December Daily, Days 19 & 20

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas - ours was. Very simple and easy this year with lots of time for family and friends. I don't think I've even taken the photos off the camera yet, so I'll try and remember to share a picture or two later on.

Round circle element from Elle's Studio.

Journaling reads: She has been wearing me out of late, but she is still delightfully cute and so very Betsy!

Journaling: This year's gift wrap: old Rand McNally maps that are several years out of date and labels designed by Monika Wright. Love simple.

By the way, Becky asked me about printing the photos from my iPhone and the quality. I have been pleased with the quality of the photos if I have printed them as a 4x6. I probably wouldn't go much bigger than that. Some of the pictures on these pages are 6.25 x 5.5 and they turned out okay. I don't think I would try to get a 8x10 out of it though. Also, I have the newer iPhone (4?) and I can see a marked difference in the quality of the pictures from the first iPhone. Just FYI, if anyone else wondered. : )

Super Deals

As a reviewer for Download N Go, I wanted to just quickly mention some great deals that will be coming in the next few days! Amanda Bennett, who authors the DNG studies, is having a 12 Days of Christmas sale at her blog. Each day, beginning today (12/26) will have an amazing deal. The first one is Tremendous Trees for just $2! The 12 Days specials will crossover between Download N Go and Amanda Bennett Unit Studies.

Also, as part of the promotion Amanda will also be giving away a KINDLE (which I am sadly not eligible for since I am a reviewer.) : )

The information for the 12 Days specials and the KINDLE giveaway are all at the link above. I typically don't promote different sales but these studies have been so great for me and Noelle over the past two years that I wanted to make sure and mention it!

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas.

Daily December, Days 17 & 18

Christmas card created using a free template from Becky Higgins' website and upload to Costco.

Christmas tree from Crystal's December Holiday Decor and the #18 tag is from Elle's Studio.

I'll resume posting December Daily pics after the Christmas weekend. : )

Creation Camouflage Winner

And the winner is:

Amy at Hope is the Word!

Congratulations!

December Daily, Days 15 & 16

December Daily, Days 13 & 14

Just some journaling today about our unexpected snow day!

The two elements on top ("Today You" and the "14") are both from Elle's Studio. The "Today You" I purchased digitally from her shop at Jessica Sprague's and the "14" I purchased at her regular shop preprinted. This day turned out crazy and busy due to an unplanned trip to the dr. (for our strep diagnosis) and Target for a prescription. I was glad I had taken the time to write down a few notes to remember it - nursing the baby every time I turned around, all the LAUNDRY I was doing with sick girls, dr. appointments and school, etc., etc. : )

December Daily, Days 11 & 12

If you click to read the journaling for Sunday, the 12th, you will see that the day did not go as planned. Especially for Noelle. She's now on antibiotics for strep (and no longer contagious - yay!) and Natalie seems to be over a stomach bug. We washed LOTS of sheets last week.



December Daily, Days 9 & 10

One thing that I am enjoying for my album this year: using pictures from my iPhone and especially using the little "Shake It"/Polaroid app. Simple.

December Daily, Days 7 & 8

For day 7, I used a little download that Shimelle provided last year for her Journal Your Christmas class. I just printed it out again, glued it back to back and wrote a few thoughts down on Christmas planning. I should go back and look at what I wrote last year ... I wonder how similar it is.

For Day 8, I do have more journaling I would like to do, but in the effort to be simple, I'm not going to worry about it right now. My plan is to add in a note expounding on the crazy Wednesday night we had on the 8th, but if it doesn't happen, at least those two little sentences will remind me of that evening. Keeping it simple.

Creation Camouflage ::: A Review & Giveaway!

As a review for Download N Go, I was recently given the opportunity to try out Creation Camouflage with our first grader. This is another excellent study - especially if you have a student that is a huge animal or nature lover like our Noelle is. (The giveaway info is at the bottom of this post!)

It is laid out like other DNG studies - five days of work that is extremely interactive. There are videos to watch on the computer, small lapbook elements to put together and fill out, large areas where your student can draw, and tons of facts to learn about these animals. And, again, what I have loved about these studies before, you can do as much or as little as you want with your student depending on their age and abilities!

I thought I would show a little how we put our study together when we do them. I usually buy a stack of three-prong folders at the beginning of the school year when they are super cheap. Whatever pages I want us to work on for the study are printed off and put in the folder. Then I have the pockets to store our lapbook-elements-in-process and any coloring pages or sheets that we will need.

This is our cover:

You can see our materials inside the folder. On the left are some in-process pages and lapbook elements.

One of the interior pages that we have completed. There are some fill-in-the-blanks on the left, and on the right a little project where she was to assign each animal to the day of creation that God made it. I love how God's hand in creation is woven through this study!

Here are a couple of our lapbook elements we have completed and glued on the back.

Well, almost completed. : ) We were sidelined by strep this week and will be finishing this more slowly than anticipated!

All-in-all, this was another great study from Download-N-Go that I highly recommend. And now for the giveaway info!

If you would like to win a copy of Creation Camouflage, please leave me a comment (making SURE I have your email address). I will draw for a winner next Thursday, December 23. If you can't wait that long, the Download N Go store has Creation Camouflage on sale for $5.95 through December 18. They also currently have a contest here for some very cool National Geographic tree frog mouse pads.