New Kitchen!

I loved this post at The Common Room. Miss M loved it, too. But we don't have an old entertainment center hanging around. And, in fact, she already has a pretty nice little toy kitchen.

She got this almost exactly four years ago. Look how adorable she was, just turned two years old:




The kitchen was cute, but the oven opened sideways, not really like a real oven that opens out, and it wasn't very practical for organizing stuff to put away. But the examples inspired me to put some work into remodeling her kitchen. We had some cup hooks, old wire shelving and an old towel rack. I splurged and spent ten dollars on a couple of wire baskets to hang on doors, and Mr. B did the labor, including changing the way the oven door opens -- here is the result:



Look how much she's grown in four years!! She used to not be able to reach the microwave; now she can reach the very top of the unit.



Note the cup hooks for hanging utinsels over the stove-top, old towel rack over the sink, and baskets hung on doors. The baskets under the sink are for silverware. The oven opens the right way, and it even has a real oven rack.

Miss M insisted on pictures of her cooking and eating. Since we did the remodel, she has played non-stop with her kitchen. (It probably didn't hurt that we also got down some dishes and things that had been boxed up because she was too little and/or didn't like to pick up toys.)

Homemade Bows

I stumbled onto a really neat blog, the family spent time in Hawaii (that's what drew me to the blog in the first place), but their most recent post shows how to make package bows.

Note to myself: I think there are Hawaiian recipes there, too - and I'll want to go back and find those; I also want to take more time looking through these posts from another blogger I just found who spent two years in Hawaii.

How to Fold a Note Into an Envelope

How to Fold a Note into an Envelope

I have an obsession with envelopes. I previously posted a link about how to fold a bus note.

How to Make a Baby Romper from a T Shirt

Today's tip from WikiHow.

How To Fold a Bus Note

This looks like a handy thing to know: How to Fold a Bus Note

Make Your Own Graph Paper

Free Online Graph Paper - you tell it how many squares per inch, and it creates a pdf file! Graph paper is one of my favorite things in the whole world. Thank you, Mama Squirrel!

Composition Notebooks and Narration

Using our new composition notebooks has been educational, not just for the kids, but for me, too. I've been a bit frustrated at our exams because the kids don't remember details from their reading, but I haven't known what to do about it, unless I start giving them lists of names, dates and places to memorize. J and L haven't been writing much for school at all. L is ten and just getting to the point where he'd be doing written narrations, so I had started having him do one a week at the beginning of this term six weeks ago. I hadn't been requiring any more than one a week from J because he's still learning to spell and I didn't want to ask too much of him.

So I made them each a composition notebook, a handy size they could fill in a term, and asked them to write a brief summary of everything they read for school. They still narrate orally - longer oral narrations, but concise snippets for their books. That was my thought. So far it's been going well. The biggest surprise is J (Year 7). He doesn't want to write concise summary snippets. He says he'll remember better if he writes more, and he says he loves to write. Who knew? He requested that he do written narrations instead of oral, so we'll try that and see how it goes.

This morning I wrote down some names on a sheet of paper before we read 1 Sam 26 - Saul, Abner, David and Abishai. I told them I wanted them to use those names in their written narrations, and I left the paper out for them to spell the names correctly. Charlotte Mason did that - writing certain things on the chalkboard that she wanted her students to look for in their reading. I don't know if she left them up for her students to copy the spelling. She probably had them memorize the spelling by closing their eyes and visualizing the word, and then erased the board. But we're taking this one step at a time.

L was having a tough time with his Plutarch narration, so I let him dictate it to me - he knew what he wanted to say, but he was having trouble getting it on to the page. I wrote it out on a scrap sheet of paper as he dictated, and he copied that into his booklet in his own handwriting. I noticed that he revised and consolidated as he copied, which is probably a beneficial exercise in itself. I think we're going to do his Plutarch narrations this way from now on.

I don't know what kind of a difference all this is going to make educationally - I won't find out until exam time. But I think it will help.

Here's a peek at their notebooks to show how they're set up and how we're utilizing the space on the pages. This is pretty much how the notebooks I saw from some PNEU students were done - with more than one entry on each page, and each entry dated.

L's book, age ten, Ambleside Online Year 4


J's book, age 13, Ambleside Online Year 7


T's book, age 16, Ambleside Online Year 11; his book is not only a bit bigger, but it has more pages - 48. He'll fill his because he writes more - written narrations are nothing new to him.


Miss M, age 3, Ambleside Online Year 0, has her own book - I gave her the one that I accidentally put the pages in upside down so the top margin is at the bottom. She likes to do whatever her brothers are doing!

Making Envelopes

I was asked how to make envelopes, so, since that's the one thing I do really well, I was happy to share.

It helps to understand what an envelope is: just a sheet of paper wrapped around something. The ends need to meet and overlap so they can be secured together. It's basically wrapping paper. The simplest envelopes are merely squarish flaps at the top and bottom, with narrow little flaps folding in on the sides. In some really cheap envelopes, the side flaps are even left out - some cheap Valentine's Day cards just glue the sides of the envelope together without bothering to have side flaps.

As the flaps are tapered more and more to form a shape closer and closer to a triangle, the sides need to be wider to compensate. You can see that in the diagrams below. Generally, you can tell whether your envelope will need to have squared flaps or triangular ones by placing the item you want to wrap on the paper you're going to cut the envelope out of, and seeing how much room you have for side flaps. How much width is available for side flaps will determine how much you can taper the top and bottom flaps of the envelope. I like flaps that are almost perfect triangles like a Hallmark card envelope.

Even an envelope with squared flaps can look really nice if the bottom flap covers two-thirds of the body of the envelope or more and the top flap covers almost half. A generous top flap makes all the difference. The ratio where the lines meet can make the envelope pleasing or awkward - I imagine it has to do with composition, like the rule of thirds in photography.

If you can design the envelope so that it's placed squarely on an 8 1/2 x 11" sheet of paper rather than diagonal, you can run the paper through your computer printer first and print a return address label in the proper place before cutting them out (I do this routinely).

I guess you could print designs on them, too. Or, if you have a paper cutter or scissors to cut patterns, you can make the top flap really pretty. I've never done that; for me, the challenge and satisfaction is in finding the perfect ratio of height/width, and flap size.

Instructions for making your own envelopes are divided into multiple blog posts.

Getting Started
Making the Template, part 1 and part 2
Cutting them out
The Final Steps: gluing and folding them






Note that, as the top and bottom taper in more and more, you'll need more side to cover the contents. Keeping that in mind will help as you consider the design of your envelope.

Envelope-Making 101: Setting Up

There are a LOT of photos with this, so I've uploaded all of them in five separate posts, and I'll add the text next.

You'll need a sheet or two of graph paper to get really even measured cut-outs, a stiff sheet of paper or cardboard to make the template, scissors, glue, stapler, some paper to make the envelopes out of (I use scrap paper) and a pencil.



Trim the graph paper along marked lines so that you're starting from exact squares.



Measure how big the envelope needs to be. It should be about a quarter inch larger than what's going in it so it goes in and out easily, larger if what you're putting in it is thick. I think I'll make some envelopes for all my money.


Cut exactly, using the grid lines as a guide. Use the first graph paper rectangle to measure a second one.



Cut two identical rectangles from graph paper.

Envelope-Making 101: Start the Template

Use one graph-paper rectangle to trace a rectangle on the stiff paper. Arrange it so that you've left room for a top and bottom and side flaps.



Now fold the graph paper in half. You'll be measuring to make the top flap, but you'll do half of it in order to get an exact mirror image.


Draw dots about a half inch (for a small envelope) or whole inch (for a bigger envelope) from the corners. The slant of the top flap is more slanted near the corners of the envelope. The dot will mark where the slant changes.



Connect the dots using a paper edge to make your line straight.



Sketch out the shape, connecting the straight line to the corners, rounding slightly where the dots are. These rounded edges are what will help make the envelope look nice.



Cut along the line, and then unfold. This symetrical triangular-shape is what you'll trace to make the top flap.



Trace its shape in three places: where the flap goes on the stiff paper, inside the rectangle (to help visualize how the flaps look as you go), and on the other piece of graph rectangle to help show where to measure for the other flaps.

Envelope-Making 101: Finish the Template

You traced the shape of the top flap on the second piece of graph paper. Now sketch out an overlapping shape to use as mirror images for a side flap. It doesn't need to come to the middle if the bottom and tops will overlap in that middle section.


The corner should be pleasantly rounded.


The bottom of the side flap is done the same way, keeping in mind an idea of where the bottom flap will go.You only need to cut out one of these side flaps.



Use the side flap to trace its shape on the stiff paper and on what remains of the graph paper. Remember not to trace the flap upside down!


Now for bottom flap. You'll make a mirror image of this and flip it to trace both sides (or you can use a third graph paper rectangle!) So you only need half of the sheet.


Take a look at where the side and top will be meeting and overlapping. Mark a dot where the bottom of the envelope should meet the side. Also make a dot near the corner. That marks where the slant will change, being steeper near the corner and more gentle towards the middle of the envelope. Note that I've shaded the area where the flaps will overlap to help visualize where the bottom flap needs to be. After sketching out the shape, cut it out.



Trace half the shape, flip and trace the other half.



Trace the shape again inside the envelope to help visualize what the envelope will look like. All the flaps should provide enough overlap that there are no open cracks.

Envelope-Making 101: Cutting Out

The template is now finished and only needs to be cut out.


All ready for tracing!



Trace it onto a sheet of paper. If the template is too long to fit straight up and down, don't be afraid to turn it to a diagonal.



Using the paper with the traced template shape as the top, staple 5 or 6 sheets of paper around the envelope shape. This will hold the paper together so you can cut out 5 or 6 envelopes at a time.


All cut out!

Envelope-Making 101: Glue, Fold and Finished

Fold the sides in, being diligent to fold exactly from corner to corner. Being exact is what will make your envelopes crisp and even and not lopsided-looking.


Fold the bottom the same way - corner to corner.


All folded and ready for gluing!



Take a look at where the sides and bottom overlap - glue goes in the overlap area. If you get glue outside that overlap area, you'll glue flaps shut or glue two envelopes together when they're stacked. I've shaded to show where the overlap areas are. Glue ONLY goes within those shaded areas.



Within that shaded area, you'll lay a line of glue close enough to the edge to make the edges tight, but not so close that glue squeezes out into areas you don't want it. I've drawn a squiggly black line to show where to set the bead-line of glue.



Use as thin a bead of glue as you can. It doesn't take much glue to hold paper flaps together, and too much wet glue will squeeze out where you don't it and warp the paper. That doesn't look nice.


All glued!


Now it's time to fold down the top flaps.



The five-dollar-bill fits inside very nicely.



I secured the top flap down with a dot of glue.

Don't forget to close your bottle of glue! Glue evaporates pretty quickly, and thickened glue is harder to work with when you're trying to get a very thin bead for envelope flaps.

These pretty envelopes with triangular flaps work well for smaller envelopes where you have space to spread it out on an 8 1/2x11" paper, but larger envelopes sometimes require squared flaps to make them fit. To see if something will fit in an envelope made from an 8 1/2 x 11" sheet of paper, lay it on the paper and wrap the paper around it. You have to be able to get the paper all the way around it with a little left over to glue. Sometimes it works by turning to a diagonal, sometimes it works by using narrow rectangular flaps. (I'll show how to make a rectangular flapped envelope another time.)

Of course, you're not limited to 8 1/2x11" paper. I've used gift wrap, grocery bags, manila folders, light cardboard from packaging, poster board, and pretty bags from nicer department stores.

Make Your Own Composition Book

These are the materials you'll need: large cover stock, legal paper, a stiff piece cardboard cut to the exact size of the book for trimming, a needle, heavy-duty craft thread, a thumbtack to punch holes, a template and pencil (or pen) to make a nice design on the front, and a pair of scissors.


Print 12 sheets of lined paper, both sides, on the legal paper. I created a Word document for this task.


Lay out the printed sheets of legal-sized paper.


Fold them in half.


Fold a sheet of large cover stock paper for the cover.


Put the paper inside the cover.


If your cover is way bigger than the paper, it can be trimmed (but not too close; just a rough cut!) so the clips go on.


Clip the cover to the pages so they'll stay still during sewing. I could use more clips for this, but all I have are two.


Punch holes about every inch. It's hard to get a needle through 12 sheets of paper and a cover. This step makes it easier for sewing.

Blogger wouldn't let me upload any more photos, so I'll put the rest on its own post, here.

And you can see ours in use here.