Mildenhall, and a Treasure

Last month, the girlies and I attended a screening of Fantastic Mr. Fox at the public library. The next day, I requested the complete works of Roald Dahl for check-out.

Our public library spoils us, by the way. From the comfort of your home, you can peruse our library's online catalog, everything from children's comic books to the newest novels to feature films to software to entire seasons of TV series. You can request any item from that online catalog--if it's checked out, it will be held for you upon its return, and if it's in the building, an employee will pull it off the shelf for you. You can request that the item be held for you to pick up either at the check-out desk indoors, or AT THE DRIVE-UP, WHERE YOU DO NOT EVEN HAVE TO GET OUT OF YOUR CAR. I, on account of we homeschool and walk and I routinely (as in every other day) want more library materials than I can carry, make AMPLE use of these services.

And that's how Matt, on his way home from work the next evening, drove by the library and picked up the complete works of Roald Dahl for us, as well as other miscellaneous novels and picture books and DVDs and software, etc.

Mostly the books have sat on the library bookshelf (because yes, we have an ENTIRE BOOKSHELF solely for library books--the CDs and DVDS and software programs are kept elsewhere), but they're there for the girls if they become interested, and the other evening, while Syd and the dad were out running some errands, Willow found Roald Dahl's The Mildenhall Treasure and asked me to read it to her.

And so I did.

If you have not read about the Mildenhall Treasure before, specifically Dahl's account of it, I recommend that you do. Wow.

The book, however, is illustrated by an Artist, and although there are several very evocative renditions of the treasure, there are none in the book that actually, you know, show what the treasure looks like really.

And so we went online.

The book notes that the treasure was acquired by the British Museum, so that's where we went. Virtually. On the British Museum web site there's a brief account of the Mildenhall Treasure (although not the scandalous story that Dahl relates), a notation of exactly where in the museum one can go to gaze upon the treasure (insert jealous sigh here), and a few nice images that, if you didn't quite get while you were reading the tale exactly what the big deal is with a bunch of silver platters and plates, you get it now. Again, wow.

Okay, so blah, blah, blah, research, research, research, but then the two of us, Will and I, get the bright idea that we want to put the Mildenhall Treasure on our timeline, and wouldn't it be great to get a copy of those images to go with it?

And here's where we make an awesome discovery.

The British Museum has a free digital image service, for which you can register, and then request high-quality digital images of anything in the British Museums's collections that they have high-quality digital images of. The British Museum will then get some interns or someone to find those images and email them to you. Can you freaking imagine the awesomeness of that?

And that's how we got Mildenhall on our timeline:

And now I'm going to go request myself some more art.

Here's Our Homeschool This Week

It's that time again! This week, we:

read books out loud and books independently and books online:

listened to audiobooks of the entire rest of the Magic Tree House series, I think (I'm talking several hours, here, as in at least one entire day of little people camped out on the floor next to the CD player); and played ourselves some Scrabble. Sydney and I pored over all her Valentines from last February AGAIN, and one night, after Matt read her Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, she spent the entire evening with a glow stick taped between her eyes. I taught Willow how to use the Primary Search database (available through our university library system for teacher training) and she had a happy time looking up Ranger Rick articles and having them read to her by a tinny digital voice.

spent some time (not as much as in previous weeks, thank gawd this phase is passing) on PBSKids.org; made and played with balancing butterflies; and played and played with our newish Cuisenaire rods. Willow masterminded the very successful butterfly snack of the weekend. Sydney ventured a maze or two, and watched her first episode of Cyberchase, which she liked only okay.

took many more photographs--

--and drew and created and imagined. Sydney did all of the decorating of the balancing butterflies, painted many pictures from the icky Disney Princess coloring book that she bought with her Christmas money--

--painted her nails in a gorgeous amplitude of colors, and helped me make her a butterfly wand.

read children's comics about the Boston Tea Party and the creation of the Star-Spangled Banner, and played with the timeline. Willow and I read Roald Dahl's book about the discovery of the Mildenhall Treasure, then researched it at the British Museum web site and added it to the timeline, too. I realized as I was pasting up some photos that I didn't leave much space for the world wars--we'll figure that out later.

watched just a little Syd the Science Kid (he's pro-vaccination); played with our brand-new stethoscope a LOT; attended a Demolition Derby with Daddy; worked in the garden; explored the local farmer's co-op with me and bought some bulk seeds appropriate for a fall garden; visited the Humane Society to love on the animals; and played a heck of a lot of Petz (Will has spent almost the entire day on this game today, adopting and caring for and training and taking digital photos of and playing with some inane, big-eyed computer Dalmatian puppies). Willow watched an episode of Life with me; researched whether or not umbrellas could be used as parachutes (youtube evidence is to the contrary); experimented with whether or not umbrellas could be used as boats (yes, if it's something super-light); read A Seed is a Promise, and was so moved by the part about the prehistoric seeds that are sprouted thousands of years later that she read the passage to us all at the dinner table; and read a lot of Ranger Rick. Syd had done a lot of cooking and baking with me this week, everything from lentils to French bread:

In the process, she's had a lot of flour and water play, making her own concoctions--

--and drawing pictures in a layer of cornmeal spread out on the table:

attended the county fair, riding the rides and seeing the sights; played in the dirt; played with friends; played on crutches; and hiked downtown. Will's newest method of getting around is to hop on her sound leg, and she has developed this skill to stunning heights. She can also go up and down stairs and inclines on her crutches, now, which is a pretty big deal. Sydney is again rocking Level 1 of swim class (sigh), is my go-to girl when I need some basil picked, and has taken it upon herself to keep all the household pencils nice and sharp.

Will has been heavy into creating signage this week, and Sydney is painstakingly working through copying out a letter to a friend that she dictated to me earlier this week, inviting said friend to go swimming with her:

Sydney is also a rock star:

And that's how we homeschooled this week!

P.S. Nope, all those photos of Sydney were not taken on the same day. She just likes that dress!

Our Enchanting, and Balancing, Butterflies

Inspired by the internet (as I often am), the girlies and I have spent a week or so making balancing butterflies. We didn't make a week's worth of butterflies, mind you, but we did work off and on for a week. Unlike in the cozier, more contemplative winter, when we can seemingly spend an entire day crafting felt food, summer projects tend to be worked on for several minutes, then set aside for several days, then worked on again. No matter, as all the project materials made themselves at home on a corner of the living room table, and eventually, we turned them into butterflies:

You can use the templates that I linked to above, but any symmetrical shape, with a wide wingspan that's forward of the front of the body, will do. You can also use any material that's slightly stiff, just enough so to bend a tiny little, but only a tiny little, under the weight of the penny hot glued to each wingtip:

I have one interior design project ongoing with these little beauties, involving some cardboard record album covers, some carpet tacks, and the ceiling of our living room, and another project altogether, an educational one, the reasoning being that if pretend butterflies balance, then why not real ones?

Rather, why not balancing copies of real balancing butterflies? I mean, balancing butterflies that are real butterflies.

Eh, just wait and see.

Kids Make Their Own Snack Tutorial: Butterfly in My Belly

We have been all about the butterfly lately. Save me the psycho-babble about why the girls and I would be suddenly so interested in an animal so light and free and airy, etc. Let's just sublimate the uncomfortable emotions, okay, and just study butterflies.

Willow found this basic recipe in the back of a Highlights magazine and asked to make it. Despite the fact that it's gonna look completely different when we're done with it, and it's made of, you know, all different foods, it is, of course, delicious and awesome.

You will need:

• two pieces of bread
• child's scissors
• cream cheese
• food coloring and small zip-top baggies
• scissors, rolling pin, and butter knife
• carrot, already scraped
• raisins (or nuts or seeds)

1. Let the kiddo cut each piece of bread into a beautiful butterfly wing:

Willow wasted a huge amount of each piece of bread on this. I've got the rest of the bread in a baggie in the refrigerator right now--if the girls ask to make this snack a couple of more times, I'll have enough leftover bread to make bread pudding, and if not, I'll chop it up and put it in my larger breadcrumbs baggie in the freezer.

2. Put a couple of tablespoons of cream cheese into two or more little zip-top baggies, and have the kiddo choose a different color to dye each amount of cream cheese. After you put the color in each appropriate baggie, seal it and hand it to the kid to moosh around until the cream cheese is evenly dyed.

3. Squoosh all the cream cheese into one bottom corner of the baggie (I use a rolling pin), cut off that corner, and let the kiddo use the baggies like pastry bags to spread the cream cheese on the bread. The kiddo will also want to use the butter knife, and her fingers:

This, of course, is perfectly fine.

4. Give the kiddo a scraped carrot and have her lay out her butterfly with its beautiful wings, then give her some raisins or nuts or seeds so that she can make beautiful polka dots:

The finished product will be both absolutely gorgeous--

--and wonderfully delicious:

We've got no fewer than three more butterfly projects already in the bag, so stay tuned...

Timeline

I've had this timeline project in my head for probably a year. It was always one of those ideas that I'd think of often, then dismiss with, "Well, that's something for when we homeschool."

And now we homeschool.

It involved repainting the basement hallway from the top of the stairs all the way down and down the hall and around the corner, a lot of thought work in allocating appropriate space to different time periods (it was never an option to make an uniform allocation of space--too many billions of years in which nothing interesting went on), and, yes, I lowered our house's resale value just a little bit more, but the girls and I worked hard on its preparation, and we're all three very pleased.

We begin at the top of the basement stairs. There's a foot and some change at the very top where nothing's happened yet because it's in the future, but soon enough, we're far back enough in time that interesting things have begun to occur.

I had not intended to permit the children to graffiti the wall, but as I worked on the timeline with Sydney at my side, and she began to draw all over with our Sharpies, VERY excited about "making our timeline pretty," I thought to myself, "Eh."

And so the timeline is pretty as well as informative:

I want our timeline to grow as the children's learning and interests grow, so I tried to keep my beginning entries as minimal as possible on subjects about which the children aren't yet interested (if you want to see an AMAZING and comprehensive on-the-wall timeline, check out the timeline at Ordinary Life Magic). Instead, I tried to only lay out markers, so to speak, placeholders that will help us put dates down accurately without a lot of figuring. So I've noted the beginning point of American history, for instance:

The Medieval period:

The Christian era begins at the bottom of the stairs:

The Classical Age:

Don't worry--when we get to a part of history that we're interested in, you'll be able to tell:

And when we get to a part of history that we're really, REALLY interested in, I think that you'll be able to tell that, too:

As much as possible, I want to enhance the timeline with images--photos, magazine illustrations, ideally lots of stuff created by the girls--and of course I hope that the girls will take charge of adding anything from small notations to entire essays of their own writing as they grow. These current images come from a second copy that we somehow have of the Smithsonian Handbook on dinosaurs--we just cut that sucker up and glued it to the wall (remember what I told you about lowering the house's resale value?) Will and I cut out the entries on various prehistoric creatures that we're the fondest of. Syd's cut-outs are different, but also pretty awesome:

Eventually we go back so far that continuing in a straight line would be either wasteful of space or misleading as to the time involved, so instead I switched to a spiral layout:

And in the center of the spiral?

BOOM!!!

We love our timeline, and already I can tell that it was a great idea. Context is everything, layering new information over old, putting events into perspective...

And we get to draw on the walls!

P.S. If you like the timeline, wait until I show you the maps wall.

Standing Tall

Here's my big girl, standing up tall and strong on her x-small youth crutches:

She's learning how to walk with crutches. She's learning what it's like to have a disadvantage in this society. She's learning how to cope with discomfort and frustration. She's learning what it's like to look different. She's learning how good it feels to do for herself even if it's very hard.

Sydney is learning how it feels to have something bad happen to the person with whom she identifies the most closely. She's learning how to do things independently. She's learning that we must always give the majority of our attention to those who need it the most. She's learning to be a real help to her sister. She's learning how to cope with her own fears and frustrations. She, too, is learning how to walk on crutches.

As for me, I'm remembering what it was like to have a baby in the house. I'm remembering to shut and latch the door to the basement stairs. I'm remembering that showers must be taken during lulls and must be as short as possible in order to occur as much as possible between emergencies. I'm carrying my 40+-pound kid plus her leg cast up and down steps and lifting her onto beds and couches and into carseats. I'm moderating my walking pace to be even with her, to not look like I'm waiting to catch her when she falls, and to still catch her when she falls. I'm deliberately not running to her when she does fall, deliberately not helping her up, but watching as she learns how to do it herself.

That's the hardest part, I'm learning: watching them fall.

Here's Our Homeschool This Week

This week, we've:

played endless games of Sorry; built lots with blocks--

--and I mean LOTS with blocks--

--judiciously spent saved Christmas/birthday money at our local toy/educational supplies store (thanks, Papa!); put together one of those damn Playmobil sets according to instructions (bought at aforementioned store with aforementioned birthday money)--

--made pretty things with pattern blocks, both on the carpet and with translucent plastic pattern blocks on the overhead projector (both of those sets being brand-new school supply purchases from that same store, but by the Momma this time); watched Extreme Engineering; played briefly with our brand-new Cuisenaire rods(love that school shopping!); goofed around with a laser level; and cut out paper snowflakes. Syd played some Curious George online and with a dot-to-dot computer game; stamped with number stamps; and helped me make banana cookies, pancakes, rainbow cupcakes, and vegetable soup.

We spent plenty of time at PBSKids.com; spent plenty more time with books independently, especially my Will, who is a reading machine of late; visited the library a couple of times; watched a little Electric Company (the new version, not the old); had chapters from Nancy Drew and Just So Stories at bedtime; and listened to four or five of the Magic Tree House audiobooks. I can't even tell you the books that Will has devoured this week, but they include some Boxcar Children titles, 101 Dalmatians, some Magic Tree House titles, some Nancy Drew titles, some Shel Silverstein, and other picture books, chapter books, non-fiction, and poetry that she's come across.

The kids have taken many beautiful photographs on beloved subjects--

--played with Colorforms (another new school supply purchase); helped me paint some pretty paint in the basement; and attended a scrapbooking class at the public library--

--which was VERY well enjoyed. Syd decorated some frames for some maps I'm going to tack to the walls in their playroom--

--colored with Sharpies and crayons and colored pencils and whatever else she could find; masterminded the design and construction of her new skirt; and worked on some balancing butterflies, project still in progress:

Syd finished filling out her reading program form and submitted it to the library, earning herself a book as a prize. She also did some handwriting copywork for fun and helped me label stuff.

Will watched a LOT of Blue's Clues, sigh, and some Walking with Dinosaurs (or Walking with Prehistoric Beasts or Walking with Early Mammals, etc.); attended Critter Junction, an animal program at the local library; took care of the tadpoles, some teeny froggies, and the odd caterpillar or spider for a while; researched strawberry plants, rainbows, the ocean, giant sea turtles, and I don't even recall what else; and, big sigh, took a field trip to the Emergency Room and experienced the treatment for a cracked tibia, x-rays and hard cast 3/4 up the thigh and all. 

We played the rain stick and the recorder; listened to the Muppets and Throwing Muses and some seriously inane kids' music and other CDs; and had any number of dance parties. In addition, Syd's goal is to learn to whistle, so there's been much practicing of that, and even a screening of a documentary on the International Whistling Competition.

We began the timeline!!! We've added the epochs and some info on dinosaurs and human evolution; Will has big plans to cut up an extra Smithsonian dinosaur encyclopedia that we have on hand, and I still need to mark out some basic demarcations from early humans to the present so that we know where to put stuff. Will's also been into the short video clips on the Liberty's Kids web site, although she's very annoyed that I insist on supervising her visits there, since it contains outside advertising.

We walked and biked and scooted downtown and all around; helped with chores like grocery shopping and cleaning and gardening--

--went swimming; had boisterous playdates with good friends; picked blackberries and peaches--

--played on various playgrounds, including one magical maneuver on the monkey bars too many (CRACK!); and, most recently, practiced and practiced and practiced walking on crutches.

And that's how we homeschooled this week. Please, let next week be uneventful.