Friendship Bracelets: A Charlotte Mason Handicraft

The points to be borne in children's handicrafts are:(a) that they should not be employed in making futilities such a pea and stick work, paper mats, and the like; (b) that they should be taught slowly and carefully what they are to do; (c) that slipshod work should not be allowed; (d) and that, therefore, the children's work should be kept well within their compass.

Charlotte Mason Volume 1, Home Education pp 315, 316.

Handicrafts have always been a part of my life...since I was a homeschooled child myself. And I am always on the lookout for handicraft ideas to include in my handicraft kits. Here at Hearts and Trees, one of our main aims is to encourage you to include handicrafts in your homeschool. We find though that many parents feel overwhelmed by the idea of handicrafts.

The Internet is a great place to start when researching ideas for handicrafts to include in your homeschool. Step-by-step photo or video tutorials can help YOU teach your children the craft. For example I recently searched for friendship bracelets...and here are just a few of the websites that I found that you could use to include this handicraft in your homeschool.

How to Make a Friendship Bracelet wikiHow article
Friendship Bracelets (8 kinds!) 
Friendship Bracelets (Advanced)
Friendship Bracelet Knot YouTube video
Friendship Bracelet YouTube video

Even if you haven't been exposed to many handicrafts, you CAN include them in your homeschool. All it takes is a little preparation on your part.

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If you haven't already, be sure to check out my Hearts and Trees Spring Summer 2013 Kit...it's perfect for adding art, handicrafts and nature study to your homeschool.

Free Spring Nature Walk Worksheets

Just a reminder, I have lots of free printable PDFs available on my blog. See my Free Prinables Page.

A few are perfect to get you and your children outside in the fresh spring air. 

Check out my Spring Senses Nature Walk Worksheet and my Color Walk Worksheet (which you can customize using spring colors)!

Also check out my Tulip Study Notebooking Page Set. 

Color Walk Worksheet

Spring Senses Nature Walk Worksheet

Tulips Free Notebooking Page Set

And be sure to check out my Spring Summer 2013 Kit...it's filled with great art, handicraft and nature study projects sure to interest you and your children.
(And to save $6 check out our May Special!) 

Hearts and Trees Spring Summer 2013 Kit

Garden Seed Kit

With my mom's help we have put together a kit full of art, nature study and handicraft goodness that you are sure to love.The overall theme of this kit is gardens. The nature study projects in this kit will inspire you and your children to get out in your garden and explore.

Our aim is to help you include art, nature study and handicrafts in your homeschool. Our kits are designed with children ages 6-12 in mind. Younger children will just need more hands-on help while older children can be more self-directed. You will need to provide some basic arts and crafts supplies to complete the projects in this kit (glue, scissors, etc.)

The instructions, felt and magnet are included for your child to complete a Stiff Felt Magnet Dragonfly Pendant. This is sure to be a hit. There should be enough scrap felt for your child to design a second felt item of his choice.

Another project in this kit is a Botanical Solar Print. The instructions and paper are included for your child to complete two solar prints using items he collects from your garden.

The materials and instructions are also included for your child to create a Sticky Garden Fun Window Project. After collecting colorful items from your garden your child will create their own window art.

The instructions and tissue paper are also included for your child to make their own Easy Tissue Paper Mache vase. (You will need to provide the smooth vase or jar and tissue paper colors may vary.)

The foam and instructions are included for your child to make his very own foam stamps. He will then use the stamps to decorate the cover of his Garden Journal.

The nature study portion of this focuses on seeds. Four different kinds of seeds are provided for your child to study and observe grow. A Seed Comparison notebooking page is included as well as one about Seed Dissection and Seed Germination.

Instructions and a piece of chalk are also provided for your child to make his own Sidewalk Garden Scavenger Hunt. A laminated card is also provided for you and your child to use on your next nature walk as well.

The art part of this kit focuses on Renoir and Monet. An art print of Renoir's Monet Painting in His Garden at Argenteuil is included as well as a notebooking page focusing on this artwork and one focusing on the similarities between Renoir and Monet. An index card is also included for your child to make a viewfinder to aid in his study of their Renoir's art print. An extra art print (prints will vary) is also included for your child to study using his viewfinder.

In all this kit includes:
· Sticky Garden Fun Window Project (instructions and contact paper)
· Stiff Felt Magnet Project (instructions, 4 pieces of felt, magnet)
· Foam Stamp Project (instructions and foam)
· Easy Tissue Paper Mache Vase Project (instructions and tissue paper)
· Botanical Solar Print (instructions and 2 sheets of paper)
· Sidewalk Garden Scavenger Hunt (instructions and sidewalk chalk)
· Renoir print Monet Painting in His Garden at Argenteuil
· Renoir art print notebooking page and index card for viewfinder
· Garden Journal (instructions, construction paper for the cover)
· 3 Garden-related notebooking pages/activity pages  (2 lima beans, 3 kidney beans, 3 pinto beans, 1 sunflower seed, 1 corn seed, paper towel and baggie)
· Garden Scavenger Hunt laminated card

To purchase a kit you will just need to make a PayPal payment to my account. You can do that using the "Add to Cart" buttons in my sidebar. Just be sure to select the right number of kits you would like to purchase.

The cost per kit is $10 including shipping or $16 including shipping for two kits. For more information about purchasing more than two kits, please email me for shipping information. Shipping is available in the US ONLY!!

All kits will ship within 4 business days of payment being made

If you have any questions, feel free to email me (heartsandtrees@yahoo.com).

Free Printable: Color Walk Worksheet

Hearts and Trees Color Nature Walk Worksheet

I have put together another free printable. This is a color walk worksheet. Your child will choose twelve colors to search for on his nature walk. Lines are provided for your child to write the color name and to write what he finds that is that color. There is also a box for him to sketch one of the items after the walk.

Pull out your big box of crayons or colored pencils and get started!

You can tailor your color hunt to the season or to a specific item (colored flowers, leaves, etc.). Get creative!

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Shades of green
• Shades of pink
• Shades of brown
• Spring flower colors
• Autumn leaf colors
• Summer vegetable garden colors
• Winter blues and grays

An alternative is to fill in the colored squares as you find the colors on your nature walk. You'd just need to take the box of crayons as color samples! 

Monet Garden Painting Project

Check out this Monet garden painting project: Monet Gardens at MrsPicasso's Art Room.

This project would go perfectly with my Gardens Art Show and my Gardens in Art Mini Unit Study PDF. 

Also be sure to check out my Pinterest Board: Gardens in Art.

Gardens in Art Mini Unit Study Notebooking Pages PDF

I am now offering a PDF set of notebooking pages designed to be used with my Gardens Art Show.

This is a set of 11 notebooking pages designed to help you and your students really get into the pieces of art. I have chosen 10 of the works included in my art show to focus on in this set of notebooking pages.

• Each page includes questions to help you and your students take a deeper look and gain a deeper understanding of the artist, subject and style. (You can consider these questions orally or have your children write their responses in the space provided.)
• A short biography is included for each artist.
• Some pages include easy art activities you might wish to spend some time completing after viewing the artwork
• Most of the notebooking pages include the piece of art being studied. If the artwork is not in the public domain a link is provided instead to view it online. 
• A blank artist/artwork notebooking page is included that you can use with a garden themed piece of art of your choice!

If you would like to purchase the Gardens in Art Mini Unit Study, it is just $4.95!

To purchase a set you can use the Add to Cart PayPal button on my blog sidebar. Just be sure to use the right button, as I have many items currently for sale. This is not automated, so I will to email the PDF file to you once I receive your PayPal payment.

The PDF will be emailed to you within 72 hours after I receive payment, usually sooner. The PDF will be emailed to the email account associated with the PayPal payment I receive.

If you have any questions about the Gardens in Art Mini Unit Study Notebooking Page Set PDF feel free to email me at heartsandtrees@yahoo.com.

*Please note if you purchase these pages they are for your own personal use and are not to be distributed or sold. *

Repost: Gardens Art Show

This Hearts and Trees online art show focuses on gardens. I encourage you to share this art show with your children and to have a discussion about the different ways these artists painted gardens.

I have put together a set of notebooking pages for the Gardens Art Show, like the ones I am offering for my clouds and still life art shows. So be sure to check out my Gardens in Art Mini Unity Study Notebooking Pages PDF!

Here are some suggestions of questions you can discuss with your children as you examine each painting.

• How did each painter see gardens differently?
• Look for cool and warm colors.
• How many paintings have people in them?
• How many paintings have animals?
• How many paintings have buildings?
• Decide on the "mood" of each painting- how does each painting make you feel?
• Use the canvas measurements provided to see just how big or small a painting is.
• Decide which painting is the most realistic and which is the least realistic.
• Which is your favorite painting?
• If you could change the name of a painting, what would you name it? Why?
• If you find a painting you like, take a minute to look at some other paintings by that artist. (Artchive and ABC Gallery are where I found these paintings.
• You could make your own version of your favorite garden painting.
• You could sketch your own garden in the style of your favorite artist.

Howard Hodgkin--Small Henry Moore at the Bottom of the Garden

1975-77 Oil on wood 20 3/4 x 21 in. Private collection, New York

Claude Monet--The Artist's Garden at Vetheuil

1881Oil on canvas100 x 80 cm Private collection

Berthe Morisot--In the Garden at Maurecourt

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1884 Oil on canvas 21 ¼ x 25 5/8 in. The Toledo Museum of Art

Frederic Bazille--Le Petit Jardinier (The Little Gardener)

c. 1866-67 Oil on canvas50 3/8 x 66 1/2 in Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Camille Pissarro--Woman and Child at a Well

1882 Oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

Camille Pissarro--Apple Picking

1886 Oil on canvas Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, Okayama, Japan

Pierre-Auguste Renoir--A Girl with a Watering-Can

1876 Oil on canvas The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA

Gustav Klimt--Country Garden with Sunflowers

1905/6 Oil on canvas The Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria

Gustav Klimt--Garden Path with Chickens

1916 Oil on canvas110 x 110 cm Destroyed by fire at Immendorf Palace, 1945

Joan Miró--The Vegetable Garden with Donkey

1918 Oil on canvas 64 x 70 cm Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden

Claude Monet--Garden in Bloom at Sainte-Addresse

c.1866 Oil on canvas Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

Pierre-Auguste Renoir--Monet painting in his garden at Argenteuil

1873 Oil on canvas 46 x 60 cm Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford

Pierre Bonnard--Garden at Midday

1943 Oil on canvas Private collection

Mary Cassatt--Lydia Crocheting in the Garden at Marly

1880 Oil on canvas 26 x 37 in Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Gustave Caillebotte--The Garden at Petit Gennevilliers in Winter

c 1894 Oil on canvas 73 x 60 cm Private collection

Alfred Sisley--Garden Path in Louveciennes (Chemin de l'Etarche)

1873 Oil on canvas 64 x 46 cm Private collection

Wassily Kandinsky--Murnau - Garden I

1910 Oil on canvas 66 x 82 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany

I hope you enjoyed this art show. Be sure to check out my other art shows (links are in the sidebar) as well as my notebooking pages. If you have any suggestions of themes you would like to see for my online art shows, feel free to leave me a comment.

Frog Study Mini Unit and Lapbook PDF

I have put together a PDF mini unit and lapbook that contains the frog study from my Hearts and Trees Spring 2009 kit. The lapbook focuses on frogs and nature study near lakes, rivers, streams or ponds. My mom helped me to design a frog file-folder book (which you could mount on cardstock if you prefer). In the lapbook there are components for vocabulary, frog facts, bullfrog facts, frog noises, and the frog life cycle. In the lapbook you can also mount your life cycle of a frog drawing (instructions for this drawing project are included).

There is also a set of copy work pages focusing on frog poetry. There are two blank lined pages you can use for the copy work, as well as a page of frog poetry and suggestions for how to use them.

If you would like to purchase the 9 page set of Frog Study Pages as a PDF, I am offering it for $1.95. To purchase the PDF you can use the Add to Cart PayPal button on my blog sidebar.

***Please note, this is not automated, so I will have to email the pages to you once I receive your PayPal payment. I currently DO NOT have internet at my house. So you can expect the PDF to be emailed to you within 72 hours, but usually sooner. The PDF will be emailed to the email account associated with the PayPal payment I receive.***

These pages if you purchase them are for your own personal use. I ask that you do not distribute them outside your family or sell them. Thank you so much! 

Be sure to check out the other PDFs I have for sale. Links are in the sidebar of my blog. Right now you can also purchase a Winter Fun Kit or a Bubbles and Lavender Kit so be sure to check out my Spring Cleaning post to see my current deals! 

For the month of April 2013 you can receive the Frog Lapbook kit for free with your purchase of the More Nature Study - Spring Splendor ebook from the Outdoor Hour Challenge.  

If you have any questions about the PDF feel free to email me at heartsandtrees@yahoo.com.

Spring Inventory Sale from Hearts and Trees!

Spring cleaning is going on at Hearts and Trees! 

Time to clean out the inventory and share our overstock items with you as you plan your spring art, nature study, and handicrafts!

Follow the links to each kit and use the Paypal buttons and you will receive the download links within 24 hours and the extra items automatically with your purchase. No limit except for the kits that have limited inventory as noted below. 

Thanks for supporting Hearts and Trees while I am in Bolivia! 

Spring Kit 2010 - Sold Out!

Free Shipping! $12 per kit!
PLUS extra freezer paper for additional t-shirt project
PLUS the Hearts and Trees Clouds in Art Mini-Unit printable for free!

Lavender and Bubbles Kit 2012
Purchase a Lavender and Bubbles Kit and receive the Hearts and Trees Complementary Colors printable for free!
$12.95 plus shipping.
PLUS extra 6" x 6" square of foam for additional necklaces
PLUS extra lavender nature study booklet and lavender sample.

Prairie Kit 2012 - Only 1 Kit Left! 
Sold Out! Thanks so much!
$11.95 plus shipping.
PLUS the Hearts and Trees Complementary Colors printable for free! 

Winter Fun - Fleece Hat Kits 2012
Limited Inventory- See Below!
$12.95 plus shipping.

• Blue Hat Kits - only 4 left
• Gray Hat Kits - only 3 left
• Green Hat Kit - only 1 left Sold Out.

PLUS extra tissue (our choice of colors)
PLUS the Hearts and Trees Weather Lapbook PDF for free!

These special deals will end on 3/10/13 or when supplies are gone so if you have been holding off on trying these awesome kits...now is the time.

Waving from Bolivia.....

Hearts and Trees Winter Fun Kit

I am pleased to introduce my:

This kit has an overall theme of "Winter Fun" and is filled with fun art, handicraft and nature study projects for you to include in your homeschool. Our aim is to encourage you to take the projects in this kit and make them your own...to take the skills your child develops by completing these projects and expand on them in other creative ways.  

There are so many fun projects included in this kit!

The highlight of this kit, is an old favorite. Back in 2007 my Winter Kit included the materials and instructions for a easy fleece hat. I have had requests to repeat this project, and I have listened! Any child who can sew a straight line can complete this project! Your child will absolutely love this project. You might just find yourself going out to buy more fleece to make hats for everyone in your family! (When you make your payment through PayPal, leave me a comment letting me know what color fleece you would like: gray, purple or blue.)

Your child will also experiment with paint and texture to create a set of six different notecards. Your child will paint using a cork, cardboard, Q-tips, yarn, a sponge and bubble wrap. All the materials (except the paint) are included for this fun (and functional) project. 

Winter is a perfect time to plant an indoor tabletop garden. Using the tops of root vegetables your child will observe as they sprout and grow leaves and even flowers! The instructions are included as well as a notebooking page where your child can record his observations. 

The featured artist in this kit is Renoir. There is an art print of Renoir's The Umbrellas. A notebooking page focusing on Renoir is found in this kit. The art element is shades of color. Your child will learn about shades of color and complete another notebooking page to color their own version of The Umbrellas. 

There is a very colorful origami project as well. Eight colors of tissue paper and the instructions are included so your child can make up to FOUR tissue paper stars. Your child will love making these colorful stars!

A pair of google eyes are also in this kit, as well as the instructions so your child can complete an easy and yet fun drawing project.

The nature study portion of this kit is a laminated 3"x5" card which you and your child can take out with you when you go on your winter nature walk. There are nine different things your child can cross off the card (using a whiteboard marker) when he finds them on your nature walk. Think of it as a sort of scavenger hunt. The items on the card are winter focused...things everyone should be able to find on a walk in the winter.

In all, this kit includes:

• Easy fleece hat project (fleece-color will vary, 3 straight pins, instructions)
• Six painting projects notecard project (6 notecards, bubble wrap, cork, 5 Q-Tips, rubberband, 2 pieces of sponge, length of yarn, cardboard and instructions)
• Renoir print of The Umbrellas
• Renoir/Shades of Color notebooking pages (2)
• 3"x5" laminated nature walk scavenger hunt card
• Tabletop garden nature study notebooking page with 9 toothpicks to complete the project
• Google eye project (2 google eyes and instructions)
• Tissue paper star project (8 rectangles of tissue paper and instructions)

That's 2 handicraft projects (1 origami and 1 sewing), 2 art/artist notebooking pages, 1 nature study project with notebooking page, 1 laminated nature study card, 1 painting project (which is really like 6 painting projects!) and  1 drawing project!!

These kits were gathered with children ages 6-12 in mind. Parents may need to help their students, especially younger children, with some aspects of this kit. (Please note you will need to supply some common art supplies to complete these projects such as scissors, paintbrush, sewing needle and thread and markers. A list of common supplies you will need is included with the kit.)

To purchase a kit you will just need to make a PayPal payment to my account. You can do that using the "Add to Cart" buttons in my sidebar. Just be sure to select the right number of kits you would like to purchase.

The cost per kit is $12.95 plus shipping. Shipping for one kit will be $3 First Class. Shipping for two kits will be $5 First Class and shipping for three kits will be $8 First Class. (Please note if you purchase 3 kits they will come in 2 envelopes.) For information about purchasing more than three kits, please email me for shipping information. Shipping prices are for the US. (For information about shipping outside of the US, please email me.)

All kits will ship within 4 business days of payment being made. Feel free to add any of my PDFs to your cart before you purchase a kit. I have purchased materials for a limited number of kits so be sure to purchase your kit soon.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at heartsandtrees@yahoo.com.