the little travelers * travel notes

change, change and more change...

So our house has been really full of change lately.  The girls decided they wanted to go back to school this year.  "We want to have friends and birthday parties and not travel."  This is how my life with my kids works.  My first child was a planned home birth that was born with a medical condition requiring surgery.  She was premie and I spent the first 3 weeks of her life leaning over a plastic bucket with her hooked up to wires. 

Not what I had planned.

I of course had many beautiful slings waiting to be used that waited and waited since she would lose her entire feeding if moved even slightly for 20 minutes following her feeding and her feeding schedule as a premie was every 20 minutes. 

Not what I planned.

I planned to unschool they choose Waldorf.  Then we would hit the road and they'd be out of school again.  The last few years they've been mostly out of school and decided this year that they wanted to go back and not travel.  I just think of the average public school kid that hates school choosing to go there rather than travel and not go to school!  But that's how my kids are.  It's like no matter how alternative, open-minded and cool I think my options are - they are still my options and not theirs.  So they are choosing otherwise.  Since they now spend so much time at school (yes, a Waldorf school) I decided I might as well too, so have taken up teaching Japanese to the high school students.  

It's a fun change and an adventure unto itself.  The last time I was teaching it was to the preschool lot so it's a fun change to be with kids that can use razor blades and don't bite or pull each others' hair.  

Today they each made their own hanko or 'name chop' out of an eraser.  It's a super easy method that produces nice results.  Here's  mine:  It's a hiragana 'a' - sounds like "ah)  for the first sound in my name.  kind of like an initial. 

Just draw whatever you're wanting on the stamp onto a piece of paper in ink or pencil and then quickly put the eraser onto it.  It will pick up a faint line and then carve it out with an exacto knife, or in this case the class all used straight razor blades because we didn't have exactos.  

Here's another student's:  This is a katakana "ke"

And if you're really inspired to do this you MUST first check out this tutorial at Wisdom of the Moon!!  She is such an insanely talented artist!  It is this same basic method but using a photo of her daughter that turned out amazing.  I'm sooo impressed and don't know if I dare to attempt a face so for now I'm sticking to letters.  I was thinking the supplies to make the more detailed one (it uses some sort of moldable carving medium) would make an excellent birthday gift for kids in the middle years and up.  Now that we're all back in school we're back into total birthday party mode.  It seems like every weekend we've got something...

Rainy Days

Our third day of rain in a row so we've been busy inside these days.

We thought we'd brighten up the inside a bit with some happy dishtowels.  The one on the left is by the big sister (age 9).  I'm really happy that she loves to stitch and does not work from patterns.  She tends to love rules and order so her just picking up a needle and thread and having a vague sense of what she wants to do and then realizing it is a very fun thing to watch.

Mine is in process on the right with bottom trim and wild paisleys to still come.  I also work freeform just seeing what happens as I go.

Here's something from cousin Emma (9 yrs) who chose something a bit more abstract.  This is called 'snow storm.'  

We also had a birthday in the house this week so the 7 year old whipped up this number which reads, "Happy Birthday Cora."  It's a bit tough to read with the super light pink but she made this all on her own- didn't even ask for help threading the needle, which she normally does.  I was really impressed with her flower and this is the first I've seen her do lettering.  She wanted to work on it as a surprise and then gave it in secret to her newly 3 yr old cousin.  After she gave it to her she came to me and showed it to me and said, "I gave it to Cora, but she didn't like it so I think I'll take out the letters and make something else for myself now."  This is when I'm so impressed with my littles that it almost makes me want to cry.  She was so unattached to her very honest little cousin telling her she didn't want it so just thought of what to do next.  There was no lamenting over the past or crying about it or hurt feelings of any sort.  Oh, how I wish I could respond that like to my good intentions that aren't received with the reaction I'd hoped for!!  This is one of those moments when our children really are our best teachers.

There's been a whole lot of game making going on as well.

The most amusing part of this rainy spell is the two older ones deciding to take ballet online.  They were inspired by a recent read of Ballet Shoes by Noel Steatfeild and then watching the movie afterward.  They dug up some very old ballet outfits from the dress-up box and downloaded a lesson taught by a rather stuffy elderly British woman.  It is good humor to watch these two in action.  We will definitely be checking out the other books in this series like Theatre Shoes, Tennis Shoes & Skating Shoes.

The old cliche about our children being our greatest teachers proves to be true so often in my life.  The older girls think they are ready to star in swan lake- they are so confident in their very minimal ballet skills and confidently move forward in their training.  The little one with her gift-giving rejection that didn't phase her.  There is so much for me to learn around here.  What have your children taught you this week?

eggs

We've started on our egg making today with a popular local method.  They are really into paper napkins here and sell a wide variety just about everywhere.  So, decoupage with these napkins is apparently quite popular.  I went to a store to look for plain old white glue or some sort of Mod Podge and instead found a glue that was called 'napkin art glue.'  That's pretty specific!

First the napkin layers need to be separated.  Just the thin top layer is used.

Then apply adhesive on the bottom and top of the the napkin.  It works best to use small torn pieces of the napkin.

 I really love the way they turned out.  Of course they could've been blown first and then these could be saved for years to come, but since we're on the road, we will not be packing up any blown eggs into our suitcases when leaving.  These were a great way to use a local technique without much fuss.

Then we also made some tea dyed eggs for breakfast.  For these we first hard boiled our eggs and then cracked the shells before soaking them in tea for a few hours.  We used a Wild Berry blend.  When the shell is pealed off they look like a crackled porcelain egg- but are edible!  And they smelled like berries.

little knitted wallet, i mean purse...

 

The big sister is a knitting fool these days.  She's fast and furious and decided to make herself a wallet.  This was her first attempt at felting wool after knitting though.

She measured it out to fit dollar bills flat without folding.  I mentioned to her the shrink factor but we were not sure just how much it would shrink.

After washing in baking soda and it came out tiny so she scrapped the wallet idea and made a little bitty purse for her 2 year old cousin.  

She's got a new one on her needles already- her big needles and it's nearly 2 feet long!  I have a feeling this one is going to be a big handbag for grandma when it's done.  Maybe on her third try it'll come out as a wallet...?

making lemonade out of lemons

A recent bike outing ended up with a knee like this:

and leggings like this:

The next day when we were sorting laundry the big sister was lamenting over the loss of her (new at xmas) leggings.  So we sat and pondered a bit to think of what we could possibly salvage from them since repair would not be comfortable in her mind.  She's one of those!  Socks with seams, pants that itch, tags that scratch- all very serious problems.   So, she decided on making a headband with the waistband.

A simple blanket stitch around the outside and then we found some glass beads around the house from a jewelry making kit.

And viola, her new headband.

I love the idea of teaching kids the idea of turning lemons into lemonade.  But I also share a cautionary tale on the subject.  I have found it cannot be rushed.  I once knew a mother who took hold of this idea so vigorously that whenever her child broke something or ruined something that she loved and began to cry the mother immediately focused (in a very happy and perky way) on turning it to lemonade.  This exasperated the child to no end!

First, we must meet our children in their despair, no matter how trite it is and allow them their sadness over the object lost.  Many mothers I know fear this will instill an importance of objects and therefor enforce worship of the material world.  But I have found the opposite to be true.  Once the sadness over the object is expressed as long as the parent displays unattachment to the particular object (energetically- not with words only!) and hears out her child, 'Ya,  I see you really liked these pants and it is a bummer that they were still so new- They didn't even have stains in them yet!  Too bad it couldn't have been a stained pair that you ruined."  I find they let it go.   Then it is time to look for lemonade.  This way they feel heard and understood and all of that.  The next day we decided what to do with them- not while her knee was still bleeding and she was sad about her pants.  

This is the form of detachment to the material world I would like my children to embrace.  Not one that just throws things away because they are 'detached' but one that still tries to make use of things and find that silver lining in creating something new and beautiful of what was originally a bummer.  The lesson in doing speaks much louder than words like, "Well, let's make something great out this and turn it into something good!"  I find most children resistant to this sort of parenting.  But just quietly saying to a child when the time is ready, "I wonder what we could make with the parts that are still good?"  and then let them come up with an idea and a design for that matter.  I would've never come up with the design on this headband, but she digs it- and she's the one to wear it.  If I would've made it for her it would've had pink and orange embroidered flowers and paisleys on it- and it would've have been hers.  Restraint is often our best gift to our children.

hopscotch fever

It's kind of like cat scratch fever, but different.  In any case- it's a fever around here right now.  The chicks love looking up different hopscotch games from around the world and trying them out. Did you know that hopscotch games have been found in ancient Roman ruins?  It's thought that Romans brought it to England...maybe?

 This one is from the Girls Book of Daring Things (or something like that) from the library of course.  It is from France and called the escargot- or snail.

picaria

is the latest rage in our house.  It comes from the book Math Games from Around the World.  

It starts with an 8 inch square box.  Then draw a + at 4 inches.  Then divide each 4 inch box with an x.  Mark each intersection with a dot.

Each player needs 6 markers in different shapes or colors.  We used glass beads that we had around.  The game is basically an advanced tic tac toe.  Each player tries to get three dots in a row by placing one marker down at a time.  The center dot cannot be played until all markers are played.  After all markers are down the pieces can be slid from dot to dot.  No jumping allowed.

The little sister wanted to keep her board simple, but the big sister wanted to add some decorations to her board.  Since this is a Native American game she added her version of American Indian patterns.

It's not an exaggeration to say that hours have been spent playing this game.  It's all about building strategy.  There are so many ways to set 'traps' with this game and I have to say even for myself became quite addicting.  

The things I love about this game is that all the spaces are not evenly spaced so it really threw me initially to look for all the ways 3 dots line up.  The dots along the edge and down the center were the easiest to miss because I would focus in on the details, forgetting the bigger picture.  I love games that build awareness like this as I'm always about the bigger metaphor of things.  I really do think games like this as well as folk tales and other metaphorical vehicles do translate into life at large.  Awareness and thinking ahead are life long skills that cannot get enough sharpening in my book.

bookmarks

This is a great little craft for anytime -parties, or otherwise.  I like to use old picture books or damaged books bought at garage sales or library sales.  Also, I sometimes photocopy pictures, which depending on the source can be illegal- some say for personal use is ok, others say- never.  Gather images, paste to cardstock and embellish!

Also, things like cookie packaging or wrapping paper often have great images on them.

Or try free- handing a little something... eventually, even I could make a sort of round circle.

We like to match our books to the personality of the bookmarks...something a little softer...

Kirigami- Japanese paper cutting

The girls also seemed to get quite a bit of Japanese paper cutting stuff this year.  So far, the elephant seems to be a favorite.

Step 1.  Fold a square sheet of paper in half.

Step 2.  In half again.

Step 3.  Then diagonal

Step 4. Draw an elephant like this.  I freehanded this one from a sample in a book.  Make sure the tail end is one the folded edge and do not cut through the bottom of the trunk, the tail and the hind leg.

Step 5.  Cut.

Step 6. Open

Japanese snow bunnies...literally

We have this book that we have loved for years and each time we read it we wish we had snow to go out and play with to make little snow bunnies. 

All this time in the snow recently and do you think any of us remembered to make some snow bunnies?? We've been told that snow bunnies in Japan are like snow angles here- that's what kids do in the snow.  And guess how many balls of snow a Japanese snowman is made out of?  Two!  Just one for the head and one for the body.  It took a student to point that out to me in Japan for me to notice it wasn't made out of 3 like ours here.

We even got this book as a gift this year for Christmas giving us all sorts of great little snowy ideas and still we forgot...

So any of you out there that may be in snow land we thought we'd pass it along.  

Here's a few more fun pix from the book- also proving that the Japanese will make a crab and squid out of anything!