Decorating for Halloween & Fall

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This past weekend we made a very easy Halloween decoration. Our decoration was inspired by the DIY Halloween Tissue Ghosts I saw over at Shindigz back when I was doing a review for them. I happened to find the tissue paper bells on clearance at the Christmas Tree Shop and I think I paid something like a dollar for all four. Then we took a piece of black construction paper and cut out eyes and mouths. I let Hazel cut her own and then we glued them on.

Since the bells had strings and the bottoms had the round ball that would ring the bell, we hung them on our chandelier to greet anyone who comes to our front door. Since we were hanging them, we skipped the tulle as well.

I guess we did a good job since Steve thought I had bought them that way. We also hung the extra spider web we had leftover from our various crafts and added the big spider we used at Hazel's nursery rhyme birthday party for Little Miss Muffet.

We also went on a wonderful nature walk around our neighborhood. We of course took our wagon (to carry everything and in case Hazel got tired) and a bag to collect things. We some saw fun mushrooms. We thought this one might be a fairy bathtub or pool.

And here is a fairy village.

The colors were also beautiful on the walk.

The trees have been so wonderful this fall. The colors are so vibrant.

We were collecting leaves and such and Hazel picked up a stick and started putting leaves on her stick. She decided it was a leaf stick. It came out beautifully and we have it sitting in a glass jar on our table now.

We planned on making more, but haven't made it out there yet.

But in the jar it looks like a flower. We love it! How are you bringing nature in to celebrate the season?

Christmas Crafts for Kids eBook Review & Giveaway

Ok, I know Halloween has not happened yet and I am one of the first to complain about the stores having Christmas things up too early. However, I have the opportunity to review and giveaway a wonderful ebook by Beth Gordon of 123 Homeschool 4 Me called Christmas Crafts for Kids. One of the things I love about this book is it is written to help you keep Christmas and family in Christmas and not get into the commercialism of society. It is wonderful to help children focus on what really matters during the holiday season.

In this amazing book, Beth has a children's book for each day of December before Christmas. She also offers an alternative book in case you do not own or cannot find a copy of  the suggested book at the library. I was able to find one of the suggested books for each day at our local library if I did not already own it. Then she has several crafts and activities to go with each book (or day). These crafts and activities include things you can do as a family or one parent can do with a child or children. There are crafts, snacks, and activities including some charitable activities.

One book she shares is The Sweet Smell of Christmas by Patricia Scarry. This is a scratch 'n sniff book, so I do not recommend getting it from the library. (We did, and all the scratch 'n sniff spots were used up.) One activity Beth suggests with this book is to make a plate of seasonal scents. We used what we had in the house (or outside for the pine needles) and did not stick directly with her suggestions. We also made a gingerbread cake for the scent and to enjoy. On our scent plate is a branch from an evergreen tree, peppermint extract, orange extract, cinnamon on a cotton ball and cloves. Hazel loved smelling this plate and continued to do so for several days (until I got rid of it).

Another story we used was The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg. This was the alternative book and the suggested book was J is for Jesus by Crystal Bowman, but we could not get it from our local library and could get The Legend of the Candy Cane. I am so glad we found this book. I love the message behind the whole story and it gives all the legends of the candy cane I have heard in one story (J-shaped for Jesus, shaped like a shepherd's hook, etc.) and it has the overall message about sharing them with the story of Jesus. It will be added to my must read every Christmas list. Along with many wonderful candy cane crafts, Beth suggested this wonderful snack of apple and banana slicing shaped as a candy cane. Hazel of course loved it since she LOVES fruit.

Another book is Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry. One of the many wonderful suggestions to go  with this book was a straw Christmas tree ornament. Hazel and I had a great time making these. We used the supplies we had already, so we did not have a gold sparkly pom pom for the top and our pom poms were a bit big, but we like it anyway. There were other crafts, snacks and an activity to go with this book.

So that gives you a bit of a sample of what Beth has put together. She offers you 24 days of books and activities as well as one alternative day in case you do not like either choice or cannot find either choice of her suggested books. Some of the books are focused about the religious meaning of Christmas and others are not. I know I plan on doing more with this great book once December comes. I hope you will take the time to check it out and enjoy your holiday season!

Now Beth has offered me a copy of her e-book to giveaway. Since it is e-mailed, it is open worldwide!! So here is your chance to win Christmas Crafts for Kids, just do as the Rafflecopter asks to enter and follow my Giveaway Rules (except it is open worldwide so you do not have to be in the USA). If you do not want to wait for the giveaway to end, you can purchase it for $9.99 here. (You can also buy a print copy there for $24.99.)

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Little Pim Giveaway

 

Little Pim Language Learning

RV $49.99-$149.00

 

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  IMPORTANT: Please read this Blogger Opp thoroughly and in its entirety.   We are giving away 1 Little Pim Language Learning System. Little Pim is an award-winning system of DVD's and digital downloads that teaches children ages 0-6 a number of languages with choices from French, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, French, Spanish, German, Hebrew, English (ESL), Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Chinese. The final price depends on how much participation we get.   For a review on Little Pim, go HERE.   Thank you lovely Co-hosts for helping me with this giveaway!  

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  We are looking for bloggers who have at least 1,000 Twitter followers AND 1,000 Facebook fans to post the blogger opp, the getting excited about language learning post, the giveaway (all 3 posts), plus promote at least 4X per week on both Twitter AND Facebook. If you do all those things, you will receive a FREE Twitter and Facebook link in the giveaway. All HTML will be provided.    

The Schedule

 

November 5 - The Get excited about Language Learning Post

November 12 - December 4th - The Giveaway

 

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  Forms to fill out and Blogger Opp HTML  

Fill out the form to enter the giveaway HERE.

 

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HERE is the form to report your Blogger Opp Posting. If you do not report your posting, your links WILL NOT be included in the giveaway.

IMPORTANT: It's important that you report all of your posts (link will be in the email when I provide the HTML) and promote at least 4X per week on both Twitter and Facebook. If you do not do these things, your links will be removed.

    Litle Pim is hosting a Kickstarter campaign for 13 days in which they are trying to raise money to produce a holiday eBook that helps children learn about traveling, languages and holiday traditions around the world. Those who donate to the campaign receive reward and those who donate $10 will receive a free eBook. You can find more information on the Kickstarter Campaign here.    

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures: The Korean Cinderella

Last week we shared Kongi and Potgi by Oki S. Han. This week I am going to share The Korean Cinderella by Shirley Climo. It is very similar to Kongi and Potgi, but has a few differences. Since we explored a bit about Korea last week (both in the fairy tale post and our Around the World in 12 Dishes post), we will go right into the story.

Noah's Ark

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Hazel and I read her story Bible every night at bedtime. We read through it once skipping around a bit and then started at the beginning again. Hazel loved the story of Noah's Ark. I knew I had bought ages ago a Shrinky Dink Noah's Ark kit when it was on sale or clearance. I had put it away for the right time. I also discovered there are hundreds of books about Noah's Ark. Today we will share some of the traditional stories that follow along with the Bible. Hazel loves when we read a Noah's Ark book.

Most of these books we took out of the library, but some I also found at the used book store. The amazing thing is I didn't take out all of the Noah's Ark children's books at the library, because there were so many. Again these are the ones that tell the story the same as the Bible. I will share others another time.

My sister had given Hazel a wooden Noah's ark toy many years ago. Hazel loves the idea of it, however the top floor never stays in and the roof of the top never stays on correctly plus she is missing many of the animals. Hazel now plays with it usually more as a storage place, house or something but without all the pieces together. 

So after reading many of the books, I pulled out the Shrinky Dinks one Saturday. Hazel and I had fun coloring them in together. Don't you love the zebra colors? Hazel did them. A hint for coloring them is to put white paper underneath so you can see what you are coloring (unless you are coloring white of course).

Then we put them on a pan and watched them shrink.

Then once they cooled they turn harder and the kit came with stands for them.

The kit also came with a ark to put together as well as some other animals. Steve took on the job of putting the ark together for us.

Now Hazel has two Noah's ark toys. She really loved playing with this one. Here is the other side.

Stay tuned for some more Noah's Ark stories and crafts!!