Saturday, September 29, 2007

Frontier Crafts

September 29th 2007

I can't believe that we have just finished our sixth week of school. My how time flies when you are having fun. Yes, we have our share of challenging days. We have been hit especially hard with them this past week. I have had to take time out to clip and prune problem areas that I have seen in myself and with my children. It is so easy for us to find fault or to see character defects in our children but when God sheds His light on us we begin to see ourselves as well. We have really working this week on our reactions. We have no control over how others may treat us but we do have control in how we respond.

This is our last week on the Konos unit Resourcefulness: Frontier Life. There just is so much to do in this unit that we could probably go on for another one but next week we will be out of town. We are tagging along with my hubby to Monterey for a work related conference. The kids and I will do some sight seeing and some mild school work.

This week our focus was frontier crafts. We made homemade soap, quilting, made a musical instrument and a Jumping Jack wooden doll. Here are some pictures and how to.














This is a simple craft we found in a book called A Pioneer Sampler by Barbara Greenwood. Take a large can. Use a hammer and nail to make one hole at the bottom of the can. Tie a string. Measure and cut. Secure with a knot at the can end and the other with a pencil. You are now ready to play your homemade fiddle.




The next craft I had my oldest son make. The idea came again from the book The Pioneer Sampler. We made patterns for a Jumping Jack doll on a piece of white scratch paper. Then we took those patterns and traced them on to a thin sheet of wood such as balsa wood. After each piece was cut. I helped my son drill a hole into each one. We then used a brad to attach each piece together. After each piece was put in it's proper place it looked like a jointed puppet. A short string was cut to attach the left/ right shoulders together and the same was done for both legs. A long string was attached to the upper and lower string. I will have to post another picture next time for all to see.

My daughter learned to make a nine patch. I had her trace nine pieces and cut them out using a 4 x4 cardboard square. I pinned and traced the sewing lines. She sewed them altogether. Here is her first finished square.





You can tell she loves the color purple.







We also made homemade soap this week. I was a bit lazy. I ended up buying a kit from Michael's craft store. The soaps were very easy to make and they even had stamps to make a design on each bar.



We had a fun and busy week again. Tomorrow we will host an old fashion Harvest Festival here at our home. The kids will be able to present the stuff they have learned and show off their projects too. We will also have food and games for the kids. I will post more later. I should have plenty more pictures to post. I'm looking forward to snapping some pix of the kids bobbing for apples.


The books we read this week are:

Dandelions by Eve Bunting

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Trouble River by Betsy Byars (Chip)

Kirsten goes to School-An American Girl Book (Coco)

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