A Family Block-Building Enterprise

Our little town's Christmas lighting ceremony, in which the mayor turns on for the season the lights that extend from the courthouse to the roofs off all the buildings on all four sides of the town square, as well as the seasonal streetlights and the Christmas trees sponsored by various charities, has something for every kid. If you're a big kid who's way into the lights and the ceremony and the festivity, then that's what you've got in spades:
However, even if you're a little kid, and you're mostly just about "What is going on right NOW and how will affect ME?"...well, the guy who hands out the programs also has an ample supply of candy canes:We actually stayed in town for Thanksgiving in part, this year, so that Matt could go into work on Friday and save that extra vacation day. However, the Alumni Association unexpectedly (at least to Matt--I'm never quite sure how knowledgeable he is about basic company info like that) closed its offices on Friday, so we've had an extra-long holiday with our man, and we have all been THRILLED. The weekend's not even over, and not only has he cleaned the gutters and enabled me to go shopping ALONE and put up all the Christmas lights, but I can tempt him into staying up late with me much easier with nowhere to be the next day, and he can tempt me into goofing off for long periods of time much easier, knowing he'll be around to help out later.

Matt and I together are even bigger nerds than we are apart, so when we all got out the girls' ridiculously large number of building blocks (seriously, it's ridiculous, and yet if I walked into a Goodwill 50%-off storewide sale tomorrow and saw another thousand, I'd buy them in a heartbeat), while the girls did normal stuff, like build themselves a block city with block buildings and block people and block cars--
--Matt and I had to use the crazy-fancy Kapla blocks I bought years ago at a Wonderlab sale (if you're a block nerd like us, Kapla blocks are where it's AT!) to build a tower that touched the ceiling:Seriously, it touched the ceiling. Here's the view from up there, courtesy of Matt standing on a chair and holding the camera up above his head:I wanted to leave our tower up all night, but Matt feared a middle-of-the-night bathroom trip or curious cat rub that would cause everyone in the house to bolt upright in their beds, so here's the rapid-shot view from my camera, which can take several photos per second:
My favorite part is the expression on Matt's face. Yeah, if he's going to look like that and he KNEW the crash was coming, we were right not to risk a middle-of-the-night demolition.

Kids' Card-Making: The Collage Window Card

It just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV!
It's so fun to have the kids at these ages, because they don't have a huge memory for most things. Therefore, remembering, myself, how delighted and surprised they were to see the huge balloons in the Macy's parade on TV last Thanksgiving, I had my camera ready to catch the new delight and surprise on their faces when they saw the balloons this year.

They didn't really recognize any of the characters that the balloons were supposed to be ("CheeseBob!!!" shouted Willow, when the Spongebob Squarepants balloon came around a corner), but just the concept of HUGE BALLOON is apparently enough to thrill a kid.

Of course, in other ways it wasn't a typical Thanksgiving at all. For instance, our nice big library table, instead of being set for the traditional meal, spent the day looking like this:
All the better to spend the day making Christmas cards with, my dears.

It's been fun to try out several new and different card-making strategies with the girls this month. Some--the window card in which they create their own cut-outs, the window card in which they paint one panel with watercolor paints so that it can show through the window--are complete failures. Others, such as this window card that uses strips of wallpaper in a behind-the window collage, worked great for the five-year-old, the three-year-old, and the 33-year-old.
When the girls do art, of course I like to keep the level of instruction as minimal as possible and just let them go to town with whatever art materials they've got (while keeping intact the rules about not contaminating the paint jars with other colors, not marking on someone else's work, etc.). Even when we do something like this, which is really more of a "craft," I still like to keep the number of instructions and step-by-step directions and parent work down as far as possible. I don't like children's work that is too crafty or obviously parent-directed--there aren't just a lot of ways to make a Santa out of an upside-down white handprint and some red construction paper and googly eyes, ya know?--but I also would like the children to send some Christmas cards that can be recognized as Christmas cards by anyone, not just her parent who can interpret the scenario under which the smear of orange tempera on a playing card was created.

For a full-on collage window card tutorial you can check out my tute on Crafting a Green World, but it really isn't that hard to figure out: tri-fold card, cut-out window, artful collage across that window--

--and a judicious amount of white glue.

And then, once we've got a few of these under our belts (two for Will and one for Syd is about the limit), plenty of time to make even more cards out of leftover wallpaper scraps, pink cardstock, the hole punch, and an extremely generous amount of white glue to hold it all together.

When Cursive Handwriting Comes to Play

Even before I had Montessori girls, I looooooved the Montessori garage sale that the school holds every spring--in the National Guard Armory, it's so big. At a garage sale hosted by a fancy-pants private school that's at the same time so child-centric and child-led, you can expect to find loads of not just once-expensive snowsuits and excellent books and all the other stuff wealthy parents provide for their kids, but wooden toys and dress-up clothes and well-cared-for board games and puzzles and craft kits and fabulous educational materials, as well.

Last year, among some of my random (and REALLY cheap purchases--another benefit to the sale is that parents work it, and some of them have NO IDEA how to price thing) purchases were a drill-operated lathe and a complete set of large cursive sandpaper letters, mounted nicely on wood. I had figured that I would either end up crafting or decorating with these letters, or that they'd come out to play only much later in my children's lives, after, you know, they both knew their print letters, for instance.

However, Willow found this alphabet during the massive study/studio reorganization and asked that they be put as a choice on the shelves in their bedroom. I complied, and there they sat for an additional long while, but this weekend I guess the urge finally hit (don't you know that feeling?), and Willow suddenly came up with a slew of activities that she wanted to do with the letters.

Since Willow doesn't know her cursive a from her cursive z, Momma got to help, and it was quite fun.

First, Willow wanted to make a "long line," so I gave her the letters, one by one in alphabetical order, showed her how to trace it with her finger (sandpaper letters are big in Montessori, so Will has this concept down cold), had her tell me what sound(s) the letter makes, and then she put it in its place in the line:
There were a few moments of angst when it was discovered that t was missing, but at last it was found, safe and sound, in the car (?).

Then Will wanted to play "games" with the letter line, so while I sat all nice and comfy down past z, I'd tell Willow what letter I wanted her to point to, then release her to run as fast as she could down the line, point to the letter, and run as fast as she could back to me, where I'd catch her:
After a while this transitioned to me spelling out a simple word (bed, say, or cat) and sending her running to point to all the letters in order, then after she ran back to me and I'd caught her she would sound out the word she'd just spelled.

And all I had to do was sit on my butt!

Will's next big plan was to draw all the letters on a really long piece of paper. The really long piece of paper we had (of course!), but I wasn't sure if Willow had yet seen in her classroom how you could do rubbings with the sandpaper letters, so I showed her how, and it was such a big hit, waaaaaay more satisfying than leaf rubbings for little hands, that drawing all the letters was immediately abandoned and instead each letter was traced in its place on the long letter line: Each in a different color, of course:

And after that I foisted off on Matt the next project, which was to write underneath the line, in handwriting "very pretty," the verse "Now I know my ABCs; next time won't you sing with me?".

And then Matt made us popcorn and margaritas (virgin for the littles, saucy for the bigs), and we all got into bed and watched the old-school Doctor Dolittle until half of us fell asleep--Willow and I, unfortunately, which was probably not exactly the half that Matt had planned on when he made me a nice margarita, but what can you do?

Tonight perhaps we'll try an early bedtime for the littles, and THEN margaritas.

Turkey Cards from Monkey Girls

Here's what we did with the hand turkeys: While the girls were at school, I scanned their turkeys, re-scaled them to 4"x5", and printed them in color on plain typing paper. I cut down a piece of 8.5"x11" cardstock to make a card about 5"x7", and glued the turkey prints to the fronts of the cards. They still needed a little something-something, so we used our letter punches to punch the word "TURKEY" on the front of each.

In case, you know, you couldn't tell what you were looking at. Which I admit is a distinct possibility.

We might use this same format for at least a couple of the Christmas cards that we'll be making this week for the Kids Craft Weekly handmade card swap. I don't know why it didn't occur to me to have the girls start making cards before we got our recipients list this morning, but the girls now have until December 1 to make ten cards, so I'll be thinking today about how to set up the activity so that it does NOT resemble a sweatshop.

The girls desperately wanted to give all their cards to friends at school, but I forced them to write out a bare minimum (in our house, that generally equals 2) to actual relatives. Can you tell which relative this one is for?

Okay, if you were up to that challenge, here's a way harder one. Can you tell which relative this card is for?

Happy Thanksgiving, Uncle Chad!

Which Photo Will Win?

For some reason, I really enjoy the photo contest that our local newspaper runs every year. They always have some theme, and tons of people enter, and it's never totally clear by what exact criteria the photos are being judged, but everybody gets to be in the online photo gallery!

I missed out on entering for the past few years, but the last time I entered, in 2006, the theme was Christmas (or Winter? Or Winter Holidays? Surely not Christmas...). Anyway, here is my photo that was given an honorable mention and published, in the NEWSPAPER, on CHRISTMAS DAY:It kills me that I used to get to snuggle with kiddos that young.

The theme for this year's photo contest is Down to Earth, soliciting photos that depict "some aspect of the natural or built environment in the state." They have to have been taken in 2009, duh, and in Indiana, duh, and it's a little vague exactly what sort of photo manipulation is allowed, but to be on the safe side I kept it pretty vanilla. I also added my own personal criteria that I wanted either one or both of the children to be in the photo, but that the photo shouldn't focus so much on the child, but on her environment or, better yet, her interaction with her environment.

Here are the seven that I've narrowed myself down to, in chronological order with the year, from Monroe Beach in February to Anderson Orchard last month:Beyond that, however, I'm having trouble deciding. Which do you like best?

My Cold-Process Soap Has Cured

Check it out!After letting it cure for six weeks, then using a bar in the shower every day for a few days, I feel it's safe now to pronounce my cold-processed soap a success. There are a few things I'll change next time--I probably should have pared all of my bars before I cured them, because I'm not in love with their lumpy tops compared to their knife-straight sides and bottoms, and, it might be my nasty cold talking, but I'm also not in love with the way that the lavender-spearmint essential oils cured. It smells almost too sweet, now. On the whole, however, I'm definitely making soap again, and soon.

I did end up liking the soap I molded in my silicon heart molds----but not liking the soap molded in my silicon Lego mold. I think that spells the death knell for the Lego molds, therefore, because I didn't like it with crayons or glycerin soap or even muffins, either, and after a good scrubbing you'll likely see the big and the small Lego molds up for a few bucks in my pumpkinbear etsy shop.

For this batch of soap I used a kit and recipe bought from The Kitchen Girls. Although I'm grateful that I had the kit the first time, to sort of baby me through, I won't be using that recipe again or buying another kit. Instead, here is a selection of the library soapmaking tomes currently residing in my house:

• Soapmaker's Companion: A Comprehensive Guide with Recipes, Techniques & Know-How (Natural Body Series - The Natural Way to Enhance Your Life)
  
• Essentially Soap: The Elegant Art of Handmade Soap Making, Scenting, Coloring & Shaping
  
• Handcrafted Soap
  
• Designer Soapmaking
  
• The Everything Soapmaking Book: Recipes and Techniques for Creating Colorful and Fragrant Soaps (Everything: Sports and Hobbies)
  

Out of these, I think that I'm going to use a basic cold-process soap recipe from The Soapmaker's Companion--perhaps the Soap Essentials recipe, or the hemp soap recipe, or the sunflower oil soap recipe--but make it without essential oils or dried herbs.

The independent hardware stores (but not the big-box ones) have the lye that I need, and I'm hoping that I can get most of the oils, the olive and coconut and whatever, either from a sort-of nearby restaurant supply warehouse that might have super-low-grade olive oil and such, or from Sam's Club. Whatever I can't get locally, Scott at Barefoot Kids said he could order online for me, and Barefoot Kids already has all the dried herbs I'd want to use in their brick-and-mortar.

After my basic cold-processed soap has cured, however, I think that I'm going to try hand-milling that soap in small batches (this is also called rebatching) to make the scented, herb-infused specialty bars that I want. There's a great Homestead Blessings DVD tutorial for this, if you can get past the denim skirts and gender role stereotyping and blessings of the Lord stuff, which I pretty well can if I'm in the right mood. Rebatching will keep the essential oils from altering their scent like they did with my cold-process experiment, and I like the idea of being able to make a single bar at a time of whatever random stuff I take it into my head to make soap out of.

Since rebatching also avoids the possibility of lye exposure (unless you messed up your soap in the first place), I'm thinking that's how I'll be able to include the girls in my soapmaking.

Although they do make a mean melt-and-pour glycerin bar already.

Talk to the Hand Turkeys

I still have papers to grade and children to give an after-school snack to and two more classes tonight to teach, not to mention meals to prep and a house to clean and other miscellaneous nonsense to look after, but my biggest accomplishment today so far has been Christmas shopping at the Wonderlab. I always buy from them during this week every year, when they double the member discount in their gift shop. And thus I am now the proud owner of two large bouncy balls full of glitter and snowglobe stuff (for little stockings), two small bouncy balls full of glitter and snowglobe stuff (for a future holiday--Easter, perhaps?), a farm magnet playset and a horse show magnet playset (for little stockings), a dinosaur magnet playset and an ocean magnet playset (for the next plane trip, whenever that may be), and a magnet playset of tangram mosaic tiles (to be set exactly between little stockings for sharing, because it was expensive).

Combined with the summer sale at Learning Treasures, which provided my secret stash of miniature chalkboards, dot painters, and blank books; the local comic book shop, where I bought a few Owly comic books; a friend's Usborne book party, where I bought a couple of sticker books; the Chronicle book summer sale, at which I bought a couple of very nice puzzles; and Daiso, where I bought some Japanese magnets and other tchotchkes, the little-girl present closet is full. I pull from that closet for holidays, long trips, and anytime a little girl has to go to the emergency room. We're still on the look-out for a full-size electric piano keyboard (suitable for piano lessons) for both girls and a Willow-sized bicycle for Willow, but those big-ticket items will have to wait until fate thrusts them, second-hand and reasonably-priced, into our path.

To add to the festivity of the secret shopping day (after spending the morning at the Wonderlab with the girls, I dropped them off at school and then went back to the Wonderlab to shop, mwa-ha-ha!), I encouraged the girls to make hand turkeys this morning while I drank coffee and read the newspaper.

Willow's turkey

Sydney's turkey

I scanned these, cropped them to 4"x5", and I'm going to print them and use them to make Thanksgiving cards for the girls to send to some friends and family this weekend. I keep a sort of list, so wherever they get bored and are finished scrawling "HAPPY THANKSGIVING" and their name at will be where they pick up with handmade Christmas cards, and wherever they get bored at with Christmas cards will be where we pick up with Valentines, and if you don't make it by Valentine's Day, you basically have to wait until next winter for a handmade card.

In other news, check out my awesome little cousin. He's a tuba playa in a marching band, an art form that I don't exactly get. It's a hold-out from the Civil War, I think, when formation fighting was incredibly important, and has simply been translated, through the centuries, into formation musical instrument-playing:
The flag corps and the liturgical dancers I can't integrate at all into my theory.