Friday, April 25, 2014

Rehab Addict

"No one will ever be able to give me a good enough explanation as to why perfectly good stuff ends up in a dumpster."

-Nicole
(Rehab Addict)

I love this show. I agree with her 100%. 
Here's some dirty shots of my own from the week. 








And if you haven't heard, my labels came in!! I'm prepping for a huge craft fair on May 10- the Seabury Hall Craft Fair. Stoked I get to use these labels in time for that event. 


And finally tonight, here's a sneak peak at my #friday4 on Instagram!


Aloha, Rebecca

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Monday, April 21, 2014

A thought about vintage

Here's a quote from one of my recent posts. It's been stuck in my head ever since I wrote it... So here it is in a "pin-able" format:


Silly, I know. 
Things have not been very sane the past week here. On Thursday I got the stomach flu out of nowhere. 8 hours later it hit Kit. Luckily Ivy was spared from the mayhem. By Saturday morning Kit was pretty much better, but of course my immune system hates me and takes forever to recuperate. It's Monday and I still haven't eaten a full meal. Blech. The whole Easter weekend is a blur. I can't tell what was a dream and what really took place. As far as I'm concerned, nothing took place. I haven't been that "unavailable" in a long time. Here's a few things I do know: 

I know my mom held my hair out of my face for 6 hours because I insisted she do it. Kit finally sent her home around 11pm. God bless them. 

I know that it's essential to remind your dear hubby that you have to add vinegar to the Easter egg dye, after your little one has torn up the instructions. 

I know that the church Easter dance went on as planned and Ivy did awesome! 


I now know that ivy doesn't like jelly beans, as that is the only candy I put in her Easter basket. 

I know that I bought ivy toothpaste and mouthwash for her Easter basket while I was at the pharmacy getting anti-nausea meds. And she LOVED it. (The mouthwash, not the meds). 

I know that Ivy might not believe in the Easter bunny anymore because when she got the mouth wash, she said, "Dad said YOU got me mouthwash."

I know that I'm surrounded by people who love me because even though I didn't do a thing this weekend, Easter still happened, Christ is Risen, and I've got two smiling faces surrounding me. 


Aloha, Rebecca
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Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Reality Show Tuesday

For those of you who read yesterday's Sight Words post, This is what our morning reading lesson actually looked like this morning:



And in between words she insisted on showing me eschappe's and speaking to me using quotation fingers. (Where did she learn that?!) 


And I had a fight with a pin while making doily garlands. 

This one is for sale on Etsy! (no blood on it, I promise)

And now she's ribbiting. On the table. Time to go!


Aloha, Rebecca
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Monday, April 7, 2014

Teaching Sight Words To Your Pre-Schooler

teaching sight words to kids pre-schoolers

teaching sight words to kids pre-schoolers tracing lettersThe Pre-School question. To send or not to send? Everyone has their own opinion, and everyone has their own circumstances. I went to pre-school. I never ever in a million years thought my child would not be in pre-school at age 4 and a half. But, that's just the way the cards fell, and I'm actually totally okay with it! No matter what your opinion is on the matter, you can always find ways to educate your child at home, or enhance the education they're already receiving elsewhere. 


Ivy is ready to read. But, since she's not in school, no one is teaching her. I guess that's my job! I actually teach dance at a pre-school once a week, so I asked the 4 year old class teacher what I should be doing with Ivy at home for kindergarten preparedness. She was sooo helpful. First, she told me that pre-school is about socialization. So, make sure Ivy is in social situations. (She gets all the free dance classes she wants through my work, goes to library story time, and is at church multiple times a week- CHECK). She said I could also have Ivy start with tracing some letter, number and shape worksheets, which she gave to me. Then she gave me a list of Sight Words. I thought to myself, "yeah, right." How in the world could Ivy possible read the word "two" or "because"? Here is the sheet she gave me: 

teaching sight words to kids pre-schoolers list of

After looking at it, I came up with an order that I wanted to introduce to Ivy
(cause I'm a control freak like that)

teaching sight words to kids pre-schoolers list of

Here are the 7 steps we took in learning these sight words:

1. Create a space to do your sight words
Each morning after breakfast we cleared our dining table, and sat down to learn. It was the same place every day, and signaled it was time to do sight words. 

2. Set a realistic pace
teaching sight words to kids pre-schoolers index cardsI introduced about 4-6 words to Ivy each day. I created my own index cards and introduced them in the order above. I also wrote the next day's words in a different color, just to help differentiate what was new that day. Some days she was super on it and hungry for more words, other days all we could do was review words from past days. You know your child and their limits. You have to be able to "read" your child and then instruct them accordingly.  (At this point, we only went through the 2nd column, because then I moved on to non-sight words, ending in -ab, -ad, -am, -an, etc. I'll do another post about that later. We will go back to the 3rd and 4th column at some point.)

3. This is about memorization, not sounding it out
teaching sight words to kids pre-schoolersThe teacher inside of me wanted to explain everything about every word to Ivy. But with sight words, now is not the time to do that. Hold out a card, read it, make her repeat the word. Move on to the next word. Keep doing this with your 4-6 words for the day until they can say them on their own. Sometimes making them spell it helps to reiterate and remember it better. Tip: before learning new words review the words from the days prior so they feel like they are already succeeding, because they know those words. Also, make sure you mix up the order, otherwise they might memorize what comes next, instead of the word itself.

4. Make it into a game
Ivy liked to put a bunch of the cards out face down, flip them over herself and read them. She felt ownership in that she was in charge of this aspect of her learning. I would also put two cards out, and ask her to point to a certain word. IE: "Point to the word 'she'."

teaching sight words to kids pre-schoolers gamesteaching sight words to kids pre-schoolers games

teaching sight words to kids pre-schoolers games


5. Pull out the difficult words to review at the end
teaching sight words to kids pre-schoolersIf your child continues to struggle with a certain word, help them say it, then put it to the side, and review it at the end. Don't spend too much time making them "get it." You and the child will be frustrated. Ivy still struggles with "who," "my," and "and." Your child will "get it" eventually-- so don't you get discouraged about it!


6. Make Connections
The learning doesn't stop at the dining table where we do our sight words. When you are out and about, look for the sight words you're learning. Kids love to see that these words are actually used in every day places. 

I got these Hello Kitty "learn to read" books at a garage sale and we've been reading them at night for probably the last year and a half. When we started sight words, I took them out and showed Ivy where her sight words were in the book. She loved making that connection. 

teaching sight words to kids pre-schoolers hello kitty books

teaching sight words to kids pre-schoolers hello kitty books

teaching sight words to kids pre-schoolers hello kitty books

7. Advanced: Make sentences!
If your child is ready, they might want to try out reading some sentences with their sight words! 
Here are some examples: 
"he is out"
"I see you"
"who are you"
"she is two"

They also get a kick out of making their own sentences… even if they make no sense, haha.

teaching sight words to kids pre-schoolers

I hope this helps if you're in a similar situation to us! Kids love to learn, and as parents, God gave us the privilege of guiding them through this journey called life. Even if you don't have time to sit down and write out words on index cards, you can turn almost anything into an opportunity to learn! A hug = a lesson in love. A drive = time to talk and sing. A walk to the mailbox = a glimpse into nature or a talk about driveway safety. Make every moment count! 

teaching sight words to kids pre-schoolers list of

Aloha, Rebecca


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Friday, April 4, 2014

Do unto your dining table as you would have your dining table do unto you

Dining Table Hemp Oil FinishYou eat here. You talk here. You might have "school" here. Your kids draw here. You sew here, iron here (well, at least I did, until I made our living room the sewing room). You entertain here. You LIVE here. It's your dining table and it takes a lot of flack from you! And if you're blessed enough to have a real wood dining table, you better treat it right! Do unto your dining table as you would have your dining table do unto you!
It wasn't too long ago that our table was just plain jane wood. Then it got black legs, and a cool antique finish on it's surface. (Click here to see that transformation a little over a year ago). 

Dining Table Hemp Oil FinishWell, here we are a year later, and the awesome antiquing finish has become a little dull and our laziness of not using coasters ALL THE TIME has brought out the worst water rings in all of us. We LIVE at this table! It gets wiped with a harsh eco-friendly cleaner at least once a day! I'm not surprised that it is just tired and worn out. 

Dining Table Hemp Oil Finish
Here it is "before" I attacked it with some light sanding and Miss Mustard Seed's Hemp Oil last weekend. See that bottom section with the light area (where I scrubbed too hard one day) and the water rings? Well, this is right where I photograph my Etsy products, and it was starting to show in my pics!!

Look at these actual shots I have up on Etsy… water rings! Random light spots! It's terrible!

Dining Table Hemp Oil FinishDining Table Hemp Oil Finish

Dining Table Hemp Oil Finish

Dining Table Hemp Oil FinishLuckily I've been working with Miss Mustard Seed's Hemp Oil for a few projects now, and was confident it would give a little revival to this table. 
Dining Table Hemp Oil FinishI sanded a few problem areas and then I just "painted" on the hemp oil with a paint brush.

Dining Table Hemp Oil FinishIvy "helped" in her cowgirl hat, just before she and daddy headed out to an anti-GMO rally. 

Dining Table Hemp Oil FinishIt looks really wet when you first put it on, but after 30 minutes, you wipe off the excess oil. Then you let it "dry" for 24 hours. You can do additional coats at that point, or you can leave it be. 

Dining Table Hemp Oil FinishI actually might add a coat of furniture wax to it for further durability, so the same thing doesn't happen in a year. As you can see on the bottom of the photo, those light areas are still there, because essentially, the antiquing wax was wiped off every time I scrubbed really hard. I should probably re-apply antiquing wax on those spots and then do the furniture wax over it. But other than that, I'm really happy with the new finish. 


Dining Table Hemp Oil FinishSo now we can get back to LIVING at our dining table, without staring at such ugly spots all over. 

Dining Table Hemp Oil FinishHere's a shot of my latest Etsy listing, photographed in the same spot as the pictures up above. Much cleaner looking background! 
So, make sure you treat your table right this week. Even if you don't give it a Hemp Oil finish, maybe just give it a nice eco-friendly wipe down? :)

Aloha, Rebecca
(Here's some shots of us "living" at our table)

Dining Table Hemp Oil Finish girl playing with princesses disneyDining Table Hemp Oil Finish kid sitting upside down at

Dining Table Hemp Oil Finish girl dancing on tableDining Table Hemp Oil Finish biscuits and gravy

Dining Table Hemp Oil Finish girl drinking hot chocolate with marshmallowsDining Table Hemp Oil Finish girl doing homework

Dining Table Hemp Oil Finish kid not eating upside down
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