Day 9: An Update on Paper and Stories

The paper took a long time to dry--a couple of days. After several hours of it dripping over the kitchen sink with very few visible signs that it was getting any drier, we decided to put it outside, propped up with rocks and such so air could circulate underneath it as well. But when it was done, it was pretty cool. We popped the paper out of the frames after about 24 hours, while they were still a bit damp, and they came out easily and stayed together nicely--no ripping.

It's very thick. You won't be able to use it for origami. And if you're going to use it for watercolor painting it should probably be 'sized' first, which means sprayed with laundry starch, otherwise it'll most likely be too absorbent.

Another thing Maren did with the leftover pulp in the water was make a bowl with a wire mesh kitchen strainer. She just scooped the strainer into the water multiple times until there was an even layer of pulp inside it, then left it to dry. It took a VERY long time to dry--about four days. She has yet to decide what to do with it.

We'll probably make a bit more paper while it's still warm enough outside to dry the paper outside.

But today (well, yesterday if you're keeping track of the dates on my blog posts) Maren drew 'stories' for our JSWA.

Why do I include stories in this program when we also study literature? Because stories are yet another creative outlet. We wanted JSWA to be about all kind of creativity, to show that creative thinking is everywhere.

We talked about stories, short stories in particular, and how they are everywhere. Every picture book ever written is a short story, for example. I'm sure your kids have read or listened to hundreds of picture books. Personally, I have dozens of collections of short stories plus I write them on occasion.

We ended up choosing and reading the story of the Thoroughbred horse from Marguerite Henry's book "Horses." It was more of an essay on the breed, but we pointed out the language that Ms. Henry used to make it interesting. We also noted that short stories can often lead to longer works.

Ms. Henry gave three examples in this one essay that led to novels that she wrote--the Godolphin Arabian that became King of the Wind; the pacers of early England that became Born to Trot; and the legendary racehorse Black Gold.