Girl's Book Club Movie Party

My daughter and I hosted a movie party over the weekend for her book club.  Since we are reading books that have been made into movies we figured a movie party was the perfect choice!  The girls voted to watch the 1967 version of Dr. Dolittle, since that was the last book we read. 

I thought it would be fun to have a craft to go along with the Dr. Dolittle theme. So we made these shilouette ornaments that would have been popular in that time period and looked like Dr. Dolittle!

I think they are adorable! You will find the directions for the ornaments HERE.

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin

Happy Thanksgiving!

I had to post a picture of the ADORABLE turkey dinner cake my 7 yo and I made.  He entered it in a Thanksgiving baking contest and won most creative!

Cute, huh?  We got the idea HERE.  We changed it up a little bit. (You know me!  LOL)  Our cake is all chocolate.  The "stuffing" is a cake donut cut up with some dried cranberries added.  The "peas" are a candy called Sixlets.  We got them by the pound at the mall candy store.  The lemons and orange slices are jelly fruits.  It was a LOT of fun to make and everyone loved it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jamin

Homeschool Poem

My 17 yo son wrote this for his English Comp II College class.  I LOVE it! :^)

Homeschooling

Early in the morning I rise,

hoping to become more wise.

I eat another home cooked meal,

cooked by mother with love, and zeal.

Then I curl up with a good book,

and like that meal it starts to cook

up yet more knowledge in my brain,

for it has become those words domain.

These books are all great presenters,

and they all have become my mentors.

Learning math, science, grammar, history,

like unraveling some great mystery.

Then as the sun marches further west,

and I know that I’ve done my best,

I put away the books about great men,

so that next day I can start again.

Nov. 2, 2011

Really Good 9/11 Resource for Kids

We watched this video this morning to start our school day.  It is a good explanation of what happened on 9/11/01 and why, for kids. 

http://www.brainpop.co.uk/uk/humanities/historymodern/september11th/

There are other good resources here:


http://pjsallday.com/2011/09/911-resources/

God Bless America! 

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin

Christmas In July

One of my FAVORITE things we did this Summer was having a Christmas is July party! But, this wasn't just any Christmas in July party, it was a party to benefit Operation Christmas Child! :^)  If you are not familiar with OCC what they do is collect shoe boxes filled with fun items for kids and then send them around the world, along with a comic book tells them in their own language about how to have a realtionship with Jesus Christ.

My family has made these shoe boxes and donated them every year at Christmas time for years and years.  But, this year we decided to make it a service project that our homeschool community could do together.  So we put out an invitations.  We asked for everyone to bring 20 of the same item to go in a box, and most of us brought 20 of 2 or 3 items.  (Crayons, paper, glue sticks, flip flops, wash clothes, etc.  You can learn all about packing boxes HERE.) We also asked each family to bring a Chirstmasy snack to share and for everyone to come dressed in red or green.  The night before the party we went in and decorated to make everything look festive.  My kids made a ton of decorations, which was a lot of fun on a HOT Summer day!

The day of the party we had each child write a letter to put in the boxes.  Then we sang Christmas carols, read the story of Jesus birth from the Bible, watched a couple videos about OCC, prayed for the kids who would get the boxes and then packed our boxes! I was VERY pleased that we put together 40 boxes!  When all the boxes were packed we ate our wonderful treats and just enjoyed a special time seeing each other over the Summer.  (Which we don't do enough of!)  It was a GREAT party and it was super easy to host.  The church is storing the filled boxes for us and the sweet lady that is in charge of OCC at our church even came out to help!

Here are a few pics from the day...

Kids writing their letters.

Praying for the children who will receive the boxes.

Watching the OCC video.

Singing Christmas carols.

Teens getting the boxes set up and ready to fill.

Listening to the story of Jesus birth.

Cookies!  I am SO impressed with the mom that went the extra mile and made these! (It wasn't me! My food contribution was pathetic.  I thought it would be "cute" to drizzle red icing on top of rice crispy treats and then sprinkle with green sugar.  Well, the icing looked like KETCHUP! Let's just say, they tasted fine if you closed your eyes! LOL  The kids ate them without complaining! :^)

 Filling boxes! (The boxes themselves were donated by OCC.)

My littles filling boxes.

The whole festive gang!

It was an awesome day!  We will be doing this party again next year for sure!  I can't wait!

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin

Nook Case

My daughter saved up her money and bought herself a Nook. Once she had the Nook there was no money left for a case.  So we made one...

It's amazing what you can do with cardboard and Duct Tape!  

 

 

She has been carrying it in her purse for over a month now.  It is holding up really, really well! 

:^)

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin

Back to School Wreath

I saw the idea for this wreath HERE and I HAD to have one!

So here is my version...

I LOVE IT! It makes me feel like Fall is right around the corner!  :^)

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin