Simple Solution for a Puzzling Problem

My children LOVE puzzles! And consequently, we seem to have accumulated many. Some were Christmas gifts, others were received on birthdays...a large majority have been acquired at rock bottom garage sale prices. But regardless of HOW they were obtained, the bottom line is: they were ALL OBTAINED. And now must each be issued a space to reside in our home. 

I truly enjoy watching my kids arrange puzzles.  And I am amazed at their ability to reconstruct the images.  But beyond their developmental value, I enjoy puzzles and naturally find pleasure in observing their enjoyment also. 

My house is actually a bit of a puzzle itself. We have a small space to function in and a growing number of people who function in it...and so every little nook has either a purpose in its emptiness, or else its contents are methodically planned with intentional precision as to how to gain the most use of its area. And oftentimes items in my home must be placed in a specific order in order to appear orderly otherwise one thing or the other inevitably ends up utterly orderless and with no place to be placed. [Now read that 10x fast - haha...jk...don't hurt yourself. Ps - I may have *ahem* used a non-word...orderless, I liked it though…and I kind of feel like a Minnesotan saying it.]

So...this plethora of puzzles had me puzzled.  "Where can I possibly store all these?!", I wondered. 

I have several puzzle spaces.  Wooden baby puzzles are placed in a bin.  Large floor puzzles and puzzles with many small pieces are placed in a game cabinet.  And the stack of about 15 boxes of smaller 24-100 piece puzzles were shoved randomly in whatever space could be claimed for them on the educational shelves.  Those not lucky enough to be squished in somewhere were generally either dumped on the floor or piled on the counter.  This was not gonna fly.  Either the puzzle stash needed to be well thinned out - or I had to get more creative with my organization of them.  So, here is what I did...

I found a stash of plastic zip-closure bags. [I used up all my quart sized bags, so the image just shows sandwich bags...which may be big enough - you'll have to try it out and see.] I transferred all the puzzles into the bags. Then I filled an empty shoebox with the puzzle bags. I was able to fit 10 puzzles in the space that less than six puzzles would normally fit into. Not extremely drastic, but like I said, every inch of space counts around here.  

Before I tossed the boxes, I cut out the puzzle image from the top of each box and one of the smaller images from the side of each box.  The smaller images I taped to that puzzle's bag.  And the larger image I placed inside the bag. 

I also labeled all the puzzles with unique numbers. Sometimes the kids like to complete all the puzzles and line them up in the kitchen. That's great...until they disassemble all the puzzles at the same time. So, to alleviate some of the difficulty in regrouping mismatched pieces on occasions such as these, each puzzle was given it's own number. I wrote both the puzzle's # and the number of pieces in the puzzle on the cardboard back of the larger image I had cut from the original box. And then wrote the corresponding # on the back of each piece of that puzzle. Very easy. Takes just a little bit of time - but for the time and more so the frustration I know it will inevitably save me, I sure thought it was a worthwhile project. 

[uhhh...just realized this photo says 666...weird, and unintentional, just so ya know...]

So now, instead of random stacks like this everywhere...

I have one box...with a place...and a space, in my residential puzzle.  Ahhhh...nice.  [Sometimes it's just the little things, ya know?]

Popsicle Stick Man

I found this on Crayola's coloring pages.

My 5 year old needed a project to keep him busy...and this seemed a fun and simple way to occupy him.  ;)

First he colored the page.

After that, he cut the guy out.

But instead of cutting around his picture, he followed the black lines...and cut off all his limbs.

So, we decided to glue him [and all his lost parts] onto some cardboard.  Empty cereal boxes are perfect for projects like this! 

Then he cut AROUND him...with a little help from mom.  In retrospect, I would skip the step of cutting him out first - well, maybe...it did keep him busy for an extra 7 minutes or so.  *grin*

Now we needed a stick.  I know I have some tucked away in a craft box somewhere...but there are much more fun ways of acquiring a stick than digging through boxes in a closet...

We actually didn't need 2 sticks, but I wanted a popsicle too.  *wink*

We taped the stick to the back of his art-man and ta-da!

We accomplished art class...
Combated boredom...
Cooled off with a sweet snack...
Re-purposed a cereal box...
And created a fun toy to play with until dinner is finished.  *smile*

Cute Little Sketches

[by my 5 year old]

Aren't they cute? 

Home

From this morning's reading from
"The Journey" [Katie's Uganda blog]:

"no matter where i am, i am always cradled in God's arms, and there i am home."

[image from The Journey]

After we finished the post, I asked my son, "Where is Katie's home?"

"In Uganda."  He answered.

"Yes.  She lives in Uganda."  I replied.  Then told him that I would read the end again and asked him to listen and try to figure out where Katie says her home is.

This we repeated over quite a few times.  His answers varied each time.  We talked about where she was born.  He suggested that maybe she likes to travel all over the world.  I was beginning to give up, wondering if maybe it was a concept he could not yet comprehend.  When I asked the question one final time, he surprised me.  With a smile and glimmer in his eyes he exclaimed, "I think I know!  Katie's home is anywhere."

"Yes!  Good job!  Do you know why Katie says her home is anywhere?"

"Yes, I think I do."  He answered.  "It is because she is cradled in God's arms."

As a homeschooling parent, my joy is doubled when I see my children beginning to understand something I've been trying to teach them in our home education.  Not only do I feel satisfaction and accomplishment as an educator...but also pride and delight as their mother. 

I become especially excited when they are able to reason and figure things out on their own, rather than simply having me tell them.  Sometimes they needs some guidance, and sometimes I do need to explain something.  But those moments when I can almost watch the gears turning in their minds or see the light bulb turn bright through the sparkle in their little eyes - oh those moments are dear to me!

We talked some more about what it means to be "cradled in God's arms".  And then I told him that we too, like Katie, are cradled in God's arms, so wherever we go, God is caring for us, loving us, holding us.

Then I asked him to pray.  And this was his simple prayer:

"Dear Lord, please take care of all the orphan children in Uganda.  Amen."

Amen!

Polar Babies

I was working on a project for a friend a few weeks ago, when I heard a little voice behind me, "Wake up, polar babies!..."  I turned to see my son sitting up on the bar chair reading aloud to his sister who was coloring on the floor by his feet. 

OH. MY. What a precious and delightful sight. 

It was the first time I can remember him deciding entirely on his own to choose a book and read it, just because.  He had read books before, but I have always encouraged him to.  And to top it off, him reading it for his sister was all together too sweet! 

The book was, Polar Babies, by Susan Ring.  The pictures are adorable...in fact, I'm having a difficult time convincing myself that polar bears could be anything but cute after browsing through the pages. 
Polar Babies was illustrated by Lisa McCue.  In hopes of finding a good spot to direct you to view the book, I ended up googling her...and realized most of my super favorite cute animal books were illustrated by her!!!  Oh, Lisa...I adore your work and didn't even know it.  *sigh*  So, besides polar babies, we also have:

My First Mother Goose

Bunny's Numbers

This one is very sweet, my daughter and I read it often.

The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy

Animal Babies

[For image, click HERE]

and...

Bunny's Noisy Book

 Love this one too!

Anyways, back to Polar Babies.

 The book is cute...

...but not quite as cute as my little baby was reading it.  I was one proud Mama bear.

Scarecrows, Pinecones and Pretty Handwriting

Here are a few photos of the Draw Write Now pages my 5 year old has been working on over the past several weeks.

a goose

pinecone

scarecrow [my personal favorite]

See...isn't he cute?!  :)

squirrel

Okay, so to be honest, this squirrel creeps me out just a little.  On the flip side, his handwriting is beautiful!  [We do need to work on the punctuation though.]

An African Adventure

I have begun reading this blog to my children...mostly to my oldest, but my 2 year old is invited to listen in too.  She usually listens for awhile, and then plays, listens then plays.  [This is also how she likes to eat...nibble, play, nibble, play.] 

A friend of mine sent me the link several weeks ago, and after reading the first year, I decided that this girl's experience was one I would like to share with my family.  I started at the beginning [2007] and I haven't read past the first year, so I can't verify whether it's all kid appropriate or not.  In fact, you will need to decide for yourself as a parent what information to share with your child and what you may want to exclude from your reading and conversations.  [...as with anything] 

For example, in the entries we read yesterday, a man in the village across the river was eaten by a crocodile and Katie intervened during a brutal domestic attack.  These stories were not at all graphic, but the reality of it is intense whether the information is detailed or not.  I opted to read the entirety of the passage with my son.  We paused to talk about each incident and I think he handled the information well.  Had my daughter been listening, I may have chosen to omit those sentences as I read.  But I'm glad I was able to address the issues of death and violence with my son in this straightforward and simple way. 

The blog is not written for children.  I like to read adult literature to my son sometimes because he is presented with new words and challenged to think about the context and surrounding information to figure out the meaning.  We pause often as we read Katie's entries to discuss things like language barriers, what it means to be an orphan, poverty, what does industry mean, what do we use cotton for, what is a gecko, what is transportation and many other questions that arise from her story.  We both really enjoyed discovering these things together!

We spent some time studying our globe together.  We found the USA and discovered where we live.

Then located Africa...

...and then Uganda. 

He pointed out that he already knew where Madagascar was.  Which suprised me, until he explained that Dad had shown him once when they were talking about the movie.  Ah-ha!  :)

Then we learned about continents.  I am always amazed at his incredible memory.  We spent some time studying them in the morning, and when Dad came home around 8:30 in the evening, he could find and name all of them...with a little help remembering how to say "Australia".  Yay!  We used those great free Crayola coloring pages I posted about.  Here is the continents worksheet. 

He also colored the Ugandan flag using the color by number worksheet.

This upcoming year I would like use nations and cultures as the foundation of our studies.  For example, as we are learning about Katie's journey in Uganda, we can learn about the animals that live there [like geckos and crocodiles] or learn about measurements and cooking while we make beans and rice for dinner [African staples] - you get the idea.  It's also been on my heart to pray with my children for people around the world. 

I think there are so many valuable lessons to be learned through these studies beyond academics: a thankful heart for how blessed we are; compassion and concern for those who are in need, the knowledge that God is working throughout the earth and that the world is much bigger than our own lives. 

I'm genuinely looking forward to tomorrow's lessons.