Our First Thanksgiving Dinner was Friday and it was AWESOME! We had 40 kids from 18 families attend for a total of 60 people in attendance. (Just a few more than the 53 Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving!)
Here is the day in pictures...
Here I am with my 2 youngest. (Oh, come on you knew you would see me dressed like a Pilgrim at some point! LOL My costume was just a black shirt and skirt I had in my closet. Then I wore one of the hats I had made and added a collar and apron made from white felt. Super simple!)
Here are some of the Indians and Pilgrims arrving.
My handsome Indian teenager! His shirt is a white t-shirt we tea stained and then fringed the edges with scissors. It was super easy! (I boiled about a gallon of water and then seeped 7 tea bags until it was pretty dark. Then I removed the tea bags and soaked the shirt for about 30 minutes. Then I put the t-shirt through the spin cycle of the washer and ran it through the dryer. Once it was dry we fringed the edges with scissors. You could add beads too.)
After everyone arrived and got their hats on I spent a few minutes talking to the kids about the first Thanksgiving. Here are some of the kids listening to me talk. I asked them lots of questions too so they all got to tell what they know about the first thanksgiving.
Here is my daughter reciting a poem she memorized as the blessing for the food.
The First Thanksgiving
When the Pilgrims
first gathered together to share
with their Indian friends
in the mild autumn air,
they lifted the voices
in jubilant praise
for the bread on the table,
the berries and maize,
for field and for forest,
for turkey and deer,
for the bountiful crops
they were blessed with that year.
They were thankful for these
as they feasted away,
and as they were thankful
we're thankful today.
Author Unknown
She did an AWESOME job. I was so proud of her!
The FOOD! We had turkey, fish, deer stew, fruit, nuts, cheese, corn chowder, potatoes, cranberry salad, apple sauce, and a lot more! Yummy!!!!
Pilgrims and Indians eating together.
Lots of yummy food!
We also played games. Here are a few of the pilgrim girls heading out to play games.
And my WILD Indian boy!
3 Legged Races!
Corn Toss
The Turkey Shoot!
There was also a corn hunt (Similar to a egg hunt except dry corn was thrown in the grass and everyone hunted for it.) and pumpkin races where the kids pushed a pumpkin with a stick, The games were great!
And lastly we made our craft (Which the kids LOVED and I didn't get any pictures of.) and then played Thanksgiving Jingo!
It was an awesome day. I can't wait to do it again next year!
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
Click HERE to read my post on planning out this party. :^)
This Friday our homeschool group is having a First Thanksgiving Dinner. I am SO excited because this is something I have wanted to do with my kids for years! As you can see above my littles are ready to go! My little man is SO, SO excited about getting to dress up as an Indian! (Can you tell from the picture?)
So here is the plan for the dinner.
Everyone has been invited to come dressed as either an Indian or a Pilgrim. For kids who don't come dressed we will provide either a Pilgrim hat or Indian headband made from felt. (If all the kids come dressed the mom's will get to wear the hats we provide!)
Here are the instructions for the hats we will be providing:
We will also be eating without forks for pepper because those were not used at the first Thanksgiving. (Spoons and knives were used and pepper was cooked into food but not used on the table.) Desserts will be served right along with the other food, not at the end of the meal because that is how it was done in the 1600's. Of course their desserts would not have been sweet since they didn't have sugar! (I am betting our pies will have sugar! LOL)
I am also hoping to have the kids make a Wampanoag Toss and Catch Game to take home and play with. Yesterday I spent the day making 72 hats so if I can catch my breath after that I will work on collecting the materials for these.
The other night my daughter came to me with her Awana book and said "It says in here that in the 60's the Astronauts read from the book of Genesis on Christmas Eve from the Moon. Is that true or something Awana just made up?" I happened to be sitting at the computer so I played this for her...
I am assuming I don't remember this from the original airing since I was only 3 in 1968! But I do remember hearing it before. It is quite touching to listen to and somewhat sad to think about how much our world has changed in the last 40 years. I can't imagine something like this happening today and obviously neither could my daughter since she thought they had made it up for Awana.
I am praying for a revival for America! How awesome it would be to NOT be surprised to hear prayer in this country! How wonderful it would be for my children and grandchildren to live in an America that honored the one true God! Please join me in praying for our country.
On Oct. 1st the kids and I were in the car headed to the pumpkin patch! They were all dressed in fall t-shirts and I was ready to take some great pictures! Then it started raining...I pulled over and made a few quick calls to the homeschool friends we were suppose to meet. We all decided to go another day. Little did we know it was going to rain for 30 days straight! (I am exaggerating a little here, but honestly this is the wettest Oct. I have seen in my life!) Meanwhile we were in the middle of moving. The rain meant we were moving in the mud and the last thing I wanted to do was trek out into a pumpkin patch and collect even more mud. As the month headed to a close I started to realize a trip to the pumpkin patch was not going to happen. So I did the next logical thing...I decided to have a Pumpkin Party! LOL
What is a Pumpkin Party??? Honestly it's something I made up. But, we had our first one on Nov. 2nd with 97 people in attendance! Thankfully the rain finally stopped and we found a park with lots of concrete to keep us out of the mud. The party was a huge success and a LOT of fun! Here are the highlights....
We started out with the kids each decorating a pumpkin cookie.
Then they ate their cookies while waiting for the pumpkin story to start.
Next we listened to the Pumpkin Gospel You can read all about the story at the link below http://ginaconroy.com/ginablog/wordpress/2007/10/30/the-pumpkin-gospel/
Then we played pumpkin games!
Pumpkin Parachute Game. I got a package of Fun Foam Pumpkin and made a smiley face on one with a marker. Then they would put all the pumpkins in the parachute, throw them up in the air and the person who found the smiley face got a piece of candy. Repeat until everyone wins!
We also had Pumpkin Hot Potato.
And we had Pumpkin Relay Races!
We finished off the party with lots and lots of pumpkin food! Everyone brought a pumpkin dish to share. We had pies, breads, cakes, cookies, pumpkin dip. The food was amazing!
It was a great day and I am sure we will have many more pumpkin parties in the future.
It just so happens that all five of the people in our family have birthdays in a six-month period. So from mid-August to mid-February it feels we are constantly in birthday mode. Tomorrow is my husband's birthday, so that got me thinking about what birthday freebies are out there. I found some great ones, including a list of restaurants that give free food on your birthday! There are also free printable cards, cake ideas, and much more!
I hope you enjoy this week's birthday freebies!
Family Fun has a wonderful selection of birthday cake ideas you can easily make at home. I have made many of these for my family, and they are always a big hit!
This is a neat website. You can see a time capsule of the day you were born. Find out what bread cost, or how much you would have paid for a car. Learn what the minimum wage was and lots of other fun information!
Perhaps the most recent use of homeopathy in a major epidemic was during the Influenza Pandemic of 1918. The Journal of the American Institute for Homeopathy, May, 1921, had a long article about the use of homeopathy in the flu epidemic. Dr. T A McCann, from Dayton, Ohio, reported that 24,000 cases of flu treated allopathically had a mortality rate of 28.2% while 26,000 cases of flu treated homeopathically had a mortality rate of 1.05%. This last figure was supported by Dean W.A. Pearson of Philadelphia (Hahnemann College) who collected 26,795 cases of flu treated with homeopathy with the above result.
The most common remedy used was Gelsemium, with occasional cases needing Bryonia and Eupatorium reported. Dr. Herbert A. Roberts from Derby, CT, said that 30 physicians in Connecticut responded to his request for data. They reported 6,602 cases with 55 deaths, which is less than 1%. Dr. Roberts was working as a physician on a troop ship during WWI. He had 81 cases of flu on the way over to Europe. He reported, "All recovered and were landed. Every man received homeopathic treatment. One ship lost 31 on the way."
Several people have asked me if there is a homeopathy remedy for the Swine (H1N1) Flu. If you have read my homeopathy post you know that homeopathy is not a one remedy fits a diagnosis type of thing. However there are remedies that will fit most of the symptoms of the flu. These are the ones I am making sure I have on hand this flu season...
Oscillococcinum Overall flu symptoms (Fever, chills, body aches and pains.)
You can click on each of the remedies above to read more about the symptoms that it relieves.
Here is a really good article on Homeopathy and Swine (H1N1) Flu. (I highly recommend you read it if you are considering homeopathy for treatment of the flu. This is great information!) It includes history on the use of homeopathy in epidemics and also has information on what remedies cover what in regards to the flu.
I was unpacking some boxes today and I came upon something that really blessed me, so I had to share.
Last spring I did a Women's Bible Study at church. One of the things we did was write down things we needed to give to God and put them in a box. One of the girls brought us all boxes that looked like a flip flop. Very cute! So I stuck mine on a shelf and forgot about it, like I was suppose to. Today I found it. I smiled when I saw it because I knew most of the things I had put in the box God indeed had taken care of. But, just for fun I took off the lid off and started opening the little slips of paper to see the words I had written. One by one I saw that they were all handled by God! Then I opened one I honestly do not remeber putting in there. It was just one word...space. WOW! Did I really put that in there? Yes, our last house was too small, but I had NO intention of moving. I really, really wanted to stay until our oldest was through high school. (3 more years.) We had even thought we might even try to buy it so we could add on to it at some point. We had even looked at those sunrooms you can have built on as a possiblilty for more space in the future. Now as I am sitting in my new house (which is more than 50% bigger than where we were when I wrote the word "space") I cannot help but just be amazed. It was just a fleeting moment. Write something down they said...Okay, give me space. And He did!
God is good!
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
P.S. Unpacking is going well! I would say we are 75% unpacked. Here is my very happy daughter in her totally unpacked room! YAY!!!! She is one happy girl to have her own "space" now! :^)
Freebie Friday Oct. 30, 2009 - Explore World Cultures Through Food
Welcome to Freebie Friday!
This week I am feeling inspired by food. One thing I have learned while teaching my kids is that if I put food into their lessons I really hold their attention. Recently I was stumbling around the internet and I came across a site that teaches about cultural diversity with a steaming bowls of homemade soup! This got me curious about what other food related cultural lessons I could find and the results of search will be revealed on this week's freebie links page. I hope you enjoy eating your way around the world!
Teaching with Soup http://kidbibs.com/learningtips/lt34.htm is a fun site that was the inspiration of this week’s topic. At this website you will find 7 different soup recipes that will give you a "taste" of different cultures. There is also a list of children's books about soup. This would make a great trip around the world if you had several families join together each making a different soup and giving a presentation on the country their soup represents.
Next I searched for bread recipes from around the world. Whats4eats.com http://www.whats4eats.com/breads has a great collection of amazing recipes! You will find everything from Venezuelan Arepas to Jamaican Bammie to Yorkshire Pudding from England.
Rice is a staple food in many places around the world. At the Ricegourment.com http://www.ricegourmet.com/Recipes.htm you will find a mouthwatering variety of rice recipes from all over the world.
Teaching Kids about Cultures Through Food
http://gomestic.com/family/delicioso-teaching-kids-about-cultures-through-food/ is an interesting article written by a mom who uses dinner each night to reinforce what her children are learning at school during the day. She shares some great ideas for putting together meals, adding decorations and costumes and just having fun with food and family!
Hi Everyone! I thought I would say hello and let everyone know that we have made it into the new house. We are still in boxes, but we have everything under our new roof! YAY!!!!
Here is what we have been doing (between packing, carrying, and unpacking) over the last 4 weeks...
Chillaxin between helping dad carry in loads to the new house.
Relaxing in her very own room! (Who cares if it's just mattress on the floor? LOL)
Helping clean the kitchen before we unpacked our dishes.
Getting in to EVERY box and exploring! Doesn't everyone wear a hoodie with a bow tie and suit jacket???
Hanging out with our firends at American Girl Club...
We have made several trips to IKEA for all the things you need when you move.
We went on field trip to a pizza parlour! FUN!!!
Mom taught a How To Begin Lapbooking class for our homeschool friends. :^)
Big and small, everyone made a lapbook to take home!
Everyone seemed to enjoy the lapbooking class!
We went to a construction themed birthday party!
We went to a Mad Science demonstration at Chick-fil-A. I LOVE Mad Science!
We learned how to weave at American Girl Club.
Here is the cardboard weaving my daughter did.
We got our costumes for Fall Festival.
We have watched the leaves change colors.
We had our Awana Grand Prix races!
Awana Grand Prix is FUN!
Both my boys actually won 3rd place in their division! (My daughter got 7th in hers.) The middle car with all the googly eyes is my 5 year olds! LOL
So as you can see, we have been busy, busy, busy! The one thing about life is that even when you try to take time to focus on one thing (like moving) time marches on! As the Amy Grant song says...
Time carries on;
I guess it always will,
But deep inside my heart
Time stands still.
The one thing I have learned as a mom is that no matter how busy life is the memories keep piling up. I always pray that God will help me not to get too caught up in what "has to be done" because I don't want to miss the little blessings of life.
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
P.S. I know I promised to continue to post about American Girl Club, and I will. I just honestly have not had any time. But, stay tuned and I will hopefully get those written in the next week or two.
Fall is my favorite season of the year and Fall is truly in the air! This week I am bringing you freebies to help you celebrate Fall. You will find crafts, unit studies, a lapbook and lots of things to do with leaves and pumpkins and apples!
Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. - George Eliot
Looking for a Fall lapbook for older children? This Squidoo site has one with lots of resources including ones on trees, leaves, pumpkins and other Fall items. (NOTE: This site does offer one link to a Halloween Lapbook.) http://www.squidoo.com/fall-lapbook
This week I am going to share freebies with you to Study Pioneer Times with the Little House on the Prairie books as well as the Kirsten books from the American Girl series. Both of these series offer ample opportunities to study pioneer times with lots of hands on activities. I hope you and your children enjoy these freebie!
Little House
Here is a unit study using the Laura Ingalls Wilder books as a basis. You will find a book list and all kinds of ideas for hands on crafts and projects.
http://home.att.net/~cattonn/pioneer.html
The Little House on the Prairie Lapbook from Homeschool Share is a great way to learn about Pioneer times. You will find booklets to go with every chapter of the Little House on the Prairie book!
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/little_house_on_prairie.php
About.com has a Little House Story Sack that is loaded with great ideas like making a covered wagon from a milks carton and making a corn husk doll. There are also lots of great free links to instructions for things like making butter and ice cream!
http://familycrafts.about.com/od/homemadebooks/p/sslittlehouse.htm
Easy Fun School has a wonderful Learning with Little House Index of Lessons on their website. The links at the top of the article are for books you can buy. But, if you scroll down lower in the page you will find free time lines, trivia, word searches, recipes, the list goes on and on!
http://www.easyfunschool.com/article1496.html
American Girl - Kirsten
Homeschool Helper Online offers free ideas for a Kirsten Unit Study. This website includes 3 or 4 activities to go along with each of the six Kirsten books. There are also links to sites to learn about Kirsten's Swedish heritage.
http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/units/american_girl_kirsten.htm
Homeschool Share offers American Girl Lapbook. This set of templates (Which happens to have template design ideas credited to me!) are opened ended so you can use them for any of the American Girls but there are also 9 minit books that are specific to Kirsten. This is a fun way to dig deeper into the American Girl series!
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/American_Girl_Lapbook.php
Don't forget to visit the Kirsten section of the American Girl Website. There you will find games and other things to help you get to know Kirsten better.
http://www.americangirl.com/fun/agcn/kirsten/
Misc.
It is always fun to dress up like the period you are studying! Here is an Apron/Bonnet Pattern that would make a little girl very happy!
http://sunbonnetsue.com/april2001.html
DLTK has a good selection of simple pioneer crafts. You can make a covered wagon, make Grandma's Quilt Paper Craft or create your own farm animals.
http://www.dltk-kids.com/pioneer/index.htm
"Home is the nicest word there is."
— Laura Ingalls Wilder
Me standing in front of the Donner's Pass Monument.. Imagine, the winter the Donner Party spent stranded on this site the snow was as tall as the stone portion of this monument!
Welcome to Freebie Friday's!
Since my family lived on the West Coast for many year we have been able to visit many of the places along the Oregon Trail. We have crossed over the Sierra Nevada Mountains (In a car of course!), visited Donner's Pass, seen Patty Reed's doll at Sutter's Fort in Sacramento and visited the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretative Museum in Oregon. We have even stood in a rut made by the thousands of wagon wheels that traveled the Oregon Trail! Seeing so much of the Oregon Trail has made that period of history come alive to us! However, if you don't live near enough to experience The Oregon Trail for yourself there are abundant free resources online to bring the trail alive for your family!
So load up your Conestoga wagon, pack your supplies and get ready for some great freebies to take your children on an adventure along the Oregon Trail. All for free of course!
Easyfunschool.com offers a free Oregon Trail Unit Study. This is a excellent overview and includes general resources, a reading list, lesson plans, web resources, cooking and arts and crafts. http://www.easyfunschool.com/article1086.html
Lapbook Lessons has a free Oregon Trail Lapbook. While completing this lapbook your children will learn vocabulary, geography, Bible verses and handwriting. They will also learn about animals, routes taken, children on the trail, trading for goods and much more!
http://www.lapbooklessons.com/OregonTrailLapbook.html
Cooking on the Oregon Trail was a big part of daily life. Find out what you might have been eating when your resources are "200 pounds of flour, 150 pounds of bacon; ten pounds of coffee; twenty pounds of sugar; and ten pounds of salt." This website also includes information on what other items you would have packed in your wagon. If anyone tried the Vinegar Lemonade please let me know how you liked it! http://personal.my180.net/thesmiths/oregontrailrecipes.html
Patty Reed's Doll was one of our favorite books we read when we did our Westward Expansion study. You will find a free Teacher's Guide to go along with the book Patty Reed's Doll HERE.
http://pattyreedsdoll.blogspot.com/
Last, but not least, I wanted to let you know that there are many online sites that offer a free the original version of the Oregon Trail computer game. I am not going to link to one specific one since everyone's computer needs are different. But, if you are interested you can search for "free Oregon Trail online game" and find the one that is right for you. My kids love this game! You get to load up your wagon with all the supplies you need, find travel companions and then set out on the trail. You will experience all kinds of joys and hardships along the way!
I hope you have enjoyed this week's journey on the Oregon Trail!
Here is what we did for week 3 of Josefina at American Girl Club.
1. Read book 3 ahead of time. Josefina's Surprise A Christmas Story.
2. Discussed the book.
3. Had one of the Mom's that speaks Spanish give the girls a Spanish lesson.
4. Had our own Las Posada
5. Snack - Hot Chocolate with Cinnamon
6. Craft Hair Combs.
7 Worked on our weaving projects.
Here are the notes from the Spanish Lesson...
Here are the girls having the Las Posada.
The pretty blond knocking on the door was our Joseph (or Jose')!
Here you can see our Maria (or Mary).
This is a tradition where 2 people play the parts of Maria and Jose' (Mary and Joseph) symbolizing the hardship they endured before finding a place for Jesus to be born. In book 3 of Josefina we learn about the Las Posada. So I thought it would be fun to have the girls act one out. We drew names out of a bowl to see who would be the holy couple. (I had 18 blank slips and one with M and one with J on it for them to draw from.) Then we had the mom's go in the different rooms in the building we are using for club. The girls traveled up and down the hall knocking on the doors and saying...
In Heaven's name, we ask for shelter.
The mom's would reply...
This is not an Inn, be on your way!
At the final door, the mom that was in charge of our snack for the night opened the door and responded...
Come in, weary travelers. You are welcome here!
Then we all went in and had hot chocolate and cookies.
The girls REALLY liked this! I thought of it at the last minute. if I was going to do it again I would go get those little battery operated candles at the Dollar Tree and have all the girls carry one and turn off the lights. Our Maria used her Rebozo over her head to look a little like Mary. It would be fun to provide Jose with a head cocer and staff too. :^)
After the snack we made our craft. This week we decorated hair clips. I told the girls about the beautiful combs worn in Spain and Mexico. I couldn't find the same kind of combs they wore back then. So I bought them what I could get. They had fun adding glittery stickers and rhinestones!
Sticking on all those little rhinestones kept them busy a lot longer than I expected. (I will warn you though, rhinestones are pricey! Be sure to budget this in when you are shopping for your crafts. And don't forget to use your JoAnn's and Micheal's 40% off coupons!)
Here are some of the finished projects...
Happy Homeschooling,
Freebie Friday Oct. 2, 2009 Teaching with Cereal Boxes
Welcome to Freebie Friday!
At the craft store the other day a lady had made a scrapbook about her life using a Life cereal box. It got me thinking what a cute way that would be to make a memory book for my Kindergarten student this year. I know, it sounds kind of weird. But, honestly I save all the cardboard from our cereal boxes. As soon as they are empty I cut them down so they lay flat and save the big pieces. You never know when you are going to need a free piece of cardboard! The kids are always using them for crafts, making their own board games, puzzles, etc. I find myself using them too and I have learned over the years that they can be made into all sorts of educational items. So this week we are going to talk about cereal boxes as educational material.
Teachingtwo.com has simple instructions of making cereal boxes into puzzles for your preschoolers. My kids have adapted this to make all kinds of creative puzzles by creating their own artwork on the back side of the box.
http://www.teachingtwo.com/2009/08/31/recycled-cereal-box-puzzles/
Texas Speech Communication Online has an interesting activity for older students called The Breakfast of Champions: Teaching Audience Analysis Using Cereal Boxes.In this lesson kids will learn how to analysis a cereal box to learn more about the audience the box is aimed at. That is certainly thinking outside the box!
http://www.etsca.com/tscjonline/1206-cereal/
Building a Better Cereal Box will teach kids that there is more to a cereal box than meets the eye. This is a great fun lesson on volume that your children will remember each time they pour a bowl of cereal!
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3666/is_199801/ai_n8799520/
How about a little something for mom or grandma? Scrapbooking.com has great instructions on making your own cereal box planner! It is not only practical, but very pretty too! http://scrapbooking.com/article/72640
This post is one of my favorite uses for cereal boxes! You can use a simple cereal box to make organizers for those little books that are never easy to find! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/jaminacema/462650/
Just for fun I thought I would share one of my favorite recipe that includes cereal! You have to do something with all that cereal so you can get to the box!
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/jaminacema/663806/
While every effort is made to ensure that the recommended sites are family friendly, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and it's writers do not own the sites recommended. Content and advertising can change without notice. Please exercise caution when viewing websites. Please check out the websites before allowing your children to view them.
This article is from this weeks issue of Freebie Friday. If you are interested in getting the Freebie FridayNewsletter you can subscribe for free HERE. I will pass along FREE goodies for your homeschool each week.
A month ago we had our first homeschool meeting of the year for our new parent support ministry at church. As I stood up and talked to the group for the first time I vividly remember thinking "This school year is going to be so uncomplicated!" It felt SO good to be going into a new school year without some major life change looming! Over the last 8 years it has seemed that every school year has opened up with some major thing coming. In the last 8 years we have lived in 4 houses in 3 different States. (Plus two temporary places for 3 months each while we were in transit.) We have added 2 new babies to the family, suffered 2 major job losses which of course were accompanied by periods of unemployment and uncertainty. It's been kinda cRaZy! But, this year as I was looking forward I had a strange feeling of being settled. We are unpacked from our major move 16 months ago, we are not planning on any more babies (I'm 44 for goodness sake! LOL) and my husbands job is going really well! Praise the Lord!!!!Then the phone call came....
Just a couple days after that first meeting we got a voicemail from the company we have been renting our house from for the last 16 months. They have always been shifty and unreliable BUT, we didn't see this coming! The message said that they just noticed that we are "still" paying them rent. They wanted to let us know that they sold our house "several month ago" and they won't be accepting anymore rent from us. We need to pay the "new owner" (Who has never contacted us!) and not to contact them anymore. Sigh.... It's hard to pay someone when you don't know who they are and they seem to not want to be found.
We honestly don't know exactly what is going on. But, we have reason to believe that the new "mystery owner" is not paying the mortgage. I think we were just really fortunate that we got the heads up on this a little in advance and didn't just get evicted when the bank takes back the house. So much for my high hopes for a uncomplicated school year! LOL
The one thing I have learned over the years is that the only thing that is certain is uncertainty!
I have spent the better part of the last month house hunting! I am pleased to report we have found a LOVELY new home and will be starting to move a THIS FRIDAY! Once again God has used difficulties in our lives to bless us! As much as I am not looking forward to going through ANOTHER move we have found an absolutely AMAZING house! It is 3000 square feet, which is (this is almost unreal to me...) 1100 square feet BIGGER than where we are now. The neighborhood is lovely and quiet. It's a 4 bedroom so my darling daughters life long dream of having her own room is about to be realized! (Although I suspect she and her little brother will take turns sleeping in each others rooms for years to come! hehehe)
Here it is....
Here is the living room, which will be our schoolroom.
And the family room.
The kitchen and eating area.
The MAMMOTH master bedroom! Which will otherwise know as the upstairs family room! LOL
The master vanity. 2 sinks = marital harmony! LOL (There is also a wonderful, deep soaking tub and a shower that is SO BIG that it has dual shower heads!)
MY closet! (Yep, this one is all mine because the master bedroom has 2 walk in closets! Please don't pinch me because if I am dreaming I don't want to wake up! hehehe)
I cannot even tell you how blessed we feel to be moving into this house! I would say it's the house of our dreams, but honestly I never dreamed of living in anything this big! LOL God is SO awesome to give us more than we would ever even ask for!
Now back to the title of this post...So here's the deal....Needless to say I am overwhelmed with things to do. Cutting back is essential and my blog is one place I will be cutting back. I will be making myself scarce around here for the time being. We still have 4 weeks of Josefina to do for American Girl Club and I plan to post about those. I know there are people who are following along and I don't want to leave anyone in a lurch! But, after Josefina we will be taking a break from American Girl Club until January. If I remember I will try to post my Freebie Friday posts here too. Other than that I probably won't post on a very regular basis for the next few months. Once we are moved in and have made it through the holidays I hope to get back to my daily posts. But for now, I have to find the time and energy to get us from point A to our new point B.
If you want to be notified when I post you might want to subscribe to my blog. Otherwise feel free to check back for my occasional post.
Prayers for a easy transition and the ability to somehow still keep school on track would be greatly appreciated!
Freebie Friday Sept. 25, 2009 File Folder Fun and A Few Suprises!
Welcome to Freebie Friday!
Since my kids ages are spread out all over the map I get a lot of questions about how to keep the little ones busy while I work with my older son. One tool I use with my littles are file folder games. I came across these last year at the Library and was thrilled to find that there are lots of great free ones online! So this week I am bringing you free File Folder Games and a few other surprises I hope you enjoy!
File Folder Fun offers free file folders for preschool through second grade. You will find file folders for Science, Language Arts, Math and more! You can browse by subject or grade level. The more you click the more you find at this website!
Next be sure to stop by Barbara Frank Online. She now has all her great freebies in one place! You will find her awesome Car Purchase Project for teens, Special Reports, Ecourses and more!
While every effort is made to ensure that the recommended sites are family friendly, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and it's writers do not own the sites recommended. Content and advertising can change without notice. Please exercise caution when viewing websites. Please check out the websites before allowing your children to view them.
This article is from this weeks issue of Freebie Friday. If you are interested in getting the Freebie FridayNewsletter you can subscribe for free HERE. I will pass along FREE goodies for your homeschool each week.
We have homeschooled our children from the start and we love every minute of it! This is my place to share my thoughts on homeschooling, my kids and living for the Lord. All the while being a little outside the box!!
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"For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 6:23
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16
"I have come that they may have life,
and have it to the full." John 10:10
Click below to hear GREAT Sermons, from an awesome Pastor I love!
Want to further investigate the claims of Jesus CLICK HERE
For Video Podcasts from Lee Strobel
An extremely dense, vertically developed cumulus with a relatively hazy outline and a glaciated top extending to great heights, usually producing heavy rains, thunderstorms, or hailstorms.
His shirt is a white t-shirt we tea stained and then fringed the edges with scissors. It was super easy! (I boiled about a gallon of water and then seeped 7 tea bags until it was pretty dark. Then I removed the tea bags and soaked the shirt for about 30 minutes. Then I put the t-shirt through the spin cycle of the washer and ran it through the dryer. Once it was dry we fringed the edges with scissors. You could add beads too.)
I asked them lots of questions too so they all got to tell what they know about the first thanksgiving.
The First Thanksgiving By: Linda Hayward 
We had turkey, fish, deer stew, fruit, nuts, cheese, corn chowder, potatoes, cranberry salad, apple sauce, and a lot more! Yummy!!!!
Boys Pilgrim Hat:
Girl Pilgrim Hat:
Indian Headband:
You can read all about the story at the link below
I got a package of Fun Foam Pumpkin and made a smiley face on one with a marker. Then they would put all the pumpkins in the parachute, throw them up in the air and the person who found the smiley face got a piece of candy. Repeat until everyone wins!
The kids loved this! I got the idea here: 
Doesn't everyone wear a hoodie with a bow tie and suit jacket???
FUN!!!
I LOVE 
The middle car with all the googly eyes is my 5 year olds! LOL 
The girls REALLY liked this! I thought of it at the last minute. if I was going to do it again I would go get those little battery operated candles at the Dollar Tree and have all the girls carry one and turn off the lights. Our Maria used her Rebozo over her head to look a little like Mary. It would be fun to provide Jose with a head cocer and staff too. :^)
Sticking on all those little rhinestones kept them busy a lot longer than I expected. (I will warn you though, rhinestones are pricey! Be sure to budget this in when you are shopping for your crafts. And don't forget to use your JoAnn's and Micheal's 40% off coupons!)
Which will otherwise know as the upstairs family room! LOL
2 sinks = marital harmony! LOL (There is also a wonderful, deep soaking tub and a shower that is SO BIG that it has dual shower heads!)
(Yep, this one is all mine because the master bedroom has 2 walk in closets! Please don't pinch me because if I am dreaming I don't want to wake up! hehehe)
