Since this is our first Christmas with our upstairs finished, we thought it would be fun for the kids to put up their own Christmas tree with their own decorations and so that the tree light could be seen from the street. The only problem was that it kind of takes up most of my homeschool room. So my creative husband and son rigged up the tree so that it would be on a rolling cart. The idea was that we could roll out the tree in the mornings for school and push our table back in place. Cute! Reality is that I don't have the energy to do that each day, so we just make do for the time being. We haven't finished decorating it, but each day we add an "ornament" from our Advent devotional. If you are looking for a neat advent devotional for your family, check this one out at Child Ministry International. It even has a coloring book to go with it. The upstairs room is my favorite room in the house - I think Scott & I might just decide to move upstairs and put the kids all downstairs someday.

Thanksgiving

One of the Moms in our homeschool group organized a storytime at the Fairhope library for all the kids right before Thanksgiving. They had fun dressing up as Pilgrims and Indians and learning the history of Thanksgiving as well as making some fun crafts. The toilet paper roll turkeys were something we made for our family Thanksgiving table.


The following is courtesy of www.familyfun.com

CRAFT MATERIALS:
Flat wooden craft spoons
Tempera or acrylic paints
Paper towel tube
Scissors
Orange pipe cleaners
Black marker
Tacky glue
Red felt

Time needed: Under 1 Hour
1. Five craft spoons are required for each ring. Using tempera paint, color one of them yellow for the turkey's head, the others, a variety of colors (they'll be used for tail feathers).

2. For the turkey's body, cut a 2-inch section from a cardboard paper towel tube and paint it brown.

3. From orange pipe cleaners, shape a pair of short legs with three-toed turkey feet. Fit the legs through small holes in the cardboard tube, bending the tips inside the tube to secure them.

4. Use a marker to draw eyes on the face and use tacky glue to attach a red felt wattle.

5. Finally, glue the head to the front of the body and the tail feathers to the back.

A New Beginning

I decided to begin a new blog specifically devoted to our homeschooling endeavors. So many times, friends & family ask me what we are doing in our homeschool, how we do it, etc. I hope that this blog will give you an idea as well as be a source of information and encouragement for my homeschooling friends. Enjoy!