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Showing posts from December, 2015

Free Craft Room Printable

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In between parenting and packing boxes, I've been creating stuff for the new house.  Here's a poster that I made tonight.  I think it will be a fun addition to my craft space and yours as well. To download, click here .

Knit Baby Doll Bed

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Note: This post was written in November to be posted after Christmas (so as to not ruin the surprise). Dragonfly has been doing more pretend play lately, especially "mommy" pretend play.  It think she might finally be ready for some baby doll accessories. The baby is the Melissa and Doug "Gabrielle" doll ( here ).  The hat came with the doll but the sleep sack was sewn by me.  I bought a newborn onesie from Goodwill, cut the snaps off the bottom, and added an elastic casing.  It's just long enough for this 12" doll. To Knit a Moses Bed: Unfortunately, this is going to be more of a "suggestion" than a pattern.  Start with some yarn and some needles.  I used a pair of straight and a pair of cabled circulars.  They could be the same needle size but they don't really need to be- I used a pair of size 8 straights and a pair of size 10 circulars.  Using a provincial cast-on, pick up the number of stitches you need to get the length of bed y

Printable Travel Journal

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I love Travel Time Tuesday so much that I've decided to give it it's own blog!  It'll take me awhile to transfer everything, but all my future travel posts will now be on the new site-  Party Through the USA .  This blog will now be only for homeschooling and parenting stuff, and all the road trip ideas, free travel printables, and DIY toys will be on the new blog. Click on the Picture to Visit the Post

k is for king (year 2, week 16)

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Merry Christmas!  I thought we'd spend this week focusing on the Wise Men (who visited Jesus) and add in a bit of fairy tale fun.  With that in mind, here's what I had planned on for the week. Printables: - King Me file folder game - ruler of the ruler math activity - key match math - medieval printables Ideas: - orange pomanders - gift wrapping practice - clipping clothespins on a gift box - styrofoam ball ornaments - make-your-own-perfume activity - smelling bottles - grating cinnamon - patterns with jewels - sorting jewels - covering the letter with jewels - gold sensory bin - Christmas smells sensory experience Even though Mommy did very little school with them this week, the kids did their own activities.  One of their favorites was "gift giving."  They would find a random box, stuff some toys into it, and gift it to a family member.  It was a great chance to practice grace and curtsy in the giving and receiving of gifts.  Sometimes, the c

How Does the Four Gifts Rule Work?

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Our family does "the four gift rule" for Christmas presents- "something I want, something I need, something to wear, something to read."  I really enjoy this way of organizing presents, because I feel it makes the gift giving simple and easy to track.  Mainly for our benefit, but perhaps for someone else's enjoyment, here was our list for the year. *Prices to show items bought on sale* Bullfrog Want- Star Wars bathroom supplies Need- 500 count sheets (reg $75, sale $23) Wear- Sriracha t-shirt and beanie Read/Watch- DVD Stocking - toothbrush - spicy snacks - candy - coffee bar Dragonfly Want- Melissa and Doug doll and DIY moses bed with blanket Need- DIY circle skirt, DIY hat, and sippy cup Wear- foot pjs Read/Watch- Polar Express Blu-Ray (reg $27.98, sale $7.99) Stocking - doll bottle - pink dress-up mask (DIY) - Frozen characters - toothbrush - princess fan w/candy - candy Skimmer Want- stuffed Olaf (reg $17.99, sale $8.95) and DI

Free Star Wars Printable

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In honor of the new Star Wars movie and my house move, I've made the free printable.  It prints as a 8x10.  I prefer to print it on cardstock at a copy and print center such as Staples.  I plan on using this printable in my new master bathroom (yes, I'm that nerdy). To download, click here .

n is for night/nutcracker/nativity/nocturnal (year 2, week 15)

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I've decided to continue presenting my finding and plans for Mommy School even though we didn't do any of it this week.  I'm not sure how much "schooling" we'll be doing for the next few months as we buy a house and move.  Here are some of the things I had found to do this week: Nocturnal: - 3-part nocturnal animals cards - nocturnal vs diurnal animal sorting cards - bat activities - night and day animals (video) - nocturnal animal sensory bin Nutcracker: - dance of the sugar plum fairy played on glasses (video) - free preschool pack - ballet preschool pack - Nutcracker Montessori activities - Nutcracker 3-part cards - how nutcrackers are made (video) - Nutcracker matching game - snowflake ballerinas Nativity: - Silent Night copy work - n is for nativity craft Night: - starry play dough - n is for night activities Follow In Our Pond's board "n is for night" on Pinterest.

Free Laundry Sign

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Preparations for our new house continue.  I've been cleaning, organizing (more on that later), purging, and crafting.  I designed this free printable sign to go in our new laundry room.  I love this quote because it reminds me that thankfulness is a choice.  The second half of the quote, which I chose not to include for spacing reasons, says that someday the laundry baskets will be empty because the family will be grown.  It's a reminder to enjoy the days I have now- they won't last forever.  To download it, click here .

c is for cookie (year 2, week 14)

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We're still busy with the move (of course).  Even still, we've done a few things this week.  Our theme was "c is for cookies." Tadpole enjoyed stacking the pink tower this week.  He learned that he could stack them better if he started with the bigger blocks and then added the smaller ones.  He hasn't placed them biggest to smallest yet. He really enjoyed putting them back in the storage bag when he was finished.  The blocks are packed now for our next house. I found these 18" felt gingerbread men at the dollar store.  They came with cut out pieces of felt to decorate them with.  We ended up having to hot glue the pieces on.  The kids have enjoyed playing with them. I loved how each of the kids wanted to decorate their gingerbread men in their own way.  They were so proud of their work. Dragonfly has been tying knots in everything lately.  This is the medical tubing for my nebulizer.  At least it's easy to pick out.  Perhaps she'll

Family Brain Binder (free printable)

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I'm starting to organize the items on my to-do list .  I've made the "Family Brain Binder" top priority, mostly because it's easy.  I started with a $1 "Better" binder from Staples and a few packs of half-size page protectors from Walmart.  I designed my binder cover, which you can download  here .  I also printed a few handy things from other blogs, like a calendar ( here ) and a birthday tracker ( here ).  Both blogs have lots of planner printables to satisfy even the most OCD person. I don't usually cook with recipes, but I have a few baking ones that I like to have on hand.  I was able to print them from a cooking website by setting the margins so the text was as wide as a half-page.  It's not beautiful, but it's good enough for the couple times a year that I need those recipes.  I still need to type up a few other recipes, but those can be done later. I also need to update our family emergency information and phone number lists.  I

Ten Things I Need to Organize

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As we're preparing to move houses, I have quite a few organizational projects on my list.  Look for posts in the near future detailing how I've solved my issues. Issue #1- The DVDs.  Right now, they're in a bunch of zippered cases.  The problem is that no single disk has a specific home so *you* must search through every case to find the movie you want.  Our most frequently used movies are in a pile on top of the DVD player.  It's always a mess. Issue #2- The Devices.  I recently labeled the cords to match the devices.  For now, the devices sit in a wood box on top of the microwave.  When we move, the same set-up will probably not work any longer.  My hope is to find an enclosed system that will protect our devices from gross things (if we locate it in the kitchen) and keep them out of sight. Issue #3- The Launch Pad.  At this house, our launch pad is a basket by our main door that hangs on a little shelf.  The shelf has cup hooks for our keys, and the

b is for babies (year 2, week 13)

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For our first week of Christmastime learning, we're focusing on babies, human and animal, with a touch of mammals vs non-mammals.  We also started our "Countdown to Christmas" with a story a night from the Jesus Storybook Bible. We've been reading the Jesus Storybook Bible.  The cards are free. So, um, this week didn't go at all like planned.  I've been packing and organizing and purging for our upcoming move.  We've been working with our realtor to put an offer on a house.  Since I've done all the planning, here's what I've found (and the books we read this week). source Books: - 15 Things Not to do with a Baby - Father and Son: a Nativity Story - Little One, We Knew You'd Come - The Life Cycle of a Human - Song of the Stars Printables: - path to Bethlehem game - mammals vs non-mammals sorting game - miniature matching cards for mammals - fetal development 3-part cards - mommy's and babies around the world -

A Christmas Cookie Printable

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I wish I had something amazing to write about this printable.  It's pretty straightforward.  Print the two pages and attach a paper clip to the pie graph to use as a spinner.  Have the child spin the paper clip and graph how many times the spinner selects a certain cookie.  Count up the results. To download, click here.

One Quick Organizational Project

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I have run into this idea on Pinterest several times.  Every time I saw it, I thought that it was a good idea, but I never did anything about it.  With the move coming up soon, I've finally done it. It was so simple to organize my cords with washi tape.  I taped charge cords, electronics, and wall chargers with matching tape.  It look me probably 20 minutes to round up the majority of our devices and cords and tape them.  I really wish I had done it earlier.  The cheerful tape patterns make me smile every time I look at them and the tape means that finding a charge cord is now a 15 second problem instead of a constant headache. The power strip I am featuring in my post is one of my favorite things in our house.  It has both regular electric plugs and USB plugs.  Someday, I'd like to add the USB wall outlets, but this power strip is working very well in our rental house.  You can find it for purchase on Amazon. I hope to do a few more organizational posts in the next fe