Taught By His Tumbles

"We all know the natural conditions under which a child should live; how he shares household ways with his mother, romps with his father, is teased by his brothers and petted by his sisters; is taught by his tumbles; learns self-denial by the baby's needs, the delightfulness of furniture by playing at battle and siege with sofa and table; learns veneration for the old by the visits of his great-grandmother; how to live with his equals by the chums he gathers round him; learns intimacy with animals from his dog and cat; delight in the fields where the buttercups grow and greater delight in the blackberry hedges." -Charlotte Mason


* Special thanks to Phyllis for posting this quote on her wonderful blog! (You will especially enjoy her blog is you are home schooling special needs students...I love seeing what they are up to in their home!)  I remember reading this quote years ago, and seeing it again inspired me to pull out some of my Charlotte Mason books again. Very encouraging and inspiring reading for moms and teachers!  

Pleasant Projects: Easy and Economical Skirts for Girls

Spring and summer are my favorite seasons for skirts. No fussing with tights or stockings, or dealing with uncomfortable shoes.  Just throw on a skirt, a knit shirt, and a pair of sandals, and you have a quick outfit for the day. Cool, feminine,comfortable...what more could you ask for?! However, it can be difficult to find appropriate skirts for young girls. Sewing is always an option, but can be expensive and time consuming if you are not careful. Today I am going to share two economical and easy ways to provide cute skirts for your girls.

I found the skirt above at a thrift store. It quickly became a favorite at our house, and people are always asking me about it. The skirt has 3 darts in the front and the fabric is basically sew onto the top portion of a pair of jeans, with a ribbon covering the seam. I especially like that the cut-off jeans used in the top part have an adjustable waist.  While I have not been able to find a pattern for this exact skirt, there are numerous patterns on the Internet that use jeans to make skirts.  For more ideas you may enjoy looking here and here  (this site features a cute skirt, but there is a rather scantily clad sewing form in the top photo...just so you know!).

 This is another simple and inexpensive skirt.  My daughter Love made this skirt when she was learning to sew and it has down been handed down within the family. It is a perfect "every day" kind of skirt when paired with a knit shirt.  The fabric was purchased with a 40% off coupon from Hobby Lobby, and the rick rack was also 40% off.  We downloaded the Lazy Days Skirt pattern free of charge here, although we added some length.  Because they can be completed so quickly, I think both of these skirt would be perfect for matching "sister skirts". You could also just make 4 or 5 skirts with different fabrics ( wait for those 40% off sales or coupons!), purchases a few knit shirts, and be practically done with your daughter's warm weather wardrobe! Let your daughter help pick out the fabric and assist with (or do!) the sewing. I'd love for you to email me pictures of your creations...happy sewing!

This post is linked to  Raising Homemakers, Our Simple Country Life, and Far Above Rubies.

Celebrating Easter in Song: Resurrection Sunday

   We have had a busy day preparing for our Easter celebration tomorrow.  We look forward to a day filled with worship, fellowship with church family, and time with extended family. This hymn has been a favorite of mind since my youth, and there are a million other Easter hymns dear to me...When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,Up From the Grave He Arose, and O Sacred Head Now Wounded, just to name a few.  But this selection really says all there is to say!

If you prefer the more contemporary side of things , I suggest Still Rolls the Stone and I Know That My Redeemer Lives, by Bob Bennett, Glorious Day ( Living He loved Me), by Casting Crowns, and In Christ Alone, the Avalon rendition being my personal favorite. All of theses have excellent lyrics. For various reasons I was unable to find a suitable video to share for these songs, but you may look them up and listen as you think upon Christ and rejoice this Easter. I hope each one of you have a most blessed Resurrection Sunday!

Celebrating Easter in Song: Good Friday

                                                    

Celebrating Easter in Song: Thursday

Things are slowing down at our house for the rest of the week...or at least deviating from the normal slate of activities. I guess things are never really "slow" when you have five children! The celebration of the resurrection is just a few days a way!  Don't you love it!?  Those who are in Christ have SO much to celebrate!  At Christmas we love to sing and play Christmas hymns and carols that point us to the gift of Christ.  I wonder why, at Easter, we do not find the same thrill in intentionally playing all the wonderful songs and hymns that sing of Christ's last week on earth, his sacrifice for us, and his triumph over death and sin?  These selections will show my age, but as I was peeling carrots this morning and thinking about the Last Supper and Jesus' last day before his crucifixion, they came to mind. Both of these songs were sung at our wedding, which is probably why I thought of them first! There are so many excellent hymns as well. Consider searching You Tube, Rhapsody, or some other source, and celebrating Holy Week in song as you do your chores today. I intentionally choose videos that are visually slow because it is the words that carry the message. I usually just turn the monitor off and listen, but it is nice to be able to read the lyrics as well. Over the next few days  I will ( Lord willing) be posting some Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday hymns and songs, so be sure to check back.  Feel free to post a comment and share your favorite Easter Carols!

Unconventional Clothing Storage

Our youngest daughter inherited a small dresser from her sisters, who inherited it from me. It gave our family a good 40-some years of use, but it was time for it to retire.  In addition to the various parts ( drawers, handles, legs...) that fell off on a daily basis, Spunky had grown to the size that her clothes didn't fit in the tiny drawers any more. Things were always hanging out of the drawers, or the drawers couldn't shut all the way, or things ended up piled on top because they wouldn't fit. Definitely time for a change!   I have been searching for a used dresser, but haven't found the right item at the right price yet.  This weekend I decided we had to do something, so we purchased these storage bins from Big Lots. The older girls made some cute labels so she could easily tell what goes where. ( I never hesitate to appeal to a girl's sense of wanting things to look pretty...I think it is just part of who girls are, and if they like the way it looks they are so much more likely to keep things neat!) We pulled out an old coffee table that we had painted pink and were using as a little coloring desk. Ta-da!!! Efficient clothes storage!  I can easily see if she is keeping up with her clothes properly, and it is easy for her to quickly put away her laundry and choose her clothes. We removed several items that she didn't really need, so she now has a manageable amount of items to care for as well. If and when we do find a dresser, I am quite sure the bins will find a new use somewhere in the house, but for now I think this is a wonderful solution.

This isn't our first experience with clothing storage challenges. Prior to living in our current home, we lived in a barely 1200 square foot home....2 adults, 5 kids, and a large black dog.  People have lived in smaller spaces, I am sure, but we always seemed to be grasping for ways to make a bit more space.  I was forever bumping into people or things! The first thing to go into storage was the dressers. For years everyone had an "under the bed" rolling storage box for their clothes.  This worked quite well. ( I think a grandmother or two were initially horrified by the thought of keeping clothes under a bed, but they got used to it!) Another friend with a large family uses storage cubes for her children's clothing. I know other people find a family closet to be helpful.  There are really all kinds of ways to manage, thrive, and keep thing lovely in your home. Whatever your  current "problem" is, remember that it is often our limitations that bring out  creative solutions. Instead of grumbling, we can approaches our challenges as opportunities to see and do things in a new way. Who knows what inspiration might come to mind and give your home a change for the better!

This post is linked at Our Simple Country Life.
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The Preschooler: Days 4 & 5...Visitors and Dough

 The Day 4 and Day 5 highlights are a bit delayed, but for excellent reasons!  We ended up having visitors on both days!  Lots of playing outside and sipping homemade lemonade out of straws...delightful!

photo credit: our daughter , Peace T.

 For some quiet time we did end up pulling out one of our favorite preschool activities...dough! We use Moon Dough because it is wheat free, but Play Dough was our standard for years. We love it all! Currently our little guy enjoys what we call "Hide and Go Seek Moon Dough Style".  It is a game that our daughter Love came up with one day when she was playing with her brother.  One person takes a few little toy animals, like these:

and hides them each in a ball of dough.  Then you make several balls that do not have an animal inside.  You call the other person in and they have to guess if the ball is empty or not. Then they break it open and see what is inside. This game can go on all morning at our house. We all just take turns hiding the animals and being the "finder".

Another fun thing to do with Play Dough is to mix uncooked rice into the dough. This was something one of Thunderbolt's therapists had us do at home to assist with sensory development issues. It is really fun!  The rice eventually gets broken down into little bits, which changes the texture even more. Try using a dark color of dough, which will contrast well with the white rice and make the dough visually interesting as well. It's a good thing to try on a rainy day when you need something new!

I hope you enjoyed peeking into some of our preschool activities.  I am always intrigued by new ideas, so send some of your favorites my way.  I'd love to hear from you!

The Preschooler: Day 3...Marbles and Cardboard

The pictures speak for themselves today....rescued card board tubes, rescued card board packaging from a box, and a marble. I frequently save cardboard tubes because Thunderbolt finds a million things to do with them, but he rescued the cardboard "maze". Although I hope it goes without saying, marbles are NOT a good idea if your child or his siblings might possibly put them in their mouths. Save this activity for you mature preschooler, at a time and place when no toddlers or babies are around, and even then closely supervise your child. I use a quilt on the floor ( near where we are working) as the designated marble zone. I can keep an eye on him, and the marbles don't end up all over the house. He had lots of fun with this activity!   

The Preschooler: Day 2...Folder Games, Clothes Pins, and Paints

Today I decided to pull out some folder games.  The girls and I made these games from File Folder Fun   this summer. They have been wonderful. Our guy tends to do better with them when I place the game on a mat of some kind, so that he knows what area of the table is for him. ( In the photo his "mat" is a folded up table cloth that I grabbed from a near by laundry basket!) I am sitting right beside him at the table to offer assistance, but can also be helping his siblings.   He is not a "sitting still" kind of guy, so we have worked up to doing several games in one sitting. 

 We also made several games that use clothes pins.  Because he was a preemie, Thunderbolt was a little delayed in developing his pincer grasp. Clothes pins are a great tool for developing fine motor skills. You can place them around buckets or boxes if you don't have games like this. These games match the letter on the clothes pin to a corresponding upper case (or lower case) letter, or match a letter to a beginning sound on a picture. I cannot recall where I printed them from, but it would be easy to make your own. I laminated both the folder games and the clothes pin games with clear Contact paper.

After some free play time ( he ended up playing with his cars on the bean bag game,which is also a stellar ramp!), I set up the water colors for him.

Several years ago I found this easel at a thrift store for five dollars.  I was thrilled! I frequently bring it into the kitchen and he can paint away while I am cooking or working with someone else at the table. I haven't found anything that can be harmed by water colors!  Yes, they do all eventually all end up being a brownish color...but they are only $1.97 each, and all my children have eventually learned to rinse the brush after each color! We were given a stack of scrap paper from an office, and it is great for preschool painting.

Hope you have had a fun day!

The Preschooler: Day 1 ...Bugs and Bean Bags

 I have been giving thought to the questions about how I keep our youngest child busy while I work on school  with the older children.  Many excellent posts have already been written on this topic and I am not sure I have anything all that unique to offer.  I think I will just let you follow us around a bit this week. I'll try to hit some highlights of our day in the "keeping the preschooler busy in a meaningful way" department!  My general thought on the subject is this:

                              The activity must be good for his mind, body, or soul.

We do not want to "get our preschoolers out of our way" so we can get on to more important matters.  So many foundational concepts and patterns are forming during these important years! And besides, these little ones are so fun and time is so fleeting, why would we ever want to do such a thing as shove them aside?! We want their days to be filled with rich times of imagination and learning. Whether they are playing alone, with siblings, or spending time alongside their parents, they need to be growing, creating, observing, and exploring. Many times these activities just happen naturally.  Keep your eyes open for what they are finding interesting and go with it! That is how our day started out...

Spring in full glory here, and we are finding lots of caterpillars around the yard.  Last night we put one in our bug jar. Thunderbolt was given the job of watching our temporary pet during some of our morning lessons. Whenever I came to a stopping point I would ask how our little friend was doing, if he seemed to be enjoying the leaves we had given him, if he had climbed on the stick yet, and so on. My very talkative, active boy spent a good deal of the morning being quiet and gazing into the bug jar. He could have been watching TV, but instead he was watching nature! After a while (and a change of clothes due to a spilled drink!), I could see it was time for something new.  He had been still for a while, so now it was time for something active... beanbags!

 My dad made this bean bag game for us one Christmas.  It is wonderful for times when you need an active indoor game. If you can't make something like this, just get out your laundry baskets, coffee cans, or whatever else you have, and make up you own game! Bean bags and rice packs are excellent sewing projects for your young seamstresses, but you can also just twist old socks into balls, or toss small stuffed animals. Hand eye coordination, lots of bending and throwing actions, learning to cooperate with siblings and take turns...great fun and very worthwhile!

I hope to be back tomorrow with a few highlights of our preschooler's day....in the meantime, enjoy your little ones!

This post is lined to Far Above Rubies and Raising Homemakers.  Enjoy seeing what other homemakers are doing this week!

Cleaning Sneakers in a Snap

 Spring has arrived in our neck of the woods!  Beautiful flowering trees, sprouts in the garden, and lots of time outside playing. We just love it!  As much as we adore playing in the dirt, some of the girls were not too happy about their favorite sneakers looking all muddy.

 I told the girls they could try cleaning their shoes with a baby wipe, but Peace suggested they try a Magic Eraser. WOW!  I could not believe the results!  I love quick and easy solutions!

                                                    

Occupying Preschoolers...One Preschooler's Idea

 I have recently had several younger moms ask me how I occupy my little guy while I am doing school with the older children. I have a number of things I do, but the best thing I know of is to give preschoolers the tools, time, and freedom to be creative.  Today I told Thunderbolt to go find something to play for a few minutes while I taught a math lesson.  I didn't hear the normal sounds of trucks "vrrroooomm-ing" or blocks crashing down. He hadn't asked for the Moon Dough or the water colors. Hmmm. It was very quiet...way too quiet!  Peace did a quick check for me and found him playing in the bathroom sink with some Easter eggs. What adult would have ever thought of that!

 Later on he ran into the dining room and asked if he could play with some rubber bands in the water (?!).  I couldn't really think of any harm it could do, so I gave him a small handful. Pretty soon I heard," Hey Mom!  They sink!!"

He apparently read his mom's post on marking cups with rubber bands and had fun carefully putting the bands around his cup. He then used the eggs to scoop water into the cup. Who knew a boy could do so much with plastic eggs, rubber bands and water! Yes, an hour and a half later we ended up with a wet boy, wet clothes, and a wet floor, but he had a marvelous time! And math class? Ahhhh...very peaceful!

Stretching Your Easter Dress Dollar

I love little girls' dresses. There is nothing more fun that to see a little girl innocently celebrating her femininity in a beautiful garment. The day I found out I was having my first girl I asked a friend to teach me to smock. I enjoyed smocking dresses for our first girls, but found myself far too busy (and the supplies far too expensive!) to continue this hobby after our third child.  And besides, our youngest girl was able to wear her sisters' hand-me-downs!  Since that time I have turned to thrift stores for our girls' dresses.  Here are some techniques I use to stretch the usefulness of our dresses and keep expenses at a minimum:

* Buy used dresses that are classic in style and can be handed down later (inside or outside the family).  The Smocked Bishop style dresses (seen above) are my favorite, partly because I wore one in my first grade graduation ceremony in 1976!  They are still just as modest, beautiful, and in-style today as they were then! They also are very comfortable.

* Buy spring dresses. I purchase white cardigan "church sweaters" whenever I see them in a thrift store. A spring dress can be worn in the fall and winter ( at least in our climate!) with the addition of one of these white sweaters and a pair of warm tights. Spring dresses usually go nicely with black patten church shoes, which can also be worn for all seasons.

* Buy dresses one or two sizes too big.  Classic dresses usually have ties in the back or are loose in fit (as in the style above). The neck line area is the one place you need to check for appropriate fit. The photo of my daughter Spunky was taken three years ago when she was five years old. She was a size 4 is wearing a size 6 dress. She is now a size 8 and still wears the same dress. Another benefit of classic dresses is that they are long by design.  What a blessing when you have an active little girl!  They also usually come with a generous hem that can be let out if needed. ( We are on the short side and haven't had to let down many hems, but the addition of rick rack over the hem-line is very nice touch if you do need to add some length to a dress.)

* Pray with your children for God to lead you to dresses that honor Him and fit your budget.   We have always lived on a very modest single income. Our children have had to wait and make-do at times, but they have also been blessed to see God provide for our needs. With out fail God has provided beautiful dresses for my girls, either through hand-me-downs from like minded friends ( and in some cases stranger!) or through thrift stores. The dress pictured here was bought for under $4.00  from a charity thrift store. There have been times that I was almost embarrassed at the beautiful items God has sent our way.  Use these occasions to give God the glory and teach your children to do the same.

* Only buy what you need or anticipate needing in the future. We need to teach our girls the beauty of being content with a small wardrobe. If you see a lovely dress at a wonderful price, but you don't need it for your own family, consider buying the item for another family and blessing them.  It seems to get harder and harder to find modest, lovely, age appropriate clothing for girls...we should look out for one another in this area!  

One more note....

Although it is a topic for another day, we want our little girls to be pictures of beauty that honor God as he intended, not girls who are focused on what they look like. One practical consideration we have found helpful is to live without full length mirrors in our home.  A quick glance at the reflection in our china cabinet door, or an opinion from a sister or parent, gives us all the focus we need on our appearance. While instilling an appreciation for lovliness, we must be on guard against promoting and allowing vanity to take hold in our daughters' hearts. Pray for beautiful and affordable dresses for your young ones, and bless others with the dresses you no longer need, but don't let these outer garments draw your little ones into self-focused habits. Use God's provisions as an occasion for humble thankfulness and as a teaching tool that points their hearts toward their ever-loving Heavenly Father.

This post is linked at Raising Homemakers, Our Simple Country Life and Far Above Rubies. Check out these sites and enjoy seeing what other bloggers are writing about in the area of homemaking!