Homeschool Science: Would a Blue Whale Fit in Your Driveway?

It would in ours!

Although, to be fair, we DO have a really long driveway...

Measuring whale lengths was the very last activity that I wanted the kids to complete to earn their Girl Scouts of Hawai'i Aloha fun patch, way back when it was actually a unit study based on our 2019 vacation to Kauai!

We just never got around to it last summer, though, and once autumn hit we had so many autumn things to look forward to that it was less tempting to dive back in. Now that we're spending so much more time on our property, however, and ESPECIALLY now that Will's AP exams are over (yay!), we actually do have the time to dive back into some of our unfinished business... and finish it up!

This activity was loosely based on the time that we drew life-sized dinosaurs all over a local park's basketball courts. My dream *had* been to go back to the basketball courts and draw life-sized whales, but we obeyed our governor's strictest stay-at-home order to the letter, and so to modify the activity to be able to be done on our own property, I wondered if we could measure life-size whale lengths on our driveway, and then just draw models of the whale next to its measurement.

Reader, we COULD!

I swear, these Smithsonian Handbooks are some of the best homeschooling resources that I own:

We have a whole stack of them. We used them constantly from the time the kids were toddlers... to today!

The kids each chose a couple of whales that interested them (fighting over who got to pick the narwhal, because OF COURSE), then I helped them measure that whale's length on our driveway.

Once they got the length measured, they focused on drawing a good model of their whale and learning its gross anatomy and some facts about it to share with everyone.

Here's Syd working on her blue whale, which does, indeed, just fit in our driveway!

I think everyone's favorite part of homeschooling is how we can interact with and love on our pets all day. They seem to know when the kids are doing something especially interesting or unusual, and they always want to join in!

Both kids really enjoyed this project!

Ah, here's one thing that I do NOT so much appreciate about homeschooling. Guess who's fighting again?

Someone threw a piece of chalk at her sister, and someone else kicked her sister. It's fine.

I also like homeschooling because generally, we're pretty chill about distractions here. Want to take a break from memorizing whale anatomy to chalk your father's freshly-washed hair?

It's art!

Spots also participated in Homeschool Art, which is what she gets for lying down on somebody's chalk rainbow:

Eventually, the kids remembered their whales, and finished their whales, and we all took a whale walk along the length of each whale, and then listened as each kid explained interesting facts about that whale's life and significant details of its anatomy:

And that's how we finally finished our unit study of Hawaii!

Six Months Ago: Teach Your Kids to Make Applesauce

One Year Ago: An Alice in Wonderland Birthday Party for She Who is Thirteen

Two Years Ago: Sports Legends and Space at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis

Three Years Ago: Physics and Force at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis

Four Years Ago: Homeschool Science: Zometool Crystallizations

Five Years Ago: I Let My Kids Drive the Lawnmower

Six Years Ago: Cahokia Mounds Homeschool Field Trip

Seven Years Ago: Zooming through the Montessori Green Series

Eight Years Ago: Geography with Montessori Pin Flags

Nine Years Ago: Tutorial: Easy Rainbow Cake

Ten Years Ago: My Child as a Confederate Soldier

Eleven Years Ago: Wildflowers, Interpreted

Twelve Years Ago: At Last, a Tie-Dyed Quilt!

I Bought a Vintage Disney Puzzle off of Ebay

So, you know, that's about how I'm doing during this pandemic!

I've actually been looking for this Disney Fantasy puzzle, manufactured in 1981, for decades. I don't really remember gobs and gobs from my childhood, but one of my most vivid--and happiest!--memories is working this puzzle with some of the adults in my life at my grandparents' giant wooden dining room table.

The funny thing is that I remember the puzzle being super challenging--like, it had EVERY Disney character on it! So many Disney characters!--but I was probably only about 5 or 6 years old. 

And the puzzle actually only has 300 pieces!

Fridays after our school day and Matt's work day have ended are what I've come to think of as Happy Hour. I set up a new puzzle and a podcast (Welcome to Night Vale or The Magnus Archives are current family favorites), or some coloring and an audiobook (we're currently medium-way through Dracula), or just crosswords and Syd's Spotify playlist (she's no longer heavy on the Billie Eilish!), and, most importantly for getting the kids' buy-in, SNACKS. Matt makes the adults cocktails, and we just hang out around the table and chill. 

It turns out that a 300-piece puzzle is just about perfect for chilling around a big table on a Friday night, with margaritas and Cheez-Its and Zebra Cakes (because SNACKS!).

It took one to two adults and one to two kids about two-and-a-half hours to put together this puzzle--

--and it's just as adorable and interesting as I remembered!

Syd asked, "Where are all the princesses?", and that's one of the most interesting things, because in 1981, there weren't many princesses! 1981's Disney was still very much associated with anthropomorphized cartoon animals:

Alas, all the racist characters are present--see the crows from Dumbo? And the Br'er animals from Song of the South?

But you've also got some pretty deep cuts from the other Disney cartoons. When is the last time you've seen Clarabelle Cow?

Syd also noticed this one--why the snot is Tinkerbell's dress PINK?!?

Ugh I love it SO MUCH!!! I don't know what happened to the one that I had when I was six, but this one I am keeping forever, and I am FOR SURE going to put it together again while watching Disney movies when we buy a month of Disney+ later this summer (HAMILTON IS COMING TO DISNEY+!!!!!!!!!).

But only the movies that came out by 1981. And not the racist ones.

I'll let you know what color Tinkerbell's dress is!

P.S. If you, too, remember liking Disney circa 1981, this 1981 Disney newspaper is hella cool. I *might* have gone to Disney World the first time around then (although the only thing that I remember about that trip is the Main Street Electrical Parade, particularly Pete's Dragon scaring the shit out of me), so it's interesting to see what was going on!

Wood-Burned Popsicle Stick Plant Markers

Our spring is so rainy, and our property so much wants to be a marsh, that the opportunities to actually get out and get seeds into the dirt during that precious getting-seeds-into-the-dirt window are few and far between, and you have to jump on them when they appear.

Like, you're just looking out the window, minding your own business, and you're all, "Oh, sun! Hey, there was some sun yesterday, too, so maybe if I go out in the yard I'll only sink up to my ankles in mud, not my thighs! I should go plant ALL THE THINGS!!!"

That's how, a couple of weekends ago, I ended up in a frenzy of planting all the things (not ALL the things, because we weren't far enough from the last frost to plant the sunflower seeds, but definitely all the OTHER things!), and I discovered that I needed some plant markers, stat!

I don't expect these popsicle stick plant makers to last beyond this season, because popsicle sticks aren't terribly hardy, but they turned out to be exactly what I needed at the moment I was in need:



I'm moving most of my garden plots around AGAIN, so since these popsicle sticks take just a couple of minutes to wood burn, it was easy for me to be all, "Okay... I think I'll try the radishes here this year and then the carrots can go here and, why not, how about I stick another row of radishes behind them," and then pop inside and quickly make the markers and put them in the ground before I forgot which was which and what I put where:

I already have a nice, bark-free stick saved up from a recent hike in our woods to wood burn something a little nicer for the perennials, but honestly, I'll probably just throw those radish and carrot markers in the fire pit when I'm through with them...

... because they clearly can't go back in the same garden plot next year, as Spots would rather sleep in it. Le SIGH!!!

This sage is from a pack of old-ish seeds that I found. I'm SUPER excited that it's growing!

I move this pot of catnip to a new hiding spot every time a cat finds it, because otherwise they'll eat it to the ground and then they won't have anymore catnip!

I'm excited about my little garden this year, because this is probably the first year since I've gardened that I won't be going away at all, and therefore I can dote on it all summer long. No chance of coming home after two weeks to a half-overgrown, half-dead, totally weedy plot that's been invaded by every rabbit within two miles!

I mean, I'd rather have the big trip that I planned with my Girl Scout troop and a ratty garden, but at least I get carrots and radishes and tomatoes and basil along with my miserable frustration and disappointment.

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

How to Add a Zippered Top to a Tote Bag

This tutorial was originally posted on Crafting a Green World.

Because you don't want your stuff to fall out!

The zippered top that I'll be showing you how to add to your tote bags uses a detachable zipper, so you can tuck the flaps away whenever you want a completely open-top tote bag. On those adventures when you're worried about spillage, however, or even just during car rides home when a tote bag full of groceries is likely to topple over in the trunk, having a top that you can zip up can make your life that much more care-free and efficient.

You can add a zippered top to any boxy tote bag that you already own. Feeling more ambitious? Make your entire tote bag from scratch, and then add a zippered top! 

Tools and Supplies

To complete this project, you will need:

• scrap fabric the approximate dimensions of your tote bag bottom. Any non-stretch fabric works for this project.
• zipper the approximate length of your tote bag bottom. Make sure you choose a detachable zipper--think coat zipper, not a pants zipper.
• cutting and sewing supplies. A sewing machine with a zipper foot makes the project even quicker and easier, but isn't completely necessary.

Directions

1. Use the dimensions of your tote bag bottom as the pattern for the zippered top.

The pattern should be the length of that side seam x the distance between the two side seams. Look how nicely my zipper fits the dimensions--that's a super lucky find from my stash bin. 

2. Use your pattern to cut the top piece, then cut it in half lengthwise.

Notice that I'm not including any seam allowance here; that's because the zipper takes up enough room to cover the seam allowance for this piece.

3. Sew the zipper to the two top pieces

Be very careful to sew right sides together, and to make sure that the two zipper pieces match. You don't want to sew half your zipper on upside-down! I'm always very relieved to practice zipping the top piece up afterwards, so I can make sure I sewed it correctly--phew! 

 

4. Sew the zippered top pieces to the top of the tote bag.

An easy way to center the pieces on the tote bag is to pin each piece in the middle, then align the pins.

I like to keep the top zippered shut while I pin the pieces to the tote bag--that way, I'm sure that two sides will align correctly. Afterward, however, unzip the pieces to make them easy to sew.

Once the pieces are pinned, sew them to the tote bag.

When you don't need your tote bag zippered closed--if your bag is chock-full of Girl Scout cookies, say--the top pieces easily tuck down inside the bag.

But after a long day toiling in the cookie mines, when you're ready to head home but you don't want all of your cookie treasures to fall out on the journey, just untuck those side panels, zip up your tote bag, and heigh-ho, off you go!

P.S. Curious about even more ways to use up the surplus zippers in your stash bin? Check out these seven awesome zipper projects!

We Made Terrariums... and I LOVE Them!

We didn't exactly make the self-contained ecosystems that was my intended hands-on project for the Principles of Ecology chapter in CK-12 Biology. 

Honestly, adding any animals into our lives, however tiny and shrimp- or snail-like, is just a recipe for me fretting endlessly about their health, safety, and emotional well-being. The years that the kids had pet fish encompassed some of the most miserable day-to-day experiences of my life. I'm stressed out enough in general, and if Will wants to incubate chickens this summer I'll be stressed out even more, and I just don't have it in me to experiment with the lives of tiny critters in a sealed plant world.

Maybe later this summer we'll collect some jars of pond water and watch them for a few weeks. 

Terrariums are MUCH more my speed, and the kids were super into the idea, as well, so that's what we did!

Happily, we were able to make our terrariums entirely from supplies we already own, although that's mostly because I'm a supplies hoarder. Here's what we used:

• glass container with a loose-fitting lid. This keeps most of the moisture inside, while still allowing some air flow. We used some old solar-powered lanterns that were on our property, not working, when we moved here... yeah, I've had them kicking around until 2012. And I'm STILL hoarding the flat-backed glass marbles that were inside them!
• rocks. I need to stop using the rocks that I bought for landscaping for craft projects, instead. Also, I need to buy more rocks for landscaping.
• activated charcoal. I bought this a few Halloweens ago to make black food. It's just occurred to me that I bet I could dye play dough with it! It's also good for soapmaking and bath bombs.
• peat moss. I HATE that I bought this once upon a time, because peat is SO unsustainably sourced. I am never, never, never going to buy it again, although I guess that means I'll have to research what to use for terrariums instead!
• potting soil. This is basic potting soil, with no fertilizers or moisture-retaining polymer beads.
• plants. Mosses and ferns and other shade-loving woodsy botanicals do great in terrariums like this.

When the kids were so busy with extracurriculars (if we were homeschoolers, why were we never home?!?), we'd probably have split this project up into two or even three days, so it is true, I guess, that one of our pandemic silver linings is that we're lucky enough to all be quarantined together, with time to do big projects all in one day and space on our own property in which to do them.

I'd still rather my kids had their ballet classes and summer camp internships and our big Girl Scout troop trip, though!

We're lucky enough to be together at home, though, and so together we spent one morning making our terrariums!

We put a layer of rocks at the bottom, added two-ish scoops of charcoal to cover, then an inch or so of peat moss, then a couple of inches of potting soil:

And then we went for a hike in our woods:

Can you see the elusive Spots? Torties are pretty well camouflaged in the spring woods!

Among the mayapples and Jack in the Pulpit, we collected little mosses and ferns, trying to include as much of their matrices as we could along with them, and trying for at least a couple of different kinds of plants, in case some didn't take:

Syd found a lovely horn corral fossil that she gave to me for my terrarium, and in our little creek I found a well-worn vintage green glass marble that also went in.

The lids of our old solar lanterns were an ugly chipped black, so I asked the kids if they would like to repaint them:

Indeed, they would!

We've had our terrariums for almost two months now, long enough for the plants to see if they like it and settle in if they do.

Syd says that she forgot she owned her terrarium (sigh), and it definitely needed a few caps of water when I went off to investigate it--

--but look how it's thriving!

Will's plants were so thrilled to be there that we had to remove the lid to give them some more space to blissfully spread out!

Matt's might be the most successful, since it's not clear if he ever even knew that Syd made him this terrarium:

You guys, it's got a wee little MUSHROOM!!!

My terrarium, which I dote on far more than the children dote on theirs, is the least vigorous, but it's happy, as well.

Even if it wasn't part of our biology study, this was the perfect spring project. Now I just have to go put mine on a shelf somewhere where I can forget it for a couple of months, so it can grow as happy as the rest of the family's terrariums!