stART - That's Not My Dragon & In the Night Kitchen

We haven't done a stART project in a while and Little Mouse was missing our stART projects so much that we ended up doing two!







First we read That's Not My Dragon - we read it some time back and re-read it again. {She seriously loves this book!}

First we made this TP Dragon that I downloaded from DLTK.

Mouse coloured the picture...

I cut and assembled it, and then Mouse decided that it needed a bit more colour :)

After we made our Dragon and we waited for the glue to dry, Mouse coloured in a cute little Dragon picture of Loebi the Dragon.

Loebi is a little Dragon created by renowned SA children's author Martie Preller.  We just love her books and Loebi is a firm favourite.  All Loebi's stories are specially written for Kinderwerf, a website selling Afrikaans and English homeschool materials.

After we coloured Loebi we played a game on the computer!  Mouse loved this, it is a free game available on the Kinderwerf site! Everything is labeled in Afrikaans, but you basically click with the brush on the colour paint you want and then click on the body of Loebi to colour it!

Here is Mouse's artwork...

Love this photo of her!

{please note the pen drawings on my mouse pad - the little artist was hard at work!}


For those interested in Kinderwerf, please feel free to email me - I am an agent for them.

We also read In The Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak.



Lovely written book and we both liked it.

We were inspired by the cookies in the book and baked these super yummy custard cookies!

Here is Little Mouse enjoying some!

Busy and fun day!

Visit A Mommy's Adventures for loads of stART fun!

Muffin tin Monday - Seeds & Birds

Only finding time to post my last 2 muffin tins today, I still cannot believe how my life just went crazy within a few days!  I'm posting both the Seeds and Plant themed as well as the Birds and Nest themed plate.

For the birdy plate Mouse had some bird shaped ham, a cheese nest and some bird food (Otees)

For Seeds and Flowers she had: Chocolate Seeds, Ham Flowers, Cheese Twigs and butterfly PB&J bread.

Visit Muffin Tin Mom for some great Muffin Tin Meal ideas!

Wednesday Art | Week 5 - 6

What a crazy couple of weeks!  The past two weeks have been so busy I hardly had time to breath.  So far this week is back to normal, hopefully it will stay that way!

Here's what we did for our Art Wednesdays for week 5 and 6.

We made an orange collage box using orange rice, orange felt and some tissue paper.

Mouse also made a green and yellow Collage box, she had loads of fun with this.  I used all our leftover green and yellow pieces from previous collage boxes for this one.

I love how she will place something on the contact and then decide to move it and rearrange the whole thing!

For textured painting Mouse first made some potatoe stamp pictures,

and she also made some stamping pictures with an old stocking filled with dried beans.

We baked some delicious cookies

Mouse really enjoyed this, she almost ate all the mini smarties before we had time to decorate the cookies!

She also made this puppy letter H craft {h is for hondjie - puppy in afrikaans}I helped loads with it, but she did most of the glueing!

So much fun!

Book Review - The Busy Mom's Guide

This book could not have arrived at a better time!  Kathy Peel wrote an amazing manual for every day life as a busy mom!  It is packed full of practical and easy to implement solutions for everyday life and little problems.  After reading the first few pages I implemented some of her ideas, and I can already see a difference in my home and I feel more organized.

I also love the fact that the book not only covers practical things like keeping your home clutter free, but it also deals with family issues.  She divides your home into seven departments:

1) Time and Scheduling
2) Home and Property
3) Food
4) Family and Friends
5) Finances
6) Special Events
7) Self Management

All 7 departments are covered in detail with loads of pratical and real life tips.  Each section also includes charts and checklists to simplify your daily tasks.  I love these as they are easy to use and make a huge difference to your day.

Throughout the book you will find helpful tips and hints in the sidebars of the pages, valuable extra information that is highlighted for easy reference.  This book is on my desk and it will stay there as a quick reference guide for my life! As a homeschooler, work from home mommy and a "do everything myself mommy"  this book was amazing.  I loved it! A great book and a must for any busy mom!







I did receive a free copy of this book from Tyndale Media to review, I was however not asked in any way to submit a positive review.  The ideas expressed in this review are my own and honest opinion.

Book Review - Wonders never cease

I cannot remember when last I had the time to sit down and read a novel or any book for that matter for myself!  Nowadays it is mostly kiddies books etc.  When I received Wonders Never Cease by Tim Downs from Booksneeze to review I was super excited!  It took me a few days to read it (4 days), and I really enjoyed it!

"It's true what they say, you know: If you talk to God, you're religious; but if you hear from God, you're schizophrenic."
When a car accident leaves a famous movie star in a coma, nurse Kemp McAvoy thinks he has found his ticket to the life he's always wanted. As a med school dropout who was on his way to becoming an anesthesiologist, Kemp has the knowledge to carry off the crazy plan he concocts: adjust the star's medication each night and pretend to be a heavenly visitor giving her messages. He recruits her agent and a down-and-out publisher to make sure the messages will become the next spiritual bestseller and make them all rich.
But his girlfriend's daughter, Leah, keeps telling people that she is seeing angels, and her mother and her teachers are all afraid that something is wrong.
Before it's all over, they'll all learn a few things about angels, love, and hope.

Tim Downes wrote a fantastic and very enjoyable book.  It was a great read and I found that each evening I was looking forward to my reading time!  The book has a wonderful surprise ending, and you truly learn a few things about angels and love!  







I received a free copy of this book to review via the Booksneeze program. In no way was I asked to submit a positive review, all ideas and thoughts in this review are my own.

Giveaway - Kaleidoscope by Patsy Clairmont

 The good people of Booksneeze kindly sent me another copy of Patsy Clairmont's Kaleidoscope for a giveaway!  I did a review on this book a few weeks ago, and it is truly a great read.

How do you enter?  Easy!  Leave me a comment!
Additonal entries:
Follow this blog with Google Friends connects
Join my email list by subscribing in the sidebar
Follow this blog with Networked blogs on Facebook (in sidebar)

Please leave a seperate comment for each entry.

Open to SA Postal addresses only.  Closes 31 May 2010.

Muffin Tin Monday - No Theme

There was no theme this week, but as always MTM are great fun! Everyone knows food taste different and better because it is served in a muffin tin! :)

Mouse had Mini smarties, Toast with Marmite and some Scrambled eggs {Yummy!}

Visit Muffin Tin Mom for some other super yummy tins!

Tot School - Week 3 | 22 Months

Our theme last week was Rain and Umbrellas, while I was busy planning there was no rain in sight, but it started pouring by the middle of the week and it is definately winter in Cape Town!

We really had a lot of fun, even though there was a theme, it was still very informal and basically playing and learning.  We read some great books, and laughed and danced.  Little Mouse loves dancing!  In between it all we nursed Little Mouse suffering from the flu, luckily she is all better now :)

Just a quick breakdown of our week:
Theme: Umbrellas and Rain
Colour:  Yellow
Shape:  Overview of all shapes
Concept: Open and close
Letter of the week: S

Here is what we did:

I found her doing her Me and Marie Colour Craze book all by herself!  I was so proud of her, as you can see she placed the grasshopper, leave and sun on the correct spots!  :)

We collected as many yellow toys as we could find.

We worked with our yellow cards from Homeschool Creations.

We played with a yellow tennis ball and a giant yellow tennis ball!

I printed some goodies from Shelley Lovett's and we had a blast completing it! {Sorry, I couldn't find the exact link}

Mouse made this Rain mobile, she coloured it and I cut and assembled it.

With this one, I showed her what to do with the green line on the left.  The blue one I held her hand and helped her, she did the other two by herself.

This game was origninally designed a bit different, the child is actually suppose to draw a line to the correct match, obviously that is way to advance for Little Mouse.  I cut the raindrops out, coloured them and then gave them to Mouse to sort.

Our letter S!  She stuck stickers on the S. {S is for Sambreel - Umbrella}The Umbrella is from Childcare Land and the S from DLTK.  All other printing is from Shelley Lovetts site Childcare Land.

I made her this felt board activity, she had to match the colour raindrops with the umbrellas, she actually was so good at this!

I made her some sound eggs, I placed some coins in some eggs, some rice in others and nothing in the rest.  We tested the eggs to see which ones makes a sound and how loud the sound was.  She really loved this.

We talked and laughed a lot as well!  Here she is modelling her new apron for mommy!

For our art this week we made a mother's day project for the grannies and we made a yellow collage item.

Our theme for this upcoming week is Rainbows.

Over the weekend I was at a breakfast for mommies and the speaker shared this with us:

Children learn what they live

If a child lives with criticism
he learns to condemn
If a child lives with hostility
he learns to fight
If a child lives with ridicule
he learns to by shy
If a child lives with shame
he learns to feel guilty
If a child lives with tolerance
he learns to be patient
If a child lives with encouragement
he learns to have confidence
If a child lives with praise
he learns to appreciate
If a child lives with fairness
he learns justice
If a child lives with security
he learns to have faith
If a child lives with approval
he learns to like himself
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship
he learns to find love in the world.

So true, isn't it?




For more inspirational ideas and Tot School news visit 1+1+1=1

Books we read | Week 1

Last week we finished up some books that we got from the library the week before, some great books, and we really enjoyed them.

I also printed out my list of books that we are planning to read and took that along to the library, the librarian was so helpful and we spend about 45min looking for books on my list! Mouse had a blast while we were looking for books, playing with the toy phones and computer keyboards they have out for the kiddos in the children's section.

Books we are planning to read this week:

Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh

The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Eric Carle

Books we read last week:








Mouse absolutely loved this book, she really enjoyed it. She even picked it our herself at the library. I didn't know what to expect of the book, but it was actually cute. It's a touchy feely book with wonderful little inserts on all the pages. We will definately be getting this one for our bookshelf.









Wonderful book by Eric Carle! Teaching little ones not only about the nature of Hermit Crabs but also about being a good neighbour and friend. We love his books.

That is about all we read last week with Little Mouse feeling a bit sick.

I'm linking this to Magical Books by Welcome to our Wonderland.






Visit to join in!