Sewing with kids

I feel a little presumptuous trying to teach anyone how to sew, really.  I can do the basics, but I, by no means, am an expert.  For small children, however, who have never before done any sewing, I felt comfortable being the one "in the know."

We've been studying ancient civilizations for history, and we recently learned that hunters would sometimes have little bags made out of animal skins that held rocks, twigs, etc. for playing games on their hunting expeditions.  So, of course, we made hunting game bags.  I was not about to sew a bag out of leather, so we did the next best thing, we used animal print fabric.

The kids helped measure, cut, and pin the bags.  I sewed them and they played with them non-stop for days.  They went on countless hunting expeditions.  They slew horses (using Erilyn's giant stuffed horse as the target), imaginary bison, wooly mammoths, and stuffed cats who were stand-ins for saber-toothed cats, or smyladons.  They crafted themselves some bows and arrows with sticks and elastics for their hunting trips.  The funniest thing of all, though, was when I heard Anthon choking a mouse (his stuffed mouse) to death, making choking noises to make it more real.  When I laughed out loud, Anthon looked up at  me with genuine interest and said, "what are you laughing at Mom?" Since it was inconceivable that his hunting antics could be construed as amusing.  It's a serious business to provide for your family, after all.

Fun times.

Here they are on their latest hunting expedition (notice the slain horse in the background of Erilyn's picture.)

Science experiment

This is precisely why I love homeschooling. It's hard, it takes a lot of extra time and energy on my part, but you should have seen Erilyn's face when we did this science experiment!

We were talking about properties of water.

When I told her we were going to do a science experiment, you could literally see her thinking, "Say what? How long till it's over and I can go play kitties again?" But she tried to be a good sport about it.

First, you do the trick of putting some cardboard on top of a really full jar of water and then flipping it over. Ta dah! The water doesn't spill out!

Her eyes literally go twice as big as normal. She immediately said, "Do it again, Mom!" Ahh....the joys of seeing your child get excited about learning.

So we did that a few more times, and they each tried it.




Then, you put hot HOT water in one jar, color it red, and then cold COLD water in the other jar, and color it something different. Do the fancy trick with the cardboard, and then put the cold jar of water on top of the hot jar of water. Carefully pull the piece of cardboard out, and watch what happens to the water. (The colors mix. Predictable. And not that interesting. Unless you like mixed colors.)



But THEN! You do it again, with the hot jar on top and the cold jar on the bottom. Pull out the cardboard, and the colors don't mix!!! Again, Erilyn was amazed. Anthon was too, but I knew he would be. This is right up his alley. We had to do it about 4 thousand more times. We learned that hot likes to be on top and won't mix if it's already on top. But if it starts out on the bottom, it races to be on top as fast as it can. Same with air.

You can't really tell from the pictures, but they loved it. So fun.

Reading buddies

For homeschool, I'm making Anthon practice reading out loud. He reads too fast in his head, and he just skips over words. Reading out loud helps him slow down, practice being animated, and forces him to pronounce words. Plus, it's great sibling time. And Erilyn loves it. (Anthon does too, but he has to pretend not to. See "Cool Brother Code sec. 2 item 24")

Here's what we're loving lately. So fun.

In the beginning...

We created a homeschool.  It was without chalkboards, desks, and a globe (sigh--the sigh is only about the globe, though.  I couldn't care less about the chalkboards and desks.), and the spirit of learning moved upon the house.  I said, let there be school!  And there was school.  And I saw the school that it was good.

Okay, okay.  That's as far as I can take it.  It's lucky that I'm not God!

Anyway.  It's official.  We have begun homeschooling!  I wish I would have taken a picture, but I forgot.  We still don't have all our books, but that's okay.  We started anyway.  I wasn't actually planning on starting today, because I haven't typed up my schedule yet, or the plan for the week (or day, as the case may be), and I need to get some books from the library, but Anthon kept asking if he could do some school, so I pulled some stuff out and let him get started.  I thought after one assignment, he'd be done. Not even close.  That was at 9:30 this morning and he's still asking for more work, at 2 in the afternoon.  We've taken a lot of breaks, of course, to jump on the trampoline, or have snacks.  But he keeps coming back.  And so does Erilyn.  Fun, fun!

I'm pretty naive, but not so naive as to think it'll be like this everyday.  It's a good start, though.

Hooray for not having to go to school at 7:30am!  And hooray for being able to do school in our jammies if we feel like it! (And today, I feel like it. It's been a long week.)  And hooray for recesses every half hour!  And hooray for being able to do your work while sitting on an exercise ball instead of a stiff chair!  And hooray for trampolines for P.E.!  And hooray for afternoons at the park with friends!

Hooray!