Finally, a homemade play clay recipe we love

In the past, we always used play dough with my youngest son (my oldest son dislikes play dough due to his sensory issues).  Play dough is fun but it can be difficult to remove off the carpet,  so I was trying to find something that would appeal to my children and to me (that was easy to clean).

This week we made a simple version of modeling clay (play dough) that can be stored for weeks in a

Our Story wands

 
I love looking through catalogs from stores, especially Lakeshore Learning.  We have purchased a few items in the past from them.  This year our budget has been tight so when I saw these wonderful story wands, I knew I could make our own.

The materials I used to make ours were:
Craft sticks 
foam sheets 
scissors
packing tape
copy paper 
the font I used to make the lettering was MTF

Week in Review: Family fun (week 26)

We have been doing our regular homeschooling studies but focused on our city’s history of FIESTA as part of our unit study.  FIESTA in Spanish means party and people in our city, Fiesta is a tradition rich in the history and culture of our city,   

Here in San Antonio, we have a 10 day celebration known as FIESTA. It started over 100 years ago in 1891 by Ellen Maury Slayden (Mrs. James L.), the

Recycled Craft: Valentine Wreath

Many of my friends know that when I receive flowers, I dry them and use them in crafts. They also know as a family we try to recycle materials we have in our home instead of tossing them in the trash..so it was no surprise that when my husband gave me flowers last year and in previous years that I would use them to make a wreath.Materials:- Dried Flowers or Artificial flowers- an old bed sheet

Week in Review: Winter and Trees (weeks 16-17)

January 10 to 21We took a longer break than expected but considering that we still did some sort of homeschooling during the holidays, everyone needed the extra time off including myself.On Monday during our first week back, everyone wanted to stay indoors under the covers, but the boys both had dentist appointments. I am so glad we went because we found out that Godzilla boy needs to have oral

Celebrating Las Posadas: family, food, books and crafts

In Mexico and many parts of Central America, people celebrate Las Posadas during the nine days before Christmas. It is a reenactment of the journey Joseph and Mary took to find shelter before the birth of their child.


At Christmas time, our city hosts a candlelit procession called "La posada" which means "the inns" or "the shelters" in Spanish. For many, it is a religious and social

Week in Review: Advent and Winter (weeks 14 - 15)

Dec. 6 to Dec. 17thOur weeks of homeschooling have been light this month as we celebrate Advent. We have not had any wintery weather to date but winter has not officially begun, so we’ll see. During the week of December 6th, we read books on Snowman but we also did family readings from our Bible. Our second Sunday of Advent was spent reading books on Advent and making advent crafts and ornaments

Decorating our tree with handmade ornaments

For years I have always wanted to put up our tree the day after Thanksgiving like some of my sisters and my mom do but that never happens in our home. My husband is from Indiana and his family always picked a tree in the woods and trimmed it on Christmas eve. My family growing up usually had ours up the first week in December.We compromised by agreeing to decorate our tree after my oldest son’s

Snowflake Ornaments and Snow books

This week we made some Snowflake ornaments for our unit study on Snow. We are still continuing with our reading books about the Advent but we also included some books on snow in hopes up that we would get some this year. It rarely snows here where we live but that does not stop us from hoping. My youngest son and I selected two books about snow and winter this week. I am Snow by Jean Marzollo,

Candy Cane Angels, Peppermint Ornaments and Books

Last Wednesday we decorated our tree. My husband grew up in Indiana and his family has a tradition of picking a tree in the woods, cutting it down and trimming the tree on Christmas Eve. I grew up here in Texas and my family would decorate the tree on the first week of December. We have learned to compromised over the years and begin decorating our tree between the 10th and 14th of December since

Books on Nativity and Nativity craft ornament

Pictured above our Nativity Cd ornamentThis Sunday marked the second Sunday of Advent. Last year was our first year celebrating the Advent as a family. I have to confess that in years past the focus was on the presents, That changed last year when decided to keep Christ in Christmas.It started last year when we read children’s books on the Nativity, I felt a strong desire to teach my children

Snowman books and a Snowman ornament craft

I have always had a love for making homemade holiday ornaments. My inspiration came from my mother who would always hang the handmade ornaments we made her as children. No matter how old or worn, my mother proudly smiled at the handmade ornaments on her tree that reminded her of our love for her as children.Each year when we visit my Mom and Dad, looking at her tree is like looking at a family

Indian Corn Pins (Thanksgiving Craft)

This past week we did a unit study on Thanksgving and learned about Indian corn from reading the book Corn is Maize: The gift of the Indians by Aliki.Inspired by our Indian Corn we set out to make our own craft versions. Together we made a fun craft with pipe cleaners, beads. and brown paper.Here's how we made ours!Materials:Chenille stems (pipe cleaners)assorted 6mm faceted beads (fall colors –

Our Nature Pumpkins (carved pumpkins)

Inspired by our Nature study on Trees, last night we decide to carved some of our pie pumpkins with a nature theme to display outside our home this weekend. The boys helped me scoop out the pulp from our pumpkins.We used a picture from the book "Autumn Trees" by Ken Robbins as a guideline for our Leaf carving. I drew in pencil an outline of a leaf and used a small flat head screw driver from an

Wednesday’s Walk: our little Knight in daylight

Pictured above my oldest son at age 3 as a KnightI first started sewing when my older sister “D” showed me how to sew doll clothes for my Barbie at age 8. I had never made clothing for my sons until my first son was about age 3. We had started doing homeschool preschool and we were reading books on Fairy tales, castles and knight. My asked to be a Knight so that he could play with his toy castle

Nature Study: Trees

This month we began a Nature study on trees and included it in our our a thematic unit on Fall. Last year in the Fall we spent some time on tree leaf identification of the trees that grow by our home.We will be observing a Live Oak tree that grows next to our patio garden. We’ll be looking at how the tree changes from season to season and hoping year by year.We are observing the leaves, bark,

Fall Craft: Soft Sculpture Pumpkin

This month we are doing a unit study on Fall and Pumpkins and each year we love to make recycled crafts as decorations for the Fall and this year is no exception. Decades ago when I was in my 20s, it was popular to wear hosiery. Believe it or not I still had some stored away. Why? I guess I thought either the style would come back or I could use it for something crafty. Fortunately for my boys

Our Paper Autumn Wreath and how you can make your own

This is a wreath we made and I thought I'd share with you how we made it. We are known for recycling odds and ends for craft projects. To make this wreath we used:construction paper in colors of yellow, red, orange, brown and greencrayonsmarkersToilet paper rollsand a wire coat hangerHere is the link where we got the idea to make ours: Autumn Wreath Craft. The difference between ours and the one

The Lion and the Mouse and some shadow fun

This week we are reading books about Kenya, one of the many nations in the continent of Africa. We read a wonderful twist on the Aesop fable "The Lion and the Mouse."The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney. In this wordless book set in the African Serengeti, the fierce and strong King of the Jungle (the Lion) captures a small mouse. The mouse begs the Lion to let him go. The Lion releases the

"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and making our own for play

This week we began our study on Bugs and Insects. We have a great selection of books and my youngest was drawn to one that looked similar to the book "The grouchy Ladybug" that we read last June.


We read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. In this story, an egg on a leaf hatches on a Sunday and out pops a tiny and very hungry caterpillar. After searching for some food, on Monday to