With detachable sections ready for launch, this, I believe, is the craft of the hour.

The pattern is priced at a well-deserved $5.

Now nearly seven, we've been allowing Z to stay up and play quietly in her room after her bedtime routine. To our surprise, after some typical toy play sessions she has turned this evening hour or so (she typically declares herself tired enough to go to sleep by around 9:30) into one of the most productive periods of her day. Some evenings she rounds up scissors and tape, paper and string, raids our recycling bins, and emerges with an invention or doll outfit. Other nights she develops songs to sing to us or dance routines.

"Superbaby" (our name, not hers) is what she made a few nights ago, out of some deflated balloons.











We'll write something up about Z's "free-range" bedtime for anyone who's interested!

Z has been pretty interested in Jenni's knitting lately, and we've had several experiences of adult crafts being very challenging for her and quickly abandoned. But Z picked up finger knitting in about half an hour, and has been knitting little scarves madly ever since - on the couch in the evenings, in the car while we drive her around, and so on. Finger knitting is commonly taught in Waldorf education, and is great for hand-eye coordination, finger dexterity, and fine motor development, and is a great first craft - it has made Z very proud of something she can sit and make herself.

Here's Z explaining the process she uses. Specific steps vary, and this is pretty much as simple as it gets.


So far she has made doll scarves and is working on one for a human being who shall not be named at this time.

Here's another demo video that just might be enough to get you and your child started, if Z's explanation wasn't enough for you:


Have fun!

I saved my personal favorite for last.

Z and I adapted instructions from the craft blog Skip to My Lou and made homemade "moon sand" the other day. It was easy to make, and given Z's enthusiastic use of it for the hour or so after we made it, this stuff could give our homemade play dough a serious run for its money.

Most "play sand" is made of pulverized quartz rock. The problem with this form of sand is that it contains crystallized silica, which is a known carcinogen that is nasty for little lungs to breathe in during play sessions. That's why most play sand has a Prop 65 warning on it, required for it to be sold in California. Some play sand also contains a fibrous form of tremolite similar in structure to asbestos that some consumer groups argue is potentially as harmful.

More than you probably wanted to know about sand. One easy alternative is Safe Sand, which is made of feldspathic rock and does not contain crystallized silica. We bought a sample pack of variously colored sand and decided to try it out for our moon sand project.


To make a small batch of moon sand, mix one cup of sand with 1/3 cup cornstarch. Add a quarter cup of water, stir, and add a tiny bit more to get the right consistency, so it can be packed together like sand you'd like to make a sand castle out of. I've never used brand-name Moon Sand before, but that's what I assume it's like.


Z chose to use her sand to make little sand castles. Kinderville cups make great sand castle molds.



You can buy ready-made Moon Sand from Fat Brain Toys or Amazon.com, Safe Sand at Safe Sand's website, and cornstarch at your local grocery store.

Jeremiah and Z have been saving up a variety of items for another "Nature Box," and spent a couple of hours this weekend putting it together. It's more varied than their previous nature boxes, and includes:

• A real or concrete-generated fossil of a small clamshell Z found in our driveway


• A tuft of animal fur from the road, probably rabbit


• Half of a geode purchased at a museum and smashed in our driveway with a hammer


• A painted shell Z bought in on a trip to Galveston with her grandmother


• A dragonfly found in our yard


• Two moths, one found on our porch and the other in our garden


• An inch-long thorny leaf tip from a century plant (large agave) from our driveway


• A dead ladybug and a dead cranefly, both from our home office


• Part of a bird's egg found on a walk in a local park

One of the most interesting developments for this project, though, was the "map" they created in the box lid to identify specimens. Jeremiah drew circles to indicate each object, and then Z labeled them, and learned in the process how the "map" (a legend, really) can show a viewer what is in the box, without directly labeling the objects themselves. We've been working a lot on maps lately - a topic we'll discuss in another post soon on Punnybop, as it all started with a couple of great kids' books - and this plays into that learning well. As Z is busy learning to write, we are also very keen to use applications that are highly purposeful and meaningful to her, and labeling something she can refer to later offers tangible evidence of the value of writing things down!