December Home School...

December at the Tolpins

Many people have been asking me what we do for home school the month of December...
A typical December at our house looks like this:
We take the month off from most "typical school subjects" to learn more about Jesus, focus on Jesus, celebrate Jesus, and bless family and friends through hospitality & special gift making.

I am a CRAFT ADDICT... I love doing hands on activities with the kids so here are some
Gift Making for Kids...
Here are a few ideas of things we have done this year...
If your family sorry if you see your gift before Christmas...
but so many friends have been asking for ideas...

Painting Terra Cotta Flower pots for those garden enthusiasts in the family! Ceramic Coasters from the ceramic cafe... each kid paints one! So much fun!Drew made ceramic magnets! Mix, bake, paint!
Megan painted a glass picture frame~

The big kids embroidered towels! Yep even boys need to know how to sew!
Little ones Painting Wooden treasures from Craft store!







Babies helped me make special memories plaques!

Drew made Luke a yellow ducky for Christmas! All the kids enjoyed candle making & soap making~





Other gift ideas we have made successfully:
~Harvesting herbs and giving them in beautiful green glass bottles bought from Mountain Rose Herb Store. Lavender, Chamomile, Rosemary, Dill, Thyme, Oregano & Peppermint are our favorites for cooking and teas!
~Making bracelets, key chains out of bottle caps
~ Magnet making
~Making Coasters with Modge Podge
~Photo crafts such as calenders, mouse pads, mugs, ornaments, magnets,etc...
~Making cement mosaic stepping stones
~knitting scarves
~pot holder loom kit
~tie-knot blankets
~sewing baby doll blankets
~cookie, muffin, soup mixes in a jar- we have been making these for years for neighbors... since before I had kids and people LOVE them
~Cookies in a tin can of course!
~ Canvas painting for Grandparents
~Potpourri Sachets

Many ideas come from just walking through the craft store. So when all else fails I go there and walk around to get ideas. Some great websites for activities if you don't want to put the craft supplies together.... Creativity for Kids & of course Timberdoodle has boxed craft ideas too!

May you, as a mother embrace the time you have with your kids and enjoy them as you create together...

The Girls are Helping Get Ready for Baby

We have a few little boys that LOVE Blankets in our house! Well Actually all of us do.
When Winter comes we live in blankets... with a nice smelling warm fire... we wrap up in blankets, sit on the sofa, and read, read, & READ!
On any given day you can find Kelsey wrapped up in a blanket, on the floor or on her bed... doing her math (often times more math than she is assigned), Austin wrapped in a blanket doing his aloud reading, Megan wrappped in a blanket doing "explode the code," Drew and Luke Cuddled up in blankets... napping...

The point is-- we really like blankets. Especially homemade fluffy ones right after they come out of the dryer! =)
Since baby is coming any time now... and we are going to need the baby blankets we have been making new bigger, toddler size blankets for Luke!
Here are the girls giving Luke his new John Deere farm blanket!
(upper picture)Here is Kelsey with a blanket she made by herself for the new baby yesterday!
I learned how to sew baby blankets on the sewing machine when I was 23- pregnant with Austin. Kelsey is not even 10 yrs old yet!
What a great opportunity! She loves sewing-- and she is getting fast too!

A Special Date with Megan

Megan is my little artist at heart...as well as my lovey girl!

She is the kid in the house that needs more affection and attention at times lately.She used to be so "easy"... never really had tantrums... which I thought was b/c of child training, but have realized after having more than 3, that I was just very blessed with having a gentle quiet spirited daughter. Now that she is 5 and a half ( which is so shocking to me), I am feeling this urgency to "know" her better and bring her under my wing, as I did her older sister.
Megan is our middle child in the bunch; she is also directly in the middle of a bunch of boys. Most people would think, wow, she must be tough to be in the middle of so many boys. Many have asked "is she a Tom-Boy?" Nope- not my Megan. She is VERY Feminine! She is a little girly girl that loves to wear pink, dance with her big sister, cook in the kitchen with mommy, play the piano (which she loves doing 5-6 times a day--making her music up now- and its really good), and do any kind of craft or art.
I am very aware that being the middle of 5-6 kids she could possibly "fall through the cracks" and so I am purposefully pursuing bringing her up under my wing. I decided a couple weeks ago to reassign the buddy system to the kids. Megan gets to be the new baby's buddy!
She is SO excited and this is a way to make sure I spend more purposeful time with her like I did the others. This may be her last chance to see mommy give birth so she is excited to experience that with me, learn how to change a newborns diapers, help with baths, help keep him "happy" when he gets older, etc...When Kelsey & Austin went to Art Camp 2 weeks ago, she was pretty upset she wasn't old enough to go... so one of the days we they were gone I took her on a date to the Ceramic Cafe. We had so much fun just talking and making Kelsey's birthday present together!
Here she is painting a tea cup and saucer for her sister's 10th birthday.

Masters School of Art Camp

Last Week Austin & Kelsey attended "Art Camp" for the first time. I first learned about MSOA 3 years ago at one of the home school conferences. I was so impressed by their approach of teaching technique and variety of classes, but my children were not yet old enough. Well they have expanded, they are closer now.... meeting in the downstairs of Sunnyside Foursquare Church. They have classes starting in the fall... everything from Celtic & Hebrew Dancing to Choir & Guitar. Their Art classes are what they are "known" for though... Painting... Portrait Drawing... and so much more.Here are some of the fun things the kids came home with after just 4 days.

We were astonished!
Go check out there website...
these home schooled kids are doing some pretty amazing Art!
And learning more about Jesus through devotionals while they are there!

These are from their Cartooning Class...

Kelsey's Painting from a picture!Austin with his painting!

For more info on MSOA go to www.msoaonline.com
Go to there "art Gallery" tab and check out the amazing Art these young people are doing!

Mosaics for Kids

This past fall I found some great Mosaics for kids!
Great detail handy work for young and older kids.

Here are the websites where you can purchase and view products as well as watch you tube videos on how to do them.

Alea Mosaics

Mind Ware

My kids have enjoyed making gifts for mom and dad that are more of a keepsake. I hope your kids like them too!


Here are a few of the products we have done already:

Chizzel!

Isaac teaching Austin how to carve a sail boat. Austin has been very dedicated to working on this the past week.

Crayons, Crayons and more Crayons!!!

What do you do with all those broken crayons you find under the coach, in the kids bedrooms, and pretty much everywhere. You make new ones!!!!!

We took all our old crayons, took the wrappers off, put the pieces inside some metal cookie cutters on top of 2 pieces of foil and a cookie sheet. Then we put them in the oven at about 250 degrees until the crayons looked soft. Then we took the cookie sheet out of the oven and put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes and WahLah! New crayons in the shape of Tree, Angel and circle. What fun and what ever runs out of the cookie cutter you can remelt again the next time you do this project!! My kids loved it!