Granny's Homemade Ways: More Winter Games and Lessons for Boys and Girls, January 22, 2010

Last Monday, on Martin Luther King day, the winter weather here at Tickle Belly Farm was perfect for sledding and snowball fights. Some of the grandchildren and their school friends stopped by for sledding on the hill just past the western pasture. We pulled out all the sleds from the storage barn and gave them the special Tickle Belly Farm treatment to make them go really fast...a nice even coat of teflon spray on the bottom of all the sleds. Even the slowest hill can't keep our sleds from flying all the way down!

After everyone had a chance to warm up their sleds, we started the sled races. The first race had one person on a sled. Then we had two people on one sled. The winner of these races was the sled that came in first...with the riders still on it.

The final race, which is my favorite, involves putting as many people as you can on one sled. The object is to not only get down the hill fast but to make it with all of the people still hanging on. What a good time it was watching all those children trying to make it to the bottom of the hill! The winning team had their people stacked like logs on a cart. It was a big risk but their all hung on to the each other and the sled.

Everyone seemed to have a good time but they were happy to come inside for some hot chocolate with plump, white marshmallows and homemade sugar cookies. Nothing better than a good hot treat after playing outside in the snow. 

Once everyone had their fill of hot chocolate and cookies, they were ready for some more fun. One of the grandchildren remembered seeing an old puppet stage in the storage barn that was made many years ago by his uncles when they were young. The older boys put on their coats and boots again and their were off to retrieve it.

The girls couldn't decide what kind of puppet show they wanted to do. There were some puppets in Granny's attic but the girls were anxious to make their own.

You know that there are many ways to make puppets. They can be made from brown paper bags-the kind you take a lunch in to school-and some crayons, yarn and glue.

You can also make finger puppets by drawing a character on a piece of paper, coloring it with crayons or markers and gluing it onto a ring made of paper-make sure the "ring" fits your finger and you have a finger puppet.

The girls decided that they wanted to make puppets from old socks, scraps of fabric, yarn and buttons. By placing a hand into the sock, the toe of the sock can be folded to form a mouth. Some of the girl sock puppets got the beauty treatment: red felt was cut and glued in place to make lips. Buttons were used for eyes and the nose and black felt scraps were cut into fringe to make eyelashes. The final beauty touch was hair made from yarn. For easy pig tails: wind the yarn around a magazine until you have a nice head of "hair" Slip it off the magazine carefully and tie in the middle to make a part. The sides of the hair can be cut with scissors to any length or can be cut on the bottom and braided. The hair, when finished is glued to the top of the puppets head.

The boys were much more interested in making sock puppet dragons and knights. The dragon was quite scary with his large red felt tongue and purple construction paper scales glued down the middle of his back. The knights were brave in their helmets made of aluminum foil. Each helmet was formed over a cereal bowl and molded to fit the puppet head. By gluing fancy feathers and decorations on the helmets, the knight sock puppets looked as though they were ready for battle.

With the addition of some background music, Beethoven's "Defeat of Wellington", the brave sock puppet knights went forward to rescue the sock puppet princess, queen and king from the sock puppet dragon. It was quite a battle with a sock puppet knight or two losing a button eye and helmet. In the end, the sock puppet dragon was slain and all was well in the sock puppet kingdom.  The End...for now!

Here is another story from "The Mammoth Book" which was published by Whitman Publishers, Racine, Wisconsin in 1924 but does not list authors. This old story from this wonderful book is dedicated to a special young friend, Tristan.

Jack had a new sled. He wanted to take it over to the park to slide down the hill, but he did not want to go alone. He called his friend, Bill.

"Would you like to go over to the park and slide down the hill?" he asked. Bill said, "I would like to go but my sled is broken." Jack told Bill that he would share his sled with him. The boys walked over to the park and up to the top of the hill.

"Who will go down first?" asked Bill.

"We-ell, it is MY sled. I think I should go first," Jack replied.

"But you invited me. You should let me go down first," Bill said.

Jack shook his head. "I had better go down first to be sure that my sled is coasting right." he said.

"I would be glad to do the testing," answered Bill.

"I have it!" Jack exclaimed, "I think we should both go down together!" "A good idea!" said Bill.

The boys turned around to sit on the sled. It was nowhere to be seen. They looked down the hill. Away down at the bottom was Jack's sled. The boys laughed as they started to walk down the hill to get Jack's sled.

"Your sled must have got tired of waiting for us to make up our minds," Bill said.