Chewbeads Review

I am very picky about what goes in my baby's mouth.  We have a fun selection of natural wooden or safe plastic toys that Isaac gets to play with and suck on.  Everything else is a no (well, except for the random pinecone or fuzz that he finds and decides to eat).

Of course if I am holding Isaac, where does my necklace go?  Straight to his mouth!  Chewbeads are a fun safe option that I like to wear.  The necklace is made of silicone (similar to a pacifier).  It also has a break-away clasp so that if he tugs on it too hard it will come apart rather than breaking and spilling beads everywhere.

Chewbeads are tested and free of BPA, phthalates, PVC, lead, cadmium, and heavy metals.  Many everyday pieces of jewelry are NOT safe!  Scroll halfway down this page to see some test results on jewelry that moms sent in.  There are sooo many recalls for lead in children's jewelry each year as well.

Chewbeads come in fun colors and different styles.  I'm wearing a Jane style in Violet.  :)  I love that I can be a mommy, snuggle my little one, and not have to worry about my jewelry breaking or being toxic.

I was sent the above necklace for purposes of review.  Two thumbs up from me and Isaac.  Thanks Chewbeads!

Fleece Scarf (Easy Sewing Project)

I made this adorable fleece scarf for Esther in about 10 minutes today!

Lucy and Julia both want one; I think this will be their next sewing project.  Must be something about three year olds that makes them pose crazy for the camera...

Valentine's Day Rag Wreath

I convinced the kids to let me take down the Christmas tree by telling them we could decorate for Esther's birthday party.  After the party (Jan 8) they wanted something else to decorate for, so we jumped right into Valentine's Day!

One of my Christmas gifts was this awesome rotary cutter and mat.  I gave it a workout cutting hundreds of fabric strips.  I used four different fabrics, cutting each into 9" x 1" pieces.  We made two wreaths (one for Grandma's house) and I think we used about 3 yards total of fabric.  I'm not sure exactly though, as I did have to run back to the store for more and I can't find my receipts to check.

The frame is a medium size from Hobby Lobby.  We tied strips around the wreath in random order, but following the pattern of one in the middle and then one on each side.

This is the back of the wreath, just so you can see how I tied them on:

My wreath hanger is this magnetic thing that I bought at Meijer over Christmas.  I saw it mentioned on another blog and had to get one right away!

Fluffy Valentine's Day goodness.

And now our front door is gorgeous!

The girls had a blast helping me pick out the fabrics to use and tying a few strips on the wreath, although they did get tired of it after a while.  When we were finished with the wreaths, I let them design their own Valentine's Day shirts.

It not even Valentine's Day yet!  I still have a few more fun ideas planned.... :)

Curriculum Spring 2013

After lots of planning and thinking and tweaking, here is our curriculum schedule for the next semester.  Much of it continues on from the fall, with a few changes:

Lucy (age 7)

My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures - I will be adding in quite a bit from Expedition Earth.  We've been enjoying parts of ECC, but it is mostly over Lucy's head.  Expedition Earth will add in more projects and fun on her level and allow us to continue our journey around the world.

Rod and Staff English 2 - Lucy hates this!  We're continuing through the book, but have switched to doing the majority of it orally.

Rod and Staff Spelling - same as fall.  Lucy does well with spelling.

Lucy finished her Explode the Code (phonics) book.  We will be using a Wordly Wise (vocabulary) workbook next.

Reading - Lucy is eating up books as fast as I can throw them at her.  We do a combination of reading out loud (Josefina American Girl books, CLP Nature Readers), silent reading (anything she can get her hands on), and reading comprehension projects.  I purchased Sonlight's reading comprehension questions for grade 3 for this semester.  We'll borrow those books from the library and work through the questions, just to be sure she is understanding what she is reading.

Math Mammoth - same as fall.  I love Math Mammoth, it continues to be a great program.  I like that it approaches math from all angles and teaches concepts very thoroughly.  Lucy still struggles with concepts from time to time so we are trying to include more math computer game time, Flashmaster practice, and the Mathtacular DVDs from Sonlight.

REAL Science Odyssey - We started this in the spring last year and loved it.  In the fall we dropped it in order to use the science from ECC.  That is definitely not working for us, so I'm excited to pick this back up again.

A Reason for Handwriting T (transition to cursive) - Lucy has been asking to learn cursive.  I had held off in the fall, just giving her various things for handwriting practice.  She will enjoy working through this book.

Rosetta Stone - We are easing into this.  Lucy struggled with getting the computer to recognize her pronunciation of the words when we tried it.  (Julia couldn't do it at all.)  I have various Spanish learning CDs and things that I need to pull out and let the girls listen to.

I Can Do All Things - Lucy has picked this art book up again recently and likes to work in it from time to time.


Julia (age 5)

Julia listens to any reading we do for ECC, and usually joins art projects.

The Reading Lesson, Bob books - We read a few pages from one of these books several times a week. Julia is excited that she can read and enjoys practicing.  She got a beginning readers book for Christmas and wanted to read it with me right away.  :)

A Reason for Handwriting K - same as fall.

DK Math workbook - Julia is excellent at math and almost done with this book.  I ordered The Complete Book of Math for her to use next.

Explode the Code - same as fall.  She is working through Get Ready For the Code, Get Set For the Code, and Go For the Code.

Sonlight Core P4/5 - This is new!  I decided that too much of ECC was over Julia's head, so we are going to begin working through Sonlight's Core P 4/5.   It looks like some of the stories will go along with our world studies nicely.  I think Julia will also really enjoy the science books.

Esther (turning 3!) and Baby Isaac interrupt listen in on many of our lessons as well.  :)

Sneak peek: Where are we headed?
In the fall of 2013 I'm thinking of using Sonlight Core B for history, Bible, and read aloud stories.  We'll move to Abeka for English and Spelling.  I just ordered BraveWriter's The Writer's Jungle and Jot It Down.  I'm excited to learn more about her writing approach and implement it over time.

Overall, I think I have a good plan in place and like how things are working together.  It has taken some time to feel settled in various curriculums that we enjoy, but I think we're getting there.  Every now and then I panic and research curriculum like crazy, trying to be sure we are on the right track.  Tell me I'm not the only one?!