Homeschooling - Halloween Math

Frankies (and Mummies) arithmetic from No Time for Flash Cards

Haunted house and ghosties arithmetic from Pre K and K Sharing - we modified to be a haunted house drawn on the white board, simple addition equations are under the ghosties.  J really liked making the materials for both of the exercises!  It helped motivate him to do the math - which he normally will resist - the combo of the monsters he made and the new activity interested him and he focused and enjoyed it.

Pink Cake with Strawberries

Somebody is turning FOUR (with one candle to grow on).

I made a pink ombre cake.  Now, I don't think that ombre necessarily belongs everywhere.  Don't hate me, but neither do chevrons!   But this seemed like a pretty ok place for a bit of ombre.  You have to make the layers anyway, why not distinguish between them? 

The cake itself is the yogurt orange cake from a tattered old copy of the very first Moosewood cookbook.  It makes a nice moist cake with a good crumb and you can flavor it anyway you like.  And, you know, despite the cup of butter in it, it also has yogurt, so it's kind of good for you, right?

The frosting is not good for you at all, but oh so good.  A stick of butter, 8oz of cream cheese, a tsp vanilla and a Tbsp lemon juice, and 2-3C powdered sugar depending on how stiff you need it.

Can I just say my little girl's eyes rolled around a little in her head when she saw how big and how pink her cake was?  AND it had strawberries?  AND a surprise amount of pinkness INSIDE? 

Happy Birthday, sweet P.  Many many happy returns.

PS - I've been away for a while.  Nothing major, just summer.  There is always so much to do, and photographing it seems so secondary - let alone sit down at the computer.  See you soon with our homeschooling adventures, year one.

Pendulum Painting Outside

Pendulum Painting didn't get into the Art and Yoga Camp but I hope to try it again in the one we do in August.  Easy to set up but the trick is getting the ratio of paint to water correct - too much paint and it just makes spots.  Also crucial is the distance to the paper from the paint tip - closer makes more "spirograph" lines, farther up in the air makes "dotty" paintings - both have their charms!

Paper Mache Volcano and Wet Felting with Kids

 Also from the Art and Yoga Camp - paper mache volcano with a bottle inside to allow for vinegar and baking soda lava.  JUST like on the Brady Bunch....

Wet felted vignettes - made inside plastic bags.  With tabs sewn into the tops and hung on twigs they make cute little art.

Big Painting

 Another go at painting on craft paper on the sidewalk - this time for Art and Yoga Camp.

Milk Jug Makeover

 

A yard sale purchase for a dollar - it had been in a garden and had lots of rust.  I sprayed it with rust stopping paint (black) then two coats of our trim enamel.

 Following a tip from pinterest (of course) I used the stock market pages to transfer a design I found from a vintage milk bottle for sale on ebay.  I blew it up to letter size and didn't worry about the poor quality since I was just tracing it and it was a pretty simple graphic.  The stock market pages technique worked very well!

 I covered the tracing with red permanent marker.  After having the milk jug for two years in the rusty state, I was suddenly unable to wait the amount of time it would have taken to go get a paint pen.  The color looks great so far - not sure how it will hold up or fade yet.  But I can always trace back over it.

 I love the back of the bottle - so cheerful!

 Now we have a pretty little stand in our entry way for the flag when not flying and umbrellas, canes, etc.  I love it.

Tie Dye with Kids and Koolaid

There's something about summer.  We DO a lot more, and we HAVE a lot less time to do things like blog about our projects!

This was a project a month or so back - tie dye with koolaid.  The great thing about koolaid dyeing is that it is completely safe with kids.  You don't need to set the colors with vinegar, because the citric acid in the koolaid will do that.  It is cheap.  You can play around with mixing and dipping.  It comes off your hands by bathtime.

The cons about koolaid is that it dyes protein (animal) fibers like wool much more permanently than cotton.  So for summer t-shirts your results will be short lived if you launder them in the wash.  Wash by hand in cold water, as infrequently as you can, if you want to keep your design.

 

 Of course, if you happen to wash the colors out - you can always dye them again.  All you need is a container and some packets of koolaid - about one packet to 1C of water.  The water doesn't even need to be hot.  PERFECT for little ones to experiment.

Be warned if you have a boy who likes red - cherry koolaid will inevitably fade to pink.  You can always give that one to your sister!