Ruffle Balls

I saw the idea for a ruffle ball  HERE at Classy Columbus Designs.

Here are the super easy instructions!  This is all that you will need:



Glue gun

Crepe and/or tissue paper

Styrofoam ball from the Dollar Tree



Take your piece of crepe paper and wrap it around your pencil eraser....

Put a dab of hot glue on the end.....press into your styrofoam ball...



It will start to look like this as you fill it in....



I stacked them in my Goodwill Fruit Stand on a burlap runner....



The runner was SO easy to make!  I went to my True Value hardware store and bought a foot of burlap for $0.99.  I got my fabric scraps at the most amazing store....the Gift and Thrift where they sell scraps of fabric for $0.60!!  I just sewed on ruffles.  A tutorial can be found here for the ruffles.....it's just like my shower curtain.

Total cost:   $6.00 for everything!

styrofoam balls:  4 @ $1.00

fabric:  $0.40 if that!
burlap:  $0.99
red crepe paper: $0.50 (I only used half a package)

pink tissue paper:  free...leftover from my Romantic Wreath!



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Homeschooling: Schooling multi-age/grade levels

I definitely get  a lot of interesting responses when people find out that I homeschool......I once sat beside a woman at a spaghetti dinner fundraiser....she was a complete stranger who looked at me and said, "What makes you think that you are qualified to homeschool....."  Hmm....how do I answer that one? 

Another frequent question that I am asked is.....how are you able to homeschool multi-age/grade levels.....I find this question very interesting because it make a HUGE assumption about the public school classroom....it assumes that all 20-something students in a public classroom are operating at the same skill level in the same grade.......which they are NOT! You can have a very wide range of skill and reading levels....especially in an elementary classroom. 

 Honestly.....one of my fears about homeschooling was looking at the minimum 6 subjects per child and multiplying by 3....that would be 18 subjects per day??  How would that be possible??  Wouldn't I completely lose my mind trying to do that??

I came about our current system that we use by accident....My son spent a couple of years in public school and his first grade teacher had a great idea for how she had students complete their morning work....each morning she would have a "to do" list on the board. 


Students would work their way through the list and check-off the work that they completed.......the problem that our son had was that he would finish his work very quickly and then spend the rest of the morning making 11 trips to the library to check-out books.... he ended up spending a lot of time in class "waiting" for the other students to get their work done.


Well.....I use a variation of my son's first grade teacher's "To Do" list.....

I write out a daily list of work for my kids to complete....I make little check boxes that they cross off (or scribble out!) when they finish that assignment.  I always write History and Grammar or Science and Grammar last because they complete those assignments with me.  They also always do Math with me.

I have combined my kids together for science and history so that cuts down on 2 subjects for each.....and a lot of their work is completed independently with me looking over their shoulder and making corrections.

The younger grades like my daughter take SO little time!  She can be finished with her lessons in about 15 minutes.....we've actually been doing double lessons and she will be finishing kindergarten this week.

I also keep a master lesson plan book for each of my kids.  Usually in March or April, I start to plan for the following year.  I pull together all of their curriculum and start writing lessons plans.  Donna Young has amazing free printables......here is the link for the lesson plan forms.

 

My plan book keeps me on-task and helps me to see the bigger picture of where I am going....

There's no perfect solution......I still spend a lot of time going back-and-forth between kids and feel like pulling out my hair!...... but the "to do" list does keep them on-task when I am working with their sibling.

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A twist on the heart topiary...

Look at what my very crafty friend, Jenny, did with my  Heart Topiary idea...

......those are just coffee filters leftover from her Coffee Filter Wreath!

So cute!!  Thanks, Jenny! 

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Our Window Paints....

Well, I tried it....(or I should say my hubby did!).....we (he) made our own homemade window paints!  (It's an easy-enough craft that you can pass it off on your husband to do!)

Equal parts tempera paint and clear dishsoap yields........

....a whole lot of messy fun!!



My boys keep complaining....."How long does that have to stay on the window???"  (I think that it might be because of the blue cat??)

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Paper Rosette Frame

I guess that I am now in the Valentine spirit.....I've been crafting for most of the day....here is a quick idea that I threw together.....I've seen similar ideas for wreaths from these paper rosettes......and trust me...they are WAY easier than the tissue paper roses!!



First cut a square of nice cardstock...

Trim your corners to make a circle....it doesn't have to be perfect!

Cut a spiral out of your paper....I didn't even trace a pattern....I just cut a spiral pattern....

Begin to roll from the outside and put SMALL dabs of glue....I did not put small dabs and wound up with glue GLOBS.....

(You can see my glue globs!)

.......do not do any twisting, just roll.......it will naturally take the shape of a rosette because of the spiral cut

When you have turned enough get to the middle piece, you will need to snip it off to complete the rosette.....

Take a scrap piece of paper.....cut a heart....

Take some strips of newspaper and glue to your heart......

Glue your paper heart to a piece of foam board.....mine is a scrap....if you need some, go to The Dollar Tree....it's only $1.00 there!

Begin gluing on your cardstock rosettes.....do NOT use as much glue as I did...grr!

I used some scrapbook letters to write the word "love."

 Remember.......just be sure to use your glue sparingly and kind've hide the spots where you glue the rosettes....

Overall, I am pleased!  The frame is spray-painted and glazed.  It cost $0.50 at the Goodwill!!  The cardstock cost about $1.50 and everything else was FREE because it was just around the house!!

Total Cost:  $2.00 and about 1 hour of time!!

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Heart Topiary

I know that I've posted a lot of Valentine craft ideas, but I've really done nothing yet in terms of decorating at home....I had some leftover tissue paper from my Valentine Wreath, so I decided to quick make a topiary....

I didn't want to spend any money, so I just used what I had around the house....cat not included!

I had the bottom of a water bottle package sitting around, so I traced a heart on the cardboard bottom......



...nothing fancy!

I used the left over tissue paper and I cut it into about 1 inch squares.....I didn't actually measure them....just eye-balled about an inch....

I then took one square and crumpled it around the end of a pencil like this...........

....then I started gluing......I think that I must have gotten a defective batch of glue sticks because I once again had glue strings galore!!



I just kept taking pieces and fitting them into empty spaces until my heart was filled like this.....

I thought that it looked a little plain, so I wanted to add a ruffle...originally I wanted to use crepe paper, but the only colors of crepe paper that I had were green, yellow and black.....none quite a match for a Valentine's topiary!

So I remembered that I had some strips of white sheets leftover from my Ruffled Shower Curtain project......



I just trimmed them to a thickness of about 1 1/2 inches......and started gluing them onto the back of the cardboard....



I just kept making folds or pleats and gluing them down.....I do think that red or white crepe paper would look better, but we were in the midst of an ice storm, so there was no travelling to get more supplies....

Hmmm....I am thinking that the ruffle may be more like a width of 2 inches.....I think that I trimmed the wide spots after it was all finished......can you SEE all the glue strings!!!

I glued a dowel rod to the whole thing, but somehow forgot to take a picture of that.....you can buy a pack of assorted dowel rods at Walmart for $0.99!  (If I was thinking, I would have stocked up on chopsticks from the chinese take-out place!) 


I then just put a glob of glue on the bottom of my Dollar Tree glass container and glued the dowel rod to it......and that pink and red confetti-type stuff??

.....construction paper through the shredder and crumbled.....cheap...I was aiming for cheap...I mean...inexpensive!

Not bad for using what I had on-hand!  And it's just sitting on a piece of burlap that I hot-glued Dollar Tree ribbon to!





While I was waiting for the picture to load, I looked at my Google Analytics and I'm giving a "shout out" to readers in Utah....you've overtaken my home state of PA in terms of most page views this past week!  WOW!!


And thank you to all the readers in Canada, Israel, the UK, Australia, Germany, Lithuania, Italy, Saudi Arabia....and so many more countries!  You all are a geography lesson for my homeschoolin' children!!  Thanks SO much for reading!

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Trapped in the house?? An easy kid's craft idea....

So I love snow!!  It's fluffy and fun to play in....freezing rain...not so much!  It makes the roads impassable and my kids restless and grouchy because it's almost impossible to play in......and we are about to get a TON of it!



I was over at         looking for fun craft ideas when I stumbled across this idea on their Kids Create page....

...washable window paint!!

HERE are the instructions:

"Turn your windows, patio doors and mirrors into works of art. Mix together equal parts dishwashing liquid and washable liquid paint or powdered tempera. Children will love the process of painting and adults will love the end result: the paint wipes off easily with a dry paper towel."


The site All Free Crafts also has the recipe for face paint using cold cream.....spiffy-sniffy watercolors using Kool-aid......and foamy bath paint using shaving cream....

I think that while a layer of ice forms on the outside of my sliding glass door, we are going to paint a lovely scene on the inside of the door!  (maybe it will cover up all of those fingerprints from the wet, slimy mittens, too!)  I just need to run out and grab some more dishwashing liquid before the ice-ageddon begins!



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