The Sandcastle

I’ve been reading a lot of blogs written by Christians who are homeschooling their kids. Doing so reminded me of a game I invented to be used in our church’s Sunday School classes.

The materials available to me that I primarily used were a piece of thin leather and a bunch of those wooden spoons that used to come with individual ice cream cups. From the leather I cut a bunch of pieces shaped like loaves of bread. On each spoon I used a Sharpie to draw an eye and a fin to represent fish.

Then I made a spinner with the various pie-shaped spaces showing various combinations of loaves and fish. For instance one section might show 1 loaf of bread and 2 fish. Another might show 3 loaves of bread. Another might show 2 loaves of bread and 1 fish. Etc.

At the beginning of the game each child started with 5 loaves and 2 fish. At each turn they gave away whatever the spinner showed. They were told the goal was to give away all their loaves and fish.

They quickly learned to give their pieces to whoever had the fewest to keep them from “winning”. Before long they discovered that as long as they shared with those who had the least, none of them ever ran out of pieces. An interesting thing to learn, yes?

TTYL,

Linda

My newest Lego build is a 1962 VW Camper.

(Please, remember you can click on any photo to enlarge it.)

It’s not built on the same scale as most Lego kits are.

Because they couldn’t add all the detail they wanted if they built it to Lego people size. So it has lots of doors that open so you can admire the inside details.

Like the engine.

Which is located in the rear under the bed.

The front portion of which swivels up to make a bench seat with a drop down table.

If you could stand at the side door and look inside, this is what you would see.

And, of course, the cab has just as much detail as the house.

My Mom once owned a VW camper that looked much like this one. The one Dave and I owned was much newer than this and had the same bed style but different tables which allowed for a full kitchen and it had a different style pop top with a bunk where our daughter slept.

But we all had fun traveling in our VW campers.

TTYL,

Linda

 

I’ve started selling Lego sets I’ve finished building to get funds and space for new sets. One woman bought a police station set and mentioned that her boys didn’t want any of the “girly” sets.

Are there girly sets? Oh, yes. If you have boys who don’t want to build with pink, purple and turquoise pieces do not buy any of the Heartlake Friends sets.

The friends are five girls who live quite active lives and their sets have lots of interesting pieces. You saw one of them previously in my RV series. Did you even notice the colors of the Class C? Or that the people in that set are built differently? Look again: https://sandcastle.sandsys.org/2018/04/lego-rvs/

But I enjoy the details of these sets just as much as the ones that are not “girly” colors. The one I just built is a hospital:

(Remember you can click on photos to enlarge them.)

While it’s true that most boys would not be interested in the nursery ward, by not building sets like these they miss out on the fun stuff, too. Like staging an accident where a boy’s wheel comes off his bicycle then he is transported by ambulance or in a sling under a helicopter to the hospital where he gets x-rays, is shown on a skeleton where his broken bone is, then gets a cast put on his wrist. He might also get bandages wrapped around his head. Tell me, what boy wouldn’t like acting out that scenario?

Girly sets indeed.

TTYL,

Linda

Decoration Day. Also called Remembrance Day was May 31st and it was the day we went to the graveyard to clean up family graves and leave fresh flowers. After going downtown to watch the parade of VFW and American Legion members. Where we stood up and put our hands over our hearts as the Color Guard passed. And my Dad marched in the parade playing the bugle as part of a drum and bugle corps.

That was before they moved it to a Monday and renamed it to Memorial Day. Before it became the unofficial first day of summer. Before it became the first weekend of camping. Before it became a day of BBQs and outdoor play.

I wonder how many people still spend time thinking about deceased soldiers and family members?

I know my step-sister still goes out and tends our family’s graves. And I give thanks that all my family’s soldiers and sailors came back alive.

TTYL,

Linda

One of the things I’m enjoying about these Lego sets is the sheer number of details they put into a kit. I recently built a three-story department store that has casual clothes, formal clothes, millinery, glassware/china, and toy departments. Plus a changing room, checkout station, and escalators for getting from one floor to another. And a revolving door that actually turns. That’s a lot of detail to fit in a 7 1/2″ x 7 1/2″ space.

And that’s just the interior. The exterior has sidewalks including decorative tile and storm drains, an ice cream stand, a mail box, a street lamp, huge flower pots, a trash bin, flags, window awnings, a billboard on the roof, and a window washer on his scaffolding hanging on the side of the building.

Back in the 1970s I wanted to be an architect. I wanted to design houses that had just enough space for a family to live in without a lot of wasted space. I enrolled in architectural school and began informational interviewing to get people’s feedback on what I wanted to do. Everyone I interviewed said it couldn’t be done. It was too specialized. Unfortunately, I listened to those people and gave up on the idea.

So imagine my frustration when Sarah Susanka published this:

It’s too late now for me to begin a career in architecture.

So I just build Lego sets and admire their designers’ ability to get so much detail in such a small space.

Maybe I should design Lego kits?

TTYL,

Linda