Storybook Year: Week Two

"Louis I: King of the Sheep"

GREAT story.

Draw Louis I

After drawing, I took a crown and the kids took turns being the king/queen. We had to play what the king/queen wanted to play. Then switched. They liked that!

"Green Lizards vs. Red Rectangles"

This story was short and cute.

Draw Lizard (video here) and some green rectangles

We made salt dough lizards (pinterest). The kids really enjoyed that. We planned to sculpt and bake them today and paint them on day 5.

"Uni the Unicorn"

A favorite for Bree. She is all about ponies and unicorns. This was a really creative story.

Draw a unicorn (video here)

Do-a-Dot painting. I printed a unicorn coloring page from pinterest and a rainbow. After that, the kids just did their own creations. We love Do-A-Dot paint: so neat but so fun!

"Gaston"

This story had a great message, and it was really catching. For about three months following this book, O would still name everything Gaston. (But first he had to list all the other siblings: Fee Fee, Foo Foo, Ooh La La, and ... Gaston!)

Draw Gaston and his family

Dog day. We gave our dog (Princess Giselle) a bath, took her on a walk, and played with her. This was quite a pampering day for her. She shook with excitement (... well, she's a miniature Greyhound so she just shakes all day, but I told the kids she was excited!).

"The Salamander Room"

Grandma was in town for school today! So she listened to our story with us.

Draw your favorite scene from the story

Paint Salt dough lizards from day 2 with Grandma.

Storybook Year: Week One

We kicked off the week with some awesome books. Below are the ones we chose to read for school this week and how we responded to the books.

"Where the Wild Things Are"

We had a blast with this classic.

Draw a wild thing (watch drawing tutorial together here)

Have a Wild Rumpus! (Loud music. Dress up. Crazy dancing. You get it.)

"Blueberries for Sal"

This was highly praised, but I honestly thought it looked a little boring. I had never read it, but the kids loved it! And so did I.

Draw your favorite picture from the story

Blueberries for snack

Use Counting Bears for Math activities (patterns, color sorting, counting, whatever!)

"Stick Man"

Loved this story. It is a great Christmas book (which I didn't know until I got to the end), and the kids love sticks.

Draw Stick Man

We headed outside to search for sticks to make our own stick families. Then we took our stick families and made play snow (Pinterest!) and for them to play in. (We threw in some Disney figures to liven up the play a bit.)

"Ninja!"

I wanted a "boy-ish" story for Ollie, but they both enjoyed this one. We had Ninja apples for snack (pinterest), and I gave them a Karate lesson. They loved kicking and punching the pillows.

"Xander’s Panda Party"

This story was adorable. It made me want to snuggle a Panda bear.

Draw a panda (Art for Kids Hub)

Our zoo doesn't have real pandas, so we decided to Watch zoo cams instead. They loved seeing the animals, and we checked lots of different zoos to see different pandas.

Then we had a stuffed animal party. They loved bringing ALL their animals into the living room for our party. We set out blankets and play food and had a grand celebration.

2015/16 Our Storybook Year

Homeschool has taken on a different look this past year. Since our last post, we have added two baby birds to the nest. B just turned 5, O just turned 3, and E is creeping up on his first birthday.

Last summer when I was 100 months pregnant and my husband was completely out of commission with a back injury, I dreaded the start of homeschool. I was afraid I would be stressed with a new baby and a husband recovering from back surgery and everything else life tends to throw at you (tires being stolen off your car, finding mold in your bathroom, family members with health issues, etc. etc.).

That's when I stumbled onto the idea of a "Storybook Year" from a blogger my sister loves.

Enter angelic music and lights beaming through the windows. We LOVE to read. We love books. We love snuggling on the couch with a blanket and a pile of Fancy Nancys, Bernstein Bears, or Frog and Toad.

So, what does a storybook year look like for us?

First. I went on Pinterest and pinned any list I could find about Best Children's Books, Classic Children's Books, Books that Make You Laugh, and I made a list. I started at the top and requested books from the library (we don't buy books very often unless we fall head over heels for them - like It's a Tiger by David LaRochelle).

Second. Once I secured the books from the library, I made a basic calendar in Microsoft Publisher and planned out the books we would read. If there was a holiday or birthday, I tried to plan books accordingly.

Third. With my schedule of books to read in hand, I planned activities for the day. I wanted the kids to "respond" to each book, which is challenging when they cannot write on their own yet. I found these awesome Pre-K journals from -- my home away from home -- Walmart. My plan was for the kids to "respond" with art. They love, love, love to create: draw, color, paint, glue, cut, whatever (and so do I)!

And that is when I found it. The perfect addition to my storybook year. Art for Kids Hub. It is a YouTube channel that has drawing tutorials for kids. They are amazing. They reiterate great rules of drawing (always do your best and it doesn't have to look like theirs) and do awesome animals, people, characters, and so on. I started looking through the books I had planned to read and chose something from each book to draw together. Almost 90% of the time they had a video for what I wanted. If not, we drew a picture from the story.

Fourth. After our creative time, we answered the 4 BIG Q's from each story (characters, setting, problem, solution) and then gave it a thumbs up or thumbs down. I dictated that, of course, but B did some of her own writing.

Fifth and final. We did something. Some days I had fun activities planned from the story that related in some way (my favorites were Katy No-Pocket and Big Red Barn, which I will post on later).Some days that was it, and we played games together (I have amassed a collection of school games). Some days we had a related outing. Some days we took a nap on the couch.

It was extremely relaxed, but they loved it. I loved it. Everyone loved it. Stay tuned for more detailed posts about each week (books and activities!).

Three Cheers for this storybook year, which just wrapped on Friday. ::sniff sniff::

A Mommy Respite

I love being a mom. I love my kids. I love my husband. I even, sort-of, love my dog.

So call me crazy (which you might) but why, on a day celebrating being a mom, would I want all those things gone?

Am I saying I don't enjoy free time? Not at all. Breaks are great. Alone time is great. I'm saying, to feel truly special on Mother's Day, give me a day off from the other stuff.

You know what I'm talking about: the late nights, early mornings, being the last to eat at every meal, constantly washing dishes and picking up toys, diaper changes, dinner plans, lunch plans, breakfast plans (you get it), getting kids dressed, brushing teeth, putting them down for naps, getting them up from naps. And about a thousand other things.

What I want more than a day by myself is a day with my family and a break from all that. The stuff I don't necessarily LOVE to do every day, 365 days a year. All the "extra" stuff that motherhood seems to come hand in hand with.

Just one day where I don't have to do it all - where I can just play with my kids, read book after book with my baby on the couch, push my toddler on the swings as long as she wants, hang out with my husband, eat as many Oreos as I want, or take a nap with my dog. No chores. No cooking. Certainly no diaper changes. Definitely no trips to Walmart.

A Mother's Day respite for me isn't a break from my family it's a break from those little things we do each day that often go unnoticed.

So, to my family, I know you love me. I get it. I don't need, or want, you to buy me things. I don't need expensive spa treatments (though I'm not opposed to them on occasion, maybe my birthday!). I just want you. Only you. Because I love being your mom.

DIY Coloring Page Tshirt

So, I had a problem. My daughter is SO in to Doc McStuffins right now it is CRAZY. But I can't afford to get all the "stuff" because I'm not sure if it will last a week or a year. So, I have been DIY-ing some things for her: felt characters for her board, felt Band-Aids for her doctor kit, etc.

I Google coloring pages ALL the time for whatever she likes at the moment. I happened to think, 'I could paint this onto a shirt!' So I decided to try.

I made Stuffy first on a blue shirt. That one was just okay, but she liked it. I decided to try again and make some changes. Since it is a coloring book page, I decided to try Lambie because she's white and pink. Easy colors. So I painted her black and added two felt pink additions (her skirt and bow).

A couple moms asked how I made it, so I decided to make another and take pictures this time because ANYONE can do this. It's so easy. I decided to make Olaf for my niece's birthday. He's also easy! White and black and a flashy orange nose.

Here's what you need:

a picture (from a coloring book or just Google Image ANY character you like)

black puffy paint

a white shirt or dress (if you do a colored shirt, you can't trace the picture ... you have to stencil or free draw it, which I did with Stuffy on a blue shirt)

felt

scissors

a pencil

needle/thread (I used embroidery thread because I had it already)

First, put the picture under the shirt and trace on your picture to the shirt (you'll need good light to see it under the shirt) in pencil. Next, paint the lines black with the puffy paint. Try not to make it too puffy.

Next, choose something to POP in the picture. For Lambie, I chose her pink bow and pink skirt. For Olaf, I chose his orange nose. Cut THAT item out of the original picture and use it as a stencil on the felt. Cut out the item and outline the item in black, just like the picture has it.

Let dry OVER NIGHT.

Finally, stitch on the colored items using the same colored thread. You can use a basic stitch, but I like to back stitch for added strength. Whatever you like. But stitch inside the black paint (right along the outline).

I used the extra felt to make a bow for her hair, and you could add rick-rack to the dress for more color if you wanted to. Less is more, to me.

Do not wash for 36 hours (after painting), and I try to wash it inside out on a gentle cycle.

Easy Peasy, friends. I would make and sell these if I could legally.

What God Wants for Christmas, day 1!

Bree couldn't wait to put on her Christmas tree shirt this morning. She was so excited to show all her friends at MOPs. We had a Christmas party at our meeting, which was a blast. I got some amazingly delicious gifts from my Secret Mom.

We started our new lesson on "What God Wants for Christmas" this morning. We open a present and find the character we are going to read about, read the story together, and then she puts the character in the nativity scene. I was worried she would hate waiting for each box (you do one every day), but she seemed okay with it. Today we read the intro from Gabriel. He is the narrator of the whole thing, so we start with him. She liked opening the present and getting out the little figure. I think we will read the entire story the last day (Christmas morning) to put it all together. It might be hard to remember what we read days before.

Again, no pants ... (sigh)

a Wonderful Wednesday

This week has been a blur, but we have had a lot of fun days. Tuesday a friend of mine who lives out of state now was visiting, so we had a great morning with her.

Today our lesson was our final telling of the Bible story from her Bible. She still loves those felt people. Our activity that day was making a special t-shirt for MOPs tomorrow. She loved gluing on the colorful pom-poms. I had made the tree the night before so it was dry. I sewed on the pom-poms so that they will stay. That took forever.

(I don't I've posted a picture where my kid is fully dressed ... whatever.)

Our Elf was reading a story that morning to her friends. Bree enjoyed that.