My Latest: A Very Light Bulb Christmas

a round-up of wedding dress crafts

a round-up of light bulb crafts

and a tutorial to make a light bulb Christmas ornament

There will likely be a lot more ornament tutorials coming your way--we went over to the Christmas tree farm down the road yesterday and brought home a lovely pine, but even after decorating it, it's pretty sparse. You're going to think that I'm a monster, but  I often trashed the kids' handmade ornaments at the end of each season--I know, I know, but we really didn't have much storage space in our old house. 

If it makes you feel better, I promise that I'll hoard EVERYTHING from now on.

The 2015 Butterfly Garden

For her Girl Scouts Animal Habitats Junior badge, Will created plans for a butterfly garden:

We are both VERY novice gardeners, and 2015 will be the first year that we've had a real, sun-filled space on our own property to do so. I'm worried about getting too ambitious so that the whole thing looks like crap, and I'm also pretty sure that Will is trying to get us all stoned with her 18 square feet of poppies, but still, it's going to be very exciting to have a property of our own to play with.

Will also wants a koi pond. Syd wants a sunflower house. I may not have time to grow actual vegetables this coming year.

The Two-Paragraph Essay

Will has written several of these for her Minecraft Homeschool class, and they're pretty brilliant. She's a reluctant typer/handwriter (her fine motor skills ARE improving, so I no longer *despair*, exactly, but nevertheless... sigh), but that two-paragraph limit is somehow short enough that she will willingly do the work without complaint.

Two paragraphs are also plenty of space to create some pretty sophisticated compositions. Here's an example from her first week of class:

The instructor generally gives them the topic for each paragraph (for this one, obviously, they were to write facts about their Wonder in the first paragraph, and then explain why they chose that Wonder in the second paragraph), but all of the information, of course, as well as the structure, transitions, and authorial voice, are crafted by the student.

The class also provides its own resources, via a written lesson and links to documentaries on Youtube, and Will has become quite adept at looking back at these references as she writes, rewatching specific scenes from the documentaries and rereading specific paragraphs from the lessons to find the information that she wants. It's not note-taking, but nevertheless, that kind of recall ability is a great research skill to have.

Although these short essays don't require Will to practice introductions and conclusions--there simply isn't enough room--I'm finding that I quite like the way that they're structured, regardless. It gives Will a chance to practice a few very specific research and composition skills, so that when she does write longer essays for me--well, that's a little less that she'll have to work on then!

Work Plans for the Week of November 24, 2014: Visual Organizers and Thanksgiving

We're all excited about the short week ahead of us, and I'm using that enthusiasm as my wedge to pack in a good bit of productive work before our break.

MONDAY: We've got Math Mammoth today (Will's last week of long division; Syd's second-to-last week, I think, in telling time), our usual volunteer gig, and First Language Lessons, but we had to return Song School Spanish to the public library, so we'll have a couple of weeks of hiatus from Spanish before we can get the book back and return to our lessons there.

Will begins another week of Minecraft Homeschool today; her class is six weeks long, and Syd has already informed me that she'd like to take the class when it resumes in January. We only have one Minecraft log-in, so taking turns at the class seems fair.

Our endangered animal study is still going REALLY well! I'm happy to continue it for as long as the children remain interested, because they're doing some great researching and reporting. I've become quite enthusiastic about visual organizers--posters, infographics, timelines, etc.--lately, since they still involve the same research and reference skills, but the kids are happier to produce them.

TUESDAY: The kids are still enjoying their Hoffman Academy keyboard lessons, and I'm still enjoying their independence in completing them. I know that for an instrument to be successful, I really need to get involved, but... baby steps. I'm already handling about all I can handle right this second.

Next week the kids have a brunch with our Girl Scout Co-op, in which they're going to receive the badges they've earned this semester, so I need to sit down soon and look at what they've done, and encourage them to finish up the last bits on their own, but for now we'll continue the First Aid badge work that I'm guiding them through. Mind you, this biography and report on Florence Nightingale is a requirement that I've added to the official badge work, but my additions are designed to turn each badge into more of a unit study, and I think that it gives the activities, overall, more of an impact.

Will has a Robotics Workshop on this night, so she'll be having fun programming LEGO Mindstorms, and Syd has a playdate that overlaps the workshop, so she'll be having fun, too!

WEDNESDAY: Syd pitched a giant fit during last week's spelling test, so I don't think that Matt was even able to establish then which words she knew and which she didn't know, sigh. Perhaps he'll have better luck this week...

We're going to complete a quick Nutcracker unit study this winter, just to help the children put Syd's peformance in it into context. The revised Hoffman book is our current bedtime read-aloud, and this activity, in which we'll watch George Balanchine's version of the ballet and then the kids will create a timeline with that, a coloring book that we own, and a short performance summary as their references, will nail down their understanding of the ballet's events and its "plot."

The kids are still working very hard at aerial silks. Matt and I are working hard behind the scenes to figure out an at-home rig that we can all play on--any advice is welcome!

THURSDAY/FRIDAY/SATURDAY/SUNDAY: Hello, long weekend! We're not traveling for Thanksgiving this year, because next week is just going to be incredibly busy and stressful. Instead, we're going to focus on relaxing our hearts out this long holiday weekend. On Thanksgiving, each person is going to prepare two favorite dishes for our feast--almost all sweets so far, but oh, well. Life is tough. On Friday, I imagine that we will do some shopping, because there are things that we need and if Black Friday can bring them to us at a discount, then so be it. Friday night is a huge celebration downtown. Saturday is aerial silks rehearsal. Sunday is a children's show at the public library.

And then Monday through Sunday is hours and hours and hours of Nutcracker. Performance hair. Tech week. Dress rehearsals. And five shows in four days. But we're not going to think about that on this long holiday weekend, are we?

My Latest: Light Bulbs and Origami

a write-up of the Fold the Flock origami project

including just a little of the antics of these ridiculous chickens. Here's what else happened backstage:

the chickens approach

they investigate

they give me a look that I cannot interpret 

they destroy!!!

destroy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!!!!!

Who knew that the domestic chicken is the mortal enemy of the passenger pigeon?

a round-up of other easy origami projects

and a tutorial for hollowing out an incandescent light bulb

I have been doing this a TON since we moved here, and setting the bulbs aside, because I know that at some point (very soon, actually--incandescent light bulbs do NOT last long!), we'll have finished replacing all the bulbs in the house with LEDs, and then I may never see an incandescent light bulb again.

The children have been enjoying these bulbs, as well. We actually have a light bulb Christmas ornament craft that will be posting on Crafting a Green World tomorrow; the kids had to get an early start on their Christmas crafting, since they were creating an ornament for the Indiana Statehouse Christmas tree. Just between you and me, the ornaments that they made will probably be hung in the back of the tree, against the wall, but it matters not, because they had a fabulous time, and they crafted an extra ornament of the same type for our own tree.

...yay...

Play Update: October and November

I've never been one to track my children's play. Even when they were toddlers, their time of happy engagement in play was my time to get my own work done. Bad mom ignoring my kids, I know, but I've always been reluctant to distract their concentration or break the flow of their immersion in an activity--I'll even stay out of a room if I can hear them playing together with full concentration, because I know that my presence will bring them out of it.

I don't, therefore, collect many photos of the children at play, or what they're playing with, but if I happen to have my camera as I pass by I'll snap a photo, if I can do so without calling their attention to me, and sometimes I'm asked to photograph a completed project or film a skit in action. Here, then, is what I've happened to gather in the past month or so:

This is the Temple of Artemis. It's technically a project for Will's Minecraft Homeschool class, but if you saw her fussily trimming the plants in the Garden of Babylon that she built, or creating a Redstone-powered trap in the Pyramid of Ghiza that she also built, you'd know it's as much play as work.

Lately, both kids have been VERY invested in building the tallest tower possible with their Kapla blocks.

She's done it! She's used up all the Kapla blocks, but both kids have been reluctant to add our large stores of other building blocks into this play. If this keeps up, it's possible that Santa might bring the kids another BIG set of Kapla blocks for Christmas...

I believe this slime and dino set is a souvenir from La Brea Tar Pits gift shop? I've found it all over the house, including once IN. MY. BED.

Syd plays with her dolls every day. Most often she'll make outfits for them (sticky-backed Velcro is WONDERFUL as a kid-made doll-clothing fastener, in case you're interested), but on this day I found these dolls dressed in the, like, two actual Barbie outfits that we own, but matched to our color viewers. I never did find out what the game had involved.

 Will made this plaster of Paris volcano FOUR YEARS ago, and they still play with it often. On this day I'd just taken a delivery of some liquid watercolors that I'd ordered, and the kids immediately commandeered the neon red, fetched all the baking soda and vinegar volcano supplies, and happily made neon red volcano messes at the kitchen counter all morning. At some point I was called in to film this skit they'd been repeating, and finding super hilarious, for many, many rounds of play:

When I unpacked this room, I had Matt move in that shallow set of shelves from the garage, and I've been using it as open storage for the children's toy animals. The whole set is filled when they're all properly put away, so you can see at a glance how many animals the kids had scattered around in play in this room! I don't know how the Geomags were involved--animal cages, perhaps? Zoo?

For Christmas this year, my primary gifts to the children are going to be expansions to some of the open-ended toys that they love the most (this set of Kapla blocks, I think, and theseand these Geomags). Matt, I think, plans to buy them an actual decent computer, because their lack of one, and the resultant difficulty that they've been having connecting to online classes and Minecraft Homeschool servers, and using online reference sources, and working with graphic design and composition programs, is affecting the efficiency of our school days.

The stockings will need to be stuffed, however, and probably with a few more small things than the alarm clock and stock certificates and flash card sets and tools that are already set aside for them. If you've got any good ideas for small, open-ended playthings suitable for upper elementary kids who absolutely are not tweens and absolutely do still play like mad, I'd love to hear them!

Mandalas of Circles and Hexagons

This week I'm part of an online mandala-making class from Julie Gibbons Creative. I've found that mandalas suit me quite well as something that I enjoy drawing enough to really sit down and spend the time practicing/improving my very eensy drawing skills. It helps that this particular lesson, drawing circles and hexagons within them, uses a compass and ruler, so that I don't have to rely on my own spatial reasoning skills to make pleasing, regular patterns.

And who doesn't love playing with a compass?

Here's mine. The lesson included instruction on placing the adjacent circles, so I could use their intersections to make my hexagons and rectangles.

This was actually Syd's first time really playing with a compass. She got the hang of it quickly, and also enjoyed placing the circles and making patterns.

The lesson also included tips on how to paint with watercolors without having the colors bleed into each other. This was new information to me (I also learned how to correctly use bobby pins this week; it's been a good one for learning new skills!), and Syd and I both found that the technique worked perfectly.

Ravenclaw colors, on account of I'm a nerd.

I'm not so into the "magical" power of the mandala (this is shallow of me, but I tend to veer far away from self-reflection and all other emoting of the feels), but I'm finding it really, really fun to doodle them, so yay for a new hobby!

Ooh, and it's just occurred to me that I could pretend that mandala-doodling IS me doing the magical self-reflecting on the feels! When people begin to talk about their meditating and guided reflection and other weird stuff that I don't understand why I'm always around when people talk about, I'll just say, self-importantly, "Hmm? Oh, I have a practice drawing mandalas. It's quite powerful actually. Very circular... and... hexagonal. Yes, very self-reflective, don't you know?

And that's me just nailed down conversation at all of this year's holiday parties, so double yay.