ABC Market

While Maren was off having fun with her Grandma, the boys and I decided to have some fun during school time.  Christopher's been learning his letters, so we played ABC market to help reinforce the letter sounds.

First, Joshua set up shop.  We pulled out our pretend food, balls, socks, anything we found lying around that Joshua decided to sell.  When he decided it was time to "open", Christopher came in and chose 3 items to put in his shopping basket he wanted to buy.  I gave him 6 or 7 uppercase alphabet cards.  He used these to "buy" the items.  So if he wanted to buy a muffin, he gave Joshua the "M" card.  I would help him figure out which card to use for each item.  This also helped me see which letters he really knows, and which we still need to work on.

After he bought his 3 items, he went "home" and ate his food, then came back to buy 3 more.  After a few turns, we switched, and Joshua got to be the shopper.  I laid out all 26 lowercase letters for him to sort through and find the right one.  It wasn't very challenging for him, but he still had fun.  Then
I had him show them to shopkeeper Christopher, and explain to him which letter he was using for which object, so he got to help teach Christopher a bit too.

Another way we played was I gave Christopher 2 alphabet cards, and he had to figure out what he could buy with those cards.  This was a bit easier for him, and I should have started with it first.  The boys had lots of fun and I'm sure we'll be playing ABC market again.

Sing-a-long Primary video follow up

Well, I think this is a good idea, but next time I think I'll do things a little differently.  It was too much for the kids to try and record all the songs in one music time.  I had the junior primary do 4 songs and the senior primary do 4 songs.

It started out well.  The kids were really excited to make their own movie.  They sat up straight with their arms folded and sang out.  By the last song, all I got on tape was a lot of fidgeting and yawning, and nose picking.  

Next year, if I'm still in this calling, I'll do the songs a month at a time.  The last Sunday of the month we'll record the song we've been working on, and I can post it on youtube if the kids want to see it right away.  Then when all 8 months of songs have been recorded, I'll just compile them to a dvd and pass them out to help the kids practice for the program.  

This would also be fun for a Quarterly activity in the fall.  We could split up the kids and let them come up with the pictures or actions, film it, and then get back together and eat treats while we watch what everyone did.

Here's one of the songs.

click for the original sing-a-long post

Simple Halloween Garland

My boys helped me make a halloween garland out of pom-poms this morning.  We used a yarn needle to thread black yarn through black or brown pom-poms to make the legs of the spiders.

So easy, a 5 year old can do it!

Then we threaded orange, white, and black pom-poms with the spiders using a regular needle and invisible thread.  After we had them all on, we spread them out and hung them up, and voila!  instant easy decoration.  Joshua especially thought it was a lot of fun and wanted to make more, but we ran out of pom-poms. (His exact quote was "These spiders are so cool!  I love making this!")

Hey little pumpkins!

Hooray for fall!  I love the seasons here in Kentucky and the beautiful trees and cooler weather.  Hopefully that will get here soon, but until it does, at least I can enjoy the fall decorations inside my house.  I've only put up a few so far, but I thought I would share my favorite, because it just makes me happy every time I look at it.

When Maren was a baby, we found a pumpkin costume at the Gap Outlet for $5.  Since then, each of our children has worn it their first Halloween.  Last year, my mother-in-law gave me a little sign that says "welcome to our patch" and I thought "Hey!  We do have a little pumpkin patch!"  So I put the pictures of the kiddos in frames and put them on top of my tv.  I love it.  They just make me smile.

Now, I'm not suggesting that you put your 8 year old in a pumpkin costume and take a picture for a fall decoration (although that would be rather funny).  I just thought I'd share.  

(Here's Nathan in the pumpkin costume.  Will be framed soon.)

m&m minis math

Maren has been at her Grandma's for the past few days, so I've been trying to make Kindergarten a bit more fun for Joshua.  Today I gave him mini m&ms for him to use as manipulatives with his math workbook.  He was pretty excited about it.  I like using the mini m&ms to make math a bit more fun because then I don't worry about them getting too much candy.  It's still a treat, but not a big treat.

Today he was making groups of tens and ones, and then subtracting.  Mmmmm.  Subtracting with m&ms is delicious!

Holy Ghost talk or Family Home Evening Lesson

For our Family Home Evenings lately we've been going through the gospel essentials book to help our daughter be ready for baptism.  This past Sunday, the lesson was on the gift of the Holy Ghost, and I pulled out a talk I had given at my nephew's baptism last April.  I had a box full of items to help remind us of things pertaining to the Holy Ghost and had the boys being baptized come up and pull something out of the box.  Then we would talk about what it represented and I had a scripture or quote prepared for each object, or I would share a personal experience.  It also worked well with my little kids for our Family Home Evening lesson, since they had to sit still in order to have a turn pulling something out of the box.  This is more of an outline to help me than a word for word talk, but I thought I would share, so here it is:

There are many wonderful gifts we might receive in this life, but President Wilford Woodruff taught that there is one that is more precious than all the rest. President Woodruff said, “You may have the administration of angels, you may see many miracles; … but I claim that the gift of the Holy Ghost is the greatest gift that can be bestowed upon man.”

stop sign - “This voice of the Spirit speaks gently, prompting you what to do or what to say, or it may caution or warn you.”  Pres. Boyd K. Packer   “It can function as a source of revelation to warn us of impending danger and also help keep us from making mistakes.”  Pres. James E. Faust

blanket - “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” John 14:26

invitation - “We need to live worthy of the continued companionship of the Holy Ghost and have the courage to follow the promptings that come into our lives”  Elder L. TomPerry 

maze - “For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do”  2 Nephi 32:5

book of mormon - “And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.”  Moroni 10:5

ear - “Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart.” D&C 8:2 

candle -  “Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy;”  D&C 11:13 

heart - “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,” Galations 5:22 

President Ezra Taft Benson gave this important counsel: “Pray to Heavenly Father to bless you with His Spirit at all times. … The Holy Ghost is … a gift from Heavenly Father. … He whispers to you in a still, small voice to do right. When you do good, you feel good, and that is the Holy Ghost speaking to you. The Holy Ghost is a wonderful companion. He is always there to help you.” 

Stamped Kids' Stationary

Today for writing class at our homeschool, we were talking about writing friendly notes and letters.  For fun, the kids stamped their own stationary.  I cut plain white paper in half and drew guide lines at the top and bottom.  They stamped whatever they wanted in these areas.  They made 2 different designs.  Maren did a flower/happy face version and a halloween version.  I put them side by side on our copier, made copies, and cut them in half so they each had several sheets of their own homemade stationary.  They were very excited to write letters on their new writing paper, and asked if they could make more when it was gone.  I said of course!

Sing-a-Long Primary Video

So while I was drifting off to sleep for my Sunday afternoon nap, I had an idea to review the primary program songs.  I lead the children in music at our church and we have a program coming up showing what we have learned this year.  Our primary program is not until Oct. 24th, so we still have many weeks to review.  I know this idea won't work out for many people who have already done their program or have it coming up soon, but maybe you could use it next year.  

I was thinking about how to get the kids to listen to their songs to practice for the program.  I actually think the kids know the songs pretty well, but there are a few places we could improve.  I was thinking about a dvd we got from my mother--in-law several christmases ago that has the songs for the 2006 program on it with pictures to go along with the songs and the words written on the bottom.  We listen/watch it most sunday mornings because the music is nice and the kids can sit and watch the pictures if they're done getting ready for church and we are busy.

Anyway, I was thinking, "why don't we make a video just like it, but with the kids?"  and I thought "yeah, that would be really fun!".  We could assign each class one song to prepare actions for, or pick out pictures for the song, and then video tape those kids doing the actions while everyone in primary sang in the background.  That way each child would be sure to see their face on the video.  I'd also get video of the whole group singing.  I'd then take the video home and edit it on my mac to put the words going across the bottom like a sing-a-long video.  We could either make dvds for everyone (which would cost money) or post it on youtube (which would be free but I don't know if some parents would be against that for some reason)  The kids would surely want to watch and listen to themselves lots, don't you think?  


So we're going to try it this Sunday, and hopefully it will go well.  I think the kids will be excited to perform their best for the video and it will help us get ready for the program.  


(click here  to see follow-up post)

Teddy Bear Day!

Last thursday was teddy bear day, in case you didn't know, and so we decided to celebrate at our homeschool.  Actually we celebrated on friday, because it's better to put the fun things at the end of the school week for my kids.  Thursday night I wrote each of my children a letter, inviting them to bring their favorite teddy bear to a special teddy bear homeschool day.  They were very excited.  

We started our day with teddy bear pancakes, using chocolate chips to make eyes, nose and mouth (or just for eating)

We then did our usual morning homeroom activities.  During journal time they wrote about their teddy bears - describing how they looked and what kinds of things their teddy bears like to do and what the kids like to do with them.  We then shared what we had written and had a little "show and tell".  I discovered that my son's teddy bear likes potato chips and cheese and my daughter's likes to play a game called catch and cuddle.  Who knew? We also drew pictures of our bears.  I read them "Corduroy" while they finished their drawings.

Next we solved some teddy bear word problems, and then did work in our regular math books.  Then Maren and I talked about the history of the teddy bear.

To help get my 3 year old involved, we read "We're going on a bear hunt" and acted it out.  We made signs to hang up around our house for each area we had to go through, and hid our teddy bears in the cave.  The 3 year old thought it especially fun when he had to save me from the mud and stop his sister and brother from being blown away in the snowstorm.  Who wouldn't love running back through the house screaming because we were "scared" by the bears in the cave.  And yes, we woke up the baby.

For our final activity, we dance to the classic "Teddy Bear's picnic" with our teddy bears, and then went on a teddy bear picnic ourselves.  I really was going to have the kids help me make sandwiches, but it turned out we didn't have enough bread, so we HAD to go to McDonald's to get our picnic food.  

I had planned some other teddy bear activities, including but not limited to:

    singing the "teddy bear, teddy bear" song and playing the little singing game

    making bread or pretzel dough and shaping it into bears before we baked it

    doing a puppet show with our bears

    acting out Goldilocks and the Three Bears                                                                                                                                                               

but we weren't able to get through all the things I planned.  And that's okay.  There's always next year.

Primary Music Mascots

(It's kind of hard to tell, but there's a princess puppet and a knight puppet by Melissa & Doug, and then

a three headed dragon Folkmanis puppet)

Last Christmas, my wonderful brother and his fantastic wife sent my children three puppets for Christmas. I love puppets. When I saw these I knew I had to figure out some way to use them in primary during singing time. So one Sunday I introduced the children to a friend of mine, who would come out if we sang beautifully. Her name was Princess Primary. The kids loved her. She sat on the podium and listened to them sing, and blew them kisses when they were especially reverent or sang especially good. The next week Princess Primary told them that they sang so beautifully she brought one of her friends to hear them also. His name was Sir Sunday. He talked in a low voice and gave the kids high fives in the air for their great work. Over the next few weeks, Princess Primary and Sir Sunday were frequent visitors and helpers. Then one Sunday, awakened from his slumber by the angelic singing, the Dastardly Disruptive Dragon emerged from his cave and carried off Princess Primary, in hopes of stopping the singing. Each time we sang a part of the song we were learning, Sir Sunday came closer and closer to the tower (piano) where princess primary was held captive, until finally at the end of singing time we were able to rescue her. The kids love when the Dastardly Disruptive Dragon comes to singing time. They love to see him get angry at their reverent singing.

Obviously not everyone likes to use puppets, but I've found that they work really well to get the children's attention and make singing time fun for them. So I'll probably be posting a lot of my singing time ideas that use the puppets, and just thought you ought to know where they came from.

Molasses Sugar Cookies

Here is a recipe for molasses cookies that I really like. It came from my mom, and I don't know where she got it. I made them for a church activity and got some requests for the recipe, so I just thought I'd post it here and force my friends to read my blog (hwaa ha ha)(that's my evil laugh, in case you couldn't tell)

1/2 cup butter + 1/4 cup shortening (that's the combo I like to use. do whatever you like)

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

2 1/2 cups flour (the recipe I have calls for 2 cups, but I find a little more flour is good.)

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. cloves

1/2 tsp. ginger

1/2 tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in molasses and egg until fluffy. Stir in dry ingredients. Chill. Form into balls (I just use my cookies scoop) and roll in granulated sugar. Bake on parchment paper lined pan at 325 degrees for 10 - 12 minutes. Cool. Makes about 2 1/2 dozen.

frog birthday party

My little baby just turned 1, and since the kids call him "frog legs" due to his jumpiness, we thought a frog party would be appropriate. We had some family over and I planned games for the cousins. First we played "frog, frog, tadpole" which was a favorite with the younger cousins.

Then we lined pillows across the floor and had the kids jump across the "pond" from one lily pad to the next. They had to watch out for uncle alligator! Last we played frog tongues with "icky poo" ropes I got from a Klutz book. I lined up black paper "flies" on the ground, had two children stand on their own lily pads (aka construction paper) and they tried to pick up as many as they could with the sticky tongues in 1 minute. They really liked this game. Finally we enjoyed a nice frog cake. I had made it from a wilton ball cake pan. I cut off the rounded tops of two cupcakes and added slices of a large marshmallow with chocolate chips to complete the eyes. Every time I looked at this cake it made me smile, because he just looks like such a happy frog. This was a good low-key birthday party, easy and fun.