Fourth of July Crafts and Our Second Family Olympics 2015 July 17, 2015

Hello dear ones, I hope you are well. Two years ago we had our first Family Olympics. You can find the link here: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/07/07/my-family-rocks-sunday-2013-family-olympics/

This year we spent Independence Day having our second Family Olympics. I also have July 4th crafts to share with you. Here we go :).

We made 4th of July T-shirts.

 

Michael and Chris tie dyed a red, white, and blue shirt.

 

I used Leeland’s hand print and craft sticks to make this  U.S. flag onesie.

Michael did a lapbook on the U.S. flag. Link here:

 

http://www.currclick.com/product/72074/United-States-Flag–Speedy-Lapbook

Then Michael made me a red, white, and blue necklace out of beads.

We also did a state lapbook. Link here: http://www.currclick.com/product/76669/United-States-Alabama–Speedy-Lapbook

Then my mom came over for…

 

Family Olympics

 

I really love this event and I can’t wait until the next one. We should really have winter Olympics as well. We began by making our personal flags to represent us in the games.

We used index cards to keep score. Here are the events:

• Archery

Michael

My Step Dad Kim

Mom

Chris

Me

Leeland

• Foam Sword fighting

Me and Mom~ This was fun, but a word to the wise…make sure you zip up the trampoline if you use it. When Michael and I were sword fighting he actually fell through the unzipped part of the trampoline screen. Thankfully he didn’t hit his head too hard. It was scary though.

• Airplane Toss

• Egg Race

• Sac Race

Then just for fun:

• Parachute games

• Michael’s 4th grade piano recital. He played The Star Spangled Banner and Amazing Grace.

 

All of us won at least one medal, but Kim won the trophy.

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

More ideas:

 

White House Study July 1, 2015

Hello dear ones! Michael learned about the White House recently. Here’s a craft and lapbook for you. This would be a good study for Independence Day in the U.S.

First Michael did this short lapbook and learned facts about the White House.

Link here:

http://www.currclick.com/product/72577/The-White-House–Speedy-Lapbook
Then he and I made the White House out of craft sticks.

Inspiration here:

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

Lent Crafts Part Three 2015 March 28, 2015

In this post: Lent/Easter crafts and a lapbook.

Hello dear ones! Well, I’m going to keep this post short. We haven’t done a whole lot lately because we’re hoping the baby comes soon. We did manage a couple of crafts and we planted our garden.

I’m not going to repost all the craft pictures. Simply, Michael made palm branches out of his hand prints. Then he read R.C. Sproul’s “The Donkey Who Carried a King”. We made an Easter Lily that’s leaf says “He is risen!”. And for several weeks we’ve been slowly working on an indepth Easter lapbook.

Lapbook link here: http://www.currclick.com/product/7908/Easter-Lapbook

Lily printable here: http://www.freefuneaster.com/easter-crafts/paper-lily-craft/

We also did these two printables:

http://www.biblewise.com/kids/fun/crown-of-thorns.php

http://www.sundayschoolkids.com/activities-lent-easter/1-road-to-easter-activity-bible-lookup.htm

Chris prepped the garden area and me and Michael helped plant. Our gardens usually don’t produce much and especially not enough to feed us. Still, it’s nice to know we are planting something. It’s good for kids to know where food comes from (besides the grocery store!). Planting time always excites me.

Michael planted a few things by Terabithia (his clubhouse).

Planting in the garden…

Well, I hope you have a lovely Holy week and Easter.

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

Easter ideas on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/doverette/easter-crafts/

Lent crafts from this year on this blog:

Ash Wednesday 2015

I AM craft, The Lord’s Prayer chapel, and band-aid prayers cross~

Lent Crafts Part One 2015

Egg study & Resurrection egg diorama~

Lent Crafts part 2: Egg Study

St. Patty’s Day 2015

In this post: St. Patty’s food, scavenger hunt, decor, lapbook, and craft. 

Hello dear ones! Here’s how we celebrated Saint Patrick’s day this year.

• As you can see from above, we brought out our usual St. Patty’s decor. I let Michael set things up because I felt like I was going into labor that day (false alarm). You can see our family leprechaun and trap. We had Lucky Charms ready for breakfast, a book about St. Patty’s story, and this year an indepth St. Patrick’s Day lapbook.

You can find the lapbook here:http://www.currclick.com/product/1055/Saint-Patricks-Day-Lapbook

It has Catholic principles in it. We are not Catholic but we had an interesting conversation about praying to saints etc and what a Biblical saint is compared to the process of becoming a Catholic saint. As protestants, we don’t believe in praying to saints or talking to them at all. Also, we believe all Christians are saints and in the process of being sanctified. Anywho, the lapbook had great info about Ireland and we even learned some Gaelic. We talked about the symbols of St. Patty’s and how it’s celebrated in different places.

Even the dogs got festive! Here’s Annabelle :).

 

• Michael made this rainbow chain with a pot of gold at the end.

 

• That morning, Michael had a St. Patty’s placemat with activities on it. I got this free printable from: http://www.thedatingdivas.com/holidays/st-patricks-day/top-of-the-morning-to-you-printable-placemats/

 

• Chris and Michael did this St. Patty’s Scavenger hunt that I got from The Dating Divas. I set up clues around the house. Each clue bag had an activity that had to be completed before they could move on to the next clue. They were simple but fun. Examples: Don’t Eat Pete (leprechaun version with Skittles), figure out your leprechaun name, and find all the gold pieces.

Scavenger hunt printables here: http://www.thedatingdivas.com/holidays/st-patricks-day/st-pattys-scavenger-hunt/

 

• Lastly, we ate our traditional Irish foods: Irish stew (beef instead of lamb) and Irish Soda Bread. Chris made the stew while Michael and I baked the bread. This has to be my favorite bread.

Recipes here: http://pocketchangegourmet.com/irish-soda-bread-recipe/

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/irish-lamb-stew/detail.aspx

And I leave you with my 36 weeks pics (I’m actually about 38 weeks prego now. We’re praying that the baby comes soon though because he’s already bigger than Michael was at birth).

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

St. Patty’s on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/doverette/st-patrick-s-day/

St. Patty’s past on my blog:

Trinity lesson/craft & big party with tons of Irish recipes~

Crafty Monday: St. Patrick’s Day Celebration with the Homeschool Group

String maze, Shamrock punch, & peg dolls~

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Leprechaun trap & t-shirt art~

Crafty Monday: Prepping for St. Patty’s & Easter & Brazil Country Study

St. Patty’s decor~

St. Patty’s Day 2014

Leprechaun hunt~

My Family Rocks! Sunday:Dates with our Son, Hunting for Leprechauns, & Pet Parade

Purim 2015 March 10, 2015

In this post: Crafts, treats, and Purim celebrations.

Hello dear ones! This is how we celebrated Purim this year:

• A Queen Esther craft~ I found this template for a Queen Esther puppet but our brown bag got thrown away. So instead we pasted it onto a paper plate and made it a centerpiece.
• Decor~ We brought out the Haman and Esther shakers from years ago, the Haman ears cookie crafts, and a lovely vase of flowers with ornaments on it (a peacock, dragonfly, and butterfly).

Link:https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/crafty-monday-dinosaurs-purim/

• Peacock drawing~ Michael and I made this Purim sign using a peacock tutorial. Peacocks were special to the Persians. They believed peacocks were guardians of royalty. King Xerxes was the king of Persia.

Link:http://luntiks.com/topics/kids-drawing-painting/74.html

 

• Baking Haman Ears or Hats~ This is a beloved tradition of ours. This year we used raspberry jelly in part of the cookies and Nuttella in the others.

• Watching “One Night with the King”~ an embellished version of the Biblical story of Esther. It’s based on a fictional book.

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

Purim pinspiration: https://www.pinterest.com/doverette/purim/

 

Mardi Gras 2015 March 1, 2015

In this post: Mardi Gras treats, crafts, parade fun, and a lapbook.

Hello dear ones! We celebrated Mardi Gras as a family for the second time. We’ve come up with our own traditions, like decorating a float for our family parade. Anywho, this is how we did Mardi Gras.

• We began with a Mardi Gras lapbook and several videos on Mardi Gras’ history. I’ll include a link at the end.

 

• Michael made a jester mask.

• Michael and I watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame because it has the Festival of Fools in it. It’s not the same holiday but the style is similar. I also like the lessons on sin and grace in the movie. Rio and The Princess and the Frog are also good for this time.

• We had a small feast for supper. We had ham which is a rare treat. We don’t give up anything during Lent, but it was a nod to the history of Fat Tuesday and how people ate all their meat before fasting during Lent. I found the centerpiece at the Dollar Tree.

 

• We made a King cake using cinnamon rolls. We put it in the oven while we had our parade.

Here’s Chris braiding his part.

 

Into the oven!

 

• Michael and I made a parade float out of Leeland’s wagon. We used tissue paper and masks. Then we filled it with beads, moon pies, and coins. Teddy played the king/jester and rode in the float.

 

• I turned up the jazz music and we had a parade. Michael and I took turns throwing things. We put on masks and beads.

 

• Lastly, we decorated and enjoyed our King cake! Mmmmm….we just used the icing that came with the cinnamon rolls and sprinkled it. I couldn’t find purple sprinkles so I used glaze.

You can find the lapbook, videos, and other ideas here:

Mardi Gras on Pinterest

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

Mardi Gras past

Mardi Gras & Dr. Seuss’ Birthday

Crafty Monday: God’s Love & Hearts Galore! Plus Mardi Gras Celebration…

Another good Disney film to watch for Mardi Gras is The Princess and the Frog. Here are some ideas to give you that New Orleans’ flavor:

Crafty Monday: Disney Countdown~Pinocchio & The Princess and the Frog

Presidents Day 2015

In this post: Presidents Day craft and fun.

Hello dear ones! I’m kind of behind on posts but I hope to catch up soon. This third trimester of pregnancy is kicking my butt. It won’t be long before I hold my second son, so I know it’s worth it. Here’s what we did for President’s Day.

•  Each day that week, Michael read about a new president.

 

• We took out our presidents place mat. Michael quizzed us daily on the presidents because of this!

 

• Michael made this Abe Lincoln mask using a paper plate and construction paper.

 

• Lastly, Michael filled out some neat president printables. You can find those here:

http://todaysfrugalmom.com/free-presidents-day-mini-unit-study-grades-k-6/

Designing a coin

If I Were President

Who would you add to Mt. Rushmore?

Quotes from George Washington and Abe Lincoln

Well, that’s all folks. God bless and remember the High King lives! ~Amber Dover

MLK Jr. Studies, Batman Snowflakes, & Pinecone Bird Feeders January 20, 2015

In this post: Batman snowflakes (with link), pincone bird feeders, a craft for MLK Jr. day, a MLK Jr. lapbook and timeline, and learning about money at our homeschool group.


Hello dear ones! I hope you are well. It’s hard to believe that January is almost over. We celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. day yesterday. We actually did our craft and studies on Friday. Michael reread a book about MLK Jr. yesterday though. Here’s our last week. I’ll include the links at the end of this post.
Martin Luther King Jr. lapbook

MLK Jr. Timeline

Craft for MLK Jr. Day

MLK Jr. Book

We also watched a couple videos about MLK Jr. They are also on my Pinterest link below.

Batman snowflakes
Link here: http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2013/12/25/committed-make-your-own-superhero-snowflakes/

Pinecone bird feeders
Peanut butter plus bird seed plus pinecones equals an easy bird feeder!

A Penny Saved~ Money lesson at our homeschool group

The kids earned fake money to use at the group store.

The hostess read the kids a book about a little girl saving her money.

The kids took turns coming up to count coins and to figure out math problems for the book.

Then the kids solved money worksheets together.

They used the money they earned to purchase goodies at the group store. Moms brought in baked goods and used toys to sell.

Another day…Michael decided to be a Native American for the day. The dogs were dragged into it!

Feeding the ducks at the park

AFLAC!!!!!

The bulletin board

Learning about the Metric and Imperial systems using the math tips book.

Remember the math book I mentioned last week? Here it is again. I used rhymes and tricks from the book to make the metric and imperial standard flipbooks above. Already Michael has some of the measurements memorized. I, for the first time (at 29 years old!), finally know my measurements. I highly recommend this book!

You can find all the MLK Jr. ideas and links here:

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

The 1800’s Week 6: Heading West (The Final Week) July 21, 2014

In this post: Come join us as we take a wagon ride to the prairie! There will be pioneers and cowboys! Come hang out :). 

Hello dear ones! We’ve had a lot of fun learning about the pioneers and the world of Little House on the Prairie. This is how we learned:

Tall Tales

• We read about Paul Bunyan and Buffalo Bill.
• Michael watched Tall Tale.

Heading West

• Michael read and watched Little House on the Prairie. We actually watched the newer mini series.
• We took a virtual field trip to Little House on the Prairie sites.
• Michael “built” a log cabin when we visited Fort Mitchell, a couple weeks before.
• He also saw covered wagons at Fort Mitchell and the inside of a log cabin. There’s a picture of him ringing the supper bell.
• Michael drew a picture of a log cabin from his Draw Through History book.
• Little House on the Prairie Role play. I turned the reading pool into a covered wagon and Michael’s desk into the horse. Michael packed up the supplies for his “trip out west”. Then once he arrived, we used tp rolls and tissue paper to make a fire. I put a grate over the top and Michael cooked the food he had “shot”. He used our ukulele for a fiddle. We listened to actual fiddle music and danced around. Michael enjoyed pretending to be “Pa”.
• We made a covered wagon out of cardboard and tissue paper.
• We tried to learn old fashioned string games, like Cat’s cradle.
• We made yarn dolls. I remember my Granny making those for me.
• We read a book on Pioneers.
• Michael made a lapbook about Cowboys.
• Michael played The Oregon Trail, an interactive PC game.
• We decorated Western gingerbread men, which was creepy since we had just talked about the tragedy of the Donnor Party!

Other

• We read about Ireland’s potato famine in Story of the World book 4.
• We watched Dear America Season one: Episode 4. It’s about an Irish immigrant girl who travels to America (because of famine) and works in a factory.
• We read Jamie O’ Rourke and the Big Potato.
• We read Little Folk, about leprechauns etc…
• We read Irish rhymes.
• We read about Italy in Story of the World, so we also read Italian rhymes.
• Michael did a composer study on Tchaikovsky. He practiced playing “Swan Lake” on the piano.
• We read poems by Whitman and Keats.

Well, I hope you enjoyed our study of history this school year. We went from Creation to the 1800’s. Links at the end.

The 1800’s on Pinterest:

The 1800’s Week 5:https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2014/07/21/the-1800s-week-5-the-statue-of-liberty-technology/

The 1800’s Week 1: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2014/05/20/the-1800s-week-1-sacagawea-claude-monet/

This is the last post for history this school year, so here is…

The Very beginning of our History study this school year: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/crafty-monday-creation-the-flood-and-personality/

Time Machine Unit (The 1900’s): https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/01/08/a-late-crafty-monday-the-time-machine1900-1925/

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

The 1800’s Week 5: The Statue of Liberty & Technology

In this post: Statue of Liberty crafts and an experiment Edison would be proud of.

Hello dear ones! This is how we learned during week 5 of the 1800’s:

The Statue of Liberty

• Michael put together a Statue of Liberty lapbook.
• We read about the Statue of Liberty in Story of the World book 4.
• Michael did a splatter paint Statue of Liberty craft, using a silhouette.
• Michael drew a picture of it, using his Draw Through History book.
• Michael watched a video on the making of the Statue of Liberty.

Technology

• Michael read “Out of Darkness” about Louis Braille.  Then he drew his name in Braille.
• We read about Samuel Morse, Vincent Van Gogh, and Alexander Grahm Bell.
• Michael read about Thomas Edison and the light bulb.
• Chris and Michael made a homemade lightbulb using a mason jar, wire, batteries, and pencil lead. It was such a cool experiment! The diy video is on my Pinterest link.
• We read about steam engines and other inventions in Story of the World.
• We read stories about trains and Michael drew one from his Draw Through History book.

Other

• Michael did a composer study on Brahms.
• We read poems by Emily Dickinson and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

 The 1800’s on Pinterest:

The 1800’s Week 4: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2014/07/21/the-1800s-week-4-the-civil-war-queen-victoria/

The 1800’s Week 6 (last one): https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2014/07/21/the-1800s-week-6-heading-west-the-final-week/

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