Summer Crafts 2015 Part 2 August 19, 2015

In this post: Ocean crafts and study. Plus a shell study.

Hello dear ones, this Summer we used our crafts to decorate the homeschool room for the beginning of the year. We have a sea theme. So we got a head start. Here are pictures and you can find the links on my Pinterest at the end.

Michael was given two big boxes of shells from my grandma and grandpa. He used them to decorate our homeschool room.

He also made a shell notebook.

He made necklaces as well and gave them to his buddies. Then Michael did a shell lapbook.

Michael did an ocean animal lapbook. He checked out books on ocean animals from the library.

I bought ocean paper and covered our school door and the area near the reading pool. I got the ocean creature cut outs from the Dollar Tree awhile back. I used bubble wrap to make the bubbles, and crepe paper for the seaweed.

I stapled ribbon to shower caps to make the jelly fish. I hung blue and green crepe paper to make the room feel like it was under the sea.

Michael made these origami boats.

Leeland and I made this starfish with his feet.

The jelly fish are from Michael and Leeland’s hands.

Michael made a crab, an oyster, and coral from egg cartons. I made coral from split pool noodles.

I drew the octopus and Michael splattered it with paint.

Michael made a puffer fish using a fork (not pictured).

We made socktopuses from socks.

Michael and I put together this ocean diorama.

We put foam stickers on the bottom of our flip flops and made these nifty prints. We hope to leave cool impressions in the sand when we go to the beach.

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

PS: Michael’s Lego creation

Summer Crafts 2015 Part 1

In this post: Dandelions, fireflies,and Summer inchies. Plus a character study.

Hello dear ones! Here are a few crafts we did over the summer. Pics and links included. Enjoy!

Fireflies inspired by: http://elementaryartfun.blogspot.com/2011/03/fireflies-moonlit-landscape.html

Dandelions inspired by: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/82824080620148206/

Summer Inchies (inspired by That Artist Woman and http://www.allthingsheartandhome.com/2013/06/diy-watercolor-summer-art/ )

Mine

Michael and Nana

Michael did this anger lapbook from: http://www.currclick.com/product/26486/Biblical-Anger-Lapbook

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

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:

 

Father’s Day Crafts & Our Trip to Jesup 2015

Hello dear ones! This past Father’s Day we visited our hometown and everyone got to meet the new baby. Leeland and Michael also made homemade crafts for Chris. It was a special Father’s Day. Here’s what we did:

I printed out a Father’s Day poem from here:

Then I put the boys’ foot prints on it. I also printed out a Darth Vader poster.

I helped the boys make Father’s Day books.

I stapled Daddy surveys to the back of the books. Here’s the link:

So we visited our hometown and saw our families. We saw Chris’ dad…

and we visited where my Dad is buried.

We visited my Granny.

My family didn’t want to let Leeland go.

Granny

My Uncle

My Aunt

My other grandparents

I loved playing with this Chess set as a kid.

Chris’ mom playing with Leeland

Chris’ older brother and Michael trying out his 3D plastic making pen.

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

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

End of the Year Parties: Art & Music July 28, 2014

Hello dear ones!  We finished our last week of school (back in June) with subject based parties. Today I want to show you the Art & Music themed day we had. Also, afterward I’ll share ideas for the History party that never happened.

• We began our Art & Music party with a fantastic lunch! I made “tuna piano” sandwiches and Rice Krispy Paintbrush treats.
• I decorated the table with Van Gogh’s Starry Night and with Musical Luminaries. I printed out old sheet music and wrapped it around mason jars. I put fake candles inside.
• We then had fun by splattering composers and painting the classics. We used paint filled water balloons and waterguns. The Mona Lisa and Mozart really got it!

Our last day of school, I had planned on having a huge History party. If you’ve kept up with my blog then you know, we majored in History this year. Honestly, we were burnt out. We did soooo much with History this year. I just didn’t have it in me to do another thing. I had some good ideas though and I’d like to share them.

• Create a time machine trip in our back yard. Make a Jonah in the Whale tent, Greek columns,the pyramids, the Roman Colosseum, the Underground Railroad, and more. I was going to use cardboard and other inexpensive items to set it up.
• Then I was going to have Michael do some of the Historical crafts and games we skipped this year, as he went around to each period in time.
• Lastly, I was going to make the Historical treats that we never got to. You can find these ideas on my Pinterest under my SOW (Story of the World) folders. You’ll find ideas from Creation to the 1800’s.

Well, I hope you enjoyed our parties and maybe they’ve inspired you!

Here’s our first party: Science~

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2014/07/28/end-of-the-year-parties-science/

Our second party: Language Arts & Math~

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2014/07/28/end-of-the-year-parties-language-arts-math/

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

 Pssst! You can find more ideas here:

End of the Year Parties: Language Arts & Math

Hello dear ones! We finished our last week of school (back in June) with subject based parties. Today I want to show you the Language Arts & Math themed days  we had.

• We began our Language Arts party by making black out poetry. Basically, you take a page in a book and you black out everything except for the words you want to use to make a poem. You start by circling the words you want to use (random words scattered across the page) and then you start coloring over the rest. We used a blue crayon. Black or white out would’ve looked better.
• Spelling games at http://www.kidsspell.com/
• We made Story Stones & made up stories. You find several smooth stones, cut out interesting pictures, and modge podge them to the stones.
• We ended our Language Arts party with poetry cookies. I used a poem we had learned this year, by Lord Byron.
• Our Math party consisted of us playing Math board games. We got the Multiplication and Division Space game at the Dollar Tree.
• Michael made shapes using popsicle sticks.

Well, I hope you enjoyed these ideas. Join me later for our last party, Music & Art (plus ideas for the History party that never happened):

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2014/07/28/end-of-the-year-parties-art-music/

If you missed it, here’s our first party: Science~

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2014/07/28/end-of-the-year-parties-science/

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

Pssst! You can find more ideas here:

End of the Year Parties: Science

Hello dear ones! We finished our last week of school (back in June) with subject based parties. Today I want to show you the Science themed day we had.

• We began our day with snow cones. We mixed colors with different flavors of Koolaid. Then we put them all together to make a unique flavor for our snowcones.
• We made sand volcanoes by digging a hole in the sand, filling it with baking soda, and adding vinegar. I think this experiment would work best at the beach.
• Lastly, Michael made a nature frame by gluing leaves and such on a frame we got from the craft store. We modge podged the leaf so it would keep it’s color and stay stiff. It still looks good, weeks later.

This was an easy and fun day. Join me later for our second party: Language Arts & Math~

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2014/07/28/end-of-the-year-parties-language-arts-math/

& Lastly, our Music & Art party (plus ideas for the History party that never happened):

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2014/07/28/end-of-the-year-parties-art-music/

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

Pssst! You can find more ideas here:

 

Independence Day Crafts & Fun 2014 July 23, 2014

Hello dear ones! I hope you are well. I want to show you the crafts we did this year for the 4th of July.

In 2012 we made fireworks in a jar, Independence candles using salt and food coloring, and we decorated a t-shirt. I also painted Michael’s face before we saw fireworks. There’s also a short lapbook. Link here:

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/crafty-monday-independence-day-crafts-the-4th-of-july/

2013 we celebrated our first Family Olympics. Link here:

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/07/07/my-family-rocks-sunday-2013-family-olympics/

This year…

• I made a Summer wreathe out of red, white, and blue flip flops and a bow. I got it all at the Dollar Tree.
• The wreathe goes perfect with the patriotic flip flop welcome mat, I made a couple of years ago.
• Michael made a flag out of popsicle sticks.
• Michael did another Independence Day lapbook.
• Flip flops are a theme in my house, this Summer. I’ve also been making Summery paper chains. Usually I put flowers on the wall but I didn’t have any Summer flowers, so I improvised. The chains are whimsical. I’m a kid at heart.
• We took a trip to the Infantry Museum for good food and entertainment.
• We got pictures with Captain America and other super heroes.
• Then we went to see Captain America 2 at the dollar theater.
• We ended the night with fireworks and glowsticks. We sat on top of the Jeep again.

One day, I hope to get to the beach for fireworks. I grew up about 30 minutes from the beach. So as a kid, my Mom and I often went to St. Simon’s or Jekyll Island for fireworks. Usually we’d grab some boiled peanuts and find a playground to have fun on. We’d stay on the beach until the tide pushed us up on the rocks. I remember the taste of sea salt in my soda. The traffic was always horrible leaving the island, but I’m glad my Mom put up with it. My Mom was always open to adventure. I hope I’m like her.

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

Crafty Monday: Disney Countdown~Cinderella, Snow White, & Sleeping Beauty July 29, 2013

In this post:  Fun, food, and crafts with the Disney princesses. A very masculine princess week with dragons and eats fit for a charming prince or valiant knight. This is # 8 on our Disney countdown. 

Hello dear ones! I hope you are well. Thank you for the sweet comments. They mean a lot to me. I’ve been trying to visit your blogs as often as I can. I’ve gotten to know some of my readers a bit better and it’s so nice to connect personalities to your smiling faces. I can’t promise that I’ll always get to visit every single blog but I do know you’re there and I appreciate you so much.

• Well, the Disney princess week for my lil man came and went. It was super simple. Dragons aka dinosaurs go perfect with fairy tales and they happen to be very masculine. Michael is very good at pointing out things that are too girly. I asked him to trust me. After all, there’s always a valiant prince that saves the day. My son would rather be the emperor of evil (from Despicable Me?). But I did my best to convince him that being a prince is very cool.

Here is # 7 on the count down: https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/crafty-monday-disney-countdown-toy-story-tangled-cars/

We were all recovering from some nasty sunburn so the week was rather lazy and laid back. There were things we just didn’t get to (like our writing assignment “If I met a dragon”) but it’s all gravy. The set wasn’t hard at all. I just put up Michael’s wooden castle and my Disney dolls that I got as a kid. It just so happens that I have Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty. These three ladies are so similar that they had to have their own week.

• We began with Cinderella and watched 1 and then the 3rd movie the next day.

Cinderella is a very girly movie. The prince doesn’t even have a name in the first one and his screen time is limited. The mice have better roles than him.  So we focused on pumpkins. Though we could have easily went with mice and thrown in some role play.

Michael painted a pumpkin carriage.

We had big dinners some of the week, pot roast and such. I had thought of having an early Thanksgiving meal proportioned for us….but it didn’t happen. We did however have pumpkin pie.

And let me tell you it was out of a box and still good. Thank you Marie Callender. 😉

For lunch we had mac n cheese using wagon wheels pasta. This went with the carriage theme nicely.

Michael loves mac n cheese and this was made with real cheese not the powder. Now it’s “carriage wheel” pasta :).

I told Michael that there are many Cinderella stories in different cultures. I have several Cinderella-esque chic flicks. My favorite is “Ever After“. I got Michael to watch it with me by telling him that it has Leonardo Davinci (a real person) in it and that Cinderella punches her step sister in the face. Okay not perfect parenting I admit. I guess I’d have more grace for the step sister if she were real and not a fairy tale character. But I’ll be honest…I enjoy that scene a lot.

• Midweek we watched Snow White. I know I say this often but she is one of my favorite princesses. I actually do have princesses that I don’t like.  Snow White gets picked on too much. I think she’s sweet and she’s the only Disney princess that prays (to God, not a star).

I had originally planned to make these treasure rocks for Michael to “mine” but it didn’t happen:

http://www.growingajeweledrose.com/2013/01/magic-treasure-rocks.html

We did however have mini apple pies in the spirit of the Evil Queen’s poisoned apple. You can see it above. They were pretty dang delicious. I could have eaten them all if I was that selfish…actually if the Lord hadn’t convicted me of wanting to eat them all!

Recipe here: http://www.littlebitfunky.com/2011/10/what-i-made-for-monday.html

I don’t remember when we read this but we were in the fairy tale mood so we read The Snow Queen.

Not much happened with Snow White. I don’t remember if I showed you this but I did a neat picture with Snow White and Prince Charming. I simply painted a canvas pink and blue. Then I pasted silhouettes I had printed from online. I  hot glued the wooden craft mirror and modge podged everything. The graininess is just from the shine of the flash.

• Last, came Sleeping Beauty. She’s not a very popular princess either. I’m not sure why.

This was the movie we were waiting for because it has a dragon. So we could do our dinosaur theme! Yaaaa :). A dragon/dino attacked the princesses’ castle. Michael was probably thinking “Finally some fun!”

Sleeping Beauty of course is asleep. Hopefully she won’t get eaten. More dragons showed up later via Michael. 🙂 See I told you this wouldn’t be a girly princess week.

This was another easy peasy thing to throw together. The Dollar Tree (which should pay me for all the advertising I do for them lol) has so many neat dinosaur toys. We have a cool dino hat, glow in the dark dino skeletons that you put together, and of course the inflatable dinosaur. I also got Michael a dino figurine.

I left a note with breakfast that asked Michael if he was going to be a prince or a dragon. He decided to be king of the dragons.

We read this neat book called “You’ve Got Dragons” which I think must’ve been written by a psychologist. Ha! The “dragons” seemed to represent problems (sins, fears, short comings, trials etc). Michael and I talked about the possibilities. But the point is…everyone has dragons even if you pretend you don’t have them.

This was the only easy skeleton. Michael put it together and was thrilled that it glowed. The other fossils were tricky.

We’ve yet to put the other fossil set together. There are way too many pieces and the directions are vague. However, Michael did get to play paleontologist.  I hid the dozens of fossil parts in his moon sand box. Then I gave him a brush and some tweezers to excavate the area for fossils.

It was so cute. He thought he was the greatest paleontologist ever and he kept saying “This is hard work”.

For dessert we had fossil pudding.  I adapted a recipe I saw online. I crushed up oreos and sprinkled some on bottom and on top. I layered vanilla and chocolate pudding and put plastic dinosaurs between the layers.

I didn’t decorate much this week and completely forgot about the dino cut outs I had from the Dollar Tree. So I set them out with our treat and they were nice to look at for a bit. Ha!

• And here are some random pictures from our week and weekend.

Remember we got sun burnt? Well, it happened at a man made beach we like to visit. It’s a big lake. Michael and I wore sunscreen but it didn’t help much at all. Still despite a painful week, we did have a good day the Saturday before. The pic is too small but you can click on it to enlarge. You can also see our trip to the Butterfly center nearby. Chris and Michael are holding butterflies. Also we have Michael and I playing in the water but it looks like we’re doing the “Where the Wild Things Are” dance.

Here’s a bigger picture but the right side will be cut off on my blog. Yeah, the sun burn didn’t show up until hours later.

• So I had planned on giving short Bible lessons to go with the Disney stories since our regular devotion book for 2nd grade was finished. But it didn’t happen. I wanted Michael to consistently spend time with God anyway, so I found an old kid’s devotional of mine and I made up this devotion basket. I hope to add prayer sticks later (sticks with prayer list names on them).

• It was neat because I did this devotional book on and off as a kid. I even used it in High School. I found a page marked with the year I “dated” God…my senior year. Actually it was the second time. If you’re wondering what the heck I’m talking about: well, it was something made popular by Acquire the Fire, a teen ministry. Basically you make this vow to God that you’re not going to date people and that you’re going to “date” God meaning spend that time getting to know Jesus. Yeah, it sounds a bit strange and most of my peers were like “whaaaat?”
•  I took the vow the first time to honestly break up with a guy and often compromised my vow. I learned the hard way that any vow made with God should be taken very seriously or there will be some butt whoopin’ discipline. The second time I made this vow I had learned my lesson. I didn’t date my senior year. I focused on growing in the Lord and also on becoming a woman worth marrying if God had that for me. I prayed that God would bring my husband at the end of the year if he wanted me to get married (bold I know but God had also told me that I wasn’t going off to college because of marriage. He surprised me with that my junior year). I was surprised that my hubby was someone I had hung out with all through high school. Everyone was surprised God had brought us together. We seemed so different. Chris was the goofy loner guy that had staring contests and liked to moon people. I was “Bible girl” and I think most people thought me a prude (they never got to know me well enough). I’m very passionate about my Jesus and I think that scared some people. Over the years Chris and I have both rubbed off on each other. We balance each other out.

While I’m sneaking in stuff about me lol, here’s a simple but pretty dress I got from Walmart real cheap. The white shoes look a bit silly but they are comfy and I’m sure I’ll be wearing them at Disney. Now if I had a red wig I could pose as Ariel. I would so coordinate my wardrobe to Disney princesses (modestly) if I could. Maybe I’ll think of something for our trip if I’m not too pooped to party.  Chris’ Yellow Power Ranger behind me….okay okay really he named it Sponge Bob but I think my name fits the Jeep better.

• I love how creative Michael is without me telling him what to make. He made his bear a robber’s mask out of paper. Then he set up a little bank. Oh my it tickled me pink!

Buzz and Woody are prisoners. Oh no!

Now Buzz is really in jail!

Now this is one reason I do like Summer break. I get to see Michael play more and learn while he’s playing. Learning happens everywhere and though I do believe kids often need direction with learning, I also believe they learn on their own too. It’s been so weird around here with several rainy days, sickness, and just too much lounging around. I feel so lazy though I know our Summer break is very short compared to most. Full blown school will hit us soon enough. I also think we are getting tired of the count down. We just want to go to Disney already! LOL I’m praying that we can get reservations last minute and that a hurricane doesn’t hit. We’ve already moved our vacation up by a few days. Obviously, I don’t want a hurricane to hit for other reasons too.  Worrying that a hurricane will ruin our Disney trip is definitely a first world problem.

• But on a serious note please pray for the weather and our visit with family (my Granny’s neighborhood has had gang troubles and this is a ritzy part of our small town). I hope we get to go to the Drive in. I love doing that when we go home. It’ll be great to see how my Granny likes married life.  About six months ago she married my step Dad’s father. My parents were married before that so it’s okay. LOL sounds like a backwoods soap opera but they are truly happy and so sweet together. My Granny has been single ever since I was one year old and my Gran-daddy died. It’ll take some getting used to to realize she’s married.
• Also please pray for my health as I drive. I have scoliosis and arthritis and other frustrating issues that make long trips hard. Usually Chris drives out of town and it’s been that way since I started semi-passing out while driving (always pulled over in time). I’ve been better and have figured out that it’s a potassium and sodium issue. A french fry or banana gets me going again. Note: potatoes actually have more potassium than bananas. Still, I’m nervous to be driving so much myself.

Not sure why I’m asking now. The Disney trip isn’t quite here yet. But maybe you could start praying now. No matter what I hope the storm to the East dies down. Thanks for reading! Love to you all!

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

PS: Join us next week, Lord willing, for # 9 on the count down: Aladdin, The Lion King, & Winnie the Pooh!

https://amberdover.wordpress.com/2013/08/03/an-early-crafty-monday-disney-countdown-aladdin-the-lion-king-winnie-the-pooh/

Disney Pinterest (email sub. please come to my blog to see the link)

http://pinterest.com/doverette/disney/