Make Something Cool Last Project and Final Thought

Since "Make Something Cool Everyday in April" ended 6 days ago I thought I should probably post the last, and by far, (my) favorite project. This one was Chip's baby. He drafted the design, engaged the help of our friend Marj Nedjl and went whole hog measuring, sketching and painting.

He used a projector to sketch the image on the wall.

Some of the gymnasts helped him paint but the design and most of the work was done all by hiim. The end product was very cool and admired by everyone who attended the competition. The design includes from left to right: a falcon, the Sokol logo, the American Flag and the Czech Flag. The words underneath the American flag mean "work hard for success". Excellent job my lad, excellent job!

As for my thoughts about making something cool, I think it is a great idea and we are going to keep it up the rest of the year. Thanks to dabbled for hosting this during the month of April.

Make Something Cool Project 8

We had to pop into Sokol for a coaches clinic tonight so I thought I would post another project. The picklets learned about Lewis Latimer this week. He improved the process for manufacturing carbon filaments in light bulbs. As a "cool" craft project they made these "light brights".

Basically they took a piece of black construction paper and punched holes in it.

Then made a design the black paper with hole reinforcements.

After they colored the reinforcements they glues the black paper onto the yellow paper and voila...a light bright.

Dills is a deku shield.

Sweet's is a heart with an "M" for mommy in it.

Ok, back to the campground. 8-D

(c) 2008-2009 Wicked Pickles

Make Something Cool Project 7

Sweet loves the movie Now and Then. In one of the scenes the girls are served "Black Cows" from the waitress they consider a witch. Sweet asked if we could have "black cows" for dessert. Now, I consider that cool. :-D

Sweet poured cold Coke in glasses that have a few scoops of ice cream in them.

Refill when some of the foam goes down.

The foam on the top of the glasses is so cool.

Yummmmmm.


(c) 2008-2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines
All Rights Reserved

Make Something Cool Project 6

Sweet received The Double Daring Book for Girls from the Easter Bunny this year. The last few days have been filled with making these cute little worry dolls.
These are made with twisties from bread bags, cross stitch thread a bead and hot glue. She has really had a lot of fun making these for important people in her life and the resemblance to these people are uncanny. Plus they are pretty darned cool.

Sweet doing the splits in her uniform.

Sweet and her coach. Sweet is in her uniform and her coach is in her instructors shirt.
Sweet and mommy. Sweet is wearing a very cut outfit that matches the outfit she was wearing that day. Notice all the Sweets have purple hair because Sweet wants me o dye her hair purple. I am in a jean skirt and am sporting red hair. She put me in my grey hoodie because I wear one all the time. She even put a hood on the back made from hot glue.
Sweet with grandma and grandpa in their camping clothes.


© 2008-2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines
All Rights Reserved

Make Something Cool Project 5

Thanks to our great friend Marj Nejdl, the picklets decorated fantastic eggs for our fifth make something cool project. The picklets have worked with Marj in the past and made these eggs.

Though we didn't use the "Czech Old World Way" of decorating this time, we did use the technique of dipping and double dipping using the wonderful dye she gave us a couple weeks ago. Marj is a great lady and we are privileged to not only know her but to be friends with her.

Here is a 6 minute video about Marj. It shows a class she gave plus some of her eggs.

If you are interested in learning more about Marj and decorating eggs, here is a lesson plan.

Here are some of the Pickle Family's eggs.

I absolutely love the vibrant colors.

Cool decorated an egg to resemble the world with hurricanes and a tye-dye peace egg.


He used q-tips to tye-dye it.

Chip made this flag/USA egg.


Dill make this purple egg with swords and jewels.

I made my own "tag" egg.

Sweet made a lady bug.


We plan on doing this again soon using the "old world" method so we can keep them.

© 2008-2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines
All Rights Reserved

Make Something Cool Project 4

Our forth project for Make Something Cool was to make this Murabaraba game and learn how to play it. Murabaraba is a game from Lesotho, Africa. It is said that shepards invented this game and played while watching their flocks. Good things come from learning to play this game. It is good for critical thinking and geometry skills.

Sweet glued popcicle sticks together to make the game board and put the dots in the right spots. For the game pieces she cut popcicle sticks into pieces and painted them Hawkeye colors. Though those went into the garbage and beans will be used the next time.

After the game was finished she and I learned to play it. If you want directions on how to make the game and how to play it you can find them here.

As a footnote I would like to say that she beat the pants off me at this game. Everytime I thought I had set her up it turned out that she actually set me up!

Make Something Cool Project 3

Chip has been working on making a wallet that is from the Naruto comic books. He liked the look of it and decided to make one. His sewing skills are amazing. Much better than his mom's, I will tell you that. It reminds me of the sewing projects we had to choose from when I was in junior high. Only this was something he wanted to make and came up with the design himself instead of ordering the materials through a catalog. I am not sure what he is going to do with it because I am pretty sure he isn't going to carry it into a store but it is something he made and that is cool in itself.


(c) 2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Make Something Cool Project 2

The second project was to make new crayons from the old crayons. Pretty simple but very needed.

They broke up the crayons and put them in muffin tins.

Put them in the oven until the crayons melted together.

When they were finished they had crayons that looked alot like Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. Pretty cool!



(c) 2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines
All Rights Reserved

Make Something Cool Project 1

I didn't have anything planned for the picklets to do on the 2nd. I had just found out about it and was planning on starting our projects today. The picklets had an all together different idea. What initiative, what spunk, what I homeschool for!!!

Dill took the book Wizard Crafts and made all kinds of neat wizardry projects not only for him but for Sweet too. He made two magic wands using chopsticks and clothes pins. He made Orbs of Power Necklaces from beads and wire.

He made a lantern too. It looks pretty cool with the glowstick in it.
He also made a feather quill using a pen and cardboard. I love when the creative bug crawls into him!

Sweet worked on a project she has had in her head for a month or so.
She took a leg from a pair of Dill's old jeans and made a jean skirt and vest for her American Girl dolls. She also made buttons so the vest can button shut and a belt out of ribbon.
She made the buttons by cutting popsicle sticks,coloring them and gluing them to beads. She then glued the beads to the vest. She even got the slits in the right place.
I just here with my mouth open when she showed me. Her ingenuity, imagination and self taught sewing skills amaze me!


And where was I when they did all this? I was asleep. Instead of playing Wii or watching TV when we allowed them to stay up late they made this stuff! AWESOME!

What We Did Today

Kind of an odd day. We didn't follow any pattern or rhythm. We just did what we did.

Chip worked on his unit. He is studying Pearl Harbor, a unit he is making himself. More to come on that later.

The other two and I worked together:

We played An Alliteration game inspirited by Thomas Jefferson.

Dill and I worked on the April math Calendar. There really was no working on it, I showed the calendar to Dill and rattled the answers off.

Dill and Sweet saw that I borrowed The Complete Dramitic Works of William Shakespeare The Winter's Tale. Oh boy were they happy, and I am not joking about that. I read that book made for children last week and they loved it so they wanted to watch this. They watched the first and second act while we ate lunch.

Since it is "look for a rainbow day" and National Poetry Month I read The Rainbow by Christina Rossetti aloud. I then dictated the poem to the picklets so they could write it.

We then learned about Life Poetry or list poetry and wrote our own.

We worked on our "Make Something Cool" project.

They played outside.

Dill made an orb necklace, another craft from Wizard Crafts. He also made chocolate mousse for National Chocolate Mousse Day.

Chip sewed a frog change holder from Naruto.

Make Something Cool Everyday in April

Dabbled is hosting Make Something Cool Everyday in April. You can participate when you have the time. Just post about it and let us all know what you have done!

We are planning on participating when we can. It may not be everyday but we will try our best to complete my to-do list.

We are going to have so much fun! Thanks Dot for hosting this!