Thanksgiving Photos and Crafts 2014 December 4, 2014

Hello dear ones! I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving and that you are enjoying the Christmas season. This year we made Thankful jars to store our thankfulness during the month of November. On Thanksgiving we took turns reading our blessings. The person who had the most in their jar, won the first slice of pie. Mom won. I also made these pilgrim hat place settings. I saw the idea online to use these as crayon holders for kids but I wanted it to be more.

Fof the Thankful jars I had Michael paint his handprint and we made it into a turkey. Then we put a thankful verse on the other side of the jar.

Chris did a great job on the ham and turkey. The turkey was a lil late so I didn’t get a pic. Mom and I tag teamed the rest of the meal. I usually cook most of mine the night before. It’s easier that way. We spent the morning watching The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.

Michael helped me make pies this year.

After we ate we took down all the fall decor and put up Christmas decorations. I needed all the help I could get this year.

Mom helping Michael decorate his room.

Chris went hunting the next day.

Well, that’s how we spent our Thanksgiving. How about you? What traditions do you have? God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Fall Festivals, Pumpkin Carving, & Archery 2014 November 4, 2014

Hello dear ones! How are you? We ended October with several fall festivals and pumpkin carving. I thought I’d share with you :). This year I was a Snowy Owl and Michael was a Ninja Turtle. Chris didn’t dress up.

Snowy Owl costume~ I wore an off white dress with white tights. I sewed white feathers onto the dress. I glued feathers onto a mask and used a black Sharpee for the markings. A white feather boa was my wings. I put my hair up in a white and black bandana.

Snowy Owl makeup~ I dusted my face with white eye shadow. I put tons of white eye shadow on my brow and put yellow in the crease of my eyes. I used black mascara for the markings. My eyes are hooded so it’s really hard to see the makeup. My mask covered most of my face so the makeup didn’t have to be perfect.

A couple Fall Festival pics
Our church

The Museum- Michael with living art for the scavenger hunt

Chris and Michael tag teamed to make a Darth Vader pumpkin carving.

Michael cleaned out the pumpkin guts.

Chris found the pattern online and carved the pumpkin.

The results: one really cool pumpkin!

Lastly, Chris, Michael, & a couple guy friends got together for a day of archery practice. I didn’t go so of course there weren’t many pictures. I’ve got one of Chris to show you.

So how did you spend October? Did you catch any festivals? Did you dress up? As what? God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Popcorn and Cupcakes! Homeschool Fun October 29, 2014

Hello dear ones! It’s been so nice to get back to our homeschool group. Morning sickness kept us away for so long. I want to share two funky fun holidays we celebrated: Popcorn Day and Bake a Cake Day. Something like that.

My BFF Hannah hosted popcorn day at the park. We learned about the history of popcorn, had a popcorn treat, and did a neat popcorn experiment. The kids loved it!

Michael helping with the experiment

The kids formed a hypothesis before trying the experiment.

The next week my buddy Rachel hosted Bake a Cake Day (or Cake Day?).

Rachel gave the kids slips of paper with different cake names on them. Then she read a book on cakes. Each time Rachel got to a cake name, the kid would pick a slice of cardboard cake and take it to their seat. The adorable “cake slices” had cake decorating forms inside. The kids were each given an imaginary customer to bake a cake for. Michael got Manny the Magician. The kids then had to figure out what kind of cake their customer would want. Michael planned a magic cake.

After the kids presented their papers, Rachel showed them how to use frosting and fondant to decorate their cupcakes. They had cute aprons and chef hats.

The kids displayed their favorite creation on the table. Then the kids had a “cake walk” to see their work. Rachel brought nifty lil boxes for the kids to take the cupcakes home.

We haven’t been as crafty at home as usual. We did make a scarecrow magnet though. It’s taken all I’ve got just to get school work done.

Well, God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Sukkot (The Feast of Tabernacles) 2014 October 28, 2014

Hello dear ones! This is our 7th year celebrating Sukkot. Usually we go camping but pregnancy and other circumstances changed our plans. We did however continue our pottery tradition, learn about some neat birds, and enjoy a small town Harvest Hoedown.

I’ve got a couple of links to update you on this holiday and our family traditions.

• Here’s info on what the holiday celebrates and Sukkot pictures going back to when Michael was itty bitty:
  https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2012/10/07/my-family-rocks-sunday-sukkot-the-feast-of-tabernacles/
• Last year’s Sukkot celebrations at Enota Campground and the Dahlonega Gold Mines. Also a short trip to Helen, Ga:  https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/09/29/my-family-rocks-sunday-sukkot-at-enota-dahlonega-gold-mines/
• Our trip to the pottery store last year and a look at how it all works:                   https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/crafty-monday-part-1-ancient-egypt/
• A look at last year’s pottery when it was finished and also a picture of all our Sukkot pottery together (minus this year): https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/09/23/crafty-monday-ancient-israel-and-her-neighbors/

Autumn is a very special time for our family. I go to town with the decorating because it’s my favorite season. Sukkot (a Biblical harvest celebration) is one of my favorite holidays. We usually go camping since Sukkot means feast of booths/tents basically. We also take a trip to the pottery store and paint harvest themed pottery. This year I did a bowl with owls on it. Since I’m pregnant I added an egg for “the year of the baby”. Michael painted a small owl. We spend hours at the shop and we have to wait a week to pick up the finished product. Here’s pictures of our pottery in the works.

I was thrilled to be able to celebrate Sukkot this year. Morning sickness ruined any chance I had at celebrating Trumpets, Yom Kippur, and Talk Like a Pirate Day (I like holidays). I knew I wouldn’t be able to tent camp though. So I booked a cabin at Roosevelt State Park. Unfortunately, when we got there we couldn’t stay. A water line had burst and the management booked us a room at Callaway Inn instead. We were a bit disappointed. I had cooked a lot of food and most of it went to waste. We couldn’t play the guitar and the t.v. was a distraction we wouldn’t have had in the cabin. There was no camping about it. But we did however get into Callaway Gardens for free and we still got to see Roosevelt State Park.

Pic: The view from Roosevelt State Park on Pine Mountain.

We did make a leaf chain to decorate our “sukkah”, which was a hotel room. It didn’t have the same feel at all but Michael got to have fun collecting leaves atleast.

We had a big breakfast at the Inn restaurant. We hadn’t budgeted to eat out but it was nice to eat well. We visited Callaway Gardens which was right by the Inn. We’ve been to Callaway many times but we’ve never seen their Birds of Prey program until now. It was great to see an owl, a hawk, and a vulture in person. Okay, the vulture wasn’t that glamorous. I learned about the benefits of vultures but I did not enjoy the thing flying so close over my head. Here’s a pic of my favorite critter: the owl.

We took a walk in the vegetable garden. It’s a great place to take photos. Here are my favorites.

So it wasn’t camping and we did end up watching a lot of HGTV (we don’t have cable at home), but we did do our devotional and learn about the harvest. The day we left we caught a small town harvest hoedown in Warm Springs, Ga. We found our pumpkin for the year (another Sukkot tradition). You’ll see pictures of it in another post when the guys carved it. Warm Springs is such a charming town. The festival was small but quaint. We walked away with home cooked barbeque and some delicious funnel cake. Here are my favorite pictures.

Balloon animals!

Country music while we chomped down on boiled peanuts

Michael decorating a small pumpkin

We didn’t get to have our s’mores and hotdogs until we got home that night. We’ve got a fire pit in the backyard so it worked out.

The best laid plans don’t always work out but you can still have fun if you’re flexible. Our Sukkot celebrations are usually not by the book and this year they weren’t for sure. But it’s important to get to the heart of any holiday. The Israelites lived in tents in the desert. They faced all kinds of hardship and unexpected events. Our plans didn’t work out and we had to stay in a dwelling that wasn’t what we wanted. Our sukkah was a hotel room but it still wasn’t home. It’s a reminder as believers that the Earth is a temporary dwelling. Our true home is in Heaven. For now we are pilgrims and this world is our wilderness. It’s a crazy journey with surprises around each corner. But the Lord Jesus dwells with us and reminds us that home isn’t that far.

God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

PS: Enjoy these festive pics of our cat Chester (Winchester).

Thanksgiving 2013 December 10, 2013

Hello dear ones! We had a busy Thanksgiving back in my hometown. We had three grandparents to visit (all mine), Chris’ parents, and a couple aunts, uncles, and cousins. Before that Mom and Michael put on a puppet theater for me and we learned about the Mayflower. In Jesup we were able to see “Frozen” at the Drive In which was super fun. Also one of my grandparents had an Olmec replica from Mexico. It was neat to see what we learned about in history right in their living room.

We visited Dad’s grave but had to avoid the sprinklers. What a bad day to have the sprinklers on…It was good to see family but even better to come back home sweet home. My Mom and StepDad took care of all the pets for us and I know they were relieved to stop collecting eggs from the chickens etc. We really do live on an ark lol ;).

Here are the links to the neat Thanksgiving activities we did before our trip:

We got our puppet printables here and put them on craft sticks. I used a folder for the stage.

http://teachbesideme.com/this-is-the-feast/

I got the cute play script from here:

http://printables.scholastic.com/printables/detail/?id=37815&esp=PRT/ib/20091013/acq/t_giving_html////txtl////

We did this Thanksgiving timeline game here:

http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2011/11/the-1st-thanksgiving-a-timeline-activity-book.html

Michael took the interactive Thanksgiving  journey here:

http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/voyage/

Here’s a good Thanksgiving lapbook:

http://www.ajourneythroughlearning.net/reforthlaand.html

God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Crafty Monday: Our Julius Caesar Party (Rome Week 1) November 25, 2013

In this post: Our first week studying Rome and the Caesar family, Julius and Octavian (Augustus). Also links to past Thanksgiving crafts.

Hello dear ones! This will be short and to the point today.  Below is a list of what’s pictured and at the end are links to last years Thanksgiving crafts.

• We ate like Romans with Pita bread and feta cheese. We also had apples with yogurt and honey.
• We read about the Caesars in The Story of the World. Then had a Julius Caesar party with Little Caesar’s Pizza, a Caesar salad, and  a homemade orange Julius. I didn’t follow a recipe but I figured it was close enough. I just put orange sherbert and milk in the blender.
• We watched the movie Caesar and Cleopatra on Netflix.
• Here’s a good way to remember the order of the first Caesars. July comes before August. Julius before Augustus (a.k.a Octavian).  Those months were named after the Caesars.
• We did a small lapbook on Rome from here: http://www.ajourneythroughlearning.net/anroexqla1.html  . That’s where we found out what food they ate.
• We studied pictures of coins with Caesar on them. We couldn’t make a good enough impression so we just wrote roman numerals and Caesar’s name on clay coins.

• We attempted to make a Roman aqueduct out of Legos but didn’t have enough. So instead we made a crude aqueduct out of clay.
• We took our Greek gods mobile and just changed the names to the Roman gods.  We read a story about Cupid and talked about how he shows up in Valentine’s cards etc. We also talked about how we got our planet names from the Roman gods. More found here: http://rome.mrdonn.org/index.html
• Michael drew the Roman Colosseum from his Draw and Write Through History book.
• He played this Roman Aqueduct game found here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/roman/aqueduct.html

That’s it :). We have two more weeks of Rome after Thanksgiving Break and then plenty of free time til January. It’ll be nice to take a long holiday break for once.  Last year, we studied the pilgrims and native Americans. We had many fun crafts so I hope you check them out :).

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/crafty-monday-the-pilgrims-and-the-mayflower/

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2012/11/13/a-late-crafty-monday-native-americans-thanksgiving-past-plus-u-k-country-study/

God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Last Week: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/11/19/crafty-monday-ancient-india-china-plus-veterans-day/

Rome Week 2: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/12/11/rome-week-2/

Rome Week 3: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2014/01/08/rome-week-3-chariots-pompeii-and-the-end/

Crafty Monday: Native Americans & Carthage study November 11, 2013

In this post: We learn about the ancient North Americans from South, Central, & North America. Also we learn about Hannibal’s elephants (Carthage). Our group celebrates Chocolate Day. 

Last week, we studied ancient Native Americans. We began with the Nazca in South America, then moved to the Olmecs from Central America, and ended with North American Indians. Here’s what’s in the pic above:

• Nazca Lines-  Michael drew this “Nazca” monkey with chalk on black paper. The Nazca are interesting because they made these huge lines that look like ditches and roads up close but from an air plane they form all kinds of shapes.
• Tapioca pudding- it actually comes from South America. So we bought a pack.
• Olmec lapbook– The Olmecs actually came before the Nazca. They left behind these huge head sculptures. We also learned that archaeologist found traces of a chemical that’s in chocolate in Olmec potsherds. They are some of the earliest chocolate eaters.
• South American face paint & Native American necklace–  I couldn’t find our paint so I had to use lipstick to draw on Michael’s face.
• North American teepee– we bought a teepee kit at Hobby Lobby.
• The Indian in the Cupboard– Michael really loved reading this book. He watched the movie once he finished reading.
• Rabbit shoots the sun leather shield– We read a North American story about why rabbits are timid and why the sun slowly rises. It was in the Story of the World. Then Michael drew it on some leather.

Above Michael is playing with his Native American figurines that we got at Hobby Lobby.

You can find the Native American ideas here: http://www.pinterest.com/doverette/sownative-americans/

Later that week our group celebrated chocolate day. My buddy Hannah hosted. She’s having a baby in February and I’m hosting her baby shower.  Hannah read several books about chocolate, fiction and nonfiction. After learning about chocolate’s history, the kids sampled different types of chocolate. There was also M&M sorting. Lastly, the kids made candy bar pilgrims.

At the end of the week we learned a bit about Rome and the Punic wars. We learned about Hannibal, a captain from Carthage who used Elephants to defeat the Romans. We also watched a video about the elephants and Michael drew a picture from his Draw and Write Through History book. Everything was going great for Hannibal until a Roman captain named Scipio made a surprise attack on Carthage while Hannibal was attacking Rome. The Romans won the war and Hannibal fled to the mountains and later killed himself. Very sad story.

Hannibal video here: http://www.pinterest.com/doverette/sow-rome/

In other news, Michael finally got a haircut. You can see how long his hair was. The stylist had fun spiking Michael’s hair a bit.  Michael also had his first eye appointment. His eyes were hurting him. He’s got great vision so far.  He did really well until she had to put eye drops in. Then war broke out.

That week Nana came over. We went to our old park and it was very overgrown. Mom and Michael did his Mailbox club lesson on the trampoline.  It was a beautiful week so Michael spent a good bit of time in Terabithia. We added new leaves to the loom. I really like that thing.

Well, God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Last Week:

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/crafty-monday-ancient-greece-week-3-oktoberfest/

Next Week: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/11/19/crafty-monday-ancient-india-china-plus-veterans-day/

Crafty Monday Part 2: Bats, Owls, Spiders, and Cats October 28, 2013

In this post: Our homeschool group learns about the creepy and spooky creatures talked about this time of year. At home Michael learns about bats, owls, and spiders with crafts, games, and fun food. Plus my pumpkin art!

Hello dear ones! I know the top pictures are always too big. They are for my Pinterest and the reader. This is the second part of Crafty Monday. I hope you didn’t miss the first part with week 2 of Ancient Greece. We had fun last week learning about the creepy creatures brought up around Halloween. We don’t celebrate Halloween (as in celebrating the dead…ghosts…horror etc…) but I don’t mind learning about these “creepy” creatures because I don’t think they are scary at all. We love to dress up for Fall festivals and to enjoy Harvest celebrations but I’m very anti-horror.

When one of the homeschool moms decided to do a creepy creature project we just had to prepare. So I found these great lapbooks etc on Currclick.com. They were super cheap and all about owls, bats, spiders, and cats. We never got to the cat one.

You can find my Fall Pinspirations here: http://www.pinterest.com/doverette/fall-crafts/

First we began with bats and a famous bat named Stellaluna :).  I think bats are super cute.

Here’s what you see above:

• Flutter, Flutter Little Bat poem
• Candy Bat craft ~We also watched a reading of Stellaluna. The white bat represents her.
• Hanging Bat craft ~I hung these over Michael’s reading pool. Now he has a bat cave :).
• Bat lapbook from Currclick.com. We also watched a video about bats. I believe the link came with the lapbook.
• Bats and Cats music game ~ found here: http://www.susanparadis.com/catalog.php?ID=SP740
• Cat cookie cutter sandwich ~ it is what it is. Poor black cats. They get such a bad rap. I have a sweet one and he’s not evil…well most of the time.

• Owl cursive sheets~ Michael practiced writing cursive with these all week.  He traced the owl fact sheets and he copied owl facts too.
• Michael dissected an owl pellet online here: http://www.kidwings.com/owlpellets/flash/v4/index.htm
• Then he got a certificate for being a Bird Barfologist.  Michael got the funny glasses from Michael’s craft store.

• Spider Web Language Arts Game: I made a yarn web with cut out spiders. I put various Fall words on it. Michael had to find synonyms, homonyms, and antonyms. He wasn’t allowed to step off the yarn.
• Glue Resist Spider Web~ it’s really hard to see the spider web with a green back ground.  We made the web with glue then painted over it with water paint.

A friend’s church had a fall festival called Manna-ween. We watched “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” on the lawn.  You can see Michael as Bilbo Baggins. There’s a pic with his buddies Olivia and Liam. When we got home Michael colored his Great Pumpkin coloring book and we watched the movie again.

Our homeschool group  learned about creepy creatures last week.  The mom who led it divided the activities in centers.  The kids were split into pairs.  They were given passports. Once they completed the activities at each center they stamped the passport. I have them labeled below.

Lastly, a couple projects of my own…

• Sweater Pumpkin made from an old blue sweater.
• Pumpkin blocks ~ wooden blocks painted orange and white. A nail for the stem and gold wire for the vine.
• We are trying to sprout Indian corn for a science project.

God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Crafty Monday: Greece Week 1 + Down at the Farm October 21, 2013

In this post: We begin our study of Ancient Greece with Greek Pizza, the Parthenon, Greek architecture, and the Alphabet! Also a fun trip to the farm/ranch as we learn about pioneers and pilgrims. And a few Fall crafts!

Hello beloved and how are you? We are still kickin’ over here at the Dover’s. I’m excited to be teaching and learning about Ancient Greece. The Greeks were some of my favorite people in Social studies at school. I really enjoyed Greek mythology as a kid but that’s changed since I became a Christian. I don’t watch Xena or Hercules anymore. Still, I think the culture was interesting.

This week we focused on the Alphabet and architecture. You can find our pinspirations at this link:

http://www.pinterest.com/doverette/sow-greece/

Michael decoded a Greek letter and then he wrote his own Greek letter. It was a secret message to his Daddy, the other secret agent in the family. Shhhhh! Don’t tell! 😉

Chris decoding his letter.

We watched a couple of videos about the Greek Alphabet and some cute songs. They reminded me of my brief time in Bible college. Me and my guy buddy were surrounded by old men and they cracked us up. I’ve got a video of the guys singing the Greek Alphabet. Oh how I miss them all….good times.  You can find the other vids on the link I gave you.

We talked about Athens vs Sparta. I would rather live in Athens for sure. The Spartans were warriors and very harsh. The Athenians were all about education and the arts. We learned a bit about the Olympics. Michael couldn’t believe that it was limited to men and they went around naked! No wonder married women were forbidden to attend!

We made a homemade Greek Pizza with olives and feta. My guys really enjoyed it. I couldn’t handle the heart burn.

We looked at Greek mosaics online and then made a bean mosaic.

Michael drew the Parthenon from his Draw and Write Through History book.

We watched a video about the Parthenon while we put together this Lego Parthenon. We found directions online but sort of did our own thing. We simplified and it turned out nice.

Michael made these Greek columns out of toilet paper tubes and paper. We have Doric (the plain columns),  Ionic (looks like scrolls), and Corinthian (fancy) columns.

We ended the week by looking at Greek sculptures and then making our own out of cucumbers. Okay, it was hard! None of us had the talent for it.

I thought mine (right) looked like an old grandma. You can’t see her face in the pic. Michael’s looks scary like slimer or something. Yeah, it was hard.

We did a scarecrow tutorial. The crayon didn’t resist the paint well. You can’t see his straw. Cute, nevertheless.

Michael also learned how to draw an owl. He added other animals to his picture.

You can find these crafts here: http://www.pinterest.com/doverette/fall-crafts/

I gave Michael a fake pumpkin and let him decorate it however he wanted. He drew a cat face.

At the beginning of the week, our group took a trip to a ranch/farm to learn about pilgrims and pioneers. It was a good program though overshadowed literally by the grey misty and COLD weather. Oh, I froze my tail off! All of us had dressed for a hot day too. So we shivered through it and most of us went home, napped, and had cider or cocoa after. Goes to show….cold homeschool moms think alike ;).

Currclick.com has free “Down on the Farm” notebooking pages. Check it out:

http://www.currclick.com/product/30016/Down-on-the-Farm-Notebooking-Pages

This sweet lady talked to the kiddos about the pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving.

The the kids learned how to grind corn. There is no way to get a decent amount of food this way. I’m thinking there was a bowl shaped vat and a long stone cylinder or something to grind it. I can’t imagine a rock and a log being very effective at all.  The corn went everywhere.

Our “Native American” guide showed the kids this teepee and told a Native American legend.

Inside the teepee.

A dreary day on the farm…

Fun feeding goats!

The free range bunnies made burrows…I want a free range bunny now.

Baaaa ram ewe! He he…reminds me of Babe every time. Sheep make me giggle. It’s like chihuahuas. I always want to say “Yo quero Taco Bell”.

King of the world!

A hay ride without any hay…still fun.

This man knew his stuff. He talked to the kids about being a pioneer and living on the trail.

The Pioneer man took us to the cabin “we built”. We used our imagination to get there :).

Pioneer man showing us how to wash clothes the old fashioned way.

Inside the cabin…such simple beauty.

The loft. You didn’t have to worry about family togetherness back then.

Downstairs in the one room cabin. Oh this reminds me of some of my favorite Christian romance and inspirational movies….Love Comes Softly…Seasons of the Heart.

What a perfect Fall table…I wouldn’t mind having a cabin someday. See the stuffed turkey in the corner? There’s an abacus on the mantle.

An old reader on the table.

Pumpkins by the covered wagon.

Nifty spiderweb net.

It was a fun and busy week.  We went to the fair and also a cooking school. I’ll show pictures of that later, Lord willing.  If you’re wondering where the Bible was in this time of history (remember our timeline?): well, the book of Malachi was being written and the Jews were about to enter into the silent years where God refused to speak. When we study Rome we will finally be in the times of Jesus, the messiah. That’ll be great near Christmas, one of the times we celebrate Christ’ birth.

God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

Last Week: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/crafty-monday-part-1-babylon-and-persia/

Week 2 of Greece: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/10/28/crafty-monday-part-1-ancient-greece-week-2/

Crafty Monday Part 2: Fall Leaves and Pumpkins! October 14, 2013

In this Post: Fall crafts for kids, a fabulous pumpkin diorama, and pumpkin truffles! Also Autumn poetry and candy corn multiplication! 

Hello dear ones! I’ve combined the last two weeks of homeschool. This is my second post about Fall crafts and general schooling. My first post was about our Historical studies.  I’m excited to show you my lovely pumpkin diorama below.

This is a fake carve able pumpkin.  Chris made carved an opening. I glued fabric to the walls for wallpaper and put in contact paper for a wooden floor. I bought the cuckoo clock, painting, brooms, book shelf, Bibles, lamp, cake, and tea cups at Hobby Lobby.  The tables and chairs came from my doll furniture collection. I already had the dolls.

You can see the two lil ladies are having a Bible study :).  I love making dioramas so maybe I will make more.

We started reading “The Bridge to Terabithia” last week. It lasts three weeks, so I’ll do a post on it when we’re done.

Meanwhile, in the spirit of the Harvest I read Michael a book about farm machines. It wasn’t my cup of tea but you know how boys go crazy over machines.

Then Michael made this super cute tractor foot print that I saw online. By the way, you can find many of these ideas on my Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/doverette/fall-crafts/

Chris finally got his Jeep fixed which is wonderful since we had to replace a tire on our van and soon will replace another one. Our vehicles decided to get grumpy all at once.  Here’s Michael helping his Daddy.  I love my guys.

Sometimes simple is best. Here’s Michael tracing a leaf with chalk.

Our Fall sidewalk art :)

This fall tree tutorial turned out well. Michael learned a bit about perspective.

http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/2013/08/how-to-draw-fall-tree-tutorial.html

Such a pretty picture!

We read about Autumn around North America. Then we watched a video about Eagles gathering in Alaska during the Fall.

We went to our first local and physical Lego club. We still do a separate online club. The theme was monochrome. Michael made a Hobbit house out of red Legos. Then he presented it to the group.

At the end people voted for their favorites.

Michael and I did a bit of foraging for edibles. We never actually ate any of it but we found a wild nut and dandelions.  We learned that it’s hard work foraging and that we need to be thankful we can still go to the grocery store.

I showed you a pic of Chester in the pumpkin on Sunday. I had to show you another one.

We’ve been reviewing nouns, adjectives, and verbs.  Michael does well with book work but he sometimes forgets what he’s learned.  So I really wanted to get these parts of speech cemented in his brain. So we got super focused this week and very hands on.  I had this fun Fall leaf idea.

Fall Leaves Parts of Speech ~ I took a silver Sharpee and wrote words on leaves we collected. Then I drew three circles with chalk and had Michael sort the words into nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

Then I had him make up sentences with the words.

Michael really excels with computer games. He played a parts of speech game online.

http://www.bigbrownbear.co.uk/rocket.htm

Our homeschool group had a Fall picnic and many of us brought Fall treats. I made these pumpkin truffles a.k.a pumpkin cake balls.  http://www.cookingclassy.com/2011/10/pumpkin-cake-truffles/

My friend Stacie brought a Harvest snack. Each treat in the mix represented something from the Harvest. It was cute.

There was a pile of leaves so we had to take that photo opportunity.

Here’s a Fall book that Michael read the first week.

You can’t see this pic well but Michael has really been using his old drawing books. He’s got a picture of the Capitol, the Statue of Liberty, The White House, and a log cabin.

We played this great pumpkins and leaves music game. I modified the game just a bit by using candy corn. Michael had the leaf cards and I was the pumpkins. We each had a piece of candy corn for our game piece.

We started at the opposite ends of the piano. The object was to get to the middle first. We took turns choosing a card and moving our piece to the right note. The prize was more candy corn.

http://www.susanparadis.com/catalog.php?ID=SP608

We both made these glue line pumpkins. You can find most of these crafts on my Pinterest.  You can barely see the glue but this is how they looked after we drew our pumpkins with glue.

Then we traced around the glue with a black marker. Then we painted with watercolors. Here’s my pumpkin.

We saw this great Fall landscape picture online and made our own.  Mine is on the left and Michael’s is on the right.

We learned about perspective, shadows, and lighting.

The second week our homeschool group was hosted by my buddy Erin. She had a pumpkin day. Yaaa for fellow pumpkin lovers!

We had pumpkin treats. I really liked these seasonal Krispy Kremes.

Erin talked to the kids about different kinds of pumpkins. She read a pumpkin parable.

Then the kids painted and colored pumpkin crafts.

A pumpkin magnet

Pumpkin sun catcher

Last year, I hosted a pumpkin day and we had a blast making paper bag pumpkins. Check it out :): https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/crafty-monday-pumpkins-sukkot/

• We had fun with Fall poetry. I read a poem about October. Then we looked over a list of Fall words (adjectives, verbs, and nouns of course).

I had Michael choose four Fall nouns. Then he chose adjectives and verbs to go with them.

We worked together to form a Fall poem. I had Michael write his poem in his journal. Then he typed it and we printed it out.

Lastly, we’ve been spending a good bit of time reviewing multiplication. I found this neat candy corn multiplication game. We also used real candy corn to form groups and to make an array.

Michael loves this pumpkin patch multiplication game:

http://www.multiplication.com/games/play/pumpkin-patch

and also Lord Voldemath (which has Harry Potter themes):

http://mrnussbaum.com/voldemath/

God bless & remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover