needle & thREAD

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{all photos credit: Katie}

This week, I tried to sew all the things that I've been promising the girls we'd sew "this summer." I didn't even come close. Karoline had a sweet piece of needlework long finished, that I'd suggested for a pillow. She chose fabric from the stash and pieced together a bit of a log cabin square. I referred to my pillow tutorial and she made a sweet cover. Delighted doesn't even come close to capturing how she feels about it (and herself). Bonus points: she happens to have a matching sundress. Everyone matches their dresses with their throw pillows, right?

Then, we made some notebook covers. The girls each have a new compostion book for the new school year. Sarah and Kari are using their for journals. Katie calls hers a "conversation book" and she's begun a dialogue with Kristin. Very cute. Kristin's thinking deep thoughts while barfing, by the way.

I've used Rachel's tutorial every time, embellishing a bit differently with each cover.

All in all, some fun playing with pretty fabric just before the school year kicks into high gear. That lofty list of sewing goals? Oh, dear. Time is closing in quickly.

 

In the reading department, this volume has become available at Amazon:-). I've been reading through (which is so not the way it's intended to be read) and pondering ways to create community online around folks who are using the book along with me. There was a book club suggestion on Instagram. Not sure what that would look like. I'd also like to find the way to make the Small Steps Companion Journal available to you in some form even though it's not going to be republished. Thinking thoughts. Dreaming dreams. Dream along with me? I'm happy to hear your thoughts.

What are you reading and sewing this week? 

I am eager to hear!

  Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo (or more) and a brief description of what you're up to? Will you tell us about what you're reading, also? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much.

    Make sure the link you submit is to the URL of your blog post or your specific Flickr photo and not your main blog URL or Flickr Photostream. Please be sure and link to your current needle and theREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and theREAD post from a previous week. If you don't have a blog, please post a photo to the needle & thREAD group at Flickr. 

       Include a link back to this post in your blog post or on your flickr photo page so that others who may want to join the needle and thREAD fun can find us! Feel free to grab a button here (in one of several colors) so that you can use the button to link:-).

All About Apples

The first couple of weeks of school are always apple-y around here. The Alphabet Path story begins with an apple tree and the fairy who lives there. And, of course, there are apples to pick and apples to make into pie and apples to can for later. The apples where we like to pick aren't quite ready for us yet, but we have our apple books out and we're exploring the science behind all that apple loveliness. 

It's my theory that good picture books can completely cover all necessary elementary science. To that end, two favorite apple books are How Do Apples Grow by Betty Maestro and How Do Apples Grow.

Karoline chose How Do Apples Grow, a simple book which follows an apple tree from the bare winter branches until autumn picking time. We read the book and talked about it and then she chose her favorite picture to copy. 

Katie chose The Life and Times of the Apple, which is sadly out of print, but worth the hunt. It's a more advanced lifecycle book with excellent detailed illustrations.

Other favorites are:

Apples (a Gail Gibbons, book. She's always excellent.)

The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree (Gail Gibbons again. Excellent again.)

The Apple Pie Tree (this one is new to us this year. I pretty much love the collage illustrations.)

We have some favorite apple-themed fiction books. I'm saving those for next week.

For lots more apple-related and "A" themed learning, visit us here.

For more about our Storybook Year, read here. And, there are Storybook Science books, from A-Z, linked here, scroll down on the lefthand side.

needle & thREAD

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Katie and I did some sewing yesterday, but I can't show you yet because they're a surprise. I do think a sweet girl and her doll will be very pleased. Katie's skills have improved greatly this summer--all those headbands proved to be great teaching tools. Good thing, too. We have 14 more to make. Yesterday's project was a perfect opportunity to practice French seams. Katie was duly impressed with tidy seams inside the dress. 

I really enjoyed sewing while listening to Simple Mom podcasts. What a retreat for me! And Katie loved listening along. Bonus: I've discovered some fun new-to-me blogs, which, in turn, prompted me to give feedly.com a try after about six months of blog reading hiatus. Win, win, win!

I've got three books going right now. The Homegrown Preschooler is a gorgeous book full of full color photographs that captivated some of us right away. Karoline squirreled away with it for hours. I have spent enough time on soccer fields and in dance studios to know that some (many?) moms are very worried about the best preschool environment for their children. They invest a lot of time and energy and money into assuring that preschool gives a child a leg up on school and life. This book reassures a mom that an intentional mom and comfortable home can get the job done just fine. 

I ordered The Introvert's Way after I read this article. I think the aritcle is spot-on. It's really an excellent insight into and introvert's mind. I am disappointed with book the book so far. It's not nearly as thoughtful, well-researched, and insightful as Quiet is. I much prefer the meatiness of Quiet over the breeziness of The Introvert's Way.

Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child was recommended by Sarah about a milion times. Sarah is about batting a thousand on book recommendations throughout the years so that worked for me. My kids were utterly confused about the title, by the way. The more literal they are, the more confused. This is an amazing book in the truest sense of the word; just really top notch. Brilliantly written, incredibly thought-provoking, and potentially life-changing. This is the perfect book for the beginning of a school year because while it certainly encourages us to develop imaginations in our children, it points out how ours might possibly have been squelched and inspires us to revive it. Truly great read.

What are you reading and sewing this week? 

I am eager to hear!

  Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo (or more) and a brief description of what you're up to? Will you tell us about what you're reading, also? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much.

    Make sure the link you submit is to the URL of your blog post or your specific Flickr photo and not your main blog URL or Flickr Photostream. Please be sure and link to your current needle and theREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and theREAD post from a previous week. If you don't have a blog, please post a photo to the needle & thREAD group at Flickr. 

       Include a link back to this post in your blog post or on your flickr photo page so that others who may want to join the needle and thREAD fun can find us! Feel free to grab a button here (in one of several colors) so that you can use the button to link:-).

with needle & thREAD

In the sewing world, we're still kind of crazy about headbands. I told Katie that I'm fairly certain that every female who has come through our door this week has left with a headband. And all my girls have at least two each. The headbands have inspired me to clean out my scrap basket. I had saved pretty much every scrap since I started sewing a couple years ago. Now, the only pieces in the box are pieces large enough to use for a headband or some other such project. I recognize that my days of piecing quilts from tiny scraps are too many years away to justify the mess those scraps make in my scrap basket.

Speaking of the tidying baskets, not much reading is happening here these days. I have been cleaning and organizing like crazy this week and listening instead of reading. Several of you asked for links to good listening. Lately, I've been listening to Andrew Pudewa:

Nature Deficit Disorder

Teaching Boys & Other Children Who Would Rather Make Forts All Day

The Four Language Arts

Nurturing Competent Communicators

Fairytales and the Moral Imagination

I admit to crying not far into that last one. I'm a big fan of fairytales. Suggesting them to homeschoolers has not always been a happily-ever-after experience for me. It was nice to be among friends.

All of these talks have been excellent. I don't think I've learned anything new, philosophically speaking. I'm not going to drastically change the way we do things around here. Instead, there has been a sense of kinship. Here are folks who speak my language (far better than I speak it). These methods work. They do. And they are sound and they are faithful. 

I pulled out my copy of Tending the Heart of Virtue to re-read. Amazon tells me I purchased it in 2008. I remember buying it at the recommendation of Katherine, shortly after the first online firestorm of protestations against the way I was educating my children. After the second firestorm, three years ago, I stepped away from homeschool groups--both online and any place else. It's hard enough to raise a family that is in the world but not of the world of the secular culture. Why heap onto that feeling like a pariah in homeschool circles, too? There's no upside. Homeschoolers have so many hot buttons; seems pretty easy to set off an alarm every other day.

I'm not interested in dissent. 

But here's the curious thing. After three years away from all those "support" groups, I have a deeply rooted sense of confidence in what is happening in my home. It doesn't come from someone else's affirmation--not even Andrew Pudewa's affirmation. It comes from looking back on how I've spent the last 25 years and knowing that I gave my best to God. I made mistakes every single day. I still make mistakes every single day. But I sought His will and I answered His call as best I could.

One of my favorite phrases when sharing with other homeschooling moms is "In our family..." It's the ultimate caveat perhaps. This is what works in our family, with our children, and our husband and father. Your mileage my a vary. God may have put you in another vehicle altogether.

I love to talk with young moms about home education. I love to share what I've learned along the way and I love to hear the enthusiasm and utter joy in their voices. Young moms have an idealism that reminds me of newly wed idealism. You know, when you look back and wonder at the miracle of how you dared to marry someone and make a whole new family? How did you get so brave? You need that same courage and idealism to embark upon home education. I love to watch and listen to it. It is such a gift.

Two of my dearest, closest, and most forever friends aren't going to homeschool in the coming year. These were my two phone calls or visits for the quick "I hardly have to say it and she already gets it." Women who have held my hand--literally--in some of the scariest places I've ever been. Last night had me wondering at the aloneness of it all. Endeavoring to educate one's children in your own home, taking on that entire challenge for nine kids over twelve years each? That's a formidable task.

We all need kindhearted, holy support. Let's be that to one another. 

What are you sewing, reading. Heck, what are you cleaning and organizing? How are you preparing for the next season? What makes you happy? About what are you excited? It's a free-for-all. Just talk.

with needle & thREAD

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We're binge sewing this week! Monday afternoon, I found myself alone in the house and I wandered into my sewing room to see about putting together the blouse I cut for Katie weeks ago. I didn't have the right shade of pink thread. Since I really wanted to settle in with my machine, stitch a little, inhale steaming cotton, and feel the contentment that comes with creating a bit with my hands, I found another quick project.

It's been the Summer of Humidity here. It rains nearly every day and when it's not raining, it feels like a steam room out there. My hair is looking ridiculously unruly. My go-to is always a folded bandana to pull it out of my eyes, but that look isn't the greatest very often. 

Andrea posted some really cute headbands on Instagram last week, so I followed her lead. I used the turtorial at Happy Together (I love the name of that blog!). Once I finished one, I saw the potential.

Last spring, I promised several girls in Katie's dance class that we'd sew this summer. These headbands are perfect for dancers and they are also the perfect small project to get girls sewing. Yesterday, we had a friend for Katie and a friend for Kari come sew with us. Each girl chose her own fabric and I helped each one make hers individually. After making the first four, I recognized that the younger girls' probably needed a slightly smaller band, so I cut Sarah's down as I went. There is actually a link to a smaller pattern at the Happy Together  site. I think I'll check that out before our next pair of sister friends come to sew next week. 

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 All pictures above are kindness of Katie with my iPhone. I had every intention of taking good pictures with my big camera but quickly discovered that I had my hands full. 

I've been reading Educating the WholeHearted Child this week. It used to be that I read this book the first week of July every year. The book was revised a few years ago and now it takes me much longer! It's so well worth the time though. I don't tend to go to homeschool conferences or retreats. This book is it. I take time to sit with  pretty pens and notepaper, a cup of tea, and intention to pray and I let the wisdom seep into  my bones (hopefully).

The nice thing about the revised copy is that the Clarksons have perspective now. Their children are grown. They can look back with some sense of confidence. They can also draw upon the reflections of their kids. What worked? What didn't? I can tell you this. The Clarkson clan is real. They struggle like the rest of us. But a great deal worked!

Lest you think all the fun was had by girls druing yesterday's crafternoon, I assure you the boys created, too. Nicky made cupcakes while we sewed and then everyone got in on the act of decorating. A good time was had by all:-)

What are you sewing and reading this week? I am eager to hear!

What's on your summer reading list? Do you have a summer sewing list?  Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo (or more) and a brief description of what you're up to? Will you tell us about what you're reading, also? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much.

    Make sure the link you submit is to the URL of your blog post or your specific Flickr photo and not your main blog URL or Flickr Photostream. Please be sure and link to your current needle and theREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and theREAD post from a previous week. If you don't have a blog, please post a photo to the needle & thREAD group at Flickr. 

       Include a link back to this post in your blog post or on your flickr photo page so that others who may want to join the needle and thREAD fun can find us! Feel free to grab a button here (in one of several colors) so that you can use the button to link:-).