Life Lately - Christmas, Birthdays and Space Project

My updates are becoming less and less frequent, but I see that as a good thing, because life is very full and busy! I do however wish to keep a record of what we do as a family and our home education journey, so I am determined to keep posting whenever I get the chance.

 Before Christmas the children took part in our annual church nativity service.

Our baby turned two (she is still our baby!) and we celebrated with breakfast at Krispy Kreme 

doughnuts followed by a game of bowling.

A few days later our middle child Abigail turned 5!

Her birthday treat was a trip to the cinema to see the Paddington Movie followed by lunch at a family favourite, Pizza Hut!

In between birthdays we had a quiet family Christmas and kept our focus on Christ and His birth.

On New Years Eve Abigail was in hospital undergoing a Bronchoscopy under general anaesthetic to assess any changes in her airway restriction, caused by her double aortic arch.

We were really proud of how brave she was.

At Christmas we had a week off from formal lessons, but we were back the week after and have started a new project on Space. The children are thoroughly enjoying it and so am I.

Each day we set aside time to play puzzles and games. I found a lovely 3D Solar System jigsaw at the charity shop that ties in well with what we are studying.

For my Birthday (yes another one!), we had a family day at Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre. The children were very excited to see the Lovell telescope up close.

 Looking forward to another home schooling year in 2015!

Life Lately

Time has been flying by! Back in November we celebrated Thanksgiving day. The children mapped out the journey made by the Pilgrim Fathers.

 

 



Following that they modelled turkeys out of apples and sweets and made thankful placemats for our special Thanksgiving meal.

 

 

 

The children sewed their own Jesse Trees to go with our December daily Bible readings, which will lead us up to Christmas Day.

 

 

Each day after we have read the Bible verses, the children make their own ornament to hang on their tree with drawings to help them remember the story.

 

 

The days are getting colder and much to the children's delight, we had some heavy hail showers last week.



Tabitha, enjoying the hail storm, was far too excited to remember to put her coat on!!!

Another bonus of the cold days are Christmas hot chocolates after winter walks!

 

 We have enjoyed some special family days out, our favourite being to Ordsall Hall.

 



"For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

 In History the children have moved back onto Ancient History after their WW1 project and are now studying the Romans. 

 

Our very own Roman road.

We had a lovely Christmas home education group meeting where everyone made mini gingerbread houses, lavishly decorated with sweets!

 

 

 We did a family performance of a Christmas song. 

 

We are planning one last week of school work and some cleaning and decluttering, before Elisabeth and Abigail's birthdays and our Christmas break. 

10 Christmas Craft Ideas from the Young Hosannas

1. Felt gingerbread men

2. Hand sewn felt robin in a frame

 



 

3. Stuffed robin

 

4. Hand sewn felt snowman in a frame

 



 

5. Stuffed snowman

 

 

6. Felt Christmas trees

 

 

7. Lollipop stars

 

 

8. Clay stars

 

 

9. Nativity sun catcher

 

 

10. Bible verse paintings

 

 

 

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:

and the government shall be upon his shoulder:

and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God,

The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

Isaiah 9:6

 

Do You Want To Sew A Snowman?

For a craft activity at our next home education group we are making felt snowmen.

If you would like to make your own with your child, here's how...

 



Place your background piece of felt into your embroidery hoop. If possible, buy the decorative hoops that have a handle so that your embroidery can be hung afterwards.

 



 

Cut out your snowman shape using white felt.

 

 

Sew the snowman on to the background felt using a running stitch like this - - - - - - - - -

If necessary, stick it down first with a piece of double sided tape to stop it moving around when the child is sewing it. Be prepared to re-thread the needle about 20 times!

Cut out and sew on any accessories you want your snowman to wear e.g. hat and scarf.

 



 

Sew on buttons. We used a piece of orange pipe cleaner for the carrot nose. You can buy stick on felt buttons from the Pound shop to make it a bit easier for little ones.

Add the snowman's arms. We used a brown Sharpie pen to draw them on, but you could cut them out of felt and sew on or even sew on little twigs.

 



Trim the excess felt neatly off from around the ring and there you have your own embroidered snowman. A perfect Christmas gift!

 

 

I'm linking this post up at the Tot School Gathering Place (1+1+1=1 blog) and Preschool and Kindergarten Community (Homeschool Creations blog)

Our Year in Blog Posts!

I have really enjoyed my first full year of blogging. It is lovely to be able to look back at what the children have achieved over the year and all the different places we have visited.
Here is our year in blog posts!

 

 

We welcomed our fifth child, baby Elisabeth into our family just before Christmas last year.

 

We got out and enjoyed the snow in January and I blogged on some of our favourite things, Postal Bible School and Morning Bible Time.

In February we completed our House Project and I blogged about the children's favourite lesson of the week, history with their Daddy!
 

 

 

Nathanael turned 6 in March and we celebrated with a trip to Legoland Discovery Centre. He also had fun making a lapbook on Cowboys.

In April we worked on our Spring project

 

and in May we completed our science unit on the Human Body.

 

 

We had a lovely family day in June to the beach in North Wales and this inspired a mini project on Jellyfish.

 

 

Miriam turned two in July and we enjoyed our best day out of the year to Formby beach. Daddy and Nathanael spent some special time together on a Father and Son camping trip.
 

 

Tabitha was very excited to turn 5 in August and she competed an All About Me lapbook and Abigail made an ABC lapbook. I also posted on our Curriculum for 2013-2014.

 

In September we had a few days away at a Christian Home Educators holiday in Wales and when we returned the children started a new Ancient History unit and we had a trip to the Ancient World's Exhibition at the Manchester museum.

 

In October we had a Windy Day, completed a project on Autumn, took Paddington to see the sights of Stockport and I wrote a post on days out in and around Manchester with children.

 

In November we started our science unit on Water and I blogged about sewing with young children.

In December Elisabeth turned one and Abigail four. I attempted to write a post a day on Christmas crafts, and failed miserably!
 

 

What a year! Not every day has been blog worthy; we have had our ups and downs and challenges along the way, but God has been good and we are very blessed.
 Looking forward to 2014.





^"It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him."
Lamentation 3:22-24