Nature Study Must See….

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I really enjoy seeing webcam’s of animals…I’ve seen bears and osprey’s well this is one of a Bald Eagle!!!Click Here to see Bald Eagle on nest.

I started watching last night and saw it sleeping, today….I see it moved on the nest and there were at least two eggs she is sitting on AND there was a whole rabbit on the nest she had caught to eat at some later point maybe today!!!

Enjoy!!

The last of 2010….

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Well, here we are with the last post of this year…I am kind of amazed that the end of the year is here already…I kind of was not expecting it to happen this soon.

Today, the Lord blessed me with an extra dose of energy, Thank you so much!!  We made coffee cake this morning to deliver to another lady to take to a 3rd lady at our church who just had a baby girl   Of course in the dash to get out of the house we left the pacifier on the dining room floor and even though I was 3 minutes from the house…that would have been at least a 6 min. delay getting to the drop off location….so off we went…

We rendezvoused at a Food Lion parking lot and exchanged hello’s and laugh’s …and a brief discussion about attending evening services at church tonight….why a discussion…well because service does not start until 9pm and goes until midnight with an intermission half way through…..Did anyone remember that we have 5 children….the youngest…his night time sleeping begins at 8:30pm, my older children…while they could possibly make it for that duration….they are normally in bed by 8:30pm also…..

So we are forgoing said services until they are about 10 years old!!  I will pray in the new year with them in spirit from my house…. Christy….good luck with the pajamas and blankets for your little ones!!!

We then went across town to the bank, cashed our paychecks and went to Michael’s craft store looking for some special glitter for making these branch thingy majigy’s for the end of the month…they didn’t have them….

Then it was off to Hobby Lobby to get these sliver charger plates for the same end of the month project and some little white Christmas lights….I was hoping to get the normal ones at 60% off, however, the normal ones were sold out and I ended up with a slightly different light that looks like a clear pine cone but still tiny…I wonder how that will look on a fake Ficus tree…lol

Over to the Dollar store where I grabbed my dish soap and saw the stash of glass candle holders that I will also need for said project at the end of the month…the Dollar store on my side of the freeway is completely wiped out for the holidays.

Last stop…Aldi’s I love shopping there…in and out in 20 minutes with a complete kitchen full of groceries.

We, the children and I, arrived home with a brief stop through a drive through for lunch and unloaded everything.  The kitchen was slightly chaotic with the remnants of the coffee cake dishes everywhere and now groceries all over the counters .  I tidied up that area, went through the family room and cleaned up….Took a picture or pictures of my dining room….why is that significant….well, because I took everything off of my bookshelf that was supposed to be used for my homeschool stuff….and well, 90% of the stuff, was not homeschool related…so, while I should have taken the picture before I took it off the bookshelf..that would have been nice… You will get the work in progress picture on the dining room table and the nice finished picture of the bookshelf!  All to be posted another time…lol

I then went in and started doing some sewing!!!  Yippee!!! I had bought material for Haley the first week of December because I thought we were going on a trip and she would need the clothes, and that did not happen and so it has sat, looking forlorn waiting to be sewn up….  So the front side of the dress is put together, well front and sides I should say…

I got up from there and now I have sitting next to me about 12 pairs of felt mittens that are about 2.5” in length that I need to finish embroidering together for the project at the end of  the month….

So I feel productive today and there is still daylight left…so who knows what else will get done today…I am looking forward to what the Lord has in store for me for the coming year and I look forward to poignant and concentrated time with Him….

God Bless~~

 

Reading Aloud…Lamplighter Publishing

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Reading Aloud

Did you ever see a movie based on a 19^th century setting where the host has one of the daughters read a chapter from a book? What has happened to this family and social activity of reading aloud?

 

Children who have many opportunities to listen and read tend to become skilled thinkers, speakers and writers. The New York Times published an article by Verlyn Klinkenborg (May 16, 2009), on the lost art of reading aloud, saying, "... listening aloud, valuable as it is, isn't the same as reading aloud. Both require a great deal of attention. But one of the most basic tests of comprehension is to ask someone to read aloud from a book. It reveals far more than whether the reader understands the words. It reveals how far into the words--and the pattern of the words--the reader really sees.

 

Reading aloud recaptures the physicality of words. To read with your lungs and diaphragm, with your tongue and lips, is very different than reading with your eyes alone. The language becomes a part of the body, which is why there is always a curious tenderness, almost a sensational quality, in those 18th- and 19th-century literary scenes where a book is being read aloud in mixed company. The words are not mere words. They are the breath and mind, perhaps even the soul, of the person who is reading."

 

As I ponder this connection between reading aloud and a child's intellectual development, I am convinced that reading and hearing the Word of God is the foundation for one's spiritual development.

 

"So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17). I think I can now see the connection when Jesus read the words of Isaiah aloud when he visited the temple. Perhaps reading the Scriptures and other great books aloud in our homes and churches should have a rebirth--it may lead to a rebirth and awakening of our souls.

Homemade Gifts….

Pin It Looking for a home made gift for a little child in your family or relative?  Are you wanting to make a gift to give to a newborn baby or someone else?

Well, let me interest you in these wonderful little beauties…Felt Flashcards…which can also be used for a Memory game!  You can find the full and complete tutorial over at: Sew Much Ado
I am attending a Baby Shower for a wonderful lady at our church and I thought this would make a nice gift…something a little different and something that would last a long time.



My theory here was how educational these can be…

• They can be used to learn numbers
  
• They can be used to learn colors
  
• They can be used to learn shapes
  
• They can be used to strengthen memory skills
  
• They can be used to do simple math!!

 

Now in the tutorial, she did shapes and numbers on their own cards….I did shapes on one side and numbers on the flip side.  I saw on the comments of the tutorial that some only did numbers 1-5, so the possibilities are whatever you want to create…. One lady did shapes but did a leaf, butterfly, banana, bird, etc….. I stuck to basic shapes, chose a different color for every shape, same with the numbers….and then I also included the math symbols of addition and subtraction so you could do simple math problems as well.

  

Here is a picture of them somewhat in progress…

 

I had all the numbers sewn on and was now deciding which shapes were to correspond to which number….I wanted to mix up the shapes so you wouldn’t automatically know that both number three’s would have a star for the shape… The tutorial does a good job of explaining how to put these flash cards together…here are a few additional pictures… This is the assembled card without the grommet.

Make sure you buy 9mm size Grommets...the 6mm will be too small if you do lots of cards.

 
The next step is getting the hole cut for the grommet to go through.  Take the grommet on the front side of your card and press it into the felt and kind of twist it back and forth, or spin it back in forth if that makes better sense….



 
Once you have done that you will see a mark left on the felt for the size of the circle you need. You can see the imprint in the upper left corner in the picture below.

   

Next, fold the corner down so the circle is folded in half and take your scissors and cut a slit in the felt.

 

Once you have the slit, insert your scissors into the whole and cut around the outside edge of the imprinted circle….it will make it just large enough for the grommet to slip through without having to tug and pull on the felt.



 
Once you have the circle cut out, insert your grommet from the right side through to the back…there is no particular right or wrong side, just do them all the same 
 


 
Next you will be taking the back half and placing it over the back of the grommet.

 

In this picture below, the flat part is just resting over the grommet with the rounded side up.  You can see a slight bit of felt showing around the inner circle.

   

Take your grommet tool and sandwich the felt between the tool and squeeze down as tight as you can….

 
 
_{When it is all done it should come out looking something close to this…}

   

So just to recap, I made two sets of numbers and two sets of shapes…which amounted to 20 cards total with 3 math symbols that I did not make duplicates of…. So you can do the memory  game with shapes:(keep in mind there would be twice as many cards on the ground if you made as many as I did.)


 
or you can try and find numbers….


 
These are great toys…they are QUIET!! The store easily on a ring….

   

Consider making these for a gift sometime…nothing beats a home made gift made with love and prayers!!!

Homeschool future room….

Pin It Well I am just posting some pictures of the garage… these were of when we first bought the house…9 years ago and then maybe a year later when we built a small workbench….
So yea, ummm… it is not that neat…uncluttered anymore….
I’ll have to get some measurements and some pictures of real time looks to see/show what the transformation would be….once/when it happens….

I would like to put a long counter the whole length of this wall and have several stations along for each child…. and then keep the center of the room for possibly a small couch and chair…. My husband would like to put French doors in with windows as well… This is an Eastern exposure…Sun rises through these windows and goes over the garage door side ….so lots of light all day long.

This little alcove currently holds our second freezer, yard can, a co-sleeper…boxes for recycling…etc.

This section is barely reachable because of a montage of outdoor toys, bikes and scooters… not to mention a blind that was chewed up by a possum or raccoon or some such night animal and about a gazillion bugs on the blinds….
I’ll get you some good photo’s soon

Your Homeschool School room ideas….

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So, you have the chance to design, to implement your ideal homeschool school room….

What would you include…have you seen pictures somewhere…catalogs, etc… what would you not include!

There is a very good chance that we are going to convert our two-car garage into a school room!

We have two nice windows in there already and we would take out the garage door and put in French doors with side windows as well….

I just recently came across a blog hop that was all about pictures of everyone’s homeschool rooms for 2010 http://heartofthematteronline.com/nbtsbh-2010-week-2 

There are over 200 entries, so that is going to take a little time to go through them all.

Have you found some good places to find “deals” for things for the homeschool?

Please share your ideas.

God Bless