the ELLA echo

my little taste of blissdom

this past weekend was the blissdom conference in nashville.  i didn't get to attend but i got to do something almost as good:  i got to meet some of the PBS sprout band of bloggers!

 
photo courtesy of shannan from mommy bits. 

these women turned out to be even cooler in person than i had imagined them to be.  they are intelligent, funny, generous, curious, and i am thrilled to be part of the band of bloggers with them. take a moment to visit their sites and see for yourself.  from left to right:

liza from liza was here and deep south moms, and her adorable daughter 
twitter:  @lizawashere

amy from milk breath and margaritas, a fellow nashvillian
twitter:  @amy2boys

jamie from blonde mom blog, another nashville blogger
twitter:  @blondemomblog

ME!  the luckiest one there because i not only got to meet bloggers, i also got to hold hands with a very cute baby.

shannon from PBS sprout, who organized the breakfast for us and who let me hold hands with said baby.

dwan from mommaDJane 
twitter:  @mommadjane

christy from quirky fusion who generously offered to help me figure out google analytics.  :)
twitter:  @morethanmommy

jen from 4tunate
twitter:  @quatromama

shannanB from mommy bits
twitter:  @shannanB

and jill from the diaper diaries
twitter:  @diaperdiaries

what i learned from my too-short visit with these fantastic women:  i like all of them, and i have a lot to learn about blogging.  :)

ps:  what i heard about the shoes is true.

PBS sprout's new DVD giveaway: we have a winner!

congratulations COURTNEY QUANDT !  you're the winner of the new PBS sprout's DVD "lend a helping hand"!

please send me an email with your mailing address and i'll have your DVD sent right out to you.  the email link is on the left sidebar, right under the "praying for elizabeth" button.

thank you all for entering and for sharing a little about your sweet babies with me.  i hope to have something new to offer you soon.

have a great weekend, everybody!

how we homeschool: meeting a paleoanthropologist

yesterday ella and i had the good fortune to spend part of the day with jun ebersole, the collections manager of the mcwane science center in birmingham alabama!  he is a paleoanthropologist which is the technical term for "one of the top 10 coolest jobs ever".

mr. ebersole showed us around the dinosaur exhibit, very patiently answering all our questions no matter how far fetched or naive they must have seemed to him--and then he spent a great deal of time showing us how they recover and prepare an actual fossil for exhibit!  he showed us the machine they use to carve out replicas of bones, showed us a cool 3D PRINTER--you heard me, IT PRINTS OUT OBJECTS--and we got to see some eggs they are preparing for the upcoming new exhibit called "naturescope, which sounds like it will be exceptionally cool just like the rest of the museum is.

we didn't get to take any pictures in the lab (and truthfully we were so excited and asking so many questions that we didn't even think much about pictures--for that matter, i got so excited about looking at things and picking his brain that i forgot my purse on a table in the exhibit area!), but next time we visit he's going to take us to the back area where they store the stuff that is not on display, like their mosasaur skeletons, the fourth-largest such collection in the world!

 

this was our third visit to the mcwane science center, and every time we have hours of fun and we find something new that we missed before. the entire basement is devoted to marine life, with a shark and ray touch tank and a quiet little nook where you can meditate on the mystery of life under the sea--and there is an entire floor we haven't even visited yet, i have no idea what is up there.  :D  each area of the center is so engaging that you simply can't see and do everything on a single trip, which is great because it gives us something to look forward to for the next time.  on this trip we stumbled upon the fox 6 weather lab, where ella got to do and then watch a recording of herself doing one of her favorite things:  the weather report.  

 

my advice to homeschooling parents it is this:  take a chance, pick up the phone and ask somebody cool if you can spend some time with them.  i've never been turned down, and i've never been disappointed. even the top-10 cool job havers seem really happy to share a little of their passion with an eager audience.  and you might make a new friend.

 

ps--about an hour from birmingham we had a flat tire.  :(  rudi managed to change it in record time, on the side of the interstate highway in the rain while wearing his good clothes (he was dressed for a meeting), and then we limped on the spare to a little town called hanceville where the very nice people at college tire put on a replacement and got us back on the road.  they even had a lego play table for us to enjoy while we waited--proof positive that they care about their customers and realize that sometime parents have their children with them.  

 

we were a full hour-and-a-half late getting to the mcwane science center and mr. ebersole STILL took time out of his day to indulge our dinosaur interests.  everybody we met all day was just wonderful to us and the next time we go we're bringing them all cupcakes.

wordless wednesday: ticket booth

 

IT SNOWED! IN NASHVILLE !

 

it's not much but for us it is amazing--we haven't had a snow like this since before the turn of the century! the most recent (and most often-occurring) big weather event here is tornados.  dislike.

this snowfall was a good one--we've already had our first batch of snow ice cream, and we've all been hit by real snowballs.  

this is why everything shuts down here when there are only 4" of snow on the ground:  5,600 miles of roads in davidson county and only 30 pieces of road equipment--that's plows, ice trucks--everything. after all, why have equipment for something that is only going to happen once every decade?  

there is also 1/2" of hard ice under this snow--bad for driving, but great for sledding.

 

this is how southern kids sled--in kiddie pools, because why have a sled when you're only going to get real snow once every decade?

but in the south, when you get your first real snow, your daddy will drag you back and forth in your tiny, urban side yard and be happy for the privilege because each time he'll get to hear this:

a giveaway! win PBS sprout's new DVD, "lend a helping hand"

you already know that we are PBS sprout fans here.  as a member of sprout's band of bloggers, they recently offered me the chance to host a very special giveaway for my readers!

PBS sprout and HIT entertainment have just released the first DVD in a new series called "let's grow", featuring some of the most popular characters from the sprout lineup.  each DVD focuses on one life skill for preschoolers, such as safety, manners, expressing feelings, and other preschool topics. there are crafts and educational games on each DVD, and each includes a printed parent guide with additional information, tips, and website tied to the DVD's theme.

the first DVD is entitled "lend a helping hand", and demonstrates how kids can help friends, family, and their community thru activities such as cleaning up after themselves, or creating and using a recycling bin.

ella and i watched the copy of the DVD that sprout sent me, and her review is this:  "kids are going to LOVE this DDD (sic).  all kids like to help but the little ones usually need suggestions so it's good that sprout is showing them how." 

awesome, right?

here's how you can enter to win a copy of this DVD for your little one:

primary entry:

1. leave a comment at the bottom of this blog post telling me which sprout show or character is your child's favorite (ok, maybe it is YOUR favorite--you don't have to spill the beans).

for additional entries you can do one or more of the following:

1. post this contest on your own blog with a link back to this entry, and leave a comment at the bottom of this post with the link to your post to let me know you did so.
2. follow the ELLA echo on facebook's networked blogs (i just joined!--see the right sidebar) and leave a comment letting me know you followed.
3. tweet "@rostitchery is giving away a copy of PBS sprout's new DVD, lend a helping hand http://3.ly/Kxh", and leave a comment letting me know you did so.

you have until friday, 5 february, at 5pm central time to enter.  the winner will be selected by a random number generator.  i'm looking forward to hearing which sprout shows your child loves!  

wordless wednesday: a family of owls

 

how we homeschool: game schooling

 

one of the biggest reasons i wanted to homeschool ella is so that "school" would not be awful for her.  :D she has always loved to learn, and i didn't want that love to disappear in a sea of worksheets and textbooks.   i know that most schoolteachers work really hard to make learning fun but what i think what they often miss is that FUN, in and of itself, can actually be educational on it's own.

that is why i lean more and more toward what i call "game schooling".  basically, we play games, and from those games we learn something. :D  but the point has to be the game itself--if there is even a hint of "school" involved, the fun gets sucked right out of it.

these are the games that we've been playing this week:

• shut-the-box (arithmetic, logic, strategy)--thank you lala!
• madlibs (vocabulary, parts of speech)
• scrabble (spelling)--ella got the apple package during our apple study unit
• marbulous (science)--ella calls this "the contraption maker"
• color explosion sheets (art)
• wii fit and wii sports resort (physical fitness)
• view-master cards (reading)

we also make up our own games, such as when we adopt laura but live in her time (history, social studies), or when we rewrite nursery rhymes or fairytales so they include a pie (literature, composition).

there are so many great games to choose from that i truly believe a child could do almost nothing but play games and have fun and still learn just as much, perhaps more, than by doing just "school" alone. that's worth at least 10 bonus points right there.

we're always on the look-out for more games to play so please leave a comment with your suggestions!  

how we homeschool: ella sewed her first dress

for christmas i gave ella this fantastically pink and very wonderful vintage sears kenmore sewing machine that i found on craigslist last fall.  i had to learn how to wind and thread a long bobbin, but once i got it all threaded up it ran like a dream.

ella was thrilled with it!  she immediately started planning what she would make first, and she decided she wanted to make a dress.

she drafted and printed the pattern herself, with my guidance, using the child's play patternmaking program by wild ginger software, she assembled and taped the pattern together with my help (i forgot to get pictures of that part--i was too excited!)--then i cut the pattern out for her. she laid out the patterns on fabric, weighted them, i cut.  she did all the sewing herself.  she even pressed the seams herself. the only part i sewed was the neck placket in back, which is fiddly even for an adult. 

 

 

 

she was so excited to put it on that she wouldn't stop to let me press out the folds in the fabric.  she was too eager to go down the runway (AKA nordictrack C2200, which seems very appropriate for a runway).

the edges are raw, the seam allowances and hems are all different sizes, but no seamstress has ever been happier with her own creation than ella is with this dress.

 

oh, about the homeschooling:  subjects covered on the day she made her dress include: mathematics (measuring her body, calculating the amount of fabric needed);  geometry (drafting the pattern, assembling the printed pattern pieces, laying out the pattern pieces on the fabric, assembling the pieces in the correct order and orientation);  reading and writing (navigating the program, reading the parts of the pattern, recording her measurements, reading the pattern pieces);  mechanics (threading and running the machine);  science (the affects of heat on the fabric and thread fibers, interaction of the thread with the fabric for stable seams);  art (determining a design for the dress, selecting a fabric that worked harmoniously with the dress design).  probably some other things too, but those are the biggies.

she's already picked out her next project, and it involves:  stretch velvet.  LOL  i'm glad my singer walking foot fits this machine.

december was a full month

 

it was very busy here in december.

we made cinnamon applesauce ornaments

and a cinnamon stick cabin

 

to go with the two fun online classes we attended: one about christmas in the pioneer days

 

and one in which we got to hear christmas stories while snuggling on the couch.

 

we went on a wonderful homeschool field trip to traveller's rest, where we got to try spice cookies and syllabub, and learn to dance the virginia reel

and got to write a christmas card with a quill pen.

we checked the advent pockets every morning to see what bible verse the advent goblins wanted us to read that day, and to see what gift they left to remind us of the verse.

 

and of course, we went to see santa and whisper a christmas wish into his ear.

 

and then--on christmas day--ella got what she asked him for:

a wishing well "exactly like laura's",

 

a glade air freshener,

 

and a baby sister for dalui.

 

many other moments, big and small, added up to a truly special month for us.

it was the perfect way to end what ella tells us was her best year ever.