Craft Fail: Make a castle

I could have sworn I’d seen this at Almost Unschoolers, but after searching for along time, I can definitely say it’s not there.

SUPPLIES: empty oatmeal carton or lemonade carton, contact paper, cardboard, sharp knife

1.  Trace the bottom of the can to make a floor.  You know, so it can be a two-story tower……

 

2.  Trace out the circle on your stone patterned contact paper.

 

2b.  Stop and make a pipe cleaner mustache.

 

3.  And then here’s where it went horribly wrong.  Why?

 

A.  I didn’t clean out the inside of the silly container.  Yes, stupid I know.  So there was a fine layer of lemonade dust, so the contact paper didn’t stick.  Second, contact paper doesn’t stick super well on smooth surfaces.

B.  Poor measuring and application of the contact paper.

C.  Bad planning to put the floor inside.  I thought it would just stay up with contact paper, it did, kind of.  Not at all.

 

But the girls had fun decorating it, and that’s what counts right?

 

I still have a few more left, so I think that will be my entry for the Craft Wars challenge the kids and I have going on.

 

Why am I sharing this?  Because I want to make sure everyone knows, not everything turns out the way you want.  And that’s okay, it’s the experience that matters sometimes.  At the end of the craft, I had two happy girls who played with these things.  They didn’t care that it wasn’t a super cute craft.

 

linking up over at All Things Beautiful’s Summer Learning.

Louisiana: Jean Laffitte

Jean Laffite is a real historical figure.  He was a pirate and probably a few other things that sailed mainly out of New Orleans until he got kicked out of there and then he moved to Galveston, where he founded the town.

This story is a cute tall tale about how he saved New Orleans when a whale got stuck in the Mississippi River.


Well after reading it I decided we’re going to make our own whales.

Here’s what you need: googly eyes, milk cartons, blue paper, glue, paint, and paint brush



Princess opted to paint hers, so she had the relatively simple job of just putting lots of blue paint all over it.

She really enjoyed doing it this way because we haven’t painted for a while, at least not with tempera paint.



The boys went with the “decoupage” option and glued and tore to their hearts content.


We all really enjoyed making our whales, and it was quite the project.  Now I need to scrounge up more milk cartons for any future projects I come up with.

I'm linking up to: A Mommy's Adventures

Kentucky: Derby, of course

How can you learn about Kentucky without at least having a brief stop at the Derby?

You can’t.  So, I didn’t.

First we read “The Last Black King of the Kentucky Derby,” it’s a bittersweet story about a jockey who eventually quits racing here because of racism. I don’t think it was the best book for what I was trying to teach about, but it’s probably a good book for another lesson.
Afterwards we watched a video about the different hats women wear.

Which Princess thought was wonderful, the boys were more interested in seeing several different races from different years.



Afterwards we made Derby hats.

I turned them loose with styrofoam plates, bowls, pipe cleaners, buttons, bows, what have you.







Unfortunately, Batman’s was so precarious that he could never wear it.  The same with Superman’s, which I did get a picture of.

Making Music: tin can drums

I mentioned earlier how I’ve been trying to incorporate music more into our day, and we’ve been using these tin can drums for a little bit now.

But just a can is boring, that’s no fun.



So, I gave them some acrylic paints and let them have at the cans.

Now we have pretty shiny cans, and they make music just as well.

Here’s how we’ve used them:

1.  for a beat
2  the different sized cans make different noises, so they can make some music
3.  trying how we hit the cans, different parts make different noises, and what they are hit with changes the sound
4.  tapping out sounds in words
5.  tapping out syllables
6.  building with
Just a note: I have a clean edge can opener, so the edges of the cans will not cute them.  If you don’t have that, cover the edges with tape, and they’ll be protected in that way.

Noah’s ark or maybe just a fun boat to play in

So, because I’m a crazy over-achiever or maybe a perfectionist or something I’ve decided to completely write and design my own Bible study curriculum that goes through the whole thing in 2 years.  More or less.

I mean we’re not hitting everything, but it gets most of the major stories and themes.

Well, this past week in our Sunday school class was Noah, so of course we had to make arks.

SUPPLIES:  individual milk cartons (or in our case orange juice), floral foam (can be found at the dollar store or Michael’s), brown acrylic paint, Noah’s ark printout, sharp knife



1.   Force your kids to drink 14 cartons of orange juice in 2 days, then cut out one side of your ark, so it looks like a boat.

2.  Paint your ark.  I know, normally I’d show me painting, but I didn’t think to take pictures until afterwards.







3.  Cut your floral foam to fit inside your carton.  This is a very exact science which will require shaving off bits and pieces and then shoving it into your ark.

And, it is very messy.








4.  Color the printout and cut out each of the figures.  Then tape them to the ark.











Now set your ark adrift on the ocean.  And look forward to the squeals of delight from your kids.  Yes, that is a mandatory step.
So, I made 24 of these for my class including the sample (I pre-painted them, they colored the pictures).  We used every single one of them.  No joke.
Noah Ark Papers

Lazy summer day: blowing bubbles

And bonus afterwards you can make this:  Bubble wand lightsaber.

Fairy house, or that’s what I was thinking

See, I don’t know why I get these wonderful ideas of what the projects will look like.  My kids so rarely listen to my ideas anyways……

 

Supplies: Large sturdy plastic containers (fabric softener, orange juice, liquid laundry detergent), acrylic paint, paint brushes, small toys, sharp knife and/or scissors, Sharpie markers (or something else to mark where to cut)

 

1.  Draw out where the holes you are going to cut in the side are going to be.  Then explain the idea again to your son who insists on drawing out elaborate battle scenes…….

 

2.  Cut the holes out.

 

3.  Have a very long discussion with your daughter on how it is supposed to be made.  “No Mommy it’s not supposed to be painted.”

 

Sigh, I’ve been told that because she’s so stubborn now that she won’t give in easily to peer pressure later…….

4.  If you’re a stubborn little girl who knows best, than you color the whole thing with Sharpie markers.  Otherwise you paint the outside in insanely bright colors.

 

4b.  Spend over an hour making 3 bendy dolls with a new pattern that you for some reason have to make even more complicated than it was, and then give up and just make a mess.

 

 

5.  Attempt to take pictures of the freshly painted homes, which are of course completely dry…………  Only to have the kids “help” with the photos.

 

Oh well, they love them.  They never made it to the backyard to make a fairy home like I was hoping, but they’re getting lots of playtime up in their rooms……

Massachusetts: Mayflower and the Pilgrims

There are a whole slew of great books about the Pilgrims, but I wanted to do something a little different, so we watched, drumroll please:

I remember seeing this as a little kid and my Mom recording it, as well as the other historical specials (which I think I’m the only one who remembers these), and then watching it over and over and over again.

 

Ahhhh……  Good times!

And what else do you do when learning about the Pilgrims, but make a Mayflower?

 

So, I saved a whole slew of milk cartons and orange juice cartons, much to Jeff’s chagrin, cut a hole in them, and then let the kids happily paint their own Mayflowers.

And now about a week later, while they’re resting I’ve set them up along with two of the lighthouses to be a fun playscape when they come down from “resting.”

What do you think, will this get me a few minutes of time alone?

Looks like the answer is yes.