Alina's Adventures

The postcard as political protest.

John Heartfield did everything he could to avoid serving in the German military during World War I. He and his friends, dabblers in Dada like Georg Groszt, believed that people liked the black-and-white agitprop of war and companies liked the sure revenues. The war could go on forever. So they found their own way to dissent.

At the time, the government exercised complete censorship over the press. Criticism of the war or the government would be severely punished. Even critical remarks made on the street could land one in a cold cell if they were to be overheard and reported. John and Georg tried to start an art journal, but it was soon shut down because it included a "poem for peace" in its contents. But John and Georg were not so easily silenced.

They began to send packages and postcards to friends, family, and odd acquaintances serving on the war front. The packages contained seemingly random assortments of objects, including starched shirt-fronts, a pair of cuffs, a dainty shoehorn, a set of tea bags, and hand-written labels explaining how each gift should arouse patience, sweet dreams, respect for authority, and fidelity to the throne. 

The postcards were collages glued onto cardboard. But the content of these collages allowed John and Georg to criticize the war in a more subtle manner. They arbitrarily cut and pasted ads for suitcases, fraternity songbooks, enriched dogfood ads, labels from Schnapps and wine bottles, photos from illustrated magazines-- the possibilities were endless. The images were meant to represent the words that the censor would not allow them to write or speak. Soon soldiers began replying in kind, with their own images to "speak" the censored words. 

And so emerged the dadaist technique of "photomontage", which allowed Heartfield and others to "wage one man's war against Hitler". George Grosz and John Heartfield left history as part of the Dada movement in Berlin which was instrumental in making montage into a modern art-form. They first coined the term "photomontage" at the end of the war, around 1918 or 1919. Other major photomontagers included Hannah Höch, Kurt Schwitters, Raoul Hausmann and Johannes Baader.

Photomontage allowed Heartfield to create loaded and politically contentious images. To compose his works, he chose recognizable press photographs of politicians or events from the mainstream illustrated press. He then disassembled and rearranged these images to radically alter their meaning.

Heartfield's strongest work used variations of scale and stark juxtapositions to activate his already gruesome photo-fragments. The result could have a frightening visual impact, as in this image warning that the country's rearmament exposed a dangerous impulse toward war and its profits.

Adolf, the Superman, Swallows Gold and Spouts Tin, 1932

To create this image, Heartfield overlaid a widely published photograph of Hitler with a chest X-ray. The caption reads, "Adolf, the superman, swallows gold and spouts tin." Here, Heartfield refers to the large contributions that wealthy industrialists were making to the Nazi Party (National Socialist German Worker's Party) despite its alleged basis in socialism. Heartfield's image reveals the contradictions between Hitler's financial support and his workingman rhetoric. 

        (Source: Agitated Images Exhibit, The Getty Museum)

"There are a lot of things that got me into working with photos. The main thing is that I saw both what was being said and not being said with photos in the newspapers… I found out how you can fool people with photos, really fool them… You can lie and tell the truth by putting the wrong title or wrong captions under them, and that’s roughly what was being done…"

John Heartfield

And yet it moves!, 1943

This piece refers to a remark made by Galileo when he was forced to deny his belief that the Earth moved around the sun. Upon his release from the Inquisition, he stamped the Earth with his foot and said, "And yet it moves." This image shows that despite Hitler's terror, the world survived.

Individual photos combined together to create a new subject or visual image proved to be a powerful tool for the Dadists protesting World War I and the interests that they believed inspired the war. Photomontage survived Dada and was a technique inherited and used by European Surrealists such as Salvador Dalí. The world's first retrospective show of photomontage was held in Germany in 1931. A later term coined in Europe was "photocollage"; which usually referred to large and ambitious works that added typography and brushwork or even actual objects stuck to the photomontage.

        (Source: Wikipedia)

Chasing butterflies through photomontage:

• The Student Guide To Dada in PDF
• Official John Heartfield Internet Archive, the "Dada photomonteur"
• John Heartfield's art, a hearty collection 
• More Heartfield art, including a self-portrait
• A detailed timeline of Heartfield's life
• "Heartfield: The Musical", including the script, cast, and notes
• Cut and Paste, a website devoted to the history of photomontage
• Heartfield's pig-headed collaboration with Rudolf Schlichter
• Differences between photomontage and collage
• More political photomontages in the Dada vein
• The International Dada Archive
• Heartfield's take on Goldman Sachs?

Related lesson plans, units, and activities:

• Photomontage Art and History lesson plan
• Hitler's War Against Artists lesson plan
• Warfare without bullets lesson plan on propaganda
• Cubism Photomontage lesson plan
• Photomontage how-to for photos using iMovie
• Portrait Of a Place lesson plan and activity using photomontage
• I Want My Dada activity
• Duchamp, Dada, and World War I lesson plan
• Marcel Duchamp: "Found" Portraiture lesson plan
• Montana ornaments activity and lesson
• Robert Rauschenberg handout

Ovid's exile to Romania: A historical inquiry.

In 8 AD, the poet Ovid (a.k.a. PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO) was banished to Tomis (now known as Constanta), on the Black Sea, by the the Emperor Augustus. No Senate or Roman judges played a role in this decision, which leaves a little historical mystery in its wake. Why was Ovid exiled? What did he do that so offended the Roman emperor that he resorted to a personal decision to banish him?

Ovid wrote that the reason for his exile was carmen et error — "a poem and a mistake", claiming that his crime was worse than murder and more harmful than poetry. Interestingly enough, the Emperor's grandchildren, Agrippa Postumus and Julia the Younger, were banished around the same time. Julia's husband, Lucius Aemilius Paullus, was put to death for conspiracy against Augustus, a conspiracy about which Ovid might have known.

Did Ovid write something which offended the Emperor's moral sensibilities? Or perhaps his legislative preferences? In 18 BC, Augustus moved the Julian Marriage Laws through the Senate. These laws promoted monogamous marriage in the hopes of increasing the population's birth rate. Every empire needs its potential human carnage. Did Ovid's writing in the Ars Amatoria concerning what was then the serious crime of adultery appear subversive to the Emperor?

In exile, Ovid wrote two poetry collections titled Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto, reflecting his sadness and despair. The five books of the Tristia, a series of poems expressing the poet's despair in exile and advocating his return to Rome, are dated to 9–12 AD. In the Tristia, Ovid makes a direct appeal to the Emperor but foolishly suggests that the Emperor made a mistake in exiling him- not a tactic likely to go over well with Augustus.

The Ibis, an elegiac curse poem attacking an adversary at home might also have been written during this period. The Epistulae ex Ponto, a series of letters to friends in Rome asking them to effect his return, are thought to be his last compositions, with the first three books published in 13 AD and the fourth book between 14 and 16 AD. The exile poetry is particularly emotive and personal. In the Epistulae he claims friendship with the natives of Tomis (in the Tristia they are frightening barbarians) and to have written a poem in their language. He addresses his epistles to a multitude of friends, poets, orators, politicians, and statesmen.

It seems that Ovid misses Rome and his third wife, as many of the early poems are to her. (One scholar has observed that Ovid writes less to his wife in direct proportion to his time in Tomis- maybe he realizes that she cannot bring him back and so his feelings for her grow rather chilly.)  

The mysterious causes of Ovid's exile remain unexplained. Ovid died at Tomis in AD 17. It is thought that the Fasti, which he spent time revising, were published posthumously. He was allegedly buried a few kilometers away in a nearby town- a town which was renamed Ovidiu in his honor in 1930. Ovidiu is a common male first name in Romania. A statue commemorates him in the Romanian city of Tomis. The inscription on the statues is excerpted from the Tristia and reads:

Here I lie, who played with tender loves,

Naso the poet, killed by my own talent.

O passerby, if you've ever been in love,

let it not be too much for you

to say: May the bones of Naso lie gently.

To explore some excerpts from Fasti and discuss what his poems revealed, you can download the free document below. You can also explore his biography here.

OVID'S EXILE THROUGH POETRY: A LOOK AT THE TEXTS 

You can access a translation of Ovid's entire poems from exile, including the works mentioned above, or you can browse his book, The Metamorphoses, in images and bookplates.

Romanian influence on Jewish culture: An exploration of traditional Romanian folk dances.

Every evening on Romanian television, you can find at least one show or program dedicated to traditional folk music or dance. Music and dance, like tuica and Christianity, is woven so deep into the Romanian culture that not even communism could quash it. 

Max wanted to learn more about Romanian dances, so we focused our explorations on that subject today. The hora is the starting point for all traditional Romanian dances. It gathers everyone into a big closed circle where the dancers hold each other's hands and the circle spins, usually counterclockwise, as each participant follows a sequence of three steps forward and one step back. The dance is usually accompanied by musical instruments such as the cymbalum, accordion, violin, viola, double bass, saxophone, trumpet or even the panflute.

There are many different kinds of horas to dance, depending on regions, seasons, and occasions. All you need is a few willing dancers and a good reason to celebrate life (i.e. you're alive is a good one). Max loved watching the videos and noting the differences in the steps and patterns of each hora. 

• Learn how to dance the Romanian hora with the simple step-by-step.
• Watch Hora fetelor, or "the girl's hora", performed by a Romanian folk ensemble.
• Watch Hora de la Sud, or "the hora from the South", performed by the Fluieras Dance Ensemble.
• Enjoy watching a wedding hora in Moldavia, performed by some happy gentlemen. Then watch this mixed-sex wedding hora from Bucovina. Good stuff.
• Read the lyrics ro Hora Unirii, the celebratory hora song written to honor the unification of the Romanian nation in 1856.
• Learn about Hora Bucuriei, or the Hora of Joy, the celebratory hora performed when Romania was admitted to the EU in 2007.
• Wouldn't it be cool if American schools taught folk dances?

The sirba (or Sârba) is a Romanian dance normally played in 2/2 or 2/4 time. It can be danced in a circle, line, or couple formations and was historically popular not only among Romanians, but also Ukrainians, Hungarians, East European Jews, and the Poles of the Tatra Mountains. It is fast-paced and triplets are usually emphasized in the melody. More sirbas and sirba-isms to explore:

• Watch a Sirba de nunta, or "wedding sirba" in traditional folk costume with customary calls and responses.
• Watch a Sirba from Oltenia, or, at least, danced by those with Oltenian roots.
• Listen to a Sirba din fluier, or a sirba solo on flute.
• Even better, listen to a Sirba la cimpoi, or a sirba performed on a traditional Romanian bagpipe.

If you research the roots of kletzmer, you'll discover that this vivacious and beautiful music genre shares seeds with Romanian folk dances and melodies. According to Wikipedia: 

Above all the musical styles which influenced the traditional Klezmer musicians, the Romanian influence seems to be the strongest and most enduring. Traditional Romanian music was heard, adopted and adapted by Klezmer musicians. This fact is reflected in the dance forms found throughout the entire surviving Klezmer music repertoire (e.g., Horas, Doinas, Sirbas and Bulgars etc.).

Hopefully, when my mom returns from Romania, she will teach our family to dance a personal favorite, the Ciuleandra, which is diminished unless the rich voice of Maria Tanase holds it up. On a parting note, fedelesul wins the prize for the goofiest traditional folk dance, which means I need to find a circle for it very, very soon...

Exploring the difference between narrative and lyric verse.

Narrative poetry is based in the traditions of storytelling and folk tales. It always has a plot- something happens. A narrative poem usually tells a story using a poetic theme. Narrative poems were created to explain oral traditions. The focus of narrative poetry is often the pros and cons of life. Types of narrative poems include:

1. Epic - a long, serious poem that tells the story of a heroic figure
2. Ballad - a narrative poem that tells a folk tale or legend and often has a repeated refrain. The ballad’s 4-3-4-3 line beat in matching quatrains has become the most familiar spoken-word and recorded poetic form of modern times.
3. Idyll - either a short poem depicting a peaceful, idealized country scene, or long poems that tell a story about ancient heroes. The word is derived from  the Greek word 'eidyllion' meaning "little picture". Idylls can be lyric poems if their subject matter tends towards the pastoral.
4. Lay - a long narrative poems, especially one sung by medieval minstrels and French trouveres.
5. Romances

Read some narrative poetry online:

• "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• "The Destruction of Sennacherib" by Lord Byron
• "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest L. Thayer
• "The Eve of St. John" by Sir Walter Scott
• "The Walrus and the Carpenter" by Lewis Carroll
• "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" by Sir Walter Scott
• "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe
• "The Legend of Gelhert" by Josie Whitehead
• "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" by Robert Browning
• "The Ballad of Swift Nick" by Josie Whitehead
• "The Holy Grail" by Lord Alfred Tennyson
• "Ave Maria" by Alfred Austin
• "On Turning Ten" by Billy Collins
• More.....

Lyric poetry is a genre of poetry that expresses personal and emotional feelings. It is usually short and song-like. In the ancient world, lyric poems were those which were sung to the lyre. Lyric poems do not have to rhyme, and today do not need to be set to music or a beat. The lyric poem, dating from the Romantic era, does have some thematic antecedents in ancient Greek and Roman verse, but the ancient definition was based on metrical criteria, and in archaic and classical Greek culture presupposed live performance accompanied by a stringed instrument.

1. Sonnet - English (or Shakespearean) sonnets are lyric poems that are 14 lines long falling into three coordinate quatrains and a concluding couplet. Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnets are divided into two quatrains and a six-line sestet. 
2. Ode - a long poem which is serious in nature and written to a set structure; often a tribute to a person, place, thing, or sentiment.
3. Haiku - a Japanese poem composed of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables often based on an image.
4. Villanelle - a nineteen-line poem with two rhymes throughout, consisting of five tercets and a quatrain, with the first and third lines of the opening tercet recurring alternately at the end of the other tercets and with both repeated at the close of the concluding quatrain.
5. Cinquain - a short, usually unrhymed poem consisting of twenty-two syllables distributed as 2, 4, 6, 8, 2, in five lines.
6. Aubade - a song or poem greeting the dawn or describing a dawn parting.
7. Ghazal - a lyric poem with a fixed number of verses and a repeated rhyme, typically on the theme of love, and normally set to music. This form of poem is traditional to the Middle East.
8. Bhajan - any type of Indian devotional song. It has no fixed form. Often, bhajans praise the sacred and holy.
9. Pastoral - a  poem that depicts rural life in a peaceful, idealized way for example of shepherds or country life. 
10. Romantic verse - Nature and love were a major themes of Romanticism favoured by 18th and 19th century poets such as Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats. Emphasis in such poetry is placed on the personal experiences of the individual.
11. Elegy - a sad and thoughtful poem lamenting the death of a person.

Read some lyric poetry online:

• Dante's lyric poems
• "In Memory of W.B. Yeats" by W.H. Auden
• "Oh Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman
• "America" by Robert Creeley
• "Ode to the West Wind" by Percy Bysshe Shelley
• "When I consider how my light is spent" by John Milton
• "Sonnet 18" by William Shakespeare
• "Ode to Tomatoes" by Pablo Neruda
• "Ode to Joy" by Friedrich Schiller
• "Aubade: Lake Erie" by Thomas Merton
• "Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats
• "Even the Rain" by Agha Shahid Ali
• "The Ghazal of What Hurt" by Peter Cole
• "Do not go gentle into that good night" by Dylan Thomas
• "The Sonnet-Ballad" by Gwendolyn Brooks
• "Ode to Joy" by Buster Baxter
• An assortment of bhajans including audio files

Chasing butterflies:

• In classifying the differences between lyric and narrative poetry, Mobin's guide was useful.
• Lesson plan for writing lyric poetry.
• Origins in Sappho of lyric poetry.
• Poetry Through the Ages, an online interactive exhibit.
• Venn That Tune.
• Using Venn diagrams to examine poetry.
• Explore how bhajans are used as a way of worship.

Rocks under rainbows and other story starters.

Inspired by Mamaroots' Once Upon A Table Story Table Projects, in which she of great heart actually offers many printable tutorials for fantastic story characters and props, I asked Max if we could use his rock pilferage to create our own story characters and props. He brightly agreed.

So we whipped out the acrylic paints, googly eyeds, Modge Podge, fabric scraps, and the trinket bin always brimming with perfect crafting junk. Inspired by leprechauns and MamaRoots, we decided that our land must have a rainbow first because there is always something under the rainbow, if not more than a beautiful horizon. 

Various characters, including a green pirate, also came to be. However, they are currently drying. Manyana...

Ironworks, gears, and engineering explorations.

Our trip to the Iron and Steel Museum of Alabama enchanted and excited Ellie and Max. They absorbed the information like the 40 odd chiggers I gained from our field trip absorbed my skin last night. 

Big iron wheels.

The Dotterer steam engine.

Hands-on exploration of the gears in a steam engine.

Steam engine to balance beam.

Milla learns about rust in the 1880-1890 era cast iron water pipes made in Birmingham.

Chasing butterflies:

• The Alabama Ironworks Sourcebook is a great online adventure.
• How Henry Ford used the Dotterer Steam Engine.
• The Alabama Forge Council hosts workshops and other opportunities to see how iron is forged and manipulated, including the Animal Head workshop next weekend.
• Bobbly Shuttlesworth meets an Alabama blacksmith.
• A day in the life of a colonial blacksmith online matching activity.
• Anvilfire has everything you ever wanted to know about anvils.

Max's kokoshnik.

"I'm going to wear this to church, Mom, cause it's really cool..."

What is a kokoshnik? And how do I make my own?

Learning about cultures with kids.

"A first grader should understand that his culture isn't a rational invention; that there are thousands of other cultures and they all work pretty well; that all cultures function on faith rather than on truth; that there are lots of alternatives to our own society."

        - Kurt Vonnegut

Oh Alabama, why this novel disgrace? Now, activists, missionaries, and those who work to make life better for Alabama's poorest families must make sure that they never give a ride (or drive a bus) that takes an "illegal immigrant" to the pediatrician for their children's vaccines. What about public transportation? Will bus drivers or metro train drivers be held responsible if an "illegal immigrant" uses public transportation? What warms your social and your faith about xenophobia made law?

One of the reasons we learn at home, rather than school, is because American education tends to glorify and sanctify a particular type of culture as the best, the brightest, and the most successful. Certainly we benefit from an extraordinary amount of material wealth in comparison with other cultures- our materialistic culture reflects this. But there are many ways to eat an Oreo. And the way we think is best usually happens to correspond with the way we eat an Oreo.

Though we prefer to think differently, cultures do not serve as repositories of goodness, kindness, virtue, or moral values. Instead, they serve as foundation for rituals, social conventions, taboos, festivities, and specific social hierarchies with their corresponding roles. Learning about cultures with kids requires us to keep an open mind and try to understand why certain cultures have found certain practices to be useful.

For example, watching everyone stand up and put their hand on their heart while asserting the Pledge of Allegiance to a symbolic flag on a football field strikes some international visitors as spooky. Imagine if you were not accustomed to this social practice, if you had not been socialized and acculturated to percieve it as a valuable component of group life... How would the pledge appear to you? Might you think that these people were engaging in a pagan ritual of honor to a sanctified piece of fabric? When you watched how Boy Scouts carefully caressed and folded this same flag, how this flag hung near doors like a mezuzah, would you not begin to wonder (just a little) what sort of ideology convinced people to treat this particular piece of fabric with more reverence than baptism?

What if, by some crazy fluke, our culture is not as sacred as we pretend in the grand scheme of things? Shouldn't we raise our children in a way that allows them to appreciate the diversity (there, I said it) of other cultures and cultural practices? What if we are supposed to love not just our enemies but also those who speak a different language and don't watch American Idol?

Some good places to start:

• "Teaching Diversity: A Place to Begin" (Scholastic)
• Create a social action project for children.
• The Sneetches, an anti-racism activity (Teaching Tolerance).
• Preschool activities for a multicultural theme (Preschool Rainbow).
• Print the World Lesson Plans Spread (Peace Child International).
• Why Frogs and Snakes Never Play Together (Teaching Tolerance).
• Storytelling Around the World Lesson Plans (Discovery Education).
• Developing A Respect for Diversity lesson plan.
• Everyone Is Different, three lessons using puppets for kindergarten classes (UCanDo).

Learning about measurements with Gallon Man craft.

Micah watercolored the component pieces for Max yesterday, and then Max cut, pasted, drew, and did the rest while I nursed Milla to sleep yesterday. How cool to emerge from the bedroom and see Max's construction.... I love the grass collage he pulled together from my fabric and yarns- love his acting on his vision. 

A slightly different Gallon Man template and craft for you.

Or Mr. Gallon, another version.

The story of a poncho family.

Designing and sewing ponchos for my family causes me to see ponchos everywhere. Suddenly, the poncho has become an object of my not-so-discreet fascination. When Max inquired about the origins of the poncho, I realized I needed to study a little history. And then I realized the history of ponchos is as rich and multi-faceted as the individual members of our family. Sometimes the best way to explore history is by telling a story....

THE STORY OF A PANCHO FAMILY

Nothing went as planned for the Pancho family that evening. The Pancho children kept coming unraveled while their parents kept misplacing the needles needed to stitch everyone back together. When even fresh stitches didn't help, and every difference between the Pancho kids proved a reason for more fighting and fussing, Mom and Dad Poncho realized that the time had come to bridge these differences with a little family history.

Given his penchant for clean dishes and well-organized pre-planning sessions, Dad assembled the kids on the couch in a mostly orderly fashion. Given her taste for embellished velvet and stories fatter than a bullfrog on a wet rock under a summer full moon, Mom started telling the family story. And this is what she said.

Long ago, before Mr. Clean invented the wall eraser to help homes with crayon graffitti, when ponchos rode in horses and buggies and colonialism was cooler than the beer, my family history began. We've traced my ancestors back to the Fruitlands, a utopian commune created in Concord, Massachussetts in 1884 by people who wanted to opt out of the industrial economy and get back to the land. They believed that manual labor was a "purifying discipline"- that it was good for the heart and the head and the soul. A man named Bronson Alcott, the father of Louisa May Alcott, who wrote the book Little Women, brought his family to Fruitlands. Bronson was part of the the Nonresistance Society, "a radical offshoot of the abolitionist movement who believed in the systematic oppression of all human institutions opposed to divine law and the duty to withdraw immediately leaving them to collapse under the burden of their own evil".

The requirements of manual labor made suits, cravats, and city clothing useless at Fruitlands. So Bronson walked about in an unbleached cotton poncho which helped to shield him from the elements and served as a sign of outward modesty. I come from this utopian white unbleached poncho- the uniform of hopeful humans trying to find and extend the good in the world. Bronson didn't stay at Fruitlands for too long- he soon discovered that all the manual labor made leisure and reading and family time impossible. He felt that his spirit suffered under the weight of poverty and endless work. So he took his family from Fruitlands. Today, you can visit Fruitlands as a museum and retreat, but the commune is only a memory. My family, rooted in this utopian spirit, continued and you can meet its extended progeny at various concerts and communes around the country.

Daddy's ancestry is more exotic and colorful. His family comes from 17th century Peru, where the wet climate of the Peruvian mountains created a need for warm outer coverings. Since the Peruvian mountain people cultivated alpacss and were very skilled in the art of textile weaving, they wove dad's ancestors by hand from alpaca wool, which is waterproof, like fleece, when stitched.

The Peruvians decorated the ponchos by dying the wool. The common Peruvian poncho had a bright geometric design on a red background. It was often accompanied by a brightly knitted woolen hat with ear flaps. Over time, the colors and patterns on ponchos were used to indicate family lineage (like Scottish kilts), occupation, and place of origin. Dad's ancestors communicated important social information to the human culture of Peru. 

Today, you can see dad's extended family at various Peruvian festivals and across the Latin American world. You can also understand why he tends towards the colorful and reddish moments of life.

When you bring together the fibers from an unbleached cotton poncho and ornately patterned alpaca wool ponchos, you end up with very diverse, beautiful, and interesting results. Because your family history is rooted in such different textures and fabrics, as little ponchos, you honor those differences in your appearance, tendencies, tastes, and styles. Rather than fight and argue over your individualities, try to remember that your common ancestry has given rise to beautiful distinctions. 

For more about the history of ponchos:

• Print a copy of Bronson Alcott's Fruitlands and share it with the family. Discuss what Bronson learned from his utopian experiment and how he learned it. 
• Get more information about the history of Peruvian alpaca ponchos.
• How Incan kings used ponchos.
• Make a paper bag poncho. 

Watercoloring for the nature journal.

Max's plant of the day is the trumpet-vine or cross-vine, also known as Bignonia capreolata. It is found in the South and Midwest. Max pointed out that it has similar seeding strategies to the dread privet, with which we wage a contuining war on the Coryell Castle lawn.

Watercoloring the trumpet vine this morning.

Cinquains everywhere.

Cinquains provide an excellent and fun refresher and skills-builder in identifying and using nouns, adjectives, verbs, participles, and synonyms. They also reinforce the understanding of syllables. 

A cinquain (pronounced: sing-cane) is a 5 line poem that describes a noun. It comes from the French word "cinque", which means "five", or the Latin word "quinque", which also means "five". The number five lies at the heart of the cinquain's charm.

A cinquain can also be considered a kind of shape poetry. Because of the exact number of words required for each line of this poem, a unique, symmetrical shape is created from interesting, descriptive words. This shape can resemble a Christmas ornament. We used the homemade handout below to explore the structure, history, and form of cinquains.

 

MAKE, DO, AND PLAY

Read "Bubbles", a cinquain supposedly written by Buster from PBS Kids.

Write an instant online cinquain.

Use this printable graphic organizer to practice writing your own cinquain.

Submit a cinquain to Amaze, the cinquain journal.

Browse more cinquains by Adelaide Crapsey, mother of the Crapsey cinquain.

"Teaching a Quintet: The Cinquain Recipe" by Corie Feiner.

 Read some global cinquains by Joy Carter Fisher.

"The Mule", a poem by Max Coryell.

A photo taken by Patrick yesterday of our Max in the park.

The Mule

The animal has funny ears

but does not burst into tears

because he has no fears

about people's verbal sneers.

Max is a big fan of AAAA rhyme schemes. Or so he says. In those exactish words. On that note, isn't "exactish" a great invented word, just primed and pumped for writing nonsense verse? I get little tingles in my pinky fingers when Max tells me that he wants to write a poem. Isn't that what "schooling" is all about- to create a desire and curiosity and appetite for learning, reading, writing, exploring, and loving our shared world?

Eco-dyeing results.

"Mom, we have to go see our eco-dyeing!"

First I taught Sunday school without my better half, who stayed home to savor the girls while Max and I churched ourselves. The kids are such a lovely reminder that I am not "teaching" Sunday school but rather studying our journey towards love and life together.

How the fabrics looked when removed from their overnight pot. The gauze fabric is the larger one while the linen fabric is the small one that looks quite purple.

Max picks little plants off the wet linen fabric.

The linen fabric details where you can see the rusted nail prints and the deep purples from the crepe myrtle.

The long view of the linen fabric. You can see the goldenrod stalks and the little bits of green clover.

Then we unfurled our long gauze strip which had been filled with goldenrod stalks and no crepe myrtle. We realized that we forgot to include rusted metal nails in this one, and wondered what effect this might have had on the lighter print. 

Beautiful, delicately printed gauze.

What an awesome experiment! I can't wait to try it with the local plants in the Carpathian mountains of Romania next month. Eco-dyeing is one of those natural arts that you can use to explore the botany and plant life in your travels. Love love love.

Our eco-dyeing experiment.

We did this backwards, picking plants before preparing our fabric, so we didn't mordant the fabrics we used. Enter our first experiments- will the prints work without mordanting the fabric beforehand? (I did soak the fabrics in water with sea salt for an hour or so before placing our plants on them....)

Goldenrod galore.

Then we took an afternoon excursion to a nearby park to collect flowers and plants. Milla fell asleep while Micah moaned about having worn her rain boots on a hot, sunny day.

Max kept the team together and carried the plant-collecting bowl for us. 

Our plant harvest.

Once we got home and unloaded sleeping Milla, Max and I began sorting the harvest. We decided to tear (or cut) the goldenrod flowers from the goldenrod stems for one bowl.

Then we set aside the crepe myrtles on a different plate. We also decided to use some of the goldenrods with stems to see how the leaves would print. Max suggested using a bowl for combined clover leaves and various loose plants that we could mix and match in patterns.

Then we prepared the two chosen fabrics (I use this "prepared" term preposterously). The natural white linen and natural white gauze were each boiled for about 20 minutes in a pot of water mixed with sea salt.

Then we took the fabrics out of the box and wrung the extra water from them before laying them out flat on the sidewalk. The munchkins asked the flower fairies to forgive us our pickings before placing arranging the harvest on the the linen and gauze. Max added two rusty nails for good luck.

We only arranged the plant matter halfway across each fabric. Then we folded the unused half of the fabric over the half with plants. 

I pressed down hard on the folded fabric before beginning to fold it over in an almost-rolling motion. The fabric then looked like the long, wet strip you see below. Max pressed down on the strip and then I folded across the strip into little squares until I ended up with a fat little square. 

Max held the square tightly together as I wrapped and knotted it with twine. Two stout little parcels of printing possibility....

Then things ended on the ugly side- with a boiling pot on the stove and not much color. We simmered our parcels for about an hour in salt water and then moved the pot onto the front steps for the night.

Tommorow brings the excitement of teaching Sunday school with Patrick AND NOW seeing what took place overnight with our fabric. Will the fairies bless our experiment? Maybe replace mordanting with a little magic? It remains to be seen...

A Visit to William Blake's Inn by Nancy Willard.

A Visit to William Blake’s Inn, Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travellers is Nancy Willard's poetic tribute to the poet, William Blake. What if William Blake owned and ran an inn for travelers? How would such an inn look? What kinds of voyagers would it attract? 

Blake's inn is no ordinary landmark. Its inhabitants include two mighty baking dragons, two patient laundering angels, William Blake himself, and the cornucopia of visitors which season the pages. "Blake's Celestial Limousine" takes travelers to and fro, while a rabbit shows the little boy who is visiting to his room. Other memorable characters include the excitable King of Cats, the dreamy Wise Cow, the chatty sunflowers, the story-craving Tiger, and my personal favorite, the Man in the Marmalade Hat.

Alice and Martin Provensen's award-winning illustrations bring out the whimsy in Willard's imaginary voyage. In a gentle way, the illustrations also pay tribute to Blake's penchant for illustrating some of his poems in a fantastic manner.  

THE WISE COW ENJOYS A CLOUD

"Where did you sleep last night, Wise Cow?

Where did you lay your head?"

"I caught my horns on a rolling cloud

and made myself a bed,

and in the morning ate it raw

on freshly buttered bread."

The book ends on a note worth sharing with every child. We used it as a journal prompt for Max's journaling today. His head was abuzz with all sorts of fantasies after we polished off this tasty book; itching to journal, ready to write, the words come to him like pigeons in the park nowadays.... 

Chasing butterflies:

• Listen to the delightful pieces composed by Dale Lyles for each poem in this book. We listened to each as we read the various poems and tried to describe what the music revealed about the poems.
• A Blake-illustrated version of "The Tyger", one of the poems penned by Blake which inspired this book (Finish the Book).
• Images and a few poem pages (The Marlowe Bookshelf).
• More images from the book (Masha du Toit).
• Blake's illustrated version of his poem, "Jerusalem" (Counterlight's Peculiars).
• Companion poems with original illustrations from Songs of Innocence and Experience. 
• Nancy Willard bio (Poetry Foundation).
• Life of William Blake, an interesting endeavor by Anne Gilchrist.

A pointillism study and activity.

Our recent roamschooling adventure at Topiary Park really inspired us to learn more about Georges Seurat and his pointillist painting technique. We started with color theory and looked at a simple color wheel, focusing on the primary colors of red, blue, and yellow, before getting into the nuts and bolts on this awesome printable. 

To really be able to see all the hues of the colors, we took watercolors, paintbrushes, water, and our printable outdoors to explore color theory. The sunlight revealed the warm and cool tones in our paint colors.

We played around with secondary colors, warm and cool colors, and then learned how to discern complimentary colors and analogous colors using the color wheel. 

Then we turned to the art of Georges Seurat. Our memory was refreshed by this printable Seurat bio, which Max read aloud as Micah screamed at the top of her lungs. We also re-read this glossary to brush up on the terminology we would be using in our discussions.

It was the year 1886, and the impressionists, including Monet, were the high kings of art. Seurat was only 26 years old when he debuted La Grande Jatte, scandalising the establishment with his new techniques and style that broke from impressionism and led to the coinage of a new term, "Neo-impressionism", to describe Seurat's work.

Early in his career, Seurat's paintings were shaped by the law of contrast as explained in the writings of Mr. Chevreul. He observed that just as dark and light oppositions enhance each other, any color is likewise heightened when placed beside its “complimentary color” —located on the opposite side of the color wheel. When the complements red and green are put side by side, for instance, the red will seem redder and the green, greener.

Seurat was also aware of how the optical mixture of colors in the eye was different from their mixture on the palette. Juxtaposing related shades of a color on a canvas (yellows and greens for example) will create a more vivid and luminous effect than if the colors had been blended on the palette. This "divided color" effect underlies the pointillist technique. 

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grande Jatte- 1884

In La Grande Jatte, Seurat welcomed controversy. He knew that Monet had painted several canvases there in 1878, including Springtime on La Grande Jatte, which Seurat undoubtedly saw when they were shown in the fourth Impressionist exhibition in 1879. In setting up for his painting, Seurat prepared the scene as if it were a theatre. He used 3 dogs, 8 boats, and 48 people who congregate on a Sunday to enjoy and parade around in “nature.” What looked like a nonchalant scene was a actually a carefully staged one.

Seurat's "dot" technique was used flexibly. He used different-sized dots to create different effects and color depth. His brushstrokes also varied to emphasize differnt forms. For example, close, parallel strokes define the contour of the woman’s bustle while the sunlit grass reveals short, even strokes laid over one another. 

Pointillism refers to the technique of using dots of pure color in such a way that, seen at the appropriate distance, they achieve maximum luminosity. How does pointillism really work? Do the little dots blend to create different colors from a distance? Max was full of questions. We decided to try our hands at pointillism to see for ourselves...

• Does the divided color effect work? If it does, then we should be able to get brighter hues of color by a series of dots (or blobs) of varying primary colors optically intermingled in the spectator’s eye to create these varying hues of secondary colors like green and orange.
• How do different dots shapes and brushstrokes produce different effects?

For Max to learn Seurat's technique and experiment with its results, we used this printable outline coloring page of A Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of La Grand Jatte. 

Max uses a pencil eraser and watercolor paints to fill in the trees with various shades of green and yellows. He then used the tip of a paintbrush for some parts of water and to fill in the smaller pieces of the painting.

A work in progress.

Given piano lessons and other Friday follies, we didn't have time to finish. Hopefully, we'll get back to those shadows tonight. But we did learn some very important lessons from our pointillist painting.

1. A pointillist needs a big canvas. Seurat used a canvas which measured 6 ft 10 in x 10 ft 1 in for La Grande Jatte. You need lots of space to make tiny dots. Lots of space and lots of time.
2. The colors blend beautifully from a distance. The closer you get to a pointillist painting, the less romantic and beautiful it appears.
3. Color and light, color and light. Like the refrain in Stephen Sondheim's musical, Sunday in the Park with George, pointillism is all about color and light and the way they combine. Our color wheel was the most important tool for this exercise.

A dance party with kids on a rainy day.

The weather limits our choices again today. Or maybe it just brings dancing and music into sharp relief. Why not dance? If you'd like to join us, just right-click on the image with song titles to download the song and host your own dance party.

skip to my lou is a traditional American folk dance in which partners usually swing around and trade off for other partners. First we practiced skipping across the room using the cues "step-hop, step-hop." Then, without the music, we skipped in a straight line towards our partner, reciting “step-hop, step-hop" until we reached our partner. When we faced each other, we froze in place. Then we linked arms and skipped, turing clockwise in a circle. 

Then we added music to the mix. On the words “Skip to My Lou”, we skipped across the room towards our partners. When we reached our partners, the verses began and we linked arms and skipped in circles.

Afterwards, we engaged in the customary folk dancing practice of acknowledging our partner by bowing (for boys) or performing a curtsey (for girls). 

imagining we are lining tracks For this song, we talked about how men used to sing as they lined railroad tracks, which involved lifting heavy pieces of wood and coordinating when you would drop them together. Track lining songs are an important part of our shared history here in the South. 

As we listened to the song, everybody "lined tracks". For further exploration, you can learn more about railroad ties and track-lining here.

hobbit dancing is a pretty wide-open dancing activity. We talked about hobbits and their small size and how this might inform their dancing style. We also got a little inspiration from this wild hobbit dance video. Then we just listened to the music and let our inner hobbits call the shots.

Snowden's Jig is described in the music liner as a "Genuine Negro Jig". For this dance, we tried to learn how to dance an Irish jig with some help from our friend the internet. A traditional Irish jig is a series of hops and steps that repeat themselves over and over again. The steps are simple, either stepping forward or taking steps backwards, but the hops can require some practice in getting the timing and coordination right. The best way to practice getting it right is to make sure that you are listening well to the music.

The beat is fast, so you'll want to make small steps and hops at first in order to maximize your chances of getting in all the steps on the beat of the music. Here is a step-by-step:

1. Point your left foot in front of you. Step onto your left foot and bring your right foot into a closed position behind it, transferring your weight onto your right foot.

2. Bring your left toe up to your right knee as you hopSwing your left leg so that your left knee is pointing in front of you and your foot is by your right knee---this is also done while hopping.

3. Place your left foot on the ground behind you: the first of four steps backwards, left, right, left, right. Your weight should now be on your right foot, so that you can point your left foot in front of you---you're back to the beginning!

Unfortunately, I was too busy dancing to take any photos, but I'm walking on sunshine.

Exploring nonsense verse and funny poetry.

Our study of limericks and Edward Lear led us to naturally to a place where Max wanted to learn more about "funny poems" and inventing your own words in poetry. 

The best way to study poetry is to engage it completely by reading it again and again. We read the following:

1. My Pet Germs by Kenn Nesbitt
2. The Mule by Ogden Nash
3. The Mule by Douglas Florian
4. Today is Very Boring by Jack Prelutsky
5. I Lost My Invisible Puppy by Jack Prelutsky
6. The Jumblies by Edward Lear
7. Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat by Lewis Carroll
8. The Crocodile by Lewis Carroll

And then we strolled through each poem again, scoping out the scenes and sets like naturalists in a new ecosystem. Each poem has its own background, its own creatures, its own verities unique to its world.

"My Pet Germs" combines a simple rhyme scheme with a fun idea- the thought of germs as pets- to create a poem you can enjoy. Nesbitt uses words like "epidermis" to lighten the mood; using scientific jargon is a clever way to add humor to a poem, especially when it seems silly.

• Make a list of ten scientific terms that sound funny to you and save them for later when we write funny poems. They can be a great resource. 

"The Mule" poems describe interesting aspects of an animal, the mule, using few words and great rhymes. A rhyme scheme is a regular pattern of rhyme, one that is consistent throughout the poem. Poems that rhyme without any regular pattern can be called rhyming poems, but only those poems with an unvarying pattern to their rhymes can be said to have a rhyme scheme. For example, a very simple rhyme scheme is used in Nash's mule poem- he uses AA. Both lines rhyme.

Generally, Ogden Nash liked to use the AABB rhyme scheme. Douglas Florian uses an AAAA rhyme scheme for his mule poem. You can explore rhyme schemes further or, if you understand how they are noted with letters, you can try your hand at the activity.

• Write your own short and sweet mule poem using an AABB rhyme scheme or an AAAA rhyme scheme.

"Today Is Very Boring" pokes fun at the idea of being "bored". Prelutsky is pointing out that it isn't the day that is boring but rather the child who sees it as boring. I like to tell my kids- There are no boring moments, only bored people. Prelutsky starts with a statement and then uses his entire poem to show how it isn't true. 

• Can you trace Prelutsky's rhyme scheme in this poem?

"I Lost My Invisible Puppy" makes use of the rhyme scheme ABCB and words that mean of the opposite of what the narrator in the poem is trying to say. By the end of the poem, we realize that you can't lose a puppy you could never really see in the first place. 

• Make a list of the adjectives and words Prelutsky uses to suggest how invisible this puppy must truly be. 
• Jack Prelutsky, king of funny poetry, explains how to write a funny poem in this handout. Write your own funny poem using his recipe.

"The Jumblies" describes a fantastic adventure of Lear's invented characters, the Jumblies, in a drain sieve. Lear invents his own words to fit his invented characters. He also makes a lovely illustration to help us imagine the Jumblies.

• Make a list of Lear's invented words and try to define them.
• Create an encyclopedia entry for "Jumblies". Look in an encyclopedia for examples.
• Write your own poem that invents characters which live in the gutters of you home or apartment and only come out when it rains and they are "washed" out. Invent your own words and verbs to describe their actions.

"Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat" is Lewis Carroll's take on a classic poem by Jane Taylor. Carroll pens a funny poem by merely substituting a few of his own words for words like "star" and "are". He maintains the AABB rhyme scheme.

• Sing Carroll's version of the classic poem to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".
• Write you own twinkle poem that begins "Twinkle, twinkle little....." and keep to the AABB rhyme scheme.

"The Crocodile" uses the last line of the poem as a punchline. We are surprised to learn what he does with the fish. The ABAB rhyme scheme gives the poem a fun reading rythm, while Carroll's personification of the crocodile makes him come alive as an image.

• Print and color this page with Carroll's crocodile.
• Try to write your own rhyming poem that personfies an animal and ends with a funny or surprising punch line.

104 printable freebies better than....

 A free mp3 to play while you browse, dawdle, and print.

HOMEMADE WINE - The Ozark Mountain Daredevils (mp3)

I love how the web allows me to print so many things I could never find in our local bookstores or boutiques. Too bad we always seem to be out of printer ink. Next time I get that ink cartridge refilled, these pages will be inching out of Sally, our discombobulated first-wave feminist printer. But only if Sally agrees. Sometimes I do so wish Sally would get with the times.... Why does my printer have to be waves behind?

On a different note, you know I love you if I link to you. Please excuse the rush which kept me from typing out individual website names for all the amazing creators and creatives that make this world a prettier place. 

1. Winter birds perfect for garland.
2. Math benchmark activites. 
3. Robot coins.
4. 2011 calendar to print and doodle with special days you remember, fun trips, and memories from the year going by.
5. Traveling seeds lesson plan. 
6. Fall poems.
7. How to write a funny poem by Jack Prelutsky.
8. Whimsical watercoloring pages. Or that's how I would use them.
9. DIY origami heart love note.
10. Thanksgiving printable rings.
11. Hidden picture color by numbers.
12. I love fall.
13. ASL flashcards.
14. Make your own board game.
15. Alphabet adventure book. 
16. How to make friends with old socks activity sheet.
17. Coloring page background for sock monster show.
18. Color theory handout in the ABCs of Art Theory.
19. I am poem activity.
20. Summer fruit labels and gift tags.
21. Canning party printables.
22. Mini notebook cover.
23. Lemonade attaches.
24. Teacup notecard.
25. Muppet puppets plus tutorial for muppet theater.
26. Paper airplane cards.
27. Beautiful bookplates.
28. Emily Dickinson quote and illustration by Sarah Parrott.
29. Feed your soul art downloads so pretty I couldn't pick.
30. Backpack activity.
31. Happy tickets to work with Dr. Sears' rewards.
32. Peanut butter loves jelly mini notebook and card.
33. Beirut zoetrope for Elephant Gun.
34. Stitch it up baby stationary set.
    
35. September calendar shadowbox.
    
36. Quiltalogue, a mini glossary of quilt terms.
    
37. M is for mouse preschool printables.
38. Pros and cons planner.
39. Fox bookmark.
40. L is for leaf preschool printables.
41. Lowercase alphabet color by number alphabet.
42. Bookworm booklet.
43. Clone trooper stencil.
44. Lovebirds CD cover.
45. Monsieur and madame gift tags.
46. Personal library kit.
47. Daily reading logs. 
48. Guide to drawing the body. 
49. 1 inch printable math circles. Or coasters.
50. Tu bishvat activity book. 
51. Milk carton stationary set.
52. Places to go journaling page.
53. Je t'aime coffee cup wrappers because there should be more than one valentine a year.
54. Castle peeps book plates.
55. DIY citrus stripe boxes.
56. Greek alphabet blocks just because.
57. Sewn with love gift tags.
58. Jingerup recycling labels to stick on things.
59. Clean-cut paper dolls that you can design.
60. ABC cards, a clever sweet gift.
61. Nabiki party envelopes and invitations.
62. Party and hooray gift tags.
63. Illustrated recipe cards.
64. Pie addict badges.
65. Felt shapes and robots template.
66. Mountains into molehills worksheet for people of all shapes and sizes.
67. Don't eat Pete game.
68. Small plant markers. 
69. Party guest book.
70. Bird love letters, adult version.
71. Bird love letters, munchkin version.
72. Finger print cards.
73. Vintage youngster yardstick to measure lil' ladies.
74. Sheet music for "Proud Like A Mountain".
75. Animal sewing cards.
76. Iron-on robot and owl. 
77. Weather coloring zine.
78. Bottle cap labels or little circles with numbers 1-50 to use with kids.
79. Moustaches and other dandy photo booth props.
80. Olliegraphic thank you cards.
81. Stumpy November mini calendar.
82. 60 ways to build community.
83. How to really love motherhood.
84. A week in the life sheets.
85. Sweet sketchy gift tags.
86. Magnetic lunch chart. 
87. Vintage concentration game.
88. Dress-up paper doll for all ages.
89. Camilla Engman holiday tags.
90. Kids luggage tags which I should get around to making.
91. Made with love jam topper for all your canning needs.
92. Humpback whale handout.
93. What's in that habitat activity.
94. How to draw Halloween characters.
95. Everything you need for a rollerskating monster party. Or just a monster party.
96. Free People September calendar because every single remaining day should be marked with beauty.
97. How to make a teepee activity sheet.
98. Bug hunt activity sheet.
99. Daily reading logs.
100. Little paper houses to hang from trees.
101. This belongs to tag.
102. Gnome favor tags.
103. Rustic woodsy numbers set. 
104. Love and thanks card. Love and thanks to all who share their gifts with us.

"The Swing", a limerick by Max Coryell.

Hanging out in our massive magnolia tree between rain showers.

THE SWING 

There was a young boy named Max,

Who had a swing made of wax;

    But when he jumped off,

    He flipped and he coughed,

And landed straight on some tacks.

    - Max Coryell (a.k.a. Nisse Gnome)

You can download and print your own I LOVE LIMERICKS LESSON PLAN created with love by yours truly. Max had a great time with it this afternoon and did plenty of limerick writing. My unsung love affair with Edward Lear is written all over it. Anyone whose name rhymes with "queer" is bound to be a dear, 'tis clear.

Not to mention if you've never seen his illustrations and botanical discoveries, including the famous Manypeeplia Upsidownia....

Chinese hanging lantern craft.

SUPPLIES

• A 12x18 sheet of construction paper, cardstock, or watercolor paper 
• 3 pieces of string, twine, or yarn about 1 ft long
• White masking tape or clear packing tape
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Hole-puncher
• Pencils
• Watercolors
• Strip of fabric scrap (optional)

MAKE A CHINESE HANGING LANTERN

Begin by drawing or sketching Chinese ornamentation on a sheet of paper. This is an opporunity to explore the intricate designs and ornamentation of Chinese art and illustration. You can use books for inspiration. Explain to your children how the paper will be rolled into a lantern so a drawing of a ship won't show up as a ship. Flowers, vines, rocks, skinny little trees with flowering branches, birds, and Chinese lettering are great motifs for your Chinese lantern. 

Max used a book of Chinese fairy tales to find inspiration. He sketched blackbirds and rocks.

Once you have decided on a motif, you can use watercolor paints to add color to your drawing. Then hang your painting up to dry and wait a few hours before continuing.

Once the paper has competely dried, fold the paper in half lengthwise with the painting on the inside. 

Use a ruler and a pencil to lightly draw a straight line 1 1/2 inch from the open edges of the paper. This will be the stopping line when you are cutting the openings for the lantern. 

Starting at the folded edge, use scissors to cut a straight line up to the stopping mark. Keep making similar cuts that are spaced about an inch apart.

Now you are ready to put your lantern together. Unfold the paper and fold it lengthwise again, only this time make sure the painting is on the outside. This folding will allow your lantern to billow outwards. Now use a piece of tape at each end to connect the uncut edges to form the top and bottom of the lantern. 

Use your hole-puncher to make 3 evenly-spaced holes around the top edge of the lantern. Then tie a piece of string through each hole in the lantern connect all the strings at the top with a strip of scrap fabric. And hang it somewhere special.

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs.

Or something equally profane in meteorological terms. We took a few minutes to watch the cars and clouds and dogs strut by. Max did some journaling about an incredible letterboxing cache he is planning. He looks so much like 7-year-old-Alina in this photo because that Alina always bit her tongue between her teeth when writing in her journal.

My Grand Bunicu used to tell me that I'd get "a nest of flies on the tongue" if I didn't put it back in my mouth. Little did he know the amazing images my young mind conjured when the words "a nest of flies on the tongue" were uttered in the magical Romanian language. Compared to English (or American), the language of Sunday school and multiple-choice tests and reasonable expectations, Romanian was the secret, magical tongue- the language in which there were words and places and feelings that could not pass over the border into my America, the language of romance and history and smoky rooms. I wonder if the children will pick up a smattering of Romanian when we visit next month. I wonder what they think- what Romanian evokes- when it slips over their auditory nerves.

Max works on his letterboxing acrostic.

Micah and Milla and their latest debate.

Today's favorite toy.

The Tuscaloosa Poems for Peace Prize.

Circles of Peace is sponsoring a Poems for Peace Prize which awards $200 to two creative young people who write interesting, moving, and poignant poems on the topic of peace and peacemaking. Share near and far within 50 miles of Tuscaloosa County line. Hey, that's far enough for some folks down here...

The art of natural dyeing.

Cobbled Together lit a spark under my kettle last night. As the fall nip sets in, eco-dyeing with the children suits our "study style". Brenna used a recent trip to the rocky coasts of Normany to dye Eco-Colour style with locally sourced fabric, water, rust and plant matter.

Brenna lays out hydrangeas.

The wind fall collection is laid out.

Rolled, twisted, tied with twine, and boiled.

Resurrection Fern's mushrooms ready for spore printing.

The world of eco-dyeing is as large and unbound as the upcycling century. There is so much to learn and play, and so many mavens willing to share and teach. 

• Brenna eco-prints linen with copper coins.
• Lisa's expertise with mushroom dyeing warms the spirit here and here and here
• Tinctory uses ice flowers to lovely effect here and here.
• Judy's goldenrod dye experiments summon the gold.
• Resurrection Fern's dye journals are to die for. As are the entries for her dye journal contest.
• The Natural Dyes Notebook explains rust dyeing and indigo dyeing.
• Lisa shows us how to dye with acorns.
• Tinctory reveals how she uses an indoor fermentation vat to create rich colors.
• Judy brightens old lace with lemon juice and light.
• The Natural Dyeing Network on ning is filled with resources and inspirations- well worth the join.

Linear thinking is a dull spear.

Color washed watercolor poetry craft.

Inspiration: The Quill Sisters' beautiful rendition of "The Lion".

Reading poetry brings out vivid images and colors, especially for children who are often more visually-inclined. This craft emerged from Max's tendency to remark upon the images in Shel Silverstein poems. 

COLORS, a poem by Shel Silverstein

My skin is kind of sort of brownish

Pinkish yellowish white.

My eyes are grayish blueish green,

But I'm told they look orange in the night.

My hair is reddish blondish brown,

But it's silver when it's wet.

And all the colors I am inside

Have not been invented yet.

SUPPLIES

• A piece of watercolor paper or card stock
• Watercolor paints, preferably in tubes
• A flexible foam brush
• A tissue paper or napkin
• Black ink pen or skinny black sharpie
• A copy of "Colors" or another brief Silverstein poem with vivid images
• A cup of water
• A cup of coffee for painting and drinking
• Oil pastel crayons

STEPS

First read your poem aloud, listening for its cadence and rhythm. Then write your poem on a piece of watercolor paper or card stock with thick black ink. Use handwriting that reflects the poem's sound to you.

Next choose a background color for your poem from the watercolors. Then dip your foam brush in water and paint and smooth it over the entire page. Notice the lovely variations in color as you wash the color across the page. Using foam brushes with watercolors allows you to make a quick color wash on paper.

Finally use your oil pastel crayons to draw or sketch an image that is communicated to you by the poem. You can draw anything that comes to mind when you read the poem. The pastels can be used on a wet paper- it will actually help them dry more permanently.

When you are finished, hang your poem to dry.

Read them fairytales.

A little Yeats goes a long way, especially since this book clears up the legends surrounding that strange creature called the "banshee".

A lesson in nursery rhymes.

Studying poetry begins in the cradle (or the family bed). The first poem we hear is probably a nursery rhyme- a brief, often silly, wacky imagining with an easy rhyme. So we are all exploring nursery rhymes today.

The Mysterious Mother Goose

 The most famous author of nursery rhymes is Mother Goose, but no one agrees as to her actual character. Did she live in New England or in France? A book of poems for children entitled Mother Goose's Melody was published in England in 1781, and the name "Mother Goose" has been associated with children's poetry every since.

The History of Nursery Rhymes

They come from many different places. Some were meant to be recited as part of a game, like a grown-up saying "Pat-a-cake" while a little one claps along or like children singing a rhyme while jumping rope. Others were originally written for adults and describe actual people and events from history. Many have hidden meanings that mock kings or other unjust rulers who held power a long time ago. These poems were penned carefully and secretly so that no one could ever be sure whom the poems were actually about. Direct criticism of kings and rulers was considered treasonous so nursery rhymes offered a way for common people to dissent without being held responsible for their opinions.

Other nursery rhymes don't mean anything in particular. Instead, they reveal the power and fun of stringing words together in a way that pleases the ear and evokes silly images. A rhyme associates words with similar sounds using a rhyming couplet or short verse. It is short and easy to remember, which allowed it to be passed on verbally from generation to generation when many people were unable to read or write. 

Nursery rhymes gained permanence around the year 1570, when they began to be printed in England. Printing allowed the production of books and cheap pamphlets, or chapbooks. A chapbook is "a small book or pamphlet containing poems, ballads, stories, or religious tracts". More people during this time were learning to read but the chapbooks were also popular with people who could not read as they contained pictures, in the printed form of crude wood engravings - A Middle Ages equivalent of a Children's comic! So the Nursery Rhyme was then passed from one generation to the next by word of mouth and in a printed format. Now let's explore a few nursery rhymes. 

Higglety, Pigglety, Pop

Higglety, pigglety, pop!

The dog has ate the mop;

The cat's in a flurry,

The cow's in a hurry,

Higglety, pigglety, pop!"

Samuel Goodrich wrote this rhyme in 1846 as an example of how silly and worthless nursery rhymes could be. He believed that nursery rhymes were bad for children and encouraged foolishness. You can read a scathing review of nursery rhymes by Goodrich online and see how he poked fun at them- this rhyme emerges at the very end. Unfortunately for Mr. Goodrich, his nursery rhyme meant to mock nursery rhymes has become a nursery rhyme classic. The joke is on him.

Little Miss Muffet

Little Miss Muffet

Sat on a tuffet,

Eating her curds and whey;

Along came a spider,

Who sat down beside her

And frightened Miss Muffet away.

A tuffet is a little stool. Curds and whey is a soup-like mixture of milk with bread or oats. It was a very common meal for children long ago. In fact, some people consider it the predecessor of cereal. Look and listen.

This nursery rhyme is thought to have been written by Dr. Muffet, a famous 16th century expert in the study of spiders and insects, for his stepdaughter. You can imagine how eating her breakfast might have been difficult in a house where spiders and insects roamed freely. 

There Was An Old Woman

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.

She had so many children, she didn't know what to do.

She gave them some broth without any bread;

And whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

Supposedly, this rhyme is based on an actual woman, Elizabeth Vergoose, who lived in New England in the late 18th century. She had 6 children and 10 stepchildren. She is believed by some to be the original Mother Goose. Since whipping does not seem like a particularly loving way in which to cope with lack of food, Jordan Riak wrote a "kinder, gentler" version of this rhyme.

Alternate interpretations of this rhyme suggest it might have been written to poke fun at Queen Caroline and King George II.

How this rhyme was used in a Jello advertisement.

Old Mother Hubbard

You can read this longer rhyme online. It was written by Sarah Catherine Martin and first published in England in 1805. Interestingly enough, it is said that the author liked to talk a lot- in fact, she talked so much that people often tired of listening and told her to write it down instead. (Max commented on this: "Hey mom, that's what you say to me!") Ms. Martin finally sat down and write and this publishing hit was the result.

Crafts and Activities

• Print out this Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme Book and color, cut, paste, and staple according to instructions.
• Listen to Crispin Glover's reading of Little Miss Muffett at Speakaboos.
• Make a felt board for Old Mother Hubbard.
• Choose a nursery rhyme from above to "rewrite"- you can make it kinder, gentler, funnier, scarier, crazier, sweeter, happier, whatever suits your fancy. 

Make a poem page for The Old Woman in the Shoe. You will need paper, old magazines, scissors, glue, and crayons. Draw a shoe on a piece of paper, have little ones copy the rhyme near the shoe and then color in the shoe house. Take out old magazines and let them pick images of children to add to the overflowing shoe house. 

Max pasting his cut-outs to his shoe.

Micah's shoe is overflowing with colors and kiddos.

Max's shoe looks almost habitable.

Sources quoted in this lesson plan:

• Secret History of the Nursery Rhyme
• Le Roy, NY is the birthplace of Jello
• Little Miss Muffet entry on Wikipedia
• Old Mother Hubbard entry on Wikipedia

The Riverboxes Tributary Project rocked our world.

The parks around here would not stop beckoning with their luscious greens and rhumba-dancing butterflies. Today was the day we decided to try our communal hands at letterboxing. 

THE RIVERBOXES TRIBUTARY PROJECT BROCHURE

Max and I started at the flag (a.k.a. Old Glory) in our search for the Fissures and Fractures Riverbox. Max appreciated the riddling nature of the clues. We decided not to use GPS coordinates and to go by clues and words alone. Just when we thought we would never find it and decided maybe to go follow the mallards instead, Max spotted the installation. 

Max stared at the installation for a little while before finally realizing that something was inside it. He reached in and pulled out a nice plastic box containing a stamp, an ink-pad, a marker, and a special notebook with a design which mimicked the colors of the installation.

Max reads the instructions in the riverbox and then signs the notebook with his trail name, "Funny Face".

Since Milla wanted to hang out and nurse under a shady tree, Patrick and Max went to hunt the mysterious Nero3 Riverbox. On the search, they just happened to cross paths with a big old train.

Train on the brain.

"Where is this thing?" wonders Max.

The reward of finding the riverbox.

So now we are addicted to letterboxing. So addicted, in fact, that we made our way to Michael's to get stamps that very day. I love homeschooling! Where else could life retain its magic while being untangled and ordered into its constituent shapes?

Letterboxing with kids.

Letterboxing is a great way to teach children about maps, geography, history, and long-term gratification while hiking around this beautiful world. One might even go so far as to think that it was invented by wood nymphs as a way to play and interact with munchkins. What is it and why is Alina madly in love?

It is a national treasure hunt with pretend identities and aesthetic rewards plus the thrill and skill of orienteering. Some have called it "a thinking man's treasure hunt". According to Letterboxing North America: 

Letterboxers hide small, weatherproof boxes in publicly-accessible places (like parks) and post clues to finding the box online on one of several Web sites. However, clues to finding some of the most highly-sought boxes are passed around by word of mouth. There are about 20,000 letterboxes hidden in North America alone. Individual letterboxes usually contain a log book, an often hand-carved rubber stamp and may contain an ink pad. Finders make an imprint of the letterbox's stamp on their personal log book, and leave an imprint of their personal stamp on the letterbox's logbook .

The history behind letterboxing:

Letterboxing is said to have started in England in 1854 when a Dartmoor National Park guide, James Perrott of Chagford, left a bottle by Cranmere Pool with his calling card in it an an invitation to those who found the bottle to add theirs. Eventually, visitors began leaving a self-addressed post card or note in the jar, hoping for them to be returned by mail by the next visitor (thus the origin of the term “letterboxing;” “letterbox” is a British term for a mailbox). This practice ended in time, however, and the current custom of using rubber stamps and visitor’s log books came into use. It caught on in the US in 1998 after an article in Smithsonian magazine.

Thanks to this wonderful accessible website, I created a printable document to help you get started on letterboxing. Print, share, and make a day of it.

Some letterboxing trail names we found in Ohio.

And while you're at it... 

• Alabama letterboxes, locations and info on letterboxes all over the state
• Alabama mystery letterboxes
• AtlasQuest, one of the premier letterboxing sites online and very child-friendly. Create an account and add us as friends- CoryellCastle, of course.
• Letterboxing glossary includes terms and vocabulary used by letterboxers
• Code of Conduct, the implicit rules and conduct behind the game
• Silent Doug's website on letterboxing
• "Tina's Big Adventure", a story to introduce kids to letterboxing
• Online letterboxing game, allows kids to try their hand at compasses and orienteering
• Compassing 101, a how-to on using compasses in orienteering
• Letterbox with kids, a great little piece from trekaroo
• Letterboxing photo albums with kids, shows kids in action
• Letterboxing at National Geographic Kids
• How to plant your own letterbox, instructions and details
• Creating great letterboxes, tips and tricks of the trade

Craft but not least- letterbox crafts and activities to enthuse your munchkins:

• How to make your own letterboxing stamp from a rubber eraser, a great craft for kids
• How to make your own letterboxing stamp from foam stickies, an easy way to create stamps for little ones
• Stamp carving 101, a highly detailed tutorial
• Watercolor stamping tutorial
• Adding color before stamping tutorial
• Adding color after stamping tutorial
• Multiple stampings tutorial
• Stamp backgrounding tutorial
• Overlapping stamps tutorial
• Codex book-making tutorial so you can craft your own stamp collecting book
• How to care for ink pads

A pond study at the Homestead.

A splendid day for a pond study. We hung around The Homestead for a while, watching and feeding the ducks as Max journaled in his nature journal. He wrote about the various types of ducks, including the silverbacks. 

The entire crew notices that the cowgirl is pointing.

Milla loves to play with juiceboxes and straws.

Max sketches the ducks on the water and the grass at the pond shore.

Micah breaks bread with the ducks.

When we got home, Max wanted to know the scientific name for mallards, since they were on his birdwatching wish list for the year, but we couldn't find it in his bird book. So we ended up online, where we discovered some valuable mallard duck treasures, including this mallard duck information handout and this labeled coloring page of a mallard. 

Roam-schooling with an interior designer.

Since my stepmother is an interior designer, we decided to visit her office and learn more about her trade. We brought some flowers and created havoc for a few minutes as she gave us a tour and explained how interior designers work. For an interior designer, there is no such thing as an unimportant detail. So I took photos of the details in Stavroff Design.

A color scheme guide is a collage of samples of colors (paint, fabric, flooring, etc.) that a designer presents to a client.  This allows the designer to develop and map out the plan for color usage in a room, and it also allows a client to see how the style of the room will be defined in relation to the flow of color. Presentation boards play a large role in helping to orient the color scheme guide, as well as testing various fabrics and patterns in relation to the color scheme. Pamela explained that the board will usually have a draft drawing of the room design with fabric samples, paints, and tints alongside. 

Milla offers Pam a carpet for the board.

The extremely high walls end in skylights, which makes the room seem lit from within. The walls are covered with different fabrics and samples.

Row upon row of boxes with fabrics.

This board of different sized pieces of furniture and room details are cut like puzzle pieces from thick magnetic plastic. Pamela uses them to decide how a room should be set up and to simplify space planning.

An antique Italian leather portfolio.

An amazing mirror hanging in her office. I love how it centers the bookshelf.

A stunning ceramic icon.

A hand-paintd silk ceiling lamp from Italy.

Sketches enrich the walls.

Another fantastic mirror tosses light around the room.

Further child-friendly explorations of interior design and architectural design:

• Teaching Kids to Read A Ruler (ConnectEd)
• Creative Interiors Coloring Book, not free but neat nonetheless (CasaSugar)
• Introduction to Green Design Handout (American Institute of Architects)
• Drawing Like An Architect Activity (American Institute of Architects)
• Drawing to Scale Activity (American Institute of Architects)
• 5 Bridge Types Handout (American Institute of Architects)
• Understanding Lighting Activity (American Institute of Architects)
• Visual Survey Form (American Institute of Architects)
• Spatial Awareness Activity (American Institute of Architects)
• Green Design Solutions Teacher Guide (American Institute of Architects)

Gnomes are gnarly.

Gilgamesh the Gnome demonstrated a little spleen today. We chalked it up to the weather and the way the leaves are making his favorite toadstools inaccessible. We're on a gnome meme kick.

Read The Gnome, a Grimm Brothers fairy tale.

GETTING TO KNOW GNOMES HANDOUT

Use the Gnome Images handout and pictures cut from magazines, newspapers, and brochures to create a gnome village collage. Make sure to add an area where gnomes can meet and engage each other socially. Follow your fancies.

Gnome Tales:

• Gunnar and the Giant
• The Gnome, a fairy tale from Germany collected by Grimm Brothers
• The Venetian Gnome, a fairy tale from Switzerland

Crafty skilled gnome:

• A gnomey quilted glasses case (Craftster)
• Crochet a baby gnome hat (Craft Craft)
• Little gnome play-scape (Chocolate Eyes)
• How to craft a gnome (Craftzine)
• Knitted gnome home (Caffeine, kids, and knitting... in that order)
• Crocheted underpants gnome (Geekcrafts)
• Wool felt toadstools (Twig and Toadstool)

Crafty apprentice gnome:

• A family of twig gnomes (Twig and Toadstool)
• Paper gnome chains (Krakencrafts)
• Pine cone gnomes (Living Crafts)
• Gnome lawn-bowling game (Craftzine)
• Gnome birdhouse (Think Crafts Blog)
• 5 printable gnome paper toys to make (My Fantastic Toys)
• Painting garden gnomes (Living Raw)
• Boot gnome craft (Life Learning)
• Toadstools for the garden (Twig and Toadstool)

Play play play gnome:

• Gnome play (Crooked Moon Mama)
• Math with gnomes (The Adventure Learning Company)
• Dance to "The Laughing Gnome" by David Bowie
• Little bearded gnome costume (Family Fun)
• Math gnomes (Our Homeschool Journey)
• Waldorf with gnomes (Menagerie House)

A hunt for fairy abodes.

Today we went on a hunt for fairy abodes. To find fairies, we first needed to know more about how they live. We know that fairies, like all hidden folk, are usually all around us but remain invisible. This is partly because they are often active when we are sleeping or celebrating or doing other things.

Their time is the in-between time-- the space between seasons, like Halloween or early spring; the daily transition periods of dusk and dawn; and especially Midsummer Night’s Eve and Winter Solstice. On these days, time seems to stand still and shudder as the length of the day starts to reverse itself. That crack in time, that small disturbance in the order of the earth, allows hidden folk to make themselves known to us.

For there is nothing ordinary about the appearance of hidden folk or fairies. They show up when things are not as usual, when we encounter periods of being “in between”, when we stand on the threshold between experiences. These events can range from deathbeds to pregnancy, moments before entering the world after death and moments when you are carrying the child that has not yet made a mother of you.  All of adolescence is such a period because it is neither childhood nor adulthood-- it is the space in between both. 

Of course, there are some special humans who are gifted with what is called “second sight”. The second-sighted can see fairies all the time. Some say that the second-sighted are more likely to be born on a Sunday. Others suggest that you might gain second sight by rubbing an ointment of four-leaf clovers on your eyelids.

The hidden folk are truly everywhere. If you learn how and when to look, you’ll be able to see them on your travels, adventures, and even in your own neighborhood. And then, if you name them, legend has it that they will always belong to you or be at “your behest” in some way.

Before setting off in search of fairies, print the flower fairies handout below so you can learn more specifics about fairy houses, homes, and habitats.

Flower Fairies Handout

Since fairies reside in the in-between spaces, we decided to conduct our hunt for fairy homes in Dublin's Historic Cemetery. Graves are special liminal places where all sorts of supernatural and possibly hidden folk reside. These are a few of the possible fairy abodes which Max and Micah pointed out on our stroll.

Behind the little gravestones and rocks.

Hidden in the shady spots of the glen.

 

Swimming in the little log pool.

Visiting with the gnome who lives in this tree trunk.

Conversing between the cracks in this old grave stone.

Micah said "her fairy" lived "right here".

Playing between the clover and cracks.

The Hidden Folk: An excerpt and more to come.

I packed this book before we left because every trip should include an unexplored reading treasure. Little did I know that Gilgamesh would make it so timely. As I work on the printable version of this hidden folk unit study, I can't help wanting to share some of these beautiful stories with you right away, so you can tell them and take them and make something with them this weekend.

This is the story of the origin of the hidden folk, as told by Lise Lunge-Larsen in the introduction to this book. There are so many wonderful things to discuss and speculate about in this story. Max keeps looking for the exact place in the Bible where it would fit. Which makes me smile.

THE ORIGIN OF THE HIDDEN FOLK

 

When God expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, they settled down in the land to the east. They had a great many children, and Eve was frequently overwhelmed with all the work of looking after so many little ones. 

One morning, the Lord God surprised Adam and Eve with a visit. Eve was terribly embarassed because she was not yet a very good housekeeper. She was even more ashamed when God asked to see her children, for she had had only time to clean up two of them. The rest looked like a little band of ragamuffins, all unkempt and hair sticking out. 

Flustered, Eve hid away all the untidy little children and brought out only the two she had cleaned and dressed. 

“Here are my children, God,” she said. 

But, of course, God sees and knows everything, and He knew what Eve had done. Looking at her sternly, He said, “Those children who are seen shall continue to be seen, but those who are hidden shall forever remain hidden from sight.”

And so it was.

We are the descendants of Eve’s two clean and tidy children. Those who were hidden became the ancestors of all the hidden folk. They are really our siblings, our hidden selves.

 

Gilgamesh the Gnome.

According to Gilgamesh, he is a legendary creature who resembles a stocky, tiny, and (in his case, rather lanky) old man. He is the ruler of the forest and can be found underground or near rocks.

He is a hard worker who loves to put things in order and do odd jobs. Gilgamesh, like other gnomes, is a weather forecaster. He has an awesome sense of direction and maintains close contact with animals and wildlife. Gilly prides himself on being able to speak the language of any animal in his forest. He loves to dance and find reason to celebrate- any excuse for a party is fine by Gilly. 

Gilgamesh told us that by rubbing noses with him we can greet him hello and goodbye, as well as wish him a pleasant night. Even though he is tiny, Gilly is seven times stronger than the average human. Like many gnomes, he expects to live around 400 years. We are so happy that Gilgamesh decided to hang ten with us for a while. I wonder what else we will learn about gnomes from this rockin' little fellow....

A day at the Franklin Park Conservatory.

More rain and gray weather drove us to the Franklin Park Conservatory in search of green and plenty. It allowed us to feel as if we were enjoying the great outdoors. We wandered from habitat to habitat, through heady wisteria to the dry ache of cactuses. Max read the signs aloud to us while Milla mumbled additional commentary between sniffles and stuffy-nosed snorts. 

Learning about tropical rainforests and their abundance.

An art installation in the rainforest.

Cactii are not pretty. They just aren't. They look mean and crabby.

Max contributed "sour as a lemon" to this board.

Max fell in love with the Blooms and Butterflies exhibit, which allowed us to enter a habitat for over 2,000 butterflies of different shapes, colors, and persuasions. He struck up endless conversations with Audrey, who was manning the door to make sure that no butterflies "hitchhiked" out on the shoulders or purses of visitors.

My dad and I: Like father, like daughter.

This lovely flutterby is attracted to sweetly scented flowers.

Sweet Max found a butterfly with a broken wing and ran to report it to the museum staff. He was so upset, urging us not to touch it during his absence.

Chihuly and koi fish in the butterfly garden.

Max and Micah courting koi.

"Those fish are fatter than me," drawls Milla, from a few steps back.

Apart from plants and butterflies, we also found ourselves surrounded by the glasswork of Dale Chihuly. I'll confess that the bold colors and wacky shapes would have been an Alina-pleaser a few years ago but they fell rather flat and ostentatious on Alina today.

After stomping around the grounds, we savored some delicious local plants at the Harvest Thursday sampling, including some strange fruit that was a mix between a banana and a mango that I can't seem to remember. 

Dada Doru and the munchkins take a break in the butterfly garden whose path is shaped like a probiscus (that's a butterfly mouth, for those out on the lingo).

Roam-schooling Ohio.

While we are here, we're roamschooling the scene and sopping up Ohio history like syrup on a porous waffle. The free Ohio Coloring Book contains information and illustrations for trips in cars from here to there (as the rainy weather demands). It is also a great background for our local history as it includes geography.

We plan to visit the Ohio Statehouse and the Columbus Historical Society as a starting point for our wandering. Of course, backgrounding enriches the visits.

• Yellow Buckeye Tree printable, plantings, and craft.
• Lincoln crossword puzzle printable because Abe is big around these parts.

The Columbus Library has a website, Columbus Memory, devoted to local history which includes biographies, buildings, photos old and new, plus free lesson plans put together by members of the Columbus Historical Society. 

• The Ohio Statehouse Lesson Plan
• Family Life on the Frontier Lesson Plan
• Immigrants and Columbus: Then and Now Lesson Plan

A journal theme involving a gnome.

Sidewalks with all their little nooks and crannies and cracks and rumples from tree roots make wonderful places to imagine gateways to other worlds.

Love letter #16: Making pretty things from twigs and branches.

TIME OF THE PREACHER- Willie Nelson (mp3)

Travel paper plane mobile (Ruffled)

A gnome house (Something Made)

A wildflower weave (Child In Harmony)

A twig flower pot (Nini Makes)

A driftwood city (Alisa Burke)

Twig candle holder (Spearmint Decor)

Sparkly mobile (Shelterness)

Rustic wood star roasting sticks (Factory Direct Craft Blog)

A story stick (Butterfly Jungle)

Stick men (Red Ted Art's Blog)

Wooden sun craft (Wabi Sabi Wanderings)

Twig coasters (Martha Stewart)

Twig push pins and wall hooks (design sponge)

Twig picture holders (Re-Nest)

One bright branch (Shelterness)

Willow twig table (Instructables)

Exploring Indian Run Falls.

A splendid fall day. We printed up the Indian Run Falls Scavenger Hunt and Activity Guide and set off with my dad to explore the forests of Dublin with some grape juice, oranges, carrot bran muffins, and various items that might prove useful when hiking with munchkins.

Max searches for the mysterious "ghost tree" on his scavenger hunt.

A view of a perfect swimming hole surrounded by riffles.

The ravine walls are made from limestone.

Max and Micah hold hands along the trail.

The kids and I sneak off the trail to explore the river.

The last piece of the scavenger hunt led us to the old Wyandot Indian encampment near the waterfall. Max and I learned from our handout that the Wyandot believe they will return to their campgrounds in the afterlife. We didn't see any ghosts. Nor did we find the notorious "living rock" through which the Wyandot pygmies enter our world.

Max marveled at the Wyandot traditions and matriarchal cultural institutions- "Mom, the Wyandot women were in charge of EVERYTHING!", he exclaimed. 

Micah chimed in, "But Mommy is the boss, Max." Pace Patrick, little pitchers have big ears, big mouths, and pumpkin kisses.

Today's raspberry-related journal theme.

As we were strolling through Dublin yesterday, we happened to spot a raspberry bush growing in someone's yard! Oh the excitement! Bright ripe red raspberries, my favorite lipstick (next to cherries from the tree). We couldn't take any berries with us, but we did take a photo and the lingering desire for raspberries.

12 ways to play and explore with tangrams.

Grandma Vicki brought a lovely blue tangram for Max and then she told me that there was an actual Chinese legend or story about the origins of the tangram. So of course I had to find it.

Max and Grandma Vicki draw tangrams in his journal.

Or maybe they were playing Scrabble Slam at this point...

For sure they were playing.

Tangrams are ancient Chinese puzzles which consist of seven pieces each called a tan. There are many different legends which explain how tangrams came into being. One legend has it that a young man was walking into town carrying a square tile, when all of a sudden he tripped and fell. When he fell, the square tile broke into seven pieces ranging in shapes and sizes. The young man tried to put the tile back together, but unfortunately he wasn’t able to succeed at this task. Instead, he wound up creating pictures with all of the “puzzle pieces.”

Today tangrams are used in creating pictures, where all seven pieces must be used, and they must touch, but none may overlap. Besides creating pictures, tangrams are also used in storytelling, where tans show the shape of a character in a tale. 

Tangrams are a great way to play with shapes and learn to think geometrically. If you don't have a tangram set, I encourage you to print one, put it in a plastic bag, and keep it on hand for random explorations. More on tangrams and such:

1. Make tangram toast for breakfast.
2. Print this great big tangram pattern to use as you play and explore.
3. Print and read A Brief History of Tangrams, a printable Word Doc that offers two pages of fascinating information
4. Share The Tangram Legend, which explains the God of Thunder's role in the creation of tangrams.
5. Use the Constructing Tangrams Lesson Plan, which comes free from the Utah Education Network. Includes information about history as well as how to use tangrams and make your own.
6. Make some tangrams from these printables. Just print on cardstock or print and glue on cardboard.
7. Solve these 12 tangram puzzles.
8. Use tangrams to illustrate a favorite story or to illustrate a journal entry.
9. Make tangrams from craft foam.
10. Use the Legend of the Tangrams Lesson Plan to investigate the properties of two-dimensional shapes. This PDF document also includes worksheets and handouts on Tan, the son of the Chinese nobleman who dropped his tiles.
11. Enjoy the Tangram Print and Play.
12. Construct tangrams by folding and cutting. This fleshes out some of the geometrical properties of shapes involved in tangrams.

Today's journal theme.

I keep an ongoing list of daily journal topics for Max. When he doesn't feel like writing about his thoughts or his ideas, he asks me for a topic. Today he wanted a topic.

So Max journaled Pam's purse, which he believed might contain stuff that she used when she went shopping or went to work. I told him that you can learn a lot about a lady from what she carries- you can imagine what she thinks about, prepares for, where she goes, what she does. I encouraged him to really think about Pam as a person before he finished his entry.

Then we asked Pam to share the contents of her purse with us so we could see and understand her better. Pam's roles as a grandmother, mother, interior designer, wife, and lady really shone through in her purse.

Milla plays with the scale in Pam's purse.

Pam shows Max her design notebook, where she keeps notes and measurements on design.

Pam finds a photo for Max to sketch into her design notebook.

This is the photo Pam found....

And this is what Max sketched...

Pam also had chapstick, various wallets, a flashlight, a battery charger, and many other details that led Max to a revelation-- "So Mom, THIS is why women make such a big deal about having their purses...."

Love letter #15: Family trees, leaves, and ripening.

FAMILY TREE - Howling Owls

I love the word "ripening" as a descriptor of how our homeschooling is "progressing", mostly because it is not linear (like the word progress, which assumes a definite desirable end). Yes, my little ones are ripening. Thank you so much for asking. Are you ripening? 

I love Let's Explore's 10 ways to play in September printable, especially since it is not focused on the supposed autumn leaves which have not arrived in our neck of the woods. Fall still seems so far.

I love The Artful Parent's leaf and fern print tshirt how-to. So timely.

I am made slightly giddy by Jenny's thrifting finds and hoping to find some tasty Ohio thrifting during my visit.

I love this tutorial for making Montessori baric tablets. I wonder if Patrick will make these for us while we are on our little trip to Ohio.... I have a feeling he is reading this as I type.... Patrick, I love you and I hope your lips aren't chapped.

Ripening on the porch.

Max interviews Bunicu on the porch.

The flowers and golden sun prove distracting in a luscious sort of way.

Children are playing outside and girls are walking with young men along the walk. All that seems over for me. I am a pomegranate hanging from an invisible tree with the juice and movement of seed within my hard skin. I dress slowly. I hate the smell of clothes. I want to leave them off and just hang in the sun ripening.... ripening.

        Meridel LeSueur, Annunciation

Learning about the Wyandot Indians in Ohio.

At some point during this week, I hope we have a chance to learn more about the Wyandot Native American tribes so prominent in the history of this area. I created a homeschooling guide to a scavenger hunt and open-ended exploration of the Wyandots local to Dublin. Just right click to download.

Indian Runn Falls Exploration

20 great games and ways to play on a long car trip.

We eat together, sleep together, learn together, and craft together. If the family that plays together stays together, we will remain glued at the hips. Preparing for a long few car trips to and from Ohio, it always helps to remember that long car trips are difficult when your entire body wants to jump and wiggle with joy. 

The munchkins are outside enjoying a green hour or two on the swings and laughing at Gertie's "ballet" moves while I pack my mind and bags for our long drive to Ohio. Many of these are printable pdfs and only a few require you to prepare beforehand with more than just a print. I've noted next to each one what else you will need in addition to a print to make a car activity out of this. 

1. ABCs of art color theory page = printed page + crayons
2. I Am poem = printed page + pencil
3. Mrs. Nielsen's handout on the parts of a letter = printed paper + pencil
4. Math games = printed page + deck of cards
5. Foldables = printed page
6. Drawing ideas list = printed page + sketchbook + pencils + crayons
7. Crazy circles = plain paper + crayons
8. Fun ways to draw trees = printed page + blank paper or sketchbook + pencil or crayons
9. Make your own board game = printed page + pencils or crayons
10. Fabric dollhouse tutorial = the time to sew this beauty + little dolls and furniture
11. A ton of sketchbook ideas = printed page + sketchbook + pencil
12. Chocolate or cheese = printed page
13. How to do cat's cradle = printed pages + yarn or string
14. License Plate Game = printed page + pencil + paper
15. Cootie catchers = printed page + printed template + crayons or stickers
16. One Hour Travel Tickets = 5 copies of printed page + envelope or ziploc bag for each child + pencils + map
17. Wondertime car game = 10 printed pages + glue + scissors + cardstock
    
18. Paper bead necklaces = printed page + scissors + magazine pages or scrap paper + yarn or twine
    
19. Think and draw creative frames page = printed page + crayons + pencils
    
20. Make your own postcards = printed page + glue + scissors + craftings
    

Trips with travel tickets.

Inspired by that amazing Mom's Minivan, I created some travel tickets that the kids can use to keep up with our trip as we drive to Ohio. Since the baby might require more frequent nursing stops, our travel time is up in the air, which means that we are going to play this game backwards from the manner indicated by Mom's Minivan. Here's the rub:

I used plain priter paper to cut out some "tickets" for our trip. Then I wrote "Max's Trip Tickets" and "Micah's Trip Tickets" on two brown paper bags and let the kids have a go at them with crayons. As they colored, I explained:

Tommorrow we are going on a long drive from Tuscaloosa in the state of Alabama to Dublin in the state of Ohio. This bag is what you will use to store the "trip tickets" you accumulate as we go. Color your heart out.

Trip tickets will be handed out every hour we spend traveling. This drive usually takes about 10 hours without munchkins, but our experience might be merrier and a little longer. We'll see...

On each ticket, there will be space to write the hour we are on, how many hours we think we have to go, and the town or landmarks we are near at each hour. If you have been especially kind or shown great peace-making skills during that hour, I will draw a special sign on the back of your ticket. Each sign you earn will be redeemed for a candy of your choice at the candy store in Dublin upon arrival (if it is open, if not, when it opens).

When we arrive in Dublin, you can each draw a map of your journey on a big piece of craft paper color and paste trip tickets at various places along the way. Imagine your map as we drive. Add cool things you want to remember to your sketchbooks. And keep good track of your trip tickets so you can redeem them for candy (if they have the special surprise sign) or add them to your map.

Max had great questions about what exactly counts as behavior worthy of reward with a special sign on a trip ticket. I'm so glad he forced me to clear this up now as opposed to on the drive when things could get sticky.

So, Max has a great question. What behavior will earn a special sign on your trip ticket? If you are kind and caring to your siblings and adults in the car- kindness does not include screaming at each other, using your body to hurt or upset others, or thinking only of your own demands and wants- you will get a special sign. We will ALL want something on the drive and we have to decide which "want" is worthy voicing. I'm not going to give special signs to make you feel good or because you want them- I'm going to give special signs because you earn them. 

Or something like that. If you'd like to print your own travel tickets to turn into a journey map, just download the pdf document below.

One Hour Travel Tickets printable (8 tickets to a page)