Homeschooling - Part Two

It's hard to believe that C will be starting Kindergarten in 3 1/2 weeks! While we have decided to send her to public school, I will be homeschooling E for preschool this year.  Since she's a year younger than C was for our Letter of the Week curriculum, we'll be doing something new.  For the majority of our lessons, I'll be using a book called "Before Five in a Row" (BFIAR).

BFIAR is a set of lesson plans based on numerous children's books.  The idea is that you read the same storybook each day for five days in a row. Then you pick a lesson/activity to do with your child each day.  The lessons range from art, science, math, language arts, etc. I hope to get most of the books from our library, so that means that my cost for the curriculum will be the cost of the BFIAR book itself (~$35).  I am looking forward to having a lot less work this year by using an existing curriculum! :)  We will supplement with  occasional flash cards for letters/numbers and some worksheets, but those will be to a minimum.

Here are my preschool goals for E:

•  Be able to write her name
•  Recite our address
•  Recite our phone number
•  Know upper and lower case letters
•  Know letter sounds
•  Know numbers 0 - 20
•  Do at least 3 days of BFIAR a week

Highest of all

Here's a two page spread I made, copied from a layout in Memory Makers magazine, April 2006.

More on the Digital Revolution

So I've gotten a lot of comments on "my new obsession."  (Although most were via email and not blogger comments... what's up with that?)

Here's a few more details. 

I use Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 which I received for Christmas last year (thank you, Marcia!). It is about $80, I believe. There are other programs out there that you can use, which range from free (the GIMP) to moderate (Creative Memories) to professional/top-of-the-line/expensive (Photoshop CS).

Why Photoshop Elements (PSE)?

Doug has tried and tried to get me to like the GIMP, and I did attempt to use it last year, but it just didn't work for me.  While Photoshop is not exactly intuitive, the GIMP was worse.  Plus, almost all the free tutorials online are for Photoshop users.  While I haven't tried Creative Memories' software, my impression was that it is more for ready-made/drag-n-drop type of scrapping, and I wanted to do more "from scratch."   And Photoshop CS is just way too expensive for what I am doing.

There are some things that I wish Photoshop Elements could do, which it doesn't, but for the most part it has been great.

Where to start?
I started by doing a free online tutorial.  You can Google "beginner digital scrapbooking tutorials" or search on YouTube for tutorials as well.  You can download templates (pre-made pages) and just add your photos to them, if you like.

Another thing I did was to take some of my existing traditional pages and then see if I could reproduce them digitally. For each new "thing" I needed to do, I searched online for a tutorial or free element. It really helped me learn a lot!


What's so great about digital elements:
One great thing about digital scrapping, is that the papers/embellishments/borders are all reusable. For example, if you buy a digital paper pack, you can reuse it as much as you want.  It is very simple to change the colors, as well, so that instead of searching for the perfect shade of blue, you can create it yourself!

While you can buy digital scrapbooking elements (just like traditional scrapbooking), you can also find a lot of stuff for free.

Here are a few sites I've found useful so far:
* Pixels & Ice Cream
* Free Digital Scrapbooking.com
* The Digital Scrapbooking Free Site

Making my own elements:
What has really attracted me to digital scrapbooking, is the ability for me to make my own elements. If I see a layout I like somewhere (magazine/online) or want a certain embellishment, I can use PSE to make it myself! I've made photo anchors, frames, flowers, papers - whatever you can think of.  Here are some examples:

 

What about printing your pages?

Yeah, that's the part I haven't got to yet. :)  I need to research my options a bit.  But, I know that it is possible to get 12x12 prints of your pages, so that you can add them to your own albums. Or, you can have a photobook printed with your digital pages as well.  

A lot of folks do "hybrid" scrapbooking, as well.  Hybrid scrapbooking is basically using Photoshop to edit/enhance your photos, printing them out and using them on your traditional paper page.

Hope this answers some questions!

A New Obsession

I've begun to play around with the new Adobe Photoshop Elements software that I got for Christmas.  Have you heard about digital scrapbooking?  Well, I am hooked!


It is SO much fun! I've started out by taking some pages that I've already scrapped and recreating them digitally.  It's been a great learning experience.  There are so many amazing free tutorials out there and a ton of free papers and elements as well!  I've really enjoyed learning how to make my own embellishments and play around with color and textures... I could go on and on.

Here's a little sample of some of my first pages:

Warm Delights

So, I LOVE chocolate. And I love chocolate cake. But who wants to take the time to bake an entire chocolate cake every time you crave one?  Besides, it's just NOT a good idea to have all that cake sitting around my house. I'm on a see-food diet - I see food and I EAT it.

Anyways, I love Betty Crocker's Warm Delights, but I can't bring myself to pay for them. But occasionally I've found deals to get them for free or for nearly free (less than a quarter) and I indulge.  Did you know that you can make these yourself?  I have tried many microwave cake recipes (cake in a mug, etc.) and frankly, they are NO GOOD. Trust me.

Recently, I came across an alternative to make your own Warm Delights, and they are JUST LIKE THE REAL DEAL, people!!!!  Why didn't I think of this before?

Observe:

1. Take one box of cake mix

2. Measure 1/4 cup into a microwave safe vessel (or reuse an empty Warm Delights pan!)

3. Add two tablespoons of water

4. Mix well with a spoon

5. Lick spoon
5. Microwave for 1 - 1.5 minutes

6. Let sit as long as you can stand it (~15 seconds for me...)

7. Top with some chocolate chips, or fudge or whatever (optional)

8. EAT!!!

9. Relish in the frugalness of it all!
10. You're welcome. :)

Goodbye, cruel world

It's time for a change.  C is starting public school kindergarten in six weeks and the little pitter-patter in my house is not quite the same as it used to be.

To help protect her privacy and still allow me an outlet to blog about whatever I want, I have decided to start a new blog.  Cramers Online is the name (for now) and it will be a password protected blog. It is a copy of this blog, so all the past posts and comments will be transferred there.  Over the next few weeks I'll be deleting personal posts from this blog.

I do want all my friends and family to be able to read it, so to sign-in to the new one with your Google account, please send a request to view it.

I will keep the crafts and homeschool and some more general posts on this blog, too, however, since I think (?) somebody somewhere out there may find it interesting!

Hope to see some followers there soon!
- Lori

Fairy Wings

Since C wanted a Fairy theme birthday party with her friends, I decided to make some dress-up fairy wings for the kids to paint as a craft. I found a tutorial by Threadbanger that inspired me.

They turned out better than I expected!

Wire Hangers:

Knee-high panty hose (Walmart):

Shape the hangers,

and wrap with ribbon:

repeat again and again!

There you have it!