(Relating to this week's menu plan)
I was going to make turkey chili and have apricot meatballs later in the week...but I had a craving for regular old chili, and besides, turkey meatballs taste great with sweet-and-sour apricot sauce. So I just switched them around. Tonight we're having your standard-style chili (but made with lower-salt ingredients), no-salt tortilla chips, pasta for those who want it, and carrot sticks. And carrot-apricot-bran bars, which aren't that low-sodium, but sometimes with baking it's more about portion control than ingredients.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Where our garden's at
There's still some chard in the garden--I picked most of it, but what's still there is still green.
The bean plants are starting to dry up, which is fine because we just leave the too-big beans on the vines to dry and then use them for next year's seed.
We still have quite a few green tomatoes, and we may get a few of them turning red before the frost gets them. Our zucchini plants dried up a couple of weeks ago.
The funny thing is that a friend a few blocks away with a large garden still has zucchini plants that are trying to pop out a few last squash; but her tomato plants are finished. Figure that one out.
The bean plants are starting to dry up, which is fine because we just leave the too-big beans on the vines to dry and then use them for next year's seed.
We still have quite a few green tomatoes, and we may get a few of them turning red before the frost gets them. Our zucchini plants dried up a couple of weeks ago.
The funny thing is that a friend a few blocks away with a large garden still has zucchini plants that are trying to pop out a few last squash; but her tomato plants are finished. Figure that one out.
Wearable Krieghoff
She designed two Krieghoff nighties with attached slippers. If you can't make out the details (click to enlarge them), the green nightie has a horse and snowflakes, and the blue one has a pine tree with a red "K" above it.
(Mama Squirrel suggested KriegCough Drops...maple-syrup flavoured with a hint of rum.) (Or whatever it was that the habitants drank.)
Picture by Crayons, September 2008, using Paint
Picture Study: Cornelius Krieghoff
Our second painter this term is Cornelius Krieghoff, who was born in the Netherlands but became one of Canada's most famous 19th-century painters.
Some resources I've found:
The National Gallery of Canada's "preview" page from an exhibition several years ago
Another preview page, which looks at his development as an artist
A page of gift-shop items based on Krieghoff's paintings (I found this amusing)
(Hey, that would be kind of a cool idea for a picture narration, wouldn't it?--Design something else inspired by Krieghoff's work. Besides a T-shirt or a Christmas card.)
Something else fun--which of these two is the real Krieghoff painting, and which is the fake?
A book I want to get from the library: Krieghoff: Images of Canada, by Dennis Reid
And not totally helpful, but a tie-in anyway (and the library has it): a CD of folk music called À la claire fontaine: Music in Krieghoff's Quebec.
Some resources I've found:
The National Gallery of Canada's "preview" page from an exhibition several years ago
Another preview page, which looks at his development as an artist
A page of gift-shop items based on Krieghoff's paintings (I found this amusing)
(Hey, that would be kind of a cool idea for a picture narration, wouldn't it?--Design something else inspired by Krieghoff's work. Besides a T-shirt or a Christmas card.)
Something else fun--which of these two is the real Krieghoff painting, and which is the fake?
A book I want to get from the library: Krieghoff: Images of Canada, by Dennis Reid
And not totally helpful, but a tie-in anyway (and the library has it): a CD of folk music called À la claire fontaine: Music in Krieghoff's Quebec.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Books read in September
About the only book I can remember finishing this month (besides school books and low-sodium cookbooks) is Rumer Godden's Kingfishers Catch Fire. (Time Magazine's original 1953 review)
OK, it wasn't a great month for reading. I promise to do better in October.
OK, it wasn't a great month for reading. I promise to do better in October.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Why the sea is salt (dessert recipe)
That, I don't know, but sometimes it seems the whole food world is salt. A half-cup serving of commercial instant chocolate pudding mix contains 310 mg of sodium.
I have a non-dairy "chocolate dessert" recipe from Food That Really Schmecks. We've made it many times but never particularly considered the sodium content.
The ingredients, as written, are 1 heaping tbsp. cocoa, 3 heaping tbsp. flour (this is an old recipe!), 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 cup sugar, 2 cups water, 1 tsp. vanilla, and some butter to stir in at the end (I figured 2 tbsp.).
This recipe doesn't make very large servings (I'd say it serves 3-4), but counting it as a 4-serving dessert, one serving as written would have 295.9 mg sodium. About the same as the commercial milk-based pudding, although at least it's free of all the other additives.
If you use 1/4 tsp. salt, it brings it down to 149.1 mg.
If you cut it to 1/8 tsp. salt, it brings it down to 75.609 mg.
And if you leave the salt out altogether, you end up with 2.175 mg per serving.
Obviously, almost all the sodium in this recipe comes directly from the salt. The question is just how far back to cut it! I think I might try it with just a pinch of salt.
Oh, you wanted the recipe? It's a little inexact, but goes better with experience.
In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, flour and cocoa, and salt if using. Mix with a little cold water to form a paste; then add in about 2 cups boiling water (less if you had to use more cold water). Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly or at least frequently. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and butter or margarine. Chill before serving.
I have a non-dairy "chocolate dessert" recipe from Food That Really Schmecks. We've made it many times but never particularly considered the sodium content.
The ingredients, as written, are 1 heaping tbsp. cocoa, 3 heaping tbsp. flour (this is an old recipe!), 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 cup sugar, 2 cups water, 1 tsp. vanilla, and some butter to stir in at the end (I figured 2 tbsp.).
This recipe doesn't make very large servings (I'd say it serves 3-4), but counting it as a 4-serving dessert, one serving as written would have 295.9 mg sodium. About the same as the commercial milk-based pudding, although at least it's free of all the other additives.
If you use 1/4 tsp. salt, it brings it down to 149.1 mg.
If you cut it to 1/8 tsp. salt, it brings it down to 75.609 mg.
And if you leave the salt out altogether, you end up with 2.175 mg per serving.
Obviously, almost all the sodium in this recipe comes directly from the salt. The question is just how far back to cut it! I think I might try it with just a pinch of salt.
Oh, you wanted the recipe? It's a little inexact, but goes better with experience.
In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, flour and cocoa, and salt if using. Mix with a little cold water to form a paste; then add in about 2 cups boiling water (less if you had to use more cold water). Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly or at least frequently. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and butter or margarine. Chill before serving.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Crayons' Grade Two: September Notes
Referring back to Crayons' Grade Two Outline
Favourite folk songs: "When I First Came to This Land". We also (very selectively) use some songs from Festivals, Family and Food (the ones without too much Mother Earth in them), and have also enjoyed the first volume of Michael Mitchell's Canada is For Kids. Crayons likes the video version of Mitchell's "Canada in My Pocket" (about the symbols on Canadian coins).
I also give her short follow-the-leader lessons on the keyboard.
Recent reading: A Pioneer Story (story interspersed with facts on life in the backwoods), Owls in the Family, Understood Betsy, "The Gorgon's Head" from A Wonder Book, The Old Nurse's Stocking Basket, poems from Come Hither, William the Conqueror chapters in the history book, Among the Forest People, Hiawatha's Childhood, Pilgrim's Progress (up to Mr. Worldly Wiseman), Bible stories about Samuel and the temptation of Christ, and two stories from Stories for Canada's Birthday. Today we read the "D is for dory, dinosaur, Dan McGrew, dulse" page from Canada Eh to Zed, which inspired us to watch the Historica Minute about Joseph Tyrrell (finder of dinosaur bones in Alberta), and Crayons showed me her favourite online dinosaur game.
She has been doing pages in the David Thompson activity book, which is not terribly in-depth about his work but has some fun worksheets; we borrowed a National Geographic issue with an article about his travels, and I read some of the basics from an online biography. David Thompson seems to be one of the most under-appreciated of Canadian explorers and mapmakers, but he is definitely worth studying.
Math has been fairly informal, mostly following my own Miquon notes. I don't especially like the addition worksheets that go with these lessons--they're often confusing and new-Math-ish (the worst of the '60's, breaking things apart too much); so we're using coins, rods and number tiles to practice making three-digit numbers and also to practice grouping for tens. We're also doing some hundred-chart work, working on adding and subtracting nines, tens and elevens quickly.
The Gifted and Talented workbooks are working fine for a bit of language work--mostly synonyms at this point. (It was also a good chance to talk about what a Thesaurus is; Crayons likes Mommy's big fat Synonym Finder because it has more words than the children's version.) Spelling words we practice through the week with Scrabble letters, and then have a test on Fridays. The handwriting workbooks haven't yet arrived (they're in the mail, should be here this week) so she has just been doing copywork, which isn't a favourite as there are still some issues with letter formation, remembering to use lower case, and the general effort required to print neatly. She does a little each week anyway, and I am having her start a fall poem on large paper to go on the kitchen wall.
Crayons has been making nature pictures in a sketchbook (mostly as narrations of nature stories--she is interested in owls right now), and has started a scroll for Pilgrim's Progress.
And we've done a little French--mostly colours and numbers, but it's about time to begin the felt-board people.
Favourite folk songs: "When I First Came to This Land". We also (very selectively) use some songs from Festivals, Family and Food (the ones without too much Mother Earth in them), and have also enjoyed the first volume of Michael Mitchell's Canada is For Kids. Crayons likes the video version of Mitchell's "Canada in My Pocket" (about the symbols on Canadian coins).
I also give her short follow-the-leader lessons on the keyboard.
Recent reading: A Pioneer Story (story interspersed with facts on life in the backwoods), Owls in the Family, Understood Betsy, "The Gorgon's Head" from A Wonder Book, The Old Nurse's Stocking Basket, poems from Come Hither, William the Conqueror chapters in the history book, Among the Forest People, Hiawatha's Childhood, Pilgrim's Progress (up to Mr. Worldly Wiseman), Bible stories about Samuel and the temptation of Christ, and two stories from Stories for Canada's Birthday. Today we read the "D is for dory, dinosaur, Dan McGrew, dulse" page from Canada Eh to Zed, which inspired us to watch the Historica Minute about Joseph Tyrrell (finder of dinosaur bones in Alberta), and Crayons showed me her favourite online dinosaur game.
She has been doing pages in the David Thompson activity book, which is not terribly in-depth about his work but has some fun worksheets; we borrowed a National Geographic issue with an article about his travels, and I read some of the basics from an online biography. David Thompson seems to be one of the most under-appreciated of Canadian explorers and mapmakers, but he is definitely worth studying.
Math has been fairly informal, mostly following my own Miquon notes. I don't especially like the addition worksheets that go with these lessons--they're often confusing and new-Math-ish (the worst of the '60's, breaking things apart too much); so we're using coins, rods and number tiles to practice making three-digit numbers and also to practice grouping for tens. We're also doing some hundred-chart work, working on adding and subtracting nines, tens and elevens quickly.
The Gifted and Talented workbooks are working fine for a bit of language work--mostly synonyms at this point. (It was also a good chance to talk about what a Thesaurus is; Crayons likes Mommy's big fat Synonym Finder because it has more words than the children's version.) Spelling words we practice through the week with Scrabble letters, and then have a test on Fridays. The handwriting workbooks haven't yet arrived (they're in the mail, should be here this week) so she has just been doing copywork, which isn't a favourite as there are still some issues with letter formation, remembering to use lower case, and the general effort required to print neatly. She does a little each week anyway, and I am having her start a fall poem on large paper to go on the kitchen wall.
Crayons has been making nature pictures in a sketchbook (mostly as narrations of nature stories--she is interested in owls right now), and has started a scroll for Pilgrim's Progress.
And we've done a little French--mostly colours and numbers, but it's about time to begin the felt-board people.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Weaving
We're in the fourth week of school, but just getting started now on handicrafts.
I planned to do weaving with Crayons (the girl, not the Crayolas), but we hadn't had much luck with the typical flat cardboard or foam-tray looms, or even with the simple wooden frame that she was given last Christmas (a "fashion loom" kit). I think younger kids often find it tedious to fill up a whole frame with over-under-over-under, even if they have a needle or something to help it go a bit faster. Or they end up with something horribly warped. Also, the wooden frame loom came with a thick, soft, slippery yarn which seemed to be hard for her to use.
Then I noticed the weaving page in a book called Pioneer Crafts, by Barbara Greenwood; it goes with the Canadian book A Pioneer Story, which is sold in the U.S. as A Pioneer Sampler.
It suggested making a foam-tray loom but also using what the book calls a cardboard heddle, and what I've also seen called a warp separator; just a piece of cardboard, an inch wide and slightly wider than the loom, with one end cut in a point. After threading the loom, you weave the heddle in and out (rather than the yarn), stand it up on its edge, and then pull a bobbin full of yarn through the shed (the open space) that is created when you stand it up. Then the heddle goes back the other way, out and in through the strands; stands up to make the shed, and the bobbin goes back through. The heddle is also used (flat) to gently push the rows against the previous work.
I didn't bother making a foam-tray loom since we do have the wooden frame, and I was right--it worked fine. (I remember the teeth on foam-tray looms tending to break anyway, so I was happy not to have to do that.)
For some reason, this is MUCH easier for a second-grader than weaving a long strand of yarn in and out across the rows. By using a bobbin (I had a plastic knit/crochet bobbin, but you can make cardboard ones), you can also pull more yarn through at a time and do more rows without having to get Mom to add more yarn.
We also chose some cotton yarn (Bernat Handicrafter) in variegated colours, which weaves well and looks pretty with the different coloured stripes.
I'm pleased with this discovery, since it's turned the most basic loom into something a bit more sophisticated, still simple (or even simpler) to do, but that feels more like a real handicraft than just a kindergarten activity. Of course it has its limitations--the design of the loom means that you can't make anything longer than the frame itself--but I think that's about the same measure as a 7-year-old's attention span.
I planned to do weaving with Crayons (the girl, not the Crayolas), but we hadn't had much luck with the typical flat cardboard or foam-tray looms, or even with the simple wooden frame that she was given last Christmas (a "fashion loom" kit). I think younger kids often find it tedious to fill up a whole frame with over-under-over-under, even if they have a needle or something to help it go a bit faster. Or they end up with something horribly warped. Also, the wooden frame loom came with a thick, soft, slippery yarn which seemed to be hard for her to use.
Then I noticed the weaving page in a book called Pioneer Crafts, by Barbara Greenwood; it goes with the Canadian book A Pioneer Story, which is sold in the U.S. as A Pioneer Sampler.
It suggested making a foam-tray loom but also using what the book calls a cardboard heddle, and what I've also seen called a warp separator; just a piece of cardboard, an inch wide and slightly wider than the loom, with one end cut in a point. After threading the loom, you weave the heddle in and out (rather than the yarn), stand it up on its edge, and then pull a bobbin full of yarn through the shed (the open space) that is created when you stand it up. Then the heddle goes back the other way, out and in through the strands; stands up to make the shed, and the bobbin goes back through. The heddle is also used (flat) to gently push the rows against the previous work.
I didn't bother making a foam-tray loom since we do have the wooden frame, and I was right--it worked fine. (I remember the teeth on foam-tray looms tending to break anyway, so I was happy not to have to do that.)
For some reason, this is MUCH easier for a second-grader than weaving a long strand of yarn in and out across the rows. By using a bobbin (I had a plastic knit/crochet bobbin, but you can make cardboard ones), you can also pull more yarn through at a time and do more rows without having to get Mom to add more yarn.
We also chose some cotton yarn (Bernat Handicrafter) in variegated colours, which weaves well and looks pretty with the different coloured stripes.
I'm pleased with this discovery, since it's turned the most basic loom into something a bit more sophisticated, still simple (or even simpler) to do, but that feels more like a real handicraft than just a kindergarten activity. Of course it has its limitations--the design of the loom means that you can't make anything longer than the frame itself--but I think that's about the same measure as a 7-year-old's attention span.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Crayons' Picture Study Narration
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Saturday yard-saling
Mr. Fixit was feeling well enough for a short jaunt to a church sale this morning.
He found a walkie-talkie. Crayons found a Barbie. Ponytails found a couple of things.
Mama Squirrel found books, because this particular church sale almost always has a wonderful book corner. Also a brand-new set of Christmas-coloured table runner/napkins/placemats which Mama Squirrel would have no intention of putting on her Christmas table but which might work very well for gift bags or other Christmas-fabric crafts. Also a brand-new set of two cocoa mugs plus cocoa mix, final destination still unknown. Also a couple of part-sets of nice stationery.
The books are:
Jacob Two-Two and the Dinosaur
Jacob Two-Two's First Spy Case (Mama Squirrel and Crayons just finished Jacob Two-Two and the Hooded Fang) (Review comments: These are fairly amusing but contain a bit too much grade-school potty humour for MS's taste. The Hooded Fang is probably the best of the three.)
The Accidental Tourist, by Anne Tyler (M.S.'s copy disappeared awhile back)
Hymns for Primary Worship
Freedom and Beyond, by John Holt
Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner
Making Men Whole, by J.B. Phillips
Extending the Table: A World Community Cookbook, by Joetta Handrich Schlabach (the 1991 followup to The More-with-Less Cookbook)
And my favourites out of the pile:
Selected Burns for Young Readers, published by Geddes and Grosset. Amblesiders and Martha fans, check this one out! Nice big print! Glossary of Scottish words in the back! An introductory biography of Burns, and introductions to each of the poems! Lovely.
Songs of the Saviour, and Out of Doors Nature Songs, both by Annie Johnson Flint. Paper-covered, tied-with-cord booklets of her poems, published I-don't-know-when by Evangelical Publishers in Toronto--I'm guessing the early twentieth century, though.
He found a walkie-talkie. Crayons found a Barbie. Ponytails found a couple of things.
Mama Squirrel found books, because this particular church sale almost always has a wonderful book corner. Also a brand-new set of Christmas-coloured table runner/napkins/placemats which Mama Squirrel would have no intention of putting on her Christmas table but which might work very well for gift bags or other Christmas-fabric crafts. Also a brand-new set of two cocoa mugs plus cocoa mix, final destination still unknown. Also a couple of part-sets of nice stationery.
The books are:
Jacob Two-Two and the Dinosaur
Jacob Two-Two's First Spy Case (Mama Squirrel and Crayons just finished Jacob Two-Two and the Hooded Fang) (Review comments: These are fairly amusing but contain a bit too much grade-school potty humour for MS's taste. The Hooded Fang is probably the best of the three.)
The Accidental Tourist, by Anne Tyler (M.S.'s copy disappeared awhile back)
Hymns for Primary Worship
Freedom and Beyond, by John Holt
Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner
Making Men Whole, by J.B. Phillips
Extending the Table: A World Community Cookbook, by Joetta Handrich Schlabach (the 1991 followup to The More-with-Less Cookbook)
And my favourites out of the pile:
Selected Burns for Young Readers, published by Geddes and Grosset. Amblesiders and Martha fans, check this one out! Nice big print! Glossary of Scottish words in the back! An introductory biography of Burns, and introductions to each of the poems! Lovely.
Songs of the Saviour, and Out of Doors Nature Songs, both by Annie Johnson Flint. Paper-covered, tied-with-cord booklets of her poems, published I-don't-know-when by Evangelical Publishers in Toronto--I'm guessing the early twentieth century, though.
Mr. Fixit is on the mend, and another dietary excursion
Our dearest Mr. Fixit is home after a ten-day stay in the hospital. The longest any of us has ever been away from home...God is good and Mr. Fixit is much better than he has been since earlier this summer.
For reasons relating to his recent illness, he has been prescribed a low-sodium diet. Mama Squirrel, while happy to accommodate, hears a tiny inner groan saying "Oh no, not another different food code." (Regular Treehouse visitors will know that this year already we've been through experiments with high protein/no sugar and gluten-free foods.)
Happily, we've found a couple of low-sodium cookbooks at the library that not only sound like they have food we could manage to cook and eat, they also encourage the use of bread machines (yes, we can do that!). If you've never looked at low-sodium diets and think of them mainly in terms of table salt, that may sound surprising. But if you're on a 2000 mg a day of sodium and a slice of commercial bread has about 200 mg, there goes a tenth of your allowance just on a piece of bread. If you can find or make lower-sodium baked goods, then you have that much more to use on more interesting things.
Works like frugality, doesn't it?
If any of you have great websites or books to recommend, I'd be happy to hear your comments.
For reasons relating to his recent illness, he has been prescribed a low-sodium diet. Mama Squirrel, while happy to accommodate, hears a tiny inner groan saying "Oh no, not another different food code." (Regular Treehouse visitors will know that this year already we've been through experiments with high protein/no sugar and gluten-free foods.)
Happily, we've found a couple of low-sodium cookbooks at the library that not only sound like they have food we could manage to cook and eat, they also encourage the use of bread machines (yes, we can do that!). If you've never looked at low-sodium diets and think of them mainly in terms of table salt, that may sound surprising. But if you're on a 2000 mg a day of sodium and a slice of commercial bread has about 200 mg, there goes a tenth of your allowance just on a piece of bread. If you can find or make lower-sodium baked goods, then you have that much more to use on more interesting things.
Works like frugality, doesn't it?
If any of you have great websites or books to recommend, I'd be happy to hear your comments.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Books Read in August
Saint Maybe, by Anne Tyler (re-read)
A Breath of Air, by Rumer Godden (reviewed yesterday)
A Mother's Rule of Life, by Holly Pierlot
This is a book that's been around for a couple of years and was recommended by other homeschooling friends. More than how to organize your life--how to organize your Life. As Coffeemamma pointed out to me--it's easy to relate to Holly's "I've had it!" moment that propelled her into searching for a better way for her family. Like Alice Gunther's book (below), this one comes deep out of Holly's Catholic faith, so the suggestions for building the day around rosaries etc. may leave Protestants scratching their heads; but Protestants need time for prayer and Bible reading too!
A Haystack Full of Needles, by Alice Gunther
An intensely Roman Catholic book but with a theme that crosses denominations: not only the "socialization" of homeschooled children, but of their parents as well. The book underlines the importance of building community and close friendships beyond the usual homeschool clubs and field trips. Brand new--you'll probably have to get your catalogue vendor to order it for you. (A bonus: you get to see photos of Alice's friends and their children, including Melissa's flock.)
With Crayons:
The Phoenix and the Carpet, by E. Nesbit
The Amulet, by E. Nesbit
These are the two sequels to Five Children and It. I read them to Crayons although they both went slightly beyond my comfort zone in the magic/spells area; I know it's just a frame to the story so they can go magic-carpet-riding (The Phoenix) and time-travelling (The Amulet), but there is a fair amount of hocus-pocus buildup to the fun parts.
Some parts are quite funny (they leave their grumpy old cook on a tropical island where the natives want her to be their queen), but I also found them often a bit darker in tone than the first book. A couple of times the children are in more actual danger than they were in Five Children.
Still working on:
A Celebration of Discipline, by Richard Foster (Mentioned enthusiastically in Terry Glaspey's Great Books of the Christian Tradition.)
A Breath of Air, by Rumer Godden (reviewed yesterday)
A Mother's Rule of Life, by Holly Pierlot
This is a book that's been around for a couple of years and was recommended by other homeschooling friends. More than how to organize your life--how to organize your Life. As Coffeemamma pointed out to me--it's easy to relate to Holly's "I've had it!" moment that propelled her into searching for a better way for her family. Like Alice Gunther's book (below), this one comes deep out of Holly's Catholic faith, so the suggestions for building the day around rosaries etc. may leave Protestants scratching their heads; but Protestants need time for prayer and Bible reading too!
A Haystack Full of Needles, by Alice Gunther
An intensely Roman Catholic book but with a theme that crosses denominations: not only the "socialization" of homeschooled children, but of their parents as well. The book underlines the importance of building community and close friendships beyond the usual homeschool clubs and field trips. Brand new--you'll probably have to get your catalogue vendor to order it for you. (A bonus: you get to see photos of Alice's friends and their children, including Melissa's flock.)
With Crayons:
The Phoenix and the Carpet, by E. Nesbit
The Amulet, by E. Nesbit
These are the two sequels to Five Children and It. I read them to Crayons although they both went slightly beyond my comfort zone in the magic/spells area; I know it's just a frame to the story so they can go magic-carpet-riding (The Phoenix) and time-travelling (The Amulet), but there is a fair amount of hocus-pocus buildup to the fun parts.
Some parts are quite funny (they leave their grumpy old cook on a tropical island where the natives want her to be their queen), but I also found them often a bit darker in tone than the first book. A couple of times the children are in more actual danger than they were in Five Children.
Still working on:
A Celebration of Discipline, by Richard Foster (Mentioned enthusiastically in Terry Glaspey's Great Books of the Christian Tradition.)
Saturday, August 30, 2008
A Breath of Air, by Rumer Godden (review)
I found this book at the thrift shop last month and thought it might interest others.
This is Rumer Godden's novelization and updated version of Shakespeare's The Tempest. A bit of an "exercise," maybe--or what do they call it, a tour de force? As if some novelists were having a challenge among themselves--"what would you do with a Shakespeare play to turn it into something different but still the same?"
We've read so many of Godden's children's books that I wasn't sure how I was going to like her "adult" writing--and be a bit warned, there is a bit of necessary "adultness" in this story. Mostly I liked it...I think she drew on her experience in India in creating an imaginary island for her hero to be shipwrecked...er, planewrecked...on. And here and there there are telltale Rumer Godden phrases:
"He felt old and chilled. 'My feet must be wet,' said Mr. van Loomis. 'It's the dew on the hill,' but his feet had often been wet before. 'I must be getting old,' said Mr. van Loomis. That depressed him more."
Mr. van Loomis is Prospero--a Scottish industrialist who chucked it all for a tropical island, and built up his own little empire by using native labour and resources. (This becomes one of the issues of the book--who really owns the island, its people, and its wealth?)
She's also very creative about adapting Shakespeare's fairy and monster characters into something more human yet still recognizable. She describes the character Mario, based on the monster Caliban:
"McGinty came up. 'You the chap in charge of the light?' he asked. In the moonlight, which was beginning now to sift down over the sea and the reflected light of the lamp, Mario looked a monster....clumsy, childish, with his thick low forehead and mat of hair and shining dark eyes."
The fairy creature Ariel becomes a restless young native servant who is entranced by ideas of the outside world he has never seen, and longs for escape.
And Miranda is still Miranda, except that she's now named Charis. She has grown up on the island and has never seen a European man except for her father and the half-Spanish Mario. Until Valentine Doubleday shows up...
This is Rumer Godden's novelization and updated version of Shakespeare's The Tempest. A bit of an "exercise," maybe--or what do they call it, a tour de force? As if some novelists were having a challenge among themselves--"what would you do with a Shakespeare play to turn it into something different but still the same?"
We've read so many of Godden's children's books that I wasn't sure how I was going to like her "adult" writing--and be a bit warned, there is a bit of necessary "adultness" in this story. Mostly I liked it...I think she drew on her experience in India in creating an imaginary island for her hero to be shipwrecked...er, planewrecked...on. And here and there there are telltale Rumer Godden phrases:
"He felt old and chilled. 'My feet must be wet,' said Mr. van Loomis. 'It's the dew on the hill,' but his feet had often been wet before. 'I must be getting old,' said Mr. van Loomis. That depressed him more."
Mr. van Loomis is Prospero--a Scottish industrialist who chucked it all for a tropical island, and built up his own little empire by using native labour and resources. (This becomes one of the issues of the book--who really owns the island, its people, and its wealth?)
She's also very creative about adapting Shakespeare's fairy and monster characters into something more human yet still recognizable. She describes the character Mario, based on the monster Caliban:
"McGinty came up. 'You the chap in charge of the light?' he asked. In the moonlight, which was beginning now to sift down over the sea and the reflected light of the lamp, Mario looked a monster....clumsy, childish, with his thick low forehead and mat of hair and shining dark eyes."
The fairy creature Ariel becomes a restless young native servant who is entranced by ideas of the outside world he has never seen, and longs for escape.
And Miranda is still Miranda, except that she's now named Charis. She has grown up on the island and has never seen a European man except for her father and the half-Spanish Mario. Until Valentine Doubleday shows up...
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Layered Grain and Veggie Salad
This is nothing very original, but if you haven't tried grains in salad before, it's a good way to get started. I prefer layers to all-mixed-up; then it doesn't look like you just threw leftover rice in the bowl.
Layer (a glass bowl is nice so you can see the layers):
1. Cooked grains, hot or cold (I used two parts short grain brown rice and one part barley, and layered them while they were still warm; you could use pasta instead, but I like small grains (vs. white rice sticking out all over the place))
(I used 1 cup rice, 1/2 cup barley, 1 tbsp. oil, 3 cups water; but only part of that went in the salad!)
2. Chopped or shredded raw vegetables (I used diced zucchini, sliced celery, and finely-sliced carrots (leftover vegetable sticks))
3. Dressing--creamy or vinaigrette style both work all right, but I prefer something resembling chip dip for layering, because it stays put better. I used about a cupful of sour cream, a couple of spoonfuls of white salad-dressing-stuff (some Squirrels prefer it to mayonnaise), and about a quarter cup of bottled teriyaki sauce; but you can use any other sauce, or just a dry seasoning like curry powder. Yogurt can work too instead of sour cream if it's not too runny. Or tofu dip recipes work fine too.
Add in a layer of anything else, plain or exotic, that looks good. Chickpeas, frozen peas (don't have to be cooked), chopped tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, peppers. But the one I made this week wasn't so fancy: just a layer of grains, vegetables, dressing, then the whole thing repeated. Chill well before serving.
Layer (a glass bowl is nice so you can see the layers):
1. Cooked grains, hot or cold (I used two parts short grain brown rice and one part barley, and layered them while they were still warm; you could use pasta instead, but I like small grains (vs. white rice sticking out all over the place))
(I used 1 cup rice, 1/2 cup barley, 1 tbsp. oil, 3 cups water; but only part of that went in the salad!)
2. Chopped or shredded raw vegetables (I used diced zucchini, sliced celery, and finely-sliced carrots (leftover vegetable sticks))
3. Dressing--creamy or vinaigrette style both work all right, but I prefer something resembling chip dip for layering, because it stays put better. I used about a cupful of sour cream, a couple of spoonfuls of white salad-dressing-stuff (some Squirrels prefer it to mayonnaise), and about a quarter cup of bottled teriyaki sauce; but you can use any other sauce, or just a dry seasoning like curry powder. Yogurt can work too instead of sour cream if it's not too runny. Or tofu dip recipes work fine too.
Add in a layer of anything else, plain or exotic, that looks good. Chickpeas, frozen peas (don't have to be cooked), chopped tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, peppers. But the one I made this week wasn't so fancy: just a layer of grains, vegetables, dressing, then the whole thing repeated. Chill well before serving.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Blueberry Shortcake: Microwave Style
I've made Chocolate Microwave Cake several times; it's not as good as our Small Chocolate Cake (the un-wacky one) but it's definitely nice to have a cake recipe that bakes in 10 minutes without heating up the kitchen. I used to do more baking in the toaster oven, but the one we have right now doesn't seem to hold a steady enough heat to bake things well. It makes toast and heats leftovers, but I don't quite trust it for cakes.
Yesterday I wanted a non-chocolate cake to put with some blueberries and whipped cream. If that sounds too much like Sunday dinner, it's because yesterday was actually a holiday here and I wanted something special. But it's still hot and muggy (and seems to be raining every time you turn around), and I haven't been using the big oven. Hmm...any other kinds of cake you can make in the microwave? Carrot--not what I wanted...no vanilla or yellow cakes except for cake-mix directions. Actually that's pretty understandable, because Microwaves Don't Brown Things. Who wants a pasty white cake?
Well, I did; I didn't care if it browned, because I was going to cover it with blueberries and whipped cream anyway. So I adapted the chocolate cake recipe, and this is what I came up with. Note that it's both dairy- and egg-free (but you'd have to use a dairy-free topping for the shortcake).
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup all-purpose or unbleached flour
1 cup white sugar
2 tsp. baking powder (the chocolate cake used baking soda, but I didn't think that sounded right for a plain white cake)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla
Blend the dry and wet ingredients separately, then combine.
Choose your baking dish carefully: non-metal, obviously, and something that will turn around easily if you have a turntable in the microwave. Our microwave is too small to allow an 8-inch square pan to go around without getting stuck, so I use a 6-cup round casserole dish. I read somewhere that microwave cakes turn out better if you don't grease the dish; but do line the bottom with waxed paper.
Scrape the batter into the prepared dish, and microwave about 10 minutes or until the edges of the cake just begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. (Our microwave tends to take a bit longer than some (and only bakes on full power), so you might want to test it a couple of minutes before that or put it on a different setting.) The top will be just a bit sticky, but the cake should test done (with a toothpick or cake tester). Let it cool a bit in the pan (the edges will pull away more), then turn it out onto a plate.
If you're using the cake for shortcake, cut it in half horizontally and layer it (between and on top) with blueberries and whipped cream. (I combined our whipped cream with a small amount of fruit yogurt, mostly for colour.) You could also cut it in pieces and then add topping and fruit to each serving instead (better if you have a smaller family).
Makes six generous servings or eight smaller ones.
Yesterday I wanted a non-chocolate cake to put with some blueberries and whipped cream. If that sounds too much like Sunday dinner, it's because yesterday was actually a holiday here and I wanted something special. But it's still hot and muggy (and seems to be raining every time you turn around), and I haven't been using the big oven. Hmm...any other kinds of cake you can make in the microwave? Carrot--not what I wanted...no vanilla or yellow cakes except for cake-mix directions. Actually that's pretty understandable, because Microwaves Don't Brown Things. Who wants a pasty white cake?
Well, I did; I didn't care if it browned, because I was going to cover it with blueberries and whipped cream anyway. So I adapted the chocolate cake recipe, and this is what I came up with. Note that it's both dairy- and egg-free (but you'd have to use a dairy-free topping for the shortcake).
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup all-purpose or unbleached flour
1 cup white sugar
2 tsp. baking powder (the chocolate cake used baking soda, but I didn't think that sounded right for a plain white cake)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla
Blend the dry and wet ingredients separately, then combine.
Choose your baking dish carefully: non-metal, obviously, and something that will turn around easily if you have a turntable in the microwave. Our microwave is too small to allow an 8-inch square pan to go around without getting stuck, so I use a 6-cup round casserole dish. I read somewhere that microwave cakes turn out better if you don't grease the dish; but do line the bottom with waxed paper.
Scrape the batter into the prepared dish, and microwave about 10 minutes or until the edges of the cake just begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. (Our microwave tends to take a bit longer than some (and only bakes on full power), so you might want to test it a couple of minutes before that or put it on a different setting.) The top will be just a bit sticky, but the cake should test done (with a toothpick or cake tester). Let it cool a bit in the pan (the edges will pull away more), then turn it out onto a plate.
If you're using the cake for shortcake, cut it in half horizontally and layer it (between and on top) with blueberries and whipped cream. (I combined our whipped cream with a small amount of fruit yogurt, mostly for colour.) You could also cut it in pieces and then add topping and fruit to each serving instead (better if you have a smaller family).
Makes six generous servings or eight smaller ones.
Friday, August 01, 2008
Thrift shopping
I went to the thrift shop this afternoon--the one that's mostly good for books. I brought home a pretty good stack for a quarter and fifty cents apiece: a few picture books of the kind a seven-year-old would like; a Paddington book we didn't have (amazingly, since we already have half a dozen and I couldn't remember if we already had Paddington at Large); an Anatomy Colouring Book for The Apprentice, a Mad Libs for Ponytails, and Rumer Godden's A Breath of Air for me. Also a book of Psalms for singing
But the best thing was Scientific Explorer's Ancient Rome water-clock kit, which seems to be still new in the box (from the amount of shredded paper around the terra-cotta water-clock frame).
From Home-Education Magazine's Jan-Feb 2000 review (did you know you could find those online?):
But it still looks like fun!
But the best thing was Scientific Explorer's Ancient Rome water-clock kit, which seems to be still new in the box (from the amount of shredded paper around the terra-cotta water-clock frame).
From Home-Education Magazine's Jan-Feb 2000 review (did you know you could find those online?):
The "Ancient Rome" Scientific Explorer Kit is a nice resource for students of historical time: this hands-on "History of Science" kit includes materials for assembling and calibrating an elegant terracotta water clock and for designing an early-Roman-style lunar calendar. The kit includes a booklet of background information, plus suggestions for further experiments. Available from Scientific Explorer, Inc., 2802 E. Madison, Suite 114, Seattle, WA 98112; (800) 900-1182; www.scientificexplorer.com.Well, actually, it's not, they don't make these anymore.
But it still looks like fun!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Oh I love summer, or, the leftover queen returns
Some nights we cook several different dishes, more than we really need for one meal. Then we eat easy leftover meals for a couple of days.
That's what happened tonight, because Mr. Fixit and Ponytails volunteered to barbecue some chicken wings after I already had some things ready to cook. Not one to pass up this opportunity, I figured we'd just have a little more variety at dinner and a few more leftovers and quick lunches.
This is what we had:
Swiss Chard Ratatouille with whole-wheat rotini
Sweet potatoes baked in the toaster oven
Bread-machine bread
Barbecued chicken wings (plain but served with bottled sauces)
Chocolate frozen yogurt (homemade)
Swiss Chard Ratatouille
Our garden is loving the frequent rains this month; we have had a lot of chard already and the zucchini are doing better than they usually do here. I made this up tonight to take advantage of what we had on hand, but you can improvise.
Pick one bunch of chard from the garden; chop the stems separately from the leaves. Heat about 2 tbsp. olive oil (or less if you want) in a large skillet, preferably with a good high lid. Our set of pots and pans has an extra-high lid that's supposed to work with the Dutch oven but also fits the frying pan, so if I'm doing greens that take up a lot of room, I use that.
Sprinkle the hot oil with salt, and saute the chard stems and 1 8-oz package sliced mushrooms (or any other kind of mushrooms). Garlic as well if you have it, but we were out and I didn't feel like using powdered; onion if you want (I didn't). Add vegetables that don't take too long to cook: the chard leaves, some chickpeas, 1 chopped tomato, some canned garlic-herb pasta sauce (tomato-onion would be good too), 1 chopped zucchini (chopped not too thin unless you just like it mushy). Cook, covered, 15-20 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the chard is soft, tomato is cooked, and chickpeas are heated through. It will be slightly liquid from the tomato, but shouldn't need any thickening. Serve over pasta. Mop up the sauce with bread.
Chocolate Frozen Yogurt
You're not going to believe this one.
Combine small amount leftover fudge icing (warmed in the microwave and slightly thinned with water) with plain yogurt. Freeze until solid.
That's what happened tonight, because Mr. Fixit and Ponytails volunteered to barbecue some chicken wings after I already had some things ready to cook. Not one to pass up this opportunity, I figured we'd just have a little more variety at dinner and a few more leftovers and quick lunches.
This is what we had:
Swiss Chard Ratatouille with whole-wheat rotini
Sweet potatoes baked in the toaster oven
Bread-machine bread
Barbecued chicken wings (plain but served with bottled sauces)
Chocolate frozen yogurt (homemade)
Swiss Chard Ratatouille
Our garden is loving the frequent rains this month; we have had a lot of chard already and the zucchini are doing better than they usually do here. I made this up tonight to take advantage of what we had on hand, but you can improvise.
Pick one bunch of chard from the garden; chop the stems separately from the leaves. Heat about 2 tbsp. olive oil (or less if you want) in a large skillet, preferably with a good high lid. Our set of pots and pans has an extra-high lid that's supposed to work with the Dutch oven but also fits the frying pan, so if I'm doing greens that take up a lot of room, I use that.
Sprinkle the hot oil with salt, and saute the chard stems and 1 8-oz package sliced mushrooms (or any other kind of mushrooms). Garlic as well if you have it, but we were out and I didn't feel like using powdered; onion if you want (I didn't). Add vegetables that don't take too long to cook: the chard leaves, some chickpeas, 1 chopped tomato, some canned garlic-herb pasta sauce (tomato-onion would be good too), 1 chopped zucchini (chopped not too thin unless you just like it mushy). Cook, covered, 15-20 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the chard is soft, tomato is cooked, and chickpeas are heated through. It will be slightly liquid from the tomato, but shouldn't need any thickening. Serve over pasta. Mop up the sauce with bread.
Chocolate Frozen Yogurt
You're not going to believe this one.
Combine small amount leftover fudge icing (warmed in the microwave and slightly thinned with water) with plain yogurt. Freeze until solid.
Books read in July
Looking for Anne, by Irene Gammel (also here)
I bought this with some gift money and found it fascinating, if occasionally disturbing. It's about how the book Anne of Green Gables came to be, and gives some wonderful insights into how L.M. Montgomery worked as a writer, as well as her personal life.
After that I was so interested that I went to the library and read
After Green Gables: L.M. Montgomery's Letters to Ephraim Weber, 1916-1941, edited by Hildi Froese Tiessen and Paul Gerard Tiessen.
And after that I had to re-read Anne of Green Gables, because it had been too long since I read the real book and some of what I remembered about it had gotten mixed up with the 1985 film.
I also read:
A Slipping-Down Life, by Anne Tyler (one of her old books I had never read, but not high on my list of favourites)
The Stone Angel, by Margaret Laurence, because Mr. Fixit and I just saw the new film of this with Ellen Burstyn, and because I hadn't read it since high school and couldn't remember where the film departed from the book. Warning about some adult material in this: Margaret Laurence was a Canadian novelist whose books were always threatening to get banned out of high school literature courses.
I read part of The Book of Sorrows, by Walter Wangerin Jr., a sequel to The Book of the Dun Cow--I liked this but had to return it to the library.
And Plutarch's "Life of Alcibiades".
With Crayons:
Smith of Wootton Major, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Five Children and It, by E. Nesbit
I bought this with some gift money and found it fascinating, if occasionally disturbing. It's about how the book Anne of Green Gables came to be, and gives some wonderful insights into how L.M. Montgomery worked as a writer, as well as her personal life.
After that I was so interested that I went to the library and read
After Green Gables: L.M. Montgomery's Letters to Ephraim Weber, 1916-1941, edited by Hildi Froese Tiessen and Paul Gerard Tiessen.
And after that I had to re-read Anne of Green Gables, because it had been too long since I read the real book and some of what I remembered about it had gotten mixed up with the 1985 film.
I also read:
A Slipping-Down Life, by Anne Tyler (one of her old books I had never read, but not high on my list of favourites)
The Stone Angel, by Margaret Laurence, because Mr. Fixit and I just saw the new film of this with Ellen Burstyn, and because I hadn't read it since high school and couldn't remember where the film departed from the book. Warning about some adult material in this: Margaret Laurence was a Canadian novelist whose books were always threatening to get banned out of high school literature courses.
I read part of The Book of Sorrows, by Walter Wangerin Jr., a sequel to The Book of the Dun Cow--I liked this but had to return it to the library.
And Plutarch's "Life of Alcibiades".
With Crayons:
Smith of Wootton Major, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Five Children and It, by E. Nesbit
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Crayons' Grade Two: Literature and Teatime Reading
Do most schools count Literature as a Grade Two subject? Most elementary schools would probably lump it under Language or Reading. But what do you get to read in Reading? Oh--I know. Not readers, these days--more likely books from the Classroom Library. (How many school lesson plans have you seen that encourage children to write their own books and put them in the Classroom Library?)
Anyway, I wouldn't count on what's there as being literature, or even it being as good as the Scholastic box-of-books we used to have as our Classroom Library.
Okay, end of snarky classroom rant.
We're mainly going with Ambleside Online's Year Two selections, with a couple of changes. I'm doing a heretical thing by not including Shakespeare stories at all this year. Crayons has been listening to them with Ponytails for at least a couple of years now, and we both need a break. Nathaniel Hawthorne's A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales (they're companion books, we have them both in one volume) are suggested as extra reading for this year; we're going to read them instead of Shakespeare, leaving out a couple of the stories that will be covered in Year Three (The Heroes).
After two go-throughs with it, I've decided I've really had enough of Eugene Field's lollipop trees and dinky birds. Besides, a couple of Maxfield Parrish's almost-nude illustrations (don't say I didn't warn you) create too many giggles among the Squirrelings, and I'm not crazy about them either. So no Eugene Field this year. I was going to go just with the Come Hither anthology, but then I figured out that we could keep Christina Rossetti (the printout available on Ambleside Online) and Walter de la Mare's own poems for teatime reading, and work a few of James Whitcomb Riley's poems into the fall (his poems always make me think of the end of October). So lots of poems this year after all.
Pilgrim's Progress runs through the year, and then the longer books for each term are:
Term 1-- Understood Betsy; St. George and the Dragon (we forgot to read it last year); Hiawatha’s Childhood (picture book with stanzas from Longfellow’s poem)
Term 2-- Wind in the Willows
Term 3-- The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, by Howard Pyle (just the chapters listed for AO Year Two)
Along with the poems, I'm planning on keeping a couple of special books to read through the year at teatime: The Old Nurse’s Stocking Basket and Italian Peepshow, both by Eleanor Farjeon; and The Door in the Wall, by Marguerite De Angeli.
And that's why we homeschool.
Related Posts:
Crayons' Grade Two: Bible
Crayons' Grade Two: Social Studies
Crayons' Grade Two: Science and Nature
Crayons' Grade Two: French
Crayons' Grade Two: Math
Crayons' Grade Two: Language Arts
As Little As Possible
Grade Two: The Very Last First Time?
Anyway, I wouldn't count on what's there as being literature, or even it being as good as the Scholastic box-of-books we used to have as our Classroom Library.
Okay, end of snarky classroom rant.
We're mainly going with Ambleside Online's Year Two selections, with a couple of changes. I'm doing a heretical thing by not including Shakespeare stories at all this year. Crayons has been listening to them with Ponytails for at least a couple of years now, and we both need a break. Nathaniel Hawthorne's A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales (they're companion books, we have them both in one volume) are suggested as extra reading for this year; we're going to read them instead of Shakespeare, leaving out a couple of the stories that will be covered in Year Three (The Heroes).
After two go-throughs with it, I've decided I've really had enough of Eugene Field's lollipop trees and dinky birds. Besides, a couple of Maxfield Parrish's almost-nude illustrations (don't say I didn't warn you) create too many giggles among the Squirrelings, and I'm not crazy about them either. So no Eugene Field this year. I was going to go just with the Come Hither anthology, but then I figured out that we could keep Christina Rossetti (the printout available on Ambleside Online) and Walter de la Mare's own poems for teatime reading, and work a few of James Whitcomb Riley's poems into the fall (his poems always make me think of the end of October). So lots of poems this year after all.
Pilgrim's Progress runs through the year, and then the longer books for each term are:
Term 1-- Understood Betsy; St. George and the Dragon (we forgot to read it last year); Hiawatha’s Childhood (picture book with stanzas from Longfellow’s poem)
Term 2-- Wind in the Willows
Term 3-- The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, by Howard Pyle (just the chapters listed for AO Year Two)
Along with the poems, I'm planning on keeping a couple of special books to read through the year at teatime: The Old Nurse’s Stocking Basket and Italian Peepshow, both by Eleanor Farjeon; and The Door in the Wall, by Marguerite De Angeli.
And that's why we homeschool.
Related Posts:
Crayons' Grade Two: Bible
Crayons' Grade Two: Social Studies
Crayons' Grade Two: Science and Nature
Crayons' Grade Two: French
Crayons' Grade Two: Math
Crayons' Grade Two: Language Arts
As Little As Possible
Grade Two: The Very Last First Time?
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Crayons' Grade Two: French (and frugal felt-board tips)
I posted a detailed look at the book we're using here. Because Aux Yeux des Enfants is so seasonally-oriented (pumpkins in October, Christmas trees in December, baby animals in spring), it was hard to get into it last year after we got off track for awhile. However, that's one thing that made it perfect for this year's special days and seasons focus.
On my to-do list: make some new felt-board dolls for the family in the story, because the ones I used with Ponytails got worn out or thrown out. We have a package of felt-board backing paper (paper with flocked ribs on the back) that was given to us by a Sunday School teacher and that has come in handy many times. But if you ever need to make felt-board shapes and don't have any felt or sandpaper, try construction paper--it clings very well too, especially if your felt board isn't sitting absolutely vertical. (I read that interfacing works too.)
Our felt board--I've probably said this somewhere before--is a big piece of felt pinned over the top of an old TV tray. (The safety pins are across the back, as if we had wrapped it for a present.) The felt tends to get grimy and pilled after awhile, which meansyou buy more felt you unpin the felt and turn it upside down until that side is finished too. THEN you go buy more felt. One piece (both sides) usually lasts us a couple of years. Here's another idea: sticky-backed felt.
Related Posts:
Crayons' Grade Two: Bible
On my to-do list: make some new felt-board dolls for the family in the story, because the ones I used with Ponytails got worn out or thrown out. We have a package of felt-board backing paper (paper with flocked ribs on the back) that was given to us by a Sunday School teacher and that has come in handy many times. But if you ever need to make felt-board shapes and don't have any felt or sandpaper, try construction paper--it clings very well too, especially if your felt board isn't sitting absolutely vertical. (I read that interfacing works too.)
Our felt board--I've probably said this somewhere before--is a big piece of felt pinned over the top of an old TV tray. (The safety pins are across the back, as if we had wrapped it for a present.) The felt tends to get grimy and pilled after awhile, which means
Related Posts:
Crayons' Grade Two: Bible
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