Amigurumi Crochet Frog - Cute Enough to Kiss

I don't often find frogs kissable, but this little guy might be the exception.

I was actually feeling pretty clever today, for finding a crochet project, simple enough to work on with the girls (the older girls - ages 9 and 10), that not only went with our froggy mood this week, but also tied into this month's Unplugged Project theme of spheres. I continued feeling clever right up to the point where I deftly deleted all the pictures on my digital camera, including the ones of the girls working away on the middle section of the green ball (or sphere), which was to become our frog.

They're pretty new to crochet, so in total, I think they only managed about 25 stitches anyway, not because of difficulty, but more because of the interest span of their age. We did discover, that one of the neat things about crocheting a round project, is it can be turned inside out, to accommodate a left hander.

And, it is really a quick project (click here, to find the free, Lion Brand pattern). Like most amigurumi, it's almost entirely done in single crochet - great for beginners.

As for the Unplugged Project theme...basically this little frog is nothing more than a green sphere...

...with arms, legs...

...eyes, and a mouth.

And, if you like...

...a jaunty little crown.

Be sure to check out this month's Unplug Your Kids, Unplugged Project, for more spherical fun.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Window Garden Excitement

We had a near tragedy with our pop bottle terrarium, last night. Before closing the blinds in the evening, I move the plants off the windowsill. But, last night, I tried to do it single handed (I'm not saying I had a frog cookie in my other hand, but I'm not denying it, either).

The pop bottle terrarium has been working wonderfully, but it is quite flimsy, and grabbing it with one hand, is not advisable. At least, that's what I discovered, when the top popped off, spilling dirt, seeds, and very sadly, a seedling, that hadn't quite reached the surface, yet. There was nothing to be done, but to gather up as much of the dirt as possible, replant the seedling, and toss in a few new seeds, for good measure.

So, I was pleasantly surprised tonight, to find a tiny green plant - alive, and growing. I'm not a hundred percent sure it's our carrot plant, but it does appear to have the remains of a carrot seed sticking to it.

In case your wondering what's on the front of the bottle...

...it's a carrot decoration, the kids added, when I wasn't looking (I guess that means they're excited about the project). So, while one live carrot seedling, might not be much, I'm glad something survived my disaster. And, I'm hopeful for the new seeds we put in, even if it means the children will have to wait a bit longer for results.

Our little apple tree is doing well though, despite a dousing of carrot seed laden dirt. It still has the apple seed attached too, which has been fun for the kids to see close up. The same thing happens in the garden, but we don't always have opportunity to observe it, the way we do when it's right in front of us, on the window sill.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

From Tadpole to Frog - Story And Craft

We took a slight detour from the ten plagues of Exodus, to take a look at the life cycle of frogs, with Wendy Pfeffer's book, from the Let's-Read-And-Find-Out Science series, and a cut, and glue craft from DLTK.

Pfeffer's story is a Stage 1 book, so the explanations are simple, and not overly detailed (a fact I was grateful for when it came to the male frog fertilizing the eggs). And, it goes perfectly with the frog life cycle printout from DLTK.

The girls glued their cutout frogs, tadpoles, and eggs, with accompanying arrows, to constructions paper ponds, and lily pads.


Then, they drew on trees, and a few snakes, and birds (poor tadpoles).



For more story stretching arts, and crafts, check out this week's story+ART link up, at A Mommy's Adventures.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Frog Cookies

We were feeling kind of froggy today.

Though, I'm not sure if our cookies turned out looking like frogs, or some kind of mutant, green octopuses - but let's just say frogs, for the sake of argument.

They're made from sugar cookie dough, with neon green food coloring, and a teaspoon full of peppermint extract, thrown in for good measure.

Each frog is put together with one round cookie, cut from the dough with a drinking glass, two small half circles, cut with a (cleaned) soda bottle cap, and then sliced in half, and two small hearts.

Once the cookies were baked, and cooled, we piped on frosting eyes (our frosting turned out to be a little thin, and lumpy, but you get the idea).

Then, we added the half circle eyelids, and chocolate chip pupils.

Since our frosting was less than perfect, I pulled out the store bought variety for the mouths.

Finally, we used a bit more frosting, thickened up with additional powdered sugar, to stick the heart feet, to the back of the faces.

That's about the time it occurred to me, our frogs were missing a set of legs...oh well...they were still pretty tasty.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Highlights Top Secret Adventures - Review

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I've mentioned, at least once before, that we tried out Highlights' geography club, some time ago, but while I was thrilled with it, the kids really weren't. It's a mail order club, where the children are sent a new "adventure", for a different country, every couple of weeks. It took me several months to figure out it wasn't going to work for my older children, so we had five, or six of them pile up, unopened, in our closet, before I cancelled our membership in the club.

Despite the children's lack of enthusiasm, I happen to think it's an excellent concept. Each set, provides a Clue-like mystery for the children to solve. Something is stolen, by one of a number of criminals, in a certain country. The children, by solving a set of codes, and puzzles (engaging math and logic skills), and working through a country guide book (a 30, or so, page, mini-geography book, for the country being covered), must solve the mystery of who, stole what, from where.

From time to time I pull one, that we haven't done yet, out for the children to try again. This week, I pulled out the set for Egypt. Highlights' suggested age for the club is 7-12. My oldest three are 9-12, so I hoped being a little older, they might enjoy it more. There is a lot to learn in the included Guide To Egypt, but I was hoping they'd really get into the puzzles, and enjoy themselves, while they learned about the country.

Usually, I have them work together as a team, but this time I had them work through it alone. They seemed to enjoy it more while working independently - so maybe there's some hope, yet. And, despite their lukewarm reception of the puzzle books, they always end up reading, or at least browsing through the country guide book, later on their own, too.

If you have a child ages 7-12, who enjoys puzzles, codes, and mysteries, then this would probably be an excellent approach to geography. You can check out more about the club, on Highlights website, and view a PDF sample, or order one of country puzzle sets, for free + $3.45 shipping. Just be careful, you have to respond quickly, if you don't want any more, or you'll end up with a closet full, at $18.00 a pop.

For more discussion, and ideas about teaching children geography, and history, click over to Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Lean, for a geography, and history link up.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Exodus, or Passover Craft, and Coloring Links

The Exodus story can be intense for little ones, but there are a number of fun, and interesting craft, and coloring ideas to be found. I've listed a few of my favorites below.

Baby Moses in the basket:

DLTK has a simple cut and paste, baby Moses, printable.

Little Blots of Faith, has a printable base for a hand print craft, where the hand prints become the bulrushes to hide baby Moses.

Christian Preschool Printables, has a very pretty, stain glass like, puzzle printable.

And, if I had a walnut shell, then this craft, from Kaboose would be my top pick.

Moses and the burning bush:

Karen's Adventures in Mommyland, posted an adorable paper plate bush, with tissue paper flames.

There's a burning bush word find at Sharon's Place.

Apples for the Teacher, has an online coloring page, for some "no mess" art.

Or, if you're in the mood for a mess, there's a crayon resist idea at Bright Hub, that has the children blowing paint through straws at their coloring pages.


The 10 Plagues:

I'll admit I'm not crazy about most of the craft ideas, that go with the plagues. I mean really, bloody water, lice, boils, dead livestock, and worse! There's a reason they're called plagues.

Even so, they are an important part of the story, and the frogs are kind of funny - especially these cut, paper frogs, from Secret Agent Josephine. I made up a bunch of them, to cover the house with tomorrow, an idea I found at Alpha+Mom, check out her photos, they're great.

And, there are some interesting, family fun, act out ideas, at aish.com.


The Parting of The Red Sea:


MakingFriends.com has a print out template for a Crossing The Red Sea Diorama. We made it last year, and it turned out pretty cute, though I think Creative Jewish Mom, came up with an even cuter version, here. She actually has oodles of great Passover, craft ideas (big surprise, I know).

I think this year though, we're going to stick with a lower maintenance coloring sheet, like this stain glass version, from Sunday School Printables.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Passove,r or Exodus, Video Links For Children, And Parents

I feel like we spent all day watching movies, yesterday, but we found so many fun links, and it was so cold, and rainy out, I just couldn't resist.

DreamWorks The Prince of Egypt, can be viewed in 11 parts on YouTube - click, here, for part 1, and then follow the YouTube links to the rest. This Disney like movie, adds a bit to the story, and gives the wrong Pharaoh, but the animation is well done, and it does a good job bringing the characters to life.

The Rugrats Passover, can be viewed in it's entirety, here, on WeJew.com, for a secular view of the Biblical story. WeJew, also has a link to a short Martha Stewart segment, about matzo (or matzoh, as they're spelling it), which I'm hoping to watch with the children today.

And, what holiday would be complete without a VeggieTale video? You can find almost all of Moe and The Big Exit (part one seems to be missing, so you miss out on the opening credits), on YouTube, in 6 parts - click, here, for part 2, and again, follow the links for the rest.

The older children, and I, also checked out a couple of links, dealing with the archaeological/historical/biblical discussion of when the Hebrews lived in Egypt, and under which Pharaoh (click here, to go to Answers in Genesis for part 1 of 5, of Unwrapping the Pharaohs), and which route they took, upon leaving Egypt (click here for part 1 of Exodus Revealed, on YouTube).

All of the images above came from Amazon.com, where you can purchase the DVDs, if you don't care for watching free links (I didn't link them through my associates account, because I recommend watching them free way, as long as it's legal, whenever possible).

Of course, if you don't care for videos, or want to get the complete, unadapted story, you can always read the text right from the Bible. And, I have a link for that, too (insert a very large grin, here).

I also have a number of craft, and coloring page links for Passover, and Exodus fun, which I'm trying to get in order to share. But then, today is my one year blogger birthday, so I might just decide to bag it all, and make a cake for myself, instead!

It's great to be a homeschooler.