Origami

Published by Joanne on September 16, 2009

** originally posted in 2007 **

We picked this origami book up at the library, dug out a pack of paper that we bought on clearance and Billy sat down with the girls to try it out. None of them had ever done it before so they chose an easy one to start with, which happened to be a frog. Billy’s in the black one, Jacqueline’s is green and Shawna’s is blue.

They’re trying to see whose frog can hop the farthest. Looks like Shawna won.

Tags: arts and crafts, creativity, day in the life of an unschooler, homeschoolers, homeschooling, how to unschool, unschool, unschoolers, unschooling, unschooling family, what is unschooling

Making Slime

Published by Joanne on May 24, 2009

We’ve made slime a few times and this is the best recipe I have found so far. It’s very slimy and smooth…. and turns out great! My kids love squeezing it through their fingers. We used neon food coloring so the color was nice and bright!

Need:
Borax (can bought in the laundry detergent aisle.)
White glue (like Elmers)
Food coloring
Ziploc bags
measuring cups and spoons (We have some set aside for projects like this)

1. In a bowl mix ½ teaspoon Borax with ½ cup of water. Stir until dissolved.
2. In another bowl, mix ½ cup of white glue with 1 cup of water.

3. Pour the glue mixture into the zipper bag. Then, slowly pour in the borax mixture. Add a few drops of food coloring
4. Seal bag, knead the mixture until you have slime.

Keep your slime in the sealed bag in the refrigerator when not playing with it to keep it longer. Unfortunately it may eventually dry out or grow mold. Just throw it out and start again!

How It Works:
The borax is acting as the crosslinking agent or “connector” for the glue (polyvinyl acetate) molecules. Once the glue molecules join together to form even larger molecules called polymers, you get a thickened gel very similar to slime.

Tags: arts and crafts, unschooling science

Arts And Crafts

Published by Joanne on April 23, 2009

Throughout a lot of our unschooling days, we have some sort of art or craft project going on, or in different stages of completion (some don’t get completed, but most do). Here’s a few glimpses of the last few that we enjoyed.