Counting Bat Cookies

I noticed this week, that C (age 5) has taken a step backward with her counting. Suddenly, although she can count off the numbers below 10 and over 20 just fine, she's stumbling through the teens. I've been casually counting everything out loud with her for the past few days, playing Chutes and Ladders, focusing in on the teens, and watching countless Sesame Street counting clips with numbers over 10 at SesameStreet.org.

With C's favorite clips being the ones with The Count, and our unofficial theme, this week, already being bats, it didn't take much imagination when it came to snack time - bat cookies were kind of a "duh".

We made them pretty much the same as our bat cookies from last year, only smaller, using the clean top of a salt shaker to cut circles out of a half batch of sugar cookie dough (click here for the recipe).


We cut 20 circle bodies, and squished them out little on the cookie sheet.


Then, we cut 20 more to cut in half with a zigzag cut...


...for wings.


We added chocolate chip eyes, before baking the cookies at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes, and once they had cooled completely, I filled a plastic baggie with melted white chocolate chips, snipped a tiny corner, and piped on the numbers from 1 to 20 (I would probably suggest using frosting instead - melted chocolate is very hot, and difficult to pipe on without burning your fingers).


I set them out on plates, and E (age 6) helped her sister count them. "1, one bat cookie, aw-ha-ha-ha...2, two bat cookies...aw-ha-ha-ha..."


Finally, the older children stepped in to demonstrate division with remainders (20 cookies divided among 6 children gives each child three cookies, with two left over for Dad), and multiplication mixed with subtraction (3 bat cookies each with two wings makes 6 wings, unless two wings fall off while you're moving the cookies to the plates, leaving only 4 wings).

Tip: If you let the cookies cool completely before removing them from the cookie sheet, the wings are more likely to stay attached.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Oh, and I'll be linking this post to a new meme - Watcha Making Wednesdays - hosted by the Ramblings and Adventures of a S.A.H.M., and to Math Monday at Love2Learn2Day.

I Can Make Toys

Do you remember the clothespin button racers we made last December?

Maybe you don't, but I on the other hand, have spent the last ten months searching for the book that inspired them. That might seem like a long time to look for a book, especially one originally found at the library. After all, how many toy making books can one library system have?

It turns out, ours has quite a few, and almost all of them are the not-searchable-at-Amazon type. I've been checking one or two out at a time, hoping to come across the right one, spurred to continue the hunt each time the post was linked or relinked by another sight, but with no success.

Finally, while going through a spiral notebook, where I had scribbled last year's ideas for fall crafts and projects, to see if we had missed any we might like to do this year, I found a small notation on the back cover..."clothespin racer - I Can Make Toys". At last!


I checked the book out, just to double check, and sure enough, it contains instructions for making a clothespin racer, among a number of other brilliantly simple toys for children to make.

I've edited the original post to credit Mary Wallace, and now plan on relaxing, and spending a rainy afternoon with my children, making "Flying Flappers", "Jet Gliders", or a team of toilet paper tube horses.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Pine Cone Bats

I know that pine cone owls are more traditional at this time of year, but after collecting the pine cones, it turned out the children had their hearts set on painting them like they did for last year's Thanksgiving place card holders.


I'm planning something different for Thanksgiving this year, so I compromised with the children, and let them paint their pine cones with black tempera paint, for bats, instead.

It's about time to watch The Magic School Bus Goes Batty, to counteract the effects of all the creepy Halloween decorations going up around town, anyway. The Magic School Bus goes perfectly with this activity, because it takes about as long to cover a pine cone in a good coating of paint, as it does to watch the bat themed episode.

Unfortunately, the episode has disappeared from the Internet. You can't even pay to download it from anywhere I could find. So, hopefully you can find the The Magic School Bus Creepy Crawly Fun, which contains the Goes Batty episode, like we did, at our local library.

As to the craft, once they'd painted their pine cones, and left them overnight to dry, I added cut out construction paper circles, and wings...


...for the children to glue together...


...and to their pine cones.




Then, I tied strings around the pine cones...


...and the other ends to the light fixture over our table, to let the bats take flight.



It's great to be a homeschooler.

Fork Weaving - Yarn Creatures

The idea for these little guys came about accidentally. We were originally trying to create a sort of pom-pom bear, which ended up looking more like a dog, but not quite a dog either.

The children are calling them Yarn Yetis, and they're all the rage in our house right now. Everyone has to have one, except for T, of course. As a 14 year old boy, he's immune to the cuteness of the yarn creatures.

The best part of the Yarn Yetis, other than their obvious adorableness, is that they are quick and easy to make. It's a slightly more difficult fork weaving project than the flowers, or spiders we've made before - probably best for upper elementary aged children. But, younger children accustomed to fork weaving, might be up to the challenge with just a little bit of help.

To make a Yarn Yeti of your own, you will need yarn (only one color, but for the purpose of clarity, we used two in the pictures below), one regular fork (the longer the tines, the better), one baby fork (we used a 4 tined baby fork), scissors, a yarn needle, tacky or hot glue, and a pair of google eyes for each creature you plan to make.


You begin just like for the other fork weaving projects, by cutting a piece of string, and centering it between the middle tines of a dinner fork, only this time the piece of string should be about two and a half feet long.


Then, place the loose end of the skein of yarn next to the far tine, and holding it in place, weave the yarn back and forth through the tines...



...until you near the top of the tines. Cut the yarn loose...


...and tie the original piece of yarn around the weaving, through the center tines (you can hold the fork between your knees, if you don't have a friend to work with).


Carefully remove the yarn from the fork, and...


...pull the knot tight. Secure with a second knot.


Fluff out the loops of yarn, and trim the short loose ends. Leave the two long ends (shown in black above and below) alone.


Repeat the steps to make a second pom-pom, but this time, begin by cutting two lengths of string, one two and a half feet long, and one slightly shorter.


Use the second piece to drape across the top of the fork before you tie the first string around the weaving, then proceed as you did for the first pom-pom.


This will give you two pom-poms, one - the head, with two long loose ends, and the other - the body, with four long loose ends.


Now, your ready for the baby fork. Cut a short piece of yarn, and center it between the middle tines of the smaller fork...


...then thread one of the loose ends of the pom-poms through the outer space between the tines, and pull the loose end, so the back of the fork is tight against the pom-pom.


Weave the loose end back and forth through the tines, until you reach the top of the fork, or run out of yarn.


Tie it off, with the centered piece as usual, to create a small pom-pom attached to the larger pom-pom in the same way you made the larger one.





Repeat the steps for all six loose ends, until you have two pom-poms - the head, with two small pom-poms for ears, and the body - with four small leg pom-poms attached.


To connect the two pom-poms, push the loops apart at the bottom of the head, and the front of the body, to reveal the strings tied around their centers. Then, cut a short piece of yarn from the skein, and use the yarn needle to thread one end through the center body string, and the center head string.


Then, thread the other side of the string under the center string of the head, in the opposite direction from the first end.


Tie the two ends into a tight knot, to pull the head up onto the body, and secure with a second knot.


Trim the ends.


Pull a loop up from the back of the body, to make a sort of tail...


...glue google eyes on the face...


...and your creature is ready to join the herd. Ours have all turned out similar, but slightly different, just like the children who own them.


It's great to be a homeschooler.