Last week was my Big Helper’s birthday.
She was super excited about that until about two weeks ago, when her enthusiasm level shot through the roof. She started talking about a ‘secret project’ and hid in her room to work on it at every opportunity. She recruited her daddy to help her drill wood and her grandmother for a sewing project. She even asked to be excused from some assignments, or to have the deadlines extended, so that she could work on this more.
Finally, she spilled the beans.
As a huge fan of “Little House on the Prairie,” she was creating cake toppers. Real ones. From scratch.
Before she showed me anything, she completed the Conestoga-style wagon you see above. The wheels have spokes and axles and really turn. There’s a seat for the driver and a back. The top is made of fabric and has a network of thin cardboard strips that form a web on the underside of the canopy to hold it’s shape. Those strips insert into cardboard pockets that are glued to the inside sides of the wagon.
She used craft sticks and tooth picks and glue and cardboard. It’s an amazing piece for somebody who has only ever seen a wagon picture – not a real wagon – and hasn’t studied them or researched them or even studied simple machines.
(She was even worried about getting splinters in the cake, so she asked for a piece of waxed paper to be placed under it.)
My Big Helper originally showed me her blueprints for the cake. Really – she draws blueprints every year. These called for a pretzel log cabin, complete with Lego-style directions for a stacked-pretzel door and lintel. (Unfortunately, my pretzel skills don’t live up to her blueprint possibilities.) She planned for a well and the whole Ingalls family – whom she made out of mini-marshmallows and toothpicks. She made the adults bigger than the kids and tried hard to get every detail correct.
By this time, I realized just how far she was taking this and called off our regular assignments for the week. While I really did nothing more than ask a few questions, she worked hard to plan this all out. She sewed clothing and learned about hemlines and fraying and stitching styles. We talked about the history of printed fabric and how to measure it to fit. We talked about simple machines and tabs and making pieces fit together. We measured and talked angles and proportions and when the big project and the busy schedule overwhelmed, we talked about priorities and relationships and importance.
Despite her worries, she finished it all a mere 15 minutes before her party guests arrived. Charles has curly hair and suspenders. Ma has a bun, and Laura has pigtails. Carrie is shorter than the others. The details are all there, and she’s learned so much: how to plan and finish a project, but also how to modify one to fit unforeseen circumstances.
I hear often that it’s hard to fit school in around life, but life is school. We learn from all of our experiences. Sometimes, maybe we need to throw the textbooks out the window and learn the lessons right in front of us.
Even if they come in the form of an extreme cake.
Want to try some cake decorating with your kids? Check out these resources:
What are your thoughts?