Snow White Birthday Party

Yea for turning 3!  I'm so proud of my soon to be 3 year old! Potty trained and polite, loves accessories including shoes, purses, and jewelry, has started trying to write her name, and can sing with the best of them. She is not my dancer...in fact she refuses to dance, but she will sing your ear off. She will plan your outfit for you, and tell you what to do all day long, for that matter. She is very opinionated but takes a long time to make a decision. That's why, I was shocked one day when she announced that she wanted a Snow White birthday party. 

Now, she has seen Snow White. She went through a Snow White everyday phase for a bit, but it hasn't been lately. She did not back down from the decision and even told Snow White herself at Disney World that she was having a Snow White birthday to which Snow White replied, "Your having a birthday about me!?" NOTE: I also must add here that I am super excited to NOT be throwing a Frozen birthday party.

So I put it off as long as I could, but I pulled off a Snow White Birthday Party! 

Caribou - Animal of the Week

The Animal of the Week is the Caribou...or Reindeer as they are otherwise known as. Get the printable info, coloring sheets, reading log, and craft here. 

These pretty animals do not commonly have red noses but they are pretty common in the northern region of North America. We hope to catch a few good Reindeer reads and make a nifty ornament all before we start CHRISTMAS BREAK!

Enjoy,

Penguin - Animal of the Week

This week we are going to be studying Penguins. We might even head over to the zoo to watch them in action. Get the study guide here. For some reason both of the kids had a few times they needed to cut shapes out of the paper this past week...and had to learn how to fold the paper to get the correct shape. It's so crazy to me how everything works out together like that, so for the craft, we will make penguins with heart shapes. We're excited! <3  I also have a few Christmasy Penguin type crafts we plan on doing this week, too. Enjoy!

Cardinal - Animal of the Week

I cannot tell you how thrilling it is to start everything on the 1st! I love it when Monday lands on the first of the month! Everything seems so right with the world! hehe This month kicks off soooo much for us: the Christmas season, 25 days of books, the elves are back to visit us from the North Pole, AND we are going to learn about Cardinals. Now, lets make one thing perfectly clear. We are Royals fans, so we will only be learning about the animal, the Cardinal. We are not throwing in any funny business with a certain baseball team.

Print out your own copy of Cardinal facts, coloring sheets, reading log, and craft here.

Enjoy!

Turkey - Animal of the Week

This week we are studying Turkeys! Get the facts and activities here. We will probably add another Turkey craft on our short week next week. So we will really cover this for two weeks. 

My big lil asked me today if tomorrow we could go shoot our turkey for Thanksgiving. Love the spirit but that's a big negative! But we can stop by the grocery store! <big grin>

We have really been studying a lot about Pilgrims in reading and history this month so I think he'll find it interesting about how many turkeys were here during the time of the Pilgrims. I, myself, have been caught in quite a rafter of Turkeys while driving. Their numbers are increasing, which is good because they taste really good. 

Enjoy!

Black Bear - Animal of the Week

This week we are studying Black Bears. Get the study and activity sheet here.

We are headed to the library to find bear books! I'm excited about this one because I love bears and this specific type is one we are probably most likely to see in the wild around here. When I was a kid staying with my Grandparents at Queen Wilhelmina State Park in Arkansas, occasionally in the fall, they would catch a black bear. Usually one that was causing havoc on the campers. I got to get really close to the captured. Maybe that's why I like them so much.  

Enjoy!

Dinosaurs - Animal of the Week

The Animal of the Week is Dinosaurs! Step back in time with us and get your activity worksheets here.

We already have many dinosaur books so we might not head to the library this week. We might also catch a few Land Before Time movies on Netflix (among others). Dinosaur Train is another fun dino show, and I believe it's available on their PBS kids app.  Have fun exploring!

Bats - Animal of the Week

To finish up studying spooky animals this month in honor of Halloween, we are rounding out our animals with bats! I threw in some fun facts about the vampire bat which is kind of spooky.

Get the fact sheet, activities, and craft here.

Cinderella Unit Study - Pumpkins, Princesses and France!

When we began homeschooling back in August I had this idea that I would implement Unit Study Style Homeschooling around Holiday Weeks. I figure the kids need a break from routine and it would be a great way to incorporate some of the holiday and something different into curriculum. What I did not realize at the time, is that (for me) it requires actually more prep time...so it might not be THAT great of an idea for busy holiday weeks. However, I feel that if I give myself some heavy prepping early enough it will still work. This is our first unit study/lap book that we are doing for an entire week. 

I found the Cinderella Unit Study for free on Homeschool Share. We are going to make  made lap books using this Unit Study.

I found some Halloween Math Sheets on kidsactivitiesblog.com.

Here are some pumpkin coloring pages on itsybitsyfun.com. They also have the life cycle of a pumpkin worksheets.

Here are some things we want to do did:

• Carve pumpkins online. 
• Go to the pumpkin patch, pick out pumpkins, and actually carve pumpkins. 
• Read Cinderella and Madeline.
• Use our France Ipad App to learn about Paris.
• Watch Cinderella
• Paint Pumpkins
• Learn a few french words
• Work on telling time
• Write a Cinderella Story - Wyatt's was called Karate-ella and it was awesome :-)

Sorry for the late post. We did this unit the week of Halloween.

Dolphin - Animal of the Week

I'm late to post but this week we are studying Dolphins!

Here is our Dolphin fact sheet, activities, and craft.

We got very cool book at the library called Winter's Tail by Julians Hatkoff. It's a very cool story about the dolphin that got a new tail. 

Owl - Animal of the Week

This month here is another Animal of the Week that is sometimes a little spooky....the Owl. Now honestly, I think owls are the cutest. My littlest's nursery was all pink owl and they are such cute little things. In reality, however, they can be a little scary! They make that frightening "whooo!" noise and pluck little mice right off the ground. I have a cute/scary little owl Halloween decoration, so someone other than me, must think they are at least a little frightening. This week we'll experience some cute owls and some more realistic owls (still cute though).

Download the Owl Animal of the Week sheet here.

Check out the Amazon list of books here.

I'm super excited about the craft this week. Raise your hand if you hoard toilet paper rolls for crafts! <raised hand>

Spiders - Animal of the Week

Almost every night when I go to let my pup out before bed, there is some kind of dangerous, scary looking spider hanging out around my door. Sometimes spinning a web right in front of the doorway, and sometimes just hanging out on the door. Why do they like my door so much!? 

It's definitely Spider season. They are looking for winter homes so they like my nice warm dark crevices in my house. <shutter> So this week we are studying Spiders. It will certainly be easy to find some to look at and study! 

Download the Animal of the Week PDF here.

Here are some books to look for:

• National Geographic Books: Spiders by Laura Marsh
• Aaaaarrgghh! Spider! by Lydia Monks
• The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

The Book Basket

We have so many wonderful books! They are admired, loved, and read for weeks then the kids pick their favorites and the others get buried in the shelves. 

In an effort to reclaim some favorites I'm implementing the book basket. In the basket I will place books that are seasonal, about a subject they might be studying, or maybe just one I think they might enjoy. I'll rotate them when the basket seems to be fizzling. 

Zebra - Animal of the Week

This week we are studying Zebras! 
Download this week's Animal of the Week pages here.

Here are some books we are going to check out:

• Appaloosa Zebra by Jessie Haas
• Lots and lots of zebra stripes: patterns in nature by Stephen R. Swinburne
• Zella, Zack, and Zodiac by Bill Peet

Enjoy!

Pinterest Party TIME!

My friends and I love a good Pinterest Party! This Friday we are getting together for a Fall Themed Pinterest Party!

Picture: No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake
from afamilyfeast.com

What's a Pinterest Party? You might be asking. We try to pick 2 or 3 projects (depending on how lengthy they are) and we get all the necessary items and craft away. We also have food we find on Pinterest. We try to only include things we see on Pinterest.  Typically we only include food items we've seen on Pinterest, but haven't tried. And yes, we've had duds and failures....but that's part of the fun. 
This week I'm in charge of the food. Here's the menu:

• Pumpkin Smoothies
• Baked Apples
• Apple Nachos
• Carmel Pumpkin Cheesecake Dip
• Pumpkin Ice Cream
• No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake
• Chocolate Pumpkin Truffles
• Pumpkin Ravioli

See the links to these yummy recipes on my Fall/Halloween Board on Pinterest.  I've prepped by making the Pumpkin Ice Cream (takes good so far...just needs to freeze), No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake (cheated and tried it and it was de-lish), and Chocolate Pumpkin Truffles.  I'll make everything else tomorrow. Can't wait to try ALL of them!

Animal of the Week - Ducks/Swans/Geese

This week we are studying a few "birdies"! We'll look at Ducks, Swans, and Geese since they are sort of similar and usually together. We'll look at the similarities and differences. 

We have lots of Geese in our neck of the woods. They have starting to migrate finally, but they are quite a nuisance in the spring. Our town finally got a Geese crossing sign right down from our subdivision  to help with all the Geese that try to cross the four lane road. I've been stopped many times. You have to honk because they sometimes just won't move.  Ask my daughter about the time the Geese pooped on us during our walk, too. HAHAHA  Lets just say, if you see Geese get up and fly....RUN FOR IT!


Print the Duck/Geese/Swan Animal of the Week here.

We'll look for these books this week:

• Duck & Good Find a Pumpkin by Tad Hills
• Grady the Goose by Denise Brenna-Nelson
• 10 Little Rubber Ducks by Erin Carle
• Just Ducks! by Nicola Davies
• The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen

Books for Homeschoolers Too

When my kid was in public school it seemed like every week he would come home with a new fundraiser. We sold discount cards and trash bags. There were food drives, box tops, money for spirit week (to wear a hat cost $1), walk-a-thons, book drives, book fairs, etc etc. The list goes on and on. Now some of that was for other causes, good causes, other than for the school, but all cost money. School, even when tuition is free, is expensive.

This year we are homeschooling. Whew....I finally feel like I can breathe! The obligations are for things we WANT to do. We also spend our money on things we WANT and need...but we know where our money goes. 

A fellow homeschool mom and I were discussing how we really missed those Scholastic flyers we'd get sent home when our kids were in school. Remember those sweet flyers with all the books your kids would drool over? We missed them and we wanted to have the opportunity to buy the discounted books too. I thought about just contacting a fellow teacher I knew, but I didn't want to intrude and be bothersome so I decided to google. I ran across fiveoclockdanceparty's blog here: http://fiveoclockdanceparty.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/scholastic-book-club-available-to-homeschoolers/

Searching for Scholastic Homeschool didn't point me to their homeschool page but they do have such a thing. You can find it here: http://clubsonline.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5920

Recommended on the listed blog was to create a teacher's account, then call 1-800-497-8291 and confirm you are actually homeschooling. They also will ask for some info and want a school name. This is just whatever name you want but just be ready when you call. The list of the other information is listed on their site: http://clubsonline.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5920

My dilemma is that I already had a parent account and could not create a teacher account because I wanted to use the same email.  When I called, I let them know and they switched my account over to a teacher. Now they told me when I can, log into a teacher account. Basically I am still a parent too, but to order as a teacher, I need to be in teacher space...but I can also order as a parent. Just be careful when you order and make sure you switch your kids teacher to yourself so whatever you do, you still get books :-) and you don't have your child's old teacher listed. 

When you do this and have your own "class site", your class will get a class code. You can send this to family and friends and they can order books for you or for themselves, but you get the points to go towards free books. 

Also you can create a class wish list. This way, when they log in your class code, they can see what you want and 'order for the class'.

Now, we love the library and we use it every week! BUT nothing beats getting your own book to keep and read over and over. 


I also made an Amazon wishlist. Since most catalogs sells through Amazon or Amazon also carries that product, I can register for all the wants there. Not only can I share it with family and friends (for birthdays and Christmas especially) but I like to keep track of books and things I'd like to get for the kids, when have finished curriculum. 

Happy Reading!

Animal of the Week - Cheetah

This week we are studying Cheetahs! 

If you want to learn more about the fastest mammal on earth download our Animal of the Week sheets here. (PDF)

We might just have to go to the Zoo and see us a real live Cheetah. Our Cheetahs like to hide though, so who knows if we'll be able to see them. Our zoo does a Cheetah Run every month though. I'm not sure if my kids remember it from last year but we went and it was really interesting. Apparently, Cheetahs are super fast but only for a few seconds. They rigged a line zig zagging through the cheetah habitat and it shows their ability to dart at the objects or prey. But they certainly could not keep up with the objects, if they didn't pull them off the line on the first or second try. 

Books we are looking for this week include:

• National Geographic Readers: Cheetahs by Laura Marsh 
• Cheetah by Taylor Morrison
• What's Faster Than A Speeding Cheetah? by Robert E. Well

There is also a cool lap book on Cheetahs over at Homeschool Share.com. If you'd like to study more about any of these animals check our their website because they have great unit studies or lap books available for a lot of them. 

Stay Speedy!

Animal of the Week - Camel

This week's animal is the Camel!
Download the info sheet, coloring pages, reading log, and craft here.

I do put cursive writing on my writing sheets because that is what we are currently working on. If you would prefer regular writing, you can make your own writing sheets at the TwistyNoodle.com. They have the cutest coloring sheets which I use frequently and you can put in your own text and choose cursive or regular for your budding writing to practice. 

This week at the library was slim pickings! There were basically only three books, so that is what we go!

• The Christmas Camel by Nancy Winslow Park
• Pamela Camel by Bill Peet
• Cappy the Lonely Camel by Donald Rubinetti

There are certainly many more camel books aren't there but our library just doesn't carry them. 

We hope to learn about Camels this week! Should be fun!

Animal of the Week - Alligator

The Animal of the Week is the

ALLIGATOR!

Download the Alligator of the Week info here. (PDF)

We are headed to the library to check out some of these cool Alligator books:

• Alligator Sue by Sharon Arms Doucet and Anne Wilsdorf 
• Hooray for Amanda & Her Alligator! by Mo Willems 
• There's an Alligator under My Bed by Mercer Mayer

This week was not strategically organized but it does happen to fall on the same week we are starting full blown "A" prek curriculum with my two year old. A is for alligator after all!

So far I love the curriculum...it's from Confessions of a Homeschooler. You can check it our here.

Animal of the Week- Shark

The Animal of the Week is the infamous SHARK!!!!!!!

We waited until AFTER Shark week to make it OUR Shark week, but that's ok. I went ahead and recorded a bunch of Shark shows. We got a Word World Shark DVD at the Library and lots of Shark books. Here are a few we picked up:

• Shark vs. Train Chris Barton and Tom Lichtenheld 
• Gilbert the Hero by Jane Clarke 
• Shark in the Dark by Peter Bently

Here is the Shark info for this week. (PDF)

Homeschool Activites Around Town

With Homeschooling in full swing around here, I'm trying to get a handle on some outside the house events that we could attend to stir things up a bit. 

Here are some fun things around the KC area for Homeschoolers:

CoCo Key Water Resort Days

2014 Homeschool CoCo Key Water Resort Days, rate is only $5.00 plus tax when you identify yourself as a homeschooler, from 1-9pm: Feb 21st, April 25th, June 20th, Aug 15th, Oct 17th, Dec 19th.
For questions, call 816-737-4766. Children ages 2 & under are free.
This event is open to homeschool students, family & friends. CoCo Key is also opened to the public on these dates.
We've never been but sounds like fun!

Kansas City Zoo

The Zoo has a program called "When Science Attacks" that is designed for homeschoolers. They describe the program including " a small tour, activities, possibly an animal encounter, and a take home activity, not to mention the opportunity to engage with our professional Zoo Educators on a variety of topics.
Sessions for the first semester are September through December and you can choose between Wednesdays or Thursdays. It is designed for K through 8th grade. K through 2nd grade cost is $6. 3rd grade and up cost is $8. You must preregister for each class and be a FOTZ (Friend of the Zoo) to register. 
We've been to lots of storytimes at the zoo so this looks fun! We usually bring a lunch and stay for the day when we attend a class.

Nelson Atkins Museum

They have three different homeschool days described here. We were looking forward to going to one but they are already sold out...even for April! Must be a fun event!

Know of anything for homeschoolers? Please share in the comments and I'll try to update!


Here are some fun things we'd like to do this year that aren't necessarily for homeschoolers but still fun:

• Fleming Park Native Hoofed Animal Enclosure 
• Deanna Rose Farmstead - Free Monday through Thursdays. Open until Oct 31st. I know this because I suggested to a friend that we go on November 1st last year. HAHAHA Whoops!
• Overland Park Arboretum - I especially want to try geocaching here
• Powell Gardens
• Science City
• Sea Life Aquarium
• Kaleidoscope
• Story time at Ceramic Cafe
• 
  

We want to learn about CHICKENS!

My kiddo ran up to me with feathers in tow exclaiming "Let's study chickens! I already got the chicken feathers!" 
My mother keeps chickens and one of them is currently molting, leaving behind lots of feathers in her yard. My 6 year old was ecstatic. So.....let's study chickens!

We prepped early this time and went to the library on Friday. We got lots of chicken books but here's a few:

• Chicken Big by Keith Graves
• Chicken Chickens by Valeri Gorbachev
• Cook-a-doodle-doo by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel
• Louise, The Adventure of a Chicken by Kate DiCamillo and Harry Blss

Want to join along in our animal of the week? Print off the Chicken (PDF) info.

***Update***

Check out our pretty chickens! 

Animal of the Week - Armadillo

This year in our homeschooling adventure we are doing an Animal of the Week. I have a two year old and a six year old so this way we can involve the two year old a bit more.

For each animal, I have gathered 10 facts we are going to learn together, a few coloring pages and/or writing pages, a reading log, a craft, and sometimes additional activities. If possible, once a month or so, we will try to visit the zoo, farm, etc. to seek out the animals we have been studying. We will seek out books at the library that involve our animals (I'm going to try to remember every week to reserve ones on the following week animal). Should be lots of fun!

This week's animal is the Armadillo (PDF). Print out a copy for your little one if you want to join in on the fun!

Terry Lounge Chair Cover Tutorial

In honor of SUMMER!!!! I'm re-posting my Beach Towel Chair Cover Tutorial that I originally posted on my MomMomWheel blog that I never kept up with. Enjoy!


My sister was up visiting and with her upcoming wedding, she was browsing the web searching for ideas for Bridesmaids gifts. I suggested she check out the Swoozies website. They have very cute, personalized gifts. She stumbled upon the Terry Lounge Chair Cover, and then admitted how much she actually wanted one. I took one look and thought how easy it would be to make these. They sell them all over the web from $30 to $50 and that is unpersonalized. Here's how I made my own, personalized one, for around $7 bucks.

What you'll need: 2 beach towels, scissors, and a sewing machine. (embroidery is optional) Terry cloth is very thick so make sure you have good scissors. I hit up Target while they were having beach towels on sale for $3 each. Check out end of the season sales to get great deals on towels, and then you can have them ready for gifts around Christmas in peak Resort season time!

Step 1: If you want any kind of applique or embroidery on the front towel, do that first. (This is the towel that you aren't cutting up)

Monogram before you sew

Cut trying to save hemmed edges, and you'll save time

Step 2: Using your spare towel, measure and cut around 13" (keeping width the same...most towels are 30"). This will be the part that holds the towel onto the chair. I tried to use the hemmed sides as much as possible...because it's just less sewing you have to do.


Step 3: Do any embroidering you'd like on the extra fabric (back of chair). Pin this piece to the top of the main towel (right sides together), and sew. If you kept the hemmed side on your spare towel you're done. If you need to hem, do that before you sew it to the main towel. Turn right side out and you're done with the top part.

Pin right sides together to sew pocket at top that holds the towel to the chair

My pockets were 9" in length

Step 4: Measure how big you'd like your pockets. I used the design on the the towel to dictate how big they were. Think about what you'll use them for: sunblock, keys, magazines, etc. Measure out to identical pieces, keeping the width (30"). Mine were about 10". You'll want to measure how much your chair sits off the ground. Mine was about 10" from the floor to the chair, so I made my pockets 9" in length. So I folder my pockets up, right sides together, 9" and sewed around edges. Flip right side out. Voila! A pocket!

Step 5: Hem up the sides of the towel that are now hanging strangely because you made the pocket. Fold the top of the pocket down, back to back and sew all the way around. I left 2 inches between the top of the pocket this top part.

Hem sides of the top part of the pocket

Step 6: Fold top of pocket down and sew down. I used presser foot width. Now your pocket has a flap! There are many ways to make a pocket for this chair. I did it this way to minimize cutting and hemming.

Step 7: Make the other pocket using Steps 4 through 6.

Step 8: Sew the pockets onto the main towel. I measured the width of the chair, length of chair to floor, but my pockets were longer than 9" based on my little design there so when I sewed them on, they touched the floor the little. :-( You also need to make sure that they are measured lengthwise on the chair. I put my pockets between 28" and 48" from the top of the chair. My advice, don't even bother with measuring. Just go pin them on while your towel is on the chair. Then they'll be perfect.  Use the line you sewed in Step 6 as a guideline to sew the pocket on the towel.

Sew the pockets to the main towel

Fabric I had left after my pockets

Step 9 (optional): You'll have about 1/3 of your spare towel left at this point. It's fine to stop here, but if you'd like to extend your towel, so your feet can rest on a towel, use your extra fabric to extend it on out. I put my almost finished towel on my chair, and measured how much more fabric I needed to cover the chair. Cut your spare towel based on those measurements, pin right sides together at bottom of main towel, and sew. I took my hemmed edge from the main towel and layed it over the unhemmed edge of the extra towel, and sewed it down, so the towel will lay flay when on the chair. You're done!

Back of extra piece, sew so it'll lay flat

Front of extra piece

It's still completely washable, and it folds up easily into the back pocket (that folds over the chair).