as cozy as spring

Spring Cleaning

It feels a little off to be changing our school organization system in March, but I just can't stand the mess anymore.  

First up - the surfaces in our dining/school room were covered in papers.  Each child has a work folder for the week, but it was always getting lost under all the other papers so that more papers weren't put back into the folder and things got even messier.  I stitched up a simple lined tote for the sole purpose of holding their weekly folders and special project folders (meaning Journey North or history project stuff).

My daughter's bag is completed and working beautifully.  Her fabric arrived first.

This is the fabric my son chose for his school bag and it arrived yesterday afternoon.  I'm going to work on it this afternoon.  It only takes about an hour using this tutorial.  I cut the fabric 13 by 16 inches to start and it seems to be a good size.

Our school books are stored in a crate under my desk.  It's not ideal, but it works.  My Martha Stewart binder is working beautifully and has made my own paper work much easier to manage.

The only other mess I'm dealing with now is our craft supplies.  I keep my own craft supplies fairly well pared down and organized - that's a flat out lie right now as everything I've worked on for the last few months has been hastily shoved into my china cabinet but all of that actually does have a place.  The children's water paints, scissors, glue, tape etc. etc. are sort of scattered. For months, I've looked longingly at those clear plastic drawer sets (like this - oh, isn't it gorgeous?) but in my experience, more storage = more clutter so I'm conflicted.  Do you all, my friendly readers, have a great system for all the homeschool art supplies?

 

Madam Malkin, I am not

    

I'd really like to be able to 'accio' my spool of black thread and then I could be done with this costume already.  But there was a tragic accident this summer.  I organized all my sewing supplies in a little box placed high on a closet shelf.  Upon retrieving this box, my hand slipped and buttons, thread, needles, and presser feet scattered into all the little corners.  Now, my closet is not dirty or unorganized but it is fairly full of stuff.  Living in a smallish house, there aren't a whole lot of other options.  I hate to go and buy thread I already own, but I'm seriously not up for a hunt.

I'm using (modified) McCall's M6421 (which was on sale for 99 cents this weekend and maybe still) for the cloak and it's going fairly well, but I do hope a nice neat top stitch will bring it all together.  I love top stitching.  The patch was found on Ebay.  

Summer Color

Fresh cotton t-shirts dyed in happy summer colors~

Spread in the sunshine to dry~

Where a mockingbird promptly defecated on them.

I'll be spending the week poolside praying that the-child-who-refuses-to-swim will make a breakthrough this year.  These are good days.

In the Schoolroom

Look!  It's a craft for children!  Not an innovative craft, but it's been a while so I'll be proud of it just the same.  I've been reworking my dining room and groaned inwardly when I thought of that big basket of broken crayons.  A quick and necessary trip to JoAnn's and we are all set for Valentine's Day.   

We grouped them by color families which was a nice way to discuss complimentary colors and recycling.  But I'm not going to make this more than what it is.  It was a way for me to get rid of some stuff.  I've done this with children before and I heartily recommend a separate mold for crafting because no one wants crayola flavored muffins.  The Wilton molds are on sale at JoAnn's right now.  This mold ran us about $8.00 which isn't bad as crafts (and gifts!) go.  The children had a lot fun and that felt great.  I've not been particularly conscientious about providing art projects for them lately.  I did stock up on watercolor paper and we hope to begin our Friday nature study again.  This week: mistletoe!

Ha!  This photo is not black and white.  It's just that dreary here.  We'll go hunting for more later when it warms up.  Other notes from the school room... 

For my six year old... aggressive repetition with the early readers.  He's reading but not fluidly and not progressing in an even manner.  So we read and read and read and read and read.  It's really not a bad way to spend the day. 

For my ten year old... She's reading Herodotus and the Road to History.  We read the Archimedes book last year.  These are nice supplements.  I think I need to add Writing Strands or something.  She wrote her first proper book report in December and it was hilarious.  God help her, she has to learn to write from ME.  Everyone is worried about teaching advanced mathematical concepts but it's the commas that concern me.  If you have any program recommendations, please leave them in the comments.  I need all the help I can get.

Rejoice!

After hours of searching, I found my dpn case!  It was in the cute little bag that holds our Magnifikids.  I'm sure I put it there because I'm just that ditzy.  

Knitting on.  It's a good thing too because lately, as soon as I stop knitting my hands almost immediately cramp up.  I think this is a bad sign but I'll worry about it after Christmas.

That is all.

That's not really a post is it?

Well, since I'm here I must heap praise all over Jessica's gorgeous idea for St. Nicholas coins.  There are a lot of craft ideas out there on the internet.  I have to ignore most of them.  But this!  This is exceptional.  I was already pleased that, for the first year, my St. Nicholas Day coins won't have Jewish symbols on them, but this is even better!  

Farewell friends!  Happy Thursday!

Advent Tea: Week One

Friendly reader Kathy inquired about the Advent teas that have kind of evolved over the last few years.  It's down to a fairly good formula now but I still am having trouble gathering it all in one post.  These aren't elaborate celebrations.  We have a simple refreshment, perhaps a small activity, some liturgically appropriate music, we light the candle and pray together.  Advent is a hectic time of year for everyone, but with our ballet obligations it's become increasingly difficult and increasingly important for us to carve out just a few moments of peace together. That being said, I will try to post about our plans the week prior on Wednesday.  So here are our plans for week one:

Menu: Tea, shortbread, oranges.  The first Sunday usually falls very near the feast of St. Andrew, patron saint of Scotland, hence the shortbread.  I make a pretty darn good shortbread myself, but my son prefers the Walkers Christmas shaped shortbread.  As it was one of the few cookies he could eat for the first 5 years of his life, we defer to him.  He looks forward to these all year.

Activity: Pomanders which simply require cloves and oranges (and maybe a thimble).  These adorn our Advent wreath. 

Little Treat: To emphasize the concept of watchful waiting, I package a single paper white bulb for each of my children to watch grow through Advent.  I also try to have the last batch of bulbs in the fridge by the first Sunday of Advent to plant on Epiphany and enjoy in February.

We will also read a selection or two from our Christmas books.  I just grabbed All for the Newborn Baby and A Medieval Christmas from the stack.  These will all be repeated several times through the month.

A more lasting paper doll.

Fire up your scroll saws, I think this is a great idea.  My daughter loves paper dolls, but they have that horrible habit of tearing and bending, as paper does.  I wanted something appropriate for play but with the same charming illustrations.  My dad and I put our heads together and came up with this:

I color copied the paper dolls (these are Little House) onto plain printer paper (the cardboard wasn't porous enough).  He traced the figures onto three quarter inch pine.  Then he cut the shapes out with his scroll saw.  I used decoupage medium to stick the paper doll to the precut wood.  I also used the Modpodge top coat to make it a little sturdier.   

 

We sanded a bit around the edges and voila!  They have been very popular with both children.  The wooden animals are assorted fancy pants German imports that the children ignore in favor of Polly Pockets and Legos (That's not entirely true.  My son likes them well enough).  If they were my toys I'd pretend to have Ma smack the bear on the way to feed the cow.  Or have Pa not shoot the deer.  But they're not my toys so I don't do that.

Close up:

And I hope it's not breaking any copyright laws to copy these at home, for home use.  I'm irrationally afraid of breaking copyright laws.  

Colonial Crafts: An Autumn Dye Pot

My daughter was flipping through Colonial Days last week.  I told her to pick out a craft and she mentioned making a natural wool dye.  I was all over it.  I've wanted to try dyeing again for a while now, but couldn't justify the expense for my own recreation... but as an educational opportunity for my children?  That's a whole different (more generous) category in the budget.

We ordered some undyed merino (lace weight) and picked up some alum and cream of tartar at Target.  We decided to create a goldenrod dye because it's supposed to be easy and the roadsides are still adorned with the feathery bright yellow flowers.  And I love doing anything so quintessentially seasonal.

Can you imagine us all happily tromping through a sunlit field to gather flowers?  Picture this instead, it's just after Mass and I'm wearing my pearls, strappy heels, and a knee length dress which became decidedly not knee length when I leaned over to gather the goldenrod.  Replace the sunlit field with a bare spot behind a local bar complete with broken beer bottles and ant piles - also a cold front had blown in whilst we were in church and it was damp and chilly.

 

I would provide more details for the dyeing process, but it wasn't exact and there are plenty of ideas out there on the internet.  I personally remember green spiders crawling all over my kitchen counters, shrieks and laughter over the wasps and caterpillars we brought home with us, hauling huge pots of boiling water in and out of the kitchen, and a smell filling the house which can only be described as "funky".

 

But we got a golden skein of yarn for all of our efforts and it goes without saying that we will definitely do this again.

Ooh, I should mention that Martha does this in Lissa's Martha series using a rather repulsive substance as mordant and I was surprised and also not surprised that there are still a lot of people out there who take this route - but you know, for some additional reading on natural dyes.  

Another spider web craft

OK, this one is almost too simple to mention, but it was fun so here you are.  Get some watercolor paper and a white crayon.  Draw a spider web with the white crayon (in secret!) and then tell the children to just paint a midnight sky.  Tada!  My children were so surprised that a spider web appeared (because you know, the watercolor paint won't stick to the crayon lines and I suppose you could go into the chemistry of all that if you were sufficiently on top of things)

 

My children then decided to create their own designs and I ended up with this from my daughter.  

Good things from my google reader: I'm still not recovered enough from last year's attempt to try this apple cider doughnut recipe.  But I think you should try it and invite me over.

Happy Monday friends.  'Tis a busy one!

Beaded Spider Webs

 

Last week, on a particularly foggy morning, we went spider web hunting in the garden.  I love how the webs appear bejeweled as the dew clings to them.  

Related: I promised my daughter a few weeks ago that we could have craft day on Saturdays.  This was in an effort to stamp out channel her creativity through the rest of the week, as she often overwhelms me with her project ideas that never really take into account planning or materials (or the fact that I really just want to be lying down at any given moment).  So yesterday I surprised the children with wire snowflake forms, plates of clear glass beads, wire and Vince Guaraldi on ITunes. My plan was to create beaded spider webs.  

 

My children really had no interest in making clear beaded spider webs.  They wanted color and lots of it.  So I decided to let them express themselves instead of making it a Martha Stewart sweat shop sort of afternoon.  They actually came up with some really cool patterns and even the baby my 5 year old was able to handle the tiny beads and wires without a problem.  He occasionally handled the wires awfully close to my eyeballs so goggles wouldn't be a bad thing to add to the materials list.
 

I call this a huge success despite the results being far different from my expectations because it kept the children occupied and happy for hours.

We didn't really follow instructions, but there are some available here.  If you do this I strongly suggest making a rule that no one is allowed to become frustrated when all their beads fall off their wire because this happened to us a lot.  No one lost their temper because I told them they couldn't (even me!)