My Latest over at Crafting a Green World: Record Album Covers into Things that are Not Record Album Covers

a tutorial for paper scrap business cards on a cardboard record album cover base

and a tutorial for greeting cards made by fussy cutting the awesome parts of record album covers

Right now, on this peaceful Wednesday morning, I'm sitting at the table with two kids who are freaking out because in our summer hiatus from work plans, they seem to have forgotten that work that is not completed on Monday or Tuesday does not disappear from one's life, but instead reappears at the table for Wednesday morning "schoolwork boot camp," (yes, I do call it this, because I'm tacky), not to be set aside for other, perhaps more pleasurable, pursuits until it is completed.

The kiddos don't have tons to finish up, actually, but it's clearly going to take longer than it should, since Will's throwing a fit because I won't let her write cursive "d" incorrectly, and Syd's throwing a fit because she doesn't want to turn her brain on and skip count by 2s. Through the grace of a BIG mug of coffee and my belief in the work plan, I am keeping my temper quite miraculously. I'm clearly going to have time at the table this morning to get a lot of blog pages edited, emails answered, summer vacation researched, Netflix queues filled up, DVDs ripped, photo prints ordered, library books requested...

Ready-Reference Zoo Animal Fact Cards for the Louisville Zoo

The Louisville Zoo has created a great set of pdf fact cards for most of their zoo animals. They're excellent for prep work or further research, but for our big trip to the zoo, I wanted to have them handy for ready reference, so Will and I, with a lot of tricky printing, cutting, pasting, and laminating, made them that way!

I printed each zoo animal pdf fact card on cardstock at the setting of four pages to a page; this made each full-page pdf card print at one-quarter of its original size, a good, handy size for carrying around. Of course, you have to click on and print each new animal card separately, which means that your printer will want to use a fresh piece of cardstock for each one, so every now and then I went back to the printer and flipped the printed pages around so that new cards would print on the unused space of the already-printed cards. Saving cardstock is important!

When all the cards were printed I cut them to size with my guillotine paper cutter. Some animals' info extended onto a second page, so I glued those back-to-back with a glue stick so that you can flip the page over to the back side to read the rest of the info. Some animal cards didn't have a photo of the animal included, so for those I put Will to work with Google Images, finding a photo of each animal and printing it onto copy paper to cut out and glue to the back of each card:

She LOVED this job!

After all the cards were prepped, we laminated them, cut them apart, hole punched them, alphabetized them, and put them on a book ring (well, it's actually a shower curtain hook, but it's serving as a book ring):

I could not have been happier with how this ring of fact cards worked at the Louisville Zoo. As the Keeper of the Cards, I had a fabulous time looking up each animal as we came across it, and regaling the family with random facts--"The addax antelope can go months without water!" "Due to global warming, grizzly bears and polar bears are starting to mix their territories, and they're breeding together!" Since I find less entertainment in animal watching than anyone else in the family, this task kept me entertained quite nicely.

The animal card are robust enough that they can be used for our later research and other projects--each card has a partial order of classification, the animal's range and habitat, more information about its reproduction than you'd ever want to know, its diet in the wild and at the zoo, some notes on behavior and other points of interest, and its status in the wild. They'll be good for sorting as we continue our study of the order of classification, and we'll definitely be taking them to other zoos.

Soooo... lot of work, yes, but well worth the effort.

My Kids Got into a Fight on Public Television

The Friday Zone is an excellent children's show that broadcasts from our local PBS station. Occasionally they need local kids to come in and help them with tapings, and it's something that mine have done once a year or so ever since they were first old enough to participate. Will was a "craft kid" in a couple of episodes at the ripe old age of seven, both Will and Syd performed improv comedy in practically an entire season of episodes last year:

Their segment starts at 17:05)


(Their segment starts at 22:05)


(Their segment starts at 6:05)


(Their segment starts at 17:50)


A discerning eye could probably see that Syd, although she enjoys herself mightily during these tapings, isn't exactly... cooperative. The improv comedian who was her partner in this skit was red-faced and breathless after performing with Sydney:

(Their segment starts at 10:30)


But that was a year ago, and when the call came out for participants again this year, and we thought that we'd skip aerial silks that week so that the girls could attend a couple of Friday Zone tapings, it never even occurred to me that Sydney might not behave. She behaved at three years of Trashion/Refashion shows! She behaved at two years of ballet recitals! She behaved (mostly, more or less) at three years of Spring Ice Shows!

Actually, those Spring Ice Shows might have offered a clue or two.

The firefighter episode went fine--

(Their segments are at 11:00 and 26:55)


And the next taping, with my acquaintance Malke's Math in Your Feet program, also started off really well. It's impossible not to be engaged by Math in Your Feet--it's active, whole-body, brain-stretching fun! But then the girls were asked to cooperate together on a simple task.

And Syd? Well, Syd has her own ideas about cooperation:

(Their segments start at 7:30, 15:30, and 26:35)


I'll tell you now that there was nothing that poor Will could have suggested that Syd would have gone for--in Syd's mind, a sister making a suggestion is a sister trying to gain the upper hand, and a full-out battle for dominance must then ensue.

Thank goodness for Malke's calming hand on Will's shoulder, because I didn't even see Syd punch Will from where I was sitting on the other side of the room, but I know from experience that when Will is punched, she generally punches back hard. Two seconds later, and they'd have been rolling on the floor in a cloud of dust.

And now I'm going to have to get them practicing trust falls, or send them both to Leadership Camp, or have them doing icebreakers and team-building exercises every morning before chores, if I want them to ever be able to be on any more TV shows other than reality shows or wrestling.

Work Plans for the Week of September 23, 2013

After spending much of the summer with work hours, and the last few weeks with a daily checklist, I am EXCITED to get back to weekly work plans!

Here's what the girls have got going on this week:


Work hours and daily checklists are more flexible than weekly work plans, but Will's been feeling rather bossed around lately, I think, and weekly work plans are VERY empowering for the independent-minded child. She likes to do what she wants when she wants, and she doesn't mind chores and other responsibilities, but she doesn't want them to interfere with her big plans for the day, all of which consist of reading books in various spots around the house, yard, local park, and library.

So unlike work hours, during which I'm chaining her to her responsibilities for two hours, or even daily checklists, which must be completed even if one is feeling quite unmotivated, or has just come home with a giant stack of new library books that day, a weekly checklist lets a kiddo read for half the day, and work for half, or read all day, and work extra-hard the next day, and still complete all her responsibilities. Wednesday and the weekends are "relaxed" homeschool days, there for a kid to catch up on any procrastinated work or to spend her time as she chooses if she's kept up. These are the days that I also entice a kid into trying out the latest educational video game that I've checked out of the library, or watching a documentary that I think she might like, by adding it to her checklist.

This week, in particular, should be a good one. We had bathroom remodeling all last week, and we'll have two giant field trips next week, but hopefully, HOPEFULLY, the bathroom will be finished on Tuesday this week, letting us have some chaos-free at-home time for the rest of those days. I'm gambling on it, too, since I put some more intensive, hands-on activities into our schedule--the kids have been great about park school and library school and Barnes & Noble school, but they're ready to put the pencil down and get their hands dirty!

I think the kids will also like that chance to earn some extra cash that I snuck in there--normally I ask them to pick up after themselves in the bathroom, as well (so many wet towels and dirty clothes abandoned on the floor, so many bath toys...), but since we don't really *have* a bathroom right now, they can instead earn some candy money in that chore spot and I can get some extra chores done. Still won't get us completely caught up on chores or result in a sparkling house inside of which a nourishing dinner has been prepared, but I might get them to clean the deck. Or scrub the downstairs bathroom. Who knows what someone will do for a quarter?

Monday: I'm trying to get us back into Latin, which we skivved off of for the summer, so we'll be reviewing for a couple more weeks, I think. Math Mammoth is still going great, so both girls will keep working through their material every day this week, but hopefully next week this bathroom will absolutely be finished so I can put some hands-on activities that reinforce their Math Mammoth material into the work plan, as well. Will's scissors skills are deplorable, bless her poor left-handed heart, so she's going to have to start really practicing that every week now, which is going to result in a flurry of gripes, I know, but the fact that we'll be biking over to the public library first thing in the morning for her to do some research on her biography fair subject, as well as to see if there are any other books on dragons that she *hasn't* read yet (there aren't), should cheer her up. The girls will probably be working on their school later into the afternoon than we usually do, because our volunteer shift takes up two full hours in the middle of the day, but I've got the supplies to make pizza, and I'm sure there's something on Netflix that we can turn into a family pizza + movie night afterwards.

Tuesday: Syd might be done with the whole Sight Word Caterpillar business by the end of October; her reading exploded this summer, and since we work on it every day, I think it's safe to say she could be through the third grade sight words--which is where our caterpillar is going to end--by then. Spelling, now... wow, if you want to watch a perfectionist child throw a fit, give them a spelling word that they don't know. Syd's still doing Spelling City every day for her spelling list, because it's all fun and games (literally), but Will's participating in the Scripps Spelling Bee this year, and has a LOT more words to get through to be competitive, so we've been mixing up her spelling memory work some--some Spelling City, some drills, some videotaping herself, etc. First Language Lessons is still taking FOREVER to get through, because although the lessons are short, Syd refuses to complete more than one per day, so I'm trying to work that into more days, because I'd like to have both girls together in Level 3 of that program by summer. The animal biology portfolios are also still incomplete, mostly because we've been so uprooted by this bathroom remodeling project that we simply haven't had the time to sit and stare at critters under the microscope, or research hamster birth, etc., lately, but at this rate, with all the time that we've spent on them, they are going to be absolutely stunning when completed.

Wednesday: In the afternoon, Will has a meeting with the Magic Tree House Club, and then I take her to aerial silks class so I can gossip with my friends there while Syd spends the last hour or so of Matt's work day with him. Before that, though, I'm eager to see what documentary the girls will choose and what computer game or ipad app they'll want to play--and if they'll let me, play, too!

Thursday: We nearly always have leftover work to make up from this day, because sometimes our Park Day meet-up with friends really does take all day, but it's almost always stuff that's fun for the girls to do with Matt on the weekends, if it comes to that, so it's not really a chore. We finally got around to taking our Drawing With Children diagnostics and I'm looking forward to incorporating these lessons into our week and hoping that they go well--Syd was NOT happy with the diagnostic, but since its purpose is to contain elements that are too difficult, in order to determine your correct starting point, it's understandable. Here's hoping for a tantrum-free Lesson 1! I want to get back into our regular Story of the World study, which we took a break from for the entire summer so that we could study the Civil War instead, so we're working through the couple of random Ancient Egypt library books that we've still got on our bookshelves to get us focused back on the time period. Will's non-systematic, games and puzzles logic study is still going REALLY well; she came home complaining that her lesson at chess club this afternoon was "boring and easy", so we're doing chess as our logic this week to maybe boost her confidence enough for her to ask her coach if she can attend the advanced lesson at the next chess club, instead of the one for little kids.

Friday: I *might* cancel most of the work on this day and take the girls to the apple orchard if the weather is nice. If it's gross out, though, it'll still be great weather inside for continuing our slow-as-molasses states study, and for doing some music enrichment. Will and I are going to get back into studying the recorder pretty soon, and I'll try to persuade Syd into joining us, so I'm not sure if I'll continue this musician study, but if the girls like it, then it'll be a keeper.

Saturday and Sunday: I DO require that the girls do some schoolwork even on the weekends, and they've got a Saturday morning science enrichment program that they love, but other plans include watching rugby, attending a picnic hosted by the food pantry where we volunteer, baking carrot cake for Matt's do-over birthday (long story), and possibly getting dragged to the loathsome indoor inflatables place that the girls adore and we hate.

And then they'll head off to campus to watch football on the campus cable TVs, and I'll make another week's lesson plans!

My Latest over at Crafting a Green World: T-shirts and a Contest (and Math)

the UncommonGoods Upcycling Design Contest

and a round-up of wearable T-shirt upcycling projects

In other news, our bathroom remodeling is taking a really, really, REALLY long time! Fortunately, our contractor for this project seems to be honest, and appears to be doing the work that he told us he'd do with the quality and skill that he told us he'd do it at (far unlike the kitchen remodeling debacle AND the basement finishing debacle of the past), but he is also possibly the slowest-working contractor on the planet. 

We are hopeless at this contractor-contracting thing. We clearly need more home DIY skills.

Fortunately, with a contractor who often doesn't show up until 11 am, and then who often leaves at 2 pm, or who shows up at 9 am and leaves at 11 am, or who doesn't show up until 4 pm and then leaves at 7 pm, the girls and I have been able to get more schoolwork done at home than I thought we would (of course, I thought we'd be long done with having to rearrange our schedule around the bathroom contractor, too...), but we're still spending loads of time at the park and the library focusing in on cursive and Math Mammoth. I'm actually really liking Math Mammoth a lot more than I thought I'd like a packaged curriculum--and I'd probably appreciate the hands-on components that suddenly require a child to wield a hot glue gun to create geometric solids--

--or measure household items with rulers if we were more easily at home to do them, but with LOTS of supplementation of my own activities, I'm actually strongly considering continuing Math Mammoth through this year. So far it's serving as an easy way to accelerate them on their grade-level basics so we can focus on STEM enrichment projects that may be working different mathematical skills.

Because, you know, that pinball pendulum and sound effects recording studio and mounted butterfly collection and DIY aerial silks rig won't build themselves!

Zoo Tour: Butterflies at the Indianapolis Zoo

This year is the Year of Zoo. I was reminded, back in the summer, of how much fun it is to visit new zoos, and since Will, in particular, deeply loves animals of all sorts, AND since there are some really great zoos that we've never visited just a few hours' drive from our house, I decided that this is the year to see them all.

A couple of weeks ago, we squeezed in one last visit to the Indianapolis Zoo just before our membership ran out. Of course, we saw ALL our favorite, good animals--

--but we were really there to immerse ourselves in the zoo's seasonal butterfly exhibit. We've been studying butterflies, doncha know, and also?

They're just awesome:

Mating butterflies!

We've got some great butterfly identification guides, so my plan is to make copies of these photos and then have the girls identify them. Will also really, really wants to create an old-school butterfly collection, the kind with the straight pins and cotton batting and dead butterflies, and though I, myself, am profoundly horrified by this plan, I understand that it is a legitimate scientific activity, and so I'm committed to helping her at least research it, with the understanding that we will only undertake it if I'm assured that there's a humane method of euthanizing the butterflies (shudder).

Will Found a Typo in the Dover Publishing Catalogue

Shame, shame, Dover...