Comments Feature Fixed

So I've heard from a couple of people that they're comments were not showing up on the blog. I believe I have fixed the problem on my end. Hopefully, I'm right. I can't tell you how much I value your feedback. Also, in addition to commenting here, you can always reach me at lifewithbooandgator@gmail.com. Let me know if you have any more difficulty. Thanks.

Origami Christmas Treat Baskets Video Tutorial

Today, I'm sharing a video that Boo and I made demonstrating how to make origami baskets that we're using to hold Christmas candy for the kids in her dance class. All you need to do the project is a square piece of paper, tape or glue, and stickers or other decorations.



If you watch the above video, you'll notice that it comes to an abrupt stop just as we're beginning to decorate our baskets. That's because life happened; or, to be more precise, Gator Happened. He decided to pretend to be Houdini and escape from the straps on his high chair. He then proceeded to turn around in the chair and stand up. Talk about nearly giving me a heart attack. Anyway, given the choice between saving the baby from falling on his noggin and forging ahead with the video, Dad (behind the camera) chose the baby. Good choice. So we've made another video that starts up where the first one left off. Unfortunately, I'm not technically savvy enough to know how to splice them together. Put that on my list of things to learn. Here's the rest of the project. Enjoy!



Please feel free to let us know if you have any questions or comments about this project. We enjoyed making it, and we hope you enjoyed watching.

Boo's Dance Recital and Tips for Choosing Extracurricular Activities

Last Sunday was Boo's Christmas recital for her dance class. She attends class at a local church, and I can't say enough positive things about the program! The recital was a huge success, and I was a very proud parent.

It got me thinking about our children's extracurricular activities. I'm amazed at the range of possibilities out there from sports to dance to music lessons to clubs and groups. There sometimes seems to be an endless supply of things for kids to be involved in, and the choices can become completely overwhelming. So, how do we keep our kids involved in plenty of activities that interest them and not get so bogged down with the running here and there lifestyle that we lose sight of other important things like family time and play time? I'll admit, I'm not always as good at the choosing as I should be. We've had months where we didn't have even one free night at home, and that was with only one child. I don't know how we could have done it if Gator was old enough to have his schedule as well. This year, though, we've scaled things down quite a bit, and I can't believe the improvement it has made. In case I forget myself sometime in the future and try to return to the craziness of being over involved, and in case anyone else struggles with the same thing, I'm posting some thoughts on choosing extracurriculars wisely.

1. Cost: I know, I know, that shouldn't be my first priority; but, lets face it, kids activities can get expensive. So look for things that give your child the best experience for the price.

2. Interest: I'm talking about the child's interest here, not the parent's. Sometimes, it's easy to push our kids into things because they sound really good to us. We have to remember that our children's interests may be different; and after all, they're going to have to participate in the activity. Make it something they'll enjoy.

3. Time: This is another big one, and it's actually the only complaint I have about the previously mentioned dance class. It's at 6:00, right during the time when we're normally eating supper. It's not so bad because it's only one night a week, but too many nights like that could spell major trouble for our evening routine. Try to find activities that don't coincide with another important thing on your schedule.

4. Commitment: Make sure you understand how much of a commitment the extracurricular requires, and if you choose it, be willing to stick with it. This one is especially important with activities like athletics where your child is part of a team. I'm not saying that commitment is a negative. It's not. I believe that children need to learn this valuable skill and to understand the importance of follow through, but don't over commit and become overwhelmed.

5. Organization: If my mother happens to read this, she'll laugh. I'm admittedly one of the most unorganized people around, but, especially if it's a group activity, I think organization is key. We've been to several functions where the majority of the time was spent trying to figure out what was supposed to be going on and where we were supposed to be, and it completely sucks the enjoyment and fun out of things. So take the time to find out how the extracurricular activity is run before you make a final decision about it.

There's no magic formula to tell us exactly what our kids should be involved in, but I think, by remembering these few tips, we can take a lot of the stress out of the decision. Most of all, we want to provide enjoyable, enriching experiences that our kids will learn from and remember far into the future.

DIY I Spy Christmas Ornaments With a Free Printable

Today we made these fun I Spy ornaments inspired by the ones I saw on CBC Parenting. They're a great idea for gift giving and for your own children as well. In fact, we made them for some of Boo and Gator's cousins, but we ended up making extras for our own tree. The original instructions suggest using rice or fake snow to fill your ornaments, but we didn't have either of those things on hand; so we used some decorative sand instead. I think it added some fun color to our ornaments. It did make them quite heavy though; so if you choose to use sand, you'll definitely want to glue the tops closed. We also composed a cute little poem to attach to our ornaments listing the items hidden within, and I'm sharing it here in case anyone wants to use it or get ideas from it. The following are the steps we used to complete this project (poem download link is at the end of this post):

What you need:
clear ornaments with either screw-on or pull-off tops (we bought ours at Walmart for $0.97 each)
paper clips
small jingle bells (available in craft stores. Make sure they're small enough to fit through the hole in the top of the ornament.)
buttons
shells
yarn
miniature clothes pins (available in craft stores)
wooden beads (available in craft stores)
decorative sand
hot glue gun
ribbon
card stock
hole punch
scissors

Note that if you'd like to use different things to hide in your ornament, you can simply create your own list to attach.

Instructions
Put 1 paper clip, 1 jingle bell, 1 button, 1 shell, 1 clothes pin 2 wooden beads, and 3 pieces of yarn (we used different colors) into the top of your ornament. Fill the ornament about 3/4 up with sand. Close the ornament and glue with the glue gun to make sure it cannot be opened. Shake the ornament to mix the hidden items throughout. Print the poem out on card stock, punch a whole in it, and string it on a ribbon. attach the ribbon to the ornament, and you're finished. Now you can enjoy searching for all the items on the list. When you've found them, simply shake the ornament to stir things up, and play again.

Here's the text of the poem we used. The download includes five copies of it on a single page so that you can make more than one ornament at once.

Look inside! Use your little eye!

Here are ten things for you to spy!

A paper clip, a jingle bell,

A button and a small seashell!

Three bits of yarn, a tiny clothes pin,

Two wooden beads and that makes ten!

Did you find them? Was it fun?

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Download your own copy here!

As always, thanks for reading; and remember to visit CBC parenting for detailed instructions for these ornaments and lots more great projects and ideas.

Making Minecraft Snowflakes: Christmas Activity With Dad

Boo has been a Minecraft fan for some time now, and today, she got Dad in on the fun. They found this Minecraft snowflake pattern and instructions on instructibles.com, and they just had to try it. They spent some time figuring out the folding technique, and they ended up tracing over the lines on the original printable to make it easier to see, but they were very happy with their results. Boo has a couple of friends who are also fans of the game; so she intends to make several more snowflakes to decorate their Christmas packages. I love projects like this that take an online interest of Boo's and turn it into an offline experience.

Blocksworld App Review

About a week ago, Boo discovered a free app for her Ipad called Blocksworld, and she's been loving it ever since. As a parent, I'm pretty fond of it, too. So I thought I'd share some of the aspects of the app that we find especially intriguing and fun!

First of all, Blocksworld is a 3D building app. You can choose from a huge variety of different shaped and sized blocks to create whatever you can imagine. There are typical square and rectangle blocks, wheels, people, odd shaped blocks, etc. The possibilities of building alone are endless.

Blocksworld doesn't end there, however. Once you build a creation, the app has action blocks which allow you to animate your creations with different movements and sounds. The interface for doing this is simple and intuitive, but it gets kids thinking like a programmer and teaches logic and sequencing skills.

The app also contains games that users can play in order to earn new blocks for their collections. In addition, app users can publish their own games to the app for others to play. Boo especially loves this feature. She's made a couple of games now and anxiously waits to see how many people play and like her creations. It's definitely a feature that makes the app stand out.

You can also buy or earn additional block packs such as the Halloween pack, the Legends of oz pack, or the Heroes of Aero pack; and the app is constantly being updated with new content and features to make it even more exciting.

Finally, one more cool feature in Blocksworld is that you can record and upload videos of your game play. Boo has done a quick video of herself building a house just to show everyone a bit of how the app works. Please watch it, and let us know what you think. Also, go and download Blocksworld for yourselves to discover all it has to offer. I can't recommend this one enough. You can also learn more by visiting the Blocksworld official website. Happy building!

Homeschooling Through the Holidays: What We're Up To These Days

First of all, I apologize for my absence. When I started writing here, I envisioned posting several times a week with new and exciting content that everyone would be thrilled to read. Unfortunately, sometimes life gets in the way of that. This time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is so busy. However, I thought I'd give you a glimpse into what we're doing in school these days.

We've continued our normal language arts and math program at www.timeforlearning.com We're actually about to finish the third grade lessons with Boo; so I'm going to have to figure out something new come January. Then, usually for history, geography, science, and art we use the units from www.layers-of-learning.com. However, we've decided to do some Christmas focused work for the month of December.

First, we've just started listening to The Cinnamon Bear which is a children's radio dramatization from the 1930's. This is the first year we've done this, and we're really enjoying it. You can find the program for streaming or download at Homeschool Freebie of the Day. The story centers on two children who go up to their attic in search of the star for the top of the Christmas tree and end up having great adventures with the Cinnamon Bear as they chase the Crazy Quilt Dragon who has stolen the star. Homeschool Freebie of the Day also has a lapbook available for purchase to accompany the recordings.

Next, we've been exploring Christmas around the World with a free unit study available from Homeschooling in Detroit. The unit includes online information for each country as well as a suggested craft, recipe, and a notebooking page. We, unfortunately don't have time to complete all the projects, but we'll be picking one craft and one recipe to use as a culmination to our unit. I'll let you know how that goes.

We're also reading one story a day from The Children's Book of Christmas Stories from Project Gutenberg. You can either read the book online or download it in a variety of formats. The book includes over 30 stories, many written by well-known authors. The stories are marked to let parents know whether they are suitable for younger or older children, making this a great book for the whole family. Boo and I are taking turns picking the story we read each day, and it's really putting us in the Christmas spirit.

Finally, we're completing a 12 days of Christmas art pack available free from Enchanted Homeschooling Mom. The pack encourages kids to copy free hand a drawing of each day of Christmas portrayed in the popular carol. Boo sometimes worries about her art ability, though art is one of her favorite subjects, so I'm hoping this packet will boost her confidence. So far, she's really enjoying it and is doing very well with it. The packet also includes handwriting practice which is an added bonus.

Over all, we're really enjoying all of our Christmas projects. We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and that we all keep the true reason for Christmas at the center of our hearts and minds.