Water/Light Table

I had wanted an inside water table for my kids for a long time, so we decided to build one! Luckily, my fantastic dad helped out yet again and built and painted the frame for our table. The bins I purchased from Target. It is very useful to have lids for the table, and conveniently, bins come with lids!

Playing with waterbeads with friends.

Frozen Snack!

Our Discovery Bottles!

So I had gotten my wish of a water table, but now what I had to have was a light table! Whew are those expensive! I looked into making one. I thought about using frosted plexiglass for the tops, but decided that would be too expensive. I bought another set of the same bins I used in the water table and went about frosting the lids.

My lids and my frosting spray paint! I recommend lightly sanding the plastic first before painting so that the paint adheres to the surface better. My first attempt, I did not sand and the paint peeled.

Valspar Frosting Spray Paint

Now for the lights. I opted for LEDs, but these in particular flicker eeeeever so slightly. Enough to bug me, but the kids don't mind one bit.

I thought about painting the inside of my bins to channel the light upward instead of letting it flow out of the clear bin, but decided to go with foil to not only channel the light but hopefully amplify and reflect it 

My foil lined bin, glued to the bin with Elmer's glue. 

Lights evenly spread, taped down to prevent slipping around, with both ends coming out the top of the back.

TaDa!

I slid the light bins right into the water table bins, connected the two boxes' light strands and we were ready to go! 

Our new favorite thing is playing with the water table with the light bins underneath!

NOT Back To School, A Preview Of Our Year To Come

Hi Friends. :) Most of you know that we are homeschooling. Last year, we loosely followed Wee Folk Art's Preschool/Kindergarten Companion Guide. We really enjoyed all the books, recipes and crafts. I highly recommend it if you have a child between the ages 3-5 and are looking for a gentle, loosely Waldorf inspired curriculum to follow. I recommend checking out the books (or a similar book) from the library instead of buying all of them. Two books a week, all year long adds up!! I was able to find many used through amazon and a few through a lovely friend of mine ready to pass them down. 

We experimented with strictly following the guide as well as trying out a unschooling approach to our life. Sugar Bear and I enjoy unschooling, while right now Rainbow Girl wants to "do school". 

After much research, we have decided to use the Oak Meadow First Grade curriculum this year for Rainbow Girl. Although I do not agree with all aspects of the Waldorf philosophy, I understand them. That is another plus major of homeschooling. You can take what works for yourself and your child and leave everything else. 

Over the summer, I have been working hard to simplify our lives after reading Simplicity Parenting. The book told me many things I already knew, but went in depth in some areas I needed to hear. Simply put, in order to reduce the craziness and stress in our lives, the "muchness" of our lives needed to be reduced. "To much, To fast, Too soon" is repeated many times. My children are very loved individuals and to add to that, I like to keep everything. Those two things combined makes for tons of "muchness". Payne has excellent ideas on how to eliminate all of the stuff. Throwing away all broken things and only keeping very well made toys or toys made of natural materials were very helpful to me.  He goes into narrowing down toys, books, clothes, everything! It is a very inspirational book. 

I went from having a large toy organizer in my living room  to having a bin of wooden blocks that I made and a small basket of a handful of treasured toys. The kids are much more calm with less choices and actually play with the toys with limited arguing. I have tried to integrate this into all of the rooms in the house. 

The school room went under the largest transformation. We had hundreds of toys arranged wonderfully on these fantastic shelves that I had made in the room's closet. I also had many, many textbooks on the upper shelves. I always thought if it fits, it can be in the closet. I had ten, large shoe box sized bins full or organized toys in the closet, as well as three or four large toys on the lower shelves. I eliminated all but a couple plastic toys. We now have a wooden bowl full of wooden turnings, a few wooden stackers, a wooden tow truck with cars, a few empty baskets for sorting, beanbags I made, basket of dress up things, a wire toy, box of alphabet blocks, farm, and a box of musical instruments. It still may be too much, but for the time being, it is working well. I also moved all the books that we aren't currently using this year to my teacher's closet in the arcade room. You'd think a child would react badly to the majority of their toys disappearing, but my kids reacted very, very well. "Mama! My shelves are so clean!"

Before simplification.

After

Once I get to my dream point of simplification, I'll post more pictures on that topic. :)

We decided that this year, we needed a chalkboard. We have been making due with a small dry erase board in the kitchen for our daily plans, but a large chalkboard was needed. I researched and scoured ebay and craigslist. Large chalkboards are pricey!! We decided that the best option for us would be to paint a wall of the school room with chalkboard paint. 

I first patched the holes in the wall and then sanded the entire wall to a smooth finish. Then I primed the wall with grey primer. After spilling primer on the carpet crushed my spirit, my wonderful dad (expert at everything, and paintbrush whisperer) came over to help me paint the chalkboard paint. 

Although the paint dries to the touch in under an hour, it needs to sit for three days before use. After the three days, you prime the wall by chalking the entire surface, and then erasing it. The wee ones were very helpful in completing this job!

Dry chalkboard surface.

Beginning to chalk the surface.

Chalking, chalking, chalking.

Erase!

Drawing our house and slide.

Unassisted ABC's.

Oh! It's raining outside! Puddle time!

Crazy adorable kids the next day on the way to the park.

We have also begun to maintain a nature table. Here is the beginnings of our first (end of) Summer Nature table. There is a basket of freshly collected acorns. a wooden flower, painted clay birds in a nest, leaves glued on paper, a wooden goose, a painted rainbow and our candle holders.

Our nature table.

Light table boxes under the water table.

I plan to write a weekly blog on our homeschooling adventure this year, if only for our records. We start Monday!

Potty Training

Many folks have asked me my "method" for potty training. How did I get my 20 month old son to start using the potty? What is my magical, wondrous method you say? Its ridiculously simple.

Give up diapers. Completely. 

That it. That's my magical method.

Put the child in underwear. Having pants on too helps. Always have a wee portable potty in whatever room in the house you are in. Suggest trips to the big potty. Always bring the child with you when you go potty and suggest they go as well. Always bring wee potty in a bag on outings if child prefers to peepee on it. For the first few days, possibly weeks, there will likely be accidents here and there. Always bring a couple pairs of extra clothes on all outings.

Give up diapers completely? Even in bed? Yes. If you continue to put the wee one in diapers, they will tend to save all their output for those times. "Oh boy! It's naptime! I'll get a diaper and I can finally poop!" Have a waterproof liner and or disposable blue pads on the bed. Many folks put down a waterproof liner, fitted sheet, another waterproof liner and another fitted sheet for quick changes in case of an accident- just strip the top layer off.

In response to accidents, do NOT demean or berate the child. They will likely already be embarrassed. Respond by gently reminding the child that "We go peepee/poopoo on the potty" while bringing the child to the potty. Suggest that they sit even if they don't have anything left- but do not force them to sit.  Sugar Bear quite liked helping clean up after an accident.

My Personal Experience
Rainbow Girl always liked to sit on the potty, but never really did anything on it. I would replace her diaper, and regularly, she would then peepee. It was frustrating, but I didn't want to clean up peepee off the floor- so diapers it was. Once I decided to give up diapers (It was in my life before cloth and I had run out!), we never looked back! She was two and a half. I put her directly in big girl panties, she had one accident- did NOT like how it felt having wet pants, and has never had another accident.

Sugar Bear was a different story. I was cleaning out Rainbow Girl's closet one day and took out her little, pink, Baby Bjorn potty. Sugar Bear spotted it, took off his diaper, sat on it, and went peepee. Wow. That's what I call potty readiness. We never put on another diaper.

The first couple days, I let him run around bottomless. He had two very tiny accidents per day- usually on the way to his potty, or while very distracted. Then I put him in underwear and pants. He had much fewer accidents clothed. It's uncomfortable to have wet pants! On the third day, we had a trip to Target. We went peepee when we got there, and went again before we left. No accidents!

On the fourth day, he pooped on my parents rug. Hey, accidents happen.

He has had a few night time accidents here and there, but since getting through that first few days, he has very much enjoyed being a big boy and using the potty.


This method will not work for everyone. I am not, by any means, a potty training expert. Just sharing my experience. Several folks I have shared with have had success. A big factor in potty training success is potty readiness. If baby is not ready, they're just not ready!

Doll Ring Sling

Rainbow Girl absolutely adores her Waldorf doll, Mary. She has taken her practically everywhere since  Mary's "Birthday". Very soon after receiving her sweet doll, she said to me, "Mommy, I need a ring sling to carry Mary so that I can take her everywhere to see the world!" How could I deny that request!?

We have quite a stash of fabric at home, but none that really looked good on both sides of the fabric- a must for a ring sling. We went to the fabric store together and Rainbow Girl picked out a blue fabric that we decided we could use for both her sing sling as well as one for Sugar Bear. Then we went to my personal favorite section of the store- the remnant pile. <3 That is where I found this beautiful Swiss dot with embroidered flowers fabric. $3 for 1.25 yards. Score. Later, Rainbow Girl decided on this fabric to use for her sling.

I ordered my rings from Sling Rings. These rings are size small pink rings with an inner diameter 2" and an outer diameter 2.5". I also ordered Sugar Bear some black rings for his sling.

My fabric was roughly 4ft long (1.25 yards) by 60" wide. I began by cutting it in half length wise, so I had two lengths of 1.25 yards by 30".

My next step was to fold over and iron down (or don't iron if you're too cool for that) all the raw edges.

Then sew over all the raw edges.

Using one of the short ends, make an accordion with the fabric. I made mine about 3.5 inches wide. making it much smaller would make it difficult to sew over and bulky to wear.

Thread the accordion through your two rings and spread out the front of the sling slightly before sewing it down. I did a straight stitch as well as two passes of zig zag stitches. Possibly overkill, but no dollies will be harmed in this sling due to the negligence of it's fabricator.

I am not super pleased with the spread of the pleats, and I wish I curved the stitching slightly.

I woke up Rainbow Girl from her slumber to try it on. Can you tell that she is pleased?

Happy doll mama.

She was SO very pleased to be able to wear her baby the next day at the Big Latch On at The Capitol in Richmond. She even asked if I would please wear my baby in our ring sling so that we could match. Of course my dear.

Ice Box Cucumbers

One of my absolute favorite summertime snacks is Ice Box Cucumbers, cherry tomatoes still warm after being freshly picked from the backyard and crackers. It tastes like summer to me.

My mom's recipe is: 

1 1/2 c. cold water
1 1/2 c. vinegar
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 tbsp. onion flakes
1 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. celery seed
4 med. cucumbers thinly sliced

Pack cucumbers in jars, leaving an inch and a half to two inches at the top. Whisk together remaining ingredients and divide that mixture among the jars. Shake and chill. 

I always tend to make double the recipe and give several jars of it's deliciousness away to friends and family. 

These four English cucumbers are about a foot long each. Each about the length of two cucumbers, effectively doubling the recipe.

I used the food processor to slice the cucumbers in warp speed. I find that the more thin the slices are, the more delicious they are to me. Everyone's tastes are different though. Experiment! 

Packed Jars

Just waiting for the yummy mixture! 

Yum. Summer perfection. In the fridge it goes.

Wooden Blocks With Beeswax Finish

My Dad is awesome. Most folks who know him know that. He builds fantastic things for people. Recently, he did a job and had some lovely blocks left over. I very gladly took them home with me. While the kids played with the hose and buckets in the yard, I used my fantastic power sander (that I bought new in box at a yard sale for $5 ^_^) to round the sharp edges and smooth them out.

Freshly sanded blocks

Although they were lovely and soft after being sanded, I have a crazy wood texture issue and I needed to do something to make them smoother to the touch. Enter Beeswax Polish. Here is the recipe I used- Beeswax Recipe

You need one part beeswax and 4 parts oil. You can use any oil you like! I used coconut oil because I have a a lot. Olive oil will have a slightly green tint to it. A great friend of mine gave me a block of beeswax. 

The first step is to put the oil and the beeswax together- I recommend just putting them both in the jar you plan on storing the finish in. The recipe recommends shredding the wax so that it melts quicker. I will definitely do that next time. My 1/4 cup chunk of beeswax took about thirty minutes to melt. You can either melt in the microwave or in a double boiler. I put my jar in a pot of water and boiled it. As I said- this took a while! Once it was all melted, it looked like liquid oil.

I thought about what a great lip gloss this would make- so i filled up a few wee tupperware containers I have.

As the finish solidifies over the next hour or so, make sure to stir it and scrape the outer edges and bottom. If you do not do this, the outside will be hard and you will have an inner oily area. 

While my finish was still a bit warm, I rubbed it all over the blocks. It felt SO good on my hands. (it also feels great on lips!) I applied the finish generously on the blocks and let them sit while I folded some laundry and finished the dishes.

Then I took two washcloths and wiped off the excess finish, followed by a secondary rub and wiping by another towel. With the waxy washcloths, I also rubbed my dining table- it looks great! 

As I finished each block, Rainbow Girl began to build.

Shortly thereafter, the blocks became stepping stones to get over the blue lake to avoid the mean purple alligators. Apparently Rainbow Girl was on a mission to save a nice pink shark that the alligators were mistreating.

Sugar Bear got in on the action.

"Cheese Mama!"

My finish consisted of 1/4 cup beeswax and 1 cup of coconut oil. I was able to wax all 25 blocks, make  three lip gloss cups, and wax my table with about 2 tablespoons left of the finish. 

Waldorf Dolls

When I think about my childhood, one of my favorite things was imagination time with my dolls. As if foretelling my homeschooling destiny, I regularly held "school" for my dolls in my playroom. I had/have one special doll in particular, Melissa. I took her everywhere and had loads and loads of special clothes for her- some made by my talented mom, some American Girl brand and some off brand. Melissa was not an official American Girl, but conveniently fit their clothes great! Although I have passed my special doll down to Rainbow Girl, she still refers to it as "Mommy's doll when she was a girl." My babes needed special dolls all their own to create and imagine their own new worlds with them. 

In my research to learn as much as I can about Waldorf homeschooling, I came across Waldorf dolls. Traditionally, they are made of all natural materials. Generally a cotton knit fabric with wool stuffing and mohair or boucle hair. From Weir Dolls & Crafts-"The young child's touch is more sensitive to materials that have been alive and growing, as opposed to synthetics, which do not encourage the child's own life forces to expand." The doll's facial expression is often undefined, allowing the child to decide at anytime what emotion the doll is experiencing during play. 

I searched the internet looking for the perfect dolls for my kids. They are VERY expensive! The average price of a 16-18 inch doll is around $150. After seeing that this was pretty universal everywhere, I decided to look into making them on my own. 

Finding all of the materials started to look expensive too. Then I came across Weir Dolls & Crafts. The put together a kit- custom to your specifications with everything you need to make a doll- at a very affordable price! A 12 inch doll kit is $28.95, a 16 inch kit is $29.95 and a 20 inch doll kit is $42.95. You select skin and hair color, pre-sewn body or not, pre-formed head or not and pre-sewn wig or not. You also have the option to buy all the needles you'll need to put the doll together. Most folks I'd assume to not own a 5 inch soft sculpture needle- unless they have made a doll before. 

I ordered 16 inch pre-sewn bodies and pre-sewn wigs, blush skin and butterscotch hair. 

Durring my first night of working on the dolls, with Rainbow Girl sitting beside me, she named her doll. Mary. While I was still forming the head, she was already forming her relationship with her new friend. "She has never seen anything! I will show her the world! Can I take her everywhere? She will be my best friend." <3 It took me about two hours to make Mary's head. The next morning, I made Sugar Bear's baby's head in about 45 minutes. I placed the wigs on the heads for the picture- they are not attached. 

The next day, I stuffed the arms and bodies of the dolls and started to sew Mary together. First, I sewed the arms to the back of the shoulders (the ball stuffed with wool under the head). Next, I sewed the head and arms into the body. The process of sewing the neck was hard! I had to turn under the raw edge on the body while making sure to cover the neck string on the head- while trying to avoid too much bunching of the fabric. Who wants a wrinkly neck? I worked for about two hours this day.

The next morning, I sewed the leg bend and the feet on Mary. Rainbow Girl was thrilled and didn't want to stop snuggling her. We ended up taking a hairless an faceless Mary to story time at the library.

During nap time, (yes! Rainbow Girl still naps 3-4 hours a day! Sugar Bear only naps 1-2 hours) I assembled Sugar Bear's doll. Then I began to embroider Mary's face. This is a gruesome process. I took my five inch needle and, as instructed, stabbed my daughter's new best friend in the back of the head, coming out where I wanted her eye to be. Ouch. My first attempt at eyes looked like a sleepy, possibly drunk, Chinese person. Woops. I cut the thread out. My second attempt was much better. After finishing the eyes, I stabbed poor Mary in the head again and tied off the thread on the back of her head. I went through the same process for the mouth. I'm afraid I made their mouths a bit more "smiley" than I intended, but I like them. Then I sewed Mary's hair on, straight down the part line of her wig. On the suggestion of a friend, I immediately braided her hair to avoid impossible tangling. 

Sugar Bear woke from his nap and needed snuggles and nursing. With him still nursing, I began sewing the feet on his doll. He got down to play and I broke out the five inch needle again. I'll spare you the details this time. His eyes came out ok, I am not 100% in love with them, but I ran out of blue thread. I made his mouth and sewed on his wig (which was a crochet cap). 

Remember Melissa? My special doll? The one with loads of special clothes? The new dolls fit her clothes great!

Happy Birthday to Mary and Baby!

They both love their dolls. Sugar Bear had not connected as emotionally to his doll as much as Rainbow Girl has, but that will probably come in time. He's two after all- and very busy. 

Today we are going to the fabric store to pick out fabric for ring slings I will make for them to tote their babes in.