Brrrr! And C is for Cactus!

Okay so um...why is it freezing already? It's *still* September. It's damned cold outside. I got up this morning and threw a gallon of apple cider and some mulling spices in the crock pot. It's lovely and warm and almost makes me feel better. But, it's officially Ohio Grey outside and all I want to do is sleep. I'm convinced I was a bear in another life. We did school today! Hurrah! Last week was crazy with first one thing and then another and we didn't get much done. Yesterday we were busy getting ready for a house showing in the afternoon, but today we're back at it. Today's little project was for the letter C. Now in hindsight, I should have maybe tried to shape this cactus so it looks like a C??? I don't know. Feel free to try that and send me a picture! Gather up something spikey. I used pine needles. Toothpicks would have been good as well. Then just draw a cactus on a piece of green paper, have the kids color it and then glue on the spikeys. I had a brain fart at the last possible minute and decided that it would be fun to paint the cactus with a mixture of glue, water, salt and green food coloring to give it some texture before adding the spikeys. Divine intervention did not allow me to remember where I'd put the paintbrushes, though. I was completely convinced that the cold and the wind would take the fire right out of my brood and once they warmed up they'd happily fall into slumber...which is what *I* would like to be doing, but they're apparantly immune to the whole get cold, eat, warm up, pass out thing that happens to any other normal warm-blooded person.

Mabon

Happy Mabon to all those who still call today 'Mabon'. And happy first day of fall to the rest of you! Little known fact: it's entirely allowable to be a Christian and still recognize and celebrate the ancient holidays. Really. No, Benedict didn't tell me this, I just know it. Go ahead and call today Mabon. Celebrate Imbolc, and Yule, and Samhain. I give you permission. We started our celebrations yesterday with a trip to the apple orchard. Then we came home and decorated. We were going to have a bonfire, but the weather wasn't cooperating. Today, we started out school day off by reading a little Frost - After the Apple Harvest. We colored a harvest picture, and made 'Harvest Muffins' for our morning snack, which really became lunch since my kids ate so many of them. Here's the recipe: Harvest Morning Muffins 3 eggs 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1 cup grated apples 1 cup grated carrots 1 cup whole-wheat flour 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 tbs. baking powder 1/4 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. cinnamon Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a 12-muffin tin or line it with paper liners. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, blend the eggs, sugar and oil until well combined. Stir in the grated apples and carrots. In a separate bowl, sift the flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Blend the dry ingredients with the apple mixture until just combined. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins and bake for 25 minutes. Makes 12 muffins. Of course, I doubled this. I also added a lot more cinnamon. They were really good, and quite healthy. And, because I have a nifty new camera with a setting just for photographing food, here's a picture: Yeah, that really doesn't look any better than any other picture I've tried to take of food. Oh well. This afternoon, we're heading to the vegetable stand to pick up some turnips, carrots and butternut squash for dinner tonight. I'm even making an apple pie for dessert. I'm raising my kids Catholic, but I also want them to grow up being in tune with the changing of the seasons, and learning how much of an impact that change would have had on our ancestors who depended so much more on their local harvest for their very survival. I want them to slow down a little and recognize what the Earth is doing from day to day and month to month. I want them to take the time to marvel at the moon and the stars, to see the trees change from spring to fall, to study how the squirrels get ready for the winter. I want them to see the cycle of death and rebirth happening right in their own backyard. On a less heavy note, we also started with the letter 'C' today. Our activity was super simple and can be found here: http://www.dltk-kids.com/Crafts/insects/mcaterpillar-numbers.htm

B is for Bumblebee!

This was fun! The wax paper wings really make it believable. For this project you'll need a paper plate, black construction paper cut into strips, a black triangle for the stinger, yellow paint or markers, buttons, and something to use as an antennae.

Start by making the bottom of the paper plate yellow. We used markers. Paper plates really lend themselves to being painted rather than "markered" but, well, my kids were wearing white today. :P You could also use crayons, or decoupage like we did with the buckeye.
Then, glue on the black stripes. Older kids can cut the stripes themselves.
Add something for eyes. We used buttons, but googly eyes would have been cute.
Then, add the stinger. :)
And the wings. I highly recommend a grown-up cutting out the wings. Waxed paper is slippy stuff and very frustrating for a young one to try to cut.

Then, add the antennae. A pipe cleaner would have been really cute, but we are still out of pipe cleaners. So, I curled a narrow strip of cardstock around a pencil.
A buzzing batch of bumblebees!

A Day

Today started off with a little construction project. Then it was time for some learnin', A fun bumblebee craft (instructions in the next post:)) And then some outside time! YAY!!! We hunted for bugs. Did some hanging. Little brother can hang too now. Threw a little fit. Helped a brother out.

Built a teepee.
Fed some goats.
Hope you had a productive day as well!

B is for Butterfly!

Today's craft was super easy and a lot of fun. We were late getting started with school today, so it was good to have something quick and easy to do. Start off by drawing two Bs back to back on construction paper. Have the kiddies color them, and add stickers to make them look like butterfly wings. Then, cut them out. Owen is obsessed with cutting and now has to even cut the holes out of his letters. Glue them to another sheet of construction paper. Then glue on the body, some googly eyes, and something for an antennae. A pipe cleaner would have been great, but we're fresh out of pipe cleaners. A piece of yarn works too. :) And there you go, a beautiful bunch of butterflies!

B is for Buckeye!

This weekend on the way back from a wedding, Dave and I stopped to see the "Historic 'S' Bridge" in New Concord, OH. Well, we actually stopped to see the John and Annie Glen Historic Site, but since it was closed, we decided to tour the bridge. Which turned out to be...well, a bridge. Supposedly it was easier to build back in the 1830s, a bridge shaped like an S rather than one that went straight across the stream. Now, I did graduate in Civil Engineering, but for the life of me I can't imagine a scenario where building something squiggly could possibly be easier than building something straight. Maybe someone can enlighten me on that one. Anyway, while we were walking across the bridge, we noticed a Buckeye tree, and the nuts had fallen everywhere. We were just finding the pods, though, no seeds. So, we decided to go ahead and trespass into an alfalfa field bordering the stream where we saw there was a HUGE Buckeye tree with buckeyes hanging low enough that we could swat them with a stick and knock them off. We left with a whole grocery bag full of buckeyes. I think it might actually be illegal to take them like that, but luckily for us, the Buckeye police were off on Sundays. We thought it would be neat for the kids to tear the pods apart and dig the seeds out. Of course, being Buckeyes ourselves, we plan to dry them and make necklaces by alternating them with pretty scarlet and gray beads strung on a leather cord. What else would you do with Buckeyes. That's why they're grown, don't ya know? To make necklaces. :) Two things. 1) Please tell me I'm not the only person who did not know that Buckeyes actually grew in pods, and 2) Buckeyes are poisonous. Don't eat them. More importantly, Buckeye 'juice' is will burn the piss out of your eyes if you rub them after you've been digging Buckeyes out of their pods. Ask me how I know. The kids and I dug out some Buckeyes today, and they're drying. Since we're doing the letter B this week, I thought it appropriate to do a little Buckeye craft. By the way, there are absolutely NO free Brutus the Buckeye coloring pages on the internet. None. Draw a Buckeye on a piece of construction paper. It doesn't have to be wonderful. Then, tear or cut some small pieces of construction paper, and have the kiddies glue them on the nut. Tearing would be good for little hands, I thought. But, Owen wanted to cut his, so naturally everyone else had to cut. Even Bodie. He needed a little help with the scissors, so I held the paper and told him when to open and close. Just keep adding the brown paper pieces until the nut is as filled in as you want it to be. Some kids like to use a lot of glue. Like Maggie, for instance. Then, cut out your leaves. We talked about how the Buckeye tree has groups of five leaves. We also talked about how the Buckeye is the state tree and it was named by the Native Americans because the seed looks like a buck's eye. We did not talk about how the pattern of the leaves looks vaguely like marijuana, but you can if you'd like. Draw a branch coming off your Buckeye, or use another piece of brown paper. I gave the kids a choice and they preferred to just draw it. Then, glue on the leaves. At this point the whole project becomes anatomically incorrect as the seed you just did really grows not on the actual branch, but inside a pod which looks like this: See, not so attractive. So, we'll just be anatomically incorrect. Work with me here. Then, you can color the B if you want. Or not. And there you have it. All done. Wasn't that easy? Now, if only beating USC could be that easy.

Not a good start.

As many of you know, we have decided to keep the older boy kid at home this year and do Kindergarten with him here, and we'll reevaluate the situation next year.  I was so gung-ho for this homeschooling year to start.  I bought binders, and file boxes, and freshly sharpened pencils.  I spent hours perusing the internet for fun crafts and activities and worksheets.  I also bought uniforms.  Yes, I did.  But, that's another post. The electronic gods are not smiling down on my homeschool efforts.  First, the monitor died.  Then, the printer cartridges needed replaced.  $175 later, I thought I was ready to sit down and print off some of that fun stuff I'd spent the last three weeks' worth of naptimes bookmarking.  Today was the day.  And now, the printer heads are bad.  So today I spent naptime trying to clean the damn things, which didn't work (of course it didn't work).  Naptime is over and I'm no closer to my nice organized homeschooling dream than I was three hours ago.  But I'm more pissed than I was three hours ago.  Humpf.  Now the debate is whether or not to brave the idiot-infested Walmart to get a $39 printer or have it shipped for 97 cents, save my sanity, but not be able to print anything until Wednesday.  Grrrrrr.