Showing posts with label craft. Show all posts
Wonder Workshops #8: Moms of Wonder
Seeing as May is the month in which Moms are celebrated, it seemed only fitting to me to celebrate moms at Wonder Workshops too!
So we began by talking about our moms, and what we loved about them, what made us feel full of wonder when we thought about them. After some serious silent pondering, a few offered up , "Auntie Karen, that's too hard, we think everything is wonderful about her!" Some sweet ones mentioned how much they loved being cuddled and helped close, or there moms laying with them at night before they got into bed...
Then I told them that although human mothers were completely full of wonder, I had become amazed at how amazing animal mothers were. and so we embarked at looking at what it took to become a mother, the gestation periods of animals compared to a human mother. I had marked each animal and the length of their gestation period in days on pieces pf paper, which each child had to draw out of a hat and keep secret! They then had to break down the days into hundreds, tens and ones, and then had to build the number using the pieces of paper I had prepared. (I had worked out a fairly accurate scale with the strips of paper I had cut). Once they had built it, we stood back and looked at each one and tried to guess what the animal was!
Then we got to work on the serious business of the day - I had loved these heart garlands (excellent tutorial, adn thankfully the great photos mean it doesn't matter if you can't speak the Asian language!) I had seen on Pinterest, and so gathered the supplies and we got to work. I was so impressed with how well the kids, did, considering many of them had never touched a sewing machine before! And I'm even further impressed that I only had one bird's nest in my machine to untangle after 7 kids had sewed! Whilst some were sewing, others were decorating their brown paper bags which were going to carry the Mother's Day gift home in secret! Thankfully, we finished it before any mom's returned!
And finally, a bit of drama. Children got to pick an animal picture from my hand (I used the amazing resources at Animal Planet and Time Photos), show it to the others, listen to the amazing way in which it mothered, and then, they had to act like that animal! It provided much amusement at the end of the day!
Hearts of wonder!
So we began by talking about our moms, and what we loved about them, what made us feel full of wonder when we thought about them. After some serious silent pondering, a few offered up , "Auntie Karen, that's too hard, we think everything is wonderful about her!" Some sweet ones mentioned how much they loved being cuddled and helped close, or there moms laying with them at night before they got into bed...
Then I told them that although human mothers were completely full of wonder, I had become amazed at how amazing animal mothers were. and so we embarked at looking at what it took to become a mother, the gestation periods of animals compared to a human mother. I had marked each animal and the length of their gestation period in days on pieces pf paper, which each child had to draw out of a hat and keep secret! They then had to break down the days into hundreds, tens and ones, and then had to build the number using the pieces of paper I had prepared. (I had worked out a fairly accurate scale with the strips of paper I had cut). Once they had built it, we stood back and looked at each one and tried to guess what the animal was!
Then we got to work on the serious business of the day - I had loved these heart garlands (excellent tutorial, adn thankfully the great photos mean it doesn't matter if you can't speak the Asian language!) I had seen on Pinterest, and so gathered the supplies and we got to work. I was so impressed with how well the kids, did, considering many of them had never touched a sewing machine before! And I'm even further impressed that I only had one bird's nest in my machine to untangle after 7 kids had sewed! Whilst some were sewing, others were decorating their brown paper bags which were going to carry the Mother's Day gift home in secret! Thankfully, we finished it before any mom's returned!
And finally, a bit of drama. Children got to pick an animal picture from my hand (I used the amazing resources at Animal Planet and Time Photos), show it to the others, listen to the amazing way in which it mothered, and then, they had to act like that animal! It provided much amusement at the end of the day!
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| Can you tell the boys much preferred the drama to the sewing? :) |
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| Aragorn was being a killer whale eating the "seals"! |
Hearts of wonder!
Our Clan's Calendars for Advent...
I am loving all the Advent calendar ideas I'm seeing.... and we've incorporated some into our daily holiday routine. I love how much the kids look forward to these little traditions....
After we've done breakfast and tidied the house, we take a peek at this online advent calendar, which gets us going for the day...(and if it's a stunning wind free day, we do this as down time in the afternoon!)
Then we go over here, and look at how somewhere else in the world celebrates Christmas, and stick a sticker on the world map.
And I'm storing these ideas for next year!
- Like A Pretty Petunia has this lovely service orientated calendar (download for free!)
- Christmas Your Way has this lovely printable advent chain, and what I love about this idea is incorporating all the fun into activities to do!
- And as always, Se7en has a plethora of advent ideas, my favorite of which is scheduling in time for board games and things to do as a family...
- I love this idea of using books as an advent calendar - a Christmas story a day...and why not use books from the library to do this (unless you do want to own 24 Christmas themed books!) On second thoughts, buy just one to own a year...hmmm...I'm onto something!
- Kirsty Wiseman shares this advent calendar made from clothes pegs -
- And this lovely one (we're not hugely into Santa as a clan, but these just looked cute!)
- And this Santa one comes with this cute rhyme -
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| Santa's beard is very bare On his chin there is no hair! So each day add a puff of white When they're all on, he'll come that night! :) |
And Aragorn made this lovely one at school :
Happy advent!
Christmas Crafts with our Clan
I don't know about you, but every year as the month of December progresses (and especially within the homeschooling circles we're involved in) I see so many crafts and traditions that I'd love to tie into our clan. Now, it just gets plain stressful trying to do this all in one year, so each year I collect the ideas I'd like to try, and schedule them for the following year! (and hope I remember!)
This year I'm aiming (note that word!) to run a Christmas Craft day where the kids can invite their friends and get crafting! So here's a selection of things we've done so far, or that are on our "to do" list this Christmas:
These we refer to as the onion bulb ones!
Using a blown up balloon and some coloured wool, you can make these wonderful balls of thread. We've made some, of varying sizes, and we're using the tiny ones (water balloons) for table decorations and on the tree, and the larger ones, ahem, well theoretically we'll hang them from the ceiling or something (haven't quite figured out that one yet!! Ours, (sadly no photos) are in traditional green and red, and some have been spray painted gold. They're pretty straight forward to make, albeit messy - you'll need glue (which you water down), vaseline (to smother the balloons with), balloons and wool. Made nicely, these will rival upmarket department store balls!
This lovely angel can be made by following this tutorial
And finally, another gift idea for kiddies from Martha Stewart:
Happy Christmas Crafting!
This year I'm aiming (note that word!) to run a Christmas Craft day where the kids can invite their friends and get crafting! So here's a selection of things we've done so far, or that are on our "to do" list this Christmas:
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| We've made these beautiful hearts from old magazines...the possibilities are endless with different paper and sizes....and O so easy! |
These we refer to as the onion bulb ones!
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| Simple tutorial is here |
Using a blown up balloon and some coloured wool, you can make these wonderful balls of thread. We've made some, of varying sizes, and we're using the tiny ones (water balloons) for table decorations and on the tree, and the larger ones, ahem, well theoretically we'll hang them from the ceiling or something (haven't quite figured out that one yet!! Ours, (sadly no photos) are in traditional green and red, and some have been spray painted gold. They're pretty straight forward to make, albeit messy - you'll need glue (which you water down), vaseline (to smother the balloons with), balloons and wool. Made nicely, these will rival upmarket department store balls!
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| Find tutorials over at The Twinery and Juicy Bits respecively |
And here are some lovely ideas for you to go away with (oh yes, these are in my "to do" basket for next year!):
And I'm loving these sweet little trees one could make too
And these snowflakes from earbuds (I know it's culturally inappropriate but still!):
And lastly, aren't these candles so inspirational? I think they're going to end up in my home made gifts this year!
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| glitter bands with double sided tape |
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| this one's been covered in tissue paper |
Happy Christmas Crafting!
This is the 13th SACHS Blog carnival under the theme Christmas Ideas/Crafts/Decorations which is part of the South African Carnival of Homeschool Blogs. To join the carnival or visit past carnivals visit the SACHS Blogs page. We hope you enjoy browsing!
Christmas is Coming...
This year my heart is to make Christmas gifts and decorations...and I just had to share this lovely Christmas craft I was inspired by Pinterest to do (yes, I too have succumbed!). It's easy and will make wonderful decorations, and even as embellishments on presents (I'm going to tie them on to our cookie jar gifts etc).
All you'll need is felt (I made quilted Christmas stockings last year so I had some left over), embroidery thread, glue, buttons, sequins etc, and something to stuff them with (again we used left over pillow stuffing, but I think cotton wool would work just as well).
I used cookie cutters to make the shapes I wanted....
Then we designed them...
Aragorn has designed some wonderful ones, and the variations are endless.
Then we sew and stuff them...
We've loved the family time it gives us, and I have loved being creative with my hands - it's been a while!
And sweet Belle spent a lot of time picking up sequins! She couldn't stop looking at them, which caused them to fall on the floor...great fine motor skills I'm thinking!
Enjoy!
All you'll need is felt (I made quilted Christmas stockings last year so I had some left over), embroidery thread, glue, buttons, sequins etc, and something to stuff them with (again we used left over pillow stuffing, but I think cotton wool would work just as well).
I used cookie cutters to make the shapes I wanted....
Then we designed them...
Then we sew and stuff them...
We've loved the family time it gives us, and I have loved being creative with my hands - it's been a while!
And sweet Belle spent a lot of time picking up sequins! She couldn't stop looking at them, which caused them to fall on the floor...great fine motor skills I'm thinking!
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| The first batch of completed decorations! |
Celebrating the Solstice
Last night my children had the most wonderful evening celebrating the solstice, the beginning of winter. And true to form, winter has arrived on this southern peninsula in full force with rain!
Our dear friend C pulled together a wonderful time in the early eve with a few friends and children from our neighborhood. They made incredible lanterns (smudging wax crayons with turps, then painting them with oil), heard a lovely story from C, and then went on a winter walk with their lanterns aglow in the darkness, returning to have soup and hot chocolate together.
Sadly my photos are somewhat blurry(and it's taken me 24 hours to post this thanks to Blogger, grrr!): I was somewhat over excited and hands on in helping C out! But I do so hope you can catch a glimpse of what the evening held...
A lovely lovely idea, and I'm all inspired to make this an annual event!
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| C explaining how to make the lanterns |
Our dear friend C pulled together a wonderful time in the early eve with a few friends and children from our neighborhood. They made incredible lanterns (smudging wax crayons with turps, then painting them with oil), heard a lovely story from C, and then went on a winter walk with their lanterns aglow in the darkness, returning to have soup and hot chocolate together.
Sadly my photos are somewhat blurry(and it's taken me 24 hours to post this thanks to Blogger, grrr!): I was somewhat over excited and hands on in helping C out! But I do so hope you can catch a glimpse of what the evening held...
A lovely lovely idea, and I'm all inspired to make this an annual event!
