Quilt Top (Up-cycled from Men's Shirts/Pants)

I haven't posted very many sewing projects lately, but that's because I've been working on this!  This quilt will be for my husband, made entirely out of his old button down shirts and khaki pants.  I LOVE it!  I have fond memories of many of these shirts!  I found an old comforter at the thrift store for $3.50, which is going to the be backing and batting.  It's a light blue color on the side you can't see in the picture.  I'd love to machine quilt it, but I don't know how I'm going to get it under the machine!  Anyone with experience machine quilting a large quilt?  I'd love your advice!  (Currently, it's half basted together.)

Week 23, MFW Adventures & K

We had one gloriously nice day this week!  Perfect for stomping in the biggest puddle they could find! Matthew went on his first walk!

I had Caleb do something a little different for English this week. First, I let him build something out of Legos, but I warned him he would have to write a story about it. He made a Lego fire boat. Then I had him write 3 sentences one day, and 3 more the next. The third day we corrected it and he wrote his final draft. He doesn't usually like to tell stories, but he was excited for this one and loved showing it to daddy. He wasn't excited enough to write an extra sentence though!

Rebekah also wanted to write a Lego story, so she tole me her story and I wrote it down. Then she copied it onto her paper. I'm impressed with her handwriting!

Remember when I mentioned spellingcity.com and how Caleb loved it? I give him the choice of playing on the computer for review or writing each word 3 times if he can't behave. Well, this week he couldn't behave...

He started Singapore 2A this week!

For history, we learned about 4 states: Maine, Arkansas, Michigan, and Missouri. We've also been listening to the Star Spangled Banner.

Last week, they cut out squares to make a small quilt. This week I showed them how to use my sewing machine. They did a great job, I was pleasantly surprised!

My church is offering a sign language class that I am taking, so I'm also sharing the info with the kids. Here's the alphabet.

The title of this marker card says "Colorful Designs"...  Caleb wanted to be done, so he just scribbled his whole thing with red...  I made them stop after doing the top half and put it away for the day (I may have been frustrated with them).  We're using the art curriculum: I Can Do All Things.  I have to say, I'm not a huge fan of it.  The only thing they really like are the painting lessons, they just don't understand, or don't like the rest.  I know they'd do a better job if I was sitting with them doing it too (which was my original intention), but usually I'm nursing a baby.  I would like to have the DVDs that go along with this curriculum, but I couldn't justify the price of them.

We had a talk about how we need to try to do our best when we're doing art, not just scribble to be done. Then I let them make colorful designs on the bottom of their papers. I tried sitting with them, I only drew for a minute or two, but I made a bulls eye design, which spurred some creativity. They drew a huge dart board.

Can you guess what Joshua was doing with the markers while I wasn't paying attention?

Our last day of art went better.  They learned about drawing frames around their artwork.

 Rebekah's picture is of Jesus feeding the 5000 with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.

Her reading and writing are progressing wonderfully. This week was about the letter K and kangaroos.

She's been extra creative.  We went to a friends house, and on the way home she said she had an idea and asked for an egg carton.  She made a turtle and a scene for him.  I think her friend must have had a turtle project in her room!

That was our week, thanks for stopping by!

Week 22, MFW Adventures & K

Our favorite part of this week was the sweet potato pie we made when learning about the state of Alabama! Yum!  I thought it'd be more like pumpkin pie, but it was much sweeter, delicious!  To make it dairy free, I just used almond milk instead of the evaporated milk, and Earth Balance Vegan spread instead of butter.  I was surprised how much Rebekah liked it too!

We also covered the state of Illinois.

We started learning about the pioneers going west.  What's one thing pioneers took with them?  Quilts!  I pulled out a bunch of my scrap fabric, and each of them cut out 30 squares (4 in x 4 in).  We haven't had a chance to sew them together yet, but I'm hoping next week we'll have some time while Joshua is napping.

Here are our history books for this week:

And we finished our read aloud book:

 

For English, Caleb learned about writing letters and addressing envelopes.  Below are a couple sample envelopes he did.  He also wrote a letter to a friend, and sent a picture to grandpa.

Our bible verse for this week was about how we are all part of the body of Christ.

To go along with our verse about the body, we've been learning about our human bodies.  Below is Caleb blowing into a bottle filled with water.  This was to see how much air his lungs could hold.

Last week Caleb finished his math book (Singapore 1B).  I decided to give him a week of just reviewing math facts and some of the other concepts.  Below he is doing flashcards.  I mixed addition and subtraction ones this time.

Here he is matching clocks, the clock face to the digital time.  

For music, we continued our study of Tchaikovsky with listening to some of the ballet Swan Lake while coloring this picture.

Art was learning to blend with our white colored pencil, and also shading (see trees below).

Lastly, a picture of Rebekah and Joshua doing puzzles with Matthew (yes, Matthew fell asleep!).

Mickey Mouse Birthday Cake

To make this Mickey Mouse cake, I used an 8 inch round pan, and some very small round cake pans, I think they were only 3 inches.  I had it all finished, and then realized I forgot the nose!  I had just enough black icing left to add it on top.  It looks like I meant to have it on top, 3D effect!

Week 21, MFW Adventures & K

A fun Saturday project was making a balloon car out of Legos!  I found the idea on the craft mummy. Caleb spent almost 2 hours making different variations of balloon cars, trying to get it to go farther. His final design went 11 squares on our linoleum floor.  Even daddy got in on the act!

This was his best design:

I love this picture of Kevin reading a book to all 4 kids!

More in science this week included learning about the juice in fruit, so we made some invisible ink out of lemon juice.  When we ironed the paper, the lemon juice turned brownish.  If you do this activity, make sure your iron is very hot and do it for a couple minutes.

Here was his English paper from this week. He had to fill in the blanks with words that describe How? Except for trying to pick the shortest words, he did great!

Caleb finished up his math book, Singapore 1B, with money.  We're going to take a week to do some fun review and then start Singapore 2A!

Caleb loved our history this week.  He really likes learning about inventors, so he loved Robert Fulton, who worked on submarines and steamboats.

We covered the states Indiana and Mississippi.  The kids loved trying to spell "Mississippi" really fast!

Rebekah has been having fun learning about Penguins.  Below are their balloon penguins and a couple of her worksheets.  Her reading is coming along nicely.