Home Ed. : Sewing

Today we decided to do some home ed. I needed to repair my favourite long skirt.  It  is maroon with embroidery on, and it is very long.


I found a site that showed you how to repair a tear in clothing.

Read all about it here:  http://diyfashion.about.com/od/mendingandalterations/ss/MendSeam_4.htm

EXTRACT:

Start by inserting your needle where the seam is still closed, about ½ an inch from where the seam has started to open. Start to sew above the existing seam that is still in place. Begin sewing toward the open seam. Sew a few stitches diagonally down so that you work your way to just below the original seam stitch. When you get to the open part of the seam, lay both sides of the seam together and sew in a straight line just below the old seam’s holes.

It may help to use straight pins to hold the open seam together while you sew. If pins make you nervous, masking tape can be substituted by folding it over the top of the seam.

Sew below the holes from the old seam thread to ensure that these holes do not show up while you’re wearing the garment. These holes should be part of the seam, not the visible part of your garment. Continue sewing in small stitches all the way to the other side of the open seam, using the old holes as a guide for a straight line.

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I had a look at my skirt and the repair was slightly different so my mum and I worked out the best thing to do.  I chose the same colour cotton as the dress and threaded my needle.  I made a double stitch to start and then made the same size stitches the same distance apart along the line of the repair, carefully linking the embroidery on both sides.  I ended off with a double stitch.  Afterwards I showed my mum to see what she thought and neither of us could find the repair.  So funny.

Great blog - At Home Science

2KL 4SKL

I found these themed Homeschool Tshirts £7.99 - £9.99

They read:  " KL 4SKL i.e. TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL

Touch typing

I am doing quite well on the home row and the top row.

The first excercises to practice when learning a new letter are quite boring but its the best way to learn.

It goes something like this:

aqa aqa asa aqa aaa qqq

If you type 3 rows of each exercise its easy to see if they line up (No mistakes). If they don't line up then you are making mistakes and need to go slower and concentrate more.

Its all about checking your fingers are on the right keys and then looking only at your exercises not your keyboard or your screen. This trains your brain to remember where the keys and letters are just by your fingers being in the right position.

Obviously if your fingers are not in the right place when you start then you just type garbage. That's quite funny if you have typed a whole lot and did not notice when you started that something was wrong ;)

There are a lot of words you can type using just those two rows! Its quite fun.

There is a website I use after my own practising, to test my mistakes (accuracy) and speed.

http://www.typeonline.co.uk/lesson2.html - I have nearly finished all the exercises in Lesson 2 already with no errors!

I think by the end of this week I will be done with the bottom row as well :)

Here are some words I have been practising:

slow till lilt quail tight yell will those feathers lake pope police hope slope

How I made my homemade card

I'll try and find time to take a photo of this card as the scan does not show how nice it is....:'(

I used some heavy gram watercolour paper and folded it in half.

Then I got some ribbon from my bead box. I criss-crossed the ribbon and used a contact adhesive to glue it onto the front of the card. I then found some items in my bead box for decoration. Then I cut out a heart shape out of cream canvas type material.

I used some gold thick thread to sew blanket stitch around the edges. ( I learn blanket stitch in my homeschool sewing lessons in July). Then I glued the heart to the middle of the criss-crossed ribbon.

I painted some glitter paint over the front of the heart.

It looks awesome. I just love this card.

Then for the inside, I looked for a nice quote on google.com.

http://www.1-love-quotes.com/Top_10_Love_Quotes.htm

I chose this one:

I pasted this into MS Word and chose a cool font. Then I printed it out to fit onto the card. I used a 5B pencil to colour on the back of the card and then wrote over the words on the inside of the card. (I tested it on a spare piece of paper first so that I did not ruin my beautiful card.) This is like using carbon paper.

Then I wrote over the words and it looked cool inside the card (better than my handwriting). I wrote over the words with black fineliner and the initial caps with my calligraphy pen. Then I waited for it to dry before rubbing out the pencil.

Its not bad for my age!! I love it.

I also found some lovely quotes that Helen Keller wrote.

Walking with a friend in the dark

is better than walking alone in the light.

Helen Keller

Happiness cannot come from without.

It must come from within.

It is not what we see and touch

or that which others do for us

which makes us happy;

it is that which we think and feel and do,

first for the other fellow and then for ourselves.

Helen Keller

Some other homeschoolers blogs

These home-schooling blogs are worldwide as there is no need to restrict homeschoolers to their own countries education system.

Other blogs are useful for seeing other peoples experiences be they better or worse than our own. Its also useful to see the links that other homeschooling families have posted and maybe you find something interesting.

If you find just one interesting link or post then thats a good thing for the day :)

Basically all children, worldwide should be learning the same types of things at certain ages, based also on their capability.

A good tip is to look through the older posts on blogs, as they have a lot of info on. (Don't just look at the first page and then close the window) :

http://handmadehomeschool.wordpress.com/

http://www.sarahsellers.co.uk/blog/

http://guiltfreehomeschooling.org/

http://www.squidoo.com/uk_home_education

http://icky.blogspot.com/

http://www.timsellers.net/homeschool/index.html

http://homeschool4us.blogspot.com/

http://ahomeschooljourney.blogspot.com/

http://cinc-house.blogspot.com/

http://homeeducator.blogspot.com/

So by the end of this excerice you may find that you are doing better than other homeschoolers or that you have a lot to do.

You might have heard the term un-schooling and need to look into what that means and if you think it will work for you.

Personally I really enjoy homeschooling and like the mix of my books, the internet and then a little un-schooling. By our un-schooling I mean that there might be something I want to learn about thats not part of what we are doing. Sometimes we put what we are doing on hold and go for what I want to learn about and sometimes we put what I want to learn about on the list for later. Its a good mix.

I do know some families that "unschool" everyday, totally....... and the kids just dont get around to any learning ever, (they just goof off all the time and misbehave).

I also know some families who obsessively work to a schedule. Either way either parents or kids or both get bored. So a good mix works well.

Variety is the spice of life and keeps the interest going.

Home schooling is a journey, enjoy the ride, not just the destination.

Some good links

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks2science.html - primary inter active resources

http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/key-stages-1-and-2/subjects/citizenship/keystage2/index.aspx

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/

http://www.topmarks.co.uk

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize