Boy Craft: Action Figure Mini Pillows

My boys really love Life of Fred. We were working in our math books one day and Mr. History said, “I wish I had a Fred toy.”  Mr. Science said, “I wish I had Kingie toy!” So not unlike the boys on Phineas and Ferb, they knew what they were going to do that day. They decided to make Fred and Kingie mini pillows. 

I realized while making these you could draw anything on the material you wanted. Boys could make various kinds of action figures. They could also write their favorite quotations on the material.  The ideas are limitless. 

We used flour sack towels because we had some lying around, but any white material would work. Here are the steps for making the mini pillows:

1)      Fold over your material so you will have two pieces to sew together.

2)      Draw an outline of your favorite character on the material.

3)      Cut out your drawing. I had the boys cut it out in a more circular shape and not worry about cutting in on the line. This made it easier to sew.

4)      Make sure the piece with the picture is face down.

5)      Sew the two pieces together with a basic stitch. Make sure to leave a hole big enough to turn your material inside out so you can see the drawing.

6)      Turn your material inside out.

7)      Use the hole to stuff your pillow.

8)      Then sew the hole up and your mini pillows are done!

I try to get the boys to do all the steps themselves. It will not be perfect when finished but they will be proud because they made it!

Homeschool day in the life with a 10 year old and 6 year old

Welcome to our homeschool day in the life. We like to call our educational approach “relaxed" Charlotte Mason homeschooling. I guess it's relaxed in the sense that I don't stress if we do not finish our curriculum.  However, there really is nothing relaxed about our days right now. The kids are working on a lot of really cool projects and we are very busy. And I love the Charlotte Mason approach. We just don't follow it to the letter. 

6:30- I really like to start my day early because I feel so much more productive when I get up before the kids. I did not exactly make it this morning. I slept until 7:15. 

7:15- My morning normally starts with Bible reading and prayer. I recently started a prayer journal which has helped me to be more focused in my prayers.  I start a load of laundry, put up the dishes that were cleaned the night before, and eat breakfast. I enjoy sipping a cup of coffee as I check out what is happening on Facebook.

8:00- Now it’s time to wake the kids. Mr. History, my 10 year old, and Mr. Science, my 6 year old, have a routine that they do every morning. I work on my writing while they are working on their morning routine.  Sometimes it is hard to keep them on track because they really enjoy each others company.  They get distracted by quoting lines from shows and laughing. They would do this for hours if I let them .

8:10- Today I was the one who got them distracted! I got really excited because there was a new bird looking in our birdhouse. I excused the kids from their routine to see if they could identify it. We did not get to identify it because a Carolina Chickadee came and scared it away. Oh well, back to our routine. 

8:50- My husband leads us in prayer for the day. Then my husband and boys quote lines from The Andy Griffith Show. After laughing and joking around, my husband leaves for work. He is the Youth and Family Minister at our church. I love that he has this job. It has been great for our family.

9:05- School usually starts with the boys telling me they have finished everything on their morning routine chart.  We usually have a morning discussion about current events. These boys LOVE to discuss anything and everything. This morning we discussed satire and internet "news." We talked about how we cannot always believe what we read and that we need to do our research before believing anything as a fact.

We also had a morning meeting. Because there are so many projects going on, we had to discuss how we will fit them in to our schedule. We are hoping to grow some interesting fruits and vegetables for the farmers market, so we talked about what seeds we would like to buy. We discussed how we could make raised beds for our garden.   

We have been working on an idea to write a pre-school curriculum using the Bible as the main text. The boys are really excited about this project and they have come up with some wonderful activities. I really like that they are able to work on “real world” projects. 

 9:30- We like to spend an hour on Bible related activities every morning. Right now Mr. History is getting ready to go to LTC. Some of the projects he is currently working on for LTC are writing a book, giving a sermon, a puppet skit, a drama skit, and song leading. Today he is working on sign language. This year he is challenging himself by learning two songs and several Bible verses in sign language.

We are also studying Exodus for a Bible Bowl type competition. We found a great book that is helping us with the study. It's called Growing Up in God's Word Bible Curriculum. We have discovered that this curriculum is really helping us to be able to dig deeper in to the Bible. It contains a discussion section, memory work, map work, games, activities, and crafts. I encourage you to click on the link and try a sample page. 

10:30- Whew! We are all ready for a break! Since the weather is cold and yucky, I let them play Mindcraft. 

11:00-  Mr. Science is really enjoying reading on his own since we discovered Bob Books for Kindle. 

11:15- The boys love Life of Fred so much that they decided to make "Life of Fred" mini-pillows. Today they are working on sewing them. (A blog post about these pillows will follow soon.)

11:45- Another project they are working on is trying to make a Lego Stop-motion Shakespeare tutorial. This is to help me with something I am working on for a homeschool magazine. 

12:30- Time for lunch. My husband comes home and the kids tell him about their day. During lunch I try to catch up on my blog e-mail.

1:30 – On Wednesdays we go to the nursing home to visit my Memaw . We also enjoy visiting with the other residents. We enjoy talking to them and I think they enjoy the hugs and smiles. While we are there, my husband and  the preacher from our church conduct a Bible study that we participate in, too.

2:30- This is not our favorite time on Wednesday...grocery shopping; but, we do enjoy the time we have in the car discussing issues. Again, they love to discuss.  Today’s car topics are urban legends, whether or not urban legends considered gossip, and TVs that can see you. 

5:00- Time to unload the car, eat a quick meal, and get ready for Wednesday night Bible Study.

6:30- Go to church for Bible Study.It is nice to be together with our church family. We enjoy singing songs together and studying the Bible. 

8:30- Get home, have a snack and do our nightly family devotional. We love this new family devotional that just came out from Kaio Publications, Inc. It uses object lessons from different parts of your house. Tonight we were reading "Object Lessons from the Yard." The boys really seem to enjoy reading and..... of course discussing. 

9:00- Time for the kids to get in bed. We let them read a few minutes before lights out. I love this time of night because my husband and I always snuggle on the couch, talk about our day, and watch TV.

 Whew! I did not realize how full our Wednesdays are until I began writing about it and taking pictures for it! I hope you enjoyed reading about or day as much as I enjoyed sharing it with you. I would love to hear about exciting things that you do during your days.

The Heart of Your Husband

                                         *There is a lot I can say about these verses, but I am trying to stick with simple comments for this series.*

Today we will be studying Proverbs 31: 11-12.

The heart of her husband trusts in her,
            And he will have no lack of gain.  (Proverbs 31:11 NASB)

Can your husband trust you?  Does he know that you are going to protect his heart?  One way your husband can know that he can trust you is by your demonstration that you are following God and studying the Bible. 

This verse also makes me think of respect. Do you respect your husband?

One of the ways I can show my husband respect is to make sure I speak highly of him whether or not he is with me. I never discuss with anyone any of his faults or our disagreements. I want others to think highly of my husband. 

I make sure that I speak very highly of him around our children. I want our boys to respect their dad and know that I respect him.

Respect is very important to a man. We need to make sure we uplift our husbands. This helps to encourage him and build his confidence. This is why “he will have no lack of gain.” If you encourage your husband, he will gain confidence and believe that he can accomplish things he never thought possible!

 She does him good and not evil

   All the days of her life.  (Proverbs 31:12 NASB)

Do nice things for your husband! Don’t try to manipulate him to get what you want. Don’t say or do things to him to intentionally tear him down or hurt his feelings. 

Get to know your husband and the things that he really enjoys doing. Try to make his favorite meal or do an activity together that he enjoys. 

I am really enjoying studying Proverbs 31 with you. Hopefully you can see that you are already doing a lot of these things and that Proverbs 31 is not something that should intimidate us!
Questions for the week:

·       What are some of your husband’s greatest qualities?

·       What are some things that he enjoys doing? 

My post today is being featured on R16:16.  I encourage you to check it out. This month’s featured posts are all about marriage.