ofamily learning together

Nativity Cone People

Posted on November 26, 2016 by ofamily

My kids enjoy making Christmas decorations and they love the Cone People from Twinkl so when I stumbled on the Nativity Cone people (I was actually looking for another Nativity activity) I immediately printed them out for the kids. I actually printed them on some thin card that we have as I wanted to make sure that they would last once the kids had done all the colouring.

My kids initially tried to figure out what colours they should use by looking at some books that we had but as the illustrations in most books are different we decided that they could use their own colours.

The download includes 10 different cone figures – Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, Angel, three Wise Men, two Shepherds and one sheep – so it involves a fair bit of colouring in (you can also print out a coloured version if you wanted). So we did ours over a few days.

Once the kids had coloured all the cone people in we cut them out and stuck them together (note if you decide to hang the cone people I would recommend using a hole punch to create a hole before you stick them together – I did not do this so it was a lot harder to make a neat hole later on).

The initial idea was to create a scene with the cone people on the mantle above the fire-place.

And although we thought it made a lovely display once we started putting our Christmas tree up the kids asked if we could not hang the cone people on the tree (so a small hole at the back and some red string and we had hanging cone people).

And I must admit I love the cone people hanging on the Christmas tree. It was really easy to do and I think (yes yes I know I am bias) they make a lovely child-made Christmas tree decoration.

The Nativity Cone People are part of Twinkl’s platinum package here is the link – Nativity Cone People

The card we use – we like the White Copier card – it is not as thick as normal card (so it is a bit cheaper to buy) but it is a lot sturdier than using normal paper – we buy this – Lightweight White Card for Children to Use in All Types of Crafts 160 gsm (Pack of 100). It is perfect for printing out pages that you want to turn into booklets / cards and also great for crafting activities.

I have included Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same.

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Crafty Stocking fillers

Posted on November 25, 2016 by ofamily

I never really know what to include in Christmas stockings. When it comes to buying smaller items I still want them to be worthwhile, I do not like the idea of filling a stocking up with cheap items that are not going to be used again. So this year after some thought I decided to include two crafty sets for each kid. I thought about the crafty items that they enjoy doing but possibly do not always make it into my crafty shopping basket when I am stocking up on my essentials (so more of a crafty treat for the kids).

Mini Bead Sets

My kids love their Hama Beads (fusion beads / perla beads whatever you want to call them). And we do have quite a collection of beads and boards but this past year I bought the kids two different bead sets – Under the sea fuse bead set and Jungle Animal fuse bead set – you can buy both directly from the Baker Ross website or from Amazon.

Both kids loved these sets. There was just something about getting a little set with some patterns, a few small boards and some beads that they loved. It is great for an indoor activity in the middle of winter and it really gets those little brains working as they have to count and figure out which colours go where. So as a treat they are each getting a new set. I am going for the bird and owl set this time Bird Fuse Bead Kits for Children to Make Decorate and Display as Summer Crafts (Pack of 6) and Owl Fuse Bead Kit for Children to Design Make and Display (Pack of 6)

Scratch Art

My kids and their friends love the scratch art sets. I have bought two sets (again you can buy both sets from Baker Ross or from Amazon). I like these sets as they are so easy to slip into a small bag and take with you when you are out and about and so far all of the kids friends will happily join in and do some scratch art with the kids.

They can scratch away in-between having a chat with their mates or while they wait for the other sibling to finish an activity (they have become quite popular as an activity while we wait for ballet classes to end). I also like the fact that the picture is already outlined on the page so there is no artistic pressure for the kids to create a picture themselves. My kids are getting these two new sets in their stockings this year.

So for my son I am adding the Space Scratch Art Pictures Creative Educational Set for Children to Make Personalise and Display (Pack of 6) and my daughter who is starting to show an interest in learning about Asia I am adding the Chinese Scratch Art Scenes Creative Craft Set for Children to Design Decorate and Display (Pack of 6)

For those of you who like the look of the sets used in the photos above here are the links

Jungle animal fuse bead set you can order it from amazon here Jungle Animal Fuse Bead Craft Kits for Children to Design Make and Hang (Pack of 6)

The scratch art pictures were a combination of two different sets.

The Christmas themed set which you can buy from Amazon here Christmas Scratch Art Pictures for Children to Make Xmas Decorations (Pack of 6)

Also the penguin themed scratch art pictures you can buy from amazon here Penguin Scratch Art Pictures for Children to Design and Personalise for Xmas – Creative Christmas Craft Toy for Kids (Pack of 6).

All sets included in the posts are sets that I have bought for my kids. I have included Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same.

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Posted in Art and Craft Ideas | Tagged children's craft, Christmas, home education, homeschooling, Kids crafty sets | Leave a comment

Times table and division booklet

Posted on November 21, 2016 by ofamily

No big surprise that after I made my youngest some basic number bond booklets my daughter “enquired” about hers. I should have known it was coming but I honestly had not planned anything for her. She suggested an 8 times table version of her brothers booklet and she even suggested that I could use some of her times table folding cards.

I printed out another set of the cards for her – 8 times table folding cards from Twinkl (part of their paid for platinum package) but this time we did not fold them over. And on the reverse side of each card I wrote out the division sum. (so on the – 1 times 8 equals 8 card on the back of that I wrote out 8 divided by 8 equals 1).

Then I used our hole punch to punch a hole on the top of each card and we attached them with a split ring. Very quick and just like my son’s number bond version but this time with times table and division (this also made me wonder if I should add the corresponding subtraction sums to the back of each of the addition sums in my son’s booklets – not sure if I should or shouldn’t ?)

And my daughter she loved it. She sat at my desk and paged through reading both the multiplication and the division sides.

After going through the booklet she called her little brother over and proudly showed him that she now had her own booklet.

And then she asked if I could make more booklets for each times table. I suggested that I could print out the folding cards for her and that she could cut each card out and write the division sums on the back of each card. She happily agreed (I am so glad she is getting over her fear of division sums).

And yes I agree it is a very similar activity to what we have done previously. But with my daughter the repetition is key.

Later note – I have been asked a lot about the card we use – we like the White Copier card – it is not as thick as normal card (so it is a bit cheaper to buy) but it is a lot sturdier than using normal paper – we buy this – Lightweight White Card for Children to Use in All Types of Crafts 160 gsm (Pack of 100). It is perfect for printing out pages that you want to turn into booklets / cards / and also great for crafting activities

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Posted in maths ideas | Tagged division, home ed, home education, homeschooling, maths, Times table, Twinkl | Leave a comment

It’s Fun to draw Sea Creatures

Posted on November 16, 2016 by ofamily

My kids animal drawing books have been such a big hit with the kids and me (everyone needs some easy art activities where the kids can open a book up and follow the instructions without too much parent input – great for days when you are totally exhausted or feeling under the weather). Anyway a few months ago I added to our small collection and bought the It’s Fun to Draw Sea Creatures
.

It is the same principle as the other animal drawing books that we have used. Each double page spread is one sea creature. On the first page they show the step by step instructions and on the opposite page they show an example of the finished drawing all nicely coloured in.

The sea creatures included in the book are –

Coral Reef fish
Crab
Dolphin
Manta Ray
Octopus
Flying Fish
Marlin
Puffer fish
Sea horse
Seal
Whale
Shark
Squid
Turtle

I really like these books as the kids are learning to focus on shapes and in each step there is something new which they have to add (great practice for kids who sometimes skim over details).

Both my kids have used the book and yes my youngest’s drawings are simpler, but he still manages to draw sea creatures that clearly resemble the pictures. And the most important part he is very proud of his pictures.

He says (he is almost six years old) that the step by step instructions break the drawings down into easy stages so he can follow them and create nice pictures.

So for under £5 – that is what I paid for this little book – it was well worth it. My kids are happily sitting together creating their own pictures with little input needed (I like finding activities that they can do independently).

We bought our book from Amazon – UK – It’s Fun to Draw Sea Creatures

US – It’s Fun to Draw Sea Creatures

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Posted in Book Ideas | Tagged children's art, children's book, Children's drawing, drawing, home education, homeschooling | Leave a comment

Split Ring Number Bond Booklets

Posted on November 12, 2016 by ofamily

My youngest keeps asking me for more and more Maths and lately he has been commenting how two or more different sums sometimes equal the same number. So I thought I would make him some Number Bond booklets. Really simple, just me writing out the sums and joining together with some split rings. But he loved the idea.

All you need is some card (I actually used some Index cards that I had), pens, a hole punch and your split rings. Cheap, easy and actually quite quick to put together.

I started off by writing the number on the top index card and then I wrote all the sums that made up that number on the next few index cards. Once I had written all the sums out I used the punch to make a hole in the top corner and then linked all the index cards together with a split ring. Really quick and then onto the next number.

My personal preference was to write each set of sums for a number in the same colour (so all the sums which equal five were written in dark blue and all the sums which equalled six were written in purple). Completely my own personal preference.

I also included tally marks on the top number card. I did this mainly because my son is very interested in tally marks at the moment so I thought he would like them added – again this was just our personal preference.

I thought about adding dots to represent the numbers under each sum but I decided to leave them out and if he wants to add them to each sum he can always ask me to do it or do it himself (later note – after he used them I checked and he was happy without the dots under the numbers).

The split rings that I used are some metal crafting ones that I bought online here – Split Metal Rings (Pack of 100).

The index cards I used were lined on one side and plain on the other but you could also just cut some card into the size that you want (my daughter loves using the index cards to write little notes on).

I have included Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same.

You might also be interested in this idea – our addition booklet