A Fave Gift

Well, I should have pictures of our Christmas by now, but I used my Mom's camera so it could be awhile. :) Mom came up and shared supper with us on Christmas Eve. Then we opened presents from the Grandparents as tradition dictates. hehe. The next morning we called Mom as soon as the kids were stirring and she came up to enjoy Christmas with us. Carey and Marie showed up in time for Christmas dinner and spent the afternoon with us, too.

This is a picture that Mikayla took of one of her gifts. I got the girls matching bedspreads. I also made some wall art for them, so she took a pic after it was all fixed up the way she wanted.

Outreach into the Community

Every year for the last four of five years, we have been asked to tell the Christmas story at Lincoln Paper and Tissue's Christmas party. We have told it with Terry flipping pictures. We have told it while having children from the audience come and help act it out. This year we had our children act it out while Papa told the story. Nate was both Joseph and a shepherd and you can tell from the picture who Lanie and Mikayla were. The picture was taken by a local photographer who requested it and then she emailed it to me. I thought it was kind of cute, so decided to share. We feel blessed to have this opportunity for another outreach into the community. The first year the people seemed very rude and talked loudly throughout. The next year they were better and many sat with their kids. Last year, just about everyone sat down and listened and then commented on how nice it was afterwards. This year people greeted us like they knew us, listened well, and thanked us for doing it again. It's interesting to me how long it takes for some things in this area. But, with Terry working at the local Sears I think they recognized him better. So that is a good thing, too.

Make a Smilebox greeting

I've been experimenting with Smilebox lately. It's pretty cool!

Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley visits the little red schoolhouse in Lincoln

Flat Stanley helps us check our letterbox at the painted rock in Lincoln

Flat Stanley visits camp at Madagascal Pond

So, Alana is getting close to being done with her Maine studies that she is doing for Social Studies and that means that I had to come up with something to do when she finished. My brother posted some pics on facebook of his little boy doing a Flat Stanley project for his cousin. So I said to myself, I wonder if I could do that as a homeschooler. So I googled it--what else. Turns out that there are whole web sites devoted to the promotion of Flat Stanley projects. So with tips and research finished I decided that I would ask some of my homeschooling friends if they would be willing to participate. Then she could study the different regions of the U.S. depending on which states these said friends where from, and marking them on the map as we go along. I thought that I would email one or two friends, but then I got lazy and just put it out there on my facebook status. Well, after two days we have ten states covered with the promise of Denmark and England, too! Wow! Alana is super excited about the project, and has already run to the atlas to see where some of these places are. I can't believe how it has mushroomed! So I guess my laziness paid off in this case. Well, we decided that it would be better to send our Flat Stanley to these other homeschool kids with some information about our state. So we set out and took some pictures of Flat Stanley here in Lincoln and included in his journal some facts about Maine. He is on his way to Northern Maine right now to a sportsman's camp where he is going hunting. Then he plans to go to Virginia. We are not sure of his schedule from there, but know that he is headed to Michigan, California, South Dakota( where he might swing over to Minnesota, and then Iowa since they live near the borders of both), South Carolina, North Carolina, Ohio, and then we may send him overseas. How fun is that ?!! There is nothing that compares to a school project that the kid is excited about! If anyone else is interested they can contact me on Facebook, here on the blog, or email. It isn't hard and is a lot of fun for the kids. I also have several adults doing it! haha! Check it out at http://www.flatstanley.com/.