DIY Face Mask

My daughter and I have ventured into the land of ‘make your own products’ partly because it’s fun and something we can do together, and partly because my family has crazy skin and I am always paying high dollar to get things that we can use. Not to mention things that are all around better for us. I have decided to share our homemade adventures here as we are loving the  results we are getting.

Tonight we made a face mask. We love doing masks together and recently everyone we try burns Hailey’s skin, or is simply lack luster. So I did a little research and settled on trying this out;

1 tbs Baking soda – serves as an exfoliate

1 tbs Honey – Serves as a moisturizer

1 tbs Water – only as needed for consistency

I loved the way it left my skill feeling I had used one of those Microdermabrasion kits. My skill feel great! Hailey said that her skin was burning, so we used a little of our Whipped Coconut Oil Body Butter that she made (different post) and it worked like a charm.   

The Kirby Vacuum Man and the Lessons God Taught Us

Right now I can think of a whole lot of negative things to say about our Kirby vacuum sales man who ended up being a guest in our home for THREE HOURS! I was so frustrated last night about the whole event. I’m still not so sure what made me say yes to that demonstration, but alas I did and in walked a young man and his vacuum. A pretty neat vacuum I might add.The demonstration was supposed to take 20-30 minutes. He was still demonstrating after 45 minutes had past. and then an hour. He started to wrap it up at about an hour. But see,  his boss had dropped him off, and he couldn’t get a hold of him, so he decided to give the kids (whom he was wonderful with) a science lesson about dust mites. He had all the information right there and vacuumed away, and read to us all from his fact sheet and showed the kids photo’s of the dust mites, and showed them all the “dust mites” he had vacuumed up. The kids were fascinated. He even let them vacuum some up.

An hour and a half and still no boss. So the man started to figure up the price of the vacuum and such (you know how they do). My kids wanted me to read them a story. So I read them a little story from their Family Bible in Pictures. When I was finished he told me the price and I laughed. HAHAHA I’m sitting here in a house that needs a roof with my FOUR kids and 3k for a vacuum seems like one million dollars, and I told him that. He then showed me all the ways this vacuum would pay for itself yada yada, and two hours. I told him several times before this that I had somewhere to be, but the boss just wasn’t coming to get him. The kids wanted to play outside so we went out to the front yard and he ran races with them and we came back in for him to pack up his stuff. Still no boss. Soooooooooo, he showed the kids how the vacuum could make the best bubbles in the world, and the kids giggled and played, and he made bubbles all over the rug and they giggled. I was not so amused and was starting to feel trapped.

Once the kids were done with the bubbles I told him again that I had to walk down the road to deliver a book to a neighbor. We all went outside while he called his boss AGAIN. My boys decided that they were going to walk run to the neighbors house without me. He said that his boss was two minutes away, me aggravated said, “so are my kids” . So there we went me and the vacuum man running down the road to catch them, and he helped me wrangle them back to the yard. At this point my husband drove up, and I felt a bit of freedom. I left it to my husband to take care of what I saw as an “issue”, and I loaded the kids in the van and drove to deliver the book. When I came back he was still there. (three hours) so me and the kids drove around the neighborhood joking that we were hiding from the vacuum cleaner man. Finally the boss came and picked the man up, and he was on his way.

We joked and giggled about this man who had invaded our house for three hours (a little more) and we settled in for dinner and bible study. We finished our devotion and as each child prayed I was shocked how my older two each prayed for the vacuum man. (they knew his name) I couldn’t get the whole situation off of my mind. This morning during my morning study the Lord had me read a scripture that has always been close to my heart.

I immediately knew what opportunity I had missed, and why I couldn’t get this off of my mind. I remember when we bought our house not to long ago, and we prayed that ANYONE who entered our house would leave having been ministered to. The situation which brought this man into our home was odd, and I normally would have said no, but I said yes before I even thought about it. Maybe, I didn’t say yes, but God said yes. This kid Man needed to be ministered to, and the Lord opened MANY doors while he was here to do so. But, I’m sad to say that I allowed my own attitude and selfishness get in the way of my even seeing this opportunity in front of me. I can only hope that the Lord used some of the small things to touch his life, and I know that this family will pray for him daily. But, I learned one mega lesson about selfishness. I will never forget the vacuum cleaner man, and the lesson that the Lord taught me. I was no different than those he spoke of in Matthew. I was blinded.

Sometimes the Lord sends people our way in unexpected situations. It is my prayer that the Lord will help me to use each and every opportunity to minister to others. I pray that from now on every person that enters my home will leave feeling loved. I thank the Lord for laying this on my heart even though, believe me, this was a hard lesson for me.

Chores, Chores, Chores

I looked at every chore chart I could find, and could not find one that fit our needs, So, I took pieces from all of the ones I liked, and created this one. I purchased the board for $3.00 at Hobby Lobby, and painted it. The hooks came from Lowes, and the bucket was from the dollar section at Target. The paint chips are from Wal-Mart.

I have four hooks, two for each child. (I will have to get a bigger board when my youngest get a bit older) One hook holds the chores left to be done, and one hook hold the ones they have completed. I needed the cards to be detailed. You see the “Den” card? I have put exactly what needs to be completed in the den by that child, and the order it needs to be done in. (First sweep, then mop). The plan is that we will work through the house together room by room. I will be there to teach proper technique and to do what is not listed on their cards. For instance, Hailey’s den card says Sweep and Mop, and Christopher’s den card says Dust and wash windows. We will ALL pick up toys, and I will do other things that need to be done like sort toys, or the fire place mantle. The round circle in the left hand corner of the card tells how many times a day that chore needs to be completed.

This bucket holds the cards that are not in use, and other cards like money chores, or once a month chores. And will soon hold a card which I will use to keep track of money chores, and completed daily chores. (more to come later on that)

So that is our current chore system, and so far we are liking it.

Writing Workshop – Letter Writing

 

We are not enjoying the writing program I purchased for Hailey this year. I was so sure it would be a great fit, but it’s not. It’s funny how their leaning styles can change from year to year. I have not found another program  yet, and I can’t get one until we sell the current one, so I decided I would simply create a writing workshop program to do with her weekly along with her Easy Grammar books. I found TONS of resources and ideas on the handy dandy Pinterest, and so we are diving right in.

Last year we touched on proper letter writing, and all of the books this year seem to go a bit deeper. I remembered that we had received a letter writing kit from one of our busy bag swaps, so I pulled it out. It was exactly what we needed. I went into a little bit more detail, and then she wrote several friends. She loved it!

FIAR- Night of the Moonjellies

 

  Night of the Moonjellies is a book which tells the story of a little boys day helping his Grandmother at her sea side hot dog stand in the New England states. On his way to the stand, he found a Comb Jellyfish, and put it in a bag. When the stand closed that night, his Grandmother took him out into the ocean to release his Moonjelly, and they created priceless memories on their adventure.

I was excited to row this book after reading many blog posts about other peoples rows. I had planned to do a whole unit study on the ocean using this book. But, as I read the book we found it a little bit boring for our tastes. This was disappointing. However, as we began our row, I was determined to get the most out of it. Although we did not do our ocean unit, there were so many lessons I was able to pull from this book. All in all, we did end up enjoying this row.

 

Math: Adding Tens and Ones using Cubes, Measuring

I was teaching Christopher adding ones and tens together using cubes as “number rods”. He also did a little activity where he looked at the picture and added the tens and ones together and then wrote the answer in the correct box. he loved the activity and did really good. I only had to help him one time.

Christopher learned how to read a ruler, and practiced measuring some cute little ocean creatures. He even measured to the 1/2 inch.

The printables used in these activities can be found at

Social Studies: Responsibility, Owning a Business

“It was named after the owners, my grandma, and her sister Grace”. –Night of the Moonjellies

We took the kids to the farmers market and gave them a few dollars and a list. We talked to them about some of the responsibilities of owning their own business. One thing we talked about was how they had a menu at the hot dog stand. This meant that someone had to make sure they had the right ingredients to make the food on the menu. Hailey and Christopher were able to help purchase items on our family menu. We had $60.00 to spend. They purchased, Purple Hull Peas, Watermelon, Corn on the Cob, Lemon’s, Peaches, Tomatoes, Cantaloupe, cucumbers, Kiwi, Oranges, and Apples.  They had a lot of fun doing this, and came un just under budget.

“The summer I was seven I helped out two days a week at Mar Gra’s…” – Night of the Moonjellies

In this book, the little boy helped his Grandmother at her hot dog stand. He had a list of things that he was responsible for. I had the kids recall some of his responsibilities. Filling up the napkins and straws were two of the things he was responsible for. I had them tell me what would happen if he did not do those things. Then we talked about the responsibilities they have at home.

Language Arts/Grammar: Word Find, Letter Sound Bingo, Ell Word Family, First Person Point of View, Pronouns

Christopher enjoyed doing this little reading activity. He read the story, then he found particular words in the story. It was a Word Find.

This letter sound bingo game was from All About Reading level 1. He chose to use foam sea creatures as his markers since we were doing an ocean theme.

The word jellyfish seemed like a good word to talk about the ell word family. We used these letter cubes to put together ell words.

The story Night of the Moonjellies was written with a first person point of view. The boy was telling the story from his own point of view. He used the pronouns I, Me, Mine, when referring to himself. I used a lesson from First Language Lessons Level 1 to teach Christopher about pronouns. We did the pronoun chant a few times, and then we talked about how the book was written. We discussed different ways to tell a story, and them I had him use first person point of view to complete a writing prompt. In This project he completed the sentence, “If I were a Jellyfish…….” Here is what he wrote,

“If I were a Jellyfish, I would eat lotion, and swim in the ocean. I would eat potion and grow bigger, bigger, bigger.” (he likes to rhyme)

Sensory Play (for fun and therapy): Jellyfish Sensory Bins

  The kids had a blast playing in these sensory bins. I used water beads to represent jellyfish. They played, and played.

Geography: New England States, Mane, Rhode Island

I’m not sure what happened to my pictures they have disappeared. For this lesson we located the new England states on a map, and talked about what makes them New England states. We also continued our state study by coloring pages from our My State Notebook Coloring Pages. We focused on Maine and Rhode Island.

Science: Moon jellies, Comb Jellyfish, other creatures found in the ocean

In this book the little boy found a comb jellyfish that had washed up on the shore. Naturally we talked about Jellyfish. We learned about different types of jellyfish, and how they are not actually fish. We watched a youtube video, and made a jellyfish in a bottle.

We read a number of ocean themed books. Christopher read One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish as a part of his I Can Read 20 Books challenge. We learned about all kinds of ocean creatures, and enjoyed looking at the beautiful creations that God made.

Art: Pastels, Water Reflection

“Thousands of Moonjellies stretched along the sea in every direction.” – night of the Moonjellies

As the book nears the end there is a beautiful illustration of what it must have looked like for the boy to look out at the moonjellies. The artist used a combination of Oil Pastels and Paint. The kids attempted to recreate the scene.  In the painting there is a faint yellow color in the water. We talked about how this was the light from the boat reflecting on the water.

Bible: Patience

In the story the little boys Grandma tells him that she has a surprise for him, but that he would have to wait until they were finished working. The boy waited patiently all day.

For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and carry away [and enjoy to the full] what is promised. Hebrews 10: 36 

We talked about what it means to have patience, and to be impatient.

Memories and Food: Shrimp Broil

This book was all about food. Hot dogs, hamburgers, onion rings, lobster rolls, etc. MarGra’s was said to have the best lobster rolls in town. We decided that the kids would not like lobster, and we had been wanting to do a shrimp boil for a while, so that’s what we did. This was such a fun family meal. We will all remember it for years to come.

FIAR Vol. 1–Lentil

Lentil is a really cute book written by Robert McCloskey. “Lentil cannot sing or even whistle; longing to make music in some fashion, he provides himself with a harmonica and practices constantly wherever he is, especially in the bath tub, because there his tone is improved 100 percent. A book that, along with its fun, truly illustrates the American scene.” –The New york Times

There were many lessons to be learned in this book. We only touched the surface of the possibilities found by reading this story.

Math: Fractions, Money, What Make $1

“But he did want to make music, so he saved up enough pennies to buy a harmonica.” –Lentil

For this lesson we pretended that the harmonica cost $1.00. I taught Christopher the value of a dollar, and what makes a dollar. First we counted out 100 pennies, then 10 dimes, 20 nickels, 4 quarters. Then we went to the Dollar tree to purchase a harmonica for $1. Turns out they no longer had them, so he got something else.

Our lesson on fractions was completed using one lemon, and a work sheet found at Homeschool Share. We used the lemon and worksheet to learn: 1 Whole lemon = 2 Half lemons / 1 Whole note = 2 half notes, 4 quarters = 1 whole

Food: Old Sneep’s Lemonade

Each FIAR lesson has a cooking component. This lesson called for lemon bars. We did not have the gluten free ingredients to make the lemon bars, so we decided to make lemonade instead. Christopher made this lemonade all by himself, but all of the kids enjoyed drinking it.

Science: The 5 Senses

We talked about our 5 sense. Sight, Touch, Taste, Hearing, Smelling. We only briefly touched on the senses mainly talking about them. We did have good conversation about each sense though. We primarily focused our activities on Taste. Salty, Sour, Sweet.

“There sat Old Sneep, Sucking on a lemon. Old Sneep knew that when the musicians looked at him their mouths would pucker up so they could not play their horns.” –Lentil

Social Studies/History: Small Town, Patriotism, Fourth of July 

We rowed this book the week of the Fourth of July. Naturally we studied about the Fourth of July. The kids liked reading the book Yankee Doodle

“One day news got around that the great Colonel Carter, who had been away for two years, was coming home. People began to plan a grand welcome.” –Lentil

“Colonel Carter was the towns most important citizen…..”

We talked about how Lentil lived in a small town. Everyone knew each other. There was only one doctor, baker, police man, postman, ice cream man, school teacher, etc….. We talked about how in our town we have a lot of people for each of those jobs. In Lentils town Colonel Carter was a special man, who did a lot for the citizens of the town. He built a Library, and a few other things.

Since we had learned about the Fourth of July, we tried to think of all the people we knew who had served or are currently serving in the military. We decided to make cards thanking those people for their service to our country.

Geography: Ohio

Lentil lived in Ohio so I decided that the first state we would learn about in geography would be Ohio. We used a coloring sheet from a My USA notebook I had used when I was in school, and we talked about the state capital, and the state bird.

Music: She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain, Onward Christian Soldier

In the book Lentil saves the day be playing She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain when she comes, so I taught the song to the kids, and then told them about how when I was little I learned the song a different way. When I was taught the song we replaced ‘she’ with ‘he’, and the song was about the second coming of Christ.

With each FIAR book, I have decided to teach the kids a corresponding Hymn. This was the fourth of July, so we sang Onward Christian Soldier. We talked about the war and then talked about how we as Christian fight a spiritual war daily. It was really a special time.

And BTW we sang these songs in the bath tub. Lentil’s favorite place to practice.

Art: Shading, Identifying the tool used

All of the pictures in this book were drawn with charcoal and pencil. I asked the kids to look at the picture, and to tell me what art tool was used to create this. To my surprise Christopher said pencil. We talked about shading, and they each practiced using their pencils to shade a balloon they had drawn.

Bible: Jealousy, Grumbling

“…everyone in the town of Alto liked Lentil’s music; that is, everybody but Old Sneep. Old Sneep didn’t like much of anyone or anything.” –lentil

There had been a lot of grumbling, and complaining going on in  our house. So we took this opportunity to talk about how when we grumble and complain about everything we are not being very good witnesses. Everyone in the whole town knew Old Sneep as the town grump. We talked about how we want people to know us. Will they know us as a grumbler, or as someone who has a heart of gratitude? All week when we would have a problem with grumbling, I would ask them if they wanted to be like Old Sneep.

In the story of Lentil, Old Sneep was jealous of Colonel Carter, and tried to ruin his welcome home party.

We read the Story of Cain and Able from The Family Bible Time in pictures Bible. (Genesis 4). We talked about how Cain was jealous of Able, and that jealousy caused him to be angry, and to do something he regretted. We talked about how jealousy affects our lives, and friendship's, and keeps us from experiencing God’s blessings for our lives.

Language Arts/Reading: Sight Word Find, Reading Aloud, Comprehension

We did not do the LA lesson found in the FIAR manual. We did however look through the book and find our sight words for that week. And, The, What, Is.

We worked on reading comprehension by having the kids answer questions about this book.

Our FIAR book units are mostly focused on Christopher. I try to include Hailey and Sammy as much as possible though. Hailey really liked this book, so to help her with reading fluency, I had her read the book to the boys on the last day of the Row.