Remnants to pajama pants

All 6 of my children have requested pajama pants, well the 5 who speak have, technically.  I made some for Mr. Monk first and true to my nature made MANY mistakes.  I'm sorry to confess to you that his pants are already falling apart.  He is rather hard on clothes and he hasn't taken these pants off since I made them, but I was hasty and am paying for it now.  I finally understand the old aphorism "a stitch in time saves nine".  So last night it was back to the drawing board for pajama pants.  I bought a remnant piece at JoAnn for less than $3 and decided to use it for practice.  This time I reinforced every. single. seam.  Hopefully Calvin's remnant pj pants will hold up a little better than his brother's.  I think I'm ready to move on.

Oh- and I made FOUR skirts yesterday before getting to these pants.  Let's just say it was a long day.  And tonight- I'm not making anything.  We spent 2 hours on the road this morning early then 6 hours in a HOT crowded pool for a swim meet then 2 more hours on the road.  (I just have to insert here that they swam so fast that it was well worth it.)  I'm beat and going to bed after I read my older kids one more chapter of Master Puppeteer.  We're loving that book so much.

Third time's a charm: Measle finally has her skirt!

I bought some fabric at Walmart the other day that came in a bundle of 2 one yard pieces of coordinating fabrics.  Of course, I bought three of these bundles since I have three little girls.  I was thinking that I'd make each of them a skirt.  So, I bought a pattern and started making Measle's skirt last night.  Unfortunately, when I put the elastic in I realized that I had made a mistake.  I only cut out one front/back piece and had sewn them together making a nice skinny skirt for my nice skinny girl.  When I realized my mistake I decided Measle's little sister really needed a skirt to coordinate with her sister (since it does barely fit her : ).  Then I set out this morning to make both the right and left sides of the front/back skirt in a size 8.  It looked like waaaay too much material, but I tried to trust in the system.  Let's just say that either I have skinny girls or my pattern runs REALLY big.  Measle's big sister graciously offered to adopt the "too big" skirt even though she really hates the fabric.  So I tried one last time, without a pattern, using the scraps of fabric from my two failures and FINALLY made Measle her skirt.  She is very appreciative.

Her shirt that I just bought her to wear with her new skirt is so big on her that maybe she just isn't a size 8, afterall. 

The too big and too small first and second tries.  We may just toss "too big" or I may put the ruffle on it I ever get around to it.  Of course, I'm itching to get started on my next project now.  Maybe leggings or a patchwork skirt?  Not sure.  It's going to be tough to spend all day at a swim meet tomorrow.  Hopefully I'll have time to make something when I get back. 

Whatever happened to our dining room?

My husband and I agree about most everything regarding our house.  We like the same kind of layout and we have the same taste in decorating.  One area in which we disagree is that of the formal dining room.  For years he has lamented the wasted space of our formal dining room.  It's true that we only use it 2 or 3 times a year, but I like having it to use that 2 or 3 times.  My husband has been threatening to turn our dining room into his hobby room. Remember the doll house incident?  I think it sat on our dining room table for a full year until we were getting ready for the next year's Christmas party!!  I think that was his way of easing me into the transition.  It didn't work!  I couldn't believe he was actually suggesting we turn the room right by the front door, open to the rest of our house into a messy hobby room.  Crazy!  So what does our dining room look like now?

Yikes!  How embarassing.  It's turned into sewing central!  My Granny told me the sewing machine I bought at Walmart is cheap and she encouraged me to consider that the final product is only as good as the tools used to make it.  My husband was in total agreement since he had to take my machine apart and fix it twice the first week!  When Granny told us how much a good machine costs, we were shocked.  Good thing my mom just happens to have a Bernina that she bought in Switzerland 35 years ago and is in pristine condition (she doesn't ever sew.)  It was serviced in 1983.  Works for me.

I'm going to try to organize my sewing dining room this weekend, but I have a feeling we may need to move to accomodate my new hobby.   If you sew, what do you do with all your stuff?  Do you have a sewing room?

We ate take-out.

I've been crazy busy this week.  I mean 5 hrs-sleep-at-night busy (I prefer closer to 7).  But my Granny, my 87 year old crafty, sewing Granny, called me yesterday afternoon and said she had some fabric scraps for me.  These were no ordinary leftovers, but cute fabrics with lots of potential.  I really didn't have time to do anything with them.  I needed to drop Monk off at swimming, then pick him up.  I needed to make dinner.  I needed to get the house ready for Bible study.  But, I just couldn't help myself.

And apparently, neither could she.  As soon as the new dress went over her shoulders, Queen began to dance.  Notice her toes.  She's quite an expressive dancer, no?

So, how did I get it all done?  We ate take-out.

Deeper Roots Bible Curriculum- Discovering Christ-like Habits TOS Review

Deeper Roots has developed a comprehensive Bible curriculum for 7th through 12th graders.  The studies are listed below with their target grade in parentheses. 
Discovering Our Amazing God (7th grade)
Discovering Who I am in Christ (8th grade)
Discovering Christ-like Habits (9th grade)
Discovering Christ-like Character (9th or 10th grade)
Rooted and Grounded (11th or 12th grade)

We received book 3 in the Deeper Roots series, Discovering Christ-like Habits, which would work great with 7th-9th graders. (My 5th grade daughter didn't have any problems answering the questions, either.)   

Click on the picture above to purchase the book through Deeper Roots.

Discovering Christ-like Habits may be the third book in a series, but it stands alone, as well.  This is a topical study that covers growing faith, our ever present Helper, the secret of the will, the gift of prayer, celebrating God, and feeding on God's Word.  The lessons are divided into approximatley 14 "day" segments (ranging from 11-17), so the book could be completed in aorund 12 weeks if 20-30 minutes are devoted to Discovering Christlike Habits each day.  We participate in another weekly Bible study, so we've chosen to go through at a much slower pace.  This works just as well.  We have all year, right?

Each lesson focuses on one habit, such as faith or spending time in God's Word.   Topically themed Scripture memory verses are incorporated into each lesson.  Each daily segment also includes multiple Bible passages for observation, reflection, and application.  I also love that a different unreached people group is described at the beginning of each lesson to help guide prayers that God's Word would go out into all the world and that it would not return void.  Important terms are analyzed by comparing Dictionary definitions with biblical context clues.  Hymns, DVDs, and other resources are also sometimes utilized to help clarify the topic at hand.   And many thought provoking illustrations help make abstract truths more concrete.

My favorite part of this study is that it encourages lots of reflection and application.  It's one thing to gain head knowledge about the Bible by filling in the blanks, so to speak.  It's another thing entirely to let the truths apprehended actually change you!  I really appreciate this about the study.  I do think completing this series of Bible studies will lead to deeper roots in the Word- like a tree planted by rivers of water : ). 

My least favorite part of the study is the emphasis on drawing and writing.  I think the developers of this curriculum are right brained and I had a right-brained daughter who really connected with this study.  I, on the other hand, am not interested in trying to draw (I never progressed beyond stick figures) or write about our family touchstone or such things.  This is why I call Deeper Roots Bible curriculum comprehensive, though, it really does cover more than just biblical doctrine.  You can use the people group sketches to study geography, the drawing assignments to emphasize art (many styles from nature drawings to cartoons are assigned), the journaling assignments to work on writing, etc.  And study guides and tests are even included in the curriclum!    

I highly recommend Discovering Christ-like Habits by Deeper Roots publications.  The student book is available for $19.95 and the teacher book for $28.95.  Still not sure?  Please download this FREE pdf Discovering Christ-like Habits composite including the introduction, table of contents and sample lesson.

Also, don't forget to check out other TOS reviews of Deeper Roots Bible curriculum. 

Disclaimer:  I received no compensation for the writing of this review other than a free Discovering Christ-like Habits student workbook and teacher's guide.  All opinions expressed are my own.



Review of BigIQ Kids for TOS

BigIQ Kids is an online educational program designed for 2nd through 5th graders which offers both free and premium memberships. The free membership allows your child to practice math, spelling, and vocabulary while the premium membership adds progress tracking, content mastery, and customization. The premium program also includes a states program in US geography.
I need to tell you upfront that I'm a book person.  I believe knowledge is in books and can be best learned through studying books.  My kids, true to their generation, love all things electronic, so I thought this would be an interesting review. 

What I like about BigIQ Kids is that it provides extra practice in math and spelling, vocabulary and US geography in a fun format.  Game coins are earned by completing lessons and can be redeemed in the online arcade.  My girls' favorite game is dress up, of course.  Your children will be motivated to complete one more lesson so they can play one more game.  My little webkinz-loving and fish-feeding girls really liked BigIQ Kids collection of games.
There are a couple of neat features on BigIQ Kids that really impressed me, such as their electronic scratch pad which lets you draw with your mouse to solve your math problems before answering in the space provided and their new SAT vocabulary preparation.  I was not terribly impressed with their states program, as the information on each state is provided in a robotic monotone.  I did learn something new about my state, though.  Did you know rodeo is the official sport in Texas?  Jake, my tutor was quick to point out, however, that high school football is treated more like our official sport!  I didn't even know states have official sports!!
I also like that spelling and vocabulary are taught in a variety of different lesson formats such as unscrambling letters to make the words and word find in addition to just spelling out the words.  These different methods reinforce one another making word retention more likely.  Custom word lists can be imported or grade appropriate word lists provided by BigIQ Kids.

The math is very bare bones.  BigIQ Kids provides lots of drills in simple arithmetic, but no word problems or other mathematical concepts, such as fractions, percentages, telling time, etc.  Also, your student is forced to start at a very easy level.  My fifth grader had to begin at a very simple default level, like 0+2.  Modification allows for setting the percentage of problems to complete in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and also allows for selecting the percentage of single, double or triple digit problems, but this is a bit of a pain since all our percentages have to add up to 100.  (So I could manually go in and choose for her to have 25% triple digit addition, 20% double digit subtraction, 5% triple digit subtraction, 15% double digit multiplicaiton, 20% double digit division, and 15% triple digit division, for example.)  I would rather the default level be grade level appropriate for 5th graders and any modification be done from there, not from ground zero.  We will most likely utilize the math program in helping our 3rd grader to memorize her times tables. 

My biggest gripe with BigIQ Kids is with the ubiquitous keyboard displayed on the screen and utilized in many vocabulary and spelling lessons, and even some states lessons.  It's arranged in alphabetical order instead of being a qwerty keyboard.  My 5th grader is in her second year of typing.  She has to practice typing every day.  I do not want her to practice spelling out words by hunting letters on an alphabetical keyboard (I really had trouble).  She would have to skip a LOT of lessons to avoid using this keyboard.  I suppose this wouldn't pose as big of a problem for my 3rd grader since she hasn't officially started typing yet, but I would rather she not form the habit of finding letters in the wrong places.  It really looks like a keyboard, too.  Three rows of letters, just arranged alphabetically.  Maybe it's just me, but this seems like a major drawback.

I encourage you to try BigIQ Kids for yourself.  You can even test drive their premium programs for one week free!!  You can't beat free!  If you love their vocabulary program, but not the math, no problem.  You can purchase a membership with BigIQ Kids by individual subject ($7.99-9.99 per month, $39.99-49.99 per year) or you can get all four subjects for $19.99 a month or $89.99 per year (normally $99.99 per year, but currently on sale).
Please check out other TOS reviews of BigIQ Kids!
Disclaimer:  I received no compensation for writing this review other than two one-year premium memberships to BigIQ Kids.  The opinions expressed above are my own.

Because I just had to share.

I never ever ever EVER in a million years thought I would take a picture of my three girls in clothes that I made.  I can't believe I sewed two skirts and a t-shirt dress yesterday.  I actually finished Measle's this morning.  What fun to make clothes for your little girls!  And they are so sweet!  They don't complain and say they'd rather wear something else.  They wear them with pride.  What a blessing these daughters are to me! 

I think I may need a skirt, too.  What do you think?

These boys are pretty fun, too : ).  Nana bought Calvin a new outfit so Prince decided to dress in a button down shirt, too.  I was trying and trying to get Calvin to smile for the camera with mixed results.  When his big brother dropped down on the floor next to him, Calvin's face immediately lit up in this big grin.  True brotherly love!