The one where I teach a preschooler to sew

I don't think I've ever read a Lois Ehlert book I didn't like.  But when I noticed Hands on the shelf at the library, I just thought it was too perfect for our family.  When we got to the part where the mother is teaching the child to sew mouse toys, L was too excited.  So, a mouse toy we made.

She's four, so I kept it as simple as possible.

1. Cut felt: a heart for the body, and two circles for ears. 
2.  Fold the heart in half and sew from the nose almost to the back.
A preschooler can do a few stitches with help.
3.  Stuff a bit of poly-fil in the hole. Poke, poke.
4.  Stick a piece of ric rac in the hole and finish stitching it closed.
Make sure you sew through the ric rac.
5.  Pinch the circles and secure to either side of the head with a few stitches.
6.  Sew on button eyes.  Two hole buttons are easier than four.
L did this really well - with some help, of course.

The whole thing took less than 10 minutes.  I did most of the work, but she helped with every step, and we talked about every detail: tying a knot at the end of the thread, how to make a stitch, what shape each piece was.  When it was time to poke the stuffing in, she ran to get a pencil because she's seen me use on so many times. I had no idea she was paying so much attention.

She told me that evening, "Someday, when I'm bigger, I'm going to be a mommy.  And I'm going to work at night."  It's amazing how much that kind of thing means to me, and how much it makes me want to be better. 

Popcorn! (and the 5 senses)

I found the idea for a Popcorn Investigation from this preschool science ebook from Scholastic.  I made a quick little zine for L to record her findings, and we set to work on the kitchen floor.  You can use my little book if you want to try it yourself.

     

We made popcorn the old fashion way - on the stove in a pot - and paused during each step to use each of our five senses and record what we found.  I can't think of a better project that uses all 5 senses in such a fun way.  In hindsight, this would have been good way to start of our science studies. It was a blast looking at our blue popcorn, sticking our fingers in the oil, listening to the popping, smelling the butter, and of course, eating the popcorn.

Foody Placemats

My need for a quick project sort of exploded the other day when I had an idea and had to DO IT RIGHT NOW. I'm always looking for ideas to encourage my picky and distracted eaters to eat at dinner. I thought place mats that look like their favorite foods might do the trick? The girls picked popcorn and apple slices.

These, are really simply put together with one layer of batting and some topstitching and applique for details. In retrospect, it wasn't the most ingenious motivator ever, but they're pretty cute anyway, eh?

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.