Fork Wind Chime

We are having a pretty unstructured summer, but we did manage to make a Fork Wind Chime craft from our Earthschooling curriculum. I went to Goodwill and purchased forks. I tried to chose forks with fun designs on the handle or forks that were really light. We hammered the forks flat and then glued two forks back to back with yarn pressed in between. It turns out that we hadn't hammered the forks handles flat enough to to really glue the yarn between the forks well. So, I tied the forks together with yarn and then glued the yarn. You can see the yarn band near the wider part of the fork. When they were dry, we tied the forks to our stick. Of course this was really easy from Brother who is nearing seven, but quite difficult for the 3 year old. Brother braided three strands of yarn together to make the handle.

To be honest, the forks don't seem to swing in the wind, but we sure did enjoy making the wind chime.

Tooth Fairy Pillow

After many stops and starts, the pillow is finally complete! At first it was a struggle for Brother two sew even 10 stitches. It was enough resistance that I put the project away for a while, and then brought it out again later. Not too much had changed, so I put it away for awhile again. Finally the third time I brought it out, he was ready and the sewing became much easier for him. The material is felt and we used 3 strands of floss to sew it together. He stuffed it with a bit of wool roving.

It's a good thing the pillow is complete. Brother's first big boy tooth is part way in. The baby tooth isn't even wiggly yet though, so upon the dentists recommendation, I am helping him to wiggle it a few times a day. The same thing happened to me as a child.

Monday -

I added another base sense activity to our circle from the Enki Kindergarten Guide called "Snowflake" - So our circle is now:

Walk
Form Walk
Gathering Song
Gnomes
Dwarves
Winter White
Snowflakes - and a short grounding activity
Closing Song
Closing Spiral

I'm getting closer! All I need to add is a pre-recorder song, foreign language song, and a finger play.

It's hard focusing on winter right now when our weather is so unseasonably warm. Brother's contribution to circle today was "Spring is Coming." We have only had one really cold week so far, about 4 frosty mornings and no snow at all.

With my lack of enthusiasm towards the weather, I just couldn't pick t a snowy, winter poem for Baby's reading session today. I have the "My Bookhouse Collection", so we just read some nursery rhymes out of the "In The Nursery" book. This is Baby's book list for the week:

In The Nusery
A Fairy Went A-Marketing
The Gingerbread Baby (AAARGH!)
Mike Mulligan And His Steam Shovel

For Brother I am reading the Enki Fairy Tale "Little Red Cap", which went really well!

This afternoon we enjoyed a sunny day at the park with our good friends, and the kids took off their coats. After all , it is such a blustery winter here.



The snowmen are finally sewn together. This was just a wet felting project. Each part was made separately, and then sewn together. Brother had no problem with the sewing! I just started it off for him and he took control! They are supposed to be decorations, but the kids love them and play with them like toys. Hopefully they don't break! They aren't very sturdy.

Wednesday

Baby was sick with the mid grade temperature again last night, causing us to cancel regular plans with friends. Tonight when I put him to bed, his fever didn't seem so high, so hopefully he is starting to get better. He didn't really eat anything today, but for the past two days he has been nursing a ton! It will probably hit my milk supply tomorrow, which I am not really looking forward to!

Since Baby was sick we started the day off really late again. 10:45. I had to carry Baby for half of our walk. It's only half a mile, so it's not that much of a strain on me. Brother seems to be enjoying circle. He is still really silly, but he is much more of a participant than he was when he was younger.

I read the "Star Frog" story again today for the third and final time. Tomorrow is recall day. To prepare him, I have been doing a ton of laundry and piling it up on the couch. I keep saying, "Tomorrow is laundry day, look how full the couch is getting." I haven't specifically said that we are doing recall though. Hopefully he is more receptive!

Today for craft we wet felted snowmen. I don't actually have a snowman cookie cutter, so we used different sized muffin tins for the head and body. He really enjoyed it this time, becoming lost in the rhythm of the fingers poking the wool. He wanted to make a little top hat for the snowman, but we didn't have that shape at all, so for the first time he had to hold the wool in his fingers and shape it a little bit. Hopefully it dries overnight so that we can sew it together tomorrow.

Brother self-directed an activity with play dough and let Baby join in when he woke up from nap. And I had both boys help me saw a little bit on our second art board. Right before dinner they made cards for Daddy. I can't believe how much Art is going on around here. It's so different than a year ago!

Glitter Glue Snowflakes craft

Here is Brother's.



Here is Baby's.

The window is looking quite Wintery, and I love having something tangible to show Daddy. Meanwhile, I wish that we would get some snow to play in. We haven't had any snow yet this year!

older Kindergarten Week #3 Thursday

Today we reached our goal of homeschooling 3 days this week. After baby sitting, which falls into social time, we made our craft, Wind Socks. The boys had a great time trying them out in the living room. The crepe paper really makes a neat sound. I hung them out in the grape arbor so that we could enjoy watching the wind catch them without the rain ruining them.