Homeschool Beginnings

"Begin at the beginning,", the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop."  -Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

So we are lucky enough to be able to start homeschooling our younger two kids at the beginning of their learning "career".  I can't express to you just how excited I am to have the chance to help my daughters become life-long learners, rather than just a memorizer of information, to pass a standardized test.

Right now, we are learning our letters and numbers.  At 2.5, she "knows" them all, but only by rote.  So in an effort to get her ready for phonics, we will be doing a kind-of relaxed "Alpha-Boot Camp" to get her familiar with each letter and learn to recognize them, and to grasp the concept that the numbers stand for something.

Pretty Jewelry Catch Tray

A pretty place to put your jewelry!

Heraldic pillow

click to embiggen

So I'm making a pillow with my SCA heraldry on it for camping!  I'm using the faux batik process that I saw on That Artist Woman.  It works great!  For details on how to, click the link.  I'll just be sharing what I learned.

I bought a multi-pack of brushes, but only used the biggest and the smallest.  They kept shedding little hairs that I had to pick off the brush.  I just used regular old acrylic paint that you would use to paint ceramic figurines.  The fabric is plain 36" cotton muslin, pre-washed and dried in the dryer to make sure it's shrunk and all the sizing is gone.

Draw LIGHTLY, especially in areas that will be light colored.  Extra pencil lines do show in your finished project, and even the white eraser doesn't get rid of them all.  Make sure that you leave enough space for a seam allowance if you will be sewing this into something!