Make Something Day 2011

Make Something Day, the antidote to Black Friday, is this week!  I'm feeling a little behind this year.  But maybe I do every year.

Since all of our family live in other states and only one or two relatives will end up venturing this far for Christmas, I need to get gifts in the mail by December 10th.  The kids and I haven't even begun our homemade items this year.  Google is being my friend tonight.  On Wednesday we're hitting the road for a short getaway and I want to be able to take some things with us that we can work on.

Last year we made several things to give as gifts.

1: Paint Your Own Pottery:  This outing was also co-op with our homeschool group.  Each boy picked a male in the family to paint a trophy cup for.  Their dad uses his for pocket change.

2: Hemp Trivets:  Hot glue, a cork square, a lot of hemp cording and even more patience helped J make these for his female family.

3: Truly Handmade Cards:  B drew this leaf design in art class. I wish you could see it up close because there's a ton of little design work in it.  We copied and shrunk it down and printed it on cardstock, he stamped and cut and assembled notecard sets to give to Grandmas and Aunts and friends far away.  Signed the by the artist and totally cool.

4: Homemade Granola:  I used two recipes, Maple Walnut and Coconut Almond, packed a few cups worth into clamp canisters and gave them out to all of dh's co-workers.

5. Fleece Pillow:  For my sports fan son, I thought it was time for his Thomas the Tank engine pillow to grow up, so I covered it with a football motif fleece fabric. Easy.  And he hasn't even missed Thomas.

6: Framed Brochures:  In the summer of 2009, dh took me on an 8 day trip to Great Britain.  I saved all the ephemera from the trip and finally did something with it. I cut these brochures and maps and train tickets all down to the same size, centered and adhered them to a mat and framed them.  It hangs in our office to remind us to do it again someday.

7: Felt Tissue Covers:  This was the boys biggest project.  Not only did they send them to relatives, but they passed them out to all their teachers at their Friday classes and anyone else they could think of.   It was a  simple piece of felt, cut to size with pinking shears, folded over and hand stitched along the edges with a little monogrammed applique.  My boys really love to hand stitch.  This was perfect for them.

What are you making this year?  I'd love to hear your ideas.
Here are some sites I'm drawing inspiration from this year:
sew mama sew
etsy.com
studioofmae.blogspot.com
www.marthastewart.com/275134/handmade-gifts-for-her/@center/307035/santas-workshop
www.myrepurposedlife.net/

Have a happy Thanksgiving.

A Step I am Thankful For

Self-Improvement

You home schooling moms know that doing something just for you is not easy. We put so much into our kids that we put personal aspirations on the back burner or we let ourselves go entirely. Personally, due to fairly recent changes in our life story, I am in a process of becoming myself... that person that I knew God had in mind for me is now actually becoming me.

Therefore, a couple months ago I decided to take step one and get out of this rut of self-deprecation before it ruined me. Three times a week I go to a Tae Bo gym. And good things have come out of it.

1. I get to get out of the house for three hours a week.
2. Instead of constantly giving I get to receive something for an hour.
3. I do not have to be the expert. Someone else teaches me and I'm glad to listen.
4. I do not have to talk (or nag or repeat myself) for an entire hour.
5. My clothes fit much, much better.
6. As a mother of boys I think I should learn well how to punch and kick. :-)
7. When I come home I'm a different mom.
8. A homeschooling mom-friend of mine is now coming with me and she likes it too.

I hope to add more steps to my "me" process. But this works for now.

An Opportunity I am Thankful For

The Opportunity to Fail

As many homeschoolers do, my kids learn to a level of mastery. We just keep exploring a subject until I feel they have a level of familiarity that merges with their real world experience. (i.e. I try to help them answer the question, "Why should I know this?") In this scenario they always succeed. Awarding grades, therefore, is moot.

This week, my oldest son had the opportunity to "fail." During his theater class, he had the chance to develop a very short play based on Charlotte's Web. I went to watch their production and it, frankly, did not go well. Lines were forgotten, few props and costumes were prepared, backs to the audience, lots of unintentional movements. My son emerged from his class to say, "We will probably get the worst grade of all the groups." He's thinking, "This sucks. " But I'm thinking, "So what?"

He learned something and he's not done learning theater yet. Grades, at this point, are counterproductive for him. There is still more skill and content to learn and the timeline for doing so is not yet up (will it ever be?). But the fact that he has self-impressed himself to move toward a better grade is an opportunity he does not get at home. I'm interested to see where this motivation will take him.

We are Very Thankful

...for a perfect trip from Portland to our new home in Colorado.
...for friends who helped us load and new friends who helped us unload.
...for the send-off from our evergreen community.
...for snow and sun and snow and sun.
...for four wonderful meals and the new friends who brought them.
...for Home Depot.
...for the sewage overflow in our new basement that wasn't as bad as it could have been.
...for Spring Break over Holy Week.
...for the anticipation of meeting everyone at our new TNL community.
...for Chip's first day doing the thing he was designed to do.

A Perk I'm Thankful For

Non-Traditional Days Off.

It’s finally happening. DH and I haven’t been away by ourselves for 4 ½ years. The kids have been to my parents’ overnight without us, however we have always just stayed at home (and missed seeing them in their beds at night). But next week we get two days AWAY and the kids are staying here. I get two days and nights with my man (and two days and nights without cooking or cleaning or internet or t.v.) and they get two days off school. Everybody wins. Except maybe my parents who are kind enough to come stay with them. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

An Author I'm Thankful For

Carol Barnier.

She wrote How to Get Your Child off the Refrigerator and on to Learning and I picked it up when I was beginning J in first grade. It was just the grace I needed to teach my highly distractible son without feeling like I was doing it wrong. She encouraged me to let him move, cut out the writing, and make a lot of manipulatives -- particularly out of 3x5 cards which I still stock up on every year. While other books like to blame the parents for their child’s inability to focus (not going to name names here) her personal experience gave me grace and encouraged me to see my child for the gift that he is. I’m so very, very grateful for her book and for the occasions I’ve had to be in her workshops. It’s made a huge difference in our journey.

A Tool I'm Thankful For

A Whiteboard.

I started homeschooling without one because I thought it was too schoolish. I didn’t want to mimic a classroom per se. But sometime in our sixth year dh brought a free one home from his work remodel and I’ve been so thankful for it ever since then.

I used to spend so much time looking for scratch paper on the spot to check that math problem for J, illustrate a point, or to write out a word for B to copy. J also wanted lists of what to expect for the day and when I printed them out that paper always got lost. I was always looking for something to write on. And as I scoured they would be turning upside down in their chair or wandering off.

Enter the whiteboard. It is always free and in front of us. It keeps our academic to-do list handy and we can wipe each item away after we complete it. J can practice penmanship and math, B can do copywork from it, we can make sketches before we do our actual drawings and when it’s not in use the toddler can “color” on it and clean up after himself when he’s done.

It’s a simple thing but I’m thankful for it.
What are your favorite tools?