Category Archives: Spare time – Culture

Spare time - Culture, Storytime

Storytime progress

It’s been slow – rather tedious – and at times torturous – but I’ve made significant progress on my goal to add new storytime lesson plans to my repertoire.  I realized recently that my goal for this fiscal year stated that I would add sixteen lesson plans to reach a total of sixty-seven in my storytime bank…but that actually I would be adding twenty-three new lesson plans, not sixteen, to reach that total of sixty-seven.  Silly me, I forgot that I had made files for some lesson plans that I had not yet created; so I thought that I had fifty plans already on file, but really some of those plans did not yet exist.  But I’m committed to reaching sixty-seven total, and I’m ALMOST THERE!  Only five left!!

Tomorrow’s storytime is on Sickness and Health, with two fun featured stories:  Llama, Llama, Home with Mama by Anna Dewdney and Guess Who, Baby Duck! by Amy Hest.  None of the books I pulled for this week would work in a feltboard format (feltboard stories can’t be forced, I’ve learned), so I’ve decided instead to have a bear puppet come visit storytime.  The poor little bear isn’t feeling well – he has the sniffles and the sneezes and his throat is sore – so we’ll tuck him up in bed (an Ikea plastic bin with a pillowcase folded to be a pillow and another pillowcase as a blanket), feel his forehead to see if he has a fever, and put a box of tissues by his side.  Then we’ll distract the sick bear puppet with some fingerplays and stories and see if he feels better by the end of storytime.

And, meanwhile, just to add verisimilitude, I’m fighting a cold of my own.  Bah humbug.  Lots of echinacea today!  And hopefully a very fun storytime tomorrow…

Spare time - Culture, Storytime

New lesson plans update

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I’ve been completely and totally neglecting my blog lately, but for good reason:  one of my four work goals for this fiscal year was to create new lesson plans for the Storytime for 2’s & 3’s.  Here is my official goal, as submitted at the beginning of the fiscal year:

Create 16 more lesson plans to add to the curriculum for Storytime for 2’s and 3’s.  Lesson plan creation includes selecting 20 to 30 book titles for each theme, creating weekly handouts, choosing fingerplays, rhymes, and songs, and creating feltboard materials (which is done at home on my own time).  This will bring the total number of lesson plans up to 67, which is enough to get through two full years (including summers) with repetition only occurring a few times in those two years (Halloween/Fall, Winter, Spring, Valentine’s Day, Summer, etc.).  Though two and three year olds actually love repetition, parents are never as keen on it, so it is important to  have enough lesson plans to cover the entire period that a child is registered for this storytime.

I knew that this goal, along with my usual reading-done-at-home for the five book groups that meet each month, would seriously impact my ability to write blog posts.  But I didn’t anticipate that it would mean no blog posts for a huge span of time!  But, I am very pleased with how these new storytime lesson plans are turning out, and very happy that I will have enough plans to cover two full years; good for me as the presenter, good for the folks who attend.

One reason these plans have been taking longer than expected is that I have moved beyond my original source for plans, Storytimes for Two Year Olds by Judy Nichols, and am creating everything from scratch.  In her book Nichols provides fifty themes, with suggested book titles for each theme, as well as suggested fingerplays and songs, follow-up activities, craft activities, suggestions on which books to turn into feltboard stories, and so on.  While I’ve always viewed Nichols’ book as a starting point for me, since I am my own person and like to put my creative stamp on my storytimes, having that starting point was absolutely invaluable.  I’ve been totally on my own for these new lesson plans, and thus bring much of the planning work home (in addition to the feltboard work), since creating from scratch takes soooooooo much longer than using someone else’s template.  And my theme ideas haven’t always worked out, meaning that I’ve had to regroup many times…

I’ve had to trash several ideas for themes that seemed good when I chose them, but turned out to have insufficient books available for this age group.  I gave up on “Dragons and Unicorns” after spending a great deal of time searching for and reading picturebooks on these two mythical creatures; fewer picturebooks exist on them than I thought, and those that I found were far too complex and long for my target age group.

Another theme that I thought would be terrific, but didn’t work out at all, was “Royalty.”  Queens, kings, princesses, princes, knights – surely that would be a great topic, right?  Not so much.  I found a few books, but ultimately gave up and completely nixed the theme after deciding that the books I had found (both in my library and other libraries) were either too long or too dull or both.

And “Snakes.”  Great idea, especially since we have a couple of terrific snake puppets that I’ve been dying to use.  But a total washout in terms of books that are available.  I finally had the great idea to take the snake idea and broaden it out to “Pets.”  The snake puppets still got used, and I found a tremendous number of great books.

Why so many books, you ask?  Partly to include in the weekly handout, which I know many parents use as a source for age-appropriate books for their children.  Partly so that there is a stack of books available for checkout by the kids and their parents on the day of the storytime (which many families love).  And partly so that there are thirty or so books on display in a ring around the carpet squares in the room; these books are there for the Quiet Time section of the storytime, as recommended by Nichols.  I’ve grown quite fond of the Quiet Time section, and love seeing the caregivers each reading to their children – it’s a terrific way to take the reading skills learned during the storytime and bring them back to their everyday one-on-one at home usage.

And on that note, I think that I had better get to work on the handout and lesson plan for Monday’s storytime, theme of Spring…wish me luck!

Jewelry Making, Spare time - Culture

Before I talk about Silverfin…

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I’m in the midst of reading Silverfin by Charlie Higson (“A James Bond Adventure”), in preparation for the 6th grade book group meeting on Tuesday, and I’ll be writing about the book here once I’ve finished it.  But until then, here are photos of my two latest jewelry creations.  The necklace with the red crystal beads is a prototype of my own design, rather flawed – but it was a great learning experience, and great fun to create my own woven design.  The copper diamond pendant necklace is currently wending its way to my sister’s house via first class mail (click on images to enlarge):

Jewelry Making, Spare time - Culture

More woven jewelry

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It’s official: I love making woven jewelry.  I’m still using designs and instructions from Jodi Bombardier’s book Weave Wrap Coil, but I’m just about ready to strike out on my own with my own designs (I even woke up this morning with a great idea for a star pendant, which I promptly sketched out for future reference).

Yesterday Jim and his band were at an all-day recording session – the CD they cut sounds great – which meant that I had an entire day, minus two hours to watch the season two finale of Downton Abbey, in which to make jewelry.  Fran’s birthday was a couple of days ago, so I thought I’d make her a ring, which of course means making a prototype/test model first (never give someone the first version of a piece of jewelry, unless you’re really really good, which I’m not).  The two rings that I made are vastly disappointing; one, a coiled ring with a bead between bead caps, looks cute on the table but a bit odd on the hand.  The second, a knotted woven ring, frustrated me beyond measure.  I made a long straight stretch of perfectly woven wire (best weaving I’d ever done), which I then wrapped around a ring mandrel, then took the two ends and tied them in a knot as instructed.  The ring looked great…but the flaw of the design (or perhaps, to be fair, my execution of the design) became clear once I snipped the ends of the knots on the underside of the ring.  No amount of filing could smooth those ends sufficiently to keep my finger from being cut by them, and the more I worked on making the ring smooth, the more screwed up my formerly beautiful weaving became.  It’s a mess, and way too sharp to be worn.

So then I decided to finish with a pair of earrings to match the necklace and pendant I made two weeks ago.  And I LOVE those earrings!  In my stash of beads I found small white freshwater pearls that dangle perfectly and add the right spark of brightness to the deep purple of the wire.  And my weaving looks terrific on these earrings – even and flawless.  I’m thinking that perhaps a pair of these earrings, in silver with black freshwater pearls, would be the better solution for a birthday gift for Fran…and I’m guessing my sister will probably want a pair, too…and Judy’s birthday is today…and then I’m hoping to have a booth at the farmer’s market this summer, and I would wager that these earrings would be a big seller, if I can make enough of them.

Here are the photos of yesterday’s projects – click on images to enlarge, and please leave feedback for me (good and bad, I’ll take it all).  Also note that some of the photos are a bit dark because I used the macro setting on my camera to show more detail.  Update at 3:15 PM:  Just finished – hot off the pliers, so to speak – the earrings in silver with black pearls:

Jewelry Making, Spare time - Culture

Woven wire jewelry

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Since last November, I’ve been carefully studying the book Weave Wrap Coil: Creating Artisan Wire Jewelry by Jodi Bombardier.  Bombardier’s projects are so cool, so unique, and so beautiful, and I couldn’t wait to try out a few.  But then, as these things go, the more time I spent studying the instructions and the photos, the more impossible the projects seemed.  I hit a wall – a wall of intimidation – and it looked like I wasn’t going to ever try to make any of these rings or bracelets or necklaces, especially not with expensive silver wire.

But then I realized that I could purchase “Artistic Wire” in the two required gauges, 16 and 26, for a mere $10.00…and probably have enough wire for two entire projects.  And so today I finally got up the guts to try the first project in Bombardier’s book, the Diamond Pendant and matching handmade chain, using purple wire.

Progress was a little rough at first, as I tried to figure out how to weave with wire, but I was amazed by how quickly I caught on to wire weaving.  It’s a bit like sewing with wire, and as long as you’re careful not to kink the wire, it’s actually pretty easy.  The weaving style required for this Diamond Pendant reminds me of the technique used to create my favorite Greek leather wrap bracelets; wrap once around one side of the frame, then over and under and back to the other side of the frame.  Very fun.

And so, after about two hours, I had finished my first wire weaving project and its matching handmade chain and clasp.  And it doesn’t look too amateurish, either.  I’ll wear it to work with pride tomorrow!  (Click on images to enlarge.)

Jewelry Making, Spare time - Culture

I think I had fun…

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Most of my creative energy lately has been spent on home improvement projects and not on jewelry making, so I promised myself that today I was Going To Have Fun and Make Some Jewelry.

In my mind I envisioned a beautiful simple silver necklace and some funky silver earrings with multiple circles.  So I got out a piece of paper and my jewelry supplies and “designed” the earrings, with the intention of designing the necklace after the earrings were finished.  Simple design, quick project completion – or so I thought.

My first attempt at the earrings used some 18 gauge scrap silver wire from a previous project, which I wrapped around the empty pill bottle from Ophy’s recent prescription to make a one inch diameter circle.  Next I cut an inch and a half piece of oval silver chain (a splurge purchase from a few months ago), which I attached by one end to the earwire.  Then I hammered the silver circle to give it texture, and slid the circle on to the first and last links of the chain.

Thinking to myself that I was pretty smart, I then starting wrapping 22 gauge wire around the two ends of the circle to join those ends together.  The first attempt at wrapping failed miserably, as the ends kept popping apart and the 22 gauge wire ended up completely misshapen and unusable.  So I discarded that wire (against my frugal Yankee nature) and tried again.  And failed again.

By this time I was completely frustrated, and decided to try using a 3 mm silver plated bead to join the ends of the circle.  I don’t own crimping pliers, and this wasn’t a crimp bead, so it was taking a chance to try to squish it together with my chain nose pliers.  It didn’t work.  In anger I took out my hammer and smashed the bead (something it’s not made to withstand, so it split a bit) – and surprisingly, the circle stayed together.  Ugly, but secure, and now unusable for the earrings, since it wasn’t attached to the chain.

I failed similarly with my second attempt, and this time took to stretching and hammering the second circle until it was sort of a curlicue, albeit a distressing looking curlicue.  What the heck, I thought to myself, and I joined these two failed attempts together to make a rather odd, misshapen pendant, which I’ll probably never wear (see below).

But now I’d figured out what I needed to do, and since I was out of scrap wire I switched to silver-filled wire, once again wrapping the wire around the old pill bottle, but this time overlapping the ends by approximately a centimeter.  This allowed me to successfully wrap the smaller wire around the two ends of the circle.

Next I wrapped wire around a Sharpie to make a smaller circle, once again with overlapping ends, which I installed on the second and fifth links of the chain.  I wrapped those ends to secure them, and one of the earrings was finished; I repeated the steps – not always easy to pull off for an amateur like me – and then had a complete pair of matching earrings.

They’re not beautiful, and I’m not sure how much I’ll actually wear them, but I did learn a lot through the process of making them.  Obviously I need to do a lot more of this type of practice in order to get good enough to make jewelry that a) stays together and b) other people might want to wear.  Click on the images below to enlarge, if you want to see the details of my less-than-perfect jewelry from today:

Children's literature, Spare time - Culture, Young adult literature

T.A. Barron

Just got home from a lovely author visit at Willow Books in Acton – we went to see T.A. Barron, who just happens to have lived for the first ten years of his life in the town in which I work.  A year and a half ago he graciously came to our library for an evening event, and it was such a fabulous evening, with many people coming to hear him speak who had grown up with him or known his parents.  Truly the most unique and special event we’ve had at the library, in my opinion.  And it was so nice to see him this evening: he’s an incredibly intelligent, well-spoken, kind, and gracious man, and it’s so neat to watch him interact with his younger fans.  He remembers their names, he references letters that they have written to him, and he encourages them in their love of reading and their dreams of becoming writers.  In this age of technology it’s heartening to witness old-fashioned human connection, especially with books, real books, as the backdrop.

Etc., Spare time - Culture

Vacation Checklist

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Or:  How To Cram a Year’s Worth of Living Into Two Weeks

Or:  Confessions of a Crazy Lady

Items completed:

  • Teeth cleaned
  • Saw eye doctor for annual checkup
  • Refinanced mortgage
  • Got 15 yard dumpster
  • And filled it with stuff from the basement
  • And the garage
  • And the rest of the house
  • Which means that I (and Jim):
  • Cleaned the basement
  • Cleaned the garage
  • Cleaned all those forgettable corners in the rest of the house
  • Gathered together lots of stuff from all those areas for our upcoming yard sale
  • Painted 2 coats of Super White paint on door and window trim and baseboards in the bathroom and the foyer (and there’s a lot of trim in those two rooms)
  • Touched up dark blue paint in bathroom
  • Repainted foyer walls
  • Worked really really hard (and not necessarily successfully) to get dried paint drops off of the new tile floor in those two rooms
  • Stocked up on basic necessities for Hurricane Irene
  • Survived Hurricane Irene without any damage
  • Got chimney cleaned
  • Got water meter replaced
  • Got annual gas line safety checkup
  • Got quote on repairs to our crumbling chimney
  • Had Jim’s (small) birthday party
  • Started construction of new front steps
  • Read three books:  Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos; One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street by Joanne Rocklin; and The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner
  • Packed up two boxes of books to sell at the used bookstore
  • Investigated opening an account at Alibris to sell three books that have some value
  • Spent quality time with Ophy and Pippa

Items not yet completed:

  • Relax
  • Read more books
  • Write more blog posts

All in all, I’d say it’s been a great vacation.  And, there are still five days left!  Plenty of time to accomplish more…

Children's literature, Spare time - Culture, Young adult literature

From vacationland

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Today is the third day of my vacation – yay – and just a quick check-in from the land of projects and reading.

Projects scheduled for this vacation include filling the dumpster that arrives tomorrow (thus gaining much space in garage, yard, and basement); preparing for our upcoming yard sale; finish painting in our glorious new bathroom; and final coats of paint on the front and back doors.  And maybe we’ll be able to build those front steps that we’ve been procrastinating on – Jim dug and poured the cement footings last year, so it shouldn’t be too hard to complete the project.  Plenty of stuff to keep me very busy!

Reading that is planned for this vacation includes:  The Glorious Adventures of the Sunshine Queen by Geraldine McCaughrean; Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos; The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente; and a few books from that pile of to-be-read books that has been dejectedly glaring at me from the shelf in the living room for two years.  And if anyone has a suggestion of a *fabulous* book that I simply *must* read, please do list the title in the comments…

I’ll post reading and project updates as time allows!

Librarianship, Library events, Spare time - Culture, Storytime

A better year

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For various reasons, today is my own personal New Year’s Day, and I have a bunch of resolutions for this coming year:

–  I’m going to attend my first highschool reunion, which makes me simultaneously cringe and wonder at the possibilities.  Maybe I’ll reconnect with some cool people.  Maybe.  And hopefully there will be good food.

–  I’m going to step outside my comfort zone (I hate that term, but it does describe the feeling well) and get trained in the “Every Child Ready to Read” program from the American Library Association, with the intention of presenting the program to parents in a series of seminars.

–  I want to, and need to, add some new lesson plans to my repertoire for the Storytime for 2’s and 3’s.  I already have a list of themes that I want to develop, and I’ve already ordered some cool puppets to supplement those themes.  Now to just put in the time to create and develop…

–  I’m looking forward to exploring some additional afterschool programs for the library.  I’ve already got a lot of ideas, so the thought is to schedule these programs and see how they run.  (And no, I’m not going to preview these ideas here first!  But I will let you know how they do…if they’re a success.)

–  I’m looking forward to spending some more time making jewelry.  If only the price of silver would cooperate with my plans and drop to a reasonable level.

–  For this year’s book groups, I’m going to insist that the kids of the older groups trust my judgement and let me pick half of the books (they get to pick and vote on the other half).  I feel like we haven’t been reading enough new fiction lately, and our reading has also been far too fantasy-heavy.  Time for some different genres.

–  And maybe this year will be the year that we “finish” work on our house.  We’re sooooo close, and I really think that we can do it.  It would be nice to transition into maintenance mode from renovation mode.  (And even nicer to have guests over without feeling like we need to apologize for all of our unfinished projects.)

–  Oh, and yeah, I’d like to write a best-selling novel, first in a series, that will enable Jim and me to live in the manner in which we’d like to be accustomed.

Happy New Year!