I had the book by this title saved for many years until my girls were old enough to read it. Alas the time has come and my copy has long since been loaned out to who knows where. I was so pleased to find an e-text of the original and thought I would share here.
Author Archives: Kim Halloran-Fry
Christmas crafts
Between the girls’ sewing class and the new blogs I have loaded we have found some exceptionally cute patterns to save lately. First, let me share the girls’ work:
These two images are tiny creations made from girls anklet socks. The head and bodies are stuffed and tied with floss and embroidered. Then you can wrap fabric for the angel dress. I have a pattern: Download makedolls3.jpg similar to this from a craft blog and honestly I can’t recall which one it was. If you recognize it please give me a holler and I will give credit where due!
This is the snowman made the same way. The hat and scarf are made from a rib knit fabric.
A new favorite blog of mine is AllSorts. There are some very nice printables and patterns to be had here! There are lots of nice craft blogs but not everyone links up their patterns or inspiration sites. I so appreciate those that take the time to do this! I especially like the soft Scotty and the felt trees floating around the net at the moment. (we bought some sage green felt and trims this week just in case…) How about her last year’s Christmas craft? Or these printable letters to make your own holiday banner? She posted them at Halloween but I think they could work for Happy Thanksgiving or New Years or Birthday or….. Enjoy!
Dani’s lapbook
Ck out the Christmas lapbook Dani made for her son Quinn – CA-ute!
Another great Christmas resource
My friend Kristin just brought my attention to the Homeschool Estore freebie this week – Christmas notebook pages with beautiful clip art from Amanda Bennett. This link will obviously only be good for a short time. Don’t miss it!
Symbols of Christmas unit
We made a full St Nicholas lapbook two years ago so this year we decided not to repeat it but to add our St Nick icons etc to a new book about the symbols and feasts of the Advent/Christmas season. I found this unit at Easy Fun School. (Gotta love anything with a name like that ; )) It is a BIG document – about 49 pages – though much of that is dedicated to cookie recipes that go with the symbols. My biggest gripe is that it is a pdf file and I can never just click on the plethora of links they include.
Hands of a Child has a Symbols of Christmas lapbook kit as well. You can download a sample and get quite a few ideas from there.
My thought is that it is not at all necessary to do it up big on a given year. We will learn about whichever symbols we can this time around and hit the others another year. The current plan is to move fwd until the baby comes. Today we are doing an advent wreath paper craft. Actually we will do that craft and then assemble this little wreath craft for the lapbook. Will try to upload pics later.
Sight seeing in CO
I have been on Shutterfly today ordering prints of the last month’s sightseeing trips. Thought you might like a glimpse of the Colorado countryside too.
First stop Thanksgiving week was the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. Here are the little boys climbing on same.
Alannah and her cousin. Am guessing the handrailings were added some time after the Indians.
Next stop was Royal Gorge Bridge. Its a BIIIIIIIG ole gap in the ground. I am so sorry I missed seeing my children suspended over it. Not ; )
here is another view. You can walk across or ride the trolley. My clan being who they are, did both. <g>
Homeschooling for Free
The first things I reloaded to my favorites were my e-book sites. How much are you paying for books and curriculum these days? Have you checked these out?? Ambleside Online has links to several good e-texts:
Ambleside you will want to click on the links for subject areas and grade levels to get all the links to specific books. The art and music links are awesome to include printable works of art to study and midi files of classical music
Baldwin Project this one is a favorite of mine because one of the first purchases I made as a young mom was a set of 100 yr old Baldwin Readers from an open air book sale in Yellow Springs, OH. They have always been some of my favorite children’s books. This collection is not limited to Mr Baldwin’s works however.
Hoagies free gifted online hs courses
Arthur Mee Children’s Encyclopedia havent assembled all my links for him yet but do check it out
My Bookhouse by Olive Beauprey Miller. Again, don’t hate me <g>, I bought the whole set at a dollar a bag at a library sale in the early 90s before I had a clue who she was. link 1
the next two are online programs not etexts but we have enjoyed them enough to share here:
Montessori LEarn to Read for free – programmed reading work
Study Dog reading program
Genevieve shared the Hillbilly Housewife homeschool links which have been growing to now include a full K-12 curric. These now include links to COMPLETE bks of grammar and math.
these links are to Catholic and Christian sites:
Miniature stories of the saints Cath.
Written Treasures moralistic stories from yesteryear – Christian
Padfield bible studybks and Calvary Chapel worksheets – Christian
Catholic church history, papal encyclicals, and philosophy
Honestly – we need not spend a dime. If you have more to share please do!
Decking the Halls
The tree is up, the lights are up, the kids rooms are decked. All that is left is the upstairs. Allen ran out of extension cords so he is finished lol! Here are highlights of our weekend:
Alannah and Kieran working on the tree…
the tree finished (looks like we have a headless angel)
From the girls’ room – they have one of those little lighted house villages they set up each year. This vintage creche was mine growing up. It doesnt have a lot of pieces but it is still my all time favorite nativity. 
Happy Advent!
Today is the first Sunday in Advent. No grand plans here alas. Just baby prep – preparing for the flesh and blood baby due in 2 wks and the Holy Babe due right after. I confess to being a slacker otherwise. We set up the tree, actually a couple trees, yesterday. Allen hung lights outside. Appropriately enough the star lights. This week we hope to make some St Nick icons and some easy candy to share with friends. We will read some books. We will light the candles tonight. It is all I havein me so, like the Widow’s Mite, I have to believe it is enough. This is not to say all my dear friends who are graced with more energy this particular advent are misguided. There is a season to everything and this just happens to be a quiet one at the ranch due to circumstances.
If it is a quiet season at your house as well you might want to visit Elizabeth’s blog today and remember some special women who will not be celebrating in big or small ways with their families this Christmas. Or visit Fuller Farms and lift up a prayer for a special family who are grateful to have each other this year as they move through cancer treatment. You might decide that it is perfectly alright to kick back, heat the cocoa, and just BE this year.
While we may not have hit all the wonderful crafts this time around, we will be doing this one thing – the Christkindl tradition. We will draw names tonight to learn who it is that will be in our special care this advent season and then will spend the next few weeks thinking of ways to bless them.
Jolly Old St Nicholas
The Feast of St Nicholas is this coming week. These lesson plans are uploaded on the 4Real forum already but I will post them here as well in case you don’t frequent the forum. They are based upon the info at the St Nicholas Center online.
Download kims_st_nick_plan.doc
If you have mainly little people then you may do better to just read a few of the interesting stories on the St Nick site and then check out the printable project at Living Education. She also has nice pics of their St Nick icon project. These should keep us busy this week!
Starry Sky Journal 
