Bookshelf Redux: Part 2

For the second bookcase, I decided to cover it with children's illustrations because I love children's illustrations - the older the better.

For some reason, I thought it would be easier to cover it with pieces of writing instead of painting. Jury is out on that on.

After that dried, I started arranging the illustrations.

Illustrations I really liked so I took close ups:

This is how I feel, sometimes. =)

The little boys remind me of Baba.

Finished product:

Panthalassa likes her new bookcase! She's arranged it how she wants it.

Bookshelf Redux: Part 1

My sister and brother-in-law are moving to Haiti which means they are getting rid of a lot of priceless treasures and I am getting said treasures. I am now the proud owner of two new to me bookshelves (and a bunch of other crap, some of which I didn't know I needed until they dropped it off)!!

The bookcases were, well, ugly. Boring. Plain.

And the perfect excuse to try something I've been wanting to try for a while: adding fabric the back.

Baba picked out a blue fabric with clouds and I fired up the glue gun.

Ta-da!

And full of books:



One other bookshelf to finish, in all my spare time, of course.

Child Labor!

For my aunt who is smart enough NOT to have facebook:

Summer "Vacation"

One of the biggest luxuries of homeschooling is we get to set our own schedule. Both Baba and Rudy love doing school (Rudy will spend hours writing her name and Mom over and over and over) so it is some what of a punishment to have to take days off. We decided that we'd switch to a more year round school calendar, our shorter summer break would allow us to take more time off during the tradition school year. Currently we are on our summer break. We scheduled 4 weeks off. We are on week 3 off and they couldn't take it any more! I was printing skip counting worksheets to use when school started and they've spent the morning skip counting.

Which means, I have to spend the afternoon redoing the curriculum I planned for the first week of school. Sigh. I guess that's the price I pay for getting my kids excited about learning.

Of course, Panthalassa had to join in the fun. She loves books. They are very tasty and fun to throw, but a few (or a lot) damaged books is a small price to pay for early literacy. That's what I tell myself anyway.

Arr!

Monday was Talk Like a Pirate Day. We did more than talk like a pirate - we were pirates. Arrr, me hearties. There was a lot of walking the plank and even more bad pirate jokes.

What's a pirate's favorite state?

Arrrr-kansas (its Kansas for pirates)

What's a pirates favorite vegetable?

Arrr-tichokes!

What's a pirates favorite sea?

The arrr-tic.

And so on. Thankfully the kiddos, I mean, pirates, were bored with being in costume before we left for Target. Although, I've taken superheroes to Target, so I guess pirates would be allowed at Target, too.

I need to find more holidays that involve dressing up.

Gym Class

They can do this for hours!

Cause and Effect

This weeks book is "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" so we are working on cookies (delicious and educational) and cause and effect. Like:

If you decide to homeschool your kids

your groceries will probably get eaten before they get put away.

Off to the Kitchen Table (School)!

Going "back to school" involved the following: sleeping in (until 8:30 which is somewhat of a miracle in this house), doing long awaited school work in our PJ's around the kitchen table (Baba has been BEGGING to do school since we started summer break) and the requisite first day of school picture for posterity. Rudy started what she calls Princess Preschool which mostly involves a lot of coloring and pretending to read and write like her big brother who is in his second year at Scooby Doo Elementary. Guess who named the school? Not me! Panthalassa slept through the adventures.

Funny thing about that first day of school picture. When school is around the kitchen table EVERYONE does school. Including the cat. So everyone had to be in the picture. Including the cat. Mister Wili insisted on walking in front of the camera several times and making the kids laugh hysterically.



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At least the kids thought it was funny and perhaps if I photo-shop the pictures together. Of course that would entail learning to photo-shop. Hmmm. Maybe Baba can learn photo-shop next week at Scooby Doo Elementary.