More Colonial Crafts

This week we made some more colonial crafts from the book Colonial Kids.

We talked about how colonists wove cloth out of wool. In the book, it suggested making your own loom from cardboard, but I just cheated and bought the kids' craft one at Walmart. It was supposed to make a pot holder, but I couldn't understand the instructions on how to take it off the loom. Once I finished tying it up, it looked more like a coaster :)
We made some quill pens out of some craft feathers and ink. The kids enjoyed doing this, but found out that it was kind of hard. We also learned that students sat on long wooden benches at school...similar to what we have at our school table. Another thing that students used were hornbooks...a wooden paddle with a thin piece of animal horn fastened to it. A student's lesson was placed under the piece of horn to protect it. The student would wear it around his neck and use it as a study table since they only sat at benches. Some teachers were known to use the hornbook to thump the students on the head when they weren't paying attention...sounded like a good idea to me...especially for Cameron ;) Notice the lesson I wrote for them...maybe they should wear these everyday?
Here's an example of a hornbook

There were practically no libraries during the colonial times so people borrowed and lent books out. Since books were important and scarce, people affixed bookplates to their books to show ownership. Some had funny messages on them...my favorite example was
"This book is one thing, my fist's another,
if you touch the one, you'll feel the other."
We made our own bookplates out of label computer paper. (Notice Miriam is writing her own name now, but wants to put hearts to dots her i's.)

Wordless Wednesday – This Girl likes to Accessorize

Birthday Boy’s Day Out

Saturday we had Levi’s special day out for his birthday.  The bad weather messed up our original plans so we just decided to go to the mall.  They were supposed to be having a “Healthy Kids Day” event, but we didn’t see anything.  We ate lunch in the food court, rode the carousel, let the little ones play in the play area, and then bought Levi a cookie cake.

Levi’s Birthday

For Levi's birthday breakfast, I made donuts out of canned biscuits. I didn't have any icing or powdered sugar to make some. However, I did have some Nutella that Sara had given me so I used this for the icing. Yum!   During schoolwork, Miriam and Levi learned the letter R and made this R rabbit so I continued the theme and we had rabbits for lunch.  For supper we went to Las Palmas because it was kids’ night.  Afterwards, we went to Scoop N Doos ice cream place where ZeeZee treated the kids to ice cream.  However, we could have skipped the ice cream because all they wanted to do was ride the rides.  They each brought 50¢ from their piggy banks to ride them.  He also opened presents from Luke & PawPaw/ZeeZee there.

Colonial Crafts

This week we did a couple of the suggested crafts listed in Colonial Kids.

On Monday, we made "quilts" using adhesive backed felt and fabric scraps. Thankfully, I have some quilts that I was able to show them for examples. I think the 1st square is from a quilt that my mom received when she was pregnant with one of us girls, the 2nd square is from a quilt my grandmother made, the 3rd square is from a quilt that a lady at church made for Luke when he was born, the 4th square is from a quilt that my great-grandmother and grandmother made, and the last square is from another quilt that my grandmother made

On Tuesday, we talked about how most colonists couldn't afford expensive rugs from Europe or Asia so they made rugs out of canvas (sometimes a ships' sail) and painted them. We made "rugs" out of some canvas napkins.

On Wednesday, we talked about how silversmiths made platters and engraved special designs on them. Did you know Paul Revere was a well-known silversmith? We made designs with string and glued it to a styrofoam plate and then covered it with foil. I told Miriam she could use it to serve her tea. She immediately went and got her tea set. She even wanted to eat lunch on her fancy plate.

Today, we talked about other rugs that colonists made. The colonists used worn-out clothes to make rags and then braided the pieces together to make a rug. My mom gave me one that my grandmother made so I showed the kids this one. I showed them how to braid the pieces of fabric together as well.

Happy 3rd Birthday Levi!

Levi is 3 today. He is getting to be a big boy. He's potty trained and usually wakes up in the morning with a dry pull-up. He loves to ride his bike and tag along after his older brothers...especially Luke. His favorite quote is "I like Luke & Tate!" He's still a momma's boy, but Daddy's new nickname for him is "Home Grown Chicken" because he says that Levi runs like a chicken!

2007

2008

2009

2010

Cubs Baseball Game #1

Luke is playing coaches' pitch at Istrouma with his friend Eli. They play for the Cubs and they had the 1st game Saturday. There's netting and fences all around the field which made it hard to take pictures. Here are a couple of shots from the game.

PACT – Cooking with Richard

Friday night, we had a PACT (Parents & Children Together) event at church. Our church started these events to minister to the families whose children attend Parkview Preschool, but don't attend our church. If these families don't have a church home, we're hoping that getting them involved will make them more comfortable to visit our church.

The event this time was "Cooking with Richard", who is our cook for church events. Each person got to make their own personal pan pizza. Each person was given a piece of foil to write their name on. Then we got a crust and a cup of pizza sauce to spread out. We were given cheese and pepperonis for our toppings. While the pizza was baking, the kids played with play dough and there was a competition to try to make the best pizza out of the playdough. After the pizzas cooled and were cut, they were passed back out and everyone ate. It was a great night!

Pannekoeken

Luke & I have been reading about the first North American colonies.  In the book Life in New Amsterdam, there was a recipe for pannekoeken, a very thin pancake that the Colonial Dutch would have made.  Luke wanted to make these for breakfast yesterday. 

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 1/2 cups milk
• cinnamon and sugar for sprinkling
• butter for spreading

Steps

1. In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add the sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix in half of the milk and half of the flour. Stir to combine. Stir in the rest of the milk and flour until the mixture is smooth and thin. (It was really thin compared to pancake batter.)
2. Heat a large nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Melt a half teaspoon of butter in the pan. To make the pancakes, pour about 1/3 of batter into the pan. Tilt the pan to spread the batter out evenly and thinly. Cook one minute or until the edges of the pancake turn brown. Flip the pancake and cook for 30 more seconds. (I think they’re basically the same thing as crepes.)
3. Stack the pancakes on a plate. When all pancakes are cooked, spread each pancake with a thin layer of butter. Sprinkle each pancake with cinnamon and sugar, roll them up, and serve. (We drizzled maple syrup over the top, but the Dutch would use a syrup similar to sorghum syrup.)

Colonial Games

We've been reading about the first American colonies. Friday, the kids played some games that colonial kids would have played. As you can tell, most of these games are still around today in some form or fashion.
Hopscotch

Leapfrog

Ninepins or Skittles

Tag

Wordless Wednesday – Does he want to play?

I walked by the window on Saturday and I saw something brown out on the turf. I did a double take and noticed it was a turtle. Of course, I went and grabbed my camera to take a picture of it. Kristal, I thought of your boys when I saw it.

Easter Group Shots

It's nearly impossible to get a decent group shot when you have 13 kids...ages 10 and under!

Easter Day

Easter Eggs

Baton Rouge Zoo

Thursday, we went to the zoo with Tiffany and her kids. We hadn't been in a while and Tiffany's youngest had never been. It was a great day although it was a little crowded with some of the local schools being out for spring break. I didn't take as many pictures because I was enjoying visiting with Tiffany...sometimes moms just need adult conversations!