Super Simple Christmas Swags

End up with too much tree for your house, again this year? They always look so tiny in the woods.


Don't toss the trimmings.


The extra branches can make for quick and easy swags. If you put up a fake tree, just keep an eye out for neighbors hauling in trees, that are clearly too tall, and maybe you can talk them out of a branch or two.


Lay them out...


...with the cut ends overlapping in the middle.


Layer on two or three branches per side, until you reach a nice thickness.


Cut a piece of twine about six inches long.


Slide it under the center of the branches...


...and use it to tie the entire bundle securely together.


Finish the whole thing off by securing a bow to the front (I picked mine up for 99 cents at Kmart).


You will need a few small hooks under your window...


And, if it's a second story window, you'll need someone willing to climb a ladder, to hang the swag, while you observe from the ground to make sure it's centered (that's a very important job).


And, unless you want a droopy swag...


...you might also want to tie the branches together with twine, near the edges.


...preferably before hanging.


You can also tie several branches together, with the cut ends up...


...for a door swag.


You could even get really fancy, and tie a few pine cones to the branches. I'm debating whether or not it's worth another trip up the ladder (as you might imagine the Man of the House has decided plain and simple is just fine with him).


Plain and simple can be good - right?

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Christmas Cheer from Fall Reflections

We've had a very fun, and full fall, as witnessed by the our paper tree, devoid of to-do leaves, and full of thankful turkeys. All but two leaves have been removed from the tree, and they were just movies, one that didn't make it to our town, and the other that had a postponed DVD release date. It's still technically fall of course, but first thing this morning, the tree came down...


...to make room for our chocolate filled, advent calendars.


I thought maybe before we got completely caught up in the crazy rush toward Christmas, we should take a few minutes to slow down, and reflect on the things we've done, and all that we have to be thankful for, so I grabbed up the leaves, turkeys, and pictures from the past few weeks...


...and placed them together in a photo album for the children to pore through.


James 5:13 says, "Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise."

Looking at all the pictures, and thankful hand print turkeys, with things like "creamy peanut butter" and "hugs" written in my children's script, I have to say, I am happy, and ready to sing loud for all to hear. Even Will Ferrell knows that's the best way to spread Christmas cheer.

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! 2 Corinthians 9:15

It's great to be a homeschooler.

There Was A Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow - Craft

The children have been quoting from Alison Jackson's I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie, all week long.

I know an old lady who swallowed a pie, a Thanksgiving pie, which was really too dry. Perhaps she'll die.

They really like that last line - a lot. So, I when I saw Lucille Colandro's There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow, at the library, I knew we'd have to check it out, as soon as Thanksgiving was over.

It follows the same line as the original "Old Lady" story (you know, the one who swallowed the fly), but with a wintry remake. This time the old lady, or rather cold lady, has a hard time keeping her snacks down. After swallowing snow, a pipe, some coal, a hat, a stick, and a scarf, she hiccups and hiccups, and out pops a...well, I'm sure you can guess. I figured the children could too, but just to be sure, I stopped reading the story before turning to the last page, and pulled out a few supplies for a quick review.

I gave them a batch of homemade white play dough for snow (made using the cream of tarter recipe), a piece of bendy straw for a pipe, a few small play dough balls for coal, a construction paper hat I made following instructions from ikatbag, pipe cleaner sticks, and a felt scrap scarf.

I had the girls arrange the items in the order the cold lady swallowed them.


Then, I asked them to make what they thought she hiccuped out...


...before turning to the last page of the book to see if they were right.


It's great to be a homeschooler

Make And Takes For Kids - Craft Book Review

Marie LeBaron from MakeandTakes.com, sent us a copy of her new book, Make and Takes for Kids, to take a look at and review.

I love the Make and Takes website, and not just because Almost Unschoolers has been linked there a couple of times (insert big grin here), but because it's packed full of easy to make, why-didn't-I-think-of-that-? type projects, which just so happens to be the same reason I can recommend Make and Takes for Kids.

It contains fifty crafts, four or five - including a smattering of crafty foods, for each month of the year.

At first glance, many of the crafts seem familiar, but a closer inspection reveals a tiny twist making each one even more fun, from pipe cleaners on the pet rocks (photo credit to Nicole Gerulet of A Little Sussy)...


...to adding a glow stick to the tissue paper fire...


...for that extra touch of glowing realism. I thought it was, quite literally, brilliant! We tried it out this afternoon, and my younger girls(ages 5 and 6) went wild for it.


Many of the craft ideas lend themselves nicely to pretend play, making the book a great addition to any boredom buster library.

It's available right now through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Walmart.com, and Wiley.com, where you can also find a free craft page, with even more crafting ideas.

And, for an added bonus, you can even catch a glimpse of Marie, demonstrating one of the crafts from the book, in a video clip from Good Things Utah.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Paper Wampum Belts - Thanksgiving Craft

We found fantastic instructions for weaving wampum belts, over at There's a Dragon in my Art Room. The instructions are so simple, and easy to follow, that A (age 10) was able to handle the project alone, with just a little help getting started, and finishing up.

The original project called for using pony beads, but after reading about all the work the Eastern Native American tribes put into to making the tiny, purple and white, shell beads, used for decoration, and currency, I decided to have the children make their own paper beads, by rolling rectangular strips of paper around a wooden skewer and gluing the end.

C (age 5) helped by coloring sheets of paper purple, but rolling the small beads was too difficult for the younger children. I had thought about making up a large number, and then having them earn beads in payment for jobs around the house, to bring home the concept of why wampum was valuable enough to the Indians to use for money, but that was before we were distracted by the bag of cranberries.

In the end, we made just enough beads for one small wampum belt. We arranged them into a pattern we were pleased with...


...and then I prepared a weaving board by cutting six notches out of both ends of a cardboard box flap.


We attached a waft thread by tapping a piece of embroidery floss to the back of our cardboard, and then running it back and forth across the board, through each notch, cutting it, and securing the cut end to the back of the board, as well.

We tied our weaving thread to the bottom edge of the first row of waft string (the length of the string will depend on the size of belt you're making, but you'll want to use more string than seems necessary)...


...taping the short end to the back of the board...


...and placing an embroidery needle on the other.


Then row by row, A strung the beads over the needle onto the weaving string...


...and ran the string under the waft, placing each bead in the spaces between the horizontal rows...


...before running the needle with the weaving string back down through the beads, this time on top of the waft...


...continuing on, row by row, over and under...


...until all the beads were in place. She secured the beads by tying the end of the weaving string to the waft, next to the last bead.


Then, I helped her to remove the tape, and we cut the waft down the middle, on the back side...


...freeing the belt from the board.


Finally, we tied the loose ends of string, in pairs, up against the beads, and then together into two knots, one on either side.


As I said, you can find excellent step-by-step instructions at There's a Dragon in my Art Room.
With a colorful assortment of pony beads, the pattern possibilities are nearly endless. I'm pretty sure we'll be revisiting this project, with prettier beads, when it comes time for making Christmas presents for friends. Of course, then we'll call them bracelets, headbands, or chokers, instead of wampum belts.


It's great to be a homeschooler.

The Rest of The Cranberries - A Lesson in Almost Unschooling

From time to time people ask me how "almost unschooling" works with older children. So, I thought I should mention, that while the younger children (ages 5-8), had a lot of fun using cranberry juice as a pH indicator, and learning big words like anthocyanin this week, T (age 14) wanted and needed a greater depth of information.


What does it mean to say something is an acid or a base?

What is an ion (because when you read about acids and bases you read about ions)?

What is pH? And really, why difference does all of that make outside of a chemistry lab?

I've said before, that I view my role as an almost unschooling parent, as one of an educational tour guide. To that end, seeing an interest in my son, I spent an hour or so, looking for books on our shelves...


...or ones available from our local library, or that we could at least read a few pages from with the "Look Inside" feature on Amazon, for instant knowledge, explaining the answers to the questions above.


Then today, while T busied himself reading the books above, and watching a few related videos from BrainPop.com (the one subscription service we use on a regular basis), the younger children, and I continued on with even more cranberry themed lessons.


The older girls made cranberry sauce, using our recipe from last year. That recipe (you can click the link to see it) calls for an entire bag of cranberries, so the girls had to estimate how much of the bag we had left, double checking their calculations by reading the ounces and serving sizes on the bag...


...and then weighing...


...and measuring the cranberries.


They had estimated we had half a bag, and it turned out we had about an ounce more than half a bag. They removed the ounce, and then divided the rest of the recipe in half, before mixing up a batch (that's estimation, measuring, weighing, and dividing fractions, just in case you're keeping track).


While the cranberries, orange juice and sugar were bubbling away in the microwave...


...we read a paragraph about pectin from Joan D'Amico's The Science Chef.



Alton Brown also has a pretty good explanation of what pectin is and how it works, in the "Cran Opening" episode of Good Eats (click the link to find part one of the episode on YouTube).

It takes heat to break down plant cells walls, and free the pectin to do its job. Last year, we ran our sauce for 5 minutes, stirred it, and then ran it for an additional 7 minutes in the microwave. This year, the girls decided (against my advice) with the smaller recipe, less time would probably be needed, so after five minutes...


...they took it out, and strained the jelly into a pretty, flower shaped, silicon type mold, before placing it in the refrigerator to set.


We used the lumpy bits that were left...


...to make a batch of "Grandmother's Famous Cranberry Bread".


You can find the recipe at the back of Wende and Harry Devlin's Cranberry Thanksgiving (a big hit around here), or at Allrecipes.com, by clicking the link above. We substituted pumpkin puree for the orange juice, and added pecans, and it was quite delicious.


Then, while we were still waiting for the cranberry sauce to set up, and had The Science Chef out and handy, I helped C (age 5), make a batch of cranberry pudding, using the last of the cranberry indicator solution (basically cranberry juice), as I had promised her, after our cranberry finger paint fun, the other day.


You can view the pudding mix recipe with the "Look Inside" feature on Amazon, just type "pudding mix" in the search box, but you'll need to actually get your hands on the book to read D'Amico's scientific explanation of corn starch, and how it thickens things like pudding (or finger paint). However, Good Eats also has a "pudding" episode.

I like D'Amico's pudding mix, because it can be mixed with water (or in our case cranberry juice-ish water)...


...to make the pudding. C thought it turned out pretty good.


I actually preferred the taste of the finger paint (which is not really a recommendation for eating either one). Oh, and I was right about the cranberry sauce - it needed more cooking time. It tasted great, but when we removed it from the mold, it did not hold its shape.


We decided to try reheating it, to see what would happen, and in the process learned a lesson on chemical verses physical change in regard to sugar left unattended with heat for too long...


...but that's probably enough for today.

Let's just say, it's great to be a homeschooler.