Tale spun but in the right direction...

This week my husband ended a job three days early & was home when I hadn't expected him to be. That's absolutely wonderful news to me but usually not great news for homeschooling or our schedule. We all want to spend every second with daddy & so we end up doing very little to no school at all. 

While that did send me into a tale spin this week it actually was a tale spin into the right direction. My brain is usually loaded with lists of things I want to make, ideas I want to improve upon or things I've seen else where like "Pinterest" or other blogs & that I want to mold to fit my own family. However I very rarely put those ideas to motion & go through with these thoughts that are flying at me all day long, esp when I really want to sleep. Daddy being home this week helped me buckle down & get a few of those ideas out of my mind & onto the kitchen table...as in, I finally completed some. 

Here are some things I made these last few days.

1.WHISPER PHONES  

A whisper phone is a wonderful thing for many reasons but mainly because they help the user hear themselves. For example my kids would sound out words perfectly then instead of saying that word they just sounded out & read they'd say a word that was close or sometimes not close at all. Today the word was "got", my five year old sounded it out perfectly but then said "goat" at which point I remembered that I had made 6 whisper phones yesterday (& one more today when I bought two more elbows). She then sounded out the words again & was in shock when she heard them clearly in her ear. Why didn't I do this last yr? But at least I finally got to it & we're already really enjoying them. Thanks to my hubby who helped tremendously. 

I posted this top picture onto Instagram yesterday. Today I spent another $.99 when I went back to Home Depot & bought two more elbows. Total we spent $8.22 & the nice man at Home Depot even cut the two foot long PVC pipe for me. One of these whisper phones cost about $6-$8 & some you have to add shipping too. 

This was my 5yr old using her whisper phone today. We finished up the goat unit (MY FATHER's WORLD KINDERGARTEN, is our curriculum) while daddy was teaching at church tonight. She did great, she usually completes a day's work of school work in 30 minutes or so but she got through three-four days worth in about an hr & a half. 

2. Tactical Letters 

These are used to help a child learn how to write a letter (or number) There are many sorts of tactical letters or tactical activities. I made some the other night with very fine sandpaper & some pieces of wood from the dollar store. The child traces the letter with his/her finger & it helps remind them how the letter is formed

Here they are. The consents are on "flower" shaped pieces of wood & the vowels are on "butterflies". 

These are puffy paint tactical letters I made for the lower case letters & numbers from 0-9.

I let these dry over night, about 6hrs total to fully dry. I made this mixture, added food coloring & put it into a squirt bottle like the ketchup or mustard kinds with tips that they sell at the dollar store. I put them on black card stock that I had on hand. 

This is my three year old using the puffy paint tactical letters. He first traced them with his finger then wrote them in sand with his pencil or finger. 

I'm going to miss my hubby when he gets back to work this Monday, although I'm sure our schedule is actually happy...having hubby around is always a blessing because we all enjoy his presence & love to slather him in attention & cuddles. But all in all for a lazy week, I feel like we did get plenty accomplished & so the tale spin we were thrown into was a huge blessing. However, I've found that if we hold on long enough all those tale spins turn Into huge blessings, we just have to remember to hold on & not lose sight of the goal. 

To bring God glory in all we do...