Fall Bouquets

Larisa helped the girls make these beautiful bouquets with leaves from the yard.

They don't last particularly long, maybe if you sprayed them with hairspray it would help?

She found the idea on a Russian website. I know it included a lot of tape and string!

Handmade Receiving Blankets

Callista is doing it all here! Pressing the presser foot and guiding the material.

In anticipation of an upcoming family vacation, we decided to take advantage of the "Give a Day. Get a Disney Day." All members of your family, six and over, can sign up to participate in a local service opportunity and receive a free pass. We decided to help out the local United Way chapter by making 9 receiving blankets.

The children had a wonderful time choosing fabric at the fabric stores, and then picking a decorative stitch, and thread colors of their choice to sew on the blankets, after I finished the edge. Even 5 year-old cousin Mark was enthralled for 30 minutes while we worked on his blanket.

They pushed the down on the "foot" and guided the fabric. It was a perfect opportunity for a first experience using the machine. They really couldn't go wrong with no seams and straight stitching. They developed confidence and had a great sense of accomplishment. This was a wonderful experience for the children in skill building and service. Great idea by Disney. (Not to mention it will save us some money.)

Noelle, Callista, Markie, and Ellery holding their blankets.

We actually ended up making 10 blankets. Mark made an extra for his brand new baby brother. He was beaming. So proud! This is Mark's blanket. All the children's turned out equally as precious.

By the way, here is a sewing tip for any budding seamstresses...

I have this fabulous presser foot called a Shell Hemmer. If you have a Bernina it is #69. It is absolutely the best foot I have. I love it and use it constantly. It saves me huge amounts of time ironing and measuring and hemming. In one swoop it turns the fabric under and finishes the edge. It does require practice to perfect, but once you figure it out, priceless!

Reflections

Maybe we should call this the "Ellery Brag Board" lately. But she came home with more great news. She was chosen as a Reflections Art Contest winner from her Elementary school. With over 468 entries she was chosen as one of the top five in visual arts.

The theme was "Beauty is..." I think her quote was: "Beauty is fuzzy bunnies. Soft bunnies. Cute bunnies. I love bunnies." I was hoping should would say something more profound but clearly the judges understood this was straight from the mouth and hands of a 6 year old.

Ellery did a series of 5 prints of bunny rabbits.

Half-Day Homeschooling

Partial or "Half-day" Homeschooling

For our first attempt we felt it best to allow Ellery to continue to spend some time at school, but not the entire day. In the words of Reed Benson:

"Once a child starts school the home becomes school centered not family centered. The hour before school getting ready, the six hours of school, the hour or two unwinding afterwards, and the hour or more of homework later in the evening leave little time for parents and children to communicate and involve themselves jointly in activities not related to school."

While you can still spend worthwhile time with your children in those few precious hours, in this day and age, I need and want more time than what the public school system allows me with my children. While I do not feel it is crucial for Ellerys social development (that is best modeled and developed with positive role models in the home), she does enjoy being there for a couple hours each day.

It is my understanding that public schools are required to accommodate parents in their homeschooling pursuits. I don't think they are allowed to tell you "No". But, they can make it very difficult. I know others who have met with quite a bit of resistance from their principal. This has not been the case at our school.

I am meeting with her principal to discuss further legalities this week. I know when you withdraw totally, parents must fill out a waiver from the district and submit it to the state. It is unclear to me still exactly how she enrolled. I am not certain if they are counting her full time? I will let you know on that point when it is clarified this week.

These are our "dinosaur eggs" from the first week of school. We put little plastic dinosaurs in balloons, made some paper mach e glue (1 part water 2 parts flour) and covered the balloons. After they dried we sponge and "leaf" painted them.

We then watched them until we were ready for them to "hatch" the next week. Oh what cute baby dinosaurs!

Communication is Key

I approached the principal around January of last year to meet him and present my ideas and intentions concerning homeschooling. Using non-threatening language I tried to help him understand it was a personal decision for our family, not a negative reflection on the school. He asked that we keep the communication very open. I asked that Ellery be assigned to an understanding teacher, with whom it would be easy to coordinate with.

Immediately in the Spring, when we were notified of Ellery's teacher for this fall, I called her teacher. I explained to her my intentions. She has been extremely supportive. In fact, she shared with me how ideal she felt the situation was. She said educators can only dream of spending so much one-on-one time with each child and incorporating the type of enrichment I am providing.

The positive progression thus far, I think can be attributed to my diligence in keeping all interested parties informed of our schedules and intentions.

As we learned about tool making we "carved" these arrowheads to make simple spears.

As the potatoes dried over the course of a few days they got black and tough. Perfect spear heads! Do you think they have time to do this with 28 children?

How we work our Schedule

We homeschool from 8:00 am until 11:30. On Mondays, Ellery packs a lunch and eats lunch with her class and plays at lunch recess. These days she is at school from 11:10 until 1:15 (early out day). The remainder of the week she goes to school a few minutes before lunch recess ends at 11:50. Her day ends at 2:15.

I choose to keep Ellery for our schooling in the mornings. We all seem to be at our best before 1 pm :) Most of their core classes occur in the morning at her elementary school. Ellery enjoys choir, library, math and some spelling and writing and recess.

Fiercely displaying their "spears" these girls made the chickens flee for refuge under the deck!

Long-term Plans

I have no intention of changing the format, as of yet. I think the partial-day homeschooling will be most complicated during elementary school. This is a product of having a single teacher and certain activities may carry over from morning to lunch. So far no problems. And, as we live within eye-sight of the school we have clear advantages. Access to the school is simple. No driving or waking up babies from naps! During Junior High and High School it should be very simple, as they will be able to just choose 2 or 3 classes to attend.

Easy Teacher and Friend Gifts: Rice Bags

Few things compare to snuggling up to something warm and cozy. If a husband, baby, or cute little one isn't available, the next best thing is a rice bag. We fell in love with these last year. I saw one at my friends and ended making them for every member of my family. Our rice bags have become my children's "lovey" toys. Bedtime is traumatic without them in the winter. Thankfully they can usually be found stuck between the bed sheets and the end of the bed.

Handmade rice bags make a perfect gift for teachers and friends. The best gifts are always the ones we want and use ourselves. Ellery and Callista wanted to make them for all their friends. We like to add a personal touch by embroidering their names, but it isn't necessary.

Simple Rice Bag Gifts
Fabric Scraps
Thread
Sewing machine
Rice (or wheat or groats)
Essential Oils (optional)

How to:

Gather fabric scraps. Ellery and Callista had a great time picking out the perfect print or pattern for each of their friends. Cut into desired shape and size. It doesn't matter. We make rectangles because they are easy.

Embroider names if desired. Turn fabric inside out and sew along 3 sides. Leave one end open to put rice in.Add a few drops of essential oil to your rice. I like lavender and chamomile. It only takes a few drops. Brent thinks warm rice smells like "cat urine." Extremely unappetizing. I don't mind the smell, but the oils add some aromatherapy which is nice.
Fill your rice bag about half full. Don't overfill. Turn under open edge and sew shut. Be sure to reinforce the corners.
That's it. Easy. A large bag like the blue one shown above uses about 10 cups of rice. The smaller children's bags use about 5 cups. Heat in the microwave for 2-6 minutes.
Happy cuddling.

Finally, Something Good with Corn Syrup: Stained Glass Snowflakes

These pictures don't give them justice. They are beautiful when done!

I am advocating the use of Corn Syrup. Surprised? Don't be. This was a darling craft done in Ellery's kindergarten class this fall. As I gushed about them to her teacher, she admitted they were her favorite craft all year. They painted cardstock leaves with corn syrup. Results...glossy, fall stained leaves. I was sold. We added a winter twist to ours. I drove Callista crazy the entire time we did this because I kept trying to help. "Mooommm Doooon't!" was oft repeated.

Trust me on this, these are gorgeous. The pictures do not do them justice. Try it and I promise you won't be disappointed.

Stained Glass Snowflakes
Cardstock (white looks the best)
Food coloring
Corn Syrup
Paper plates
Newspaper
Glitter (if you have girls of course)
Ribbon

How to:

Cut snowflakes (or whatever shape your heart desires) out of cardstock. We did large snowflakes to hang in our windows, but I think little ones would make neat little Christmas ornaments. Swirl food coloring into corn syrup. Mix glitter in if desired, or you can dust with glitter while the corn syrup is still wet.

We used our fingers to swirl the colors onto our snowflakes. According to Ellery they don't have paint brushes at school. "We always use our fingers Mom." The corn syrup, while sticky, is surprisingly easy to clean up, and prevented the color from staining our fingers.Callista's kept turnng brown, because the plate you saw with all those colors above, lasted about 3 seconds until she had taken her little hand and mixed every color. However, her's still turned our surprisingly pretty. (I did add a few bursts of color on the really gray one, when she wasn't looking of course.)

Let sit until hard. This requires a few days, beware! Repeat process on the back side, if desired. String ribbon through and enjoy!
They will drip if they get wet, so watch out for that.