ofamily learning together

Decorating glass jars

Posted on May 15, 2016 by ofamily

Ever since we started home-educating I have become a collector of note. Lots of goodies are kept just-in-case we might find a use at a later date. My kitchen cupboards are bursting with items rescued from being recycled. One of my favourite items to keep are glass jars – I really like the coffee glass jars (thankfully hubbie goes through coffee at a fairly good rate so we have a few of these lying around) and also mayonnaise glass jars and jam glass jars. After a good soak in some soapy water they really can make a good art project.

And there is nothing that I like more than using recycled goodies to create a work of art that is actually useful. I mean recycling, art and making something useful all in one good, it can not get much better than that. So recycled glass jars – well they are perfect for storage – storing pens and pencils and our art supplies, storing seashells and also for being made into luminaries.

Lately we have added a few new decorated glass jars to our ever-growing collection so I thought I would share some photos of our favourite ones.

Sharpies some Pritt All Purpose Glue and some coloured sand. You can create any pattern or picture that you like. My kids are still getting the hang of it and have stuck to fairly simple patterns.

The kids found it easier to create the pattern with their sharpies first, then add the glue (we used the Pritt All Purpose bottles for this – nice and easy for the kids to handle),

and then they would add the coloured sand (the sand does create a bit of a mess so it helps to have a tray underneath to collect all the excess grains).

The coloured sand that we used is from Baker Ross but we have mixed all the colours together to get our “rainbow sand”.

My kids and some of their friends have also recently decorated some of their jars with some decopatch paper and Mod Podge glue. This can be as straightforward as using one type of paper or the kids can also mix up different pieces of paper.

My kids have also decorated a number of different jars with images that we have downloaded from the Twinkl website. This is actually a great cutting activity. We have used a number of the story stone images for this. The jars in the photos below were made using the Minibeast images and the Rainbow fish images (Twinkl platinum).

We have also used colouring sheets. A simple outline is the best and after the kids have coloured them in, they cut them out as stick them on the jars – we did this for our Easter Bunny Jars. Very simple and easy to do but also super cute

Also small candles inside the bottles can give a very festive feeling. I love the way our Christmas jars turned out.

And I cannot do a post about glass jars without sharing our stunning butterfly jars – oh my daughter and I loved this activity (original 3D butterfly post HERE).

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Posted in Art and Craft Ideas | Tagged children's craft, coloured sand, decorating bottles, decorating glass jars, home ed, home education, Twinkl | 2 Comments

Minibeasts Art afternoon

Posted on May 11, 2016 by ofamily

The kids have been loving all the gardening and as a result we are going through a bit of a minibeast craze again – seems to be a spring / summer theme in our house.

So when I was wanting to get my youngest to do an art activity I knew a minibeast theme would be a big hit with him. I set out the Detailed Minibeasts colouring sheets from Twinkl (free) some Pritt all purpose glue bottles and some of our coloured sand.

I had a sneaky suspicion that the kids would want to dive in with the glue and the coloured sand so I did an example of a butterfly for them. I did one half by colouring it in first before adding the glue and sand and then the other half without colouring it in. My example was exactly what the kids needed and they decided for themselves that they wanted to first colour in their pictures before they added the glue and coloured sand (Big Win for any mom with kids who are not excited about colouring in).

My little man went for a spider and my daughter went for a snail (we currently have a pet snail so she is loving all things snail related).

After they finished the colouring we added the glue and sand art. The Pritt all purpose glue bottle was prefect for this. Both my kids found it easy to manage and they used it very effectively to trace over the outlines without spilling too much glue. Also there was no overpowering smell so both kids where happy to sit for ages and work on their projects (in the past when we have tried something which had a very strong smell my kids would quickly finish and get out of there – no lingering to do extra pages like they did this time around).

We have used the coloured sand a number of times before, so we have learnt by lots errors what works best when using it in our home. We keep the pictures on trays so as to avoid excess sand going everywhere and they use one colour at a time. Once they have finished with the sand they tip the excess coloured sand into small plastic cups so we can re-use it later for another project – I am very big about keeping every small bit of left over art material to re-use at a later time.

Both kids love the sand art and produced lovely pictures. I expected them to finish just one each but they thought it would be fun to use the coloured sand to make a spider’s web so we did an extra sand art picture together.

And then they continued to colour in more pictures – 2 earwigs and a wasp. Yes I did mention earlier that my kids are not big on colouring in. But I have picked up a few tricks along the way to encourage it and some days when I manage to get everything just right they will sit and produce art work after art work.

And my daughter dug around a bit in our art cupboard and had a go at glueing some sequence (left over from another art activity) onto a window art template (also left over) using her new All Purpose glue – it worked perfectly

I was sent a lovely bag of Pritt goodies for my kiddies to use and the All purpose glue bottles that we used in this activity was part of the bag.

Posted in Art and Craft Ideas | Tagged children's art, children's craft, free printables, home ed, home education, Minibeasts, Pritt, sand art | 2 Comments

My Home-Educating Truths

Posted on May 8, 2016 by ofamily

My Home-Educating Truths.

Home-education does not need to cost a fortunate, you can spend as much as you want or you can get by with a few basics and a library card. For us it does mean that we are giving up a second income. There are lots of people who manage to work while they home-educate but so far I have not been able to figure that one out yet (still trying so maybe I will get there).

You do not need to buy an expensive off the shelf curriculum. I have never done that, I use a combination of resources. I love Pinterest for ideas, I use websites for worksheets and activities (Twinkl and Activity Village) and I buy educational books (love charity shops) and games (Imagido and Fun Learning are great) and craft supplies (Baker Ross). We are not curriculum obsessed but we do try to stick to a structured maths and english approach (mainly for my own sanity) and then we do lots of projects and lots of hands-on learning.

You do not need to have a home-educating room. When we first started we lived in a very small London flat, we just squeezed it in. We have since moved out of London and now have a lot more space and a garden but there is no single home-educating room. We use the whole house. We bake and often do crafts in the kitchen, we read on the couch or curled up in bed, we explore the garden for minibeasts and we are currently attempting to grow some vegetables. The kids do have two small tables with chairs which they use for writing but they also sit at my desk or the kitchen table and write. There is no rule that says they can only learn in one room of the house.

Home-education does not only happen in your own home. It happens when we go walking around a National Trust site, when we visit a museum and when we go and visit friends. My daughter often ends up doing scientific related activities when she visits her one friend, not sure why, it just happens that way.

Home-education does not only happen within school hours. It can happen any time of the day. We do not sit down and do worksheet after worksheet until 3pm. Home-education happens throughout our day, it does not start at a certain time and end at a certain time. We do not have to stay at home during school hours, we can go out and explore any time and on any day.

You do not need to have a qualification to home-educate you kids. I am a Chartered Accountant, I am not a Teacher. I have not completed a course that allows me to home-educate, it is legal, I am allowed to do it. I am constantly learning as my kids are learning. I have read book after book after book about home-education and I often quizzed an aunt who was a brilliant teacher (she has since passed away), but the most important thing I ever did was work out which learning style best suits my kids. My son has a brilliant memory, he is a sponge and will remember facts after hearing them just once whereas my daughter needs to do things with her hands to learn. She needs to be involved and figure something out and then she needs to repeat it again and again.

Not everyone is going to be supportive. Yip time to get a hard skin. You are going to get people who just give you a disapproving look and you are going to get people you think it is okay to question you rather rudely in front of your kids. Sometimes it will be strangers and sometimes it may even be people who are close to you and your kids. For me the key to this is to remind myself that those people do not matter. What matters is my kids. I normally try to remove myself and the kids from the situation as quickly as I can as my daughter can get very upset when this happens. For us it does not pay to stay and have an argument as my number one priority is and will always be my kids. If it happens when my kids are not around, well then yes I will engage whole-heartedly.

You do not have to be creative. I am. I enjoy the creative side of things. I have always been a creative person and I actually need that creative outlet. But that is me. Other people may be passionate about something else, so whatever it is, try to include it in your home-education style. If it feeds your soul it will be a positive thing for your kids aswell. If you are not the creative type become friends with Pinterest. You will find lots of easy ideas on there to help you.

It is okay to make mistakes. Afterall is that not something that we want to teach our kids – mistakes are okay ? And don’t our kids learn best by following our example ? I never want my kids to be too scared to try. So if I try something and it does not work out, well we all learn from that and we try again. That for me is very important.

When I first started home educating my daughter, almost 4 years ago someone said to me “Anyone can home-educate but not everybody should. ” That could mean a bunch of different things depending on how you interpret the statement. For me it means that it is legal to home-educate your kids but it is a life-changing decision one that has completely changed our home-life. We as a family have embraced it and we are all enjoying the journey it is taking us on.

I do not know what the future holds or if at some stage my kids will attend a school, but right now I am thrilled that we are following this route. It is one of the best decisions we ever made.

Posted in Homeschooling | Tagged home ed, home education, homeschooling | 6 Comments

Pedal Go – We Love It

Posted on May 6, 2016 by ofamily

Last year one of the home ed groups that the kids attended had two Pedal Go‘s. My kids and most of the other kids that went to the group loved them. Week after week my two would always go on these things and both kids asked if we could get one for the house. I admittedly dragged me feet about it as lets me honest my wish list of home – ed related goodies is rather large and continuously growing.

Then in Feb of this year when hubbie and I where talking about increasing our “OT activities at home” I came up with the Pedal Go. It is fun, great for balance and big bonus it can be used indoors and outdoors – which is a big bonus when you have days after days of rainy weather.

So it finally made its way into my amazon shopping basket.

And yes the kids love it and I admit I have also given it a go.

Both my kids started off by insisting that someone hold their hands while they pedal but that did not last.

My daughter even now goes on her Pedal Go carrying backpacks and other bags – normally when she is on-route on an animal adventure of some-kind.

The kids love it and they use it a lot.

A week after we had purchased it my son’s Occupational Therapist actually asked me if we had done anything different lately. When I showed her the Pedal Go that we had purchased she loved it and said it was a brilliant idea.

The only downside – I honestly wished it had made its way into my shopping basket earlier.

You can buy these from Amazon here – Pedal Go (aka Step Fun) – BLUE

I do sometimes include 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. I only include affiliate links for products that we own, use and love.

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Posted in Homeschooling | Tagged gross motor, OT at home, Peadl Go, sensory activities, spd | 2 Comments

Finger Painting Fun

Posted on May 4, 2016 by ofamily

My kids have never been big on finger painting but I do still try to encourage them to try it every once in a while as I know it is a great sensory activity.

So when we were recently given some lovely Finger Paints from Baker Ross (update – they unfortunately no longer stock these stunning paints) I figured it was worth another shot. I set up the kitchen table with the paints, some plain paper and I also printed off some pages from Activity Village. I find with my kids they often just need a starting a point so I printed out the Peacock page and a tree template for them. I purposely did not leave any paint brushes on the table (although the kids do know where they are so they can easily fetch them).

They started with the peacock and they immediately told me how much they liked the new paints.

By the time they had finished their peacocks they both were dipping them hands in the paint – which for my two kiddies is not something that they normally do.

They loved the feeling of the paint and played around with it for ages.

And then we tried some finger painted birds on the activity village tree. I did have to show my daughter how to do one of them – the extra detail that she needed to add with the felt tip pen. She loved it.

My youngest also wanted to do a picture and add some detail with a felt tip pen so he made a snake and my daughter made another peacock.

It ended up being a lovely art session. They kids were totally absorbed for ages and the paint was a huge winner with both my kids and me (no stains on their hands afterwards like we have had with some other paints). I was given this paint by Baker Ross but I can honestly say that I will be buying more when the current set runs out.

extra : we just had some friends over and both of the friends also loved the paint. The one friend said that she really liked the gloopy texture of the paint.

UPDATE – We have now had this paint for 8 months and my kids still LOVE it.

At the time of writing this post all the Activity Village pages were FREE to download but they have since changed the structure of the website and the pages in the post above are now membership only pages

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