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By Mom Unplugged, July 6, 2008 9:02 pm

For this week’s Unplugged Project, sky, I was inspired by my Uncle’s very detailed star charts. He used to create charts of the constellations using thick black paper, a white pencil, and a pin to put holes where the stars were. The bigger the pinhole, the brighter the star. When you hold his charts up to the light, they are a very accurate representation of the night sky. I tried to photograph one of his charts here, but they are much easier to appreciate in person:

We gathered together astronomy books, construction paper (although dark blue was the closest we had to black), colored pencils, a ruler, and pins:

First we studied the books to find constellations that we liked. My oldest chose Leo since that is her “sign.” My 3 year-old nephew made up his own constellation, as you shall see.

Then we cut some dark blue construction paper in half. We transferred the dots to the paper as best we could by eye (if you have a simple constellation book with large drawings such as H.A. Rey’s excellent classic: The Stars: A New Way to See Them , it might be easier to trace them on tracing paper and then transfer them over to the construction paper).

The younger astronomers just drew a bunch of dots or “stars” randomly on their paper, as my 2 year-old is doing here:

They then drew lines between the stars, connecting the dots, to show the constellation forms as they do in books:

The really fun part was poking holes through each star (dot) with a pin so the light would shine through. We were not as accurate as my Uncle and did not worry about star intensities!

My 3 year-old nephew decided that his constellation was a sea horse and I can really see that! Here are the finished star charts:

And when held up to a window or light, they look like this:

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If you joined us for sky this week, please put your link in Mr. Linky and leave a comment so we can find you. If you didn’t, you can read about how to join here.

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

Stone

I hope to see you then!

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By Mom Unplugged, April 27, 2008 9:10 pm

My two oldest each had lengthy birthday parties to attend this afternoon. So although I had an art project in mind when I chose birds as this week’s Unplugged Project theme, my children’s busy social calendars precluded anything too complicated.

Instead of art this week, we decided to do something I was meaning to do anyhow: put out some nice spring nesting materials.

While most people know that putting out food and water for wild birds is a great way to attract them to your yard, another often overlooked additional method is to provide nesting materials in the spring. As long as you have some good nesting locations (requirements vary by type of bird), giving them handy materials can encourage them to nest in your yard where you can watch the action for several months.

All you’ll need are some empty suet feeder cages, or a few of those nets used to package oranges or potatoes in bulk. We used a big net from some oranges and a few small Baby Bel cheese nets.

We have some high class, five star nesting material: leftover alpaca fleece from Dempsey, an alpaca at our local alpaca ranch!

If you don’t happen to have a local alpaca ranch or any spare alpaca fleece lying around your house, you can also try putting out any of the following:

-dried leaves and twigs
-human or horse hair
-pet fur, sheep’s wool
-dry grass
-plant fluff (ie. cattail fluff)
-feathers
-yarn or string (cut into 4″ to 8″ pieces)
-thin strips of cloth (1″ x 6″)
-cotton batting
-bark strips
-pine needles
-shredded paper
-moss

But don’t put out drier lint (stays soggy, dries hard, can contain chemicals from laundering).

You can prepare the household materials together, or go on a nature hike to collect suitable natural materials.

Place the materials in the nets or cages and hang them around your garden on trees, or deck railings. You can also push loose material into tree crevices or between rocks, and drape yarn and string over bushes. Heavier items that won’t blow away, like twigs, can be put out in small piles around your yard.

Then simply sit back and watch to see if there is any interest in your spring gifts!

For more about this (and my source for much of this information), please see: Attracting Birds With Nesting Material from the fascinating Cornell Lab of Ornithology website.

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If you participated in the birds project this week, please put your link in Mr. Linky below (also be sure to leave a comment in case Mr. Linky malfunctions).

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Next week’s Unplugged Project theme will be:

Green

Please join us!

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By Mom Unplugged, March 30, 2008 7:29 pm

It has been a week full of rocks during Spring Break at our house in Albuquerque: a trip to Petroglyph National Monument, climbing over big rocks on a mountain hike, choosing pretty tumbled rocks to buy at the Natural History Museum gift shop, collecting rocks in the courtyard.

So, although I didn’t realize that we would be so into rocks this week when I chose the Unplugged Project theme last Sunday, it has been an excellent week for a rock project.

My son was too busy with his new Legos this week to care much about projects, but my oldest daughter wanted to make her own petroglyph. The children have both recently studied petroglyphs at school and I think that Petroglyph National Monument made a big impression on them.

We found what we thought would be a suitable flat rock (note: if you try this, make sure you choose as soft a rock as possible), and used a hammer to break a piece of it off to use as a chisel. We were trying to be authentic!

My daughter drew her design on the rock with a pencil. She was trying to reproduce one that we had seen at the Monument.

She then scraped the rock with the other rock to engrave the design.

Well, this proved to be slow going (the rock was not soft enough), so she got fed up and moved on to authentic Native American method number two: the Dremel Tool! My husband supervised this step and the petroglyph was quickly completed.

In case anyone is interested, here’s another fun rock idea that we once did: cracking open a geode!

Other petroglyph resources:

+ Draw your own rock art printable

+ Hawaiian petroglyphs to print and color

+ Info about petroglyphs: Petroglyphs.us

+ Fun art project: Sandpaper Petroglyphs

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If you joined us for the Unplugged Project this week, please leave a link in Mr. Linky, as well as a comment in case Mr. Linky fails at his job. If you didn’t join in, please consider taking part next week!

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Next week’s Unplugged Project theme will be:

Books

Hope to see you then!

Comments (3)

By Mom Unplugged, September 21, 2007 6:46 pm

I have written several posts about how to certify your yard as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat with the National Wildlife Federation (NWF):

Project: Make Your Yard a Certified Wildlife Habitat (July 5, 2007)

Backyard Wildlife Habitat: Great Nature Slideshow (July 14, 2007)

Another Backyard Wildlife Slideshow (July 20, 2007)

The other day I just got an NWF email saying that they have almost reached their goal of certifying 100,000 habitats. The NWF needs to certify only 5,000 more yards to get there!

If you have been thinking about doing it (or even if the whole concept is new to you), now is the time. You don’t have to have a grand estate. All you need are the four basic habitat elements: food, water, cover, and places to raise young.

Once you go through the easy online process to certify, you will be eligible to buy the cool sign like ours in the photo. That way, neighbors and passers-by will know that you care enough about wildlife to provide a sustainable habitat in your own yard. You’ll also help spread the word to others about the existence of this great program.

Having your kids help you certify your yard is a wonderful way to teach them about the needs of wildlife. Two Unplug Your Kids readers even created online nature slideshows of their habitats. You can view them by clicking these links: Meeyauw’s slide show and Tiffany’s slide show (Nature Mom). If you feel like making your own slideshow, please let me know and I would love to link to it.

So, click here to get started today!

Comments (2)

By Mom Unplugged, September 18, 2007 11:28 am

My oldest daughter gave me a present: the first cold of the school year. How sweet! The past few days I have been too busy blowing my nose to write an inspired post.

Today I feel like writing a post entitled: “How to Nap Peacefully in Your Bed All Day While Caring For a One Year-Old” If I find any information on how to do that, I will be sure to pass it on.

So, all I have for you today is a plan to draw your attention to some links in my left sidebar. Andamom published some interesting web links on Andamom.com and I thought this was a good idea. Since I have already found the links I am going to introduce, not much thought is required on my part. Perfect for today.

I don’t think many people have noticed the sites I have listed under “Wonderful Websites.” It is a bit swallowed up by “Blogs I Like” above, and “Unplug TV Resources” below.

1. Backyard Nature with Jim Conrad: This is a site packed with nature facts and information. Kids (and adults) can read about plants, animals, fungi, geology, ecology, gardening, names & classification, and “tools for the backyard naturalist.” One of my favorite parts of the site is “101 Nature-Oriented Things to do this Summer.” If the kids say they’re bored, then send them outside to find a lichen or some insect eggs (#10 and #43). How about participating in Operation Rubythroat (a humming bird observation project, #84)? Summer is almost over, for those of us residing in the Northern part of the globe anyhow, but many of these ideas would be doable in winter too.

2. National Wildlife Federation “Green Hour”:
The goal is to get kids outdoors for at least one hour per day, the “Green Hour,” for “unstructured play and interaction with the natural world.” The site has a page called Discovery Journals and Activities where different outdoor activities are suggested and readers can search past activities by season or topic. How about an Alphabet Hike or a Worm Safari? Green Hour publishes a blog too.

3. Arbor Day Foundation “Nature Explore”: Tons of ideas to help connect kids with nature. Be sure to check out their Sourcebook page. There is also a Nature Explore Club to join (we have not done so yet) where, for $20, the Arbor Day Foundation will send your child a package ten times a year with the following:

“1 : 10 engaging, colorful stories—to take imagination to new heights
2: 10 outdoor activities—that children and adults have fun doing together
3: 10 different “Explorer’s Tools” like a tape measure, leaf shapes, and a viewfinder to make discovering nature even more fun
-Plus more!”

And finally, for a change from outdoor nature activities, or on a rainy day, be sure to visit :

4. The Toymaker: Artist Marilyn Scott-Waters has here remarkable creations for parents and children to print out and make for free! Here is Marilyn’s introduction:

Welcome to my odd, little world of paper toys, holiday cards, valentines, sun boxes,

baskets and bags, origami and ephemera… all for you to make.

My goal is to help grownups and kids spend time together making things.

It is my wish to amuse and delight.

Enjoy,

Marilyn.

All her creations are positively gorgeous, plus they are easy and fun to make. You can look up ideas by Holiday, or simply browse all the fun Paper Toys. Don’t miss the Otter Paper Dolls and clothes too! Everything is completely free to make for fun or as presents, all Marilyn asks is that you not sell her creations. Marilyn has an interesting blog too. Thank you for giving us all the lovely gift of your site Marilyn!

Thanks to photographer mantasmagorical and morguefuile.com for this photo.