Fall art projects

This morning I was thrilled to click here and see two art projects I wanted to make and I was even more thrilled that I already had all the materials I needed. Isn't that the best! Here's my little fall fairy hanging over the nature table.
We used a silk leaf to make some salt dough creations (I guess the veins of actual leaves don't show up as well on the salt dough). I finished one of mine and it is on the nature table.

J and B will hopefully finish their projects tomorrow.

A very good trip to the library

Yesterday I stopped by the library to drop off/pick up some books and there happened to be a book sale going on. I almost didn't look at the books because it was 3 p.m and the sale had been going on since 10 a.m. I thought chances were pretty slim there would be anything there I'd be interested in. Well, I was wrong. This book shelf is filled up with all my lucky finds for under $10. J has already read one Roald Dahl book (Roald Dahl is her favorite author) and she is reading another book right now. I can not tell you how excited I was (I even found a 1/2 dozen books for myself)-there really is nothing better than coming home with bags full of books. :)

Just had to pass this along

It made my day yesterday when I first saw it. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btXr9tDU_Vw

Tut Tut the game-created by J

J is participating in a learning co-op on Mondays. Each month there is a different theme. September's theme is archaeology. They've created time capsules, did an archaeology dig, and they're meeting with an archaeologist from UVM on Monday. Each month they need to read one book relating to the month's theme and give a presentation on the book. You can just talk about the book, do a book report or a project of your own choosing. J chose to create a board game based on the book. Here is the book she chose:
It's about 4 children who open a magical book and then travel back in time to ancient Egypt. They have quite a few adventures in ancient Egypt before locating their book and returning home. Here is the game board she created:

These are the four children who traveled back in time. She made them out of Sculpey.

If you land on certain spots you either move forward or backward depending on the card you pick. Here are some of the cards:

She also had question mark spaces. If you land on one of these spaces you have to answer the question before proceeding forward. The questions all relate to the book-she tells you which chapter the answer is in. If you haven't read the book thoroughly, you may be in trouble! She had a great time making the game and I thought it was a very creative way of presenting a book.

It's official...

It's fall!

Welcome fall, we're ready for you!

A little bit of cuteness-B recites his first poem

Just the two of us-harvest time

I can't remember the last time I had a few hours out with just J doing something fun. Most days I'm at home with both kids and on the weekend we're together as a family. Today I suggested to J that we head to the local harvest festival (just the two of us) and amazingly, she agreed. I say amazingly because two of her neighborhood friends had just come to our house wanting to play and she passed up playing with them to go out with me. If you knew my daughter you would know how much she LOVES playing with friends. So, I was thrilled.
Out we went to the apple orchard. First stop was the craft shed. We picked up a couple crocheted dishcloths and checked out the train. Then J wanted an apple cider slush. . .yum!

She tried her hand at making cider.

Then we put our order in for Dizzy's home made donuts. We were told to come back in about 30 mins. to pick them up. That was just the right time to grab a bag and head into the orchard.

It didn't take long to fill our bag up with some lovely macs.

We got back just in time. . . here come our donuts!

We ordered powdered, cinnamon and maple.

These could be some of the best donuts I've tasted, all fresh and warm. We picked a spot under an apple tree and gobbled them up!

Before heading home we checked out the marionette show and spoke with someone from the local recycling center. She gave me information about various field trips and activities we could do with our Earth Scouts group and I left very excited and full of ideas. I can't wait to do more of these special outings with J!

Just a bit of advice. . .

If you're taking your children out on a boat ride while your spouse stays home and naps, don't call the house three times and when your spouse doesn't answer send an email that says only this: Call me right away!!
Your spouse may just wake up, read the email and think something dreadful has happened.

P.S-Every thing's o.k except for a tantrum and a car that needed $400 worth of repair work. The children had the tantrum, not the husband.

Picture of the day

Fairy houses and Snapfish

It's been a while since J and B have felt like making fairy houses but this morning that's just what they wanted to do. They both like to use only things they find in nature and they like to keep them simple. J made a sea glass pathway (from sea glass she found at the beach yesterday) up to her fairy's tee pee. This one is for a girl fairy. She left a blueberry from our blueberry bushes in a little bowl (an acorn cap) in case the fairy got hungry.B had an entrance way arch made out of sticks with a stick and stone path leading up to his house. He also made his fairy a camp fire (the red berries are there to show the fairy that they are to light a red fire there) and left a small stick for roasting marshmallows. He also thought his fairy would be hungry and left some berries to nibble on.
This afternoon I was looking at an album I made for B for his 6th birthday in June and I thought I'd share it with you. I was visiting a friend in NJ and she showed me 2 albums she had made for her children for gifts. With B's birthday coming up, I thought this would be the perfect gift. So I stayed up late that night creating his album on Snapfish.com . Here are a few pictures from the album:
Did you catch his little tongue sticking out at me? I only saw that when I downloaded the pictures-that little rascal! ;)

First week of homeschooling

Could it be only last week that we attended the Not Back to School Picnic? A lot's gone on since then. We've attended our first home school swim and sports class, both kids have started soccer and we're getting into a groove with the homeschooling. J is really enjoying the Sonlight curriculum and they're both enjoying all the math games we've been playing. B hasn't really started using his Sonlight curriculum as right now I'm working with him mostly on phonics and handwriting. We've been using Phonics Pathways and Explode the Code. For handwriting he's using the Handwriting Without Tears program and I've seen a lot of improvement in his hand writing in just a week.

J is writing a cat story.

B decided to make a beaver.

This afternoon we met some friends for a late summer romp at the beach. We have been blessed with some really spectacular weather lately and it just wouldn't be right not to enjoy it to the fullest. The kids played in the water and collected clay and sea glass for hours. Everyone was perfectly content. It may be the last lake swim of the season but I think we're all ready for fall now.

A lovely day for. . .

a little bit of everything. We started off our day with french toast and Sticky Situations. Then we traveled the ocean with Christopher Columbus. We learned about African and Indian elephants and wondered whether we would like to be one for a day. We decided that yes, it would be cool to have a trunk especially so that we could use it like a snorkel.
We worked on handwriting and learned about copyrights and why they're important. There were math games-this one is called Bargain Chasement and it's from the math game book in the sidebar. We had fun with it for a while. . . Then there was a trip to the library to pick up books and story tapes. Next, we headed outside. Be played with his favorite sticks.

J cuddled up with Puddles.

I read some poetry to the kids.

And, of course, the tree was climbed.

We also made a new acquaintance.

Did some felting of who-knows-what.

And we listened to Flush, again.

We were able to add a little bit of color to our nature table and I believe Mother Nature was pleased.