Teeny Diaper Delivery

This past week I took my first group of teeny diapers to one of our local hospitals.  In February I did a post that told you about Teeny Tears and their mission to provide preemie and micro preemie diapers for stillborn babies and their family.  The baby is dressed in a diaper and then a second, matching diaper goes to the family as a keepsake.  Being someone who does not sew, it took me a couple week to get these few done, but it was much fun!  Aren't they the cutest?  I'm looking forward to sewing up some more, as well as looking forward to seeing flannel go on sale so I can pick up some more. 

Just before taking the diapers up to the hospital, the girls and I sat and prayed for the families that would be receiving a diaper.  As I was walking out the door Sissy said, "Wouldn't it be neat if a family needed one of these today?"  The innocence of a child right?  Of course it would not be "neat"...sadness, grief and destroyed dreams accompany these diapers, but yes, it would be neat to fill a void for one of those families.  My biggest prayer is that God provide comfort to a family that suffers an infant loss and if the family is not a believer, that somehow, God uses their experience to draw them near to Him.

The Door in the Wall

We have been working on two read-aloud's over the last month and have recently finished up.  Yesterday we finished The Door in the Wall by Marguerite deAngeli.  This is a sweet book about a young boy, Robin,  who desires to become a knight, like his father but he has become sick and lost the use of his legs.  His father is gone fighting the Scots and his mother is traveling with the Queen.  A kind and loving friar, Brother Luke, cares for Robin until he can be reunited with his family.  A message arrives that Robin must meet his father at Castle Lindsay.  For a young boy with physical limitations, the journey is going to be quite difficult - and dangerous.  However, with his traveling companions, Robin learns alot about who he is and what he can accomplish.

The girls really enjoyed this book.  I was a bit afraid since the verbage can be difficult at times.  Here is a quick section from the book: 

    "If they hands are busy, time will pass more quickly.  Dost like to whittle?"

    "Of course," answered Robin.  "Who does not?  But I have nought to whittle." 

    "I shall find thee a piece of soft pine and will lend thee my knife. 'Tis sharp and of good steel.  This

     bench will fit against thy back to support thee."

When I began reading, I honestly thought I would not get much past the 2nd chapter, I was afraid the verbage would prove to difficult in reading and for the girls comprehension.  It was actually fun to read and the girls did not struggle to much.  Even Sweet Baby would beg for me to start a new chapter each day. 

This fit in wonderfully where we are in our study of medieval times.  Now, on to something new.  I have yet to decide what our new read aloud will be.  Sweet Baby is lobbying for another Ramona Quimby book, something lighter.  I'll let you know what I choose when I decide.

Studying the Stars

The little girls are currently studying our universe. Peanut is especially excited since this is the topic she chose about this time last year. I do not know why I am surprised since she is the one that gets excited over anything new she is learning about. She is truly a homeschooling mom's dream.

We are using God's Design again and have only just begun. We have discussed rotation and revolution and how that determines our seasons and this week we began discussing the stars. I found an amazing book at the library titled, The Glow in the Dark Night Sky Book by Clint Hatchett. As its title states, the stars glow in the dark. The book has the night sky divided into what you should see at various times of the year - early summer, late summer. In addition, each season uses 2 pages to show the constellations. One page shows the constellation with its names and the stars connected like a dot-to-dot, while the other page shows the constellations drawn inside the mythological creatures they represent.  The girls loved "charging up" the pictures and then running down to the school room to turn off the lights and look at the images.

I found a cute constellation book on Pinterest that I decided to try.  the book was made with white card stock cut about 3 3/4 x 5.  I scored the pages at equal intervals and made an accordion book.  The girls then used the glow in the dark book to choose several constellations to make in their own book. 

Sweet Baby used star foil stickers for her pages....

She is so goofy!

Peanut wanted to punch holes in her page so she could see the sun shine through.  It SOUNDED like a good idea.  A regular hole punch would not work so I thought we could use my eyelet hole punch that was not getting much use.  I went through the rules of proper usage - specifically that you MUST always keep the mat underneath it.  After all, the punch can take a chunk out of a dining room table if not used correctly.  After doing several together, I handed over the hammer and the reminder about the mat.  Here she is giving it a shot.

All was going well until, when I was working with Sweet Baby, the sound of the hammering changed.  A sound that was, louder.  Needless to say, the mat was no longer under the place she was punching, so at this point, it became apparent to me that we needed to do Peanut's book a bit differently.  **There was not a chunk taken out of the table, just a small circle indented into it.  And, I kept my cool.  I'm pretty proud of that.  :)  **

We decided to use Stickles.  This is a glue/glitter combo that if handled correctly is neat and not at all dangerous.

Peanut worked on a poster board for American Heritage Girls that shows the various colors of stars and how it relates to their size and how hot.  In addition to our regular God's Design program we are adding just a couple activities so the little girls can earn the Space Exploration badge.  Peanut will present her poster to the troop next week.