Sweetie Sewing Sweethearts :)

This week, I decided to start a Sewing Project with Sweetie. This is the first time that she has sewn something, and she did a fantastic job!

For being only five and half, I think she has a bright future of sewing ahead of her. I documented the process of her project, which was a heart-shaped pillow.

We went to the fabric store a few weeks ago, and Sweetie picked out the fabric herself. I think she has an excellent eye for beautiful fabric. And, as you look at these pictures, notice the color of the fabric she chose. ;-) And notice what color she is wearing for these past three days. And No, that wasn't planned. ;-)


Before I had Sweetie Cut out her pillow, I had her practice with these practice cutting patterns. I figured that it would help her with her moter skills when it came time to really cut out her fabric.

I drew a heart pattern from a heart- shaped cake pan, on her material. I used a sharpie pen. I know. I should of used chalk, but it worked out just fine. :) Here Sweetie is cutting out the heart. She did an excellent job.
Sweetie learning how to work the peddle on the machine. Push it soft to go slow. Push it hard to go fast. I took the thread out of the machine for this lesson; otherwise it wouldn't be very good for the machine.
When I learned to sew, I remember my teacher using patterns like these to teach me how to steer and control the fabric before I really started to sew. I thought that these cutting practice sheets would work very well. They did.

Sweetie did an awesome job with her hand, eye, feet coordination! I was really surprised, and she was giddy with excitement. :)
The next day, she practiced more on some paper, then she learned how to pin her pillow together. She's coming awfully close to her finger there!

On the third day, she begins the actual sewing. This was a bit more tricky than the paper, but she is getting the hang of it!
Notice how carefully she works.
The last stages of her pillow. Stuffing it was lots of fun!
Another tricky part. Hand sewing. I had to help her out alot on this part. This requires extra fine moter skills. She has really tiny hands.
A job well done, and a little girl who is excited and proud of her accomplishments. She went right to bed and slept with her creation.I do believe she will be a better seamstress than her mommy. And I don't mind one bit. :)

To see what other's are showing and telling about today, please click on the Show and Tell picture at the beginning of my post. Have a wonderful Day. :)

Rowing~ The Glorious Flight

It took me a while to get my blog up about The Glorious Flight. This book was just a lot of fun. We reviewed many things that we learned with Storm in the Night. Onomatopoeia's, Similes, and the like. We also explored:
France
The History of the Airplane
Vocabulary
How Airplanes Fly
Attempted to make a French type Sandwich with Gruyere Cheese, and Ham. (The girls were not very fond of that :) )
To never give up
Parts of an Airplane
Ordinal Numbers
The differences between a jet and a propeller airplane
Air Traffic Controllers
Pilots
Different Ways to Travel
Roman Numerals
And a bit about helicopters

The Glorious Flight is about Louis Bleriot, the first man to fly across the English Channel in the year 1909.

While I was reading this book to the girls, I showed them the English Channel on the map. The next day I asked Sweetie, "What is the English Channel?" Sweetie replied, "That is the channel on TV where they speak English." :) She does now know what the English Channel is. :)

When I tried to make those Cheese sandwiches with ham in them, I also made Brownies to go with our meal. Here are a few pictures of the children, "helping" make Brownies

Then, in perfecting timing, there was an air show a few hours away, featuring The Blue Angels on the Saturday after we finished The Glorious Flight! We all got up early Saturday Morning and headed out, stopping for Breakfast at Chick-Fil-A. I was having a horrible time staying awake on the ride there. I suppose my husband notice how groggy and out of it I was, for when we stopped for gas, he bought me an ice cold Frappuccino, yum!

We choose to park in a special parking lot that had Free charter buses. The parking was $20! But good news! The air show was "free". :)

All in all, that wasn't a bad price for me, my husband and the three kids. And girls LOVED riding the buses. To them it was a lot of fun.

When we got off of the bus, Tiny Boy, saw the air planes in the sky and started to make the sign for planes; along with the appropriate sound effects. :)

We arrived and set ourselves up, then began to watch the planes. Pretty soon, Bean and Sweetie got bored with it all. I was showing the girls how the planes had propellers on them, just like Lewis Bleriot had on his plane.

Things started to perk up a bit, when they saw a lady wing walker. Especially when she waved to the crowd; the girls just loved that. The Red Barron's drew a heart in the sky, and the girls thought that was pretty exciting. :)

Then the jets came, and Tiny Boy promptly began to cry from the noise. Thankfully, we had some sound muffler head sets to put on both Bean and Tiny Boy. After we put them on him, he was fine for the rest of the time.

In between fly bys, Bean would socialize with an older man telling him about her whole life. He made the mistake of speaking to her first. After that, there was no stopping her gabbing. I think she was distracting him from watching the show. I told her when they planes went by, to stop talking!

Sweetie had her mind on other things besides the air show. She was perfectly content with discarded Styrofoam cup, and sand. :)The Blue Angel's finally arrived after about an hour or so of waiting and watching the other planes. Bean was pretty interested in them. Sweetie, on the other hand, we had to *make* her look when they did a stunt. Tiny Boy, by this time, was sound asleep in my baby carrier. :)

Here is a short clip of one of the stunts that they did:

And what is a field trip without a souvenir? There was a Blue Angel cockpit that Daddy, the girls and Tiny Boy got to sit in and take their picture. I do not have a scanner, so please forgive my picture of a picture. But all the kids loved sitting in the cock pit!
Then we got a die cast Blue Angel. It has already suffered some damage, but it still serves it purpose. Tiny Boy is the one that gets to play with it most. He LOVES it. He can play for hours with it. After we bought our souvenirs, we tried to find the bus stop that we got off at, but we got all confused, and walked around in circles until we did find where it was.
We finally got on the bus, and Bean, Miss Social, started jibber jabbing to the strangers behind us, telling them everything that came to her mind. Some of the stuff she was saying was kind of embarrassing. Sweetie told the lady in front of us that the air show was kind of boring, but she liked playing in the sand.
On the way home we stopped by Cracker Barrel to eat, since we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. All of us were really thirsty too!
Not a single child was awake when we got home. It was a great family day! The weather was beautiful too. Not too hot, and not too cold. And not a cloud to be seen anywhere.

Right now, in preparation for Thanksgiving we are Rowing Cranberry Thanksgiving. But before I write about that, I will do a post on the girl's learning folders from The Glorious Flight. I am not sure what book we will be rowing after that, but I'll let you know. ;-)

Teaching Thanksgiving to Children

Since I am homeschooling, last week, this week, and next week, for Five in a Row, the girls and I have been rowing Cranberry Thanksgiving.
Last week we focused on just a few things, such as Onomatopoeia's, Similes, Coloring Thanksgiving pictures, etc. As I have been trying to explain the history aspect of Thanksgiving with the girls, it just seems to be going over their heads; just a wee bit.
For example. I tried telling the girls who the pilgrims were, and why they came to America. One night at dinner, Bean told her Daddy, that we were pilgrims too. When I asked her why, she said, "because we are good people."
I remember them asking me if Pilgrims were good or bad people, and I said, they were good people, that wanted to read the Bible and pray the way the Bible taught. But they were not allowed to read the Bible. If they did, they had to go to jail.
So, hence the question, were they good or bad people. Which then explains the misunderstanding, of Bean thinking we too were pilgrims because we were good and read the Bible. At least in her child like eyes we are good. ;) ( Technically she is right. We are pilgrims on this earth. Our true home is in Heaven; if we have have believed on Jesus as our Saviour by faith alone through grace alone. We are on a journey to Heaven, but that would way to over the top for her. :) )

I had a few Thanksgiving books besides Cranberry Thanksgiving, but they were not doing the trick. The girls think it is just a big feast, for good people! :)

So I went online, and looked in our library's system for any child's book or video that had to do with Thanksgiving. I placed what I could find on hold, and had them sent to our library. So this is what I got. There is a really great story type book of the whole Mayflower journey, a video of William Bradford cartoon style. A factual child's book on the history of Thanksgiving. Then there is a child's book, telling what life was like for a pilgrim girl using real photos.

Hopefully this will do the trick in giving them a better idea of what Thanksgiving is all about.

For more Thanksgiving ideas, please click on the button above my post. Have a great day! :)

Rowing~The Storm in the Night

Rowing the Storm in the Night, was a bit more difficult than The Story about Ping. The language of the book, was a bit more advanced than the girls were used to. However, after two weeks of reading the book every school day, the girls really began to love the story.

In the beginning it was very hard to keep their attention; on the dialog especially. Towards the end Sweetie almost had the story memorized. I am a bit pleased with this. Now we will be able to read more advanced books without her attention falling short of the story.

This book was jam packed full of Science and English. Here are a few of the areas we explored with Storm in the night.

1. Clouds. How they are made, and different types of clouds
2. Rain. How it rains
3. Electricity
4. Family relationships
5. Fear
6. The Five Senses
7. Facial Expressions
8. A little bit about America
9. Similes
10. Onomatopoeia
11. Sources of light
12. Vocabulary

The Batteries in the camera were low during this book, so I didn't get as many pictures as I did with The Story About Ping. When I make a post of the Learning Folders of The Storm In the Night, I will take some detailed pictures of that, and then you will have a chance to see more of the girls work.

In Case you are wondering what an Onomatopoeia is, it is a sound that an object makes. For instance a Clock says, "Tick tock, tick tock" a car says, "Vroom Vroom!". Those are examples of an Onomatopoeia. Pretty Interesting Huh? :)

One of the girls first projects was exploring family relationships. The Storm In the Night's main characters are a little boy Thomas and his Grandfather. Thomas admires and respects his Grandfather very much. So I had the girls write a letter to their Grandma & Grandpa and their Nana & Papa. Then they made them a magnet for them. We haven't sent them yet, (Sorry grandparents!) because I just haven't gotten a round to it yet. Dumb excuse I know. :-

The finished Product

For Art, the girls cut out Clouds and colored them. They made a thunderstorm scene with the clouds. You will be able to see this in their learning folders.
This is Bean intently watching our own rain maker. We put boiling water in the bottom of a jar, closed the jar, and put ice on top of the lid. This showed how the sun heats up the water, causes it to evaporate, where it comes into the cold air, and then rains.

We also did a little experiment with why it thunders. I tried explaining to the girls why there is sometimes lightning in a rain storm. It was a little above their heads, as I am sure alot of this stuff is. But it is still fun, and they are enjoying this.

Anyway, I lit a candle, and I told the girls to pretend that flame was like lighting. Lightning is very hot, just like that fire. I then place a balloon on top of the flame, and it popped. I was hoping to show the girls that the heat of the lightning caused the air around it to *pop*. Well, it didn't quite work that way. Sweetie started to cry because I popped her *favorite* balloon! :)

We also did an experiment to introduce the five senses to the girls. I got a pile of colorful toys, and placed them on the floor. I told the girls not to touch them. I then asked them to describe the toys to me.

For smell, I blind folded them, and had them smell vinegar, lemon juice, perfume, and eucalyptus oil.

For touch they felt a nail file, A nail smoother, a hard ball, and a soft two headed cow.

For taste they tasted, pretzels, chips, taffy, honey, and lemon juice. The picture above is them tasting some things. They had to tell me if it was salty, sweet, or sour.

Last but not least for hearing, they listened to beans, rice, pellets, and oat meal in containers by shaking it. They had to tell me if it was loud or soft.

Later on Daddy did an experiment with them using pop corn. They had to listen to it, smell it, feel it, see it, and taste it.

This is Sweetie feeling the two headed cow! :)

There were some interesting things that Bean said that I want to share with you. When we were studying electricity, I showed them our power lines, took them to our meter box, showed that it connected to our breaker box. Showed them that there were wires in the breaker box, that connected to the lights and outlets.

For one of our projects I asked the girls to name some things that give light. Bean says, "Electricity!" I said, "Yes it does!" I then asked, "What about a light bulb?" Bean matter of factly shakes her head and says, "Nope, the electricity makes the light bulb work."

So I guess, not *too* much of this stuff is way over their heads. They do get alot of what is going on.

This week we are Rowing The Glorious Flight. Have a good afternoon!

Ping Learning Folders

In order for the girls to retain all the information that they learned about Ping, we made up special folders called Learning folders. Sometimes called lap books. Sweetie and Bean both made one, and I wanted to share with you. This may be a long post, but I know family like grandma's (wink, wink) will like to read about it. The is the front of Sweeties Folder. She colored the duck, and it was her idea to add the grass and the water and sun in the back ground.

Open up the folder and this is what you see next. In the middle is a duckie craft that both girls did. It a bunch of different shapes, and they had to color and cut the shapes out. Then they glued it properly onto a piece of construction paper.

On the left flap is an envelope that says, "How Many Are In Pings Family?" Sweetie had to remember the answer which was 68. Inside the envelope are 68 tiny ducks in a plastic baggie.

On the right flap is the little mini book that they had to color scenes from the The Story About Ping and put them in order.

Underneath the book is a little pocket that says "Things I Remembered about Ping" Then there is a little book in that pocket which Sweetie in her own words wrote what she remembered.

Here is what she remembered:

Ping crossed the bridge on the wise eyed boat

Ping was very careful not to be the last to cross the bridge

If He was last he would get a spank on his back

He hid from the boat

He couldn't find the wise eyed boat anywhere

He got a spank on his back

He found his family

He saw birds with rings around their necks

Ping ate little fish and snails

The Boy had a rice cake in his hand

Ping lived on the Yangtze River in China

There was a barrel on the boys back

The Yangtze river was yellow

Open up the folder even more. Sweetie colored a map and flag of China. Underneath the map is a booklet that says, "Facts About China"

This is Sweeties Remembrance of what we learned about China:

It has a Big City with a Restaurant

They have a flag

Chinese people like to eat rice

In the country, Chinese people don't have pottys

They have big dragon drawings

They ride bicycles to work

Chinese people like to eat ducks

They have a river called the Yangtze River

In the middle is a Sink Float Chart for when we learned about buoyancy. Above the chart is a picture of a little Chinese girl. Next to her, is a picture of the ring necked bird from the story about Ping.

On the right side is a booklet that says, "Facts About Ducks"

Sweeties remembrance of Ducks:

They float on water

Ducks can go Quack Quack Quack

They lay eggs

Ducks can eat little fish

They can drink water.

Fold the right flap over, and there is a folded piece of paper that says Facts About Ships.

Sweeties Remembrance Of Ships:

1. Why do Boats Float? Because they have air in them

2. What is the person in charge of the ship called? The Captain

3. What do Boat's Carry? People, Cruise ships, Cars, Wood, Food, Animals

4. There are many different kinds of boats. What are some of them called? Submarines, Sailboats, Moter Boat, Rowboat, Warships.

Fold the right flap over again, and there is a little yellow book that says, "Fun Things We Did". This hold pictures of some of the extra special things we did which were:

1. Feed live Ducks

2. Our Chinese Meal

3. The Girls Origami boats

4. Floating the Origami boats

Sweetie told me in her own words about the pictures.

For the ducks: We were feeding the ducks bread. Sarah our friend came too. The Ducks knew we had bread and came right up to us. One Duck caught bread. It was rainy that Day. We had a fun time!

For the Chinese meal:

The Chinese meal was very good. We had broccoli, rice, chicken and egg rolls. We ate on the coffee table. We made Chinese Lanterns, and put a candle of fire in them to make them glow. We ate with chop sticks!

For the Origami boats:

We colored the paper. Mine was purple. Mommy made my paper into a boat. Mommy folded the paper, which is called origami.

For Floating the boats:

We did the boats, we even put them in water, and Tiny Boy put a cup in the water and we took it out. The boats floated!

Fold the right flap again, and it showed the cover of the folder

This is the front of Bean's Folder. Hers is very much like Sweeties but a bit different. I will post the pictures that show the differences, but I won't post the ones that are the same as Sweeties.

Bean's Duckie Craft. I had to cut for her, since her moter skills aren't developed enough to cut they way this craft needed to be cut.

Bean's coloring of the map of China.

Now I will write her answers to the little booklets that are in the folder. First we shall start with "Facts About Ducks"

Bean's Remembrance:

They Swim

They waddle

They Fly

They say, "Quack Quack"

They have web feet

They have a beak

What Bean Remembered About Ping:

The Yangtze River

When the master called the ducks he said, "La, La, La, La, Li"

Ping liked to eat fish and snails

Ping eats the rice cake

Ping tried to be first on the boat so he wouldn't get spanked

Ping was snatched up, and the man wanted to eat him

The Boy put ping back in the river

The Boy was wearing a barrel on his back

I did not like the wise eyed boat

Ping hid so he wouldn't get spanked

In the end Ping got spanked!

Bean's facts about China:

Chinese people eat noodles

They eat vegetables

They eat chicken

They go to school

In the country they have no potty

It has the Yangtze River, which has yellow water

They Drink Tea

They use chopsticks

Bean's Facts About Ships:

The man who drives the boat is called what? A Captain of The Master of the Boat (she remembered this from The Story About Ping)

Why does the boat float? Because it is full of air

What Kind of boats are there? Submarines, Rowboat, Sail boat, Chinese Junk, Moter boat

Bean's own words about the pictures we took:

The Ducks: We feed the ducks. We fed them bread and cheerios to them. They came to us, I liked the ducks; They were saying "quack, quack, quack." My friend Sarah fed them bread too.

The Chinese Meal: I like to eat Chinese. But I want to eat a duck. We made Chinese lanterns and put fire under it. We ate rice, chicken and broccoli, and egg rolls. We sat at the coffee table, and we get pillows to sit on. And we sit up. I ate with chop sticks.

The Origami Boats: I colored a square piece of paper. I drew a sun, water, and sky and a boat. Three boats. Mommy folded into a boat. The Chinese call it Origami

Floating the boats: We floated our origami boats. I liked it, because mommy taught us to float the boats.

So there you have it. Their first learning folders. I plan on doing something like this with each Five In A Row Book that we complete.

Rowing The Story About Ping

I had a lot of reservations about beginning homeschooling. But I must say that Five In A Row has made it a sheer pleasure! ;)
We began our homeschooling adventure by reading The Story about Ping.
With Five In A Row, you take a story book, and take elements out of the story that are related to History, Geography , Math, Science, Art, Music, etc, and teach them to your child. Our first lesson was about Buoyancy, in which the girls gathered all sorts of items to see if they would float or sink. In The Story about Ping, there is a little boy that uses a barrel on his back to help him float in the water. I explained why he floated with the barrel, and based on that information, the girls had to guess which of these items would sink or float.
Sweetie was pretty close on most things, but there were a few things that stumped her! ;)

For Math, Ping has a very large family. I took our Math-U-See blocks, and we counted his mother, father, seven brothers, three sisters, so many aunts, so many uncles, and so many cousins. In all Ping had 68 relatives, including him. I then printed out 68 ducks and had the girls color them all. This was a bit tough on Sweetie, as she must learn about perseverance. Bean, had no problem with this at all. She could color for hours on end! :)
For Sweetie we ended up leaving some of the ducks white, as some of ping's grown up relatives were white. :)

We then cut out the ducks and pasted them on a folder to give the girls a visual of how many ducks there were in Ping's family.

The girls showing all of their hard work!

I read them a book about real ducks, and for a field trip, we visited a near by park that has a duck pond to feed them bread. The ducks were so hilarious! We were the only ones at the park that time. They were all laying down on the ground, just enjoying the day. As soon as I parked the car, all of them got up, and started towards us. Apparently they enjoy lots of company.

I gave Tiny Boy a bucket with the bread already torn up, but he ate it himself. :) Ping lives in China, so we learned a few things about China. I read a child's book about the country of China to them. One thing that was fascinating to them, was that Chinese people who live in the country do not have inside bathrooms. :)

Sweetie was pretty impressed that alot of Chinese business people ride bicycles to work instead of drive in cars.

For an added effect, I made a Chinese meal for them. Which was Rice A Roni fried rice ;), Chicken and broccoli sir fry, and frozen egg rolls.
I found cheater chop sticks at Target, which was great. The girls thought that this was the best part of the meal. Bean took forever to finish her supper; it was great fun watching them use the things.

I also set up the coffee table in Japanese style and we sat on pillows. The girls made Chinese lanterns and I put tea lights underneath them, to give it an added effect and set the mood.

We had lots of fun with this one. :)

Through the Five In A Row Website, I found a great resource for extra Five In A Row "stuff". The girls are coloring scenes from The Story about Ping, then they have to cut them out, and put them in order. After they did that, I stapled it into a little book, which went into their learning folders. I am going to make a post about that later on too. The resource is http://www.homeschoolshare.com/
Ping lives on a "Wise Eyed Boat, on the Yangtze River", and so we learned a little bit about boats and ships. I happened to have a kids video on ships that I had them watch.
I also checked a few books about ships out at the library. As a fun project, and to incorporate China into ships, we made Origami boats. The girls colored the paper, but mommy had to do the folding. I found instructions on how to do this on youtube. Here, you can watch how to make one yourself:




We then tested our Origami boats to see if they would float. They did! :)

Here are all three of them watching the boats in the bath tube. Tiny Boy was having a great time as you can see!

The girls also colored maps of China, and made a duckie craft. The Duckie craft involved them coloring different shapes, cutting them out and then pasting them onto another piece of paper. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of those. However, when I post about their lap books, I will show tons of pictures, and you will be able to see their duckie craft, and map of China. They also colored a Duck picture that is used as the cover of their lap book.

All in all The Story about Ping was sooo much fun! This week we are Rowing The Storm In the Night. Of course I will blog about that one too! :)