Schedule - October 24, 2010

Trying to get more organized in the course of our days. We'll see how it goes.
We sit down together and see what we can figure out.
Some things are set...gymnastics, bible study, gym time and HOPE, the rest is subject to the whimsies of life.

New will be a set getting up time, and a set going to bed time.

Plus we'll be trying to have one full stay at home day.

Terrific Tigers - DownLoad N Go Review/Contest

I bought Terrific Tigers from Download N Go. I bought it because my lad loves cats! Oh boy...if I can make whatever we study involve cats or bunnies I"m set, so this study was just meant for my lad. You can buy it from download N go right here. :)

I then learned that I could earn this unit study free by doing a review on it for DNG. I was thrilled! So I haven't gotten my free unit study yet (because I haven't told them what I want), but regardless I just find doing reviews fun. :)

Anyways, the lad enjoys this study very much. I've reported that we've done day one and two and three and Day four and finally we got to Day Five. I have had a couple of really crazy weeks so we haven't done a whole lot with the rest of the unit study beyond looking at what we'll be studying and watching some of the videos.




What can I tell you about this study. It can be done as a lap book, used as a unit study, or you can do your own thing with it.

The boy loves it. :)

We did not do it as a lapbook. We simply took one day at a time and printed out the pages, watched the videos, answered questions and did crafts.

THIS UNIT IS PACKED!

Crafts, videos, information about tigers who are related to cats. :) Books to read - some tiger informative, and others just using tigers as the main character), places to explore (the countries that cats come from), and cats to visit. We took some side detours to visit other cats,

So what do you learn?

Day One: What is a tiger.
Day two: Getting to know Tigers
Day three: where are the tigers?
Day four: The science of tigers
Day five: Cool things about Tigers

Did you know that a tiger is bigger than my son's bed? -- this fact was very funny to a lad.

Did you know that a tiger can run faster than cars are supposed to go down our street?
"whoa mommy, they are fast!"

Did you know that tigers have webbed feet? From what I recall...not every tiger does, but the sumatran definitely does. This elicited a HUH? from my lad.

Made me smile one day ... We talked about tigers having cubs. So what does the lad do for the rest of the morning? C - U - B, Cubs, tigers have cubs. C - U - B, cub, tigers have cubs! Over and over and over again.

I have to admit, that a five year old can not do everything in this study, but that's the joy of homeschooling right? We have the luxury of being able to change things, add things, write things down that are verbally spoken and so forth.

One of the fun things that we did in this study was to act out a mommy tiger teaching her young cub what to eat. We played young tigers going to school with their mommies and they had to do everything the "teacher tiger" told them to. So mommy tiger taught the baby tiger how to pounce and on what type of animals they pounced on. We had a hoot playing out on our neighbours lawn (who has a huge lawn and could care-less if we play on her lawn). :) The lad laughed and learned which is what was wanted.

Looking ahead to day four I can see us having fun roaring like a tiger and seeing how far away we can hear each other. Can we roar as loud as a tiger can?

This has been a really fun study thus far and we are looking forward to doing the rest of it.

Before I forget... here are more reviews on this unit study for you to look at. :)

Oh! Almost forgot that I'm allowed to give away one copy of this study to a reader. Isn't that cool? :)
Okay, so what hoop will I have you jump through?

Well.. tell me that you stopped by. Make sure I have a way to contact you without having to jump through hoops trying to find your email address. If you tell someone else about the contest, let me know with a separate post (for instance, facebook it, blog it, tweet it etc). You have until next Wednesday (October 27) to do this. It will be a random draw (as in your name goes in a hat and the lad will pick it out).

IF you are a TOS/DNG affiliates including the DNG Review Team and TOS Crew you are not eligible (sorry those are the rules).

Letter D Lapbook

Things I printed off for doing the Letter D Lapbook.

Diddle Diddle Dumpling

Dog Poem - might not use this though, might only take the pictures for letter D words.

D fan book -- I like the idea of this but I"m not crazy on the words/pictures. So will probably do something similar, but different.

D Files. Took the trifold hand, and the d is for drawing page.

Kidzone letter D poem. plus this one from the same site. Discover the picture.

Found this neat maze of the letter D.

My lad was quite intrigued by this different type of maze.

fun cat maze that is a challenge

Maze cat

Sketch Tuesday - something you drink

This week's assignment, due Monday, October 11th, 2010:
Sketch something you drink.


Justin's Something You Drink Picture.
This is Kool-aid (red, his favourite colour), sitting beside the kool-aid is the empty glass drying.

As always, they'll be published on Tuesday at Harmony Mom Sketch Tuesday's site.

My Passport to India

go here.

watch and learn about India. :)

the lad is THOROUGHLY enjoying it. :)

Put on by Mission to India and Sonlight curriculum.

Currently on day two, eagerly awaiting day three and beyond.....

My Passport to India

Join Mission India and Sonlight Curriculum for an amazing adventure in the nation of India!

Crafting sites

Here is a list of websites/stores that have craft projects or classes for kids

www.Michaels.com - Michael's even has a website with video crafts to do at home. Here are some fun Thanksgiving projects, and here are some free classes and demos.

www.Joann.com - craft supplies, videos and craft ideas.

Krafts for Children at Kaboose.

Amazing moms.

www.Lakeshore Learning.com - This website includes a teacher's section and crafts and activities.

Activity village.

The Home Depot does a wooden craft the second Saturday of the month (at least in the London area).

The Activity Cupboard.

They're ornaments, and they turn out beautifully. You can make them in all sizes and hang them around the house. You can add sequins, bows, or anything else pretty to them. Here are some instructions: http://www.marthastewart.com/article/snowy-ornaments

The crafty crow.

Bible based crafts.

Gifts in a Jar (I think J and I might do this for Christmas this year).

teaching GOOD math

The Letter "C" Lapbook

Letter practice sheet.
Circle Cat.
Dot to Dot.
What begins with C?
A "c" poem.
Lapbook Lessons. I tooka variety of things from the C book under alphabuddies.

Each lapbook I do also has the sign language letter in it as well. :) Can't recall where I found the sheet but there are different sheets throughout the web. :)

i also made a maze using this site. If you go here, you can see a list of a variety of puzzles that you can make.

Letter A Lapbook

if this sounds familiar.. it might be a bit, as we did the letter A a while back, but I can't find it and the lad wants to put all his alphabet stuff together. So .. we do it again, but do it a bit different. :)

First we printed off a bunch of cat pictures whose names began with "a". My boy is a cat crazy lad so this made sense to me.

Then we did this page. It's a word search and a copy letter page.

We checked out this apple shaped book. Alligator Pie Poem, and a-sorting.
I went to Lapbook lessons and did parts of the Adam and Eve Lapbook.

We made this Aquarium craft simply because it's fun to make crafts. :)

Enchanted Learning has a variety of activities as well.

Molly's October Digest

I got Molly's Money-Saving Digest for free in exchange for reviewing it. I've never seen one of Molly's Digests before so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

She starts off the digest with a variety of recipes, they look pretty decent. She also included this REALLY neat bird wall thing that I just thought was very cool and made me think that even I could do something nifty like that for my walls. :) Following this was a menu plan to help you maximize your food... so using leftovers to make a brand new meal and such like. Some of those recipes looked downright yummy.

Knowing that it was on Socks, Suds and Savings made me somewhat skeptical. Why on earth would I want to read something about laundry? After all laundry is something one does once a week, and you just get her done.. one doesn't dwell on it. :)

It's packed full of information.. from how to sort, how to read labels, to tips to help you not have to do as much ironing (which incidentally I despise doing and tend to totally not do). It is just chock full of links to various sites as well.

I can't say I learned a whole lot new as my mother took her job seriously about teaching me homemaking skills BUT I did indeed learn something new and even my hubby learned it as I excitedly turned around and told him that we could make our own wooler balls! (as opposed to buying those expensive blue plastic things). :)

I did wish that the children's sorting area had been increased a bit, to make the explanation fuller. But overall I thought it was a product well put together, and for those in need of laundry assistance, to definitely pick it up for themselves.

You can purchase your very own copy by going here.

Library books - October 5

It's Moving day by Pamela Hickman

The lad likes this book. He asks questions. He learns some facts, though not all are accurate. It starts as it finishes and he really thinks that is interesting.

It is a blue Spruce award book.

Benjamin's Balloon by Alan Baker

A favourite of the lad. He likes the borrow the phrase "not bad for a beginner". Just catches his fancy.

Tiger Can't Sleep by S.J. Fore

This is a fun book. It has a tiger in it, so life is good. As Justin says "he's a silly cat!" The closing always brings a smile.

When Stella was very, very small by Marie-Louise Gay

Another Blue Spruce award book, the lad found this book intriguing the first couple of times we read it, but he hasn't requested, picked it out, or wanted me to pick it out since then. I thought it a decent read for the under 8 crowd.

You can't rush a cat by Karleen Bradford

The boy loves this book, and it's one that an adult could enjoy reading to their child as well. Fairly deserving of being a blue spruce award book. That little cat is just TOO intriguing.

Little Lions by Jim Arnosky

This book is a huge favourite. We've had this book out for ages and ages. Just loved this book. It's a simple read, good contrasts, and caused questions to be asked. Good book.

Tiger by Nick Butterworth

Yes, we got tiger out again. A favourite of our boy. A young tabby cat who wants to act like a tiger. Good book. Just loves this book and has it well memorized.

Hardworking Puppies by Lynn Reiser

A battle I think will ensue between a boy and his father. We plan to get a dog in the spring...the boy wants a beagle. HE LOVES the beagle, he's met three and this book has a beagle in it and therefore is a oft requested read. The boy's father says NO BEAGLES! :) It shall be interesting to see how this one turns out. :)

The Subway Mouse by Barbara Reid

What an enjoyable book to read. It's another blue spruce award book. The lad enjoys this book. I read it and wonder hmmm... could I turn this into a lapbook or unit study??? :)

Tigers - Kate Petty

an informative book, the lad enjoyed reading it as a supplement to our Tigers unit study by DownloadNGo.

Stanley's Wild ride by Linda Bailey

An enjoyable read, it's another blue spruce award book. An oft requested read by the lad.

How hot was it? by Jane Barclay.

Fun fun fun. This is just a fun read. A blue spruce award book.

Stanley at Sea by Linda Bailey

Like the other Stanley book, this one has been well enjoyed by a boy child. Caused questions to be asked which I always like. :)

Fly Guy books by tedd arnold

if you haven't met the fly guy books yet... go get 'em. They are fun read and the young crowd thoroughly enjoys them. The librarians at the London library recommended them to us. :)

The F Team by Anne Laurel Carter

The lad was unimpressed by this book. He just didn't like it...couldn't even finish reading the book. Also a blue spruce award book, but this one was a no go.

The Farm Team by Linda Bailey

Read this book twice with the lad, but the lad didn't really like it. The big bear...the boy didn't like him. "he's bad mommy".

Little Bunny's Pacifer Plan by Boelts

The lad likes this book. I'm hoping to use it as an encouragement to give up the thumb sucking. :) We'll probably get it out again since the lad likes it so much.

What we Learned today - October 5

Making a "i love candy corn" poem booklet. (and listening to various renditions of it throughout the rest of the day).

Painting (see earlier post today)
While the boy painted I served a secondary role
1. folding laundry in the kitchen while he painted
2. conversation maker
3. paint stirrer

Fractions - 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 while cutting up an apple for lunch

Proportions - while mixing paint colours together

Gifts in use

When my parents church closed they had leftover Sunday school items. The church gifted some of those items to me, and I in turn passed some of them along as well.

Today we made use of those of those items... paper from a very large roll and paint brushes.

To those items we added some tempura paints that I got off one of the local freecycle type groups yesterday.

The lad had fun
1. mixing colours
2. figuring what size of paint brush he wanted to use for each colour
3. painting a BIG picture.

I absolutely adore getting stuff for free. Doesn't matter what, if it's free I like it and can probably figure out something to do with it, or a place to pass it along too. But what I love even more is finding good uses to put that stuff to.

Paint, Paper and a homeschooled five year old boy... GOOD USE! :)

Contest time folks! From AOP!

This was sent to my inbox, seems to open to anyone willing to be part of their email list, they don't overburden folks with things either, so go ahead an enter if you like AOP materials.



Here's your opportunity to win this year's Ginormous Homeschool Giveaway at Alpha Omega Publications! From now until February 28, 2011, enter for your shot at $500 in free curriculum, as well as other awards like a complete Monarch™ 5-subject set, a 3-session tutoring package, and a complimentary copy of the uplifting and encouraging Daily Focus® devotional book. Plus, just for entering this year's drawing, you'll also receive a fantastic discount offer on AOP's award-winning homeschool products and resources.

Don't miss this one-of-a-kind opportunity to get outstanding curriculum and products for your homeschooling family. It's easy to participate. Simply click ENTER NOW below and fill in your information. Entrants must be at least 18, and there is a limit of one entry per household. For more details, check out AOP's contest rules when you enter and remember that no purchase is necessary. Don't delay. Get in on the fun and enter to win today!


ENTER!

Passing forward links...

I think it was homeschooling mom who gave me this sites so I'm just passing them along.

GeekMom has this neat way of helping students gain map knowledge.

families on the road.

The purpose of the roadschooling pages is not to duplicate the hundreds of thousands of homeschooling sites and resources that are already available. But to arm those who live and work with their kids on the road with educational resources, no matter what form of homeschooling your family prescribes to.

Sixty Symbols. Videos about the symbols of physics and astronomy.

The History Game Canada

I have to admit, this really intrigues me....

It's the history game Canada.

AND you can even download it for free!
from the FAQ

The History Game Canada is a mod pack for Civ3 Conquest v1.22 and Civ3 Complete that is based on the History of Canada. It is intended as a playable fun addition to the Civilization game with a wealth of custom Canadian content. It’s very much a game of ‘What if ...?”; where players can toy with outcomes, now etched in history, but once hanging in the balance. It explores the parameters of history rather than the events, and allows players to live questions like … ”What if the Huron had displaced the 5 Nations Confederacy rather than the other way around?”; or “What if the French had retained Canada, and the English colonies to the East and South had failed to prosper?”
...

You’ll need a copy of Civilzation III Conquests (patched to version 1.22) or a copy of Civilization III Complete. Then you just have to download and install the game pack, check out the videos and resources on the website, and get started.

days of Homeschooling

Sketch Tuesday Artwork - something that begins with "R"

This week's assignment. Draw something that begins with "R"


I thought hmmm.. something that begins with R... what in the world can I draw that begins with an R? Rolling pin came to me in church this morning.. and I seriously thought about it... but curves not so good at them... hmmm... okay, let's continue thinking... I ended up doing a roof. seemed simple enough. Justin's verdict "pretty good for a beginner". :) But then he had to finish the rest of the building. :)


Justin's R word.
let me explain this one. I thought he might like to do a picture of a rabbit but I wanted it to be HIS idea, so I started him giving him "R" words. Roof, rat, ribbit, etc (thinking he'd say rabbit). He got captured by the idea of how do you draw a sound? So...he drew the sound waves of a frog saying "ribbit". :)

As always, they'll be published on Tuesday at Harmony Mom Sketch Tuesday's site.

contest entry - Penny raine

Penny raine is having another contest.

$50 gift certificate to her store.

How about $50 gift certificate to my bookstore?

Giveaway ends Monday October 4 at midnight. There are several ways to get extra entries

Free Language Lessons

FSI language Courses

Welcome to fsi-language-courses.org - the home for language courses developed by the Foreign Service Institute.

These courses were developed by the United States government and are in the public domain.

This site is dedicated to making these language courses freely available in an electronic format. This site is not affiliated in any way with any government entity; it is an independent, non-profit effort to foster the learning of worldwide languages. Courses here are made available through the private efforts of individuals who are donating their time and resources to provide quality materials for language learning.

Terrific Tigers - Day Two

Today the lad and I worked on Day Two of the unit study from Download N Go on Terrific Tigers. We worked on Day one last week. This is a unit study that can also be done as a lap book. Should you purchase it, make sure you don't miss doing the lap book nifty stuff (I missed it from day one and went back to do it). yes... sometimes I miss the obvious stuff....

The lad had a good time learning more about tigers. Today's focus was on the Bengal Tiger. He dictates the answers to me and I write them down. Sometimes we need to read things a few times before he gets the answers and sometimes he surprises me by knowing the answers even before I read the article to him. Go figure. :)

We enjoyed looking at the cat stuff at the zoo. We didn't see the tigers on the zoo cam, but we did look at the lion cubs when they had their first check up. This elicited a lot of questions from the lad.

We made this tiger craft from DLTK. He pasted on the head and the body, the fiddliness of the rest required asking Mommy to help with the rest.

We learned about what mammals are and all sorts of other things. The unit study comes LOADED with links. Some are a bit above the level of a five year old, and other things are pretty much where he is at. Means that sometimes I rephrase things, which isn't all that hard to do. :)

I don't think this link was part of the study (but I could be wrong), but the lad had fun doing the backyard animals game found there.

It's a well made study, covers a variety of age ranges, I expect in three years or so we'd be able to do this study again. Anyways, this is a good study, well worth the dollars spent on it. :)

Cranberry Christmas Tote

Get a free limited edition, cranberry and cream, Homeschooling with Heart tote bag and a two-year subscription to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine for just $19.95. Offer good only through midnight on October 2, 2010

October 3-5, the deal changes--you'll only receive a one-year subscription. But you'll still get the beautiful tote bag, the Fall Issue, and the Cranberry Christmas E-Book.

Grab all of this for $19.95 before midnight PST on October 2 for the best value! This is a new color--so, if you collect the Homeschooling with Heart tote bags, this is a totally new version.

You can also get The 2010 Schoolhouse Planner and the 2-year subscription deal (with the free tote bag) for only $49.95.

Hurry--the $19.95 free tote bag deal is only through Tuesday, October 5.

DO NOTE: most of these physical item deals are for States-side only! Unless you want to pay for shipping.

Some websites with freebies to check out

Lesson Pathways - i'm already a member here, it's a free membership.

The Store Spotlight. doesn't always have free stuff. It's from TOS.

Easy Fun School. Easy fun School has over 1500 pages of free unit studies, science projects, and more. They have lots of resources to make homeschooling more enjoyable for parent and child.

Teachnology Here you will find your way to well over 30,000 lesson plans

Teacher Planet. 10,000 theme based resources : lessons, templates. worksheets and more.

Education Place. Pre-K–6 resources for teachers, students, and families to support instruction in the classroom and at home.

Ebibleteacher. A variety of bible based resources. here are their sunday school lessons.

Heart of Wisdom Lesson Plans. Go check it out, not sure if it's all free or paid. The blog lists free stuff. :)

Mother Goose. Mother Goose nursery rhymes introduce your child to literature.

Daily Grammar. Just as the title says, grammar, every day. :)

Cave of the Winds, children's activities. Good for caving lessons. Here's the main page.

Free Clip Art, make those lessons more fun. :) Play around with it, I haven't worked with this site much to know how easy it is to work with the images or not.

Another Clip art site, this one focused on Ancient Greece and Rome. Like the one above, play around with it, see how well it works.

The Happy Homeschool. They have a page called Fun Christian Homeschooling Unit Studies.

Inspired to Learn. A whole list of links to check out. :)

Asia for Educators. It's all about Asia, so if you studying Asia, even different time periods, go check it out. :)

Educational Videos. Mostly science, but other stuff as well.

Letter B lapbook

I started with the base unit idea from Lapbook Lessons. But then "tweaked" it.

I added a bee poem/song (he put a line through all the b's)
I added a hand poem ... you know.. the types were your hands show that actions of the poem.
Then the DLTK's mini book on B

Used Enchanted Learning's B page to generate a pile of B words.


He did a couple of pages of copying out B's. This one, and then this one.

Oh, we also found what Justin thought was a VERY neat Letter B that he wanted to put on the front of his lapbook. It's all done in bricks. :) He wanted to be able to colour it, but we couldn't figure out (as in I couldn't figure out) how to do it so that he could. And I couldn't find something similar for him. So we went with what we could manage.



If I can I'll add pictures of the final product.

It took us the morning to get it done, but we had fun and he can now spell "b".

Did you know that the capital B is like a 3 with a line in front of it? Telling the lad that made it make SO much sense to him. :)

We added Duct tape to the outside of it so we could stick it into a binder. He wants to show gramma what he did! :)

TOS - homeschooler bundles

Hey! I just learned about these homeschooler bundles that TOS has put together. They sound like an excellent product to get!

New Homeschooler Bundles™ are on sale now in the Schoolhouse Store. Designed specifically for new homeschoolers, each Bundle provides a wealth of information and encouragement. Bundles are available in six different collections for Elementary, Middle School, High School, Preschool, Special Needs and Multi-level students.

The Old Schoolhouse® is committed to serving your bundles of joy who are growing up into fine boys and girls, men and women, and with that commitment in mind, we have an announcement of our own—the arrival of six New Homeschooler Bundles™, six collections of handpicked products and resources for brand-new homeschooling parents.

The team at The Old Schoolhouse® is here to reassure you, “Yes, you CAN do it!” We know you can, and God knows you can, or He wouldn’t have called you to this course of action. Your children are gifts from God, and we are firmly convinced—by the Scriptures—that God’s very best means of educating those children is at the hands of their Godly parents. That’s you.

Each of the New Homeschooler Bundles™ represents a value of at least $500,
but we are offering them to you for only $99!

Each of the New Homeschooler Bundles™ include the following items:
NEW, one-year TOS Magazine subscription plus current issue
1 Year TOS Magazine Digital Subscription
Winter 2006/07
E-Book: The 2010 Schoolhouse Planner
Homeschooling with Heart Tote Bag--publisher's choice
Each of the New Homeschooler Bundles™ also includes several age-specific, educational, and inspirational E-books to assist you in your homeschool journey.

Select the Bundle that will best meet your needs (or select two or three Bundles of joy), and get busy! Scoop up these Bundles and begin to enjoy the fruit of others’ labor, others who have “been there and done that” and want to encourage you with their insights and wisdom, individuals whose roots have grown deep and strong.

Old Schoolhouse Expo

I bought the CD's to this event, not the tickets to the live event since I don't have the best of speakers on my computers. This way I can download and go to where I do have decent speakers. I think it sounds like a good event so go check it out.

Mark your calendars! The Schoolhouse Expo is quickly approaching.

Attendees will learn from fantastic speakers like:
Jon Taylor Gatto (keynote)
Dr. Jay Wile Todd Wilson
Diana Waring Carol Barnier
Andrew Pudewa Hal and Melanie Young
Zan Tyler Molly Green
Mary Jo Tate Karen “Spunky” Braun
Lee Binz Dianne Craft
Kim Kautzer Deborah Wuehler
Jeannie Fulbright Heidi St. John
Amanda Bennett Tricia Goyer

Attendees will also receive over $240 in E-book gift. Attendees also have a chance to win over 60 door prizes!

The Schoolhouse Expo will keep your ears busy with an incredible array of more than seventeen speakers for a fantastic, online, five-day audio feast! Covering a vast amount of information, you’ll hear about ways to improve your homeschool, ask your questions directly to the experts, and meet and chat with homeschooling parents from all over the world--all from the comfort of your home.

We bring the speakers right to you! It doesn't matter if you live in the states or internationally, you will benefit from the Schoolhouse Expo as you enjoy five days of interactive Internet experience with dynamic speakers, a virtual vendor hall, fabulous physical door prizes, and a virtual goodie bag filled with over 20 downloads for every attendee!

Are you flexible? We are! The Schoolhouse Expo lets you attend the sessions you choose and continue with your day-to-day schedule, while also offering the audio downloads of each session after the conference, so you can listen to every session at your convenience—repeatedly. The MP3 downloads are included in your ticket price. Never miss an important point. Remind yourself a year from now by reviewing the experience, and still receive the benefit of years of experience shared by amazing presenters throughout the Expo—both homeschool heroes and popular vendors!

Mark your calendars:
Monday, October 4 - Friday, October 8

TOS- Schoolhouse planner

Don't know if you all recall that I talked about the school house planner I received to review? Well, here's the link if you don't recall.

Anyways, I got this blurb from the old schoolhouse:

Have you seen our new Student Planners? So far, the response has been wonderful. Student Planners are a hot item in the Schoolhouse Store, proving that organization is a skill that parents want their children to learn. Student Planners are available in four grade levels and are now available for immediate download upon purchase! Plus, through October 17, there are two free e-gifts with each Student Planner purchase. Especially popular is the Pick 2 Bundle item—there is a slight discount for purchasing two different levels of Student Planner. Your readers will want to know about this wonderful organizational resource.

LapBooking

did you know there is a host of information out there on lapbooking?

what is lapbooking you might ask?

Lapbooking can be done by any learner-- from preschoolers to adults. With this educational method, you make mini-books covering details that you've studied. After making a variety of mini-books about a larger topic, all the books are put together in a large folder. The finished product is called a lapbook because it's large and covers your lap.

The completed lapbook will serve as a review tool as your children refer to it over and over again. And if you have to keep a homeschool portfolio to document learning each year, lapbooks can be a very impressive addition.

it's utterly astounding to this new to homeschooling mom.

Wow! It's just like scrapbooking what you are learning!!! NEAT!!!

Check out this one : Lapbooking 101

if you go to yahoo groups and look for lapbooking, you'll come up with this list.

or do a google search for this.

here's a page with all sorts of templates for designing your own lap book.

Homeschool Resources has a page on Lapbooking.

anyways, I"ll add more perhaps another day. now I"m tired and must go to bed.

Dynamic Moms - Free Unit Studies

Dynamic 2 Moms

This is a website that offers free unit studies.

I"m planning on doing this fall season one.

They are geared for the 4-8 year old crowd.

Contest Entry

I'm trying to get the world history course. :)

Epikardia has just released their second grade daily lessons curriculum.

For those of you clamoring for Second Grade Daily Lesson Plans – Set I is here! As with all of our Daily Lesson Plans, our Second Grade plans organize the study of history into nine chronological units integrated with:

• language arts (reading, spelling, vocabulary, literature study, narration, copy work, poetry, simple dictation, etc.)
• science
• fine arts (picture, artist and music study)

The making of a volcano

our supplies: vinegar, baking soda, sand around a bottle, and food colouring

adding colour to the vinegar so we can see it better

adding baking soda to our bottle

Learning that baking soda does NOT taste good. :)

Let me! Let ME do it!!!!

Mommy!!!!

look!!!! it bubbles mommy!!!!

See the cars like it too! they can't get past this (can't remember what he called it)

this is just too exciting mommy!

time to just explore with vinegar, baking soda and toys

He played with everything for a good hour after we were done the experimentation part. Just too much fun.
Gasses go big! they Explode! They make bubbles!!! :)

Various things from around the blog

Rosetta Stone - language people. having a sale right now.

YoungZine -

Youngzine is a free online news website for children that presents current events in politics, science & technology, environment, and society through articles, pictures and videos without the risk of running into inappropriate or sensational content.

What to Know how tootsie rolls are made? Check this out.

Learn Sign Language!

Math and Movies.

Many of the students in today’s secondary (and college) classrooms grew up watching attention-grabbing, action-packed educational programs. These students now spend more hours in front of a video screen than they do reading books. No wonder students may find traditional mathematics education to be dull and boring.

So, what can mathematics educators do to compete in this exciting and captivating world of technology? The answer seems to be simple: embrace technology in the classroom. Rather than lament the disinterest of students, use any and all forms of technology to grab and retain their attention. Consider presenting mathematical content (not watered-down content) in a variety of educational styles.

Great Migrations by National Geographic, this site just looks fascinating. :)

National Geographic Channel’s Great Migrations is a seven-part global programming event that takes viewers around the world on the arduous journeys millions of animals undertake to ensure the survival of their species.

Check out the History Channel. I watched the ice trucks one today, and found it quite interesting.

Charlotte Mason grammer information. Have to admit, it makes sense to me. A gentle grammer and a week of gentle grammer.

Busy HomeSchool Day

I have to admit, ALL I wanted to do today was veg, just totally veg.
but I couldn't allow that so... I kept myself busy with my lad. Still felt like I was dragging through the day. I totally spread this out over the course of the entire day.

1. did a craft/poem thing with the lad. I had to cut things out, he helped me glue them on. He read the poem several times.

2. did some math in a kindergarten math book. Just five pages. He enjoyed it.

3. did some experiments.
a. one didn't work. We'll try it again, using a different pop bottle and a bigger base bowl.
b. Seal with air

He had fun with this one.
We started with a small glass with a piece of cardboard, and upgraded to a piece of note paper. Once he exhausted the various ways to do this (full glass, half glass, turn fast, turn slow etc) He started to experiment with paper and water. Everything from adding food colouring to test out what happens when you mix what, to can you block a drain with cardboard and a glass, and including what happens if you add dish detergent to water (it goes colourless in case you didn't know).

c. Make a volcano
If he had fun with the previous one....this was way over the top. Just plain fun. Mommy forgot to read the instructions the first time so we had to correct my error (and the lad had a chance to laugh at mommy's forgetfulness). Had to call gramma to see if she had everything he need to do this all over again at her house. :)

We organized his stuff today. One binder for experiments, one for unit studies, and one for art work. Helps to keep things neater.

Sketch Tuesday - something that floats

I was going to do a feather.
What are you going to draw mommy?
I think I'll do a feather.
no, a boat.
I think I'll do a feather
NO, a boat mommy, you should draw a boat.

So.. you think I should do a boat huh?
YES!
So.. well...I drew a boat.



There's a story to this boat. It is a bunnytown boat. and the bunnies are fishing for cats. Can you see all the cats in the water? they are being fished for. This is a ladder going up to what.. I'm sorry.. I can't remember. But there is a guard rail so the bunnies can't fall off the boat.

Catching up....

Justin and I submitted sketches for this weeks Sketch Tuesday. We were to draw something with whiskers. I initially did a picture of "daddy with whiskers", but on query from my lad, did a face of Milo the cat instead. yes, I am a horrid artist, but hey... at least I submitted something :) Next week...something that floats. Justin was very excited about this one and immediately drew something. :) I am still thinking about what I want to draw for this assignment.



Today we did the first day of the Terrific Tigers Unit study/lapbook from Download N Go. I have a cat crazy lad so spending the $8.00 for this item was a no brainer. He had fun doing the first section. We didn't do it ALL (as in what day one called for), he's five and this is a multi-age study. So you have a child who can do some, do what he can, dictate what he can, and leave the rest.

As to the study itself I found that it's well done. I have to say, I would have no problem getting some of their other products. :) I enjoyed doing the day one of this five day study with him.

I have a fairly electic approach to homeschooling, I see value in doing a variety of things, and having a five year old lad gives me some sway in how I do things. I am hoping to start doing some latin with him at some point....But I think I might leave that in his dad's purview, his dad is more the language person in this household, though I'll probably get roped into it.....

What else...today we went to the library to get tiger books...they had ONE (a bit of a bummer that), we had plans to stop in and see one of the seniors in the old folks home, but forgot after playing with trains to do that... went to the dollar store to get a drink instead. but you know what? ...tomorrow is another day, always lots to do in the course of a single day.

Mr. Rogers Videos

How do they do that type videos.

Door's Open London

As a family we took in four of the sites to doors open London.

We went to the agricultural center, the train club, the HMCS Provost and the Secrets of Radar Museum.

It was good. We ALL learned lots. Justin had fun.

He had to answer three questions at each site.
1. What you remember,
2. what you learned,
3. what was the best.

In order
Agriculture center
- plants they were telling us about.
- plants can get diseases
- best thing was making smoke (dry ice, detergent and hot water).

Train Club
- (couldn't remember anything) :) ---it was ALL trains so it's not like you could pick anything out to really recall
- It was SO BIG!!!!
- "I wanted to see the whole thing"

HMCS Provost
- me and daddy were running around
- I could ring a bell REALLY loud
- Running around upstairs

Secrets of Radar
- Matching planes
- names of all the equipment
- Mommy telling me the names of all the equipment.

For those wanting a fuller picture of our day, go here.

Mommy!!!! Did you know?!??!!

that if you look at your hand through a magnifying glass it looks differenter?

Look at your hand mommy!!!

Whoa!!!

Mommy, look at this car? It looks differenter too!

What we Learned today : Paper Airplanes

Today we experimented with different paper airplane designs.
We talked about wind currents and lift, but mostly had fun trying out four different designs of paper airplanes.

1. was easy and fun to do. It kept wanting to hit Milo. It did like to crash land though...particularly after we added stickers to it. :)

2. we didn't like. It was too wobbly and didn't fly straight. "it's not a good plane mommy."

3. was HARD to make. It's supposed fly outside and it went far inside, but it was VERY difficult to make and I'm not convinced we made it properly.

4. was easy to make and fun to do with a boy child. It flew like the first one... long and far and kept wanting to scare Milo (the lad's cat).

will add pics later. :)

The lad also did
on some book work. Copying letters and doing some early math. :)

BLue Spruce

I asked our town librarian the other day if she could recommend books for our lad to read.

She said she couldn't recommend a particular book as there are so many good ones out there, but that we should read some of the Blue Spruce books. Here are some titles to some Blue Spruce books.

From what I understand, Blue Spruce books are some of the best of Canadian authors in Children's literature.
I do know that of the few we brought home today from the library our lad has enjoyed them immensely. They are a good read

Progressive Phonics

Thanks to whomever did this spreadsheet. I found Progressive Phonics.

I know what the lad and I will be doing tomorrow. :)

Should prove interesting.....

What We Learned Today - Magnets

Today I set the lad up with Magnets, iron filings, nails and what not. He took it from there.

Things the lad learned or that we talked about, not necessarily in the order learned/taught

1. water doesn't change how a magnet acts
2. water doesn't wash off iron filings
3. iron filings are fun to watch on paper - you can make them dance
4. iron filings will cling to a magnet and they are very sticky.
5. magnets can break easily if they are the stick type
6. magnets sometimes stick end to end and sometimes they don't...sometimes they stick in the middle and sometimes to the side. (when I ask Justin if that is because of polarity he says yes)
7. nails sometimes jump up the side of a magnet while others just cling loosely and others stick very hard to the bottom of it and we don't know why that is.
8. iron filings will rust.
9. magnets have a north and a south (but Justin doesn't really get this at this point)
10. iron filings are very small...but they stick in long lines when they dance...it's fun to make them move around in clumps. :)

Review: The Middle School Student Schoolhouse Planner

Middle School Student Schoolhouse Planner.

I was sent this e-book to review and I have to admit, they managed to impress me. They did. And quite frankly...most planners don't really thrill me. It's like I have this mental thing of "what can they give me that I can't figure out on my own"? But this planner, indeed, it amazed me. Wow...they packed a WHOLE whack of things into this planner. Loads of calendar pages, planning pages, goal pages, conversion charts, and more. Basically...you name it...it will have it. It is packed with tidbits of information that every middle schooler needs to know. Very well done. I was quite pleased with this planner by the time I finished looking through it.

I have to admit that as a Canadian I was displeased with the amount of focus there was in the United States (as much as I expected it), but also as a Canadian I was very pleased that an American company had some focus on Canadians (three pages of info indeed!). :)

I would happily recommend this planner to anyone who wants to help their middle school scholar get their year organized.

Gymnastics

Today was the lad's first day at Gymnastics. He was VERY uncertain about going. He was alarmed that I wouldn't be in the same room as he was in, but he had fun! Hubby dear and I had fun watching him.

He tumbled and balanced and listened, and very occasionally acted like a complete goofball.
He does NOT know how to somersault yet. :) We just grinned watching him try and how much absolute fun he had while doing so. :)

Gymnastics was held at the Forest City Gymnastics Club. He takes part in their kindergym program. It's for 3-5 year olds. Most of his classmates were 3 years old, with a couple four year olds and then the lad at 5. :) It was a good morning of learning and fun.