American Girl Club - Kit - Weeks 1 - 6

For Kit I am just going to do one post for all 6 weeks.  Not because we didn't have an amazing time with Kit, but because I just waited toooooooo long to post about it.  We met for Kit  3 weeks in November and 3 weeks in January.  (We took December off.) So it's been 5 months since the first time we met for Kit and my memory is just failing me when it comes to the details.

So here it goes...

KIT WEEK 1

Theme:

The Depression hits Kit's house.  Kit's dad loses his job.  Mom starts a boarding house

Craft:

Felt Sport Banner - I pre-cut white felt into the shape of a sports banner. (About 8"X20")  Then I had a tons of felt and felt stickers for the girls to decorate them with.  They could make them for a sport team or just to decorate their rooms. (Most ended up being very pink and girlie!  LOL)

Paper Suitcase - In week 1 of Kit we talked about what it would be like to live during the depression and lose your home.  We talked about how many people would run into a boarding home and the whole families would move into one room.  So I made up a little template for the girls to make a little suitcase.  Then I had pages inside for them to fill in what they would have taken with them.  There are 2 printables.  You will find them HERE and HERE. 

Snack:

Sponge Cake and Iced Tea

During Book Discussion Time:

Have chunks of ice for the girls to lick.  Talk about what an icebox is as opposed to a refrigerator.

Other Ideas:

• Borrow an old typewriter if you can and let the girls experience typing on it. (To see old typewriter we borrowed CLICK HERE.
• Split the girls up into groups and have them work on publishing their own newspaper about the depression and the 1920's.
• Talk about the song "Pack up your trouble in an Old Kit Bag." talk ab out how the meaning of words change over time.
• Read excerpt from Robin Hood and His Adventures.

KIT WEEK 2

Theme:

Thanksgiving during the Depression.

Craft:

Make a cornucopia using torn magazine pages to make a mosaic.

Do geography sheets on Ohio. CLICK HERE.

Snack:

Oatmeal with a sliced of canned peach on top.

Ideas:

Book discussion and read from In Kit's World book.

KIT WEEK 3

Theme:

Christmas during the Depression

Craft:

Scottie Dog Hair Clips

To make these the girls traced 2 Scottie dogs onto black felt with white chalk.  They they cut them out.  Then they added a bead eye to the top one and cut to vertical slits in the back one to slide the clip barrette through.  Then they used black thread to sew them together around the edge.  Then they added a red bow.

Learned how to finger knit

The girls LOVED this!  For weeks everywhere I went I saw girls wearing their creations! The directions are HERE.

Snack:

Popcorn and Oranges in a Christmas stocking.  (With a pencil too.  I read this was typical of what a lucky child would have gotten on Christmas morning.)

Ideas:

Have girls sing Christmas Carols
Read about Amelia Earhart

KIT WEEK 4

Theme:

Penny Pincher Birthday Party!

Craft:

Paper Lanterns, newspaper hats and flower necklaces

 

For the necklaces the girl took a little stack of 3 pieces of tissue paper and pinched it up into a flower.  Then they tied them on their piece of yarn to make a necklace. For the paper hats they folded them with these instructions.  CLICK HERE. HERE is how we made our paper lanterns.

Food:

Mock Apple Pie, tea sandwiches, Depression Cake

Other:

Read about William Shakespeare

Kit Week 5

Theme:

Kit learns about the Hobo lifestyle.

Craft:

SOCK MONKEYS! - I will do a separate post just on making these! FUN, FUN, FUN!

Food:

Hobo meal...boiled potatoes, beans, slice of bread

Ideas:

Learn the Texas Two Step
Decode a Hobo Code

Kit Week 6

Theme:

Kit learns to have hope even during hard times.

Craft:

Make mittens

For these I had the girls trace around their hands on polar fleece and then they sewed these on the machine.  We had several machines.  They were VERY excited to use the machine since all the sewing to this point has been by hand.  :^)

Snack:

Soup Kitchen (Vegetable) Soup and a slice homemade bread

Ideas:

Read about the start of WWII
Read about News Correspondent
Play checkers and dominos

So there you have Kit!

70's Fashion!

My daughter wanted something 70's looking to wear for American Girl Club while we are studying Julie.  So I came up with the idea of a halter top! After Googling a bit I found THIS PICTURE as our inspiration. 

Here is our version...

This picture REALLY takes me back to the 70's!  The bad paneling, the jean purse, the halter top, the head scarf!  LOL  (Although in the 70's there wouldn't be a t-shirt under the halter.)

Oh, and while I was making her top, my daughter made one for her doll!

If imitation is the truest form of flattery then I am flattered! :^)

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin

American Girl Club - Molly Week 4

The theme for week 4 of Molly was that it is Molly's birthday.  In the book Molly's family has a little girl from London that is staying with them because of the war that is going on in London.  So Molly is sharing her birthday with her new friend.  The girls decide to have a Princess Tea Party.  So we did the same.  :^)

For craft the girls made crowns to wear at the tea party.  They also made jump ropes from clothesline like the girls did in the book. They really we enjoyed getting to go outside and jump rope!

For snack we had margarine sandwiches, lemon tart and tea with sugar.  (We also did a taste test between butter and margarine.  I was surprised that almost no one, including me, could tell the difference! I am still a faithful fan of butter though!  LOL)

I meant to do a blackout drill with the girls.  But, with all the tea party festivities I totally forgot.  Apparently I forgot to take pictures too!

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin

American Girl Club - Molly Week 3

Week 3 of Molly is the Christmas story.  So even though it was March we celebrated Christmas!

Now that we are getting closer to our own time period many of the things we are reading about are much closer to how we celebrate today.  Of course WWII was going on in the story and Molly's dad was away at war.  So as we discussed the book we talked about what it would be like to have dad be away for a long period of time.  My daughter has experienced that when we last moved and the kids and I spent a year at our old location trying to sell the house.  Three of the girls in our group are also in a position where there dad is in the Army and is about to be deployed.  So there was a lot we could relate to!  One of the things we talked about was how grateful we are for the technology we have now in situations like these.  Molly would only get letters from her dad and sometimes they would take months to arrive! Since the concept of writing letters is nearly extinct I decided it would be fun to have the girls write letters to their dads!  We pretended that their dad's are away at war and the girls wrote to them telling them what is going on in their lives.  It was fun!  Plus the girls got a lesson on how to address and envelope.  I also talked to them a little about the history of the postal service, prices of stamps and the history of the zip code. After the letters were done I brought them home and put a little note in the envelope to explain to the dads why they were getting these letters.  Then I dropped them in the mail.  My daughter was very excited a few days later when hers arrived for her dad!

Our craft for the week was SUPER simple.  In the back of book 3 there are instructions for making a pile cleaner ornament.  So we made those.  The girls liked it.  They always seem to enjoy the craft that are very open ended so they can use their own creativity!

For snack we had Cinnamon Sticky Buns like they had in the book.  We also read the Christmas story from the Bible and sang Joy to the World.

It was a very festive night!

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin

70's Style Jean Messenger Bag

I loved my daughters jean purse so much that I had to make one for myself!

Can you believe I found mushroom fabric?  I don't think more 70's inspired fabric exists!  LOL

I made mine a messenger bag style because I need it to close.  My husband has a pet peeve about me carrying a purse with an open top.  So when I saw the idea of making this style HERE I fell in LOVE!   I spent a LOT more time making this one than the one we made for my daughter.  Which is kinda funny because if you look at it mine looks a lot more rough and unfinished.  But, since I put my handbags through the wringer I knew it needed to be STURDY!

The jeans I chose were in a bag I have collected from other people for upcycling projects just like this one.  I chose this pair mostly because it was a good size for a purse for me.  The other advantage is that this pair is SUPER worn and possible date back to the 70's!  LOL  The first thing  I had to do was patch all the holes.  I cut my mushroom fabric and put it under each hole and then zigzagged around it. This really gave it a funky 70's vibe!

The Fabric

I wanted it to look very hand done, because that is how these looked in the 70's.  Next I lined it with the mushroom fabric.  I highly recommend a denim needle for the machine if you make one of these!  I, of course, didn't have one and I broke a couple needles trying to sew through belt loops and seams putting in the lining.  Then I used a piece of the leg to make the flap.  I wanted to preserve the frayed bottom of the pant leg on the front.  So I sewed the other three sides and then left extra fabric to fold up inside and let the fraying hang down.  I also added rickrack to the front of the flap. I LOVE IT!

Here you can see the inside frayed part of the flap.

And here is the front of the flap with the fray peeking out like fringe.

For the strap I left all the seams on the outside and then cut the edges with pinking shears.  I also tied it in a knot before sewing it on just to add a bit more funk! I am hoping the edges will unravel over time.

The strap.

Pretty far-out and groovy, huh? ;^) 

I feel a bit like I have been time traveling!

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin

American Girl Club - Molly Week 2

For week 2 of Molly we started out with the flag salute and singing America The Beautiful.  Then I read the girls the War Message for Children on page 67 in book 2.

Then we had our book discussion and got ready for our craft.  Our craft this week was a little different than anything we have done before.  This week in the book Molly and her classmates competed in a Lend-A-Hand Contest.  Molly's group ended up knitting squares and putting them together to make a blanket to donate.  So we did the modern day version of this and made polar fleece blankets to donate! 

Here are a few of the girls working on a blanket.These are made from kits I bought at JoAnn's.  (The directions are included.)

Here are our finished blankets.

Our blankets were made to be donated to Project Linus.

For snack we had Boston Brown Bread with Raisins.

I also read to the girls from our Welcome to Molly's World book. 

And that was night 2 for Molly!

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin

American Girl Club - Molly Week 1

For week 1 of Molly we started out with reading about Pearl Harbor and WWII in the book Welcome to Molly's World, 1944: Growing Up in World War Two America. We also talked about the transition between Kit's time period (The Great Depression) and how WWII really brought an end to the depression.  I also downloaded a radio news report about the attacks on Pearl Harbor and had the girls listen to it.  To keep them quiet and focused I gave them Toostie Pops to eat while they listened.  (This is one of the candies Molly gets trick-or-treating in the story.)

For our craft we made crepe paper hula skirts just like Molly did in the book. 

For the waistband I gave each girl a long piece of white muslin they can tie around their waist.  Then they stapled strips of crepe paper to make the skirts.

Cute, huh?

Of course our cat had to have a skirt too!  LOL

And our youngest American Girl got a skirt too!

For snack we had popcorn balls and apples.  Just like Molly got in the book for Halloween.

Another great night! :^)

Happy Homeschooling,

Jamin