In the Indiana State Museum

As participants in both a US State Culture Swap AND a Worldwide Culture Swap going on right now, the kiddos and I have been busy preparing care packages all about their home state of Indiana.

It's kind of funny that it's projects like this that actually lead us into these studies, which is why I'll sign up for postcard swaps and art swaps and geography swaps like these whenever I see them, simply because it makes for such a great project-based study.

Anyway, as part of this swap, I realized that I really don't know all that much about Indiana. Thank goodness that we live only an hour away from the state capital! I like to set aside one day of each school week for field trips (that I might otherwise be too lazy to take my girls on), so last week on our free day we spent the day at the Indiana State Museum.

State history being what it often is, I didn't have high expectations of the museum, and I made sure that I had our Indianapolis Children's Museum membership card with us so that we could recoup the day after our visit. However, what I didn't know is that the Indiana State Museum...

is freaking AWESOME!

How can you go wrong, for instance, when you begin your discussion of state history with, you know, the DAWN OF TIME?!?

This was a particularly apt introduction for my own two kiddos, since they LOVE evolution, fossils, and geology of all sorts:

Turn the crank to make the years go by--it takes a LONG time!

There was a good combination of both hands-on and stationary exhibits, and I was really impressed by the quality of the signage, especially, so much so that I took to photographing many of the informational displays like these so that I could remember them, and so Willow could use them as references for her report on Indiana:

And, of course, because the museum is focused on Indiana, much of its displays were immediately relevant. We find crinoids and geodes all the time while creek stomping, for instance--although never ones THIS nice!

Another component that I really liked was the inclusion of little videos into some exhibits; the videos further explained the information, contextualized it quite a bit, personalized it, and made it so that I didn't have to read every single display to Sydney!

There were also, of course, ample pioneer and early statehood exhibits--

The kiddos are searching for all the native animals listed in the captions.

Look how relevant--we JUST made Mason jar butter again the other day!

moonshine still--NICE!!!

 --and although there wasn't much content on Native Americans--

Willow discovers what she'd look like with tribal tatoos

the Eiteljorg next door (at which we had a TERRIBLE time on a museum field trip once, unfortunately, because of some really rude docents, and to which will will NOT be traveling again) focuses on that.

I was also surprised by how much we enjoyed the contemporary portions of the museum--not only did we find a vessel by our friend Malcolm in the Indiana artist's gallery-- 

--but we also, believe it or not, found the history and evolution of corn on the cob FASCINATING:

god of CORN!!!

At the gift shop, I bought:

• one Indiana-themed coloring book (pages of which I'll photocopy to send off in our swap packages)
• two small packages (one each chosen by the girls) of very colorful heirloom popcorn
• two packages of retro candy--Charms and Zotz--also chosen by the girls

They also stocked retro sodas, mix-and-match by the six-pack, which I would have purchased if I'd felt like carrying them around, and I would have purchased one of those fancy coffee table museum books that museums sometimes publish, IF this museum had published one and IF it had had some of those excellent summaries and infographics included in the exhibits.

So yay we had a good time, yay we learned a lot about Indiana, and yay heirloom popcorn is TASTY!

The Best Birthday Party: Scoop-Ahead Ice Cream

Cake, ice cream, watermelon, and oranges were all that I served at Willow's pirate-themed birthday party, with nice, cold ice water to drink, and milk to have with the cake. Food just isn't my specialty, so I schedule my parties outside of mealtimes, and focus on the festivities that I DO enjoy preparing.

Total cop-out, I know, but it's the best that I can do in that middle ground between serving crap like cheese puffs and candy and beating myself up to go all-out on a gourmet feast like...I don't even know--grilled cheese sandwiches? Fancy crackers and hummus? I know that MY poor kids would think that was a feast!

I got some great advice to try this method of scooping the ice cream for the party ahead of time, and it worked perfectly. To do it, set out the carton of ice cream to soften a little, while you also set out muffin tins lined with cupcake liners, and whatever toppings you also want to serve. Then all you do is scoop a nice scoop of ice cream into each cupcake liner--

--top with toppings--

--and set it back in the freezer until it's party time!

I wouldn't do this more than the day before the party, because I wouldn't want the ice cream to get freezer burn, but oh, my goodness, it was such a huge help to not be wrestling with an ice cream carton and scoop while also wrestling with the cake and the plates and the forks and the nine excited kids.

Because, just between you and me, before I learned this trick I mostly didn't even bother to serve ice cream with the cake at our parties.

See? Food is NOT my specialty!

Waldorf Doll Head Made Easier with Wool Yarn

I don't usually permit myself to get stressed out about the children's birthdays and the resultant parties--it's tacky, in my opinion, to play the put-upon drama queen about something that I, myself, chose to make a big deal out of--but nevertheless, this has been an unusually stressful week or so. The kiddos are again testing the boundaries with schoolwork, I haven't been feeling well (cancer or allergies?), most of the homeschool playdates and groups that make up my social network have been canceled because of this heat wave we've been having, my treadmill is busted, one of my best friends has the audacity to be planning an imminent move AWAY from me, the water heater is also busted, blah blah blah, which means that the fact that I do most of the kids' birthday prep and much of the party prep without assistance is, frankly, stressful this week.

And yes, I WOULD like some cheese with my whine. Brie, please, because since my treadmill is busted, I might as well give up entirely.

I've been making Willow a Waldorf doll, one that I needed to have finished for her by her birthday, and whose outfits I needed to sew up and photograph and review by this weekend for Crafting a Green World. I'm glad that I'm getting a Waldorf doll made for each of my daughters, since I've always wanted them to have one, but I'm also quite glad that after Willow's doll, my Waldorf dollmaking days will be over until I have grandchildren--I'm finding Waldorf dolls to be a fussy project, and the embroidery and hand-sewing are not my specialties.

Thank goodness this Waldorf doll has been a little simpler to make than the last one--between the two, I discovered this method of using wool yarn to form the doll's head, instead of wool roving, and it's a terrific trick!

I'm using stash wool yarn from Knit Picks

starting the ball

The ball of yarn should measure 10" circumference

 It was a GREAT tip, making the process of forming the doll's head so much less fussy and time-consuming. I also tried to tie the inner head strings using the same yarn, to make it sturdier than it was when I used thread--

--but that was a mistake. I'm using a light skin fabric to match my daughters' complexions that they inherited from their father (you can't tell from photos, but I'm darker than Matt is, especially in the summer), and of course the blue showed through.

I also shouldn't have wrapped the wool yarn ball quite as firmly as I did, because I don't think that I was able to get as much definition with the inner strings as I could with the roving, but I think it made up for it in the fact that the head itself is much firmer, and so I think it still looks better and has a more pleasing heft: 

Now, I don't want you to get me wrong with all the griping--yep, this doll project is fussy, and time-consuming, and challenging, but it IS do-able. In addition, a handmade Waldorf doll, even springing for a store-bought pattern and doll-full of wool roving, is vastly cheaper than a purchased one, and both my kiddos, even at the ripe old ages of six and (gasp!) eight, LOVE their dolls, which I honestly don't think they'd do if I'd simply handed them a store-bought one. So, make one! I've even got a Waldorf dolls and dollmaking pinboard that I'm still adding to, in direct contradiction to my claim that I'm not going to make another one for many, many years. 

Okay, now I'm off to start making Willow's treasure map brownie cake, and to see if she's still pitching a fit about her report on Indiana (in response to my insistence that several random facts strung together does NOT a report make), and to put the skull crayons in the oven to melt down, and to mow the lawn, and to find the face paint...

...or maybe I'll just take a shower, then get drunk and eat brownie batter.

A Quill Pen and George Washington

Our studies this summer have taken a turn for the schizophrenic--in science, we've been working on botany AND the brain; in geography, we've been working on Africa AND the United States; for literature, Will has been working on grammar AND Latin AND Tom Sawyer; and for history, we've been working on SOTW ancient history AND pioneer life AND the first presidents!

It's kind of like unit studies, but unit studies have started to feel claustrophobic, so here we are.

A day's requirement in a subject generally boils down to a book + a memory piece + a hands-on, contextual activity. For history the other day, then, I read the girls a picture book about George Washington (I'll put a list of my favorites at the bottom of this post), asked the girls to memorize the dates of his presidency (Sydney also memorized the fact that he was our first president; Willow already knows all of the presidents in order), and then let them play around again with quill pens:

It's been a year, almost exactly, since we last played with quill pens, and it was interesting to see that they still remembered it, and fun to see that they still enjoyed it: 

The big difference this time is that instead of making our own ink, earlier this year I took the girls to the little indie art supplies shop near campus and let them each pick out a color of real bottled ink. What a difference the quality of that one art supply makes! I noticed that both girls did a lot of exploring with line width and shading and color saturation, far beyond just exploring the feel of working with a quill pen, which I think was their main occupation last time.

It also increased the impact of that activity when I later brought out our copy of the Declaration of Independence--the girls were all, "They wrote like THAT with quill pens?!?" They were MUCH more impressed with the document than they otherwise would have been.

A calligraphy pen is clearly on my school supplies wish list these days.

Here are some of our favorite George Washington resources (so far):

My Latest Over at Crafting a Green World: Pirate Party Invitations

This week over at CAGW, I was able to write both of my posts about the pirate party invitations that my girlies and I spent the weekend making:

a tutorial on antiquing paper using coffee staining

and then a tutorial on the rest of the process involved in making the message in a bottle invitations that the entire family created for Willow's upcoming pirate-themed birthday party

removing labels and sticky glue from the glass bottles

burning the edges of the invitations to make them look all roughed up

We only accidentally completely incinerated one invitation!

stuffing the bottles

and sealing them with crayon wax

We hand-delivered these, all but one that Matt mailed to little friends who live the next town over. This party theme of Will's is so inspiring, though, that we have a LOT of projects to work on before the big day--prepping a treasure hunt, building a plank to have kids walk, practicing pirate face paint, learning how to twist balloons into pirate swords, buying a watermelon for Matt to carve into a pirate ship, baking a giant brownie cake to paint like a treasure map...

It's going to be a busy week!

Ink Blot Prints that Demonstrate Bilateral Symmetry

In math, the younger kid gets frustrated with a lot of computation, which is fine (for now--the older kid also gets frustrated with a lot of computation, and yet I still require it of her, because apparently I'm meaner to older kids), so since she's long finished up any kindergarten math requirements that I had of her, we've been luxuriating in those kinds of hands-on, in-depth, sensorial math activities that internalize concepts, and that the kid absolutely loves.

For instance, it wasn't necessary to spend weeks on bilateral symmetry. And yet... bilateral symmetry is so fun! Here are some of our activities:

• cutting out and folding shapes to discover and test their lines of symmetry
• using graph paper to draw shapes that have bilateral symmetry, then cutting them out and folding them to test them
• putting ANYTHING up against a mirror to see it in symmetry
• taking a nature walk to collect leaves, then sorting them into groups of symmetrical and non-symmetrical, then folding them to test those theories, then drawing in the lines of symmetry using Sharpies
• painting on one side of a paper, then folding the paper and pressing it down, then unfolding it to look at your magical Rorschach-style print

By the way, these BioColor paints are the BEST at that last one!

This is just the kind of activity that my little kid likes. She made print after print after print, then extended it to finger painting (discovering for herself that printing doesn't work if the paint has had time to dry), then moved on to some very colorful handprinting, then added more and more and more paint and found that she loved the feeling and the look of painting through all the layers...

...and made a GIANT mess!

And yes, to her infinite credit, she cleaned it up completely independently, including washing off the paint bottles, scrubbing the table, and giving herself a bath. That makes the activity even MORE satisfying, don't you think?

For kids whose current special interest is bilateral symmetry, here are a few more fun activities for enrichment and exploration:

• cut an object or picture in half, glue to a piece of drawing paper, then recreate the other half of the drawing
• make Rorschach ink blots, then have fun creatively interpreting them
• set up these super simple popsicle stick symmetry puzzles for the youngest learners
• print free worksheets for kids who like that sort of thing!

And our course it wouldn't be a homeschool project without lots of books!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, dog-walking mishaps, road trips, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

In Laura's House

The books of Laura Ingalls Wilder are the books that I have read more than I have read any others. I know that I've told you what a reader my big kid is--have I told you that I was a reader just like that as a child, as well? Only I may have read even more, because I was often very unhappy, and reading is such a balm for an unhappy child. And much of my reading included the Little House books, over and over and over again.

Of course, I've told you all this before, back when I wrote my tutorial for making cornhusk dolls (and how fun to see that a year and a half after we first studied Laura, we're immersing ourselves in her life again!), but I didn't share with you, I don't think, how important Laura, and her life, and her books, are to me. As a matter of fact, I know that I didn't share this with you, because in that tutorial, as I'm describing reading Little House in the Big Woods to the kids, chapter by chapter, at bedtime, I didn't tell you that as I read the final chapter of the book, in which Laura describes the beginning of another winter, dawning much as it did in the book's opening, with all the family safe and happy and secure together in their cozy, warm house in its little clearing in the Big Woods, I choked up, and my own little girls looked at me solemnly with their big eyes, and I explained that the endings of Laura's books always made me cry.

To visit Laura's house, then, was just incredible:

My partner and I took our kids to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum, just outside Mansfield, Missouri, at the end of our road trip last week. And I tell you what--if you love Laura, you have GOT to go there!

Because I've read the books so many times, I have kind of an obsessive memory for the details in them. I was thrilled, then, to see this museum. Like any good pioneer woman (who lived through the Great Depression, to boot!), Laura kept EVERYTHING, and everything that she kept ended up in her books. She  must have gone though her possessions to help inspire her memories of her childhood, because I could look at half the items in the museum and tell you where in the book they're mentioned. I'm broken-hearted that I wasn't permitted to take photographs inside any of the buildings (I HATE that rule!!!), but here is some of what I saw:

Mary's nine-patch quilt (the one that she's sewing in Little House in the Big Woods!); Laura's crazy quilt; Pa's fiddle; autograph cards from all the girls' friends (and enemies, including mean old Nellie Owens!); Laura's teaching certificates; one of her actual handwritten manuscripts, written in pencil in big paper tablets; a model of the wagon that the family took in their big move to Rocky Ridge farm (which my partner and I were both thrilled to see, since it included the detail of the traveling chicken coop, which we just could NOT visualize); copies of Laura's books in several languages; several drafts of drawings that Garth Williams made for the cover of The First Four Years; THE bread plate that survived the fire that destroyed Laura's and Almanzo's home; Laura's beautiful dress and her mirror hung on a tree trunk that Rose writes about in On the Way Home; bead-work that Mary did after she grew blind; the special contraption that she used to write in Braille...

Shall I go on? I had the urge, about three-quarters of the way through the museum, to run back to the car for my notebook so that I could at least write down everything that I was seeing, but alas, imagining doing this while my partner must wrangle the wriggling children allowed me to remind myself that I'll simply have to come back again and make my notes.

The children, thank goodness, were actually patient and well-behaved in this Mom-centered experience; it reminded me (favorably, finally--thank goodness!) of my big kid's famous fit thrown eight minutes into the San Francisco Modern Art Museum--I may still not have children who adore opera, but I do now have children who can handle a museum.

We took guided tours of both of Laura's houses on the homestead--the house that she and Almanzo built together and in which they primarily lived, and Rocky Ridge, the house that Rose had built for them after her first novel made her rich, and in which Laura wrote her own first novels. The clock that Almanzo bartered for to give to Laura for Christmas lives in their house still, and still works; it chimed the hour while we were there to hear it.

Here's just a small part of the original land owned by the Wilders, as photographed by my little kid:

Of course, there's still plenty of room for a little kid, just come from a long car ride and with a long car ride ahead of her, to run around like a nut:

Check out her ballet leaps!

Here's Laura's house--

We walked (and ran and danced and leapt) around the homestead, even finding a few of the apple trees left from the ones that Laura and Almanzo planted after they bought the land. My partner preached to the children a rousing fire and brimstone sermon--

--and we hit the gift shop, of COURSE, where I purchased yet another cloth doll pattern and a pattern for her pioneer clothes, six postcards of some of the stuff that I wasn't allowed to photograph, a Little House coloring book, and, for the kids, a souvenir bell, of all things, that they picked out and promised to share nicely (update: They DON'T!). I've become very interested in the many apocryphal series that chronicle the untold years of Laura's childhood, Rose's childhood, and the lives of Laura's mother and grandmother, and because it's frustratingly complicated to request these books from our public library in the proper order I wanted to buy a giant set of them, but alas, gift shops never sell exactly what I want to buy.

The actual Rocky Ridge Farm is now a short trip by car away from the homestead--I should have asked if the properties still connect at all, but I forgot--

In some ways, this house is less interesting than the homestead, because it was less lived in, less beloved to Laura, and thus now holds nearly none of her personal possessions, but one cannot miss touring it for this reason:

I seriously want a wide-armed armchair like the ones that Almanzo made for Laura, upon which she rested her tablet paper as she wrote her books.

On the way back through Mansfield, we passed the original storefront of the bank where Laura and Almanzo obtained their mortgage--

 

--but we did not stop because, having spent much more time than I'd originally allotted on the homestead, the sun was now setting and I still needed to see this:

Laura and Almanzo rest quietly in the cemetery in Mansfield, Missouri--

--along with their daughter, Rose:

I have a lot to say about Rose, too, which perhaps I will do another time, but in lieu of all my thoughts, take instead the inscription on the back of her headstone:

She, too, was a fascinating woman.

It didn't occur to me to bring flowers, as some others clearly do, but the kids and I each brought a stone to set on their marker. The sun set, and my partner did his darnedest to snap a photo of me with their marker even though I couldn't decide what facial expression would be appropriate--

I have apparently decided on wry smile?

--and then we got back in the car and kept on driving on our own way home.

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to random little towns, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!