Little House, Pioneer Life, and Using a Washboard

We school year-round, and I'm already regretting not scheduling more "summery" studies that are best done here in the heat and the sunshine. We did a flower study, sure, but how great would a whole botany study have been, right there in our garden? Or a solar power study? Or some engineering, done with PVC pipes and the garden hose?

Fortunately, our pioneer study has been pretty well-timed. I know that much of Little House in the Big Woods, which we've been reading out loud to each other as part of our school mornings, takes place in the winter, but all of the pioneer skills and crafts that we've been doing together to add context to our readings make for good summertime activities.

For instance, Syd has goofed around in the bathtub with the washboard before, but this time, with the girls REALLY using the washboard, outside is just so much better. Washboards are splashy and water is exciting, don't you know.

Since we're not exactly equipped to use a washboard exactly as the pioneers do, we first watched a video of a washboard being used at a living history park (there are actually a lot of good pioneer skills videos from Living History School, if you're interested--I'm going to be hand-grinding grain AND dying fabric using black walnuts, thanks to them). Then we headed outside with a plastic bin (what I wouldn't give for a big galvanized metal washtub!), our washboard, a chunk of Fels Naptha laundry soap, and, for the girls, one entire dirty outfit each.

Look at my hard workers washing their own clothes by hand!

And yes, Willow actually does SNARL at her sister in this video. My children are mostly feral, I'm afraid:

When each article of clothing was clean, the kiddo wrung it out, laid it flat on the deck and sprayed it down to rinse it, wrung it out again, and hung it on our backyard clothesline. When they were dry, we checked them out--Sydney didn't do a great job on her outfits and they were sent inside to be washed the conventional way, but Miss Willow found herself with a perfectly clean, spic-and-span, washed by means of her own muscle outfit to put on and pose in:

That's a Momma-made tank top there!

And later that day, when baking (and liberal tasting, apparently) caused her to get chocolate just all over her shirt, I sent her outside, where the washboard and bin and soap remained, to hand-wash that shirt all over again and hang it up to dry. 

It sort of made me idly wonder exactly how cruel and unusual it would be to have each child wash her own clothes by hand every day. I mean, just one day's worth saved me from having to wash the same shirt twice, AND stain-treating it for chocolate!

Story of the World on the Timeline

I LOVE adding stuff to our big basement timeline. I love it more than the girls do. I'm pretty sure that I won't be happy until I've covered every white space around that timeline with Sharpie text, Mod Podged pictures, and increasingly meandering arrows pointing to dates on the line.

We've listened happily to Story of the World audiobooks for years, but now that we're starting a formal study of Story of the World, part of the work for each chapter includes printing out two copies of timeline cards for each chapter (I'm sorry to say that the blog in which these particular timeline cards could originally be found is no longer online, although these cards were made by another homeschool parent, and so you could certainly make your own!). One copy of each card is laminated, and as part of their schoolwork the girls memorize the dates on them and practice ordering them.

The other copy, however, is cut out and glued--

--right to the timeline wall!

You can probably tell just from this short segment that there's some overlap--at some point we must have read about nomads in 6000 BCE, and put THAT on the timeline, before we began Story of the World. I don't mind, however, especially because it helps us remember that history isn't the strict continuum that we might fool ourselves into believing. For instance, SOTW specifically talks about nomads in the Fertile Crescent, and THEN farmers in the same region, but it's important to know that all the nomads didn't just suddenly up and become farmers, especially because there are still nomads today.

And yes, I still do have plans for that big basement map that I've been talking about for two years. I wonder if I should get that done so that we can put the Fertile Crescent on it?

A TARDIS-Painted Baby Gown

How much do I love Doctor Who?

So much that not only will I paint a TARDIS on my own stuff, but I'll also paint it on a newborn's baby gown:

The gown itself is sewn from an old tie-dyed T-shirt and some stash jersey knit:

The momma is another big fan of Doctor Who, of course, but soon enough, so will the babe be!

Creek Stomping

One of the greatest pleasures of our sleepy Indiana town is the preponderance of shallow, slate-bottomed creeks, rife with tiny crinoid fossils and medium-sized geodes, perfect for wading in and watching minnows and splashing away from crayfish (if you want to know why our sleepy Indiana town is blessed with these natural features, well then you should read Willow's report on Indiana):

It makes for a fabulous Wednesday field trip, and the fact that my two filthy, exhausted girls just want to sprawl quietly on the rug for a couple of hours afterwards and listen to audiobooks doesn't hurt much, either.

Meet Raven

We just love this little guy:

Our foster kittens almost always come to us with something to work on. Poor White Mittens, of course, was ill when she arrived with Raven, but this fat little boy here wasn't ill and doesn't have far to go to reach his weight goal, so what on earth could he need to work on?

Why, constantly meowing his head off, that's what! The first several days that he was with us Raven meowed just all the time. Was he scared? Lonely? Didn't understand how to communicate with us big, hairless cats? Who knows! It was annoying, you betcha. But of course we didn't punish him for meowing, just lived with him, played with him, petted him, gave him lots of lovies, and look at the photo that I was able to take just recently:

Ahhhh...contented kitten with his mouth shut. Who would have thought that would become such a major goal?

Our handsome little boy will be headed back to the Humane Society on Thursday, all meowed out and ready for the adoption floor, and just think--his forever family will never know that their new kitten used to be such a loudmouth.

Mental Math with Singapore 2B

I may have Willow start doing all her math in her head.

For a few weeks now, Willow and I have been working on adding one- and two-digit numbers using carrying. We visualized the process by setting up the equations with Base 10 blocks--

--then trading up and physically carrying the ten bars over to the next place before adding everything together, and finally moving into the conventional method of carrying while working arithmetic problems on paper.

 There was a lot of grumping, a lot of Base 10 block pattern building--

--and a lot more grumping, and the concept just didn't catch on. I'm pretty sure that the concept didn't catch on not because the kid didn't understand the concept, but rather because she was too busy grumping and pattern building to put the concept into her brain, but nevertheless, that's a lot of grumping and a lot of repetition just to learn (or NOT learn) carrying.

So we're just not going to learn that--not exactly, at least--right now.

In related news, last week my local indie teaching supplies store, which is normally too expensive for me to shop in, had their mid-summer sale, bringing their prices down to slightly more typical levels, and so I came home with the following:

• one postage stamp collector's album for Willow
• one book of world map post-its
• one book of hundred grid post-its
• one book of multiplication table post-its
• a set of coin rubber stamps
• the practice books for Singapore 1B and Singapore 2b

I avoid math curriculums because I have no problem teaching elementary math, but I do like the idea of having a logical order to work with, and I do like some of the mathematical concepts that Singapore math, in particular, teaches, so the reasoning behind purchasing just the practice books is that I can pretty easily figure out the concept that's being practiced, teach it on my own, and reinforce it with the books.

Singapore 2B has a lot of review in it for Willow, but I'm not opposed to drill and repetition, and there are a few key concepts in it that she hasn't explored yet, so that's why we settled there for her. Singapore 1B looks like a good fit for Sydney overall, so yay there for her.

My point with this digression is that, right there in the Singapore 2B practice book, front and center just before a money review and some new exploration of fractions, is a series of mental math practice problems that involve a different method of solving one- and two-digit addition problems, mentally, WITHOUT carrying. Here's what it looks like:

First, she's rounding the one-digit number to the nearest ten, and finding the difference, which is an easy subtraction problem. She's going to hold that number in her head. Second, she's adding the ten to the two-digit number, using skip-counting. Third, she's subtracting the difference from that new number, and it's another easy subtraction problem to the answer!

Now, do not even get me started on whether or not this method takes more steps than simply carrying the ten (it does), because for the little miss, that's not the point. The point for the little miss is, apparently, the fact that the steps are broken down into simple problems that she can do in her head. While the connection to the concept of what you're physically doing with the numbers isn't as clear, to me, as it is with carrying on paper, especially as visualized using Base 10 blocks, it IS still connected to the concept, just in a different way that seems to appeal more to the miss.

So this method, combined with simple "counting on" when the units to be added will add up to less than ten, gives Willow all the tools that she needs to mentally add one- and two-digit numbers to each other, abilities that we've been practicing with a homemade deck of laminated number cards:


And thus we can put aside that dreadful carrying altogether, to be brought back up at some point in the near future, preferably after the little miss has forgotten her grumps about it!

Our Indiana State Swap Package

This US State Culture Swap has led us away from the geography study that had previously fascinated us (out of Africa, in other words), but it's always a good time for a United States unit study!

We put a lot of work into the four care packages that we sent to our swap partners in Tennessee, Utah, New York, and Virginia. To prepare them, we went creek stomping, up north to the Indiana State Museum, and across town to the Wonderlab on its special local local limestone evening. We read, we wrote, we recited, we organized everything into groups of four.

And here's what we came up with!

crinoid fossils collected from Jackson Creek

geodes, also from the creek

depending on the composition of minerals, geodes can look quite different inside

chunk of limestone from a local quarry

map traced by the children--each kid did two

coloring pages of various other Indiana sites and facts

Willow-written report

Happily, both girls leaped right into Indiana research, they've adored opening all their swap packages so far, and Will (my rote-memory girl) has been taking a lot of pleasure in memorizing and quizzing us on state nicknames. We're a bit flush on "special subjects" just at the moment--the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, complete with pioneer crafts; Martin Luther King, Jr., including having Willow memorize his "I Have a Dream" speech; and ballet--but as soon as we finish Little House and the Big Woods and Willow decides for sure whether or not she wants to join her sister in the IU Pre-College Ballet Program in the fall (I suspect not, which is why we've been doing a lot of ballet stuff this summer, so that she can make an informed decision), we're buckling down with our friend Martin, the US states, and human anatomy.

Oh, and some Walt Disney world geekery, because it's--gasp!--less than a month now until we go meet Mickey!

Sometimes They Die

It's not something that happens often, but since I do write so much about our experiences fostering kittens, I should tell you that sometimes a foster kitten will die.

White Mittens came to us already ill, with chronic diarrhea. We medicated her, and kept her clean, and encouraged her to eat, and just as importantly we cuddled her, and talked baby talk to her, and carried her around in Sydney's doll sling:

Alas, poor babe, she lived with us for a week and then she died in the night. I can't say that she had a happy life, since she spent it all being ill, but she did have comfort, and a family, and two kids who loved her quite a lot.

Giving them a better end is just as important as giving them a great beginning.

Bunting: Before and After

before (well, sort of--the pennants certainly didn't measure and cut themselves!)

and after:

I sewed this bunting to donate to the Bloomington Area Birth Services, to use in a photo shoot and then to hang in their offices after. The request was for "pastels", of which you can imagine that I have few, and I can't say that I'm sad to have far fewer after this project. The bunting itself is, however, as buntings always are, absolutely gorgeous.

It's also been a week for billions of Waldorf ring candles, some smash book layouts, an upcoming project with Snapfish, and a newly sewn shower curtain, complete with the button holes that I now know how to make...yay!

Pirate Party!

food that is also pirate ships

watermelon pirate ship and orange slice pirate ships

cake that is also a treasure map

It's a triple-batch of brownies--yum!

 appropriately-themed party music

face paint for all the kids

and just one of the adults!

Matt also made balloon pirate swords that, don't worry, only look that phallic as they're being created

There were water balloons and a plank to walk and sword fights and cake and ice cream and presents--

--but the highlight of the party was a treasure hunt. Matt created a bunch of clues and puzzles and such, and while the rest of the party was eating cake and ice cream, he and another dad snuck off to the park to hide them all around, as well as my giant X and associated treasure chest filled with treat bags.

After the kids were done eating, Matt led them all on a wild and crazy chase all around the park--

--searching to find and solve clues--

--and uncovering treasure! Then, since we were already at the park, the kids ran around and played while the rest of us hung out at a picnic table and ate leftover birthday cake. Some of the kids used the fake gold and silver coins and the melted plastic bead skulls from their treat bags to organize a highly elaborate "gambling" game that they played for FOREVER--

--which was totally fine, since we adults had gossip and birthday cake to entertain us.

Pirate Party: X Marks the Spot!

For Will's pirate-themed eighth birthday party, Matt organized a huge treasure hunt, and I really, really wanted a giant, cartoon-y X to mark the location of the treasure chest. So I laid out an old USPS mailing box, free-handed a giant X--

With my drawing skills, how could the X NOT turn out cartoony?

 --and had Sydney paint it red:

I varnished the front, just so that the cheap tempera paint wouldn't flake off, but since we only needed it for the weekend, I probably could have skipped that bit of overkill.

We really only needed the X for the treasure hunt, but since Matt and another dad were going to sneak off during the cake and ice cream to set it up at the nearby park, before the party I punched holes in the X, tied on some twine, and taped it up to the front door as decoration:

X marks the party spot!

In other news, I just need to tell you that it is, at this point, a six-year-long source of disappointment to me that nobody--NOBODY!--has ever come to my house and noticed that I painted my front door green, just like Bilbo Baggins did.

It's heartbreaking.

Pirate Party Favor Bags

I have a huge stash of brown paper lunch bags, which have made fine favor bags for every birthday party that I've thrown since the beginning of time. They just need to be stenciled with a skull and cross-bones--

--filled with fake gold and silver coins, skull recycled crayons, skull melted bead suncatchers (more on that later), and a little package of shark-shaped fruit snacks (as a nod to my refusal to stock candy); and hidden in a treasure chest:

I'd thought about adding a black bow, or stenciling the names of the children on the bags, but ultimately I simply stapled them shut, and I'm glad that I did, considering that after the excitement of that treasure hunt,  the nine excited party guests couldn't have cared less what their favor bags looked like, as long as they were filled with loot!