Handmade Dresses Giveaway!

I was really excited when one of my hometown best friends told me about a sewing initiative that she is working on. It is called Gingham Trundle, and it is helping to provide jobs for women in Africa.

***************************************

Taken from Gingham Trundle's website:

Who we are: We started as a mother and daughter making clothes together. When a good friend (www.leastofthese.net) of the daughter donated sewing machines to a sewing collective in Africa, we all got an idea. Now, we bring Gingham Trundle to you. 

Fair trade: We employ fair trade principles in all of our purchasing. We pay above-market wages agreed upon by the women; we give no time frames (so no undue pressure); we put a portion of our profits back into the community through healthcare and economic programs; and we ensure safe working conditions and no child labor. We are too small to afford the free trade certification process, but we are working toward that goal.

**********************************

I am offering this giveaway to help spread the word about this project. Right now, they are seeking to improve the development process (creating products that are high enough quality to sell - and verifying fabric content, etc. so they can be sold in the U.S.), and as they do this, they are offering free dresses in the hopes of building customers and gaining feedback. There are imperfections in this round of dresses. The women are selling the dresses in their communities. The end goal is to create sustainable, long-term jobs for these women. Great, right?

My 5 year old daughter helped me out by modeling the dresses. They are sized anywhere from 3T-5T, but this will kind of show you that they will fit a range. (I mean, my daughter still has 2T dresses in her closet that she wears as shirts. It's really hard for me - and her - to part with them, if you know what I mean.)

I wanted to show you the cute pocket on the back.

Tiny Flowers

I believe this one is sized 4T. There are some faded spots on the material, but it fits very cute. (Read more about this and the dresses in general here.) My daughter has one like this that she is going to wear as a shirt. I think any girl from age 2 to a small 6 would fit.

Red, Red

The equivalent of a "little black dress," this one would go with so much and could be dressy or casual. I love it.

Grandma's Quilt

This one is sized 4T. It's very sweet. I would say it's a true 4T size, as she could wear it - but it's starting to get a little snug under the arms. I love the short-sleeved dress designs.

**********************************

I will pick a winner for the 4 dresses on November 4, at 9 pm. Please just leave a comment telling me which dress you like the best. If you do not have a blog, comment as "Anonymous." Just make sure you leave an email address or way that I can get a hold of you. 

If you would please share a link to this giveaway, I'll give you 2 extra entries. (Feel free to leave it all in one comment, however, to make it easier for you.) I am going to list this giveaway on my food blog and combine the entries.

Please check out Gingham Trundle's website to see more designs like this one above. Check out the reversible coats which are so cute and include a hidden doll in the pocket. You can request a FREE DRESS on their site, but you will just need to pay for shipping (flat rate $5.15).

Thanks for taking a look, and consider supporting Gingham Trundle in the future!

Math Box #1: Place Value

A bit of fun math lately:

 

We read this book, and they also listened to the audiobook version a few times. They enjoy it and get great pleasure from reciting facts such as how long it would take to count to a billion, etc.

I got this game from a Creative Teaching Press literature math book (but you could make something similar). My kids LOVED this game. (Well, they loved it after they learned to get past the losing aspect. Such sore losers they can be. It IS a little stressful as you draw cards, like when you're waiting with one spot left before yelling, "Bingo!")

You put the number cards face down and take turns drawing one and choosing where you want it to go on your game card. If you draw a 9, for example, of course you want to put it in the millions spot. If it's an 7 or 8, you have to take a risk, not knowing whether you or your opponent will ever draw a 9.

Whoever has the highest number at the end of the game, wins. Each has to say their number, which they still can't quite do on their own. But this game definitely helped them with that and helped them have an overall better understanding of place value.

They also were thrilled with this Marshmallow Math activity. Well, mostly they were just thrilled that they were going to be eating marshmallows. (Since we don't eat gelatin marshmallows, they are a special treat around here. We used this kind.)

I used this printable and idea from Babbling Abby.  I did it a little different. Instead of calling out a number, I just told them to put pieces of O's cereal on each toothpick (or on only 1 or 2 toothpicks, and you could obviously change this up for different age groups).

They replicated what they had done with their drawing. Then, they wrote the number in the box. Eat the cereal off the toothpick. Repeat. Toward the end

Dash got a little extra practice with counting/numeral recognition with Sissy's astronaut-rocket match from our Astronaut Unit.

printed from Sparkle Box

Sissy's Kindergarten Corner #5

A little bit of what my 5 year old has been up to lately:

I can no longer label my titles as "week #5," etc. because I've missed a few weeks posting. However, this is my 5th kindergarten post this fall. Here are some more pictures of Sis from our recent Tennessee trip.

For our A is for Astronaut unit, we used this magnet page from Making Learning Fun and this book by Traci N. Todd.

Astronaut Sensory Tub

Moon Sand=9 cups flour, 1 1/2 cups baby oil

For our unit, we used lots of the great astronaut printables from Homeschool Creations, Spell Out Loud, and Totally Tots. Here are a couple of the things we did: "5 Little Astronauts" song and props plus tracing page from Spell Out Loud.

These astronaut pattern printable can be found here.

One of my new favorite printables sites is Sparkle Box.

numeral recognition/counting/object to number matching

For one of our numbers activities, we discussed that a star has 5 points. We made salt dough stars. I told the kids they could make wands by baking them with a wooden skewer or ornaments for our Christmas tree.

They made some of both.

I posted HERE about all of our other space related projects, including activities on moon phases, making craters, play-dough and edible layers of the Earth, and constellations.

apple tree finger painting and letter A wipe-off/tracing

circle the A's 

(from Confessions of a Homeschooler)

I cut out this A and told her to decorate it any way she wanted with these apple seeds I had been saving for her. This is what she came up with.

stickers on Confession's number magnet pages

For the letter A, we also did
these Raggedy Ann and Andy activities 
I posted.

She works on her Abeka phonics and math pages at our home school co-op, then I am working through Abeka's A Handbook for Reading with her at home. She really enjoys taking piano lessons now, plus ballet, tap, jazz, and gymnastics. This week we're on the letter B and B blends like ba, be, bi, etc. We're going to be doing a little on bugs, sight words, Johnny Appleseed, and Native Americans.

Wrap-Up Journal of Our Week

In Our Homeschool This Week

Lots of math and special phonics projects this week: adjectives, verbs, numerical sense, addition, and place value. Here they are doing Marshmallow Math with o's cereal to practice place value. Lots of time on our regular stuff: Saxon Math for the boys, Abeka Phonics for my 7 year old, and letter writing and blend sounds for Sis. In Apologia Science, it was "sea turtles" this week for Tornado.

Recent Learning Posts:

Space Activities

Raggedy Ann and Andy

 

a picture by Tornado, just because 

that's what he does

In AWANA This Week

Sissy received her big girl Sparks vest. Now she and Dash are matching. They both said their verses this week. Dash actually recited 5 of his verses for his leader, including the books of the new testament, which we hadn't even reviewed before class that night. He remembered them from last year. (They are allowed two hints.)

Places We Are Going and People We Are Seeing

We had the opportunity to spend last night with friends (about 80 people in all) celebrating Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles. There is Daddy with Baby over to the right and Dash in the middle of the sukkoh (a temporary dwelling or hut topped with branches). His little buddy is teaching him the different customs of Sukkot, this one waving the lulav and citron to honor God who is all around us. 

At Homeschool Co-ops This Week

The night of The Sugar Cube Incident was the first night of about three in a row when I got into bed about 8:00 p.m. just to watch television (which I don't have time to do!), exhausted after tucking in the big kids.

My 7 year old told me in the car after co-op that they learned about Eskimos and completed a project using sugar cubes as an igloo. "Cool!" I said. "I have an extra sugar cube; can I eat it?" "Well...sure, okay."

It wasn't until bedtime that more of the story came out. I caught him acting very sneaky around his backpack, then clutching something under crossed arms. "What is that?" "Nothing." "What IS IT?" He showed me he had another sugar cube. "You had another one? How many have you eaten?" 

He tries to tell me "just a few," then I look at his paper. I'm estimating 20 sugar cubes. 20 sugar cubes that were glued onto paper, and my kid peeled them off and ate every one of them. Oh, except the last one, which I threw in the trash.

And before anyone says, "Poor kid, he never gets any sugar; he has to eat the sugar off his art projects!" Blah, blah, blah. He gets plennnnty of sugar. And he just shouldn't be sneaky.

A few of his other projects

from co-op lately:

He said this is based on an Indian art form of using hot wax and yarn to make animal designs.

Extracurricular This Week

The boys really love attending Acts Jr. This is a drama club with Community Connections, a local organization which provides extra-curricular activities and support for special needs children. (Tornado also attends the CC art class each week.) 

Acts Jr. is for any child, specifically designed to mix children with disabilities and no disabilities, helping them to strengthen their sensory processing, teamwork and adaptation skills, and self-confidence, etc.

They interact with skits and improv situations. They make little props and work on special drawing assignments, etc. I'm always proud of them when they tell me about the role-playing they did because both of the boys struggle with "performing." 

I love Tornado's invention he created: monster cookies that "cure the blues." He said, "When you're sad and depressed, just eat one of my cookies!"

one of Sissy's painting from 

art class this week

My Favorite Moment This Week
We all slept until about 8:15 this morning. The kids started trickling into bed with Baby and me. There were a lot of giggles and cuddles, and these are the moments I remember from growing up with 6 people in my family. Those were the moments that made me want to have a family of my own.

I'm Inspired By
The 8-9 pounds I've lost lately. The easiest way for me to lose weight is to lose weight, if that makes any sense. It's not a fun process, but when I see loss, it is motivating to continue. About 20 more to go.

I'm Grateful For (continuing on toward my goal of 1,000 gifts...#401-417)
My sister for driving from Little Rock to help me get Sissy to her classes one day, "no news is good news" kind of reports at special doctor's appointments for both of the big boys this week, these really sweet and thorough emails one of Sissy's teachers sends each week detailing their classes, encouraging words my husband gave me, these amazing books my mom brought to us because she knew we would love them for homeschooling, bed snuggles, Baby's healthy appetite, free blogging gifts in the mail to review, kids' artwork, that my kids are at similar enough ages to homeschool together, a new Sparks vest, scripture memorization, celebrations with friends, pretty good behavior from the kids the past couple of days...I needed that, pizza with my husband and kids tonight, and a God who went with me through another busy week.

A Question I Have
Now when I try to upload a picmonkey collage onto blogger (which I was previously able to do), it (blogger) tells me I am out of space and need to upgrade? But I can still upload individual pictures. What is this?

Raggedy Ann and Andy

Sissy and I were going to read her book, then craft together. But as usual, if the other kids see I'm doing an activity with one child, it makes no sense to them why they aren't taking part, as well. So, as usual, they join in.

I just threw out some supplies (paper plates, yarn, googly eyes, construction paper, etc.) and broad directions for Dash and Sissy to make Raggedy Ann and Andy faces. I helped cut out shapes. This is what they came up with.

Sissy also made these toilet paper roll crafts from DLTK.

DLTK also has online Raggedy Ann and Andy jigsaw puzzles, which the kids put together. They can be modified to include 6-247 pieces for degrees in difficulty. I change the number of pieces for each kid.

I found Raggedy Ann and Andy movies on youtube plus this videobook.

After watching one of the movies, the kids wrote journal entries using this paper.