Two Announcements!
I Now Have an eStore for Group or Bulk Orders!
If you belong to a group and would like to place a bulk order of my books for the members of your group, go to the “Contact” page of this website to get in touch with me, and we can set you up for a group discount. Teachers or schools can also use this store to purchase bulk orders of my books for the classroom at a discount.
My New Kindle eBook, How to Teach About Electricity for Ages 8-13, Is Available for Purchase!
If you liked Science Unit Studies for Homeschoolers and Teachers, you’ll like this new eBook. It is written in basically the same format as the science units in Science Unit Studies for Homeschoolers and Teachers, except that the electricity unit is longer than the ones in the unit studies book. It is now available on Kindle for $2.99 at the following link: How to Teach About Electricity for Ages 8-13. If you do not have a Kindle, Amazon has free apps available so that you can download Kindles to other devices, including your computer, at this link: Free Amazon Apps.
A Fun and Easy To Make Christmas Wreath
Okay, I know it’s a bit early to be thinking about Christmas (it’s not even Thanksgiving yet), but this will probably be my last blog before the holidays, so I thought that I should post this now. Last year while I was searching for some Christmas craft freebies (still posted on the Freebies page of this blog), I could not find any online instructions for making the type of wreath that has become a tradition in our family every Christmas. This year, we decided to make our wreath early, so that we could write up the instructions for the blog in time for Christmas.
This wreath can be made with either fresh greenery, which is how we made our first wreath, or with artificial greenery, which is how we made the one below. It is a simple enough project that even young children can make a beautiful wreath, but satisfying enough for older children too. You could also adapt it to make wreaths for other holidays.
To make this wreath you will need a straw wreath form. We purchased ours from a craft store:
You will also need around 100-150 Greening Pins:
Finally, you will need a piece of bailing wire and the greenery that you will be putting onto your wreath. It’s always good to have a lot of greenery on hand, because the wreath will probably use more than you think that you will need!
To start your wreath, first tie a loop of wire around the top that you will hang your wreath from. The wire in the photo below is a bit large; you might want to make your loop smaller than this one. We chose to leave the plastic covering on our straw to help it keep its shape:
Next, choose some greenery that you would like to use as filler. This greenery is not the type that will show up the most on your wreath, it is there to hide the straw and to provide some accents. Attach pieces of it to the wreath using the greening pins. Push the pins directly into the straw to hold the greenery in place:
Don’t forget to cover the sides of your wreath as you go. After a while it should look something like this:
Now, start adding more of your greenery, again paying attention to both the top and sides of the wreath:
Keep filling the wreath in until all of the straw is hidden. You can add fun touches like red berries, bows, flowers, pinecones or even small fake birds:
When you are finished, your wreath will be your own unique creation:
Here are two wreaths that we made in previous years:
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