Homespun Homeschool: Stringing Beads with Preschoolers

Stringing beads can be a fun activity for kids, but sometimes it’s hard for little hands to direct the beads onto a floppy string.  We've found the perfect solution for preschool kids who want to participate in bead stringing, but can’t quite get the hang of working with the string. 

Pipe cleaners are firm enough so little hands can control them, but flexible so that once the beads are on the pipe cleaner, it can be bent into bracelets and crowns. 

Micah spent almost an hour making all sorts of pipe-cleaner jewelry including bracelets for me, crowns and anklets.    

Primitive Wool Felt Acorns

It was the first day of fall yesterday and the weather here didn't let us forget it.  There was a brisk wind in the air that made me want to put on a sweater. 

This year I plan to keep these hand-sewn, fall acorns out the whole season long to celebrate.  As far as I’m concerned they can stay out from now until Thanksgiving.  These primitive acorns are made of wool felt and stuffed with wool roving.  It warms me up just thinking about these fall, felt acorns. Autumn is a beautiful time of year.  

Tutorial: The Backstitch

Just three years ago I was admiring a friend's hand embroidery work.  The tiny stitches looked so perfect.  I commented that I could never embroider.  I've tried before and it always ends up looking like a mess.

Enter the backstitch.

I'd love to share with you this free little tutorial on how to embroider using the backstitch.  If you don't know this stitch already, be prepared for your life to change.

Backstitch:  It's exactly what it sounds like...an embroidery stitch that moves backward.  A backstitch is quite simple and has helped me improve my embroidery a ton!

Here are the steps:

1. Thread your embroidery floss through your needle and tie a knot at the end of the long tail of the thread.

2. Poke your needle through the back side of the fabric you are about to embroider.  If you have a pattern transferred onto your fabric, start your needle right on the pattern line and gently pull the thread through until it is stopped by the knot at the end of the long tail of your thread. Poke your needle back down through the fabric one stitch length away on the pattern line.  Pull the thread through and make one regular stitch.

This picture shows about three completed stitches.

3. Here’s where the term backstitch starts to make sense. To make your next stitch, poke your needle through the fabric one stitch length ahead of your last finished stitch. Gently pull the thread all the way through the top side of your fabric.

4. To finish the stitch, poke your needle back down through the fabric at the end of your last finished stitch and pull the thread through. You are stitching back, one stitch at a time.

Keep it going all the way around your pattern line until you finish.  You got it!

And what I mean by "be prepared for your life to change," is that after this tutorial, you might know how to do a backstitch. Enjoy.

Lemon-Themed Children's Party

Ev's lemon birthday party was a success.  With some planning and organization, I was able to entertain 13 kids for an hour and a half by myself and all under $25.  Sweet!

How in the world was I able to do it, you might ask?  Let me tell you.

Right next to the front door I had a craft table set up with a simple color, cut, and glue lemon-tree craft. Upon arrival, every kid had something to do.  No one was getting squirrely, waiting around for others to arrive.  This type of activity was a go-at-your-own-pace, start-when-you-get-there activity.  

For those who finished the lemon tree craft early, the next activity was ready to go and also self directed: cereal necklaces. We bought yellow cereal to go with the lemon theme.  Green ribbon was cut, tied and set out ready for kids to get started. Each child strung as many pieces of cereal on the ribbon as they wanted.   

When the kids finished this activity, they went right onto the next.  Our version of a clothespin-in-the-bottle game was set up in two stations.  For this game, instead of clothespins we dropped green and white striped straws into mason jars.  

Just around this time the party goers were finishing up with all three activities.  I gathered everyone together and had them sit on the floor while each person had a go at the pin-the-lemon-slice-on-the-lemonade game. It was great fun and clean up was easy because I used adhesive putty to stick everything to the wall.  After one more party game, the kids wanted cake.

Cake they had!  I had no idea this cake would turn out so huge!  It's a yellow cake with a yummy lemon butter-cream frosting.  And let me tell you, I rejoiced when I was able to get away with a semi-frosted cake. I am loving this trend of not frosting the sides of cakes.  

After cake, Ev opened up her presents and thanked everyone graciously. We sent our guests on their way, but not without stopping by this treat drawer for some Lemonheads and picking a lemon balloon from the ceiling.

The $25 was mostly spent on treats and lemons.  The birthday decorations were homemade, like the felt lemon ornaments on this yellow branch , a birthday embroidery, and a lemon tree birthday crown.  The party games and activities were practically free.  Kids know how to have fun without all the fancy stuff.

After our guests all left I heard Ev say to herself, "This is the best day ever."

Job accomplished.

Small Drawers, DIY Orange Ombre

I received this small chest of drawers as a gift.  The front of each drawer had the same three decals on it: a crown, a meter stamp, and a saying right in the middle.  The quote on the drawers went a little something like this, "If all of your actions are measured in gold, then this quote is way too long for anyone to remember."

I could have been okay with the meter stamp and maybe even the crown, but the quote had to go, especially since it was repeated on each drawer.

So I did a little ombre paint job that seriously took me about 30 minutes.  I used white acrylic paint on the top drawer.  The only orange paint I had was bright orange so I toned it down a bit by mixing in some white for the bottom drawer.  I added a little more white paint to the orange/white paint mixture for the middle drawer.  A couple of coats on each drawer with a clear coat of gloss and the project was finished.

Homespun Homeschool: Petroglyph Field Trip

We took a little field trip to visit the Parowan Gap, a nature-made passageway between two large mountains.  The Parowan Gap is known for its petroglyphs or ancient Native American carvings into the rock mountainside.

After exploring this awesome location where both nature and humans have made their mark, we decided to create our own rock art.

We carved using the tip of long screws.  It was hard and helped us better understand the work that must have gone into the actual petroglyphs.

Here is Micah's rock art.  You can barely see the little guy he carved.  One of the carvings we saw at the Parowan Gap was a little man that looked like he had mouse ears.  Micah decided to do his own interpretation of that carving.  

And Ev decided to use a piece of rock art that we have at home as her inspiration for her own rock art.  

Lemon Tree Felt Birthday Crown

I made this birthday crown for Ev.  It goes along with her lemon party theme.

As I finished her crown I felt gratitude and not because I was done with this project.  In fact, I enjoyed this project.  

I felt gratitude for another reason. While sewing I thought to myself, if I were to purchase a crown like this I might spend between twenty to fifty dollars.   I felt gratitude because I have the ability to give my children gifts that I would want them to have even though our budget doesn't include a fifty-dollar felt birthday crown.  

If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.