Halloween Crafting

A peek at what I've been working on this week. Last night, Nicole came over and we worked on making 50 of the little Sculpey pumpkins you see in the dish at the far left. They're actually little pencil toppers, waiting to be popped onto cute Halloween pencils. Those will be our little gifts to the students in the art class we teach together. In the middle are pins backs, waiting to be hot glued to the backs of the wooden pumpkins in the bowl at the right. It was quite difficult to track down enough of those wooden pumpkin shapes at 7 different Michael's stores! I spray painted them orange first, then drew faces and details with paint pens and then finished them off with a coat of (supposedly) reflective spray paint. My hope is that the children in my class will be able to wear them pinned to their costumes for extra visibility and safer trick-or-treating. I've packaged them in little cello bags tied with twine and a tag explaining their purpose.

Also, a quick thank you to my goody goblins (Mom and Sneetch!) for delivering the goody gourds to GHS early this morning. I hear they were received well and enjoyed!

Goody Gourds

I have been missing my friends (big and small) over at GHS, but haven't had a chance to talk to most of them. So, I decided to make a basket of goody gourds to be surreptitiously delivered to the kitchen as a surprise for all my big friends. Each little goody gourd includes a handmade felt "kind soul" ghostie pin, a packet of sweet tarts and a packet of kisses. T helped enormously in creating the gourds. He did the actual assembly of the entire patch!

Goody Gourds Tutorial

You will need:
Orange cocktail napkins (tissue paper would work also, but rips more easily)
Green pipe cleaners
Goodies for stuffing the pumpkins
Green paper for cutting out leaf tags and hole punch (optional)

To make the pumpkins:

1. Open up a napkin into a square.
2. Place your goodies in the center. Pull up the edges and gather them at the top, creating a little sack.
3. Wrap a green pipe cleaner around the "stem" twice, leaving the ends unwound.
4. Cut out a green leaf tag, punch a hole in the top and thread it onto the pipe cleaner.
5. Using a pencil, wrap the loose ends of the pipe cleaner around to create a vine curl on each end.
6. Distribute to your friends!

School bag

Quick post to share my latest creation (I have a couple to share actually). I made this bag, cut to finish, all tonight. I started at 7 and just finished, so 4 hours. Not too bad for a perfect, custom-made messenger bag! I didn't even go out and get new fabric. Everything I used was either from previous projects or stuff I bought on a whim. I pretty much followed this tutorial, with ideas taken from all over, plus my own additions (adjustable strap, vinyl bottom).

Here were my criteria:
Washable (although now I'm not sure with the vinyl bottom)
Big enough to fit my laptop
Lots of pockets for all my small things
Pocket for books (for spontaneous story time at school)
Adjustable strap
Wet/yucky stuff proof bottom
Able to stand up on it's own

I actually managed to fulfill all of my own criteria on the very first try!

Hooray!

I got in! I got in to the Handmade Market. It's a huge craft fair held in Raleigh, NC, twice per year. I'll be in the one this fall, on Saturday the 7th of November. I'm so excited! I have probably enough inventory at this point to take down there, but I am hoping it will be a really successful fair, so I will try to build up more inventory. I was also accepted to the Downtown Holiday Market which will be in December, so I need to get cracking! I hope to have some Montessori materials there as well!

That's exactly how I feel

Exhausted and on the edge where comfortable meets uncomfortable. This weekend was our first seminar of the school year. That means we had to turn in an album, original lessons, and a paper as well as take a practical exam on Saturday and we had class all day today. This time around it was our Practical Life album, original lessons and paper. I think mine all turned out well. I wasn't unhappy with any of them as we turned them in. Some time I will upload photos of my original lessons. The practical exam was for Sensorial, which also went well. I didn't have to retake either portion!

Our next seminar and due date is in December, so we have some time to breathe. However, I am hoping to have one craft fair in between and I am already signed up for a craft fair the weekend after the seminar. So I will need to plan my afternoons carefully. Besides all that, I have holiday crafting to do! Halloween is approaching fast and I have plans for goodies for the children...

This is the way we wash our hands...

That's my view about 40% of the time I'm at work. Sometimes it's the boys' bathroom, which is right next door. Because this is my unofficial post, I do a lot of bathrooming related reminding; remember to wash your hands, please turn off the water while you rub your hands, let's sing a hand washing song.

We ask the children to sing a song to themselves while they wash their hands to make sure they are washing their hands for a reasonable amount of time to get most of the germs off. The suggested song has been Happy Birthday, but I think it may confuse the birthday issue, so I prefer this one, sung to the tune of "This is the Way We Wash Our Clothes":

This is the way we wash our hands,
Wash our hands,
Wash our hands,
This is the way we wash our hands,
So they're nice and clean!

In general, the time I do spend in the classroom has been alright. The class is definitely not normalized, which is to be expected. What I didn't expect was how tired I would be! Of course, everyone warns that the first month and possibly first 6 weeks will be tiring as the foundations are set with each individual child and then the group as a whole. The integration of the new children is a slow process, but the reward of a normalized classroom will be well worth the work and wait. I thought that managing my own classroom of 19+ children who were all 3 or 4 years old would have adequately prepared me for this. Was I ever wrong. Maybe the difference is that this year, the room is not "mine" in the sense that I am not the lead teacher. It is not up to me to set the ground rules or organization of the space, physical or interpersonal.

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by it all really. Being a very sensory person, I think I am more easily over stimulated, by sounds, sights, touches. In an as yet non-normalized Montessori classroom, those things abound. With no breaks in the day, barely a chance to get a sip of tea or run walk quickly to the bathroom, at times I wonder what I'm doing. Besides, I am always thinking about my classes, homework and upcoming exams in the back of my mind. To be honest, I relish those frequent trips to the bathroom hallway for the quiet and time for me to stand still for a few minutes.

Keys

I feel like I have officially changed schools. I received a pair of keys to get in to MSM yesterday. In honour of the occasion (and also because we have to carry our keys around all the time), I made the key holder pictured. It was pretty simple to make and after testing it today, I think it's also good at serving its purpose. The idea was for a key holder that would be easily accessible even when my hands are fairly full and could be worn unnoticeably even if I don't have pockets. The holder is attached to a belt loop with the snap strap on the back. The keys are attached to a hair tie which is anchored to the holder by being sewn into the seam and also by the little felt stopper at the back. Finally, the holder is lined with felt to silence the keys while they're not in use.

Here we go!

I guess I took an unannounced vacation from blogging for the summer. I didn't intend to, and it's certainly not because nothing interesting was happening. In fact I think the cause was too much happening and me being too caught up in all the studying, learning, worrying and relaxing.

But now, I'm back. The real world that is the school year is back and I'm stuck with it, even though I don't feel ready. Tomorrow is our first day of school with children (we worked on classrooms all last week and today). Fortunately, McLean only has returning children starting school this week. We don't get all the little newbies until Monday. So for this week, the children will all know more about what is supposed to be happening than me. That's ok; children can be the best teachers.

Many people have been asking me about nerves or if I am feeling anxious. Strangely, I feel less anxious than I expected. In keeping with the theme of unfortunate happenings, my lead teacher is not here for the start of the school year, so I am a bit worried about having to deal with parents' and children's questions. Mostly though, I am concerned about the children liking me and my liking the children. I really loved "my babies" at GHS, and I am afraid I won't be able to feel the same way for these new children. I know this is silly and I am sure that the children will like me and I will like them back. But that's my top worry; not the lessons I'm supposed to be able to give, not the new routine which I barely know anything about, not the fact that I don't know how to give lessons on half the materials in the room. I guess we'll just have to see how I am feeling tomorrow afternoon!
In the meantime, I have been spending evenings trying to motivate myself to work on my Practical Life binder and exam which are due in 3 weeks. I've also been working on things for the classroom. I made fabric murals for our three bulletin boards again. I will have to try to get a photo of it. I've made a number of things for the room to personalise things for the children. I decided the room theme for the year will be bumble bees, so each child has a named bee hanging on the bulletin boards until they do some artwork to put up instead. I'm quite proud of my little bee design.

Long time no post... sorry!

Sorry for the lack of posting. My Montessori training classes started the Monday right after graduation at GHS.

Quick overview of some interesting happenings over the past... month!

• Strawberry picking (2x) - not so great because the weather has been abnormally rainy which is apparently bad for strawberries.
  
• Interesting happenings at GHS - Unfortunate happenings really. Fortunately, I don't look back with any regrets and I don't think I will.
  
• Yard sale of junk from Mom and Dad's house - Everyone except T, Flea and I were at the beach house. So we held a yard sale on our own. It rained poured almost all morning... We did manage to give away some clothes to 2 very nice ladies and their respective families.
  
• Blueberry picking (this past weekend) - AMAZING! It rained Friday night, so when we arrived at 8:30am on Saturday, the bellies were perfectly washed and bug free for us. The bushes were FULL of bellies too! We picked for just over an hour and got almost 14lbs ($31) off of 1 giant bush - though it wasn't totally picked clean.
• My Montessori training course has started!
  

Classes have been going super swimmingly! I’m really enjoying them. I’ve met some wonderful new friends and am learning so much. It’s really fun to find out the reasoning behind the materials – especially the ones I remember from when I was little.

Thus far, we have studied Montessori philosophy, the practical life lessons and we are finishing up our week of sensorial lessons.

Tomorrow evening, T and I are driving out to the beach to meet up with everyone for a mini family reunion. I’m hoping to get in a lot of sun, knitting and general relaxation!

If you want to be somebody else,

change your mind. It was that kind of a weekend.

On Wednesday, I was told that there is essentially no position for me (to do my internship) at GHS next year. While I've had a hunch that this was the case for months now, it was still a bit of a shock. After taking an afternoon and evening to be angry, hurt and otherwise in a less-than good mood, I started my search for The Silver Lining.

This turn of events has opened the door for me to move to another school guilt free. It comes at a reasonable time in the schedule of my life since I am beginning my Montessori certification. Fortunately, I did go ahead and work out an option for myself whilst believing there would be a spot for me at GHS. That work has paid off with a paid internship position at a school which specializes in Montessori. In fact, this other school has had many interns over the years and has an obvious 'path' for me to follow.

It's less likely that this new school will consume my life, so I will have more opportunities to craft, too. So get ready for some more projects and creations! I'll have more time to prepare for dinners also, so hopefully I'll find some more good recipes to try out. Over the weekend, I had to get some of these sugar snap peas. Other people around the blogosphere have mentioned peas which need to be hulled. I don't think these require hulling, but they look delicious!

Biting the bullet

This past weekend was a big one for our apartment (affectionately known as TuziLand). Three days of big changes, new developments and big spending.

First, the apartment is back together. Everything (minus all the stuff we recycled, threw away or donated) is unpacked and in its original home or a better home. It was a daunting task, but we managed our way through it and mostly thanks to a lot of work by T, we have a much better living space now. At least we humans think so. Tuz is less than enthusiastic about the new floors. He has ventured out onto the "ice" a couple times, but has only managed to successfully strand himself on another area rug. We've ordered some nice, long runners to put in the hallways which should help.

Second, we made our first GIANT purchase. We bought a car. I think it's a fairly modest car. We can certainly handle it financially, even if it does feel like a big decision.

Third, we finally have some job news. T started his summer job yesterday, which he is already enjoying. They ended their first day with a 2 hour soccer scrimmage! I got some positive news about an internship position for next year, and am anxiously awaiting firm answer.

Looks like things are finally starting to fall into place for the summer and year ahead. There are still some loose threads to tie up, but at least we're on our way! Phewf!

Progress

Amidst all the things that have not been going quite the way we'd like (T's car generating burning smells, kitchen faucet breaking and flooding the kitchen, AC not working on the one 90 degree day...) the flooring project is going swimmingly well! It looks like they may even be totally finished today! As promised, here are some photos of the progress:
A before picture of our living room. This isn't even a real before photo, because at this point we've already packed up the books from the shelves and sold the papsan chairs which were in the corners on either side of the window.
First, they ripped out all of the deadly carpet, what was left of the padding and pulled up all the carpet tacks.
Then, they had to level the floor. Apparently it is common for older buildings/homes to require this step. Our floors are concrete (fire and sound barrier) so the leveling was fairly easy. There turned out to be more spots to level than they originally anticipated, but that didn't bother them at all. The grey is the wet concrete.
Finally, they laid down an "underlayment" which is an optional layer of padding to give some cushion to the floor. It acts as another sound barrier and also keeps the floors from feeling as cold as if they were laid directly on the concrete. Once the underlayment is in place, they could go ahead and lay the wood. We chose eco-friendly engineered Brazilian cherry in cinnamon. Because it is engineered, they not only use the wood more efficiently to make the planks, but there is also no need for glues or adhesives. The planks are measured, cut and "click" into place which will also allow for more give.