Burr Oak Acorns are Here to Send to You!

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The Longevity of Waldorf Toys

I have posted a few times this year about my kids (10, 12 and 14) and how they still use so many of their 'Waldorf Toys'. I am always amazed to find them playing with the wooden figures, wooden kitchen set or the silks or other things I invested so much money (or time, if I made it) into when they were little. It makes me so happy to see them still using those same toys! Last weekend I was amazed yet again when Mosi, my 14-year-old, dressed as a fairy for the Renassaince Festival and wore the silk wings that I bought her when she was 4-years old! Amazing!

Suede Fairy Shoes Part 2

The second step, after you cut out the pattern is to make the markings on the fabric and then remove the pattern. Sunii and I cut out the suede and then we cut out a lining in a nice 100% cotton flannel. we marked the fabric. Then we decided to use the sewing machine for this job. Sunii has already made a number of items by hand sewing and is ready to advance to the machine. He is almost 13-years-old. Additionally, since these shoes will get a lot of heavy use we want to make sure the stiches are extra strong. The machine has a number of automatic stitches that will easily help this happen. Sunii, of course loved being able to use the machine. He loves anything that involves electricity (my theory is that this must be in the DNA because he was raised a "nature/Waldorf child"). He spent two hours trying out every stitch on the machine and has begged me every day since to do more "sewing". The next step will be doing some of the initial sewing on the shoes...he should be very happy when I share that with him!

Making Suede Fairy Shoes

Sunii, Sofi and I are making shoes for Sofi's Renaissance Faire costume. It should be an adventure. We will tell you how it goes! First we chose a beatiful pattern. It is from Butterick and includes other patterns on how to make boots and other cute shoes. We chose the simple fairy shoes made of suede. We purchased some beautiful suede that was on sale and that was usually used for interior decorating. We folded it as it showed on the pattern instructions, laid out out the patterns and Sunii cut them out. Now we need to make the markings on the fabric before we take the patterns off. Once we take the patterns off we need to cut the same pattern onto some cotton fabric for the lining. We also need to purchase a leather punch and some leather cord. These are going to be such cute fairy shoes!

Tips on Printing E-books

Thank you Earthschooling member Jen for these tips and for sharing your pictures. Jen writes:

Hi Kristie - I took some photos of your ebooks I had spiral bound at Staples. I didn't cross check prices with other places (like kinkos, etc) as we only have one car currently and I can walk to the Staples from my house ;)

Anyway, I think she told me that if we bring them in printed, it is between $1 and $3 for the binding, depending on how many pages to be bound (it goes by how many pages per document you have). Seems like they can do up to around 200 pages, but don't have bigger set ups than that (Kinko's should) and the protective cover is an additional dollar for a see through front and nice thick backing. It's worth it, though...The spine is also available in blue. I thought black would be nice and basic.

If they print them out at Staples, it is about 10 cents per sheet printed in b/w and $1 per sheet in color. Not sure if this is across the board at all Staples and it was just a general quote from a young girl behind the counter. Also, I wonder if it's per page of color - meaning that if there are 5 colored pages in a 50 page document, do they just charge an additional $5 versus charging even for the b/w pages. Hmmmm...didn't think to ask that question...

I am very happy with them and guess I did several. With the spiral option, I can have the book all the way open, which is nice.

I also bought for 49 cents each, these plastic 3 punch folders and I definitely don't like them nearly as much as the spiral bound. They don't stay open easily and flop shut.

I am one of those people who has to have things printed out since I type fast and well, but I can't stand reading books on computer screen - makes my eyes go batty - LOL! SO I'm attaching some shots so you can see just how nice they turned out. You should be SO proud of yourself, especially when you see what you created :) I love that I can turn to these documents again and again through the years and they will be protected by these nice covers...

Important Note About New Earthschooling Website and Price Changes

Our new website can now be found at: www.Earthschooling.com

Earthschooling Postcard Exchange Fun

We had a lot of fun participating in the postcard exchange at:
http://earthschooling.ning.com/forum/topics/earthschooling-postcard

We wrote to five families last week. We purchased postcards while we were enjoying summer activities around town so choosing the postcards was part of the fun. When we went to the zoo we chose postcards of our favorite animals. There was even one postcard of a lion sleeping on a rock that looked exactly like a picture we took! When we went to Living History Farms, The Botanical Center and the airport we also found postcards we liked.

At the end of two weeks of postcard collecting I put addresses on all the cards and put the age of the child in the upper left hand corner. We then sat around the table together and the kids chose who they wanted to write to. Sofi wanted to write to everyone from the UK because she "likes English accents" LOL! Mosi (age 14) wanted to write to some of the little kids (2 and 3 year olds) as well as some of the kids her age. Sunii wanted to write to some of the boys.

It was a great learning experience for the kids. Writing letters is such a lost art and writing postcards is difficult because you can only say a few things. Without being prompted the kids got the globe and the US atlas out and started to find places on the map. They wanted to know where the postcards were going! Then they all started talking about places they had been together. It was a great time of sharing, learning and writing practice.

It looks like some new people signed up since we sent out our postcards so we are going to do this again in another week or two. It would be fun to make this a bi-weekly event. We used to sit down once or twice a month and write letters to friends and relatives - this might just be what we needed to get us inspired to start doing that again! I love that this is an ongoing postcard exchange! You never know when someone will send you something or when someone new will sign up :)