I will tell you a hilarious comedy,
The best I ever said.
Four lovers ran into the woods
And everyone ended up wed.

Theseus was the duke of Athens,
He would marry his love with grandeur.
Hermia’s father wanted her to marry
Demetrius, but she loved Lysander.

Theseus gave Hermia four days
To marry Demetrius or die.
Hermia begged her father with tears,
“Why must I marry Demetrius? Why?”

Lysander said to his love, Hermia,
“I have a plan to become your spouse.
To be free from Athenian law,
We’ll run away to my grandma’s house.”

The plan was set in motion,
But Hermia told her friend.
In turn, her friend told Demetrius,
Who wanted it to come to an end.

Demetrius followed Lysander and Hermia,
Trying to win Hermia’s love.
Helena ran after Demetrius,
But Demetrius gave her a shove.

The forest was inhabited by fairies,
And King Oberon ruled them all.
He noticed Helena’s rejected love
And decided to rectify the gall.

Oberon ordered Puck to put love juice
On the young Athenian’s eyes.
Puck mistook Lysander for Demetrius,
And Helena was scandalized.

Puck realized his mistake
And put love juice on Demetrius.
Both men ran after Helena,
But poor Hermia was treated like pus.

They all fell asleep in the forest;
Oberon made Lysander’s eyes okay.
Now everyone loved their true loves
And married the very next day.

The post A Midsummer Night’s Dream Poem appeared first on Susan's Homeschool Blog.

Erupting volcanoes aren’t the only reason you will want to do a vineger and baking soda experiment with your kids. If you want to see a cool, frothing explosion any time, you can add some blue food coloring to your baking soda in a small container. Stir it well. Now add the vinegar by pouring to into the baking soda, and you will see the blue froth coming out of the container in a fun way. Be sure to put a larger container underneath to catch the excess explosion so that it doesn’t stain your counter.

This science experiment takes less than five minutes and is sure to impress any kid, especially young ones who have never seen it before. My own kids have erupted lots of volcanoes this way, adding red food coloring to a film canister inserted into a mud volcano outside. Create four different kinds of volcanoes side by side: cinder cones, composite cones, shield cones, and lava domes. Then have four kids get ready to pour vinegar into their volcano tops. Shout, “Ready, set, go!” See which volcano erupts first.

You can also buy a volcano model, which has a hole in the top for doing your vinegar and baking soda experiment. The model shows the inside of a volcano and is good for studying the anatomy of the volcano.

The post Vinegar And Baking Soda Experiment appeared first on Susan's Homeschool Blog.

The cookies didn’t turn out. That’s the punch line.

I had gone to the craft supply store to buy two cookie cutters the shape of flowers. I thought I would make some flower-shaped cookies for the springtime, decorating them with candy on the top to represent the petals. So I baked the cookies, but they turned out poofy and ugly. So I thought to myself, “What else can I make with these stupid cookie cutters?”

Hence the birth of the cookie cutter series. I didn’t really want to blog about cookie cutters. No. I wanted to blog about the Beth Moore Bible study on the life of David, since I am learning so much spiritually. I want to process what I am learning, and I want to blog about something that matters, not drivel like what to do with cookie cutters. I’m not surprised that my readership plummeted.

So why didn’t I write about the Bible study? Because I’m just about brain dead, working on this 8-DVD set on “Time Travel: Writing Historical Fiction.” I filmed this creative writing class two years ago (and it came out fantastic!), and after putting 100 hours of editing into it and seeing no progress in the editing, I lost heart. So I put it on hold for two years. I told my sister it was like eating a plate full of chopped liver, but that the chopped liver never went down on the plate. You know, like Dante’s Inferno–one of the circles of hell where you aren’t allowed to be finished no matter how much work you do. “Zero down, infinity to go,” I heard myself say every day after hours and hours and hours of work.

I’m going to release the Time Travel set this year if it kills me. Yep. I’m going to finish before speaking at my next homeschool conference, which is in Seattle the middle of June. I will finish.

Hence the birth of the cookie cutter series, since creating magic from cookie cutters is something I can do in my sleep almost. Since creativity is my strong point. And it started off happy. But then my kids were wondering why their lunch was always shaped like a flower.

When was all this madness going to end?

When I made the Fourth of July garland out of the star cookie cutter one night, my son Stephen declared that I was a genius the next morning. But my son Bryan (almost 13) said, rolling his eyes, “Mom, it’s April.” And so it went.

You might think that 17 ideas aren’t that many, but I never told you all the ideas that failed. Like the fried egg that stuck to the cookie cutter, and I had to flick the whole thing into the sink, burning myself. Or the carefully crafted toast that I later realized was too similar to sandwiches to count.

I finally decided to put an end to it one night when I yelled to my husband who was walking by, “I’m sick of cookie cutters! I never want to see another cookie cutter in my life!” to which he replied, “I think you should ONLY blog about cookie cutters for the rest of your life. 1,976 creative ways to use cookie cutters. You would be famous. You might get on TV…”

The post The Lame Story Behind the Cookie Cutter Series appeared first on Susan's Homeschool Blog.

Here are 17 creative ways to use cookie cutters! Each of the activities are hot-linked to the tutorial that will show you exactly how to do each activity and tips to make your projects more fun. Your kids will have a blast as you go through these simple, exciting activities:

#1 Fruit Shapes: I give you tips on how to cut fun shapes out of fruit.

#2 Shape Books: Shape books can encourage young writers to write fun stories, descriptions, or summaries. The booklets are just their size.

#3 Sandwiches: Make these cute shape sandwiches, perfect for taking to your next tea party.

#4 Tissue Paper Art: Make wonderful tissue paper art, such as flowers or stained glass windows.

#5 Pancakes: Make pancakes the shape of cookie cutters. I warn you about my mistakes.

#6 Bubbles: Use a cookie cutter as a bubble blower! (Includes link to more bubble activities.)

#7 Patches: This is how you can make a fun patch for your clothing.

#8 Gift Bags: Gift bags are another one of the many creative ways to use cookie cutters, and the recipients of your gifts will enjoy getting their gift in a unique bag.

#9 Quesadillas: Go south of the border with your cookie cutter mania. These quesadillas are simple and will delight your kids.

#10 Jello Shapes: These jello shapes are easy to make and disconnected from the cookie cutter more easily than any other food.

#11 Garlands: These garlands will make people feel special and only take 15 minutes to make.

#12 Dolls and Pillows: Some cookie cutters lend themselves well to make a felt doll. The gingerbread man cookie cutter is fabulous for this toy.

#13 Rice Krispie Treats: Here is the recipe for Rice Krispie treats, as well as tips on how to get them to come out better.

#14 Scrapbooking: When you need a specific shape for your pictures, you can slap down the picture, grab a cookie cutter of the desired shape, and trace around the cookie cutter.

#15 Soap Shapes: Make beautiful shaped soap without having to buy an expensive kit.

#16 Jam Tarts: Make these easy jam tarts with ready-made pie crust, jam, and a cookie cutter!

#17 Sand Shapes: Ideas for how to use cookie cutters effectively in the sand.

The post 17 Creative Ways to Use Cookie Cutters appeared first on Susan's Homeschool Blog.

Another creative way to use a cookie cutter is to make sand shapes. This is a particularly fun activity in the summer, when your kids want to play in the sand at the beach. You can press the cookie cutter into some wet sand, and out comes a beautiful shape.

If the sand is too dry to hold the shape, just pour a bucket of water on the sand, and it will be able to hold its shape better. Run your fingers around the outside of the cookie cutter to get the best result from your cookie cutter shape. Fool simple people into thinking you found a fossil by taking a fish cookie cutter, and after making a fish shape in the sand, add bones by drawing lines with a popsicle stick.

You can add embellishments to a sand castle by using cookie cutters in the shapes of whatever decoration you want. A square cookie cutter might be perfect for windows or the shape of rocks or bricks on your castle. A gate can also be made with a square cookie cutter. Bushes can be formed by a flower cookie cutter, if you can stand it up on its edge. I would get a flat cutting board behind it so that you can press down hard on the cookie cutter to form the bush on its side. Then lift the cutting board away.

For more ideas on what you can make with sand, check out The Wonderful World of Sand and Dirt.

The post Creative Ways to Use Cookie Cutters #17: Sand Shapes appeared first on Susan's Homeschool Blog.

You can make these easy jam tarts with ready-made pie crust, jam, and a cookie cutter! Delightful, easy, and delicious!

First you will need to unroll the pie crust. Press a cookie cutter in the desired shape on top of the pie crust. If you want to make more tarts, you can roll out the dough to make it thinner. I did the pie crust both ways (thick and thin), and they were both delicious and tasted about the same.

Make sure to cut two of the same shape: one for the top and one for the bottom. Place one piece on a cookie sheet or pizza stone. (I prefer using my pizza stone for baking cookie-type foods because they never burn.) Spread raspberry jam on the lower piece of pie crust. (I also made some chocolate tarts by spreading Nutella on some of the tarts.) Then top with another piece of pie crust. If you want, you can brush the top of the tart with egg white so that it browns more nicely.

Now serve these jam tarts with some British tea with milk and sugar in a gorgeous teapot, and invite friends. Enjoy the tarts!

The post Creative Ways to Use Cookie Cutters #16: Jam Tarts appeared first on Susan's Homeschool Blog.

In our blog series “Creative Ways to Use Cookie Cutters,” Idea #15 is to make soap shapes. Go to the local craft supply store and buy a block of soap. These are refills and are not as expensive as a soap-making kit. You don’t need the soap-making kit because I will show you how to make shapes out of soap using cookie cutters.

Grab a glass dish, and line it with wax paper. Using a large butcher knife, chop off some pieces from the large block of soap. Put them in a Pyrex measuring cup. Place the measuring cup in the microwave, and zap it for 20 seconds. Then zap it for 10-second intervals until it is fully melted. If you want to add fragrance, color, or decorations, you can add those and stir them in. Pour the liquid soap into the wax-paper-lined dish. Wait for at least an hour or two for the soap to solidify at room temperature.

Now grab your cookie cutter and shove it down into the soap. Pull it out. You will have a cookie cutter with the soap in it. Gently push it out, and your gorgeous soap is finished. You can give these soaps away as gifts.

The post Creative Ways to Use Cookie Cutters #15: Soap Shapes appeared first on Susan's Homeschool Blog.

What are some other creative ways to use cookie cutters? How about scrapbooking? When you need a specific shape for your pictures, you can slap down the picture, grab a cookie cutter of the desired shape, and trace around the cookie cutter. Cut out the picture, and stick it to the scrapbooking page with double-sided acid-free tape.

I traced around the cookie cutter with an acid-free marker so that each star was outlined with black before even attaching it to the page.

“But, Susan, I don’t scrapbook, so what’s the use for me to know this?” Well, I’m glad you asked, because there are many variations on this scrapbooking theme. First of all, you could do a photo collage on one piece of scrapbooking paper and frame it as a gift.

Another idea is to make a card. Outline the shape of a cookie cutter on a photo, and glue it to some card stock paper folded in half, and you’ve made yourself a greeting card. Take a look at the simple birthday invitations I made for my daughter’s upcoming “Secret Garden” birthday. All I did was glue some pretty flower paper to the front of the card, and I outlined down the sides with black marker. Super easy and beautiful!

The post Creative Ways to Use Cookie Cutters #14: Scrapbooking appeared first on Susan's Homeschool Blog.

Why not create wonderful shapes for your Rice Krispie treats by using cookie cutters? Start by getting the following three ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons of butter
• 1 package (10 oz.) of regular marshmallows
• 6 cups of Rice Krispies cereal

Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Open a bag of marshmallows and dump those in. Stir constantly until the marshmallows are melted. If you want to add a fun color with food coloring, now is the time to stir it in. Remove the pot from the stove, and dump 6 cups of Rice Krispies into the pot. Stir.

Spread the mixture into a greased 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan. Make sure the pan is greased, or you will sorely regret doing so. Pieces of Rice Krispies will fly through the air in all directions as you chip away at it with a table knife, trying to salvage what you can in desperation. Take my word for it: Grease the dish.

Place the dish in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Take the dish out of the refrigerator and press the cookie cutters into the the Rice Krispie treats. Use a metal spatula to scrape under the treat so that it doesn’t break apart when your children grab it with their bare hands in their eagerness to eat these yummy Rice Krispie treats!

If your kids are not in the kitchen, you might have enough time to dip the treats in almond bark chololate. Just melt some chocolate almond bark in a pot, and dip the top of the Rice Krispie treat into it. Yum!

Stay tuned for more fabulous ways to use cookie cutters…

The post Creative Ways to Use Cookie Cutters #13: Rice Krispie Treats appeared first on Susan's Homeschool Blog.

We are counting all the creative ways to use cookie cutters, and we are on #12: Dolls and Pillows! Some cookie cutters lend themselves well to make a felt doll. The gingerbread man cookie cutter is fabulous for this toy. Trace around the cookie cutter on two pieces of brown felt. Cut them out. Decorate the gingerbread man by sewing on button eyes, a red smile stitched on with thread, and three buttons down the front. Get some filler, either a cotton-like substance, or the scraps of felt that were left over from the brown felt. Stitch the entire gingerbread man, except for one arm. Then put the stuffing into the doll and stitch it shut. This pillow took me 30 minutes only because I was trying to find two matching buttons for the eyes.

This is a perfect simple sewing craft for a child to make, since the stitches just go up and down (a straight stitch). You can also make a pillow from any other shape of cookie cutter. A star pillow would be fun for the Fourth of July, and a maple leaf pillow would be good for the autumn. A clover pillow would be perfect for Saint Patrick’s Day. Smaller pillows make great pin cushions, or they can be used as pillows for dolls.

The post Creative Ways to Use Cookie Cutters #12: Dolls and Pillows appeared first on Susan's Homeschool Blog.