Neat Idea

One of my friends shared this neat idea with us. The photo above is of our wildflower guide, but we've also made a bird guide.

For the wildflowers, we just printed photos from the internet and glued them to index cards. Then, we wrote the name of the wildflower on the front and back of each card and added information on the back such as petal color and plant height. (For the bird's guide, we wrote about their nests, songs, and what kinds of foods they like to eat.) Then, we punched holes through each card and put them on a ring! Just the process of making the cards helped us learn alot. (Thanks, J!)

GREAT American History curriculum - for FREE!!!

Today I ran across a neat, FREE, American History curriculum! The site is called Our Los Banos and a homeschooling mother is basically sharing what she's doing with her son. I LOVE the hands-on activities and that it is simple and yet covers quite a lot. We are going to study American History in the fall, and I think I'll be using a lot of her ideas!


We are getting ready to do a little study of the Magic Tree House book, Buffalo Before Breakfast. (In fact, I think we might do several MTH books over the summer.) While researching things we could do with it, I decided to cover the Plains Indians and buffalo. I am loosely basing my plans on a study I found at this site.
And, now I'm adding what I found at Our Los Banos.


We're planing on starting this study on Monday after finishing up a few loose ends with our bird study (which I'll try to post about soon!) and our Keepers projects.

Cross Stitch

Our last project for the year with our Keepers group has been learning to cross stitch. The girls are working on a pretty butterfly. Alexandra got the body finished today and we'll start on the wings in the next few days. The girls have had so much fun together this year and Alexandra can't wait for next year... but first, the end of the year awards party!

Our Pressed Flowers

Here are some photos of the flowers we "pressed"... in the microwave! I'm still surprised that we can do it that way. It's so quick! We just put them in the microwave in our homemade press at 50% heat for about 2 minutes. Let them cool off for several minutes and you can put them in the microwave again if needed.

These 2 daisies aren't completely dry, but I decidedto just leave them in the press for the next week or so. I burnt my first 2 "batches" of these, and don't want to ruin these beautiful flowers.

Flower Pressing

This week, our Keeper's group pressed flowers. I have never pressed flowers and it was such a neat activity!

The leader for this study (and her husband) also made each girl a flower press (and she let me have the leftover!) which the girls got to decorate. We will be pressing more flowers in the next 2 weeks and I'll post some of our final products. Then, at our next meeting, we'll make some projects with the flowers. We can't wait!

Tea Party

Our Keepers group had a tea party yesterday. The girls practiced their manners and tried some new foods. I tried some new foods, too! I don't think Alexandra cared for it too much, but I loved the scones and clotted cream. Yum!

Embossing Valentine's Cards

Alexandra and I made several Valentine's cards (and one birthday card) on Monday. I had taught her Keepers class about dry and heat embossing, so we did a little of each. It was a lot of fun. I want to learn more about making cards now!

Christmas Preparations

I thought I'd just share a few photos of how we've been getting ready for Christmas:

Pinecone Christmas Tree made at Keepers

Gingerbread House made at Keepers

Foam Gingerbread Man made at Michael's using foam paint (pretty neat - we'd never seen it before)

Cutting out sugar cookies

Keepers Christmas Party

This afternoon we had our first Christmas party with our Keepers' group and the Contenders, too. Besides getting to play outside some (it was in the mid-70's today!), here are the fun things we did as a group with 15 kids.

• read the Christmas story from the Bible
• sang Christmas carols while I played the piano (one of the girls also played a song)
• decorated sugar cookies
• had snacks (summer sausage, cheese, crackers, chips, and lots of sweets!)
• played a game of making the kids into snowmen with toilet paper & scarves & mittens, etc
• made Christmas trees out of pine cones which were spray painted and decorated with glitter
• decorated small gingerbread houses (made of graham crackers)

It was a wonderful time and we are really enjoying our new friendships this year.

Flower Arranging

Today, Alexandra worked on her Flower Arranging badge with the girls in her Keepers group. It turned out to a beautiful day, and we were glad to be outside - both for the beautiful weather and because of the mess! The moss got all over the children!

The girls were making fall arrangements that they could use as a Thanksgiving centerpiece. They learned about focal points, accents, and fillers. They also learned some rules about how tall to make the arrangement compared to the size of your container.

With lots of things to choose from, Alexandra experimented quite a bit. But, in the end, she made an arrangement of just one type of flower - a large, red mum. All the girl's arrangements turned out very pretty. And, afterwards, they enjoyed playing in the park. Their favorite thing was the tire swing - they played on it for about 30 minutes.

Wacky Cake

We tried out a co-op this week that studies American Girl and Keepers at Home. Unfortunately, we just don't have the time to add this to our schedule right now, but we did have lots of fun! The girls (ages 3-8, I think), each made their own "Wacky Cake." This is a cake where you use only one pan. First you mix all the dry ingredients in the pan, then make 3 ditches like a happy face (see photo) and add the wet ingredients in the ditches. Then stir it all up & bake! It turned out great.


We also discussed diligence and created a decoupage plaque. Lots of fun!