Tips for Playing "Historical" Dress-Up

   
       When I was teaching high school history, one of my favorite activities to do with my students was called a "Historical Mix and Mingle." I would pick an era of history that we were studying, great examples include the Age of Exploration or the Industrial Revolution and assign the students an important historical figure to research. Students were told to find out as much as they could and hopefully find some sort of photograph (or painting depending upon the era) as a part of their research. On our "Mix and Mingle" day students would come to class and have the chance dressed in character and prepared to be interviewed by other classmates about their historical importance. It was always such a fun day, despite the fact that I made them take notes and fill out a rubric as they went.
    Even though I am not currently teaching it is impossible to leave all of my teaching strategies behind, once a history nerd always a history nerd. As my daughter has gotten older and has started to ask questions and express interest in different parts of history, she especially loves learning about Marie Antoinette. A few years ago I saw a similar idea on Pinterest and it remind me of the activity that I used to do with my students and helped inspire me to use the idea at home with my kids. And it definitely makes playing "dress-up" a lot more interesting. Here are a few tips on how to have fun playing historical dress-up while putting in minimal effort.

1. Read books and biographies. We have read and enjoyed several biographies geared toward young children about important historical people. There are so many great historical biography series out there for kids, one of my favorites being the Ordinary People Change the World books. Keep these books short and simple (depending upon age and interest level).
     Here are some of the books and people we have read about. All of these books are written at a level that elementary school aged students can understand.

Coco Chanel - Different Like Coco by Elizabeth Matthews
Marie Curie - Marie Curie: Scientist Who Made Glowing Discoveries
Amelia Earhart - I Am Amelia Earhart by Brad Meltzer
Audrey Hepburn - Just Being Audrey by Margaret Cardillo
Eleanor Roosevelt - Who was Eleanor Roosevelt? by Gare Thompson
Annie Oakley - Annie Oakley (My First Classic Story) by Eric Blair
Frida Kahlo - Frida by Jonah Winter 
Harriet Beecher Stowe - A Picture Book of Harriet Beecher Stowe by David A. Alder
Queen Elizabeth II - This is London by  Miroslav Sasek

2. Use stuff from around the house. Don't go out of your way to find all of the right stuff, use only what you have. Everything that we used in these pictures was scavenged from my closet, my husband's closet, my daughter's closet, and my jewelry box. Pin, tuck, tie. It doesn't have to fit perfectly, it only has to look like the picture you are basing the pose off of.

3. Conveniently access photos to match during photo shoot. I saved the photos that I wanted to copy to a Pinterest board and held the photo up for my daughter to look at before we dressed up as each character. I told her to do her best to match the facial expression and the pose but to not worry too much if it wasn't perfect. This helped her to be relaxed and to do an awesome job and made it fun for her.

4. Use a simple background. These photos were shot in my doorway. We didn't do anything fancy.

5. The Advantage of Black and White Photos. Because most of the historical photos were black and white already (a few weren't) I didn't have to worry about matching the clothing perfectly. 

6. Use your photos.  I love to read inspirational quotes from historical figures because there is so much that can be learned from them. I wanted a fun way for my daughter to remember learning about each of these people so I paired each picture with a quote and printed them off for her as 4x6 photos.

     We had so much fun playing dress-up that I have no doubt we will do it again sometime. Some of the following might be fun to try: Marie Antoinette, J.K. Rowling (the Harry Potter series is my daughter's favorite!), Emily Dickinson, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Margaret Thatcher, Susan B. Anthony, Florence Nightingale, and Abigail Adams.

DIY Suede Donut Purse

Over the weekend my mom gave me a big box of suede that she was getting rid of. Today my five year-old and I decided that it would be fun to try a project together. She wanted a purse, and when I asked her what kind she said a donut. I am not sure if that had to do with the fact that we were eating breakfast while we were having this conversation, or if she really did want a donut purse. Either way it turned out really cute and she loves loading it up with stuff and carting it around. We just winged it when we were making it, and below is a list of steps we used.

Snack Time: Easy and Cheap Pudding Pops

I suppose I can't say that these pudding pops are easier to make than Otter Pops, because you actually have to follow a few more steps than just placing them in the freezer. You have to mix the pudding, put it into the popsicle mold, and then wash the popsicle mold when the pudding pops are gone. Not a ton of effort and I like to think that they have a little more nutritional value in them because of the milk used to make the pudding.

Here is what you will need:

1 box of instant pudding, any flavor. I used the 5.25 oz package because it makes eight and I have eight spots in my popsicle mold. 

Milk (see package for amount)

I am sure I'm not the first person to think of these, but they've been a huge hit at our house for the past several weeks that I have to document this in case I forget and try to complicate things again.

I used to go through more effort in actually following a recipe, some of my favorites came from the Our Best Bites blog. The pudding pops from these recipes are delicious but call for extra ingredients such as half-and-half, which I don't always have on hand. After trying these a few times with the kids liking these just as much or better, for their snack time I will be sticking with these. Of course when I feel like a pudding pop, I will probably choose the fancier versions. 

So far their favorite flavors have been pistachio and vanilla. They said that the chocolate pudding pops were just ok. 

A Current Favorite in our House: On the Mountain: A Touch-and-Feel Adventure

"It's time to climb a mountain, Right to the very peak, and on the way we'll play a game - Of chase and hide-and-seek...." 

     We purchased On the Mountain: A Touch-and-Feel Adventure, from an eclectic bookstore in Missoula, Montana when our oldest was a baby. Because we like to hike we thought it would be a fun book to read, especially because it is a touch-and-feel book and the animals are pretty realistic looking and are both colorful and pretty. Recently our second daughter (twenty months-old) discovered this book and it is currently read on repeat, several times a day. She loves to point out the different animals and search for  the lynx and chipmunk on every page. The different textures of the book are fun to touch, and the rhyming is actually enjoyable (unlike the nonsensical and overdone rhyming found in some children's books).