Just Call Me Jamin! - Homeschool Blogger

First Thanksgiving Dinner Celebration!

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:25:00 -0600

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.

Then we had a story.
The First Thanksgiving By: Linda Hayward

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. :^)

Thanksgiving Dolls

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:38:00 -0600

Not to be outdone by her mother my daughter spent yesterday afternoon putting together Pilgrim and Indian outfits for her dolls. :^)

I love the way that girl thinks!

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin

Save 20% on Times Tales!

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:42:00 -0600

Times Tales is having a sale! If you use the code BESTBUD you will receive 20% off any Times Tales!

Click on the graphic below to visit their website:

Don't forget to enter the code to get yor discount!

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin

Apollo Eight Astronauts Read From Genesis 1968

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 08:19:00 -0600

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...

http://www.archive.org/details/Genesis-ApolloEight-24Dec1968

Pretty cool!

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.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,

the people he chose for his inheritance.

Psalms 33:12

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin

Pumpkin Party

Fri, 6 Nov 2009 12:22:00 -0600

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!

Pumpkin Bowling was a favorite!

We also had Pumpkin Golf! My husband cut the bottom off the pumpkin and made 3 holes for us to golf into!
The kids loved this! I got the idea here:
http://familycrafts.about.com/od/pumpkingames/Pumpkin_Games.htm

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.

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin

Freebie Friday Birthday Freebies Nov. 6 2009

Fri, 6 Nov 2009 08:18:00 -0600

Welcome to Freebie Friday!

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!

Greetings Island has free, printable birthday cards.

Dayspring has a lovely collection of free E-Cards.

Need to be reminded of upcoming birthdays? Here is a free birthday reminder service.

You can print your own free happy birthday banner HERE.

How about some free food? This website has a huge list of restaurants that give freebies on your birthday.

Want to know what happened in history on your birthday? Click HERE to see a short video of what has happened on your special day.

Find out how many days old you are HERE.

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!

I hope you enjoy this week’s birthday freebies!

Happy homeschooling!

Jamin

Space

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 22:22:00 -0600

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! :^)

Time Marches On

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:54:00 -0500

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.

:^)

Wordless Wednesday - Painting

Wed, 7 Oct 2009 08:00:00 -0500

American Girl Club - Josefina - Week 3

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 08:11:00 -0500

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,

Jamin