Fall Is In The Air – And On The Ground!

October 2, 2014April 11, 2016 | Allison

Fall has arrived here at our house. You can easily tell if you look at our gorgeous trees. Like always, the pictures aren’t as good as the real thing, but they give you a pretty good taste of it.

There are a lot of fun things to do with fall: Make pretty leaf-and-acorn pictures or arrangements (inside or outside),

Make leaf piles (of course),

And let your bunnies play in the leaf piles. This is my rabbit, Honeybunny. She loved burrowing through the pile and hiding in the leaves. Is she not ADORABLE?

What do you like about fall?

***Allison***

Creatures and Critters

September 24, 2014March 14, 2016 | Allison

Here are some pictures of a few of the creatures and critters around our farm.

A green frog (we are actually keeping her in a terrarium in our house)

An orb weaver spider – see the zigzag in her web?

A bumblebee

A monarch – Did you know you can tell if it’s a monarch or a viceroy by checking if it has a black band across its bottom wings? If it doesn’t have the band, it’s a monarch, if it does, it’s a viceroy. This is a monarch – no black band.

Some kind of sulphur butterfly

A praying mantis – it is actually eating a bumblebee – see its head in one claw and its body in the other? (Gross!)

And here is Jinx, our cat, with spiderwebs on his whiskers. He doesn’t look too pleased to have his picture taken.☺

Which picture was your favorite?

***Allison***

Doodle Fun: Heartstrings

September 19, 2014November 12, 2018 | Allison

I like this technique of doodling. I’m sure other people have already thought of it, but I found it out myself one day and liked it. I decided to show you how to doodle it so you could have fun with it too. Here we go!

First, make any shape you like (it doesn’t have to be a heart).

Next, start drawing columns within the borders of your shape.

Don’t draw the columns over top of each other, just let the go under each other.

It looks neat to make the columns different sizes too.

Now for the coloring part! (Yaay!) I just chose three main colors, but you can choose more if you like – try it with rainbow colors! You can also use different shades of each color, especially if you don’t have very many colors.

I left the background behind the columns white so the columns would stand out a little more.

Ta-daa! Can you tell why I called it “heartstrings”?

There you go! Have fun with it, customize it, change it how you like. This technique would be good for cards, bookmarks, etc.

Hope you enjoy!

***Allison***

To Be Pink, Or Not To Be Pink

September 15, 2014June 5, 2015 | Allison

We have several mums around our house, and one bush has a bi-colored flower on it.

It’s the only flower like it on the bush, and I haven’t noticed any other bi-color flowers.

Isn’t it neat?

***Allison***

Potato or ULV (Unidentified Lumpy Vegetable)?

September 9, 2014June 5, 2015 | Allison

Are these potatoes or are they some weird, alien vegetable? Yes, they are potatoes, though certainly not the normal, nice, smooth kind you usually buy in stores.

Do my eyes deceive me, or is that a rabbit I see?

This looks like a faraway relative of the manatee or something.

What do these spuds remind you of?

6 Ways to Make Work More Fun

September 6, 2014June 5, 2015 | Allison

Everything is more fun when its… fun! Here are some ideas that help make work more fun, whether it’s washing dishes or shelling beans. I hope it helps!

1. Listen to an audio-book – If you like curling up with a book, but your hands are occupied, try audio-books. We have several at our library, and some of our favorites are Freddy the Pig, and Hank the Cowdog. (These are also available in book form.)

2. Play a game – Just because your hands are busy doesn’t mean you can’t use your brain! Try these classics:

20 Questions – Choose one player to think of something in one of the following categories: Animal, Plant, Mineral, and Other. The other players take turns asking questions to try and figure out what the “it” person is thinking of. If it is guessed within 20 questions, whoever guessed it gets to be “it.” If they don’t get it within 20 questions, the person who stumped them gets to be “it” again.

I Packed My Grandfather’s Suitcase – Choose one player to start. He says “I packed my grandfather’s suitcase, and in it there was ___.” He fills in the blank with something that starts with the letter “a.” Go around in a circle, each person starting with “I packed my grandfather’s suitcase.” When it’s the second player’s turn, he repeats what the first player says, making sure to include whatever the first player chose for “a,” and he also adds something starting with “b”. Keep going like this until you either reach the end of the alphabet, or everyone is out but one person. Someone can get out by saying the wrong thing, forgetting what he was supposed to say, or skipping a letter. One variation to this game is to have a certain category that the items have to be in, such as “food.”

3. Listen to music. – This one is simple, but it does make things more fun when you’re humming along to your favorite tunes.

If you looking for ways to make the work go faster, while still having fun, try some of these:

4. Have a race. Who can finish shelling their bowl of beans first?

5. Beat your record. Keep track of the time you spent each time you did a certain job. Try to beat your record, but be careful that no dishes are broken in the process!

6. Set up a timed reward system. – If they get done with their jobs in a certain amount of time, they get computer time, etc. Make the time limit challenging, but not impossible.

So that’s it! Hopefully these will make chore-time a little bit more fun. I’ll go now, so you can get to work!

***Allison***

A Close-up Look at Eyes

September 1, 2014June 5, 2015 | Allison

I’ve been having fun taking close-up pictures of my family’s eyes. It’s amazing what they look like up close!

This one is my dad’s eye,

This is my mom’s,

And this is my mom’s other eye. I showed both because they’re each different. Can you tell?

This is my brother Logan’s,

This is my brother Jefferson’s,

This is my sister Megan’s,

This is my sister Carmen’s,

And this is mine!

Aren’t they beautiful? It’s so fun to see the hidden colors and patterns.

Have fun looking!

***Allison***

Fun with Dry-Erase Markers

August 24, 2014June 11, 2016 | Allison

There are lots of fun things to do with dry-erase markers besides draw on a whiteboard. These things make good boredom-busters, and are good things to do on a rainy day. Some of these things are good for parties too.

The first two things are “painting” your nails, and drawing your own temporary tattoos.

Drawing on your fingernails with dry-erase markers is fun for those who love to paint their nails, or those who aren’t ready for “the real thing” yet. When your ready to “paint” a new design, just wipe off the marker with your finger or the whiteboard eraser.

To completely clean off your nails, wash them with soap and water, and, if you need to, a damp washcloth.

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Now for the temporary tattoos: Just draw anything you like onto your skin. (My nails are “painted” with dry erase marker in this picture, and I have a dry-erase marker “tattoo”)

Just wash skin like you did for your nails, and voila! a clean slate.

This can be used as a party or group game. Draw or print out several sets of doodles beforehand. Give each player a paper with the same doodle on it. Each player makes it into a drawing, then compares it to the other players’ drawings. Every drawing will turn out differently.

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The last thing to do with dry-erase markers is fun and simple: just draw with the markers on a mirror or window. It wipes off easily with a damp paper towel.

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Note: Test out your markers in a small spot before you try any of these activities, in case the markers don’t erase for some reason.

I hope you try some of these ideas out, and have fun!

***Allison***

The Amazing Mobius Strip

August 22, 2014 | Allison

Over the summer, I’m doing math at Khan Academy, which is sort of an online school. I like to look at the recreational math section too. The “Doodling in Math and More” section is very interesting. Today I watched some videos about Mobius strips. They are basically one-sided twisted loops of paper that can do amazing things. They are very simple to make, and fun to play with. I encourage you to check out the videos here. There are two videos, and one is a very cute story with a Mobius strip.

Have fun!

***Allison***