Merry Christmas to all my friends and family who visit me here.
Safe travels. Be thankful. Have hope. Take joy.
Remember to see things through the eyes of a child.
Lynn
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What’s going on here? My two youngest are toasting marshmallows in the kitchen over a candle. “It’s okay,” they said, “daddy’s been letting us do this all afternoon.” (Don’t worry. They’re well supervised.)
My two littlest were chatting and carrying on as if around a real campfire, but without all the hassle. Carry on! Lynn Here is probably my favorite right now.
Yes, this book has so much in it. Everything from “The Greatest Paper Airplane in the World” to “Latin Phrases Every Boy Should Know.” The book starts out:
And so we are hoping our boys (and our girl) will pick this book up and learn to appreciate the simple, vital things in a boy’s life. This book has many “boy” things in it, such as artillery history, how to build a tree house, how to make a battery, and stories of courage — as in the Wright brothers and Robert the Bruce, but it also has lessons on grammar and Latin phrases, of course something boys should know, but how often do you see grammar paired with boyish, ”dangerous” things? Prepare yourself. This book has the 10 commandments in it. It’s a book I think every homeschool library needs. Who wrote it, you ask? Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden, “two men who would have given away the cat to get this book when they were young.” Lynn Why, no! My husband was the recipient this Christmas of a gift card from a client. It was a Barnes and Noble gift card for 100 dollars. (Be still my beating heart!) There was a message in the card attached. Apparently the gift-giver and my husband had agreed upon something that some others thought was incorrect: one can never have too many books. So I married the right man. In our home, there’s a certain sight that makes my heart glad. It’s children reading books.
Anyway, I want to share some of the books we bought for our children for Christmas and why. Here begins a series of book reviews over the next few days. Lynn I walked into the thrift store on my break last night and I am so glad I did. Yes, we buy some new stuff for our children for Christmas. ~:-D In addition, though, I always look for quality used items that would be good to stuff the Christmas stockings with. We shop the thrift store year-round, why stop at Christmas? As well, I refuse to go in debt for Christmas. Debt is such a curse in this country, and I know first-hand how stressful it is to try and climb out from under it. Credit is so alluring, but the consequences can be painful.
I found some nearly new T shirts that my boys will love – 1$ apiece. I found four movies that Princess of the Universe will love. I found a box of blocks that she will love, too. Especially since they are getting three large (NEW — LOL) containers of Fiddlestix in Canister, 144 Pieces One book is My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States
The other is The Handy Science Answer Book (The Handy Answer Book Series)
I mean, we are unschoolers when it comes to science. I have Apologia Biology on CD, which we use as an excellent reference, but mostly we read books and learn science from real life. This new book, though… If we learn just what is in this book, we will have enough knowledge to easily give a credit for all three sciences my son needs to graduate. (I already have a page on our website about our credit for biology.) Anyhoo, I am so excited about my stocking stuffers. For 16 dollars, I got probably 200 dollars worth of stuff for Christmas. Happy Frugal Shopping, When you go thrift store shopping, always look at things with an eye for what they could be in your doll house. Crocheted pot holders make great doll house blankets.
This is a nice, crocheted pot holder but look how warm it keeps Strawberry Shortcake!
Trivets made from various textiles make great rugs!
This bright yellow trivet makes a great rug in our doll house.
The great thing is that most things like this only cost about a quarter. It does not have to be expensive to have a great doll house. Teach your daughter to bargain shop for her doll house just like we bargain shop for our real houses! Lynn I bought something that I am so excited about. Well, you’ve already read the title of my post, so you know what it is. ~:-D I was very happy to see that the complete Christy TV series is now on DVD. It’s a GREAT price. If you have not seen Christy before, it’s a very clean series of shows that aired on TV in the 1990s. The location is beautiful. Of course, being the Appalachian mountains, how could it not be? Kellie Martin is great as Christy Huddleston, and I really like Tyne Daly in her role as Miss Alice. And who can resist the constant wondering whether Christy loves David or Dr. McNeill? I love the clothing that Miss Christy Huddleston wears. It’s so old-fashioned and beautiful. I love the long hair styles, too. Anyway, if you are studying the Appalachian mountains, as we did with The Rag Coat
Miss Priss and I just watched the pilot episode. Lynn My daughter and I made some clay tonight so that we could make doll accessories for her doll house. First you put in 2 cups of plain flour. Feel free to get the flour on your hands!
Then you add 1/2 a cup of salt.
Next, you add 3/4 cup of water…
…and mix.
This will make a very thick, sturdy clay that you can mold into small accessories for your doll house. We used toothpicks for modeling tools. At one point our clay got so dry that it was hard to make the items we wanted without the dough cracking. We each wet our hands, slung the extra water off, and worked the clay with our damp hands. This helped a great deal.
We have a set of canisters, a mantle clock, a round tray, a container with a lid, a candlestick holder, a box that we’ll surely find a use for, and what will be a bag of flour for the kitchen. Place the items on a baking tray and bake at 350 degrees until the clay is hard. Test carefully, supervise children, don’t get burned. Small pieces will burn quickly, so watch closely. Some thicker pieces may take up to half an hour or so. Tomorrow we will paint the pieces with acrylic gesso, let dry, and then decorate with acrylic paints. I’ll show you what we end up with! Lynn PS – This is how they ended up:
can be tedious, to say the least, but it is also a lot of fun. Our holiday picture is different every year, mainly because we use our digital camera in a home setting. For our picture this year, we took the kids outside (it’s cold — brrrrrr) and lit an oil lamp for effect, pulled the potted rosemary up close and put the kids on the front steps to get them all level. It’s not quite the effect I was aiming for, and I would have tried a few more things, but the children really were quite finished with it after several shots. Happy HolidaysOverall, it’s really us, and I think it’s fine! Lynn I was so stunned. My daughter asked me to come look at her room last night so she could show me what she had done. Granted, we cleaned her room up together a few days ago, but I really think my being up there daily and playing dolls with her has helped her to take a new interest in keeping her room presentable.
It looked so sweet! Like a HUGE stuffed animal family. ~:-D
And she insisted that I give her the camera to hold at arm’s length to get a picture of us together in her room…
Lynn |
I am the mother of four delightful children: a 23-year-old son, a 20-year-old son, a 17-year-old son, and a bright and bubbly 13-year-old daughter. I share an apartment home with my 17-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. My little home on the internet is called Rose Cottage because of my love for gardening, roses, and all things romantic and Victorian. Welcome. I'm a North Carolina girl and I love sharing North Carolina links and information. I do medical transcription from home. My hobbies include making sweet little dolls from clay who are named and have their own stories to tell. I also make old-fashioned brooches. These are for sale in my Etsy shop. For 13 years continuously, I homeschooled some or all of our four children, but the time came that our homeschool had to be closed. It was the end of a beautiful chapter in my life. I will always be a strong supporter of homeschooling and I will continue to review books and maintain my homeschool website, The Healthy Homeschool.    
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.
I would
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for Christmas. I found them for an unbelievable price at 
.
.
; Down, Down The Mountain; and, 
, you might want to look into getting the Christy TV series on DVD.
for you to leave a comment, but you can also e-mail me at lynn AT thehealthyhomeschool.com
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