A Heart For Home

Our Blog is Moving!

You may notice some design changes today. We're getting geared up for our move to WordPress and our new domain www.AllOurDays.com. The transfer should be live by Thursday evening. This shouldn't affect you, it will switch behind the scenes and old links will automatically be redirected.

We've hired Blogelina to do the switch for us and we also picked up a blog makeover to get us set up in the best way on our new site.

$Blogelina\'s Blog Makeover Service$

In preparation of the switch, we wanted to make sure that we don't lose our Google Friend Connect Followers, as this won't transfer to our new self-hosted WordPress blog.

Do you know what Google Friend Connect is? It looks like this...are you one of those little pictures?

We'd rather not lose anyone in the transition process, so if you currently follow through GFC, please take a few seconds to choose a new method of following.

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Thanks for reading A Heart for Home. We're looking forward to sharing more with you at All Our Days!

Labels: Blog, Our Family

First Day of School Pictures {Finished Friday #55} Come & link up your projects, too!

Link up your finished projects at the bottom of this post.

This was our first official week of homeschool for the year. I think we have a great looking group of kiddos this year :)

Emahry - Kindergarten
so excited about school that it's the first thing she's asked about every morning

Jonathan - PreK
cried when I told him we were finished with school for the day
(Yes he's sporting a shiner. It was a case of eye socket meets sister's head while playing tag.)

Eliya - pre-pre-PreK
loves doing school like the big kids

Amelia - pre-pre-pre-PreK
somehow finds a way to get in the middle of every single activity

We share our posts at these parties.

This Post is Sponsored by:

Learn Your Letters, Learn To Serve Complete Curriculum Kit

This 240+ page downloadable or hard copy kit includes thorough lesson plans, games, crafts, recipes, memory verses, Bible story suggestions, vocabulary stimulation and discussion, play, books to read and so much more…all while encouraging service to God!

Today's Question: Is your family back into the school-time routine? What's been the biggest challenge with the start of school this year?

Okay, now on to the link-up...

I'm trying to hold myself accountable to finish some of the projects on my to do list by posting each Friday about a project I've completed.

Would you like to join in? Link up to your own projects below.

1. Link to your project post, not your blog's home page, so we can find it easily.
2. Let us know what project you are sharing in your title, for example: Spring Wreath
3. We'd love it if your post links back here so that your readers can come join the fun. Feel free to copy & paste our Finished Friday Button into your post. (Just copy the text in the box below the button, click on the "Edit HTML" tab for your post and paste it there.)

Where the linky says "Your Name" please enter the name of your project or the title of your post!

Labels: Finished Friday, Learning at Home, Our Family, Photos

Building Our Chicken Coop {Finished Friday #53} Come link up your projects, too!

Link up your finished projects at the bottom of this post.

Earlier this week our hens started leaving some of these little goodies for us to find in their chicken run.

Finding our long awaited eggs lying in the grass gave us a little extra motivation to get the chicken coop and nesting boxes finished.

Tim's put in long hours on the coop and nesting boxes this past week and thankfully, the kids and I have been able to help a little bit, too.

Amelia slept on my back right through the sawing :)

Tim's actually done a lot more to the coop, but since it's not at our house, I haven't taken a finished photo yet. It's now attached to the chicken run and the hens (and a few roosters) have been enjoying the extra room and shade. Now we just need to train the hens to lay in the nesting boxes.

Here are the four eggs Tim collected tonight (on the left). Hens typically start by laying small eggs, called pullet eggs. The eggs will continue to grow larger as the hens get older. For comparison the eggs on the right are Large eggs.

Today's Questions: What projects were you able to finish this week? What to you hope to complete next week?

Okay, now on to the link-up...

I'm trying to hold myself accountable to finish some of the projects on my to do list by posting each Friday about a project I've completed.

Would you like to join in? Link up to your own projects below.

1. Link to your project post, not your blog's home page, so we can find it easily.
2. Let us know what project you are sharing in your title, for example: Spring Wreath
3. We'd love it if your post links back here so that your readers can come join the fun. Feel free to copy & paste our Finished Friday Button into your post. (Just copy the text in the box below the button, click on the "Edit HTML" tab for your post and paste it there.)

Where the linky says "Your Name" please enter the name of your project or the title of your post!

Labels: Finished Friday, Natural and Green, Our Family, Photos

Our (Practically Free) Kindergarten & Preschool Learning Plans 2012-2013

This year, we're not planning on purchasing any official curriculum. Below is our pieced together, mostly from materials we already have on hand, curriculum. In a small way I feel like this helps to balance the fact that we're still paying off my Elementary Ed degree :)

Bible
Our children will be learning about God, his love for them, and what they can do to love him back. For our "official" Bible studies we'll be continuing with breakfast readings from 365 Read-Aloud Bedtime Bible Stories. We'll also be walking through the Bible with the What's in the Bible? DVDs and the My Bible Coloring Book.

We'll also be reading from The Jesus Storybook Bible as well as other Bible storybooks.

We'll continue to focus on prayer with our Prayer Pail and we'll keep memorizing scripture with this simple Scripture Memory Box system (which, by the way, we love). For more ideas check out our Raising Children for God Pinterest board.

Language Arts
Our family will be focusing on reading lots of great books together. We'll also be listening to some wonderful audio books (partly so I can get some work done and partly because we all enjoy them so much).

All of the kids will continue to utilize our growing collection of Alphabet books and Alphabet activity books. We will also interact through many Alphabet activities and games and continue to talk about letters, letter sounds and words in real life situations.

We will also be learning and reviewing with several Alphabet videos including Letter Factory, WordWorld (Rocket to the Moon, Lucky Duck, Flying Ant), and free online videos as well. We'll also be attending story time at our local library once a week.

Jonathan and Eliya will also be doing a very simply Letter of the Week focus with a two or three activities each week on a specific letter.

Emahry will continue with simple phonics work and will continue to learn sight words from the Dolch sight word list to help make reading easier. She'll keep reading with Set 1 of Bob Books, which my mom gave us, and will complete many of the activities we've pinned in our Teach Me to Read board. Emahry will also continue to write in real world situations, making to-do lists, writing letters to family and friends and writing labels and descriptions of drawings. She'll also work on writing her full name, address and phone number. We like this website for making handwriting printables.

Type in any word(s) & this website generates handwriting worksheets

History
For a general overview we'll be reading through the History for Little Pilgrims that I picked up at Goodwill for less than a dollar. This book has 15 short chapters, each with a simply activity and a handful of questions. We'll go through one chapter each week.

After that we plan on starting a history overview using children's books. We have not decided yet if we'll begin in the beginning with books on the Ancient World or if we'll start closer to present day with an overview of American History. Here's a list of children's books about the Ancient World divided by time period and civilization. My friend, Kristin, has a great list of American History books organized into time periods as well.

Math
We'll be spending the first 11 weeks teaching and reviewing numbers 0-10 with a number of the week for our three oldest children. We'll also be using numbers in real world counting and completing lots of the counting activities found here. We may also go back to the Funnix Beginning Math Program once Emahry becomes more consistent with recognizing written numbers.

Emahry will also be keeping a math journal for recording facts about numbers (or like this), counting, graphing, and pattern work. We'll also add some number activities like this to her journal. We have this Primary Journal with space for drawing at the top and lines for writing on the bottom half.

Emahry will also work on counting to 100 and will begin to work with money, skip counting, and simple addition and subtraction using a variety of books, workbooks and activities. She'll be using some of these free 20 question math practices at least once a week as well.

Science
This fall, we'll be focusing on a nature study of trees. We'll be reading lots of books about trees, starting with this list, and enjoying the autumn weather observing local trees and collecting lots of leaves. We'll also be completing some tree and leaf projects we've pinned here. In the spring we'll pick back up with our study of plants and gardening.

We'll also be studying the seasons through books and activities.

Art
We'll be starting the year with a simple study of shapes and how to draw them. We'll then begin combining different shapes to make pictures. We'll be following many of the How to Draw... activities pinned to our Art Activities board. We'll also have some fun making fingerprint art like this.

Music
We'll be using Songs for Sapling Questions with Answers CDs as part of our Music time this year. We will listen to these 4 CDs throughout the day. I'm sure the ABCs and 123s CDs will sneak into our rotation as well. We'll also focus on learning two different hymns, This is My Father's World and Take My Life, and Let it Be.

Physical Education
Our kids are all very active. We will continue to play at home and at local parks & playgrounds. We will also go on regular nature walks. During warmer weather, our children will regularly swim in their grandparent's pool.

We're counting finally nailing down this plan as our finished project for the week. Would you like to share what you've accomplished? Link up to our Finished Friday blog party.

We're sharing this post at Pin the Tail on the Bloggy Pinterest Party @ Fox Hollow Cottage.

Today's Question: We'd love to hear about your homeschool plans for this year. Feel free to leave a link if you've blogged about your plans.

Be sure to click the link in the first email to activate your subscription.

Labels: ABCs, Books, Children, Faith Bearing Fruit, Frugal and Simple, Learning at Home, Our Family

Month-by-Month Baby Photos {Finished Friday} come and link up your posts, too!

Scroll down to link your finished projects & posts.

I finally edited Amelia's 9 and 10 month photos. So today's a two for one deal.

Amelia's waving...

and making cute little kissy faces.

Here's a recap...only 2 months left.

For those who have asked, I use a very simple point and shoot camera with natural light and no flash. All images are edited for free at picmonkey.com.

Today's Question: Have you been taking lots of pictures of your kids this summer? What are some of your favorite photos so far?

I'm trying to hold myself accountable to finish some of the projects on my to do list by posting each Friday about a project I've completed.

Would you like to join in? Link up to your own projects below.

1. Link to your project post, not your blog's home page, so we can find it easily.
2. Let us know what project you are sharing in your title, for example: Spring Wreath
3. We'd love it if your post links back here so that your readers can come join the fun. Feel free to copy & paste our Finished Friday Button into your post. (Just copy the text in the box below the button, click on the "Edit HTML" tab for your post and paste it there.)

Where the linky says "Your Name" please enter the name of your project or the title of your post!

Labels: Bellies and Babies, Children, Our Family, Photos

A Home Story at the MercyINK Blog

Today I'm guest posting at the MercyINK blog. Lauren asked me if I'd share some of my thoughts for her Home Stories series. Here's a tiny piece of what I had to say...

To me, “home” describes the place where I feel loved and accepted. It’s a place of comfort and encouragement…a place I can be myself without fear or rejection. This is what I want to give my family as well. I’ve found that the feeling of home is much more important than the look of the physical house.

Visit MercyINK to read the rest of my thoughts...and please say "hi" to Lauren while you're there.

Labels: Children, Crafts and Decorating, Encouragement, Faith Bearing Fruit, Frugal and Simple, Homemaking and Organizing, Our Family, Womanhood and Mamahood

Happy Birthday, Emahry!

Emahry,

You make me; dance silly in the living room, listen more, work on breaking bad habits.

You make me; madder than a hornet, lean on grace hard, wish little girls didn’t grow up so fast.

You make me; comb long locks of gold, pray more fervently, judge dresses by their ability to spin.

You make me; view the world with wonder, smile more, want to be a better example.

You make me; seek the Word for wisdom, look for purple, sip from tiny teacups.

You make me; read more, see every moment as learning, thankful.

You make me: a mama.

Happy 5th birthday, Emahry Joy!

Labels: Children, Encouragement, Our Family, Photos

Gardening with Kids: Creating a Plant & Garden Nature Study Binder

Recently, when Kristin shared her nature study ideas I knew this type of learning would be a good fit for our family. Science with no curriculum (and minimal cost), yes, please.

Since we spend a great deal of spring and summer hours in the garden, I thought that would be the perfect place to start.

Even if you don’t homeschool, this is the perfect summer project to keep your kids learning, engaged, and outdoors. It would also make a great show-and-tell for the famous “how I spent my summer” discussion.

Now, I must admit, I have never researched the art of nature study, in fact, I’m fairly certain we won’t be doing it quite right, but this is what works for our family—maybe it’ll work for your family, too!

This idea is a little bit of a smorgasbord of ideas taken from the concept of nature study, journaling, notebooking, and scrapbooking.

Since our children are all preschoolers, I decided that we would do our nature study as a family and keep our notes and drawings in one place.

I’m a little obsessed with binders and page protectors (just ask my husband) so I decided that our nature study would be housed not in a sketchbook but in a 3-ring binder. (Trying to get three kids to share one sketchbook sounded like a recipe for disaster and since they are so young I’m not ready for them each to have their own sketchbook.)

Plant & Garden Nature Study Binder Cover

(click here to print this cover for your binder)

I filled the binder with various styles of page protectors: standard, 4x6 photo, trading card, and business card (all leftover from various projects—I told you I’m obsessed). This will make it easier to place all types of items into our binder.

Along with what the kids' contribute, my husband will be adding various garden notes and I’m sure I’ll be adding my own observations as well (I already slid in an April garden plot sketch).

Here are a couple of the things the kids have added so far.

I’m also planning on adding monthly photos of the garden and the kids helping in the garden.

I’ll probably edit and save all of these in a folder on our computer until I come across a good deal for printing photos. For the time being I’ll slide some scrap paper into the photo slots with a description of which picture I want there. That will help me quickly add them in once they’re printed.

Here are some ideas of other things you could add to your plant and garden nature study binder:

I tried to stop at 10 items, but I just kept finding more great activities, so this is more of a top ten + eight :)

(All the links below go to my pins, so those who use Pinterest can repin easily from the original source.)

monthly drawings of the same plant (to show growth)
drawings of bugs and other garden critters
plant life cycle cards (like these or ones your child has drawn)
weather charts or graphs
results of plant experiments (like this or this)
poems about plants
measurements of different garden plants or garden produce
famous garden paintings
Venn diagrams comparing two different plants
a list of your favorite plant books (we’re gathering ours now)
garden word cards (like these or these)
labeled diagrams of flowering plants
garden or plant painting (like this or this for older children, or this one and this one perfect for younger kiddos)
favorite recipes using foods from your garden
pressed flowers or leaves
photos of crafts made for the garden (Like our painted garden markers. I’m gathering lots of other ideas here)
garden magazine or seed catalogue collages
leaf rubbings

We’ll be sharing lots of ideas and projects from our nature study throughout the summer, including an extensive list of great plant and garden books to read with your kids. Sign up for free email updates below so you don’t miss a thing.

Is this something you’d like to do with your child(ren)?

Can you think of other things that would be nice to add to our Plant and Garden Binder? We’d love to hear your ideas.

Labels: Children, Crafts and Decorating, Frugal and Simple, Gardening, Health and Nutrition, Learning at Home, Natural and Green, Nature Study, Our Family