A Few of This Summer's Crafty Projects

One of the best careers for a mom is that of teacher. I look forward to summers so that I can spend them at home with my children, but I also enjoy the time to make stuff. I have become addicted to pinterest this past year, so I couldn't wait till summer to try some of the things I pinned. Here are some of them:

I have also painted some picture frames that had a cheesy gold finish, painted some candlestick holders that have been in need of change for quite some time, and painted some pictures for my new craft room (whenever it gets finished...). 

My pinterest boards include organizational pins as well because I am not a naturally organized person.  I pinned this because I thought it was a cool idea for all the zillions of bottles that wind up in the shower:  http://pinterest.com/pin/155937205818197746/ . 

Lily and I have also made a preschool activity book based on the ideas from the website in my previous post:  http://planetoftheapels.blogspot.com. 

Alas, my summer will end soon, so I must cram all the fun and craftiness I can into the time left.  And we still have a beach vacation to take...

Found a Great Blog!

Okay, this is short for today because Lily and I are making games today that we found on this blog:  http://planetoftheapels.blogspot.com.  Love it!  I have used up all my paper and all my cardstock.  I had to resort to cutting the tabs off of tab dividers to use as card stock for printing because I just could not stop making games! 

It is now time to play some of the games, so I must go.  Lily is being so patient...

Teaching Doesn't End with Summer Vacation

I absolutely love summer.  As soon as the last student leaves the classroom for the school year, as much as I love my students, I am in summer mode which usually means craftiness explosion and cleaning extravaganza.  This is the time that I finally get around to some sewing and painting projects, clean out and rearrange rooms in my house, and PLAY with my children! 

Now that my house is finally spic and span, I am working on teaching my daughter Lily to read.  Both my boys learned to read at the age of 4, and it is time for child #3 to learn to read.  At first I had the urge to buy all sorts of learning games, but then I thought, "Wait a minute!  I'm crafty!  I'll make some games."  I have learned to adapt some of her other games for learning beyond the scope of the game's intended objective.  For instance, the classic matching game has endless options for teaching other skills besides matching.  We have played, "Find two things that..." (you can eat, for instance), "Which Object is Different?" out of a set of 3 or 4 objects, and now I want to make another adaptation for phonics.  I am going to add to our matching game a dry-erase board on which I will write a letter of the alphabet in both upper and lower cases.  Then after we have reviewed the sound it makes, I will ask her to find pictures of things that begin with that sound.  I'm sure this will be interesting because playing the "Find two things that..." has been fun to see her interpretation of each picture's appropriate category.  Eventually, we will work into writing out the words for the game pieces.  When we've mastered that, we will use the pieces to create stories.  And you just thought it was a matching game!

Did I mention that I love summer?  The creative juices just flow so smoothly in the summer.  Sometimes I can't sleep at night because I'm thinking about something I want to paint, sew, or write.  Thank goodness I can sleep late if I want to!

I will post pictures later of some of this summer's fruitfulness.  It is late, so it looks like I'll be sleeping in tomorrow!