Friday 4 March 2016

Clever DIY {Review}

While I enjoy hobbies like crocheting, scrapbooking and sewing (in my former life before mommyhood and homeschooling etc) I do not have a lot of hands on items around the home for Nathaniel to experiment with DIY projects and art.  I was recently introduced to Clever DIY who graciously sent me their January Project Box: My Room.

 I was blown away when our box arrived.  The staff were super helpful and our order arrived within 24 hours.  The box was full with helpful information and contained ALL the items we would need to successfully complete our projects.  They even supplied a messy mat to protect my table!

Wooden Key Ring Holder
 The first project Nathaniel wanted to make was the Wooden Key Ring holder.  Clever DIY supplied the wooden key holder, wooden pegs, Permanent markers, Glue tube, Embroidery Thread, Paint Tubs and Paint brush.

Wooden Pen Holder 

This part of the kit surprised me. The project was to make a wooden pen holder.  Clever DIY even supplied 10 coloured markers to go into the completed project!  We used the wooden Pen Holder bits, Glue Tube, paint brush, Paint Tubs and Permanent Marker to complete this project.



Bag Tag/Key Ring 
This kit inspired Nathaniels creative juices far more than I though it would.  Each of his Key Ring / Bag Tags have a name and a purpose.

We used the supplied permanent Marker to add detail to the glued tags and we both love the characters as they've come to life before us.

Door Hanger

Our final project for the month was this door hanger.

It was so much fun watching him go through the process of design, painting and altering his design as it unfolded before us both.  It took him a quarter of an hour to complete.


How it works

New Project boxes are released on the first of each month and shipped to subscribers.  The project boxes become available to the public two weeks later where they can be purchased separately.

Subscriptions are available for single and Share the Box options.
  • Single Box option is $24-90* (free postage) with no lock in contract.
  • Share the Box is a single box containing enough components for two children to complete all the projects.  $24.90* + $15.00* (second set of components) = $39.90* (free postage) with no lock in contract.
  • Purchase individual Project boxes at $24.90* each + shipping. 
  • Shop for materials to do your own inspired projects
*All prices are quoted in Australian Dollars and subject to change.  Please check the Clever DIY website for up to date pricing and product options.

Current Projects available for purchase are:
Their March project box is called - Easter and will be available for purchase from the 15th of March.


Connect with Clever DIY on Social Media
If you have a child who loves to be creative and you find yourself running out of ideas then Clever DIY is for you.  These kits are aimed at 5 to 12 year olds.  The projects require very minimum parental supervision and the end results are impressive.  Children feel as though they accomplish great things.

Blessings
Chareen


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Thursday 3 March 2016

Door Hanger {Virtual Fridge}

This Week
This is our final project from Clever DIY.  Today Nathaniel made a Door Hanger from their Room Project box.

This project took him a quarter of an hour to complete and he was inspired to make a time lapse movie of himself doing the project.

I don't know what was more fun the door hanger or the time lapse movie !









This weeks Feature

This weeks feature is a tutorial from over at Raven Threads and is a mini tutorial on how to Create an Illustrated Dictionary.  I love the samples of the children's work and how even the youngest member of your home school can make their own dictionary.

Your Turn

I invite you to take some photo's of your children's artistic pursuits put them in a post and link up with me I would love to come over and see the wonderful art your children have enjoyed doing.
Virtual Fridge Link Up

Blessings
Chareen

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Tuesday 1 March 2016

Words, Words and more Words

Welcome to the fifth annual Virtual Curriculum Fair. Today is week one of the 2016 Virtual Curriculum Fair. This week homeschool bloggers from around the world are sharing their language arts recommendations. They will be sharing their perspective on how to teach: phonics, reading, writing, grammar, spelling, speech, literature, Latin and foreign language studies.

This year I will be co-hosting with  Kristen over at Sunrise to Sunset and Laura over at Day by Day in our World.  If you have any posts on the topic of Language Arts please add your link to the linky at the bottom of this post we look forward to seeing what you use to teach language arts.

Language Arts

Have you ever stopped to think about it our whole world runs on communication and to communicate you need words.  Words take on many forms they can be both verbal or non verbal.  When you start home educating you are faced with the task of finding a way to teach your children to communicate in a multitude of ways.

Then the questions start:
  • What are you using to teach grammar ?
  • Are you doing a second language ?
  • How are you tackling literature ?
  • Are you using phonics ?
  • Which spelling program are you going to use ?
  • How do you teach your children composition ?
  • Will you be joining the local speech and drama club ?
Some days it feels as though the questions are never ending.  Each time you do a google search you discover that there's a new program that promises to do it all for you!  (If only they could go to sleep on a magic pillow and wake up well educated ...) Do not let these sorts of questions fluster you or make you feel as though you can not teach your children well.

The most important question to get settled in your mind is:  What is my my homeschool philosophy? Once that is settled then start looking for programs that will help you school your students within that framework.  Personally I am leaning towards a Delight Directed and Charlotte Mason approach in my homeschooling.  Now that I know that I look for products that will help me educate Nathaniel in that manner with the long term goal of addressing the areas in the questions above.

Every year new products appear on line and I'm so grateful to companies that provide updates to their products too. The downside is I keep wanting to buy something new ...

In the past I have used and been pleased with the following items and will be continuing to use them this year:
On this blog
We enjoy great literature and are trying to follow a Charlotte Mason approach with reading twaddle free literature.  I share a new book each week on a Tuesday called Tuesday's Treasures.  Be sure to come back each Tuesday for a new book.

Second Language Resources
For more information on Language Arts you can read the posts from past fairs here:
We have some wonderful homeschool bloggers sharing their thoughts and inspiration on Language Arts and your homeschool.

Be sure to grab a cup of coffee / tea and take some time over the week ahead to read over these posts:
Add your posts about anything Language Arts related to Week 1 - Language Arts link up below.

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