Seasonal Doings: Home Decorating

Aren't there some things that you remember your family putting out every year that brings back that feeling of home? Our children love decorating the Christmas tree and helping put the lights up and all of that fun stuff that comes with the seasonal decorating. I try to recount the memories behind as many as possible each time we do it so that they will remember why things are special traditions to our family. We have a great time!!
These are a few of the more adult decorations we have enjoyed this year:


I cannot take credit for this, it was my mother-in-law's idea last year and I just added to it this year. But, I love it! It give my dining a festive look and helps to take the focus off of the school stuff that has usually taken over the space, walls and table--at once!

This is our small Christmas tree upstairs. You will notice the one blueish ball--that's my husband's Dallas Cowboys ornament which holds the same station on our tree and has done so for at least 10 years.

This quilt is a precious treasure! My mother quilted this for my in Christmas 2007. It is just beautiful and hangs in our foyer. Each block represents one of the "days of Christmas".

This, too, is an arrangement my mother-in-law put together for me. She has quite an eye for that sort of thing and I so do not. So, I leave those things to the professionals.

More on Teeth

With all the snow we've been having, running otu to gather supplies was not on my list. So, I made my own play dough. That was actually kinda fun. A project--just for Me!
Anyway, I had the children to make models of their teeth when studying the anatomy of a tooth.

In Our Homeschool....Teeth and the Tooth Fairy

Now, I'm so sure that this must only be of interest to a very slight few……but we have had quite a few teeth flying around our house for the last, oh, say 5 years!! This was an easy and fun unit to do since we only had a few legitimate school days until we are done for the year.

Even taking plenty of snow breaks, we were able to finish it in about four days. We learned soo much about teeth and the customs that other countries hold with regard to children losing their teeth. It was very, very interesting. If you read the books in order and do the lessons in relatively close order of how they are presented, it comes together nicely. This study is FREE from Homeschool Share!

First, we started our days with Geography. There was sooo much geography involved that we had to break it up and do some map searches every day. I printed out these little clipart pieces and the children would hunt for the places I called out. For the 7 yr old, I provided the continent as well as the country. The olders had to search a bit before I would give them the continent.

We did the egg/vinegar/soda experiment. All through the day, the kids couldn't help but to walk by and touch or dunk the egg back down into the vinegar. :) The egg in the soda sank and stayed there. But the one in vinegar dipped and danced a little.

We have now posted charts for every single child and they have been diligently checking off when their dental duty is done!

Snow Break!!

Well, what do you expect?

Even motorcycles have fun in the snow!

Seasonal Doings: Five in a Row Ornament Exchange

We began our homeschool journey 6 years ago, using literature based unit studies from Five in a Row.  The forums there are fabulous and each year, there is an ornament exchange.  I have only participated the last three years, but we have quite the collection, as you can see.  Many of the ornaments symbolize a favorite book that is included in Five in a Row, although some do not.  I have been using this wreath to hang our ornaments on, but it's looking like next year, we'll have to have a separate Five in a Row tree.  Lots of fun memories here!