some days...

are just perfect.

girls and dolls

A friend's daughter just turned six and got her first American Girl doll! So I just had to make some matching little dresses for them! I made two tea party sundresses and two popover dresses from Oliver and S. Such fun sewing.

And now the knitting bug has bitten me hard! I currently have two projects on the needles and some more yarn on the way! And of course I have an embroidery project going and am making a quilt. Am I the only crafter who has 1,000 projects going at once? I won't even bore you with what I'm doing as far as decorating my house. I'll wait until I have the after pictures.

homeschooling part 3

Now on to my favorite subjects! History, geography, social studies...I love it all! Now my kids are still fairly young, so I'm not going in too deep with these subjects just yet. But I have found some great "jump start" books to use this year. By jump start, I mean that the book just gives overviews of each subject which allows me to whet the kids appetite. From then we can go to the library and get many more books on a particular subject that they are interested in or do a craft on that subject. With me?

The first is The Usborne Geography Encyclopedia. This little book is full in information. It has information about from our solar system to maps of the Arctic and everything in between. It also has internet links like I described in the previous homeschool post.
For history I got another Usborne book. Can you tell I like Usborne? The Usborne Book of World History is also another "jump start" book. It also has a great little timeline in the back.

And for our final subject we'll cover home economics. Yes you heard me correctly! I think it is very important for children to learn how to cook healthy foods, clean, mend clothes and even knit or sew if they want to. Luckily my kids are still at the age where they love to help mommy clean!

The great thing about homeschooling is that I can mix all of these subjects together. For instance if we are learning about Hawaii, I could teach the kids about the people of Hawaii, volcanoes, the history of Hawaii, and have them write stories about Hawaii. That covers geography, science, history, writing and language arts. I'm sure I could even throw in some Hawaiian math!

The final thing I will say about teaching your children at home. The library is awesome! Use it. There are so many books on every subject that are just waiting for the touch of a child.

five!

So far five years of snuggles, hugs, giggles, silly jokes, bedtime stories, robot love, crayon doodles,
trips to the playground, bubbles blown, smiles given, boo boos kissed, ice cream eaten, songs sung,
board games played, books read, and love. Happy birthday to my five year old Jack. Here's to many more.