The Letter G

I have been reading craft blog after sewing blog after cake blog nonstop lately! I mentioned Kari over at UCreate the other day in this post. I LOVE her blog! The other day I was getting out my fall decor (early I know - but I'm really wishing for some not near 100 degrees weather!) and I ran across this lovely idea for a wreath. I did not want to spend the time or the money on the gold leaf kit so I went with gold acrylic paint and I spruced up an old wreath. The letter is chip board and cost less than $2, the paint was 99 cents and the ribbon was $2 for 5 yards, I think I might have used half of that - maybe. I'm loving my wreath makeover!

Painted letter

Old wreath

New Wreath!

Not Back to School Party!

We are attending our new homeschool group's Back to Homeschool party today, or not back to school party! I volunteered to make the giant pencil cake that they requested. At first I was really wondering what I was thinking .... I could not figure out how in the world I was going to pull this off. But last night I figured out how to do it. I'm really happy with it! I really hope it makes it to the party in one piece! Delivering the cake is SO nerve-frying!

Create with Me - August Project

I've been wanting to do a project all summer with Kari over at UCreate (u-createcrafts.com). She started Create with Me back in June. I was really hoping to makeover my bathroom mirror in July by framing it but I had to paint the front porch, and though it is small it took weeks because of the heat and being poorly advised as to what type of paint to use. 
Anyways .....
When I saw the project for August I just knew I would have to MAKE time to do it! I found the time last night and created a quilted table runner. The tutorial can be found here ----> http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/2010/08/table-runner-tutorial.html


I LOVE it! I didn't quilt it quite as much as noted in the tutorial ... I am still thinking about going back and adding some ribbon to jazz it up a bit.

I wanted something fallish so I dug through my fabric pile and found the paisly and the diamond print. I picked up the green at Hobby Lobby.

I love the paisly print! My mother-in-law made pinafores from it for my daughters a couple years ago. They wore them for old fashion Sunday at church! I was excited to have some left for this project!

I think it looks great on our entertainment cabinet! Please ignore the fact that the pictures of my girls are over 3 years old and that I don't have an 8x10 of my son anywhere in this house.

Kings Play Chess On Fine Glass Sets

We are loving our science book, Apologia - Zoology 1! I'd link to it but the link becomes invisible. I don't know why. I don't know what I did to make that happen and I can't figure out how to change it back.

Anyways, when I first started reading over it I thought it was going to be much to hard for my first grader. Words like binomial nomenclature were flying right over my head. How in the world was I going to teach this concept of classification to her? So I started swagbucking (You know, like google but you get swagbucks. you can trade your swagbucks for gift cards. I'm up to $85 in Amazon gift cards thanks to swagbucks! want to know more, check the banner at the bottom of this post!) ... swagbucking .. umm, oh yes, I started searching for ways to make it fun. I ran across the site http://satorismiles.com/?s=classification and she had used buttons as a way to teach classification. We did this yesterday. I have pictures but my computer is currently viral (or just not working) and I can't up load pics. Soon.
So, we started with a bowl of buttons, that was our kingdom. They were wittled down by number of button holes, then size, then color. We started with one big group and ended with several small ones. Today I used a chart to better explain classification. It goes through the classification process of a polar bear. That seemed to make a big impact on Kennedy. Next we played a game also found at Satori's site. I put 16 random objects out unclassified. After one minute Kennedy was able to name 6 of the 16 things. Next I classified them ... hair things, toys, writing utensils, school supplies ... she was able to name 11! When I was getting it all together last night Adam asked why I didn't just take her to the library to show how classification works. Or to Wal-Mart -- you know to show her how when things are unorganized it makes it harder to find (or learn) anything! She loved today's game ~ I think she's starting to get it!
And, we did go to the library today. We attended story hour and then picked up the books on birds I had put on hold. K & A also picked out a few fun books.

I feel this post is naked without pictures. Forgive me.

Not Back to School Hop: Student Photos

Kennedy - 1st Grade

Aubrey - K4

Haden - Teacher's Aide

My Class 2010

Not Back to School Blog Hop: Curriculum

Get used to me being a bit behind. Its what I do. And what I do I do well.

Our 2010 Curriculum

K's Stuff

Reading
Hooked on Phonics - finishing up Kindergarten and then starting 1st Grade
Explode the Code - currently doing Book 1 for a review
Math
Math U See - Primer for review, then Alpha

Science
Apologia - Zoology 1

Speech therapy weekly

A's Stuff

Reading
Explode the Code book A

Their Stuff

God's Little Princess Devotional Bible
Ballet - K in pre-ballet, A in creative movement

And the Blog Goes On

I took a break.
I'm really just not that good at this blogging thing but its school time again and I want to be able to keep up with what I'm doing and where we're headed and who said what and who did what and when it happened and if it was funny or sad or crazy and really ... really, I just can't keep it all in this jello-y brain of mine.
Oh, and meet the newest member of our family.

He's four months old and rather charming!