My Mother's Handwork Plan

I have only one how to crochet book, as I am still a beginner and am trying to master it before I get another one, though I have made several patterns from online. Today though I remembered a binder my mother gave me one year for Christmas when I was about ten. She gave each of us girls one. Inside there five sections. My mom had copied some free leaflets and patterns that taught a few beginning skills. The first is crochet, then knitting, followed by cross stitch and plastic canvas. The last section she entitled Misc. and has a few pages on things like how to make friendship bracelets. I remember being so pleased with this binder. In a way it meant to me that my mom thought I was old enough to learn these things. I remember learning to knit from them and making dozens of the plastic canvas patterns. I did some friendship bracelets and one cross stitch. I did not attempt crochet until I was grown. As I plan Aubrey’s course of handwork it is fun to think my mother had planned these things for me too.

The Downward Spiral of Horizon

Horizon is still working for me, in large part because my ES, that is now called an ST (supervising teacher) lets me do whatever I want and order whatever I want within reason. This is not the case for most everyone else. My sister-in-law has started getting assignments from her ST and detailed description of what he needs to know at his "grade level." She was told that she could not order Story of the World, because it was not a California approved item. She was also told she needs to cover folk dancing this year, to which she laughed. She just had a baby and missed her appointment with her ST who promptly marked her son absent for the whole month. Everyone in her co-op is dropping out of it and she thinks she will follow soot and I don't blame her. I have not had an issue with them yet, but it will probably not be long before my ST will have to start enforcing the new rules at which time I will leave.

Kid Projects

My daughter has just finished a latch hooking pillow and so Ithought I would teach her how to hand sew next. She has already doneseveral plastic canvas projects and pre-cut, pre-holed felt projects. So, anyway, I got the My First Sewing Book by Winky Cherry. When it came I was at first a little disappointed asit looked just like another felt stuffed animal, but as we haveworked on it, I have realized it is so much more than that. My daughter can now measure the correct length of thread, thread theneedle, even the threads, tie the knot, hide the knot and do an overcast stitch, lock her sewing when she is done all by herself. So I am pleased and she is making stuffed animals for her younger brothers.


Here they are finished:



We got an electronics kit through our charter that we homeschool through and so Kamron, is learning how to make different electronic things like speakers, microphone, lights, aflying gizmo that shoots off the motor. For anyone who is interestedin teaching boys skills it is this sethttp://www.rainbowresource.com/proddtl.php?sid=1163095114-1962478&id=029506 and he is going to learn to build a motor nextsemester with this set http://www.rainbowresource.com/proddtl.php?sid=1163095114-1962478&id=013413.

Sewing Space

I spent the day yesterday rearranging and creating a sewing nook for myself. My sewing desk was in my closet before, but it is not really very easy to work in there, so I moved my desk into the office and rearranged the closet to hole some of my supplies. It looks so much more inviting.

My current projects are;
An outfit for Aubrey
A jumper for Aubrey
A Baby dress and jacket, assuming it is a girl (we have an ultrasound next week)
Sewing backs onto Kamron and Aubrey's latch hooking tigers
Crochetting Kamron and Aubrey scarves, I just finished Logan's and Brennen's
Crochetting a Barbie outfit for Aubrey
Embroidering a pillow
Sewing a plastic canvas Barbie kitchen for Aubrey-I am almost done

I'll try to post pictures.

Psychology 101

I will be starting the last week of this class this week. I have learned more about neurons, and how spycholigists conduct experiments on mice, rats and pigeons. I have had some interesting conversations though. This last week we had to discuss how birth order effects intelligence-according to research the more children one has the lower the IQ of the younger children. I pointed out that if this were true it probably had little to do with intelligence and family size and more to do with the lack of attention children get, because both parents are working and/or there is a lack of funds for opportinities. But it seemed more likely that the findings could not be trust, because almost every study tested all of the children in a family at the same time, so at the point of the test the oldest might be 25, next 22, 19, 16. The conclusion that older siblings are more intelligent than younger in this case is very flawed, the real results show that older people are more intelligent on average than younger people.

The whole text has a slight anti-family flavor. This next week we are supposed to discuss gender roles. I read the chapter on that yesterday. The idea that maybe it is good for each of the sexes to have different roles was, of course, never mentioned, only that we should all try to become androgonous. It was interesting that all of the research revolved around the differences in the work place concluding that women are at a disadvantage. There was no research about the roles at home where more women excel. All studies, theories and recommendations were on how to allow the sexes to be equal in the work force. My question is, if everyone is so busy in the workforce who is going to take care of the home? Of course, since having too many children is bad for their intelligence maybe we should give up the home.

I think my teacher will be glad to get rid of me, as I am afriad I am not very quiet. She has told me I do not understand the topic, while not correcting my "faulty" thinking and still giving me an A. She also made the comment that I need to go do some research when I disagreed, but did not bother to point me in the direction I should go. I have asked her to explain herself on a couple of statements she made, and she has completely side stepped. I just can't buy the "All mighty educator" thing and it is disrupting her feeling of power I think. According to the text "power" is the primary motivator of teachers and in our modern system I can certainly believe it. Oh, that there was a certified home ec BA online. Actually, I think it is probably good for me to see some of these issues so that I can further understand why people believe some of the things that they do.