Standard Deviants Accelerate Six Months Free Promo

Recently I started reviewing Standard Deviants Accelerate Program for the TOS Review Crew. I will have my complete review up in a few weeks but until then you can actually try it out yourself. They are offering all homeschool parents the opportunity to try it free for six months. That is one incredible deal that you cannot pass up. You can try classes in Biology, History, Algebra, and more. Don't wait, go to Standard Deviants Accelerate  and try it out for yourself.

Weekly Wrap Up - Sewing Week

 

I thought this week I would do Weekly Wrap Up a little different. Kind of like a week in pictures. We visited the library and checked out a lot of different types of books this go around. Grace checked out fashions and fairies. I took on some more sewing and craft books for more ideas

 

One night was all about fairy making.

 

One night was learning how to cut out patterns and showing Grace the basics of how to use a sewing machine.

 

This is a funny photo. Grace loves to color code everything. She seriously asked me last night to please keep it that way.

 

I got two new books for Grace to read for her devotion times each day. The first is Before You Meet Prince Charming, which she has already started and once she finishes that one she will move on to Growing Up Duggar.

 

We are continuing to work on four review products for the TOS Review Crew. A new one came in the week this week from Apologia. Some of the others are Rock Star Essay, Fix It! Grammar, and Standard Deviants Online Courses.

 

Grace has been pouring most of her time into her Spanish and Literature class. The first book for Literature was The Outsiders and she absolutely loved it. Hoping this afternoon to actually sit down and watch the movie so she can compare it to the book. She was very worried about this week's Spanish quiz but surprised herself and got every single answer right. She also accomplished a little Biology, American History, and Personal Finance. Monday we ate dinner over at my parent's house with the rest of the family and afterward Grace went to the fair. It was good to be around the family.  All in all it was a fairly productive week.

 

 

Seasonal Fairies

I mentioned in a recent post a book I purchased about creating fairies. This book is so awesome and has so many cute little creations to make. Tonight I laid out all the supplies and me and Grace went to work. It is still a process to create just one fairy but we are getting faster and better.

Felt is used to create all the clothing that the fairies wear.

Yarn is used for hair.

Thread is used to wrap around the clothing for decoration and a pop of color.

Sequins and buttons are again used to decorate the clothing. The small wooden beads are the heads which can be left blank or a drawn face.

Artificial flowers are used to create a longer, larger, and more colorful dress.

We also used wire edged ribbon for wings and a little sewing for the hat. After she dries Grace will probably draw her a face. 

Freezing Eggs

 

Did you know that eggs can be frozen? Neither did I until recently. Even though my birds have started molting I am still getting lots of eggs each day. What do you do when you have a refrigerator full of eggs (think 60 or more)? Well I start taking desperate measures including freezing. For some reason we haven't been eating a lot of eggs and I certainly haven't had time to for baking.

 

So instead of all these eggs vanquishing in my fridge I decided to take 36 of them and freeze them. First I washed all the eggs thoroughly. Next I cracked 10 - 12 at a time, mixed them, then added to ice cube trays to put in the freezer. I let them freeze overnight and put them all in a gallon freezer bag for storage in the deep freezer.

 

Now I can pull a few out to defrost anytime I want a scrambled egg sandwich or to bake some cookies. As soon as I use my first batch I will let you know how they turn out.

Fabric Shopping - What Surprised Me

 

First let me say that I haven't purchased fabric in maybe as long as five years. At that point I mostly bought cheaper cotton fabric for quilting purposes. I got burnt out on quilting because that last year I made a lap quilt for every member of my family including the guys (think sports or cameo). I laid it down one day and never went back. I don't know how to sew apparel and that is really what me and Grace are after at this point. Yesterday Grace went to spend some time with a friend and I headed to the fabric store.

 

All of the fabric I chose is teenage related. The first patterns we will try is a furry hat and some bags. I bought all of Grace's favorite themes - Hello Kitty, Galaxy, and Asian inspired.

 

While looking through tons and tons of fabric choices, which took lots longer than I thought it would I ran across Elsa inspired fabrics. Absolutely beautiful at 20 dollars a yard. When did fabric become so expensive? Even with expensive as it all was there was a line a mile long of people getting fabric cut.

 

Last but not least I found three books that I COULD NOT leave without purchasing. Such cuteness to create! My creative juices have just exploded (this hasn't happened in a long time). I'm thinking Christmas presents, craft fairs......  Looking forward to crafting on and teaching Grace in the process.

First Book Club Meeting of the Year

 

Today was our first mother daughter book club. The girls ranged in age from 11 - 15 and the book we are all reading and discussing is Mothering and Daughtering. We actually had some pretty good discussion today and the girls even participated. At this point I believe we will be meeting once a month.

 

One of my best friends hosted this for us and you can find her over at Little Farm Diary. Yes her house is just as great in person as it is on the blog. We always have a super time while visiting and she has the best treats.

 

While visiting after the book club I indulged in some photo challenges of my own with the iphone. If you remember a couple of posts back I discussed wanting to improve my photography only using the iphone. So far I stink at it, but I have challenged myself to try something different each day.

When Academic Plans Change

All our new sewing supplies ready for us to have time to sit down and get started

 

Well again you know what they say about the "Best Laid Plans". Sometimes they go awry. I thought we had this year in the bag as far as curriculum choices and that Grace would work hard so there would be no school this upcoming summer. So what has changed? A couple of her outside of the house classes are kicking her tail. I knew this year would be tough. What I didn't know was that her interests would take a nose dive. Some of this due to her time management skills or lack thereof and the other just a lot of school work.

 

Time spent marketing her new business, Princess Parties by Grace, has become nonexistent. Artwork for the art show in October - also nonexistent and the new pursuit of sewing. So tonight at dinner I offered Grace another option on how to finish all her subjects for this year. Literature, Spanish, Cooperative, and review products are taking up a large portion of her life right now which is leaving little time for history and science, let alone other personal endeavors. Grace jumped at the chance of my new idea - which is.......only work on history and science in bits and pieces for the moment but concentrate more of our efforts for those two subjects in the spring and summer months. This means five days a week of science and history in the summer to finish up those subjects. It sounds awful but right now it will give her some breathing room to pursue art, birthday party business, and learning how to sew.

Mapping class at Cooperative

 

Not to mention that she is a very young 10th grader only turning 15 three months ago. If it takes a little longer to finish 10th grade so what. Currently the child doesn't want to go to college - we aren't on any real time table other than what society tells us to do. Homeschooling is all about changing things up when we need and sometimes I know I really forget that. I get caught up in what everyone else is doing - especially now that we are in the high school years.

Merida costume ready for a princess party

I want her to enjoy her time as a young adult. Pursue some of her passions while she can before getting caught up in adult world. There is definitely more to life than earning six credits every year. As each year rolls by the more I see that there is more to life than earning the credit and the grade.