FIAR – A New Coat for Anna

I have been putting off… er, taking a “vacation” from… homeschooling.  Since I expected Adeline to make her appearance mid-February (or earlier!), I didn’t bother planning anything after the first week.  Since she arrived, however, I’ve felt the need to start up again and be consistent with something.  I haven’t really wanted to, mind you – I could sit all day and stare at her tiny features! – but the longer I wait the harder it will be.  This week we’re doing Robert Frost’s Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, an easy little poem to get us back into the swing of things, but we ended February with A New Coat for Anna.

credit: Amazon

Geography/History/Social Studies
The story takes place post-WWII .  We looked through some children’s books about the war and did a few simple activities, like looking up Germany (and other countries) on the globe, making a little booklet with soldiers and types of military transportation, matching up allied and enemy countries.  I tried not to make it too technical for the kiddos but explained why – in the beginning of the story – the shops were empty and the economy was poor.

Since we capitalized on Germany, the kiddos colored the German flag, a traditional dress coloring page and a paper doll worksheet.  Gwen goes goo-goo ga-ga over the paper dolls, taking a while to color them with colorful patterns,  and I’ve been laminating them for her.

Language Arts
Since Anna’s mother doesn’t have any money, she barters for materials for a new coat – sheeps’ wool, getting it spun into yarn, having it woven into fabric, then having it tailored into a coat.  We talked about bartering/trading and read a bunch of go-along books.  Since it takes a whole year for the process, we discussed having patience; easier said than done!

We did a little activity to see if Gwen could remember the story from the day before, deciding which items Anna’s mother bartered at different stages.  She guessed ‘em all!

Fine Arts
I often have glorious plans for learning the elements from a story – like creating a sewing basket or learning how to finger knit – but thankfully there are times when I know my limits.  Still I was able to find some fun, simple activities for the week.

I found a neat idea for construction paper weaving, and while Gwen got a little impatient with it, she seemed to get excited once she saw it coming together.  She used the finished piece as a placemat for a while, until it got too dirty. :)

We all got in on the act for yarn block prints.  I have a whole bunch of scrap wood blocks Phil cut for me; we randomly wrapped them in yarn, painted the yarn then stamped it onto construction paper.  Gwen noted that my pattern looked like horses.  This was so much fun!  We ended up using a couple finished pieces as colorful wrapping paper.

The kiddos also enjoyed making their own coats by gluing red yarn to a picture.

Math
I bought some beets for the science part of the week and decided to make a beet bundt cake, since Anna and her mother celebrate over the holidays with a bundt cake.  The kiddos helped me each step of the way, measuring and mixing.  They got excited when they saw the bright pink of the beet puree!

Science
I was really excited about our experiment with yarn dyeing, but since we didn’t use  wool yarn the color washed right out.  Oh well – the process was fun and the kiddos enjoyed it!  We used the beet peels and stems, which turned the water a rich burgundy and elicited oohs and aahs from Gwen and Josiah.

We read some stories on sheep and harvesting their wool and the kiddos made their own little sheep craft.

Extras
We had a little Valentine’s craft party with some nearby friends to end the week – what fun!  We gave away our suncatchers and made peanut butter pretzels as Valentine gifts.

On Valentine’s Day I gave the kiddos their gifts, dropped them off at Meme and Pepe’s then spent the day with my honey.  We had dinner at Our Place – Arturo Joe’s.  I kept pointing out that Valentine’s Day would make a nice birthday for Adeline, but she didn’t make her appearance till the following week.

Go-Along Books
World War II
America in World War II
World War II for Kids
The Carrot Seed
Arthur Loses His Patience
When Will It Be Spring?
The Great Tulip Trade
Fleas!
Market Day
Noodle’s Knitting
The Weaver
Weaving the Rainbow
Extra Yarn
Charlie Needs a Cloak
Farmer Brown Shears His Sheep: a yarn about wool
Hooray for Sheep Farming!
Red Berry Wool
Berry Smudges and Leaf Prints: finding and making colors from nature

Resources
Education.com’s German Traditional Clothing Coloring Page Worksheet
Education.com’s German Paper Doll Worksheet
Whip Up’s yarn printing
construction paper weaving inspiration
The Healthy Foodie’s  Truly Healthy Beet Chocolate Bundt Cake
Pioneer Thinking’s making  natural dyes from plants
Homeschool Share (they have since removed their FIAR resources)

*See my FIAR Pinterest board for more ideas & inspiration.

Sweet Adeline

My mother-in-law was all excited that there was a song with our baby girl’s name in it, “Sweet Adeline.”  Phil and I insisted that she must be mistaken – It’s Sweet Caroline, we told her.  And I do find myself singing that song to her every now and then!  A bit of googling, however, uncovered the fact that there is indeed a barbershop song by that name from the early 1900s.  A number of people have sung the song since then; here’s a version sung by Phish in the 90s.

Anyhoo, today I’m without the big kiddos and decided to set up some props and take some pics of Adeline. Man, those professional portraits make it look so easy!  Babies are so floppy, and while they’re relatively easy to position, mine kept clenching her fists and I couldn’t keep her upright.  I got some cute shots, though.  Here are some favorites:

I can’t believe she’s already one week old! I’m not sure if I’ll write a birth story this time around, but suffice to say that while the labor and delivery went smoothly, I had a bad experience during my hospital stay.

Though Adeline was alert, nursed well and had excellent color, we discovered she had jaundice – just like Josiah did when he was born.  We were led to believe her condition was serious and had some follow-up blood tests after leaving the hospital, but she’s just fine – thank goodness!

Trying to decide how I want to document her first year’s growth.  I have a couple ideas pinned, like using the same pair of pjs or using a laundry basket as a prop.  I’m also thinking of propping her up with the woodland bunny I bought just for her.  Any ideas?

Adeline Faith

My beautiful baby girl finally made her appearance!

Adeline Faith
February 20, 2013
6lbs 11oz 18″

I’m exhausted and happy and emotional and overwhelmed and sad and weepy and a host of other things.

FIAR – Katy and the Big Snow

I love Virginia Lee Burton’s books and they’re always appealing to the kiddos.  The story of the persistent, personified tractor who plows out the whole town is an endearing one.

credit: Amazon

Geography/History/Social Studies
Katy is from the town of Popperville, a fictional location.  I showed them the map pictures from the book, explained a little bit about what a compass is and what it’s for, then had them decorate their own town maps.  I was surprised how much Gwen enjoyed this!  She drew two fire stations, houses, a railroad track, etc.  I asked her where she would go if she had to plow on the north side of town, on the south and so forth.

Just as in Mike Mulligan, this story mentions community helpers around the town, so we took out our community helper matching game, which the kids enjoy.  We like to capitalize on the fire department, since Daddy’s a fireman, and I took out some of the fire resources from our W is for Water (the four elements) week from last year.  There were simple shape matching cards and number clothespin cards, among other things.  I also took out some of the worksheets from our T is for Transportation week – spelling cards and worksheets, identifying which item is different, street signs, etc.

Katy was very dedicated to her job plowing the snow, so when a big snowstorm hits Popperville she plows everyone out – in essence saving the day – even though she is very tired from her efforts.  She doesn’t give up till the job is finished!  We talked about perseverance, not giving up even though you may be tired, taking pride in your work.

Language Arts
The kiddos cut out some pictures that rhymed with “snow” and pasted them on a sheet of paper.  They also worked on a fun truck-and-snow themed matching game, trying to figure out which words ending in the letters “ow” sound like “snow” and which sound like “plow.”  They wanted to play it a few times and got better each round.

We’ve gone over personification before and we did so again, pointing out how Katy has eyes, gets attributed with feelings and so forth.  Since there are a few sound words in the book – “chug chug chug!” – we sang our onomatopoeia song.

Fine Arts
I made some snow sensory dough and let the kids have at it in trays with a bunch of Josiah’s toy tractors.  Of course, they pretended to be plowing the snow.  Messy, sensory activities are always a bit hit!

Math
The story mentions that, as the snow falls, it’s four inches deep… then ten inches… then one foot… then three feet, etc.  We made up some snow paint with shaving cream and glue, measured out four inches on construction paper, then painted the appropriate amount of snow.  We did the same thing with ten inches, covering most of the paper.  For the larger amounts I drew lines on the chalkboard and showed them how they would be buried in that amount of snow!  They thought that was pretty fun.

Science
Since it’s Winter, and our story is about snow, we talked about the weather and water freezing.  We filled an ice cube tray with all sorts of ingredients around the kitchen – water, coffee, applesauce, yogurt, flour, cereal, crackers, vinegar, soap, etc.  After a while we checked to see which items had frozen and what their textures were.

This was a fun, laid-back week – nothing too heavy here!  There were a few other things I hoped to do – like pine-needle painting, creating your own online city and some cute traffic light cookies - but just didn’t get around to them.  Too many other things going on!

Go-Along Books
The Construction Alphabet Book 
Diggers
Tractor
Fire Trucks
Curious George and the Firefighters
Police Officers
Policeman Lou and Poliecwoman Sue
Block City
Maisy Goes to the Library
Weather
Weather Watch
50 Below Zero
What Makes the Seasons

Resources
Fiar Circle’s Land of Make Believe map
This Reading Mama’s Snow-Themed Word Sort
The Imagination Tree’s homemade snow dough
measuring activity inspiration
Kitchen Science inspiration
Borax crystals and the science behind them

Doll Diapers – another big sister gift

Poor Josiah… he often gets jipped in the gift department.  Girls are just so much easier to buy for!  Or, in my case, make for.

A while back I pinned these really cute doll cloth diapers – I love all the little details!  Now that Gwen will be a new big sister I thought it would be a great idea to whip up some cloth diapers for her dolls since we’ll be using the real deal with her baby sister.

I decided to find a simpler pattern and use flannel on the inside rather than the more-expensive chenille.  I used a 40% off coupon for a yard of flannel at JoAnn’s – just plain white so it would be versatile – and paired it with some of my cotton prints.  I got some inspiration from both Bee In My Bonnet and Probably Actually, both of whom utilized Skip to My Lou’s doll diaper tutorial.

For the first diaper I cut out the pattern pieces and sewed around with a small seam allowance, but found it was a little snug on one of Gwen’s bigger dolls.  For the rest of the dipes I did what one of the other mamas suggested – trace the pattern, leave it uncut, and sew on top of the pattern line, thus eliminating that extra allowance.  I ended up running out of velcro but tried to make it as adjustable a fit as possible with a long width of velcro across the front or two strategically-placed pieces, rather than two smaller spots on the sides.

They’re so cute!  I packaged them along with Gwen’s doll carrier – and an Angelina Ballerina book, since I got the whole set at a consignment shop and have been gifting them periodically.  She’ll be getting Angelina’s Baby Sister when the time comes!

In other news… I went to the doctor’s today and am 3 cm dilated!  Much better than two weeks ago when nothing was happening.  She decided to “sweep the membranes” to see if anything happens, during which she said she felt the baby’s fingers up near her head!  So weird.  She said I could go into labor today or tomorrow, but so far I feel fine.  We’ll see!

38 Weeks and Chomping at the Bit

*Pregnancy musings interspersed with some pinspirations…

I am so done with this pregnancy!  I think it seems to be taking so much longer because it’s the middle of winter, I’m tired of taking care of the kiddos and working overtime every day and I’m almost always in some sort of discomfort or pain so I’m not getting any sleep.

“For this child I prayed.”
credit: flickr.com

The other day on the way home from an errand Gwen pipes up from the back seat, in a very serious voice: “When the baby comes I’m not going to get any sleep.”  What?!  I’ll be the one not getting any sleep, thank you very much, and I’ve had lots of practice!

Cute newborn photo; made some similar headbands.
credit: etsy.com

I’m trying to keep my spirits up, keep things in perspective, but these final weeks especially seem to be taking forever.  It doesn’t help that Josiah, my last one, was born at thirty-seven weeks and I’ve passed that mark. *sigh*

baby in cowboy boots
credit: iheartfaces.com

To be honest, there wasn’t a lot to prepare to get ready for the baby – “been there, done that.”  I had to borrow some things from friends, get things out of storage and so forth, but I don’t really need stuff.  If anything, I’ve been getting rid of things to simplify!

Organizing keepsakes
credit: aliedwards.com

My hospital bag is pretty much packed, everything is set – I’m just waiting till she’s ready to come out!  I asked my husband the other day, “Is it bad that I want to be in pain?”, hoping that contractions will pick up into actual labor.  Of course, I may feel differently once that times comes!  But it will be pain with a purpose, an excited anticipation as I await the arrival of my baby girl.

Photograph baby with a prop and use it when she’s older.
credit: tfjdesigns.bigcartel.com

And Gwen is so excited!  She keeps leaving little gifts and pictures in the baby’s crib.  She even refuses to put away certain toys, saying she’s going to share them with her sister.  I have to remind her that her sister isn’t even here yet and it will be a while before she’ll be able to play with those toys.

Still want to make some of these swaddle blankets.
credit: danamadeit.com

I’m lucky that this pregnancy has gone so well, being high-risk and all.  I’ll be glad when I’m done with two appointments every week, feeling like I’m always peeing in a cup and get weighed for the millionth time.  I keep hoping the next appointment will be my last!

Helpful labor positions… need to brush up!
credit: fitpregnancy.com

Now, for some reason, all I want is chocolate these days so I’m off to find me some…

Healthy Fudge
credit: our-everyday-art.com

The Finest Age

My mom sent me this poem and I thought it was really sweet, especially for all you mamas out there that need to keep things in perspective.

The Finest Age
When he was only nine months old, 
And plump and round and pink of cheek,
A joy to tickle and to hold,
Before he’d even learned to speak,
His gentle mother used to say:
“It is too bad that he must grow.
If I could only have my way
His baby ways we’d always know.”

And then the year was turned, and he
Began to toddle round the floor
And name the things that he could see
And soil the dresses that he wore.
Then many a night she whispered low:
“Our baby now is such a joy
I hate to think that he must grow
To be a wild and heedless boy.”

But on he went and sweeter grew,
And then his mother, I recall,
Wished she could keep him always two,
For that’s the finest age of all.
She thought the selfsame thing at three,
And now that he is four, she sighs
To think he cannot always be
The youngster with the laughing eyes.

Oh, little boy, my wish is not
Always to keep you four years old.
Each night I stand beside your cot
And think of what the years may hold;
And looking down on you I pray
That when we’ve lost our baby small,
The mother of our man will say
“This is the finest age of all.”

-Edgar A Guest