TTT Fall Crafts

Fall explodes with a unique coziness after a hot summer.
I love the smells and activities of the season;
football, bonfires, sweatshirts, hikes, gourds, squash baking, beautiful leaves ...

Fall is a breath of fresh air after a hot sticky summer, which I also love, but only for a season.

We enjoy the addition of fall crafts during our school day.
Below I've highlighted a few.
If you have a fall craft you enjoy with your children, please share in the comments!

Fall Leaves


We are going to try these leaves this week.
photo from Better Homes and Gardens

Maple Flavor Leaf Cookies

Paper Pumpkins
photo from Martha Stewart

Owl Paper Puppet
photo from While She Naps

Fall Trees
photo from 1+1+1=1

Our Rocks

Remember last week when we painted?

These are the Rock Friends we made.

They line our porch, waiting to greet all who arrive.

What we did...

• Gathered rocks from the creek.
  
• Washed and dried them in the hot sun.
• Painted the rocks.
• Let the rocks dry overnight.
• Using a hot glue gun, we applied: feathers, pipe cleaners, glitter, & googly eyes.
  

Preschool Printables

First-School is a great resource for FREE printable worksheets and learning activities for your preschooler.

You can print pages like this
for learning the letter 'S'.

And pages like this

to practice handwriting.
First-School has practice pages in D'Nealian or Standard Block writing styles.

You will also find printables for:
Numbers
Seasons
Shapes
Months
Days of the Week
Holidays
Bookmarks
and many more activities!!

TIP: Many of the pages have color on them, to save on color ink, choose the black and white print option in your print setup.

Edible Bird Feeders

When it looks like this outside

your bird friends will be happy for these.

How to:
Thin peanut butter with Karo syrup and slightly warm.
Spread onto a sugar cone.

Roll the cone in bird seed.

Place finished cones in Evergreen trees between the branches or use a hot glue gun to fasten on a string then hang from a branch.

TIPS:
Glue the string on before coating with peanut butter.
Hang them outside a window where your children can watch the birds eat.

Christmas Traditions

I love tradition.
Maybe it is the scheduler in me, or the childhood memories I have of Christmas growing up. Or possibly it's the desire to create special times for my children to remember...
Whatever the reason, I love tradition!

What is a tradition?
The dictionary describes tradition as 'an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior'. Traditions can be as simple as always putting a tree up or as detailed as always eating the same menu on the same day at the same time with the same people.

Why do I think traditions are important?
I think they are a wonderful way of creating memories and making the season (whatever that time of year may be) seem special.Traditions make your family different that other families. I think they also strengthen your family by encouraging continuity and connectedness.

You probably have more traditions in your family than you realize. I will share a few of our Christmas traditions with you in hopes that you will share what you do with me.

• We buy a real tree to decorate. This year we went on December 1st. I think I like that day. It might become a new tradition.
  
• We open an Advent Box each December day leading up to Christmas. Inside each little box is a piece of paper with a special activity (to do that day) written on it.
  
• We bake (and decorate) cookies, party mix, and snacks. We love to share them with our friends and neighbors.
  
• My Grandma, who is from Norway, use to make Norwegian cookies every Christmas. She is unable to anymore so we have taken on the job. We always make Rosettes and Krumkake, some years we also make Sanbakkels and Kransekak.
• We also make easy Gingerbread Houses and Igloos out of sugar cubes (multiple times throughout December and January).
• We spend Christmas Eve with my husbands family and Christmas Day night with my family. We do our family Christmas, Christmas Day morning.
• Christmas Eve, right before bed, our children each open one gift. It is always a new pair of PJ's. They wear them to bed and are allowed to wear their new PJ's all Christmas day.
• The children open their Stockings up first, then we open our gifts from each other. Stocking gifts always include socks, underwear, CD, gum, candy, and other misc little items.
  
• Christmas Day Breakfast consists of Homemade Cinnamon Rolls, Sausage Egg Casserole, Fresh Fruit and Hot Cocoa, Milk and Juice. My Father-in-law comes over and eats with us.
  
• This year my children drew each others names and bought a 'Secret Santa' gift for each other. I hope to continue this and elaborate on it as they grow into doing little things for each other all month.
  

Home Ec Day

Friday we made goodies and crafts.

I've never made Caramel corn before.
It was time to try.
It turned out great!

First Tyson popped popcorn.

Then we cooked the syrup.

1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp salt

Melt butter in heavy pot on stove. Add sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, and boil 4 minutes. Do not stir after bringing to a boil.
Remove from heat, stir in:
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda

Pour syrup over the corn. Stir to coat all popcorn.

Bake for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes.

Remove from baking pans to cool. We put ours in Holiday tins.

Then we tried Popcorn Snowmen.
I had great visions in my head of little snow men with red hot buttons, raisin eyes and pretzel arms.
It didn't work so well.
The taste is delicious, but the syrup dried sooo fast we couldn't get the parts to stick....
...So we made balls.

Not as festive but still good.
Next time we will add red hots to the popcorn and stir in with the syrup.
Or maybe we'll add food coloring to the syrup and make colored balls.

Any recipes for Popcorn Snowmen?

It melts my heart to find this...

Fall Leaf Craft

You will need:
*Leaf Pattern
*Tissue Paper
*Mod Podge
*Paint Brushes or Fingers
*Scissors
*String, if you want to hang the leaves up

Cut the tissue paper into small pieces

Pour some Mod Podge (MP) into small containers

Paint MP over the leaf patterns

Put Tissue on top of MP

Paint another thick layer of MP on top of tissue

Let the leaves dry for 12-24 hours. Cut out leaves and hang up or use them to decorate the center of your table.

How do you keep little ones busy?

We have quiet time and special activities.

Quiet time... Find a spot, within your sight, for your little one. It could be at a table, on a blanket or on a couch. Make it clear they are to stay there and play with the activities you've given them until you say. Give your child a few items to keep them busy. Start with 5- 10 minutes and work up to 30-60 minutes depending on the age of your child. I normally start school with Gabrielle on her blanket or at her little table. She spends around 45 minutes in quiet time.

Our rules and helpful hints...

• the child must be quiet
  
• they must clean up their activities
• the child must stay put
• take your child potty first
  
• I allow a snack and drink along with the activities
• don't let your child play with these activities anytime they want, this will keep them special, we call them 'activities from the school closet'
  
• have 'special' crayons, color pencils, markers, stamps, coloring books, books, stickers in a container only to be used during this time, play up the 'specialness' of these items
  
• don't give your child too many items, if you do they won't play with any of them, they will just make a mess
  

Things we do...
Read/Look at books

Sort Beans

Make noodle necklaces/play with wooden beads

Put age appropriate puzzle pieces together
(only give 1 puzzle or a few sets of matching cards)

Play with Domino's

Stack and put them away

Play with sewing cards
After quiet time I let the child pick an activity to play next. What I allow them to do depends on how much I am helping the other children at the moment. Activities I save for this time are playing with rice and beans, drawing on giant paper, playing with play dough, water painting, playing with pattern blocks or the child may go play with their toys.
Yesterday Gabrielle wanted to sit by me and look at books, then she played with her dolls. If she chooses to sit at the table with us while we are working on school, she must sit quietly She also likes to play kitchen, play in her room, talk with Ashlynn, and build with math cubes. In addition, I allow one 30 minute show while we are working on school.

Rice/bean play is a favorite!

Pattern Blocks

These toys can also be used to occupy children on rainy days, while mom is finishing a project or during dinner preparations.

What do you do to keep little ones busy?

Family Fun Garden craft

I saw this project in Family Fun. Thought I'd share...

	Smooth rocks in various shapes and sizes
	Waterproof acrylic paints and brushes
	Puffy paint (optional)
Time needed: Afternoon or Evening

1. Rinse the rocks to remove any dirt and let them dry. Apply a base coat of acrylic paint to the top and sides of each rock. We painted our rocks to match the colors of the vegetables themselves. 2. When the base coat is dry, your child can decorate the rocks with the name of the appropriate flower or vegetable. In addition to row markers, we also created some purely decorative rocks (for example, a "welcome to my garden" rock). For flourishes and lettering, we especially liked the look of puffy paint. When the paint is dry, place your rocks in the garden

Blowing Out Easter Eggs

First take a pointy screw or nail and poke a small whole in each end.

Hold the egg over the sink or a bowl and blow!

When the egg white and yolk are all out, rinse with water.
To hang the eggs, take a small pin and tie it to a string. Bend the pin slightly.
Put the pin and short end of the string all the way in the egg. Twist a little so the pin is side ways (this will hold the string in). Hang from the long end of the string.

Leave as is or dye and paint.
I am going to hang ours from an old branch in a vase with rocks.