Craft round-up, with some homeschooling thrown in

Here we have some of what was accomplished this weekend. I started a poncho for KidV2 out of pink and purple Homespun yarn. I'm not using a pattern, so have already ripped the whole thing up and restarted. Alert knitters will note that yes, I am using hair elastics as stitch markers. KidV2 had originally said she wanted a sparkly poncho, but when we looked at yarn she decided the sparkly yarns were just a wee bit scratchy (we have tactile issues, so we're constantly balancing the need to wear sequined, glittery things with the need to wear super-soft things; it's tough, let me tell you). Homespun has some sheen, but is still soft. So far this has been my most pleasant experience using Homespun, which is a nice surprise. Usually this yarn drives me nuts, but so far I've had no problems.

A friend sent 2 pairs of purple socks for the kids(only one pair shown). She had purchased them and added this crocheted edging. It looks like she used some sort of ribbon as yarn, and had strung on some cool purple beads before she started the crochet. I'm pretty sure she found the directions somewhere online. These instantly supplanted the glow-in-the-dark socks DadV had brought home from his last business trip as Most Favored Socks.

I got my 47 inch circular needle so I can start my moebius. Woohoo. I ended up ordering it from Knit Picks . I figured their postage cost was about equivalent to the fuel cost of driving around trying to find one locally. When we lived in a small town I was very careful to support small local businesses; somehow I'm having trouble with it now that we are in a larger community. Sad but true.

I also ordered that big skein of Color Your Own merino from Knit Picks, since it didn't bump up the shipping cost on my order. I have a vague plan involving socks and a pot of dye. It will obviously have to wait until poncho and moebius are done.

And I got my copy of A First Book of Knitting for Children from The Silver Penny , which had a fantastic price on the book. She shipped it first class, too, so it was practically instant gratification. And the book is every bit as good as Knitsteel had said. The kids were instantly picking out projects to make.

Of course, I must emphasis that this is what happened over the WEEKEND. Monday the weather turned fantastic, so we did a suitable amount of homeschool **, then the kids went out to play while I cleaned the house. It was glorious to open up all the windows.

**What a suitable amount of homeschool means:

One of the squirrel family went out to gather nuts, and learned multiplication in the process. Exciting stuff! Later on we (KidV2 and I) drew a huge clockface circle on the driveway and practiced skip-counting up to 12, drawing the patterns as we went. For the record, you can make hexagon (connect the multiples of 2), a square (connect the multiples of 3), a triangle (multiples of 4) and a couple of lines (multiples of 5 and of 6; she chose 6). Then you can yell, 'That was fun! Can we do it again?", much to Mommy's surprise (I love geeky stuff like this, but I'm startled when my kids do).

We also sang our usual songs (Gaudeamus Igitur, All Things Bright and Beautiful, Naranjas Dulce). KidV1 reviewed Latina Christiana II chapters 1-5, and translated a short passage from Latin to English. We read about the Alamo in Story of the World 3, and also read a Josephina book from the American Girl series (how convenient that Story of the World is able to use those American Girl series as supplements, since my kids love them). We listened to The Easy French CD for lessons we are currently working on, and used the phrase "c'est chou vert et vert chou" more than really necessary (literally, "it's cabbage green and green cabbage", a similar US idiom is "six of one and a half dozen of the other"). KidV1 explored the wonders of indefinite pronouns (fortunately she excels at grammar, because discussing indefinite pronouns when it's gorgeous out and the window is open is hard); she also did some lessons in Singapore 4B, which she bangs out easily after years of RightStart. Somewhere in there we worked on Spelling Power; KidV1 practiced the words by spelling them out on the driveway in sidewalk chalk; she wanted to ride her scooter over the cursive letters, but hadn't written them large enough, so she walked them instead.

That's what a stripped-down day of homeschooling looks like at our house these days.