Guitar

This idea came from this website. Naomi had fun coloring the guitar (which she calls a trombone about half the time) with grandma. Then she pretended to play it and still likes to play it even days later.

Easter eggs

I found this great idea here and thought it would be a great craft for Naomi and I to do together since she loves to paint, and since Easter is so close (can you believe it?). I was right, she was totally digging this. Painting one egg was not enough, she wanted to paint another and then another...but we stopped at two! I let them dry overnight and then put them together today. I hung them on our sliding door...and made sure to hang it high enough so she would keep pulling the googly eyes off. When we were outside today she noticed the cheerios in the window since that was the box we used, how funny.

Necklace

I had a hard time getting Naomi to sit still for more than 30 seconds today during our craft time. I couldn't get her to focus on anything. She didn't want to color, cut, sew or anything. UNTIL I suggested that she string some cheerios onto a necklace. She thought that was a grand "ideda". She sat there quietly and patiently putting one cheerio on after another until her necklace was nice and long (and until I was finished with my part of the craft ). She had a great time and really had lots of fun doing this. This idea totally came from my awesome friend Anna! Thanks for the idea Anna, I know I'll be pulling this one out again when I need her to sit still. Her favorite part though was getting to eat the necklace once she was finished. This necklace reminded me of my brother, he used to get candy necklaces and wear them to school dances in college (can you guess why?).

Learning the ABC song was pretty easy for Naomi, but it still took a while to get down. She loves to sing and that's always a good way to memorize things. She still has trouble with a few of the letters...there are three "B's" in her alphabet (no G or V). She knows what "A" looks like but doesn't really recognize any other letters. So, in an effort to get her to learn her name I spelled out her name in painters tape on the table. We worked on tracing the letters and just recognizing them. It seems now that she knows A and O and whenever we get to M she says, Micah. So, she knows that Micah starts with M but I'm begining to think that she thinks the letter M is called Micah...ha! I have a few other ideas about learning the letters of her name that I hope to try in the next week or so. I know I saw this idea on some homeschooling blog but I read so many that I lost track...so if this was your idea, Thanks!

Triangles

Yesterday as part of our craft time we made kites. Naomi decorated the diamond that I cut out with pencil and then glued on some triangles. She then glued some of the extra triangles to some paper. She is really learning her shapes pretty quickly. She gets confused by the words shape and color sometimes but she's getting there.

I am also working on another project with my old Christmas cards. It may take me a while to finish but I'm enjoying the process and Naomi loved playing with my circle punch even though she isn't strong enough to actually punch any circles. I'll be sure to share the finished project when it's done!

Naomi was looking extra cute yesterday so I quick grabbed my camera and got a few shots of her. Check them out here.

Valentine's Day crafts

Today we did a little work on some crafts for Valentine's Day. We made a window hanging out of contact paper, construction paper hearts and circles and some little flower pieces. N loves stickers so to put paper on a big giant sticker is lots of fun to her. The most fun that she had though was after we were done putting the window decal (for lack of a better word) together and she got to cut paper. This was the first time that I let her try out a pair of scissors (of course she used the blunt tip kid scissors). She sat there and cut paper for at least forty minutes! I can't wait to do some other cutting exercizes that I've seen. I know she's not ready for them yet but she will be soon.

She also asked to paint for a little bit, so I gave her a big piece of news print and red paint and let her have at it. Later she asked for blue paint as well. I plan on using the painting to cut out some hearts to decorate the house a little more!

Websites

There are two homeschooling websites that I look at and use frequently. The first one is called Hubbards Cupboard and it has different curiculum based on the childs age. The great thing about this site is it's all Bible based curriculum. The other site is called Preschool Express and I especially love to print off the calendar for the month because it's full of great ideas for what to do on specific days throughout the month.

Circles

I found a great homeschooling website...in fact, I've found a few that I really like. I was very excited because on these websites are calendars of things to do with your kids and ideas for different projects. That means, I didn't have to do all the work with coming up with a curriculm for N to follow. This was a huge lifesaver and lifted a lot of stress off my back because I've been wanting to be more intentional with her play time lately!

The first thing that we did was glue a bunch of circles onto a piece of cardboard. I think this was the first time that N used a glue bottle. She has used glue sticks before but this was something new. She really loved to squeeze out A LOT of glue and so I had to spread it out over many circles. I had to resist the urge to tell her where to place the circles at some points. But I really just let her be creative and put them wherever she wanted to, and I really like what she came up with. We talked about the colors of the circles and the shape but I don't she really gets those concepts yet. When I asked her what shape it was she said blue. But, that will come. For now, she learned how to glue, I learned how to let her do it all by herself and we both learned how fun it is to do projects together!

Today we took daddy's poker chips and sorted them by color. It took her a minute to understand what she was supposed to do but once she got it she sorted the chips pretty quickly!

Playdough

I bought this book at Barnes and Noble the other day and today we decided to make playdough. There are many varieties in this book but I thought we'd make the easiest one and the one I had all the ingredients for! Makes sense right?!

1 cup cold water
1 cup salt
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
tempera paint or food coloring
3 cups flour (I only needed 2.5 cups)
2 tablespoons corn starch (I added this before the flour)

In bowl, mix water, salt, oil, and enough tempera paint or food coloring to make a bright color. Gradually add flour and cornstarch until the mixture reaches the consistency of bread dough. Store covered.N wanted to make yellow playdough so we did. She fell in LOVE with Frosty the snowman this year so she had me make lots of snowmen. She also rolled out some snakes, and just had fun squishing the playdough in her hands. I put it in foil so I hope it's not dried out by tomorrow.Note to self: I need to find a new vinyl tablecloth, those pumpkins are driving me nuts!

Lacing Beads

At the end of October Naomi and I made some lacing beads. She hasn't gotten to play with them yet because I am so slow and other things have taken over my time. But I wanted to post about them anyway. I still need to finish painting them different colors and then find some old shoe laces and then she'll be able to fully enjoy the lacing beads!

Ingredients/Recipe:

1 cup salt

1 cup corn starch

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup water added in small increments

plastic straw

wax paper

cookie sheet

paint (we used acrylic)

I got a little impatient with the mixing of the ingredients so I added more water but you really don't need to, it just takes a while to get everything mixed together!We made little circles and really, Naomi just had fun playing with it, she's still a little young to really understand what I wanted her to do. But she made her own little balls and tried to shove the straw into them and make holes. It was a fun project. We ended up with LOTS of extra salt dough so she just played with it and then we threw it away.

My plans are to use four different colors and paint seven in each of those four colors. I just have to finish so she can actually play with them!

Simply Me

I am me. There is no one else on the earth who is me. I have many wants and desires that are similar to others but I am still the only me.

I want to home school my kids, I think...my daughter turns two tomorrow so it's not like I have to decide today.

I want to create more things using my sewing machine.

I want to paint more often.

I want to cook more often and healthier.

I want to be creative again.

I want to write again.

I want to dream more.

I want to live simply.

This is my attempt at doing just that. I hope to post about new projects that are going on, they could be meals I've cooked, cakes I've baked, skirts or other clothes I've sewn, paintings I've done, felt boards I've created. A little bit of everything that I love.

I want to have a place where I can let it all out and JUST BE ME.

Simply.

Me.