A Number Rhyme

One, two, three, four, Mary at the cottage door . . .

Five, six, seven, eight, eating cherries off a plate!

This was a favorite rhyme for some of our kids; we used it in a preschool notebook that we went through in the early mornings.  Number rhymes are a good way for young children to learn counting, and when a picture is added too, numeral recognition can also start to happen.

The picture page above is from Preschool Beginning Notebook Pages Set I, an ebook with 15 print-out pages.  Am hoping to have Set II completed this summer, and have already started making the pages.

Using a read-through preschool notebook (with pages that changed now and then, according to interests and needs) was one of the things I really enjoyed when my kids were young, and I know they liked it a lot, too.

Musical Containers

Know any small angels who are in need of a harp?  How about one of these rubberband harps?  They are easy to make, and a fun activity for kids (of any age).

I was experimenting with these homemade harps because I needed a craft for a Sunday School lesson about David the Shepherd.

It's interesting to try out different thicknesses of rubberbands and see what different sounds can be made.  Also, you can try different containers.  I found that a really nice sound came from using a shallow microwave potato dish (see photo below) with SMALL rubberbands (so they will be fairly tight).

The big styrofoam tray (far back in the photo at the top) makes a deeper sound-- this could be a science experiment, too.  If you use a larger countainer, you need longer rubberbands, and vice-versa-- if they're too loose you will not get a musical tone.

The sound these harps make is fairly soft (you don't have to worry about this activity making "too much noise!") but you can get a range of tones, and the container-harps are fun to make and play-- plink plink, plunk!

Remodeling in Progress!

     This afternoon I'll be revising all 20 files for ebooks that are offered on our website.  They all need to have a different website URL put in, as we are changing ours (to www.gentleshepcurr.com).  Have been working on a website remodel, and over several months, have migrated our content over to a Weebly site.  You can see it up now, though I still have a couple of bugs to work out here and there.

     I'm excited about this move, because being on Weebly is FREE (no cost at all to set it up or maintain it, other than a domain name fee) and that means it will be easier for us to stay there indefinitely.  It also has a nice crisp look, and Weebly is really easy to work with, to put content on (if you've ever wanted to make a website for ANYTHING, this is a great wizard to experiment with!).

     The one downside to this move is that we will no longer have automatic delivery of ebooks-- when people order, we'll need to send them the ebooks after we receive payment from PayPal; a PayPal shopping cart is part of what Weebly offers, which is GREAT!  We have been using it already, but our former cart was pretty fancy and also handled doing automatic downloads of eproducts.

     OK... time to get to work on those file revisions . . . come visit the new site, and tell me what you think!  Let me know if you find any missing links or other problems, too-- THANKS A LOT; for a day or two we'll still have both sites up.  Then, the former URL (www.gentleshepherd.biz) will become a redirector to the new site.

Math With Fred

This morning James and I were reading his math lesson.  He's using Life of Fred textbooks, and is over half-way through the decimals book.  Just recently he started asking me to go through the lessons with him, even though they're written TO kids to read on their own (they are also written in a way that encourages kids to do all the correcting-- it's great!).  I'm not sure if he's asking me to read with him because he's needing help with math or because he wants someone to laugh with him about all the hilarious stories and language in this math textbook.

Huh, math textbooks funny?  Well, yes . . .  I wouldn't have thought so, either, because in my own school years, the textbooks we used for learning math seemed just barely tolerable. In teaching my own kids using many different programs and books, math has continued to seem like a necessary evil . . .

 . . . that is, until Fred came along . . .

Now, math is fun for me.  Not sure if it's always fun for James, as he still has to work all the problems . . . but it is much MORE fun than any other math book or program.

Thanks, Fred, for making math learning much more interesting and enjoyable.

And, you know what, since I've started doing these last few lessons I even remember things like how to find the area of a circle and a triangle-- things I NEVER remembered (beyond about 5 minutes) my whole life, whether in school math classes myself or in teaching math to my own kids.

It's said that laughter is a good medicine.  I think it's a good teacher, too. :)

Cookie People

These people look like cookies, but they're really going to look like this, when they are finished:

They are felt people, and the group above was set out on the table, getting ready for mass-production!

There are lots of different kinds of people that can be made; here are some more pictures:

"Cookie people" can be made in all sizes and colors, and you could make special figures for historical characters/ occupations, etc.  The body is made from two layers of felt, with a face embroidered (using seed beads for eyes) and the layers sewn together by hand.  This makes the felt figure sturdier than a usual felt board person.  Clothes are then added on front and back (I sew through both front and back at the same time).

These toys can be used for imaginary play, or to tell stories-- either on a felt board, or off it (on your rug/ couch/ table, etc . . .).

For a pattern to make these "cookie people" in a range of sizes, see Fuzzle Family Felt.

There are also some pre-sewn felt people at Fuzzlemania, my new Etsy site (the pattern e-book is available there, too).  Come take a look!

Do you enjoy crafting with felt?  What kinds of things do you like to make?

Felt Creatures

I'm having fun making lots of different felt creatures.  Here is a camel.  You can see some others at the new Etsy shop, Fuzzlemania.

Make Your Own Cleansers and More!

Do you know how vinegar got its name?  How to make your own homemade vapor rub, face scrub, antiseptic ointment, sink and shower cleanser, wood paneling cleaner, silver polish, and stain remover?

Did you know making all these things is a lot easier than you might have expected? That is, if you have some tried and true recipes, like those in this book, to tell you how to do it . . .

Lisa Barthuly has used natural cleaning products and health care/beauty aids with her own family for many years, and has written this very conversational and friendly book, to share her findings with others.

She says, "No need to keep cupboards stocked with a different commercial cleaner for every room, every appliance, every gadget, every surface, every THING at my homestead."

She tells us about some very simple natural ingredients that can be used to work wonders as cleansers and disinfectants.  She also has some great recipes for things like bug repellant and skin lotion.  Lisa offered me a review copy of her e-book, and I was impressed with how much practical info is included; I'm ready to start trying out some of these cleansers and recipes-- we have some sinks with stains, and I want to try that homemade paste that cleans scuff marks and crayons off walls . . .

This book is available in both e-book and printed versions, at www.HomesteadOriginals.com.