Shirley's Prepackaged Crafts {{Giveaway}}

I am so excited to offer this giveaway! I have heard *raves* about Shirley's Prepackaged Crafts for ages now, most recently from The Old Schoolhouse Facebook page. I seriously wondered what all the hype was about. Each month (September to May) Shirley sends you a nice little box loaded to the gills with papers, a calendar, a letter of encouragement, instructions and everything you need to complete 12 crafts (craft sticks, brads, pipe cleaners, stickers - whatever the crafts require). All you need to provide is a busy preschooler and craft basics like scissors, glue, tape and crayons.

I contacted Shirley and she very graciously provided me with the February box. After some discussion with her, we decided the pack I should offer for a giveaway would be April. Stay tuned at the end of this post to find out how to enter to have the April craft kit mailed directly to your house!

February's Shirley's Prepackaged Crafts box focused on heart shape, the number seven and the color red. These were incorporated into some of the crafts. Holidays are also recognized in each box. For this package, they were National Children's Dental Health Month, Valentine's Day and President's Day. We also learned about the Armor of God with this box. The instruction sheets list all of the craft instructions with a small image of the completed craft as well as a list of items needed from the package and from your own craft supplies.


Even though the crafts are for "preschoolers", Malachi enjoyed doing some of them as well. I would think any early elementary child who enjoys quick, simple crafting would have fun with most of the crafts. Even I had a little crayon fun on a few of the pieces. A couple of crafts were altered a bit by my boys. For instance, on the tooth brushing page, Mal decided to make a puzzle out of the tooth he attached by cutting it into several pieces after cutting it out. Xavier didn't want to cut the ladybug body out of the white sheet of paper. That was all OK. They enjoyed themselves each time I pulled the craft box out. They are both still working on scissor skills, so we did sometimes help with that. Since they shared a box, they were working on different crafts at the same time and occasionally *someone* got a little ahead of me while I helped his brother.


The littles really enjoyed creating with Shirley's Prepackaged Crafts and I liked knowing all I needed to do was grab the pages and pieces needed for any project, check the instruction sheet to see what was needed from our craft supplies and gather the boys to the table. It was so easy!


One month of Shirley's Prepackaged Crafts sells for $18, including shipping. Only Minnesota residents pay tax. There are also subscription options. Receive three consecutive months for $52.50 or subscribe to the full, nine month school year (September to May) for $153.

What do we do with all of those crafts? Well, some will go in the littles' portfolios for this school year. I took photos of the other crafts and will be sending some special people a few tokens of love from the littles.


**Now for the giveaway part! Leave a comment on this post and tell me about a favorite craft that you have made with your own children or that you remember from your childhood. I will choose a winner on Sunday, March 6. I need to be able to get your address right away for the April box, so be sure to leave your email address in the comment. If, by some chance, the winner has not responded to my email when I check on the morning of the 9th, I will choose another winner. However, that winner will likely receive the May craft box. Shirley's Prepackaged Crafts only ships in the US. One entry per person, please.**


Note: Only 8 of the 12 projects from February's craft box are shown here.

I received one box of Shirley's Prepackaged Crafts free of charge to complete this review.

Xav Loves Letters!

Favorite snacking and bathing pastime?

Numbers!
Letters!




And writing his name. In his defense, Mal was holding a few important letters hostage. He is having a little trouble understanding why there is no Z in his name, Y stood in for V, and 3 pretended to be E. N? Well, I have no idea...

Homeschool Valentine

What do you do when your poor, isolated homeschooled children are denied the joy of exchanging valentines? Well, you join a swap with other homeschooling families across the nation. Over a period of about 10 days, we received valentines from Washington, Texas, Georgia and other places. We made it a geography project. Some families sent candy, pencils, stickers and information about their states. The packages we sent in return had road maps of Vermont which listed points of interest all around our beautiful state.



We needed something to hold all of our valentines, so the littles decorated these cute little mailboxes I picked up at Target.

The Black Eye Blues

The littles and I stopped into a new craft store in Williston. It's so new, in fact, they hadn't even had their grand opening yet. Well, Mal has suddenly started spinning. all. the. time. He can't stop. If he is standing, he is spinning in circles.

We had just bought our two new Thomas books and I was unloading Xav from the cart, when I hear a crash behind me. My spinner has fallen and smashed his face just below his eye on a bag rack at the register. Sigh... He didn't take it well at all.

That night.
Day 2Day 4
Day 5

Expedition Ireland Week in Review

“Ocean before,
the summer sky above
Who could portray
the mountains’ purple smiles—
And all the opal hues
of earth and heaven,
Foam fringing forests,
heather-tufted isles.”
From Songs of Killarney,
by Alfred Perceval Graves, 1914

Expedition Ireland's five daily objectives were:
Day 1: Where on Earth is Ireland?
Day 2: The Places of Ireland
Day 3: A Bit of History
Day 4: Cool Things to Know About Ireland
Day 5: Fun and Games in Ireland


We learned about a different, interesting geographic location in Ireland each day, like the Giant's Causeway. We also studied animals from Ireland. I thought the Galway sheep were neat. We just loved the look of them. We learned some Irish words, as well. As I write this, I can also tell you it is currently much warmer in Dublin, Ireland than it is in Vermont! Mid-forties sound glorious right now, even if it is raining. We watched videos of Celtic Dancers and learned about St. Patrick. Maybe we even supplemented this week's DNG with a Veggie Tale version of the story of St. Patrick. :)

As usual, we really enjoyed this Download N Go. The expeditions are always a treat. Well planned and thorough, I highly recommend Download N Go.


Download N Go is a lapbooking/notebooking unit study series created by Amanda Bennett. Intended for grades K-4, my four year old loves them as well! DNGs are formatted for a five day study, but with suggested reading and your family's favorite rabbit trails, it could easily expand well beyond that. They are bright and colorful and chock full of information. One thing I really like is the special DNG video page that youtube videos open up in. DNG units each have five daily objectives with components for a smart little lapbook, clickable links to videos and websites, vocabulary, history, geography and more.

I just spend an hour or so reading the introduction and searching our library's online catalog for some books. I print some lapbook sheets, depending on our needs for the week and do some cutting. The rest is done for me!

See what other families have to say about Download N Go's Expedition Ireland on the blog hop.








***I was provided a copy of Expedition Ireland to use with my family in exchange for my honest review.***

Through tomorrow, Monday the 21st, four unit studies will be priced at just $5 each. Choose from the Gardens and Flight four week studies (normally $10.95) or DNG's Expedition China and Goofy Geckos (normally $7.95). $5 days.

Amaryllis

Thanks World Traveler Christine. It's beautiful. The first two stems are now dead and another three are growing in. :)

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made these yummy cookies tonight. You can find the recipe at Picky Palate.


Just wrap two scoops of her chocolate chip cookies around an oreo. The first pan full was kind of funky and ended up looking like hats with brims and some oreo cookie showed through.


The second pan, I made sure to mush them a bit more compact rather than just seal the edges. They looked much better.


This is a comparison of a regular cookie, using Pampered Chef's medium scoop. It took two scoops to make these cookies.

Warm oreos are yummy.


My ever-so-serious chocolate-faced assistant. He got to lick the brownie bowl. We ended up not using brownies today.


Man, I love that kooky little cookie monster. :)