5 Days of Encouragement Homeschool Review Crew Blog Hop

I'm looking forward to next week as I'll be joining the Homeschool Review Crew Annual Back to Homeschool Blog Hop.  This year the team are hoping to bring you 5 days of encouragement, hope and inspiration. These posts have been written by homeschooling Mom's like you.  I invite you to grab a cup of your favourite brew and find some new blogging friends to follow who will bring you hope and inspiration for the year ahead.

Amanda @ Hopkins Homeschool

Angie @ Run Ran Family Adventures & Learning

Annette @ A Net in Time

Ashley @ Gift of Chaos

Betty @ Let’s Get Real

Brenda @ Counting Pinecones

Carol @ Home Sweet Life

Christine @ Christine Howard

Christy @ The Simple Homemaker

Dawn @ Schoolin' Swag

Debra @ Footprints in the Butter

Diana @ Homeschool Review

Felicia @ Homeschool 4 Life

Jacquelin @ A Stable Beginning

Jeniffer @ Thou Shall Not Whine

Jennifer @ A Glimpse of Our Life

Jennifer @ Dear Homeschooler

Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory

Karen @ Tots and Me...Growing Up Together

Kellyann @ Walking Home ...

Kimberley @ Vintage Blue Suitcase

Kristen @ A Mom's Quest to Teach

Kym @ Homeschool Coffee Break

Laura @ Four Little Penguins

Linda @ Apron Strings & other things

Lisa @ Farm Fresh Adventures

Lori @ At Home: where life happens

Margaret @ Creative Madness Mama

Marla @ Jump Into Genius

Meredith @ Powerline Productions: Being World Changers/Raising World Changers

Michele @ Family, Faith and Fridays

Missica @ Through The Open Window

Monique @ Mountain of Grace Homeschooling

Nicole @ Bless Their Hearts Mom

Patti @ Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy

Rebekah @ There Will Be a $5 Charge For Whining

Rodna @ Training Children up for Christ

Stacy @ A Homemakers Heart

Tess @ Circling Through This Life

Wendy @ Life at Rossmont

Yvie @ Gypsy Road

To My Parents ... a painting of love {Virtual Fridge}

This Week
Can you believe it's June already?  Just Wow almost half way through 2018. This week as I was filing all the papers that I seem to collect in my office space I discovered a precious keepsake that I am pleased I kept. Sometimes it's hard to decide what to keep and what to discard.  This one had a little note written on the back:  "To my deareast parents Enjoy the picture. Love from your daughter Jane."  I have no idea how old Jane was when she painted this all I know is it's well over 12 years ago.  

Today Jane is creative, fun, loving, inspirational, energetic and much more. She made this gorgeous outfit for a Disney themed birthday party. It cost her $2 at the local opp shop. 

She's been well and truly bitten by the travel bug and I love to see the world through her eyes.  Her photography is stunning.  I do hope she starts a travel blog one day soon (hint hint Jane 😘). Check out her instagram @peachy_travels.

Mesmerize by Jane

Are you on INSTAGRAM ?  You can now use your IG account to link up an show us your art adventures.


This weeks Feature

This weeks feature is a tutorial from over atOur Unschooling Journey Through Life and is a step by step tutorial on making Marbled Paper using Spray Paint and Water.

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.

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Blessings
Chareen

Connect with me

 

Your hosts are

Add YOUR LINKS from your BLOG or INSTAGRAM

Please NOTE by adding your links to the Virtual Fridge link up YOU are giving the hosts of the Virtual Fridge link up permission to use a photograph from your blog to feature 

your ART along with a link to your art/tutorial.

An InLinkz Link-up

Crystal Snow Flake {Tutorial}

A few years ago my son and I tried to grow crystals at home with a science kit.  While this was a fun activity it was a very long drawn out process. 

Recently on my travels on Pinterest I discovered a pin on growing borax snow flake crystals. These were so much easier to do than our science kit and we could almost watch them grow! My one tip is to pour the mix over the snow flake first thing in the morning so you can watch the crystals grow through out the day.

I followed the directions found on What will we do today ?

 You will need

• Jars for your crystals to grow in
• Borax (Please be aware Borax is  toxic. There are conflicting reports on it's safety so please do your own research before using this substance in your experiment.) Sugar is a great alternative.
• Pip Cleaners
• Pencil, stick or kebab skewer
• Boiling Water (to be done by an adult)
• Food colouring if you want your crystals to be colored.

Method

 You will need three long pieces of pipe cleaner and six small pieces of pipe cleaner.  Be sure to check the width of your cross section in relation to your jar before adding the smaller bits. The completed star needs to easily lower into your jar without touching the sides.

 Attach a piece of string to your shape and then onto your pencil.  Test it in your jar to make certain that the snow flake does not touch the base or the sides of your jar.

The Mix

• 1 cup boiling water
• 3 table spoons of Borax
• Mix well and pour into your snowflake jar.

• Place the jar in a safe visible place. Pour in the hot borax / water mix.  Make sure that your snow flake is totally submerged.  
• Do NOT move your jar or snow flake after it is in the jar or your crystals will stop growing.
• Observe the crystals forming over the day as the mixture cools down.
• Leave in the jar for 24 hours.
• Hang in an empty jar to dry.
• Enjoy your crystals.

 We made a number of different shapes.  One of the things I found was that by adding food colouring the crystals did not grow as well.

Have you grown crystals?  If so what shapes were your favourite ? For those of you who love Snow Flakes the Twisted Sifter has the most amazing macro photographs of snowflakes to look over.

Blessings
Chareen 

**This post origianlly appeared as a guest post on To The Moon and Back and I recently found they have deleted all their online content.  So I've shared this information here.