Outfits for the First Renaissance Faire 2013

This was such a great faire!  It was so much fun to attend with so many friends!

I had posted previously about my inspiration for making a Burgundian gown for the Renaissance Faires this year.  I wanted something pretty but without a corset!  I can't stand chasing my children in a corset!!!
 
I drafted a pattern, made a muslin, fixed the pattern, almost ran out of fabric, made the dressed, and fixed the dress.

All in all it was a bit big on me but I loved the color!

 

 

I also made Bella's Tinker Bell outfit.  The bodice was a little small but I think it is SOOOO cute!!!

 

I also made Hubby and Bear matching "jerkins".  Bear only had in on for the photos but I love how they looked together!!!!

The next faire the kids and I dressed up in a theme!  Check back soon for that post!!!!

An Adventure: Week 5 of School '13-'14

Our week started out with an adventure!  We started our adventure book this week.  To introduce the new book our curriculum suggested a scavenger hunt!  The kids LOVED it so much that they wanted to do it over and over again...

In science we talked about how light moves like waves and we blew across the top of a dish of water... I am not sure Bella understood but she enjoyed seeing the waves move!

 

Bella also started soccer this week.  She was super shy at first when they introduced themselves.  Then they started stretching and she felt right at home.  She starts every gymnastics class by stretching so there was nothing new for her to learn!  She loved soccer!  That is her in the pink shirt kicking the ball!  And....I forgot her water bottle (oops!)

Our new books came from The Critical Thinking Company... Bella LOVES them so far!  We will see what she thinks in a month.  Here is the picture she completed of a chicken in her Complete the Picture Math book!

 

I also made a dress for Bella for a special occasion.  She helped me iron the fabric.  She also helped me pin it.  We tried to work on some sewing on her sewing machine but it kept jamming because it was in need of a cleaning.  We hope to do more sewing this week... and look for a post on this dress soon!

Busy Weeks of School: Weeks 3 and 4 of 2013-14

The last two weeks have been crazy!  We had lots of appointments and started our afternoon activities! Things went wrong and things went great.  Mostly there was a lot of changes!  We also spent an entire morning looking for Bella's glasses... she learned a lesson about that! 

(This pic is from a few months ago.  It is my favorite pic of her in her glasses!)

Our phonics and math program stopped being a good match for Bella.  I don't want to start bashing the curriculum but it had too much expectations for a first grader.  So I went in search of how to replace it without spending too much money!

After looking into the best phonics lessons out there I found that most of them took the phonics lesson and thought them through using letter tiles to read/spell the words.  I printed off and cut letter magnet tiles.  A friend gave us the magnet paper so that was free. We use them on two pizza pans that we bought for $1.84!  We are using Progressive Phonics' free lessons with the letter tiles to introduce the new sounds.  Bella loves it and has stopped fighting me about learning new phonics rules!!!!

Next I looked at her math book one day and it said to teach her to count by 6's!!! Are you joking?!?! I might continue to use the program for the other parts of that are well done (addition practice) but I looked into other options.  I decided to get Mathematical Reasoning from The Critical Thinking Co.  I think she will enjoy it.  I will let you know how it goes!

 

One thing I was worried about was that just using a phonics program would leave a gap in other language arts topics.  Bella does have a book that we work in about once a week that has some language arts stuff in it.  I wanted her to have something she could do every day.  So I got a book called Language Smarts also from The Critical Thinking Co.  Again, it is not here yet so I will let you know what I think when it gets here!

 

I am really excited about both of the books from this company!

We did get around to doing an art project!  We had read a story that involved roses growing up the side of a wall.  I drew the rocks and Bella helped me color them.  Then we painted vines on the rocks.  Finally, we dipped our finger in finger-paint and made fingertip roses!  Bella loved this!

We finished reading "Helen Keller".  Then we watched the Disney movie.  Bella really enjoyed it!  We then read other "biography" style books.  We read another Helen Keller book as well as books about Duchess Kate, Alice Roosevelt and Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Bella want the biographies to be about girls!

Bella and Bear started gymnastics classes this week.  They have both been doing it since they where about 18 months old.  Both kids got to be in classes with kids that they knew so they had a great time! (This is a pic of Bella from a few months ago!)

Bella also started her Awanas group.  She moved up to Sparks this year!  She is very excited to get her vest and handbook.

Our week ended with playtime with some friends at a playground.  The kids had a great time!!!

Second Week of School 2013-2014

Two weeks in a row of posts from our weeks of homeschooling?!?!  No guarantees that this will continue but here we go!

Bella worked hard on phonics and math.  She feel a little behind in reading but we caught up.  We had a busy week of appointments and things to do so things where a little rushed.  We did get through most of it and are now caught up!

She decided that she wanted to learn cursive!  I was going to wait and see how she felt about it mid-year but she saw a cursive "a" in her spelling book and was SOOOOO excited that I asked if she wanted to start learning it.  Of course she said yes!  Here is her "a" page!

We did an experiment in science with paper.  We had one flat piece of paper and one ball of paper.  The kids then predicted which would fall first.  We also made out a lab report.  Here is a video of it!  (Again, excuse any mess!)

We also went to storytime at the library.  Bella made name tags for her and Bear.  Bear made one for the carpet... I did not help him and he did a great job!  I think it was just a coincidence though! (Sorry for blurry pictures!  My kids don't stay still!)