Oh dear me, my poor blog has been a bit neglected, hasn’t it! I haven’t quite decided what I want to do with it. Though Bj does ask me every time we get a bill for something blog related. I do feel I need to check in and tell everyone who has been asking that we are fine. In fact we’re wonderful! The girls are 3 and 6.5, can you believe it?
Bennet on a walk yesterday. With her baby Tommy in a carrier Tuesday made.
Recycling all my ideas from when Tuesday was little. A bean sensory bin for Bennet… This one is being used for dolphins and whales, of course. She’s obsessed with them.
Homeschooling is going great, hahahaha. Tuesday wanted to play old fashion school (we have been reading a lot of prairie girl stories) and I realized I fit into this old costume of mine from high school (just lost 20 pounds!). We were trying to be VERY SERIOUS here.
Tuesday is enrolled in a charter school for first grade. It’s only for homeschoolers so nothing much has changed at home, though she does get to go on field trips with the “school” (above we’re at a pumpkin patch).
Horrible cell phone picture (my nice camera was involved in an incident no one wants to own up to). Ballerina fairies! My costume is from high school (I know, why do I still have these things?!?!).
Look for us around town, we’re the crazy people still biking in this weather. Tuesday will ride on the back if we’re going in lots of traffic, but she does quite well on her 20″ bike (such a big girl!).
I never thought I’d have one of those blogs that dies a slow death, so we’ll see what I can do about prioritizing it. Right now it’s just too far down on the list. I think if I can do shorter project based entries that might work best. And those are the entries I always come back to (How did I make that cleaner? What quilt did I make last for so and so? How old was Tuesday when we tried that art project?). And of course I have things from the last year I would like documented. But Bennet needs my help to look at the North American Continent box and Tuesday wants a new song on her mix to listen to while she finishes making a cardboard dog. Here’s hoping you’re all well and happy too!
Celebrating crafts, kids and the everyday through photographs.
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I know, I know! Yes I am still here and nothing is wrong, except the girls are getting older and time man, it’s just escaping me! Someday we are going to try one of those schedule things and I’m going to put blogging back on it. Until then, it will be sporadic.
Learning in January. Oh how I love looking back on the month. I feel like we do so little “school” since we’ve slipped into full on un-schooling mode. I would like some kind of schedule, for my sanity more than anything. But I love that learning happens all the time.
We did a lot of sensory play, baking soda was big over here (did you know you can buy huge bags at costco?). The girls love it when I put a pan of it out and then give them colored vinegar and droppers, the fizz! I also figured out from Asia’s book (150 Screen Free Activities – affiliate link, so good, I highly recommend it!) that baking soda and water makes a simple dough. One that Bennet just loved. And of course water play for a two year old can’t be beat. We also got tons of that silicone sand from Jo-Ann’s on black Friday and gave it to Bennet for Christmas. They both loved having this out for a few months.
An extension of sensory play was our shaving cream marbling. It turned out wonderful! I really loved the results of this project; plus the girls kept playing with the colored shaving cream so it was a double win.
Spelling and writing was huge over here. We had a major break through one Sunday. We were all downstairs, I was sewing and had my felt design board out and Tuesday was saying, “B-O-O bad Bj!” for fun. Only it wasn’t so nice and finally we’re like, hey, you’re spelling boo! I had the felt letters handy and showed her. She started sounding out and spelling a ton! I showed her how rhyming words work, just change one letter. She thought it was amazing. We got back out the movable alphabet (a wooden alphabet that is using in Montessori education) and she has been crazy for spelling ever sense. When she first started she could spell a lot but not read it. It’s so interesting how the mind works. She would write out a bunch of words and then ask, “what did I write?” That phase was pretty short though.
Tuesday was also interested in time so I got out some various things I’ve collected and set them out for her.
Speaking of things I’ve collected. Oh man, I can’t stop with the books and the coloring books and the manipulatives and the school stuff… I love it all! So much so that our basement was looking crazy! Pair that with the fact that my mom moved out of her house of 21 years (where I still had much more than I realized stored!) and I needed to get it under control. I did for the most part, but we’re still figuring out what is going to work best for us space wise. I love the basement for it’s size but the girls like to be in the light and around the main living area. We’re thinking of taking over Bj’s office and walling in the lightest corner of the basement for him (lucky it’s tall and has sunny windows). I did decide for now to move one shelf up, and make the dining room wall more eclectic with projects, maps and posters. Can’t hid that we’re homeschoolers now! Ha!
Tuesday also turned six! I added a covered wagon figure to our little Waldorf type ritual (which I described here). She remembered and loved the tradition of walking around the table as if it were the sun. She took us on a spy walk that had me choking from trying not to laugh at my little girl with a fake mustache diving on the ground as cars were coming. She made cakes for her Tootsie, oh how she loves that doll. Magnatiles all the time. Listening to stories on the CD player in the living room. Inventing games. Dance lessons, gymnastics lessons, and now violin lessons. Forest school. My dreamer and creator. I just love her.
Bennet. I just love when I can find activities that hit her right where she is at. This month I found a puzzle that was just challenging enough. I love her face when she completes it, such pride in her “work”. She hears Tuesday asking how to spell things and asks me as well. Then scribbles marks on a paper as if writing. She’s got a great pencil grip, all the early work in that area paid off again. She got to start dance, finally. She is so happy to have her own dance class, but so wee I had to make the required red leotard. She had no interest in modeling it, as you can see. She really loves when we do things all together, like the painting night we had. I just love to talk to my little snuggle bug, she’s always surprising me by what she notices and I just love that!
More to come! -
We are going to the end of the Oregon Trail center soon with our homeschool group and I need make Tuesday another Prairie girl dress. The last dress I made for Tuesday has gotten lots of wear, she has it in rotation with her regular clothes, so it’s not just dress up to her. It went with us to Hawaii, she’s worn it in the snow, in the sun, in the rain… everywhere! I wanted to look up the details about it and realized I never blogged about it. Since this is where I keep all details about my crafty pursuits I want to record it.
I made her a bonnet first, then the dress, apron, pantaloons and another bonnet that coordinated a little better. I used an old Holly Hobbie pattern for everything but the pantaloons which I stitched from another pattern. I really like the tucks in the hems on the pantaloons. I already let one out to make them longer. I self drafted the short sleeves, the pattern came with long sleeves and she didn’t want them. She’s wearing my simple yet effective shawl (Ravelry link), which was my first shawl and I didn’t make it big enough. I also wore dresses like this that my mom made me and loved them. I’m so happy that Tuesday loves her so much. She hasn’t requested a larger dress, but she’s been wearing this one for a year. The pantaloons especially are small, and when she has the apron buttoned on it’s quite tight. Still it never looked overly big. This was a size four, and I think I’m just going to go up one size, though maybe add more length. We bought her these boots (affiliate link) that she also wore with her Santa costume. They really work well with this outfit to round out the whole Laura look she is going through (bonus they look hipster cool and she wears them with EVERYTHING). We’ve read through the whole Little House series and are now onto her daughter, Rose. Starting with The House on Rocky Ridge.
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