Blog Candy...World Fabric Map

Ok, so as promised, I did it! Here is the blog candy for those of you that read and follow my silly posts.

Here is something even the most novice seamstress can accomplish. I've been eyeing our wonderful tutor's cloth map and when she told me her mom made it, I thought, I could do it as well. :)

I'm planning to use chalk, erasable fabric markers, items (such as planes, cars, boats to identify places), whatever strikes me. You can hang it on a wall, whatever you desire because it can be yours too! Pretty great huh? It's not perfect, as I try not to be- but it's done and that requires applauds in my head. I have so many unfinished projects they fill a room! Literally.

Ok, back to the map. Let's say you don't win, but still want it.
You can do it for about $12 if you use coupons. It only takes time pinning the fleece throughout as it will stretch and make for a funny edge. If interested in details, just comment below.

You can buy these panels at your local fabric store. I got mine at Jo Ann's. Regularly they are $8, plus the fleece for the back (usually around $8). I waited till the Veteran's Day sale and bought us a couple of panels on sale.

Ok, drum roll please....

Ok, not as impressive as I was hoping... but here is the cool part, the labels! Yes! I don't have to think about where the tiny country in South America that sounds like Tom Cruise's daughter is located. Surinam, it's there, already labeled.

Here are some close ups of the continents. As you can see it's all modern day labeling. But still good for our kids to identify.

 Middle East and Africa

Whole thing at a glance- the width of my square table that fits 12.

The back is lined with soft orange fleece. Ouuuu, cooozy! It's a blanket, no it's a map, no it's a...

The way to enter the drawing... see the side bar of the blog. The Raffle Copter will pick the winners, not me- but you can enter daily to increase your chances. The contest starts now and finishes at midnight on Black Friday. Fitting huh?

All ready for a new home... maybe yours?

 Hopefully it works.  If not let me know. Once the contest is over and it selects the winner, I will post who won and will have the map sent to you by Christmas. I will send it to people within the continental United States only or military addresses overseas. Not that I expect many international visitors, but just in case. 

Blessings to you all!

-Crecia

Thanks- giving!

So in effort to continue with our praise lessons, this week I found a fabulouso CD for kids worship. It's a fun, upbeat worship CD that's humorous and energetic. Does anyone else ever need that pep in their day? And just in time for Christmas, you can ask for this to be given, or as one mom stated- give it out as a gift. The album was released last year- so maybe I'm just the last one to hear about it- but either way it's worth the shout out.

Here is a link to you tube where they have simple cartoons, but also their music samples.

The name is "Happy Day Everyday" put our by Little Praise Party. 

If you do a children's church (hint hint- April) you might want to consider buying it. 

Our intentional Jesus relationship lesson this week was "God enjoys when we make a joyful noise unto Him." 

And this is exactly that! It has music that is catchy and to the point. Did I mention that I loved it? Ok, ok- back to my point- in it, there is a song entitled, "Don't Be a Turkey"(which talks about being thankful)- and that took us to our next project of the week. 

Here's a project I found just in time for Thanksgiving...Turkey Hats! 

I found the idea off Pinterest (of course). The prep consisted of cutting construction paper pieces and setting out paint and glue- now that is my kind of prep!

My sample to show the kids...

We had our good buddies over to help us with this project.

First we painted the edge of paper plates...

Then we glued the bodies on our brown construction paper while the paint dried. 

There are no pictures of this step because my lovely daughter decided to have an all out melt down at this point.  The pictures resumed after we resolved it, made another, and played outside. I did think of grabbing the camera and taking a few of her melt down- but decided not.

 So you just have to believe me when I say it was a good one.

After everything dried, we made head bands and stapled the turkey hats onto the head bands. Added a couple legs and whalaa, we had some stinkin cute finished crafts. 

While everyone waited for the hats to dry, the kids all piled up in our dune buggy. 

It was so refreshing to just do an easy craft. Every once in a while- I have to remind myself that simple is good. Anyone else ever feel the same way?

Have a great weekend! I have one more project to do and if it turns out you will see the picture soon!

Many blessings to all,

Crecia

Week 11

Can you believe we are almost done with our first semester? Wow! I can't believe it's almost break time again. I think the last 6 weeks went faster than the first.

Did anyone else need to read what the crusades were really all about being that you couldn't recall that on your own? Raise your hand if the answer is yes. Since no one is looking, you can raise all four limbs if you are as smart as a rock when it comes to this period. Did you even know there were 8? All I could recall was they were religious wars. Ohhh, the money my parents wasted on me in private school. Maybe I don't know because it was a Catholic school. :)

Seriously, though, I can't believe that I completely didn't learn this in school. I mean I went to renaissance festivals in college, does that count for anything?

Other than the super smart people I know, or history majors, who knows this? Anyhow, I'm still trying to wrap my brain around this all and think maybe I will buy us a Kids' Encyclopedia set for Christmas so momma won't feel so dumb while teaching. It will be the gift that keeps on giving.

Ok, so if you like last week's sentence you will love this one as well. Thus starting the search for me to figure out this time period.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/83404917/History%20Sentence%20week%2011.pdf

Also, I've updated our CC By Week Page, so be sure to head over there to get all the wonderful, ambitious plans. We'll see what I get accomplished.

Next up, my very first giveaway! Yep, I'm attempting to make some "blog candy." So come back this week to make sure you can put yourself in the drawing.

Blessings to all,

Crecia

All A Waste of Time....

So this last week, I spent an evening of prayer with some other CC moms in our community. It was so refreshing. We were honest and real, we didn't have our "We have it all together masks" on. We just spoke from the heart.

Here's what I learned...

If I do only one thing in homeschooling, what is it that I want my kids to learn? Is it their memory work? Their latin? Their presidents' song, or the timeline with motions? NO... none of that matters. 

All that matters to me is that they know Jesus because they have seen me live out a real authentic relationship with Him. I say this with a heartfelt prayer for all of us. I mean, yes of course we want them to have great minds and know this stuff so they can rock the SAT's one day, but what if they did just that and didn't come to a heart stopping, never ending, serve others love relationship with Him? What if, they didn't get the "why?" of what we do? Oh how my heart weeps at the thought of doing everything right, and getting this one thing wrong. 

Then lets just be honest and say, I will fail. I will fail miserably if they don't know the grace and love of our Lord. Not because the church didn't teach them, but because I didn't.

So from this post on and from that day on, I promised (to myself) I would start our school days not with a simple prayer, but with an act of knowing Jesus. 

The very next day I started the morning off with praise. I wanted them to learn to enter His presence by praise. So I played the cd, The Praise Baby Collection. It's a cd with adult praise music, but not words they can't comprehend, sung by children. It's beautiful and has special meaning to us- but they didn't know it. At that moment I felt convicted that I had been playing the CC cds more than I had played these songs. Was one more important than the other? Yes. 

Immediately, my son rolled back and laid himself on the ground (as to show a lack of attention). He placed his feet up in the air and kicked them in a "V". At first I was going to correct him and stop the CD and say, "Tony, you don't praise God that way," but the strangest thing happened. 

God silenced me and spoke to me quickly to allow me to say, "That's ok Tony, if you want to praise God that way, He doesn't care. He's just interested in our hearts, not our bodies." 

He immediately shot up and looked at me as if I had three heads. I'm sure he thought, "What in the world? My mom never allows me to do that and get away with it. " Immediately, Lucy did the exact thing (taking no time to miss the opportunity to act "irreverently"). 

But to my heart's delight we sang, we listened, and we worshiped. That day, as I prayed our prayer, I did nothing different than before. I just let them in on a part of my relationship with God. No special handouts, no puppets, no rules. Just authentic time with my Lord.

I'd love to say that they were perfect behaving children the rest of the day, and didn't fuss at all, but that wouldn't be true. We had a normal day as before, but this time, I felt like I started it right.

I want to hear how you do this. Let us come together to help each other. Let us learn from our accomplishments and mistakes, for this is where there is power in numbers, strength in community.  

Each week, I promise to post one thing about this- whether accomplished or failed, I want my attempts to be intentional and this blog helps me do that.What do you do to start yours off right? How do you show them your authentic heart for God? Please share, I'd love to hear how you incorporate this in. 

For this is the "why"- otherwise it's all a waste of time.

Many blessings-

Crecia

Operation Christmas Child Tells Story of Receiving Her Box

Ok, so in having a day of organizing, I listened to Focus on the Family again and heard this amazing broadcast on serving families this Christmas.

http://www.focusonthefamily.com/popups/media_player.aspx?MediaId={65BEB25F-8D29-4E87-A1D2-801C01B9D4C8}

I hope you are able to set about 20 minutes aside and play it off your phone, iPad, or good old fashioned computer. I try to listen to these when I'm doing a particularly unenjoyable task (such as cleaning or working out) so as to take my mind off the task. 

So maybe you can do the same. I really feel like the ideas they have are so simple I'm surprised I haven't thought of them. They start off talking about simple things you can do together and then move into a retelling of an amazing story from an Operation Christmas Child recipient. If you do OCC, it's worth your time. 

Promise!! 

Money back guarantee- oh wait, it's free... ok seriously though. 

Make it a point to listen to it. You won't be disappointed!

It is the most touching story I've heard in a while. The kind where you need tissues nearby. 

If you do nothing else this season I urge you to consider Operation Christmas child. In order to not confuse or take away from this, I will post stuff about Operation Christmas Child in another post. 

Blessings to you all!

-Crecia

More to come...

Resources for you this week and next semester! Who hooo! So exciting!

Week 10... Cheez'n it up!

So here are a couple more ideas for week 10...

Our illustrated History Sentence...

click here to download a copy

Can I just say I love love love that our timeline, history sentence, and geography all go together this week! So easy to explain everything in context.

I'm going to post more of these soon (weeks 11-24). I think I might actually get to them this weekend! My husband is taking the kids all day for some quality time with him, which equates to a, 

"Who hooo! I can get work done!"

Ok, and for Math this week, as stated in a previous post, I broke down and actually bought a box of Cheez It. I know, I hate going out and buying for a simple illustration, but heh, the kids loved it and we got the concept of squared numbers. 

First I explained what a squared number was, then I wrote out the sentence and next the symbol.

Then he counted up each squared number and wrote the sum.

Next, I traced the outside (not too close as I would ruin our precious snack food),

increasing slowly, showing him our memory board and where to find the pattern for the sums of squared numbers. Then you can follow up with the CC song for Math this week.

Hope you guys enjoy the rest of your week!

Blessings to you all!

-Crecia

Year 1 Geography Cards

So if you are like me, you wait till the very last minute to do everything. I like to say, 

"I need a challenge" and stay away from that ugly "procrastinator" word people use.

But sometimes the planner in me emerges. This weekend was one of those rare times in my life...

That's right, I just did the entire next semester and finished this one as well. 

I know, you are probably asking, what in the world, did she camp at the computer all weekend? Well, kinda... when I can't sleep I work - and that's what happened, plus it was just plain addicting once I got started... and I love photography- so this was enjoyable.

Ok, so here are some pictures of what they look like in case you have no clue what I am talking about. 

Ok, now, please let me know if you can't download these as that would most certainly make me bang my head up against a wall- and contact someone smarter than me to fix it. 

Here are some samples so you know what you are getting yourself into...

First the old ones... to be used for review while we have a nice long break during the holidays.

Then the new ones...

I have to say, there were so many pictures to choose from that it took long trying to find the "perfect" one. I think I'm going to take a stab at making informational power points again to use more pictures and explain facts about these places.

They are so amazingly beautiful, it made me realize how fortunate we are and how badly I want to add stamps to my passport. 

Once again, I'm so thankful that my children will learn about these places this year. Have I mentioned lately how much I love this curriculum? Ok, good, I'm done.

Different Plans...

So I had originally written a post all about this week's resources. It was great, I thought it was witty and educational- two things I aspire to be, I saved it and it went on to another site. I came back and checked out my site and guess what? It was no where to be found. At that point my body was exhausted, defeated, and frustrated. Ever been there?

I figured I would rewrite it today and move on. 

As I sat down to rewrite it my kids clicked a few places and all of a sudden we were on this page. As with most blogs, I don't know who reads this or what your lives are like- but this, I thought, could apply to all of us. If you've been married for 20 years or 2 - we could all use this small reminder about love and our Savior.

It's only 5 minutes long, but worth your time because it's true. Although I don't want to admit this, I've been that woman before and I'm pretty sure my husband has felt like that man.

http://www.thrivingfamily.com/Features/Web/2010/nov/putting-your-spouse-first.aspx

This weekend, I hope you guys have a great time with family.... I pray that you give thanks in all things and that you would have a time to reflect on life and where you are going. 

Yes, planning and having great activities are important- so keep coming, 

I will post those- but for today- 

here's a reminder of something else that's pales in comparison to our incredible lessons- 

our marriages. 

Here are different CC plans for this weekend, but something we could all apply. 

Comment on how these change your thoughts this weekend, not for a drawing or for a prize, just because we all need to hear this again and know we are all more alike than we are different.

Blessings to all,

Crecia