Today we tackled the Sumerian Seal activity outlined in SOTW Activity Guide. This is to demonstrate the fact that in ancient times, most people couldn’t write. So they made their own special seals with their names on it, so they could stamp their “name” when needed.

We did this as a family activity. Here’s Satori rolling flat her piece of clay.

We all carved a pattern in our clay. Satori made a hawk, Dad made a cat, and Mom made a wolf.

Here they are laying out to dry. This is only the first part, but I’m not sure we’ll do the next part. We’re supposed to take wet clay, and press it into this dried seal to make an impression. Then make it into a pendant by making a hole in the top.

If we finish this project, I’ll of course post the results. But somehow, I have a feeling that our wet clay won’t make a very good impression into the above dry seals… I may however, want to redo this as a cool scarab as the project shown in another craft book.

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Satori did almost all the work, and I cannot believe she persevered through it all. She wrote all the names and signed the cards. She stuck on all the stickers and items, and stamped the  hieroglyphs.

Yep, since Satori memorized her hieroglyphs, she stamped each child’s name in hieroglyphs! She knew all the letters except some rare ones.

We did this assembly line, with Satori doing the writing/sticking/stamping, and daddy doing the gluing and glittering, and mama organizing and addressing the envelopes.

And once we were done, Satori sealed them with a kiss.

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I got in the car and proceeded inch by inch down our steep driveway. Sure enough, the car starts to slide. Anti-lock brakes and letting off on the brakes now and then does not help on this slippery slope. The left side of our driveway is a little cliff. As I was sliding towards that cliff, I find myself eyeing the spindly lodgepole pine trees hoping desperately they would be enough to hold back a large SUV. I stopped just in time. Second try and then the car starts sliding sideways down the hill and at the final moment, again towards the cliff side.  Stopped again just inches from certain death. That’s it, maybe I should give up. I burst into the house and David came to the rescue! He goes down the hill faster than me and the wheels get more traction, and the car made it safe and sound down our driveway! I was able to get the craft items, because that was oh so important you know.

Once at home, I laid out all the craft items along with some print-outs of instructions to make about a dozen ornaments. We all picked a few and chugged away at our masterpieces!

David chose the two coolest ornaments, a gift-wrapped present and sleds.

I made sure Satori got the easy ones – mostly the chenille stem and pony bead type. I was pretty busy managing it all, but I did finish a pair of skis and the reindeer head.

It was a great family activity and a very memorable night. We’ve put a few on our tree and may give a few as gifts. Click the link below if you want to check out how to make these ornaments and more.

Links to making these ornaments

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To make this, blow up a balloon. Then, paste small squares of white paper to it, layering it with a few layers. Wait for it to dry. You do not have to wait two months like we did. After dry, cut out the bottom of the balloon and take the balloon out. It will retain its shape.

Then paint away!

Don’t tell Daddy, but Mama put yet another hole in the wall, this time a ceiling hook. He hates it when I put up holes in the walls, but sometimes it is worth it! The above photo is my perspective looking down on Satori painting while I was trying to get the hole in the ceiling. Once she was done, we attached a little basket I got from a craft store. You can also use an empty matchbox or make your own.

Then, the finished Hot Air Balloon, floating from our ceiling! The girl is almost falling out, Grandpa, pull her back!

Now, we have to cuddle up, the locals tell me it is supposed to reach negative 34 degrees tonight!

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Kumon little workbooks

Here’s a sample page of what we did this morning. Satori had to cut into the paper, but stop at a specific point. Then she had to fold up a little “cage” for the tiger.

Caged Tiger

Enough of that, let’s get to the fun stuff! Here is the first of our “slides”, a cutting activity recommended in Artistic Pursuits. She cut the line in the strip, then taped the end, and then walked the fairy girl to her friend. We had 4 other types, the others were wavy lines (fish to mermaid), curves, zig-zigs and more.

For this activity, I had used our fantabulous Magic Cabin catalog that I drool over every time we get it. Maybe we can’t afford all their cool, natural toys, but we can cut out their super adorable, whimsical drawings they use in their catalog! We had cute fish, mermaid, bouncy, swinging, playing children in no time.

Magic Cabin - catalog

Then, on to our “heart of love” activity, also suggested by Artistic Pursuits as cutting practice. (By the way, I placed all these activities in separate workboxes, so they were all set to go. We haven’t started the workbox system  quite yet, but I see it’s benefits and hope to get into this one day.)

Heart of Love workbox

Satori practicing her snipping…

Cutting pink strip of paper

We elaborated by dusting heart and glitter sparkles over the glue that we used to glue the two wax paper hearts together. Satori then ran up to a still-sleeping Daddy to give him his “Heart of Love”! It now hangs in his office.

Good morning Daddy, I love you!

I told Satori we’ll practice cutting, taping, folding, pasting a lot more now. She’ll soon be an expert in no time!

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I was out shopping yesterday, and as I’m always looking for things to build our craft resource center, I came across this Foam Creations set. I realized today it only makes 3 animals in a specific way, but you can make several of each, although we only needed one.

Foam Creations

In just a few minutes, we had these 3 cute little creature puppets!

Elephant, Monkey and Lion puppets

Makes me feel a wee bit guilty, using something so obviously commercial. I promise we will do some more “crafty” crafts soon!

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