Readying Our Learning Room

I've spent a good deal of time this weekend getting our *learning room* back in shape for our soon-to-start new school year.

The kids voluntarily offered to clean out their desks. I took them up on it right away, in case they changed their minds! So many old papers, etc., finally made it to the trashcan.

(our art tray and coloring basket)

My main goal was to rearrange the room though. Last year I had their desks very close to each other. And I'm sure that any parent with children two years apart will agree that this isn't a good idea. I'm not sure why I thought it was at the time. I think it was because the arrangement looked good. But if it really doesn't work, then it's really not good, is it?

Plus, we have a new pet mouse whose home is in that room and her place for the summer was not going to work for the fall. So rearranging was definitely in order.

Since (sadly) my kiddos are not using their little table & chairs set much anymore (I can't believe they're out-growing it), it has become Reepicheep the Mouse's spot. We moved it underneath the wall-mounted TV.

(Reepicheep's new spot under our vhs/dvd player)

The next thing was to separate the kiddos' desks. They were moved to opposite sides of the room (tiny though it is) and centered. This way they can easily be positioned toward the chalkboard or the vhs/dvd player.

(Mr. B's desk, baskets with children's magazines, art tray)

(The Princess' desk and our bookcases)

Here are Mr. B's vowel cards and handwriting chart, all ready to go. Directly below are his Shoebox Phonics games. These have really been fun for him and I plan to use them again this year, at least at the beginning.

(vowel cards, Shoebox Phonics games and our art tray)

Here is another view of our chalkboard area and art tray area.

(our toy chest~which holds play dough, musical instruments and puppets~
art/coloring things and our chalkboard)

Oh~and here is a peek inside the closet: there are lots of craft supplies, tons of games, more children's educational magazines, their keyboards and much, much more.

I still have a few little things I want to get finished before our first day. One thing in particular is to make a calendar and weather chart. I'd love to have something like this, but I don't want to order one. I plan to make one using some downloads I've found. I promise to share all about it when I'm finished.

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while. It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it. However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it. Plus it's a little bulky. When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it! It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make. I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course. They have these little wooden door hangers for .79. I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each. I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing. I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had). Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

Making Notebooks

Recently I tried out a new craft idea~and it was SO much fun!! And extremely frugal, too. That's always a bonus, right? So here we go: 1. Take your basic composition notebook (purchased at the back-to-school sales for .99 each). 2. Go to your craft supplies and get your Mod Podge ready, along with a good paintbrush. 3. Look through all those scrapbook papers you've been randomly collecting and choose some. 3. After choosing your paper for the cover of your book and trimming it to fit, start *painting* the cover with the glue. Next, give the back of your paper a good coat of glue, too. (I left the binding uncovered so that I could use a contrasting paper there later on). 4. Glue it on! Remember to smooth out any air bubbles under the paper. 5. Flip the cover open and make a few cuts on the corners so that they will fold over nice and neat, then add a little more glue to the edges of the inside cover and a little more to the paper edges. 6. Fold them over and press...

my blessed life

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