For this month’s Michaels Makers Challenge, the girls picked up one of their craft kits for kids and made flower crowns together. The kit made 4 crowns, so it was perfect for my girls. Initially, there was a bit of fighting over who got what color wire (there are tiny colored beads on it), but thankfully, that didn’t last long when the one who was fighting saw how much fun the other sisters were having.
True, Brave, and Soul each made their own, and I helped Glow put hers together. I like the sweet paper flowers and loved how easy it was for the big girls to do it by themselves. I’m thinking we will pick up another box to gift to another family we know that has 4 girls.
Supplies provided as part of the Michaels Makers Series. Another great way to explore creativity is by trying out a craft kit. Michaels has everything from sewing kits to art kits and everything in between.
We have a road trip to the Four Corners and Mt. Rushmore coming up. We still haven’t decided if we will go to Yellowstone (through Montana) or head to Chicago. Anyone do those stops before? Would love to hear any other suggested stops along those routes! Or a list of must see things in Chicago that might help us decide which direction to take.
I’m excited that Ben and I get to go on a date this weekend. We are perfectly content with our Friday date nights at home, but it’s nice to be able to go out and do something different too. I think the last time we went on a date sans kids was our anniversary last year.
Thankful for getting out for a girls night out this past week. It was refreshing, even though I did get home close to 11pm. #momsgonewild
If we had a giant tree in our backyard, I would for sure get the girls a swurfer swing. It looks like so much fun!
This article “Prayer for Beginners” was what my heart needed. I’ve been struggling with praying lately.
We are studying angles and this one of my favorite things to teach kids. Really though, all the credit goes to Sir Cumference who makes learning shapes and angles so fun. When I taught fourth grade, I looked forward to being able to introduce my students to the Sir Cumference books. You get to meet characters like Lady Di of Ameter, Radius, and visit the a cute town with pointy little roofs. We aren’t math fans, but I do love when we can integrate math with stories because it really helps our non-math brains understand and get excited about it. It brings all the math and numbers to life. I think that’s why we love Life of Fred so much too. If you’ve never heard of Sir Cumference, I highly recommend checking out all his stories (find them here) and I think your children will enjoy the math adventure he takes you on, I know mine certainly do.
Take home Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War with toys, gear & more at Target.
In honor of National Superhero Day, we introduce you to Captain America and Iron Girl, which is Iron Man’s daughter according to Brave, and their new trainees … Forcer Stripes and Ziggy Strong! We love all the crossovers and uniting that superheroes have been doing lately, so we thought we would make our own superheroes and unite them with some familiar ones. One of you had suggested a few weeks back that superheroes are a great way to teach about language and story writing, so that’s what we have been working on in our homeschool. We created these characters, their costumes (every superhero uses things to conceal their identity and protect themselves), and the girls have been creating their own comic strip stories to go along with it. My girls are such big fans of comic books and superheroes, so they have been especially excited about these lessons. It’s like a writing and art crossover, which is totally their jam.
Becoming a Superhero Mask & Shield Project
Supplies: Mask template
Cereal box (or cardboard) for the mask
Large piece of cardboard for shield
Duct tape, various colors
Non-stick scissors (best for cutting duct tape)
Box cutter
1/4″ elastic
Hole puncher
Self-healing mat
Yarn
Tape
Pencil
Directions for the superhero mask:
Using the template, cut out the mask and wrap with duct tape to decorate. Punch a hole in each top corner, measure the elastic needed for the wearer (we used between 11″-14″ length elastic), then insert elastic through each hole and knot to secure.
Directions for the superhero shield: 1. Lay out your cardboard. Using a piece of yarn, tape, and pencil to make your own compass, create a circle onto the cardboard.
2. Cut out the circle with the box cutter. Then, cut out a 2″ x 9″ piece of cardboard for the shield handle. Cut across two inches in from the end of both ends, so it makes the handles easy to bend.
3. Tape the handles onto the center of the shield.
4. Decorate the shield with duct tape. Create fun patterns with the duct tape colors.
They’ve been working on mind maps to build their superhero characters and stories, so then they can create a comic strip with it. These girls take their superhero skills seriously and have been coming up with all sorts of stories and ideas. Brave wanted to dress up as Iron Man, ahem, Iron Girl with the mask and gloves. Apparently, Iron Girl is in charge of training Ziggy Strong. Soul wanted to dress as Captain America (I think she really wanted to be the one throwing the magnetic frisbee shield) and she has the responsibility to show Forcer Stripes the superhero ropes. I love how my girls can go from being fairy princesses one day to superheroes the next. They don’t discriminate in play, it’s all about having fun and using their imagination!
Stay tuned, we will definitely share the results of their comic strip project.
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In my recent tomato post, some of you noticed we pruned a lot off the tomato plant to look like a palm tree, then planted it deep. Why? The buried trunk will then turn into a larger, more established root system, thereby enabling the plant to be healthier. Trimming it this way also includes removing the tomato blossoms and any fruit that’s started to form. We want the plant to direct its energy toward developing a healthier root system now to allow for a greater abundance of fruit later vs. just a few measly fruit now. Hope this answers some of the questions some of you had regarding the way we plant our tomatoes.
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!
For this month’s Michaels Makers Challenge, the girls picked up one of their craft kits for kids and made flower crowns together. The kit made 4 crowns, so it was perfect for my girls. Initially, there was a bit of fighting over who got what color wire (there are tiny colored beads on it), but thankfully, that didn’t last long when the one who was fighting saw how much fun the other sisters were having.
True, Brave, and Soul each made their own, and I helped Glow put hers together. I like the sweet paper flowers and loved how easy it was for the big girls to do it by themselves. I’m thinking we will pick up another box to gift to another family we know that has 4 girls.
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