Treehouse Part 3

So we had our tree, next it was on to the platforms.

We constructed two of the standard "raft" sort of platforms out of craft sticks/Popsicle sticks fitting them into the spaces between our branches.  We picked up some bass wood* pieces to help brace the platforms against the branches wherever we could.

Building the Platforms

Upper Platform test fitting

Now here's where our math came in.   We used the easy 1:1 dollhouse scale (1 inch = 1 foot) for calculating our sizing and even had our scale model child.

"We wish to welcome you to Munchkin Land!"

Then we had a brilliant idea; make a tiny rope ladder.  We looked at real ladders and determined that rungs are about one foot apart. So it seemed easy enough: tape toothpicks to a ruler, knot some string onto each, a drop of glue to make everything stay put.  

Well...

Those tiny knots were awful and traumatic.  Keeping the string taut as you tied the knot was even worse. And the rungs kept ending up glued to the paper.  But, in the end, we had a ladder.

It's all fun and games until you glue yourself to a toothpick.

Ladder drying on tree and lower platform in progress

Clearly, the Lullaby League found it all very tedious.

We decided they had the right idea and went to 

do a little *ahem* research.

Next time, everything glued will be in place and the fun part; decorating!




*affiliate link

Treehouse Part 2

So the first step is making the "tree," by attaching the sticks to the stump.  The instructions show a half a stump, but Junior liked the look of the intact stump and we were all for less cutting.

So first we made sure the sticks were level enough to stand up, knowing they did not need to be perfect.  Then the DH began to drill two holes in the stump.  A paddle bit would have been easier but he made do with large boring bit.

Because of the guesswork involved with the drilling, we had some large gaps to deal with.

We decided to pour in a small amount of wood glue, fill the gaps with the readily available sawdust, then pour glue on top and press the mixture in. 

It was messy, but it worked surprisingly well.  By the time we were  finished all the drill holes were nicely concealed and we  were able to sand things fairly smooth again.  It did also serve to make sticks very securely fastened to the stump.

Next time:  the treehouse.

The Treehouse

I've been meaning to blog here about the Great Treehouse Project but somehow never managed to get the photos organized or set it all down in steps.

So anyway - the backstory:

I had long been enthralled with with this site but I hadn't quite got up the energy to start the project with my Cubscouts.  Then as we were moving out our school and into homeschool one of the moms proposed this project for the class.  I was immediately all over that and it became our first homeschool project.


It all started with

A Stump

and two sticks....

To be continued......

Globe Genie

If you you've never heard of Globe Genie, you are missing out.  It's a neat little app using Google Street View first developed at a university and later spun into it's own site.   I don't even recall where I first ran across it, but I loved it immediately.  It can be a lesson in social studies, cultural and/or physical geography or just a really fun pastime.

Road tour of the French countryside

Road tour of the M27 near Southhampton, UK

When you arrive at the landing location, simply click all the continent boxes for the most varied journeys and click "Teleport."   Be sure to encourage "traveling"  in each destination; click down the roads, zoom in on the buildings and scenery.


You can find some ideas for building a lesson plan for this activity here.


I went for the cultural geography angle and made a worksheet with the following:




Travel to four locations. For each answer the following questions:

• Address:
• State/Country

• Describe the following: 
• Type of buildings:
• Plants:
• Animals:
• Rural/Suburban/Urban:
• Vehicles:

• What details stand out for you?
• How does this location differ from where you live?
• How is it similar?
• How far away from you?

After all four trips are taken and the questions answered, evaluate the journey.

• How do these locations differ from each other?
• How are they similar?
• Which location is the most similar to where you live?
• Which location is the most different?
• Which location is the farthest away?
• Which location is nearest?
• Which location would you like to visit most and why?

Happy travels!  How will you use Globe Genie?

Recycled Art

Sometimes  inspiration comes in twos.   As in combining two unlike things into one. I came across this art idea  and immediately thought "Pumpkins!"    Well, not pumpkins specifically, pumpkin templates would be more accurate.    While I love making use of junk mail, making stencils - not so much.   For  Halloween I went on the hunt for some fabulous pumpkin carving stencils and found many that had very little to do with Halloween.  But they would be great for other things.   My favorite finds were at

1. Paper Pumpkins
2. DLTK
3. Pumpkin Glow
4. Better Homes & Gardens

Because I enjoy making things difficult for myself, I opted to go with the Sleeping Cat.

Then I used a hobby knife to cut out the template.

"Sleeping Cat" cut out

Then I cut paper strips from junk mail.   I cut  a lot of paper strips.   Then I cut an empty snack bar box apart keeping one side plus some of the flaps  and arranged the strips on it.   I elected to glue over the printed side so I wouldn't have to see the box printing forever.  (And if you use these for gifts, it would look less recycled.)

recycled cardboard box

glued paper strips

Now here's where your choice of template design becomes important.  Lots of large open spaces?  Lots of loose paper flaps in the center?  Both are not good things.  As you go to glue the template over your cardboard base, all these loose bits of paper will wiggle around and fight you.  (And snicker.  I'm sure I heard snickering.)

Your glue is nothing to me. I laugh at your glue.  Haha!

But eventually I persevered and everything was glued down.

So then I trimmed off all the trailing edges of paper.

Huh, it's so boxy.

Well, at least it's not boxy anymore.

Well, I guess for a first attempt, it went pretty well.  I'd like to try it again with a better template and perhaps planned out colors of paper.  It would look interesting with shades of one or two colors I think.

Link Post: Art

Here are my favorite sites to get a quick idea (or not so quick) for a project:

• Familyfun.go.com
• Instructables.com  a lot random things here (not all kid friendly!) so be sure to use the sidebar categories
• marthastewart.com/
• nickjr.com for the younger set naturally
• dltk-kids.com  mostly for younger kids.  (I mainly use this site for my Sunday school class)
• familycrafts.about.com
• bhg.com (Better Homes and Gardens)
• Amazingmoms.com
• kidscraftweekly.com 
• tlc.howstuffworks.com
• craftingagreenworld.com  not specifically aimed at kids, but has a lot of interesting recycled craft ideas
• planetpals.com recycled crafting
• michaels.com

Other sites:

• This family of bloggers showcases the amazing projects they do with their kids: .filthwizardry and fangletronics.  If you are handy you might be able to use some of their ideas.

Tuna Cat Treats

Last week was cooking class with our homeschool group.  Junior loves it but it's a little bonkers. They always make too much food. They did fruit salad (but then they *always* do fruit salad) Chinese dumplings, and cat and dog treats. And they *really* overdid the cat and dog treats. Even with 19 kids in attendance there were far too many to go around.   The cooking teacher was afraid there would be too little so she doubled the recipes.  Oops.  So we had mounds of dough and only one little convection oven to cook it all in.  I ended up bringing home a big blob of dough to finish the last of it at home.  

I failed to get the dumpling and dog treat recipes but I helped with the cat treats so I have that.

Tuna Cat Treats (Giant Batch)

•  1 1/2 cups of flour
•  2 cans of tuna.  

I'd use less flour than that.  It ended up being a little too dry and we needed to add water.  Then I'd half the recipe.  Twice.  ;-)

The worst part was making the little tiny dough blobs, argh.  You will need gloves or lots of flour because the dough is very sticky.  

Photo evidence:

(Wow that pizza pan looks ugly on film)

I baked them around 400F until they were little slightly golden and sorta cookie-ish.  Soft is better because they still came out too big for a cat and needed to be cut up.  They also need to be in the fridge because they will spoil.