Well, this is officially our first “Summer” after a year of homeschooling (well, Kindergarten counts as homeschool right?) Next year we’ll be starting on a mixture of KG and First Grade…I’m not really sure what to call it……when people ask my daughter if she’ll be going to Kindergarten next year, we don’t really know what to say? Maybe someone who has been homeschooling a while can answer that one for me?….For now, we call is “Sissy School” and we’ll probably have to change that once she’s old enough to realize the alternate meaning of “Sissy”….we can’t have her going around proclaiming membership to anykind of school that promotes cowardness (if that’s even a word……it’s late

Anyway, besides our Insect Lapbook, we’re not really doing anything too substantial over the summer….Lots of pool hopping, BBQ-ing, Camping, and Fishing (btw- She caught 5 trout last week, and limited out, amazing!)

So our Summer is officially in full swing, but I can’t help that nagging feeling that if we don’t stick to at least some of the basics we’re going to have a lot of review to do come September. That’s when I found this amazing website, that is going to save us from our Summer Slums, but still let us have our Summer Fun!

Some of what you can find there:

Daily Summer Schedule (June - August)
Printable Worksheets (as outlined in the schedule)
Sight Word FlashCards, Handwriting Practice and more!

So what is the website called you ask?

Green Gables Elementry

I especially love the Money Graph in the Summer Homework Packet Sissy still needs a bit of help adding up different denominations of money, and this will be a fun sheet for her to do to count it….only wish it had a “Give Save Spend” part to it at the end as well!

And Don’t miss their Reading Treasure Box ideas, and Be sure and check out the other resources in their Printables section!

Also, in other Site happenings, We just uploaded a new lesson on Preschool Post about Creepy Crawly Bugs…which are sure to add some fun to your Summer Happenings…There are even Grouchy Ladybug printable Sequencing Cards in the More Ideas section!

Hope you’re having a fantastic Summer!

Blessings,

Valerie

Okay so I don’t know what I messed up, but for some reason This weeks Tot School Post is attached to Last Weeks Tot school Post. So this is actually Two weeks of Posts. For those of you that are following along here’s the scoop.

Last Week: Fireflies & Spiders
This Week: Grasshoppers & Honeybees

So you might have already seen a couple of the photos below, most of them are NEW however, so please skip over the ones you’ve already seen and check out the new stuff, with my promise that I’ll get it figured out in time for next weeks post (Termites & June Bugs)

Tot School is hosted by 1+1+1=1, to see more of our Tot School Days, click here. To see other participants click here!

I knew when I saw this Handprint Calendar from The Little Girraffes website, that I absolutely had to make one of my own……But of course with a Christian twist! So I started planning out what the different months were going to be…and it turned out to be a bit harder then I expected! But of course the ladies in our Little Blots Forums were able to come to my rescue and offer some very wonderful and creative ideas to fill in the blanks! So a special thanks to Jasmine, Katie, Tara, and Celia for their helpful suggestions on this calendar, I’d only have half a calendar without you guys!

So watch the Video for how to make your own Bible Handprint Calendar, and then print the Calendar Templates (which include a verse or inspirational story for each month) from www.LittleBlots.com You must be a member to access the Calendar templates, but Membership is FREE and easy to sign up! If you’re already a member you can click here for a direct link to the Calendar Templates!

Last year we made a Fourth of July Preschool Lapbook, and it was a blast! I think, in fact that this was our first Lapbook, so we’ve officially been lapbooking for an entire year! Whoo HOOO!….Which also means I’ve been blogging for over a year too! Whoo Hooo!

Anyway, this year, I thought I’d add to that lapbook, by making up some more minibooks and resources for Sissy to learn with. I just uploaded some fun, free fourth of july printables on our sister site Lapbook Lessons! There are also some recommended crafts and links there as well, including some Freedom shape books too!

So if you’ve been thinking about doing a Patriotic lapbook, you can find some great free resources to get you started here! And of course CurrClick has a great freebie right now that you can download, it’s a Patriotic Songs Copywork book, that would go great with these themes!

Happy Lapping,

Valerie

About three years ago, just before my son (Bubba) was born, I came across the most adorable knitting pattern for a little boys hat. I call it a “Tweedle Dee” hat because it was made using Tweed yarn (one of my favorite fibers) and the funny shapes reminded me of a little elf or those tweedledee and tweedle dum from Alice and Wonderland. (there’s kind of a resemblence….) Anyway, I purchased the pattern and stuffed it away in my knitting files, hoping to have it finished before he was born. (Obviously, I didn’t make that goal)

Well, recently in my quest to redecorate our house, I came across that pattern, and decided it was still absolutely adorable, and that I would make the hat for him to wear this winter. And this time I actually started on it too! I went to a local knitting store and picked up some Rowan tweed, in this Chocolatly brown color (you can’t really tell in the photos, but there are small blue and red and cream flakes throughout….but mostly brown)

The majority of this hat is in Moss Stich (K1, P1, K1) and makes a really neat texture for the hat……but I keep messing up and I’ll start to see “ribbed” stitched and then I have to unwind…….so hopefully if I can figure out this Moss Stitch pattern, I’ll get this hat done in time for his 3rd birthday…..maybe.

I did it! I made a dress that actually fits my child! It really is possible, and I did it on the first try. This pattern was one of the Easy Stitch and Save’s from Walmart, and it really was easy (If you consider 4 hours of non-stop sewing easy

My daughter is 5 years old, but she is really long legged, so I made this dress a size six, and it just barely goes past her knees (perhaps I’ll add another row) and it’s just the right size up top to fit a small white shirt underneath.

And let me tell ya, there is some serious “Twirl” to this dress, more then anyother dress she’s owned….you should’ve seen her face light up when she put it on and realized exactly how much of a princess dress this really was! Seriously, she spen the entire 4 hours that I was sewing it, right by my side handing me pins, thread, and when it got late, she brought out her blanket and rested down by foot pedal. The girl was hurtin’ to try it on, and finally when it was all finished, she just couldn’t bear to take it off. We turned on some Rodney Atkins, and let her have the entire living room floor to test it out. She even courtesied at the end of the songs…..making the previous 4 hours worth every minute. Here’s an closeup of the pattern. I didn’t have a matching fabric to alternate the layers with so I used the back side of the fabric to make the lighter blue ruffles.

I’m hoping that the next dress will take a shorter amount of time, now that I am familiar with the pattern, because I just can’t wait to delve into the other fabrics I picked up, the colors and patterns are going to make a really cute summer dress!

I do have one question, for those of you that sew….how exactly do you wash your handmade clothing? Should I have washed the fabric before hand…..or is it okay just to wash after you sew it….now I’m scared that it’s going to shrink or something?