Math Gnomes

These were the inspiration for this week's posts about peg dolls. I spent a couple evenings this week working on a set of math gnomes for Blaze, using the 2-3/8" wooden peg dolls. Then we read the first story from the following blog:

http://ebeth.typepad.com/serendipity/gnomes-and-gnumbers-a-mat.html

The math gnomes and the story were a big hit with Blaze! He had already worked on his regular math lesson in the Math-U-See workbook, but he didn't think of the gnomes as another math lesson, he thought of them as a game, as we tried to act out the story while I read.

When I explained to my oldest daughter, Ula, about how the math gnomes introduce all four math processes at once, she said something along the lines of, "Well, it will be a while before he gets to division", but this is not actually the case, because I gave Blaze 10 of the glass aquarium "jewels" that are used as the gnomes' treasure, and he was able to split them up equally between two tiny baskets, so he is already doing division.





Here's the first lesson Blaze did with the Math Gnomes:



He is enjoying this chapter of the Math-U-See Alpha book, as well. It is using a story, of sorts, to teach adding with 9. The story is that 9 very badly wants to be a 10, so every time another number is added to it, it turns on it's vacuum cleaner (children are encouraged to make a sucking noise at this point) and it sucks up one unit and turns into a 10. Each problem on the workbook page is acted out using blocks.

A more grown-up occasion: Open-That-Bottle-Day

Tomorrow, Feb. 28th is the 10th annual "Open-That-Bottle-Day", even though I just heard about it for the first time a few days ago on National Public Radio. This idea was conceived by two columnists at the Wall Street Journal. If you want to read more about it, here is a link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123336416399535473.html


The idea is, that if you are one of the people who has been saving a bottle of wine for years, for that special occasion, but no occasion ever seems to be special enough, it is time to open that bottle. Make your own special occasion by sharing that bottle this Saturday with family or friends.

As soon as I heard the story on the radio, I decided this would be the time to open the bottle of mead we purchased in Kansas City, before we moved to Florida, almost 6 years ago.



This bottle was purchased to save for our wedding, because DH and I had had our first "date", by going to the Kansas City Renaissance Faire, where we had that same brand of mead. The wedding, however, turned out to be a very small affair, with only my children in attendance, so the wine was never used. Since then, we have talked about opening it several times, but it never seems to happen.

Do you have a bottle like that?

Tiny Wooden Babies

For the bendy doll's babies, I use the smallest size of the little wooden game piece people. For the most part, these are just wrapped in a "blanket" that is glued to the doll body. For example the babies from the set of cave people:





For the pirate baby, though, I drilled a hole through the upper body for arms and through the lower body for legs. I did not bother wrapping either the arm or leg pipe-stem cleaners with embroidery floss, since both would be covered with a little wool stuffing and the pajamas. I also drilled a hole in the top of the head, so I could glue in a single curl of mohair.





A wet felted baby bunting ( DH says it looks like a mummified toe) :





Note the rubber gloves. This was my important lesson from making that wet felted pouch the other day. After doing that without gloves on, my hands were so dry and peely for the next two days, that Blaze looked at them and told me I was getting old.






More little peg people tomorrow...

Game Piece Dolls

Last year, when we were renting a house, I had started doing some wooden toy making. It was something I was really enjoying and would like to continue doing, but now that we live in an apartment, I have fewer opportunities to use power tools and make messes with sanding dust.
I haven't made any bendy dolls in a while because I like mine to have sturdy wooden bodies and wooden feet that allow them to stand by themselves, but I have been doing more with the little game piece men that are sold in the unfinished wood area of the craft store.



These are very versatile and don't require any sanding. I have added arms to some of them by drilling a hole through the upper body and cutting a pipe stem cleaner in half, then wrapping it with embroidery floss, the same as for the bendy dolls, but this is not necessary.





This little daisy girl was made using a pattern in the book Feltcraft, by Petra Berger. This book is a great resource if you want to make small toys.



The boy with the acorn cap and the astronaut were made without any patterns. Making dolls this way can be as easy as just painting clothes on the game piece and drawing on a face.








This topic to be continued...

My first wet felting project

I made a pouch to hold a set of marbles for Blaze.


I started by wrapping a mason jar with wool roving, to get the size and shape I wanted for the bag. DH teased me a little about the "snuggy" I was making for the canning jar.




Then I covered the wool with lots of dish soap and a little hot water. I started working the wool with my fingers and then used Blaze's little washboard. When the wool had started felting, I removed it from the jar and put it on my hand like a mitten, so I could have more control while I continued rubbing it on the washboard.








Next, I turned the pouch inside-out and continued rubbing it against the washboard.




I rolled the pouch up in a towel to get out as much moisture as possible and then let it dry overnight.

In the morning, I punched holes in the felt, and threaded a piece of yarn through, to be a draw string.

By the time Blaze woke up, the marbles were in the bag.

He loved his surprise!







We looked at some pictures of marble mazes on the internet and Blaze spent a couple hours last night building his own marble tracks out of blocks and the wooden train set.

Shrove Tuesday

Happy Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday!





This is not a new documentary. I'm guessing by the clothes that it was made sometime in the 70's, but I'm not sure. It does explain the traditions of the Black Indians of New Orleans well, though. Since Louisiana has the most colorful and famous Mardi Gras celebrations in the country, I figured I should include something about it in our history lesson today.




My family never did anything so exciting for Shrove Tuesday, which is what my mother always called this day. My mom always made pancakes for Shrove Tuesday, and she will undoubtedly call me tonight and ask me if I made pancakes today, because she does this every year.

The only year that I remember this being exciting, was the year that my mom participated in a Pancake Race to raise money for the grade school I attended. There were several mothers who raced to see who could cook and flip pancakes, and then run with the pancakes in a cast iron frying pan to a plate on the finish- line table. It was fun to watch.
She had her picture taken for the local newspaper, running with a frying pan in her hand.








Since I have to work this morning, I do not have time to make pancakes for breakfast, so instead we are having them for dinner tonight.

Unplugged Challenge:Clothing

We were reading the book, First Biographies:Sacagawea and when we came to the description of the Shoshone men taking off their moccasins during negotiations with Lewis and Clark, as a sign that any promise made would be kept (according to the book, this meant that if you did break a promise, you would go barefoot forever), Blaze ran from the room to find his moccasins. What we discovered, though, was that he had grown out of his moccasins. They were way too small.
Suddenly we had a project for this week's "Unplugged Challenge", which has the theme of "clothing". We would try our hands at shoe making.



There is a vendor at the Medieval faire every year, who sells small paper bags stuffed full of scrap leather for $3, and every year I end up buying one incase I need it for some craft project, so now I have a box full of odd shaped leather pieces in a variety of colors.



I ended up choosing black leather for Blaze's new moccasins only because there were larger pieces of black leather in the box.

I designed the new moccasins by looking at the old out-grown ones.



I started by tracing Blaze's feet on paper and then cutting out the pattern about a centimeter bigger than the tracings.



I punched holes in the leather to make it easier for Blaze to sew ( it gave me something to do while Blaze was in therapy on Tuesday).



Blaze did all the sewing and cut the fringe. I taped the leather to a piece of paper and marked a line on the paper to show where to stop cutting, so the fringe would be even.

We used black embroidery floss for the sewing, which may not hold up as well as the sinew that is supposed to be used, but it meant that we already had all the supplies we needed.
















I think this would work just as well with felt as it did with the leather.

Signs of Spring

Flowering trees,






Blaze helping me to set out onion sets and finding a worm to watch,





And unpredictable weather.

I had already washed all the sheets and towels that I had used to cover the garden plants during the nights when it was below freezing, figuring that we were past that now. Then I looked at the weather prediction for tonight, which is 25 degrees F. (-3.8 in Celsius).

I'm also currently suffering from an awful Spring cold. Nika and DH were both sick yesterday, but DH seems to be feeling better today, so instead, I have it. Blaze has shown no signs of having caught it yet. While I'm feeling like my head will explode soon, he is cheerfully singing something that sounds like opera in his bedroom.

I have made a pot of (hopefully) curative chicken broth, seasoned with sage and lots of garlic.

Proud Hunter Necklace Kit

Since we have been reading about Lewis and Clark meeting various Native American tribes and the important roll played by Sacagawea during the expedition, I decided to do some American Indian inspired projects this week. The first one was a necklace kit that I bought at Michael's Craft Store.








Our second project took a lot more time and effort. We spent a couple days making a new pair of moccasins for Blaze, but I'll post more about that on Sunday, since I'm going to use that as this week's "Unplugged Challenge" entry ( this week's topic is clothing).

Stuffed Mushrooms

I had a whole bag of bread crusts left after cutting all those heart shapes out of bread for Valentines day, so breaking them up into fresh bread crumbs for this recipe was a great way to use them up.




Stuffed Mushrooms

8 ounces feta cheese

1/3 olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh basil

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley

2 Cups fresh bread crumbs

24 large white mushrooms, stems removed and caps washed well and dried


Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.


Mash feta cheese in a large mixing bowl. Add olive oil and mix thoroughly. Add the garlic, pepper, and herbs and mix well.
Add the bread crumbs and mix and mash until it becomes a dough-like consistency.
Fill each of the mushroom caps and place them on a baking sheet. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

Table Top Moss Garden

It's feeling very Spring-like here, so Blaze and I made a living Spring nature table display to put in his room. We collected moss and a moss covered rock, while we were out in the woods last week, and added some small herb plants and pebbles to make a table top garden.





I chose Germander and Rue because they looked like miniature trees and creeping thyme because it would stay short and drape over the side of the flower pot.



We planted the herbs first, and built up the potting soil so that it was higher in the center of the pot, that way it looks like a little hill. We made a tiny garden path out of polished pebbles and then added the moss.



As finishing touches, we added a shell full of water to be a tiny pond and the wooden bridge that Blaze got for Christmas.







Blaze also planted a tiny pot of 4 leaf clover seeds, so that hopefully we will have clovers growing by St. Patrick's Day next month (Target had the little pots with four-leaf clover seeds for $1).

More Lewis and Clark Books

We will be continuing our unit on Lewis and Clark this week. Here are some of the books I will be reading aloud:









Last week we started using this CD and song lyrics book, which we are going to continue to use over the next few weeks:



Blaze really enjoys singing and dancing around. He really had fun with the song about the Boston Tea Party, pretending that he was throwing tea over the side of a ship, while bouncing on the bed.


I just found this 1950 Encyclopedia Britannica dramatization of Lewis and Clark, in two parts, on You Tube.