Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Knights Week

We have been studying knights for a couple of weeks. It has been a ton of fun! We played lots of dress up.

We played with some knight and castle toys.

We made a knight lapbook with resources from www.homeschoolshare.com.

For thing two, who is three, we have been talking a lot about heroes. He's been dressing up a lot, especially as batman, spiderman, and a knight. I made him some simple masks out of a sheet of foam with some holes poked in the sides, and some elastic string. He wears a mask, a cape (his blankie secured with a clothespin), and his "leg guards" (kneepads) everywhere. And I do mean everywhere.

We talked about the code of chivalry, and why knights fight. We talked about how they start training at a very young age so they could be good fighters, and why boys nowadays don't train in fighting in the same way. We talked about why mom and dad don't encourage the fighting behaviors that used to be so important.

Recent Work




These are two quilt tops I put together from two large panda bear panels, to donate to charity through my quilting guild. They sat around for months because I couldn't quite figure out how to put them together. With some input from a friend, and determination to get them done and out of my house, they are finished! They will go to the community quilts committee for quilting and binding.

Winter Bulbs


One of my most favorite things to do in the fall is to plant indoor winter bulbs like narcissus (paperwhites) and amaryllis. They are great for kids to help with because they are super simple to plant, and they grow really quickly. Within four to eight weeks they will be in full bloom! And you can stick them in a closet for a few months of dark, then replant them in fresh soil and they will come up again!