Blanket Stories

The language arts portion of The Rag Coat included talking about stories and encourages making a quilted pillow top.  We, however, have house guests coming and stuffy noses.  Instead I told Hannah some stories about her beautiful "Blankie."  Her Grammy, who is coming to visit, knit it for her when she was in the womb and none of us had any idea of her gender.  Joel and I were pretty crazy about the fact that neutral meant yellow and NOT green.  I know first time parents are allowed  to be whack, but we were fanatical.  Becky was so kind to make a yellow blanket in the pattern that she had made for Hannah's cousins (I think).  About the time Hannah could walk she started taking that blanket to bed with her and it has been a constant companion since.  I told her how that blanket has traveled to Texas, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Washington, Canada, even Hawaii.  She said Hawaii was her favorite.  It was quite wonderful to think about all the lovely adventures that blanket has been on.  And it's a topic of great sadness to realize that the blanket will not be able to stay with her forever.  She immediately breaks into to tears when the future of her blanket is discussed.  She has lovingly decided to keep it at the house or in the car to prolong its life.
I wonder though, what other adventures await Hannah.  I know that God is watching over her and protecting her.  He has been so kind and gracious to her these past five years.  It has been wonderful to see His love poured out upon her.

Sew Sew lesson

One of the details I adore in The Rag Coat is the little rag doll that Minna makes.  This morning, we did an art lesson and instead of going with the suggestions in the FIAR we made a little puppet.  Hobby Lobby has these wonderful felt hand puppet kits, it comes with everything you need to make it except glue.  And it's wonderful for little beginning hand sewers because the holes are pre-punched.  Before reading the story, I told Hannah what we were going to do for the lesson and she pointed out the little doll in the illustration when reading about it.  She says she wants one just like it.  I'm proud of her ability to sew, she comes from a long line of seamstresses, so it's probably natural. 
It is wonderful to think about how much culture has changed with the invention of the sewing machine.  And amazingly how it is now more expensive to make your own clothes than to buy them out of a store.  With fewer and fewer women sewing their entire wardrobes, the cost of cloth has continued to go up.  I think it is still worth while, because the clothes that I have purchased are never as rewarding as the ones that I make for myself.
I may introduce to Hannah later today the verse about clothing the naked and help us remember that we are blessed to have so many outfits to choose from each day.

Fun with pegs and rubberbands

We had a nice long day yesterday and the geometry/math lesson with The Rag Coat happened late in the day.  We looked at all the different shapes in the story, but the fun part came with I pulled out a peg board I have from jewelry making and we made shapes with the pegs and then using yarn and a rubber band.  We made rectangles and then cut them into triangles.
We also had CBS yesterday.  I was a helper in the 4 year old class, which shares story time, music time and closing time with Hannah's class.  It was really nice to see what they do with their time.  Yesterday the story was about Hannah and Samuel.  And their Bible verse continues to be "Do not be afraid...God has heard your prayers." Luke 1:13 

Sweater Weather

Tomorrow is the first day of fall!  YEAH!  Our science lesson today included some sweaters from the closet.  We are reading The Rag Coat this week.  I must admit, I cried!  But to help show the differences between the different natural fabrics, we took a trip to the closet.  We touched wool, cotton, linen, and mixtures.  Luckily, there was one cotton sweater in the bunch so when Hannah labeled it as wool by look alone, we were able to talk about the the feel of them and really see how cotton and wool feel different in the same context.
It is amazing to me how we can take  plants and turn them into clothing!  I think I'll try to find some movies on Netflix that have the cotton gin or cotton industry on them for this week.
UPDATE: I did find something on Netflix Instant Viewing it was Eco Trip Season 1 Cotton T-Shirt episode.  In the episode, the host goes to a cotton farm, and helps harvest some of the cotton and the journey to a T shirt.  Hannah isn't in a place to watch the entire episode, as it goes on to talk about the chemical pesticides.