Munchkin Girls Gone Wild

Most of the time, the munchkins were really really good. But sometimes, they got a little bit wild. After all, with all the excitement, fun and then all the waiting, it was to be expected.


The huge pieces of frosting laden cake from the Superstore didn't help too much either. Or maybe they did help. The girls certainly had a lot of fun!



When we were doing the Oz performances, the little kids all had "holding areas" where they waited for their turn to go one stage. Since the show is about 2 hours long, and the munchkins are on for about 10 minutes, there was a great deal of waiting around.





After doing two shows in one day, the girls got a little wild.


They were restricted (by other chaperons, for sure), to one small section of the white board to write on. They thought this was funny yo show how they might have to get creative about where to draw.


As if those big red cheeks weren't enough.

Spiraling Around Fairies

Spirals are so wonderful and organic and somehow cozy and scary all at once.

I have always loved the educational notion of a spiral of learning as opposed to a linear progression. After all, isn't that how we learn in real life? I love the image of swirling around ideas and falling into them as one falls into a whirlpool, reaching deeper and deeper (maybe even scary) levels of understanding.

One thing that we have revisited over and over is the Spiderwick series of books. They are captivating, and as they captured the imaginations of Ella and then one friend and then another and another, or then she was given a field guide, the interest would be rekindled.

I remember feeling that way about gnomes. I still have the Gnome Gnotebook that Meg's mom gave me when I was about Ella's age.

Now that Spiderwick is going to be a movie, we did the books with our Coastal Free Learners homeschool group. We also found out it is going to be a game and I am so excited! It 's going to be very fun! There is so much information about the books on the internet, along with games and downloads, etc. What is so wonderful about these books is that the kids seem to take them so seriously, and really feel connected to the Grace children and the invisible world all around us.

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We had a blast today making Sprite outfits. It was so fun to hear the children earnestly discussing the merits of leaving milk out for Brownies, and whether or not fairies liked fairy houses or felt that they were some sign from us that we thought them incapable of housing themselves. Ella has researched the authors, their influences and even their pets (pugs, of course!). Even the boys had fun drawing and making the Sprites have warrior helmets on their head..

Shake Things Up

Okay, the Christmas decorations are down, the day is grey and the video games are getting old (I guess that's what happens when you have a LEGO Star Wars marathon).

So, it is time to start shaking things up. We have had some fun around here making things and creating science experiments, and we are really s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g our comfort zone by going vegetarian.

When we are transitioning away from holidays, it seems we have to put a little more effort into being engaged. Here are some things we've done to shake off the cobwebs of Christmas and get more into the fun of winter (an oxymoron if *I* ever heard one, but my kiddos like winter and who am I to say anything.....)

Some things we have done to get the fun rolling again are:

*museums (especially small-ish ones, like plastics or associated with a college. I think we'll hit the MIT museum next time we're up there.)

*a new crafting tool (next time this happens, I have my eye on a wood burning tool, I may get it sooner, but right now we have enough craft material lying all around the house for me to want to buy something new. Both Ella and I are a little in love with the Crafty Chica)

*bowling, roller skating, or a video arcade (last time at the arcade,my dd got a Newton's cradle http://www.officeplayground.com/newtonscradle3.html with her tickets won on the games, and there have been some unbelievable discussions that branched off from that toy!)

*a new music CD or video or computer game...or season three of the Gilmore Girls

*a road trip (even just to the next town over)

*the supermarket to buy strange fruits and veggies and figure out how to cook them (we have a coconut sitting on our counter right now waiting for a smashing)

*a day/week of foods from a different place, or eating on the living room floor instead of the table, or breakfast in bed

*checking out books from a different library (somehow I come out with completely different kinds of books from the library on the other side of town...we've been all over looking for our Gilmore Girls DVDs)

Felting! Feeling!

It seems almost everything we do around here lately becomes a potential Visual Presentation for 4-H. They have to be done by February, and I think my Ella-girl may have finally decided on a topic: wool. The Wild World of Wool, actually.

But, yes, you may remember I thought it was going to be soap......

Anyway.....

Ella made this felted piece the other day. She is planning to turn it into a purse. My camera didn't quite capture the smaller sparkly threads that are running through it.
We are going to be trying out different ways to do this over the next few weeks because it was so freakin' fun! Ella got a little tired of rolling the big felt back and forth, but she really went to town on little beads and made a baby for her gnome from Edelweiss. I can't, unfortunately, link you directly to the store.

The store is owned by some Waldorf former homeschoolers. They don't own a computer, or a tv. Each year, they buy a live Christmas tree and put real candles on it. It all sounds sort of idyllic and cozy sometimes to me when the giggles of SpongeBob are getting to me.

However, the children, once they got a bit older, decided to attend Sturgis Charter School, and the mom has told me that she'll forever wonder why they decided to do that. She is sad that as they get bogged down in homework and everything else and she sees less and less of them, both in the physical sense and in the sense of seeing the real kid behind all the pressure and scheduling.

It is sad to me to think that the struggle for some *ideal way of being* led the family to leave home schooling. I hope that on our homeschooling/unschooling journey, I can stay mindful of what my children need and not get too focused on a methodology.

Christmas Sweaters

Lately, Ella has taken to carrying a purse everywhere. It is great for me, because I hate carrying a purse and she is more than willing to have my camera in there or a chap stick.

It is funny what becomes the best gift of Christmas. We decided this year to only give fun stuff. Last year, we wrapped a bunch of stuff that the kids needed, like tooth brushes and boots, and let's face it ~ that is just not that fun.

So this year, we decided not to get any clothes. What was one of Ella's favorite gifts? A sweater from Tom and Jenny. *g*

It does look nice on her, tho, huh?

Declan loves his Piccachu, even tho Santa did not have time this year to build it in his workshop with actual lightning bolts coming out. We read a great Christmas book this year about lists to Santa and the kinds of gifts we *want* vs the kinds of gifts we will really *enjoy* called My Penguin Osbert. It is pretty cute. Declan was delighted with everything he got.

We had a really cool moment when Ella gave away some of her soap, and Declan went on and on about how good she was at making soap, and how it was glycerin and so you needed to keep it out of the way of running water, and how Ella was able to add all kinds of "flavors" to the soap.

Sweet. He sure does love his Big Sis.

Learning to Knit

Last winter, I became obsessed with knitting. Two winters ago, I tried to see if I could remember how, and I did, but by the time I was able to make anything t he weather was warmer and all those fun, chunky yarns that knit up so fast were not so fun any more.

During both of those seasons, Ella has determinedly tried to learn to knit. Since she is not crazy about writing (her hands get much more tired than when she types), and doesn't like to do things that have a lot of detailed directions, I approached teaching with much trepedation.

Each year, we tried different things. Someone else teaching her, teaching herself, getting a mushroom thingie, using a loom instead, crocheting (which I am much better at!), finger knitting.

It was all frustrating.

Until this year.

I got a book I have gotten for each winter, called Kids Knitting: projects for all ages. I strewed it in the bathroom.

It worked!! Hooray! Ella was finally ready! And while I was at work, she called to ask where the knitting needles were. I said I had seen some cool yarn (Lion Brand) at Ocean State Job Lot and I'd bring some home. And so, the scarf Declan is modeling above was born.

Carving Pumpkins

This one was really cute. Ella thought that the little ones would not be fun to carve, but they are sometimes the best.

She is really into this. Maybe she should be a sculptor. Note the fashion statement with the apron.
That one in the background is mine. I was glad that Ella made her marks smallish, because the finished pumpkin ended up with perfectly sized features.
My pumpkin had this really strange stringy spaghetti squash inside. It just kept coming and coming, and was really dry. We bought pumpkins a while ago, and had them outside, but it has been so warm here that they all rotted on the porch. They 'll go in compost tomorrow and feed the crows and coyotes probably.

So, anyway, we went to Trader Joe's today and snagged the last few mangy looking pumpkins. So what if one of them was so dried out it was filled with spaghetti? They were easy to carve!

Well....Declan really wanted to carve pumpkins, but Episode 1 of the Star Wars saga was on, so he kind of gave some creative input while I carved the pumpkin. I LOVE carving pumpkins, but for the last few years haven't really been able to carve the kind of pumpkin I like to carve.

Ella has gotten to be a completely independent carver, big knife and all. She is not crazy about getting all the guts scraped out. Could it be because I call them guts? Well look at them in the bowl. What else would you call them?

Pie

Yum. Fresh apples. So delicious, I could have just eaten these.

Ella does like to leave her mark. Sometimes, we call Ian "E", too, so it worked with the collaborative effort.
Doesn't that look gorgeous?!?!

Ella baked her first pie today with her dad. I haven't eaten it yet, but it looks good.

Stereotypical?

We found a teeny pumpkin for the fairies, and Ella made this ladder.

Ella's grandma gave her this. It is actually a Christmas ornament.

Somehow, I feel that this project was stereotypically homeschool-y.



Ella loves the Magic Cabin catalogue (well, who doesn't?).



She decided to make a fairy house like the ones that they have there. She has an old tree in the back, called Old Burl. A burl is an outgrowth on a tree http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burl, but she got the name from a book called Tree Girl.



Here's the house. I love the slopey feel to it.
Anyway, Old Burl was willing to give us some rounds from his trunk, and although he is a fallen tree, he is not yet rotten. We measured and made a plan to make the house.



Ella has added these cute little wire figures, as well.


I think the wire dolls have a little bit of a punk rock feel.
So fun.