ski day #10

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...
keep on coming down, snow!

a snowflake tutorial

Yesterday afternoon was spent making snowflake garlands. I got the idea from maya*made. Check it out here. I am in love with the way they look, hanging in my front window. I couldn't get a good picture of all of them (I made 4 strands of 8 snowflakes). Anyway, children love making snowflakes, too, so I'm trying to fine-tune a snowflake lesson for the classroom in January.

Did you know that all snowflakes have 6 sides? So, I used the hexagon from the geometry cabinet as my snowflake outline.

I can't afford anything from Anthropologie, but I do love the beautiful pages of their catalogs. I traced a hexagon on this page with a pen.

After tracing, I cut out the hexagon shape. I think magazine/catalog paper would be easier for kids to cut through than regular paper.

I folded the hexagon in half, from corner to corner. ( I flipped it over first, so the picture would be right-side up after I folded.)

Then, I folded the lower right corner up and over to the upper left corner.

I folded the lower left corner up and over to the opposite corner to make a triangle.

Snip, snip, snip! These are fairly crude snips - do you see my huge, dull, kitchen scissors?!

It still turned out beautiful! :) I can only imagine the incredible snowflakes that could be made with sharp, little, scrap booking scissors!

After cutting out enough snowflakes to make a garland - in my case, 8, I strung them on nylon thread. I mostly laced the thread through the openings I had cut in the paper, but every once and awhile, especially near the edges, I sewed through the paper. By sewing though the paper, I am still able to slide the snowflakes up and down to arrange them, but they don't slide down on their own.

I finished each strand off with a sequin and a bead. This added weight helps the garland hang straight down, and it looks pretty, huh?

I set up a snowflake lesson for the kindergartners last week as an experiment. This is what it looked like.

The folding part was pretty challenging, but they figured it out after awhile. If I set this lesson up for younger children, I might pre-fold all the hexagons and just show them how to cut snips out of the edges. Hmmm... that would take away all the tracing and folding, though.

We used scrap booking paper, and it was really hard to cut through when it was all folded up. Magazine paper would be much more manageable.

Ta DA!
We love snow around here!

holiday traditions exchange part 2

Here it is!
The package from my
holiday traditions
swap sister and her 2 adorable daughters:

the unwrapping...
(love the hot pink bubble wrap)

Rosie gets in on the action...

My new treasures include:
1 quilted pillow & 1 quilted wall hanging
**perfect for my house because we're just
beginning to collect our holiday decor
1 felted (?) basket with handles
**I love all things knitted!
I didn't even know you could knit a basket.
a big handful of delicious chocolates
**Is that coffee I taste? Yum!
1 fragrant holiday sachet
**My whole living room smells beautiful.
1 description of their holiday traditions
**They make gingerbread houses every year.
photos of the decorating family in action
**Hmmm... maybe next year...
1 recipe for gingies (gingerbread men)
**I can't wait to try this! Maybe I'll post it, too.
1 fuzzy Christmas tree ornament
**Decorated with holiday buttons!

How lucky am I?!
I LOVE all of it!

How did they know I love buttons?

I hung the ornament up on our tree right away!


A big thank you
to Susan, Joeli, & Stephanie!

cleaning house

In anticipation of visitors and festivities at our house over the holidays, today was spent cleaning. Not just so-so cleaning, but

SUPER CLEANING.

Like the kind of cleaning where you take
the drawers out of the refrigerator.

Yeah, it was that intense around here.

Usually, I dread deep cleaning because I hate harsh stuff like windex, comet, and anything else that burns my lungs and makes my hands dry out. A friend gave me these recipes for an all-purpose cleaner and a glass cleaner, and I tried them out today. They worked like a charm, and the lemongrass essential oil I added made my house smell delish. :)

all-purpose cleaner
*does not need to be exact
2 T dish soap (I just added a squirt)
2 T Borax
1/4 cup vinegar
~32 oz. of hot water
a few drops of essential oil

glass cleaner
1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 cup rubbing alcohol (70%)
12 -16 oz. water
a few drops of essential oil

For both recipes, just mix everything together in a spray bottle.

lock and key

This much loved

practical life lesson
is sort of like a sibling to
nuts and bolts.

In true Montessori fashion,
the locks are lined up
across the top of a felt
left to right,
largest to smallest.

The child then determines
which key will open which lock.

The challenge of our lock and key lesson
is that two of the keys fit into the same lock,
but only one is able to twist it open.

The children love to listen for the
"click"
the locks make when they are
opened and closed.
The large lock makes a
big "click"
and the small lock makes a
little "click".

The children also enjoy
locking all the locks together. :)
Who wouldn't, right?