Craft Project: Perpetual Calendar Blocks

Topped with a piece of felt (that I'll change with the month), this was a fairly easy craft!

I started with a long, block-style dowel (1 inch thick) that I cut into 4 inch sections for the months

 and then 1 inch squares for the number blocks. I used the above metal file to sand the edges

 to remove any burrs.

Then, I used a pencil to write out what I wanted on each block.

Warming up my wood-burning tool.....

.....and we're off!

I like the idea that I can change the colored felt, and I can move the numbers along the longer bottom block to leave spaces for other peg people or small nature items, depending on what we're up to that day. I am planning to do some weather gnome peg people as well as days-of-the-week gnomes, so those would sit happily atop these blocks as well.  Easy breezy, and it only cost me $3.00 for the dowel, plus the cost of the tiny section of felt (I already owned the wood-burning tool, but you can get them for under $20 easily these days).  You could also just paint the words and numbers on if you didn't have a wood-burning tool as well.

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Today in homeschool. I had my son draw a picture of St. Francis in his main lesson book, along with some copy work about St. Francis and a form-drawing border. I also had my son work on a math review worksheet to get those math gears slowly churning again.

It took my son quite a bit of time to do the copy work, which reminded me that he still has some pencil-grip issues (but he definitely did a better job since I purchased some Lyra colored pencils for him that have a great triangular shape and nice wooden texture). I've decided I'd like to have him do a little bit of writing each day to help him strengthen those muscles. His handwriting has improved since last year, so that was nice to see!

I haven't done much with my little kindy lady yet. At this age, I want her focus to be on play...but I do plan to have her put together a sort of main lesson book for letters this year, so I suppose I should think about purchasing a nice notebook for that soon.

That's all the news fit to print today, really. It's just been really lovely slowly dipping back into a school rhythm. The days have been beautiful lately, so I've gotten some laundry out on the line and have been picking away at some fall cleaning. I plan to keep going with that a little at a time over the next few weeks.

Life seems to be slowing down a bit, despite the fact we've begun lessons again. I find that the coming of fall, the cooler evenings, and the energy in the air seems to make me feel sleepy and to want to withdraw a bit inward. I guess I should consider snapping out of the reverie just a bit, because there is much to do to prepare for our move next year, as well as the holiday season and some visitors "from away" this fall.