and sending care packages to them. But more importantly, our club will be praying for them as they are called to do such wonderful work in the name of the Lord. The girls seemed to really enjoy this activity and it was really neat seeing all the different papers they used to create their collages.

I am so excited about our Keepers at Home club! I thought and prayed about starting a Keepers Club for quite some time, and now that we had our first meeting, I don't know why I didn't do this sooner! It was so sweet to see all the girls working together, and I had to smile when I saw the older ones guiding the younger girls. If you would like to learn more about Keepers Clubs or Contenders for the Faith Clubs, go to http://www.keepersofthefaith.com/  This is wonderful website with all sorts of great books and materials that you can use to start your own Keepers or Contenders club.

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

We had such a great time yesterday, celebrating Chinese New Year! This was actually a week-long celebration, as we began our study of China using Galloping the Globe. The first thing our children did was learn about where China is located, the capital, etc...  They completed their country fact sheets I printed from Homeschool Creations. They also colored the flag of China.  This year was the Year of the Rabbit, and so my children did a coloring page and a "bunny search" puzzle.

Activity Village had an entire section dedicated to Chinese New Year, and I was able to print off these wonderful bookmarks, each with a picture of one of the 12 animals of the Chinese calendar. It was fun to read the descriptions of each animal and see which one fit us best!

We practiced writing in Chinese too, and enjoyed listening to some beautiful Chinese music on You Tube.

One of our favorite crafts from China was this cute little cherry blossom pot. The instructions for making these are on Activity Village.

My little girl really enjoyed practicing all the different yoga positions. Here she is doing the tree. Taoist Yoga is an ancient practice that originated in China many, many years ago.

The kids made some nice paper lanterns to decorate our home. Paper lanterns are used throughout China for most all celebrations.

The girls had fun making these little paper dolls I found at http://www.education.com/  They have paper dolls from around the world. Some of them are a bit detailed and may be difficult for little ones to cut out ( I had to help my 9 year old) but they still enjoyed it and even gave names to their dolls.

We ended our week-long celebration with a delicious dinner from our favorite Chinese restaurant. This was such a great week and the kids really learned a lot about China and Chinese New Year. There were so many different things to do we didn't get to all of them, but that's quite ok- I will have some new things for them to do next year!

A Visit to Chile

This week, we learned about Chile. Although Chile is not one of the listed countries for Galloping the Globe, my children were interested in finding out about this fascinating country and so I thought, "why not!" They completed a fact sheet about Chile that I printed off of Homeschool Creations. We also found a map quiz from Enchanted Learning as well as a flag to color. Another activity they enjoyed was seeing all the neat photos of Chile at www.nationalgeographic.com I borrowed several books from the library for them to read but their favorite is always Around the World In 80 Tales.

While traveling through Chile, we discovered that felt art is very popular there and so we decided to make our own felt pictures. Here is my little guy working on his picture above, and the finished product below.

My little nut working on her artwork, and her final product below!

Last but not least, my big girl working on her picture. Here is her project!

I love all the fun, hands-on craft activities we are able to do while homeschooling and I think the children learn so much from these projects. It is always so neat to see how different they are as well!

The Holidays Are Upon Us!

 Well, I guess it's safe to say the holidays are upon us and in full swing. My kids are looking forward to a break from school work this week, even though they will still be working on various projects, craft activities, and reading assignments. They have really been excited about our Christmas in Mexico project and are busy completing some clay "tree of life" candle holders and ornaments.

Another activity my oldest daughter especially enjoys is all the baking during this wonderful time of year. Here she is baking some delicious banana bread with her little brother. My little guy has really taken an interest in baking lately and so any opportunity he gets, he is right there ready to assist.

I am thankful for so many things this year. I am thankful for God, for my wonderful family, for the freedom to homeschool our children, and for living in this great country. This Thanksgiving and throughout the year, think about the many ways God has blessed you. "Be thankful unto Him and bless His name." Psalm 100:4. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

God's Eyes, 3 Letter Words, and Too Much Sugar!

Every year, my kids get a TON of candy. When I say a ton, that is no exaggeration.  Each of their buckets was completely overflowing with chocolate, gum, Skittles, M & M's and just about every other type of candy you could imagine. So, always looking for a teaching opportunity, I decided to have my children do some math and science activities with their load, secretly praying it would all somehow disappear before they ate too much. First, I had them sort all the candy by brand. Then, they sorted the candy by type- chocolate, chewy, gum, hard candy, etc... The fun part came next. We did lots of experiments using various candies-melting time, water/oil experiments, etc...   They really enjoyed this activity and little by little, the giant sugar mountain started to disappear.  I don't even think they really cared about eating the candy as much as they were curious to see how long it would take a chocolate bar to explode in the microwave. Fun times...

We've been learning about Mexico as part of our Galloping the Globe studies and the kids had fun making Ojos de Dios (God's Eyes) this week. Much more about Mexico will be seen here, as we chose Mexico as our Christmas Around The World country.

I know I've mentioned this before, but I will say it again- I just LOVE Starfall Kindergarten. It is so thorough and full of all sorts of colorful, high quality manipulatives and products. My little guy has been working hard at sounding out words and so I decided to make 3 different colored circles and laminated them. Then, I wrote the words "beginning" "middle" and "ending" and placed one above each circle. I say a word out loud and give him a handful of magnetic letters. His job is to break up the word into separate sounds and then find the correct letters and place them in the appropriate spot. For example, I say the word "bed" and he repeats it and then says what each letter sounds like b-e-d. Then, he finds the letters in his pile and sets them in the correct order.  He really enjoys this activity and I am amazed at how well he is learning to distinguish beginning/ending sounds as well as vowels.

Fall Fun and a Pirate

The kids have been enjoying all the fun fall activities, even though it still feels like summer here! This past weekend, our oldest entered her dog in a costume contest at Petsmart and won 1st place! She worked really hard with Daddy on the pirate ship. Isn't it cute???

I've been trying to do lots of "fun" fall lessons with the children. We did some cinquain poetry as well as fall sponge painting. 

We also did a really neat Christian Pumpkin activity which I was able to print off from the wonderful blog 1 + 1+ 1 = 1. I just loved this craft and the kids seemed to enjoy the poem too that came along with it.

I absolutely love this time of year!



A Busy Week!

We finally had our first week of "fall-like" weather and you know what??? It feels GREAT! I absolutely love the cool, windy breezes and the crisp smell in the air. It's the perfect time of year for us to spend lots of time outside and so our first adventure this week was to the alpaca farm to learn all about these cuddly, cute animals from Peru.

We also engaged in some science experiments, including one where my daughter learned about air pressure and how birds fly.

My little guy loved reading "Caps For Sale" with me and even got out his own set of caps to "sell" to us. He wrote in his Starfall Journal about his favorite cap.

My kids were also able to finish their hot air balloons as part of our Galloping The Globe geography studies. I was quite impressed with their creativity and love how each one of their balloons is different.

What was my favorite homeschooling moment this week? It would definitely have to be the times I caught my older girls helping their little brother and showing love and kindness towards him. It sure does make me smile...

"Keep Me As The Apple Of Your Eye" Psalm 17:8

Yesterday we celebrated Apple Day with our homeschool group. Each family brought a food item with apples in it. It was great seeing and tasting all the different dishes. The children enjoyed doing various crafts involving apples- apple potpourri bags, apple print painting, and apple bookmarks. They even had an apple tasting and got to vote for their favorite apple! What a wonderful way to celebrate the first day of fall.