fingerless gloves from old socks.

The annual "break out the knee socks"

 weather has arrived!

And so once I again I go through my sock basket and

see whats too worn to wear.

I had a few pairs on the verge of becoming hole-y

I loved the patterns from these

So instead of just tossing them I decided to make some fingerless gloves!

re-use, re-cycle

win win!

This time I did a little different then in the past. 

I cut the top (or toe) part straight off

then I cut the heel part out. 

you can see in the pic above

 I ran some embroidery thread up the middle section. 

And then hand stitched the edges of the top

and thumb hole myself

making sure to stretch out the fabric as you go.

(otherwise your fingers may have a hard time fitting through)

 tada!!

Fingerless gloves!

Great for keeping the arms and hands warm

and still giving you access to all your fingers

You can even layer them over shorter fingered gloves for added warmth 

:)

setting personal goals...

 At the beginning of our school year I asked my natives if there was anything

 in particular that they wanted to learn about. 

My sweet Bell spoke up and announced she would like to learn cursive!

So I printed out and copied some practice sheets for all the letters

capitals and lower case.

I told her this was HER goal. 

She could work on it whenever she chose to 

it was up to her how fast or slow she go

This being my most driven child at times

She set right out to practicing.

I caught her in her spare time practicing and

trying to encourage her younger sibling to do the same.

Before the end of first quarter she had written her first cursive letter..

of coarse it was to Dad. haha Lucky guy ;)

Her handwriting (even being left handed) is probably one of the best in the house! 

I was so very proud of her and made a HUGE deal

about setting her own goal and achieving it!

This has been a bit of an encouragement as well to her other siblings

to set goals of their own to meet.

I do love the structure certain curriculums have to offer

But I also love the idea of them getting a chance to CHOOSE!

They have their own strengths and interests

and I feel like as a homeschooling family

we have the opportunity to hone those skills

and encourage self teaching.

Sitting kids in front of a book and giving them problems over and over 

has its teaching ability

however giving them the opportunity to dive in at their own speed 

to something that truly interests them 

is something I find quite nice. 

What do you think?

Do you have a preference of strict curriculum 

or a free range kind of learning.

I think between my Logical and artistic side like a balance of both.

beauty berries...

 Ever seen these beauties?

I found them growing in our current back yard

when we moved in last year.

So very pretty!

I wanted to eat them..

but of coarse I first had to figure out what they were.

Then how I can use them.

 Turns out these amazingly gorgeous berries are not so tasty

But they make a great jam.

The only problem is they lose their color 

*sad face*

Has anyone ever used these for any other purpose?

There has to be some sort of recipe to find a use for them.

Even holistically speaking.. 

Let me know what you think?

A little fun with those plastic bead thingies..

Yes these plastic beads things!

We have a giant plastic container

So the natives sat around the dining room table

and got a little creative

So they designed their shape

Then we throw a little wax paper over it

and heat up the iron

And tada!! We had lots of sweet little shapes 

We decided to give as gifts and make into ornaments 

for some folks.

Telling time... analog style

 So the youngest native is working on 

TELLING TIME!

dun dun dun....

I got these four little clocks (they all were the same) 

from the dollar store.

I then cut paper and covered the numbers 

I had enough clocks to make one

"normal"

one I wrote the minutes, one roman numerals, and one military time

What I normally do is I randomly ask my youngest throughout the day

"what time is it?"

She then runs to the digital stove clock to tell me

then I have her go into the office

and set the analog clock to that time.

The minute one is next to the normal one so we can be reminded of how we count minutes.

If you want to make a game out of it

you can always write different times out on a sheet of paper

 have them pick one

and then see how fast they can get to it. 

Learning money values..

So we call this "The Quarter Game"

or Dollar game

whichever you would like to play to 

and depending on the level

of money knowledge

First step

someone gets to be the banker

Next step

One of the natives rolls the die

They banker pays out that many pennies

And then its the next persons turn

When it comes back around to the first person 

they can trade in their pennies 

for a nickle

or nickles for dimes

ect.

First person to a quarter wins!

As our youngest natives progresses 

we will work our way up to playing to a dollar!

Shelby...

We found her while doing some yard work

the natives watched her closely

and the littlest brave carried her around a bit.