Monday, August 18, 2014

How To Pull Together History Dress Ups


Dressing up is a super duper fun part of our Wonderful Wednesdays' each week during the school year!  Kids love to dress up and become something other than they are.  It stimulates the mind in a way that not many other things can.  The process of pulling together costumes from a variety of places and utilizing a variety of items in new and possibly unique ways -is a very creative process for both the kids and parents.  When the day comes to actually pull off the dress up, I find that I end up having just as much fun as my child.  It feels like I'm creating individual pieces of recycled art, as I pull together the various elements to see them go from my minds' eye to real life.  Sometimes, they come out way better than I thought and other times, I have to change out an element or even start over because it doesn't go as well as I had hoped!  I thought I would share with you how I use the Wonderful Wednesday Plan to develop out my ideas for costumes and where I find my treasures!


The first thing I do is print out my Wonderful Wednesday Plan.  

The next thing that I do is go online to www.amazon.com and I search for each history topic- putting that name in the search field and then the word "costume" afterwards.  So for example, week 1 it says Christopher Columbus.  So I will put "Christopher Columbus costume" and see what comes up.  If I like the look of the costume, then I will add it to my Wish List (Amazon has that option under the Purchase button).  I do this for each costume required for the year.  I am EXTREMELY visual and having a photo of a costume helps me remember details of elements needed and begin to envision how I can make it come to life in my own way.  I need to SEE something to jump off from and create.  Then I go into my Wish List and print out a copy of all the costumes so I can place it in my CC Planning Book.  I then write under each costume what it is representing from the WW Plan and the week it is going to occur.  I then write out ideas for how I could create the costume elements with easily obtainable items.  I place all this in my CC Planning Book under a tab for Wonderful Wednesdays.  
  
Once I have printed the plan, the Wish List, and written out my ideas for elements on each costume, then I peruse my closets for anything that looks like it will work!  Sarah has a lot of dress ups from the years, so I start there first to see if any elements can be pulled and used for this year's costume.  I then go to my closet and my husband's, to see if there are any treasures that can be used as elements for each week.  Once I've exhausted my own home for elements, I begin to head out to the various Goodwill and consignment shops.  I do this over the summer as I see them or am out and about.  I always have my planning book with me so I can take it with me into the store and see if anything grabs me as an element for one of the week's costumes.  I have found things at Goodwill, Children's Orchard, Upscale Resale, Dollar Store and other places here and there.  I even stopped at a store in Virginia on my way home from visiting family because they looked like they had a lot of civil war stuff and boy did they!  

If I really can't seem to find anything that works or my daughter really likes a specific costume from Amazon, I will on occasion, purchase it instead of pulling it together myself.  I will do this if I am completely stuck and can't seem to find anything that I like or feel will work.  I much prefer though, to create them myself.  However, some costumes are more difficult than others to create and I have to say uncle occasionally. =)  If you aren't the creative sort or you don't want to incur the expense or spend the time to make your own costumes in full, then I would suggest just coming up with one or two elements such as a hat, pipe, wig etc. to capture the idea of the character or time period and still participate in a dress up themed learning day with your kids.
Now to the really great stuff!  I have joined forces with several other Bloggers and we are giving away $500.00 via Paypal to the blessed Homeschool winner!  In order to win, you must have a Paypal account.  The more entries the better your chances.  It is our true desire that this will really bless a Homeschool family for the coming school year.  Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway below to put your entries into the drawing. 

30 comments:

  1. What an awesome opportunity. This will for sure be a blessing to someone :)

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  2. This would go towards some of the extra things I'd like to do in our homeschool this year!

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    1. Super! God knows our every need. Blessings - Colleen

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  3. This would help me with my homeschool wish list! ;)

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    1. So glad that it will bless someone with their wish list and/or needs. It's a tremendous blessing to be able to partner with other Bloggers to make this happen for someone of God's choosing!

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  4. This would be an amazing blessing! Thank you for the opportunity!

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  5. New bookshelves would be a wonderful blessing!

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    1. That's a great idea - can't have too many books!

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  6. Funds are still short here due to our adoption expenses from adopting 2 older children last year from Latvia so this gift would be such a blessing to us. We homeschool all 4 of our children :)

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    1. Having two children that are adopted, I can relate. I have a friend in Latvia right now adopting 6 children (sibling group) - they will be home tomorrow with them! Praying God's blessings to you in the raffle!

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  7. Buying curriculum definitely. We just started this year and I'm already wondering how I'm going to manage creating our own for the next term when it comes!

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    1. God will provide if not through this then another means. He is good and will do what He has called you to. Blessings!

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  8. We are in our second year of Classical Conversations and looking for lots of fun activities to try. These dress-up ideas sound great and I'm sure the prize would help put them together. It would bless our family by helping with this years school books and some extras. Thanks for the chance!

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    1. Sounds like a good idea. So glad you entered!

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  9. Wow what an awesome prize to win! Not sure what I would use it on...maybe books, books, books as it seems I am always purchasing some fantastic book for homeschooling :-) PS Thanks for the CC cycle 3 weekly agenda. I purchased it a month ago and can't wait to use it once our classes begin in Sept.

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    1. It is an awesome prize! I can't wait to see who wins! I am so glad you got the Teaching Plan - I truly hope it blesses you homeschool this year!

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  10. This looks like fun. Both of my girls just love dressing up.

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    1. We truly have a blast doing it! Hope you give it a try! Blessings Colleen

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  11. it would give me a little more freedom in choosing items to complement cc at home. It would be an amazing blessing!

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  12. How fun! I could use some supplementary materials for cycle 3!

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    1. Supplementing Cycle 3 and bringing it to life is one of my favorite things! Thank you for stopping by! :) Blessings Colleen

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  13. I would actually use this to get started on the costume collection. We still have 4 more years of CC Foundations to add extra Fun stuff too.

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    1. That's awesome! You have lots of time to do some great enrichment activities and really connect those memory pieces to some cool experiences! Blessings - Colleen

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  14. I would probably put the money towards the cost of vision therapy for my dd--it isn't covered by insurance. Thanks for the opportunity to win, you are very generous!

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    1. Blessings in your endeavors! God will provide one way or another for your dd. Thank you for stopping by and entering!

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  15. This would bless our family in a lot of ways! My main source of income was cut off in the last month, and this would help things not be quite so tight. :) I've still got curriculum to order, so I'm "piecemeal"-ing it until that can happen. Definitely learning to trust God for his provision in this season of our lives!

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    1. Thank you for stopping by and entering. I'm sorry to hear that you are in a difficult place right now. Prayers for God's provisions for your family as you continue to trust Him. Blessings

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