Knitted Child's Minion Hat

Amber picked the following hat project to create for her younger cousin this last Christmas.  The entire project took her three to four hours to complete. It was done on a knitting loom to help with uniformity. She created this pattern all on her own after looking at many samples of minion hats and pictures of minions.

The hat Amber made ended up being 32 rows long, which was a little large for her four year old cousin, but he has plenty of room to grow. It makes it more of a elementary aged child hat, and not a pre-schooler sized.

Supplies:

1 Skeen Blue Yarn
1 Skeen Black Yarn
2 Skeens Yellow Yarn
1 Skeen gray / silver yarn  (you don't need much if you already have some available)
1 Skeen White Yarn (you don't need much if you already have some available)

Circular Knitting Loom - 36 peg size
Yarn needle
Crochet hook - size G


Hat knitting:

Using the e-wrap method, cast on in blue and

• start with 5 rows of blue
• Continue with 15 rows of yellow.
• 3 rows of black
• 8 more rows of yellow
• and finally, she decreased by half in 1 row of yellow

Then, using a yarn needle, thread through the remaining loops and tie off. Weave both the ending and beginning tails into the hat.

Eyes:

These were crocheted instead of knitted, because she had an easier time with the magic rings than with circular knitting. You could choose to use only one eye instead and place it in the center.

Using the directions for a magic ring (found here), create two eyes with the details below. Be sure to leave a tail hanging at the back from the beginning and end of each eye.

• Use black for the initial chain and first round - with 6 sc in first round.
• Use white for the second round of 2 sc in each sc of first round.
• Use gray / silver for a third round of 2 sc in each sc of the second round.

Attach the eyes on the black band of the hat with the inner edges of the eyes touching and the middle of each eye centered on the middle row of the black band.

Mouth & Hair:

Using black yarn and the yarn needle:

For the mouth, stitch across 8 columns centered beneath the eyes.  Amber choose to put the mouth approximately 4-5 rows up from the bottom blue band with a slight upward tilt on the ends.

For the hair,  pull through with the yarn needle and knot a few randomly placed strands of hair on the top of the hat. The hair should be sparse. Amber only use 4 hair sets (each pull-through makes two strands sticking up).  She cut the hair to be approximately 1.5 inches long. She also used fray-check to ensure the yarn did not unravel immediately.

And All the Extras

Welcome to the last week of the 2015 Virtual Curriculum Fair hosted by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts and Minds and Lisa @ Golden Grasses.  The topic this final week is Seeking Beauty: the Arts and Everything that Brings Beauty to Our World. So, what brings beauty to our homeschool?

Succinctly, my child's smiling face, infectious laugh, and relief when we set a schedule to fit her abilities. But this is a curriculum fair, and not a philosophical discussion about beauty.   Unfortunately, we don't have much of a curriculum for this topic.  There are many ways wee seek out beauty, but very little (if any) includes formal curriculum.

Let's instead look at the items that make our girl smile and laugh? In the past she adored dance, looked forward to art classes at the local art / pottery store, her piano lessons and just about any activity with friends. Now there isn't energy for all of those activities. We did join a homeschool group with a co-op a little over a year ago and Amber loves every second of her time with this group. 

We choose to use the homeschool co-op for enrichment classes only, yet there is still plenty of topics to keep Amber busy there for the large part of one day each week. Last school year Amber started with an art class at the co-op which was fun at first, but lost its luster later in the semester.  Drama at the co-op, on the other hand, couldn't be a better experience. Last year she was a goblin in a small production of The Hobbit; for the Christmas just passed she was Mary in a pantomime; and now for the current spring production she is Susan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Photo art class and homework picture-taking; knitting for fun, and at the symphony

Amber has returned to an artistic class with photography art this semester. It is a combination of photography instruction with art projects using photos they take each week. It's a great balance of learning and art.  Additionally, Amber takes a teen Bible study, which although it is taught non-denominationally, has given her a chance to enjoy being in God's word without the concentration level required for her regular confirmation class. 

Outside of the homeschool group Amber takes weekly flute lessons and intermittently plays in a band. This is after 6+ years of piano lessons too. There is nothing more beautiful than to listen to an earnest music student on the flute.  It is truly a lovely instrument.

Those are all structured classes that add beauty to our homeschool.  However, we spend a good deal of time crafting and simply creating on our own at home too.   Amber is particularly partial to knitting and other yarn crafts.  She also loves to doodle and simply create with the art supplies on hand.  We've recently signed up for a subscription to Doodle Crate and await our first delivery.  Amber is very excited to have craft projects delivered to our door once a month along with the promise to dedicate to the projects.

Amber as Mary, working on a craft project and practicing flute before a performance

We also enjoy attending the symphony and touring Broadway productions as a family.  We never expected Amber to so enjoy these events, but she looks forward to them possibly more than the adults.

That's how our family adds beauty to our homeschool and family life.  It's not perfect, but nothing in life ever is.  Thanks for joining us during the 2015 Curriculum Fair. We've had fun sharing and reading all the great ideas from other families.

Other Weeks from the 2015 Curriculum Fair

Please check out how the other members of the 2015 Virtual Curriculum Fair are finding Beauty in their worlds.

• The Art of Organization…or How Clutter Almost Ruined My Homeschool by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds
• The Shadow of Divine Perfection by Lisa @ Golden Grasses
• Relaxed Homeschooling: Fine Arts in the Early Elementary Years by Brittney @ Mom's Heart
• Fine Arts {Art Appreciation, Art, Composer Study Hymn Study} for 2015 by Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses
• Adding Sparkle to Home Education by Sarah @ Delivering Grace
• And All the Extras by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool
• Teaching Art Using the Bible by Tauna @ Proverbial Homemaker
• Art In Every Subject by Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break
• Letting Art Just Happen in Homeschool by Amy @ One Blessed Mamma
• Missing Art? by Kristen H. @ Sunrise to Sunset
• Do YOU Have Time for Extracurriculars? by Michele@ Family, Faith and Fridays
• Fine Arts in Our Classical / Charlotte Mason Homeschool by Sharra @ The Homeschool Marm
• The Science of Beauty for a Delight-Directed Daughter by Susan @ The Every Day of Education
• Seeking Beauty: How we Tackle the Arts in our Homeschool by Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory
• Learning To Appreciate Beauty With Fine Arts Resources@ As We Walk Along the Road by Leah@ As We Walk Along the Road

If you'd like to join the fair this week, use the linky below.

http://new.inlinkz.com/luwpview.php?id=488828

Break Week #2 - Way Too Much To Do.

It's been a busy, busy break week here.  Actually, it was too busy and I canceled one of my own appointments in order to let Amber sleep before a fun homeschool teen group outing.

Despite being a break Amber has earned quite a few art hours this week by working on various craft projects to help her relax without using the PS3.  For some reason I had a real aversion to her playing video games this week.  Maybe it was the exhaustion in her face.  Normally, I'm not one to freak out about game time, especially during a break.  We also kept up on current events with the CNN Student news.  I didn't even have to remind Amber about it, she listens to it faithfully every day.

(Left & Top-Middle) Ready for the King's Faire; Playing at the King's Faire
(Bottom-Middle, Top-Right) Confirmation hayride and bonfire.  It was cold!
(Bottom-right) Letting their light shine!

We also completed more of Amber's confirmation homework, which is actually a family assignment.  I think we are just about done with this unit as soon as someone writes up our rough draft sermon reports.  Amber was feeling somewhat better this week compared to earlier in October, despite it being busy and hectic, so we were able to include several cardio workouts. I wish we could have found time for swimming, but that takes so much effort to drive over, be wet, dry off, come home and get ready for the next event. 

(Left) Homeschool teen group outing to the corn maze and farm.  That goat loved Amber.
(Middle-top) After the corn maze.  She felt awful, but said it was worth it.
(Middle-Bottom) A new cheesecake cookie that Amber loves.
(Right) Goofing off.

UPS delivered our new science curriculum on Wednesday and it looks better than I expected.  Whew.  Amber earned some science hours, even though it was break, by reading and working through a weather prediction book during a long drive and subsequent long wait for neuroscience testing.   We then talked a lot about the barometric pressure and looked back at the weather data for the past couple of weeks.  It turns out that Amber's Valsalva Maneuver results were not normal for the baroreflex.  We are still learning about all of this, but it means that the weather barometric pressure will affect Amber's dysautonomia symptoms.  That could explain why early October was so hard for her; the weather was very unstable, while this week it has been quite pleasant.

Amber also does not have complete Anhidrosis (inability to sweat), but much of her body does not sweat at all.  There was really only one site that produced sweat during the test on Thursday.  Unfortunately, the blood draw for AAG still did not happen, however it looks like the politics have been worked out... or forced aside by the doctor, and we won't be taking a trip to the Mayo Clinic. (Whew.. again). The delay seems to now be as simple as a needed lab employee, who has the details for drawing this particular test and shipping it to the research facility, was out on personal leave.  We should, hopefully, be going in next week for the AAG anti-body blood draw. 

(Left) GI doctor;  (Middle-Top) Allergiest. 
(Middle-bottom) Waiting at neuroscience and studying weather. 
(Right) Testing at neuroscience

The GI doctor was pleased with Amber's growth and weight. She's up to 5'2" and loving being almost my height.  The GI doctor is anxious to know the final diagnosis though because if it is AAG then there might be some additional treatments to help with intestinal motility which can't be done without that diagnosis.  The report from neuroscience did concern the GI doctor a little and if a diagnosis of AAG cannot be made, she would like us to have Amber tested for a mitochondrial disease (MNGIE).  There is just too much broken with Amber's autonomic system, especially the digestive system, if it's not AAG.  Let's pray that it is only AAG. Ok?

(Left) On our way to a photo shoot at the orthodontist.  Amber was selected to be part of their promo campaign.
(Middle) Elsa hat!  Thanks Keilee.
(Right) On her way to the homeschool Halloween party - Pinkie Pie!!!

This weekend I must bake and freeze foods for Amber. My backlog is getting ridiculous!  We are also going to rest and prepare for the new school session.  Our next break isn't until the week of Thanksgiving.


Happy Weekend!

Linking with:

A New Diagnosis

This was almost just another summer week.  Amber has been wonderfully creative this week and has tons of projects still going. She finally made the faerie house that she has dreamed of making.  Only she couldn't bear that it might be destroyed or ruined. It is now a semi-permanent outside decoration for our house.  It was originally going to sit in the front landscaping, but now is sitting protected in the back corner of the porch.  Amber can also check it from a front window in that location.  I've been told a faerie has definitely taken up residence and enjoys the ladybug and mini-turtle friends (not real ones) that Amber placed in the home.

We cleaned out the most difficult area of the basement this week and it was nothing less than a miracle to have survived... Ok, maybe not a miracle but it was hard work.  None of our basement is finished, so the framed area under the stairs to the basement is accessible and makes a great, out of the way storage spot.  Unfortunately, once things go in they never come out.  Like Wiggles and Daffy Duck VHS tapes (we don't have a VCR anymore), three (count them) copies of Windows 98, all the left over builder grade paint from 8 years ago when our house was built, and all of our college textbooks... even the ones we have that are identical.   Amber did have some fun going through my childhood keepsake bins and our wedding keepsakes (that aren't already upstairs).  But after most of a day working, and creating a huge pile of recycle and donation items, I have now reclaimed that area for new items that need to be stored.  It's a vicious cycle.   At least it's all labeled this time.

Amber's Faerie house.  It boasts two flower beds, a wooden table, courtyard area, friendly ladybug and turtle, and a dragon egg nest (bottom-right pic). 

Since the basement area was cleaned, I now had a place to go with all of the random things from the guest bedroom closet.  I tackled that task alone while Amber played on Build-A-Bearville.  She just adores playing there, even though she is missing her friend who is on vacation.  She loves giving tours as a Cy-Bear-Guide.

The guest bedroom closet was home to many craft projects that never came to be, along with anything else we need a quick home for.  It is still our main craft storage area for Amber, but now with only items that she might actually complete.  Amber did find the Friendship Pin kits I bought on sale years ago. She spent a couple of evenings making Friendship Pins and was a bit aghast to find out I did that as a child too.

Amber also finally completed an American Girl doll t-shirt design kit.   We bought it before her 8th birthday to decide if this was a craft we wanted at her birthday party.  We did make doll shirts at the party, just not from that kit.  The thing only came with three shirts.  The child is 12 1/2 years old now.  Yet there was miraculously one shirt still left.  She turned it into a Frozen themed shirt for her dolls and now the kit is gone. Hallelujah.

Amber's other crafty things from this week. 

Speaking of Frozen, Amber is still enthralled with it.  While shopping two weeks ago we saw an Elsa custom American Girl doll outfit in a handmade items store at the mall.  They also had an Anna outfit, but as it has hand embroidery, it was only made to order.  Can you guess what Amber now has?  We found that the long blonde haired Caroline doll easily doubles as Elsa and the red haired Emily doll can be transformed into a ponytailed Anna (sorry, her hair would not stay in braids).   There's been lots of Frozen themed doll playing here lately.

We also found some $1 Frozen sticker books and notebooks at Target last weekend.  Amber has already gone through two of the 300 sticker packs and 1 1/2 of the notebooks creating Frozen themed art journal pages.  Of course, she was using her $1 Frozen gel pens and sparkly, pom pom Olaf pen too.  

I did not do any school planning since it is all pretty much ready to go.  We did do a little reorganization of the school area after moving the art supply drawers to the guest room closet, but most of the transformation into a double person area will happen as we need it.  We did have progress with the adoption this week, but probably not the kind you are expecting.   I will maybe be able to say more next week.

Amber's Caroline and Emily American Girl dolls dressed as Elsa and Anna from Frozen.  The Anna outfit also came with the magenta colored cape, but it was cumbersome when riding in the Miss Caroline skiff. 

Amber did have her neuroscience visit yesterday.  We are all kinda still processing what came from that appointment.  I honestly thought they would listen to why we had been referred there (and why I was chastised by the GI doctor for not getting her in sooner.. even though I jumped through hoops), look Amber over and tell me that we were grasping at straws and she pretty much just has fructose malabsorption.  I was wrong.

Amber has Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS).   It is a form of dysautonomia.  It's really a group of disorders with similar symptoms.  Kinda like IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome).  Some testing was done yesterday and further testing is being scheduled to determine which underlying disease or condition is causing her POTS.  The neuroscience doctor believes the most probable cause is Autoimmune Autonomic Ganglionopathy (AAG).

All of this to say the fructose malabsorption is a side effect of another condition.  Amber has a malfunction of the autonomic nervous system and it is definitely affecting her blood pressure, heart rate and digestive tract.  This explains why she is so intolerant of heat and exercise lately and why she is so, so exhausted all the time.

We have additional changes to Amber's life style to make, per the neuroscience doctor as way of treatment, along with being on the medical testing roller coaster again.  Once we get the changes up and going I'll talk a little more about them. For now, I'm trying to figure out how to rearrange our lives, again. One positive is that there is hope for Amber to tolerate fructose some day if the underlying cause of POTS can be dealt with successfully.

(TOP-LEFT) Playing on Bearville.  She's not feeling too great either because of a Summer cold.
(BOTTOM-LEFT) Lunch during errands at our favorite place in the historic downtown. No time to shop, but at least we could have lunch.
(RIGHT) Being silly.  We love to be silly.

On a happier note, for our last week of summer break our nephew is coming for another 3-4 day visit.  Amber is over the moon excited to have her 7 year old cousin staying.  She is going to be one exhausted girl when he leaves.  Thankfully, it will be just in time for a couple of days rest before school starts. 

This weekend I vow to finally make Amber some more baked goods.  For real this time.  Not like the day earlier this week when we made brownies with chocolate ganache.  It was supposed to be baking day.  It was instead "bake one thing" day.  But those brownies were ever so yummy.

Happy Weekend!

Linking with:

Homeschool Without Traditional Art

This last week of the Virtual Curriculum Fair is on Seeking Beauty: The Arts and Everything that Brings Beauty to Our World.  Immediately I thought, "Oh, that's not for us".   You see, Amber and I are not artistic.  Actually, to put it that way is insulting those who can draw identifiable stick people, unlike us.

Then after thinking for a little bit, I realized we do have lots of Art and Beauty in our school and lives.  It just isn't visual arts.  We do try to expose Amber to visual arts when possible. Amber takes occasional art classes at a local studio where she can try different mediums.  She usually has fun in the class, but she clearly does not excel in art.  She doesn't even want to try art unless it is a "fun class".

Best ever results from one of Amber's art classes, the instructor did the wording... completed at age 10 yrs and 11 months. :)

I, personally, loved the Art Appreciation and Art History classes I've taken and enjoy going to art museums even though my drawing and painting abilities are non-existent. I hoped this might be the case with Amber as well.  We started off this 5th grade year using A Child's History of Art - Painting and A Child's History of Art- Architecture. Both are from The Calvert School and include art cards as well as a small spiral bound book.  It was a total no-go for Amber.  Just too dry.  No problem.  I've heard nothing but wonderful things about Harmony Fine Arts, so I purchased the 6th grade Medieval and Renaissance level.   We dutifully used it for a few weeks during which  Amber was initially thrilled, and then one day she was not.  Neither art or art appreciation are her cup of tea.

Where does that leave us with Arts and Beauty?  Music, is our obvious starting point.  Amber has taken piano since she was 5 years old.  She loves to play piano and has a natural gift for music.  She is not as motivated to practice regularly as I would like, but it fluctuates enough that overall her practice times are sufficient.  I have the responsibility of instructing her in the piano.  We use the Faber and Faber Piano Adventures series.  We've found it to be a bit slow at times, but that's about the only complaint we have.

Amber also plays on a children's chimes choir at our church and she is hoping to move up to the middle school handbell choir next year.  This is one of the great joys of her life.  She lives for each practice and performance.

Chimes performance and piano practice

Additionally, Amber took voice lessons last semester and this semester is trying out musical theater classes.  While she has always liked to sing, her voice was never well controlled.  I was shocked how much out of her comfort zone she was willing to go for these lessons.  The private voice lessons resulted in a solo Christmas carol in the Christmas concert.  Musical theater this semester will require acting and singing at the spring recital.  While Amber isn't thrilled with visual arts, apparently musical and theater arts inspire her.

Normally, I think of Amber's dance classes as Physical Education, but they too bring beauty to our lives.  Amber has moved from the age of little kid dancer bouncing around the studio to dedicated child dancer still happily leaping across the room.  Amber left competitive dancing a couple years ago, and now that she is more focused on learning dance just for enjoyment we have found that her dancing has greatly improved.  She performed her first solo (and duet) in December for the Christmas recital.  A more beautiful sight we could not have imagined.

Dance and more Dance. 

Although Amber and I are not artistically gifted, we do like crafts - especially needle / yarn work.  Amber loves to latch hook and can happily sit for hours working on a project.  We've given away many a latch hook pillow as a gift from her.   Amber has tried to cross stitch, which is my favorite craft.  She likes the idea of cross stitch but not the time requirements or squinty close work.  Amber has also recently taken up loom knitting and finds this much more to her liking than cross stitch.  Our personal service project this year is knitting baby hats, booties and blankets for local children's hospitals.  Amber has already completed quite a few preemie and newborn hats, along with a few doll hats and scarves.

Knitting hats.  Sock puppet craft made as a gift.  These are our "art" projects.

Beauty in our home and school comes from things other than traditional art.  Music, dance, crafts, and even just watching our adorable cat play all show us the beauty in this wonderful world.

I've enjoyed participating in the Virtual Curriculum Fair this year, but mostly I've enjoyed reading and gained new insights from the other participants' posts.   If you have time, look over at their posts too.

37 FREE Online Art and Music Resources by Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds
Homeschool Without Traditional Art by Christy @ Unexpected Homeschool
Draw What? by TechWife @ A Playground of Words
Flower Pony Tail Holders - Beginning Sewing Projects by Julie @ Highhill Education
Seeking Beauty- Virtual Curriculum Fair by Karyn @ Teach Beside Me
Creating an Artsy Homeschool, even if you're not by Erin @ Delighting in His Richness
Living with an Artsy Boy by Annette @ A Net In Time

A Reluctant Start To Second Semester

Christmas break officially ended this week, even though it was a short week due to "birthday break".  Amber's 11th birthday is tomorrow, January 12th!  We had plans for Amber to spend the night with my mom on Wednesday into Thursday afternoon, and for a small birthday outing with a friend on Friday, making it an awkward start to the semester. 

Given all the birthday plans, we started back to school this week slowly, and very reluctantly on Amber's part.  A night with my mother seems to have adjusted her attitude though, as she returned a much more compliant child.  My sister has noted this same phenomenon with her children, they are always returned much better behaved than they left.

A birthday tradition, counting the coins for deposit in Amber's piggy bank.  It literally is a pig.

Things are changing this semester with some of our curriculum and subjects, but there was no point in starting everything new during our 2.5 day week.  I did opt to begin the new poetry portion of literature this week, and thankfully Amber enjoyed those lessons even doing more than assigned.  I'm glad that worked out well because I can't imagine that the addition for next week, Writing With Skill, is going to be as thrilling.

The subjects this week consisted of Religion, Math, Poetry, History, Latin, and Science.  History was just a read and move on week.  The next two chapters in our book were topics that Amber's parochial school covered in great detail first semester last year.  I didn't feel it was necessary to do more than read over those chapters. Amber spent a couple of long car rides reading, and that was history this week.

Latin's review chapter was a priority for us this week.  Unfortunately, whenever we had busy weeks last semester, Latin was usually the first subject to be pushed aside for later.  I was relieved to see that Amber remembered most of the items in the review chapter, even though she did all the work before Christmas break.  This semester Latin is going to be given more precedence when time gets tight, and we are dedicated to finishing this level of Latin by the end of the semester.

In Science we are finally to the fun stuff, at least to us, Electricity and Magnetism.  That Amber loves playing with circuits so much makes this physics mom overjoyed.  We studied basic electricity and magnetism last year, however this year it is more indepth.  We purchased a couple of small Snap Circuits kits for science last year and found them so much easier to use than the old fashioned wire, battery, and light demonstrations.

Circuit building with Snap Circuits and working on her circuit design.

This year we have a much larger Snap Circuits kit allowing for larger demonstrations and experiments.  Amber had one assignment this week where she needed to arrange two lights in a circuit in such a way that if you removed one the other one would still work.  Fairly simple, if you know about series and parallel circuits.  Evidently, Amber remembered from last year because she went right to drawing her circuit on the experiment sheet and she drew a perfect parallel circuit.  Her execution of the design in the Snap Circuits needed a little help though.  Still, she had the idea down and we were able to make it work.

Amber spent all week playing with the Snap Circuits, building her own and creating designs in the provided book.  She made a space alien siren, light sensitive light switch, learned the use of resistors, and made a type of volume switch for the blaring alien siren.

This week Amber also learned a new craft, loom knitting.  She absolutely loves it, and bounced between circuits and knitting in her free time.  So far she has knitted hats & scarves for American Girl dolls, and a couple of baby hats.

Loom knitting.  She made the doll's hat, among other things.

Our personal service project this year is newborn and premature baby handmade items, such as knitted hats, booties, and blankets.  We are working with two different organizations to benefit the children's hospitals in our area. This is exactly the type of project we have been searching for.  Amber is thrilled to finally participate in a service project where she gets to actually do something, instead of collecting money or items from others.  Hopefully her enthusiasm does not wane too much over time.

That was our not so illustrious start to second semester of 5th grade.  I'm praying that Amber can calm down after the weekend of birthday celebrations for a better academic side to next week.  It's a long shot, but I can hope.

Linking with:

 

It's All About the Projects

Last Sunday night, while trying convince my mind it was alright to shut down and sleep, I came up with a plan to satisfy several problems that have cropped up.

Amber has been feeling like she isn't doing any "projects".  Our science curriculum hasn't had a lot of labs lately, and we again pushed art projects to the side.  Then, there is the million projects that I NEED to do, but can't find the time to complete. Top it off that we both have been feeling quite stressed the last couple of weeks.

So, during my insomnia haze, the decision was made to change our schedule up a bit for the next 2 weeks.  We are still having some regular subjects in the morning each day, but after lunch it is all about the projects. I would have cut down our subjects even more, but Amber felt like she was skipping school.  I did try to remind her of the weeks at her old schools where they did very little academic work and had a lot of projects, but she still fretted about our plan.

Our reorganized schedule for the week looked something like this:

Religion - We used Egermeier's Bible Story Book this week, instead of our normal curriculum.
Math - same ole, including a test.
Spelling
Social Studies / History - She completed  her study of the early 20th century inventions, read supplemental books on many of the inventions, and took her test.
Literature - Finished King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.  She absolutely LOVED these stories, so we are continuing next week with additional King Arthur stories and other related literature.
Latin - 3 days, including a test.
Creative Writing - Worked on plot outline for her novel.
Science - Test on Monday, then a break for the rest of the week.

The projects were very much a mix of what Amber wanted to do and what I needed to do. 

Not much was accomplished Monday afternoon, in the way of creativity because of Amber's mid-afternoon Chimes choir practice.   We did manage to try on more of Amber's mountains of clothes and find out there is only a small hill left that fit.  Monday evening, though, we spent a while making bead bracelets together from a kit she received for her birthday.  Amber even made one for Grandma.

Giving me attitude while trying on a previous Christmas dress
Bracelets Amber made for me.  We know one letter in "Mommy" is upside down.  It is a joke from Amber's younger days.

Tuesday we worked outside in the crisp fall breeze creating a stepping stone mosaic for Amber to give my mother for Christmas.  Actually, Amber did the creating and I did the mixing and pouring (and cleaning up).  Amber loves mosaic projects because she never feels like there is a "wrong" pattern or design.  It does a lot for her confidence to work with those projects.

Amber also wandered about our yard collecting all kinds of Autumn treasures, including a bucket of acorns from the tree that we just realized last year was an Oak tree when it started producing tiny acorns.  They aren't so tiny this year.  The tree is a replacement the builder planted about a year after we moved in.  One of our two front yard trees died almost immediately.  We assumed the replacement was a White Ash, to match the other tree.  But alas, we have an acorn producing Oak tree in our front yard.  So, not what I wanted except that Amber couldn't be happier with the situation, especially since she made the discovery last year.

Working on her stone mosaic.  Finished product is STILL drying in the garage.

The grand plans for Wednesday included painting all kinds of acorn people, and creating a little acorn people village.  Amber found and appropriated many unique items to use in the village.  Unfortunately, it rained Wednesday.  Plans had to be altered, and Amber chose instead to work on a latch hook pillow project she picked out for her baby cousin's Christmas present.  This worked will for me, because it gave me a few hours to sew on Amber's Halloween costume. 

This is going to sound bad, but Amber worked for HOURS on that latch hook while watching movie after movie.  She normally doesn't watch that much TV, but lately she hasn't watched any, so I felt alright in letting her watch and latch hook.   She started with Tangled, continued with the Pooh Heffalump Halloween (inspired by her Haycorn gathering from Tuesday), and finished with The Avengers.  She is a very eclectic child.

Amber with her baby Cousin (just this past weekend)
Amber working on her latch hook for baby cousin, while watching Poor and snacking on Cheez Its

Thursday the weather was absolutely beautiful, and due to an attitude problem earlier in the morning, Amber lost her creative time for the afternoon.  I personally finished quite a few small projects on Thursday.  Enough said about that day, except that she did turn things around and managed pull out dance classes that evening.

All we have to show from Thursday, is this pic I sent Fred.
We were on our way to dance (finally) and stopped for a rare visit at McD.  Little did we know that the apple dippers and fries had been drastically downsized.We normally both get small fries and apple dippers.  I got exactly 3 apple pieces and she got those tiny fries and 3 apple pieces.  It was par for our day.

Friday it was back to the rain again.  For having been in a drought, we are pretty consistently having gloomy, rainy days on Fridays lately.  Amber has sensory therapy on Friday mornings and she has noticed that it is always damp and cloudy during therapy.  Today was no exception.   This meant no acorn people again, either.   However, we did have lunch with my Mom and spent some fun time with her.

I don't know if it is terribly creative, but Amber also spent a couple of hours playing on Webkinz World today, putting together outfits for her bazillion critters.  She still is enamored with Webkinz on an occasional basis, and I let it happen. She doesn't play on the computer much except to play Webkinz.

Next week we plan to have a similar week, with slightly different academic subjects, and more projects for me.  Amber will create her acorn people and village, and then choose other projects that do not require a lot of my input.  I just HAVE to get some fairly large projects finished here at our house and at my mom's house.

I do want to mention a find, or a re-discovery, from this week.  In my desperation to lighten the academic load this week, I tore through Amber's bookshelves Monday morning looking for a Bible story book we could use during Religion lessons.  I found her copy of Egermeier's Bible Story Book.   This is the same book that I grew up listening to and reading.  There is a new, updated version available on Amazon, but Amber and I both have the hardback 1969 copyright version that we received as children.  Amber's was actually a baby shower gift to me and a very treasured gift as I so enjoyed this book as a child.

Egermeier's Bible Story Book contains chronological summaries of Bible stories in language that children can understand, without making it overly simple.  The artwork is wonderful, and brings back so many memories for me.  When I think of many of the Bible stories I see this artwork in my head.  The Bible stories included are not just all the major ones that you would expect, Adam & Eve, Jonah, Daniel, David & Goliath, Christ's birth, death and resurrection, etc.

This is Amber's actual book. The one at Amazon, sadly, doesn't look like this anymore.

Stories of Jeroboam, Asa, Ehud, Nicodemus, Dorcas, Stephen, Onesiumus (who I called the "mailman" when I was young) & Philemon are all there.  It is a very thorough story book, with a Questions and Answers on the Stories section in the back.

I can't believe that we completely let use of this book fall away in the last couple of years.  It is one that we are actually going to incorporate back into our religion studies on a regular basis. 

That's the summary of our first project week.  Hopefully, next week will be a little more organized and even more fun!


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