A Great Homeschool Product

The following product was suggested to me by a fellow homeschooling mom to add to my blog. Thank you for sharing.

My daughter loves to write! She has been telling stories since she was old enough to put sentences together and she is still writing. This is a product that both, my hands on son and writing daughter would really love to make use of. Perhaps you might enjoy it too.

Make your own books with a Binding Books Beautifully Kit!

Turn your poetry, school work, art projects, creative photo albums, or scrapbook portfolios into professional looking, cloth-covered, hardbound books. With just one Binding Books Beautifully kit, you will be able to make hundreds of books from your own home. The BBB method is so simple and the results are beautiful!

Your BBB kit includes a manual (this doubles as a creative writing curriculum for all ages and a step-by-step instruction manual), a wooden binding tool with the hardware, your first two pieces of book board (more book board available at request-$0.75 cents each), and a 55-minute recording of a live Binding Books Beautifully workshop on DVD.

To make your own books, you will need to provide your own pages, fabric, thread, and Elmer’s glue. These supplies are common household items, or easily purchased at Wal-Mart. The average cost of each book you make is under $2.

Each kit cost $35 plus $6 for shipping. Orders can be placed through Paypal using the account name of agoodname22@juno.com, or send a check or money order to Lisa Cannon, 4040 Reynolds Road, Malabar, FL 32950.

www.BindingBooksBeautifully.com

Cooking and Baking

Misty sent me lots of suggestions, several of them were ideas for different things to teach in the kitchen. Learning how to do things such as cooking, baking and meal planning are important for our children, both boys and girls, to learn. I have to admit that's it's a whole lot quicker and easier to just do it myself, but if I do that how are my children going to learn to do these things? My aim is to begin this coming year to choose one meal a week that my children plan the menu and cook, with some guidance from me when needed, so that they can feel confidant in the kitchen. My children are 11 and almost 13, both old enough to make simple meals. Even if yours are young they can begin like mine did by helping with the tasks at their level.

Here are some sites that might be helpful:

http://www.cookingwithkids.com/

http://www.kids-cooking-activities.com/index.html

http://www.dltk-kids.com/articles/teachingkidshowtocook.htm

Cake decorating was an idea from Misty too, here's a link about teaching it to kids:

http://www.creativecakeworks.com/2008/01/cake-decorating-with-kids.html


Thanks Misty,
Alison

Finger Knitting

A fellow homeschooling mom, Jill, reminded me about finger knitting. My children were introduced to this method of knitting a couple of years ago on craft day for our homeschool group. The children from about 5 years up to teenagers, boys and girls, really seemed to enjoy it.

We brought three different skeins of yarn, it could be the same or different colors, so the project would be thicker. But I don't think that you have to use that much, it just depends on what you are planning to make with it, I believe the following link shows just two being used.

Here is a link to some directions that I found online:

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer06/FEATfingerknitting.html

Thank you, Jill, for the idea,
Alison