Posted on

Advent kick off

I had been looking for a little kid friendly Advent devotion. Nadia is really wiggly so I was also looking for something hands on. Enter “Truth in Tinsel” an ebook by Amanda White.  It’s very well thought out, a good level for little kids and the kids can make their ornament each day. I bought it at 11 pm on November 30th, but since we are an arts and crafts house I had what I needed for the first 3 days on hand so we were ready to go. Nadia  was also given the Star Wars Lego Advent calendar for her birthday from Papa and Grandma Brooke.

Advent 2011
Click on the photo to see album

She is so excited to start!

Advent kick off 2011

Working on our devotion for day one: Isaiah 9:2-7. The ornament was a candle.

Advent kick off 2011

Amelie holding her chocolate Advent calendar (at this point she doesn’t know it contains chocolate). She was REALLY excited when the door opened and chocolate popped out 🙂

That night we headed to church for dinner and Advent candy chain making. It was a great night with friends.

Advent kick off 2011

Advent kick off 2011

Advent kick off 2011

Advent kick off 2011

Posted on

Art Level 1 – First 6 lessons

This year we decided to buy an art curriculum to do with Nadia. It’s DVD based and we have seen it at the homeschool bookfair each year. It’s called “Atelier” and you can find out more information here. The  level 1 is for ages 4-6 and has 3 modules and each module has 6 lessons. They have a supply kit you can also buy, but we have so many arts and crafts supplies I decided to wait on the list and see what we might need. I had everything except the fabrics, drawing pencils, liquid starch and oil pastels. I also picked up a new set of paintbrushes that I am keeping fresh just for this program. Here are our supplies for the year:

Art Lvl 1 - 1st 6 lessons
Click on the photo to see album

Art Level 1 - 1st 6 lessons

Art Level 1 - 1st 6 lessons

Art Level 1 - 1st 6 lessons

The Kimball Art museum was just finishing a Picasso exhibit when we did this “Hands and Flowers” lesson so we took the girls to see it. This is one of the great things about being in an area with so many wonderful museums.

Art Level 1 - 1st 6 lessons

Art Level 1 - 1st 6 lessons

Art Level 1 - 1st 6 lessons

Art Level 1 - 1st 6 lessons

Art Level 1 - 1st 6 lessons

Art Level 1 - 1st 6 lessons

Art Level 1 - 1st 6 lessons

I LOVE this mixed media family portrait!

Posted on

Autumn Treasures Unit Study

Autumn Unit
Click on the photo to see album

We got the Autumn Treasures unit study of Amanda Bennett’s site, unitstudy.com, and it took us much longer than usual due to our busy month, but it was great. I started by getting about 15 books from the library and printing some extra activities from Homeschool Creations. We learned a lot in this study just like our past ones on seashells and robots. We started with Do a Dot pages to get warmed up and start our discussion about fall (even though it was still pushing 100 in these parts)

Autumn Unit

Just like the other units there were a lot of fun videos to watch including how candy corn is made and how an apple press works. We learned about Johnny Appleseed and his travels – Nadia enjoyed all his crazy hats, especially the cooking pot. I have already done blog posts on the monarch butterflies and apple pie bites that we made, but here is a little view of the rest of our unit.

Autumn Unit
Nadia is working on her fall tree in this photo.

Autumn Unit
A puzzle for the back of her lapbook.

Autumn Unit
Learning the life cycle of a pumpkin – here she is with the pumpkin she picked out at homeschool day at Mainstay Farms.

Autumn Unit
Families are encouraged to go on a nature walk each day and collect items. Then enter the highlights into your unit study work book. Here are some of the things Nadia found along the way.

Autumn Unit
Leaf rubbings from our nature walks.

Autumn Unit
“Fairy” Amelie and Nadia on a nature walk.

Autumn Unit

Autumn Unit
Amelie was saying, “art art art art” over and over while I was working with Nadia so I went to see what she wanted. Then I realized that she was drawing “hearts.” Pretty cute!

We got the idea for one of our other cooking projects from the Mama Jenn site.  These were messy and fun to make and tasted yummy!

Autumn Unit Autumn Unit

Autumn Unit

Autumn Unit

Last of all, here is her completed lapbook.

Autumn_17

Autumn_18

Posted on

2011 Pumpkins

2011 Pumpkins

One of my favorite things about fall are the pumpkins. I like to look at them and eat all sorts of delicious pumpkin foods and drinks. Seriously, I love pumpkin food. I make my own pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin smoothie (still looking for a perfect one) and the list goes on. I told Nadia we were going to paint our pumpkins from the pumpkin patch this year and she thought that would be awesome. It was Amelie’s first chance to paint and she was really excited. The little ones in the photo are from Boo at the Zoo.

2011 Pumpkins 2011 Pumpkins

2011 Pumpkins