Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Crafty Side Blog Hop- May 31, 2011







Hello and welcome to :


Show Off Your Crafty Side blog hop is hosted by Purple Froggie Clay Stuff and Tots and Me


This week we're joined by our Crafty Co-hostess 
Nicole from Plain Graces





And here's just a little "blip" (as the co-hostess worded it) about herself..



Plain Graces is the place where the graces of everyday items become special and deliciously blessed.  Topics range from recipes, saving money, crafts, education, Nebraska tales, and the occasional Monkee post.  Stop by for some midwest hospitality.


Nicole




OK, So who's up for some free advertisement for your Etsy and Artfire shops? How about free advertisement for your crafty-ness? So....


We want you to link up as many crafts, shops, recipes, sewing projects and DIY projects as you want.. 


This blog hop will be open all week long, starting on Tuesday night at 8 PM Central Standard Time,  so be sure to check back often as more crafts get linked up with us.


This is a great way to show off and find some fun things to do. 


Rules: 


1) Link up your Etsy, Artfire, and any Crafty-ness. Not just your main blog.


2) As always, have a great time, share your links with us, as many as you would like to share.


3) If you would like to follow the 2 hostesses, and co-hostess, please leave a comment. We will always follow you back!


4) Please grab our button above and help us spread the word about this awesome blog hop. Have fun, visit other blogs if you would like and thank you for sharing your links with us! 


**Each week we will choose someone from the link up to be our guest host. If you would like to be considered for the guest host position, just post something about this blog hop, include the blog hop button from above, follow both hostesses on GFC, comment letting us know you are interested in being a guest host. 


Thank you for sharing with us! If you have linked up a craft with us, now you can grab the button below and add it to your blog if you would like..














Tiny Talk Tuesday: May 31, 2011



Tabitha had been drawing pictures on my back-smiley faces.  They then became a family and then she drew a sky because they were outside then she wouldn't let me get up 'til she drew the grass.  Suddenly it became a garden with swirls across my back, to which she added a square and said it was the park.  It was about then that Amelia came and started rubbing on my back. Tabitha said, "I'm drawing a picture on your back and she's erasing it."  Then they happily worked together.

I asked Amelia what cereal she wanted for breakfast yesterday, as I always do, and she told me "Honey the boats- bunches of oats."  She has called it "Honey the boats" for quite a while now.  This was the first time she corrected herself.

The girls now have a new nickname for Hannah (it actually originated from Amelia):
Hanny

Head on over to Not Before 7 to see what other's have caught their children saying.

Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up- May 31, 2011

Don't forget to check out my giveaway- It ends tomorrow, June 1st @ 11:59 pm.
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Shaping the New You (Low Entries)




Welcome to the NEW and improved and very exciting

Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up

with your hosts Purple Froggie Clay Stuff  and  Tots and Me 
and Classified: Mom


This link up will be posted Monday at 8 PM Central Standard Time (CST) run all week, so be sure to stop in as often as you can to list your latest giveaways. The giveaway link up will be posted on Monday nights so be sure to follow Purple Froggie Clay Stuff, Tots and Me and Classified: Mom via email so you can keep up on all of the link-up-ed-ness.


Here is how to use the Giveaway Link Up

1. Post your giveaways, as many as you have, be sure to add the end date

2. Now you can post reviews and anything you would like (family friendly please)

3. Spread the word about the giveaway link up by Tweeting or posting on Facebook.


If you would like to follow the three hostesses, we will gladly follow you back, please be sure to leave us a message.


Thank you for linking up with Purple Froggie Clay Stuff, Tots and Me and Classified: Mom.



Tuesday Blog Hops May 31, 2011

Time for some fun blog hopping. Here are the Tuesday Blog Hops I have found. Won't you join us and make some new friends.
Later today I will be posting Tiny Talk Tuesday. Hope you can stop in for a look.
I also host Words of Wisdom Wednesday and Breakfast for Dinner Thursday.  (These buttons are on my sidebar if you would like to check them out.) On Wednesday I will be posting my Wordless Wednesday photos. And the weekend will bring our school time wrap up.
Looking forward to visiting some new blogs.

Hip Homeschool Hop Button   Ourfamilyworld Photobucket
And for some fun:




NightOwlCrafting
Questions will be up at Night Owl Crafting and I will post my answers here ASAP.  Head on over to join the fun!

Monday, May 30, 2011

Muffin Tin Monday: Patriotic Tin

Muffin Tin Monday at Muffintinmom.com

Well, we didn't go to the parade today (Krystal decided she didn't want to be in it this year, something about getting heat stroke wearing their new uniforms).  But I told the girls it was Memorial Day with an itty bitty explanation.  So, bring on the patriotic tin:



They had 
Red beet stars
White cheese stars
 Peanut butter sandwich stars
Red fruit burst (grapes and strawberries)
White cool whip
Blueberries (not very well received because they are the frozen kind)
And a yummy patriotic sugar cookie




Hannah got the scraps from making the stars, plus strawberries.  And yes, I let her have some cookie.



Head on over to Muffin Tin Mom to see what other's have given their children to eat in a muffin tin.

Menu Plan Monday: Week of May 30, 2011

Photobucket

Well, we have decided we don't like catfish.  That was the fish I bought for last week's pan fried fish.  We usually use haddock and I think I will stick with it.  I did pretty good following the menu this week, though I forgot to take the pork chops out of the freezer so we had to change that up. I used chopped up leftover chicken in the spaghetti sauce which was really well liked.  Have to remember that one.  Then, because we had the spaghetti a day early we made cheeseburgers and homemade fries the next day.  Hubby had mentioned that we hadn't had them for a while.  Was a great suggestion.  I added Worcestershire sauce, steak sauce, honey barbecue sauce and garlic powder and the family said they were the best I have ever made.  Though they did tend to burn faster.

Here is this week's menu:
Monday: Cook out (weather permitting) with hot dogs and potato salad and macaroni salad
Tuesday: Tacos (using last week's leftover meat)
Wednesday: Crock pot pork chops in cream of mushroom soup with rice and green beans
Thursday: Breakfast For Dinner Thursday: Pancakes buffet
Friday: Sloppy Joes with pierogies and side salad
Saturday: Homemade chicken nuggets and homemade macaroni and cheese with glazed carrots
Sunday: Leftovers

Don't forget to join my on Thursdays for Breakfast For Dinner Thursdays
Tots and Me

Head on over to I''m An Organizing Junkie to check out other's menu plans.

Learning Fractions with Hershey's Chocolate

We had another spontaneous activity at meal time this week.  I had recently read part of The Hershey's Milk Chocolate Fractions Book by Jerry Pallotta that I had actually planned on doing when we discussed fractions while doing F. (I found this book a while ago over at Ticia's blog Adventures in Mommydom)
The Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar Fractions Book
I just kept putting it off, but decided I needed to read it before having to return it to the library. We only got a few pages in and the girls were getting really frustrated that they couldn't eat their chocolate.  So, I let them eat them, sharing them out evenly.  What amazed me, was that Amelia wanted to do it again after I returned the book.  So I simplified it a bit.  We talked about the bar being 1 whole bar (in the wrapper and out of the wrapper).  Then I broke it into 2 pieces, putting half on one side of the paper and one on the other.  I wrote the fractions above the candy, telling the girls they had 1 of two parts.  Then we pushed them together to show two of two parts make one whole.

Then I broke each half into half giving us 4 quarters.  Once again I wrote the fraction, explaining we had 1 of 4 parts as I wrote.



Then we put them back together and I showed them 4 of 4 parts added together make 1 whole bar.



Then we shared them out and ate them:







Mommy and daddy had to share 3 pieces, so we got 1 and a half rectangles, while the girls each got 3 rectangles which were 1/4 of the bar.

Linking up to 




Sunday, May 29, 2011

Science Sunday: Exploring and Enjoying God's Creation (Nature Finds, Dandelions and Snails)

Science Sunday

Now that the weather is warmer we have been having a great time getting out, taking walks, going to the park, just enjoying exploring God's creation.  The girls have enjoyed gathering nature objects for our "science table" that they would like to create.  For now they are in one of our old Easter baskets.  


A while ago my girls brought me a nice bouquet of dandelions.  I have never really paid attention to the details of dandelions going to seed.  It just seems one day the yard is a carpet of yellow and the next we have white puff balls all over our yard just begging to be blown by the children.  While these dandelions stood on our counter I finally was able to notice some things I never noticed.  I am not sure if the time frame is different for dandelions that are still growing in the yard, but they didn't go to seed near as fast as I thought they would.  I always thought the yellow petals turned white.  We were able to see the yellow wither up and drop off so the seeds underneath could spread forth.



In fact, we stood there pulling some of the withered yellow parts off.


Here they are ready to get thrown out. I have had them too long.  I am thinking of picking some new ones and  getting pictures each day, so we can truly see the progression.


As we were sort of studying dandelions I decided I wanted to take a picture of the dandelions while we had our picnic on Wednesday.  


Then Tabitha wanted to take some pictures.



I figured it was a good way for her to observe nature.

Then Amelia wanted a turn of course.


I shared about our snails last week in my weekly school time post.



Today I decided it was time to let them go.  We opened the jar and set it down in our greenery.  I was surprised to see several other snails on the leaves.












They really did seem to like their freedom.
Here is their new home:





Also linked up at

Tot School

Friday, May 27, 2011

School Time Week 34: Conclusion of C (Caterpillars and Clouds)

It's been another productive week here.  I am not sure what there is about having the new curriculum, but I have been extremely motivated and organized.
We started our week with a Breakfast Muffin Tin which had no relationship whatsoever with our themes this week.  Just a request from Tabitha.

This week we focused more on the Trinity.  We used the illustration of an egg to explain the Trinity, which I thought was a pretty neat idea.  I've seen the shamrock used around St. Patrick's Day, I've used the triangle.  Both of which are three parts to make a whole.  But the egg seems really appropriate, because each part is actually different from the other, shell, white and yolk and has a different function/job, just like the Father, Son and Holy Spirit do.  We then spent some time drawing pictures of our family (all of whom have a special function in our family).  



We sang a cute song to reinforce the idea of God being 3 persons in 1 and then spent time doing things in groups of three.  I let the girls take turns picking things to do, Amelia liked choosing spinning 3 times.  Daddy had us do 3 sit ups.  Though we also got to jump and clap.  Then we built 3 block towers...


and pyramids.


Amelia still has some difficulty with counting one to one.  She can count, but she didn't quite get the idea of stopping at 3.  So we will work on that occasionally.

I'm not sure which day we actually did the second day of our Interlock, but we learned that is important for people to work together.  We made a "Our Helpful Jobs" chart.  I didn't feel comfortable calling them "chores."  We came up with different things the girls have been helping with and can start helping more with.  Things such as, helping with the laundry (putting them in the washer, putting them in the dryer, and Tabitha also helps fold), cleaning their spot on the table after meals, picking up toys, picking up papers and sweeping after meals (Hannah makes a royal mess).  I wrote them down, put the paper in a sheet protector and added lines to make it into a chart.  Then they get starts on it when they complete "helpful jobs."

We really didn't do everything in the Interlock this week, the biggest reason was I just couldn't go out and get some of the materials.  Though some things just seemed to much of a review that wasn't needed.  Next week looks interesting though.  

I am glad that the Interlock is just extra stuff really.  We did have a lot to do with our C lessons.  The girls worked on finding C's


On Wednesday we had a picnic in our back yard.




And got to enjoy some time observing the clouds.  And of course, if you are going to observe puffy clouds, you have to spend some time figuring out what they look like, don't you?  Tabitha of course gave Amelia input for what she was seeing.  I actually had them look at the pictures a day later, to see if what they came up with was different (it was).

Tabitha: whale
Amelia: elephant

Tabitha: dog or zebra
Amelia: fish
Mom: Dog

Tabitha: heart
Amelia: whale

Mom: face (possibly a frog)

Mom: I see a bird wearing a baker's hat blowing out a fire or blowing smoke or ice.

The rest of our Wednesday was quite eventful. Before we made lunch we had gone to the library because we wanted time to go to the park after the picnic (originally the picnic was to be in park, but it was easier to just bring it out to the back yard).  While we were there we saw some friends who also homeschool and are a part of the homeschool group. We aren't actually a part of the group yet, the girls being so young, but they invited us over to the fire station with them for their field trip.  I shared about that on Wednesday, but here are a couple of my favorite pictures:



On Thursday we painted some cloud pictures. First we checked out a couple of different types of clouds online here at Web Weather For Kids. Then the girls painted Cirrus clouds:



And Cumulus Clouds



Today we added clouds to our Learning to Read chart.  The other day I shared our caterpillar word families. I had already planned on using clouds to work on the sight words.


I showed the girls several sight words one at a time.  Tabitha really knew them all already.  Then they put them on the chart.  After they were all on, I asked the girls to find a word and hand it to me.  Amelia actually did pretty well.


Unfortunately Miss Hannah likes pulling the circles off the caterpillars several times a day.

Then we made Cotton Ball C's, which conveniently looked like clouds in the sky.  What can I say, I like connecting things in our lessons.


We had another spontaneous activity at meal time this week.  I had recently read part of the Hershey Fraction Book that I had actually planned on doing when we discussed fractions while doing F.  I just kept putting it off, but decided I needed to read it before having to return it to the library. We only got a few pages in and the girls were getting really frustrated that they couldn't eat their chocolate.  So, I let them eat them, sharing them out evenly.  What amazed me, was that Amelia wanted to do it again after I returned the book.  So I simplified it a bit.  We talked about the bar being 1 whole bar (in the wrapper and out of the wrapper).  Then I broke it into 2 pieces, putting half on one side of the paper and one on the other.  I wrote the fractions above the candy, telling the girls they had 1 of two parts.  Then we pushed them together to show two of two parts make one whole.

Then I broke each half into half giving us 4 quarters.  Once again I wrote the fraction, explaining we had 1 of 4 parts as I wrote.


Then we put them back together and I showed them 4 of 4 parts added together make 1 whole bar.


Then we shared them out and ate them:




Mommy and daddy had to share 3 pieces, so we got 1 and a half rectangles, while the girls each got 3 rectangles which were 1/4 of the bar.

Tiny Tot Time

Miss Hannah found herself a new activity.  She was in my cupboard and found this pan


And had fun putting plastic silverware (also from the cupboard) in the hole.




She also discovered that you can make some cool "music" with plastic forks and spoons and a cooling rack.  Sorry, no pictures of those.

 And of course, this is how she spent a lot of time at the Fire Station.




Please take a moment and check out my giveaway for Chicken Soup for the Soul: Shaping the New You.  I am keeping it open til June 1st.



I am linking to:


Tot School

















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Share It Friday


I found a great new linky to link up with
Classified: Mom
Also linking to:

No Ordinary Blog Hop




The Attached Mama’s Ultimate Alphabet Craft Collection
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