Here's Our Homeschool This Week

This week, we've:

played endless games of Sorry; built lots with blocks--

--and I mean LOTS with blocks--

--judiciously spent saved Christmas/birthday money at our local toy/educational supplies store (thanks, Papa!); put together one of those damn Playmobil sets according to instructions (bought at aforementioned store with aforementioned birthday money)--

--made pretty things with pattern blocks, both on the carpet and with translucent plastic pattern blocks on the overhead projector (both of those sets being brand-new school supply purchases from that same store, but by the Momma this time); watched Extreme Engineering; played briefly with our brand-new Cuisenaire rods(love that school shopping!); goofed around with a laser level; and cut out paper snowflakes. Syd played some Curious George online and with a dot-to-dot computer game; stamped with number stamps; and helped me make banana cookies, pancakes, rainbow cupcakes, and vegetable soup.

We spent plenty of time at PBSKids.com; spent plenty more time with books independently, especially my Will, who is a reading machine of late; visited the library a couple of times; watched a little Electric Company (the new version, not the old); had chapters from Nancy Drew and Just So Stories at bedtime; and listened to four or five of the Magic Tree House audiobooks. I can't even tell you the books that Will has devoured this week, but they include some Boxcar Children titles, 101 Dalmatians, some Magic Tree House titles, some Nancy Drew titles, some Shel Silverstein, and other picture books, chapter books, non-fiction, and poetry that she's come across.

The kids have taken many beautiful photographs on beloved subjects--

--played with Colorforms (another new school supply purchase); helped me paint some pretty paint in the basement; and attended a scrapbooking class at the public library--

--which was VERY well enjoyed. Syd decorated some frames for some maps I'm going to tack to the walls in their playroom--

--colored with Sharpies and crayons and colored pencils and whatever else she could find; masterminded the design and construction of her new skirt; and worked on some balancing butterflies, project still in progress:

Syd finished filling out her reading program form and submitted it to the library, earning herself a book as a prize. She also did some handwriting copywork for fun and helped me label stuff.

Will watched a LOT of Blue's Clues, sigh, and some Walking with Dinosaurs (or Walking with Prehistoric Beasts or Walking with Early Mammals, etc.); attended Critter Junction, an animal program at the local library; took care of the tadpoles, some teeny froggies, and the odd caterpillar or spider for a while; researched strawberry plants, rainbows, the ocean, giant sea turtles, and I don't even recall what else; and, big sigh, took a field trip to the Emergency Room and experienced the treatment for a cracked tibia, x-rays and hard cast 3/4 up the thigh and all. 

We played the rain stick and the recorder; listened to the Muppets and Throwing Muses and some seriously inane kids' music and other CDs; and had any number of dance parties. In addition, Syd's goal is to learn to whistle, so there's been much practicing of that, and even a screening of a documentary on the International Whistling Competition.

We began the timeline!!! We've added the epochs and some info on dinosaurs and human evolution; Will has big plans to cut up an extra Smithsonian dinosaur encyclopedia that we have on hand, and I still need to mark out some basic demarcations from early humans to the present so that we know where to put stuff. Will's also been into the short video clips on the Liberty's Kids web site, although she's very annoyed that I insist on supervising her visits there, since it contains outside advertising.

We walked and biked and scooted downtown and all around; helped with chores like grocery shopping and cleaning and gardening--

--went swimming; had boisterous playdates with good friends; picked blackberries and peaches--

--played on various playgrounds, including one magical maneuver on the monkey bars too many (CRACK!); and, most recently, practiced and practiced and practiced walking on crutches.

And that's how we homeschooled this week. Please, let next week be uneventful.

Rainbow Party Project #6: Rainbow Cakes Aplenty

Rainbow cake has basically been a week-long project. But yes, I am pleased to tell you that tonight, the night before Rainbow Party Day, the dream has been achieved.

Tonight, on top of the stove, rests a seven-layer cake waiting to be frosted and decorated with M&Ms on the morrow. Its layers, from top to bottom: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

Y'all, the rainbow cake is REAL!

But no, you can't see it yet. That would spoil the birthday party surprise!

A LOT of thought went into Rainbow Cake. I toyed with the idea of a straight-on rainbow cake, and was VERY inspired by the rainbow birthday cake over at ChocolateSuze, and her awesome rainbow Mario mushroon cake. But I really, really wanted a rainbow layer cake, and I just almost made the 20-layer rainbow cake, also at ChocolateSuze (I am still ABSOLUTELY going to make that one, just another time...).

Most of the 20-layer cakes that people post online are done with crepes, or otherwise very thin layers. So then I planned to just slice each layer in half horizontally, saving one half of each for a later date, but a very smart mom-friend of mine suggested that instead, I pour a small amount of batter into a regular 8" round pan and just watch it carefully to see when it was done. Done and DONE!

And that's how the rainbow cake was built: plain box of cake mix (on Manager's Special for 86 cents!), one cup of batter taken out and colored and spread into the bottom of an 8" round cake pan, cooked for 15 minutes. Perfect.

The girls, of course, were pillars of strength and sources of unending aid, and they also talked me into making an entire batch--24 cupcakes!--of rainbow cupcakes earlier this week just for them to eat. I'm still not sure what that was all about, but it certainly has not spoiled their taste for rainbow cake any, so it's all good.

And how nice to be able to rest my arm for a few of the 450 strokes called for in the recipe:

She learned to do silly voices while stirring from me.

The food coloring that we used is CRAP for your body--seriously, it's made entirely from high fructose corn syrup and those D&C dyes that make kids super-wild--but it's amazingly vivid, and we love it. And how many times have I told the children NOT to put it into straight into their mouths?

Many times. I have asked them not to do this many times.

We did do old-school rainbow for the cupcakes--yes, it's crazy, I baked a seven-layer rainbow cake and then two dozen rainbow cupcakes (well, I ate three, so 21 rainbow cupcakes), because I INVITE TOO MANY PEOPLE TO PARTIES. I need to feel loved, or something. Sydney helped with the cupcakes, in the most excrutiating manner imaginable:

Seriously, multiply that by seven colors and 24 cupcakes. My soul died an hour before we were done, but the child was filled with bliss, what can you do?

I love the randomness of the color when the cakes are ready to bake:

If we don't have our fill of rainbow edibles by the time this party is over tomorrow, it will NOT be for lack of trying on my part.

Rainbow Party Project #5: Rainbow Clothes for the Other Kid

To get dressed this morning, Sydney first picked out the perfect pair of tights--orange, with flowers. Then she dug through her drawer until she found the perfect pair of underpants--blue, with a sparkly pink waistband. She dug through her pants drawer for a while, but not finding anything that suited her, she instead dug through the clean laundry until she found the perfect skirt--a striped Momma-made sweater skirt. Then she dug and dug through her shirts drawer, rejecting many possibilities, until she found the perfect shirt--white pajama shirt with a penguin on it.

To get dressed this morning, Willow pulled out the topmost pair of underpants from her drawer--purple camouflage, I think. Then she pulled out the topmost pair of shorts from her pants drawer--blue plaid. Finally, she pulled out the topmost shirt from her shirts drawer--blue long-sleeved button-down. Then she went back to her book while I spent the next half-hour bullying Sydney into the rest of her clothes.

My big girl did not want a cute little party dress to match her sister's. She really didn't so much *want* any cute little party clothes, but she does love it when I make her things, and she does have as much of a weakness for over-the-top-pink-heart-and-rainbow fabric as any other child, and what is the point, I ask you, of knowing how to sew AND having two children if I don't sew them matching outfits and then take lots of photos?

Therefore, I present to you the Rainbow Party Matching Rainbow Shorts:

The pattern is from the Oliver + S Puppet Show Tunic and Shorts pattern. And I have to say, I like the shorts just okay. I'm not used to dressing Willow in shorts that are so...short. You can't tell so much from the angle at which I took these photos, but they just seem a little short, in a baby-ish way, if that makes sense--sort of like a Shirley Temple  "Oh, look at those fat little baby thighs!", but it's not working so much for my almost-six-year-old. I suppose they really were meant to go with the tunic, or even a short jumper, something longer than the regular shirts that she'll wear with them, but Will, she'd never dress herself in all that on purpose, so I told her that after the party, these could be her pajama shorts.

They are super-cute, though. I omitted the gathered patch pockets because I knew that Willow wouldn't use them, so why waste the time (in retrospect, I should have made them and added them to Sydney's dress, instead, because she WOULD use them), but I made the waistband and bias out of the purple flannel that matches Sydney's party dress, and I REALLY like the gathering technique used for the leg openings of the shorts:

I'm DEF going to try that again on some other project. I've heard that's the way with Oliver + S patterns--in the process of sewing, you always learn something new and cool.

And there you have it--another rainbow project bites the dust. I let the girls waste what seemed like half the morning watching Clifford's Puppy Days--

--because little do they know that, like it or not (sometimes they like it, and sometimes not), they are going to be spending the entire afternoon in the community garden with me.

And then we'll have shepherd's pie (with soysage, not lamb, gross) and probably make rainbow cupcakes.

Just for ourselves.

Just because we can.