Fall Photo Placemats
Here is the final project from Leaf Day I told you I would post about. This turned into more of a Mom project, but that is okay. The kids would have enjoyed doing it. But, since it was basically scrapbooking on a placemat I had fun doing it "my way" late at night after they were sleeping.
Here are the littles at the table with the new placemats in place.
Oh, and before anyone asks…YES, the centerpiece is leaves and hedgeapples! LOL The kids picked them up at the park on Leaf Day and we all think they are lovely!
This is my placemat.
I have 3 main pictures with all 3 kids in each one. All of the pictures on these placemats are either from our trip to the pumpkin patch or from Leaf Day. I challenged myself to use only things I already had on hand to make these. So I used the pictures, 4 different punches (big square, small square, tag shape and tiny leaf shape) and some fall letters to spell out each of our names.
This is dad’s placemat.
He has one picture of each kid at the pumpkin patch and misc leaf pictures.
This is my daughters. (I covered the kids names with leaves for these pictures.)
I used the extra pieces of photo that were left after I punched out the big squares to make little frames. Then on each kids placemat I used the little frames to draw attention to them in the picture.
This one belongs to my little man.
This is my oldest sons.
I had these laminated at the teacher supply store. ($1.25) You could also just cover them with clear contact paper. For the paper background I cut these from a roll of brown postal wrapping paper, then I crinkled it to give it texture. After crinkling it I ironed it to flatten it enough to glue the pics on. To get the shape I wanted I found a placemat the size I liked in my cupboard and traced around it to cut the shape for the placemats.
I have lots of other ideas of fun ones of these to make! I thought it would be fun to make one for each family member that has pictures from when we were all babies and then we could bring those out on birthdays. We could also make these for Christmas, Easter etc. Or how about making them with pictures of friends and relatives that live far away so the kids can see them every day! (These would have been great to make before we moved last time with pictures of our friends in Las Vegas!)
Yep, I suspect we will be making more of these in the future!
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
Looking For Some GREAT Freebies?
The Schoolhouse Store has just started a new blog. Why would you want to read the Schoolhouse Stores blog? FREEBIES!!!! Well, actually it’s more that just freebies! Here is the deal. The Schoolhouse Store is going to be having all kinds of special offers most which will ONLY be announced on the blog. Subscribe to the blog and you will be entered in a drawing for a $100 gift certificate from the store! (The drawing will be held when the blog reaches 1000 subscribers. Right now it is radidly approaching 500!)
I am telling you this is going to be a sweet deal! Once you subscribe you will get an email a few times a week letting you know about sales, special offers, store news and FREEBIES! The freebies will be offered randomly and for one day only. Plus they will ONLY be announced on the blog!
So don’t miss out! Sign up today because tomorrow there could be a great freebie you will not want to miss!
You will find the blog HERE.
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
Jamin's Blogging Basics
I frequently get asked for advice on how to start or maintain a blog. So I thought a post on what I have learned about blogging is in order. First off, I am not expert. I have not studied or read a lot about the how-to’s of blogging. Like most things in my life I just found blogging appealing and jumping into it with both feet. Here I am almost 3 years later and I can barely imagine my life without my blog. Here are a few things I have learned along the way.
1. Protecting my families privacy has been important to me from the start! Yes, there are plenty of people who read my blog who know who we are. But, those are real life people we have met and know. I don’t want every Tom, Dick and Harry to be able to find my family. That is why I blog annonymously. I have no way to control who reads my blog and I don’t want to ever do anything that could risk the safety of my family. Yes, I could have chosen to use our real names and then not post pictures. But, I LOVE pictures and since this blog is also a journal I am keeping for my kids for the future I wanted to include pictures.
2. There is another type of privacy I also protect. I try really hard not to post anything that would embarrass someone. Yep, there are plenty of stories I DON’T post because I know in the long run they might embarrass one of my kids and I would never want to do that. If I am posting about a friend or family member I always let that person know in advance. I usually write the post and then send it to the person to make sure they are okay with me posting it. I don’t post a lot about my husband because he is a more private person than I am. If I do post something about him I have him read it first. There have been times he has corrected me in the details of a story. In other words he keep me accountable.
The goal of my blog is to share our homeschool adventure, keep a record for my kids and to support other homeschoolers in their homeschooling adventure. My key verse for my blog is:
When you talk, do not say harmful things, but say things that people need – words that will help others to become stronger. Then what you say will do good to those who listen to you. Ephesians 4:29
This verse is always on my mind and in my heart when I write on my blog. Before I post each entry I ask myself. Is this post harmful to anyone? Will it help others to become stronger? Will this post do good for others? If the answer to any of these is no, them I delete the post. it is not always that the topic is bad, but many times that I just didn’t get my point across properly. It may be that I was too whiny or feeling sorry for myself. Not everything I write gets posted! (As a matter of fact I frequently write posts I have no intention of posting. I just need to think through my fingers and this is my place for that!) Sometimes I am just venting and I write a post I KNOW I am NEVER going to post! LOL
With my goal of fulfilling Ephesians 4:29 in mind I am also mindful of the responsibility I have to the people who read my blog. Right now I average 1000 to 1200 readers per day! (This is a combination of subscribers, and blog visitors.) The church we attend seats approx. 1000 people. I frequently look around on Sunday and think "Wow, this is about the number of people I speak to every day from my blog!" That is mind boggling considering that the pastor I am listening to has spent years studying in order to reach this group every week. Here I am a "nobody" who gets to reach the same number of people every day! It’s mind boggling and a responsibility I take very seriously! Everything is prayerfully considered before it is posted. This is not to say I have not offended people and mis-spoke on my blog. But, my intention is to always remember that words have power and I want to use that power for good and not evil! LOL
Another goal I have is to post on my blog 5 days a week. M-F. One way I keep up the pace of posting 5 days a week is to write ahead. When I have an idea for a post (Like this one for instance.) I go ahead and write it. Then I hang on to it until a day when nothing blogworthy happened at our house. Every night before I go to bed I post my entry for the next day. That way my readers have something fresh to read M-F when they wake up! :^)
Find your voice! Know what your blog is about. Who is your audience? My audience is primarily homeschool mom’s. But, I get a fair number of other students and teachers that find my blog through google searches. When I first started out my blog was just a journal of my kids schooling. Over time I realized that God was using it to share ideas and projects that we have done with others. He has also allowed me to have a hand in mentoring other homeschool mom’s through my blog. I never dreamed of such a thing when I started this blog! But, over time I have realized that is part of my voice! (A part I enjoy very much and feel blessed to have in my life!)
Be transparent. People I know frequently tell me that when they read my blog posts it’s just like talking to me! LOL (Hum..Maybe they are really saying they can’t get a word in edgewise?) I am pretty much the same on my blog as I am in person. This is not an act. This is a forum for me to spill out all my thoughts and passions. It’s real. Some days it’s funny, some days it’s meloncholy. Everyday it’s ME!
Be ready to serve others. When you put yourself out there for people to "know" you are going to find opportunities to serve others. I feel so privileged when someone asks me to help them with questions they have about a curriculum. I feel so honored when a reader asks me to pray for them! I never dreamed I would be able to serve others through my blog. But, that is another gift God has given me through blogging. Isn’t God AWESOME! Sometimes it take awhile for me to get to the emails people send me. But, I always do my best to answer them all.
Be ready for controversy if you post on controversial issues. I personally steer clear of controversy as much as I can. I am not hear to argue. This is my place to "think through my fingers." But, if you do chose to post about controversial topics, be ready! People will be there to challenge you! Even if you don’t purposfully post about things that are controversial you will still post things that push people hot buttons! I have learned a lot over the last 3 years about what makes people tick! I have had some of the most nothing posts to me, inspire great passion in others! Be ready! You never know what someone else is thinking.
Take charge of your blog. Ultimately this is my space. I love getting comments and sharing dialogue that is meaningful to me. But, if someone gets nasty or links to something offensive to me. Bye-bye! I am all for free speech, and if someone wants to speak freely I encourage them to go start their own blog to do so. But, don’t get mad if you say something offensive in a comment and I delete it. This is my "home on the web." Just as I wouldn’t allow someone to come into my home and bad mouth me or my kids, I don’t allow it on my blog either. No, it has not happened a lot. But, it has happened. I have certain posts that get nasty comments more than others. (These are not things that come from other homeschoolers, but from people who find my blog through random google searches.) So, if you call me or my kids a name..bye-bye! Homeschoolblogger has this neat little feature that allows me to block IP’s from my blog. And I HAVE used it!
Most of all HAVE FUN with your blog! If you love to write blogging is a great way to get your daily dose of writing! If you start a blog and find it a burden, then quit! It’s not supposed to be another thing you HAVE to do. I look forward to blogging everyday! The time I spend writing my posts is the most relaxing this I do for myself on a consistent basis! For me it is therapy! The fact that anyone else reads it is all icing! If I ever stopped enjoying it then I would be outta here! (Although I don’t see that happening anytime in the next 100 years or so! LOL)
I hope this has helped to answer some of the questions you all have about blogging. I don’t really know if this is what others wanted to hear when they ask "What advice do you have for me about blogging?" But, these are the things I have learned. Many are the things I wish I has known when I started this process three years ago.
So best wishes and good luck on your blogging endevours!
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
Leaf Day
(My little has been having fun raking leaves with their Crayola Rainbow Rake! LOL)
One fun thing that I have done through our homeschooling years is to occasionally wake the kids up and surprise them with a one day celebration of a holiday I have made up. We have done board game day, pumpkin day, apple day, middle ages day, etc. Last Thursday we celebrated Leaf Day! We have all been pretty excited to be living in a place with fall foilage after 4 years in the desert. So I really wanted to spend one day just enjoying the beauty and splendor of Fall!
Our day started out with some handprint leaves.
These will go in my preschoolers ABC Lap-n-Note we are making this year.
I love anything that can be made with the kid hands! And these were easy.
We just painted a mix of fall colors on their hands and then pressed their hands on the paper. Once it was dry I used a Sharpie to draw a few veins and a stem. So pretty!
While our handprint leaves dried we headed out to the park to go leaf hunting!
(If you are reading this via email you can view the slideshow HERE.)
After we came back home we used our leaves we collected to do leaf rubbings.
My littles thought it was SO fun that they got to peel the paper off the crayons and color with the side of it! LOL
Then I printed out a couple of leaf coloring sheets for the littles to color.
We used one from a E-Book we have that is very similar to this one:
http://gonewengland.about.com/library/coloring/nleafcollage1.htm
and we used this one:
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/documents/fall_leaves.pdf
Once they had all the leaves colored we cut them out and then pasted them onto a piece of folded construction paper. Then we cut them out again leaving the fold uncut so we could hang them on a piece of yarn.
Here is a close up of the garland we made.
And here is what it looks like stretched across the fireplace.
We also read about the parts of leaves and the parts of trees. I printed out some leaf related worksheets and handwriting sheets for my daughter that she can work on in the upcoming days.
I was also planning on making Aut-yum Leaves, but I couldn’t find a leaf cookie cutter. So we will have to make these another time.
We are working on one more leaf craft that involves the pictures we took at the park of all the leaves. We will hopefully have that project done later in the week to show you.
My kids really enjoy these special days. For one thing it is a break from the "normal" school day. But, also it is just a great family time to enjoy time learning together. This is a fun way to do a little mini-study of something I want them to learn about, but don’t necessarily want to devote a lot of time to.
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
Happy Birthday Daddy!
Today is Daddy’s Birthday! Happy Birthday Daddy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yesterday we made him some fun cards using our hand prints!
May daughter was SO thrilled how hers came out with a little blank spot that looked like a heart in the middle of the heart she painted with her hands. We couldn’t have done that if we would have tired! LOL
Inside of each card we put a picture of the artist making the card.
It’s funny, I didn’t even notice he was shirtless until I posted these pics! LOL
and…
We wanted dad to know they had made these hearts with their hands.
Of course once the paints were out we couldn’t stop at just making cards!
Here is my little man showing off his masterpiece!
If you haven’t tried these crayola squeezable brushes we really like them! I bought these at Target. They were 5 for about $3.50 and then they are refillable. They really do contain the mess and the kids just love squeezing the paint out.
Daddy has today off. So we have a full day planned of eating cake and celebrate dad! Another benefit of home education!
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
CullensABC.com
I was looking for ideas for a felt board story for the letter E yesterday when I came across this AMAZING preschool website! It’s called cullensabc.com. What we found were literally hundreds of videos made by Cullen doing felt board stories, telling stories & singing songs. It’s like a preschool class on a website!
My four year old and I spent over 2 hours yesterday watching the videos. He LOVED it! It was kind of fun for me too to sit back and get to enjoy the stories and songs with him instead of being the ones leading them. My 7 year old daughter joined us when we were about ready to sign off and she loved the videos too!
Of all the ones we watched I think my 4 year olds favorite was the Dinosaur Hokey Pokey! So I will post that one here.
If you are reading this via email you can view the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDd89tX7M1s
This was my favorite of the videos. I LOVE this one because we have this very same felt set and it is hands down my kids favorite felt story. (My oldest loves to do this one for the littles!)
If you are reading this via email you can view the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-1DgoK-iMs
I cannot say enough good things about this site! I really liked the series of videos she has on the Resurrection Eggs and look forward to counting down to Resurrection Day with my kids using her videos!
I know this is a site we will return to over and over and over!
The only caution I want to give you is that the videos are all hosted on YouTube. As long as I clicked to the videos from her site I didn’t get any objectionable advertising. BUT, if I clicked to view a second video once I had been transferred to YouTube, there was a lot of yucky advertising on the sidebar. So, I wouldn’t let my kids click around and watch the videos alone. Other than that, this site is a WINNER!
Oh, and I never did find an idea for a felt story for the letter E. So if you have an idea let me know ASAP. I need it Friday!
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
Books of the Bible Sorting Folder
My daughter is memorizing the books of the old testament this year for Awana. Last year she memorized the books of the new testament. Memorizing them in order is one thing. But, knowing at a glance whether they are old or new testament is another? This is something I still struggle with myself. I mean I ma pretty good with the major ones. (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Act, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, etc.) But, when you come to the ones like Amos, Micah or Philemon, well then I have to really wrack my brain! So I wanted her to learn them not only in order, but know at a glance where they are when she sees the name.
So I made this sorting folder to help her.
Here is the cover:
Inside:
Yep, I couldn’t resist using a little duct tape! LOL
Cards:
There are several things she can do with these besides sort the books of the Bible. She can also practice putting them in order and use them to learn to properly spell the books of the Bible. (Another thing I am not that great at! LOL) I also numbered them on the backs, so once she has them in order she can look at the numbers to self check.
I made these cards at:
http://www.kitzkikz.com/flashcards/
I wish I could share with you the file I made, but they disappear after awhile and mine are already gone.
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
VOTE!
Don’t forget to vote today!!!
After you vote make sure to stop by Starbucks. Tell them you voted and they will give you a FREE tall cup of coffee. Take your "I Voted Today" sticker to Krispy Kreme and they will give you a FREE star shaped doughnut!
SWEET!
And if that isn’t enough Ben and Jerry’s is giving away a scoop of ice cream today from 5 to 8 p.m. in honor of the elections! (One scoop per customer, so take the kids!)
I have also read several places online that Chick-fil-A is giving away free chicken sandwiches if you come in with a "I Voted" sticker. I can’t find it on their website though, so it may vary from store to store. It’s worth a try though!
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
Our Groovy Schoolroom
I promised awhile back that I would post pictures of our new 60’s inspired schoolroom. I finally got around to taking pictures, so here it is!
This is the sitting area.
How do you like those curtains! LOL
Okay, brace yourself……
Are you ready????
Here is our new school table and wall of orange curtains! LOL
What, doesn’t your schoolroom have a wall of orange curtains??? LOL
Here is the deal. This is actually the living room of our house. If you come in the front door and look to the left you see this wall of orange.
Behind the wall of orange is this:
Yep, it’s pretty messy! The cupboard in the middle is craft storage. The shelves are "organized" to have a shelf for science, language arts, math, history, preschool, music, etc. It’s really great because I can find things easily. But, it looks really messy. When I went buy curtains to cover it I was in NO WAY prepared to find out how expensive they would be! Even to sew them was going to cost a fortune in fabric. Then I found these lovely orange sheers for $4.00 a panel! (I needed 18 panels!) We had not bought the table, curtains or lamp yet. So, I decided why not have a wall of orange??? Our house was built in 1965. (The same year God made me!) When I was little we had a fake leather couch this exact color! (I LOVED that couch!) So I since it reminded me of that 60’s couch and we have a 60’s house I started calling it our "60’s schoolroom." When I found the groovy curtains it was love at first sight! (Or is that out-of-sight??) These were the chairs I had planned on all along. They came in several colors, when I realized they came in my "groovy" orange it all seemed like destiny! The aqua table tied in with the darker colors of the window curtains. The funky lamp we happened to find on clearance for $10.00 at Home Depot!
In case you are wondering we have books too!
Lots and lots of books! (We still have more to unpack, this is only half of the bookcases in the room!) That is the school computer on the desk in front of the bookcases. When you sit at the computer you are facing the couch I showed earlier.
In case anyone wonders where those unpacked boxes of books are…
The pictures above were creatively taken around the elephant in the middle of the room! LOL
Yes, I still have some work to do!
But, it’s looking pretty good compared to the last time I posted pictures of this room!
Yikes! I am glad to be past that point!!!!!
Here is one last shot…
The crates under the chairs are the books that my 2 littles are using in school currently. When we do school we can just grab their crates out from under their chairs. Then when we are done for the day the crates store nicely back underneath. The window curtains need to be raised. I had some temporary curtains hanging that were shorter, now we need to raise the rods. It feels like the projects NEVER end! (We have been in this house 6 months now! I can’t believe we still are not completely unpacked! I really don’t like moving!) But, it is NICE to have a functional schoolroom again. And, yes I realize this room is not for everyone! But, it makes me feel happy when I am in there and the kids LOVE it. So for us it is a great schoolroom!
Here is my post about our schoolroom in the last house.
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/jaminacema/87404/
I get more into how I have things organized in our schoolroom in that post.
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
Just Call Me Jamin 