Art Classes Without the Cost or Commitment

YouTube is amazing for how to tutorials on just about anything.  We've learned how to put down faux wood floors and crochet all sorts of things including several blankets, borders, wraps, toys, ornaments, scarves, and appliques. When we need to see how something is done, YouTube is often the first place we turn.

Earlier this year, Sam and I decided we wanted to learn how to become better at painting. I looked in to signing up with several good art classes in our area. But since a big part of the fun of being creative (and of homeschooling for that matter) is pursuing what is most interesting to you and your student, (not to mention the fact that neither of us wanted to commit to being somewhere at the same time every week for any great length of time), we took a fraction of the money we would have paid to an instructor and spent it on our own art supplies after finding a great teacher for free on YouTube.

 Amy Pearce has got be our favorite online art teacher so far. You can also follow her on Facebook under Her Art From The Attic as well as Mr. Otter Art Studio-Free Children's Art Classes. We love her teaching style as well as being able to choose what we will learn to paint, when we feel like painting! I definitely recommend giving some of her lessons a try. You don't have to spend much at all to paint with acrylics. You can find small bottles for less than a dollar each at Hobby Lobby and they contain plenty enough paint to get you started! :)

Here are some pics of a few of the messes we've made over the past several months:

Disclaimer: In case you wanted to paint the Gerber Daisies, that tutorial was from a different instructor. Her video was very long, and a little less helpful for an active 8 year old, in my opinion. I chose to watch that one ahead of time and then just passed on the basic info to Sam when we pulled out the paints.

The Other Side of the Rainbow

  It occurred to us that we never showed you the soft rainbow fleece on the fuzzy side of Sammy's quilt. So here's a quick look! :)

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

  Now that Sammy is getting more comfortable using the sewing machine (and Mama is getting more comfortable letting her), we have been on the lookout for projects that go well with the many, many pieces of scrap material we have tucked away. Yesterday we finally found a use for the squares of rainbow material which were given to Sammy last summer, when we came across this tutorial for a simple quilt! We also used up the piece of rainbow fleece I was given a few years back, as well as the remaining batting I had purchased when we made these American Girl doll sleeping bags. 

Here are some pictures of Sammy in action:

After we turned the quilt and Mama whip stitched it closed, we decided it deserved some fancy buttons instead of a plain knot in each rainbow patch. So we put an end to pajama day, got dressed, and ran to Hobby Lobby where we found some great glittery butterfly buttons! In all, we only had to spend $1.79 to make this fantastic, oh so very Sammy, quilt (which we finished just in time for bed)!

DIY Denim Maxi

  Even when you're homeschooling, back to school still means new clothes. One thing on our lists of clothes we wanted to find was a long denim skirt. You would think those would be easy to find. But the ones in Mama's sizes were not her style. And the ones in Sammy's sizes were generaly super crazy short! So we gave up looking and made our own from some old jeans. ;) Way easy. Here's the link to make your own denim maxi.

Banking 101

  In an earlier post we mentioned that we do not give an allowance but that Sammy was still able to have her own spending money to use at a rummage sale last month.  We thought we would explain a little more about how she is learning to manage money.

We had tried a few different ways of helping Sammy learn to do her chores, be helpful to others, and understand how to handle small amounts of money.  But in January this year, we heard of a book called Stewardship Street available from Doorposts, that seemed to cover all these topics in exactly the right way for us. 

When the book came in the mail we were able to use the patterns included, along with 7 empty cartons that we'd collected, to get started.

We made a royal mess of the office floor that day! But it was time well spent and we had a lot of fun decorating the banks together.

The idea of Stewardship Street is to decide what categories are important for your family's use of money, and make a building shaped bank from the empty carton that will correspond with that category.  For example, we have a church for our tithe and a 2 story house for Sammy's future household savings. The building and loan is her long term savings such as a car or college courses, etc. The art shop is her fun money that she can spend however she wants (though while she is still learning, Mama and Daddy get the last word on whether her purchase is a good decision or not). We also have a home with a broken window to save money for helping others, a gift shop for short term savings such as Christmas gifts for friends, and the clothing store is for living expenses.  Obviously she is not buying her own clothes right now, but she can use that savings for new socks or a shirt or belt she likes from a garage sale etc.

We left the back of each bank open to make it easier to deposit and withdraw her earnings.

Sammy doesn't get paid for every job she does. We made a list of chores she is expected to do because she lives here.  Those include making her bed,  tidying her room and bathroom, and feeding the pets daily.  If she does not do her basic chores, she gets fined from her fun money bank!  (Ouch!)

We made another list of Service Opportunities where she would be helping Mama or Daddy by doing some chores we try to stay on top of ourselves, such as loading and unloading the dishwasher, emptying all the trashcans in the house, or clearing the trash out of Mama's car. If she does a job from the Service Op. list, but complained or had to be reminded to finish it, she is still paid the set wage.  But if she does that job with a good attitude or without even being asked, we pay her double the set wage to encourage a good attitude towards helping others and taking initiative when she sees something needs to be done.

Mama records Sammy's daily earnings and every Monday is pay day.  We add up Sammy's earnings together, and divide it according to the percentages we have set up for each category.  We liked the format shown in the the book and so did not need to change any of the categories or percentages listed for our family.

Then Sammy practices counting out the correct change for each bank.  As she gets older, the pay and chores will increase. But it is surprising how much money she has been able to tuck away week by week so far.

(Honestly, we don't wear PJ's all the time, although you wouldn't know that from the last few posts!)

We really like this method so far. We've only been using it since mid January this year, but HIGHLY recommend it! 

Rummage Sale

There is a church we pass every week on the way home from the grocery store. Recently, we saw a sign posted near their driveway advertisng a rummage sale they would be holding.  Sammy and I have never been to one of those before so we decided we would get up early the day of the sale to check it out together.

Sam worked extra hard that week volunteering for any paid job that she saw needed to be done around the house in order to have some pocket money for the sale.  She made sure not to neglect her "just because I live here" chores, so that she would not be fined.  (Because we can't just be diligent only when we're getting paid to be)!

There were a lot of different things for sale and they all had super low prices.  We meant to take a few pictures while we were there, but our hands were full of all the fun stuff we found.  Instead, we ended up taking pctures when we got home.

We found this pretty wreath that still had the store tag on it.  It also had pacifiers, pins, and "It's a girl!" ribbons on it.  But we both thought it would be nice for spring, so we just cut the baby decorations off when we got home and saved them with our gift wrap and ribbons.

I also found an unused Toddy Cold Brew System, including the instructions manual and 2 extra filters, for only a dollar!  A dollar people!  I snagged that for one of my sisters (you're welcome, Becky), since I love the one that was given to me a few years ago.

All of my other finds were Christmas related. I found an old cotton table cloth that I LOVE, for $1.  It has a wee coffee or gravy stain in the center, but it's so small that a candle could easily cover it.  I also found a Christmas table runner for 50 cents that would do the job just as well.

We both loved these two little pails and Sammy is already planning to fill them with cookies next Christmas.

My final pick was a bag of small wooden ornaments that reminded me of some we had on our tree when I was little. Sammy and I both agree, the snowman on the shooting star is the best!

Sammy came home with an armful of goodies herself.  And best of all, she got it all for less than $1!

Her favorite find was the pink bunny, but she also really likes the fairy palace pop up book and the little red striped vase which she uses as a tumbler.  It only cost her a nickel.

That was definitely a fun morning!