Almost FREE Pencil Holder

My son has trouble keeping track of his pencils, I and super cheap, so I made him a pencil holder instead of buying him one.  Check it out:

This is what you need: 
1 tin can
spray paint in your color of choice

ribbon or binding

buttons or beads

hot glue gun

Start by painting the can and let it dry completely--I forgot to get a pic of this.

 

 

Glue binding or ribbon over the rim and be sure to cover all sharp edges.

 Glue on beads, buttons, puff balls, ect to your preference.

 The front.

The back.

My son LOVES his!

It's his favorite color and has his name on it--what would be better?

The End of Week 1 of 1st Grade

THANK GOD! 
It's been one thing after another this week... And it's been hard.  I/we love home-school, don't get me wrong, but after summer break it's been really hard to get back into the swing of things.  The week has been full of push-ups, sit-ups, and laps around the neighborhood. 
Daddy has offered to get me a Drill SGT hat! 

First Grade Pirates

The new school year starts... Monday!  For us anyway--I spent all this week getting ready for the first day of 1st grade.  The living-room/schoolroom has been cleaned at least twice, the school desk has been emptied and stocked with all new supplies, and his 1st grade curriculum now takes up the shelves that once housed his Kindergarten stuff.  My baby is getting so big!  The little brother was accepted to Headstart at the center and wants to go so it will just me Mommy and Izzy doing homeschool this year. 

All that said, I be you are wondering about the pirate ship--am I right?  Well, Izz is really into to pirates (today) and so I made him a progress chart till his first test.  In the Calvert curriculum there is a test every 20 lessons, so there are 20 little gold confetti pieces on the line.  

 

Gold confetti to symbolize lessons.

Pirate ship with his name on it!

The Treasure!

Everyday he finishes a lesson, he'll get to move his ship forward a gold piece, then when he reaches the Treasure we'll go do something fun, like go to a movie or have a mini-party with his brother.  

So there you have it--we're all ready for a new and exciting year in homeschool!