Independence Day Unit Study: The 13 British Colonies in America

Labeling maps is one of the hallmarks of Montessori work, and even now, after over a year of homeschooling in which they have the pleasure of choosing all their own school activities, mapwork is still something that both the girls really enjoy.

Fortunately, free maps of the thirteen British colonies in colonial America are easily available online:

• I printed this printable of each colony on its own page (from A Kid's Heart) at 1/4 size so that the girls could make it into a mini coloring book, to later be mounted into their Independence Day unit study book (I order these big bare books in bulk straight from their web site).
• I printed this labeled map of the 13 colonies for the girls to use as a reference while they completed--
• this unlabeled map of the 13 colonies:

I recopied the names of the colonies onto a separate sheet of paper, but otherwise, the printout was perfect for an old-school Montessori map-labeling activity. After it Willow, who admittedly has done a lot of extra reading on the subject, could recite nearly all of the colonies, and Syd of course will learn more with repetition, which she enjoys.

Other 13 colonies resources that were much enjoyed:
     

Tie-Dyed Socks on our Feet

Nobody, and I mean nobody, matches socks around here.

A giant hamper of clean socks lives in the closet. When Matt and I need clean socks, we dig through the hamper until we find a matching pair--it's very annoying. The girls are far less troubled, since when they need clean socks, they simply dig through the hamper until they find two socks that fit--no matching necessary, apparently. Well, Sydney, who is our clothes horse, does tend to search until she finds two "pretty" socks, but again, they definitely won't match.

For a long time it's been my dream to make sock matching an occupation of the past. To that end, for the past year or so I've allowed our sock supply to dwindle drastically, neglecting to replace holey or outgrown socks, until we each have just a few left. Then, I restocked us all with plain white socks from Dharma Trading Company.

Then, I set up the fabric dye in squeeze bottles--

--and spent an afternoon on the living room carpet with the girls tying off socks with rubber bands, and then we dragged them all outside and off we went:

The girlies each also tie-dyed white turtlenecks, hand-me-downs from an acquaintance that had just a couple of light stains on them:

Yes, I accept free stuff even if it's messed up. That's how my kids will be wearing tie-dyed turtlenecks this winter!

Poor Matt arrived home from work that afternoon to the horror of a backyard full of fabric dye and mess and just more mess. I won't say that he was thrilled to jump in, but he let himself be persuaded, taking just long enough that we wouldn't know that he was secretly going to enjoy himself:

Did I mention that tie-dye is messy?

I know you're supposed to wear gloves and all, but I don't like the feel of them, and what am I supposed to do with the girls? Encase them in head-to-toe plastic aprons like serial killers wear to chop up their prey?

Eh, we were just colorful for a while:

I let them fester in plastic bags in the yard for 24 hours, then gave them a good rinse--look how pretty!

And after a wash and a dry, we have a new season of socks!

To try it for yourself, you can check out my tie-dye tutorial over at Crafting a Green World--if you dare!!! Be forewarned that once again, I horrify my fellow green crafters by not using butterflies and flower petals for dyes--green crafters can be so cute with their righteous indignation.

P.S. Love family-friendly crafts? Then you'll love my Craft Knife Facebook page!

The Baby Likes Her Body Art

I drew the rainbow butterfly, and she drew the sun and the sky and the blowing wind:

Perhaps next time I can convince her to draw a Sharpie temporary tattoo on her arm INSTEAD of sticking one on her forehead.

Countdown to Maker Faire Detroit!

Who has two thumbs and a Pumpkin+Bear booth at Maker Faire Detroit?!?

MATT!!! Because it's a sure bet that the girlies and I are going to make our Matt booth-sit for us so that we can spend our weekend doing this:

Craft Faire, inside Maker Faire, is hosted by Handmade Detroit, and I was super-bummed because I actually didn't get in at first, but thank you to whatever crafter did get in and then turned down their spot, and yay for me for apparently being high up on the waitlist, which is almost as good as getting in outright, because I got in anyway!

I am especially thrilled to be going because Maker Faire is one of those events that I have always really, really, REALLY wanted to go to anyway. Since I've written for MAKE magazine, I got free tickets to the Maker Faire Bay Area, and I was super bummed that I could not think of a single legitimate method to get us all on a plane to California without putting a second mortgage on the house.

Detroit, however, is vastly more do-able, and with a Pumpkin+Bear booth for Matt to sit at and vend handmade homeschool crafts for us, the girls and I will have a place to keep our water bottles and drop off our cardboard robots and personal hovercrafts and other awesome stuff that we've made.

And I'm not even going to start telling you about the Maker Mixer, or the Ignite session, or the marshmallow shooters that the girls are going to make, or the fire-breathing pony, or the dragon dump truck jungle gym, or the giant Rube Goldberg machines, or the Bellagio-style Coke and Mentos fountain show, or how I'm totally going to do the iron pour, and get my picture taken on the recumbent tricycle, and rock out to nerdcore...

Summer Fare

I really don't cook. I don't enjoy it--in fact, I find cooking tedious and uninteresting, requiring too much clean-up and fuss.

Mind you, I think nothing of doing plaster of Paris at the living room table, or tie-dyeing with the girls in the backyard WITHOUT GLOVES, so clean-up and fuss aren't in fact issues for me. I just don't enjoy cooking.

I mean, why cook when you can just make a sandwich?

The other moms who I know who don't cook happen to have partners who DO cook, but I happen to have a partner who needs me to tell him, every single night, "Just ask the girls if they want a peanut butter sandwich or a grilled cheese sandwich or a smoothie, and there's canned applesauce and frozen corn or blueberries, and see if they'll eat a carton of yogurt with it." Seriously, every single night he needs me to tell him options for a quick and suitable dinner for two children. I think he eats baked chicken for dinner every night, I don't bother to ask.

And no, we're not one of those families who eat dinner together, with the tablecloths and napkin rings and candles and crap. Sue us.

That being said, I do get a lot of pleasure out of an in-season fruit salad:

It doesn't require cooking!

I don't tend to cook normal stuff every day, like a nice pot of spaghetti or a brown rice stir-fry or whatever normal people stand around in the kitchen for an hour and cook for dinner every single day, but every now and then I will try out a recipe, especially if it sounds just crazy:

The Pioneer Woman's Knock You Naked Brownies were CRAZY. I didn't put all the fuss into them that she did, but yeah, they turned out just a smidge over-the-top. Insanely tasty, and unlikely to be baked again unless I'm ever invited to a potluck at which people would be impressed by over-the-top sweet desserts. That potluck would probably be in Arkansas.

I got bored with baking bread every day, so now I pretty much only make the occasional pizza crust, but after the instruction of my friend Cake, I do now officially know how to make pie crust--

--although it's kind of a lot of work. Still, the family praised and praised and praised the strawberry pie that the crust turned into, and although I'm pretty sure that all the praise every time I cook something is a not-so-subtle strategy to simply get me to cook a little more, I do have plans to make that pie crust again soon, this time for quiche, and also to at some point to get around to trying out both zucchini fries and overnight cinnamon rolls.

Or, you know, we could just continue eating sandwiches. It could go either way, really...

Our Homemade Sidewalk Chalk in Action

Would you believe that the GIANT batch of sidewalk chalk that the girls and I made last week (the homemade sidewalk chalk tutorial lives on Crafting a Green World) is already completely used up?

Well, you might believe it after this:

Life-size family, with all their clothes and accessories

Roman gladiator gameboard, which stretches ALL THE WAY across the basketball court

it's like hopscotch, but with swords and horses and rivers to cross

We have a date to make more sidewalk chalk this week, because Will thinks that this game would also be pretty great if you used Ancient Egyptians instead of Romans.

Her correctness about this particular issue is a sure thing, wouldn't you agree?

Ocean Party

two wading pools

gold fish crackers

a Matt-carved watermelon

whale

good friends from public school, private school, the local charter school, and three different homeschools

plus assorted moms and 2.5 dads

blue ocean jello with candy fish, whipped cream waves, and a graham cracker beach

It was tasty:

wading and swimming and splashing and jumping and shouting and running around like maniacs

brown paper treat bags, crayons, and foam stickers

ocean-themed chicken nuggets (I know--barf! But how to resist?)

bug spray

HOT day (thank goodness for the wading pools!)

shark pinata made from oatmeal canisters, cardboard, duct tape, and spray paint

 

It was quite whackable:

Quite, quite whackable:

candy

lots and lots of candy

brownie beach cake with a cream cheese frosting ocean and hand-rolled beeswax candles

the birthday song

SO many photographs!

SO many good presents from generous friends:

So much laughter

So much fun

And one very, very happy, very, very beloved, brand-new seven-year-old.