Our Advent Experience... The Conclusion

This was the best advent project we have done!!  My kids loved it and even my husband thought it was great!  I think my kids learned a lot from it and are asking if we can do it again next year!  That makes me one happy mamma!   

You will notice that day 23 is missing, we were not able to compete that one.  It fell on a Sunday and we had a Christmas that evening, but the craft was making scented ornaments, which we may still do at some point.  I hope you all had a great Advent season and will continue to praise our Savior all year long!  

Who Homeschools?

A few months ago I ran across this blog that was doing a series on "Who Homeschools?"   I thought it sounded really cool!  So I started reading all the submissions and I was amazed at all the different backgrounds, philosophies, and styles of homeschooling.  I was thankful to read that no two were exactly the same.   I had been feeling a little uneasy about some decisions we had made curriculum wise, and with this being our first year we are still feeling it out.   So there was great comfort in knowing that no two homeschools are alike, and its ok to do it your own way!

Since reading some of them I have been encouraged and found some new ideas.  So I submitted my interview, and guess what... its up for you to read today!!  So hop on over to Hammock Tracks, and read my interview!  While you are there go ahead and check out the other interviews as well, you never know what new ideas you might find!

Our Advent Experience...Week 2

I am so happy about how our journey through Truth in the Tinsel is going!  The kids are having a wonderful time and its a great time for us as a family to focus on the true meaning of CHRISTmas!  So this week we have done day 7 through day 14.  The only day that I had trouble with was day 10, we were making a pillow to stand for Joseph's dream, that craft threw me for a loop!  For some reason I could not get the picture given and the actual thing to look the same!  I am a very visual learner and that was not getting into my head!  Somehow I managed to get it and it turned out pretty good.

Add caption

Add caption

 One thing I have noticed is that the tree we chose to put our advent crafts on is not big enough!  We are running out of room, but I was only intending to make one craft per day and we are making two (1 for each child).  So instead of 24 crafts on our little tree we are going to end up with 48!   There you have it our week 2!

Our Advent Experience... Week 1

This CHRISTmas season we will be focusing on the true meaning, which is celebrating our Saviors birth!  Every year I get these grand ideas about what we should do to get our focus on Jesus, and every year we get about half way through the Advent season and drop it!  I was determined NOT to let that happen this year!  I didn't really look very hard, or spend a lot of time researching Advent activities, I just saw this one and decided that is what we will be doing.  So I bought the eBook and began gathering our supplies.

We are using Truth in the Tinsel by Amanda White, she created this awesome Advent eBook!  Each day there is a scripture to read, and a craft to make.  The best part I think is that you can just read it right on your iPad, or ereader!  I actually printed it out though, because I still like to have a hard copy in my hand.  I love it because it really focuses on each aspect of Christmas.  She originally created it to be done with her kids, who I believe were 3 and 5, so that is where the crafts are focused, meaning they are simple and easy to do.  BUT I did hear that kids as old as 13 and as young as 2 were doing and enjoying them.  She also has ornaments that you can print out if you are not wanting to do the full craft, the kids can just color them and hang them up.

I think I have said in the past that my kids are not crafty!  They really don't like to just sit down and work on "crafty" projects!  So I was a little hesitant, but I figured whether they do the craft or I end up doing it they will still get the message from the scripture reading.  So I planned on just making one craft per day, instead of letting them each do one, thinking that they could just take turns working on it.  Much to my surprise on day 1 I asked Noah (he is my less crafty kid) if he wanted to make one too, and he said he did!  We are on day 6 now and he has enjoyed every single craft we have done so far!  This is just amazing!  So I can tell you that this is a fun engaging process that even reluctant crafters can do!  Here is what we have done this week:

You can still jump on the bandwagon and get started!  She has different ways in the book to go through it.   If working on it everyday is overwhelming, then you can just pick a few days to do, and she has a schedule worked out for that!

Our Christmas Gifts

This year for Christmas I wanted the majority of the gifts received by our children to be educational toys, for use in our homeschool.  So after months of scouring the internet and seeing tons of GREAT list ideas, we narrowed it down!  Here is what my children will be getting for Christmas this year.  Most of the products we ordered from Amazon, before Thanksgiving.  The books we ordered from Christian Book Distributers.  Just a side note they will be getting other things as well, but these are just the ones that we will mainly use in our schooling.  

Elijah  Age 8:
Learning Resources Creative Color Cubes
Rubiks 360
Encyclopedia Brown 6 Book Set


Noah  Age 5 (right after Christmas):
Eureka Tub of Letters
Lauri Tall Stacker A-Z Pegs
Learning Resources Easy Grip Tweezers
Will God's Mighty Warrior

Zach Age 16 Months:
Melissa and Doug Geometric Stacker
Melissa and Doug Shape Sequencing Sorting Set
My ABC Bible Verses
Leap Frog Chat and Count Cell Phone
Wedgits Deluxe Set- 30 Pieces



Family:
Quirkle
Do You Know Bible Trivia Game

There will also be some Lego sets thrown in there along with some Transformers!

Now if I can just figure out how I am going to store all of this!  I think I see some New Years organizing coming my way!