Learning something new

For the past 12 years or so I have wanted to learn how to bead on a loom. I have never done such a thing before. About 9 years ago my Aunt gave me a bead loom. I could not figure out how to start it myself with just the instructions. I often am a visual learner. So for me trying too just read directions was not helping me.

My lovely neighbor uses a loom and knows how to do it so I asked her if she would show me how. She kindly agreed and we had a lovely visit over an iced mocha and some beads. I sat and watched her thread the loom, which honestly still looks a bit daunting and I will have her sit and watch me the next time I do it (which will likely be in the next day or so.) so that I can be sure that I got it right. I started my first project late in the afternoon, around 3pm. I took a break around dinner time and started back up a little after 9pm by midnight I was finished with the whole thing.

So without further ado here are some pictures of my latest creation.

The finished product will be sewn to a piece of leather and then I will use it to pull my hair up. As it sits now it measures 1inch wide by 3 3/4" long.

I am totally in love with this new craft and am looking forward to seeing what other lovely things I can create with this new medium.

I did not imagine that I could create something so quickly after learning it. I have to wait until this evening until my neighbor gets home to take it off the loom because I have no idea how to do that and do not want to mess up my beautiful work, but I am itching to start something else!

What new things have YOU learned lately?

October 1st

Around here October 1st means many wonderful things.

The REAL start of Autumn.

My daughter M's Birthday

Halloween

and the "official" start to our school year with the filing of our records with the state.

In California we had some serious battles over the right to homeschool and I am so grateful that the state decided the way they did. Filing each year as a Private school allows me to be in complete control over how, what, when, and where my children (pupils) are learning. I am the one solely responsible for their education. I am grateful to all of the people who worked so hard to help ensure my rights and the rights of everyone else wishing to homeschool in such a way.

Since we are what I like to call Organic learners (aka unschoolers) we do not follow traditional school setup. We love to do experiments and get out in the world and discover what learning is really about.  We feel its so very important to get the kids to understand that we learn everyday no matter how old we are, or at least we should strive to learn everyday.

Here are some glimpses from the past, a few of my favorite learning experiences we have had.

making bouncy balls

Little D with his bouncy ball

Military Museum in Sacramento, Ca

display of Navajo Code Talkers

There so many wonderful memories over the years but its hard to choose which ones I love the best to share. So these were a few of the most memorable things we have done over the years. I tried to upload more pictures then this but blogger was being difficult and didn't want to work. I hope this does not become a habitual problem.

Garden

I have not updated much on the garden and I think now is a good time to do so. The children and I have had so much fun going and discovering what little treats our garden has left us each and every day.

The cucumbers have been plentiful and we have shared several from our crop with friends & family. I have loved making cucumber salad with these little delicacies, or simply slicing them up and adding them to sandwiches.

creative organic learners funny face

 

Harvested cucumbers

Here are some of our squash that we harvested recently.

And then we decided that our watermelon was taking over the whole garden area, It had exploded over the box, across the yard and into the other boxes. 

moon & stars watermelon

Heart of Gold Cantaloupe

For some reason one of the watermelon's (the bigger of the two) was not ripe yet even though it felt ripe. The cantaloupe was so soft, sweet and juicy. 

Having a garden has been more fun then I could have imagined it being. I believe we will be starting some winter crops soon, we LOVE broccoli, and cauliflower, and some of the other veggies that are grown in the late fall/early winter. It is nearly time to clear out the boxes once the fruit that is still growing is finished ripening. I am disappointed that my tomatoes never really ripened, we do have some green ones on the vine and maybe I will still get some but we are quickly coming to a point where we wont have the chance for them to get ripe.