Alphabet Scramble Game -Tutorial

This is a fun homeschool game that combines reading, spelling and writing. It helps exercise imaginative and problem solving skills and can be exciting and fun too! I call it Alphabet Scramble. It costs less than five bucks to make and can be used for multiple grade levels.

I bought these tiles from Michales. With a 40% off coupon they came out to be about $2.50 (reg. $3.99)  for the package of sixty tiles. If you have a scrabble game that you can recycle the cost will be much less.

Materials

One 8x12 piece of canvas
ribbon or braided string approx 12" or a lone shoestring
Fabric Marker or permanant marker
Alphabet tiles or recycled scrabble tiles

Using the canvas and ribbon make a drawstring bag. You can really make this any size as long as hands can get into it to pull out tiles. Mine has ties on only one side. I used a scrap piece of canvas to write the name of the game on it with the fabric markers and attached this to the front of the bag.

Fill it up with the tiles.

Set your kid to work.

You can change the rules of the game to suit the skill you want to improve. Alex took a handful of tiles and has to write five words at least four letters long. I had him write the set of letters he pulled out above each set of words he wrote. (Creation was the biggest one so far!)

For the littler girls, that are kindy/1st grade, I'll have them make three letter words. You could add a timer, set a certain number of tiles to pull out, play a game where two people go head to head, making words with the same letters and then compare after giving points for each word or number of letters used in each word. There are a lot of possibilities with the game.

I'd love to hear your own Alphabet Scramble game stories!

Bestest Friends

Last night I took a break from sewing and dove into another thing I like to do: painting. I made a collection of painted wooden dolls for my girls almost two years ago. I call them Bestest Friends Dolls. They still love them.

I have probably two dozen of these little girls in various stages in a drawer in my sewing desk. I pull them out when I want a new project. They're made of a single wood turning. I hand paint them using non-toxic paints and finish them with a non-toxic varnish.

One thing I love about these girls is that each one is completely different from another. Though some are similar.

I love the rainbow of color on their dresses and the varied hues of their faces. Each is diverse, something that's hard to find in a lot of mainstream toys.

The new three I am almost done with only have eyes, not mouthes. My girls aren't too sure if they like this or not. I think it's great, that way they can decide the feelings of each as they play.

They're by no means perfect. It's tremendously hard to paint teeny on rounded surfaces, but I did my best and am pleased with each for their own reasons. It makes me happy to give my kids the variation in their toys. I hope it will blend into their lives. That they'll see the beauty in every person. That, while they might not look the same as them, they'll grow up to have a bestest friend.

I really don't know what to say...

Looking back...Less is More.

 Playmobil

Doing some maintenance on my blog I ran across THIS posting from over a year ago. I thought, with the holidays coming up, it'd be nice to do an update on my feelings on this subject.

The Barbies

I believe we're now down to two Barbies -both of which have painted on clothes - and one or two "daughters". These stay in the bathtub for some strange reason. My girls have not suffered Barbie-itis or any other acute fantastical lacking disease because of the absence of her and her perfectly molded brethren. They still get a glossy, starry-eyed gleam over the grotesquely pink aisle in the store but we're cutting down trips there anyway.

Other name branders

The Care Bears, My Little Ponies, Poly Pockets and other silly things have gone to the big toy box in the sky (actually, the one down the street where they re-sell them and I get a tax deduction). The kids have barely even noticed the void.

What we've kept

Dress-ups have been thinned of damaged items and restocked thanks to Halloween. We've added some LeapFrog Tag readers and additional Leapster games. Puzzles and games have taken up a larger residence and you can sometimes find the kids sitting quietly playing together without being prompted and without any required batteries. Thomas, Geotrax, Legos, music instruments, blocks and wooden dolls have all made the cut. Loving Family doll house people, baby dolls, Little People and Playmobil have permanent homes. And books were never on the chopping block.

After all this time, are we where I wanted to be way back two June's ago? Not exactly but we're getting there. We've instituted allowance for chores done (with a smile or at least no back-talk) with which they can purchase new toys. No more fighting me every trip with "I wants" but it makes restriction of what to purchase the new thing for me to fret over. So, we're still learning.

The new item up for discussion is the TV. Mindless, engrossment is really pissing me off. The resulting lack of helping out when asked because they're too glued to the screen which is showing them one of the same four episodes of Wonder Pets really gets me riled up. Add to that, the freak out when it goes off or the back talk from the older kids wanting to watch "just one more show" and it makes for a very angry mama. Solution? We're working on it but for at least this week (and maybe next) we're on computer and TV restriction. No TV, none of the time. I'll post an update on that once we figure out what we're doing.

My Top 10 Playmobil Toys

If you haven't been introduced to Playmobil, you're probably not alone. So, please let me be the first to show off our top 10 Playmobil picks and welcome you to the fold. If you have been lucky enough to experience these tiny treats, I hope you enjoy the list.

At our house we have a morbid sense of humor that apparently genetically manifested in our daughter. For her birthday she picked out this lovely set. Now, while I am all for diversity and reality in children's play things I'm still not sure about this.

Yes, this would be a nurse/doctor lady with a baby in an incubator. This gets heavy rotation in my kids play so I've included it in my top 10 because they just love it so much. Granted, my first daughter wants to be a baby doctor so maybe this is her way to fantasize about being grown up.

This next piece is a darling. Though we don't own it because I can't find it in any of the stores here.

What gets me the most about this set isn't the adorable tiny bottles or the fact that there's even a teeny money slot. No. What tickles me the most is the mandatory recycling bin. After your little people quench their thirst they can rest easy knowing they're recycling those bottles instead of just chucking them in the bin. Now all we need is a guy to stand around to take the bottles and restock them in the machine. It's not magic you know, it's recycling.

Now, this wouldn't be my top 10 list if I didn't include this set. This is one of my favorites because of the sheer sillyness of the pieces. The bunny line is in it's own category and is far off reality but let us take a closer look at the pieces included...

This set is called Bunny school. I love the fact the teacher is wearing a suit and has a tiny briefcase and a pointing stick taller than he is. It speaks to true professionalism even amongst humans. Please notice the apparatus on the picnic table. What exactly are the bunnies learning about? Could they be learning about chemical compounds to create homemade bombs to come and overthrow the human Playmobil-ites? Or are they simply teaching the younger of their species how to dye the easter eggs laying on the ground behind them? I just love the tiny beakers in the attic of the mushroom house, the basket of carrots for their lunch and the extremely detail oriented picture on the blackboard. This reeks steriotypical bunny-dom and I love every stinkin' piece of it.

What park/zoo/hardware store would be complete without the hot dog vendor. While the above made my list for the silliness, this set makes it for the oddness.

The oddness isn't in the bicycle powered hotdog stand, it's in the creepy vendor. The scruffy hair, mustache, wierdly shaped hat and sloppy looking apron would make me leery to buy dogs from this guy. If I was hungry enough, I could possibly look past those things but I'd have to stop at the blue shoes.

Who doesn't love camping? Let me rephrase, who wouldn't love camping in THIS?

This is possibly one of the coolest Playmobil toys that is actually affordable (the trains and planes are cool but over $100 is pushing it for me) at about $40. What the photo doesn't show is that the top lifts off and there is actually a sleeping space for everyone. That kind of attention to deatil is what has drawn me to these toys. Check out the lovely depiction of picturesque vacation-ism on the side of the camper. This is one of those details that you actually do see on RVs, yet, how many of us would think of taking a camper to the beach? Someone, somewhere did a survey of old people that can afford to buy campers and figured out they usually go to Florida when Rv-ing. I mean, what else do we have here in Florida besides sunsets and palm trees that would subliminally coax a snow covered retiree into a lease? While we can't afford one, we can live vicariously though Playmobil and go camping in style anyway.

Ah, farm life. While others may think farming is a quiet, peaceful oasis Playmobil knows better.

In a quick glance at this set you may be lulled into the cuteness of it but taking a closer look you'll see that this is a more realistic depiction of farm life than it may seem. Check out the plantable and harvestable carrots, the baby animals being raised for food, the fully functional watering can filled up from the manual well, the children working and not playing video games or whining about having to feed the cow or take carrots to the science bunnies. The Heidi-esque landscape is a winner for me; this family takes lemons and makes lemonade. And we can't forget the sickle in the corner which could always be borrowed by the ghost.

Here's another favorite because of the realness of it. One of the reasons we love Playmobil as grownups is because we can relate to the honesty of the characters. Barbie is just too perfectly fashion and romance driven to move us. No. Give us a crappy wedding reception under a pop up tent, folding tables and an open bar and we're much more in our zone.
I love that the main feature of this isn't the cake with tiny wedding topper, three (yes, three) presents or caterer (when at a wedding like this though, he's called the barbeque technician) it's the drunken wedding guests and the prefilled blue margaritas. This is probably the only place a guy with a brown belt, black shoes and a windbreaker with a tie could score. He's obviously jobless, can't afford to get his pants tailored or a haircut for a wedding for christsakes. Then again, the lady with the horrible spotted giraffe dress with white shoes isn't doing much for me either. I really hope it isn't after labor day.

These sets can help grownups teach the finer points in life. Such as, that one lousy, drunken lay can result in this.
Being a single mom isn't the end of the world, it's actually an improvement in some cases but throw in the fact that neither parent has any kind of dressing skills and you end up with a kid that's a genetic color coordinating disaster. They all seem happy enough but that's because they don't know any better.

Now for another acessory. This is a definate must have for the following people

1. anyone with viking playmobil

2. anyone with a loose understanding of pirates

3. anyone with boys

4. grownups that have a cubical (you can rain paperclips down on people and they'll never know it's you)

They call this a sling shot but really people, it's a trebuchet. This is a wonderful addition to teaching simple mechanics to your kids. Plus it's just really, really cool. I especially like the burning vats of oil. Those will cause some serious damage.

Here's the last set on this list (I'm sure I'll have another playmobil list at some point). I really enjoy the piping on the moms pants and the color coordination of the mother and androgynous child.

Playmobil a mobile play.

Mother: come on child, lets get this wagon to the picnic site before the cut up watermellon leaks all over

child: just a minute mom. I want to finish my bag of yellowy round things

(drops bag of round things)

oh no! My round things in my bag!

mother: I'm not giving you any more

(hears leaves rustling and small squeeky, chittery noises)

What is that?

Child: It's a herd of wild domesticated squirrles!!! They're after my round things!

Mother: Don't be afraid, they react to fear. Just put your arms up and smile and slowly back away. We don't want them to attack, move too fast and your loud, mismatched clothes might attract them.

That's it for the list. I hope you've enjoyed it and discover some of the joys of these teeny toys.

Handpainted Tea Party Table on a budget

My girls are girly-girls. Even my 18 month-old is shoe obsessed and hair bow oriented. I don't know where they get it from really. Probably my hubby's side, as I rarely make any effort with my appearance and my daughters tell me they can't wear what I pick out because it's "not fashion enough". So, when deciding to get my girls a small table for their room for tea parties and what-nots I just knew a plain white table just wouldn't do.

I was absolutely horrified at the prices of these tables! A small table and 2 chairs, just plain white or stained wood, was running around $90!! I didn't even pay that much for my dining room tables from IKEA. And don't even get me started about the prices of hand painted or custom sets. I knew my mission: create a solid wood table and chair set for my girls, my self. Luckily, I found a plain wood, unfinished table at Michales Crafts. Regular price of the table was $35, again a bit steep for me considering what it'll be used for, and the fact it still needed chairs. Sunday Michales came out with 50% off coupons which they do ever so often, and I was able to pick up the table for $17.50.

The fact that I dabble in lots of different arts actually worked out well for me this time. I had 2 cans of white primer spray paint on hand and lots of craft paints and even a bottle of non-toxic varnish, plus lots of brushes. So I set off spraying the entire table white which took a lot longer than I thought.

For the top of the table I wanted a unique design that accented the colors of the room and some of the patterns. Their room is no Pottery Barn picture; lots of different clearance items thrown together that are pretty much all pastel. I started off with sketching the table top on a 1/4" scale on white paper. I looked at what they had in the room and went with something similar. I also decided to stay away from painting the rest of the table with colors to keep some of my sanity.

Here's the diagram I thought up.


The hardest part was drawing the 2" squares around the perimeter even. The table top was 20" x 29" but with beveled edge which shaved off a little on the actual measurements. So, some are 1/4" larger or smaller to make up the difference.

Next was hand drawing the scale design to the table top. I did this with pencil but next time would figure out something else to use because on the lighter color paints the pencil markings show through.
Then on to painting!


Day one. This is as far as I've gotten but remember this was also with about 2 hrs of priming time, layout design and hand drawing the top image.


And the finished table top. I still have to get the table put together and put it in the room but this is it varnished and set to dry. It's not perfect but it's from me to my girls. I hope I've inspired you to grab your craft store by the balls and refuse to pay high prices for quality stuff and maybe try something you've never thought you could do.