Notes From the Parsonage

2017-2018 at Godbold Academy

August 28, 2017 by notesfromtheparsonage 3 Comments

I’m finally mostly planned out for this coming school year. I usually don’t do quite so much pre-planning, but I’m having a baby late October/early November, so I figured I should plan out all I could in advance. A couple new things for us this year: First, I planned in terms instead of just all year. 5 terms total. Three 12 weeks terms, an Advent term, and then a summer term. The kids have been begging me for a more traditional summer, so I have taken their request and we made a compromise. (We usually do year round school.) They will still be completing their third term after the local schools get out. But then they get an actual summer term, which will mostly just consist of each of them having a required reading list. The other new to us thing is the Morning Basket. It is a Charlotte Mason homeschooler thing, but I have adapted it a bit for our more classical methods. More about that if you click the Morning Basket link below.

I did look into switching from The Well Trained Mind to Ambelside this year. I love a lot of things about Ambelside, but ultimately felt The Well Trained Mind is still a better fit for our family. I did look over the Ambelside reading lists for the corresponding years of history and picked a few of those suggestions that I thought might be a good fit for my crew. The Well Trained Mind is really adaptable on a child by child, family by family basis. You have a wide variety of ways the method is really done and worked out in families. We’ve used it from the beginning of our homeschool journey. (This is our 8th homeschooling year.) I’m always tempted by other things, but ultimately decide every year to stick with The Well Trained Mind. It just fits us best.

This year, I am homeschooling 5 kids. One of those is an optional one who is currently opting in. (“School” in our house is optional until you are 6 years old.) Grade levels also get a little mixed when you’re talking about homeschool, especially when you’re not just using a box curriculum. Kids tend to move at their own pace and advance quicker in some areas than others. I kind of average out their level and that is what grade the kid says they are in, since “What grade are you in?” Isn’t usually meant to be answered with, “Well, I have the vocabulary of a high school sophomore, but in math, I’m around grade 6. In literature, we read higher level books than our ages would suggest. And in Grammar, I am on grade level.” People usually expect something more like, “I’m a sixth grader.” Believe me, getting testing scores back for homeschoolers learning in non-traditional methods is quite amusing as they may very well likely place in every single grade in something. But on the average, this year I have a preschooler, a first grader, a fourth grader, and two sixth graders.

This year should prove to be a bit of a challenge for each of them as I am realizing they can do some pretty hard things. They are typically limited by the challenges, or lack there of, that I give them. We are not doing Latin this year, though that is a typical classical homeschooler subject. We are incorporating it a little in their vocabulary studies. We are also leaving out handwriting for the time being. They have a lot of writing to do, so I am not too convinced a full handwriting course is really necessary this year. If I change my mind, I can always add it in for Term 2 or 3 or even the Summer Term.

To save us from an infinitely long post, click on the links to the individual parts of our school year below.

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Morning Basket 17/18

August 28, 2017 by notesfromtheparsonage 5 Comments

I got the idea for a Morning Basket from some Charlotte Mason homeschoolers I came across. We have used similar methods, but this is the first year we are giving it an official name and an actual basket. Morning Basket work is so ideal for large families. We do a lot of our work together. For the younger kids, it provides exposure to more complex ideas and themes. For the older kids, it can be a great jumping off place for their more individualized studies. We already try to do as much together as we can, a one room school house sort of vibe. But the Morning Basket really makes it official and gives it a more organized place in our home and our day.

Our Morning Basket consists of 7 categories. It is mostly reading and discussing. Some people call this “Couch Time” since you’re not sitting at a table pouring over workbooks.

Prayer

Each morning we will begin with prayer. We have time throughout the day for spontaneous prayer, so during this morning prayer time, I wanted to focus on memorizing prayers. We will pray through each prayer daily for four weeks, then change to the next prayer. The prayers we are learning this year are:

The Lord’s Prayer

For Joy in God’s Creation from The Book of Common Prayer

For the Human Family from The Book of Common Prayer

John Wesley’s Prayer

St. Augustine’s Prayer

St. Patrick’s Prayer

St. John Vianney’s Prayer

St. Francis Prayer

John Wesley Covenant Prayer

Truth

This category includes our Bible Study, character reading, and manners study. Our older kids also do their own personal Bible study. And as a family, we also do family devotions. This morning basket Bible study is separate from both of those. During Term 1 and the beginning of Term 2, we are finishing our Herein Is Love: Genesis study. In Term 2, we are also doing The Talk. Term 3, we will be doing Herein Is Love: Exodus.

For our character study, we will be reading through 7 Men. Once we finish that in Term 3, we’ll be reading Fierce Convictions.

For manners, we’ll be reading through the book Modern Manners once a week.

Beauty

Beauty includes art and music. During Term 1 and 2, we will be doing a different hymn each week. Term 3, we will be using a more contemporary worship song each week. For Art, we are reading about one artist each week from 50 Artists You Should Know. Here is our list of hymns and worship songs for the main three terms (Advent has its own unique schedule.):

All Hail The Power of Jesus’ Name

What A Friend We Have In Jesus

This Is My Father’s World

Amazing Grace

Praise to the Lord, The Almighty

Lead On, O King Eternal

Jesus Paid It All

I Am Thine, O Lord, I Have Heard Thy Voice

For The Beauty of The Earth

Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling

Praise Him! Praise Him!

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

And Can It Be That I Should Gain

Trust and Obey

This So Sweet To Trust In Jesus

Be Thou My Vision

He Leadeth Me

How Firm A Foundation

I Must Tell Jesus

It Is Well With My Soul

Jesus Keep Me Near The Cross

Jesus Lover of My Soul

My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less

Savior Like A Shepherd Lead Us

Called Me Higher

Come Alive

Oh How I Need You

But For You Who Fear My Name

Lift Your Head Weary Sinner

The Cost

Up On A Mountain

Burn Like A Fire

In Christ Alone

Old Church Choir

I’ll Always Love You

I Heard the Sound of Voices

Goodness

Our literature selections that we are reading aloud together fall into this category, as well as our once a week poetry readings. For poetry, we’ll be reading a few poems from a Treasury of Selected Poems (Barnes and Noble Bargain Book) one day each week. We are also adding in Mad Libs Mondays just for fun. Our literature selections for the year:

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

At The Back of The North Wind

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Pilgrim’s Progress

Minn of the Mississippi

The Swiss Family Robinson

Memory Work

I like challenging my kids to memorize things. But I don’t want them memorizing useless things. This year, we’re focusing just on Bible verses. For the first two terms, I selected random verses, one verse each week, that I felt were worth memorizing. For the third term, we’ll focus on memorizing a verse from Proverbs each week.

History

This isn’t usually in a Morning Basket, but since it is something we do together, I added it here. The older kids have additional work to add to this, this is simply the portion we read aloud together.

I decided to redo Story of the World Volume 3 this year. We used it last year, but we did a really poor job of it. I was tempted to just move on, but there are so many interesting parts of this particular time period, including the American Revolution, that I felt deserved more time. Once a week, we will read one chapter of Story of the World 3. I do have a few weeks with 2 chapters in order to get all the book done this school year. In addition to that, we’ll also be reading the following our loud together:

The Landing of The Pilgrims

The Three Musketeers

The Jungle Book

George Vs. George

Can’t You Make Them Behave, King George?

If You Can Keep It

Little Things Make Big Differences

John Wesley: The World and His Parish (I would seriously love the entire collection of these Christian Heros books. I’m building a library of them.)

Frankenstein

The Mexican-American War

What Was the Gold Rush? (I would also love a collections of these “What Was” and “Who Was” books. They make it so easy for kids to read and understand.)

In addition to these, we’ll also continue our Godbold Academy Geography. The older ones have their own geography specific assignments, but we enjoyed learning about the spiritual needs of various countries and having the opportunity to pray for them. So we will continue choosing a country each week from Operation World.

Science

Again, not a usual Morning Basket inclusion. However, it is something we do together. The little ones have their own science stuff, but they loved watching the experiments last year, so we’ll continue with that. We are continuing with Berean Builder’s: Science in the Scientific Revolution. We’re doing about a lesson per week of that and then some additional Science reading out loud. The Berean Builders series is science chronologically by discoveries made. We chose this particular year because it goes along with our history timeline. It does include experiments, which my kids love. All the ones we have done have used simple household items and haven’t needed anything complex or weird.

It Couldn’t Just Happen

Always Inventing

Madam How and Lady Why

**This post contains affiliate links. These links do not cost you any more if you use them to purchase the item, but they do benefit our family!**

*** Amazon usually has the cheapest price on classics. However, I love the look and feel of the Barnes and Noble hardback classics. If you go the Barnes and Noble route, be sure to take you declaration of intent or homeschool ID to the store and pick up an Educator’s Discount Card that will save you 20%! Though I also really like the look and feel of Puffin Classics. Even Puffin paperbacks just have a better font and page feel than some of the other publishers.***

**** You can get a lot of the classics in e-book format for very cheaply or even free in some cases. I’m just a book lover than prefers reading an actual book.****

2016-2017 Homeschool Curriculum Review

August 2, 2017 by notesfromtheparsonage 1 Comment

We haven’t yet moved into our next school year, but the planning for next year is coming along. This past year was our 7th homeschooling year. We had 4 official students and 1 who insisted on jumping into the fun with us. (Preschoolers do that from time to time. Sometimes they want to participate. Sometimes they don’t. Before age 6, we let them choose. Play time is learning time for that age, so I’m not comfortable pushing them toward rigorous studies just yet.) I figured I’d let you guys know what worked and what didn’t this school year. But I always like to give an update on what worked and what didn't, since my opinions may change by the time we get closer to the end.

Overall, we have used The Well Trained Mind throughout our schooling days. We’ve been a little more relaxed in the Grammar stage. Some of the suggested resources haven’t worked for us, so we have found alternatives that work.

I had two fifth graders this year, one third grader, one kindergartener, and one preschooler.

Math
We used Teaching Textbooks 5 and 3 for these guys this year. Teaching Textbooks has been the best math program for these guys. These two started with Singapore Math and then switched to Teaching Textbooks for fourth grade. We no longer buy the workbooks, because my kids only use the computer disc portion of the program. Each lesson is well explained, having them do practice problems as they go. If they don’t do well on a lesson, you can go in and delete the grade and let them try again. They get two tries at each problem, and the program explains how the answer is achieved. It gives immediate gratification, telling them if they are right or wrong on each problem before they move on. The kids do very well with this program. I have read some reviews that say the grade levels are off, but I have not found that to be the case. Each year starts off pretty easy, but builds back to more difficult concepts. So, a student may find it easy at first, but there is more challenge coming. My only issue with the program is the cardboard cases the CDs come in. I feel like for the price, they should come in some durable CD cases for long term use. I’ve had to move all our discs into a zippered CD case. That works, but for $99 a set (higher in the higher levels) they should come with something more durable than paper. The program keeps up with the grades and you can check them at any time. We don’t usually do grades, but since the kids were doing it all on their own, it helped me keep an eye on their progress.
We started the year with Essential Math K. He flew through it. It wasn’t a challenge for him at all. We switched to Life of Fred about halfway through the year. It introduced more complex topics and he liked the storytelling aspect. The preschooler joined us for these lessons, but will likely need to do them again.

Grammar
I signed the older two up for Wordly Wise Online through Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op. They didn’t like it. I didn’t like it. The program isn’t well laid out. It is very confusing and takes a lot of time per lesson. I also felt like they weren’t really learning much for the effort being put in. We stopped it mid-year and will not be picking it back up.
We also grabbed the new Writer’s In Residence program from Apologia. Each student needs their own book. And the books are hefty. While I like some of the content, overall, the program didn’t work well for us. For one, it isn’t well laid out. The grading rubric is confusing. Everything has to be graded, which is weird for us since we don’t really grade things. Some of the assignments were frivolous. Also, it got really messy. It is a huge workbook, so I expect all the work to be done in the book and fit in the book. But there were several times when things were cut out of the book (which annoys me greatly) or they had to paper clip extra pages into the book. I felt like they could have made it all work, but didn’t. If the kids are needing to use separate paper, I would have just liked it in textbook format with all the work being done on their own paper in a separate notebook. My kids did learn from the program, but it was far too parent intensive and far too convoluted. You will need at least one of the Teacher’s Guides. I won’t be continuing this program. Even if I wanted to, I can’t. They released Volume 1 of 4 last year but haven’t released Volume 2 yet. I have such mixed feelings on this program. Some of it is SO good. But then some of it is SO bad.

I kept my third grader signed up for Explode the Code online. I absolutely love that program. It has worked so unbelievably well for him. He enjoys it. It challenges him. He is finishing up the program now, so he won’t be using it next year. I’ll be looking at buying it again for our rising first grader, though.

History
Our history years aren’t lining up smoothly because we spent longer than a school year on Ancient history. We use Story of The World. This year, we started a history co-op with some other families in our church. That slowed us down considerably, so we didn’t finish a full year of history this year either. We finished up Story of The World 2 and then moved into Story of the World 3. We tried the audio version of Story of the World 2, but the kids hated it. They did not like listening to the CDs. So, we went back to me reading it to them from the book. When we started Story of The World 3, I added interactive notebooks. It would have worked well for just my kids, but in the co-op setting, it got a little hectic. We will be continuing Story of The World 3 next year, but these two will be moving into the Logic stage, so they will be adjusting how they do history. (Technically, the Logic Stage begins in 5th grade, but my kids needed an extra year of writing and grammar before they could really tackle outlines and summaries.)

Science
We found a really awesome Science curriculum that works alongside Story of The World so well. Berean Builders Science is chronological science, studied by scientist and discovery. That has made so much more sense to my kids and given them a better understanding of how we come to know what we know. I’ll admit, they watched a few too many documentaries that had distorted their view of science. Because each documentary presents everything as fact, not theory. Then the documentaries would contradict one another or come from an atheistic world view. My kids became super skeptical and I was having difficulty drawing them back into the subject. The Berean Science books have been perfect to hook them back in. We started using Science in the Scientific Revolution along with Story of the World 3. There are experiments to better understand the discoveries made. It has been awesome. The kids love it, they are actually engaged, and they better understand the scientific process and how new discoveries change the way we see the world.

Handwriting
I have never used a proper handwriting program. However, my kids really needed it. They were having a lot of trouble writing clearly enough to communicate their ideas. So, I opted for an actual handwriting book. I chose Patriotic Penmanship. I liked the selected quotes. I decided to keep my third grader in print writing because he was only 7 and he needed some reinforcement on the proper way to make letters. One of my fifth graders did introductory cursive and the other did her proper grade. The workbooks are great. I had them work on a two page spread, one lesson, each week. Day one they would just practice making a letter. Day two they would practice key words. Day three they would work on a full phrase or two. Day four they would write the entire quote. It didn’t take more than a few minutes each day and I simply asked for very hard work for those few minutes. All of them have improved their handwriting significantly with just a little work each day. I will definitely be ordering Patriotic Penmanship workbooks again this year. Each child needs their own workbook as they are consumable.

Bible
For our Bible study for the older kids, we used Herein Is Love: Genesis. This one has a lot more lessons in it than the Leviticus book. The kids really enjoyed it and I think they learned a lot. It does a great job of weaving the whole story into the beginning story.
For the Little Guys, we used the Jesus Calling Storybook. I was not as in love with this Storybook Bible as I was with the Jesus Storybook Bible. It has little notes from Jesus, but they are worded oddly and it makes it a little difficult to follow in a read aloud format. But the kids liked it and they did learn.

Geography
We used my Operation World geography plan. It went really well. It helped open my kids’ worldview and show them more than what is outside their front door. I was really happy with how it went and will continue it next year.

Kindergarten
I purchased Alpha Tales and Phonics Tales at Costco for the little guys. We did not get into the Phonics Tales. It will really be a toss up this year if we do that book or The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Reading. I’m not sure which will work better for these guys.
I also signed them up for ABCMouse.com mid year. They have loved it. They can use their tablets to play. I signed up for the assessments, as well, but found that portion pretty worthless.

Reading
I basically let the kids pick what they wanted to read this year instead of using the reading list from Well Trained Mind. Turned out, that was a mistake. Well, the kids really loved reading, but they essentially spent the year reading junk books. I did strongly suggest a few classics that they did read and enjoy. The third grader loved the Roald Dahl books we have and finished all the Magic Treehouse books we own, plus ventured over to the Imagination Station books. The fifth graders read Peter Pan and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. They also read some Judy Bloom. But they did read a bunch of Goosebumps books and other junk type books. Next year, I’ll separate the required reading and the fun reading a bit more.

I kept track of everything in a composition notebook that I used like a bullet journal for schooling. This helped the planning significantly. I’ll be doing the same again because it worked so well. Though I’ll likely opt for a real bullet journal this year. (I’ve been using a bullet journal for a class I am taking and another one for the upcoming 2018 year. I’m liking the customization so much more than a standard planner. I also have one that I’ve been using alongside my 2017 planner for notes and things. I do like having separate planners for each of those areas, since I feel like everything together just gets too cluttered.)

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Epiphany Family Devotion

December 26, 2016 by notesfromtheparsonage Leave a Comment

We celebrate Christmas for 12 days and then comes this day we call Ephipany. Some people call it Three Kings Day. We tend to think of the kings, be they three or not, and think about the gifts they brought Jesus. They brought significant gifts, as we will read. But the gifts aren’t exactly what we are celebrating on this day.

Read Matthew 2:1-12

We aren’t sure where the kings were from, simply that they were from the east. These were not Jewish men. They were Gentiles, simply meaning, they were from outside Israel. These wise men followed a star to Jesus. We don’t know exactly when they came. We don’t know their names. We just know they heard a prophesy, saw a star, and came to Jesus with gifts.

Now, the gifts themselves were significant. Not traditional baby gifts, by any means. What kind of gifts would you give a baby? (Pause for discussion.) The wise men brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh. What strange gifts. Gold for a king. Frankincense for a priest. Myrrh for a dead man. But the gifts aren’t what is important here. What they reveal about the giver is what we celebrate on Epiphany.

Epiphany is defined as being a moment of sudden revelation or insight. It is from a Greek word that means Reveal. At Epiphany, we see Jesus being revealed to people outside of Israel. Epiphany is about Jesus being revealed to the Gentiles, the world. He isn’t just going to be the king, priest, and savior of Israel. He is going to be king, priest,, and savior of all men. The gifts given reveal to us that the Kings, the Wise Men, knew who Jesus was and that He had come to save mankind, not just the nation of Israel.

So, today, we celebrate! Not only has Jesus been born, He has been revealed to the whole world. Not only did Jesus come to save His own people, the people of Israel, He came to save all mankind. He came as a King, Priest, and Savior for the whole world! Rejoice!

Carpet Cleaning with Young Living Thieves Cleaner

March 13, 2014 by notesfromtheparsonage 36 Comments

Is carpet cleaning possible with Young Living Thieves Cleaner? Yes! I’ll show you how and give you the pros and cons of using Young Living Thieves Cleaner on your carpets.

Let’s Talk Carpet Cleaning

Some of you recall that I have posted about carpet cleaning before. Once again, I’m telling you how to clean your carpets.

I now have 5 kids ages 7 and under. We homeschool, so we spend most of our days here in this house on this cheap rental home carpet. (Still dreaming of owning my own home one day so I can be rid of carpet- at least in the main areas of my home.)

I also have 2 dogs. (One is small and is now senile. He has taken to marking his territory in the house. Fun, right? Anyone want a small senile dog? Just kidding! One is a large English Sheepdog. He tracks in mud on his massive, hairy paws.) I clean my carpet often. Way too often. (Spot cleaning constantly thanks to the senile dog and the toddler.) And while my Oxiclean system works really well, I always holdout hope for a more natural product. (Especially since I have a little one crawling around on it all the time.)

Young Living Thieves Cleaner

I was introduced to Young Living oils a few months ago. They have an all natural cleaning product called Thieves Cleaner. It is a multi-purpose cleaner for everything from countertops to hands to floors to windows to laundry. It does it all.

Of course, my first thought upon buying a bottle was, “I’m going to put this in my steam cleaner and see what it’ll do for my carpets.” I’ll go ahead and give you my pros and cons up front and then go step by step though carpet cleaning with Thieves Cleaner.

Pros of Carpet Cleaning with Young Living Thieves Cleaner

First, this cleaner is all natural. No chemicals. There arenNo harsh fumes. No RINSING necessary. And no worries about baby crawling around on it.

Second, because of that no rinsing bit, this is much faster than my traditional OxiClean route.

Third, your carpets will feel softer when they dry using Thieves Cleaner than using OxiClean.

Fourth, it smells amazing.

Fifth, it kills germs and viruses and fungus.

Cons of Carpet Cleaning with Young Living Thieves Cleaner

Now, this is not going to get your carpet as super duper white as OxiClean, Dawn, and tea tree oil. If you’ve got thick gummy gunk in the carpet, you may want to go the OxiClean route. I personally now view the OxiClean routine as my heavy duty carpet cleaning and this Young Living Thieves oil as my routine, most-of-the-time carpet cleaning.

This is also not the cheapest carpet cleaning method. OxiClean and Dawn are cheaper than Young Living Thieves Cleaner.

Carpets before cleaning with Young Living Thieves Cleaner

Step One Carpet Cleaning with Young Living Thieves Cleaner

Clear out all the furniture. Yes, you need to. And this picture is why. I found about a dozen empty fruit snacks wrappers from some sneaky little person. I also found random toys, papers, rubber bands, buttons, change, a glow stick, a straw, several crayon nubs… you get the picture. (And this is even with pulling out my couches weekly to clean under them!) If you don’t move your furniture, all that stays hidden.

Also, if you have pets- they tend to mark their territory on chair legs, table legs, side of the couch, etc. You may not even know they’re doing it. So, if you don’t move the furniture, you won’t get to all of that. Plus it is just easier to clean a big empty room than clean around stuff.

In a pinch, I have cleaned around the furniture. But I wouldn’t make it a habit.

Carpet before carpet cleaning with Young Living Thieves Cleaner after vacuuming and cleaning all the kid trash up.

Step Two Carpet Cleaning with Young Living Thieves Cleaner

Vacuum. Note my before picture. You’ll see chocolate milk stains, turmeric stains, jello stains, slime stains, muddy dog feet stains, probably dog pee, something red, and something blue. And yes, I cleaned this carpet in full less than 2 months ago.

Step Three Carpet Cleaning with Young Living Thieves Cleaner

Now, add one capful of Thieves Cleaner into each fill of clean water in your steam cleaner. It does foam a little, so add the water (preferably hot) and then the cleaner. Steam clean the entire room. I used 4 fills of my steam cleaner (4 capfuls). Then I used my upholstery attachment and spot cleaned the stains that didn’t want to let go. (This is different from my OxiClean routine where I scrub the spots with Dawn.) Since this is an all natural cleaner, it leaves no residue, so I have no reason to rinse the carpet. And I’m done. Like that. That fast.

Carpet cleaned with Young Living Thieves Cleaner - after picture with small rat terrier

Carpet Cleaning with Young Living Thieves Cleaner Results

Chocolate milk stain- gone. Probably dog pee- gone. Slime and jello- gone. Tumeric- still there. (This turmeric has been in my carpet for over a year now. Even a professional carpet cleaner couldn’t get it out. Moral of the story- keep turmeric laden foods off your carpeted areas.) Red stuff- gone. Mud- gone. Blue stuff- gone. Bright and shiny carpet again.

Let your carpet dry fully before you put your furniture back.

Now, more shout out about this Thieves Cleaner- I used it to then clean my brick fireplace, baseboards, windows, back door, outside windows, kitchen countertop, and coffee table. And I cleaned all that with one capful of cleaner. My bottle is still about 3/4 full! Now that is awesome.

**Disclaimer- Using any cleaner in your steam cleaner other than the brand your steam cleaner company makes will void the warranty. I want my carpet clean and don’t care how I have to get it that way. Warranty schmarranty. You, however, might care. And now I have informed you. Do as you wish with this disclaimer. **

**This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a small commission off of purchases with these links. They do not cost you more to use.**

Child’s Half Gardening Apron Tutorial

May 28, 2013 by notesfromtheparsonage 2 Comments

For the little lady’s birthday, she had a gardening party. I grabbed fabric to make her an outfit and then after her outfit was made, I realized I had lots of extra fabric. The boys were asking me if they got aprons, so I decided to make all the kids a half apron as a party favor. (They also got a little pot of lavender seeds they each planted.) Really, I’m not usually so crazy when it comes to parties. I blame pregnancy for making me do these things. The aprons are super easy to make. I made 12 with 1 yard of the blue dots, 1 yard of red dots, and 1/2 yard of each green solid and yellow solid. (And I did still have fabric leftover.)

Here is what you’ll need:

fabric

ribbon (I used random scraps I had.)

clips (I had a bunch of pacifier clips that I bought on Etsy.)

Cut your rectangle for the apron front 12-15″ wide (depending on what scraps you have) and 8-10″ tall. Cut the waistband 2″ x the width of the fabric. Cut a small length of ribbon to make a loop for the clip. (It can be anywhere from 4″-8″.)

First, finish the sides and the bottom of the apron panel.

Next, attach the looped ribbon with the clip attached to the top left of the apron panel. Just sew it close to the edge so the waistband will cover it.

Now, take your 2″ strip of fabric and iron in half. Tuck the cut ends toward the center and iron. (You now have double fold tape.) Line up the center of the strip with the apron panel. Sandwich the apron panel into the waistband strip. Sew along the open edge all the way to the end. (I start at the apron panel, sew to the end, then flip and sew from where I started to the other end.) Tie a knot in the end of the strip.

Done.

Clip a paper towel or rag to the clip when gardening for hand wiping.

Make these to give away, to use, to sell- just make sure you share the free tutorial!

Mr. Bean Rides the Escalator

April 12, 2013 by notesfromtheparsonage 4 Comments

My son, Aidan, is an interesting character. He is kind of a mix between Mr. Bean and Jim Carrey (more Ace Ventura than anything else). As you can imagine, parenting such a character can be tough work. Or hilarious work. Not sure which it is more heavily. Depends on the day, I guess. (And how long I’ve been listening to the butt talking.) But there are some Aidan stories that leave me laughing, quite hysterically, much later. This is one of those stories. (And seriously, every single time we are getting on an escalator, I’m laughing so hard I am crying remembering Aidan’s first time on a escalator alone.)

So, we’re at the mall. All of us. I’ve got the baby, The Pastor has the toddler, and we’re asking the two oldest to please use the escalator alone for just this once because we do not want to walk all the way to the elevator. Imogene is nervous, but feels up to the task. I’m going to go first, so I can help verbally getting them off at the top. So, I get on the escalator with the baby. I turn and verbally help Imogene jump on. She’s a good 2 or 3 steps below me because it took some time to work up the nerve. Now, it is Aidan’s turn.

Now, imagine an episode of Mr. Bean where Mr. Bean rides an escalator. Now multiply that by 10 and you have what follows. So, Aidan first steps onto the escalator with one foot. That foot begins to rise with the escalator while the other is firmly planted on the ground. (Keep in mind, the Pastor is behind him giving him verbal instructions. And at this point, I am almost halfway up the escalator.) Once he gets to a splits position and begins rising with the escalator, he starts to panic. He is scrambling around trying to figure out what to do. At no point does it occur to him to stand up, despite The Pastor being behind him on the escalator now saying, “Just stand up before we get to the top, buddy.” Aidan is scrambling. I’m at the top by now, helping Imogene off the escalator. We are watching Aidan freaking out and rolling around on the escalator trying to figure out how he is going to get off at the top. About 3/4 of the way up, he decides he has the perfect riding position for the rest of the ride. So he rolls over on his back on one of the steps with both legs and arms straight up in the air like a dead opossum. And there he lays, waiting to reach the top. The Pastor is a few steps down from him holding the toddler, telling Aidan to get up. I’m laughing so hard I cannot be of any help. Aidan reaches the top, on his back. He then rolls over and crawls away from the escalator, where he stands and pumps both arms in the air declaring victory over the dreaded escalator. “I did it! I did it all by myself!”

That is just one tiny glimpse into parenting Mr. Bean. I have tried so many times to relay this story verbally, and I cannot do it. I just laugh too hard to even speak.

Drawstring Spring Pants Tutorial

March 28, 2013 by notesfromtheparsonage Leave a Comment

My boys often like to point out that I do not sew enough for them. So, for Easter, I decided to sew a little more for them than their usual tie. (Although tutorial for the tie is coming soon, too.) I made them these drawstring spring pants. You could make these for girls, too. They are not boy exclusive.

You’ll need:

– elastic

– one length of main fabric

– half a yard of contrast fabric

First, you’ll want to measure your boy. (Or your three boys.) You’ll need a waist measurement, a crotch measurement (from the front waist band between the legs to the back waistband), an inseam measurement, and an out seam measurement.

Once you have all your measurements, you’re ready to start! I like to draw everything out and write in my measurements. (All my seam allowances are 1/2″ unless I say otherwise.)

Waist- Divide the boy’s waist measurement by 4, then add an inch for seam allowance. These are loose fitting pants, so no need for perfection. (For Emery, his waist was 19.25″. I rounded that up to 20″ divided by 4 would be 5″ add an inch for a 6″ pattern line.

Crotch- Divide the crotch measurement in half. Emery’s was 14″. Half of that would be 7. Add an inch for seam allowances. Now mine is 8″.

Length- On the main fabric, you’re going to make the length 2″ shorter than what you actually want. So, Emery needed 19″ outseam. Take 2″ away and the main fabric is 17″. (You’ll be adding a 4″ strip of contrast fabric that will make up for those 2″ plus seam allowances.) I use my inseam measurement as a double check to make sure they are going to be well fitting.

If you don’t want to go through all this math, you can just grab a pair of pants that fit your boy right now and trace them, leaving enough room for seam allowances. I prefer to write out my own pattern.

Draw out your pattern onto the wrong side of your fabric. Fold fabric in half, then fold in half again so that the outer edge is double folds. You’ll be cutting both legs at once. Measure your leg width so you’ll know how wide to make your contrast cuff. (Mine was 9″.)

I use my Varyform Curve ruler to make the crotch line. The crotch of these pants is an 8″ curve. If you don’t have a ruler like this, you can freehand this curve or you can use a flexible ruler for the curve.

From your contrast fabric:

Cut 2 rectangles for the pant cuffs. 4″ long and the width of your pant leg. (Mine was 9″ on the fold- so each cuff is 4″ x 18″)

Cut 1 strip the width of the fabric and 2″ tall- this will be your drawstring.

Now you should have 2 legs, 2 cuffs, and 1 drawstring piece.

First, sew the contrast bottom cuff (though it isn’t really a cuff, it is just a band of contrast fabric) onto the bottom of each pant leg.

Go ahead and finish this seam.

Now, sew the inseam of each pant leg. Sew both legs. Finish both seams.

Tuck one leg inside the other, matching up the crotch with right sides together. (You’ll flip one leg right side out, then stuff it inside the other leg.)

Sew this seam. Finish this seam.

Fold the top of the waistband over about 1/2″. (You can see here that I serge the top of my pants. If you’re going to be folding the raw edge under, you’ll want a little more than 1/2″ in order to fit 1/4″ elastic in there.) Press it with the iron.

Now that you see where the top of your waistband will be, add a couple buttonholes. If you don’t like buttonholes, you could always add some grommets. I don’t think it is completely necessary to have 2 buttonholes. If you wanted, you could sew one larger buttonhole for both strings to come out of. I think 2 looks a little nicer and holds up better.

Sew the waistband closed. No need to leave an opening, you’ll be feeding the drawstring and elastic through your buttonholes.

Go ahead and hem the bottom of your pants. I find it easier to hem kids’ clothing before elastic goes in, so it lays as flat as possible while hemming.

Make your drawstring! Fold the 2″ strip in half and press.

Tuck the raw edges on each side in toward the fold and press. You can do this one side at a time if that makes it easier for you.

Sew down the middle of the drawstring. I use a zigzag stitch. It is just my personal preference.

Now that you’ve got a drawstring made, it is time to put it into your pants! Grab some 1/4″ elastic. (I used about 18″ for these pants.) Pin the elastic and the drawstring together, with the drawstring on the top. (See my picture.) Make sure you put a pin in the bottom of the elastic and the bottom of the drawstring so you don’t accidentally pull them all the way through!

Insert the elastic and drawstring in through on of the buttonholes with the drawstring on top. (See photo.) Feed it around the waist casing.

When you get to the second buttonhole, go ahead and pull the elastic and drawstring out. With the drawstring out on both ends, put the elastic back in and feed it out the same buttonhole it went in. (See photo.) You want the elastic to be completely hidden inside the waist casing and the drawstring needs to be out each hole.

Sew your elastic together.

Tie a knot in each end of your drawstring. Feed the drawstring through so it is even. Make sure the elastic went into the casing.

And that is it! You’re done.

As usual, make these pants for your boy (or girl). Give them away to a friend. Sell them if you wish. After all, you made them. Just remember to give credit back this way for the free tutorial should anyone ask. Share the free!

Wide Leg Ruffle Pants Tutorial

January 22, 2013 by notesfromtheparsonage 4 Comments

These are my new favorite pants to make for Imogene. These are her new favorite pants to wear. She is a very girl, girl. And my little ballerina has some strong thighs. So she enjoys the roomier wide leg pants. (Plus with the ruffles and the cut, these are very difficult to outgrow pants! And I love difficult to outgrow clothing.) You can make them full length or capri length. (I suggest going full length and then letting them get capri length as they grow. Sneaky mommy move, there.) You can make this in any size. Once you get to around size 7ish, you’ll need 2 yards of fabric because you won’t be able to get a full 2 pant legs in the width. Make them in flannel, and they are pretty awesome pajama pants, perfect for camp, sleepovers, or just princesses who require cute jammies at all times. You can make them in quilting cotton for a cute, boutique look. Make them in jersey for a comfy, classic look. Make them in denim to replace everyday jeans. Make them in lightweight corduroy, canvas, or duck for heavier weight pants.

So, first you want to figure out what size pants you want. If you’ve got someone to measure, measure them! If you don’t have someone to measure, look up the size chart for your favorite kid’s clothing line and use their measurements to figure out the size.

Grab your fabric. You’ll need 1 yard of a single fabric OR 3/4 yard and 1/4 yard. (If you’re making bigger girls pants, you’ll need to adjust your fabric yardage. I make larger ruffles for bigger girls, so I need more than 1/4 yard of contract for the size 6 pants.) You’ll also need some elastic. (I use 1/4″ natural colored flat elastic in kid clothes.)

Here are my lovely notes on making these pants. (These are my 18 month size notes.)

I draw my pattern directly onto the fabric. (This fabric is folded in half, then half again. So the side with the fold is two layers of fold to cut both the front and back at the same size. I measure across 6 inches for the waist. Added an 8″ curve for the crotch (with my vary form curve ruler). Measure 9″ wide for the legs. Measure the length (outseam, so the folded edge side) to 16″. Connect all your measurements.

For size 6: 8″ waist, 11″ curved crotch, 10″ leg width, 22″ outseam. (Plus a 5″ x 36″ ruffle for each leg.)

If you don’t want to make the pattern, you can fold and trace a pair of pants. Just make sure you extend the height a little at the top for folding over the elastic and add some width to make them wide leg. Plus, don’t forget your ruffles!

Speaking of ruffles, cut some. For the 18 month pants, my ruffles were 4″ x 24″. If you want them more ruffled, add width. If you get too ruffle crazy, it can be difficult to get them to lay down.

Now you have all these pieces. 2 pant legs. 2 ruffles. (The green behind my fabric is fleece. I got tired of hauling my ironing board up and down 2 flights of stair every time I needed to sew. And The Pastor didn’t want to buy another one because who needs 2 ironing boards?! So, I put a few layers of green fleece on the dresser in my sewing room and I iron there. Not as convenient as a sewing board, but it works.)

Sew the inseams of you pant legs with the right sides of the fabric together. Finish them, too. (Serge. Pink. Zigzag. French seams. Whatever it is you do.)

Take each ruffle and with right sides together, sew the short ends together. (Not pictured.) Go ahead and hem the bottom of each ruffle. (It is so much easier to do the hem now when you have one long loop rather than trying to properly hem it when it is all gathered and flaring.)

If you were wondering, this is what the inside of my hems look like. I serge, then I fold them over and sew. I like to zigzag my hem. It makes it look more special than just a pair of pants you’d find in the store. It screams “custom” to me. (Plus, on kid clothes, it adds a little bit of whimsy.)

Turn one leg right side out and stuff it inside the other leg. Pin together around the crotch, matching the inseams. (The first time I made a pair of pants, it took me FOREVER to visualize this in my head. I spent almost an hour trying to figure out how to sew it to get the seam the way it should be.)

Sew the crotch. Finish it, too! Flip the pants right side out.

Sew a basting stitch around the top of your ruffle. (A basting stitch is just setting your straight stitch as long as the stitch length will go and sewing close to the edge.) Pull the basting stitch to gather the ruffle. Distribute the ruffles evenly around.

Pin the ruffle right side to the right side of the pants.

Sew. Make sure you’re sewing further in than the basting stitch. (The basting stitch should be closer to the edge, so it won’t show.) Always sew with the gathering on top of the flat piece of fabric. Otherwise, your flat piece will inevitably end up not so flat. Remove the pins as you sew. Don’t sew over pins. You’ll snap a sewing machine needle into your eye.

Now you should have a ruffle on your pant leg. Repeat for the other leg.

Now that both ruffles are on. (And both are hemmed, since you did that earlier.) Press the waist of the pants down to form the elastic casing. (I serge mine first, then press it down so it is finished when I sew the elastic casing down. If you DO NOT have a serger, you’ll want to press it down, then tuck the bottom up toward the fold and press again. Make sure the finished casing will hold your elastic!)

Sew the waist down, leaving a small opening to feed the elastic in. (I do not like to sew the waist of pants with a zigzag. It tend to break on a waistband being pulled on. I use a straight stitch for the waist.)

Feed your elastic into the casing.

Make sure you SAVE your elastic end. Put a big pin on it so it doesn’t accidentally slip though.

Once you get the elastic all the way through, you’ll need to sew it closed. You’ll see above what the elastic stitch on my machine looks like. It is that weird lightening bolt zigzag. If you don’t have this stitch, you can just use your zigzag stitch.

Elastic is sewn closed! Pop it into the casing, then sew the hole in the casing closed.

And you’re done!

As always, do what you want with the pants you made! Keep them, give them, sell them- you made them. However, please share the free. If someone asks how you made them, be kind and point them back here. Don’t try to sell the pattern or keep it some big industry secret. It just isn’t nice.

Half Yard Baby Shower Gift

September 24, 2012 by notesfromtheparsonage 7 Comments

You’ve been invited to a baby shower and you decide you’re going to sew an entire layette or possibly an entire crib bedding set for the new squishy. The you realize, dude, I’ve got four kids of my own and the shower is in a week and I’ve got no time for such ambitious gifts. You need something practical. Something handmade, useful, but quick to make. I give you the half yard baby shower gift! It’ll take you an hour to whip up and you’ll still be the talk of the party.

Or maybe you’re new to sewing and want to sew something but you know you’re skills aren’t up to a smocked christening gown. So do you just buy some old something from the store? No. You sew the half yard baby shower gift! It is perfect for beginners!

The half yard baby shower gift includes 2 burpies, 3 wipies, and 2 drool bibs. What is a burpie? A cuter name for a burp cloth. Great for protecting shoulders, putting under little prone to leak heads while changing diapers or sleeping, good for big baby messes. What is a wipie? A smaller version of a burp cloth. Can be used as a cloth wet wipe, washcloth, face wipe, booger cleaner, drool wiper, etc. Great for smaller baby messes. What is a bib? Seriously? Do you have a baby? Have you seen a baby?

You’ll need a half yard of fabric. (You can use regular quilting cotton or flannel.) If it is going to annoy you having a directional print not quite lined up perfectly, don’t use a directional print. This project leaves no room for fussy cutting.

You’ll also need one cheap (new) bath towel. You can buy the cheapies at Wal-Mart, K-Mart, or Target. (Target’s are the thickest of those three, FTR. So, if you’re a newbie, it might make it more difficult to sew.) I promise one bath towel will be enough. You’ll see that I have 2 different colors of terry in these pictures. Once I got started, I realized I’d already made a couple burp cloths out of the other half of my blue towel. So, I had to grab the half of a brown towel I had from another project.

All laid out, this is essentially what your half yard is going to turn into.

First, iron your fabric. If the ends aren’t straight, straighten them. Also, some places tend to cut a bit bigger than you request. If your fabric shop did this, go ahead and trim your fabric to 18″.

Now, measure and cut 3 burpies. You’ll use the 18″ as the length and cut 10″ wide.

Take one of those burpies and divide it into 3. Mark it along the length at 6″ and 12″. These are your wipies.

Cut the towel to match. I cut the decorative stipe off. If your towel seems small, leave one of the stripes one, just in case you need to use it. I have used the stripe on burpies and bibs. It works fine, I just prefer not to have it. Also, the width of your towel is likely the length of one burpie plus the width of one wipie. To cut the terry, I lay the cut cotton on top and use it as a template. Terry is difficult to mark and it stretches in odd ways when you pin and pull it.

You should have about 14″ of fabric left. Fold this in half and lay a bib template on top. Cutting out two bibs.

I had to turn mine a bit because this Michael Miller fabric wasn’t quite as wide as my Joann’s stuff I used in my first few of these. It fit fine, as you can see, I just have slightly slanted cowpokes. Cut 2 bibs from the towel.

About this bib template. We’re making small newborn type drool bibs. You may have a template you can use. I use on from Sweet Booties. If you don’t have a bib template, here is how you make one. (And save it so you only have to make it once! I keep all my patterns, including those I make, it hanging file folders in milk crates.)

As you can see, my bib template is roughly the size of a regular 8.5″ x 11″ piece of printer paper.

Fold your paper in half and draw a bib shape on half of it (on the fold, so it opens whole). It may take you a couple tries, which is fine, it is just paper. A couple things to keep in mind: Keep the bottom relatively perpendicular to the fold, if you are coming at the fold at an angle, it’ll be pointed or heart shaped when you open it. You’ll loose some of your pattern in sewing space, so keep in mind your finished bib will be smaller than your template. (This mean necklines will be more open, too.)

Cut out your bib shape.

Open your bib template up and see how you like it. If you don’t like it, fix it now. It is much easier to scrap your pattern than try to make it work in fabric. If the paper doesn’t look right, the bib certainly won’t. Do you see how my straps don’t quite touch each other? You want that. When it is snapped, it pulls down and makes a two dimensional piece of fabric into a three dimensional piece of clothing.

As you can see, these two bibs would look much different from one another, but they’d both be fine. The point is to make a little bib this size. How you make the bib is up to you.

Now that you’ve got it all cut out, you’ve got about this much scrap fabric. See, I told you no room for fussy cutting.

Now that you’ve got all your pieces all cut out and ready to go it is time to sew! If you’re an old pro at sewing, sew, turn, and topstitch all of it, add closures of choice to the bibs. You’re done. If you are a beginning sewer, I’m going to go through all the steps for you.

First, with the wrong side of the fabric down on the terry, sew around the edge of the burpie leaving a hole.

See the hole? That is where we’ll turn it right side out. You want to reverse stitch at the beginning and the end. You do not want your seam unraveling as you turn. Also, if you make the hole small, life will be difficult (though not impossible) in 5 minutes. If you make a very large hole, your life might get difficult in 10 minutes when you’re having to line it up and sew it shut.

When you get to the corners:

You stop about where the line going the other direction will start. Eyeball it.

Pick up your foot, but leave the needle down. If your machine doesn’t stop in needle down position automatically, make sure to put the needle down before you lift the foot.

Turn your fabric. (My needle is down, my foot is up.)

Put your foot down. Now continue to sew. See how easy that was? *Confession: There once was a time in my early days of sewing when I would have sewn completely off the edge on one side, cut my threads, sewn the entire edge of the other side, cut my threads, sewn the entire opposite side the the edge, cut my threads, and finished by sewing the entire other side and cut my threads. Such a waste of time. And thread.*

Now that you’ve sewn all the way around and turned the corners like a pro, you’ll need to clip the corners of your fabric. This makes it so you actually have a corner when you flip it. Don’t clip your corners and the fabric will bunch in the corner, making it a round more than a corner. (And it’ll be a devil and a half to sew through.) Just don’t clip your seam!

Now, your burpie looks like this. And you are pretty proud of yourself for making it so nice and pretty. Good job. Now turn it right side out. Through that hole you left.

Ah! I made a fabric blob! Keep turning. It’ll work out. Run your hand along the inside, pushing the seams outward. Push those corners out.

Now press it. Make sure that hole is lining up nicely. Press it well. This is important. Don’t like ironing? Then you should probably avoid sewing because you cannot neglect to press things properly when you sew. (BTW, I burned my arm trying to iron left handed so I could photograph with my right hand. I think I may need a left handed camera.)

Let me stop and talk about stitches before we move forward. See my #00 and my #01? The 00 aligns the needle at the far left of my foot. The 01 aligns my needle in the center of my foot. If you have this option, use it. I use the 00 to sew the inside, then the 01 to topstitch. This way, I know my topstitching is catching the right fabric. If you use the same, be very careful that the hole closes!

Also, I use a longer stitch length to topstitch. It just looks better to me. I sew with a 2.5 stitch length usually. I topstitch with a 4.0 stitch length.

Starting just before the hole, topstitch. You want to be kinda close to the edge but not on the edge. *Confession: This freaked me out when I first started sewing. Topstitching was freaking nerve wracking! I would often sew it too far from the edge, leaving the unfinished edge of my hole hanging out. I often did a double topstitch because I got it wrong the first time. I’d topstitch it too far in, then topstitch again alongside it where it should have been. I claimed I mean to do it. I didn’t. But it always worked out.*

Turn your corners the same way you did for the other side. Leave the needle down, pick up the foot, turn, put down the foot, and keep sewing. Now aren’t you glad you perfected that on the side no one could see? In the corners, if your terry is particular thick or you didn’t clip quite right or if the stars just aren’t aligning for you today, you may have to push the fabric through a bit if it seems stuckish. Don’t freak about it, just push it a bit and it’ll go through and no one will notice your stitches are a bit smaller in length at the particular point because the fabric just wasn’t moving through properly.

Now, you’ve sewn all the way around and you’re coming back to your original starting point! (Which you don’t have to backstitch on, BTW, because we’re sewing over it just a bit.) Oh! Line it up! Quick! Don’t pull too drastically, just guide it so the threads line up! If you’re slightly off, no worries. I doubt anyone will notice. You’ll be a pro by the end of this gift!

See, it lined up! Yay! *deep breath* Sew over the line an inch or so. No need to backstitch at the end.

You did it! Bravo! Now, do the other burpie the exact same way. And those three wipies.

Now those bibs! Okay, now you’ve practiced sewing, turning, and topstitching 5 times. The bibs will be ever so slightly more difficult because they are curved and curves take some patience and practice. Just go slow. Take deep breaths. You can do it. Leave the hole on the straightest part of the bib. I chose the side. Once you get it sewn, you need to clip the curves (shown in the above picture). Clipping the curves on a bib feels like you’re making fringe our of the entire bib. Try not to clip your seams. (If you do, don’t panic. Just keep rolling. It’ll work out.) Turning this will be much more difficult. You can do it. The straps will turn. Just work ’em. Now that you’re turned, press it. Now topstitch being extra careful. Don’t think you’ll be able to manage? You can zigzag the topstitch to make the ever so small mistakes much less noticeable.

Add closure to your bib. I use snaps because I have a snap press. (Not rubbing it in. I do have a snap press.) Don’t use buttons. That is just dangerous. If you don’t have a snap press or snap pliers, use velcro. I had velcro, but it is better than choking a friend’s baby with a button. Don’t use ties. Ties are for bibs from the 80’s. No one has time to tie a bib on a squirming baby. It’ll never get used if you add ties.

Now you’re done! Tie it up in ribbons and present it proudly! If you’ve got more time and a contrasting fabric (or more of the same fabric) you can make 2 or 3 or 4 of these sets. These are items every parent needs plenty of.

As usual, do what you like with this tutorial. Make these to keep, give, sell, whatever. Just give a shout out back to me and don’t take credit for the work (this tutorial) of others! Free crafting for all!