Truth in the Tinsel - The slow finish

We finished a little slower than we started off with Truth in the Tinsel.  We went to the beach for 5 days before Christmas so I took all the supplies for our crafts. But really what boys want to sit and do craft when they could be swimming in a lake that is less than 50m away??

So we didn't do them all and some we did the colouring rather than the full activity.  We usually did them over breakfast so we could talk about the meaning of each while they ate and then made the craft.

Here are some pictures of the ones we did do.  I couldn't find a few of them - the kids have enjoyed playing with them so they didn't always make it to the tree.

A stable

Colouring in on busy days - Bethlehem by Eli and a Manger by Isaiah

Sheep that the shepherds were watching

Angels that came to tell the shepherds

A shepherd telling people about what he saw 

Wise men

Talking about the name of Jesus 

The censes - all the people that need counting

Final thoughts - I've really loved doing this with our boys.  The truths they have learned and remembered as a result of these activities are amazing.  Sometimes it felt like hard work, fitting it into the pre-Christmas craziness, (including going on holidays).  BUT I would say it is totally worth the effort and I'd do it all over again.  So thank-you Truth in the Tinsel.

Handmade Christmas for Boys - Lego Play Mat

Here is the next handmade present.  This one is for an 8 year old that LOVES lego and has an amazing imagination when it comes to making stories, scenes and scenarios.  With some lots of help from a fantastic friend, a large (1 . 5m square) hemmed piece of fabric and some fabric paint I made this.

I thought that with a farm, an airport, a forest and a series of roads there would be plenty of play options.  The boy loves it and couldn't wait to get home and play with it.

Handmade Christmas for Boys - WALLETS

Today I had Christmas with my family - I made presents for all the nephews this year, using stuff from my cupboard.  I was determined not to buy anything new.    I almost made it but ended up buying some elastic - not too bad.  I made a wallet for the two oldest boys.

 One loves everything tractor and farm so John Deere fabric I had left from another project was prefect.

The other used to have some shorts made of guitar fabric and was sad when he out grew them so I used the last scrap I had to make his wallet.

I'll show you more tomorrow...
Have you made any Christmas presents for boys this year??

Truth in the Tinsel - Part 1

Gabriel 

Zechariah

Decorating Mary with glitter glue

Mary 

Painting Mary and Elizabeth

Decoration a CD to remember Mary's Song

The Sun - Jesus brings light to the world

Our three Josephs

A pillow to remind us of the dream Joseph had.  We decided to sew our because that was easier for us!!

My favourite thing about it is the kids remember the lessons because we made something that reminds them about it. They are still talking about Zechariah we did on the second day. Such a great and simple way to help keep the lesson in their memory!!

I have learnt this week that I need to be all organised and ready to go before I call the kids to the activity, otherwise they have lost interest before we even start.

Have you been making your Truth in the Tinsel crafts?  I'd love to see them - don't forget that you can share them on the Truth in the Tinsel Facebook page.

3 Things Thursday - Our Tree

We put up our tree on the weekend - our tradition is to do it on the first weekend in December.  Last year at the after christmas sales I bought this new tree.  Until now we have had a waist high cheap tree I bought my first year of uni!!  I feel so grown up now with my big tree.  We have a mix of home made decorations (that's a boab nut from the Kimberley in Western Australia that I painted) and beautiful angels that I've collected over the years.

The handmade decorations are on the increase as we make one three each day with our Truth in the Tinsel activities.  Three of each!!  It's not too late to join in with us.  You can still buy it here.  I'll show some of what we've been doing on the weekend.

Justine Clark

A few months ago I won tickets to the Justine Clark concert.  The tickets have been on our fridge and we have been waiting with great anticipation for the big day.  Wednesday was that day.  We dropped Eli off for a day with Nan and headed for Brisbane.  

I don't go to Brisbane very often but I sort of know my way around - so when we found the right street I was pretty happy about that - found the theatre and the closest car park.  Now the excitement started.  Our car hit the 'your too high' bar as we drove into the car park so we had to back out onto a busy street.  As we backed out, hitting the bar again, the chain holding the bar broke.  Fortunately there was an extremely friendly worker right there who held the bar for us to get out, also checked for traffic as we reversed back onto the street and gave me directions to a higher car park!!  

With that excitement over we headed for our planned excitement THE CONCERT.

 

Justine was amazing and lived up to our my expectations. 

 How cool is that dress - apparently it's her music book dress!!

 We had such a great time and the boys are still talking about it.  

 Particularly this guy - the gobblebook. He likes books but not reading them - eating them.  Justine had to teach him what to do with books.

After the concert Jai wanted to go the ferris wheel (The Wheel of Brisbane) we'd seen on the way in.  I decided that was a great idea because we get near these sort of things so rarely.  I am wondering if they actually enjoyed this more than the concert!!

We had such a fun day that I hope is going to become a great memory for our boys!!!

A Three Year Project

When I was pregnant with Eli (who is now 2!!) I started knitting a cotton throw blanket.  I didn't have a pattern, my friend had one that I liked so I borrowed it and counted stitches and rows etc.  I cast on 150 stitches and started my moss stitch.  Each row took me about 45mins to knit!!  I was cruising along alright but after awhile, as you can imagine I started to lose a little interest and get a bit bored with it (and started other knitting projects). 

Every now and then I would get it out and do a bit more. Then Eli joined our family and then the desire  and the need to have a blanket decreased each day.  

Then 2 years on, my sister announced that she was pregnant.  Out came the blanket again - I was on a mission to get it finished for this baby.  After running out of cotton and then going all over town to try and find more that matched, I finally got the knitting all finished!  BEFORE Jimmy arrived.

It then sat in a pile on my sewing desk for a few months till he actually arrived and I was gently prompted by my sister to finish it.  I was going to try and make binding till I discovered blanket binding. How cool is this stuff.  Once I had this it took me all of 15 mins to finish. 

Now it is used and loved by my newest nephew and his mum.  Isn't he CUTE?

3 Things Thursday - In Our Home

~ This cute little Paradise Kingfisher made it's home in our ute for a night this week. It wasn't looking too well when Scott found it but after a while it decided it was ok and flew off.

~ We had lots of fun with paint and canvas this week.  These 'splat' painting now hang on the wall in our family room.

~ There are now bunk beds in the boys room - no more cot!!  And it is going so well.  Eli is so proud of his big boy bed and it even staying on it and playing with his toys in the mornings.

Homeschooler Craft Morning

Once a month we get together with four other homeschool families and have a fun morning of play time, a quick character lesson and some directed craft activities.  This month we also did show and tell. It is lots of fun and all the kids are fast becoming friends and look forward to these days.

Here are some pictures of our last get together.



There was a huge painting on the fence.

Threading bracelets and necklaces with beads and pasta.

Rainbows made with coloured rice.

And we finished off with cute show and tell.

We love these days - they are such fun and it is great to be forming a little community for our kids.

Truth in the Tinsel!

If there is one thing I've learnt about myself in my first year of being a homeschool mum it is this..

I am not a 'fly by the seat of my pants' type person.

I need a plan and to be organised, otherwise it just doesn't happen.  If I try to grab what I need 5 mins before the lesson it ends up taking too long, the kids lose focus and end up in a different area or outside playing in the hose!!  I've lost the focus and desire to pull everyone back together.  This is a very good lesson to learn early in our homeschool journey.  This will help me lots when deciding which  curriculum to buy.  We have done ok this year but we succeeded best with the programs that were all laid out for me or the ones the I really like and put the effort into planning.

So  when I found Truth in the Tinsel I knew it was perfect for me and our family.  I was planning to make my own advent calendar and activities to go in it like I did last year but when I found this I gave up all thoughts of that!!

Truth in the Tinsel is a bible based advent for little kids that gives them a great understanding of Jesus coming and why using simple crafts that can hang on the Christmas tree.  Most the of supplies needed are things I have in my house (There is a list in the front of the book so you can check out everything that you need).  The few things in the list that I don't have are now on my shopping list for this week. (see I like to be organised).

AND - yes there is more - for those of us that get busy in December and have no hope of doing a craft EVERY day, there are simple print and colour ornaments that you can buy too.  How great is that.  I'm sure we'll be doing these on our town days!!

I don't think I can commit to showing you what we do each day but I'll try show you maybe once a week what we've made - I think that is more achievable.

Do you have an advent planned for you family?? If not, perhaps you could join us with Truth in the Tinsel.