Play Dough Arabic Letters

I am now on my fourth child learning Arabic. My husband and I make a combined effort to teach our children Arabic. I start them out with their letters and then we work up to connecting words. Once we reach the grammar rules, I have to turn them over to my husband. I like doing play dough with my children. The Arabic letters are so curvy and artistic that the younger children have a little trouble writing them at first. Doing play dough helps them to create the letter that they would not likely be able to write very well. I used a common recipe for play dough.

You'll need:
Flour 3cups
Salt 1 1/2 cups
Water 3 cups
Vegetable Oil 2TB.
Cream of tartar 1TB.
Food coloring few drops or unsweetened "Kool-Aid" 1pkg.

Mix ALL of the ingredients in a large saucepan.Cook over medium low heat, until the dough comes away from the edges of the pan and it becomes difficult to move the spoon. Remove from heat. Cool until it can be handled.Place on counter or wax paper knead 3-4 times.Store in an air tight container. I put glitter in mine to make it more fun. I also found neon colors of food coloring, and they are nice and rich with color. I have also used tempera paints in the past.

I have a second grader also and she is now forming sentences. I found this book and I really like it. She is able to do the book and it is nice and colorful to keep her interested.

A Fly Craft

Assalam alykom:

I was teaching my little girl who is in kindergarten about bugs. We were learning about the house fly as one of the bugs. It is quite a gross creature! We stumbled upon this little craft and my 7 year old daughter made one also. They had fun running around the house smacking their older brother and sister with the flyswatter. Click here for the template.

A Recycled Picnic Table

Assalam alykom:

The nice thing about old farm properties is that you can find alot of Junk. I made this table out of old planks of wood that I found in my barns and cinder blocks that where scattered through out my pastures. My kids and I cleaned up the wood an nailed them together to form the top. Then we just used planks of various sizes to form the seats. It is not as stable as a real table, and I always tell everyone to sit at your own risk. We have enjoyed many dinners outside so far on it. I love any craft that turns junk into a usable item.

Learning Geography

Assalm alykom:

I have been really busy with life to commit time to my blog. This is my latest craft that we did with my first grader. As you know, I use the Oak Meadow curriculum. They teach the beginnings of geography in a different way that I am not used to when comparing the ways to my older kids. My older kids you would start with a flat map or a globe and teach them North, South, East and West. They would always look a little lost because that cannot conceptualize it to their scale. With Oak Meadow, they teach the child from his/her small surroundings. They have them make a map or a model of their room. With this, they can relate to where something is because they are familiar with it. Then, you teach them the directions from their room. The next step, the place gets a little bigger. The child needs to make a map of their house. Also, they need to know the directions here. Again, the child learns a little bigger area. They need to make a map or model of their neighborhood. I like this method very much. At this age, they really can conceptualize each step of making the area bigger. We made this little model of her room that she shares with her two other sisters. We made the all of the furniture from boxes and then painted them. The bed is a bunk bed that we made from Popsicle sticks and small boxes. We made the floor, which in their room is wooden, from Popsicle sticks that we varnished. We made the windows from magazine picture of the outside and the put fabric curtains. She loves it and does not want anyone to touch for fear it will break. I encourage you to try this concept in teaching. I really loved it!

The Tortoise and the Hare

Assalam alykom:

We were doing the story of the Tortoise and the Hare. My girls had happen to check a book out at the library with crafts related to old stories. This one was in there and we thought it would be fun to act the story out with them. They are made with little toy cars. We just used double sided tape and tabed the puff on the rabbit and the paper for the turtle. Since they have wheels, we could just race them accross the floor. I love the story too! It is such a classic!

Weather/Wind Vane

Assalm Alykom:

With my first grader, I have been teaching about the weather. They have the typical weather vane that you make from a straw, pencil and paper. I wanted it to be more exciting. We made this one from junk we found in our barns. It took a little bit of engineering and rigging, but it actually turns. We used PVC piping, metal scraps that we found, a long nail, washers and a metal hose fitting. The girls painted it funky colors, and now it sits on a post near my pasture.

Fancy Bird Feeders

Both my 5th grader and my 1st grader have studies of birds and making feeders. Well, here is our idea. I visit local auctions where I live. At these auctions, they sell everything by the box load. Therefore, I usually have a few treasures that I do not want or need. So, we made bird feeders from them. The first two feeders, we painted a hard plastic bowl, glued some buttons, and stenciled some teapots. We glued the bowl on to a glass vase using Hard As Nails Glue. Lastly, we used the same glue to put it on a fence post near my pasture. So far, I am glad the glue is holding up to the fence post, but we still have not seen a bird. The bottom feeder was a little more complicated. We uses to glass candle stick holders, a vase and a piece of pvc piping. We glued the first candle holder on to the vase. We then glued the pipe and then another candle holder on top. The way we mounted the candle holders, allows them to be like cups to hold the seeds. The pvc pipe, we coated with peanut butter and than seeds. Again, there are no birds, but they look nice on the post.

Duck Light Bulb

Assalam alykom:

We just got a couple ducks on our farm. My friend has so many. When we visited my husband cornered a male and female and brought them home. Since we have our little farm, I decided to work in to our studies with my first grader lessons about a farm. We studied a few animals and of course we had to study the duck. I am amazed at how freezing it is outside and the ducks are swimming in the little tub we have for them. While studying ducks we read that they have no nerves in their feet so they do not feel the cold. Also, their feathers are designed in such a way that their skin does not ever feel the water. Glory be to Allah how he creates things so perfect. You can see my ducks in my other blog. Here is our little craft we did about ducks. We made it from a old burnt out light bulb. We painted the light bulb with Kilz primer. This stuff will stick to anything. We cut the feet and beak out from foam and colored them orange with a permanent marker. We used feathers from our chickens and we glued the eyes, buttons, hat and lace with a glue gun. We drew the eye lashes with a sharpie pen. I think she looks really cute!

Fabric Notebooks

Assalm alykom:

I am an avid thrift hunter. I scour thrift shops, estate sales, and yard sales. I was recently at an estate auction where I picked up a huge box of vintage fabric scraps for a dollar. Here is what we did with some of it so far.

Materials: Fabric scaps cut in small squares with pinking shears, Composition book, Mod Podge or any decoupage medium, 1 button, elastic hair tie, paper punch, paint brush.

Directions:

After you cut enough fabric squares to cover the book, you can begin to over lap them on the front of the book. I left about 2 inches on the end so I could fold them over to the other side. After I was sure I had enough squares I took them all off. I would put the Mod Podge in a small area, and then I would place the fabric with overlapping them. Then I would put the Mod Podge over the fabric until I covered the whole book. I let the first coat try and then applied a second coat. After that was dry, I used a hole punch to make a hole and tied an elastic hair tie through it. This is how I closed the book. I glued a vintage button on the other side and pulled the elastic around it.

Vintage Embroidery

A finely done crewel embroidery from 1965

Embroidery can take on many different styles. There is crewel embroidery which is usually done in yarn that can be wool or acrylic. Embroidery can even be done on sweaters using this method. There is embroidery that is done with fine cotton floss or even silk. This is usually more delicate in nature and can be found on linen, cotton or even silk. There is long stitch embroidery too. This is usually done with yarn that is similar to crewel embroidery. Creating a picture that is a work of art is very rewarding. All of the pictures shown here are items that I have picked up and sold through Ebay. Some are just exceptionally beautiful.




This is a stunning sweater from the 1950's. I gave it to my daughter and she loves it!

This is a cute folk

art style using crewel

embroidery

Another fine example of crewel embroidery in a folk art style

This one is done in a cotton floss and is machine embroidered on a napkin.

The next two are antique table runners that have a beautiful crocheted lace.

This one is another example of cotton floss with a folk art look.

This is an old pillowcase doll that I picked for my daughters. It combines embroidery with crochet. The detail is just fabulous!

A nice sachet that is done on linen and uses silk floss.

This one as an Asian design. It is done in a wool embroidery yarn.

Beautiful 3D flowers in crewel embroidery.

This my only example of long stitch embroidery. A Very nice picture and done in a stunning frame!

I apologize if this was a little hard to read. Blogger does not always cooperate with me when I try to put alot of pictures with the text. I hope you enjoy these works of art!