After I started The Living Math Book List, I have kinda been on a hunt for more living books to help reinforce and teach various academic subjects. I came across the book If You Were a Noun
by Michael Dahl when my daughter was learning about nouns. I was excited to discover that it is part of the Word Fun series of books which each feature different parts of speech. I think these will be a fun way of reinforcing what she learns about the various parts of speech. Below are some of the other books in the series.
Again, I was happy to discover that it is part of another series of language books referred to as the World of Language series. You can see some of the other books in the series below.
I had been working diligently with the little boys on first-time obedience. When they would obey right away, I would make a big deal about it...you know, give them a high five, talk about how happy it makes mommy and daddy {and more importantly Jesus}, tell them how proud I am of them...you know the works.
Oh my goodness!! I almost forgot about posting KC!! Please forgive me! :-) My mom has been in town and things have been sort of out of the ordinary...in a good way! :-) But, better late than never right?!?!
Here’s what you do: First, you need to cut out and assemble your umbrella. I just freehanded the parts of the umbrella and cut them out for the boys. (They got to choose what colors they wanted for their umbrella.) Once you have assembled and glued the umbrella onto the paper and it has dried, add dots of glue all over.
…and this is a photo after the glue dried.
Notice all the little “raindrops” on the page!
This was a fun little activity that I did with my daughter when we learned about rainbows. We measured a rainbow! All you need is some construction paper {in the colors of the rainbow}, a stapler, scissors, and ruler.
This is what you do:
1) Measure and cut the construction paper into 1” wide strips. Depending on the age of your kids, this is a great way to reinforce measuring!!!
2) Measure and cut each of the strips into the following lengths:
3) Stack all of the strips together in the “ROY G BIV” order with red on top. Align and staple the aligned end together.
4) Bend and align the other end and staple to form a rainbow!! And that’s it…a fun rainbow with a little bit of measuring practice as a bonus!!! :-)
I got this super idea from our My Father’s World 1st grade curriculum!
mama jenn
My oldest set of twins celebrated their birthday earlier this month. It is so hard to believe that they are now five years old!!!! As I was planning for their birthday, I asked them what kind of cake they wanted. DC wanted a cake based on the movie Cars and JJ wanted a pizza cake. DC’s cake of choice was easy! I just made a chocolate cake and printed off Cars clipart to decorate it. Well, JJ’s cake was not so easy. In fact, it took alot of thought…he wanted a pizza cake that really looked like a pizza, but was sweet like a cake. This is what I came up with and boy was he pleased…and so was I!!! :-)
I made pizza dough in my bread machine and baked it in the oven. Once I took it out, I brushed it with melted butter and sprinkled on sugar. The “sauce” was actually strawberry jam. The “cheese” was shredded white chocolate and the “pepperoni” was fruit roll-ups cut into circles. (My kids had NO IDEA about the pepperoni…they had never had fruit roll-ups before.)
Both cakes were a big hit and believe it or not, they both tasted pretty good…much to my surprise! :-)
mama jenn
After we got our garden planted, I decided to let the kids have a little fun planning their own imaginary garden. I made up this printable for them based on the garden beds {turned square foot gardens} in our yard. I had in mind that the kids would draw or write in whatever fruits and veggies they wanted to plant. However, my mom had the idea of cutting and pasting little fruits and veggies onto the garden template. I must admit that her idea turned out MUCH cuter! If you want to use the template, you can download it here. 
My kiddo’s garden plans include pumpkins, squash, blueberries, grapes, carrots, strawberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, zucchini, and celery. Can you tell which fruits and veggies are which?!?!?!
FYI, one of my boys, DC, LOVES celery…notice the garden plan with ALL the little pieces of green yarn!!!
mama jenn
and got to work. These are the beds that we used. This year we planted lettuce, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, and peppers in our square foot garden. 
I used leftover faux wood blind slats (from last year’s garden) to make the grid. I connected them with zip ties. Even though the tomatoes are far from needing cages, I went ahead and put them in to protect them {and the peppers} from stray balls (can’t be too careful with four boys who love to play ball!)
last year, the we got another one, as well as a Topsy Turvy Strawberry Planter
.
On our other side yard, we have more strawberries (in a bed) as well as two blueberry plants.
Well, after lots of searching and researching, I discovered something called a "z-index." It is used to bring things to the forefront and background of your site. It basically helps with layering. Once I found out about it I started playing with it and I figured out how to fix my dilemma and the best part is that it is SUPER EASY!!!
Here is what you do: Click to edit the widget where you entered your html code for your dropdown menu. Find the following code:
#navbar li:hover ul {
display: block;
position: absolute;
background: #00cc00; {You may have a different color code here.}
margin: 0;
padding: 0; }
Once you have found this portion of the code, you will need to add one small part, which is below in red.
#navbar li:hover ul {
display: block;
position: absolute;
z-index:1000;
background: #00cc00; {You may have a different color code here.}
margin: 0;
padding: 0; }
Once you add the part in red, save and close the widget and you are all done. (You may be able to achieve the same results with a lower z-index, if needed.)
Now, that is what I am talking about...an easy fix for a "seemingly" big problem! :-)
mama jenn
...if there is such a thing. We took the kids on a little fieldtrip/walk though one of the nature trails and this snail was one of the many things we saw. Now, if you don't know, I am not a fan of slugs and snails and such, but I think this has to be the prettiest snail I have ever seen. Just look at the shell part...don't look at the slimy parts. {smile} It still disgusts me to think that I found my boys playing with these last year...yes, the were letting the snails crawl on their hands...yuck!!!!
We read lots of books around here. In fact, I usually have at least five or so books on my nightstand {along with my Bible, my journal, and all the other little knick knack things that the kids seem to leave there} that I am in the process of reading. Here is what’s currently on my nightstand…
From the top down…
Parent’s Guide for Keepers at Home & Contenders for the Faith by Jeff & Susan Zakula ~ I purchased Keepers at Home for KJ and Little Contenders for the Faith the older twin boys in hopes of starting our own little Keepers Club. I am in the process of reading the parent’s guide before we dive in.
Desperate Households
Shepherding a Child’s Heart
Bringing Out The Best in Your Child
For the Children's Sake
Let the Children Come Along the Virtuous Way by Gary & Anne Marie Ezzo ~ We used this “textbook” during a parenting seminar that we took awhile back. I have been feeling like I need to “revisit it” and get back on track with a few things.
Taking Care of the Me in Mommy
Creative Correction
Well, that’s what’s on my nightstand!!!
Mama Jenn
Reloading Each Day: Yes, I do reload the bags each day. I find that the very best thing for me is to plan at least a week in advance. That way, I can just grab what I need and put it in the bag rather than having to plan as I reload. If I don’t plan ahead, we are NOT effective when it comes to using the workboxes. I use a spreadsheet to do the weekly plans…
Spreadsheet: Here is a picture of what my spreadsheet looks like. I tried to find a page that wasn’t too scribbled up. {This one is actually from last year before we bumped KJ up to 1st grade}. I am kinda old school when it comes to planning. I like to have it in pencil on paper so that I can easily make changes as needed… 
I have the “subjects” across the top and the numbers represent what bag number I want the assignment to go in. For example, on Friday, KJ’s bags would be in this order:
So, for that day, she had 8 bags. If there is a # beside the assignment, it goes in that # bag for that day. If there is NOT a number it is something extra that will be done later. The last column is for such extra stuff that we all do together in the afternoon. So, on that day, we did art (veggie stamping) and science (soaking bean seeds). The very bottom of the page is for any reminder notes or materials that I may need.
Download a blank copy of my Simple Workbox Planning Spreadsheet.
Someone mentioned having a spreadsheet with everyone’s assignments on it. I do think this would be helpful, but for now, I use one of these for my daughter and another one for my older twins. If I come up with something that works better or if I decide to consolidate it all onto one page, I will post it…
Workbooks: If my kiddos have an assignment in a workbook, I put the whole workbook in the bag along with a little sticky note on the page they are to complete. I try to minimize the amount of loose paper…so keeping the workbooks in tack is what I opt for…
Completed Work: If you notice in one of the photos on my original post, I have a blue bin on top of a little file cabinet. I put completed work on top of the bin until I have time to store it away…
Storing Completed Work: Inside the file cabinet, I have hanging file folders for each kid for each school year. For now, I put their completed work in there. Since I know that their work will eventually end up in the file cabinet, I try to keep that in mind when it comes to large projects and such. Anything that is too big to fit in there usually stays “on display” somewhere in their room or our classroom…for a LONG time. Not sure what I will do for the long term once the file cabinet is full or once I run out of “display” space! :-)
Purchasing Sterilite Boxes: I found my boxes at Walmart, but I have also seen them at JoAnns Fabrics & Crafts. They are the tall ones that are actually used for hanging file folders. I have seen them with teal blue lids and darker blue handles. However, I do not use the lids…they are stored away in a closet.
Stor-It Bags: Be sure to search multiple Dollar Trees if needed. One of our stores carries the bags and the other doesn’t. Yes, I use the large size that are 15”x15”. At first I thought the bags were going to be to big, but now, I really like them. I am able to get big stuff inside of them like puzzles. The bags are a bit wider than the Sterilite boxes, but I have not had an problems with using them. No, I do not zip them up…too much extra work.
So, I think that is it. Let me know if there are more questions or if I forgot to address something! :-)
We love using bottle tops for crafts! Check out the super cute bottle top ladybugs, spiders, and bumble bees that we made!
The idea was inspired by the bottle top spiders that we made awhile back and the ladybug and bumblebee modern art project we did along with the book, Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy.
The bottle top bugs were all super simple to make.
Ladybugs & Bumblebees: For the ladybugs and bumble bees, we used black acrylic paint, red and yellow bottle tops, and googly eyes. The kids used eraser heads to put spots on the ladybugs (much like our eraser dot rainbow craft) and they painted lines for the stripes on the bees.
Spiders: For the spiders we used black and brown bottle tops and black and brown pipe cleaners. For instructions on the spiders, see the spider bottle top tutorial.
For all of the bugs, I used the glue gun to adhere the eyes so that the wait time was minimal! :-) The kids had so much fun with their bugs. They gathered dirt and made a road for their new buggy friends…
I’m loving all of the imaginative play! What are some fun, inexpensive crafts you have made that have inspired imaginative play?
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