"K week"

 This week, because we are preparing to fly up to visit my family, I mainly just did the chalk board and read some books from the library.  The chalk board took at least twice as long this time though for some reason.

Decided to hang the girls chalk boards on the wall too so I used pipe cleaners and twisted them all around so that I could hang them up when the girls were done with their drawing for the week.

The highest one is by my 8 year old and the one bellow that is by the 6 year old (She seems to be the most "into" it at the moment) and the scribbly one is by the 3 year old.  I asked her if I could make a "K" over her scribbles and she said yes.

Close up of the middle child's

kangaroo flying a kite with a King shaped like a "K" by the oldest

I'm trying out my desk by the piano now to open up the dining room.

And the finished chalk board... seems hard to find things that start with "K" and also making it all make sense, so I did a kindergarten class in costumes.

The king is saying "Hark ye kids, I know of a Kraken who tied himself in a knot."  My own opinion about that story is that the Kraken was trying to learn to knit.  :)

 So we talked about silent K words this week and the girls did a bunch of random crafts on their own.  I made cookies and turned it into a lesson on division and subtraction.  The subtraction was everyone's favorite part of that math lesson.

I'm really glad this chalk board is going to stay up for a long time but it took so stinking long... people aren't easy to do in chalk, but I really like how it turned out.

The 6 year old working on her visual journal.  She's painting over the crayon drawing that she did.. a portrait of her pink bunny she said.

 The other super fun thing we did this week was learning how to start our own visual journals.  My mother-in-law had taken a class on it and gave us some basics about it and we took off.  Gathering everything we could and making a mess of our books so that they will be ready for the trip (and journaling.)  I was feeling exceedingly energized and creatively renewed by doing this.  Random doodling and no pressure art of whatever I wanted in a book where "there are no mistakes.. it all goes."  Folding, tearing, punching, painting, letting the 3 year old paint or scribble with me.  It was super fun.

My 3 year old was especially impressed when I decided to pull out my old fingernail polish to paint up the pages with too.  It worked great though it made the house pretty stinky.

Here's the page I was working on in the last picture.  It's "done" except that of course I'll be journaling on it!  Maybe about something someone likes or just something about each person, but most of it is water color and just the sandals and toenails are the fingernail polish paint (with a few splatters here and there for effect) so I have lots of places I could write on it.  The part I'm holding in the middle is a mesh bag that had been holding the Kiwi I'd bought this week.  I sewed it to a page so that it could lay over one side and protect the pages from getting stuck together.  Anyway, just wanted to post this in case someone else is wanting to get their creative juices flowing. 

She painted on the fingernails of her traced hand.

We had some Kiwi this week and Kale chips (the Kale chips are a favorite of ours.)

And while I SHOULD have been doing something to get ready for the trip I suddenly was so excited about covering my exercise ball that I "Knit bombed" it!  Yep.. I'd knitted a super long rainbow colored blanket (garter stitch) a while back and it was the perfect size to wrap around the ball.  Note all the felt and junk on the floor.. ONE morning I tell you of my kids crafting and it gets like that!  And this was a lighter day.

 If anyone wants to do this too you might be able to find an afghan or something already made to sew on.  I hand sewed (with yarn and a yarn needle) the seems to make it fit right and left part of it un-sewn (though that part of it butted up nicely to itself) and then deflated the ball halfway (yes just do it right on the ball) sewed the seams on the machine and cute off the extra (you have to sew it on the machine so it doesn't unravel) then flip it right side out and stuff the ball back inside.  Pump up the ball and all you have left to do is use the yarn needle and yarn to stitch up the part you left undone.  I'd thought of putting a zipper in, but decided to use brown yarn to stitch it up so I could see it well enough to just cut the one section of yarn when I need to take it out again.

I'm just so excited about this.  It makes me smile every time I see it.  I'm wondering what old sweaters that I never wear anymore could be turned into a knit bomb somewhere else.  :)

I found this at the library for this week (among others) and it was a cute story.  Stories about Kitten's and Kings were popular choices for our "k week"

THIS show came in super handy while I was trying to go through all the kids clothes to pack and prepare our projects and so forth to take on vacation with us.  My oldest especially loves learning all the facts about different animals.  It's on Netflix instant right now, but we also found a bunch of new episodes that the girls hadn't seen on Youtube.

Just a jot for "J week"

I forgot to add jingle bells to this.. but.. oh well, it has enough in it.  I'm not great at scenes with angles like this so I asked my husband to help with some of the basics and he did most of the jeep too.

After a few days my older girls suddenly said, "We forgot to put Jonathan on the chalk board!"  Jonathan is their uncle and my little brother who is very special to them so we added him jogging.  I didn't quite have room to write "Join the jog with Jonathan".. it's amazingly harder to write with chalk than it is to draw with it.  Also, I wanted to write "Jelly Fish Justice" like it was "Jaws" or something scary.. made me laugh, but ran out of room with that too.

A random moment from our school day.  Playing some "coolmath.com" logic and strategy games.

Sewing juggling balls out of felt!

Ta da!  She is also making her own design that is a heart instead of a ball.

Trying to juggle!

You have to start with one and be able to catch it!

And here's my unflattering picture while juggling too!  Yes, I'm the only one in the family that can juggle.  The Daddy has been practicing this week though and is up to 5 tosses I think.  I drop them a lot, but I can do it relatively decently.

We've been enjoying this candle often.  In the mornings especially when we eat breakfast and I sometimes read to the girls at the table while they roast mini marshmallows over it.  :)

 This week (after a Monday with a super cranky 3 year old) I was taking note of our "low tech Tuesdays" and how they effected the girls moods and mine and how taking all the screens away (even from myself) for one full day a week for 3 weeks in a row just helped me see where we needed to keep them off and when it was a good time for them to be on.  The girls didn't like the new plan of not getting to watch any cartoons in the morning before school time, but it has been so helpful this past week.  No more bleary eyes and tiredness before the day even starts!  No more whining and begging to watch something (at least not as much since there's a very specific time when they can have the screen on.)  I don't know that we are doing more school type things, but I think their minds are less distracted and they are free to begin the day with their own creativity and imagination rather than being imposed on by someone elses.  Each day this past week has rolled along more smoothly and felt like less of a struggle.  The plan now is that from about 3 to 6 is the only time we get to have shows on or video games.  That would include my own stuff too like old movies or musicals that I like to turn on when I'm sewing and want to listen to something while I work.  It's a nice little girls time of snuggling or resting or playing Super Mario together.  Anyway, this rolling through the day of chore time and then brunch and school and reading out loud and projects and so on that we do through the day wouldn't work for everyone, but my goal is to give them space to be creative and a framework to learn in (where the workboxes and chores come in) and enough fun and rest to keep our days enjoyable and with as little stress as possible.

We had to make "Flap JACKS" one day of course to go along with "J week"

My 8 year old has been going to town sewing and crafting this week.  The 6 year old is following right along and I've been just trying to stay available for when they need a thread tied or a hole mended while I try to make the equivalent stuffed animal for the 3 year old so that she can join in the play when everything is sewn.

" Crafty Creatures " is the name of the book we are using from the library.  LOTS of fun animals to make.  Some out of felt and some knitted and some sewn by hand or on a machine.

I also got some random pictures of where our cat "Fluffy" enjoyed hanging out.

Ridiculously comfortable.  ;)

Some of the juggling balls that we made and filled with beans or rice or lentils.  The heart was made by the 6 year old and the ball on the right was by the 8 year old.  I had to go over the seams when they were done to make sure there weren't holes for the rice to slip out, but they sewed all of it before I re-enforced it at the end.

She doesn't even care that someone put a fabric hat on her with scraps.  Oh, and see that blue cat-shaped pin cushion?  My oldest made that as well.  I love it!  She now has her own pin cushion.

Some school time play with the 3 year old was invaded by the cat who didn't even mind when we put the felt dolls on her like she was part of the back ground.

Making some yarn octopi while the cat looks on.  She was a little too interested in the yarn actually.

The one that I made for my littlest with her choice of yarn.

The 6 year old showing off her creation.  The girls all named their octopus a "J" name.  This one's name was "Jelly" I think. 

And someone was sitting on my computer and checking out the fish. 

 Note the ladder in the background of that picture?  We had workers in our house all week fixing a leak that they've tried to fix before and have never fully gotten totally fixed.  Turns out they had to pull out the whole tub and re-tile all the tile and fix the floor to get it finally right.  The tub wasn't level and it moved slightly so the grout between the tile was cracking and the corner of the floor that was the lowest had all the water filtering down to that spot that created a leak that dropped down into the dining room.  I've been having to deal with this for a full year and got pretty tired of having to keep bringing this SAME problem up.  Hoping this is the last time I'll be without the use of the tub for days on end.  *blah*  Also, stressful having people in and out of the house while I'm trying to do our normal stuff.  The mess from all the crafts was something I was constantly having to tidy up and the mess from the workers was another thing I was having to clean up every day as well.  Grout stuck on someones shoe that they'd tracked up my carpeted stairs?  *groan* Vacuum, sweep, mop, too many times every day.

The little introverted snuggly shy 3 year old was stressed out the first day especially with 3 workers coming in and out so I made her a little tent with the rainbow blanket so she could listen to books on cd while her sister crafted.

Peek! 

My oldest didn't stop sewing basically and the middle one went from sewing some to playing some and the little one just wanted to keep playing with someone.  :)

A moment from their workboxes.  This was actually the 6 year olds, but they kept joining in with each other's workboxes and so, hey, they got twice the amount of practice done right?  This is a fun card thing from the dollar tree where you just match up the three card puzzle and read the three letter word then flip them over and read the sentence.  We also changed it up when they were playing with the puzzles and making the dog "shorter" by taking out the middle - now read the sentence and see if it makes sense? 

Physical movement is so undervalued in our school systems, but balance and hand eye coordination is so important in a child's development.  Here the girls are doing "Wii fit plus" that we have and it's on their workbox schedule that after they do their three boxes for the day they get to do a little "bonus" thing and it's either the Wii fit or leapster Explorer, Coolmath.com or tag reader games on their tag maps.  All great learning or review that is fun and something they can do on their own. 

My three year old in the picture before this was stepping on the Wii board to make the bike peddle while my oldest was steering for her (She's a little too young to do both yet) so that they can collect all the flags on the Wii island.  Working together is a pretty big deal in our days and in everything we do.  We take turns or find a way to compromise or work together, but our house is too small to let any fights simmer for long.

Another sewing project.  Fabric ponies that you can doodle on with permanent markers.

She was so delighted to get to scribble on her own and pick out the eyes (she loves the really big buttons!) So even though I made this for her technically it was her very own creative choices-- and her own scribbles.  ;)

Playing with the cat, random moment.  ;)

One morning when I took out the garbage I found this giant box by the dumpster and it still looked clean and fine so I brought it back where the girls quickly turned it into a club house and played in it for at least an hour.  Hey, being crafty doesn't have to be expensive. 

It started to rain so the box came inside and then turned into a covered wagon like in the "Little house on the prairie" books that I'm reading out loud to them.... only this one is being pulled by a smart car that only the three year old can fit into... she liked the wheel that I made for her because she could turn it.  

The one on the left was the one I had fun making.  Her name is "chocolate truffles" or just "Truffles" for short, and the one on the right is the 3 year old's who she named "Zoo zoo".. it was fun to finally get to do the fun creative part of making something finally!  I'd only been helping and helping them all week so I got a little crazy doing the doodles on the doodle elephant since I finally got to go with my own ideas.

the 6 year old's is on the left and the 8 year old's is on the right.  Note though that I sewed the left one on the machine and the one on the right was all done by hand without ANY help from me AT ALL.  She cut out her own pattern by tracing it from the book and sewed it and flipped it and stuffed it and sewed on the eyes and threaded her own needles and tied her own knots.  I can see her skills and mind growing as she keeps at these things.  Soon, we will be lacking in the stuffing and felt supplies but they've gained a LOT of skills that many people don't possess.. not to mention some fun toys to play with. 

The 6 year old's chalk board choice for this week to match the letter.

Oh right.. "J week"  .. I'm afraid I didn't take many pictures of "J" things, though we did throw the juggling balls around a lot and even in time to each other.  We listened to music often this week...even some Jazz which goes too.  We read this book of course -- That had some fun "J" word games at the end


 
I didn't get a chance to go to the library for more random books that started with a "J" word because of the workers coming in and out so much, but we are getting caught up reading all the other random library books that I'd gotten from several months before and kept renewing!
There were also a few "J" related things in the middle's workboxes that I failed to photograph, but they are really just wanting to get this week and next over with so they can go to "Lego Land" for "L week!"