Comments (8)

By Mom Unplugged, March 9, 2009 11:05 am

Wow! What a busy week! Coach Wishy and I took our three Odyssey of the Mind teams to our regional tournament on Saturday and it was a flurry of preparation all week, plus a very long day on Saturday.

The kids had a blast though, and so did we. We are SO proud of them! This was their (and our) first year and they were confident, poised and enthusiastic despite the pressure of being “judged.” They were totally thrilled to bring home two trophies: first and second place in their problems and divisions.

All this means, of course, that yet again we didn’t get to the Unplugged Project. I think we’ll try and do a project this afternoon though, so I’ll post it tonight or tomorrow.

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The theme for this week’s Unplugged Project was happy. For those of you who did a happy project this week, please link below to your happy project post (not just your blog - that way people will always be able to easily find your project). If you didn’t join us, then please do not link, but read more about how to join in here. The more the merrier!

I have not been thinking about the Unplugged Project at all this past week, so I will announce next week’s theme when I post our project. Hopefully I’ll have an inspiration!

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Comments (7)

By Mom Unplugged, March 2, 2009 11:15 am

This week’s Unplugged Project theme was bottle.

For some reason, we had a very busy weekend. Where did it go? I am sorry we didn’t have time for a bottle Weekly Unplugged Project. I am also late with my linky. Oh well!

We are in for a busy week this week too. As I mentioned once before, my friend Wishy and I are coaches for three school Odyssey of the Mind teams and the regional Odyssey of the Mind tournament is this Saturday. But if we can squeeze in a bottle project, I’ll be sure to post it.

For those of you who had time to do a bottle Unplugged Project, here is the linky. As usual, please only link if you did a bottle-themed project. If you are interested in joining us in the future, please read more about how to join, here. We’d love to have you.

Here’s one quick bit of news regarding the Unplugged Project: I have had many requests for a button or badge of some sort, for interested participants to display on their blogs. I just wanted to let everyone know that I am working on it. I had hoped to have it done by today, but due to lack of time plus the inevitable computer/technical issues, it was not to be. Look for it soon though (I hope)!

Finally, there were several new participants last week and I have not yet had a chance to stop by and say hello, but I will. WELCOME!

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The theme for next week’s Unplugged Project will be more general. How about:

Happy

Enjoy, exercise your creativity, and most importantly: be happy!

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Comments (11)

By Mom Unplugged, February 26, 2009 9:26 pm

In my never ending quest for good early readers, I recently stumbled upon this “treasure” for pirate-loving boys: Treasure Island - Easy Reader Classics Series. I bought the first two of the set of four for my 6 year-old son who was in need of some interesting reading material.

My son is currently at that awkward, in-between phase of reading acquisition. Even the most advanced Bob Books and other phonics-style readers are too easy and boring, but full-on chapter books are a bit too hard and could lead to frustration.

This Treasure Island series seemed to be just the ticket. Each book is part of an ultra-simplified and abridged version of the classic adventure tale by Robert Louis Stevenson. They describe the adventures of a boy named Jim who, after finding an old treasure map, winds up on a ship in search of the lost treasure. Of course Jim must outwit the pirates who are also seeking the treasure. Is this not the dream of many young boys out there?

My son LOVED the first two books so much (he read them immediately one after the other), that I had to get online right away and order the last two. I am not exaggerating when I say that he was literally counting the days until his books arrived. When they did, he ripped open the box and devoured them both right away. Any book that has that sort of effect on my new-reader son gets my 5 star recommendation!!

There are other Easy Reader Classics series too: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Jungle Book, The Story of Doctor Dolittle, and The Wind in the Willows. We’ll definitely be trying another set soon, especially since they are all currently part of the Amazon 4-for-3 promotion (that means you can get all four books in a series for the price of three).

Reading Level Facts:

• Each book is 32 pages long and is divided into four chapters so young readers can feel that they are reading a true “chapter book.”

• The type is fairly large and there are just a few sentences on each page which is a perfect layout for short, young attention spans.

• There are many large, colorful illustrations that I actually found to be somewhat mediocre in quality, but my son didn’t seem to mind.

Here are some photos to help you judge the level of difficulty for yourselves:

Comments (14)

By Mom Unplugged, February 22, 2009 8:25 pm

The theme for this week’s Unplugged Project was clothing. We had a few ideas, but ultimately decided to experiment with weaving strips of fabric made from an old shirt.

First: the nasty shirt.

This is a shirt that had been a comfortable favorite of mine for quite some time. Too much time. It was stretched and shapeless and discolored. Très chic, don’t you think? I knew it was time for the shirt and I to part company. But since I didn’t even think it was in decent enough shape to donate, it was clearly a perfect candidate for shredding.

I cut the sleeves off, and then cut the shirt in half along the seams. I cut the side and bottom seams off, as well as the neck. I was left with two flat pieces of fabric.

The kids thought I had gone mad at first when they saw me cutting up my shirt, but then they got into the spirit of the moment and I had a hard time getting my cut up shirt back to finish the job!

We cut each section of the shirt into an oval shape and then began cutting it into a single spiral strip about 1/2 inch wide (approx 1.25 cm).

This was the result:

We wound the two lots of cloth into balls:

Next we got out our $2.00 picture frame loom. I warped it with the fabric by winding a single strip up and down around the nails. I have seen this done, but … hmmm… I didn’t like it much.

This was an experiment. Next time, I would warp it like our yarn dollhouse rug, by cutting single strips and tying one on each set of nails. We got a bit confused because there were two warp strips on each nail. Since this rug was “rustic,” a few mistakes didn’t really matter. In fact one could optimistically say that they actually enhanced the rug. But now I know that I prefer to have one warp string on each nail.

I wrapped the cloth around the shuttle and we began weaving.

To finish it up, I lifted each loop off the nail, cut it, and tied the two ends together in a sturdy knot.

The final result:

We used it to keep the dolls’ feet toasty in their bathroom, but it could also be a potholder, or even a dish washing cloth (that’s what my husband thought it was).

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If you did a clothing Unplugged Project this week, then please link to your project in the Mr. Linky below. If not, then follow the links to everyone’s project and enjoy! If you are interested in learning more about how to join us, then please read about it here. We’d love to have you!

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The theme for next week’s Unplugged Project will be:

Bottle

Enjoy!

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Comments (2)

By Mom Unplugged, February 20, 2009 7:55 pm

I am SO SORRY! I have been having “issues” with my Word Press “admin panel” for being very, v-e-r-y, V-E-R-Y slow. The other day I lost a comment. I am so sorry! Somebody put a link to a project of mine that they had tried and wanted me to go see. I would love to go see but it got eaten up by the horrible technical malfunction monster! I am so sorry! If you think this might be you, then please comment again. SO sorry!