Science Fun (part 1)

It's not every day that the human gets a day off from work, and definitely not every day that the science lab is set up for business.  And, if you haven't met me yet (don't worry, the human has been really really slow about introducing me to the world), I'm Vega.  Jaime Luciana Vega.

And we (meaning Shep, myself, and the human), have been planning space adventures.  Hence Shep's new stash of space toys, and my stash of activity books.  Now for the human to get logistics under control.  Maybe start the Space Tourism Bureau?

I'm not the only new inhabitant of (well, I want to call it the SR2 Normandy.  Raise your hand if you get the reference), but I'll go with 'The Presidium' because it sounds better than 'The Madhouse with a giant cat'.  Meet Liz, the lizard, current perching on Nora.  Next thing you know, there'll be an octopus in the neighborhood.

My new activity books are mostly made from official NASA printables, shrunk down to 1/3 scale.  All except the 'My First Outer Space' coloring book.  That one was made from Dover free samples.  We've got a nifty little 'Space Tech' activity pad, and a little 'What we need to colonize Mars' activity book.  And then we've got some color books on the latest and greatest NASA gear:  the Space Launch System and ORION.

Doll Sized:

Outer Space coloring book

NASA activity books and Assembly instructions

Orion and Space Launch System coloring books

Human Sized:

NASA Space Tech Fun Pad

NASA Surviving and Thriving on Mars

and other coloring books from NASA

Country Lolita Style for Valentine's Day

Kana here.  Valentine's Day (and Chinese New Year) are just around the corner, which means new clothes are a must.  The human was trying out some of her pattern design skills, and came up with these two dresses for us.  Both dress have princess seams and more lace and ruffles than a dress really needs, even though we all know there is no such thing as too much lace.

As an early Valentine's Day/Chinese New Year present, here are some links to our previous holiday crafts: 

Valentine's Day Printables and Chinese New Year's Printables

But now onto the dresses.

Z's dress closes in the front with a row of tiny buttons (and working buttonholes).  There's tiny lace trim along the front placket and around the collar, and lace ruffle at the hem.  The back has corset-style lacing for an adjustable fit.  Four different types of lace sacrificed themselves for this dress.

My dress has a cute bib-front and a round collar, decorated with a tiny coordinating button.  The dress closes in the back with velcro, but also has the corset-lacing backing for a better fit.  The bottom hem has a lace ruffle, and lace edging besides.  But the best parts are the puff sleeves, with lace insertion in the puff and the cuff, and even more lace trimming at the hems and the sleeve seams.  This is all-out lace and girly-ness, and I love it.

The human needs to make some more adjustments to these patterns before releasing them into the wilds of Etsy, so keep tuned.

L M Montgomery Books

All 8 Anne books

Z here.  I don't usually do this, so bear with me.

Show of hands, who here *doesn't* like L M Montgomery's books?

No one?

That's about what we guessed.

Anne of Green Gables cover closeups

The human really likes Lucy Maud Montgomery's books (all of them, ok, maybe not 'Kilmeny of the Orchard'...), and she decided that we needed them too.  We already had the original 6 Anne books ('Anne of Windy Poplars' and 'Anne of Ingleside' were published decades later than the rest of the series), but now the human made us the full 8 book set.

And not only that, she ended up making us all of her favorite L M Montgomery books, even the ones you don't usually hear about.

Emily, Pat, Jane, and Valancy

Her favorite book has to be 'Jane of Lantern Hill'.  (So much that once up a time she racked up multiple dollars in library fines for not returning it.  And when she saw it in a thrift store for 50 cents, she snatched it right up because that is not a common book.)

Her second favorite is probably 'The Blue Castle', because it read so differently than the other books.  Valancy is much older than the typical heroine, but just as spunky in her own way.  And her adventure is much more mundane but that doesn't make it any less important or fun.

And since you've all been so nice and stuck along, have a copy of the human's favorite.

"The Blue Castle"

Instructions

The full sets of books patterns can be purchased at the human's etsy shop: Jinjia Mixed Goods

Anne of Green Gables

Emily of New Moon, Pat of Silver Bush, and others

1940s Textbook Collection: Math, Science, and Health

On to the last installment of the textbooks of the 1940s.

Something that used to be common in school curricula was 'health and safety'.  There's a ton of these health-and-safety readers dating to the 1920s/1930s and through about the 1950s or so.  This selection was published by the state of California in 1940.

Highlights include 'how to avoid injury on the playground', 'the history of bathing', and 'how boys and girls grow'. 

These science books were the last three books of a larger set from 1st-6th grade.  These are the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade books.  Science books for earlier grades focused on observing nature, categorizing objects, and the basics of how to study how the physical world works.

The later grades start focusing on details.  Part of that whole 'learn to read' vs 'read to learn' that happens around 3rd/4th grade.

The upper elementary books start going into ecology, and the basics of physics and chemistry.

Finally, one of those things that you don't get so often with doll accessories:  math books.  And for dolls that are supposed to be in 3rd/4th grade, advanced math books.  Because some girls get to skip grade levels in math, and that is a good thing that should be encouraged.

There's a lot more of a focus on mental math and word problems and far far less on 'how did you get this answer'.  The human has some concerns about modern elementary school math education (deriving answers is all well and good, but basic arithmetic is really just rote memorization.  And if you don't have it memorized, advanced stuff is going to be a pain.)

So that's it for the 1940s textbooks.  Coming soon:  the 1930s Alice-and-Jerry readers, a precursor to the Dick-and-Jane books.

1940s Textbook Collection: English and Social Studies

There were way too many books to show off in one post, so it's been split up over several.  This time, the english and social studies books.  The ones we have are slightly smaller than the textbook from Molly's collection, and from the the same series.

There are workbooks that come with the actual textbooks, but the human decided not to make any.  These are definitely different from modern textbooks, as there are sections on 'how to correctly pronounce words'.

On to social studies:  these were fun because these are actually the 3rd, 4th, and 6th grade textbooks, because the 5th grade textbook was all about American history...and the site with the textbook scans was Canadian.

The human actually enjoyed reading the snippets on different cultures in these books.  It's a nice little window on how Americans viewed other cultures (or were taught how to view other cultures) half a century ago.

Coming up next post:  the math, science, and health books.