I Turn Quizlet Flash Cards into Physical Flash Cards because I Am Stubborn and Ridiculous

 

And because the kid already has quite enough screen time without also studying her French vocabulary on one.

I am SUPER old-school to be so weirded out by this, I've learned. Syd doesn't even have a single physical, paper textbook in any of her public high school classes--actually, she only has a textbook at all in two of her classes! The other three classes just have... teacher-created lessons. And YouTube video links. Worksheets of unknown provenance. 

Don't tell her textbook-less algebra teacher, but I checked out a high school algebra textbook (and teacher's manual!) from our local university's library, and I've been referring to it quite a lot as I help Syd with her work.

I also print out most of her biology and French readings from the digital textbooks, which I know is the most appalling misuse of my personal resources, but you know what? The print-outs don't crap out in the middle of a timed open-book test, or refuse to load when an exhausted kid is coming up on a deadline, or lag when three other members of the household are in simultaneous but separate online meetings.

Flash cards, of course, don't have nearly that level of urgency, but I like having them physical. I like having them portable, so I can torment the children with them in the car, and I like having them readily available, so I can pester the kids with a couple whenever they randomly walk by.

So here's what I do to make my kids' lives more annoying. I take a Quizlet (you can often find Quizlets already made for whatever you're studying, even for specific chapters of specific textbooks)--

--tell it that I want to print it--

--and then set it up as 3"x5" index cards that print 16 to a page:

I use a guillotine paper cutter to cut the flash cards into rows, then cut each row in half, leaving each French/English word pair connected. To finish each flash card I fold it in half and glue it with a glue stick. It becomes the perfect, pocket-sized, double-sided flash card!

So yes, super old-school and resource heavy, but to be fair, I've been happily using flash cards with the kids since they were preschoolers. Here are just some of the things that we've done with them from preschool on up:

• Laminate them and trace words with dry-erase markers.
• Print two copies and match them or play Memory with them.
• Print them tiny, add a pin, and use them with pin flag maps. 
• Print them full-page and let the kids color the line art. 
• Print them full-page and use them as display posters.
• Leave them in the car and declare the first ten minutes of the first car ride of every day "memory" time--we did this for several years!

Here are some of my favorite flash cards that we've used:

• addition, subtraction, and multiplication drill. I absolutely used these with the kid when they were memorizing their math facts. Yep, they LOATHED them, but you know what? Review only took a couple of minutes every school day, and it 100% helped seal the facts into their little-kid brains.
• Chinese vocabulary flash cards. For a couple of years, the kids took a Saturday morning Chinese language class. The next week, I'd find flash cards for the vocabulary that they were studying so that we could review for just a couple of minutes daily.
• European countries and capitals. We used these a couple of years ago when Will was studying AP European History and Syd was studying European Geography. Now that Will is studying AP Human Geography, I'll probably bring them back out!
• French alphabet flash cards. These are pretty enough to print full-page and display on a wall--which is what we do!
• sharks of the world. We used these a few years ago when we did a summer shark study, and since then I've brought them out a couple of times for Girl Scout badgework.
• Story of the World timeline cards. Unfortunately, the original source for these no longer exists, but you can still find bootleg copies (ahem). We used the SNOT out of these when the kids were elementary years! We glued them to our big basement timeline, as well as laminating a set to use as memory drill. Once upon a time I even found a bootleg set of all the comprehension questions from the Story of the World books set up as flash cards, and we used the snot out of those, too!
• zoo fact cards. I made these during the couple of years when Will's obsession led us to nearly every zoo in the land. It would be extra useful to make a set for a zoo or aquarium that you went to often. 
• insect flash cards. We used these steadily for several summers in a row when the kids were younger, and I still pull them out at some point most summers, because we always end up swinging around to entomology.
• sight word caterpillar. Syd has fond memories of the caterpillar that took over our walls and taught her the dolch sight words!

How to Sew a Pompadour

I originally published this tutorial on Crafting a Green World.

It's not just a fancy hairstyle!

Madame de Pompadour lent her name not just to the bouffant hairstyle, but also to the practical yet lovely little drawstring wrist bags that allowed one to both wear a fancy ballgown (with no room for pockets!) and carry a lipstick and some cash for gambling with.

Pompadours are still lovely and practical to sew and to carry, although it's probably less advisable to take them gambling with you. But they still go well with an outfit that doesn't have pockets! A pompadour is also a handy change purse or bobby pin carrier to live inside your backpack, and if you think very large-scale, you could turn one into a handy travel play mat and storage bag for a child's toys.

Even better, a pompadour is also dead simple and super quick to sew! If you're making a smaller version, it's easy to use stash fabric to sew one. To make one for yourself, you will need:

Compass. This is the circle drawing tool, not the finding your way in the wilderness tool.

Two Complementary Fabrics. The original pompadours were fancy, made of fabrics like velvet and silk. Those are still appropriate, especially if you're sewing a pompadour to match a formal gown, but you can also use more utilitarian fabrics. The two pompadours in this tutorial are both sewn from quilting cottons.

Buttonhole Foot. Or the endless patience to sew a buttonhole by hand!

Grosgrain Or Other Ribbon. Choose something sturdy rather than delicate here. Silk or cotton ribbon can be dyed to match your fabric.

1. Measure and cut two circles. The pompadour is simply two circles of fabric sewn together and cinched with a drawstring. It can, when completely loosened, flatten completely, and so its maximum dimensions are the dimensions of the circle that you choose.

Use your compass to make a circle template (mine is approximately 12" diameter), then measure and cut two circles of fabric:

 This is not me, but my 11-year-old. The pompadour is her hands-on project for the Rococo period in our History of Fashion study.

2. Sew a buttonhole at each end of the "outside" fabric. Mark and sew the buttonhole about 1" from the edge at each end of the fabric:

Later, you'll be sewing a channel for the ribbon on either side of these buttonholes.

3. Put the two fabric circles right sides together, and sew all the way around, leaving an opening for turning. Use whatever seam allowance you prefer for this.

Use the opening to turn the pompadour right side out, and a blunt pencil to help you push out the seams so that you have a smooth circle. Iron the pompadour flat, tucking in the raw edges of the opening as you do so, then edgestitch all the way around, closing the opening and giving a neat, finished edge to the pompadour.

4. Sew a channel for the drawstring.  Sew two complete circles around the circumference of the pompadour, one above the buttonholes and one below:

5. Insert the drawstring. Measure two lengths of ribbon that are the circumference of the circle (here's a calculator to help you!) plus 2-4". Use a safety pin as a bodkin to draw the ribbons through the channel that you sewed for them.

Each ribbon will go in and out of the SAME BUTTONHOLE, and then will be knotted to itself:

When you're finished, you will have a ribbon loop at each end of the pompadour; pull them both, and the pompadour will draw tightly closed. Loosen them, and it will open up!

My Rainbow Sierpinski Triangle Quilt Top is Complete!

 Check out the third coolest thing that I've ever made!

I was inspired to make this quilt when I was looking for ideas for baby gifts, of all things, and found a picture of this quilt. It's perfect for a baby, right? It's colorful. It's a great size for tummy time. It's got a clever and sophisticated mathematical pattern on it to build little baby brains!

And most important... I'm obsessed with rainbows. And math. And I like to sew.

I built myself a Sierpinski triangle template by printing this triangle graph paper and drawing in only the triangles that I knew would be black. I photocopied it, the better to make numerous attempts at a roughly symmetrical rainbow and then get mad at each one for a different reason and recycle it. Finally, I settled on this one--

--which I kind of don't love in some ways, because I wish it also had rotational symmetry, but it more or less works, and it looks pretty.

On to cutting out a zillion triangles with my brand-new 60-degree triangle ruler--

--and then laying them all out on the floor while binge-watching House until I got an arrangement that I liked:

Then I stacked them all up by rows--

--and pieced them together a little at a time, whenever I had some free time and felt like binge-listening to This American Life podcasts.

The media which will be binged is just as important as the activity conducted while binging, don't you think?

For pictures that show how to piece these triangles into rows, check out my quilted rainbow mug rug tutorial, where I give a step-by-step walk-through and have a bunch of pictures that I took while it was stormy outside and so the pictures are dark and gloomy and gross, too, and I don't want to republish them here.

But be assured that I pieced the entire triangle quilt just like I did in that tutorial: three triangles pieced together with corners matching, then that three-triangle piece pieced onto the larger strip:

My mini iron earned its keep here, which is awesome, because I'm pretty sure that I impulse-purchased it at least a decade ago and I'd be surprised if I really used it since.

I used the snot out of it ironing little triangle seams open, though!

Done by threes, each row comes together pretty quickly:

Sewing the rows together is a little trickier, and I ripped out my first row several times before I figured out a couple of different tricks to get my triangle points lined up at each row.

So, looking at the wrong side of the row, you can see the point at each seam where three different fabrics meet. If you put a pin through exactly at that point--

--and then poke it through the exact top point of the triangle facing it, you will have pinned them exactly to match:

If you're not feeling quite as picky, you can eyeball it:

But you probably know that I'm always feeling picky.

You should be good if you're sewing everything with a precise .25" seam allowance (don't be afraid to be picky!), but to make 100% sure that you're not sewing over any triangle tips, you can look for that same point where three fabrics meet while you're sewing the rows together. Put your stitching directly on top of that point, and your triangle tips will look perfect!

I'm not gonna lie--all these triangles did make for a LONG project, but it was surprisingly not tedious, because the whole time, it was really pretty! In every state of WIP, the quilt top was mesmerizing, with interesting patterns constantly being revealed with every new triangle sewn to it:

I think it's the prettiest now that it's finished, though, and you can see the complete pattern, both mathematical and rainbow:

The quilt, itself, isn't complete, but finishing that quilt top is most of the battle! I know exactly how I'm going to back it and bind it, and who I'm going to give it to for Christmas, and then, you guys...

I think I'm going to make another one for ME!

Homeschool High School Art Class: How to Earn the Girl Scout Senior Collage Artist Badge

 

My obsession with using Girl Scout badges as homeschool units of study continues, as Will and I turned earning the Girl Scout Senior Collage Artist badge into an excellent and super fun study that I'll incorporate into part of a high school fine arts credit for her. 

Step 1: Explore collage. Normally, I wouldn't have thought twice about taking a field trip to an art museum to look at collages, but... you know, there's a pandemic going on. Now that our local university's art museum has re-opened, I do think we'll chance a visit, but until then, I satisfied this step by requesting a ton of collage books from our public library and employing contact-free pick-up. 

I actually ended up really liking what these books brought to our study, as we were able to look through not just fine art collage books but also casual how-to and craft books, which I think gave us more ideas about what we, ourselves, could do with collage. 

Here are some of the collage books that we explored:

Our public library has a stellar collection of zines, so if we'd had more access to the library, or if I'd also been leading Syd through this badge, I was toying with the idea of centering all the activities on zine creation.

Next time!

Step 2: Focus on composition. For this step, Will did do one of the suggested activities, just because it looked like fun!

Since this was a for-fun activity, not really one that I had planned as part of her fine arts unit, I didn't make any criteria for neatness, precision, or craftsmanship. If I had, I might have showed Will how to use our paper cutter to make precise squares, or how to grid the paper lightly to ensure accurate placement, etc. But since this was our very first actual collage activity, and since Will isn't the most confident artist on the planet, "cubomania" turned out to be the perfect low-impact, high-interest collage to get her interested in digging deeper.

3. Create with color. Here's another suggested activity that worked perfectly as written and was also very fun! It tied well into a review of the color wheel, although, as you can see, Will chose to work entirely in greyscale:

Here are some of our color wheel resources:

• 3D color wheels. My Scouts have a varying level of patience with step-by-step directed activities such as this one, but this DOES make a beautiful hanging piece!
• color wheels composed with strange paintbrushes. Sometimes it's not what you make, but how you make it that's the point of the activity. This project ties into the Outdoor Art badges by challenging kids to make the standard color wheel, but to paint it with something unusual. In this particular activity, I had my kids use tree branches, but it would be fun to have kids first collect a variety of nature finds to use--perhaps even without telling them what they'll have to use them for! I think older kids especially enjoy these kinds of physical challenges that are both unusual and maybe just a tad bit babyish. Who wouldn't want to play a little bit longer?
• giant collaborative color wheel. Yes, this is written as a preschool art activity, but not all process-oriented art is solely for preschoolers! This would be a fun group activity to begin a color study, especially if you encourage kids to collect ephemera between meetings. 
• interactive color wheel. This is such a good idea! Instead of using a pre-printed template, though, I think it would be fun to have kids make their own card stock template, and then let them choose their own colors and color wheel combination. Think how much fun they'd have playing with their favorite colors in this wheel, instead of the standard assortment.
• mandala color wheel. Here's a much more sophisticated color wheel that will make an appropriate challenge for an older kid.
• spinning color wheel. This is a quick and easy activity that gets kids up and moving a bit.

Step 4: Use found objects. Will and I went off the rails for the last two steps of this badge, and so instead of creating a found object collage, for this step we reviewed symmetry and how it effects artistic composition. 

Afterwards, Will created a larger piece that incorporated three different types of symmetry into a single composition. 

Step 5: Share a message. Until this step, each of Will's collages had been completed in a single sitting. Even if it took her a couple of hours and/or several episodes of Welcome to Night Vale, each time, when she got up from the art table, she had a finished product to show.

I wanted Will to have the experience of creating a multi-step, multi-day, more involved project, so instead of any of the "share a message" activities, we created that elaborate piece.

I used this large-format collage animal tutorial, and I LOVED it! The only step that we did not attempt was the free-form, process-oriented art while listening to music, and that's only because I have SO much large-format paper ephemera, some of which includes old kid art. So that's what we tore into strips--

--and used as the base for our collage animals:

Matt made us the tracers, and I was surprised when Will wanted to create not the dog that I'd just assumed she would, but an owl:

Black screenprinting ink worked great as a substitute for india ink, but polyurethane did not work as well as the resin called for in the tutorial would have. Definitely use the resin for realistically shiny eyes!

Imperfectly shiny eyes aside, Will and I are both very pleased with her large-format, multi-step, carefully-crafted owl collage:

It's now mounted high in our family room, so it can watch over our bookshelves and keep our books safe from mice.

Even though Will was my only Girl Scout who earned this badge with me, I think this is a badge that would work particularly well for Girl Scout troop meetings. It's set up so that completing one collage per meeting is very manageable, other than that last collage, but the tutorial for that one is written by an art teacher who lays out how to space it out over a period of days. Add in a socially-distanced field trip to an art museum, followed by a picnic and some free time outdoors, and you have a picture-perfect Girl Scout badge!

Want to do more with collage? Here are some of my favorite collage resources and projects, and even more collage projects and resources that are on my to-do list:

• Jack-o-lantern. This is a little cheezy, yes, but so fun and festive to do on a holiday week!
• reflection board. I think this would be such a cool starting activity for every Girl Scout meeting while you're working through the Collage Artist badge, or for the beginning of every school day if you're incorporating it into your homeschool. There's a lot to be said about the experience of getting into the practice of something, even if only temporarily, and I love this as an extension or alternative to journaling. 
• window cards. Here's a way to multi-task collage activities with a service project! You could use this activity to make Christmas or Valentine cards, in particular, because they both have iconographic silhouettes that come to mind. Kids could make them for their families or for nursing home residents. 
• tags and bookmarks. This could be another good pre-holiday activity, or you could forget the gift tags and just focus on bookmarks. The extra artistry and detailing that's called for with these types of projects can be extra-appealing to older kids, I've found, and sourcing materials should be easy, because you can simply ask kids to bring in some of their recycling!
• magnets. These are similar to the tags and bookmarks, above. This project would work well with the Senior Room Makeover badge, since kids could also make an upcycled magnet board to go with it (pro tip: thrift old cookie sheets!).
• postcards. You have to be a little more careful with postcards, but it's fun to see how things end up when they go through the mail! I recently did a similar project with my Girl Scout troop as an at-home activity, and the kids are all waiting with bated breath to receive them as I type this!