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By Mom Unplugged, September 22, 2009 2:33 pm

Feather was the theme of this week’s Unplugged Project. We decided to try making a quill pen out of some big, beautiful turkey feathers that a friend gave us.

I found very detailed instructions here: Cutting Quill Pens from Feathers. This project involves sharp knives, so unless you have older children, you will probably end up doing most of the work like I did.

First temper the quill to toughen it up. We filled a small, all metal pan with sand from our giant sand pile (you can use a tin can for this part too) and heated it in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Next we stuck our feather tip into the hot sand and left it there until the sand was cool.

Use a sharp kitchen knife to scrape off some of the feathers near the end in order to make a feather-free area to grip.

Find the orientation of your feather. This will determine which side you are going to cut. Feathers curve and you want the pen to curve back in your hand as you write. The feather is top side up in this photo.

The first cut is actually made opposite the way you would think. Hold the feather pointed away from you and top side up. Using scissors, cut the tip off the feather at an angle slanting away from you (so more of the top side is gone than the bottom).

The second cut is a long shallow cut along the bottom of the feather. It should be centered along the top cut and should remove about half the tube. This opens up the feather and you can dig out any membranes that are inside using tweezers.

The next part is making the slit. I didn’t really understand this step until I saw how my cuts had shaped the tip, but you will see two little points (the website calls them “horns”) that are formed by the intersection of the two cuts.

Squash the tip of the feather flat so the two points/horns are flat one against the other. Press hard and this should make a crack in your feather tip halfway between the points. Ideally it should only be about 1/4″ long.

The final step (and the one I found the most difficult) is shaping the nib. Look closely at the instructions to determine the proper shape. I used scissors for my first cuts, and then a sharp kitchen knife to gradually shave the nib to hopefully something like the proper shape!

Clip off any teeny tiny rough bits, dip your nib in some good ink and test your quill on high-quality paper. I used sepia non-waterproof (ie. washable) ink. Obviously washable ink is preferable if kids are going to use it!

I must say, while not perfect, the quill actually did hold ink in the shaft and wrote much better than I expected. Not too bad for a first try at a lost skill that really requires much practice and patience to learn properly.

If you decide to try this, I urge you to read the much more complete, knowledgeable and well-photographed instructions at Cutting Quill Pens from Feathers.

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If you did a feather Unplugged Project this week, then please link to your project post in the linky below. If you didn’t join in, please do not link, but read more about how to get involved in the Weekly Unplugged Project here. We’d love to have you!

By the way, sorry I am late with the post this week, but life comes before blogging!

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The theme for next week’s Unplugged Project will be very open-ended:

The Letter J

Enjoy!

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By Mom Unplugged, September 20, 2009 9:48 pm

We all had a lovely time flipping rocks this morning for the 3rd Annual International Rock Flipping Day! Honestly, I could not have imagined that rock flipping could be so interesting, but my children, my husband and I all had the best time wandering around flipping rocks (and putting them carefully back of course).

The children ran through our yard and the woods by our house searching for perfect rocks:

We learned that our rocks here are quite beautiful, very volcanic and full of holes:

This one actually showed a distinct lava flow pattern on it:

Under our rocks we discovered:

Mold:

A small mushroom that grew up in the shade of two tightly stacked rocks:

A baby centipede - a teeny tiny yellow thread with lots of legs. I apologize for the bad picture, but much of what we found was very small and hard to photograph:

Strange white beetles with legs and antennae, barely the size of a grain of rice:

The much expected “Rollie Pollies” or Pill Bugs, but these guys were whiter than we had ever seen before:

Ants, LOTS of ants and eggs. Much to our surprise we found that ants don’t just live underground, but actually use the holes in our volcanic rocks as homes and nurseries!

You can even see little dots inside the ant eggs in this photo, Each collection of eggs seemed to have a “nurse ant” to go with it:

A peanut that had been buried (and probably forgotten) by a squirrel - round thing in the middle of the photo:

A small cricket:

Mystery eggs? Not ant eggs and about the size of small beads. Any ideas?

A spider on a pretty rock. Can you see it?:

What did you find under rocks where you live? Email Susannah of Wanderin’ Weeta with a link to your post, or upload your photos to the Flickr International Rock Flipping Day Group.

I will post our feather Unplugged Project and the Linky tomorrow afternoon or evening.

Hope to see you then!

PS. Thank you Susannah for our Junior Rock Flipping Badge. The kids will be excited about this tomorrow morning!

Comments (0)

By Mom Unplugged, September 20, 2009 8:55 am

Today is the 3rd Annual International Rock Flipping Day!

Bored? Need something to do because your TV is off? (Yes, today is also the first day of Turnoff Week!)

Then go out and flip a rock to study what is underneath. Record your results via photos, poetry, art, diorama, cupcake replica, in other words, anything at all! Post on your blog. Or, add your photos to the International Rock Flipping Day Flickr Group. Read more about it here.

It is a gorgeous fall day here, perfect for rock flipping. We’ll head out later and I’ll post the results here on Unplug Your Kids.

Comments (5)

By Mom Unplugged, September 14, 2009 10:41 am

I had all kinds of thoughts churning about in my head for this week’s Unplugged Project theme: sound. A science experiment, a game involving sounds, making a musical instrument. But this weekend we were so naturally unplugged, that we didn’t have time for an Unplugged Project!

Soccer, a concert fundraiser for our school (a concert involves music which is sound, right?), homework, and then a lazy rainy and cool Sunday afternoon spent reading on the sofa in front of the fire. That wonderful first fire of the season. Fall is definitely on its way.

This week I offer instead, a few quick links related to sound. Not terribly “unplugged” perhaps, but hopefully useful for someone.

Neuroscience for Kids - Hearing Experiments: Fun activities and experiments for children arranged by grade levels (Kindergarten - Grade 12).

San Fransisco Exploratorium - The Science of Music, Headlands Experiments: What do you get when you mix a tunnel, a metal gate, two musicians, and a physicist?

Hark the Sound Computer Game: A game designed for visually impaired children that includes games involving naming, categories, math, words, and Braille. There is also the possibility of easily modifying the existing games to suit your child’s needs, or to create your own new games.

Exploratorium Online Sound Games: Play “Pong” with your eyes closed (sound guides you to the ball), analyze bird calls, create your own soundscape, do “sound jigsaw puzzles” and play a sound memory game. Not unplugged, but really neat activities!

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If you did a sound Unplugged Project this week, thank you! As usual, please link to your post in the linky below. If you didn’t do a sound project, but would like to join in, then please do not link but read more about the Weekly Unplugged Project here. We’d love to have more people!

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

Feathers

Be creative and have fun!

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Comments (10)

By Mom Unplugged, September 8, 2009 1:18 pm

As I am sure you all know, September 20th, 2009 is the 3rd Annual International Rock Flipping Day.

Oh, you didn’t know that? Well, on September 20th take your kids outside, choose a rock to flip, then:

1) Record what you find. “Any and all forms of documentation are welcome: still photos, video, sketches, prose, or poetry.”

2) Replace the rock as you found it; it’s someone’s home. But if there are critters underneath, move them to the side before you replace the rock and let them scurry back. You don’t want to squash anyone.

3) Post on your blog, or load your photos to the International Rock Flipping Day Flickr group.

4) Send a link to Susannah at Wanderin’ Weeta. Her e-mail address is in her profile.

5) Susannah will collect the links, e-mail participants the list, and post it for any and all to copy to their own blogs.

6) She also says: “Maybe we can Tweet it, too, this year. Use the hashtag #rockflip.” (NOTE FROM ME: This information is totally beyond my comprehension, but if you understand Tweeting, then give it a go that way and I will be impressed.)

(All instructions are from Wanderin’ Weeta’s blog - edited slightly by me)

I love this idea because it reminds me of something I did in very early elementary school (Kindergarten? 1st Grade?). We went out and measured a one foot by one foot square of dirt behind the school, and then we had to look closely and draw what we saw in that square. Obviously it made an impression since I remember that lesson VERY many years later!

So go ahead, take the badge, the link, and the instructions, and pass it on.

It’ll be fun and interesting, so please join in! We’ll be there! (…and September 20th is even my sister’s birthday…)

NOTE: More on the history of Rock Flipping Day at Wanderin’ Weeta’s.