It's almost done...

Well the little one is almost finished with her sampler. She is still working on some of the "finishing touches." We even went out and bought a frame the other day, so we'd be ready to frame it when it's completely finished:)

So here's a peak at the almost finished project...

She's done a great job!

I'm very proud of her!

On the hunt...

I am in search of some fun Thanksgiving type crafts for the little one. So I've been searching all over the net to find some. And along the way I've found some really cute things, both for her and for me!


Family Fun has some great printables, crafts, activity pages...here's a link.


I would love to make one of these turkeys.


Here is another great idea from the previous website.


Here's an easy paper pumpkin craft.


Econobusters has been sharing an idea for crafts, food and decorating for Thanksgiving every day. Lots of other great ideas and money-saving tips on her site too.


One Pretty Thing is a blog I love to go to and look at. She basically does all the looking around the internet for you for all things crafty! Here is a link to some really great fall ideas.


This is one I would really love to do, but doubt I will ever have the time to do right now...but someday I will!


I'm so glad I don't have to be creative, when there are already so many waaaaay more creative people out there sharing their awesome ideas!

Stitchin' a sampler...

We are continuing on in our study of the Pilgrims. Today included a trip to the library. We found some great books to read, and we also found one that was all about the samplers that people used to make. As I've said before, anything involving crafts...gets the little one's attention. So when we got back home we found a pattern in the book that she liked and then she got busy...

She is very serious about her stitching:)

She isn't finished yet, but she's diligently working away.

So maybe tomorrow we'll get to reveal her work of art!

Pilgrims and soap...

Well since Thanksgiving is coming up, we have started a new unit study on the Pilgrims and that also means a new lapbook too. The lapbook we are using is from A Journey Through Learning. I've used lapbook studies from this site before. The study comes complete with all you need, and that makes it very nice and easy to use. You basically just download the unit, print it out and there you go!

So far the little one is liking it and I've also got some craft/cooking projects for us to do that go along with this time period, although they will not be truly authentic for the time period, they will give the little one an idea of what kinds of things were not readily available to people back then. If you wanted/needed something you had to make it yourself. Which leads us to the pictures below.


I have been wanting to do this for some time now, and now seemed like the right time. I had a recipe to make your own laundry detergent, and since the pilgrims wouldn't have been able to go to their local Wal-Mart or Target to get it...they would have had to make it, I thought now was a great time to try out the recipe. (Although I do realize I went to my local Wal-Mart and Target to purchase the items needed to make the detergent, as I said it wouldn't be exactly "authentic," but I think it showed her that the pilgrims had to use whatever they had in order to make what they needed.)

So here is how we made our detergent...

The ingredients.

First we needed 2 cups of shaved soap.

Next it was 1 cup of Borax and 1 cup of Washing Soda.



Now all the ingredients have been added.

Give it a stir.



Put it in an air-tight container...and there you have it.

Laundry detergent.

I have done one load so far with our homemade detergent and it worked great!





And here is the cover of our new lapbook. Designed by the little one!

{Just in case you're wondering...it's a picture of a Thanksgiving dinner

at the bottom of the lapbook:)}

We had a great time today...hope your day was a good one too!

Our last Reformation craft...

The last few days of this week we have been going over the basics of the Reformation. We have learned a bit about Martin Luther and the other reformers and we have talked about what it was that these men were so passionate about.

So to end our study we made our own parchment paper. So that the little one could copy scripture onto something "similar" to what they would have used back in the time of the Reformation.

I took a legal size piece of paper and let the little one crumple it up. And then we poured some of the Preacher's leftover coffee onto the paper. And finally we dried the paper with a hair dryer...so that we would get to use it a little sooner than if we had just let it air-dry. And I think it turned out really nice.

I had the little one write a verse on the paper. It was this verse...

"For it is by grace you have been saved,

through faith—and this not from yourselves,

it is the gift of God— not by works,

so that no one can boast."

Ephesians 2:8,9

She had a really good time doing this project. But then again she enjoys anything as long as there is a craft involved! I am looking forward to doing something like this again next year with her, but I hope to have some more things planned for her to do and learn.

Have a Happy Reformation Day:)

Stained glass and butter...

Today we looked up some stuff about the Reformation on the internet. We learned a little about the Reformers, specifically Martin Luther, listened to the Battle Hymn of the Reformation a.k.a. "A Mighty Fortress is our God" and then it was time for a craft project!

We tried our hand at making a stained glass picture. Not with real glass, unfortunately, but with a picture, crayons, cotton balls and oil. Stained glass is not necessarily a part of the Reformation movement, but during those times a lot of churches had stained glass windows, so that's why I picked it as our craft.

Here is the little one coloring the picture. You were suppose to color very hard, so that the color was very dark.

Here is the picture part-way done.

Here it is with the coloring finished.

Now you put oil on a cotton ball and rub the picture. The idea is get the colors to look more translucent.

And here is our finished picture. It needs to dry, but it turned out really nice.

Totally off the subject of Reformation...

I wanted to share this link for making your own homemade butter. I've never thought about doing this. Probably because I thought somehow a cow would need to be involved:) But it's so easy and sounds really fun. I think we'll be giving this a try next week when we start our study on the pilgrims and Thanksgiving!

Back in time...

This week we're talking about the Reformation, because Reformation Day is Saturday, but I think the little one is gearing up for what we'll be starting next month.

We' re going to start talking about Thanksgiving and the early colonists. We got some books at the library today and one of them was about a girl in the 1600's. The book showed how she lived each day and part of that was the kind of clothes she wore each day. So the little one got busy coming up with her own outfit that was "similar" to the one she saw in the book...except for the fact that hers is a bit more flashy and bright:)