Fall {fun} learning

I love fall!  The actual season is quite short here in the deep south so I grab every opportunity to incorporate fall fun into our learning.

It may be a little late to squeeze in all of these activities this fall, but I’m going to post them as ideas for next year.  Here are some things we have done this fall and some we are planning on doing:

F is for fall

An “F” decorated with falling leaves and a feather.  (I haven’t a clue where the feather came from…I guess Evan found it and added it to the paper since it was the same sound. {smile})

We also sang these fall songs while identifying colors and color words.  My kids are partial to the “Leaves are falling, Leaves are falling, One fell on my nose” sang to the tune of Jingle Bells. 

Fun fall counters

We bought these counters from Dollar Tree a few years ago.  (But I’m sure they have something similar even now.)  They have come in handy for counting, patterning, adding & subtracting, and even multiplying.  It’s amazing how something so simple motivates the kids. 

 

Fall handprint trees

My older kids did this in the past and now I’ve done it with my two littles.  For the handprint trees, we used brown construction paper, traced the little ones’ hands, and glued it to white construction paper.  The little ones used cotton swabs (and fingers) to decorate the trees with falling leaves.  I hot glued the trees to some painted frames and hung them in our kitchen. (Note to self:  write the date on the pictures before placing in memory boxes.)

Other fun fall activities:

• My October {homeschool} board at Pinterest
• Fall sun catchers

 

Pumpkin carving and seed roasting

We carved pumpkins this year and roasted the seeds.  I had intentions of turning this into a writing lesson for the younger ones but did not. 

Apples, apples, apples

We did some activities earlier in the fall season with apples.  I’ve pinned some great ideas on Pinterest.  This picture is our learning board.  The board holds vocabulary words, songs, and spelling activities.  There is more about our past apple fun here. 

Thanksgiving

This coming week, our children (older and younger) will be focusing on Thanksgiving.  Here are some of the ideas that we will be using:

• Thanksgiving lapbook
• Book list for Thanksgiving
• T is for turkey (I’m thinking we will do the the feet and hand turkeys.)
• Tree of thankfulness
• Free Thanksgiving unit from Meet Penny
• Thanksgiving writing prompts
• November {homeschool} Pinterest board
• Be Thankful copywork and notebooking printables

 

What are your favorite fall fun learning activities?

 

 

 

Christmas 2011 memories

The decorations are put away.  The Christmas food goodies are almost gone.  But the memories…they last forever! 

Our Christmas was wonderful.  I really loved having Christmas fall on a Sunday.  My Mom, Dad, and Uncle came to worship with us on that day.  I loved that.  Then we all went to our Little White House for some family fellowship.  And I only got one picture on the actual day of Christmas – one. whole.picture.  Not even a good one at that…

However, that’s not all of our pictures.  We have some wonderful memories from our 2011 Christmas.

Christmas with family and many cousins

A Christmas parade (one of two that the kids went to this year) and lots of candy catching

Friends and gingerbread houses

Lots of laughs, candy, and icing (and two mamas had some time to talk)

 (cracks me up every year but each gingerbread house always reflects the personality of the maker)

Christmas lights at Roseland

 

 See the smile on his face?  That’s because he was bouncing the ball that floats on the water! 

Opening a joint gift to all the kiddos (the one in which we surprised them!)

Christmas was great and now we are just enjoying some days of hanging out with each other and cleaning the house before we start a new year and school starts up again.

I hope you and your family have had a wonderful Christmas season.  See y’all soon!

These days

I love days at home.  You know…those days when no one has anywhere to go and we all just get to hang out together…those are my most favorite days of all! 

And just what do we do on our days at home with no pressures or timelines beating down on us? 

 

We drink coffee or hot cocoa and watch the birds from the kitchen window.

We laugh hysterically at the chickens taking dust baths.  (Truly a very funny thing to see!)

We plant fruit trees!  (Yay!  We’ve put in a peach tree.  Next tree in is an apple…so excited to be growing fruit.)

We stomp and tromp in our {stylish} muck boots.

We decorate the chicken coop for Christmas.

We bring Mommy some dead flowers.  {smile} 

And then we scatter the seeds from the dead flowers so that we can enjoy the living ones in the spring and summer.

We drink more coffee as we sit in the glow of the tree and begin dreaming of our spring and summer gardens.

And because all days are not spent at home…especially this time of the year…we might also be found

singing about our Savior and His love for us.

 

Some days at home and some days out & about

I love both kinds of days especially since I get to spend them with my crew.

I love these days.

 

 

Thanksgiving

 photo taken by Emma

This post is very late what with Thanksgiving happening a week ago.  And even though it is quite fashionably late, I’m going to post it anyway.  Over the last few weeks of blog quietness, I’ve been thinking on why I have this blog and what I want to do with it.  Honestly, I came close to just deleting it.  Sometimes I feel so…lacking…when it comes to this blog.  I am not really a writer.  Nor am I a photographer.  I wondered if the world really needed another blog.

Then I realized that the world might not need another blog but I needed this blog and my family needed this blog.  First, I need an outlet – a place to create something and express my thoughts.  My family needs me to preserve our memories.  And with that, I had the purpose for this blog.  I want to write down what we do in our everyday as we strive towards our dreams.  I love to look back at some of the older posts and see my kids and how they’ve changed.  It’s a lot of fun to see the garden over the years and read about our homeschool.  Yes, I needed to keep the blog open.

And then, quite unexpectedly, someone commented to me that my blog helped them.  What?  This little blog helped someone?  At first, I panicked because I felt totally unqualified or unable to actually help someone.  (Still do, really)  But then I felt…honored (and quite humbled too).  Honored that God would use this little place to speak to someone in some way.  It is my prayer that I will always use this space on the web to bring glory to Him!

And what’s that got to do with Thanksgiving?

Nothing really.  {smile}  Other than just to say that sometimes this place might be a little behind on the times or not so eloquent but I’ll still keep sharing what’s on my mind and in my heart.

So…on to Thanksgiving… {smile} 

 photo taken by Emma (and that’s her feet too)

I love Thanksgiving.  Always have.  It is such a simple day.  Just a lot of yummy food.  Family.  And no pressure.  We talk, we laugh, we remember.

Thanksgiving has taken on a whole new twist for me these past few years though.  Six years ago, I met at the same house you see in the above pictures.   Six years ago, I stood in this yard and I talked with my Baby Brother.  We joked.  We had “our jokes”.  We laughed.  He was carrying a burden that day too.  He was going through some rough times in his life.  We talked about that too.  It’s just what siblings do.

 photo taken by Emma (can you tell I was too busy talking to take pictures at Thanksgiving)

And that was the last time that I talked to, hugged, laughed with, and advised my little brother.

Now I’m not trying to be all sad or make this a sad post.  Quite the opposite, actually.  I miss my little brother and I think of him often…especially at Thanksgiving.  But his death made me very aware that there are many things we need to do in our short times here on this earth.  And you’ve probably heard these same things many times but they are always worth repeating…even if it’s just to drill it through my thick head again! {smile}

 Emma shooting a b.b. gun

Live everyday to its fullest.

Laugh as much as possible and as often as possible.

Don’t cry over spilt milk.  (so cliche but so true)

 Abby riding at PawPaw and Grammy’s house

Spend time with family.

Take a lot of pictures…and take pictures of everything.

Let people know that you love them.  Hug them.  Let them know you appreciate them and how special they are to you.

 I spent time in my Dad’s garden the day after Thanksgiving…does it get any better than this? {smile}

 

Give generously to others.

Give not only your worldly goods but your time to others.

Spend some time doing what you love.

 fresh green beans from Dad’s garden

Spend time with God.  He is the Author of true peace and comfort.

Know God’s Son, Jesus.  Believe in Him.  Follow Him.

Don’t be afraid to follow your dreams or be different from the crowd.

 

 Grant shooting at targets with a b.b. gun

Don’t be afraid to show the real you.

Let others know you’re not perfect.  (I’m not saying complain but let others know that you mess up.  It makes you real. So talking to myself right here!)

And I’m sure that there are other things I could list but my tired mama brain is not bringing it forth right now.  (See…letting you know that I’m not perfect! {smile})

What about you?  What would you add to this list? 

Our Christmas traditions ~ trimming the tree

Years ago when David and I had our first child, I remember my Dad encouraging us to start our own holiday traditions.  We have taken his advice and have worked to incorporate traditions that we brought with us from our families as well as some new traditions over the years. 

 This past weekend we decorated our tree.  Actually, the kids decorated it…entirely…and by themselves.  David and I just handed out ornaments and reminded them that breakables needed to go towards the top. {smile}  And even though the tree is a little different that I may have decorated, I think it may be my favorite decorated tree ever.

Some of our Christmas tree decorating traditions are…

Tradition number one:  Each child gets a new special ornament each year. 

The ornament is usually something that is special to the child.  The plan is that the children will take their ornaments to their new homes when they are adults.

 for our cowboy

 for our car lover

 for our animal lover

 for our girly girl

 for our dinosaur lover

Tradition number two: We make new ornaments every year.

I love monograms so this year we went with these very easy but very cute monogram ornaments.  The glass ornaments can be found at craft stores (and  are usually 1/2 off).  Fill them with a little shredded paper of your choice of color.  (Also at the craft stores) 

Tie on a few ribbons of your choice.  Stick on a scrapbooking sticker for the letter of your choice and you’ve got a very easy and super cute ornament! 

Tradition number three:  We have gumbo, hot cocoa, and make a special dessert on Christmas tree decorating night. 

Tradition number four:  We listen to Christmas music while we decorate our tree.  (Some how we mixed in a little 80s music this year too.  It was so much fun to see everyone dancing around while decorating the tree.)

Tradition number five:  We add one new family ornament each year.  According to tradition number one, we will be giving away our ornaments when the kids are older.   Since that may result in a very bare tree one day, we are adding a new family ornament each year too.  This year we added

a monogram ornament

and

a coffee pot!

 

These are our very simple Christmas tree decorating traditions.  The kids love to decorate the tree.  David and I simply love to watch them as they talk about the ornaments, remember Christmases past, and think on the approaching season.