Art Class: Still Life Flowers and Fruit

Art Class has had a bit of a still life theme happening over the past couple of weeks.

K's Vase of Flowers

B's Vase of Flowers

K's Fruit Bowl

Yay, I'm Here!!

Ok thank goodness, I was getting worrids. Blogger went down a week or so ago and I haven't been able to access my blog since then. But here I am and all seems to be fine. Yay!

Now time to get back to some regular updates around here :-)

Bambino Academy - Flower Window Clings

: : : Simple Ideas For Your Bambino : : :

~ C is 33 Months ~

We actually made these for Mother's Day, but got to enjoy them hanging in our window for a day. They looked so pretty, we all had to think twice about giving them away.

The kids are now eagerly anticipating a fresh batch of flowers in the garden so they can do this again. Although the pickings will be slim, since we are coming into winter here.

This is really just another take on the simple clear contact window sun catcher.

I drew a flower shape free hand and cut out the centre, using a bowl for a guide.

I then cut 2 pieces of clear sticky back contact slightly larger than the inside circle.

We spent 30 or so minutes out in the garden (which really is half the fun) gathering the supplies.

C and K worked independently on this one and I simply applied the top layer of clear contact once they had finished. Oh and I also attached the ribbon so they could easily be hung.

In all honesty the photo doesn't do them justice, they really looked great on the window and will be a fabulous spring time craft to do when the garden is flourishing.

This post is linked at ABC and 123 Show and Tell

Homeschool Planner & Journal Winners

What a fabulously useful giveaway this one has been. Thanks to all of you for taking the time to enter and for stopping by Aussie Pumpkin Patch to check out the Planner further.

I used Random.org to pick the winners but have no idea how to get the little image on here (can someone tell me for future reference please ;-) ).

So without further ado the winning commenters are:

• The winner for the Planner is

Comment 33 Michelle said... 

Shared on FB.

May 3, 2011 2:03 PM 

 

• The winner for the Journal is

 Comment 18   Kim Monaco said... 

I'm following your blog via GFC. Thanks!

May 2, 2011 10:10 PM

I just need to hear from both of you in regards to paper size of the Journal and Planner...US or Australian? Then we can organise the files to be sent to you asap.

Once again thanks for those that entered and don't forget to grab yourself a copy of the planner jump over to Aussie Pumpkin Patch.

Bambino Academy - Handprint Flowers

: : : Simple Ideas For Your Bambino : : :

~ C is 33 Months ~

We made these adorable Handprint Sunflowers, well technically they are just flowers due to the colours C chose, but they certainly resemble sunflowers don't you think, for Mother's Day. They are so cheerful and pretty though that I'd love to fill a large vase with a couple.

So simple too, steps we followed are:

Choose large sheet cardboard

Paint hands 

Stamp handprints, should get at least 2 stamps before you need to reapply or change colours

Allow to dry

Whilst drying paint paper plates for flower centres

Allow to dry

Cut around hand prints and inside circle of paper plates

Glue handprints to the paper plates

We chose to attach sticks to ours. This really makes these a fabulous gift that is so easily transported to the particular loved one. 

Ever have those times where you have made something only for it to be crumpled and squashed by over loving little fingers whilst on the way to give the gift?  With a stick to carry there's no need to worry about that.

This post is linked at ABC and 123 Show and Tell

Don't forget to vote for my blog over at Circle Of Moms. 

Just click the image above once a day, every day between now and May 11th.

Planner Giveaway

Last chance to enter the planner and journal giveaway.

Entries close in 24 hours time.

To enter just click here.

Don't forget to vote for my blog over at Circle Of Moms. 

Just click the image above once a day, every day between now and May 11th.

Happy Mother's Day

Close your eyes and wish for the one thing
You cannot do without, and when you do,
Near your heart you'll find it, always there,
Treasure that is dear but not so rare,
Held in the mesh that all your dreams flow through.
In truth, no gift more happiness can bring,
And so this day I give my love to you.

Egypt - Arty Crafty Party

This week's theme is Egypt. Time to share your fun, crafts and hands on activities.

In my travels I found some neat projects that you might like to try with your kiddo's.

The Homeschool Den completed this project on the Nile River.

  

How about an Egyptian Chariot I found over at Satori Smiles.

Or maybe try your hand at a Mummy Canopic jar from Chronicle of the Earth.

Now it's your turn to share.

Please don't forget to familiarise yourself with the link up guidelines and go grab a button to share on your blog.

Also, a quick reminder that past link ups can be found here. I try to keep all the link ups open so you can come back and add your appropriate themed activities at any time.

Next weeks theme will be Butterflies & Caterpillars, hope you will join us.
 

Don't forget to vote for my blog over at Circle Of Moms. 

Just click the image above once a day, every day between now and May 11th.

Drive In Fun

To celebrate one of our dear little friends 6th Birthday, we headed to the Drive In.  The kids have only ever been once before, (when I was hugely pregnant with C) and this was obviously C's first time.

I admit I was concerned about how he would go, after all he is only just getting through a 30 minute episode of Playschool. DH, K and C got settled in the back of the Hilux, all rugged up with their popcorn and lollies. C did brilliantly well, why did I ever doubt him and he is still talking about the fun he had.

The big girls hung out on chairs out front and giggled our way through the funny but generally quite ridiculous movie.

The boys were more than happy to hang out on a mattress, stuffing their faces throughout the movie.

Oh so you want to know what movie we actually saw. Ok I guess that might help a little.

Anyway, I am sure most who see this will enjoy it. Whilst I did find myself laughing out loud on more than one occasion I found the whole thing quite lacking. Actually quite typical of most children's movies released in our current era.

It was full of the typical, boy meets girl, boy chases girl, and that wasn't only the humans in the movie but also the birds. Of course there were missing characters and the main premise of the movie was the search for said characters.

Why oh why do our children of today need to settle for movies that in my opinion just simply are not of any great quality? Why?

What has happened to the writers? Not only are children's books dumbed down and poorly written but so are the movies. When did it happen?

When did we as consumers, movie goers and book lovers allow this to happen? Because allowing it to happen is exactly what we have done!

GLIMPSE Homeschooling Magazine - New Edition Out

The next edition of GLIMPSE is out. Have you subscribed yet?  Check out what's inside:

Global Calendar of Events …p 4
Projects for Learning ….p 5
Rebuilding Japan with Paper Cranes ….p 5
Earth Day …p 6
10 ways to celebrate Earth Day ….p 6
Trash to Treasure (Earth Day edition) …p 7
International Year of Forestry ….p 10
Forest Artwork …p 10
Ideas for Teaching about Rainforests …p 11
Blog Roll ….p 12
Pay it forward ….p 13
Smither Family Paying it Forward ….p 13
Book Reviews….p 15
My Side of the Story (a series by various authors) …..p 15
Encouraging Creativity in your Childs Learning ….p 16
Encouraging Creativity: One Mother’s Thoughts ….p 16
Encouraging Creativity ….p 18
11 ways to Encourage Creativity in your Childs Learning ….p 19
Encouraging Creativity in Learning….p 20
Focus on Foreign language ….p 23
Foreign Language ….p 23
Learning Foreign Languages….p 24
Fun with Learning Foreign Language….p 26
Why Home School …..p 30
Why We Home School …..p 30
Why Homeschool…..p 32
How the Public School System Failed My Son ….p 37
Photographers Lounge ….p 41
Cooking Corner …..p 42
Hawaiian Style Pineapple & Ginger Chicken …..p 42
Free Resources ….p 44
Foreign language links ….p 44
Free Curriculum …..p 44
Ask a Fellow Learner …..p 46
Question/s ….p 46
Ask a Fellow Learner – Your Responses ….p 47
Responses to your Questions ….p 47
Response to Sherri’s question ….p 47
Response to Angela’s question ….p 48
Response to Jeni’s question ….p 48
Future Editions of Glimpse …p 49
We need you! …p 49
Articles that can be included in any edition of Glimpse ….p 49
Introduce your Family ….p 49
Book Reviews ….p 49
Free Resources …p 49
Tassie the Travelling Devil …p 49
The Cooking Corner ….p 50
Projects for Learning …p50
Photographers Lounge …p 50
Learning in Action ….p 50
Ask a fellow Learner …p 50
Themes for future 2011 issues are: …p 50
Subscribe to Glimpse ….p.p 51
Interested in past issue of Glimpse? ..p 51
Thank you ..p 51 

Click here to go grab yourself a copy.

Don't forget to vote my blog over at Circle Of Moms. 

Just click the image above once a day, every day between now and May 11th.

Indoor Play Fun

We had several rainy days in a row last week. Everyone needed to release some energy. So a trip to an indoor play centre was in order.

This is a real treat for my kids, these aren't places we visit very often. In fact it has been nearly 2 years since they have been to one at all and closer to 3 at this particular centre. So in essence, it was C's first time at all :-)

These places are always much more fun with some friends.

We were plesantly surprised to see that it had a refurbishment. Two large jumping/sliding/mazing castle type things had been added.

These had the kids sliding, bounding and giggling for some time.

Trying to get everyone to go together was a challenge.

The centre had also fully replaced the under 4's section, which used to simply be a fenced area with a bunch of toys.

Into a true play centre experience, even for the littles, with climbing, sliding, jumping and the regular play things for the littlest of littles.

So whilst we might not frequent these places often the kids had a blast and they certainly come in handy to have them around from time to time.

Don't forget to vote for my blog over at Circle Of Moms. 

Just click the image above once a day, every day between now and May 11th.

The Royal Wedding - Lego Style

And here I was thinking that he wasn't interested!

Don't forget to vote my blog over at Circle Of Moms. 

Just click the image above once a day, every day between now and May 11th.

Homeschool Planner Giveaway

***This Giveaway is now Closed ***

I love planning, the digging, the searching, the preparing of it all. So when I saw that Kendra from Aussie Pumpkin Patch had designed a planner for homeschoolers I was excited to see more.

Kendra was nice enough to send me a copy of her planner and boy has she put some work into this!

If you are a Homeschooler, regardless of your style and if you are a FIAR user you will definitely find this planner helpful to say the least and I know that it is going to be extremely helpful in our homeschool too.

The planner has been designed in modules, so you can easily pick and choose the modules that will work for you or you may prefer to purchase them all. After seeing it I know what I would choose that's for sure.

Make sure you keep reading so you don't miss the details of the giveaway!

Module 1: The Main Planner 

This module is the main part of the planner with a total of 28 pages inside!

• 2 different covers to chose from.

• A year long calendar page

• 4 Weekly planning pages.

• Library list

• Resource list

• Curriculum Wish List Page

• 10 Different note taking pages with a total of 5 different images {some created with less images for more economical printing}

Module Two: The Monthly Calendar Pages

This module holds the monthly calendar pages and consists of 24 different pages!

• A perpetual Calendar page for each month. You fill in the calendar with numerals, holidays, and other bits.

• Monthly Holiday & more planning page. Some ideas for the use of this module are upcoming birthdays, anniversaries, holidays {serious, funny, Australian, US, etc.} Nature/Science ideas for the month, and craft ideas. On the bottom of each of these pages is a different educational quote as well.

Module Three: Deeper Planning Pages

This module has 8 pages to help you plan your own unit studies, living math lessons, lapbooks & notebooks!

• One Math planning page to help you keep track of your resources, manipulatives, and the topic or your lesson

• One Math Class Note taking page where you can write out more in depth plans or jot down whatever you need in order to help your lessons go off smoothly

• Three unit study planning pages to help you keep track of your plans for each subject {math, science, Language Arts, history, geography, social studies} as well as your resources & field trip ideas 

• One unit study note page to keep track of your plans and goals for the unit study as you plan it out, teach it, and enjoy it.

• One Lapbook/Notebook planning page complete with a large and roomy doodle box!  You can plan out what you want your page to look like before you even sit down at the computer.

Module Four: Home Helpers

This module has 21 pages to help you plan the weekly happenings around your home.

• 8 weekly planning pages; 4 different images some with lines for writing on, some without for those who like to color "outside the box". There's room to jot down appointments or things to do for each day of the week, a daily chore checklist, space to jot down a Bible verse for the week, and more.

• 4 weekly menu plans; different images for different weeks of the month!

• 4 different shopping lists

• 4 different recipe cards

• 2 pages to keep track of the important people in your life and their personal details {telephone, email, address, etc.}

Modules 1 - 4 Combined

82 pages from all of the above Modules!

• Module One: The Main Planner 28 pages
• Module Two: Calendar Pages 25 pages
• Module Three: Deeper Planning Pages 8 pages
• Module Four: Home Helper Pages 21 pages

Module Five: Homeschool Book Of Days

The, 18 page, stand alone module which works as a journal of your homeschool journey.

That sure is a whole lot of homeschool planning and journalling in amongst all of those cute little pages that Kendra has worked so hard on putting together. I've already begun using mine and am thrilled with it!

_________________________________________________

For more information about the Planner and Homeschool Book Of Days Journal be sure to visit Aussie Pumpkin Patch and the detailed overview of the planners.

So do you want to win a copy for yourself? I bet you do, don't you?

Kendra was kind enough to offer ONE Copy of the Planner and ONE Copy of The Homeschool Book of Days to giveaway to you, my lovely readers.

Giveaway Entry Details

You can receive up to SEVEN entries to win, they are as follows

• Follow Our Worldwide Classroom blog, either via Google Friends Connect or via an RSS Feed (both in the sidebar) Yes existing followers are welcome to use that as ONE entry.

• Follow Aussie Pumpkin Patch blog, either via Google Friends Connect or via an RSS Feed (both in the sidebar) Yes existing followers are welcome to use that as ONE entry.

• Become a Fan of Our Worldwide Classroom on Facebook

• Become a Fan of Aussie Pumpkin Patch on Facebook

• Share this giveaway on Facebook (be sure to leave a link in your comment here)

• Tweet about this giveaway

• Share via a blog post (be sure to leave a link to the post in your comment here)

Giveaway Information 

• This giveaway will close Monday May 9th Midnight Australian EST . The winners will be announced within 48 hours.

• Only comments left on this post are eligible and be sure to include a way for me to contact you in your comments otherwise another winner will be drawn.

• The Planner is available in both US and AUS paper sizes, please be sure to leave a note in your comment stating which one you would prefer.

• Be sure to leave a seperate comment for each entry option.

• Winners will be chosen at random. All international entries accepted.

Disclosure: I was given a copy of The Planner and The Homeschool Book of Days in order to review and offer this giveaway.

Don't forget to vote my blog over at Circle Of Moms. 

Just click the image above once a day, every day between now and May 11th.