Saturday Solutions: Mason Jars

My plan was to tell you all about some of ways that I use mason jars around here, with lots and lots of pictures.  BUT, since I live with four young people my camera isn't always in good working order. 

Accidents happen, like last night when SOMEONE dropped my camera on the ground and BROKE it!!!  I am not naming names nor am I upset about this, cause accidents happen (sigh).  I am not even going to bother telling you all how I just can't seem to keep a camera in working order for any length of time (double sigh).  Do they make disposable digital cameras yet??  Any camera suggestions?  I am thinking, how can a person blog with out a camera?

Ok, now that I got that out of my system lets talk about mason jars.  I really do love them, what is there not to love right!!  Here are some of the ways that we use them round these parts, I may not live in the country but at least I can talk like I do.  LOL! 

Soap Dispensers - I recently turned my one and only blue mason jar into an adorable with hand soap dispenser, kinda like this one here... except I have a cute little raggedy piece of fabric tied around mine. 
It is sitting on my kitchen sink and it looks just adorable.

Food Storage - I love to store my oppy-meal (that is oatmeal for anyone that is 5 and under), popcorn kernels, brown rice, and pasta.  I also like to use it for my homemade colloidal silver and kombucha.

Craft Storage - Love to use them to hold, knitting needles, ribbon, beads, buttons, colored pencils and paint brushes.

Drinking Glasses - we have jelly jars, pint and quart sized jar that we drink from.  Actually, I talk a quart of water to bed with me every night, although I never quite finish it.  That might be a good thing otherwise I may not get much sleep. 

Lamp - Yes, I have a mason jar lamp that is filled with buttons.  It sits on my kitchen counter next to the one pile of junk that I allow myself to have.  I have strategically placed the lamp here in hopes that eyes will be drawn to the "cute and adorable lamp" and off of the junk pile.  See, I am one smart cookie! 
The lamp is just a quart sizes jar and a lamp attachment thingy that you can buy at Michaels, AC Moore or if you live out in the country I believe it is Hobby Lobby.  I tied a fat gingham ribbon around the top of the jar because it just needed somethin'.

Canning - Well, kinda.  I have only done this twice and it was appleauce.  I guess taht counts.  we go apple picking at this lovely orchard each fall and we always end up with way more apples then we could ever eat So we made applesauce, in a crockie pot and canned it.  It was yummy, I hope to do it again this year.

Candle Holders - You can stick a candle in the bottom tie some cute ribbon around your jar and call it a day OR you can take a quart sized jar and fill it with something (like right now I have sea shells and water, at Thanksgiving I do water and fresh cranberries or you can just use potpourri) then put a glass votive holder in the jar opening.  Now finish it off with a ribbon, raffita or berry ring around the jar.  These are great sitting on your kitchen counter, in a bathroom or sometimes I will line up three of them as a centerpiece.  Once you have the jars and votive holders you are all set for any occasion.

Really wish I had a camera to show you all a picture of these.  I will have to post a picture once I get a new camera.

Flowers - I would love to tell ya that I fill my mason jars with all the beautiful flowers from the flower garden that I have out back but that just isn't so.  I have concluded that this is just not the season in my life for that to be.  I do however make sure that ours trees are trimmed well enough for me to enjoy all the flowers in my neighbors garden. 
I occasionally put flowers of the store bought variety in mason jars.  Flowers in a mason jar just shout Spring Time!  And you know when your adorable little ones bring you weeds "flowers" from the yard, Mason Jar! 

I have our house decorated our home in a Primitive Country kinda Style (or like Bob Evans as The Hubs says) so anywhere or anyhow I can fit mason jars in here suits me just fine, like I said I love them.

There are a few ideas taht I have found and would like to try with mason jars:

Sewing Kit - A Mason Jar Sewing Kit.  You might wanna check it out, it is made by Martha Stewart so you know it is cute.

Canning - I would love to get into this but I think you need to have a successfully growing garden.  Well, Lord willing there will be next year. 

Gifts - I have never made the Mixes in a Jar, I think I might put some of these together to give out for the holiday.  I also wanna make some Applesauce Cakes in a Jar because they just really sound neat.

Mason jars are so veritile, you can really use them for so many things.  How do you use your mason jars?

2010 - 2011 Curriculum Choices

I finally have all my books for this coming school year in hand or on the way.  Thank you Lord!   Here is what I am planning on using this coming school year:

These are the subjects that we do together as a family:
Bible/History
This will be our 3rd year with My Father's World (MFW).  Bible and History are pretty much woven  together.  We are doing Creation to Greeks this year, which means that we are going to be starting the actual history part of MFW's 5 Year Cycle (last year we did Exploring Countries and Cultures). I am very excited about this because I LOVE HISTORY!  Unfortunately, I did not have this same enthusiasm when I was in school, otherwise I would probably not have spent most of my summer in summer school studying US History.   Aren't you just so thankful for the ways God grows us.  Ok, moving right along....We will be studying the Old Testament, using our Bible and Victor Journey Through the Bible.  We will also be using Ancient World and Streams of Civilization: Volume I for our history resources.  MFW also gives a WONDERFUL list of books to read each week to go along with our weekly topic  They suggest that you allow the kids to read these alone, BUT I have to admit I kinda get my little feelings hurt when they read them with out me.  I really enjoy reading these with them! 

Keys for Kids is little devotional that the kids and I have been enjoying for a few months, I think we will continue this even if we just listen to the audio version during lunch time. 

We are also going to be trying out Mystery of History I - Creation to Christ and the 1st Quarter Folder book that goes with it. 

MFW & MOH are both stand alone curriculum for history, but I am hoping to kinda of intertwine the two.

Science
MFW has us studying creation and the pyramids for science.  We will be using Genesis for Kids for experiments, Dinosaurs of Eden for creation studies, Pyramids to study the science aspects of the pyramids and Archimedes and the Door of Science for ancient Greek sciences.

  

Health
For Health we are going to be reading Prudence with the Miller and working thru the workbook that goes with it.  We are also going to be reading thru a great set of Health readers called How Your Body Works,  Gareth Stevens Publishing.

Music
We will be studying music from Vivaldi, Bach, and Handel. 

Learning hymns and Lord willing, Lil Chef, Computer Girl, and Alpha Boy will all be joining the children's choir at church this year.

PE
This is very non stress for us.  When it is nice out, the kids go run play, jump on the trampoline, ride bikes, race, play tag, etc.  When it is too cold or just not nice outside  I have a few exercise videos they do like
Denise Austin's Fit Kids, Walk the Walk and we even have a really old Tae Bo by Billy Blanks

We also have a Smart Fitness CD by Kimbo that the kids really enjoy.  You will be hearing more about this soon as a review.

Foreign Language
You may remember that we reviewed Olivita Oink's Bilingual Barnyard, well the kids really can't get enough of this SO we are going to be working on this again this year.

We are also going to be starting English from the Roots Up along with MFW.

Art
For art the kids each have a workbook from Abeka, because they really like them. 

I also am going to have the girls work thru Draw & Write Through History. They will be drawing for art and making their own pictures for their history notebooks.

We will of course be doing lots of other fun artsie crafty things too!

Family Read alouds
This could probably be a post all by its little self.  I love books, possibly more than I love crock pots!  I have a weakness for them to be honest.  I have "planned" several books for us to read this coming year, hopefully we will get thru them.  Here they are:

• Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John
• Star of Light by Patricia St. John
• The Tanglewoods' Secret by Patricia St. John
• Summer with the Moody's by Sarah Maxwell - this the 1st in the series,  we are currently reading it.  the kids LOVE it!
• Autumn with the Moody's by Sarah Maxwell
• Winter with the Moody's by Sarah Maxwell
• Spring with the Moody's by Sarah Maxwell
• Grandpa's Box by Starr Meade
• Pearables Vol 1-3
• Hero Tales Vol 2 by Dave and Neta Jackson - we read Vol 1 last year and really liked so I hope to read Vol  2 this year.

These are things that the kids do separately from each other:
Math
Still thinking and praying about Lil Chef's math this year.  We have Math U See's Delta program which focuses on division and we have Mathematical Reasoning Level E from the Critical Thinking Company that we have been reviewing.  Not sure which we will stick with this coming year.  I think I am leaning towards the Critical Thinking math book

Computer Girl is going to be doing Arithmetic 2 and Math Drills from Abeka. 

I will be having the girls using different things to practice their math facts like, Hot Dots Flash Cards, Learning Wrap Ups, Time Tales and online math games.

Language, Phonics & Spelling
The Lil' Chef is going to be using Language B from Abeka, which I found at a used curriculum fair for only $2!!!  I was super excited about this one!  She is continuing with Abeka Spelling for grade 5.

Computer Girl will be using Letter & Sounds 2, Spelling 2 and Language 2 all from Abeka.

I know that alot of people dislike Abeka BUT I feel Abeka has a very strong Language Arts program and produces excellent readers.  I do not however do everything in the teacher manuals, we generally just use the workbooks and sound charts.

Handwriting
Normally, I use Abeka for handwriting but I am reviewing Peterson Directed Handwriting for Cursive for the TOS Crew so we may stick with that.

Reading
I go back and forth  with reading.  Sometimes we do the Abeka readers and sometimes I let the girls pick books that interest them.  This year I am going to do the same.  I really want Lil Chef to read the Noah Webster reader from Abeka and Wisdom and the Millers but other than that I plan to be flexible. 

For Computer girl, she will work in the 2nd grade Abeka readers plus she is going to work on these Bible Phonetic Readers that I ordered her.

Pre K Stuff
Last but not least Alpha Boy, he is going to be working on Hot Dots Jr Cards, Letter of the Week from Confessions of a Homeschooler and ABC & 123 from Abeka.  I am really just going to focus on our letter sounds this year.  He will also follow along for Bible, PE, Music and Art.  He also hangs a bit with us for Science and History. 

Workboxes
We are definitely sticking with our workboxes this year.  They have really helped us to stay on top of things and be more orderly.  We do it a little differently than the Workbox System book.  She has lots of great ideas in the book but we pretty much just work thru our boxes 1-10. 

Menu Plan Monday

I haven't posted my menu plans for a while because well I haven't really really been on the ball with my menus lately.  I have been cooking because everyone still needs to eat.  I just haven't been puttin' love in to it, if you know what I mean. 

On of my besties and I came up with a little plan that I think has inspired me a bit.  We both have the Fix it and Forget it Big Book but haven't really done much with it.  So, we have made a pack to cook at least 1 meal from it a week, really we are shooting for 2 per week but we just wanted to give ourselves a little grace, just in case life happens. We are going to rate each recipe from 1-10 and share any modifications that we made to the recipe.  My sister and possibly a few other friends are supposed to be joining us (note to sister and friends - you all need to get on the ball, love you! )

I also recently got the $5 Dinner Mom  cookbook and I am working on a few more recipes from the Make it Fast Cook it Slow cookbook.  And I got  a new stove, not brand new, just new to me so that also has me in the cooking kinda mood.  Here is what I have cookin this week...

Monday
Lunch - PB & J's w/ cantaloupe
Dinner - For Meatless Monday we has Breakfast Night, nothing real fancy.  The Hubs likes fried eggs on toast with cheese so that is what we had, along with some fruit.

Tuesday
Lunch - Grilled Cheese w/ Peaches and Blueberries
Dinner - Cog Au Vin, can't pronounce it but we are still gonna eat it.  It sounds  super yummy! This is from the Make it Fast Cook it Slow CKBK

Wednesday
Lunch - Dogs and Mac & Cheese with Carrots and Apples
Dinner - Pizza Rice w/ Green Beans.  Everything my buddy and I go thru our cookbooks together via the telephone I am always drawn to this recipe for some reason.  It sounds kid friendly and who doesn't love PIZZA!  This is my 1 of 2 from the Fix it and Forget it Big CKBK.

Thursday
Lunch - Turkey & Cheese Rolls w/ Bananas and Strawberries
Dinner - Salsa Chicken  from Make it Fast Cook it Slow, over Rice w/ corn

Friday
Lunch - PB&J's w/ melon
Dinner - Two Cheeses  Macaroni w/ Piggie's in a Blanket w/ Broccoli. This is my 2 of 2 from the Big Book.  The two cheeses are cheddar and cottage cheese, shhhh don't tell my kids,  some of them do NOT like cottage cheese.  Should be very interesting.   I am so thankful that Trader Joe's now sells crescent rolls! Welcome back pigs in a blanket and veggie pizzas!

Saturday
Lunch - Chicken Nuggets, Applesauce and Peaches
Dinner - Pizza Wrap with Fruit and Carrots.  These are from the $5 Mom CKBK

Sunday
Lunch - Ham & Cheese Melts w/ Fruit
Dinner - Spaghetti w/ Fresh Bread (Lord willing) and Salad.  A friend gave me an awesome recipe for homemade sauce, it is a W O W!!  It is so easy to make.  It is very hard to buy store bought anymore.  I will post the recipe last this week. 


Do you menu plan??

Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed!

Words by Isaac Watts, in  1707; Ralph E. Hud­son wrote the re­frain in 1885

Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For sinners such as I?
[originally, For such a worm as I?]

Refrain

At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!

Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, Thine—
And bathed in its own blood—
While the firm mark of wrath divine,
His Soul in anguish stood.

Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker died,
For man the creature’s sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face
While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.

But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe:
Here, Lord, I give my self away
’Tis all that I can do.



I am so thankful for the saving blood that my savior Jesus shed for me on the cross!  Have you been to the cross? 
You can hear the song here.

Saturday Solutions: Wet Socks for a Fever

Yes, you read correctly, wet socks to bring down a fever. When I was a youngin' my Memo (grandma) used to put wet socks on my feet to bring down a fever instead of using medicine. It usually worked for me. Of course now having my own little people I like to use the wet sock trick on them.


The way it works, according to Memo, is that the wet socks actually draw the fever down and dry the socks. I just use luke warm water to wet them and re wet them as needed. Obviously, with kids and fevers you need to use common sense!! If the child is really bad off I may go right for a fever reducer, or I will try the socks for bit and use the meds only if needed.  If it is a low grade fever or if they are not really bothered by the fever, I will just let it run it's course, this is simply the body's way of fighting infections.

We have been sick off and on thru the WHOLE month of July, unbelievable I know!! As I type Little Bits is laid out napping next to me with his blue and white striped wet socks on. We started getting sick again on Sunday.  Last night at approx 3am he started throwing up and had a fever of 104.5, I just went for the Motrin and he felt much better until about 1pm today. Today his fever doesn't seem to be as high so I am using the socks while he sleeps.  (Update the sock did the trick TWICE!)

Just for the record, I am not a doctor. Just sharing a home remedy that has worked for us. Please use your own discretion with your children.

If you have ever used wet socks on your children or have any other home remedies for fever please feel free to share.

The Whole Picture Game Winner is...

Real Housewife said...


New follower...found you on Workboxes yahoo group

Congrats!  I have an email waiting to go out to you once AOL removes my emailing limit (don't ask!).  You can go ahead and email me your game choice and address if you see this first.  : )
 
Thanks everyone who entered.  I should have another giveaway up before the weekend is over.  I am a little behind as I am fighting a very bad eye infection. 
 
Anyone wanna come clean my house and catch up my blog for me??!!  Anybody at all?? 

TOS Crew - Travel Kits Ebook Review

As I mentioned a little while ago I have joined the TOS Crew for the 2010-2011 school year.  For my first review I got to review the ebook Travel Kits by Donna Rees, which is published by The Old Schoolhouse.  This book couldn't have come at a more perfect time, SUMMER!! 

Travel Kits is a wonderfully informative book about putting together kits for children (and adults) to help them enjoy traveling while occupying them with fun little gifts.  What a great idea!  Ok, you may be thinking I already give my kids a little backpack with some of their toys and snacks in it.  While that is a great idea, this book kicks it up several notches!  Travel Kits has 93 pages chock full fabulous ideas to make kits that your kids are bound to enjoy.

I love how Denise goes into such great detail about ideas to customize the travel kits that you are making for your children or for someone else.  She has wonderful ideas for different themes, car games and she even gives great packaging ideas.

 In the book you will also find some origami instructions that could be copied and included in the travel kits with origami paper for the kids to do.  I thought this was also apretty neat idea!  Something different that kids don't usually get to do.

Not only does she think of the kids here, but she gives ideas for mom too!  (If anyone would like to make a Travel Kit for me I like cookbooks and word games, just in case you were wondering).  This book would be for an older child or adult to read (in my opinion) but the Travel Kits can be made for any age.  Making a travel kit would be a great family project to do for another family that is getting ready to hit the high road.

I actually made a travel kit by going to the dollar store and purchasing NEW goodies to WRAP and I also added a few fun things that I already had.  The travel kit was intended for my 4 year old nephew that was visiting from out of town.  Long story short I didn't get to give it to him because we were all really sick.
I have decided to save the travel kit for my kids to open while driving to our vacation destination next month.   

Here is the Travel Kit that I made...

Isn't it cute!!

Here are some of the items I put in the Travel Kit:

Silly Putty

Notebook

Juice box and Fruit Leather (love this idea!)

Bible Heroe's Cards

Sun Glasses

Scramble Squares Puzzle

Rainbow Crayons

Bible Stories Coloring Book

Jumbo Crayons

24 Piece Puzzle

David & Goliath Audio Book

Jonah Audio Book

I was SUPER excited to find these little bible stories on CD, with a small story book for ONLY $1!!  Like Denise says in the book, the less expenive the items the more items you can put in your travel kit.

The book explains that the child/children can open one goodie say every hour, when they cross a state line or whenever they see a blue car.  

I learned alot of great ideas from Travel Kits and would definilty recommend it.  It was a lot of fun being able to make a Travel Kit to bless someone else.  You can purchase the Travel Kits Ebook from The Schoolhouse Store for $12.45 to get started on yor own Travel Kit.

Please know that we received this product free of charge for review purposes. The opinions stated in this review are our own and we were not paid in any way.

The Imagination Box Giveaway WINNER is....

I used Random.org again, but I can't figure out how to display the picture of the Random Number Generator.  You guys will have to take my word for it :  )  The winner was comment #2

 Tristan said...


The castle of the cottage are my kids top picks.

Congrats Tristan!  Thanks to everyone that entered.  Don't forget to enter The Whole Picture Game Giveaway!

Tristan blogs over at Our Busy Homeschool.  Her blog is where I got the idea to use magazine holders for our workbox system.  We use the 10 drawer carts from Joann's now.

This is how I do it... Product Reviews & Giveaways

I have had several emails from peeps asking me how do I get products for reviews and giveaways.  You know when I first started boggin' (as my Dad calls it) I searched high and low for how to articles on product reviews and never really found much.  I asked around a little and didn't get much of a response so I thought about it.  The best thing I could come up with was to simple ask.  My mama used to always say "all they can do is say no."  

So, that is what I have done.  When I see a product that I think would work well for us, I ask!  Some say yes and some say no.  I have to say, most say yes, most are thrilled to have you promote their products.  Many are even thankful, they are happy to have you help them out by spreading the word about their products.  You have to remember, not only are they blessing you, but you are helping them out too! 

Some of the companies have said no for reasons like , we don't do reviews, we have already sent out review items for the year or they want me to have a minimum of 500 followers, stuff like that. 

To request a product review I will go to the companies website and look the owner, sales/marketing director or someone that seems to be in charge.   I will then email them and politely introduce myself and my blog, with a link of course.  I just simply ask them to please consider us for doing a product review and giveaway on our family blog.  I have not once had any one be rude or nasty about me emailing them, the worst that has happened is they have very nicely said no or they have just ignored me. 

So where do I find stuff?  Well, two places that have been great for me are the TOS Reviews Site and Homeschool Conventions Vendors lists, the companies here are usually either homeschooler friendly or they are products for homeschoolers.  Also, I have found items from other bloggers.   Another idea that I had was to have cards or a little flyers made up and pass out at any homeschool conventions you go to, didn't actually get this far this year but I might do it next year.

I am on the TOS Crew this year and will have products to review thru them.  I am going to be posting my 1st review with them later this week, so stay tuned!  I believe their try outs are Jan/Feb'ish.  Hope this helps!!

Anyone else have any tips they wanna share?

Before the Throne of God Above

Written by Charitie L. Bancroft, 1863


Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great high Priest whose Name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in Heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.

Behold Him there the risen Lamb,
My perfect spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
The King of glory and of grace,
One in Himself I cannot die.
My soul is purchased by His blood,
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ my Savior and my God!

 
I never knew this was an old song!  If you would like to hear the song, here is the original version.   You can hear a more current version here.  And here.

The Whole Picture Game Review & GIVEAWAY!

I have another great product to tell you about from PlayAbility, it is called The Whole Picture Game.  This game is a matching game with a puzzle like twist.  Everyone starts out with a game board and a picture card.  After mixing up the 36 playing cards, the players take turns trying to find card matches to there picture card. 
Each game board has picture wholes that match up with the cards, making the picture complete. 

 

  

The Whole Picture game is geared for children ages 4 and up.  One of the great things about this game is that up to 6 people can play at a time, a big plus for larger families!  Not only is this game FUN,  it is EDUCATIONAL!  Check out all the skills they work on just by playing the game:

• Matching Skills
• Word Recognition
• Hand-Eye Coordination
• Problem Solving
• Fine Motor Skills
• Visual Discrimination

The children enjoy playing this game, especially Alpha Boy and Computer Girl.  This would be a great game for the kids to play during the school day for a little academic break. I am also going to also put this is Alpha Boy's workboxes to practice his matching skills. 

 

 

PlayAbility has two versions of the The Whole Picture Game, there is On the Farm and Goin' Places (this is the one we reviewed).  You can purchase your own Whole Picture game from PlayAbility for only $12.99.

PlayAbiltiy is at it again!  They are giving away one of The Whole Picture Games to ONE of YOU!  If you are the WINNER you can CHOOSE either the On the Farm or the Goin' Places game.  The GIVEAWAY will run until July 24th.  (PLEASE! PLEASE! Check back to see if you have WON! I have been having a hardtime contactingpeople to get them their goodies : )

 

 

Please leave a SEPARATE COMMENT for each way that you enter and YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS! Here are the ways that you can enter: 

 

• You must be a Follower or Subscriber of LSG to Win! Please leave me a comment and let me know you follow.
• If you have just become a new Follower or Subscriber please tell me how you heard about this giveaway.
• If you blog about this contest please come back and leave me a link to you post.
• Please visit the PlayAbiltiy's website, let me know which of The Whole Picture Games you would like.
• Facebook or Twitter about this giveaway and leave me a comment to let me know about it.
• Become a Friend of PlayAbiltiy on Facebook.

  

 

We received this product free of charge for review purposes. The opinions stated in this review are our own and we were not paid in any way.

 

GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

Would Cindy Smith and The Burkets please email me their address's at bkeefe98@aol.com.  I have tried emailing both of you to say Congrats and ask for your addy's but the emails keep getting kicked back to me.  I can find another way to get a hold of you, so I hope you both see this and respond.  I would love to get your prizes sent out to ya! 

Thanks!!!

The Buddy WINNER is...

The Burkherts said...


I follow with GFC!



Thanks to everyone that entered!

The Nature's Miracles Book Giveaway winner is....

Cindy said...


I heard about your blog through the making learning fun yahoo group.

Congrats!  Thanks to everyone that entered!

Imagination Box Review & GIVEAWAY!

We all know that kids L O V E boxes!  You can buy them a brand new whatever and there they are playing with a silly box.  Well, if you can't beat them, join them!

  

Kim, the owner and creator of Imagination Box Company definitely had her thinking cap on when she came up with this genius idea!  If kids want boxes, give them boxes! Give them boxes that are shaped like a Barn, Cottage, Firehouse, Schoolhouse and a Castle Tower!  Let their imaginations GO WILD!

  

The LSG kids were over joyed when they heard that Imagination Box Company was sending us two Paintable Boxes to play with, the Barn and the Cottage.  When our boxes arrived  I was able to hide them until the kiddos went to bed.  I put together the barn together and set it up on the playroom table as a surprise for them in the morning.  It was very easy to put together by the way.  I think it took about 5-10 minutes tops.

 

Once the kids saw the barn on the table they were very excited and didn't waste any time getting to work!  I don't even think they had their breakfast that morning come to think about it! 

Please excuse the pj's and bed hair!

I usually don't let them sit ON the table but today I made an exception!

One of the great features about the barn (and all the other boxes) is that not only does it look like a barn on the outside but on the inside too.  Little Bits evidently called DIBS on the inside!!

The kids have colored with crayons, markers and colored pencils.  But, I think they had the most fun using the water color paints that were included.

Things are coming along very nicely!

Tah-Da!!

 

 I had told the kids that I was not going to put the cottage together until the barn was complete, I know I am just a big ole meany!  Anyhow, once they had finished I had said that I would put the cottage for them in a little bit.  I was probably blogging folding laundry, cooking dinner, you know mom stuff.  Well, I suppose those self sufficient little children of mine got tired on waiting on their slow mama and decide to do it their self.  They did a great job!  The really did it all with out any help from me!

A work in progress...

Mostly done.  I love the stripity roof!  The cottage is still sitting on the playroom table.  The girls are currently storing their Bibles, quiet time books they are working on and and their wallets in the cottage.  Don't ask??!

  

Ok, so once you are done painting these things, then what???  Let's see, we have had the critters in there.  More times than once.  Usually if the critters are missing Alpha Boy has put them in the cottage.

 

Little Bits likes it because he doesn't have to share his new "club house" with anyone else!

The kids have also used them for dolls, play horses and rescue heros!  When you are done playing with them, they can easily folded up and tucked away til next time they are ready to play. 

 

 I love how these toys are MADE IN THE USA!  And they super Eco-Friendly:

• They are made from 45% post consumer materials
• No toxic dyes or materials
• They are 100% Recyclable
• Did I tell you they are also MADE in the USA!  I know that doesn't make them Eco-Friendly but if does make me feel better on several levels!

The Paintable Boxes are not only great fun they as very reasonably priced. 

Barn - $29.95

Castle Tower - $39.00
Cottage - $24.95
Firehouse - $24.95
Schoolhouse - $24.95

 

 They would make a great gift for a birthday, the holiday or even as a homeschool family art project.

I am very excited to announce that Imagination Box Company is going to GIVEAWAY a Paintable Box away to ONE OF YOU!  If you are the WINNER you can CHOOSE either THE BARN or COTTAGE!   Sounds like fun, right!!  The contest will run until July 19th. 

 

Please remember to leave a SEPARATE COMMENT for each way that you enter and you EMAIL ADDRESS! Here are the ways that you can enter:

 

• You must be a Follower or Subscriber of LSG to Win! Please leave me a comment and let me know you follow. 
• If you have just become a new Follower or Subscriber please tell me how you heard about this giveaway.
• If you blog about this contest please come back and leave me a link to you post.
• Please visit the Imagination Box Company's website and let me know which box which box your kids would enjoy painting.
• Facebook or Twitter about this giveaway and leave me a comment to let me know about it.
• Become a Fan of Imagination Box Company on Facebook and then leave me a comment. 
• Follow Imagination Box Company on Twitter and then leave me a comment.

 We received these products free of charge for review purposes. The opinions stated in this review are our own and we were not paid in any way.