Anna and Elsa Barbies

Just like most little girls, my daughter is totally into the Frozen movie. All Frozen all the time. Whenever she gets to choose the movie for movie night, which is most times, she chooses Frozen. My husband says if she picks anything else it will be "for the first time in foreverrrr...."

I considered spending our limited Christmas budget on the Disney licensed dolls, but my crafty self got inspired when I saw my daughter's platinum blond Barbie. Then I called my mom and asked her if she had any red-haired barbies in her stash of children's toys. She did!!

Creativity ensued. I had leftover fabric from Blueberry's halloween Elsa costume and other scrap fabric. It is in these times I am glad I didn't throw away the scraps. The hair was the hardest part actually because these dolls have so much hair that getting it to stay right and in a way that they can be played with without the hair falling out is a challenge.

I don't know a lot about hair terminology but I kind of had to fake the braids in some parts and kind of pull just part of the strand around wrapping most of the hair in the middle so it looked like a braid. I gained a lot of respect for people who do this for commercial dolls. I'm sure they don't pay them enough!

Anna's skirt and top are separate and are attached in the back with velcro. The designs are painted on.

Materials Exchange

Blueberry and I visited our local non-profit materials exchange place. They had a dollar-per-bag sale and we came away with some fun things for craft projects.

I took my 4 year old and I loved to see how random objects sparked her imagination (and mine). Repurposing and reusing items is a great way to stay on budget while homeschooling. Some cities have materials exchange opportunities, but you can always look at your local thrift stores.

I can't wait to see what we come up with.

This is a bracelet Blueberry made with a cardboard spool, some paint and some rhinestone stickers we have been saving for a project such as this. She gave the bracelet to her Nonna.

Family Fun in the Fall

Pumpkins and Apples

Click on Image for Larger View

Be You Bravely

This is already a great year at MOPS. I cannot top this, so just watch:

I love the crafts we do. This is definitely one of my favorites.

The speakers were great too today, especially since they filled in for the scheduled speaker that was sick today. When people talk from the heart, they really have a lot to give.

Thankful for this group!

Starting School in August

We were kind of done with summer, at least the "not having to do anything" part of it. We kept busy, don't get me wrong, but not having a plan was getting old around here. We still have playdates and pool times but Blueberry needed a little more structure so we decided to start school in August. She is ready for Kindergarten, but we are still reinforcing some preschool concepts. She seemed reluctant until we actually started and now she asks to do her schoolwork!! I have been praying for an attitude change in her so that was awesome!

We are happy to be sharing this experience with a family we are friends and neighbors with. We are trading off teaching once a week, following the Letter of the Week idea from Confessions of a Homeschooler Blog. I'm excited to share this experience with a good friend, the mutual support is a great blessing.

Blueberry is sounding out words and learning how to write. She enjoys adding and subtracting so we will be reinforcing those concepts. We are doing some art and music this year, as well as some science and art that will be based around her interests.

Tiger is doing tot school activities while big sister is doing her school. We involve him as much as possible!

Read Build Write
with Sight Words Color-by-Number from 1+1+1=1 Blog
We do the sight words one day and reinforce with the RBW activity on another day.

We are still having some summer fun with a boat we made out of a box.

Summer Playdate with WIPG Friends

Tiger often just plays with the pencils or crayons. As long as he doesn't eat them, I'm OK.

When Nonna comes, she participates in school too.

Tiger checking out our new Preschool Circle Time board.

Pattern Block Fun

"More" Stickers, Mommy!

Foam Blocks Tot Tray

Foam Block Fun because she likes them too!

Summer Fun Recap

 

Park and Picnic with friends at our neighborhood park.

Found an Insect

Nana was visiting from Alaska and we found a bug on our walk. We also found ripe blackberries.

 We found a fun place to play by the river. The kids enjoyed throwing rocks. The water was cold but pleasant in the August heat.

Yogurt at Sweeties with the Family

Frozen Yogurt, Yum!

Wading Pool fun with our WIPG Friends

Sand Park Play Date with WIPG Friends

We were invited to a birthday party at the Mollala Train Park. It was super fun family time! We got to ride the trains around the park and celebrated our friend's birthday.

Blueberry at Pisgah Arboredum

Running across the bridge, back and forth was the best!!

We met our friends at Alton Baker Park for the Bug Hunting activity. The girls mostly played. Tiger loves his little friend. We started preschool and next week we are doing "I is for insect" so it fit in with our theme.

Add caption

More Xylophone Music for Awesome Xylophone App

This is very basic music for little ones to play on the xylophone. This music was written for the xylophone in the Awesome Xylophone App for iPad or iPhone*. There is a free version with ads and a paid version.

When starting music with little ones, make sure it is fun. Practice one line a few times before moving on to the next. You can even cut the lines apart so your child can focus on just that one part of the music. Sing along with them and only spend 10-20 minutes maximum. The frequency of practice is more important than the amount of time you spend at one time.

The following music does not have note values. These are familiar tunes that you can guess the values based on how you sing the song. Enjoy!

(the highlighted notes are the higher note, ex: highlighted red is high C)

You can find more music like this here: http://raynorshinefamily.blogspot.com/2014/07/basic-xylophone-music-for-awesome.html

* I am not affiliated with Awesome Xylophone and I get no compensation from Awesome Xylophone for this. I just made this music for my kids and we use the app because it is a valuable learning tool. 

Basic Xylophone Music for Awesome Xylophone App

This is very basic music for little ones to play on the xylophone. This music was written for the xylophone in the Awesome Xylophone App for iPad or iPhone*. There is a free version with ads and a paid version.

When starting music with little ones, make sure it is fun. Practice one line a few times before moving on to the next. You can even cut the lines apart so your child can focus on just that one part of the music. Sing along with them and only spend 10-20 minutes maximum. The frequency of practice is more important than the amount of time you spend at one time.

The following music does not have note values. These are familiar tunes that you can guess the values based on how you sing the song. Enjoy!

This one is a little more complicated 

with some simplified musical notation. 

(The highlighted red is the high C.)

* I am not affiliated with Awesome Xylophone and I get no compensation from Awesome Xylophone for this. I just made this music for my kids and we use the app because it is a valuable learning tool.