My summer break has officially begun! The first thing I did upon waking was to visualize and come up with a design for some sturdy, large, denim totes. One for me (big enough to fit the new Harry Potter book and several knitting projects while airport-hopping,) and the other is for my mom - an early birthday gift. She gets the pink-y of the two. Notice the dark, foreboding sky? I snapped these shots just in time! Speaking of weather, Mark Twain once said, "The coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco." Um, Mark, you obviously didn't spend any time in Creel, Mexico. I love the tie closing (found the idea here) and the pleats. I guess I've been into pleats lately.

Also, for you parents, I wanted to pass on this summer activity resource that I stumbled upon earlier today at Wise Craft. It seems to be a long and valuable list.

I love presenting this material to my students. Here's what you'll need:

• large, thick paper - butcher paper won't do, because it's too thin
• waterproof mat, larger than your paper, to place on floor. Try buying a meter of that picnic table material.
  
• plastic tray large enough to fit your foot in
• piece of felt to cover bottom of foot tray, and duct tape to secure it down
• pitcher for transporting water
  
• basin for washing feet when you're done
  
• small bucket for transporting used water to drain
• a chair
• washable paint available on the shelf
• towels for drying feet
  

1. Place waterproof mat on floor. Bring the chair, basin, bucket, and clean towel to the work area. Place the basin just to the right of the chair, and drape the towel over the back of the chair. The bucket can be placed to the right of the basin. Fill pitcher with water and empty into the basin. Retrieve a piece of paper and place it in the middle of the waterproof mat.
2. At the shelf, squirt a generous amount of paint onto the felt-bottomed foot tray. Bring tray over to work area, placing it on the mat, to the left of the paper.
3. Sit down in the chair and remove shoes and socks. Place shoes to the left of the chair.
   
4. Stand up and place one foot at a time into the foot tray. Step onto the paper.
5. Demonstrate different techniques - painting with the big toes, tip-toes, whole foot, dragging the foot, etc.
6. When you are finished, sit down in the chair and place painty feet in the basin. Rinse, using your hands, then use towel to dry off each foot individually. Put shoes on.
7. Dump dirty water into the bucket, and transport it to a drain inside, or a thirsty plant outside.
   
8. Place painting in a secure place to dry.
9. Place the dirty towel with the laundry, and replace with a clean towel.
10. Invite the child.

A neat variation for this is to use black paper and white paint. Also, mixing paint colors in the foot tray is nifty.

Happy foot painting,
Meg

Labels: art

I'm loving this vocabulary card pouch set that I whipped up to go with my Audubon Field Guide bird cards. These field guides are available for mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, butterflies, and marine mammals. Buy two (used) sets of the field guide, then cut them all up. Make copies of the informational section on each animal, then paste all the photos to card stock, pasting the copy of the information on the back of the picture only card. Here's what they should look like when the set is complete: Ahem. My apologies to those who read this post before it was complete. My cat just published the post while I was away from the computer. Thank you, cat. Always so helpful.

I wanted to direct you to my blogging friend Leah, whose blog, HomeWork, has some great offerings. Please go and check out her tutorials - she has young children, and many of the projects are child/family friendly. Here are just a few, photos courtesy of Leah.

Labels: art, language, sewing

Here's a Meg original for y'all. I'd like to thank my two cats, Amelie (la gatita) and Timoun (el gatote) for all of their inspiration, which comes in the form of mischievous attacks on my crafting material. To listen to the audio file click on the song title in the side bar.

Una gatita, una gatita
jugando con estambre
Una gatita, una gatita
No! No! No!

Un gatote, un gatote
jugando con estambre
Un gatote, un gatote,
No! No! No!

Translation:
A little cat, a little cat
playing with yarn
A little cat, a little cat
No! No! No!

A big cat, a big cat
playing with yarn,
A big cat, a big cat,
No! No! No!

I told a little story before I sang this song the first time. I was peacefully knitting my sweater when all of a sudden, a little cat jumped up on the chair, grabbed the ball of yarn, and started running away with it. I ran after her, reclaimed by yarn, and returned to knit. Then came the big cat .... you get the picture.

Hope you like it!

xo,
Meg

Labels: Songs to sing with children