Easy Art Project

Here are some fun art ideas for you from a friend of mine that has taught art. Here is one she sent me. Easy First Day Art Project. For boys you could have them draw Medieval shields instead of the flowers. What a neat idea!

We start school this coming week, I am excited, nervous, thrilled and not fully prepared yet...lol. We are in the process of finishing up 4-H records and getting the club scrapbook put together. So lots of stuff to do this Labor Day weekend.

Have a good one!

Picaboo Homeschool Yearbook Review

As members of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew (TOS) we have been privileged to make a homeschool yearbook through Picaboo Yearbooks. (Pronounced PeekABoo).

I'm grinning from ear to ear! I have to say that this was so much fun to make! It might make #1 in our top reviews of the TOS year! Here is the Moe disclaimer for this product. WATCH THE TUTORIAL BEFORE TRYING TO MAKE YOUR YEARBOOK! Have I ever told you that you need to read or watch the instructions for a product before using it? lol...yes I attempted to click around on the Picaboo Yearbooks website and I failed miserably. lol

I have made many photo books in my time using other companies, but I‘ve never thought to make a homeschool yearbook before being given this review opportunity! WOW, the possibilities are endless for the homeschool family! With Picaboo Yearbooks for homeschoolers! there are autograph pages, QR CODES Add video to your printed yearbook pages, and the real plus for us homeschooler is that there is no minimum number of books to order. You can also do an eYearbook for people to view on line. You can even sell your book on your own yearbook store front, customers pay for books and shipping costs directly to the store front. No collecting $$ for the books. Each person that purchases a yearbook from your store front can custom design the cover of their yearbook. PRETTY NEAT! Think fundraiser!! Businesses can even use Picaboo Yearbooks to make customized directories. These can be shipped to schools or individual homes. You get to pick either matte or gloss laminate for the cover. The yearbook that we created for the TOS review contained 20 pages, were 8 1/2 x 11 sized and the cost was $9.49 per book. Additional pages are 22¢ per page and additional personalized pages are 99¢ per page. Shipping cost is $8.99. Here is a link to the ordering page. Click here and then scroll down to the softcover yearbook.

Easy to use design tools--no minimum order--3-week turnaround--free tools & support


(pages from our actual yearbook we made) We added some of our favorite sayings from our school year.

After figuring out the software and making our first Picaboo Yearbook I think that I could probably whip out another yearbook in about an hour if I had my pictures picked out ahead of time. That was the most time consuming part was trying to decided what pictures to use. Since we were doing this as a TOS review we had a set time frame to get our yearbook made. For the normal user like you, pictures can be gathered year round and then added to the yearbook.
 

This is a stock photo from Picaboo Yearbooks and not from our actual yearbook

What this homeschool Momma liked about Picaboo Yearbooks:

1) Love the idea of making a homeschool year book, we did one for junior high. 
2) Once I got the hang of it, I LOVED it.
3) I liked the features of being able to place pictures wherever I wanted on the page, turn them, tilt them etc.
4) This would be INCREDIBLE for co-op groups or homeschool groups to make yearbooks.
5) I liked how you could organized your photos, it made the pages flow a better than trying to remember what you had on which page.
6) Great inexpensive way for schools to create yearbooks.
7) Love how the books come in hardbound or soft cover.
8) Other parties can add photos, so you can have more than 1 person working on the book at a time. GREAT for yearbook clubs.
9) Looks like it would be easy to import many student photos at one time and the program has the ability to sort the photos by grade.
10) You get to pick the number of pages for your book.
11) Great fundraiser ideas for schools, churches, and other groups.
12) The Live Chat that is GREAT! I had to use it for a question and they were very friendly.
13) AWESOME PRICE!
　
What this homeschool Momma did not like about Picaboo Yearbooks:

1) There is a learning curve with this program. WATCH THE TUTORIAL BEFORE TRYING TO MAKE YOUR YEARBOOK!
My student picked up right away on how it all worked, but I needed a bit of a tutorial on it…lol. I have used other photo book makers with no trouble, but this one threw me for a curve…lol. I finally figured it all out and it is actually VERY easy to use. After making our book, I think I could probably whip one out in about an hour if I had my pictures picked out ahead of time. 
2) I wish that the softcover yearbook would open up flat, it does not want to stay open.


Pictures from our actual yearbook and the white page is an autograph page.

What this homeschool student liked about Picaboo Yearbooks:

1) VERY easy to use, I figured it out right away and stared adding pictures. Watch the tutorial videos, they will show you exactly what to do. And be sure to lock your pictures when you are done with each section.
2) LOVED that background choices, sticker options, fonts and colors that I could pick from.
3) I liked how I could move the pictures around easily.
4) I liked how I could change things if I did not like how it looked, after I previewed them.
5) There are some pretty cool stickers, but we decided not to use any (can’t wait to see how the other TOS reviewers used them).

What this homeschool student did not like about Picaboo Yearbooks:

1) I did not realize that I could add a title to my yearbook cover.
2) I did not like the automatic page photo inserter (not sure what to call it) it would cut off part of the pictures and it was easy to miss.

You might wonder what on eart making a yearbook has to do with homeschooling? How to teach yearbook as an elective class. We like history and our school year is historical (yes, sometimes it’s even hysterical as you can see from our Picaboo Yearbooks!) Yearbooks work on art, grammar, spelling, creative writing, organization and many other skills. I think that kids of any age could use this if they know how to use the computer. I would guess ages 10 and up.  We will be making another yearbook for our next school years. I plan to make a yearbook folder on my computer to add miscellaneous picture for our next time we make one.

　

Amazing Craft Room Transformation and a Huge Weight Lifted!

Life can really get in the way of our hobbies and relaxing down time! In the midst of a crazy whole house remodel, being a 24/7/365 caregiver to my sweet Mother before her passing and being a  homeschooling Mom can really create havoc. After my Mother passed away we had 48 hours to clear out her apartment before the end of the month came, so pretty much we just boxed up everything and brought it into my craft room/blogging office. 

 We just kept piling (boxed & unboxed stuff) in more and more of my Mother's belongings into the craft room/blogging office. And even more and more got shoved in there, the furniture went into a storage unit. We had taken moving boxes and just emptied drawers, kitchen cabinets, nightstands, closets etc. With no time to waste we got it all done (rent of $2,500 was due in 48 hours!). I am not sure that I would exactly call it "done" because now the hard part comes, sorting, purging, bill paying, donating, cleaning, crying, aching, sorrow...yes, all those things came about and allowed for healing. 

I was thankful that the homeschool young man spent some time with me over Christmas break digging through things and sorting piles (Keep, Not Sure, Donate, Giveaway, Send to Siblings, Trash, Give to Mom's Friends). I guess the more honest thing was the homeschool young man was my emotional support dog (hahaha, as I lovingly referred to him). He was my pack mule, hauling 30 gallon black trash bags out to the garbage, putting the 30 gallon white trash bags full of keep stuff to another room, hauling the XL moving boxes from U-Haul (BTW those are AWESOME an only cost around .30¢ each!) full of donation items out to a waiting truck and most importantly hugging Mom (me) when I found something that was special to my Mom and I would start crying. Below is a picture of my Mom with her favorite stuffed animal and buddy CHEEZE HEAD.

We got rid of the Donate, Giveaway, Send to Siblings, Give to Mom's Friends, and Trash in short time. It was the tedious sorting that became an exhausting process: what to keep, what else to purge, how long to keep important documents etc. Fast forward to life happening, my dear father-in-law became ill on again and off again and he passed away several months after my Mother did. So again began the process of Keep, Not Sure, Donate, Giveaway, Send to Siblings, Trash, Give to Dad's Friends. My mess in the craft room/blogging office sort of got put on hold for emotional reasons and life happening. 

With this death there was a farm and farm house that we had spent every Christmas of our dating/married life (all but one in which we went to my parents home in Texas that year with our newly adopted baby), we spent every Easter and every Thanksgiving in that house, my husband and all his siblings grew up there, all the grand kids and great-grand kids played there. Here is a photo of the homeschooled young man with his dear Grandpa teaching him about gardening. (sorry it's an old faded picture from a wall calendar that I made for all the grandparents many moons ago).

We enjoyed the beautiful views of the property from the swing, hubby and I spent hours of our dating years and early years of marriage in the machine shed working on Dune Buggy's. There was all that to clean out too, a huge farm machine shed, two car garage and a full basement, not to mention the 5 bedroom house. The siblings all worked together so well to get things under control, purged and sorted. The Lord blessed with the home and property selling very quickly, fast enough to shock everyone in a down housing market!

Moving on into the next phase of my craft room/blogging office clean up, it was daunting to dig through and sort everything. I would start sorting for a few hours and feel like I had made ZERO progress and just made more of a mess of things. I would stop for a few days/weeks and then start again, only to do a few hours, again more of a mess and feeling as though nothing was getting accomplished. Construction dust was all over from our recent remodeling project. It was just a mess and it was mixed in with all my blogging work piles and craft supplies. Something had to be done!

I truly felt that this was just a lost cause. While surfing the Internet the next day I came across a local professional organizing company. This was not just Jane Doe who likes to organize, this was the real deal!!! These people deal with true hoarding situations, situational clutter, bug infested properties,  death clean-outs, real estate staging, they help busy Mom's and kids with tons of toy clutter, and just general home and office organizing. I kept their number for a month or so, thinking, I can do this myself, why pay someone; that is so silly and frivolous to do!

Well, I finally made the call and hired the company for 5 hours, the Lord blessed my efforts of giving in to asking for help and I got 2 organizers for the price of 1. They were training a new gal and she came as a free apprentice. What a blessing! They were so down to earth and non-judgmental. We laughed and had a really good time! It was like having my girlfriends over for a decluttering party. 

You would not believe what we got done in that amount of time. It was scary though, they had a totally different game plan and approach than I was using in my past attempts at getting this mess under control. We started by emptying out the ENTIRE ROOM into my dining room!! So, you could not walk in my dining room, I kept thinking hubby is going to come home for dinner and freak out because the other room had exploded out into the dining room! 

Deep breath here, we then wiped down all the surfaces in the room, walls, windows, floors, baseboards etc. Then decided what furniture would go back in, wiped it all down, placed it back in the room. Then we went item by item and decided if it was TRASH, KEEP, DONATE, NOT SURE. They brought these huge black construction size trash bags and they even had cute shopping bags with handles for the donate items. We also utilized one of my all time favorite things; the curb side FREE pile (everything disappeared within 30 minutes of being drug out of the house!)

See how the room is really shaping up? I'm tellin' ya, call a professional, don't be embarrassed, do it NOW!!! CALL NOW OPERATORS ARE STANDING BY! CALL NOW! 

I have a clean, empty, uncluttered surface to craft on, to scrapbook on, to do whatever I want on!

Really, you must look past the Bob The Builder blue & yellow paint, the homeschooled young man used this room when he was a little boy and hubby has yet to get around to painting this...LOL. So I just go with it! 

We incorporated a bunch of my late Mother's craft bins and craft items in along with my scrapbooking items. Plus, I had a ton of stuff leftover from teaching crafting classes and that all fit into these bins and the organizers labeled all my bins. They gave me ideas on how to store things more effectively. They hauled out all the trash bags for me and they hauled away all the donation items too! I was just left with this....

All my goodies had a home, the remaining items that I decided to keep from my Mother's stuff were put into a tote for me to go through when I was ready at a later date. The organizers found a lamp I was not using and they set it up, with an outlet strip (that was found in a drawer) for easy access to plug in my crafting toys, they organized all the bins, drawers and cabinets. They put together a display tower that I had in storage and got everything set up and ready for use! I did not need to buy anything, we just repurposed things that we came across around my house and/or in my Mom's stash.

All my cardstock, scrapbooking papers, rubber stamps, inks and ink pads, embossing folders, ribbon, glue, scissors and all that stuff was all organized into these bins (from my Mom and my stash). THEN THEY LABELED IT ALL!!!!!

In less than 5 hours....that is right, we were not even finished with the 5 hours yet! I know, totally unbelievable. So, they asked me if there was anything else that I wanted organized since we still had time left. I was just numb, I could not believe that we had done all this work already, after I had tried and tried to do it myself and just would give up after a few hours.

Onward we moved to some cabinets in my dining room and they straightened up our homeschool supplies, books, my junk cabinet (the one with hammers, screwdrivers, light bulbs, etc), then moved to the living room (which had been filled with boxes of my Mom's stuff and my craft stuff that I had started sorting and failed at). Now that the living room was uncluttered and the former items that were in the boxes were now beautifully organized into the above photos, the organizers then staged my living room furniture and rehung my drapes so they looked nice and fancy with crisp folds (like in a magazine!)

And then, just like that, it was time for us to say our goodbyes, we hugged and they left. With all the trash gone, no need for me to worry about dragging the donations somewhere; they were gone too. All that I was left with were a few cute bags with handles that were going to friends (homeschool blessings I passed on to some friends) and a small box containing gifts that needed wrapped for Christmas.

Praise the Lord! It was sure hard to make that call for help, that first step is always a killer one! However, my family is so blessed and so am I.

I left to get myself the best gluten free pizza in town and waited for my husband to arrive home. I got a text right away saying "Great job!" The homeschooled young man came home and told me that the house looked really great! So I would say it was a win-win situation and well worth the money!

Below I have included a few links (I received nothing in return for posting these links) for you to get the help you need. My clutter was deemed as "Situational Clutter" due to the deaths and home remodel that contributed to my clutter.

National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals
The Institute for Challenging Disorganization
Find My Organizer

This has been so freeing and such a burden has been lifted. God is a God of order and not of clutter and disfunction. I'm less tired now when I am at home, I don't dread my craft room/blogging office anymore. Lift your burden and don't be afraid, call a professional (cleaning ladies and maid services are not trained in handling clutter) and get it done!

Moe

Special Holiday Goodies From Shutterfly Just For You!

Shutterfly has prints, photo gifts, holiday cards & more. Special Holiday Goodies From Shutterfly Just For You! Click on the link and see what they have to offer.

As a new user when you sign up you get 101 FREE 4x6 prints or a FREE photo magnet, your choice. Offer expires December 28, 2014. By clicking one of the links in this blog post and signing up as a new Shutterfly customer, I can earn 25 FREE prints too! What a deal for both of us!!

I always buy my personalized Christmas cards from Shutterfly. They have an easy to use website, awesome deals, I also do Google searches for Shutterfly coupon codes.

This year the Homeschooled Young Man had his own cards made and he was able to use a free card and a 10 free cards coupons.

In years past I have gotten personalized calendars, coffee mugs and keychains for grandparent gifts. Always a hit!

When you sign up with Shutterfly you will get lots of goodies.

Moe

Art Class & The Homeschool

 

Why is it that most back to school pictures and ads contain art supplies? Most public schools do not incorporate art into their education, so why should we? Are we as homeschoolers incorporating art into our home education? BIG gasp here!

 

I may have just stepped on a lot of toes here, but I think I fear art more than I fear Algebra! lol. I know nothing about color wheels nor do I have any clue about the critical pedagogy of art. Nevertheless, I do like to shop at Hobby Lobby and Michael's...lol...and I have a ton of art supplies, brand new and still in the package!

 

 

Nowhere in my home will you find glitter, I despise the stuff. I remember the day my little man got his official title of "Homeschooler." I breathed a sigh of relief and said to myself, "Never will there EVER be another glitter covered art project brought into this home!" YEAH!

 

You know the evil glitter; it goes everywhere, gets on everything, including our bodies. LOL...nothing like finding that you have glitter all over your face when you go out in public.

 

Often times I giggle inside when I am talking to someone and they have glitter on their face, I think, "That poor Mamma."  I am so anti-glitter that if I get a card in the mail and it has glitter on it, I won't even take it out of the envie...lol. I keep the card in the envie, read it while carefully prying the envie open and then toss it out.

 

So, what will your art class look like this year?

I'm thinking of asking a friend of mine who has taught art to be a guest blogger this fall. Got anything you want to ask about teaching art? She has taught all ages and she is good at what she does (shhh, don't tell, but I don't think she likes glitter either!).

 

Next time I will share how I, the anti-glitter homeschool art teacher has incorporated art into our homeschool.

Moe 

 

Christmas & Only Children part 2

In the coming days before Christmas you will see some posts on things that our family does to help in raising our only child to be a caring individual and ward off the evil selfish behavior that is so prevalent in our world today. This would fall under Character Training and is taught on a daily basis in our homeschool.

What are the hardest things to teach an only child?
*How not to be selfish
*How to be giving
*How to be thoughtful

What can you do to teach the above things?
*Teach them to think of others first
*Give them opportunities to serve others
*Teach them about taking care of others

How does our family teach these things?
*Make placemats for Meals On Wheels
*Play the piano & sing Christmas carols at a nursing home
*Buy Christmas gifts for needy children

Here are some pictures of the placemats that we made.

 

They are simple to make, we just used construction paper, markers and scrapbooking stickers. We decorated them up and we will delivery them to the local Meal On Wheels to put out as tray favors.

We have also done this at other times of the year and they are very receptive to it. You could also use  old Christmas cards by cutting out the pictures and gluing them on, scrapbook paper scraps, use punches, Cricut machine, die cuts, rubber stamps or have the kids draw a picture on them.

 

Check back in the coming days for more festive ideas for you and your only child :O)

Moe

Winter Time Kitchen Decorations

Cricut fun!!

 

I had some fun playing with my Cricut machine! I made this cute refrigerator snowman using the Snow People cartridge. LOVE IT!  It was easy to make and very cute. I also made a knit type of hat with matching scarf (made out of card stock not yarn) so that I can change his outfit. After the winter season is over, just pack him up in a baggie and he will be ready to go next winter.

Right around the Christmas season we all need to take a small break here and there. It was nice to relax on Friday with another homeschooling mom. She chatted with me while I cleaned up my craft room and got organized. Got a lot accomplished, the conversation was like a soothing balm and we both felt refreshed. She entertained my two guys, (my husband was on vacation and our son was enjoying some man time with Dad) she brought her Kindle FIRE and they both played on it while we visited. So with a cleaned and organized craft room I was able to PLAY!!

What sort of fun have you been having with your Cricut machine?
Moe

Scrapbooker and stampers check this out!

Our local scrapbook store bought out a store going out of business and they were selling paper racks, I bought one and LOVE IT!!  I highly recommend getting one, they are so nice to stay organized. I had my paper just stacked in drawers and could never find what I needed.

Now I just need to figure out how to label each row? Any ideas? I think sticky notes would fall off, maybe address labels folded over? What do ya think?

Moe

Butchering chickens tomorrow

I think we are ready for butchering chickens tomorrow, it's still hard since we raised them from 1 day old baby chicks. But since DS has been really pecked a few good times by the roosters, he says he is ready....lol.  The final nail in the coffin (yes pun intended!) was the other day when DS came in and said "The roosters announced today that they are ready for butchering." I ask what he meant and he told me that the one pen of roosters started crowing today. Which in chicken speak that means they are of age to be consumed.

I am thinking of scrapbooking the process, but I have to think on that for a while.

Scrapbooking and Rubber Stamping Retreat

I will post some pics this week of all the fun stuff I made.

We had yummy food as usual! Friday night was pork roast, bake potato, salad and very cute cupcakes, here is a picture of the cupcakes. Well guess there is no way to flip this picture? lol. Please note that I am really new to blogging, this picture is saved right side up, but it's on here sideways?

Our theme was “What’s the buzz!” – Psalms 46:10. So the cupcakes have beehives on them along with buzzing bees. They were YUMMY!

For breakfast we had eggs, bacon, homemade cinnamon rolls and fruit. For lunch there were different kinds of lasagna, garlic bread, salad and dessert.

Had a fun time!

Busy week ahead!

I am getting ready for a scrapbooking retreat with some friends. We will spend a few days eating junk and scrapbooking! Can't wait.
The prep work is about to kill me though. Getting everything ready and packed is a bummer! Not sure what to take. Ya know how it goes, you always pack WAY too much for fear of forgetting something.
Have a wonderful week and remember whatever your week brings "Praise The Lord Anyhow." This was a favorite saying of my late friend Beth, she went to be with her Lord & Savior last month after battling Pancreatic Cancer.

Moe