I have been diving back into Project Life. I love recording memories like this, even though I don’t prioritize keeping it up to date right now. I like to work on it in batches, at least a few weeks at a time. That coupled with my little trick for getting the layouts to take up less space on my desk help me get at least some layouts done. And I use a great app for my iPhone called Momento, which aggregates all of my social media feeds (Facebook, twitter, Instagram, blogs, I even add Bj’s feeds to it) and allows me to add “moments” to my days where I can record more thoughts, quotes about the girls, or anything else I want to remember. Then when I go back to scrapbook the week I pull it up and it’s a great reminder of what we did (I also open up my calendar and Lightroom to show me the photos from the week).
As far as 2014 goes, I am “up to date” through April. Then I started back up for October to present. This directly corresponds with my time spent inside! During the spring and summer I just found I was outside too much to work on this. BUT I don’t worry about that. My family loves to look at whatever I get done. I remembered I took this video of the spreads I got done for 2013 and thought you might like to take a look. Don’t worry about getting everything done. I’m 100% sure you will be happy with even one week recorded like this.
Project Life 2013 from Amber Garrison on Vimeo.
How Learning Looked
It’s been a month since I talked about what we’ve been learning. So I thought I’d a recap for myself, and anyone interested.
There was lots of note writing/drawing/painting going on. Tuesday can fully clean her own brushes now, yay! Lots of the notes were on this little boogie board, which we love.
I find it around sometimes with little things like this. I tried to explain to Tuesday about punctuation, but she said she was ready for bed. No doubt she’ll figure it out on her own, as she did all this. We got this board for our flight with Bennet at an airport gift shop and it was such a hit.
Over all there are lots of doodles going on. I particularly liked this set I came across.
And this love note to her sister.
We played with letters this way too. I have been wanting these wooden alphabet pieces for a while, so when the Wooden Wagon was having a sale I picked them up. They just looked so enticing. Tuesday did have fun playing with them this night (while Bj and I tried our hand at Leonardo sticks), but hasn’t touched them since. I think I need to put them out in a different way for her. I love all the Grimm’s wooden blocks (the coasters might be my all time favorite), but Tuesday isn’t much of a builder, despite repeated attempts to get her into it.
I used our Montessori sound drawers with their miniatures for this “game”. I don’t think I’ve used them much since this sorting exercise a year and a half ago. This took quite a long time, and I think I could revisit simple sorting before attempting the whole alphabet again (though she did have fun alphabetizing these cards – that’s easy for her now – and doing this overall, some sounds were frustrating). Looking back at that old post makes me a bit wistful for the Montessori method, but it just didn’t work out in practice here. I think some of it might more with Bennet, but Tuesday is more project focused.
Bennet wasn’t left out of all the letter fun. We stamped with these old sign making stamps in fresh play dough. As you can see we also used a LIBERAL dose of sparkles. Bennet has learned how to operate one of the garlic presses completely independently, she loves it!
My mom had Tuesday for an afternoon and Bennet and I used the one on one time to stamp. She loved it. I recommend the ColorBox my first ink pads. They are not 100% washable, but the color is good and they are easy to use. I don’t believe they are archival, so this is more of an experience type of project, I recycled the results.
Bennet wanted a workbook like sissy. She likes the Kumon cut and paste books. She motors through them so I think I need to make some homemade type sheets like this.
Painting, another project both girls can do. I love projects they can both enjoy!
Games with Tuesday. This Monopoly Hotel game is so great for Tuesday’s age and skill level. It’s fun, she can read the money amounts, she knows what the cards do. Bj or I played with her quite a few times, but now she can easily play against us on her own. And it’s not another super boring kids game. The one bad thing: worst game box EVER. Trust me, you’ll toss it. I found this at good will for a couple bucks unopened. I get almost all our games there, if they’re duds I just donate them back. I highly recommend this system. Just make sure you have all the pieces (or they are easy to order). I asked Tuesday what she had to say about this game, “It’s fun, but not hard for one five year old. ” hehehe.
I posted a picture from our week in the life but we have also been playing with a regular card deck. Tuesday loves a game called “garbage” which is great reinforcement of the numbers 1-10. “War” helped her understand the order of cards (I found this “politically correct non violent” version at Goodwill, but the cards were too big and unweildly, so I donated it back. We thought it was pretty funny though).
We play A LOT of games. I inventoried all our games by age/ability and added the amount of players needed. It’s kind of an insane list. I think we have around 115 games. I can blame that partially on homeschooling. Games are so great for teaching so many things!
Toddler
-from head to toe (2-4)
-roll and play (any)
-don’t spill the beans! (2-4)
-memory (use as matching)
-same? Different? (1)
-varialand (1-4)
-colorama (1-6)
-break the ice (any)
-Puzzels (floor, big pieces, wooden puzzels)
Little Kid (4+)
-Ladybug Game (2-4)
-color train (2-4)
-moon balance (2)
-feeleez (any)
-Chutes and Ladders (2-4)
-ABSeas (1-4)
-busy town (2-4)
-mighty mind (1+)
-my first rummikub (2-4)
-operation (1+)
-candy land (2-4)
-ready, set, silhouette (2-4)
-secret square (2-4)
-bilbo (any)
-color clowns (2-4)
-ants in the pants (2-4)
-telling time (2-4)
-memory (have lots)
-spot it jr.
-snap (
-continuo (1-5)
-truck puzzle game (1)
-wild craft (1-4)
-boggle jr. (1+)
-sound bingo (1-6)
-chocolate game (1)
-cheesy puzzle (1)
-hi ho cherry-o (2-4)
-lotto zoo (2-4)
-animal upon animal (2-4)
-rivers, roads, and rails (1-8)
-count up (2-6)
-what’s different (1+)
-hue knew? (2-6)
-mystery garden (2-6)
-topples (2-4)
-story cubes (any)
-Thomas and the magic railroad (2-4)
-honeybee tree (2-4)
-cootie (2-4)
-big pick up sticks
-pengolo (2-4)
-3D dominos
-picture dominos
-number bingo (1-36)
-Puzzels (24-100 pieces, layered wooden)
-dingo (3-7)
Reading/older (8?) Kid
-scrabble
-sudoku for kids (1)
-tricky fingers (1-2)
-clue (2-6)
-guess who? (2)
-dimensions vintage peg game (2)
-36 cube (1+)
-Yahtzee (2+)
-Chinese checkers (2-6)
-qwirkle (2-4)
-spot it (2-8)
-scan (2-8)
-uno (2-10)
-mille bornes (2-4,6)
-24 game (1+)
-phase 10 (2-6)
-pictionary man (group)
-catch phrase (1-any)
-spinner dominos (2-8)
-Mexican train dominos (2-8)
-take five (2)
-booby trap (1+)
-fun with sums (1)
-Alhambra (2-6)
-bottle tops (2+)
-hotels (2-4)
-monopoly hotels (2)
-league of pirates (2-)
-gobblet (2)
-connect 4 (2)
-four in a row (2)
-iota (2-4)
-dungeon dice (2-4)
-super mind (1+)
-tri ominos (2-6)
-jenga (any)
-blokus (2-4)
-skip-Bo (2-6)
-draw something (group)
-ticket to ride Asia (2-6)
-dice expansion
-ticket to ride (2-6)
-colorku
-othello (2)
-Puzzels (101+)
Teen (10/12+)
-Scatagories +expansion pack (2-6)
-wooden sudoku
-bandu (2-6)
-apples to apples (4-10)
-snake oil (3-10)
-hive carbon (2)
-rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock (2-8)
-Monopoly (2-8)
-Golf Monopoly (missing the metal pieces)
-Snake Oil
-In a pickle (2-6)
-snatch (2+)
-love letters (2-
-dicecapades (2-6)
-imaginiff (3-8)
-spoons (group)
-card games (klutz book)
-travel golf (2+)
-taboo (group)
-pentago (2)
Adult
-Cards against humanity (big group)
-We didn’t play test this
-puzzle strike
-Rook (3-6)
Also
-game bibles
-book on solitaire games
-girl scout game book
-party game book
This post is getting long (I need to do more regular updates) so a few more highlights. Tuesday asked to learn more about the states. She wanted to get out our puzzle map and compare it to our wall map. Here she is transferring puzzle pieces onto the control and back. She knows I can never say no to this type of stuff instead of rest time! So rest time has gotten shorter so we have more one on one time while Bennet is napping.
Tuesday also learned about fingerprinting. She made me another scavenger hunt. She has been playing outside with neighborhood kids. She is learning the rules of the road and can now safely bike in line with us to the park on the road. She is just growing and learning so much. I feel like we have big stretches of sort of directionless days and then I look back for these posts and it seems like we are so busy! I sure do love homeschooling! I’m starting to get lots of questions about how long we will homeschool and what our plan is. I can’t really say, and we don’t have one! At this point I would not consider putting Tuesday into a school setting until she is a very strong reader. Our local system is very much based on a kids ability to read, something I’m not worried about right now. So I wouldn’t want her in remedial tracks just because she isn’t ready to be a strong independent reader. After that, who knows. We’re really “following the child” right now and it’s working great.
Finished Knit: The second copy cat
I recently got a haul of Socks That Rock yarn by Blue Moon. If I was pressed to pick one yarn to knit with the rest of my life it would probably be this, it’s so versatile! Wait, yes, I said sock yarn. But really this stuff comes in three weights, is superwash, and the colors so yummy, that you can use it for nearly anything. I was updating my embarrassingly large yarn stash on Ravelry and realized I never uploaded pictures of my finished copycat blanket.
Ravelry Link
I finished this in early August, and did nothing to these photos because, ah… that summer light!
It’s quite a project to knit a blanket on size six needles… I mean it takes a while. This one took me a year.
Here is where I talk about starting it.
I absolutely am in love with making these. I gifted this to a dear new baby halfway around the world I can’t snuggle, so this will do in place of real hugs.
I love playing with two very different skeins of yarns. If you click on my ravelry page you’ll see the balls of yarn being knit. I can’t recommend this yarn enough, here’s a link to it, try to control yourself, though I never do. I use medium weight most frequently.
I won a little contest of theirs for making descriptions for a few of their new holiday yarns (all gnome related colorways by the way!). So I had to get a few extra skeins. Scheming and dreaming… and of course I have another blanket halfway knit already. P.S. Throwback: my first copycat with Tuesday as a wee thing. We still use that blanket and love it.
Are you knitting? This weather certainly calls for it!
Week in the Life 2014 – Sunday
6:15 AM Bj gets up with Bennie.
8:57 AM
8:58 AM Bennet’s version of the get the Puppies home game.
10:25 AM Bj takes the girls out.
11:06 AM Meanwhile I’m still asleep at home 🙂
11:22 AM
3:47 PM Mama invented jump, jump, boom… which was fun until there were some head injuries.
7:08 PM dance show for mama and papa. She even made us tickets. Here she is being a rainbow bird.
7:43 PM Thanks to Erin I now know how to make the perfect crisp topping. But then the girls went a bit crazy and we didn’t get to eat dessert (of course I had to sample though).
8:32 PM I love reading to my girl.
As always I love participating in this project. Occasionally I’ll get the photos into a book, but more often they serve to fill the gaps in other layouts. I love these records of our week, I’m sure I’ll always cherish them! I highly recommend participating in this project.
Week in the Life 2014 – Saturday
8:47 AM
11:41 AM
2:14 PM
3:09 PM
7:20 PM
7:30 PM
7:45 PM
8:38 PM
9:33 PM
11:43 PM
Week in the Life 2014 – Friday
8:06 AM No matter what time it always seems too early to me!
8:52 AM Vote by mail. It’s the only way in Oregon and I love it!
9:55 AM Project!
12:23 PM It was cold, but Tuesday was insistent, so I said yes. YES to eating outside!
2:42 PM The costumes are done!
3:21 PM Beard making.
5:32 PM They can’t wait any longer!
6:10 PM “We knock on doors” says Bennie.
7:48 PM the haul.
Week in the Life 2014 – Thursday
9:30 AM
12:06 PM
12:47 PM
1:40 PM
3:38 PM
4:12 PM
5:05 PM
5:32 PM
5:58 PM
7:33 PM
Week in the Life 2014 – Wednesday
8:20 AM
9:05 AM
2:41 PM
2:49 PM
3:08 PM
3:27 PM
4:39 PM
4:46 PM
5:15 PM
5:28 PM
5:30 PM
5:37 PM
6:50 PM
8:03 PM
8:22 PM
8:46 PM
12:39 AM
Week in the Life 2014 – Tuesday
Tuesday. You’ll have to forgive me being a bit behind. I needed to collect photos from all our devices this weekend and my goodness we have a lot of them (iphones, ipods, cameras!). Even though many of these photos certainly lack in the technically wonderful department (ha!), they more than make up for it in the everyday wonderful images that will help me remember the little moments for years to come. That’s why I’d recommend this project to anyone, even if it’s with a point and shoot or phone! And these photos with the dishes, and the messes are where it’s at. Don’t try to crop all of this out of your life. You don’t have to put it out for everyone to see, but you will want these types of images some day. Really.
7:57 AM the real reason I don’t want to wean her off of wake up morning nursing, I can lay with my eyes closed just a little bit longer. I see PJs we love, Tommy the little doll who everyone loves, a mama made quilt. New sheets.
8:31 AM Bennet with “tea” (hot water) after just munching some gummy vitamins. I see lots of dishes from yesterday, a bad habit I’ve gotten into. Cherrios, Tuesday wants them over any other breakfast. Always a dirty water bottle by the sink, and yet never enough water drank (by me at least).
9:41 AM The bowl of tomatoes I picked before my weekend away were half rotting in the garage. I cleaned and salvaged what I could. Thankful for fresh ones a little longer. I see a combination of procrastination and good intentions.
11:14 AM Crafting in their jammies. I see a wonderfully creative girl making her dolly a washer and dryer. A little sister wanting into everything at once. Pumpkins with no where to go. Actually many things with no where to go. I see piles that seem to move from one area of the house to another.
12:29 PM The kids play while the window washer does his thing. I see lots of papers from Tuesday, so much output from this girl. I love the writing. I love the creativity. But I see lots of “stuff” that never has a place and drives this mama crazy!
1:42 PM Bennet is down. I see her Birdie down for a nap too. She lovingly put her there before she grabbed her blankie to nurse. I see books. Including that monkey one I hate to read, but they request over and over. I see an old lap pad; another thing I can’t get rid of because the girls use them so much. I see a sweet blanket made by nana. I see socks which means I never quite get that legging look working right. I see the edge of the “whoa blanket”. Tuesday called it that when she was little and now we all do, and use it every day. For nursing Bennet at naps and for mama to make up the difference in how cold/hot Bj and I like to be at night.
1:54 PM Ironing binding. I see a mama who needs a little “me time”. I see more unfinished projects. I see a clean window.
2:12 PM Attaching binding. I see myself working fast to beat the monitor; soon enough Bennet will wake, always when I’m right in the thick of something. I see a wonderful old machine that I love so much. I see lots of love in my stitches. I see the tip cut off my quilting glove so I can use the iPhone.
2:29 PM Bennet is back asleep. See she did wake up again. I see artwork that we love. Lamps that I thrifted long ago and fit just right. Two out of three nesting tables as nightstands. The clock radio Bennet loves to play with. I see books wanting to be read.
2:40 PM Check in on Tuesday at rest time. I see a very old picture (her great grandpa as a toddler, which she requested be hung here). I see a little girl who loves to read everything even though technically she can’t read anything. I see sheets I never change enough because it’s such a pain.
4:10 PM Bennet is up, but not really. In that pre-wake up sleepiness where I can lay next to her with my hand on her back and check my phone: Instagram, Feedly, Fosterhood in NYC, email, repeat. I see time to maybe dive into an article or two if she really settles back down.
5:13 PM headed out. I see some serious style here. Boots for her costume, knee highs, her daisy girl scout skirt, an owl purse I made her, “I am made of Awesome” tee-shirt, and a bonnet slung back. I see Bennet’s new umbrella. Those vintage cords I got for 50 cents and love. The thrifted top I scoured the used kids store for because she had one like it last year and I just loved snuggling her in it. I see our license plate that I love. I see a tree that needs to come down. I see leaves to rake.
6:00 PM Thai food. I see a papa take one for the team, it’s not exactly a relaxing night to sit next to Bennet at the table, but she is entertaining! I see curry that was too spicy. I see a disposable cup. It drives me crazy all the restaurants give them out to kids. Straws = problems.
7:05 PM Tuesday in the stacks looking at Anne Geddes. I see through Bennet, who snapped this picture while I was an aisle over. My phone lost battery right after she did it, so good thing she did.
8:59 PM letting them watch some Thomas. I see that I’ve given in. I see late nights home alone with the girls and lots to do. Costumes to start, things to clean. I see too much. Too much fabric, too many toys, so much clutter.
10:15 PM Bennet on the stairs. I see a tired girl whose mama pushed her way too late.
11:16 PM The girls are down. Feeling overwhelmed and too tired to do anything that would really put a dent in the things that need to be done I see a mama who just needed to pick up some simple knitting and get a few stitches in.
Merry Christmas…. Er… Happy Halloween!
Phew, I pulled it off, barely! Nothing like starting a few days before Halloween!
Bj cut cardboard for the sleigh, and we got high gloss red house paint to paint it. We ended up having to zip tie the sides on. It was nice for our little elf to ride in when she got tired/cold.
Tuesday decided right after Halloween last year that she wanted to be Santa Clause… I kept thinking she’d change her mind, but nope! I got these beautiful boots a wee bit big because they’re great for prairie girl stuff too. I made the outfit by modifying a vintage tracksuit pattern. I also made it a little big with extra fabric hidden in the hems because she is sure she wants to do this next year. And I would prefer to never make velvet pants again! She made the cotton ball beard, but it didn’t make it out with us, too hard to say trick or treat!
Of course it was easy to convince Bennet that she should be Tuesday’s elf. “I’m Elf!” she shouts with glee. Again I slightly modified a vintage pattern here. The only thing I really did was switch the placket on the back of the pinafore from a zipper to buttons, since the dress already had a zipper and I think zipper on zipper is a bit much. Lots of beautiful trim from The Ribbon Jar, of course!
The tights are from Hanna and the booties I found a few years ago at the carousel’s gift shop when they had their Christmas merchandise blowout. And she walked in them like a pro! I couldn’t believe it!
These were so fun to make, and got great reactions out and about (“Hey, you’re here two months early!”). I love that Tuesday chose this. And the funniest thing to me is that we don’t do Santa! We never have. I never wanted to lie to Tuesday and so I just avoided it as long as possible. We’d read stories about Santa, but it was like any other made up thing to her (fairies, gnomes, gods & goddesses etc.). She has asked me if we could pretend Santa this year and I said sure! So it’s fun that we can enjoy this awesome tradition but with out me feeling like I’m keeping something from them. I am looking for the best all about Santa book right now, with detailed pictures and lots to look at if you have any recommendations, I’d love to hear them!