My Latest: Trains, Rainbows, and Sandwich Boards

a round-up of train crafts

a round-up of rainbow crafts

and a tutorial for this cardboard sandwich board

I thought that I'd have a T-shirt biketard to show you, and I do have it, but the tute for it will have to wait until I sew Syd's--it turns out that T-shirt fabric works as a leotard really only for kids whose bodies are still straight little noodles, NOT for kids whose bodies have hips and waists and itty bitty busts, so although Will's biketard will work fine for play and for her runway walk at the Trashion/Refashion Show, it won't work for actual aerial silks or gymnastics use, so I don't need to write you a tutorial for making a non-functioning biketard.

I bet you could figure out how to make a non-functioning biketard all on your own.

Our DIY Aerial Silks Rig

For playing such a large part in our daily lives, this DIY aerial silks rig of ours is something that I haven't really shared as such yet. Part of the reason is that Matt and I put it up during a busy time (Nutcracker season!) and then modified it during another busy time, so I didn't have hours to spare to describe the process and the tools and the supplies in the loving, obsessive, undoubtedly-tedious-to-read detail that I usually expend.

Another part, though, is that this rig has fit so seamlessly into our lives, become such a natural, integral part of it, that I honestly don't spend much time noticing that giant swath of fabric hanging in the middle of our big hallway. The kids play on it and around it off and on all day, expending fabulous amounts of energy, calling me to come and see some new trick or skit or performance. I pass by it dozens of time every day, admiring a kid or pausing to give her a push or toss down some more mats or stopping to tie it up out of our way, only to pass by again an hour later and see it hanging down again after another unnoticed playtime.

It was actually only as I was going through some photos from the year so far that I noticed over and over again batches of photos that I'd snapped of the kids on their rig, and realized that I haven't yet been super braggy (well, I *have* been super braggy, but perhaps not in an overabundance of photos) about it here!

So here I am, super braggy about our aerial silks rig:

You can see here that I had Matt hack off the middle of our exposed beam and drill through a higher exposed beam to mount this rig. The ends of the exposed beam look janky, but we kept the cedar facing, so if we ever want to permanently remove the rig, we can nail the cedar facing back up to the beam ends and it will look exactly as it did before.

I believe that this is called a "Princess Sit?" I've resigned myself to the fact that in every photo that I share of this rig in action, you'll be able to see random clutter in my hallway. Shown here: plywood for a future mounted Hot Wheels track, Galileoscope, fire extinguisher, box of World War II letters, plastic crates stolen from the back of Kroger's, and, of COURSE, a ladder.

This is the Twizzler. It requires tricky balance, and both kids were very pleased when they mastered it.

 I especially love how this rig encourages cooperative play between my often competitive, often bickering, often jealous children:

I made Syd this Avengers leotard out of a T-shirt. 

The kids saw their instructors performing this two-person stunt at the winter showcase, so of course they practiced it, too!

 Check out the muscles on my kids--one can pull up her sister while hanging upside down, and the other can pull herself upside down while hanging onto her sister!

 The reverse is a little harder:

 So they decided to do this instead:

 And it turns out that the reverse of that is a little harder, too!

P.S. Interested in more inadvisably DIY projects? Check out my Craft Knife Facebook page!

Work Plans for the Week of February 16, 2015: Mongolia and Hoosier Heroines

Half an hour into our Monday, and the schedule's already blown, thanks to a combination of snow (yay!) and car trouble (boo!). We'll actually be having a little staycation here at home today and Tuesday, and I'll just wait and see if I fill up those out-of-the-house spots with schoolwork here, or simply let them be. After all, one must have ample time for snowmen and sledding, mustn't one?

In addition to the written schedule, each day the children also have independent practice in typing, piano keyboard, and Chinese, and they each have a book assignment, ranging from Mongolian folk tales to picture books of Chinese characters to a bizarre 1950s-era children's how-to manual, which actually explains, step by step and remarkably clearly, how to do things like clean the house and write a thank-you letter and make a grilled cheese sandwich, etc. I usually just have the children talk to me about the book that they've read, but this week I'll also be asking them to write Chinese characters and make me a grilled cheese sandwich.

MONDAY: No Hub, no Girl Scout meeting. However... snow! In math, I'll be demonstrating to both children the Girl Scout cookie booth essential skill of counting back change. Next year, I'll be demonstrating this skill to all my Girl Scouts BEFORE our cookie booths! Our troop's two oldest girls (both named Willow, incidentally--it was wonderful, at our last cookie booth, to call out "Willow!" and have TWO big helpful girls at my disposal!), can handle money and make change with an adult standing at her elbow to supervise, but they both simply subtract--fine for the easy math of multiples of four, but one day out in the world the math won't be so simple.

This week's horse breed is the Abaco Barb. I'm really pleased with the infographics that the children have been producing for their horse research; I feel like this is a useful skill well learned!

Syd is starting a block of short story writing; I'd like her to produce a few written and illustrated picture books this spring. Will is engaged this week in another odd little essay prompt for a local contest--she's really improving in her ability to write to a prompt, and after this season of essay contests is over, I look forward to asking her to choose her own subjects for essays, as well.

TUESDAY: No Robotics Club. However... snow!

WEDNESDAY: YES horseback riding! You'll notice that aerial silks hasn't been on my list of weekly classes for a few weeks. At a recent Family Meeting we discussed extracurriculars; although I'm willing to enroll the children in whatever they're interested in and want to work at, I've noticed that the children lose their appreciation for these opportunities when they're signed up for more than one a day, and so I asked them to make some choices, assuring them that they could revisit these choices at the end of every session. Both children chose to drop aerial silks classes for the time being (they still spend ages of time on our at-home rig each day, and I might explore Youtube to see if there are any demonstrations or tutorials that might appeal to them), and Syd also chose to drop horseback riding. Instead, she'll be taking gymnastics on Thursdays. I found these choices so interesting because, of course, both children could have continued in horseback riding, and both children could have taken gymnastics, and in previous weeks I think they'd both have been eager to. I think they took our discussions of their schedules and their commitments to them that we'd been having in preparation for our Family Meeting to heart, however, and I could see them really thoughtfully choosing only what they really wanted to do.

For whatever reason (probably because I kept scheduling it for Fridays, which is the least productive time to put the "serious" schoolwork), we keep not listening to the Story of the World chapters on Mongolia and working on the comprehension questions. We MUST do it this week, however, as World Thinking Day is on Sunday, and my Girl Scout troop, thankfully led in this by another mom, is presenting on Mongolia. The mom has done an incredible job teaching the children about Mongolia and organizing their displays and presentation. My two need to create displays on Mongolia's map and flag this week, and I can't pass up the opportunity presented by this unit to cover those Story of the World chapters. After all, who doesn't like learning about Genghis Khan?!?

Syd's Minecraft Homeschool session is over, so while Will is working on her essay, I'm filling in Syd's extra schoolwork slot with activities that I know that she'll especially like--playing a game with me, and doing a craft project. I'll also need her help with her Trashion/Refashion garment off and on this week, so easy, fun little "assignments" like those won't interfere with any work that I need her to do on that.

THURSDAY: After the madness of the past few weeks, I'm relieved that this looks to be our only hectic day this week. Gym Day will likely include some extra World Thinking Day rehearsal, and the start of gymnastics class overlapping with a Girl Scout cookie booth will definitely require some juggling. Math Mammoth (decimals and geometry), a keyboard lesson with Hoffman Academy, and, for Will, the writing of a rough draft are the only added things to this day.

FRIDAY: I was pleased that the children rated math class as one of the extracurriculars that simply couldn't be dropped (ice skating is still also on Fridays, but only until the end of this session. Our rink is only seasonal, sigh); they love their teacher, and many of their closest friends also take the class, which devotes a full hour to board games at the end--how could that NOT be a hit?

We're still using First Language Lessons for grammar. In addition, these Word Ladders are a fun way for a kid to practice a little logical deduction and stretch her spelling skills while her sister is on the ice.

SATURDAY/SUNDAY: The children love their Saturday tradition of Sydney's ballet class, something "fun" with their father (last week it was Wonderlab, and the week before I believe that it may have been a buffet restaurant), and then Chinese class. Our local indie theater is showing all the Oscar-nominated short films as a film festival this weekend, so we'll likely be attending that, and then Sunday is World Thinking Day!

And hopefully by Sunday, I'll also have this Trashion/Refashion show garment in hand...

Aerial Silks Winter Showcase: Momma's Little Sugar Plum

Since Syd spent much of the past few months rehearsing for her role in our university's production of The Nutcracker, it struck me as quite apropos when I learned that one of the songs that Will would be performing to in her own aerial silks show would be "The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies."

Mind you, Syd's role was on the ground (although the angels were meant to look as if they were flying), and Will's role was in the air, but nevertheless, they were both Nutcracker kids this year.

My Will lives so much in her own head that she sometimes finds it hard when she's required to be in her body; she's strong and flexible and smart, but she has to work harder than the other kids to find the body awareness that leads to grace in one's movements, and it's not something that she can yet reliably achieve. That's one of the many, many, many reasons why I was so proud to watch her practicing and rehearsing for this aerial silks show--a lot of kids who are good at some things will only do those things, and never be brave enough to stretch themselves in a new direction in which they risk failure, but not my Will. She wanted to perform in this show, and she worked her butt off to do it.

I thought that this show would be a direct contrast to Syd's Nutcracker run--everyone in town, practically, saw Syd dance onstage this year, but I figured that only the performers' families, and perhaps a few doting friends, would be in the theater to watch Will. And yet when we got there, so early that I'd thought about doing a little window shopping first just so we wouldn't be the only people sitting in the audience, we actually walked in to find the bleacher seats about 95% taken, and we had to squeeze ourselves in at the far end of a row. And people just kept coming, and coming, and coming! The performers brought out folding chairs and put them all around the stage, wherever they thought that people could sit and probably not get kicked in the head. More people sat on the floor:

I don't know what else was going on in Bloomington that night, but there can't have been more people anywhere than there were in this theater, watching this show.

And what a show it was! I don't know if you've ever seen much circus arts performed live before, but it's really something special to watch. There was everything--synchronized numbers, solo numbers, aerial silks, aerial hoop, and trapeze:

And this kid, of course, who was my own personal favorite performer:

 She tells me that she wasn't nervous, but I don't know... look at that face:

Matt took videos of Will's performances (shaky, wonky videos, of course, as one does when one is holding the video camera and filming, but one's focus is rather on the actual show, as it should be), but I'm a rotten perfectionist, and I kind of didn't want to show them to you at first. I didn't want you to see Will's hesitations, her frowns of concentration, how she wants to always watch her partner to keep herself in time, the spots where she forgets her choreography, and think that she didn't do a good job.

But of course, who really cares about small things like that? You might see an imperfect performance, yeah, but you also see a really brave kid. A focused kid. A kid trying so hard that the concentration is clear on her face. A kid who hung out all day with her fellow performers and her teachers the day of the show, got her hair curled and her face glittered, and DIDN'T BRING A BOOK. 

A kid who, in her first rehearsal several weeks before, wept silently but hard as she tried and failed and tried and failed to master a stunt that she was able to successfully pull off during this performance. 

This is that awesome kid in her show:

It was a perfect performance.