In this Post: Charlotte’s Web, our Lent tree & blown out egg ornaments, several Easter crafts (cardboard chapel), and the neatest music site. Also homeschool freebies and online clubs/classes for homeschoolers!
Happy Crafty Monday friends! I’m going to start with the end of the week first since I’m so excited about it. Friday we had a small movie themed party centered around Charlotte’s Web. Yes, I actually kept this one simple. Below you can see we had pig cookies for “Wilbur” and a spider paper craft for Charlotte. I put our popcorn in these nifty popcorn bags that went with our circus party during the Time Machine study. I’ll put my Pinterest link at the end.
Michael finished reading Charlotte’s Web first. Yaaa Michael!
Spider craft:
Then we baked sugar cookies for the movie.
Thankfully we had several animal cookie cutters and therefore we had pigs. I added red food coloring, sugar, & cinnamon to cream cheese spread and frosted the cookies with it. We added a chocolate chip for the eye. Maybe it’s silly but I was almost in tears at the end of the movie….even if I hate spiders. I liked Charlotte.
Now hold on to your horses. 🙂 I’ve got a ton of Easter crafts!
Art
Blown out Eggs ~ I had not done this since high school but it’s super fun and literally…umm breath taking.
Clean off the outside of your egg with soap. Take a pin and poke a hole on the top and bottom of the egg. Make the bottom hole bigger because that’s where the egg yolk comes from. Blow through the top hole. You want to blow all of the yolk out.
Then I ran water through the eggs and blew it out. After that I boiled the eggs to kill any bacteria and when it cooled blew that water out. I strained the egg yolks for shells.
Then made egg patties to keep in the freezer. I couldn’t stand wasting a dozen eggs.
We painted eggs on and off.
Nana came over Tuesday and painted a few herself.
One of Nana’s (Mom’s) masterpieces.
One of mine.
I used rubber bands to make a striped egg.
This was neat because later I put one of our Lent symbols on it. It was a symbol for Jesus being beat by the whip (cat of nine tails). He bore stripes for our sin. I didn’t realize the egg had whip marks until the day we read it. That was completely unplanned by me…a God thing.
12 eggs for the 12 days leading up to Easter. This goes with our Resurrection Egg lapbook.
I then printed off the Ressurrection egg symbols and modge podged them onto the eggs. I ran thread through the holes to make them ornaments.
We hung them on our Lent tree, a simple branch painted white. I never covered the coffee can it’s in but oh well….adds character ;).
Resurrection Egg Lapbook
Link for this:
http://teachingheart.net/blog/2011/03/resurrection-eggs-idea-with-printables/
Inside the lapbook. Flip up eggs with Lent symbols and scriptures.
Tape Resist Art: Easter Cross
First, we made a cross out of tape, on the paper. Then Michael painted a hill scene over it.
A blue sky then pink rays to outline the cross.
After it dried it came out like this…
Empty Tomb Paper Craft
Easter Wreathe…sans wreathe. We just pinned this to our board.
Cardboard Box Stained Glass Chapel
I cut out windows and doors in an empty Goldfish box. Michael painted the box white.
We made windows with bits of colored tissue paper and contact paper cut to shape. We taped them inside and then taped a construction paper cross.
We put a real candle in it for these pictures but later found a batter operated candle.
Cooking
Rock Candy
I don’t have an after picture because this has yet to work for us. The crystals just form on the top. But Michael and Chris attempted to make rock candy together. They boiled sugar and added food coloring. They dipped the sticks into sugar so the crystals would have something to grow on.
They sit in our window a week later…still doing nothing. Sigh…not sure why this never works for us.
I forgot to tell you but last week we read this book on wegivebooks.org about rocks. It was very interesting. It’s from an evolutionary view but Michael and I just talked about how it differed from our beliefs.
Link here: http://www.wegivebooks.org/books/rocks-and-minerals
This week I read “The Story of Me”. It’s the first in a series of books that teaches God’s design for sex. Each book is for a different age level. The next book is for 6 to 8 year olds but I may wait til Michael’s 9. “The Story of Me” is about a little boy asking to hear how he was born. The baby making process is explained as a special part of Mommy and a special part of Daddy to make a baby. It’s explains the story nicely and goes on to name personal parts and gives a talk about good touch bad touch. Because the word “sex” is on the cover, I explained that sex is how people have babies. I also explained to Michael that certain words in the book were special and should be kept to ourselves. This book presents sex (they don’t use the exact word) as God’s beautiful plan for marriage. I think it’s great for little ones and especially those expecting siblings. It also talks about breast feeding.
Nana visited Tuesday. Michael wanted to be a doctor this week so Nana got out her blood pressure machine. She’s a CNA.
Mom (Nana) explaining how to use it. Later I became the patient, Nana the nurse, and Michael the doctor.
Michael reading on the trampoline while Mom and I watched all the animals enjoy the outdoors.
Under the trampoline. The guinea pig doesn’t like the mouse.
Science
Newton’s First Law Egg Experiment ~ http://www.ordinarylifemagic.com/2010/01/newtons-first-with-raw-eggs.html
All you need is a glass or vase of water, an egg, a toilet paper tube, and a pan. Line the egg and tube up directly over the vase.
Pull out the pan and the egg drops in the water!
Voila! Michael and Nana both tried it too.
Our new Lifepac Science work book~ this booklet is about colors and this week Michael learned how certain holidays are represented by different colors.
Music
Wednesday our homeschool group went to see “Seussical”, a musical based on Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who. It was fantastic and interesting.
We had an easy day. I found these wonderful Easter themed worksheets for music on:
I absolutely love her site! There are worksheets for everything. Even composing! Michael composed his first song by putting the notes on whatever lines or spaces he wanted. The bunny song had a very interesting melody lol.
Michael solved bunny code by writing the note names and he also colored an egg by coloring the notes according to the color code. They also teach bass and treble Cleff. We’ve been slow with piano but Michael practices his scale and intervals each day.
I also found several musical apps on google play for android: Note flashcards, a guitar, and one that teaches piano scales.
Math ~ math apps and games
We’ve been blessed to have this little birdie sing to us most days. I think maybe he’s a Brown Thrasher.
Geography
Continent mobile ~ Michael colored the continents and stapled them to the ribbon. I’m still working on a felt globe. Michael also colored coloring pages for the 4 oceans. We watched and sang a song about the continents and oceans.
At our place there’s always a buddy to listen…sometimes that buddy is a dog :).
Creation studies
The life cycle of a chicken. We made this simple craft and watched a video of a chick hatching. I want a chicken now.
Health and Safety
Traffic signs ~ Popsicle sticks in bottle caps. You can print the signs here:
http://www.doodlesandjots.com/2012/05/04/all-signs-point-to-fun/
These went well with Michael’s race he had Saturday.
I brought the responsibility chart out again and Michael checks it off every day. I have to remind him often but he did good last week. He got a prize for his diligence.
Now for the awesome homeschool freebies site I told you about. You can find free homeschool materials (lapbooks, Ebooks, etc…) at https://www.currclick.com/
Currclick also offers classes and clubs for homeschoolers. We joined a free Lego club where we got to see the teacher online in real time. Michael was able to chat with other homeschoolers as they made a Lego project.
They have many clubs so check them out :).
They also have great classes for good prices. They range from 5 bucks to 50. It depends on how long the course is. We may take a one day class on subtraction tricks. I’m excited about their summer classes. Some require books and others give you the resources you need.
When you go to the site look on the left and click Live Classes to see what they offer.
Here is my Pinterest link for the crafts. Remember email subscribers to come to my blog to see the links.
Easter Crafts on Pinterest:
God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover
amberdover 
Hi Amber,
If I knew you were going a Charlotte’s Web theme, I could have sent you photos of my pet potbelly pig, Kosha. She will be two years old on June 6. I’ve had her since she was a little bitty piglet, not quite two months old. She is my second pig. My first one, Tulip, died of old age. Boy losing her broke my heart, surprised me how much it broke my heart. Took me three years before I could bring myself to get another one.
Anyway, about chickens. I have four chickens. Like you, I only wanted one. When I went to get one, they would not sell me one, only two. They told me that chickens do not do well at all if they are an only chicken. They really need another of their kind. I thought they were trying to take my money by making me buy more than one. I did buy two since they are very inexpensive and I figured how much more work would two be. Anyway, a dog ended up getting one of them and killed her. And then I believed them. The chicken that was left was so lonely, it was sad to see her like that. So I went back to the store to get another one. Since I had one, they did sell me only one. I brought her home but the problem was she was so small and the other one had already grown up quite a bit. And the baby chick just cried and cried. She made me carry her around eveywhere. The other chicken that was growing up, seemed to be so sad but perked up when she saw the baby.
So back to the store I went. They only had two babies left. I only wanted one but the would not sell me only one because then they would have a lone baby chick. If they had three, the would have sold me one but they did not want to leave one chicken all by herself — again, because chickens do not do well at all if they don’t have at least one of their own kind.
You more than likely will be able to buy only one chicken but I can tell you that she will just be a very lonely and uhappy bird for her whole life. Other animals can do well without having their own kind but for some reason, chickens are not that way.
I have several differen kinds of birds and they are okay with not having their own kind. I have seen with my own eyes how unhappy a chicken is without one of their own.
Taking are of two chickens is no more difficult than taking care of one chicken. Having only one chicken is really mean to the chicken.
My chickens are funny, loving and really interactive with me. They follow me around, know which pockets I keep treats in and “pickpocket” me, LOL. They jump up on my lap, take a nap on my lap. They follow each other around and hang out together. They really do need at least one of their own kind to be happy. I guess that’s how God designed them to be. So if you do get a chicken, get two. They’re really inexpensive. You could easily get two chickes for less than $8.00, probably less. However, chickens LOVE TO EAT. I let my chickens run around the yard all day long and only put them away at night. They have never tried to fly away. I don’t clip their wings.
Anyway, thought I would share what I have learned about chickens. 🙂
Thanks for the info :). I hope our city will allow me to have two. Either way I will only get a chicken if I can give it a partner (and if Chris even lets me lol). He’s not going to like the idea of two but I’ll show him your comment. I have wondered about letting them be free range and I wonder what age is okay for that. I worry about chicken hawks. Our yard is fenced in and our dog is friendly towards small animals (the cat stays inside). I know Chris will have to build a coop for at night. Is the mess real bad? We already avoid dog poo (she’s getting too old to poo on the hill). Though maybe Chicken poo would make fertilizer for the garden. I’m sorry about your poor piggy. I love animals and wish our yard was big enough for a goat (Chris gave a big no on that. Me: but honey it’d cut the grass!). If you lived near us I’d bring my son to see your animals. 🙂 God bless!
Hi Amber,
It’s easy to let them be free range as long as you have a fenced in yard. I forget what age I let mine run around on their own but I first started them out in a small area where I could sit with them and supervise. As I got to know them, I realized that they had no desire to leave. They do have the ability to fly but they don’t. Why would they, they have a whole yard to run around in, plenty of food and water and each other. Where I live, there really is no raptors in this area in the city for me to worry. I have cats that come into the yard, however, since there are four chickens, they chase the cats out of the yard. Chickens can be aggressive in defending themselves.
As to their poop, EXCELLENT fertilizer. I am amazed at how good it is for the plants. I now walk around the yard once a day with my little hand shovel and a little container picking it up and putting it around my different plants. Chickens are messy critters so any coop you would build would have to be cleaned once a day.
I house the chickens in the same aviary with my pigeons that I rescue. They get along fine. The pigeons are wild pigeons that have been injured and some cannot ever be released because of their injuries (some I do release after they heal).
Anyway, if you do decide to get chickens, let me know and I can help you by telling you all I know and what to avoid so you don’t make the same mistakes that I made. They are my first chickens. And I will say that once you eat eggs from chickens you raise, you won’t want to eat supermarket eggs. The taste seriously is better because the chickens are healthier and happy and it shows in their eggs.
If you want photos of any of my critters, go to my blog and use the contact page to email me (I didn’t see one on your blog). I don’t want to post my email address here in comments as I don’t want spammers to get hold of my email. Once I have your email, I’ll send you some photos including the aviary I built for the chickens and the pigeons. The critters that live here are four chickens, seven pigeons (in the aviary) and two baby pigeons that just hatched a few days ago, a potbelly pig, a macaw, two parakeets, one parrotlet, a mourning dove, two guinea pigs and a dog. Also, there is a whole flock of wild pigeons that have made my backyard their home during the day. While they are wild and go someplace else to roost for the night, they have become tame that when I go to the backyard, they fly to me and land on me. I can’t even leave the back door open for they have walked on in to the house.
I think I have my own zoo, LOL.
God bless,
Oh, I love that you have a zoo! You’re a Kindred spirit :). I’ll get that email to you in a bit….crazy day. Just wanted you to know I saw your message and will reply more later. God bless & love! ~Amber