DIY Felt Food Banana

I've been wanting to make some felt fruit and vegetables for the boys, but I never got around to making them. After one of our Arabic lessons I needed to come up with a fun way to teach the names of fruits and vegetables in Arabic.

After searching online I was inspired to make them a set of fruits/vegetables out of felt. I've only made one so far I am planning on making as much as I can this weekend.

Floor Pouf

I friend of mine recently lent me her sewing machine (May Allah reward her ameen). I've always wanted to learn to sew but I convinced my self I wouldn't be very good at it. With alot of help from my friend and the internet I decided to give it a try.

I decided to make a floor pouf as extra seating in our homeschool room. This was the second thing I made after getting the sewing machine.

IKEA Hack

I have been looking for a storage solution for our school room. We have an IKEA Expedit shelving unit, to go with it I recently purchased Drona storage boxes. These boxes hold a tone of things which was perfect for storing all our puzzles, craft supplies, Lego pieces, etc.

I went with the black color well because that's all the had in store that day. Since our shelf is black everything kind of blended together. After searching for a solution to make this shelf POP (just a little) I decided to stencil some numbers with white paint on the boxes.

This was exactly what I was looking for they look so cute and this only took me 5 minutes to do. I know this isn't your usual IKEA hack but its a fun and simple project.

Supplies you will need:

Drona storag boxes (or any container you desire)
Number stencils
Stencil brush
White paint (or any color you desire)

That's it !!!! :)


We are linked up with We Made That

Letter M phonics Box with Cold Rice play

A had a blast today with this activity, not only was he practicing his sounds he was enjoying playing with rice (which is his faviourite by the way).

After putting this phonics box together I started searching the internet on how we can play with these. I came across this post from 1+1+1=1. 

She incorparted the phonics box with rice play, this was perfect for A. But I wanted to add something extra for our winter theme. I found this cold rice play idea from Growing a jeweled rose. Don't you just love the internet the possiblities are endless :) here's what we did today with our Letter M Phonics Box.

Cold rice sensory bin

Letter M phonics box content 

Linked up with:

 tote school gathering place
 Stir the Wonder
No time for flashcards
We made that

DIY Kids Art display

All moms can relate to this whether you homeschool or send your kids to school. Where should we display our children's beautiful creations.

This was something that was bothering me a lot. My children love craft time and so do I, but at the end of the week we they have made tones of beautiful creations that just does not fit on the fridge. So I went online where else but my faviourite place pinterest to find some inspiration.

Here is what I came up with....

Source

Source

Source

 

After going through so many different ideas I went with this one because it was the look that I was looking for and it was cheap :).  She spray painted her's but I decided to go with a stain. Go to her site here for a full tutorial she does a great job and is very detailed.

Here is what our art wall looks like. I used a piece of 1x8 which was like $1.92 from Home depot. They cut it into 3 equal parts. I took it home stained it added some clips from Walmart using gorilla glue. I mounted it on the wall and hang my boys art work up. It was super easy and the cost was very cheap to make. 

 The wall decal is from New York Vinyl

Letter M Phonics Box

A and I have been working on letter sounds, even though he knows all his sounds sometimes he gets confused when its time to isolate that sound with its corresponding object/word.

After reading Counting Coconuts (read her how to she does a fabulous job in explaining, and gives plenty of resources where you can find the mini figurines) I decided to put together my own phonics box for A.

I will be making each box as we go along and sharing our ideas on how A is using the box.

Letter M phonics box:

Moose, Mom, Money, Monkey, Millipede, Marble, Mouse

I am using a small container to store these figurines. I don't really like having all these small boxes I think there going to take up to much space but right now this is what I have. It will change as soon as I find something else to store them in. Each box will have a label with the letter so that A is able to find his boxes without my help. 

Very Last First Time (FIAR)

 

 Eva's journey is a very special one. Today, she will walk on the bottom of the sea alone. She will go into the cave that is under the ice when the tide is out. She will search for mussels as her people have done for centuries. She will find herself in darkness. She will find too she has brought what she needs with her. She will come again into the light (Source Amazon). 

Geography:

For geography we worked on the flag of Canada, coloring the country, and putting our Canadian flag on our passport. The boys and I also read about Canada in Beginners World Atlas pg 24.

Language:

O worked on some writing practice from write shop. I love when I can incorporate his FIAR with his daily lessons. He wrote about "Winter Animals.

A and I played a rhyme game to help him practice his All about Reading Pre K lessons.

Social Studies:

 We watched some short videos on Inuit life from here. For additional information about Inuit/Eskimo life we used this website . It has tones of information/activities/crafts you can do with your kids.

The boys and I also read this  mini book called "My book about an Inuit family". O and A colored the pictures together and we assembled the book. This mini book is easy for the kids to read and uses simple language to introduce the subject.

Craft:

Paper Mache Igloo and Safari Arctic Toob

"Eskimo" 

Field Trip:

Toronto Zoo Inuit exhibition.  The boys got to go in a tent and look at Inuit art.

Toronto Zoo Arctic Tundra. O and A got to go inside a fox hole to see what it felt like. 

Sources:

Geography: Expedition Earth Confessions of a homeschooler
Eskimo Sight word here

 Linked with:
We Made That 
Delightful learning

IKEA Expedit Shelf turnd Bench

I think I am very late on this wonderful idea but I have become obessessed. Am talking about the IKEA Expedit shelf turned bench tutorials all over pinterest. Finally I've decided to make one for my homeschool, after gathering all necessary material reading tones of tutorials online I got started.

I haven't finished the whole thing yet its missing the legs and some pillows that I have to make for it. But I am so happy with the end result it was worth all those trips to Micheals and IKEA.

Here is what it looks like so far....

Here are the tutorials I followed here and here for upholstering the bench. And the fabric I chose for the bench is also from IKEA.

Thanks to the hubby one project down (almost) and a bunch more to go. If your also in Toronto message me and I can tell you were I got all my material.

Stay tuned for updated pictures :)

Its been a while since I made this bench for the school room. Its only missing extra pillows and the baskets but here's what it  looks like with legs and two pillows I made for it.

**UPDATE** #SewCrazyChallenge  I purchased some bedding from IKEA to use for the boys room a while back. After our move I changed up the theme/style of the room and this bedding didn't work with it anymore. I decided to use the pillow covers to make a envelope style throw pillow for the school room. I added black pipping it really goes well with everything. :) Oh by the way the bedding is called EIVOR ORD Duvet cover and Pillow case.

 Book Shelves

Bench

Art Wall

Cushions

Map

Science Center

Science Center wall gallery