OK. Not exactly lazy.
You see, we're a marching band family.
We've been homeschooling for eight years now, but our children have also taken advantage of a state statute that requires the public schools to allow us to participate in classes and activities that we can't or don't provide for ourselves. This rule also applies to students who attend any school (public or private) that doesn't provide a class or activity they are interested in. So if the high school across town, for example, doesn't have a girls water polo team, but our local school does, the girls from the across-town school who want to play water polo have to be allowed to try out for the local-school team.
So my kids have taken band and orchestra through our local jr. high and high school. My oldest daughter went the orchestra route because of an interest in string instruments. She now plays some classical on her viola and plenty of Irish/Scottish traditional music on her violin, teaches Irish fiddle, and plays in her own Irish band.
My son was attracted to the band side of things and chose the clarinet, with which he has done very well and is now in a leadership position in the local high school bands program, including his first and true love--marching band.
My youngest, Maren, is jr. high age now and just started learning the trumpet, with the goal to play in the high school marching band as soon as she is old enough to qualify.
But having a kid in marching band is no easy thing. High school marching bands require a BUTTLOAD of parent support--from fundraising, to building props, to helping maintain instruments and uniforms, to chaperoning, to helping stage and set up the field show. The list goes on and on.
This week we're approaching the end of the marching band season, and it just keeps getting busier and busier. BUT IT IS WORTH IT!!!
That cuts into JSWA, so as far as JSWA is concerned, we've been lazy this week.
Monday, Maren worked more on her architectural rabbit house.
Tuesday (yesterday), we spent the entire day at a marching band competition, leaving the house at 9:30 AM and not getting back home until 7:00 PM.
Today, we get a normal day, which means we actually got around to doing JSWA! YAY!!
Maren chose crafts today. She wasn't hugely excited about that.
Well, let me rephrase. She would probably have been SUPER excited if I had gotten all our craft stuff out and let her spend 30 minutes deciding what to do and then doing a big project that would have taken 2 hours to complete.
I didn't let her do that today. Instead, I said, "Hey! Let's make something for Halloween!"
That piqued her interest.
"But it needs to be something quick and easy."
"Oh." Not so interesting.
I showed her my three-dimensional paper pumpkin
--a craft I'd learned many years ago--and asked her how we could make it different. Not a pumpkin. Something else. We talked about how anything that was roughly ball-shaped would work. We looked around at our Halloween decorations and decided a bat could maybe work. So could a skull.
Skulls are interesting.
We we talked about how the top of a skull is pretty much a ball. I showed her a small ceramic skull we have, and showed her that if we could remove the facial bones from it, it would be pretty much a baseball in size and shape.
She said, "It wouldn't hit like a baseball."
No. It wouldn't, would it?
Toss....WHAM!!! SHATTER!!!!!!! It might be kind of exciting in a ghoulish, creepy sort of way.
At any rate, making the observation about the rounded top of a skull helped us design our skulls. We simply traced a round object--in this case a lidded bowl--on white card stock, then added a shape at the bottom to suggest a jaw, then traced and cut them out.
OK, let's take a minute here. Whatever the shape is, it DOES need to be vertically symmetrical. You need to be able to fold it in half vertically, mirror image on both sides.
You need eight of them--whether they be skulls or circles for pumpkins, hearts for valentines, white circles for snowballs--the possibilities are limited only by your imagination. You also need a ninth circle (just a circle) for the base.
DO NOT FOLD THE BASE CIRCLE.
BUT, DO FOLD the skulls in half from top to bottom.
Now, at about the middle of the round top of the skull, cut a slit that is perpendicular to the fold and extends about 2/3 of the distance from the fold to the unfolded edge. Be careful not to cut too far or the figure will be weakened and may not hold up. Use a ruler and a pencil to draw guidelines on them if that's helpful.
Next, using a black marker, make skeleton faces on each skeleton piece. Skeleton faces aren't hard. Just two large black circles just below your cut, two long thin vertical ovals that meet in the middle, and lines for the mouth and teeth, as shown:
You can even make cute faces by adding tongue or bucktooth lines, and leaving white spots inside the black eyeholes to make cross-eyed skulls or other goofy looks.
Next, slide the eight slitted skulls onto the single circle, inserting the edge of the circle into the slits you made. Space them evenly and open them out so their edges touch each other.
Voila!!
Your skull should sit upright, and can be used to decorate a table or desk. You can also attach a string or fishing line to the center of the central circle to make it a hanging ornament for a fun crafty Halloween decoration that, if you take care of it, can be re-used for several years. If you have the pieces laminated, they can last even longer! And think of the possibilities for other holidays! Christmas ornaments made from shiny scrapbook papers, covered with glitter or stickers! Valentines gifts! Even red, white, and blue squares for Independence Day!
Yes, basically we were being lazy today. Taking an easy way out on a hectic week.
But such is the beauty of homeschool--to have the time to take it easy when YOUR family needs it.
