Clean-Out

I am joining the Curriculum Clean-Out hosted by Jolanthe over at  Homeschool Creations.   What a great idea for us homeschoolers to swap some educational products.
The following giveaway is for the book Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Engelmann, Haddox and Bruner.
Olive has been using this book to read and we thought we would pass the extra copy along.. Each lesson takes 15-20 minutes in to complete.  
To enter:
Leave me a comment and follow by blog to be entered to win, US residents only.  Go here for more details of the Clean-Out.

Full Size Self Portrait

This turned out to be a really fun project. Olive and her friends took turns tracing their bodies on butcher paper and then they drew their clothes, face, and hair. She gets a good laugh every time she sees herself and she can't believe that she is so tall!

Breakfast Fun.

We made these cute sunshine faces out of yogurt, raisins, and strawberries for breakfast. The girls were happy and ate it all. Enjoy your morning with your family.
Mama Jenn has this cute idea as well here.

Discovery: Yellow Belly Slider

Daddy had a surprise waiting for us when we returned home today.....this adorable baby turtle. He is only about 2 inches long and has little claws on his feet. He was found crossing the street, most likely on his way to one of the lagoons on the golf course. This little guy will get pretty large and we plan to return him to the water this evening.

At first we thought he was a snapping turtle, but after searching the internet we found he is a "yellow-belly slider." You can find them near most wetlands and basking in the sun beside ponds.

	Yellow belly sliders are omnivores.  When young they eat a primarily carnivorous diet but as they age they begin to include plants.

Boo Boo Bunnies

I know you may be feeling crummy,
But just stick an ice cube in my tummy.
Hold it to your boo boo tight,
Soon everything will be all right!

This little boo boo bunny has dried some big tears on many occasions. They are easy to make with a simply wash cloth, a few twists, a rubber band, yarn, and an ice cube.  It's funny how this little bunny can bring on a big smile.

Our "Real" Egg Tree

Every year when I was a kid my family would hand-blow eggs, paint them, and place them on a branch of the sassafras tree. This is a tradition I plan to continue with our little family. The eggs on this branch were painted by my great-grandmother many years ago. So from our family to yours Happy Easter and may you carry on a little tradition year after year.

What to do with an old frame...

The fridge is full of art work, we send it to family and friends, but we still need more room to display the girl's masterpieces. I had an old frame that I was about to trash when the glass broke, but I held onto it and I'm glad I did. The wire hanger is still attached, which works out great for hanging our daily drawings and paintings.  Clothes pins and clips work well to attach the art to the wire hanger. I am thinking about finding 4 more frames in various sizes to make an art display wall.

Draw a Bunny Dice Game

Olive and her Daisy Troop enjoyed earning a petal by learning how to be honest and fair. They played a variety of games to help teach these concepts, but this fun rabbit dice game took the "carrot!"

Check out Homeschool Creations here for a download.  I laminated the game so they can play over and over.  Each girl took a turn rolling the die, but number 6 was their favorite as they got to do the bunny hop!

Circle Ideas

Olive's art class read the book Round Is A Pancake, by Joan Baranski at Co-op last week. The class did all sorts of fun things with items shaped like circles.

The group used coffee cans, toilet paper rolls, lids, cups, foam, and different colored paint to make circle collages. Everyone was different, here is what Olive's looked like.

This book is a good one to add to your collection. We also went around the house and counted everything shaped like a circle, For more cirlce and shape hunting ideas check out
Chasing Cheerios here.

Coloring with many crayons

I needed something to occupy Jem while I was unpacking from a fun weekend wedding trip to New Orleans. First let me say, it was my first time in the "Big Easy" and eye opening on Bourbon Street. It's a fascinating city, where you almost feel as if you are in a different country. The kids stayed at home with wonderful Buzz.
Now for the coloring with many colors....I just taped a bunch of crayons together and she thought it looked "cool." It helped keep her busy for about 30 minutes, which was just enough time.

Let's Explore has some other cute ideas for using many crayons here.