Last minute Treat Bags

All right, last minute tutorial.  I've got a fast version (20 minutes), and a faster version (10 minutes).  If you need one faster than that, grab a pillow case. ;)

FAST VERSION:
1.  print template and cut out.  You may want to enlarge it if you've got bigger (or greedier) kids. You don't have to print my template, either - just eyeball it if you want.  The template is only a quarter of the bag, so either print two and tape together then place on a fold; or fold your fabric in half, then in half again, lining up both of the straight sides on a fold.  Or, like I said, eyeball it, and just fold once.  Did that make sense?

2.  Cut out two bags from the template - an inner and an outer.

3.  Open up the pieces and stack with right sides facing.  Sew the handles together, then clip slits in the curves.

 4.  Turn right side out. You may need to iron, unless you're in a hurry.  Now your handles are sewn up all nice and neat. 

5.  Fold the bag in half again the with the outside in.  sew all four layers of the outer edge together and trim with pinking shears (or cut slits in the seam allowance).  Turn it right side out, and you're finished. 

FASTER VERSION
1.  cut out one layer of fleece, felt or other non-fraying fabric, fold in half and sew around the bottom edge of the bag.  Turn right side out. 

Two bags!  I made mine in fabrics to match the costume, but the shape would make a lovely jack-o-lantern with a felt appliqued face...  If you have more time.  :)

Pumpkin Seeds

If you haven't carved your pumpkin yet, be sure to save the seeds!

We carved two pumpkins and got a cup of seeds from each.  Here's my recipe:

Cover the seeds in a pot of water with I TBSP of salt per cup of seeds.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.  Drain and spread the seeds out on a tea towel to dry overnight.

Later put the seeds in a greased baking dish.  Mix seasoning (this is for 1 cup of seeds - double if you have more): 1 TBSP melted butter, 1 TSP Worcestershire's sauce, and 1/4 tsp garlic salt.  Pour over seeds, then bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour stirring every 10 minutes.  

I was completely prepared for the kids to think these looked yucky, and refused to try them.  Instead, I was surprised by how quickly they gobbled them up - and they even shared, too.  I've got the picture to prove it!

Day and Time

The sun going up and down (relatively speaking) is one of those things you forget you have to explain to a child.  You assume she already knows it, and she does, sort of.  But its neat to talk about how the sun and sky change in (almost) the same way every day and that we humans organize our lives around those changes.  This is when we wake up, this is when we do school, this is lunchtime, and here J wakes up from her nap...

Plus, it was cool to talk about the way the colors change around the sun. Then actually mixing and painting them together, and watching them change throughout the day.  Which reminds me of this Color of the Sky Watch that I just remembered and suddenly feel I must have.

We painted the sky colors, then pasted the suns and moon on.  Whenever we paint something for school, I tell her she has to follow the rules for the first painting, but then she gets to paint whatever/however she wants for the second painting.  I think she enjoys both.

I never really like science as a kid - I'm loving it now.

Where does chocolate come from?

L's Hot Cocoa

 As part of our plant study, I thought it would be fun to learn about chocolate.  I found some great videos to watch with the kids about food production and specifically how chocolate is made.   We talked about Growers, Processors, Packaging, and Distributors - and made a little picture about each.  L enjoyed acting out the "distributors" picture, in which we go to the store to buy chocolate. 

I was surprised to learn that the Spanish, who were the first to sweeten chocolate, loved it so much that they kept it a secret for 100 years!  So we decided to make their special chocolate drink. We used the recipe on the side of the cocoa box, you can find it on the hershey's website.  My favorite part was seeing L taste the cocoa powder (bitter!) then the sugar (sweet!) and then taste how they combined into hot cocoa.


Of course, as a chocolate lover, this was exciting for me, too - so later, sans children, I made a version of Aztec Hot Chocolate.  I based my recipe on this one, but I started with cocoa powder and made a few other adjustments.  Here's my recipe:

Simmer 2 cups water with 1 cinnamon stick and 1 tsp of chili paste for 2 minutes.  Then add 1 TBSP cocoa and 1TBSP sugar, stirring until dissolved.  Finally, add 1/2 tsp vanilla extra, and remove from heat.  The result is a spicy hot drink, not sweet. 

Costume Round-Up

Halloween is approaching and I'm too busy to dream up fancy costumes this year.  My mom and I hit the goodwill and found a few fun pieces, and I'll just accessorize.  More about those later.

I wanted to give you a quick round up of my dress up tutorials:

Dress Up Crowns (A variety of easy to sew shapes for princesses, superheroes, fairy queens, and greek gods - you get the idea)

Cat Ears (Use the pattern to make ears for any kind of animal as long as you can draw the ears: dog, bunny, elephant, perhaps?)

Tree Costume (Includes a basic tunic shape that could be lots of things with the right details: an indian dress, a flower stem... Kind of like how a sweat suit can turn into almost any costume.)

And here are some of my favorite ideas from around the web (before I went to goodwill):

This little Zilla Costume from Momincdaily looks time consuming - but it includes a fire-y sippy cup cozy to make the little dragon look like he's breathing fire when he drinks - aah!  J loves dragons and dinosaurs (and her sippy cup), so I'd love to make her a little girly version.

photo from momincdaily

A Daisy Costume from the ever lovely to look at Purl Bee - this was L's favorite idea, before I wimped out on sewing.

photo from Purl Bee

Maybe next year?

Technical Problems

If you purchased a pattern from me in the past, you may have recently received an email with an updated pattern.  I've also updated several (though not all) of the free patterns here on the blog.  As I am writing the book, I'm learning so much about the language I use to explain things.  I have a tendency to be wordy.  Sorry about that.  I'm also learning new techniques to make assembly easier and stronger. I look back on some of my old patterns, and I'm really stunned at how much I've learned.

And thank you for being patient when my bandwidth is exceeded.  Again.  Sigh.  I'm shuffling things around, and trying a new file host to try to fix that problem  - so I hope you'll come back and try again tomorrow.  

So, thanks to all of you, loyal readers, for being my pattern testers.  And for enduring my wordiness.  I really do love you. 

Seeds, Squash and Bread

We've spent the last few weeks studying plants and how they become food - I'm trying not to post too much about our school stuff, so I'm just going to hit the highlights.  We started by sprouting lentil seeds, planted and watered them - and of course, we made a little chart to learn about the process.  Then we went to the West Tennessee Research and Agriculture Center to hear a presentation about pumpkins and other plants.  I worried at first that it would be a bit over their heads, and it was - L was rolling on the ground completely oblivious to the presentation.

UNTIL - we began to walk around and collect flowers and acorns and climb in trees.  My kids love to gather acorns and stuff.  And we got lots of stuff.  It was pretty much the best nature walk ever. 

top left clockwise: buckeyes, hardy oranges, a variety of small pumpkins, wheat celosia, acorns

Hardy Oranges were used for citric acid on old farmsteads.

beautiful wheat celosia plant full of tiny black seeds

I learned (while the kids were rolling on the ground) that butternut squash can be cooked in pies and breads similarly to pumpkin bread.  I'm a new fan of butternut squash, and an old lover of pumpkin bread, so I decided to bring it together.  L and I cut up a butternut squash together, baked it, and then used it in our regular pumpkin bread recipe (from Betty Crocker - I omit the cloves, and used 2 cups of squash in place of the can of pumpkin).  L adores baking with me, and I love starting a study with seeds and ending with bread - kind of a full circle.

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?