One room done!

The first room we started working on is what we wanted to become our "library" room. Like most of the house this room has flower wall paper and green trim. A few great aspects of this room is the bump out where the windows are and the beautiful hardwood floors. Also, there is a nice size walk in closet where I keep crafts, sewing supplies and a few other miscellaneous things.

Since this is the first room we have gotten into with this house we weren't sure what to expect. We got really excited when we began and hope this room is representative of the rest of the house. We removed the wall paper that went up to a chair rail height. There was only one layer of paper and the plaster walls seem to be in really good shape so we were able to move on to the trim. For the molding it seemed like there were only two or three layers of paint on the wood. So once we had most of the paint removed we began the process of sanding, sanding and more sanding. We used three different types of sand paper to get it nice and smooth again. We then were able to stain the wood to a dark cherry finish that is typical with our early 1900's bungalow. On the windows we (I really mean my husband for this part) did use some chemicals because we didn't want to crack and damage the original windows! This took him a long time to strip off the paint. We cleaned up the wood and then worked on staining the wood. Now that most of the wood was stained we painted the room a light gray color. The previous owners left behind two tall bookshelves that we were able to repaint. We would like to re stain the corner cabinet at some time. We have been told it was originally kept in the dining room and moved to this side room when the attic was finished. So with all of that said, here is the final result!

We are hoping to replace this door when we can find one we both like! The white bookcase is one that was left behind. The window is just to the left of the right bookcase.

This is the corner cabinet we believe was originally in the dining room. It has the same glass panes as a small window in the living room.

The door on the left had some stain underneath a single layer of paint. You can tell how much richer and deeper the color is compared to the one we had to stain on the right!

The door on the right in the above picture is this same door. You can see a bit of the bump out that I mentioned earlier.

Week 19: The Letter S

What a fun week we have had learning all about the letter S! Our theme for the week was stars. Our song was about the only thing that matched up with our theme, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Our poem didn't match up with the theme but it was still great fun.


I want a fat,
Squishy, squirreling squirrel
Scolding for a chestnut
Squealing for squash seeds
A fat, squishy squirrel
Is all I want:
Only three of them -
Chip, Dale and Nylf

We had some great books that we read: Sara and Sam by Anders Hanson, My "S" Sound Box  by Jane Belk Moncure, Sunflower House by Eve Bunting, and The Sun is My Favorite Star by Frank  Asch.


We enjoyed reading about Samuel during Bible time and the scripture verse we learned was from John 10:11 "I am the good shepherd."

Our shape for math time was star. We like Stars by Sarah Schuette.

We had a great snack time enjoying star fruit. Strawberries were another fun snack we had too.

For science we looked at swans, Star of Bethlehem, seals, skunk, and starfish. A and E enjoyed learning about Seals by Colleen Sexton. We also learned about our senses. The Five Senses by Carey Molter was a great starting place before we explored on our own.We started off using our ears by listening to some instruments. I had A and E close their eyes and then I played a tambourine, a triangle and bells. I had them tell me what they heard. We played I spy for our sight. Then we had lots of fun using our noses, mouth and hands to learn about the rest of our senses.

E smelling lemon juice. We also smelled vanilla and vinegar. 

A and E tasting. We tasted sugar, salt and lemon juice.

E and A touching. We felt this soft piece of material, sand paper and a comb. I had them close their eyes and try to guess wheat they were feeling.

Our social studies time was spent learning about Sitting Bull by Susan Evento.

We were going to make sheep during art time but A made one in Sunday school so we switched it to a snake. I outlined a snake on the inside of a paper grocery bag. Then A and E used finger paints to color their snakes.

For our outing for the week we went to the playground where we enjoyed the slides and swings! Hope you have a great learning time with your little ones too.

Week 18: The Letter R

For our 18th week we looked at the letter R. Our theme for the week was rainbow. We learned about the colors in the rainbow and made our own rainbow. 

For reading we read Rain by Robert Kalan, this is a very basic book with colors. E really enjoyed reading this book. My R Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure, Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco, and Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. We didn't really do a poem because of learning colors to the rainbow. We sang: red, orange, yellow, green and blue. Don't forget there's purple too! To help learn the order of the colors. 

Our music for the week was walking around the house singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat and I've Been Working on the Railroad. A and E really enjoyed putting motions to the song. 

For Bible time our scripture verse came from Deuteronomy 26:11 "And you shall rejoice in every good thing with the LORD your God has given you. We read about Ruth in our Bible too.

In our math time we learned about rectangles. We walked around looking for rectangles and discussing how there are two short sides and two long sides.

Our animals/plants for the week was: roadrunner, rose, raccoon, rhinoceros and rays. We enjoyed a book about Raccoons by Jean Claude O'Mara.

Betsy Ross by Wil Mara was popular to read. Lots of questions were asked about the flag which transitioned well into next week with the letter S. I will let you know what fun things we did with that soon!

For art time A and E made rainbows. We started by asking which color was first and then shredded up the color and pasted it onto paper. We continued through the rest of the colors placing them in their order. Since rainbows come after a storm we added some cotton balls for the clouds. Also we added a penny for the "gold" found at the end of the rainbow.