Homeschoolers Co-Op

For those who don't know us we have a homeschoolers co-op where the children get together once a week and explore different mediums and play, and learn and listen to stories and do experiments, and bake and have outings together. Here we were at a clay day and a park day. Many people seem concerned about homeschooling children being "socialized" but my findings when I was researching the homeschooling option was that, in general the homeschooling children were better socialized, and more polite than their school-going counterparts, and able to socialize appropriatetely with children accross the age spectrum. Ofcourse these children are being brought up by families living in the city and are exposed to sports, culture, friendships, co-ops, clubs and more. Anyway we enjoy going to our co-op.

Glitter Christmas cards.

So we made some Christmas cards, but didn't get our act together to post them! Ok, my excuse is pregnancy brain and severe nausea.

We made star stamps out of foam , but you can push a star cookie cutter into a potato for similar effect. Dipped them in glue and stamped them then threw glitter all over the place and let them dry.

Voila - sparkly christmas cards! Easy enough for really little ones to join in.

Nature Table

On our nature table at the moment we have decided to go for a display. We have included some the that wildlife pamphlets we got at the Garden Route Game Reserve, a puzzle, a slide viewer of wildlife, and a beautiful reference book from Little Footprints. This "display" was inspired from my dear friends christmas table at Dawn in the Home

Candy canes and snowmen

We made these from Crazy Clay, which is expensive but I bought the red and white pack refill from the local Pick n Pay and we rolled them together this morning. Both the boys loved this activity and my younger went on to design some "abstract" christmas decorations too. They will be dry and ready for hanging in the morning.

Our new pool

So we didn't get our act together to get plans passed this summer for a pool, so be bought a really big porta-pool. It is fabulous and the boys swam in it this morning in the rain!

Felt Advent Calendar

Because we don't do chocolates, sweets, chemicals, colourants and all the other things that come with normal shop-bought advent calendars, I decided to make a calendar from felt that can be used again and again. I took all my felt scraps to make the pockets, glued on foam numbers I found at a sewing shop and used embroidery thread to sew around each pocket. It is delightfully colourful and each morning the boys rush through to get their card in there, which I have posted the night before. We made the cards up together and they range from; visiting a friend to a new chritmas story book, an outing, a picnic, a special game or stickers.

It has worked really well so far.

Felt Boxes at Craft group

So this was the outcome of our last craft group. These amazing little craft boxes can be used for anything. They are super easey to make. You need natural felt (it is thicker than synthetic felt) and material and embroidery thread and needle to complete this little project. For more info on making this and other material boxes with tutorials go to this link at whipup