Leaf Art

This book was recommended to me by a teacher friend of mine (Thanks Mel!).  The animals created with leaves in this book are amazing!  I thought it would be fairly simple to make something with leaves, but I was proven wrong.  Maybe I'm just not patient enough...or artsy enough.  However, I think my kids did a pretty good job of making their own animal creations.

I collected the leaves a couple days before we did this project because you have to press them in a book to hold their color and shape.

Then I read the book to the kids and laid the leaves out for them to pick and choose their favorites.

Altogether a fun, simple art activity.

Linked up to The Unlikely Homeschool Weekly Co-op.

This Made Me Laugh

 

Thank you my funny boy for helping me decorate.  :)

Fashion Issues

I've been looking for a pair of tall boots for probably the past 5 years.  Every year I notice that my preferences change slightly.  Last year I was looking for black boots with a rounded toe and hardly any heal.  This year I'm looking for a similar pair, but in brown.  Each year I find something I think I'd like and then I see the ridiculous price tag (real leather is expensive!) and talk myself out of them because...If you give a Heidi some tall brown boots, she's going to need some clothes to go with them.  I remind myself of a certain mouse I've read about.

I was lamenting this fact to my hubby the other night.  He pretty much has zero desire to be fashionable or to have his wife be fashionable.  His idea of fashion is a sturdy pair of jeans bought without holes so that he can wear them until they have holes.  Once they have holes, then (and only then) does he allow himself to use them for "work jeans".  You can imagine how many years he may own one pair of jeans.  Shoes are the same way.  He thought it was so great when he bought himself a pair of $3 shoes from a thrift store and wore them until his socks were getting wet from the holes in the bottoms.  He's hardcore.

So, you can imagine I wasn't getting much sympathy while expressing my desire to be fashionable in some pricy tall boots.  He told me that I'd probably wear the boots about eleven times, and the following year the toes would be just a little too pointy.  Or the heals would be a little too low.  Or the new in style thing to have on your boots would be a large ring around the top of the boots.  I told him that a ring would be very impractical for walking.  To which he replied, "Well, the new, cool way to walk will be like this!"  He swung his legs far out to the sides to avoid the imaginary fashionable hoops as he dramatically walked up and down our living room in ridiculous fashion.

I couldn't stop laughing at the absurdity of his gait and the absurdity of fashion in general.

"They" say that we should wear tight, skinny jeans with flats or tall boots.  I remember the day I saw skinny jeans in a magazine worn by a model.  I thought she looked ridiculous.  And I specifically remember thinking, "I am never going to like the looks of that."

Fast forward a couple years (or however long it's been), and I'm looking at skinny jeans on the racks at Target (because they're cheaper there).

I am so duped.  These fashion police people say "this" is how we should be dressing and if we don't dress like "this", then we aren't quite cool enough.  And I buy into it.  I look at my wardrobe full of perfectly non-holey clothes and I think to myself, "I have nothing to wear."  So, I go to the local thrift store (because I'm cheap like that) looking for someone who bought the latest trends and cast them off quickly for whatever American reason.

We're so easily influenced and guided to do what "they" want us to do.  I recognize it.  I realize it.

And I still want those tall brown boots.

I have issues. 

Interview

I was asked by Savannah at Hammock Tracks to answer some questions for her "Who Home Schools?" series.  Thank you, Savannah, for that fun opportunity!

If you want to read about how we came to our decision to homeschool and other questions pertaining to our homeschool, head on over to Hammock Tracks to check it out.  And while you're there, you can check out her many other "Who Home Schools?" posts.  

(Just for fun, here are a couple pictures from one of our new homeschool group's park days...)

Linked up to the Hip Homeschool Hop

Gateway to Rest

I'm excited to be partnering with a good friend of mine, Shannon Popkin, on her blog, Tiny Paragraphs.  This is my first post for her, and it stretched my ability to write something relatively "Tiny".  The original "Gateway to Rest" post was close to three times longer, but Shannon, with her stellar editing skills, helped me out.  I have to work on being more...precise.   ;)

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“I’m hungry!”  whines my four-year-old.

“Can I have oatmeal?” My eight-year-old gets out her bowl.

“I have oatmeal too!” My precocious two-year-old starts making a mess in the cupboards by my legs.

“Can I watch another show? Please, please!” My six-year-old, tapping on my arm, always seems to want another show or more computer time.

The counter tops are still filled with the dinner dishes I left behind when we raced out for church last night. There is a pile (or three) of clean laundry spilling off the living room chair. There are homeschool lessons to complete, meals to make, toilets to clean, bruises to kiss, emails to write, arguments to dispel, people to invite… 

It’s only 8:00 a.m.  I’m already weary...

To read the rest, head on over to Shannon's blog.  And while you're there, take in a sampling of her posts.  She's the queen of "tiny".  :)

Linked up to the Hip Homeschool Hop.

The Power of Words

I can’t tell you how many times I hear a mom debasing her kids, telling me how “sick and tired” she is of the things her children are doing or how her children are, “driving (her) crazy!” I think it’s more common to hear of something a child is doing wrong than something a child is doing right. I have found myself falling prey to this complaining attitude at times and then realize that I just made my child look bad in front of people to get a laugh or to commiserate with someone else whose child happens to be doing something similar to mine. This type of complaining isn’t edifying to my child or me, and it surely isn’t pleasing to the Lord. To make matters worse, sometimes this complaining happens when the child or teen is standing right there listening. By the way, children and teens are always listening.

I once met a Christian lady who monopolized the conversation by telling me about her problem-laden children...to read more of this post, head on over to Heart of the Matter where I continue.

(Linking up to the Hip Homeschool Hop) 

Just a Normal Day...

Here are some pictures from yesterday during a portion of our "school hours"... 

Math

Looking for birds

Still "looking for birds".

Language Lessons

Still doing math

Playdough!

Leaf art activity.  Really hoping that those leaves that look like poison ivy...aren't.

Linking up to the Hip Homeschool Hop.