Decorating the house for our Halloween Party

I ordered some spiderwebs from oriental trading, but most of the Halloween decor we used was either a free printable or something that we already had - like the pumpkins they gave out at the Harvest Festival.

 These printable labels  came from Catch My Party - as did the "Trick or Treat" Banner that is on the fireplace mantle.

Home Schooling Summary and a Halloween Birthday Party

My home schooling realization of the week is that kids learn a lot from each other. To illustrate that point here is big sister A reading her brothers to sleep and the 2 brothers climbing in shelves together.  

We talked about American Indians in our history class this week and ground some corn kernels the "indian way" (with a mortar and pestle). They studied light diffusion in their science class and went to the nature center on a bug collecting adventure.  Amidst everything else we did crafts to get ready for the big party. 

Kids grinding corn into flour

The kids helped me make the mummy jars and put googly eyes on her party cups

We played 3 games at the party: A doughnut eating contest, Pop the pumpkins (candy inside each balloon) and the Bat pinata that I have already talked so much about.

Everyone crowding in to play the game

Duck duck goose

Aunt H made that cool skeleton costume

Eating pumpkin face pizza, pumpkin clementines,  carrot sticks, and candy corn popcorn at the party picnic

Rainbow cake with a spiderweb on top and colorful spiders as requested by the birthday girl

Reuse Recipe: Newspaper for Kids Party Pinata

Once again - newspaper is amazing. There is so much you can do with it. This was my first time doing a paper mache project.  It took about a week to make the Bat Pinata. I made it with newspaper, magazines, and cardboard. I made 2 heads (1 flour type paper mache  and 1 glue type paper mache) and 2 bodies to make sure that if one or the other variation did not work that I had a spare. The process was time consuming, but I am glad that I did both types of paper mache. Here is my assessment of the benefits/drawbacks of each type:

Flour Paper Mache (2 cups flour, 2 cups water, 1 teaspoon salt):
+ Dries crunchy
+ Easier for little kids to break
+ Can be painted with acrylic paint (though I did not test that)
+ Cheaper than glue
+ Non-toxic - for kids who are old enough to help
- Can mold if you don't allow to dry completely between layers
- Gooey and messy
* Both the glue and flour versions seemed to take about 30 hours to dry "completely", but I read online that that depends a lot on whether you live in a humid place (which we do).

Glue Paper Mache (1 cup Elmers glue 1/4 C. water)
+ Sturdier than the flour paper mache (more forgiving) - has some give to it
+ Better for an older kids pinata
+ will not mold
- Needs a primer coat unless you are using spray paint or it might crackle
- More expensive
- Never was fully "hard" like the crunchy flour version
- Gooey and messy

Overall, I was surprised that the glue did not dry faster than the flour version. I think that might have been in part because I was waiting for it to get "crunchy" but it never did.  I liked the flour paper mache better in the end.

Here is the process that I followed (after some trial and error)

1. Blow up balloons to the approximate sizes required. For the bat you need a large body balloon and a small head balloon. Or for things other than pinatas use a wooden or cardboard form - check out Ultimate Paper Mache for tons of cool craft ideas.

2. Gather newspapers and magazines (newspaper works best). I used about 1 issue of our local news paper per layer for each balloon.

3. Rip the newspapers into strips. Through trial and error I determined that I liked approximately 1-2" wide stripes that were about  10 inches long.

4. Martha Stewart recommends spraying the balloon with cooking spray before applying the first layer or others recommend just doing a thin layer of water only newsprint strips. That way when you pop the balloon you can pull it out fairly easily. I did not do either one, but was still able to get the balloon out (mostly).

5. If you are doing flour and water mix you can dip the strip directly in and then slide the paper through your fingers (like scissors) to remove the excess. The flour is what gives it strength and the water is what makes it pliable.  For the glue method, you paint it on the balloon, like modge podge.

6. I layered it on the balloon like lines of "latitude" all the way around and then I did another layer of lines of "longitude" around the balloon. It was the only way to make sure that I spread the newsprint evenly.

7. Let each layer dry at least 24 hours. I did two thick layers on each balloon over the course of 4 days and then let dry after the second layer for 36 hours before painting.

8. Assemble the bat: 

Cut out some cardboard bat wings. I think it was a good idea to make them one piece, sort of like a hang glider.  I popped the balloon and cut a flap where the tail of the balloon stuck out. It was just big enough to reach my hand inside.  Then I used this red acrylic yarn and threaded it on a large sharp needle. I made 4 holes in a square shape and "sewed" it on to the body leaving two long ends sticking out the top so that we could use them to attach it later.  

Fill it with candy and duck tape the flap shut. 

Pop the head balloon and make cuts around the end so you can open it like in the photo below.

  Attach the head. Use duck tap to secure the flaps to the body. I added two strips of duck tape around the whole head for extra security.

 
Then cut the ears out of some lighter weight cardboard. A hershey kiss shape worked well. Fold up about 1/2 inch at the bottom and cut a small slit in the middle of the folded edge.

 Crease it up a bit to make a pointy ear and secure with duck tape.

Hang it up outside and spray paint it black. Add the eyes after it dries (I forgot to do that!)

Bat Pinata - step by step

Garden Progress: Harvesting Corn

Our first ever corn crop was a grand success.  I used the Territorial Seed organic fertilizer and also rabbit manure from a local farmer. It grew more than 6 feet tall and taught me the meaning of "rustling in the corn field".  We harvested half the cobs when the stalks turned brown and hung them to dry in the garage. The rest were finally harvested this week since the internet says to harvest it just before the first frost.  We used the stalks as part of our Fall/Party decorating (more on that later).
Here are some pictures of the kiddos shelling the popcorn off the cob and then popping it in our air popper.

The kids quickly got the hang of shelling corn and really enjoyed it. As in, they enjoyed it so much that they did not want to stop until all the ears were shelled. We ended up with about 1.25 quarts of kernels.  The ears and the kernels are so beautiful - deep reds, golden brown, black, and yellow. Husking the corn was fun too because the color was such a wonderful surprise each time.

According to popcorn.org there is an ideal moisture content of 14% and certain size specifications that need to be met for the corn to pop. We put in a big scoop and were sad to see that only about 1/4 of the corn kernels popped fully. I am not sure yet what that means about the moisture content, but we were happy to enjoy the part that did pop and are making plans to try to grind some cornmeal flour with a portion of the remaining kernels. We will try popping again after the kernels have had some time to sit. Maybe I should store them in a woven bag instead of a jar? so that they can continue to dry out?

Sew Special: Cinderella Costume

The theme of this week's posts is A's Halloween Birthday Party. For anyone who has not already heard about the rationale for having her birthday party two months early - it was a question of weather. The thing that daughter A wanted most of all for her party was a pinata. It would not have been a safe game to do in the house.  Plus this way I was able to keep most of the craziness and mess making outside.

Here is daughter A hitting the super homemade bat pinata (inspiration found here) and wearing the Cinderella dress that I made for her. All the dress materials, including the pattern, were leftovers from other projects - so it was a very low cost affair. We found the Cinderella shoes in Texas over summer vacation at a thrift store with Aunt E. And those were her "party day present" from us. 

Husband A. attached the pinata to a long board and hung it off the deck while the kids swung at it. We do not have any trees mature enough to hang it from their branches.

It was ahem a very well made pinata and took several rounds of swinging kids to break it apart. We realized half way through that the wings acted as a shield for the body. Once we took them off it went much faster. In terms of being easy for little kids to break - I recommend the flour and water type of paper mache. I used that for the head and the diluted glue type of paper mache for the body.

Here is the birthday girl with her candy haul after the pinata broke. Also this gives a nice view of the front of her Cinderella dress and little brother M in his turtle costume.

Homeschooling Summary for the Last 2 Weeks

We have a regular routine for homeschooling these days:

Monday - Reading and Math

Tuesday - Science class with friends and Drawing class for daughter A.

Wednesday - Reading and Math

Thursday - History and Gymnastics

Friday - Reading and Math

There are a plenty of field trips, cooking lessons, art time, and nature center classes thrown in. Our Music Together class was cancelled and we (especially brother M) are sad about that.  Hopefully over the winter we can work on incorporating some music appreciation beyond listening to the ipod while dancing around the living room. 

This week we had our traditional trip to our local orchard's Harvest Festival. 

Anyone else hear Gwen Stefani singing in the background when they see this picture?

This was a cool new addition this year - a maze made of giant hay bales.

Recommended Reading: The Last Dragon

The Last Dragon is a translation from L'Ultimo Elfo written originally in Italian. I gave the writing style, which sounded a bit silly to me, a lot of leeway since I knew it was a translation. The author, Silvano De Mari, also wrote this story from multiple first person perspectives. I have heard that that is not a good idea because it can be unwieldy and confusing for readers. It was a little rough in some places and I found the infantile "voice" of the elf child annoying. On the other hand, I thought his perspective gave the story a lot of depth.  Writing it in the first person allowed me as the reader to understand the thinking of, and then commiserate with, each character in turn.

My favorite part of the story was that it concluded one tale and then it skipped forward 13 years to tell what happened after that first "happily ever after". 

Summary from GoodReads:

When the last dragon and the last elf break the circle, the past and the future will meet, and the sun of a new summer will shine in the sky.

In a world shrouded in darkness and continually lashed by rain, a young elf named Yorsh struggles to survive. His village has been destroyed by the torrential waters, leaving Yorsh suddenly orphaned and alone-the earth's last elf. But soon Yorsh discovers he is part of a powerful prophecy to save the world from the Dark Age that has begun. First, however, the young elf will have to find another orphaned creature-the world's last dragon.

Full of great tenderness and humor, this magical journey tells the story of a world plagued by intolerance and wickedness, and the elf and the dragon who will fight for its redemption and bring it back into the light.