Outdoor School Series Review

 

Disclosure: I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I am going to continue sharing books to get your kids learning while having fun this summer. Today we are going to look at a series of books that no only is fun and educational but also gets your kids outside and enjoying nature! The Outdoor School series features three interactive nature guides as well as three sticker books, and two essentials guides. Whether your family is interested in animals, hiking, camping, rock collecting and more there is something for everyone and these books all start by saying step outside no matter where you live there is nature out there. 

Summer Craft Supplies -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Oriental Trading sent me these products free of charge in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Looking for ideas of things to do with your kids on those bad weather days this summer? Or perhaps just some things to keep your kids using their creative juices and crafting? Now I am sure you know about Oriental Trading and their fun party supplies and perhaps even their various craft kits, but do you know they also sell craft supplies? Hazel and I checked out their craft supplies together and picked some out to share with you. We chose some basic supplies like paints and washi tape as well as some things to use the paints and washi tape on like frames, a tray, diy journal kits and diy rubber ducks. We have been having fun with all these craft supplies as well as some we already had. 

DIY Wooden Doll Table

Continuing with some of our DIY projects for 18-inch dolls, I made Hazel a table for her doll. I had her pick out a plaque at JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts the other day. It was $2.99. For the legs I used clothespins and woman peg dolls. I glued one of each together and let the glue dry and then glued them on. Once the glue dried Hazel wanted to try it out. Here it is with a tea party and her Hazel doll.

Next I painted it white (well actually I reglued some legs since she insisted on taking it to Nonni's and it does not travel well). To make a stronger table you could use spindles instead of my cheap version. 

Then I wanted to share a cheap find. We found this magnetic chalk board that is doll size for $1 at Target, I believe. It came with a piece of chalk.

It is made to put in a locker, but that makes it the right size for dolls. Here it is on the table.

Now her dolls are really ready for their tea party and ice cream party! 

For more doll ideas check out:

• DIY Doll Sandals
• Doll Ice Cream Sundae Party
• DIY No-Sew Doll Purse
• Cheap Doll Items to Buy or Make
• DIY Doll Pencil 
• Doll Mermaid Tail (Tutorial Coming Soon)
• Leather Doll Clothes
• Easy Doll Clothes to Sew New or From Baby Clothes
• Baby Doll Clothes and Changing Area
• Making a Waldorf Doll
• My Doll Clothes and Craft Pinterest Board

Advent Week 4: Love

Before I begin this post's content, I want to share that I just updated my Winter Solstice post with the best book to read!! We did not receive it from the library before the original post. The addition is towards the end of the post. Now onto our Advent post.

This is the fourth week of Advent. We light our final purple candle. As you light each candle you remember how Jesus brought us hope, peace, joy and now love. Some Advent wreaths have a white candle in the middle. This candle is for Christ and is lit either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Now love is such an important theme. There are so many Bible scriptures you can think of to go with love..."...The greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13. We included God Gave Us Love by Lisa Tawn Bergren in our books to read today. I feel this is a perfect book to read to explain the theme.

For those that do not know this series of books, Little Cub learns about God from different people in her family. In this one, she is with her grandfather. They talk about how God wants us to love everyone. They also talk about how there are different kinds of love and the greatest love comes from God. And yes, they mention God sending is only Son to us. 

When we did our clay ornaments last week, we also made some love ones.  We used love rubber stamps to get the words on them. 

The other craft is to make heart ornaments from pipe cleaners and tri-beads. They are very easy. Put the beads in whatever pattern (or no pattern) onto the pipe cleaner. Then bend and twist the ends of the pipe cleaner to make a heart. Now you can add a ribbon or just hang it as we did.

Update on our Advent Calendar Crafts:

Donkey Ornament

Hazel was working on the wisemen today. I did the camel with the wisemen while she made the wisemen. I also glued the stable together for her. I like how they are coming out and think she is doing a wonderful job. We added some white wool to the sheep and the shepherds. Hazel decided the wisemen needed gold and silver and used glitter glue. She has been really enjoying this year's Advent calendar. 

How did you celebrate Advent this year?

For more on our Advent:

• Advent Craft Calendar
• Advent Wreaths
• Advent Week 1: Hope
• Advent Week 2: Peace
• Advent Week 3: Joy
• Advent Calendar Round-Up

Thanksgiving Crafts & Games Past and Present

We did this fun and easy craft this year so far. We got the idea from Crafts for Thanksgiving by Kathy Ross.

 We changed the craft a bit because I wanted to put the corn on something stiffer than felt. I had these natural wood pieces and thought they would look nice and work well. Hazel had so much fun gluing on the Indian corn.

Coffee Cup Christmas Tree & More

Do you remember the coffee cup angel I shared last week? This wee we made a coffee cup Christmas tree. Well, I made mine out of a Starbucks Venti cup and Hazel used a styrafoam cone that I had. Our first step was to cover it with green construction paper. I did this so if we missed any spots it would not be obvious. Then I made the top into a point for both of us since neither the cup nor the "cone" went to a point.

Then we glued on some green squares of tissue paper and we also used red, yellow and white ones as decorations. Hazel and I had different ideas of this. Here is how hers came out without any help from me on the decorating.

However when she saw my yellow star, she asked me to make her one as well. So I did. 

We also painted the wooden ornaments today and she painted the other side of the stars.

My favorite one that she painted is this star. Maybe I can get her to give it to me for Christmas.

I also made some more felt ornaments. Very simple ones really. I cut felt circles out (tracing the top of a container) and then decorated with more felt cut as holly leaves, poinsettia petals, and the nativity. For the dots I used a hole punch on my felt.

Well that is some of what we have been up to today. What have you been doing?

Simple Christmas Ornaments/ Decorations

Yesterday Hazel and her best friend at school had their last day of school before vacation and then we went to his house for lunch and to exchange gifts and bake cookies. It was a wonderful time even though I am fighting a cold. Both children had been so excited for it so I did not want to cancel on them. Well, part of her gift from him was an ornament kit to paint paper mache ornaments. I had some more so I added to her pile to paint. We decided she would paint them for family members and I marked each one with an initial so we would remember whom it is for. Apparently she really liked the red paint as well.

She got sick of using the paints that came with the kit, so she switched to her water colors. I personally like it much better.

She wanted me to craft with her. Yesterday I had looked through a Better Homes and Garden section of easy felt Christmas ornaments and saw some that inspired me. I had some paper mache heart and tree ornaments as well. I covered them in felt and then decorated them. This could easily be done with pieces of cardboard instead of paper mache ornaments as well. Just use a cookie cutter for the shape.

I tried to cut a heart shaped snowflake out of the white felt for this one.

My original thought was I would cover them in felt and let Hazel decorate with foam stickers. She had gotten bored with crafting so I decorated them.

This one I used a stencil and some of her paint to decorate. It came out all right, but I needed a thinner brush for the stencil and better paint.

I left room on this one for her to still decorate. I might give her my fabric markers tomorrow and have her add some dots as tree decorations.

Then finally I bought many wooden ornaments for her to paint. She had already gotten bored, but I did this one with her water colors.

We will hopefully do the rest of them tomorrow. Happy crafting!!

Mermaid Treasure Box

Announcements:

Sharing Saturday is still open. Please come share your child oriented crafts and activities with us and check out all the amazing ideas others have shared!

Upcoming this next week are the kick offs to two reading events. MemeTales Readathon 2012 and Virtual Summer Book Club for Kids (join me on Monday to share your Mo Willems book crafts), and we are participating in both!! I hope you will join us in them.

My frame and picture in my beach themed master bedroom

While thinking about our shell frames and picking up a few more wooden frames to make more, we found a wooden box that would make a nice treasure box for Hazel. She loved the idea and I let her pick out a blueish paint for it. I used this paint on the box and our frames. I decided I wanted to use one of the previous frames for the picture of Hazel at the beach and still wanted to frame my favorite mermaid picture. Hazel also wanted to frame another mermaid picture (her second favorite) and we had a piece of wood we covered in sand to make a sign for Steve. We glued some shells on it to say "Relax." Steve liked it and wanted it for one of his spaces.

 I let Hazel glue the shells on her frame after I had added some sand to the bottom. She of course wanted to put on as many as she could. We put this one in her room as well as the first one she did.

Now onto the box. While she was at my mother-in-law's I painted it for her including the inside. Then we picked out a mermaid picture. We chose one from The Graphic Fairy. I decoupaged a sparkly scrapbook paper first to the top of the box and then the picture on top of it and put a few coats of Mod Podge onto it. Then I added some sand to the bottom of the sides of the box.

After all of this dried  we put some mermaid stickers on the sides including bubbles and then I sprayed the inside and out with an acrylic sealer. Next I hot glued some shells, stones, and sea glass onto the top and sides.

Top View

Front View

Hazel could not wait for it to dry so she could put some treasure into it.

Back View

Finished Box

We will be sharing this over at Taming The Goblin's Mermaid Project. Have you shared your mermaid crafts there yet?

This is where I share...

Easter Celebrations

We have had a lovely weekend celebrating Easter. My parents came to visit and Hazel has been in her glory. On Saturday we went to church for the Easter Fun Day. I will share more about this tomorrow, but while there she was given a gift from one of our friends.

Rainbow sheep that she needle felted and the book Rainbow Sheep by Kim Chatel. Thank you, Barbara!!

The book is a wonderful story about a shepherdess and her sheep. They live through a week of rain and are all muddy when a sad rainbow comes out. The shepherdess tells the rainbow how she stays happy--often using some imagination of what might live in the forest and water below. Finally she gets the rainbow happy--so happy she is laughing so hard she cries and turns the tears turn the sheep colors. At the end of the book are instructions to make the sheep. All the pictures are needle felted and it is a lovely book and story.

Then at church on Sunday Hazel was given another gift. A few weeks ago when Hazel and I were cooking she asked if I could make her a can opener for her kitchen. Ok, I haven't made it yet, but said well what would you open with it. We decided to ask our friend, Jack, to make her a wooden can. Well, he of course agreed and made her not only one can, but three and more.

They are all labeled with Miss Hazel's Soup or Hazel's Soup. One even says home cooked and made with love and kisses. Aren't they wonderful?

He made her an apple and some eggs as well as blocks and wooden balls.

Sorry the picture of the wooden balls didn't come out. But wasn't this a great gift. Needless to say, Hazel loves it!! Thank you, Jack and Donna!!

Hazel was also extremely excited to receive two books from her aunt. She got two of her favorites and recognized them when opening them from their backs. She got Ant and Grasshopper by Luli Grey and Sheila Rae the Brave by Kevin Henkes. I posted about the Ant and Grasshopper here. We still need to make Ant's house for Hazel. We love Kevin Henkes books. We fell in love with his Little White Rabbit last year and then My Garden. This year we have loved his Chrysanthemum and Sheila Rae, The Brave. His writing always shows imagination and these two also show some normal children fears and life. For a short time Hazel's Ducky was named Chrysanthemum after the book's character.

Anyway, that is all for today. I hope you are having a wonderful day!! Tomorrow I'll share more about our family activities this weekend for Happy Family Times!