John Deere Boy's Room

I have been hard at work on my son's big boy bedroom!  He loves his tractors and so I went about planning on how to make his room all about John Deere.  This was going to be his birthday present, so I had to make sure he knew as little as possible about it without moving him out of his room if I could.  Here is the big reveal:

A little blurry since he was jumping up and down so much!

One happy little boy!!

I moved him out on Friday morning and finished the room up that day.  The only thing he already knew was the colors of his walls and the colors of his trim.  Everything else was completed while he was playing downstairs or outside Friday.  Plus, he enjoyed sleeping with mommy and staying up late to watch a movie!!

He loves to read, so this reading nook has already come in handy!!  The stickers and the border came off the internet.

This sign idea came from pinterest.  The link is:

http://www.shanty-2-chic.com/2011/11/letter-photo-art-for-christmas.html

The wall colors were colored matched at Sherwin Williams with one of his tractors.  My boss found the tractor tire pillow and the comforter at The Andersons in Columbus.  The back 2 pillows were shams that I sewed up and put around 2 other pillows.  The 2 solid brown pillows came from target.  The baskets came from Lowes. I made the furniture from 3/4 inch plywood so it is really sturdy.

The bed and the closet came from Ikea.

We live in an old school house, so some of our walls are 18 inches thick.  Makes for great built in bookcases and more room on the ground!

All in all, he had a great birthday and is still super excited about it.  Before he 'opened' his room, I gave him the ground rules that he had to make his bed every morning and he had to pick up his toys every evening.  He has done an awesome job of that all week!!

Blessings

Linking to:

Solar Oven smores

Our 1st science experiment was to make a solar oven and talk about reflection and how the sun heats us.

 1st you need a pizza box.  Then you are going to cut out the top of the box 1 inch from the outside all they way around.

 Then you are going to attach foil on both sides of the hole and then cover the foil with saran wrap and tape to make air tight.

 Then you will put foil around the inside part of the bottom of the box.

Put black construction paper under your smores and take it out and let the sun pre-heat it for 15-20 minutes.

 Close the lid and check every 20 minutes or so.  Ours took about 35 minutes to get right, but our weather is in the 100s

Daddy made it home in time to enjoy the smores with Conner.  I am saving the box, so that we can do it again.  We did this experiment to go along with our FIAR (Five in a Row) book The Story of Ping and discussed reflection!

Blessings!

linking to:

 

1st day of kindergarten!!

1st day of kindergarten was today!!  He did awesome!  I was afraid he would get tired of doing school for so long (2 and a half hours), but he really done well!

Our curriculum for the year consists of

Calendar notebook

Positive Action for Christ - kindergarten

Horizons math and Math-U-See Primer

Various Kumon books and mazes

All About Spelling level 1

All About Reading Level 1

Five in a Row Volume 1 including the Christian addition- in the afternoon

Various Art lessons from Deep Space Sparkle

            http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/category/grade-levels/kindergarten-art-lessons/

Kindergarten art program from Home Art Studio

            http://www.officialhomeartstudio.com/programs/kindergarten/

Elemental Science for Kindergarten

            http://www.elementalscience.com/explor.html
Horizons Kindergarten Health

Language Lessons for Little Ones #2

            http://www.timberdoodle.com/Language_Lessons_for_Little_Ones_2_p/188-438.htm

Critical Thinking books:

            http://www.criticalthinking.com/getProductDetails.do?code=c&id=06906

          http://www.criticalthinking.com/getProductDetails.do?code=c&id=05233

 –we are still finishing this up from pre K before we move on to:

http://www.criticalthinking.com/getProductDetails.do?code=c&id=05231

1+1+1=1 Sight word program

Seems like a lot, but it is being spread out throughout the year along with various other studies, crafts, and projects!

Blessings

Homemade granola

I finally found a granola recipe that is not only easy to fix, but also very yummy!

Granola
1 c honey
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c olive oil
1/2 c coconut oil
1 T vanilla
2 t cinnamon
2 T maple syrup
10 c oats
2 c flour
2-3 c each unsweetened coconut
                  flax seed
                  raisins

1^st you want to heat the first seven ingredients until melted.  If you need to melt down your coconut oil, just put it in a pot of hot water and it will liquefy.  Don’t worry, it will turn back into a solid soon!

In a bigger bowl, you want to put your oats, flour, coconut, flax seed, and raisins and stir them up.

Then you will add the melted ingredients and stir until mixed well!

Put in baking dishes and  bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes.  Put on counter to cool and enjoy!!

We don't buy cereal anymore, so this has been a really nice treat on Sunday mornings when we are trying to get ready for church and I don't have the time to fix eggs or pancakes!

Blessings!!

Linking up with these blogs!

                                                              

Homemade deoderant

Made my first batch of homemade deodorant last week.  I had 3 different recipes to try, so I decided to take different ingredients out of each recipe and put them together and make my own recipe.  Wasn't sure if it would pass my husband's test, but it did!  He loves it, which is very awesome!  He has been very reluctant to jump on the green, healthy band wagon.

Homemade Deodorant
1/4 c non aluminum baking powder
1/4 c arrowroot
1 Probiotic capsule
20 drops tea tree essential oil
5 T coconut oil

I actually used 1/2 c baking powder instead of half powder/half arrowroot.  I couldn't for the life of me find my arrowroot.  It turned out awesome  though!  First I put the baking powder and Probiotic capsule in my food processor and mixed it up.  Then I melted my coconut oil and added it to the baking powder and also added the tea tree oil.

 One it was mixed up, I used a rubber spatula and filled our old cleaned out deodorant bottles up!

 Then I put them in the fridge to hang out for awhile while they hardened up.

They are now sitting on the counter top and we are really enjoying them.  My husband says they smell like tropics.  I am just happy he is loving it and that it is working.  I have trouble getting deodorant to work all day, especially when I am working hard and sweating.  But this one does the trick!

Blessings!

I am also linking up to these awesome blogs:

  

 
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