I think preparing and organizing all the material the week before is the key. I can't imagine the girls sitting still, waiting patiently, while I read through things and try to figure out what to do next. So, definitely prepping was a smart thing to do.
The reason for our late start to the school year was because I ordered and shipped all the materials to my mom's house in the States. Timberdoodle, the company I ordered from, offered to ship here to Mexico. But, I thought it was a bit pricey and could mail them myself for cheaper. Which I did!
Along with the stuff from Timberdoodle, I ordered some school/craft supplies from Discount School Supply. Their prices were great. And, I ended up finding a discount code and got free shipping! Can't beat that. Now we are set!
You will see in the pictures below that I now have so much stuff that I had to buy another shelving unit from Cantia so we could keep everything organized and easily accessible.
I bought buttons, pipe cleaners, pom poms, colored and natural craft sticks....
a large assortment of stamps and stamp pads....
crayons, markers, colored pencils....
stencils, self-adhesive magnets, wiggly eyes, erasers, pencil sharpeners...
incentive charts...
And you ask what all this has to do with the title of the blog post? Let me explain.
I bought advent candles for the girls to do leading up to Christmas. My friend, Heather, mentioned doing the advent Christmas candles when she was little and how much she liked it. She found a seller on Ebay that had cute ones. So, I bought several of them.
The thing I didn't buy was a candlestick holder. And, for some reason, am having trouble finding one here. I starting brainstorming (I know, very dangerous for me.) and was trying to figure out how I could make one myself. I thought, I have all these craft supplies, surely I can come up with something.
Attempt #1: FAILURE!
Colored rice and a hot glue gun.
The idea was that I would create a base of the rice, then glue the candle onto the base, and finish by gluing more rice around the candlestick. Rice and hot glue don't mix very well. I should have realized that from the start. It was literally a hot, sticky mess! Lesson learned.
Attempt #2: SUCCESS! (If success means it looks good enough to NOT throw away.)
Red and green craft sticks and a hot glue gun.
Now I have a candlestick holder. It might not be the most secure, safest candlestick holder. But, it is good enough for this year. And, it isn't like I am going to hand the candle and matches over to the girls and let them have free range. This is a supervised advent activity.
On my list of things to buy: Christmas candlestick holder
4 comments:
I think your candlestick holder looks perfect. Like a little Christmas tree. Much better than anything I would have come up with. Good luck with the home schooling.
Shut the front door! That candlestick and holder are super cute!
But now that I think about it, maybe you're right. You are not Martha Stewart. You, my friend, are a million times better, because the stuff you come up with is more real and attainable for us less Martha Stewart types. I wish my house was as organized as yours.
I absolutely LOVE the homeschool area!!! I need to get our homeschool room in order but, between teaching them and working, I can never find time! ;) And the candle holder is too cute!
I think you did a great job. Love the girls home school room, its so colorful.
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