My Favorite Fall Craft

First you collect the leaves, after you rake them in a big pile and play in them : )

 Set-up your iron on a table and pull out the wax paper and a towel or two.

 Place some colorful fall leaves between 2 pieces of wax paper.  Then lay a towel over the wax paper and iron on a medium high setting, pressing down but not rubbing back and forth too much.

Remove the towel, let it cool down and trim the edges.  Then hang them up in a large window that gets a bunch of sunlight. The leaves will hold their beautiful fall colors for a good 4 months!  It's so pretty to still see the pretty fall leaves even when all the ones outside are brown or gone.  I've done this craft for about 12 years now. Which means I first did this when I just had a 8 year old, 7 year old, 5 year old and 18 month old. Well all my children love it and they always remind me to do it when the leaves are at their peak.  It's a great craft for those of us who are not so crafty : )

Louisiana Christmas Candy House!

Forget the ginger bread house, this is much easier and you can make it as big as you want without worrying about it falling down!

We made a candy house every year when I was growing up in Louisiana, usually with 2 other families.  It is a fond Christmas memory that I have.  I heard of gingerbread houses when I was young, but didn't know anyone who made one and I don't even think I saw one in real life until I moved to North Carolina.  I think maybe because of the humidity (yes, even in December) in south Louisiana that it just would be way too much trouble.  Anyway, this is fun for the the kids, especially small ones, because everyone can help.  It doesn't have to be perfect and you don't have to worry about it coming crashing down.

About 10 years back someone in NC gave us a gingerbread house kit that you put together with royal icing.  It was a warmer than usual day when we tried to make it.  It kept falling down and the candy was sliding off and my kids were literally in tears!  This is so much easier.

We make ours pretty big out of a big box and masking tape, this way lots of kids can help at the same time.  We put it in the front of the house on the dining room table and we get all kinds of compliments on it.  Most people think at first that it is gingerbread.....wink, wink.  The smell fills the house and reminds me of my childhood.  So here is how we do it.........

You'll need peanut butter for the roof and then you cover that with vanilla wafers to look like shingles.  You'll need white icing for the rest of the house.   Then you decorate with assorted candy......whatever you like (dollar store has great prices : )

Then you make a house out of an empty box with masking tape.  You make have to cut-up some extra card board to make the roof and chimney.

Voila!!!

Crafts for the Not So Crafty

Everyone thinks that you have to be crafty to homeschool, but really this is not true.  I am so not into crafts. I have a hard time getting my house all messy with crafts.  I do let them paint and color and try to do some kind craft a few times a month.  My kids do an art class on Fridays, so I don't feel so bad about not doing too many crafty/art projects.  Anyway, this is an easy craft that we did this week.  Don't laugh-the kids loved them and then we made one for my Mom (cause she wanted one too.)

                               We called them Sock Babies.  Here is how we made them:

Take some baby sized socks that don't have matches (don't use anything much bigger or you'll use too much rice).  Fill them up with cheap rice and tie with a rubber band.  Add googly eyes and your done.  You can also put some ribbon over the rubber band or pull top down and they look like they are wearing ski caps :o) Voila!

Playdough and Playgrounds.....Enjoying the Simple Things

I love spring, actually I love all the seasons when they first start.  I'm so glad God knew we needed change.  I love being at my house all day and not having to go anywhere, especially when it's beautiful outside.  Sometimes we all get so very busy and it takes staying at home just to slow us down.  We have an awesome playground that we can walk to and today was the perfect weather for it.  Last week when it was a little too hot and muggy we made homemade playdough.  This is something that I hadn't done since I had my 5th child (about 9 years ago).  I know, some of you probably do this quite frequently, but I had started buying the store stuff again.  Anyway, I realized this time around how much better the homemade stuff is and how fun and easy it is to make.  We had a great time doing it.  It just reminded me of how little, simple things are so fun and relaxing to us adults, but how special they are to our little ones.  

Here is the recipe I used:

2 cups flour

2 cups water

1 cup salt

2 tbls. veg. oil

1 tbls. cream of tartar

Cook all above ingredients in a large pot on medium until it starts to pull away from sides of pot and look like playdough. 

Remove to floured surface and need until soft and not too warm.  Divide into balls and add food coloring. To make the amount I did in the above picture, double the recipe.

Anyway, hope this posts encourages you to go the park, take a walk, make playdough or just sit and color with your kidos.  Memories are made just as much with the simple things as they are with the grand.