EASTER - free dress patterns,printables and fun ideas!

Easter is coming up REALLY fast!  So to help you out I have compiled a huge list of fun things to do and cute dresses to make so that you will be ready for Easter! The patterns are after down below the printables and Easter ideas so just keep scrolling if that is what you are looking for!
Homeschool and preschool Easter freebies and ideas for the week before Easter!

Veggie Tales creator's blog "What is in the Bible" series for Easter week "What is Holy Week".
A great explanation of all the church history that goes with this week.  A great way to focus on Christ this Easter season and learn Biblical history.

Make an Easter lent garden with your kiddos as a visual parable.  You complete different parts on the corresponding days of Holy Week.  It has clear detailed directions.  This one is from an EXCELLENT blog called A Holy Experience written by a homeschool mama who wrote the book called One Thousand Gifts an amazing book on gratitude.

You can find a ton of Easter and Spring printables for tots here at 1plus1plus1equals1. It is GREAT homeschool blog with tons of printables, great ideas, and inspiration.

Here are some great learning activities and ideas from  the blog We are That Family to make sure Easter is celebrated for what it is...a celebration of Christ's Resurrection. Teaching our kids the reason we celebrate is a great way to spend your day.

Great printable worksheets for Easter from Mama's Learning Corner that work for pre K to 2nd grade.

This is an Easter learning roundup that includes crafts, worksheets, games, etc... from My Delicious Ambiguity.  She has a lot of fun things on her blog so you will have to check it out.

Two Teaching Mommies has a great lesson plan with a ton of free printables to go with it.  There is a printable memory verse with picture, worksheets, number maze, clip cards for math, etc... Hope you have some fun with it!

Two Teaching Mommies has created a 12 days of Easter lesson plan as well that coincides with  resurrection eggs for a 12 day lesson on Easter for your kiddos.  What a fun way to go through the meaning of Easter with your little ones and have them really get it.  They recommend combining Days 5-9 have been combined for those that are younger and will find the topic of Christs suffering too much to spread out over those days.  So you still have time to get this lesson done before Easter!

I hope this has helped you get a few new ideas for the week before Easter, so you and your kids can enjoy the deeper meaning of Easter and learn at the same time.

Now for you seamstress' here are some beautiful fun free Easter or Spring dress patterns! 

These are the "party dresses" I made for my girls last year.  See post HERE for more photos and tutorial link.

Best FREE patterns with tutorials for Easter or spring dress'!

If you get started right away you still have some time to make an Easter dress or two (or 3?) for your little girls.  I looked through tons of free online patterns and tutorials to come up with a list of what I think are the best ones out there so you only have to go to one place to find the perfect dress' for Easter.  Most of these are fairly simple and all have a pattern or instructions to create the pattern so there is nothing to buy except the fabric and notions!   Last year we chose the "Party Dress" by The Cottage Home and I let the girls pick out their fabric. Hope you find something special for your special little girls!

The Party Dress tutorial by The Cottage Home

Twirl Dress tutorial by From an Igloo

Charlotte dress tutorial from IveyC95

A Line Ruffle Front Dress tutorial by IveyC95

Reversible Ribbon Dress by Couturier Mommy
A very clear tutorial but asks for an A-line pattern.  Just use a simple dress in the size you want to make the pattern by folding it in half and tracing it with a seam allowance. Then put that pattern on folded material to cut out the A line dress.

Poppy Sundress tutorial by A Lemon Squeezy Home

Lucky Layers Sundress tutorial by Moda Bake Shop

Project Run and Play Dress tutorial by Simple Simon & Co.

Let's Fly A Kite Sundress tutorial by Craftiness Is Not Optional

Sunny Little Miss Dress tutorial by Made it on Monday

Retro Ruffle Dress tutorial by Simply Modern Mom

Petal Dress tutorial by Ucreate

Hope you were inspired! If you have time add this cute little caplet to top it off.

Sweet Little Caplet tutorial by Simple Simon & Co
Happy Sewing!

 Do you have a free one I should have included?  If so just put a link in the comments!

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Fun kids color wheel art and science project! Guest post by Everyday Art

Today I have a fun guest post for you from Everyday Art, a great crafty, yummy, DIY blog!  Enjoy, and make sure to go check out their blog for more creative ideas!

Every year about this time I start to really, REALLY crave color. Like clockwork, every January I start scheming about decorating with yellow or orange or something bright just to liven things up a bit. It's been a little better this year because my kitchen is south-facing and everything is white and light blue, so it feels nice and light and airy. 

That being said, I still think more color this time of year is great. So, the kids and I made this fun food-dye color wheel the other day. It was a great little science and art project. (What could be more fun that mixing art and science?!!?)

It was such fun, and I couldn't believe how patient the kids were (ages 3 and 5), just staring at the colored water move slowly up the paper towels and mixing together. We learned about color-combining  and the color wheel. We also learned a bit about osmosis, diffusion, and siphons.

Here's what you need to make this fun color wheel:

6 clear cups

6 paper towels

red food dye

blue food dye 

yellow food dye

Here's what you do to make the color wheel: 

1) Fill 3 cups with water and mix in red food dye into one, blue food dye into the second and yellow food dye into the third. 

2) place the cups in a circle as shown above with an empty cup in between each of the 3 you already made with the primary colors in them. 

3) fold the paper towels into about 1-inch strips and place each end into adjacent cups. (I snipped off a bit of each paper towel to make them shorter.)

4) Watch as the dyed water seeps up the paper towels and combines into the empty cups to make the secondary colors of orange, green and purple.

After all the colors had mixed, we took them out of the circle shape and made rainbows and such with them. Fun little science project with the girls. Certainly added more color to our day!

Let me know how it goes if you guys try it! Happy weekend!

Friday Freebie! 15 page preschool Christmas Fun Pages from Mama's Learning Corner!

I am printing these off as we speak!  Great entertainment for the little ones so we can get some crafting for Christmas done!  Sure beats TV!

Find them HERE at Mama's Learning Corner!.

She has lots of great freebies so be sure to check them all out!

Free Fun Pumpkin Homeschool ideas and Printables from art lessons to cooking!

We just went to the pumpkin patch yesterday with our homeschool group and had a blast!  I was intending to buy two pumpkins for my mantel (that I could cook later) and one for the kids and hubby to carve. My husband insisted on two to carve which bumped it up to 4 pumpkins.  However, by the time we got there the pumpkin madness took over.  My 4 kiddos split up and before I knew it people were handing me pumpkins that my kids had told them to cut off the vine.  

All said and done we ended with 5 LARGE pumpkins.








Learn how to draw a pumpkin.

Go to sleepy head designs studio for these directions and ideas for creating a painting of a pumpkin too!

Print off a whole bunch of preschool age printables that are pumpkin themed!

Find them all HERE at 2 Teaching Mommies!

Here are some more pumpkin preschool printables for your pumpkins from The International Momma.!

Pumpkin themed lesson plans starting with reading this book. 

Find the complete lesson plans HERE at Totally Tots.

Do some pumpkin research

Have older kids?  Have them write out some interesting facts after checking out this link to the Pumpkin Patch that is filled with fun pumpkin facts! Read more pumpkin facts HERE at the history channel. 

Now watch this cool video on pumpkins and then fill out the report form below having them draw a pumpkin in the top space using the step by step directions in the first part of this post.

This blank research form can printed from HERE..

Teach your kids cooking skills

Find the recipe and complete post HERE.

Make baked pumpkin oatmeal with your kids.

Find the complete directions and recipe HERE at Cooking with my Kids.

Find 21 fall recipes here from Babble.  

Any of which would be great to make with kids like these quinoa pumpkin pancakes!.

Cooking with kids teaches them a host of skills from fractions, reading, following directions, kitchen skills like cutting, measuring, and culinary terms to confidence, and self sufficiency skills.  Besides kids love to cook and we all love to eat...especially when pumpkin is involved!

Hope you found some fun pumpkin based homeschool ideas no matter what age your kiddo. Have any fun ideas for us that have something to do with pumpkins?  Please share you ideas in the comments below!

Back in the swing of homeschool!

It has been a crazy few weeks!We got back from a family camping/RV trip in Colorado just in time to jump right into homeschool.  We had some home projects that needed attending to as well before we could get going.  It has been busy figuring out a new schedule with a brand new curriculum this year for homeschooling the older two while entertaining the younger two.  Meanwhile we harvested some apples that needed processing (think apple pie filling, and apple butter), had some family in town and tried to get the house and homeschool space more organized before the school year started.  Recipe for the apple butter to come soon!

Needless to say blogging had to take a back seat while I got down to business with all of that stuff.  I am happy to say that we are now up and running smoothly in the homeschool department.  It is busy and full on, but we are enjoying it.
We chose My Father's World for our curriculum and are doing the first grade and Exploring Countries and Cultures for my older two.  They are really enjoying it and I am enjoying how much the curriculum really focus' on Christ.  We are learning a slew of Bible verses, godly principles, and learning to appreciate and love others in the great big world all around us.

I have to show you all how our camper turned out! Before we took our '83 Toyota Dolphin RV out on our family vacation we redid the cushions, curtains, floor, paint, etc...  We love it now!  It was a whole lotta ugly before!  The price was so good we bought it with only 23,000 original miles, but a hideous interior.  We figured fixing it up would be easier than fixing the engine and cheaper than a newer one.  Can't wait to show you the photos!

I also have some recipe ideas coming your way!  We have been LOVING all these apples we have been picking from our friends tree.  I am thinking of making apples muffins tomorow, processing more for pie and crisp filling, storing some away to snack on and canning some for future use!

FREE Printable Pattern Block Activity Cards!

I have been looking into pattern blocks and looking for the activity cards when I tumbled on these free printable ones from prekinders.  Just what I was looking for!

I am printing as we speak and the laminator will be in heavy use in a few minutes.  Pattern blocks are great for early math learning, and really fun.  They are also a great learning activity to keep younger kids busy while teaching one on one with another kid.

Homeschool Fever! Getting ready for the coming school year!

I have been getting excited about homeschool lately and have been busy trying to get things set up for this coming school year.  What fun!  I have been perusing homeschool blogs, big family organizational blogs, crock pot blogs, and all the blogs with free printables for homeschoolers.  I have been to the city to go to teacher supply warehouses, haunting used curriculum swap sites, and laminating as fast as I can print!  Today I got my big metal magnet board up!  The photo is from the blog I saw it on called Nic and Kate.  It is a big oil drip pan from Walmart that cost around $12!! My kids love it!

I am also working on my calendar board or morning board.  I will have photos and links for the printables for that soon!  I am getting ready to contact paper my maps of the world and the US....What fun!    If you are using the My Father's World curriculum like we are then you might want to know that I have found that MFW curriculum swap has some great deals on all used My Father's World curriculum and anything used by the curriculum.  I also have been using Homeschool classifieds for a while and like that site as well.  Half.com has great prices on new and used books, workbooks, and textbooks and  is worth checking out.  I like to go to a full price book store and peruse the books then copy down what I liked and look for it here.  Happy planning!  What are you doing to get ready for the coming school year?