Scavenger Hunt Sunday 3/23/14

This week, the kids and I met my mom in Missouri for a couple of days at our favorite theme-park, +Silver Dollar City Attractions. Most of my scavenger hunt pictures today were taken from inside the park. (Check back later this week for more details on our trip).

1. Leading lines

These lines were leading right into the park. Mom and munchkin had just stepped off the tram in this picture. I would tell you which ones they are, but wouldn't want mom to be embarrassed by her jean coat circa 1980s (Oops! Sorry Mom!) In her defense, it was really cold, and I'm certain her coat was warmer than mine.

2. Relationship

These two #SDC employees had a great working relationship 

at Copper Kettle Candies / Brown's Candy Factory.

Don't leave without a Peanut Brittle Sample!

 3. Good Morning!

Now that I have shown you this beautiful "Good morning" photo, in the spirit of full disclosure, I must admit it was taken in the afternoon/evening. I could not find any scenery picture that 

better said "Good Morning" than this one taken through the window 

of my van since there was not enough room to pull all the way off of the road. 

4. Together

Before we left for our trip, I took this picture of the kids and I together. Mental note: buy a remote shutter release so you don't chop your own head off trying to take pictures with the kids.

 5. Project

Eighteen pounds of peanut brittle is a bit larger project than I feel up to undertaking.

 5. Project (again--because I couldn't decide)

This young lady is working on a large mug/stein at Hill Creek Pottery in #SilverDollarCity. Munchkin watched her the entire time we were in the store. She was fascinated. 

This is the type of project I would love to try someday.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my interpretations of the photo prompts this week. I would love for you to follow my blog and watch for the posts coming up later this week about our trip.

Linking up to:

If you want to participate next week, here are the prompts we will be using:

1. What IS that?
2. Yum
3. On the Road
4. On the Shelf
5. Bad Habit

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 11-17-13

Here are my interpretations for Scavenger Hunt Sunday this week.

1. Pattern

Using patterns I found here (flower) and here (hat), which I modified slightly to fit my needs, I made this hat.

2. Sunglasses

Sunglasses aren't really needed in this picture...which is good because mine are broken. :( 

3. Round

Well, these cookies were round...until we dropped them on the oven door. We called them our thankful cookies...because we were thankful they didn't hit the floor!

 4: Looking In (I couldn't chose between them, so there are 2).

Looking in on my Little Man in his pack and play.

Munchkin looking in the tent I made her using this tutorial. (Tent)

5. Crunchy

Little Man's newest toy sounds crunchy.

I hope you enjoyed my interpretations. Check out my link party page to see where I am linking.

The return of Scavenger Hunt Smunday!

Well, it is Scavenger Hunt Smunday again...my Sunday was super busy, so hopefully y'all will forgive me. Here are my interpretations of the items this week.

1. Table

This was the cake table at Munchkin's party Sunday...she just turned 7.

 2. I collect...

No, it's not the presents...I collect gift bags. I never toss them unless they are ripped, I just use them again the next time I give a gift (sometimes I trade with someone for different bags...especially since we mostly get girly bags...or at least until Little Man came along.)

3. Music

Archive photo: My daughter playing a dance game on the Wii (she let her older siblings use the remotes, she was just in on the fun).

4. Yes!

The best Yes! face I was able to capture at her party Sunday...I wasn't quick enough when she found the money in her card lol...that was a really good Yes! face.

5. Someone I miss.

Another archive photo. This is a picture of my younger sister just a couple of weeks before she went home to Jesus. She was my best friend, and I miss her every single day.

Check out my link party page to see where I am linking.

Stacked Washer & Dryer Tutorial

I made this a few years ago, but am just now getting around to posting the tutorial. My daughter had one of those plastic washer/dryer things to play with, but it was not functional and took up a lot of room. I created this one with the intention of using it as a laundry basket as well. You could put a mesh bag on the inside for laundry if you chose to use it that way.

I started with this...one of those 3-drawer plastic things...minus the drawers. You could also use PVC pipe to build a simple frame.

I cut my fabric to fit the frame--plus a couple of inches for seam allowance and sliding on and off if needed.

I traced circles onto my main body fabric, showing where I wanted the holes to be.

Folded the material so that the circle was folded in half, and then cut out my circles...I cut a little bigger than my drawn lines.

Next, I cut 4 inch strips to make "bias" tape from...though I didn't cut on the bias.

Next, using your "hole circle" as a guide, cut four circles the size you want to cover the hole with (the door)...I made mine about an inch larger all the way around.

Cut your batting to match the "door" size.

Sandwich your batting between the front and back pieces of your door, and pin in place.

Sew a two short tubes for handles.

And stuff with the scrap pieces you cut off (or use poly-fil).

Quilt your batting and door covers in place.

Attach handles.

Iron bias tape pieces.

Make bias tape.

You will want four pieces of bias tape, one for each hole, and one for each door.

Pin bias tape in place,

And sew it to your hole.

Sew bias tape around your door as well.

Add the hinge to your door,

and attach to the face of your washer/dryer combo. (I mounted my doors to where they would close by gravity and I would not have to have velcro or anything to hold them closed, but it could be done either way.

Next, sew the other three sides on, creating a tube, and sew a square on for the top.

Here is what the finished product looked like. She absolutely loved it! I think in retrospect I would use a PVC pipe frame so that I could make it the size I wanted, but it worked very well this way, and I recycled my plastic thing with missing drawers.

I would love to know if you tried this tutorial, and how it worked out for you. (I assumed in the tutorial basic sewing skills...if you have any questions, feel free to ask).

Check out my link party page to see where I am linking.

Fall Break - Marketplace

This year, during fall break (for the public schools in our area), we participated in Marketplace 29AD. It has been going on for 3 years now, but this is the first year we participated. Here is a link for anyone interested in recreating this in their community (there is also the possibility of breaking this down to do it in a home setting, but it would lose some of the community type stuff). Marketplace link.

Marketplace was an opportunity to learn about what life might have been like in the time of Jesus. The kids were divided into "tribes" that consisted of children of different ages and backgrounds and included children from public, private, and home schools. These tribes explored the Marketplace together; they ate together, sang, did crafts, and went to synagogue school together. They learned how things were made in that time including bricks, rope, candy, jewelry, food etc. They sampled foods that would have been prevalent in that time period as well. Munchkin tried figs, dates, and pomegranates. She ate bread, grapes, raisins, and apples during snack time. This was an excellent learning experience, and she had a great time! We plan to participate again next year.

View of the Marketplace (an alley behind a church was transformed for this purpose).

Music time.

Learning about brick-making.

Gathering mud to make bricks.

Patting the brick down.

Picture of our whole family at Marketplace. I volunteered a couple of days, and my husband came for about an hour one day to see the marketplace. I took little man with me while volunteering, and wore him all day in a sling made from a bed sheet. All of the costumes were provided for the students and the volunteers. They were made of sheets, lengths of fabric, braided strips of cloth etc.  Everyone dressed up, even visitors..I think it really added to the whole effect. It was like being transported into another world, and another time.

I didn't get to take pictures of everything, but there are pictures on the website, and if someone wanted more information, I feel confident that the folks who organized it would be happy to share. 

Check out my link party page to see where I am linking.

Post-It Note Clue Hunt

When I decided to begin this adventure of home-schooling, I knew there would be days when I didn't feel like doing "normal" school work, and days when Munchkin wouldn't feel like it either. That is the beauty of home-school...if you don't want to do school on Monday, you can add it back in on Saturday, or do a little extra each day to make up the difference. When we do fun activities, it gets Munchkin excited about learning, and we wind up way ahead of the game. (When this happens, we normally do not take days off, but save our days off for when life gets in the way or when we want to do something different on a "school day."

One such activity that Munchkin has really enjoyed is the Post-It Note clue hunt. It takes a bit of prep work, but it is definitely worth it. I wrote all of my clues on Post-Its and hid them around the house...each one leading to the next.

I used sight words and words that could be easily sounded out so that she could follow the clues with minimal help from me. This clue said "Dad is the man to see."

So she figured out that she had to get her next clue from Dad.

The "Look on the flag" clue led her to this one. She is doing first grade work this year and still learning to read, so we were focusing on short vowels and sight words. 

"Look under your bed"

She gave me the last clue each time she found a new one so that she didn't get mixed up. All together, she had to read about 25 sentences to get to her prize at the end.

We even took the game outside!

"Look in the back of the big red truck"

Munchkin loved her prize. This was something we had already planned to buy her, not a prize just for this game. She enjoys the game whether she is playing for a big prize or a dollar store prize...or even just a hunt to find a stuffed animal she already owns.

Enjoying her bean bag chair!

Sometimes she even gets to sit in her chair while we do lessons or read together. Also, we have used this game for math facts as well. To do that one, I wrote a problem on the first sticky note, then the answer on another...and a new problem on the back of the answer to the first one. She was only doing math facts up to 10 when we did that hunt, so I used 3 different colors of sticky notes and wrote "change to green" etc when the next answer was going to be on a different color. (So we did all pink, then all green, then all blue.) Again we had about 25-30 sticky note problems.

Hope you enjoyed this learning activity. Check out my Link Parties page for a list of all the parties I link to each week.