Shaping Up.

Roger is home on holiday, so today was a busy day out and about, and it wasn't until this evening that we found time to sit down and do some book work. Denver wrote a story, then followed up with a couple of pages of maths. She is working on shapes right now, and one activity called for her to trace shapes overlapping, to create her own new shape. I got some plastic shapes out for her to use. Kyla saw and instantly wanted to try it too.

Kyla's shapes, the scareton, the nowdy, and the maple.

Celebrity Life

Madi decided she wanted to make another board game. We brainstormed some ideas, and decided to use our old favourite, The Game of Life for inspiration. Madi's version, Celebrity Life. We customised the squares with things like **Win American Idol, Collect 50 000**. We made our own Career Cards, Movie Star, Pop Star, Limo Driver, Body Guard, Author, Broadway Star, Paparazzi, Director, Model.
We used the original salary and house cards from the game. It's proving quite a hit, we are playing it several times a day.

Meet our newest Unschooler

Her exemption came through today, YIPEE! No more early mornings, afternoon pick-ups, uniforms, packed lunches. Just fun, fun, fun. Welcome home Den.

No Worries

On Tuesday we went to the local library to take part in their school holiday programme. They were making worry dolls for one of the activities, something Kyla and I had planned to do after reading about them in The Daring Book for Girls. The girls enjoyed it so much that they spent the afternoon at home making a whole set.
You are supposed to have seven, one for each night. You tell them your worry, then place them under your pillow, and by the end of the week you will be worry free. They have been doing it every night, so cute.







Here's how to make them. First hot glue the sticks you are using for legs to the body stick.

Next, wrap the lower half in embroidery thread. This is easy if you are making a girl doll, it just looks like a skirt. For a boy, you need to wrap each leg.

Now, stick your arms on. These can go straight up or down, or diagonal, whatever look you want.
Now, wrap the upper body. Then glue a bead onto the top. The trickiest part is wrapping the head. I ended up doing this for the girls, I had to use quite a bit of glue, and I ended up with burnt fingertips a few times!




You are supposed to make seven, one for each night of the week. Use one doll a night, tell it your worry then place under your pillow. After a week, you'll be worry free :)

SKID 18

Denver asked if I could help her make a rocket the other evening. It's school holidays, so we aren't snatching at the minutes, worried about early nights, and the girls are enjoying spending more time together.
We have some boxes from the move, so I took a few and constructed a rocket, the girls dubbed it *SKID18* because it had their initials S K and D and the 18 is for all their ages added together. The next morning they set about painting it.
After a trip to the library, where we picked up a stash of space books, we stopped in at the dollar shop and got some more things to decorate it. They spent the afternoon putting the finishing touches on, before launching off into space ;o).

Imagination Progression

I'm not sure how we stumbled upon the website Moshi Monsters, but it seemed almost tailor-made for Kyla. A site where you can adopt a cute monster, feed it, cloth it, grow a garden to attract pets and make friends from all around the world.

She feel in love with it so much that we decided to splash out and get her a membership.

But I think one of the most beneficial aspects isn't the game itself, but how it has stimulated her imagination. One weekend she spent hours at the kitchen bench, hard at work creating her very own monster city. She ended up with over sixty pages of highly detailed maps and characters, and described it all at length.

Then she had a go at making monsters from clay for her and Denver.

They looked fabulous, but then they needed somewhere to live. So she designed a house, which we constructed together.

She glued and cut and painted and sewed. And finally she had made her very own monster house.

Unfortunately her clay figures didn't stand up to the rigours of play, so she made new ones from cardboard. (Denver is Scary, Ky was Spooky).

It just goes to show, that computer time doesn't have to be passive.

The High School Game

Inspired by her sisters rocket creation, miss Madi set about creating her own project from cardboard. She decided to make a High School themed board game. Players had to pick a school card which told them which school they attended. I started at Awesomely School, and ended up at kids academy. We went around the board and got grades, asked and answered questions and ended up in detention. The rules changed here and there to Madi's advantage, but we both had a great giggle, and for her first attempt at a board game, it was a great success.