Slow Week

We've had some fun preschool projects I plan to share, and I'm getting a bit of sewing done.  But mostly, I'm having a case of the falls: overwhelmed a little by the fall schedule and all the projects going on, enjoying cooler temperatures and visiting with friends, admiring how much the kids are growing.  J's curly hair finally got long enough for a ponytail, and I'm just dying at the cuteness of it.   

My list of big projects is growing ever longer.  Still, I wish I had some small stress-free projects to do - which probably makes me a little nuts.  I'm browsing pumpkin ideas on Pinterest.  Of course, my favorite is from Martha Stewart.

Chickpea Burgers

I haven't had much luck with bean burgers over the years.  Until I tried chickpeas!  It was one of those days when you google the ingredients you have in your pantry to try to find an idea for dinner (come on, that's not just me, right?), and several variations of this gem appeared.  Goodbye, black beans! Here's my version.

Puree
1 can chickpeas
1 small can of green chiles
1/4 cup diced onions
salt and pepper

Then add oatmeal until the texture is doughy instead of mushy (a little less than a cup) and form into patties. Heat oil in a pan, then pan fry the patties about 4 minutes per side. Really moist and tasty.  Since the beans don't have a super strong flavor, you could try a number of other seasonings. 

Animalia

We went to the Safari Park with our home school co-op last week.  To prepare we talked about some of the animals we would see there and did some paintings.  I love to see my kids paint, but its one of those messy things, so I have to really psych myself up for it.  It's always worth it.  I let them use my good watercolors this time, which worked out just fine. 

I drew the shapes of some animals very simply, and also a scale version of L next to the animal.  I puled up images of the animals on google, and we talked about their colors and markings to help her paint.  She didn't feel the need to be super literal, and I was okay with that.  :)  It was nice to be able to talk about our paintings when we saw the animals at the park. 




First, the emu - which was my favorite.  :)  They had a lovely blue shimmer on their necks, which doesn't really show up in this picture.  There were tons of them at the Safari Park, often poking their heads in our window.



L liked the Giraffe, and it was pretty fun to watch her paint him.  It was fun to see the scale of him in real life, and his purple tongue was pretty exotic.

J painted with us, too.  She's working on her colors now, and this turned out to be a fun way to talk about them.  She was very opposed to having her picture made for some reason.

And I just can't say enough about the Safari Park experience.  It was crazy fun watching the girls react to each animal.  At  the end of our visit, we drove through the park in our own car, and the girls sat in the front with the window down.  All three of us squealed when a longhorn bull stuck his head in our window, and we gt to touch the noses of a dozen other animals.  It was just amazing to be so close to all of these beautiful beasts.  It's the kind of experience that needs to be repeated. 

Tangrams

I saw this sweet tangram tutorial at Elsie Marley last year and have had it nagging me ever since.  She made hers from balsa wood, but I made mind from a 1X6.  I just can't resist a chance to get out my chop saw.  I love that smell.

I haven't given these to the kids yet, because I know the pieces will be lost and scribbled on.  So for now, I'm going to learn how to make a bunch of shapes, then in a few years I'll wow them with my repertoire.  If you haven't seen them before, it's a puzzle made of 7 blocks that you can rearrange in various ways to create an infinite number of animals, people, letters and things.  You have to use all 7 and they can't overlap, but other than that its pretty open ended.  No time limits or point systems, just free fidgety play.  I love it!  I've added a few sets to the shop. 

Butterflies

My eagerness to do more home school was tempered by reality a bit this week.  I've started working a few nights a week, which makes mornings a little rougher.  Plus, just life and general busy-ness happens and - anyway, we're three weeks in and finding a nice pace, I think.

It took us two weeks to get through our butterfly projects.  L is still loving it.  Here are a few of our projects:

 Again with the cutting and gluing and learning names of things.  Still one of my favorite things.

I loved this project inspired by this tutorial. We spent some time looking at our Butterflies and Moths Golden Guide (we have an older version, and the illustrations in the golden guides are excellent).  L picked our favorites, then I helped her draw their markings, and she colored them.  That was exciting enough for her, but I especially loved the collection-style display. 

We also made a butterfly feeder using this tutorial, but I didn't really have a good place to put it, and we never saw any butterflies come to it.  Our hummingbird feeders, on the other hand, are pretty well established and we caught sight of several butterflies there.  L helped me make the butterfly food (which is sugar water, just like hummingbird food, but diluted a bit more), and we drank a little in teacups.  Talking about nectar was a nice segue from our flower study, and she thought drinking the nectar was way cool, even if it was almost too sweet.  

We both really enjoyed looking up the butterflies in our books (besides the Golden Guides, we also love our Audubon Society Field Guide).  Maybe me more. I'm not sure that she remembers many of the butterflies' names, but she remembers that we identify them by their markings and the plants they like, which is exciting to see. 

Poppytalk

I'm really excited to be part of Poppytalk's Mix Tape Market!  Come by and see my table, and have a look around.  There are so many talented designers included this month.

I'm trying to keep my shop stocked with Smile Crocodile and Grinnin' Bear Pillows.  I've also added some more inchworms and tangram puzzles.  Have a look or spread the word - you guys are so good at that.  :)

Horses and Unicorns

I haven't had a chance to share the horses I made this summer.  J, my littlest, loves horses - almost as much as the big one loves dogs.  I love to see them love something - it reminds you how different we all are.  Anyway, I wanted to make J a horse for her birthday. 

I made the brown one for J, but it was made of old stretched out fleece that didn't hold its shape well, so I also made her a white one.  It is made from new flannel and held up super nice.  And the hair - whew, that was also a bit of learning experience.  Let me just say, after having a hot sweaty toddler nap on it the first day, the wool yarn hair looked a bit more like dread locks.  Okay, let's do more than say, let's show - crazy haired horse below.  Funny, that same yarn is what made the squirrel tails so awesome.  The white horse has cotton yarn hair, which hangs nicely.

But you know how my kids are.  She loves the brown one despite the crazy hair.  She loves the white one, too.  They're friends.  I love her cute face as we opened the package. 

I had a bit of fun making them, too.  At some point, I decided my kids really needed to learn about unicorns, so I added a horn to a few horses.  And then of course, I couldn't resist playing and nuzzling them - ouch!  #NightSewing is the best.  It's like grown up play time (occasionally with tweeting).  You can find the pattern in the shop. 

Funny Food

I love the idea of bento boxes, but I think my kids are still too picky. Still, I've been trying to arrange their food in cute ways, to cut down on all the pre-eating fussing. I only use foods that they will actually eat, and I'm still careful about which things touch. And, L is quite delighted. (J  doesn't need motivation to eat.)  Here are some of our recent hits:

PB house, with broccoli tree, and a little dressing pond.

Egg Clock with sliced hard boiled eggs and cheese hands.

Sugar snap pea smile with PB hearts

(from cookie cutters - my lunch plate was less pretty with all of the scraps)

scrambled egg squares

Pureed bean chili (so there are no chunks),

with corn chips, cheese, and spoon.

They actually ate the chili, so this was a win.

PB butterfly, with cheese stick and sunflower seeds for eyes.  

I should have realized this would require a side dish of sunflower seeds.

Rice balls!  I said they were bird eggs, 

and the one who eats lettuce also got a nest.  

These are filled with peas and carrots, 

and I honestly can't believe how well the kids eat them. 

 

regular food, just arranged decoratively.  L wasn't happy

with it just being pretty, she wanted it to BE something.

She rearranged hers into a flower.

Flowers

On our first day of school, we started a nature journal with pictures and pressed flowers that we had been collecting all summer in our yard.  L loved seeing the flowers again and remembering when we got them.  She really loved the glue.  She loved making a book to show John.  She loved finding the flowers in our golden guide.  Overall, L is kind of crazy about school, and insists on calling me teacher.

BUT - I realized on our second day of school that I don't have enough activities planned.  She wants every day to be as project-filled as the first, and most days I don't have that much planned.  So I'm trying to find more activities and resources, while still keeping it very simple for my over-scheduled fall.  So far, I've realized that keeping it simple works just fine, and we're having a blast.  We're still usually finished by 10am  So here are a couple things I added this week:

1.  Paper Flowers  L can't get enough of gluing right now.  So, using our pictures in our journal, I started cutting out the shapes of flowers and all their parts from construction paper (and tissue, wrapping and art paper I had lying around).  Then she glued them on to the paper.  We talked about the different shapes, colors and textures of all the parts as we put them together. Once they were all glued, I had her write the names of each part on the paper.  (To clarify: she can't actually read all of these words, but she knows the letters and we sound them out as we write.)

I felt like she learned so many things in this simple activity that we made up on the spot.  Gluing and writing, identify parts, noticing what is different, and learning about specific flowers.  We had so much fun making them and they turned out so pretty!  This was definitely my favorite part of the week.

2. Math Readiness - I was wondering if I should try to do more with math - since I have no background in education I'm often clueless.  A quick stop at the library did the trick.  I absolutely love Creative Math/Art Activities which was written in the 80's and geared towards teachers.  The opening chapter introduces math readiness - becoming aware of opposites and measurements - and how they help students when they begin more formal math.  That makes sense!  The chapters are divided by grades, and they are so many cool projects and fun illustrations - I may actually need to buy this book. 

So, we did a project from the book.  First a nature walk, collecting bits of grass, leaves, and flowers.  Then we glued (score!) the long ones on the left, and the short ones on the right.  It was fun to talk and compare each item.  She already seems to have a handle on long and short, but it was good to talk it out and make a game of it.  I think it will be easy to come up with an activity like this that goes with our theme each week. 

I'll try not to go on about our preschool too much - although I always appreciate the ideas and resources you have to share (see those comments below, nudge, nudge).  I tend to focus in one thing at the expense of others sometime - and this week I've neglected my sewing.  Here's to the weekend!

Pink Dog: a toymaker's confession

Of all my daugther's toys, many handmade and specially designed for her, made from my favorite fabrics and cute little trims - this is her favorite toy.

Pink Dog

She loves all the animals and dolls I've made her, in all seriousness.  But this is the one she carries around, takes to the grocery store, and snuggles with at night.  This pink and white dog, given by a kind co-worker and promptly named Pink Dog.  Sigh.  I can admit it.

I'm jealous.

I wish she loved one of my toys the best.  Yet, it isn't just Pink Dog, L has somehow developed a bit of a dog collection.  It started with John's hand-me-down Bernard.  But it really began when we saw some dog movies: Milo and Otis, Mist, and, well, okay, Hotel for Dogs, and she was given Pink Dog.  Later, when I was sick John got them each a sheep dog from the drug store (each named for the movie: Mist).  Then another co-worker gave them dogs. And there were yard sales, bribery, and grandparents involved.  Now her dog collection looks like this:

Top Row: Coffee Mug, Black and White Dog, Bernard, Pink Dog, Mist, Baby Blue Dog;
Bottom Row: Teacup, Clifford, Grey and White Dog, Hound Dog, Coffee, Biscuit)

At one point, I thought I would just have to design the perfect dog to trump all other dogs.  But now I realize there are too many kinds of dogs, and she's too invested in the community of dogs, and Pink Dog in particular.  We've had dog birthday parties, and made Dog Hotels.  There was the official Dog Meeting, and many dog bedtime stories.  They each have names (some cute, some unconventionally descriptive) and special memories.  I don't love the idea of her collecting every cute factory-made dog in the world, or collecting anything at this age.  But here we are.  It's too late.  She loves them.

And now I do, too.

Because every day I see how fiercely she remembers and cares for them.  You may have to teach children how to talk kindly, share toys, and ask nicely.  But you don't have to teach them how to love.  It will need some guiding and expanding over the years, I'm sure.  But the urge is already there, and that's a beautiful thing.

NOW.  Let me introduce you to J's favorite toy.  She calls her Pink Dog.

J's Pink Dog