Pioneer Kids

Making a Fresh Wreath.

Pioneer Mama — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:12:16 +0000

Our homeschool organizer was so gracious in sharing winter greens and wreath ideas with us. My older boy and I just got done making a wreath, and we thought we’d share how.

What you’ll need:

Floral paddle wire – green is best

wire hanger – unwind into one long strip

greens and berries

wire cutters

1. Gather your greens and place on your wire hanger strip, rip off a little of the leaves near the bottom of the stem to give you a wiring area. Grab your paddle wire and start winding around the base of your little green grouping. You basically just make acute little green and berry group and secure it tightly to the hanger. Then set your wire aside, but don’t cut it, just keep reusing it with each new bunching.

2. Layer a new bunch of greens and berries, making sure to cover your wired area. Continue this bunching, laying, wiring until you run out of get to the end of your hanger.

3. Take both ends of your wire and bring them together, secure the wire, and wrap with paddle wire.

4. Hang wherever you call home:)

Rain.

Pioneer Mama — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:57:12 +0000

At home, rain would keep us inside save for a few minutes of running to the car or short puddle jumping on the deck. But, we are living in a motorhome right now, and rain today means we bring an umbrella, wear rubber boots, and possibly our rain coats. I no longer have the luxury of pushing the dogs outdoors on rainy days, instead we gear up because we have to walk them. So we do, every day, twice a day, rain or shine. The boys love puddle jumping, I love the fresh scent and tapping rhythm of drops on the umbrella, and I feel happy to brave the weather. Good job pups!

Cleaning Out the Chicken Coop.

Pioneer Mama — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 18:27:01 +0000

Pioneer Papa’s new fellow employee is a farmer. He is so very kind enough to bring us free eggs from his chickens every week. Yesterday we were lucky enough to meet our hard-working chickens and clean out their coop as payment. Yep, we packed into our truck, drove to the farm, and shoveled out some chicken poop… and we couldn’t have had more fun! After our shoveling, lifting, hauling, and dumping, we pet the chickens and promised to return soon.

It was really a gift to show the children first-hand the humble coop that brings us food. And it was even more exciting when my oldest said, “Mom, a hen just ran in and lay an egg!” I enjoyed the frenzy of activity as they move like a school of fish and cackle like one of them said the funniest joke ever.

The Warm Feeling of Waldorf Martinmas Lanterns and New Friendship.

Pioneer Mama — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 19:33:49 +0000

We are so fortunate to have landed in a town with a homeschool group that celebrates the outdoors, handwork, cooking, children, and sharing. We feel so welcome at our group where every child is included in every game naturally and every mother has something to contribute.

At our last meet up we celebrated the Waldorf holiday Martinmas by making lanterns and going for a lantern walk. Mothers helped children decoupage tissue paper on glass jars and put wire handles on them, we all baked food to share while one resourceful Mom read the story behind the lanterns. For safety sake, as our group includes many diverse ages, we “lit up” our lanterns with battery candles and glow sticks. The wind blew, the leaves swirled, we marched together. What a peaceful, warm feeling a lit candle and like-minded company can create.

Knitting Itty-Bitty Toys by Susan B. Anderson.

Pioneer Mama — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:35:15 +0000

If you’d like to learn to knit, the book Itty-Bitty Toys by Susan B. Anderson is an excellent place to begin. Last September I purchased this book as my first attempt at knitting and later realized how lucky I was to stumble into it. Performance doesn’t have to be perfect with this book, and as a beginner this helped lower my anxiety and raise my enjoyment. I was given the good advice by my step mother-in-law to not worry about what needle size I was using, because who cares what the final product size is. How true. And, also, it’s a toy! If it’s not perfect, your child won’t care. They won’t comb over it to see what you did wrong, they are just happy to have a new friend. So, with motivation to make something fun for the kids, and my level of anxiety lowered, I dove in. If you want to try knitting, it’s really a great place to begin. There are plenty of projects in here that you can get done in just a few days, so you can learn and still have time to make and stash presents for the holidays.

Homemade Holiday Gift Ideas.

Pioneer Mama — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 19:28:21 +0000

I have decided the plastic toys in boxes aren’t really appropriately displaying Santa’s elves’ building skills. So, this Christmas the plan is to hand make every present that goes under the tree and to purchase gift cards to fun places for the family. The challenges are time, space, and hiding from little sets of eyes. I hope to feature some of the toys here so you can also make and give homemade gifts any time of the year.

Some of my favorite toy catalogs to get inspired gift making ideas from are:

www.bellalunatoys.com and www.thewoodenwagon.com

WOODEN WALKING STILTS:

What you need>

1. 4×4 chunks of wood

2. Rope

To make>

1. Cut your 4×4 into chunks that you feel are the appropriate height for your child.

2. Sand the edges. (My sons fell often and even cut their ankles. We learned the hard way.)

3. Drill a hole near the top all the way through.

4. Thread your rope through and tie. Your stilts are complete.

Acne Fighting Coconut Oil.

Pioneer Mama — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 22:23:37 +0000

I always look for the natural ingredients, or certainly the shortest list of ingredients in everything. I was delighted when my visiting mother read aloud to use coconut oil to fight acne. What? Yep, that’s right, clean your face two times daily, rub in coconut oil, and your acne will go away.

It was worth a try. Skeptically, I reread, and purchased organic coconut oil. Skeptically, I tried it. I’m telling you in one day I noticed a difference and I’m not going back to failed grocery store mixes! One ingredient, acne fighting success!

Missed Harvest.

Pioneer Mama — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:13:39 +0000

The sunflowers are blooming, the tomatoes are ripe and the plants heavy, melons are growing day by day and we are…. leaving? I always thought the best time of year was September. All of our digging in the dirt, planting, weeding, watering, sweating, it’s done. Now days are cooler, food abundant. Some good reason has to tear someone away from this. Work.

We are piling our family of four (and three, large, elderly dogs) into a large motorhome for a winter in warmer weather. Pioneer Papa was offered a job that he is so excited about and we have been packing our most important books, clothes, kitchen utensils, and toys for the long RV park stay.

I’m excited about a new, warmer location, the fresh resources, and job. We have located local homeschoolers and will join in the fun in two weeks. Our space will be small, but our options will be plenty. So, bye, bye harvest, treat our friends well. We shall meet again.

Sack Lunch.

Pioneer Mama — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 11:53:38 +0000

I just checked out a sewing book at the library called Linen, Wool, Cotton: 25 Simple Projects to Sew With Natural Fabrics by Akiko Mano. (Click here for link to book). It’s well laid out, has practical, usable projects, and it’s clean look is just nice to page through. I liked the lunch sack pattern, but focused on another project. Anyhow, a local garage sale found $1 of mine spent for two old flour sacks and I now had the inspiration to make the lunch sack. I mean, come on, a sack sack.

Sewing the sack was fun, quick, and the lunch sack is actually better than the previous one we owned. The project literally took less than 15 minutes with my serger. Plus, our old bag gained new employment via ebay. The pioneer boys can easily manage this sack over the zipper of the old one. Best of all, I like the look of our new sack, it’s simple and fits us well.

It’s like a wonderful children’s book I’ve read to the boys about Joseph who has a coat that gets resewn many, many times, until it’s a small button. The sack was fabric just waiting for a little inspiration.

Fabric Baggies Pattern.

Pioneer Mama — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 18:22:11 +0000

I’ve been working on a pattern that yields 2 6″x6 1/2″ fabric baggies. There is no plastic lining, no zipper, no velcro, and no exposed stitching. It’s a simple, all-fabric baggy that works great for nuts, crackers, carrots, and more. I’ve also got one in my knitting basket for my tools and needles. It’s a little more enclosed than the pioneer cloth napkin. We like them for car rides, park and family visits, and Papa’s lunch.

If this is something you would like click on the link below to pay $4.99 via paypal and I’ll email your PDF. Thank you so much for reading my blog.

PAYPAL Fabric Baggies Pattern