St. Patrick's Day Fun Schooling

I must admit this is the first year we have had a St. Patricks Day celebration, but I decided it was high time we rectified my negligence with some special fun schooling. I'm always up for any opportunity to celebrate life and learn with my family. It seemed all the more important to celebrate St. Patricks Day this year, with all the upheaval that is currently going on with the Corona Virus and quarantines. I am doing my upmost best to keep my family's life as normal as possible. After all it isn't their fault that this is happening during their little lifetime.

Thankfully there are so many free and cheap resources out there to help celebrate nearly every occasion. All it takes is a little time and intentionally research. Planning fun activities with your children does NOT have to be complicated or costly. Pinterest and the Dollar Store are my go-to places when I'm trying to put together a family celebration. But, don't freak out and think if you can't go over the top that your family will Not enjoy your special surprise ~ they don't care about the details, they only care that YOU tried and made THEM a priority.

When every one went to bed, the night before St. Patrick's Day, I set the table with festive tableware and decorated with supplies found at the Dollar Store and dollar spot at Target.

We made dyed green, chocolate chip muffins for breakfast. 

I printed off some coloring sheets found at Teachers Pay Teachers as well as an interactive notebook so we could study more about St. Patrick and how the holiday is celebrated. We also watched some Irish dancing on YouTube. 

Our sensory box included little green pots, foam clovers, plastic gold coins, pinchers, and dyed green white beans. I also found two St. Patrick Day necklaces that I added after this picture was taken.

The littles made a rainbow craft. I cut out a cloud that they colored and then they glued rainbow strips of construction paper to the cloud.

We did a fun science experiment with Skittles. 

We placed Skittle candies on a plate in a repeating pattern and then poured hot water in the center. Just enough water until it touched the Skittles. The hot water melted the color of the candies creating a rainbow of water.

We were super stoked about this activity, because so many of our projects do not turn out; but this one turned out perfect!

Last we made Rainbow Snack Bars 

My family loved the snack as it was a fun variation of Rice Krispie Treats. 

RAINBOW SNACK BARS

3 Tbsp butter of margarine

10 oz package of miniature marshmallows 

6 cups rainbow round cereal

Spray 9x13 baking pan with nonstick spray and set aside. Pour cereal into a large bowl. In a medium sized pot melt the marshmallows and butter, stir continuously. Pour melted marshmallow mixture into cereal and stir. Coat hands with nonstick spray (if necessary) to mix thoroughly and pour into pan. Lightly smash into pan, spreading evenly. Let completely cool and then cut into bars.

As you can see I didn't spend a whole lot of money and we didn't go overboard celebrating St. Patrick's Day. We enjoyed some quality family time and made some amazing memories. As I have mentioned many times before, yes it took a little bit of my time to put this together, but in reality it didn't take more than an hour, and it was well worth it to me. Even if there wasn't things going on outside of our control, requiring us to spend more time at home, making every day count and living it to our fullest should always be a top priority. Never waste a single moment God gives us to live ~ for our lives are a precious gift from the Lord.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Winter/Snow Totschool Week

I planned our winter/snow tot school week to fall at the end of January, just when we were beginning to all wear thin of being cooped up from the rainy, cold weather down here in the Deep South. Yes, we still have a couple more months of winter, but thankfully we will start to see some warmer days sprinkled into the weeks as we get loser to spring. My people do not do well being trapped inside for days on end ~ we need the fresh air to stay sane, lol.

I planned for five winter/snow activities for the week including one snactivity. The above picture was our 'melted snowman' snactivity. The children placed large marshmallows on graham crackers, then I melted them in the oven on broil and smashed the marshmallows down with a spatula. Then they made faces with candy corn and chocolate chips. It was a HUGE mess, but the children seemed to like it so I'm calling it a win, even if some had to go straight to the tub for a bath to get unstickified.

Our next project was to make snow paintings with clothes pins hooked to cotton balls and white paint. Super easy and super fun for my kiddos who love to paint.

Always major drama trying to get the tot school pics {{sigh}}.

Then we made paper plate penguins. I cut a heart out of white construction paper that they glued on to the paper plate. Then I used one of my circle punches for the eye pieces and my heart punch for the feet. Next I cut an orange nose and last I gave the children a pile of torn black construction paper for them to glue on the plates for the body.

Another winter/snow project was q-tip painted snow flakes. A super easy craft ~ I cut narrow rectangle strips of blue construction paper and then glued them like a snowflake, then the kiddos just painted white dots with a q-tip on the snow flakes.

Painting and glueing, if you haven't noticed are my go-to crafts for my kiddos.

We also made paper melted snowman. I used my circle punches to cut out eyes and a mouth. Then I cut out an orange nose and used my square punch for the 'body'. And last I cut long narrow rectangles for the arm pieces.

With instructions the children then glued all the pieces down onto their paper. I give the pieces out in sections so they didn't get glued in the wrong place.

Our last winter/snow activity was to make 'snow'. We used 1/2 cup regular white shampoo and 3 cups baking soda to make our 'snow'. The littles had a blast playing with their little animals in the homemade 'snow'.

As always I am so thankful to have planned our school year down to every last detail. Because I'm not going to lie, with a new baby and a house full of children and a bazillion other responsibilities, I highly doubt this fun themed tot school week would have happened. None of these winter/snow themed activities were complicated, but they do take a little bit of time to plan and coordinate. There's always a time and palace for spontaneity, but planning ahead has its benefits too!

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Christmas Totschool

Hey Y'all!! I know It's been about a month since I've shared a post, but can we say Christmas and BABY!! Yes, we welcomed Abby Lou into this world on the 18th of December!! I will be sharing more about her birth in the coming weeks, but for now I'm going to get caught up on all my Christmas posts. 

I know Christmas is over, and what we did for our Christmas projects is a little obsolete, but maybe y'all can reference them for the 2020 Christmas season. Since I was VERY pregnant leading up to Christmas I decided to keep our Christmas tot school low key and super simple. I focused on getting all their projects done the first week of Christmas, except for their countdown to Christmas. 

I found the above Santa countdown calendar on Pinterest a really long time ago and I have a copy of it on my computer, I just print it off every year. It's a super easy countdown, glueing cotton balls onto the appropriate day/number. I don't usually keep up with it on the weekends, we just do three cotton balls on Monday. 

 We made torn paper bulb ornaments. I simply free handed an ornament shape onto card stock that I cut out. Then I cut out a rectangle on black construction paper for the top of the ornament. I had the children glue torn pieces of construction paper to the ornaments. Once the glue dried we whole punched the top and put a piece of twine on them so they could hang them on the tree. 

The children also made fruit loop Christmas trees. I cut out a tree on green construction paper then had the children glue fruit loop cereal to the trees. once the glue was dried we whole punched the trees and strung them with a piece of twine.

My children love to glue, paint, and color so those are the projects we try to do.

I know we've basically done this project multiple times now for different holidays, but it is still one of my little peoples favorite projects to do. There's something soothing about rolling a marble around in paint, lol. 

For this project I cut out a tree on card stock. We placed the trees in a shallow baking pan, put two large dollops of paint on the tree and then allowed the children to roll marbles through the paint by tilting the pan different directions.

 The children made paper plate wreathes. To make these wreathes I cut out the middle of a paper plate. Then I had the children glue torn pieces of green construction paper onto the wreathe as well as a red bow I cut out of red construction paper.

Thumbprint Christmas Light paintings was not one of my favorite tot school projects, and I doubt I do them again. I've since seen a variation of this project which I think is what we'll do next year. It was extremely messy and required a whole lot of adult/big kid help. 

Now, my little kids thought it was grand fun finger painting, I think it was mostly just mama who wasn't having any fun, lol. 

Of course no seasonal tot school is complete without a sensory box. This was not my planned sensory box for the Christmas season, but when I came across these cute hot chocolate wooden toys at Target, I just had to make a sensory box using them. This box had brown gift basket shreds, cotton balls, a toy whisk, and the wooden hot chocolate toys. As usually the sensory box was a huge hit and my children loved playing with it, even if it wasn't Christmas themed.

As you can see it was another holiday tot school with super easy projects and loads of fun for both mama and the kiddos (minus the finger painting, lol). I would have loved to have done a few more projects, but I'm learning sometimes less is more, and not over doing things is sometimes best for all parties involved. I did not over load the children and mama wasn't drowning in too many things to do. Because of our simple no-fuss tot school plan; we all looked forward to doing our daily craft, spending time together, and enjoying the Christmas season.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Thanksgiving Fun School

I can't believe I'm actually getting this seasonal post up before the actual holiday, lol. Mercy, it's been a whirlwind lately of trying to do all the things! I've got two Thanksgiving homeschool posts coming your way; one for the little ones and one for the bigger kiddos, but both can really be used for any age bracket if you so choose. This first post is more for the younger crew.

I love doing the fun crafts and unschooling projects, but fitting them into our already busy schedule can be a struggle. This year I think I have finally figured out the perfect system for incorporating crafts and projects. I planned in great detail every week of our homeschool, including all those awesome projects I want to do with my children. This way, I can fit the fun seasonal activities into our days without feeling guilty. It's all about balance and I'm convinced us homeschooling mamas can find the right balance for each of our own unique families.

I know I haven't shared in great detail about our sensory boxes, but they are apart of our homeschool. Each week we have a new themed sensory box, especially on our fun schooling weeks. This week's sensory box included orange and yellow dyed white beans, faux turkey feathers, brown cotton balls, a small metal tin, and some pinchers.

 We have collected hundreds of books over the years, especially children's books. Our Thanksgiving stash is fairly large. These are the storybooks I read for our Thanksgiving fun school week. 

We read my absolute all-time favorite storybook this week ~ Louisa May Alcott's, An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving. This book is about a large family and their Thanksgiving celebration. When I first started reading this book to my children we only had a few kiddos, and now we have more than the family in the book. It's a very touching story of the selflessness of a house full of children who choose to serve their family with cheerful spirits. It melts my heart every year!

Our first craft was sponge painted turkeys. I let the children sponge paint assorted fall colored paint onto a white paper plate and then I cut out and glued a turkey body and face to the plate once the paint had dried.

No, the little ones didn't get much hands-on with this project, but my littles love to paint and were content with that part, and of course they were delighted with their turkeys once we got their bodies and faces glued on the plates.

Our second project was to make corn on the cob with construction paper and oat cereal. 

Our third craft was to make construction paper pumpkin pies. I cut a paper plate into quarters and tore orange and brown construction paper for the littles to glue onto their 'slice' of the pie. Then they glued a cotton ball in the middle to represent whip cream.

Our last craft was to make 'turkey tracks' with chenille stems bent like a turkey foot stamped into paint and then onto construction paper. 

Our snacktivity for the week was pilgrim hats made with fudge bottom cookies, mini Reece cups, and Reece's Pieces. The little ones had to have some extra help with this activity, but I can assure you they did not need any help gobbling up their treats!

Many years ago, I would have majorly stressed about their imperfect little cookies, but now I just want my children to do as much as they can on their own and know the feeling of personal pride in doing their very best, regardless of how whatever they're doing actually looks. There's so much more to life than striving for perfection. Doing your best is far more important.

I feel like at the end of each one of these 'fun school' posts I have to put in a disclaimer. For the most part doing projects with children is like trying to catch a muddy hog. You're going to get messy and they're going to fight you ~ FACT! But, every once in a while they do the projects without fussing, everyone has fun, and the craft turns out somewhat like you had envisioned. 

This week we did have those rare moments, where it was actually 'fun' doing our crafts, but truthfully they were not all the 'warm and fuzzy' family bonding time I had hoped them to be. And dear sweet friends, it's in those struggles that we learn and grow as mothers. Yes, we could give up and never do these elective projects again, but that would be such a terrible travesty. Don't let Satan get the last laugh ~ keep on keeping on, doing the best you can to make those treasured memories with your babies.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer