New Jersey State History Fair

After much frustration trying to "pin" this webpage, I decided to put in on my blog for reference!  Here is a link to New Jersey State History Fair.  See website for complete list of events, including meeting Martha Washington and Walt Whitman!  Sound like a great family fun day, and it is all FREE!

Milk Jug Igloo

This is one of those crazy, fun projects. It is cheap and great way to reuse materials. But it is a big one, so you will need a big space, like a basement playroom, or do it outside. I question how well it will work outside - strong winds? spider webs?

Another of my concerns is that yuck-yuck, rot dairy smell from the old milk containers. I would practice getting the smell out of one first milk jug. Also, don't forget you can use water gallon jugs, as well as orange juice, distilled water, ice tea, etc.

It looks complex, but probably the hardest, time consuming part is collecting and washing the milk jugs. Actually making the igloo seems like it would be a fun rainy day or weekend project. Usually I read directions about neat ideas like this one, and they seem way too complex or expensive (not to mention, leaving out a lot of practical information), but this project does seem doable if you have the materials and space.

This would make for excellent memories. First I have to see how much work goes into de-funking a old milk jug. If I did it, I would make the big one, 428 jugs, but I am crazy like that. I would have a slide down to our playroom if I could put one in. By my calculations, we would need about 40 families to give us 10 milk jugs. I can see my husband shaking his head at me right now.

Here is the link:

How to make your own milk jug igloo

Side note, sometimes we moms can be guilty of doing things like this instead of the things we are suppose to be doing, like laundry and discipling our kids. Build your milk jug igloo responsibly ;-)

Free Felt Food Tutorials

Here is a site with a long list of FREE felt food tutorials. The categories are broken up into fruit and veggies, sweets, pasta, eggs, containers and others.

This site has some great U Tube videos on how to make felt food, and they also sell kits. I want to make the Green Eggs and Ham kit to go with our book. It would make a great display in our book nook.

Little Brown Bird has some free how to felting tutorials and tips, as well as free patterns.

Confessions of a Homeschooler blog also has some free felt food ideas, but the first one listed on this post is the best I have seen so far.

My daughter and I are looking forward to making some projects together!

No Sew Felt Food: Cinnamon Buns

If you have been wanting to make felt food for your kids, but short on time or sewing skills or both, here is an easy no-sew project:

Felt Cinnamon Buns

Dealing with Boredom in Children

Sorry to post about a post, but this is a great post about how to deal with boredom with children. Click here to read it.

Felt Food

No, I don't know where I will get the time, but I feel a urge to get in touch with my crafting side and make something with my hands that can double as a form of therapy to calm my frazzled nerves. Confessions of a Homeschooler has posted in the past about felt food. She has a link to a site with free patterns and instructions at Lit'l Brown Bird's Passion. Follow the links to view exactly what felt food is and how you go about making it.

Like most of you, I have a very limited amount of "me" time. While that being a good thing, it might take me months to make anything. The point is to refresh myself in a sufficient proportion to the work God has for me, so I am going to go for it anyway and at least I can say I tried it :-) If I do actually finish a felt food project, I will post a picture, though it may take me a few months to get the picture uploaded to the blog ;-)

Click the link here for instructions and tips on felting

Click the link here for free felt patterns and tutorials

Confessions of a Homeschooler has a whole section on her tool bar for felt food. You can find other free patterns from her posts.

Gift Ideas for Tots and Preschoolers...

Hi Friends,

Our sweet Abby just celebrated her 2nd birthday and she LOVES the toys she received so much that I just had to recommend them. We've been really into classic wooden toys lately (love Melissa and Doug!) as well as old fashioned educational toys. Fortunately, we have a wonderful parent-teacher resource center in the area where we can borrow toys and educational products. Whenever I borrow something she loves, I just add it to her Amazon wishlist and send it out to family members for birthdays and around Christmas time.

She loves these toys and she is able to play with them independently (yes!) while I work with Rachel on something more academic or while I'm simply reading her a story.

~Catherine

Letter Photography

This is another great decorating idea from Family Fun, and it looks a lot of fun to make too. If you don't have the time to find and take 26 photos, you may be able to find them on the Internet for free.

I think I would like to do this project with my daughter and decorate our playroom with the pictures - in IKEA frames of course ( I LOVE IKEA ). It would be fun to find the hidden letter in objects. The article from Family Fun explains how to go about it, as well as ideas for the finished project, like an alphabet book or spelling out a name in a frame.

What is nice about this idea is that it looks artistic, but it is kid friendly as well. You do not have to spend a fortune on artwork, your children and you can make it together. Catherine, this is right up your alley! Our camera is not a SLR, but I will post letters as we find them.