Alrighty...I'm learning!

I wanted to show off some of my cut-and-paste / bulletin board skills.  I haven't used these skills since my student teaching days.  And you know (maybe you don't, depending on your age!) that back then, they were literally "cutting" and "pasting" skills.  As in scissors and glue.  As in hours and hours of work.  As in "I don't do that."

Anyway.  Since I'm homeschooling, I'm a bit more interested in providing an educational atmosphere. Also, my girls are all elementary aged.  They like bulletin boards.  And displays of all kinds. So I've been ruminating on this topic for some time.  What can I put up where and how?  (With not too much cutting and pasting.)

Enter my election to the VBS committee at church and my subsequent working with my husband's aunt.  She is the queen of cut-and-paste.  The queen of bulletin boards.  The queen of educational displays of all kinds. She knows her way around an office supply store and the hobby store next door.  (I never knew there was such a thing as removable double-sided sticky tape! Who would have guessed!  And paint-markers??? Hokie Nellie.)

Then, I was to teach a music lesson for our homeschool group.  What in the world could I do?? I scoured my brain for the remnants of the things I learned in undergrad and grad school.  What do children of the ages in our group learn in a typical school-setting music class?? After poking around the attic and uncovering my old books and whatnot, it started coming back to me.  Steady beat.  Rhythms.  Sol, mi, all that stuff.

After thinking (this process tooks months, mind you - I'm condensing it here) it through, I decided we'd do a lesson on steady beat and rhythm and how they differ.

So, I made this:

Did you notice the fabulous design?? *L*  I pasted blue squares on to white posterboard and clear-contact-papered it.  (I know, I could have had it laminated.  But til this point, I had no time.  I needed it that night!!)  Then I found dancing guys to be the ti-ti's (eighth notes) somewhere on the computer.  And made them bigger and printed them out, taped them to orange squares and clear-contact-papered them.  Same with the dancing girl - she's the ta (quarter note).  Now, my visual is re-usable.  So, we've had many a lesson on ta, ti-ti, and rhythms, and making up your own rhythms, etc.  My girls are really enjoying it.

The crazy thing took me four hours - most of which was spent on the floor.  I'm getting too old for this nonsense.

The next thing I've done is introduced the state of Pennsylvania to the girls.  I clear-contact-papered a normal, average state map.  (The kind people used to keep in their glove boxes in their cars.  Before GPS.  That I've never been able to read or understand.  I CAN fold a map back up.  My dad taught me that.  What I can't do is navigate using a map.  I do enjoy looking at them, though. *L*)

I wanted to girls to be able to locate places, so here's what I did:

Now,  the exciting part is that I actually learned how to black parts of pictures out by using lunapic.  I've never done that before.  And I realize it's not done well.  Just use your imagination.

The yarn goes from the town (taped down there) to an orange card with our loved-ones names and their town written on it.  Some day, we may use pictures - assuming I can get a picture of everyone to go with their card.  But for now, this is good enough.

So that's what I've been doing.  Well, that and a whole lot more.  I've been working on a blouse for myself.  I've done 3 muslins.  I have one more change to do (lower a dart) and then I hope to have a pattern that I can actually sew up into a real blouse.  Woo-hooo! I've been working on this for months.

I also have a skirt cut out for G.  Pajamas for C.  And dreams of dresses for all of them.  We'll see how it all goes.