Lenkaland

The past two days of summer camp were a nice break for me.  Yesterday, Ian went to his friend’s house and Anika had a last minute playdate.  Anika and her friend were golden, all quiet play, no fighting.  A dream day for Mama.

Giovanni and I took advantage and recorded a podcast- with show notes!  Only to discover that one microphone shut off about twenty minutes into the recording.  Massive frustration.  He tried to set up today for a redo, but cannot get the two mikes happy again like last week.  The only thing that he can guess is that Apple did an update on my computer that tweaked the ability to record with two microphones.  He worked on it for almost an hour (hero) before giving up.  It’s messed up.  I thought this whole podcast-process was as simple as talking into a phone, or having someone call and recording the conversation.  But in order to get the nice quality, it takes serious equipment.  Bummer.  I’ll still post my show notes, and we  might try one mike tomorrow, but it’s not as much fun by myself

Other good news, though.  My camera will be here tomorrow!  Hurrah!  Get ready for lots of summer-fun photos!

And I sold a fairy on Etsy.

And I made a fan page on Facebook for Forest Fairy Crafts because I felt the fairies needed a home of their own.  And we have 24 fans already!  One more and I can get a custom domain, hurrah!

And I sketched two pages for the new Anika book.

And I started writing some fiction.  Not because I have to, but because I remembered how much I like to write .  Must mean my energy levels are creeping back to almost-normal

A good luck kind of day

Oh, and we had a great time in the Children’s Place.  Anika fell in love with a bag a few months ago.  We live about an hour away and didn’t have a reason to go back until today.  We couldn’t find them so she asked the salespeople with a vague description- “You know that bag, with beads on it, and a flower?”  Not only did they know exactly what she meant, they searched the entire store and brought a new version from the back.  They gave us a coupon code for free shipping so we could look online for the one she wanted.  Then, they found the bags!  And there was only one white one left- exactly the one Anika wanted.  She’s a happy girl.  And we found a Star Wars shirt for Ian while we waited for the bag, so they won too, with us splurging on a shirt.  They went above-and-beyond.  Hurrah.

That reminds me, summer camp today- Ian was at daycare.  And we needed things from the big stores down the hill.  We weren’t back until after 4.

My kind of summer camp schedule .  Just kidding.  Tomorrow we get back on track.  We have a trip to the farm!

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A twenty year storm blew into town today.  Rain clouds were pleasant in the morning with water-scented breezes.  Then spatters, then soaking rain.  Luckily I planned a trip to the library.  That took all of one hour.  Now the kids are crazy.  Jumping off of the bed and screeching and jumping on the bed.  I just chased them into the bathtub.  After bath they get to play Xbox for a little while before bed.  So I might get a break.

Except I just remembered the laundry in the dryer needs to be folded.

So summer camp today had library, siesta, baking cookies, popcorn, spin art, dancing, puzzles, and then Ian fell asleep for his nap so I got to clean a corner of my room while Anika planned next week’s craft activity (picking her favorite ideas from my craft books).  No wonder I’m tired.  Too bad sleep has been erratic lately.  Some good nights and some restless nights.

I did figure out that shortcuts are good.  We baked cookies from a pre-mixed batter.  Which feels like cheating to me.  I know how to bake perfectly good cookies from scratch.  But the energy conservation in not needing to clean all the supplies was worth the ‘cheating’ feeling.  I have to cut corners to get through the day.  My energy levels are still super-low.  Muscles healing.

Still, life doesn’t have a pause button.

I had another idea

My book idea for Anika today was a simple flip-storybook.  Each page is cut off center.  On the short side is the character.  On the long side is a descriptive (funny) sentence ending.  By flipping one side of the page or the other, the story changes with silly outcomes.  We wrote
The vampire lives in a scary castle.
The bunny eats green grass.
The princess goes to a tea party.
The fairy lives in a flower blossom.
The family plays in the rain.
Ian kicks the ball.
Anika dances at a show.

Even Ian was laughing at our rough draft sentences.  The vampire eats green grass and The bunny kicks the ball. Good fun

I see the book helping Anika’s memory retain part of the story at a time.  For reading, it will be successful, fun, and it will build skills where she recognizes sameness within changes.  Right now, changing part of a story puts her back at square one.  She forgets words and patterns when she turns a page in a book.   This format can help her see that she doesn’t need to sound out every letter if she recognizes words.

Now I need to illustrate and figure out how to bind it for her.

Oh, that reminds me, I forgot to show our game that we made which helps her learn blending and chunking sounds.  Here is our Weremaid and Merwolf.  I print the characters on cardstock so the kids can mix and match.  The top-halves fit with the bottom-halves.  The cards have the letters along the side for sounding out (eventually chunking).  I’ll figure out a way to share the entire game if people are interested.  Pretty fun way to build those reading skills  I sketched the outlines and Anika did a lot of the coloring.  I did the tricky parts, but they’re really a team-effort

Weremaid

Merwolf

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My article and link to the tutorial is on page 48.  Very cool magazine.  Check it out

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Look what I found in the garden

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I’ve been busy over on Etsy the past few days (and teaching at school ). These little garden fairies have charmed me.

Her hat was a fun discovery, because I could hide a treasure in the grass- like this glass Easter Egg.  Surprise!  To make your own, the patterns are for sale here.  I’ll also make a few custom orders here.

Time to tuck the children to bed.  Happy spring!

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She’s following in her mama’s footsteps . Last night I was busy creating the flower-pixie designs and she asked for a scrap of felt here, help threading her needle there, and before I even knew what she was making, ta-da!

I wish I knew how to make gnomes when I was 7 years old!  The sweetest thing is that this is a tiny wood-gnome, only about an inch and a half high.  Super-sweet.

Now, if only her gnome could carry a message to the Fairy of Lost Things for me . . .

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Saturday is our school’s big fundraiser, a fun way to keep this education alive.

A big thing we do as a school is create collaborative masterpieces that are actioned at the event.  This year, my dragonflies (kindergarten and first graders) made this:

They sponge-painted the background.  They sketched the flowers and made stamps in foam-paper.  They used rollers and paint to stamp their flower onto the canvas.  We sketched dragonflies and Asia (our art teacher- and my fairy-conspirator) cut a few random choices to attach to the paper.  The painting is about 2 and 1/2 feet wide (I have to measure it).  I wish we had some cash so I could bid.  It’s beautiful.

Then my daughter’s class created this:

Second grade’s peaceful planet.  Anika drew the otter face on the right side and the butterfly on the center section.  The peace sign is raised above the world and the whole thing is framed under glass.  Ack, where are my millions?

Oh well, they’ll both go to amazing homes.  And there’s so much more!  Every class contributed gorgeous work.  Facilitated by amazing teachers.  We’re lucky to have so many grown ups making this possible for our kids.  I wish all kids could discover these opportunities.  One day

If you live in Nevada County, you can come to the event and bid .  Go to a Matter of Taste for all of the details.

And for my Disability Community friends, here’s a fun game.  Choose the flowers, or the animals, or the dragonflies created by kids with disabilities.  Because they are there . . .

We all bring our vision, and our beauty, and, together, we are stronger than any of the parts alone.

Forest Fairy Crafts is donating a craft-box of goodies.  I made the fairies and my artist-friend made the owl.  We sell the kits at craft fairs.  Both of our girls are in second grade this year.  We support their learning with more crafting

See you at the auction

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One week of unemployment for my husband.  Life goes on.  No new job yet.  We’re in for a long haul.  We live in a rural area and we always said, “we’re so lucky to have jobs in this town.” So when that job disappears, not a whole lot waiting in the wings . . .  But what can you do in the meantime?  Despair and adrenaline-charged panic won’t change the circumstances.

This past week got me thinking a lot about disability again and what I have learned through the years.  Sort of like those posters from awhile ago, What I Learned in Kindergarten and What I Learned from my Dog. I’ve learned perseverance and resiliency. Empathy and compassion.  I’ve learned appreciation and a deep understanding of just how little control we really have over our lives.

We hope to revive the podcast soon and this topic resonates for a discussion.  More thinking

And in the meantime, we celebrated Dr. Seuss’ birthday at school last week.  Anika said we must be Thing 1 and Thing 2.  So we were.

We made the headband by tying strips of tulle to a base headband.  I cut the circles from felt and wrote with a sharpie.  Then I sewed them with loose stitches on shirts we already owned.  A fun day celebrating with her.

Then the past few days I’ve been living at the end of the rainbow.  Here.  With them.

The patterns are posted in our etsy store, Forest Fairy Crafts.  My hands are not happy with me, lots of sore muscles and tingling.  I’ll give them a rest one day . . .

Next week we plan to make 18 with my K/1 students.  Fun.

Speaking of, I teach school tomorrow.  Off to get ready for another day

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Last week I had to make 18 boxes in one evening. My internet searching led me to lots of fancy templates with lots of cutting. Those of you who know me, know I have limitations on my fine motor activities. So when the internet doesn’t give me a box, what do I do?

I create my own

Welcome to my super-simple box . . .

Start by choosing fun paper with card-stock stiffness.  You can also watercolor your own paper like we did.  This was light-watercolor paper, not too thick.

A hint when painting with children- give them limited colors.  Usually warm (red,orange, yellow) or cool (blue, green, purple).  These mix well without making mud.  I didn’t follow this advice today.  Ian quickly found the black.  Loved it.  Which was fine since he was making a box for himself.

I used Lyra watercolor crayons.  The left half is on wet paper, the right on dry.  I washed the whole paper after and dabbed up the excess water.

This paper I drew first, then traced the designs with water.

For the box, you will need paper, tape, and scissors.  My frog-tape was a gift from my daughter when she was 3 years old. Quite fancy

My original box measured 9×12 inches.  I made a template to find the fold lines on a scrap piece of paper before experimenting with the watercolored paper.  I folded the paper into thirds along the length.  I used the template to mark the watercolor paper where to fold for thirds.  Of course, I could also measure, but that would require a ruler

Fold the paper into thirds along the length.

Now open the paper and fold in half along the width of the paper.  These folds cross your thirds-folds.

Fold in half again.

When you open it, you should see two fold lines going down the length, and three fold lines along the width of the paper.

You can draw lines where you are going to cut.  I didn’t need these anymore, but I always draw lines for kiddos.  You cut the three fold lines toward the center folds.

Of course two-year-olds love to cut, too

Your box is now ready for folding!  Tuck the first and third panels towards the center, with the second panel wrapping around for a clean side.

Tape them together at the top, wrapping the tape over the edge.

Tape both sides and you’re done!

You can tuck the flaps inside the box for a clean look.

I cut a smaller rectangle for a candy-box.

If the sides won’t tuck into the box, you can fold them flat and use yarn to tie closed.  You can make lots of different sizes.  Enjoy!

And our 18 boxes for my students.  We made chocolate dipped strawberries for their parents.  Yum!

I hope you like the idea!

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Busy around here with the usual.  And an extra helping of cuteness

A fun collaboration with the Fairy-Artist Friend who inspired these little Valentine Pixies.  The patterns and kits are selling at Forest Fairy Crafts here.

And the entire time I was creating these little toys, I was so grateful for the skills that I have left.  Hurrah for today’s magic

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