Finishing Letter O

We are finishing up the letter O. It has been slightly hectic since I started my online class to renew my teaching certificate. Online classes are soo much work! We talked about how the owl hunts at night and we discussed other animals that hunt at night. I found this worksheet here. She colored the animals and cut them out herself. We are still practicing that skill.

She is working on a alphabet dot to dot found at makinglearningfun.

We colored and cut out a Diamond Back Rattlesnake, also found at http://www.makinglearningfun.com/. Again, with the snakes, she loves them.

Here's our owl for the Zoo Train. It's soo cute. She painted the plates and cut out the circles, pretty easy.

J is painting a movable snake that we will attach the pieces with brads. The snake will be large enough to create some letters with it.

J is painting ocean animals for an ocean picture.

Here is the background. We used blues and greens and part of a sponge to paint with. We will glue the ocean animals onto it.

This is our magic number string (really an old shoelace). She uses it to create numbers.

J doing some lower case alphabet puzzles. These were found at kizclub . What I like about Kizclub, they offer their printables in color and black/white. So if you want to same ink, you can. They have upper case and lower case. I laminated these because we will be using these again.

Here's a photo of some of the completed ones. They are simple puzzles with just 2 pieces but when all of these are mixed together, it is harder than you think. Notice I ran out of ink when printing some, that's okay she didn't care. And I didn't want to print them again and waste the card stock (or ink).

One last thing - J finally mixed up her rainbow rice! Isn't it pretty? J didn't want to mix it up but her sister Keke convinced her to. They spent some time playing in it together which was fun to watch.

HSV Garden Challenge

I have been reading on other homeschooling blogs about the Homeschool Village Garden Challenge and I began to wonder if I should participate. I had planned on doing a unit on The Garden with J after we finished the Zoo Unit we have been working on. We were planning on planting some seeds to watch them grow but I wasn't sure if I could do it right now. We are going to try. I live in the city on the top floor of our apartment building (9th floor to be exact). We have a large open balcony with tons of sunlight available to it. We are planning hanging boxes on the railing and perhaps a few small planters around. I would show you a picture but we have workers who are painting and fixing the roof, so it is quite messy. I have plans to fix up the balcony so we have a nice place to sit and play.

My plans for our garden will most likely be flowers. At the moment, we are growing an onion that we found in my pantry. (It decided to grow in spite of us so we just added it to some water.) I am concerned about our flowers though because we will be returning to 'Merica for the summer and my DH will probably forget to water the poor things. But we are going to try to grow something. Here's what I have soo far...

Okay, so it isn't much. I have to do this in stages. I bought the potting soil last week and this week, we will buy some window boxes and hopefully some seeds. The brick is for the balcony door which likes to swing close and lock me outside. Not a pleasant feeling so the brick is essential to my balcony garden. Homeschool Creations has a gardening preschool pack that I plan on using with J and if you post about a garden of your own, you can get the additional files she has created. I love her preschool packs as well as her blog.

 I am planning a garden sensory bin. Sounds cool, doesn't it? Well, it will just be some dirt, little pots I found at our T Family Dollar (of sorts), some fake flowers, a small watering can, glass rocks, and anything else I can find that will be fun to dig up (maybe some beans). J is waiting for that bin. I know it sounds crazy to have a dirt bin but what kid doesn't like to play in the dirt? And it can be cleaned up with a broom, if need be.

We will be making all kinds of flower art projects to create a garden mural of our own, one that doesn't have to be watered! We will be reading about flowers and insects as well as snakes. I can't get away from the snakes, J loves them! And, of course, we will still be working on our alphabet.

Here are some garden links that I have been saving for this unit. Maybe you will find something there of interest and be inspired to start a mini garden of your own!

thehomeschoolvillage this is the link for the garden challenge. I looked today and there are already soo many links posted about gardens they are planning. I am jealous since I only have a little balcony and I see all of these pics with lots of land to play on!

Minimops has a game where you can plant a virtual garden

naturegrid has an interactive site to discover more about plants

se7en has some interesting takes on container/windowsill gardening

familyfun this art project looks cool

choiceusa  from seed to plant ideas

lapbooklessons has some pictures of a flower and plants lapbook

mrsleeskinderkids scroll down and see her garden mural, soo cute!

squidoo here is a great link if you are planning a spring lapbook, lots of activities for different ages.

lapbooklessons this link has lots of printable spring ideas for the age group of 3 to 6

kidsgardening you may find some things of interest here to help you plan a garden

notimeforflashcards has a garden sensory bin that incorporates lots of beans and bowtie pasta to be butterflies (I just may use that myself)

sesamestreet has some online games about growing healthy food, learning about insects, as well as play lists of fun things to do.

J loves to play on the computer but I only allow it for a certain amount of time. I purchased an inexpensive timer from IKEA and turn it to the amount of time she has to explore her learning games. She knows when to timer dings, she has to stop what she is doing. The timer helps her to know when she is done and it eliminates the begging for more time/whining not to get off of the computer. It has helped alot. We also use the timer for clean up. I have her race against the clock to see if she can clean up her toys before the timer goes off. This puts alittle spring in her step!

Letter O, bats, owls, and snakes

We started the letter O this week. J is excited because she knows when we finish the alphabet, we will be traveling to 'Merica. O week actually started with bats. Why bats, you ask? Well, a couple of weeks ago, I was surfing the crafty sites and she noticed a little boy who had bat wings. She asked me to make her bat wings too. This past weekend, we went to the store so I could get 1 meter of black felt and the bat wings were born. It was an easy project that I began before church and finished most of the sewing. I completed them this morning before school by sewing on the elastic. The project and free pattern can be found here. I did not have black elastic or black sewing machine thread so I had to make do with the white kind. Still cute, though.

Well, she wore them for a whole 2 minutes and then, put them away. I figured as much but something funny happened later in the day....We started our letter O and talked about all of the words that began with the letter O. We talked about owls and she proceeded to show me how owls hunted for their food. But she said, "Mom, I don't have any wings..." I suggested she use her bat wings to be an owl (light bulb).

Here she is being an owl.

She is on her nest, sitting on her eggs.

And catching her prey (her poor dog) with her talons (her foot) to feed her owlets.

We used some shelves in our bookshelf and set up a grocery store. We set up food and she played for some time, buying and restocking the shelves. She has begged me to keep the store up for awhile. Maybe, we will make some signs and learn about counting money.

We read about snowy owls and colored an owl page.

We made an owl pocket for some O words that she colored and cut apart. This owl is a snowy owl. We also made a pipe cleaner O to hang with our owl. The alphabet pockets are at  makinglearningfun.

We stamped the letter O with otters.

She covered the letter O with pattern blocks found at makinglearningfun..

J has been fascinated with snakes since our Jeff Corwin days (we are still watching these DVDs). She has asked if we could do some snake activities in our school. I tried to convince her to wait until the letter S but she didn't want to wait. So this week, we are working on snakes as well. Here, she is using play dough and making snakes to cover shapes.

She covered all of the shapes with her snakes.

This weekend, I found some yarn on sale and a pom pom maker (nice find, I didn't know they had those here and I just stumbled on it). I made some spring pom poms. J played with them by throwing them up in the air and Kaleb thought that was the funniest thing! Here Kaleb is with some of them, I thought it would be a different texture for him to check out. He was fine until he put one in his mouth! Isn't he a cutie!

We ended the day in the kitchen. It seems my days always end up there, more than I would like them too! J helped make bread sticks (all most Olive Garden quality - according to my daughter Keke) and she cut up all of the fruit for Kaleb's baby food (pear and apple puree). She liked kneading the dough. I am truly getting spring fever here. It was warm enough to open our windows for some fresh air for alittle bit. J is chomping at the bit to play in water on the balcony but I keep telling her that she will have to wait until it is warmer. Here's to spring days!

Crafty Lately?

Since the new addition to our family, I can honestly say that I haven't done too much with my crafts/quilting. But, now that the little one is sleeping better, I can sometimes eek out alittle craft time. These are the things I have been working on.

I bought this ornament tree at IKEA after Christmas for 1TL. I wasn't sure what I could do with it but I decided to put it on my buffet and add seasonal items that I made. For Valentine's Day, I had hearts hanging with pictures of my kids on them. I made these silly birds for Spring. They didn't take long and I think they turned out cute.

Here's a close up of the silly birds. I found the tutorial and pattern here. This is a great scrap project.

This has been on my project list for awhile now, thanks to my mom. J received two Barbies for Christmas and the clothes are soo expensive here. My mom brought 2 Barbie patterns and we went on an adventure looking for fabric for Barbie clothes. This is the second piece of clothing I have made for Barbie. I am spacing them out because they are time consuming and often a pain to sew. I found some tutorials online for Barbie clothes as well but then, I keep thinking it would be soo much easier to wait until we go to 'Merica (J's word) and buy them at a yard sale. You could technically sew these by hand which I do not have the patience for. J loved her dress and is already asking for a wedding dress. I am not sure who Barbie is going to marry, since we do not have Ken, ha ha. My older daughter said the dress was all most store quality. Thanks for the encouragement, honey. Here are some tutorials for Barbie clothes if you want to try them out yourself. You could scraps or cut up old clothes.

theadventuresofroryandjess She has several tutorials and she makes it look easy.

missbcouture I am awed at her creativity and jealous of the time she has to do this.

fromanigloo She made a dress for her daughter and a matching dress for Barbie.

mamaslittlecoffeebreak If you are looking for furniture to make....

embendesigns. More furniture and bed linens! Barbie definitely needs a decked out bed.

midcraftcrisis Barbie chairs because Barbie cannot sleep all day.

mypaperpony My ultimate favorite, a Barbie Museum of Art, she needs culture too. And you can change the paintings!

While my mom was here, I finished a mini quilt. All of the fabrics were found here in the country. The pattern was found here. I usually try to use free quilt patterns but I have subscribed to the digital version of Quilter's World and have loved it. I miss all of the craft magazines you can get while in the states but this way, I don't have to miss a quilt magazine. An awesome thing about subscribing to this magazine, you get the back issues as well! So you are not only getting the new year of magazines, you are getting a couple of years back issues. The digital version also has the patterns to print out. It may not be the same as pouring over a magazine in your hands but it still can be nice to see what's out there in the quilting world.

I bought these panels online and quilted them for the kids' room. I am going with an Eric Carle theme since we received this great quilt from my mom. She made a Hungry Caterpillar quilt for J's bed. These panels have characters from Eric Carle's books and they were quick to quilt. I found the panels at fat quarter shop .

I made a valance for the kids' room going with the Eric Carle theme and using fabric from his Brown Bear Fabric line. This was also purchased at the fat quarter shop. It is alittle more than I usually spend per yard but I really liked the colors and it went with J's quilt.

I can only show you part of this table runner as it is pretty long. This is a table runner that I am hand appliqueing for my buffet. The pattern came from Quilter's World in their archives. I wanted something bright and I added our family name at the top. I am sorry to say that all of the fabrics except the base piece are from America. This is going to take me awhile as I am sewing each piece individually and I seem to find other projects that just have to be done first. I love the colors and I will be happy when it is done, so it can cover the top of my buffet.

Now, this may look like alot but it isn't. These projects have been on going as well as slow going since the birth of my baby boy. He is now five months old and I am still working on some of the projects I started before he was born. Right now, though, my little birdies make me smile and being able to create something helps my sanity. I thought I had to give this part up when I moved here but I didn't. (It took a meeting with a wise lady at a Woman's Conference that I attended to show me that.) I am finally finding things I need and if I can't find them, I add them to my 'Merica list. I just recently found ready made bias quilt binding in all sorts of colors and patterns! I didn't even know they had that here. Most of the time, I make my own binding but it is nice to know that I can find it if I need it.

My hope is that this encourages you to create something whether for you, your kids, or family. Choose something that you enjoy and just do it. Have a great day!

A Rainbow for Us

I am ready for Spring...I am tired of the yucky weather. We wanted a Spring project so we made a rainbow! As promised, I wanted to show you an easy project that J and I did the other day. We dyed rice to make a rainbow sensory bin.

First, I bought a large bag of rice as inexpensive as I could find. I knew we weren't eating this rice so the brand didn't matter. J scooped the rice into plastic bags (also the inexpensive ones). I couldn't bear to use my ziplock bags although they probably would have been easier and I wouldn't have had to worry about them popping. But after the project, I would have had to throw them out. You need a new bag for each color. J separated the rice into siz bags. I had her do this using measuring cups.

Then, we added several drops of waterless hand soap and food coloring. I used waterless hand soap because I have yet to find rubbing alcohol here and I knew that the hand soap had alcohol in it. J then shook the bag and mixed the rice with the food coloring. (For extra safety, I placed the first bag into another just in case the first bag broke. I didn't want wet colored rice to go everywhere.)

After the color is transferred onto the rice, we placed it on a tin foil lined cookie sheet (or anything I could find lined with tin foil) to dry. It didn't take long to dry but we left it for a day just to be certain.

We dyed six small bags of rice the colors of the rainbow and we waited patiently for them to dry. I used food coloring from America. I happened to have a package of Neon Food coloring which gave us the great green, blue, purple and pink. I made orange by using red and yellow.

After a day of drying, we put the colored rice into a plastic container to play with it. She loves it. I told her she could mix the colors up but she wants to keep it in a rainbow right now. Not sure how long that will last.

Now, you ask what is a sensory bin? They are all the rage on the preschool blog set. Sensory bins are bins that allow free exploration of the materials inside. They are easy to create and allow lots of creativity. A sensory bin could be as easy as non cooked noodles in a pitcher with cups and spoons to practice pouring and spooning. We have another sensory bin that has mixed beans in it. She uses that to play with measuring cups, bowls, and spoons. Or she will use it to play with her plastic animals.

When J was smaller, I bought some large noodles. I would place a large towel on the floor and give her a bowl, measuring cups, and a pitcher. She spent quite some time pouring the noodles and "measuring" the noodles. After she was done, I would pull up the towel and place the noodles that fell back with the others. We also spent time on our balcony with a bowl full of water (done in warmer weather, of course). Again, I placed a towel underneath because our balcony was tile and when it became wet, it was slippery. This kept her occupied for awhile.



Now, using the sensory bins require supervision. You don't want a baby or toddler to put dried beans in their mouths. Also, you may have some beans/rice fall on the floor. I combat that by leaving a small dustpan/brush by the bin and she knows that she needs to sweep up the fallen items. You could also put an old table cloth underneath it.

I have been drooling over the sensory bins on the internet. Preschool moms are changing out their bins monthly with items that are seasonal from the Dollar Store or Target. I have seen holiday ones, science ones, alphabet ones, and color ones. But, realistically, here that just isn't always possible. I try to find inexpensive ways to fill our bin. The plastic container we use was probably the most expensive item for our sensory bin. We have used noodles, rice, beans, small nuts (given to us by a neighbor and used for fall), un-popped popcorn (farm unit), water, and even salt, which comes in big bags here. You could dye the noodles, salt, and, I heard, the un-popped popcorn. We are planning a potting soil/dirt bin and, hopefully, a sand bin. I do change my items out when I feel like it and I place the old items into ziplock bags to be used again.

I thought you would like an easy project that allows free play and imagination. I am adding links to other sensory bins around the web if you want to try it yourself.

149 Sensory bin ideas - wow

counting coconuts She has sensory bin ideas to drool over, I love her themed ones! She also has some great ideas for preschoolers.

teach preschool has and idea for a sensory "table" using plastic bins. Considering the cost of these bins here, it might not be something you would want to try but you can see her Valentine's bin with colored rice.

copdandsomuchmore has 50 more ideas for a sensory bin.

jadaroo is using dyed pasta in hers as well as a bin with split peas for St. Patrick's Day.

chasingcheerios is using dry pasta of different shapes and sizes for her toddler.

A Request for Blue (and letter N week)

It has been brought to my attention that I haven't put blue on my baby Kaleb. So I wanted to share these photos and there is no mistake, it is blue he's wearing. (Love ya Mom!)

He turned alittle serious after I had to restrain the bouncy seat, he loves bouncing in it. I am not sure what I am going to do when he really can't sit in it anymore, technically he is over the weight limit right now. But he really gets it going and will sit there, just bouncing away.

We are still working on our Zoo Unit. I found this game in the Mailbox Preschool Zoo Unit Book. You roll a die and cover the zoo animals for the number you rolled. We both played and J won. She is definitely getting better at recognizing the numbers on the dice.

This is an activity left over from L week. I made a felt ladybug and her spots. We rolled a die and J had to add the spots to the ladybug. We continued to add the spots and counted to see how many she had total. It is a beginning activity to introduce addition.

Here she is practicing her letter N writing...

working on her letter puzzles.

We added J the Zookeeper to our Zoo train.

We did a dot to dot of an elephant found here.

We worked on words that started with the letter N and glued them to a nest. This activity came from a Mailbox book named Letter of the Week.
I was searching on the Internet and I found a three week Zoo Unit with printables at oopsey-daisy . It looks cute and it focuses on the letter Z, the number 6 and the circle shape. It is a free download. Enjoy.

We did a great and easy project yesterday which I will share today or tomorrow. J loved it. It really has nothing to do with the letter N but it was fun. I am waiting for Spring here, I am tired of the cold weather.