Dollhouse Kit present

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Ticia

A few years ago I put together a simple dollhouse kit present for a birthday party, and it was a huge hit.

I wrote up a quick post about it, and had several people comment “It’s brilliant, I’m so doing this,” and so on and so forth.

Make your own dollhouse kit present

Fast forward to now, and I had another birthday party, and this time I was a bit more intentional, and organized about the plans. So, I wanted to share my updated dollhouse kit present.

dollhouse kit present

First you need a dollhouse, I picked mine up at Hobby Lobby. They have the same or similar over at Michaels. I haven’t found a good online source to recommend.

dollhouse kit present supplies

Next grab a selection of various wooden things, I order my peg dolls and such in bulk from Casey’s Wood Products. If that doesn’t seem like a plan to you, here’s where you can get 5 different peg dolls in one set. I also included: craft sticks, clothespins, Wood Shapes, and corks, all of which I had stashed away in my craft supplies.

dollhouse kit odds and ends box

Then I loaded up an empty Altoid tin with a supply of buttons, and odds and ends to play with. Princess was over the moon stuffing this full. To make it look pretty I glued some pink paper on top and bottom. If you’re feeling a bit more crafty and less pressed for time you can really gussy up that box.

dollhouse kit decorating supplies

Finally you need the dollhouse kit decorating supplies: scrapbooking paper of all sorts that can be glued onto the sides.

If the family is less than crafty I’d also include a glue bottle and a pair of scissors to trim up stuff.

dollhouse kit present wrapping

Put all of the supplies inside the dollhouse. Wrap it all up in a nice little blanket that can also double as a play mat, tie it with a ribbon, and you have a huge hit at birthday parties.

Baby Moses activities

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Ticia

We’ve finally moved out of Genesis, and now we’re finally moving on to Exodus and Moses. Specifically today, baby Moses activities.

baby moses activities

Moses is a story I love, for several reasons, one of which we’ll get into today. If you look at Moses, it’s a clear example of God putting the person in the right situation to do the job he’s appointed to do, much as Joseph was. Moses was adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter, so he knew ALL of the court traditions, and the intrigue, and the politics, but he was also Hebrew. He murdered someone, and became an outcast to Egyptian society, so he could feel some of the Hebrews pain.

So, with all that it’s no wonder I had a slew of baby Moses activities, and I only was able to do about 3 of them. Insert sad Ticia face here.

Well, you can’t learn about the plight of the Jews in Egypt without experiencing some of it. Or, you can’t if it’s summer and it’s warm enough to do this activity: I made them make bricks.

baby Moses activities: carrying water

First I made the girls carry buckets of water, since this was last week and it was just the girls then, I opted for a smaller bucket. As it was Princess was quite sure I was torturing her with this activity. Which did get the point across carrying water to make mud is hard.

baby Moses activities making bricks

In some ways just having the girls worked really well, because they really weren’t enjoying getting muddy, and the biting flies that were attracted to the muddy water. So it truly let them know how miserable making bricks was. Bible Class Creations had an idea about making bricks, that I’ll try when this topic is revisited in a few weeks.

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I think this picture of a muddy Princess perfectly sums up their feelings on being forced to make bricks.

The next activity was more up the girls’ alley, making a peg doll baby Moses!

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I was going to be all methodical and get all of these great pictures of the process, but I was too busy painting and having fun. So, here’s Princess trimming the basket all level.

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Painting her egg boat, and the dolls. Can you tell she’s over the top tired?

baby Moses peg dolls

And finally playing with the sets we’d all made. They loved it. What’s not to like about playing with peg dolls?

Want to get the story book with all of the activities, discussion questions, and more ideas than I did here? Just click on the picture below.

Science Sunday: Happy Father’s Day

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Ticia

Ordinarily, I’d be writing a science post, and I had great intentions of it, but instead I want to brag on my husband because it’s Father’s Day, and I didn’t write my usual anniversary post.

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You see this past week the boys have been at camp, and Princess has had a friend staying with us. Most of the week it’s been all smiles, parts of the week there has been tears, and bits of the week there has been arguments.

Then came Friday. I spent Thursday night sick as a dog. I mainly remember doing a lot of running to the bathroom as my dinner tried its’ best to come back up. I don’t really remember much of Friday.

girls playing

Being the awesome husband and father that he is, Jeff took the day off of work. Then he took the girls to the grocery store and got food to feed them for the day. He came back in and updated me on the proceedings, to which I grunted. Then he entertained them all day long.

Two girls. Two VERY girly girls. Who, I’m sure spent large amounts of time giggling, and squealing, and being noisy.

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Then he drove those two very hyper girls for over an hour to pick the boys up from camp, while I lay in bed semi-comatose. I’m told they both fell asleep very quickly. Then he drove back with all 3 of my kids, who were all very hyper, I know this because when the boys got home at 9 something that night, I was rather out of it, but they were very talkative.

Now, I know some of you are saying, “He’s your husband that’s what he should do, or that’s what Dad’s do,” and you’re right. That’s what GOOD Dads do, and GOOD husbands do.

So, I just want to brag on my husband, and say “thank you for being a good Dad.” The kind of Dad that my kids love to spend time with. The kind of Dad that Princess can’t wait to give her present to. The kind of Dad that the boys tried to finagle giving your present to early because they’re that excited by it. The kind of Dad who wrestles with his kids in bed. Thank you.

Let’s see what others did this week:

Each week I’m spotlighting a few posts that were shared previously. Many posts get linked up later in the week and they don’t always get as many clicks as they deserve, so I’m trying to spotlight a few every week.

Source: highhillhomeschool.blogspot.de via Ticia on Pinterest

I really want to try this experiment from High Hill Homeschool now, it looks so cool. Come see how to make an orange candle.

Source: buggyandbuddy.com via Ticia on Pinterest

I am sure next year for anatomy we will be exploring fingerprints at some point, and Buggy and Buddy created a nice printable for this, so I won’t have to.

Source: evavarga.net via Ticia on Pinterest

One of the perks about hosting is I get to discover new blogs that write about science, here’s a great example Eva Varga’s blog. This week she shared their insect study. Love that milkweed bug drawing.

{having trouble with picture, imagine an awesome picture she made of amazing animal kingdom printables}

Over at Our Worldwide Classroom she shared a wonderful set of animal kingdom printables.

<div align="center"><a href="http://adventuresinmommydom.org/category/science-sunday/" title="Science Sunday"><img src="http://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g344/Ticia1/AiMScienceSundaycopy.jpg" alt="Science Sunday" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Now link up your SCIENCE posts for the week, and then visit some of the other posts linked up and say hi. I’m going to be pinning, commenting, FBing or tweeting all of the posts linked up as the week goes by.

Father’s Day present

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Ticia

Jeff stop reading now, because Princess has worked very hard on this Father’s Day present and is very excited to give it to you. I don’t want to spoil her surprise……

Okay, I’m trusting he’s stopped reading. Jeff doesn’t suffer from the curiosity disease as much as I do. So now I can tell you all about her Father’s Day present she made.

make a daddy daughter date jar

Over at Dating Divas they had a post yesterday to make a date jar for you kids (I highly recommend this site for date night ideas), and I loved the idea, but wanted it to be more personal with Princess creating the look of it.

I loved the idea, and printed off their printable with a list of ideas to do together. I originally was going to have her write out some, but she was in a get moving mood, and wanted to move on, so I just used their ideas.

kiddo date night jar

First get an empty glass jar (we use Laura Scudder’s Peaut Butter, so we get lots and lots of empty jars). Peel all of the paper off of it. Soaking the jar in hot water helps the paper come off faster.

make a daddy daughter jar for fathers day

Then find some cute scrapbooking paper and trace the lid (I did that part). Let your kid cut out and glue the paper on top of the jar.

Daddy Daughter date night jar

Then start cutting out all of the fun ideas to do or write your ideas down and cut it all out. I read some of the ideas to Princess and she is so excited by it.

kiddos date night jar

Cut out a square for the label, and a smaller square of plain typing paper to write what the jar is on (no pictures because she got it all done before I got one).

Then act like your Daddy drawing an idea out to do together. She loved acting it out a bunch of times, and that really cracked me up.

linking up at Hearts for Home Blog Hop

Had to pop back in and add, I LOVE that Princess spelled daughter wrong, and think it’s adorable.

Why did the United States enter the Vietnam War? lesson plan

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Ticia

The Vietnam War is a hard one to teach kids about, especially if you want to present an unbiased viewpoint. I searched long and hard to find out “why did the United States enter the Vietnam War?” but wasn’t finding a good lesson on that.

Especially because I wanted to find lessons that let the kids draw their own conclusions, should we have entered the war. There’s nothing, less than nothing.

So, I adapted some lesson plans to create this lesson.

Why did the United States enter the Vietnam War lesson plan

Materials required: posterboard, handout, markers

Time required: about an hour

Age range: we did this with elementary to high school age (I wouldn’t do it with just young elementary)

Why did the United States enter the Vietnam War procedures

why did United States get involved in the Vietnam War

First they were split into two groups, just like in our Korean War lesson, a pro-war group, and an anti-war group.

Vietnam war lesson

Then each group had 30 minutes to go through the information, figure out each person’s part, and prepare their information.

This time I cautioned them about using real names, so I could show the videos of each presentation on my blog, want to protect their privacy and names after all.

anti-Vietnam War group part 1

anti-Vietnam War group part 2

This group did pretty well over all, but you can see they had a few problems with focus. It was a vast improvement over their first presentation. For some reason Superman interpreted be passionate as talk in a strange falsetto voice.

pro-Vietnam War group

This group did much better despite having the younger kids over-all. I think in some ways this is due to the personality of the team members, their leader is much more organizationally inclined. They felt more practiced, and they brought up things President Kennedy himself had promised when he was elected.

I could see real growth in the kids from the two different attempts at convincing us. In this instance I think the pro-war group did a much better job in their presentation of material and in their arguments. I personally still haven’t figured out how I feel about the Vietnam War, on the one hand why are we in a war in Asia, but on the other hand if we want to support democracies in the world, we need to stand behind our words. There was a slaughter when we finally did withdraw, so I don’t know what is the right decision.

And that would be why we don’t tend to teach on recent history because it’s still so tinged with current events.

Vietnam War lessons I found:

Using primary sources Vietnam War lesson

Vietnam War lesson using maps

For more US history lessons:

American History lessons by Adventures in Mommydom

US history pinterest board

For most history and geography ideas check out these great blogs:

Real Life Homeschooling 1: Serving others

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Ticia

I’m so excited about this new link-up. It’s a chance to write about and share how your kids are learning that’s not from a text book. What they are learning in the real world.

You know what problem I ran into? I got so excited about all of the different things I could write about my brain froze. I had all of these ideas that wanted to burst out.

I thought about chores, and how that teaches so much, from responsibility and just being prepared for the real world.

Then I thought about how I’m watching a friend’s child this week while the boys were at camp, and how much Princess is learning about having a roommate this week.

Then I realized I could write about the boys heading off to camp for a week, and how much they grow and learn while there.

Or the week before when they stayed at their grandparents for a week. That’s a totally different experience.

But, what I finally decided to do was:

Why your kid should serve others

letting your kids serve others and all I’ve learned from it.

Last night I went and talked to a room full of 50 or so kids about participating in the Great Adventure about my experience doing it almost 20 years ago when I was in high school. Why did I give up my summer to spend a week training, then a week teaching Backyard Bible Clubs, then a week of sports camps, and finally a week in Mexico doing Bible clubs and sports camps? That’s a month out of my summer?

Because serving others changed my life for the better.

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I made my best friends there, the ones who’ve stuck around for 20 years through the good and the bad. The ones who were in my wedding. The ones who cried with me when my Dad died. The ones who put me in their wedding. The ones who I cried for months and still cry because he died.

Because serving others taught me how to teach others.

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After my first Great Adventure I was sure I wanted to teach. And I did, for 2 years I taught in public schools, then I had kids and now I teach Sunday School, and my own kids. That became cemented in me that first year when I was learning about serving others.

Because serving others teaches responsibility and many other values

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To even go to Basic Training we first had to memorize our first Gospel presentation which had about 10 verses in it. To this day I can still say all of those verses and teach that presentation in my sleep. I’ve used it with everyone from a 3 year old kid at Rock the Rock to adults (in a slightly modified form). I learned how to lead a team of my peers and shepherd them in following a plan.

Because serving others showed me how blessed I am

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For the last half of Basic Training we went up to Waco and stayed and taught in the projects there. We slept 3 girls to 2 twin mattresses, we couldn’t flush the toilets while someone was taking a shower because the sewage would come back up. We went to “the Projects,” a housing area in Waco and the kids cussed us out. The “grass” was covered in glass because people just threw broken bottles out not caring where it landed.

Then I went to Mexico, and half the kid didn’t have shoes. The plumbing was so inadequate you couldn’t flush toilet paper because it would back up the toilets. We were limited to 3 minute showers because there was so little water, and so many girls there.

Because of serving others I can give an answer for why I believe in Jesus

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We spent every night at the parks telling people why we believed. I had an hour long conversation with a man in my very broken Spanish and his very broken English about why we were wearing dresses. I can assure you it wasn’t for the fashion statements, but we were doing as all Paul said and “becoming all things to all people.” The church we were staying at believed girls should wear dresses or skirts, so we did. We ran and played in those skirts. Because of that summer when I run into someone who disagrees with me on any topic I can explain my position without getting mad or upset and WHY I believe.

When you’re attempting to describe these summers to others they sound crazy. Why would you give up all of that for a summer spent in heat, little sleep, few showers, and horrible food.

It’s created a legacy for my kids to participate in. They’ve got to help hand out invitations, they’ve helped prepare food. They’ve helped ready pre-k curriculum. If you’re in the Austin area and this has peaked your interest you should check it out some time, here’s all of my “Hill Country Bible Church” posts.

But I wouldn’t trade those summers for the world. I’m jealous of the teens about to embark on this exciting journey and of how it will change their lives.

Science Sunday: Nature Study for your kiddos

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Ticia

A few of my friends online have been creating some fantastic nature studies. It all started with Phyllis over at All Things Beautiful and her wonderful drawings her kids would do. Then Claire over at Angellicscalliwags started up a weekly pond visit with one activity to do each time she goes there with her kids, AND Navigating by Joy has a great series on her nature study..

simple nature study with your kids

All of this studying got me really itching to add it in. So, we headed over to a local park we love to go to and started observation. So far our trips have only been observation. Next I’m going to start working on improving their drawing skills and WHAT they write.

So, here are some of their weekly assignments.

easy nature study observe and draw a flower

Our first week was in the midst of wild flower season here, and everyone was in a horrid mood, so I just had them observe a flower and draw it. This was one of Princess’ favorites.

count all living things in the park

This led to a great discussion between the kids and I. What is living and what is non-living? It also led to a bit of competitiveness as they tried to have the most……

write about one animal

Choose one animal and in 10 minutes write down as much as you can about it. I was amazed that in all that time none of my kids really wrote anything about the color of the animal. They wrote about what it did, but nothing about the color.

observe the effects of rain on your park

My final suggestion to share, go to the park right after it’s rained and see the changes. This was one of my kids favorite ideas. They loved looking to see how it changed, especially because this park flooded two years ago, the bridge was closed for a year as they fixed it. Several of the concrete benches were knocked out of place, but it’s now all back to normal. We’ve had a couple of times where it’s been time to go shortly after it’s rained, and each time the kids have found new observations.

time to play

Finally, just make sure you give them time to play. If I’m honest this is the kids’ favorite time of our park study. They sit there and splash in the creek for a good 30 minutes, and then we head over to the playscape to play and dry off.

Let’s see what others did this week:

Source: navigatingbyjoy.com via Ticia on Pinterest

Navigating by Joy shared how they make sure to include science when they don’t use a curriculum, so many great ideas here.

Source: lifewithmoorebabies.blogspot.com via Ticia on Pinterest

Life with Moore Babies shared a great visual for how a thunderstorm is made. I could see my kids loving this.

Source: fantasticfunandlearning.com via Ticia on Pinterest

Fantastic Fun and Learning shared a great small world play for underground animals.

<div align="center"><a href="http://adventuresinmommydom.org/category/science-sunday/" title="Science Sunday"><img src="http://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g344/Ticia1/AiMScienceSundaycopy.jpg" alt="Science Sunday" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

History Rocks curriculum review

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Ticia

When Jill from over at Enchanted Homeschooling Mom asked for reviewers of her new history curriculum I of course said, “Yes!” I already had access to it because it’s in her Members Only Website (which is AWESOME by the way) when it’s officially released, but now I get early access to it.

Since we won’t be using all of it, or any of it soon (I’m not going to start history back up until August), I’m not printing it off yet, so you’ll have to be content with pictures from my Nook. I like to have things on there to organize my thoughts as I scroll back and forth.

history rocks curriculum

Before I get into too much into my review, let me warn you of two things about this curriculum:

1. It’s not organized in chronological order, it’s in alphabetical order. The chronology snob in me is annoyed by this. That’s easy to overcome, you just study them in historical order.

2. It’s heavily skewed towards 20th century. This quite honestly is not a problem if you’re trying to interest an un-interested kid in history. There’s a bunch of cool people in the 20th century, and if they see a name they know from their comics they’ll get more excited.

I post those two warnings, so you don’t think this is a comprehensive history of the world. It’s a fun supplement to your history, or as a way to get your kids hooked on history. And quite honestly if you’re not a big history buff like I am this is quite sufficient for early elementary history.

So, why do I still think History Rocks is a great curriculum?

history rocks curriculum advantages

Each unit in History Rocks can easily stand alone. You don’t need to study them in a particular order, so if your child is interested in music, than study Elvis Presley. If your child is interested in science start with Tomas Edison.

While History Rocks is clearly designed to be used with Boys Who Rocked the World: Heroes from King Tut to Bruce Lee, it can easily be used with other books on the subject. In addition there are pages to use with dictionaries, which you rarely seen done anymore.

history rocks curriculum review

Next thing I like about History Rocks, many of the units have fun extras added in. I know my boys would go nuts for a unit using Nerf Guns. Several of the extras involved watching movies as a family, and in case you haven’t figured it out yet, we love to watch movies as a family to extend our learning (I’m still working on the history movies to watch for 1950s and beyond).

history rocks printables

Since we are looping back to Ancients in our history this year, many of the units won’t fit with our planned history, but there are several extra pages that don’t require using this history. My favorite is the “Why is this important to history?” page, it requires some great critical thinking skills that are great for the early elementary set. It requires some higher level thinking, but not an overwhelming amount (that’s a hard balance to find).

history rocks curriculum ebook

One final thing I’ll add in. Many thanks to Jill for making it easy to navigate on my Nook. I do a lot of planning using my Nook if it’s an ebook, and that table of contents that pops up makes it easy to jump between units. That is a big deal to me.

Okay, so how am I going to use History Rocks this year?

Well, as I said, most of this won’t apply to our chosen time-frame for the year, but many aspects I’m going to incorporate.

The generic “Why is this person important?” and many of the other pages will work in great with our chosen history.
I love ancient Egypt, so I’ll happily add in more on King Tut.
When I want to take a break from Ancient history, I can pop over to this and grab a unit for a one or two day break.

Who is History Rocks best for?

The homeschooler who’s scared to get into history, this is an easy way to get started.
The homeschooler whose kids are convinced history is boring., it’s not, and this will ease them into the REALLY exciting stuff.
The Mom who is doing extra stuff with their kids after school. It doesn’t take long to add this in.
The Mom who feels overwhelmed, and wants something more to do with her kids.
The teacher who wants to bring a little more history into their early elementary classroom.
The teacher who wants an easy unit for the substitute to teach while they’re out.

Where to get History Rocks

This is the best part, it’s all included in The Member’s Only website Jill has going. How much does it cost to get 100s and 100s of printables? $15. You read that right, it’s a one time fee of $15, and you get access for the rest of your life. She has so many great units and curriculums out there, you really need to get it, even if you DON’T WANT this curriculum.

Teaching your kids how to study the Bible

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Ticia

One of the things we do with our Sunday School class when the kids first enter the classroom is teach them how to find verses in the Bible. One of the big requirements for this skill is the ability to read.

Well, my kids are finally ready to start learning this.

So, I start by calling out “time for a Sword Drill,” mainly because it amuses me. Then the kids run to find their Bibles. That’s when they earn their first M&M, if they can find and bring their Bibles. Otherwise they use mine, and the print isn’t as big, and it’s got different pagination.

Next, I pull out my books of the Bible cards. Mine are from a book I picked up a while ago (I’ll look up the name for you later), but you can just as easily write them on index cards. I pick out 6 of the cards, and one special card.

teaching your kids to find things in the Bible

Before I call out the name of the book, they all turn to the Table of Contents, this has the double benefit of teaching the kids how to use the table of contents. Then I call out the book of the Bible, the first kid to get to the first page of the book gets an M&M. That kid can not win the next one, this spreads out who wins each time, and ensures everyone gets a chance to win.

My special card is a “beat the timer” card, that final book they have to find it before the timer goes off in 3 minutes.

how to find books of the Bible

The truth is, you don’t find books of the Bible from a 10 minute activity one day, it’s practice over time, just like any skill.

As they become good at this skill the next step will be finding chapters in the book, then chapter and verse. Finally, the kids will answer questions about verses. To completely make up an example, “What does Peter say you should do in 3 Peter 2:17?” They’ll go to find it, and discover, “Mom! There is no 3 Peter!”

Slowly, but surely the kids will become better and better at this.

Why do I think it’s important to teach my kids how to find verse in the Bible? Because someday someone will ask them what they believe, and I want them to be able to give an answer.

I want them to be able to say why they believe what they believe. Because an unexamined faith is worth nothing, and I believe what I believe is worth everything, and I want my children to understand that.

10 Books if you’re thinking about homeschooling

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Ticia

When I was thinking about homeschooling I read A LOT of books, and talked to a lot of people. Now, I know not everyone else automatically thinks “Read 20 books to help me make a decision,” but that’s some of what I did.

{Oops, forgot to say, these are affiliate links, please see my disclosure page for more information}

First I went to the local bookstore and picked up So You’re Thinking About Homeschooling, and devoured that book. I think it does a great job of presenting different types of homeschooling families and reasons for homeschooling. It helped me solidify my thoughts and reasons.

Next a friend recommended getting 101 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum and that was a great help because she included a quiz to help you figure out what type of homeschooler you and your kids are. She also has a website Cathy Duffy Reviews Curriculum, but it doesn’t have the quiz, and the book goes into more details on the curriculum she reviews.

After you’ve read the above two you need to specialize. Read more about the type of homeschooling you want to do. For me I was really interested in Classical homeschooling.

The Well-Trained Mind is THE go to book if you’re interested in Classical education. I read it back when the boys were in preschool, so at least 3 years ago. It’s a crazy big 600 something page book, but it’s well worth wading through if you’re interested in this subject. Living and Learning at Home has a read Well-Trained Mind linkie going on this summer.

If you’re interested in Charlotte Mason, then pick up Charlotte Mason’s Original Homeschooling Series, Vol. 1: Home Education (I’m only linking to vol. 1 because I figure it’s best to read the first one and then go from there if you’re interested)

If you’re interested in Montessori Method I’d recommend reading one of her original books, for instance The Montessori Method, but there are hundreds of books, some are her original books, and others are people’s ideas expanded off of hers. I have to admit to the least familiarity with Montessori books and methods.

If you want to emulate school at home, I’d recommend picking up What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know which can help you gauge where your child is (and can be helpful even if that’s not your style). Obviously, they have one for each grade, but I’m not going to insult you by linking to each individual one. I’d also recommend haunting your local teacher supply store and spending time there looking at their extra curriculum (I may or may not do that for fun, there is no proof, and I’ll deny everything). This is completely unrelated to the series, but looked interesting: What Your Child Needs to Know When.

{as a side note, today I picked up The History Buff’s Guide to World War II, is it strange that I’m looking forward to reading this? As a matter of fact, I’m gonna get off the computer and go read some of it now. Mwa ha ha ha ha ha………… This lack of kids is getting to me this week, I actually have time to finish a sentence.

Since this is on my laptop, I don’t have my quick cheater’s guide, so I’ll just tell you I’m linking up iHomeschool Network ladies and figure out more later, when I have a computer to edit from.