Oobleck

I am completely embarrassed to say that despite the fact that I've 

been a science teacher and homeschooled my kids...

....I've NEVER made Oobleck until recently!

Wow...what have I been missing!

This is a super easy experiment and you probably already 
have all the ingredients on hand right now!

Ingredients:
cornstarch
water


You want to mix the cornstarch and water until you get a mixture that is not a 
paste and not watery.  It will be about 3/4 cup of cornstarch to 1/2 cup of 
water.  You do not need to be exact.


What is so amazing is that this is a Non-Newtonian fluid.....when compressed
it turns into a solid.  When the pressure is released, it turns right back into a liquid!

Translation....beaucoup fun!!

I must warn you though...it will get messy!


 

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Easter Decorating: Tiered Rack

 

Here's my second "installment" of inexpensive Easter table decor.

I went to my local Goodwill and grabbed an assortment of dishes.  These

may have cost me a grand total of $3.00.

The poor man at my local True Value as I tried decided on a paint color....I

went back and forth on the color until I drove him crazy and picked

this color by Rustoleum....Strawflower.

I gave my dishes several light coats.  I didn't want it to bubble or run.

I already had glass candlesticks from The Dollar Tree, so I 

glued everything together with Gorilla Glue...love that stuff!

I wanted to grow wheat grass, but my local True Value didn't have the type that I've seen referenced elsewhere, so I had to grab this...

......FIVE pounds of spring oats.  Here's a snippet of the conversation 

that ensued on the car ride home.

Son #2:  Hey, don't we we eat "Toasted Oats" for breakfast?

(that would be the generic version of Cheerios!)

Daughter:  Yes....do you think that this is where Cheerios come from?

Son #2:  What if we would grow a whole section of this in our backyard

then we could make our own Cheerios??

Daughter:  Mom...can we grow our own Cheerios from now on?

Anyway.....grab some oats, soak them for at least a day to soften the

seed coat.  Layer them on the dirt and put a light covering of 

dirt over the seeds and  wait....

Before you know it, you will need to start trimming your wheat (oat!) grass!

You still have plenty of time to grow some wheat grass for Easter!

 

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Spring?

Who would have every thought that we'd need this in early March.....a lawnmower??

We spent the weekend cleaning out the strawberry patch...

...and the garden....

cleaning up debris leftover from the flood...

and watching the baby horse take wobbly steps through the Amish field...

My daughter actually ran through the sprinkler with all the neighbor girls!

I just love spring...even though it's still winter!

 

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Last Minute St. Patrick's Day Ideas

Did you procrastinate because of the beautiful weather and have nothing

ready for a St. Patrick's Day meal?

Here are some quick suggestions:

{White Chocolate Dipped Oreos}

{Green Fruit Kabobs}

{Shamrock Chips}

{Shamrock Shakes}

{Shamrock Floats}

What's on your menu today??

 

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Fridays with Jimmie...lapbooking

I never expected to find myself homeschooling and was suddenly thrust into this "foreign" world...

I remember a friend recommending the blog Jimmie's Collage.  Desperate for any

means of support and encouragement, I stumbled onto what was probably my very first blog.

Jimmie didn't know me, but she suddenly became a friend and support through her

wealth of information and creative ideas.

I found myself scouring her site and studying her lapbooks.....what an amazing 

way to teach my kids.  I remember thinking...why don't they do this in schools??

I recently contacted Jimmie and was totally humbled and honored when she agreed to

write a series of guest posts here.

You will find her down-to-earth...incredibly talented....and a wealth of information

to aid in your homeschooling journey!

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Lapbooks are a collection of folding minibooks all centered on a unifying topic and affixed 

to a file folder. Here are some photos to give you an idea of what they are. 

You can find many more photos at my Lapbooks Flickr collection.

Some homeschool moms have their children make a lapbook for everything they

study. Others use lapbooks only for history or only for literature. There are special

lapbooking kits you can purchase, or you may choose the DIY route and start from scratch.

Whatever your approach to lapbooking, there are real educational benefits to

this educational method. Lapbooking is far more than just a cute papercraft.

I have narrowed down the benefits of lapbooking into four main areas. For this

post, I will discuss only one – the most valuable one. 

Lapbooking Benefit #1: Concrete Ways to Organize Information

The primary benefit of lapbooking is that it teaches children how to organize

information in very concrete ways that they can see and touch. 
Consider this lapbook on opera.

Inside it are minibooks dealing with different aspects of opera that my daughter studied:

-the first opera
-composer verses librettist
-performers in an opera
-famous opera composers
-operas versus musicals
-famous operas
-parts of an opera

Each chunk of information is neatly divided into its own minibook. Inside each  minibook that 
information is further divided, often with physical representations of pages, special folds, or moving parts.


 In my next post, I will show you how minibooks make ideas easier to understand and remember!

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Next Friday Jimmie is going to show us how she uses mini-books to create a 

physical scaffold for the information in her lapbooks!  


 

 


Jimmie Lanley is the mother of one creative twelve year old daughter. Jimmie's Collage is where she blogs about her Charlotte Mason styled homeschool. The Notebooking Fairy features free 
notebooking printables and how-tos plus the affordable eBook guide Notebooking Success.

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Come see my laundry room....

Today I am doing my first guest posting for Jen over at Craft-o-maniac.

I am the DIY/Decorating contributor...which I truly find quite amazing since

most of my "decorating" consists of spraypainting something from Goodwill!

I was pretty stressed about what to submit for my first project....I had a bunch 

of ideas floating in my head, but just couldn't focus....

During all of this I decided to organize a shelf in my laundry room where

I found some left over paint from my kitchen redo!  

I was suddenly inspired AND I didn't have to spend much money!!

Here's a picture of my laundry room "before"....

If you want to see the "after", you'll have to visit Craft-o-maniac!

 

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Thrifty Thursday #51

Confession....it is 70 degrees and sunny here today and I do not feel like being 

inside writing a blog post!  I want to go outside and play.....

So, I am going to make this short and to the point....here are this week's Thrifty Thursday features!

a little something in the meantime made this St. Patrick's Day banner from paint chips!

DIY by Design shared how she made her closet look custom with CONTACT paper!

I'm Not a Trophy Wife created this sports hat holder....what a fun idea!

Wow...these DIY curtains that Top This Top That made are simply amazing!

I love these simple and elegant spring candles from My Heart's Desire, but I had

to giggle when I first saw them....if you have pre-teen boys then you know 

what the green beads look like....air soft pellets!  I could go through my

yard and pick up all the used pellets and make these!!

Paint Speckled Pawprints shared a wonderful tutorial of how she 

made these floating shelves from pallet wood.

If you were featured this week, feel free to grab one of my buttons!

Here are some very simple suggestions for the party:

1. Please become a follower of Thrifty Decorating.

2. Be sure to link to your POST and not your blog.

3. Please copy and paste my link button somewhere in 

your post or blog so that others can link back.

You can also party with Johnnie 

at Saved by Love Creations!




Or Erika at Thrifty and Fabulous!



Thanks for taking the time to party with me every week!

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My weekend at IKEA....

I posted on Saturday that we were taking a "family" trip to IKEA....

many of you responded back..."You're taking your family?!?"

In my mind, I had warm fuzzy thoughts of us harmoniously walking through IKEA...

randomly pointing out a cool and exciting idea...

Mom:  Son...what do you think about that for your room?

Son:  Mom!  I just LOVE it!  You're the best Mom in the whole world!

Husband:  Honey, thanks for all you do to make our home a welcome and

inviting place ALL while saving money...

(stage direction:  family hugs in the kitchenware section)

Okay....would you like the REAL dialog from Saturday???

Me:  Honey, I think that is our exit to get to IKEA.

Hubby:  No, I want to take the other exit for 476.

Me:  Can I see the turnpike toll ticket?  I don't think that there is another exit

for 476. (said as we are passing the exit!)

Hubby:  I want the "BlahBlahBlah" exit.

Me (slightly panicked):  That was the "BlahBlahBlah" exit.

Hubby:  No I want the exit that goes up and around not down and you come up.

Me:  HUH?!  (I am highly annoyed at this point as we are starting to see 

signs for New Jersey!!!)  What is the name of the exit that you are looking for

so that I can check on the ticket and see where we need to go!

Hubby:  Why are you yelling at me?  We needed the "BlahBlahBlah" exit.

Me  (yes, I was yelling at this point!):  WE JUST PASSED THE "BLAHBLAHBLAH" exit!!!

{In the end, we were both right, but it would be too exhausting to try and explain!}

25 extra miles and 3 exhausted and grouchy kids later....we arrived!!!

All I have to say is that it's a good thing that IKEA sells $.99 sodas with

free refills....that saved the afternoon!

I can't wait to show you the changes that I am making with my IKEA purchases!

 

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