Geography Cards Weeks 7-12

Ok, so I sat down tonight and finished weeks 11 and 12, finally! This file has weeks 7-12, but just the last 2 weeks are new since the last post. Hope you enjoy!

Geography Cards Weeks 7-12

Whew! I have been so busy. I'm sorry it took me so long to get these up for you all! I just did weeks 7-10 for now because I figured it was better to get them up sooner rather than later and I just haven't had a chance to work on weeks 11-12. Enjoy!

**** 2023 Edit -- I have included 7-12****


Cycle 3 Geography Cards Weeks 7-10

Cycle 3 Geography Cards -- States and Capitals

In a few short days, we will be starting our second year of Classical Conversations.  Last year, I was a substitute tutor and my son was the only one of my children in Foundations, as the girls were in preschool. This year, all 3 of the older kids will be in Foundations and I will be the girls' tutor.

The talented Melody Stroud made some beautiful Geography cards for Cycle 2 that I just loved.  I was hoping she'd make some this year for Cycle 3, but that wasn't her plan so she graciously passed the torch to me. Melody had been passed the torch from Crecia at Taking It One Day at a Time who was the creator of these Cycle 1 cards.

I debated for a while about how exactly to choose the photos for the cards. I thought it might get boring to use only pictures of the state capitals. So while some of the cards show a photo of a landmark in the state capital, or the capital's skyline, many of the cards show God's creation, rather than Man's. I have also used well-known landmarks from other cities for particular states, such as NY. My goal was not to be perfectly "correct" but instead to create visually pleasing cards. I'm a visual learner so I used the pictures that I liked the best. If you choose to use these cards, it would be wise to explain to your children that not all of the pictures will be of the state capital to avoid confusion.

Whew! With that out of the way, here are the cards for weeks 1-6. I hope you enjoy them! I'll post weeks 7-12 soon.

Planets Necklace

One of my son's favorite things about science is the fun projects we do together. I got the idea to make a "planet necklace" from Pinterest and began searching for beads that looked like planets. I found this gorgeous necklace on etsy, but wasn't willing to pay $32 when I was certain we could make our own for a lot less money.  

My first stop was a local "beads and baubles" shop about 10 minutes from my house. I was hoping to avoid having to drive farther but we struck out. The store had some beautiful beads, but at ~$5 each, this was out of my price range.  

We also tried making our own salt dough beads. The kids enjoyed rolling the dough around, but the beads cracked during the drying process and were unusable. I wasn't too disappointed -- I had wanted beads that wouldn't require painting.

So I went back to the idea of buying beads that already looked like planets. I searched and searched online, but didn't come up with anything that fit what I was looking for.  

My next move was to make the drive to the bigger chain craft stores. I tried Hobby Lobby first. Their beads were 50% off and I found beads suitable for every planet except Jupiter! I agonized over every planet but by the time I was done, I was very pleased with my finds.  

I was not able to find a good Jupiter at Hobby Lobby, so I trekked over to JoAnn. Their beads were 50% off as well! I found a perfect set of beads to use as Jupiter and went home happy.  

The Materials and Cost

The Mercury beads came in a set of 46 beads for $2.99, or $0.03 per bead after 50% discount.

The Venus beads came in a set of 14 beads for $2.99, for a price of $0.11 per bead after discount.

I loved these Earth beads. They came in a set of 13 for $4.99, or $0.19 per bead after discount.

The Mars beads came in a set of 9 beads for $2.99, or $0.17 each after discount.

The Jupiter beads were a bit different.  The strand had different kinds of beads and only 3 that I could use for Jupiter.  The strand was $7.99 at full price.  After 50% discount, each usable bead ended up costing $1.33.  By far the most expensive beads, but still reasonable.

The Saturn beads came 8 to a set at $6.99, or $0.44 apiece after discount.

The Uranus beads were $3.99 for a set of 15 beads.  After 50% discount, this came to $0.13 per bead.

Lastly, the Neptune beads came in a set of 15 beads for $2.99, or $0.10 per bead after discount.

I also bought some jewelry wire for $1.99 to make Saturn and Uranus' rings.  It was not on sale. 

I later bought some clear glass seed beads and some clasps at Wal-Mart to complete the necklace. The clasps were $2.00 and the beads were $1.50. I used fishing line that I already had on hand to string the beads.

So all told, the necklace cost a grand total of $7.99. That includes the cost of each individual planet bead, plus the cost of the clasps, seed beads and wire. Of course I used a fraction of the wire, seed beads and clasps, but since it would be almost impossible to determine the exact amount used, I just added the complete cost.  

So if I haven't completely bored and lost you yet, I'll move on to the actual process!

Assembling the Necklace

I started by making the rings for Saturn and Uranus. My Saturn beads were about the size of marbles, so I wrapped the wire around a dry erase marker a few times and then twisted the ends around each other. This made the rings.  

Here is what the rings looked like next to the Saturn bead.

I did the same for the Uranus rings, but made them smaller since my bead was smaller. I wrapped the wire around a regular Crayola marker to get the right size. 

Getting the rings attached to their planet was a little bit tricky. I tried several methods before stumbling upon one that worked. Since Uranus' rings are tipped sideways, this planet ended up being the most challenging. I tied a small length of fishing line to each side of the rings like this:

That way, I had two ends of line coming off of each side of the rings. Then I looped them through the holes of the bead like this:

Those ends later went through the other beads of the necklace for added stability.

For Saturn, I added some filler beads in between the rings and the Saturn bead and just wrapped the fishing line I was using to string the beads around each side of the rings before putting the line through the bead.

I used the filler beads to simulate the distance between the planets.  

I used one of the small black beads that came with the Mars beads to give Earth a Moon. I wrapped the fishing line up around Earth, threaded it through the Moon bead, then threaded it back through Earth a second time. I added an equal number of seed beads to either side of the necklace, added the clasp and that was it! It was a super fun project and my son loves his necklace. I have plenty of leftover beads to make necklaces for my daughters as well.  

The Last Day

Today is the last day of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge!  This week went by really fast.  As I was handwashing a bunch of flats this morning in the bathroom sink, it hit me that today was the last day!  I feel fortunate -- other than my under-preparedness the day of the aquarium and a few leaks yesterday, the week was very uneventful.  

So what did I learn?  Firstly, to be prepared.  If I had been more prepared, I wouldn't have been scrambling to dry diapers with the iron on Friday night.  

Secondly, make sure to have enough diapers to get through 2 days.  I don't, so that means that I HAD to wash every day.  So what if the water is shut off (happened to us once -- hubby paid the electric twice and didn't pay the water by mistake) or you have some emergency that keeps you from washing?  Just makes sense to have enough diapers and covers to last 2 days.  

I think finding a routine that works for you is helpful, too.  Washing after every diaper change was too often for me.  Washing once a day wasn't enough.  The last 2 days I washed first thing in the morning and at lunch. That seemed to work well.  I had enough diapers to get me through the day and the early part of the next morning that way.  I washed at a time when the kids were busy eating so I wasn't being interrupted every few seconds while washing.  So it worked.

I also learned that the little guy doesn't need as much absorbency as I thought he did.  We got along fine with just 2 flats.  I used to put him to bed at night with 2 prefolds and a hemp doubler.  The poor kid had a huge bubble butt!  While he did wake up soaked with the flats, we both survived.  He did fine with a lot less diaper in there. 

It was a little strange to put him to bed tonight in a hybrid fitted (homemade) instead of flats, but I am looking forward to using my washer and dryer again.  I also need to find or make a new wetbag.  The zipper on mine jammed on Friday.  Does anyone have a favorite brand I should look into?


I don't know if I'll take this challenge again next year or not.  He will be over 2 so we may be in undies by then.  My twins potty learned on their own at 23 and 25 months.  If he is still in diapers then I probably will do the challenge again but who knows?  A year is a long time.  So we'll see!  

Hello washer, did you miss the diapers?

Clear Blue Skies

I didn't get a chance yesterday to write a post.  My husband and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary by going out to dinner and leaving the kids home with a babysitter.  So I spent the entire day cleaning the house.  

So it was Day 6 of the challenge.  Yesterday's handwashing went fairly easily.  I did a large bunch of diapers first thing in the morning while the little guy was eating his breakfast and put them out on the line.  They were dry by lunch time.  I washed his morning diapers at lunch and hung them out.  It was a gorgeous day -- clear blue skies, low humidity and plenty of warm sunshine.  Perfect weather for line drying diapers. 

I put him in his g-Pants when the babysitter arrived.  She fed the kids supper and then gave the little guy his bath.  I laid out a pocket stuffed with flats for her to put on him and then I changed him into his night time flats and wool longies when I got home.  

So flats can even work for a babysitter.  If I were going to have a babysitter often and I was using only flats, I would teach her how to use them.  For last night, the pocket worked just fine.

I did notice yesterday that he leaked through a few times.  I don't think I was changing the diapers any less often than the earlier part of the week so I'm not really sure why.  Maybe he just nursed more.  It wasn't a big deal and not something that couldn't be fixed by adding another flat, but just an observation.

We have decided that we are going to go on vacation this summer to the mountains of North Carolina.  We probably won't be camping, but we will be away from home and without a washer and dryer.  So I will most likely be using flats and handwashing again.  I plan to get another dozen flats before then, as well as knit him at least one more pair of longies and probably 1 or 2 shorties.  I'm not sure yet about the 8 hour drive to our first stop, but I have plenty of time to figure that out.  

Now if only we had skies like this every day!

I love days like this.  Line drying is a breeze!

Always be prepared

I made it to Day 5 of the Flats and Handwashing Challenge without anything very interesting happening.  Today was a little different.  I was rushing around last night getting everything ready for our trip to the aquarium and I didn't wash all of yesterday's diapers.  This morning I had the realization that I probably didn't have enough to last all day and since I'd be gone and couldn't wash during the day, we might have a bit of a problem.  Ooops.

So when I packed the diaper bag this morning, I threw in a dish towel, just in case.  That's right.  A striped dish towel.  For the 2 hour trip in the car on the way there, he just wore 2 flats.  When we got there, I wasn't sure about how often I'd be changing him so I put him in a pocket stuffed with a doubler and 2 flats.  This lasted just fine while we were there.  

I put another 2 flats on him for the ride home (which ended up being almost 3 hours because we hit horrible rush hour traffic) which left me with ONE clean flat.  We had to head straight to my older son's soccer game so my poor little guy had to get through an hour of soccer and then supper in that one flat.  

After we finished eating, I quickly washed his nighttime flats and was ironing them to get them dry when the little guy pointed to his diaper and said, "Eee-yew."  Sure enough, he had pooped.  So he got to run around naked while I finished my ironing.  He promptly peed on the floor twice.  Silly kid.  Thank goodness for tile floor!

So today's question from Dirty Diaper Laundry is: What is working?  For me, the flats and handwashing are working just fine.  Flats are absorbant enough even for overnight, something I was not expecting.  Handwashing does take more time, but it's doable.  I like how trim the flats are.  I love my soft, cushy prefolds, but they are so bulky!  I'm not loving the air drying.  I do dry my prefolds on the line when the weather is nice, but I have enough prefolds to get me through a few days and I can always throw them in the dryer if they're not dry when I need them.  I think the real problem is just that I don't have enough flats to really make it work well.  If I had another 5-10, I'd be fine and I wouldn't be ironing diapers because I don't have any dry ones.  So if we do go camping I'll probably get another dozen.  

Flats take longer to change than pockets.  I've used prefolds with him since he was a newborn, but once he hit the stage where he fights diaper changes, I started using pockets stuffed with prefolds.  They're so much faster to get on.  Especially when he's doing his alligator death roll, I need a diaper that can be put on in seconds!  That's one of the things I like about the g-Pants.  Since they velcro, they're faster than snaps and I can still get them on mid-roll because they velcro in the back instead of the front. 

I have to admit, I was really temped to cheat today.  I mean, who would have known if I had thrown the diapers in the dryer tonight before I gave him his bath?  Who would have known if I had just put a prefold on him for bed?  I would have, and that's what really matters.  So while I was tempted, I didn't cheat.  His flats may not have been 100% dry tonight when he went to bed, but he was wearing flats.  

The aquarium was great.  The kids loved it and the hubby and I are exhausted.  Before I head to bed, I'm going to make sure I have clean diapers to change him into when he wakes up.  

The kiddos looking at the fish.