1) Stir 4 small boxes of gelatin into 2.5 cups of boiling apple juice. Yes, this is the basic recipe for Jell-o Jiggler’s.
2) Pour into whatever type of pan you’d like; you can either plan on cutting the jello into small pieces or mold it into small pieces in the first place. I used mini ice-cube trays.
3) Pop them in the fridge till they’re firm.
4) Unmold the pieces onto a plate or pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray
5) Cover loosely (in a paper bag, for example), place in a warm, dry place (like the top of your fridge) and let it dry for a day or two.

And that’s it!

I found this out when I’d intended to make Jigglers with my kindergarten class in Russia. My host mother found the jello in the fridge, wasn’t sure what it was (this was nearly 15 years ago) and simply took it out and set it on top. I’d already cut out one shape to test it, and to my surprise it ended up tasting much like gummy bears — maybe even better.

We’re going to try coating ours in Vitamin C crystals before they dry this time to see if we can get sour gummies too. I’ll let you know how they turn out.

Its features?  This laptop is so small it fits in my wallet.  It weighs less than my drivers license. Its instant-on  is faster than anything I’ve ever seen, and its screen is easily readable in direct sunlight.  In fact, it needs no batteries because it is powered by sunshine, imagination, and love.   Best of all, I really do think the world of its manufacturer.

Introducing the A/C laptop, by Mary:

A/C Laptop, manufactured by Mary. She's very proud of the results. And I am loving the spas bar.

Mary checking out lolcats on the new laptop she made for me

If you came here looking for a tiny laptop that doesn’t run on Love, pardon my sappy mommyhood

M: “Mac is a boys name!!”
V: “Well haven’t you ever heard of Mary Mack?”
M: “Who?”
V: “Mary Mack, dressed in black. Silver buttons all down her back?”
N: “No…”
V: “She asked her mother for 50 cents to see the elephant jump the fence.”
M: “Oh…”
V: “He jumped so high, he touched the sky, and he didn’t get back till the 4th of July!”
(Directs a smile and a wink at Mary through the rear-view mirror, and goes back to thinking about to-do-lists, etc)

M: “And?”
V: “And what?”
M: “And what happened next?”
V: “What do you mean? It’s a song. That’s the end of it.”
M: “No, what happened on the 4th of July?”
V: “Well I don’t know, what do you think happened?”
M: “There was a BIG SPLAT!”

Ethan’s taught himself several new origami models. Mary’s glued googley eyes to her small family of fork pom-poms. Both kids have discovered the joy of spit bubbles, grass confetti, and cutting their own paper snow flakes. We’ve practiced our Peas Porridge and reminded ourselves just what its all about with the Hokey Pokey. We’ve read about the Five Chinese Brothers and Tante Odette. We’ve discussed taxes and politics, and contributed to the economy with a dollar’s worth of penny candy. Together we’ve dined on Mexican, Chinese, and over-cooked kabas, and we even attended somewhat of an un-birthday party. We’ve adored Nimbus (our kitten to be) and my mom’s-neighbors-teenage-chickens. And tomorrow, if all goes well, we’ll be planting a flower garden on the freshly plowed corner plot and spending a few hours in the park. Yet I still somehow I managed to work, and the kids managed to get an indecent dose of video gaming.

And though they do love their school and are excited to go back for a while, I guarantee that come Monday morning, they’ll lament “But we didn’t have any fun!” I too sometimes wonder what sorts of exciting adventures everyone else is having without us. Maybe that’s why Jared wants a boat so badly, to add some excitement to our lives. But honestly? I don’t think it was a bad week at all. And I’d bet that one of these days, the kids will feel the same way.

PS: w00t! Just took a nerd test, check this out! I’ve decided to post it on all my nerd related items.

Supplies for a Math Box ‘O Fun
- A box — I used one from a soundcard
- Foam craft sheets (I bought a pack of 48 and I have more than half left over)
- Permanent Markers
- Scissors
- A ruler for measuring and drawing grids
- Empty plastic Easter eggs (for a favorite game the kids made up)
- Cheerios, Fruit Loops, M&Ms, or any other small countable object that’s age appropriate for your kid.
- IF your kids are past the mouth-exploration stage and are somewhat patient, perler beads (the plastic ones you put on a peg board and fuse with an iron) make a great learning tool.
- Baggies (again if they’re age appropriate) or small containers to hold the games
- I’ve also bought math flash cards as the kids get a kick out of these. They get lost / ruined fast though
- Giant Dice (You can make your own with paper polyhedra here)

I had the kids help me make these games whenever I could, and took several days in between each game with several short implementations before ‘letting them’ help me come up with the next activity. They really got excited about it that way.

- Talk about more, less, and equal-to. Put down a few piles of something small and good to eat. Crackers, skittles, halved organic grapes if it suits you. Which pile does the kid want and why? Which has more, which has less? Can they make the groups equal? At first let them ‘just do it’ then ask them how they knew…. My kids’ favorite response, “Cause I took away your money!” made little sense to me, but they got big laughs out of it. They couldn’t really say why what they did made the piles equal, but they thought about it anyway and eventually with a little nudge were able to explain it.

- Cut up a few of the foam sheets to use as ‘cards’ — I wrote numerals on some, operators on others, and evaluators on others still. Keep them in one container and use them with whatever game they happen to be playing. In the more or less game, you can help them count the items in each group and assign a number to them. If you want to, you can even say, “Ah, well if you have five skittles and I have seven, let’s take away one of mine (put down 7-1) and give it to you (5+1) .. now we both have six! (=6)” If they don’t get it yet that’s okay. They’ll still get a kick out of the game and will pick up that idea sooner than you think.

Number cards made of foam so they don

- A whole foam sheet with a grid drawn on it serves well to list the numbers 1-100. They start to notice how the numbers line up, and it makes a great tool for counting items. You can make one of these grids for each of you if you’d like for your more or less game.

- Sequences: Mary loved discovering that 1+1=2, 1+2=3, 1+3=4, etc. As you can see here, I also let her be extremely creative in her dress and hair styles.

An eclectically dressed four-year-old playing with addition cards and m&ms -- not sure how my camera was so whacked out on this one

- Eventually help them discover that they can group the objects into 10s for easier counting. Once I felt like they had that idea down, I sat down with them and used another whole sheet of foam labeled it with columns for ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands. We only used the ones and tens for the most part but it helped get the idea down.

- We also made toys out of perler beads by fusing them into sticks of tens, squares of hundreds, and then taking ten hundreds to show a cube of a thousand. The kids had a blast making these into patterns for each 100 set too.

perler bead blocks

- Yet another whole foam sheet with a grid makes a nice learning tool for times tables. Put six objects across for example, and three down, and let them discover how the numbers magically add up to 18 (which happens to be the very number they put the last item on! – trust me they’ll find this amazing!)

- Estimating: My kids LOVE guessing games. One game Mary made up involved putting a few of the counting objects in an empty plastic Easter egg and having me or Ethan guess how many objects were inside it by shaking it, etc. Whoever got closest, won the loot. Or for guessing right on, she’d put out three numbers (using the aforementioned cards) and we’d have to guess which number was correct.

- Another fun guessing game: Have them pick numbers and roll dice to see whose number comes up. So they grew up in Vegas, what can I say.

- Dividing: Give them a group of items (number it with the cards) and a group of people (or stuffed animals) to share them between. Let them figure out how to divide the items up fairly.

- Cookie fractions: Trace circles on your tan foam sheets and make them look like cookies. You can half some of these (write 1/2 and .5 and 1 divided by 2 on the backs). Cut others into thirds, fourths, fifths (make a Y shape and then divide the two larger sides into two to get pretty close fifths), etc. Play game about dividing them up fairly.

- The Dollar Challenge: Visit a penny candy store (or a vendor of penny novelties if you don’t want to rot their teeth – but I’m a bad mom that way) and let them spend up to one dollar. If they go under, their loss. They can’t go over because they won’t have enough to pay for it. (I give them the six cents extra for taxes since I’m not expecting them to calculate that just yet)

Anyway, the point of all these is to keep it fun and let them be CREATIVE. It’s a bit like investigations math, but with a little one-on-one encouragement and gentle direction. And they eat it up.

Also be sure to check out the National Library of
Virtual Math Manipulatives and Cyber Chase Online for some super games they can play on their own.

Mary’s anxious to learn how to write, but more often than not, her only examples of manuscript are notes I’ve jotted in cursive. Even when I’m -trying- to print for my kids, I have a hard time keeping the letters in block. So she’s decided that pretty handwriting’s got to have curls. While the results would definitely not win points for readability, I do think I’ve got a future fontographer on my hands. (I’ll include a scan at the end of the article so you can see what I mean)

Ethan, tragically, seems to have lost his spark since starting school. He’s annoyed that his kindergarten teacher demands initial caps followed by lower-case on his name, as he’s been writing ETHAN forever. We were starting to fill out valentines for his class, when I asked, “Ethan, remember… Which letters in your name are supposed to be capitalized?”

He sighed: “There aren’t any I’s in ‘Ethan’, Mom.” Ethan’s other quip isn’t as cute, in fact it has me a little worried. Ill share it anyway hoping someone out there can identify. He just finished “Sideways Stories from Wayside School” from the public library, but he’s only allowed to choose books from the kindergarten shelf on libary day. Frankly, he gets a little frustrated with the arrangement. I talked to his teacher about this, and she said that she can’t allow him to choose more advanced books, and also that his writing isn’t nearly as advanced as his reading. She suggested we challenge him by having him write a sentence about each book he reads. He’s not so excited about that, either.

The other day he got out of school pleased as punch that he’d checked out a book called “School” that has no words at all. I said, “Well, you’re going to have to think of a sentence to write about it anyway… why don’t we try to think of one now so you can write it when you get home?” I quelled his protests with a short pep talk on how he’d like it once it was easy for him, and how it’d be really easy for him soon if he just practiced a little. He sat looking out the window, silently sulking for a moment or two as we pulled out of the parking lot, till I heard him mutter under his breath, “I hate school.”

I tried not to flinch. Not quite knowing how to respond or what to do, I asked, “Why did you say that?” Without breaking his stare out the window, he grumbled, “It’s a sentence!” We’re working on that. Some days go better than others.

Anyway, I’ve still got one kid excited about writing (at least till she reaches kindergarten, eh?). Here’s that promised picture of her curly handwriting.

Translation from this cutie

One more strange kid story added 2/5/7 :
Mary had something in her eye (carpet fuzz more likely than not) and was hysteric about it. After checking to see if I could get it out (I couldn’t even see it) I told her to blink alot. I even gave her an eye drop, and between that and the blinking she felt better in a minute.

Mary: Ah that feels better now.
Ethan: Why do we blink?
Me: Why do you think we blink? (my standard answer to almost any question is ‘what do you think?’)
Ethan: I dunno, you tell me.
Me: Well, it helps your eyes to stay clean and wet. (they stare in wonder) Yup, did you know our eyes have to stay a little bit wet?
Ethan: Noooo, I didn’t.

And now for the Mary-ism: I guess that means we can’t kiss with our eyes in igloos, either.

I’m always amazed how little minds can go a mile a minute in so many different directions :-p

I’ve seen how domineering and cruel some men can be, even in America, even in the nicest towns, justifying their actions and attitude by their gender alone. I can’t imagine what it’d be like to be a woman in a country that honors the female gender less. I’ve personally experienced gender-bias and harassment in the work place, and nearly everywhere else at one time or another. Sadly, I have seen women allow themselves to be treated this way. I have fought against it, I appreciate what has been done to fight it, and I encourage every individual and society as a whole to continue and even strengthen their efforts against this long-standing plague.

I have also noticed the popular thought that “All Men Are Idiots” where men are constantly equated with Homer Simpson — Homer himself has become less a jerk and more an idiot over the past several years to accommodate this trend. You’d be less than observant if you hadn’t noticed that media that portrays males as dolts is generally accepted, where anything that so much as hints at females having different qualities (even former Maya and Miguel theme-song) causes an outrage. I’ve been in situations where a less-qualified woman was given preference over a more-qualified man, just to “make things fair”. And has anyone met a Stay-At-Home-Dad who hasn’t been completely debased by his peers and society as a whole?

Until the vocal leaders of the feminist movement care more about fairness, freedom, quality of life, and a better world than they do about power and revenge, they will continue to spin their tires, burning rubber, causing far too much stink, and weakening their stand in the process. And as much as I abhor the term, this woman must be the reason Feminists have come to be called Feminazis. Check out this article, a commentary by Albert Mohler. I haven’t read the rest of his site. Glancing over it, I can’t say I’d agree with him on very many things; just the fact that he does talk radio jumps out and bites me, as life has conditioned me to associate talk radio with contention and manipulative advertisement. No offense to my friends and family who love it; besides that’s an argument for another day. An article on ABC News confirms a few of her quotes.

“I am saying an educated, competent adult’s place is in the office.” ~Linda Hirshman

Now if she were to read my resume I’m sure she’d say I don’t qualify as ‘educated’ but I should hope she’d admit I am competent, even though I totally disagree with her. I think she would.

If an educated, competent adult’s place is in the office, who is left to raise our children? By the way, if you visited my site and saw this article half-written, here’s why: I’d stepped away from my computer for a moment. My child, and I don’t know which one, but the oldest is four, tried to take over the computer while I was away, but was considerate AND competent enough to save my work first. Granted, he or she did not save it to the drafts folder like I would have, but the article was nonetheless saved. And so for a short time you saw a half-written article posted on my front page before I got this back to drafts.

If my children were being raised by an uneducated, incompetent adult, how would they know to do such a thing? My children are absolutely BRILLIANT. They are as creative as they are analytical. Look at the rising generation and ask yourself how different the world might be if we left child rearing to the most competent and caring individuals, instead of leaving them in day-cares staffed by those unfortunately uneducated and uncomplicated souls. Not that all day-cares are like that, but too many are filled with people who just don’t care about kids.

“One of the things I’ve done working on my book is to read a lot of the diaries online. And their description of their lives does not sound particularly interesting or fulfilling for a complicated person, for a complicated educated person. It’s physical, but it’s repetitious.” ~Linda Hirshman

Changing diapers is repetitious, yes. In fact, I’m sure any parent would agree, if we could afford to hire someone just to take care of the ‘complicated’ diapers we would. Fortunately there’s so much more to parenting than diapering.

Ethan, “Maybe this is the biggest thing we ever have gotten!”

Ethan, “Do you know why it’s called a SHELL shocker?”

Mary, “It’s the tigger toy!” They both adored this one – you squeeze his nose and he does cartwheels.

Mary, on opening her toy kitchen from Ethan, tore off a tiny piece of wrapping paper and said, “Oo, we can have a party with this!” and stood and played with the scrap of paper. Ethan promptly reminded her, “MARY – you gotta open the present!” So she pulled off a bigger scrap of paper and started playing with it as well I can’t remember what she called it – something like a “Dooly-gig” Once she finally did open her present, she was happy to find “Dora’s Kitchen” inside (We won’t tell her this one really isn’t Doras – those were way overpriced!).

Ethan was thrilled at the present from Daddy to Mary – the ezbake oven. Mary said, “This can make real treats!” Ethan, on observing a boy on the box happily exclaimed, “I told you this is a toy for boys too!” Both are now contently playing with the fake food I bought to supplement the pretend kitchen.

On the types of gifts I give: Ethan opened a book and exclaimed “This one must be from Momma!” And daddy knew just what to buy me – the Crayola Crayon maker (melts old crayons down into new ones).

Both kids, no matter the present, were quick to give thanks and adulation. “Ohh… this is just what I wanted!” “My Favorite!” “I LOVE this!” “I have the best brother!” “I have the best sister!”

Well I have the happiest Christmas kids I’m a lucky momma.

Wow, I thought I’d start writing down what the kids said. Looks like I forgot to write the context though   I’ll type what I remember..

Ethan: “Wait for it, wait for it!! Surprise, mom cooked lunch!”  — He was surprised I’d -COOKED- lunch instead of giving them sandwiches or cucumbers or whatever.  But it just came out funny.

Ethan, to his uncle Frank: “Want to try this treat I made?”  (Unfortunately I can’t remember what it was, but it seems like it was a piece of Chex Muddy Buddies.)

Frank, to Ethan: “Oooh, looks great. Like the Cereal of Doom.”

Ethan to Frank: “K, but this one doesn’t have any fire and stuff on it, just sugar.”

Peanut Butter Princesses
As part of our bedtime routine I ask the kids to think some of their favorite thoughts (in hopes to prevent nightmares) as they’re dosing off. Mary’s favorite thought one of those nights:
“Peanut Butter Princesses, jumping over fences, landing in puddles of chocolate!”

The Thinkers
Today the kids call me in saying, “Momma! We have a surprise for you!” Remembering yesterday’s surprise of a bar of soap magically pasted to the wall, or last week’s “rocket” built of shish kabob skewers, Styrofoam cups, and shortening “glue”, I was a bit worried.

To my relief, they’d only taken all of the cushions off the couch and stacked them to a TV-height bench with a “footstool” and were sitting there posed, each with their head on one hand and the other hand at their waist, staring out the window. It took me a minute to realize what the meant by saying they were “just like the chucky cheeses commercial”, but once I figured it out, they were right: Chucky Cheese has what I call a “mini-mercial” on the PBS Kids shows they sponsor. It says, “Chucky Cheeses – helping kids discover the joy of developing their bodies, AND their minds.” They show a picture of a kid in “Thinker” position on that last part.

Ethan’s Random Quote:
Mommmaaa! I just gotted up off the couch and pretended I was a 40 year old boy!

Anyway, they’ll be wanting some more abacus entertainment (I’d ordered one for Ethan’s birthday and it just arrived yesterday) so I’m off to take care of that.