Leap Year Time Capsule Printable

I'm probably sharing this too late for many people to enjoy it now, but here it is anyway. We're filling in these little printables with our measurements and favorites, and then we'll bury it in the back yard. Happy Leap Day, friends!

 

Time Scavenger Hunt Printable

We studied time last year, and this lead to a little printable activity I wanted to share with you. We started with our little clock and our math workbook, but I wanted to do something a little more fun. I made up a quick Time Scavenger Hunt by drawing some pictures of a few things I knew would happen today. When they happened Lou had to write down the time and add hands to the clock. Easy peasy, but lots of fun! Since I made it last year, we've used it again now and then when we needed a refresher.

She wanted to do more so I made up some printable pages. I drew in the drawings, and will let Lou write "when the clock coo coos," "the baby cries," and "lunchtime." You could easily mix it up by writing in the event and letting them draw the picture, or writing in a time, and let them watch the clock to see what's happening when the time rolls around.

I use a .05 copic pen to draw with a nice black line. I made a few variations of the pages, and one includes some reminders for how to read the clock.

Grab the printables below!

Snow Day: Snowfall Chart Printable

We were supposed to get 5-7 inches of snow. We stacked our firewood, bought the kids' long-johns for playing in the snow, and I stayed up late the night before making a snow measurement chart. Yes, of course, snow like this is a learning opportunity, I thought.

And we got 1.4 inches. Boo.

But at least I have an accurate measurement!

We learned how to measure snowfall here. And measured several times throughout the day as the snow continued to fall. We lost interest when our last measurement didn't change. But, the nice thing about printables is that you can use them again! Here's hoping for another snow day! Grab the printable pdf here.

Adventures in Printing

I have prints available of some of my small paintings here or at the link in the sidebar. I've had a crash course this week in scanning artwork, and the geek in me is finding it pretty fun. The print above of St. John Orthodox Church is to scale with the original and shows the rough texture of the canvas and thick paint nicely.

I've included a few oils and watercolors, and a few illustrations as well. Prints can be ordered in several sizes, on greeting cards and a few other products. My Old Testament Timeline is also available here, and I recommend the 17x24" poster.

Advent Countdown Printable

40 Days to Christmas - printable

Last year I made a quick nativity printable to count the 40 days leading to the birth of Christ.  This year, I wanted to make it a bit prettier. My oldest daughter sat down with me and helped me decide just how to make it, and I think we're both pretty happy with it. You'll notice there are 2 versions - one has stars for 40 days, and the other has the usual 25 days. (Orthodox Christians start counting 40 days before Christmas, which is coming up on November 15!) As usual, I can't just do one thing - I also made a black and white version if you want to let the kids color their own.

This works great as a last minute advent calendar if you don't already have one, or to accompany your Jesse Tree readings so you can quickly see your progress. We will put ours on our fridge and probably X, count, or otherwise draw the days as we go. We also used a magnet last year, but it was often knocked out of place, so writing seems to work best. :)

Just grab the png and print. Enjoy!

25 days to Christmas - printable

25 days to Christmas - coloring page

40 days to Christmas - coloring page

cross-posted from many mercies 

Printable Thanksgiving Cards

I first made these cards several years ago, when I was having a little fun drawing Thanksgiving foods. Recently, our family has been thinking about giving thanks quite a lot. When I put together this study unit during the summer, I spent some time making new thank you cards, and so I also updated these. 

The pdf now includes a pretty full color version, as well as line drawings if you or your kids want to color your own turkey.  You can print just the illustrations with blank inside, or print them front and back with the fill in the blank text for children who may appreciate writing prompts (as mine do). The inside says: "I am thankful for you because_____." These make them a little fun for kids without being as much work as making a whole card from nothing. I print them on heavy weight paper or cardstock so they are just right for dropping in the mail

With all the updates, these have been moved to my shop for a small fee. Find them in the printable cards section.  We'll be keeping our eyes wide open, focusing on thanksgiving this month. I'm thankful for all of you, friends!

Back to (Home)School with Animal Bookmark Printable

dolphin bookmark

We're back to school again, and pretty happy about it. Many families have first day of school traditions to help get everyone excited about the new year. I was only sort of prepared, and so ours stretched into first week of school celebrations, which is just fine with me. 

On our first day, we painted self-portraits, and started reading some new books.

Everyone claimed their quiet reading spot. 

I meant to have donuts for breakfast, but didn't get out to the store. So I made toast with butter hearts. I thought they turned out pretty well... but I sort of forgot to mention it to the kids, and I think they ate them without noticing. But hey, the love is there, right?

making toast with love

Later in the week, we got around to grabbing a few new school supplies, and starting the 1st grader on her very own field journal. I'm feeling really good about using spiral notebooks to simply our homeschooling schedule. We'll see if it works for the whole year - but this week, we're all loving it. It helps the kids see how much they have left to do, encourages my new reader to read, and it has a fun schedule built in (when they finish the first two subjects, then they get to have a snack and read on their own).

We have a (mostly) Charlotte Mason style homeschool this year, so there are lots of books. I thought some new bookmarks were in order to get us excited about reading. First we made a few of these easy origami bookmarks. (There are quite a few other origami corner bookmarks with interesting designs. I've pinned several here.)

And then I surprised the kids with some animal bookmarks, featuring their favorite animals: Sea Animals (a dolphin, of course, seahorse, and octopus) and Horses (in well named colors). 

octopus bookmark

golden horse bookmark

lavender seahorse bookmark

I couldn't find all the books in all the places to take pictures, but this shows quite a few. Grab the printable bookmarks below. Print on cardstock, and cut along the gray line. Use an x-acto knife for best results on the interior cut outs. Enjoy!

Happy New School Year! 

Printable Thank You Cards

We've been talking about gratitude at our house this year, as you may remember from this recent printable gratitude unit. A big part of that is remembering to write thank you notes for kindness and things we receive from others. After I used up my stash of thank you notes, I made this little bundle of printable notes, so that I would always have some handy. I am finding it very helpful for me, maybe more so than the children, to take a few quiet minutes and reflect on the kindness of dear friends in our life and to make that gratitude tangible.

This bundle has 4 simple designs of hand drawn illustrations of some beautiful things in our home: origami butterflies, our new little budgie, an antique globe, and a pinwheel. I made the cards print black and whit, two to a page, to conserve ink. You can print them blank inside, or with fill in the blanks for children who may appreciate writing prompts (as mine do).

I printed them on 60lb paper. This has a really nice feel, but goes through my printer more easily than heavy cardstock. Since they are black and white, I used colored paper, and added a few touches with colored pencils and metallic pens to make them a wee bit fancier.

The kids balked at writing thank you notes for all of their gifts at first, but they have grown to enjoy it - especially with the fill in the blanks and coloring cards. These make them a little fun without being as much work as making a whole card from nothing. 

The printable bundle is available in my shop.

Teaching Gratitude to Kids Printable Unit

Printable Gratitude Bundle

We've been working on gratitude at our house, and so I've developed a teaching unit "Learning to Give Thanks." The unit pdf include a list of activities with brief instructions for using the printables with each activity, and 24 pages of printables. The bundle includes: 

• two kinds of thank you cards with an option of fill in the blank text inside for younger writers or blank inside for older kids
• tokens of gratitude (with game instructions)
• gratitude journal pages for writing or drawing a daily thankful
• We're thankful for you! Posters
• Where did that come from? Game
• Good manners and Chore Chart
• Matching stationary for other writing projects
• Posters of Quotes and Poems about Gratitude

stationary

drawing journal

Tokens of Gratitude

thank you cards

Games and Charts and Instructions

The bundle is available in my shop for a small fee. Check it out!

Printable Cards to Color and Share for Thanksgiving, Winter, and other Greetings

I made these printable-coloring Thanksgiving cards a few years ago, and the girls and I just came across them again. Our plans this year are up in the air, and so I thought writing cards to all the family we won't see would be fun (although a challenge for little ones who don't like writing!)

These are an easy, low-ink printable, that fold in half to make cards. While I'm getting organized here's a list of all my printable coloring cards:

Thanksgiving

Animal Greetings

Rare Animal Greetings

Bon Hiver (Good Winter)
Update: Cards have been updated and improved, and can now be found in my shop. 

I think I made the last two, but never shared them, so they are brand new. Check out the new Bon Hiver cards below. 

Old Testament Timeline Printable

Okay, I'll admit it: I started playing Christmas music yesterday. 

I'm getting ready for one of my favorite family traditions. During Advent we do a Jesse Tree, with readings and ornaments from the Old Testament that lead to the birth of Christ. I've noticed my children don't always have a good sense of how the different events relate to one another. For years, I've wanted a Bible Timeline to provide a context for the stories we tell. There are several commercial ones: most have a lot of text and dates and are more involved than I need. I really like this one with all the pictures, but its 10' long! That just won't work for our home. 

So I obsessed over it for 48 hours, and made my own. I drew a simple cartoon history of the Old Testament. It doesn't include every prophet and king and favorite story (because otherwise it would be 10' long!), but it provides a big picture, so when you're reading your favorite story you can point and say, "this happened here." I'm hoping it will help my kids develop a sense of the continuity of the story.

I drew the timeline over 5 sheets of paper, but through the magic of Adobe, I've squished it onto a single printable page. Yes, ONE page. The pictures are tiny, but they are simple and readable, so I think it works. 

And its for you, too! Wishing you a good Advent and blessed Nativity! Grab the printable PDF here - it includes a black and white page, and one with a little color.

If you don't want the teeny-tiny version, you can order it in poster from Zazzle in various sizes and paper qualities.  Its also available as this pretty 17 x 24" poster printed by Fine Art America. (Be sure to select: Size: natural.)