Homeschooling A Houseful

Here's what I made for A1... a burlap pillow ! Instead of a Monogram, since all the kids are A's {it might get even more confusing!!!} I decided to use one of our favorite hymns... "Savior Stay this night with me..." I simply went onto a my windows works, and typed it, found a cool "boy" text, and made it the size I needed for the pillow I wanted. Then I used an exacto knife and cut out the letters, painted it and sewed! He loved it. And A4 got a new fleece blanket. Nothing "special" there, I came up with some ideas, way too late to accomplish it before Christmas, so I am going to do one for his birthday. His blanket was one of the no sew ones. I took fleece, two different pieces, and cut out the corners. I cut 7 inch squares off the corners, and then every one inch you cut a 7 inch strip, then simply tie together. He didn't even notice, he only got a blanket!!!! Actually I must add a big thank you to Papa Bear, he stayed up the night before ...

We toured a Sushi Bar and Grill! They showed us how to make sushi, roll sushi... and explained all the ingredients. Then we tasted what we saw....YUM!!!! Papa Bear and I are regular sushi eaters, most of the A's enjoy it too... all except A4 who kept asking when we would leave. He's usually such an eater, maybe to cut back on our grocery bill here at the house, we should start eating more sushi!!! A6, kept asking for ham!

In the Spirit of the Season!

and I am almost sure I won't be doing these for Christmas this year! I thought I'd make a quick post, to remind myself about them later. And I don't know maybe there will be someone else out there, who can do this now! I know my older daughters would love to help me do these, maybe a fun birthday gift!??!! Sorry I can't post a picture, because I haven't made them!!! Also this blog has it so you can not use her pictures. {Smart lady} I will try to explain, they are wooden very small pegleg dolls {the old fisher price kind of people} with small circle screws in the heads to make into necklaces, or you could make them into cute ornaments...okay go look at the blog, it's much cuter than I explained!

We are doing these today.. check out the link here. Check out all her great ideas, the artist woman . Thanks Isabel, I got this from your blog.

Oh yeah, she has posted another new video!!!! If you loved the milestone video I mentioned here ... don't miss the newest one, here .

I love my blog, I love my blogger world, my blogging friends. I love the sharing and caring that takes place. I love the almost adult conversations I get from my blog. I love peeking inside someones window, and getting a little glimpse into their life. I love letting others peek inside my windows for support, but only on good days! And that's where I have gone wrong. I DO NOT want anyone to ever walk away from my window, thinking WOW now she is that SUPER HOMESCHOOL MOM!!!! I hate when I leave a blog, and feel worst then when I started. Yes, everything on this blog is real. Yes it's all things that have or sometimes have not work for us, but no my life is not all pretty, perfect and anything like my blogger home! I wanted to make sure it's all real here, since at times I feel like I give too much of a Super Homeschool Mom attitude. So in keeping it real around here, ~We just finished folding 3 loads of laundry, that was a Mountain High on my living room couch! ~My idea of f...

and now for what Mama Bear {aka Melinda!!} is making for A2 and A3.... CLOAKS!!! I have wanted to make these for these two girls for some time now, and what better time than Christmas! I do have a feeling I will be making 2 more after Christmas for the 2 younger girls!! oh and I should mention, that once I am all finished with all these gifts... I'll post some pictures!! I accidentally, okay wasn't thinking, and wrapped a few already, so we will have to wait until after Christmas, there's NO WAY I would ever unwrap an all ready wrapped gift!

I just wanted to put this out, real quickly.... It's a video from a homeschool veteran, with ideas, and tips about how to homeschool with little ones tagging along. I love this idea of actually seeing, what she's talking about, and getting a great view of the ideas! Not only that but I love her home library in the background!!! WOW!!! Click on this link , then on the videos link at the top of her website. She only has one up currently, but is in the process of editing and filming more. I believe she will be doing 10-12 Also if you love what she says, you should look into her website, it's GREAT!!!!

busy, busy, busy....man do I ever feel busy!!! I thought I'd drop in for a quick post about another fun Holiday Memory we have here. Around Thanksgiving, all the A's names go into a hat. Then the A's choose a name, and make a gift for the chosen A. We started this a few years back, and it's been one of the best memories for the A's. A6 will be making a present for A5, and I thought a Homemade Tutu would be great!! She will help me by choosing a pattern, and handing me the next strip to add to our tutu! Here's a great clip, instructions, and photos, of what we will be making! Now back to my cutting, I am hoping to get this all prepared, so we can finish it in the next few days.

OH YEAH!!! There's nothing like a BIG Snow Storm.... esp. when Papa Bear is home!!!

Hop on over to Chocolate on my Cranium, for an awesome {looking, please note I haven't read the entire unit, yet} unit on Christmas Symbols . Then make another hop, skip and a jump to Spell Out Loud, she has posted, and linked up to a Christmas Around the World unit , offered on homeschool share! Let the planning begin!!! {for 2010, that is!!}

Well I haven't been around my blog much over the holiday weekend.... I have a good excuse honest!!! Papa Bear had the week off, and since we don't get advantage of having Papa Bear around very often.... we took full advantage of him. I had him hang some much needed shelving in the new learning area, and we made a semi-sewing area in my bedroom. I want to make some homemade gifts for everyone this year. {We will see how this works}. Here's a few ideas I am pondering over for some of my A's..... A7 a jingle bell ball I saw this posted on homemade by Jill, she got the idea from grand revival. {as a side note, I just finished making 2 of these, in about 1 hour to 1 hour and 20 mins} LOVE these Black Apple Dolls again, saw these on homemade by Jill. The pattern is on Martha Stewart. These are a must, for A5 & A6 I have seen tons of cute ideas for A2 & A3, now for the older boys....hmmm Any suggestions?? I've seen some cute matchbox car cozies, but A4 is probably...

and still Lovin it! This was our second week of Sunday Stations . It has been a true blessing to our family. It always seemed like Sundays, dragged on. Even though we always remember to rest and relax, and enjoy the Spirit of the day.... sometimes it also felt like the kids were getting rambunctious, because...they were bored. We had our family worship, and then Mom's Sunday School Time {new name for Mom's teaching time during Sunday Stations}, we learned about Prayer. How to pray, when and where to pray, along with the whys of prayer. The message I really wanted to teach was that prayers need to be from the spirit, with meaning and feeling. Not something repetitious and spoken clearly and loudly. I was quite impressed with my A's, and all the wonderful stories they told. I was also quite impressed with how much everyone loved the Sunday School and Sunday Stations!! This will definitely be added to our Sunday Routine.

I thought I'd talk again a bit about chores. We are loving the Mommy Store, I think over time the point I am trying to make with it, will come, or not!! I have a few A's who are catching on that even on a REALLY REALLY Good week, they are having a hard time earning more than $3-$4 Mommy Dollars. They are also catching on that Mommies Store is a bit pricey, when you consider the items and the hourly income around here. I think it is becoming a success. A few things that I have changed/added/or in some cases re-evaluated. ~1 we are currently doing our Chore Points, right after breakfast and just before animal duty time. So each morning, just after breakfast and during our tidy up time, I stand next to our white board...usually starting with A1 and working my way down, I ask about chores, and discuss it. We do the points for yesterday, then..along with that day's Morning Chores. I am filling in to days slots, but it seems to work better this way. 2~ the points didn't work ...