Spiders!

We've got two new pets in our house...thankfully they're the kind that don't require food, water, or supervision of any sort. We made spiders!

I punched holes around the edges of paper plates and the kids made yarn web homes for their spiders.

Next, we cut spider bodies from an egg carton and painted them in the colors of our choosing.

After the bodies were dry, we added pipe-cleaner legs and plenty of scary googly eyes.

Johnny Appleseed

Last week we did a fun little unit on John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed. We have an apple tree in our front yard, and Truett loved picking apples this fall. Both kids were excited to learn about this interesting man. 

I checked out several books from the library, and these were our favorites. Truett even commented on the beautiful illustrations in Steven Kellogg's book.

In addition to reading about Johnny Appleseed, we also learned a little about apples...

To top off our lesson, we did some apple stamping. With plates full of red paint, this craft turned messy real fast. My kitchen table looked a little bit like a crime scene when all was said and done. Thank goodness for washable paint!

Changing Leaves

We're one month in to our homeschooling journey and I'm increasingly thankful for the decision we made to start off in this direction. We're developing our own stride...figuring out timing, learning styles, routine, and diligence. I hope to write a more detailed post in the near future about what we've chosen to do this year for curriculum as well as a bit about our schedule...mostly just for my own records, but also because other blogs and recommendations were so helpful to me as we started.

With it being fall [YAY!], we've been reading and learning a bit about leaves.

Truett and Maren both enjoy art, which has made it a special part of our learning times together, and something I'm working at incorporating even more into our weekly schedule. For this project, I used painter's tape to make a tree shape on a canvas. The kids painted the canvas and we peeled back the tape to reveal the tree shapes. 

I really enjoy watching the kids be creative...I gave them no instruction whatsoever as to where to place colors. I gave them the paints and brushes and they had free reign...so fun to see what they ended up doing! I intended these to be 'Family Trees' that we'd write the 4 generations on after painting, but I loved them so much just plain, we decided to leave them that way! We'll come up with another way to make a family tree next spring.

Maren's tree

Truett's tree

As soon as leaves began to fall in our yard, Maren started asking to make a big pile for jumping in...something that's just not the same here in Colorado as it was back in Michigan. I remember spending HOURS on the weekends in October raking leaves and stuffing what felt like thousands of bags...and the piles were so huge our entire family could easily get buried. Someday we hope to make a trip back to Michigan to enjoy a good midwest autumn.

Thankfully, Maren doesn't know what she's missing when it comes to leaf piles. Brett took the older 2 kids out front one night after dinner to play in the leaves, and they were thrilled. This might be one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken...they were running at me for a surprise attack while I was snapping pictures...Maren's face is so full of joy. I love it.

Truett filled up his bucket over and over to dump on the rest of us.

We checked out this book from the library to read while we did another leaf craft. The story was a great level for both kids...they learned a few things without being too overwhelmed by scientific jargon. 

I cut out leaves from coffee filters and used a glue gun to make the veins. The kids painted the leaves with watercolors while we read our book.

In the midst of our learning...sweet Elin continues to grow and grow! She's become quite the chunk and we're all smitten with her generously offered smiles.

Advent

On Saturday our family will begin our Advent preparations. Maren and I have had a few talks on the way to preschool about Advent...and preparing our hearts for the celebration of Christ's birth. We'll be using Truth in the Tinsel this year, and we'll decorate the printable ornaments (found here). I'm planning to use the same book next year, and we'll do the more time-intensive ornaments when Maren and Truett are able to work on them together next year. Remember my desire to simplify this year? Well, using the simple printable ornaments fits into our plan. *wink*

Last year Maren and I made an Advent Tree out of toilet paper rolls. You can find the original tutorial here.

Hello, 3-year-old Maren!

Do you have any special Advent plans? I'm looking forward to pausing each day to reflect on the wonder of the season...and to be sure our focus in on Christ, the true miracle of Christmas.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We've been in a Valentine's flurry around our house. Maren and I made all her Valentines for her party at church. She used a stamp to put her name on the back of our little heart birds. I cut everything out and she glued it all together. We had such a great time working on these. Have I mentioned before how much I love that Maren is into creative projects? She is...and I love it!

I wanted to put up a few Valentine's decorations, but didn't want to spend any money. My mom gave me a square berry wreath a few years ago for Christmas. I love having it out during the holidays, and this year I transformed it (temporarily!) for Valentine's Day. I cut out letters on my cricut, glued them to some book pages and used mini-clothespins and string to attach them to the wreath.

I also strung up some vintage Valentines that I've collected throughout the years.



Maren dressed herself for her party yesterday. She was sure to wear plenty of red.

In other news...Truett is completely mobile. He has been for over a month now. He has been quite pleased to discover every nook and cranny around our home. We're working with Maren to keep her little things up off the floor. Nothing is safe from this little guy. He is so curious and quiet, which is an unfortunate combination for such a small boy. Or, maybe just unfortunate for his mother. I think he quite likes it, actually!

Our Handmade Advent

We're a week into December and I'm finally sharing our Advent calendar with you. Better late than never...and thanks to Pinterest, you can file this little idea away for next year. *wink* In order to make this little tree you'll need 25 empty toilet paper rolls. You might want to start saving them in June if you plan to make your own tree next year!

Maren has really gotten into crafting with me lately, which I love. She was a big help in putting together our little toilet-paper-roll-Christmas-tree-advent-calendar.

We started by cutting paper to fit around the rolls. Maren applied glue to the edges of the paper, and I rolled the paper around the empty paper rolls.


1. We rolled paper around all but 3 or 4 tubes, and we used those on the inside of the tree.
2. I used my Cricut to make 25 1.25 inch circles. I wrote the numbers on the circles, and hole-punched each one.
3. I made a little template for how we'd arrange our rolls to make a tree.

4. To make the trunk of the tree, hot-glue 4 tubes together.
5. Next we glued each row together before assembling them to make the tree.
6. Use yarn, string, twine, etc. to attach the tags to the inside of the rolls.
7. I flipped the tree upside-down to glue the tags inside the rolls.

Here's our finished Advent tree!

The paper rolls are a perfect place to hide a piece of candy, scripture verse, or other small treat.
This year we're doing "Truth in the Tinsel". We're not making all the ornaments this year, so we'll probably do the same thing next year to fill in the rest of the ornaments. We have found the readings to be simple and meaningful for our young family. I would encourage you to check it out!

What are some ways you make the Christmas season meaningful for your kids? Do share!