On Sunday, our church, along with some other neighboring churches, celebrated the Reformation 500. Some of the children of our church were assigned different Reformation heroes to create art work for, and we displayed them as centerpieces for the fellowship. We had been listening to Desiring God’s “Here We Stand,” and the girls were especially excited to study their assigned heroes. They were even more enthusiastic about painting their portraits. After they each completed two, they were asking me to give them more to do!
I really love how their painted portraits came out. We used acrylic paint on this Strathmore acrylic paper. They each took such care in mixing colors and creating the right shades. For Glow, I drew the outline, she filled in the details with pencil, then went over it in paint. There will definitely be more painting projects in our future.
This podcast is good one to listen to if you want to understand the Reformation.
Each row from top to bottom: Brave, True, Soul, Glow
True ended up getting sick on Halloween, so she didn’t go out trick-or-treating. The sisters got her back though, and they came home ready to share their loot. So with a dietitian dad, you must wonder how we handle Halloween candy. Well, we let them eat all they want as soon as we get home, and then after that we toss the rest (or I’ll save it for a rainy day). We want them to learn how to moderate and balance their own consumption.
We don’t give out candy, but we do give pencils, erasers, little notepads, and spider rings. The reaction from the kids who come to our door have been positive. In fact, most oohh and aahh at the items. I might have heard one complaint, but that’s about it.
To read more about the whys and hows of how we deal with Halloween candy, read this post that Ben wrote a few years ago.
This year the girls decided they wanted to do a news story with their different characters. They’ve been making news videos on their iPad and their show is called “California News & Beyond,” so the new video is a play on that. Brave has really gotten into Harry Potter series (have you seen her Harry Potter birthday?), so of course she wanted to be Hermione Granger. And if you’re a legit Star Wars fan, you love Debbie Reynolds too, so True wanted to be Kathy Selden from Singing in the Rain. Soul decided early in the spring that Paddington is who she wanted to be for Halloween, and Glow loves Ash from Sing. She loves singing “Set It All Free” all the time, and quite loudly too (though you get a tamer rendition in the video, must have been a bit of stage fright). With all their random choices, they thought it would be best to present it as a news story, with each character getting its own segment.
The girls take care in planning their characters, costumes (and what needs to be made), and how they will bring it all together. They have so much fun prepping for Halloween and doing creative projects like this. In fact, they’ve started discussing their plans for next Halloween already. It’s been a busy month, so the video didn’t get done until last minute (yesterday), and I’m rusty on editing (miss my sister and her skillz, she made last year’s video), but I hope you enjoy the news show we put together!
While it is scorching hot, I’m thankful that the weather is refining my heart to be thankful even when it’s not my preferred temperature.
I discovered how much Glow loves to paint. She draws almost every day, so I guess it should be no surprise, but she also really enjoys working with acrylics.
It’s been a much more chill week because of the heat and I haven’t been feeling well. I guess my body needed some rest, so I’m thankful that we were able to slow down a bit this week.
WOVENFOLK is in need of an update, but homeschooling mom and craft styling gigs have taken up most of my day. This week though, I’m hoping to get some new things up in the shop.
Love this robe dress. I’m keeping my eye out at the thrift for a similar cut.
Check out these beautiful pieces by Avilla Jewelry. My ears would love those earrings!
Have you started Christmas shopping? I’m thinking about getting True and Brave these pens because they’ve been getting into brush lettering.
An embroidered tiger rug?! Yes! Would look so fun in a kid room. I’d love this or this to replace my jute rug in our family room.
Some friends from church started a podcast called Kinship. Check it out if you want to hear real women sharing things from their heart, and how it all goes back to the gospel.
I can’t believe it’s pretty much November! My birthday is coming up and I can’t wait to lie in bed and do nothing. LOL But first Halloween, and the girls are really excited to go trick-or-treating on Tuesday.
This is the first year, in all our years of homeschooling, where math hasn’t been a headache. All the prior years, we’d been doing Singapore Math, and while it’s a good program, I realize now, it wasn’t for us, especially not for True and Brave. Every day, we used to dread math, but since making the switch to Saxon Math, the days have been better. Math-U-See was another program I thought about switching to, but ultimately decided Saxon would be better for where True and Brave are at. Fights and frustrations still happen, but not nearly as frequently as they used to. I think the older girls would agree that this year, math has been better and much more enjoyable.
The two little ones are still doing Singapore, but it’s because we already have the books, and they do much better with the program. Soul is a math girl, so the program work for her, though next year I might consider switching her to Saxon. The tough part with Soul is that she hates math, but she’s really good at it. Often, she’ll complain about the work she has to do, but once she does it, it doesn’t take her long. Thus, the issue with her isn’t the math program, but her heart.
As for Glow, she loves math! She put “math books” on her birthday and Christmas wish list. She loves it so much that she does a Saxon, Singapore, and a math minute workbook! You don’t have to twist her arm to do math; she definitely does it with a happy heart.
I think it took me a long while to switch programs for True and Brave because I felt like if I did, I failed because we didn’t complete it. I know, that thought is completely preposterous. I felt that too if I switched to a video program, like I was giving up and giving my job to someone else (a video) because I couldn’t do it. Honestly, I couldn’t, at least not well. I finally got smart enough to find a program that worked better. Took awhile for me to figure that out, but I’m so thankful I did, better late than never.
So if you’re a homeschooling mom and some curriculum is not working for you, try something else. Take a break, experiment with a different type of learning and teaching, and remember one of the benefits of homeschooling is that we can find what works best for our family and we don’t have to be stuck following one certain way.
Still need a costume idea? Make this stick horse and your little one could be a cowgirl or cowboy! It’s easy enough to find a pair of overalls, bandana, jeans, and hat at the thrift store. You might already have these things in your drawers at home. See the full tutorial over here on the Velveteen blog.
I have a large growing pile of fabric scraps. I refuse to throw them away because I am sure they can be used for something. I have been seeing different types of interesting necklaces made of buttons, beads, and fabric. Then, I figured why not make one out of my scraps...
I think it made my white shirt a little less boring. This was so quick and easy to make.
How to make a recycled scraps necklace (which is very similar to the straps on my braided tablecloth bag):
1. Take your scrap fabric, I cut a .5''-1'' snip and tear the rest of the fabric down for a nice frayed edge. Used 3 different fabrics for each strand.
2. Take 3 of the torn pieces and tie the ends together with a rubber band.
3. Braid the 3 pieces together and tie ends together with rubber band when done.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 for more strands. Remember you can make the strands any length you want, if run out of fabric, just weave more into the braid.
5. Once all the strands you want are braided, gather one end of each strand together and straight stitch together with sewing machine. Repeat for the other ends of the strands. Snip off any excess.
6. Gather ends of the necklace and sew together (snip excess) or a ribbon can be sewn at the ends to be able to tie the necklace closed, but I just sewed both ends together.
7. Voila! A nice way to make use of all your lovely scraps.
Sorry if the directions get you a little lost, but it really is easy. I promise. Maybe I should put some in the shop. Please share any other good ideas you may have of things that can be made with scraps. I would love to hear (read) them!
On Sunday, our church, along with some other neighboring churches, celebrated the Reformation 500. Some of the children of our church were assigned different Reformation heroes to create art work for, and we displayed them as centerpieces for the fellowship. We had been listening to Desiring God’s “Here We Stand,” and the girls were especially excited to study their assigned heroes. They were even more enthusiastic about painting their portraits. After they each completed two, they were asking me to give them more to do!
Each row from top to bottom: Brave, True, Soul, Glow
