Free Printable Children's Sewing Cards

See here.

Free MP3 History Drama: Signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776(Limited Time)

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."


MP3 description: "July 4th, 1776 Philadelphia" from March 21, 1948 You are there for the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776 in Philadelphia. The heat is unbearable and even worse is the horseflies. The Founding Fathers are interviewed as well as some of the dissenters who are against Independence—who will win?

See here. Simply right click on the arrow to save, and the download will begin.

And yes, July 4th may not have been the actual day of the signing, just pretend.

Student History Supplement: Old Time Radio WWII Collections on Sale

Live broadcasts from WWII and other original programs from the era. Most MP3 CDs are $4.50 and include over 10 hours of recordings. Patriotic and Fourth of July collections are included. Check them out.
When you click through to a specific collection there will be a full review of the contents and a free MP3 sample.

Image source.

Free Children's Guide to Systematic Readings in the Encyclopedia Britannica

Bored children this summer? Have them read the Encyclopedia. Heh, heh, heh.

A Guide to Systematic Readings in the Encyclopedia Britannica by James Baldwin, 1897 Free and in public domain. The book is downloadable, and pages are printable. To print pages, right click in the image of the page. Text can also be switched to plain text for copy and paste; however, some words do not transition well, and editing will be needed.

Encyclopedia Britannica here.

"Now, my young friends, this habit of reading is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasures that God has prepared for his creatures. But you cannot acquire this habit in your old age ; you cannot acquire it in middle age ; you must do it now, when you are young. You must learn to read, and to like reading now, or you cannot do so when you are old." —Anthony Trollope.

DIY Carpet Dry-cleaning For Wool Rugs

Today, I tried a dry carpet cleaning product called Capture by Milliken on our large Persian wool rug. This is an older rug(ebay) with low pile - easy to clean if I could use water. I was concerned that the colors would run with wet extraction cleaning, and getting the extra large room sized rug to dry would be nearly impossible. Not to mention, wet wool smells pretty gross after 24 hours. Someone at a local hardware store recommended Capture to me. Reviews online for Capture were very positive. The price was good as well, under $20.00($17.94)for the kit. So I thought I'd give it a shot.

I found a Capture carpet dry clean kit at Lowe's which contained a spray and powder. The spray goes on first followed by a lemon scented powder. I used a stiff broom to spread it around into the rug fibers, waited a half hour, and vacuumed with my heavy duty Rainbow vacuum. It worked quite well. The dirt from my bagless vacuum's water capture bowl was like mud! I had no idea the rug was that dirty. Tomorrow I'll use the Capture on two bedroom rugs, also Persian wool. I'd recommend this product for wool rugs. You do need a very strong suction vacuum to pick up the fine particulates. My bagless stick vacuum could not handle it(clogged), so I had to lug out my heavy beast vacuum.

Large Wall Art on a Budget

See here for ideas.

The Hugging Tree

Taken during a hike in the Shenandoah National Park(Virginia).

Free Entrance to National Parks Tomorrow, June 21, 2011

See details here.

HT to Southern Savers.

Baking and Patching

This is a consistently excellent tasting recipe for pumpkin bread. For substitutions, I used apple sauce instead of a cup of oil, adding only 1/4 cup oil. I also reduced the sugar to two cups(perfect sweetness). Pumpkin is an unusual choice the end of spring, but I have a stock pile of canned pumpkin from the holidays. I imagine any thickly pureed fruit would work as well.

For about a dollar, I got a grocery bag full of vintage ribbons and quilting squares at the thrift store this past week. These came in handy for patching a Papasan chair cushion with a large hole caused by a naughty child and scissors. My young daughter helped me with this one - both with making the hole and mending it. There is much more mending in the mending basket waiting for me this summer.

New Pets and Plants

My daughter has a small zoo going here. She is always catching something in the garden and bringing it inside. These are our permanent guests(not from the yard):

Hermit crabs, fiddler crabs, and a betta. It's been fun learning together about their habitats and how to care for them.

Two weeks ago, I got a good number of Cast Iron plant roots from a seller on ebay. One is beginning to leaf out, the rest are still dormant. Once these grow, I plan to distribute them in our rooms to improve air quality. The Cast Iron plant does exceptionally well in low light conditions and is easy to maintain. I can't lose with these if they grow. Grow, grow, grow!

The Garden in June

We've had days and days of rain, so things have gone a bit wild. I tried to get some weeding done this weekend, but a lot more needs to be done. It's a tangle of weeds and vines, but my wild flowers and cucumbers are loving it.

Pictured here: cucumber leaves among mint, wild flowers, and my young apple tree-heavy with small apples. I made a small batch of apple oatmeal crisp with a basket full of these tiny tart apple.

Six Steps to Reducing Water Usage in the Garden

See here.

I like her homemade rain barrel; however, we'd need a closed top system in our area due to mosquitoes. A window screen over the top might work.

Love Doesn’t Count the Cost

From Word Incarnate:

St Peter wrote that Jesus suffered as an example He expects us to follow. No servant is greater than his Master, after all. Neither does anyone merely coast into the Kingdom of Heaven... it requires effort, exertion, and constant fidelity if we are striving for “the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).

Moreover, it is not for us to decide the terms of the contest, rules of the game, the demands of discipleship, or the conditions for entering Heaven. We have already forfeited our right to Paradise, and now all depends on God’s grace and mercy. So we do things his way. Besides, love doesn’t count the cost, and if we love the Lord we will not complain that the way is hard. We will simply fight the good fight, run the race, and then let the Lord amaze us for all eternity with the ineffable delights and never-ending wonders He will lavishly set before us. When we will look back on this relatively short and painful life, we will easily agree—having discovered “what was in it for us”—that in comparison his yoke was easy indeed, and his burden light.

Prayers for all our fathers on this Father's Day that they will draw from the Trinity(Trinity Sunday today). And blessings to all fathers regardless of faith.

Free Father's Day Old Time Radio Show Downloads

Father's Day Free Old Time Radio Shows


Aldrich Family - (Comedy)

"Henry's Father is Sick" from November 11, 1952
Father is recovering from a "virus attack" so severe that a mere whistle from Henry gives him the chills. With mother volunteering at the Red Cross and his sister helping at the hospital, it's up to Henry to peel the potatoes for dinner. Sure that he needs to leave school early to peel potatoes, he inadvertently convinced the principal that his father is on his death bed. This whole town pitches in for the family.

A Date with Judy- (Comedy)

"Father's Birthday" from August 1, 1944
It's Father's birthday and Judy has $2 to find him a gift, but ends up buying a snood for herself and a smoking jacket on her dad's credit for him (he doesn't even smoke). Undeterred, she decided to surprise her lucky dad with a day away from the office. The only trouble is he's due to meet an important patent owner who happens to be an aging bachelor. Undeterred, Judy invited her friends and sets up one of her teenage galpals to be the bachelor's "girlfriend for the day" at the amusement park.

Dragnet - (Detectives)

"Big Father" from March 8, 1955
There is a "hot prowl artist" in the Silverlake district of Los Angeles. His M.O.? He breaks into homes and when the housewives catch him, he claims that he's an electrician. The local mailman reports a similar incident to the police when he hears that Mrs Waldo Perkins told him of a similar experience.

Father Knows Best - (Comedy)

"Dad Plays Golf Tournament " from May 11, 1950
Betty is positive that Father wants to buy her a new dress. Meanwhile Cathy and Bud break a window practicing their golf swing. Father is entered into a golf tournament, but his opponent wants to back out due to a cold. Father is convinced that is not a good reason, until he is injured in the backyard playing with the kids.

Back From the Shenandoah Mountains

More later...

Picture taken at the end of a hike as we stood beneath the Dark Hollow Falls at the Shenandoah National Park.

Coming Up Daisies and Other Kindergarten - Early Elementary Flower Lessons

Cute 1898 flower lessons(violets, daisy, cherry, shooting star, wild roses, clover blossoms, pansy, and more) for early elementary, see pages 1005-1059 to print out/read lesson plans. Simply right click on the images of the pages to save and/or print. Free and in public domain.

A few sections from the daisy lesson:

The Daisy

Where does it come from? Does it grow in sunny or shady places? How high does the plant grow? How many blossoms on one plant? What are the leaves like? Are daisies ail alike? Compare the white and yellow daisy, as to form, size, color, etc. What does the white daisy look like? What do we call the yellow center? (The disk.) What do we call the white flowers around the yellow center? (Rays.) They make the daisy look like a star.

If you do not look very carefully at the daisy, it will fool you. You will think that the little green leaves underneath the flower head make up the calyx and the white leaves above the corolla. You will believe, as many other people do, too, that the yellow center is made up of a number of stamens. But this would not be true, and we will need to look again more carefully. What you hold in your hand is not one daisy flower, but a great many flowers.

The yellow center of the daisy is composed of a great many little tube-shaped blossoms, and the circle of white flower leaves is really a circle of flowers. You will find one pistil. The pollen is brought from the yellow flowers in the center to this pistil.

Do you know why it is called a daisy? Because it awoke so early in the morning? What month of the year does it bloom? How long can we gather daisies?

1 LITERATURE.

Read one of the poem by Robert Burns' "To a Daisy."

"The Daisy and the Lark," Hans Anderson.

DRAWING.

Draw a daisy plant as it looks growing in the field.
Draw or cut and paste a daisy border.
Make a silhouette of daisies with grasses

THE DAISY.
I'm a pretty little daisy,
Always coming with the spring;
In the meadows green I'm found.
And my stalk is covered flat
With a white and yellow hat.
My stalk is green and very tall,
At night I am a yellow ball;
But in the morning when I wake,
A lovely little cup I make.

THE DAISY.
The daisy is the meekest flower

That grows in wood or field;
To wind and rain and footsteps rude,

Its slender stem will yield.

In spring it dots the green with white,

And blossoms all the year,
And so it is a favorite flower, .,

With all the children dear.

Before the stars are in the sky,

The daisy goes to rest,
And folds its little shining leaves

Upon its golden breast.

So children when they go to bed

Should fold their hands in prayer,
And place themselves and all they love,

In God's protecting care. —Set.

Free Bowling with AMF All Summer Long for Children(16 and Under)

Register here. Does not include shoe rental.

We've got a bit of a heat wave this week, so we'll be going bowling, staying indoors with air conditioning!

Convert a Coffee Table to a Desk

See here for the "before" and "after'' pictures. It's hard to believe this used to be a coffee table. Nicely done conversion.

Student Fill-In Lesson D-Day Invasion

From the New York Times Learning Network:

In these exercises, which we ordinarily post weekly to help students learn vocabulary and practice reading comprehension, we choose an interesting Times article and drop out certain words or phrases from it, then invite students to fill in the blanks — either from their imaginations, or by choosing from a scrambled list of words and phrases that appear at the bottom of the post.

To commemorate the fact that the anniversary of D-Day is June 6, today’s fill-in is based on the front-page New York Times article from 1944 about the Normandy invasion, “Hitler’s Sea Wall Is Breached, Invaders Fighting Way Inland; New Allied Landings Are Made.”

See lesson here.

Old Time Radio D-Day Audio Resources

From Old Time Radio Catalog:

All online orders will automatically
receive the Complete Broadcast Day
June 6, 1944 free of charge!

Read about D-Day and the radio:
"Longest Day: D-Day June 6, 1944"
"Memories of My Role on D-Day"

This offer is good through 6/12/11.

Some other free Old Time Radio downloads here.

A Lesson in Gardening from a Little One

My five year old daughter set up this garden by herself(picture taken in May). I dumped a bag of soil for her. She picked out the rest of the items at the Dollar General, and set it up. I tried unsuccessfully to give her direction. She is very independent, so I backed off when she didn't appear to be taking any gardening advice. She was very happy left to her own devises, digging in the dirt, and rearranging her garden decorations. So it really surprised me when some lovely radishes appeared! She had dumped the seeds and stomped all over them while they were trying to come up. There are a few other mystery plants growing in there that came from Dollar General seed packs. She would dump them in one spot before I got a chance to help her.

Her garden appears to be doing better than my carefully cultivated veggie garden! My radishes were much smaller. Maybe next year I'll try the dump-seeds-and-ignore method. ;) I've got a soaker hose in my garden; she has a little green watering can - amazing. She's got a green thumb.

Tips for Hostings a Virtual Plant Swap

See here.

Inexpensive Student Movie/DVD Study Guides

From my CurrClicks newsletter today:

"Netflix offers a very affordable option to watch many different educational shows. A modest monthly fee allows you to access many online streaming movies, documentaries and shows. There are lots of great guides to go along with many of the shows found on Netflix, too."

Here are 118 e-study guides available at CurrClick. Guides are tailored for ages: 5-7, 8-10, 11-13, and High School. The prices are very inexpensive at $1.50 a piece(marked down from $1.95) and are delivered as PDF downloads.

If you are on a budget, I'd also try the public library to find these movies and DVDs. There are CurrClick guides for fiction, classics, nature study, foreign language, science, health, job exploration, Excel lessons, and test preparation DVDs.

Homemade Children's Ice Cream Shop

This blog has a good number of creative and well executed ideas for hands-on preschool learning(Montessori).

For the pictured pom-pom ice cream tub, I'd use red pom-poms for the cherries instead of beads for young children. The pom-poms are homemade and surprisingly easy to make. See post here for tutorial and more ideas.

Easy DIY Cement Planter Tutorial

This looks like a really fun summer project! I think I'll add sea glass to my planters, or shells. See here for detailed tutorial with pictures.

Vintage June Blackboard Calendar, Memory Gems, and Red Letter Dates

All from The School Journal, 1910
Click on image to enlarge and save.

June Daily Memory Gems

Red Letter Days in June, pages 404-405.


All are free and in public domain. Pages at links can be saved by right clicking on the image of the pages at the links.

DIY Easy Low Pine Storage Shelves

These low shelves function perfectly for my young daughter's arts and crafts supplies. It's just her height, so things are easily accessed and put away.

Four heavy clay flower pots hold up two pine planks(12 inches wide and 6 feet long) purchased at a big box store for about $6.00 each. They also had 10 and 12 feet length boards, and thinner widths. No cutting is needed if you can use the plank sizes they offer. The planks are not attached to the pots, so I can disassemble this when she outgrows the shelves.