Crayon Resist Spider Webs

One of my not so favorite things about fall, is the influx of spiders into the house. The younger girls, think their webs are beautiful. I'm not so sure about that, but I do have to admit, the now-you-see-it-now-you-don't quality of the silky constructions, always makes me think of crayon resist projects.

So, this week, after reading Lydia Monks' Aaaarrgghh! Spider!, which tells the story of a spider in the house, from the spider's perspective, we worked on an art project together. I gave the girls white crayons to draw webs on white butcher's paper, shiny side down...


...and then water colors to make them appear, just like when the sun shines through the windows, revealing all the cobwebs in the corners.


We made, and revealed several webs, and found the best results (like in the picture at the top of this post) came with nice, thickly drawn lines. C (age 5), had difficulty drawing her lines thick enough. Large, chunky crayons would probably work best, even for children into 1st grade, for this particular project.


It's great to be a homeschooler.

Back to Blogging, Knit Kitten, Give Away Winner

And, the winner is...





...commenter #3, Annette W. who said -

"M would love that little kitty!

Leaf jumping is a blast for the kids. I like autumn walks. Though I don't love making it, I love eating homemade applesauce...it's just a long, tiring day to can so many quarts!"

For those of you who would like to make your own little knit kitten, the very simple pattern comes from Freya Jaffke's Toymaking with Children, a book I highly recommend for anyone with young children, knitters and non-knitters, alike.

And, Annette, as soon as you contact me with your address, I'll get your kitten in the mail - congratulations!

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Children's Books With Apple Pie Recipes

After making apple cake, apple crisp, apple muffins, and applesauce, we had just enough apples left on our tree for an apple pie.

That meant we had to do some careful deliberating, as we currently have three picture books, from the library, with recipes for apple pies, included with the story. I find that amazing, because quite frankly, pie recipes are not generally, all that child friendly.

The recipes in Gail Gibbons' The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree, and Marjorie Priceman's How to Make an Apple Pie and see the world are essentially the same, basic pie recipe, with just slight variations of measurements. Since we've made a cherry pie following one of Priceman's recipes before, we decided to try out Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie recipe.



In a traditional Amelia Bedelia story, the good hearted, but over-literally minded maid saves the day, for herself anyway, by producing some wonderful cake or pie, just in time to keep from being fired.

In Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie, we discover that she inherited her baking skills, and recipes, from her grandmother.

The children weren't sure if they cared for the prequel concept, or not. While Miss Bedelia is still very literal minded, easily confused, and an excellent baker, she doesn't seem at all like the bumbling maid we're use to. I started out reading the book to my youngest daughter, who was gradually joined in listening by the rest of the children. As each child sat down, they had to interrupt by asking what we were reading, and then proclaiming, "That's not Amelia Bedelia!"

Fittingly though, they were won over by her pie. The recipe at the back of the book is one we will be keeping. The crust contains not only sugar, and cinnamon, but white vinegar as well, and as strange as that sounds - it is delicious.

Click here, to browse inside the book, and see the recipe, at the publisher's site, for yourself.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Apple Spelling

We've been reading slowly through Charles Micucci's The Life and Times of the Apple, this week. It's a nonfiction, picture book, that is good for younger, and older children to enjoy together. Covering topics from the biology, and life cycle of an apple, to geography, history (with an old earth perspective, mind you), folklore, and uses of the apple, there is something new to learn on every page.

Each topic is presented in a two page format. The first page contains a short paragraph, or two, which younger children should enjoy along with the lively illustrations. The second pages go into greater detail, such as labeling the parts of an apple blossom, mapping and graphing apple growth around the world, charting cross-fertilization of apples, or illustrating the step by step process of grafting.

There's a fantastic amount of knowledge contained in the short 32 pages. Did you know, for instance, there are almost 10,000 kinds of apples known, and grown around the world? That's certainly more than we normally see represented at our local grocery store.

While we discussed the varieties of apples illustrated in The Life and Time of the Apple, and in a few of the other books we've been reading this week, I traced out a few apple shapes, for the girls to color in, and cut out.


Once they had them ready, I traced out letters on the the apples, in glue...


...for them to cover in apple seeds...


...for some impromptu spelling practice.





For more story themed arts and craft extensions for children, be sure to check out the stART (story + ART) link-up, over at A Mommy's Adventures, which has been on summer hiatus, but will be stARTing back up this fall (excuse the pun - I just couldn't resist).

And, although the project above is not a geography or history project, Micucci's book contains enough maps, time-lines, and historical tidbits, to link it into the Geography and History link-up at All Things Beautiful.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Applesauce Season

It's applesauce season in our neck of the woods, as in many of yours, and in Eden Ross Lipson's appropriately titled, Applesauce Season.

Lipson's story is a city story though, so while she writes of a family heading off to the farmer's market to find apples, we headed to the back yard, in the rain, to pick them.


Then, it was into the kitchen, to wash them, and cut away the wormy bits - another step that Lipson's family gets to skip.


There's a stove top applesauce recipe at the back of the book, but we opted for the microwave method, we used last year, with a cup, or so, of sugar...


...a quarter cup of water...


...a dash of nutmeg, and three of cinnamon...


...mixed together with around 4 quarts of sliced apples, and microwaved for 10-20 minutes until soft enough to mash.


This year, we tried out the food mill Grandma gave us, when she was cleaning out her kitchen, because they use a food mill in the story. But, after a few turns, and scrapes, we decided it was not much fun...


...and decided to puree our softened apples in the blender, instead. So much for the "good ol' days".


Not that it really matters. Because in the end, Applesauce Season isn't so much about where the apples come from, or how they are prepared, as it is about savoring the time and tastes of togetherness.


It's great to be a homeschooler.

Bible Alive! Tuesday - Psalms 1

The children have been thrilled by all the interesting plants coming up in our yard, under our bird feeder (needless to say, the Man of the House has not been as thrilled).

Today, they found a stalk of wheat, or some kind of wheat like grain, growing next to the apple tree. It made think of Psalms 1.


1. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers.

2. But, his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

3. He is like a tree planted by streams of water (or in our case, a well watered lawn), which yields its fruit in season...


...and whose leaf does not wither (because it's so disappointing to find withered leaves, in the middle of summer).

Whatever he does prospers.

4. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.


5. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgement, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

6. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.


For more Bible themed ideas, and projects for children, click over to the Bible Alive! Tuesday link-ups hosted by The Fantastic Five.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Back to Blogging Give Away

It's so great to come back from a week off with the children, and family camp, and find I still have followers. It makes me so happy, in fact, I feel like a give away.

I'm not a professional crafter, by any means, but I know several of you expressed an interest in purchasing a tiny, knit kitten, after I posted about making a few, this summer.

In fact, I briefly considered opening up an Etsy store, for that purpose. There's just no way I could keep up with something like that, at this point, though. If I get brave, and motivated, I think it would be great fun to talk to the manager of one of our local grocery stores, about letting the children sell a few, outside of the store, as a follow up to Beverly Cleary's Socks. The trick is getting brave, and motivated at the same time - so we'll see.

In the meantime, I would love to send a tiny kitten out to each of you, as a thank you for the kind comments, encouragement, and ideas I've received here. But, of course, that would mean I would have to give up homeschooling the children, and devote myself to nothing but knitting, and mailing out kittens, for the next year or two, which doesn't sound feasible, either.

But, I do have one little guy ready to go. And, I'm pretty sure, just one trip to the post office couldn't do too much damage to our schedule.



So, here's the deal, if you'd like the kitten pictured above, leave me a comment below, and tell me your favorite, fall activity for children. I figure as long as you're leaving a comment, it might as well be interesting. And besides, it's time to put up our fall, leaf list, and I could use the suggestions.

I'll pick one winner from the commenters on Friday. Be sure to leave me an email address for contacting you, if you win.

Oh, and just as an FYI, the kitten is made from acrylic yarn, is about three inches long, and is intended as a toy, to be played with, but can be pulled apart, and turned into a choking hazard, and so is not recommended for children under three.

***I guess I should have said - yes, I will ship overseas :) ***

It's great to be a homeschooler.