Scrapbooks and Lapbooks

Neil Armstrong Lapbook

2012-01-28T15:20:00.000-05:00

I have a couple posts on my What's in the Box? blog about this and will post the final lapbook once it is completed (we're about 1/2 thru the book) but thought I would share these in case you are interested.

image from Amazon.com

Post I

Post II

You can win a blank project book gift set from Pear Educational Products!

2012-01-23T11:00:00.000-05:00

My review for them is up on HEF now and looks like you can enter to win a set for yourself, and she has a 20% off code til mid-Feb. These are perfect blank books for lapbooking, notebooking, etc.

Take a look see.......HEF review for PEP blank project books

Two cross posts on Art ideas/Projects

2012-01-21T15:51:00.000-05:00

Renoir Art Project:
To go along with our Renoir study, we did a Mixed Media Still-Life art project found on page 45 in the book: Discovering Great Artists.

For those of you who do not have access to this book, I will give you the directions for completing it. :)

Gather your materials:

for each artist you will need-

*cardboard or matte board

(size up to you-I used the cardboard backings from some

yellow note pad pages-those were pretty good-altho, having something

slightly thicker would have been best-

but look at those cardboard backings under

your paper pads-good way to recycle them!)

*white tempera paint (I found white poster paint and it worked)

*painters tape

(get FROGTAPE by Shurtape (green), if you can-it works better than

the blue painters tape-I found mine at Home Depot which seemed

to be the cheapest I could find. It was about $4 which is the same price
as the blue tape. THIS IS THE BEST tape for painting-

it does not leave those little boo-boos like

the blue will-let me tell ya...

and yes, we have used both-will not use blue again)

*pencil/eraser (altho try to not erase if possible)

*paint brushes, water container

*water colors

*real or fake flowers/twigs/etc. for your still life

(be creative-look around your home for fun things to use)

*type of vase

(again be creative-I used a tea pot and a container for coffee)

Process:

1. Tape the cardboard to something-painter's board, drawing board, etc. I used two pieces of white board. I had extra from when we cut down the large piece we bought/used for the classroom. Maybe even a clipboard will work-anything to secure it to so the cardboard doesn't slip. Yes, you can just place on protective cover/paper, paint it and then just do this, but I find that you'll get a better result when the paper/board is secured to something larger and hopefully, waterproof or not so absorbent as the paper.

2. I like to create about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch trim-depending on how big your project is. Will this show when I frame it? Probably not on this one because it is an ugly brown cardboard, so I will try to cover it with a matte...but with a white board/paper it looks very pretty when you have an edging.

3. Paint the cardboard white (tempera/poster paint). I did this twice to be sure the cardboard was covered nicely. The poster paint may not have given us the result the lesson wanted (for it to bleed with the watercolors) but I wasn't about to drive to the mall area to just buy one bottle of paint...so we used what the local Meijer store had and it was just fine. Let dry before you begin the drawing/watercolor part.

4. Set up your arrangement, and have student lightly sketch the image.

The boy was more focused on creating a background, and I think that jetting out image on the right side is a window sill, I think. :) This just goes to show how everyone sees/does things a bit differently. :)

5. Use a light color to wash color into the background coming close to the image.

6. Use watercolors and paint-try to let it bleed/blend together.

7. When dry, have the artist sign their name and frame it.

The teen still needs to put the writing on, but we had to let it dry first and then she had to leave to babysit, so once I have these framed, I will post them (and obviously, there will be their signatures and the writing on the can in this picture).

And there you have a Renoir inspired art project-and hey-you don't need to be studying him to do this. It is just a great, fairly easy project to do with your kids.

This is our new art display-minus the frames which I must go get...

So I took down the poster above the white board and taped up these 5 pics the kids have done. These are my favorites ones from their projects so far. I will hopefully find some white frames to really draw attention to them and also, as ya know-we have to be matching with the room decor-LOL...

Oh, the writing on the board is for my teen's study of Emma. We have so many characters and crazy love triangles that we figured it best to plot out the story characters and some interesting facts on the board to make sense of it. :)

Left to right: the two Renoir mixed media paintings (DD decided not to add lettering to the can), the Pointillism project my DD did a couple years ago (you can read about it here) and the two 6 step paintings the kids did with our CM co-op.

I love how the kids art makes our room so cozy and personalized. I love being able to look back at what they have done too.

Idea for holding the lapbook components

2012-01-10T19:35:00.000-05:00

My friend gave me her stash of Creative Memories binder holders-these have a fold over of plastic to keep the goodies in the "envelope" part, and they have the 3 ring holes for a binder. These make excellent holders for lapbook components.

To be ready for the part of the lesson I simply print out what I need to for our current study, cut them out (it's just easier that way) and store them there, pull out what we need per lesson and pop them back into another one when done, so we won't lose any of them. Neat heh? Only problem is I am not sure these particular holders are still available but I bet you can find something similar. I will see if my research comes up with any good substitute, but check with your local CM associate or look for them at garage sales and such. These are a little gem of goodness-

So the one on the right holds all the pre-cut and ready to work on components. Then I pull out some we'll be working on (laying on top of the pockets) and when those are done-we place them in another to await being placed in a lapbook.

Some Journey Through Learning Lapbooks coming up in Feb.

2012-01-07T16:04:00.000-05:00

I am in the process of reviewing A Journey Through Learning lapbooks for Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day and the American Presidents-these are all pre-planned and designed project kits.

For my international pals-they have it via eBook download so you too can do these projects (well they are in English-so I guess that is important to know) but still-thought I would share this wee tid bit of knowledge with ya.

I will be sure to let you know when they go live on the Home Educating Family review site. I think they will have some give-aways for the product then too-so keep a look out for that. :) Oh and Journey Through Learning has many lapbooks that correspond with many popular curriculums and of course, one of my favs-VeggieTales! You can visit their website for more info.

Added new page with Home Educating Family review links

2012-01-07T10:43:00.001-05:00

If you didn't know-I am currently working on the Home Educating Family review team and I have created a page for you to see the products I will or have reviewed and if they are up, the links to them. HEF has many give aways and products that are reviewed for you to enjoy. There is also a new blog that you can read thru. Lots of great info there-you can even leave a comment under the products you know or are interested in! Enjoy.

View my page here.

HEF blog page here.

HEF review page here.

Advanced Astronomy: High School Lapbook

2011-11-27T16:21:00.000-05:00

As promised, I have the astronomy lapbook for my teen here...not all pages shown, but enough to give you an idea of it all. We still have to do the Star of Bethlehem Bible Study and a few more odds and ends to complete her astronomy course for the semester. So those things will go in too-and I will update once completed. I am using the PEP Blank Project Book (with a pocket) for this. Like the lapbooks, this takes stamping very nicely. I simply did a speckle background in very light yellow and stars in a darker one. I used to have some neat star/moon type of stamps but alas-sold those a few years back so I had to make due with what I had.

The front cover was made using MS Word, and I will have her find and type up some of the Bible verses that relate to the creation of the universe/world and God's Word concerning some things astronomy related. That will go on the inside cover (opposite of the front cover) and then the lapbook components you see are from Hands of a Child Advanced Astronomy lapbook kit. I chose to not do all of them with her, and added in some odds and ends I found while searching the internet for other astronomy related mini-books. I also created a couple factoid booklets on a few of the early astronomers too. This course is a mix and match one. I am pulling from different sources and creating our own study. I still hope to get the Signs and Seasons book to have her work thru too, but we'll see. She also wants to study plants more, so it all depends on time/budget. At the end of this post, I have the links and book pics for you (in case you are a visual person like me and enjoy seeing the actual cover of the books) :) ....

HOAC mini-booklets

Homeschool Share booklets and the Ptolemy one I made myself

(there are 2 more not shown)

HOAC booklets/clip art

Considering God's Creation worksheets

Page is not yet stamped or labeled. Not to this point in the project book yet.

These worksheets are for elementary-Jr high
but can be used for HS too...and we did.

I like the additional info she had to locate and the visuals it offers.
Once again-don't let age labels stop you from using stuff
that offers more insight than what the main study offers.

Sometimes the easier work offers more insight
and is remembered more than the "age level" material.

Supplies:

Pear Educational Products: Blank Project Book with Pocket Page

Hands of a Child (HOAC): Advanced Astronomy Project Pack w/CD

Homeschool Share: Astronomer Notebook Pages

(I printed with 2 per or 4 per page to make them smaller)

Considering God's Creation: Notebooking pages on the Solar System

(I had her use them to further her info on the planets, as the

HOAC one didn't have all this info on it. Served as a bonus info project)

Books:

most can be found at Amazon or Rainbow Resource

Astronomy for All Ages by Philip Harrington and Edward Pascuzzi

(we'll be working through the sections not previously covered by the HOAC study)

Star of Bethlehem Bible Study by Kerry Beck with the

Star of Bethlehem DVD by Rick Larson

hope to get:

Signs and Seasons:
Understanding the Elements of Classical Astronomy
by Jay Ryan

Supplemental:

The Astronomy Book by Dr. Jonathan Henry

I also pulled various astronomy books from the library to add in for interest

When we wrap this up-I will update the final project for you.

A Journey Through Learning: It's a Meaningful Life Lapbook (VeggieTales)

2011-11-13T14:28:00.000-05:00

As promised, I finally have the VeggieTales lapbook to share. This one is not the most colorful of my lapbooks, as I did my best to find some VT stickers or paper, but alas-they eluded me. So it is a simple one but very cute none the less. I reviewed this item for the A Journey Through Learning Lapbooks company. Look for that review coming soon on the Home Educating Family Review Site....

Cover-yep, I am using the Pear Educational Fold Up Project Base

and Adhesive Strip for this

When cover is flipped opened

Right-side fold flipped open to showcase entire three-fold

Lookie how nice it looks in a 3-Ring Binder!

Love those adhesive strips!

This lapbook is based on the VeggieTales It's a Meaningful Life DVD. It is a great one to do with younger children and for those who are new to lapbooking.

Retirement only lasts but a short time

2011-11-13T12:29:00.001-05:00

So way back when (in the spring) I decided that I needed to retire, and I was ever so happy to do so. But alas-our plans are not always the Lord's. So when August rolled around, I saw a post on FB about a new review team being put together and I got that same feeling I had when I originally saw the TOS call for review team members. I prayed about it, consulted the family and then decided that I was in fact being led to try out. I left it in God's hands as to whether or not I made the team. I did! And so a few months later-here I am as a part of an 18 member team to review homeschool curriculum/products and other items. It is set up a lot different than what you are used to seeing. We do not post the reviews on our blogs (as of yet and only after they are on the website) and the website setup is unique compared to other homeschool review teams. Viewers can leave comments (like at Amazon) and there will be give-away promotions on the very products we review, and other exciting things catering to the homeschool family.

Right now the site is in Beta Testing, but you can check out what we have up right now. They are working hard to get new reviews up quickly, and look for the Thanksgiving/Christmas products very soon. I hope you will visit it to see what my team mates and I have been up to. Since my goal is to help homeschooling families find the best products for their children, and it is vital in this tough economic time to make wise, informed purchases-I simply had to mention that there is another place to go for help and advice. Regardless of where you glean your information-we as a homeschooling community need to look out for each other and offer wise, supportive help to be sure we continue with this awesome challenge of educating our own. Both the Home Educating Family Review Team [my new team] and the Old Schoolhouse Review Team [as well as other groups] are working toward one goal-to help you sift through the multitude of products out there with ease and with wise council.

I do have a page dedicated to noting the reviews that I have written (or am in the process of writing) and you can directly connect to those (a lot of them have yet to go live-as they come up, I will add those) and once the site is publicly launched-I will have all those links changed to reflect the permanent ones. You can click the tab at the top or click this link to get to it. I do have some lapbook reviews (they should be up soon and others have some fun items relating to lapbooking posted) there-so take a look :).

Until then, enjoy the Beta Testing link to the site and let me know what you think!

Home Educating Family Review Site

Updates and happenings

2011-11-12T12:47:00.000-05:00

Scrapbooking: Well, last weekend I went on a much needed trip with my gal pals up north to scrap. I was able to put together 30 pages. One double page spread tho-I will need to change up a bit, as I am not happy with my color choices for it. Of course, all of them still need journaling, and some minor additions to finish them off, but all in all-it was a great time. I am under the gun here, because this was for my dd who is graduating this coming year and I need to get her yearbook completed. I am way behind. I did manage to get way more done than I originally thought I would, so that is awesome. I will post a few once I get them more presentable.

Lapbooking: I have yet to place down the mini booklets for the Veggie Tales and the Astronomy ones. I have simply not had the time to do so. I wanted to find some paper or something that would be perfect for them to kind of perk the backgrounds up, but have yet to find those. Again-once I get those completed, I will post them. We have not done a FIAR book yet this year, so I am hoping to get one done soon. I failed to get my prep of them done this past summer, so I am winging it and it shows. Which only confirms the necessity of setting aside time to prep, which I mentioned in a prior post , so that is ready to go-and I didn't follow my own advice-shameful. I will need to do a holiday time off prep bonanza for the next semester to avoid this.

Notebooking: We are actually doing pretty good when it comes to this. We have been working through some Nature Study material which does involve notebooking (you can see on our CM blog), and we are also working through the last 25 states of the US which we started last year (and that involves notebooking too).

So there you have it. Kind of in an in between state around here. Sorry to be so boring. Look for new posts hopefully soon.

Baseball Lapbook-All pictures uploaded-completed

2011-10-23T18:31:00.002-04:00

Finally! I have finished the baseball lapbook. I decided to put it on one of the Pear Educational Extended Bases, so I was able to create some booklets about the Detroit Tigers (our fav. team) to add since I really didn't have that many mini-booklets for the regular lapbook. Buddy just needs to color the cover, fill in a couple things about the Tigers and it will be complete. We learned more about baseball than what the lapbook holds [and that is OK-you do not need to lapbook every thing about the subject], esp. during this season with the Tigers making it to the playoffs [we watched them all]. I also helped write out a lot b/cuz my son gets overwhelmed with too much writing-and that is OK...he simply dictates to me (CM style) and we don't fuss over who it is that is writing it. As he gets older, he'll take on more of that himself (he is also dyslexic, so it is a struggle to get him to do a lot of it)-so don't feel your student has to do all the work themselves-half the fun is working together on it.

To create it:

I grabbed some Stampin'Up! stamps I have, used the basic color inks and added in dk. blue and orange stars in honor of the Tiger's colors. I think it came out very nice. He can go back and refer to this anytime he wishes and it is a great show piece too.

Enjoy.

Cover with the Pear Educational Adhesive strip there to place it in our 3 Ring Binder

The first fold-out view from opening the cover

Opening up the flap with the copywork on it-you find this

Lifting up the Detroit Tiger's flap-this is the middle open section.

Above the diamond section is where the D.T. info is.

Underside of the Tigers flap
I created the flap book to hold several famous Tiger players and a pic of Sparky Anderson.
The History denotes when they began, how many World Series they have played, how many Pennants they have won and how many Central Division Titles too. Also notes their team colors. You can easily create this for your favorite team. Wikipedia should have their away/home game uniforms to copy too.

Helpful Hint:

I almost always back my booklets in a darker, matching color of construction paper. It simply makes everything easier to find/stand out on the lapbook. I cannot stress this enough-by taking the time to do this simple application [of layering]-the lapbook will come out so much nicer. The child (and you) works so hard to create this, why not display it in a professional manner?

Resources:

Baseball Lapbook (major components)

Coloring Pages on Baseball

(there are others, I just Googled free coloring sheets and went thru the sites)

American League Team coloring pages

(they also have a National League page)

It would be easy to choose your child's favorite team and base the study around it. I used Wikipedia for many of the players pics and built my own flap book for it.

Some lapbook updates

2011-10-20T13:02:00.000-04:00

All righty-hopefully in a week or so I will have some new lapbooks to show you. We have now wrapped up our baseball one, and have a Veggie Tale one that is so cute, and the teen just finished her HOAC Advanced Astronomy one-problem is.....

they still need to be placed in the lapbooks! LOL I am holding off til I get to a scrapbook store to get some cute Veggie Tale paper and some outer space ones to jazz up the backgrounds a bit. Oh and if I can find some neat baseball ones, well we'll get those too. So since I have a scrappn' weekend coming up very soon-I have to go for my trip supplies, I will get them then.

Once they are complete, I will show them off. :) Look for those coming soon!

Water Color Project instructions

2011-05-04T18:44:00.000-04:00

I just copied/pasted my pal's instructions. I am hoping I put the right pictures with the steps, to help you see what it should do-but folks, I am kinda guessing, so please forgive me on that. :0)

Just go for whatever happens -happens here-esp. if it is your first attempt. I actually cut down to size, some left over white board (from Home Depot-the stuff I used for our white board in the classroom) but anything that is slightly larger than the paper size, and is hard enough to not absorb water, will do. We used painters tape to seal around the edges. About 1/2 inch or so around the edges-keep it tight or it will bleed, losing that nice edging. The rest of course, will stick to the board. Try not to move the boards if possible. Otherwise, wait until they are dry before doing so. Otherwise, paints will run, plastic wrap will pop off and so forth.

1. There are 3 main kinds of watercolor paper -- rough, cold press and hot press (smooth) -- we used rough. As for the paper-it is expensive-we just purchased out right from Michaels and tore them into 6 pieces each. If you only have a few students-obviously, you can have larger papers.

Arches brand is the best and you can get books (called blocks-so you won't need a board then) .. like this... http://www.dickblick.com/products/arches-watercolor-blocks/ -- it is glued down on all 4 sides so you have a flat surface that doesn't move until you cut it off the block. OK here is from Michaels ... http://www.michaels.com/Arches/products-artsupplies-arches,default,sc.html

2. Using painters tape, tape paper down to a solid surface (example white erase board) not cardboard.

3. Have plenty of water, watercolors (cheap Crayola works fine) and a "good" paint brush that holds water (not one that comes with the Crayola paints), and a rag or paper towel

4. You will need some leaves-real or fake to use on the day they trace. Variety is good!

5. You will also need a pencil, saran wrap, reg. table salt, a couple Q-Tips and Rubbing Alcohol. Oh and an old toothbrush if doing the spatter technique.

Steps to paint the picture:

1. Paint the whole blank paper with water, with a big brush drip yellow and blue and red (primary colors) onto the paper. This is called WET ON WET painting. The colors will blend on their own, if there is enough water and fill the page. Let dry with out working on it.

Here you can see the various early stages....

2. Trace leaves "artfully" across your dry painting. We used artificial ones of various sizes and shapes.

You can see the red, yellow, blue bleeding in the background,

the sketching of the leaves there and the saran wrap.

Actually the purple leaf has the rubbing alcohol affect on it too.

3. Pick a leaf outline and paint it with water then with paint, again this is WET ON WET painting. You can try part of the leaf yellow and part red = if there is enough water and paint the colors will blend and make orange. Do other leaves that DO NOT touch. You can also try WET ON DRY -- leave the leaf outline dry and paint on it with just wet paints. These will not blend, they will stay the exact colors you pick. Let dry.

Saran Wrap look.

4. Now that everything is dry again... pick another leaf and do WET ON WET again -- take a small piece of plastic wrap (Sranwrap) and place it on the leaf while still wet. Do not crinkle it up too much but it should have lines and over laps on it. Do not push down on it either, it will push the paint and water out of the leaf outline. Let it dry with the wrap on it. When it is dry you can peel off the wrap and it will look like a crinkled leaf.

Red leaf has the Rubbing Alcohol technique, the light blue and purple ones

also appear to have the Saran Wrap look.

5. Pick another leaf that has everything around it dry and do another WET ON WET (use fun fall colors like green, yellow, orange, red, brown) and then use a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol. Dip the Q-tip in the alcohol and dot the leaf. Let it dry. It will look like a bug was eating the leaf or cool mold was taking over.

Notice the spattered look this student got from using the toothbrush. Very nice.

6. After all leaves are painted there are a couple of other techniques that you can play with. You can use a toothbrush and splatter wet paint on dry paper. You can add a new layer of paint to an already painted leaf that you think needs more color. Try not to over work your picture, watercolor should flow like water.

This one shows the salting results quite nicely.

Be sure there is plenty enough water on it to absorb the salt-

not enough, the salt will just stick.

7. When all leaves are done the negative space needs a wonderful dark wash. We used a beautiful dark blue with some people adding a touch of purple or green (depending on if they had lots of purple leaves -- they added green, or green leaves -- they added purple). Remember to use lots of water and it should be WET ON WET again to get it to flow and blend. While it is still wet take a pinch or 3 or 4 and scatter it over the "water" let it dry with the salt on it. The salt will move the paint and water out of the way in a fun star-like way.

Nice mix of the techniques on this beauty.

8. Once you are all done and it is dry, take off the tape and look at your painting. Notice how the different layers (or washes) show through. That first step of yellow, red and blue can be seen in interesting places, like where the salt moved the water. Or where a leaf has a sunny hue under it but is painted green too. Figure out which side is up and make sure you sign and date your work.

This is a very young 4 yr olds. So even the little guys can make a keepsake!

Be proud of your hard work and patience. It is amazing how everyone can use the same instructions and they all look so individual and unique! Remember to not worry about "mistakes" after it is all done and you look at the whole picture it looks like you wanted it to do that and it wasn't a mistake after all!

Another 4 yr olds-quite impressive~

Here is a good website to see some more watercolor techniques... http://www.watercolorpainting.com/watercolor-tutorials.htm

Darker background choice on this one-bleeding, salt

and Rubbing Alcohol show up nicely on this one.

Good leaf color changes, outlines and leaf variance

(and my boy is color blind so he cannot even appreciate

some of these dark colors, esp. the deep purple

and grays-but still not too shabby!)

There you have it-our co-op kids' works of art! I will post the stray student's pic once I get it-she was absent that last day.

Hey, when you all get yours done-link the post to my comments section, as I would love to see what you all did! Be sure to frame your beautiful pieces of art too!

FIAR: Mailing May lapbook pics

2011-05-01T15:22:00.001-04:00

Here are the shots from the Mailing May section of FIAR book. I have the Miss Rumphius section in a pile-as I broke my ankle last week and I have had no energy to mess with finishing that yet. I will try to get those pics done soon. Anyway-the three stories we did for co-op, do not contain nearly the amt. of material a normal FIAR lapbook would for us...but it is still enough to get the majority of the lessons imparted into his memory cells. I believe I will have just enough room for one final book for this semester. I am thinking of doing the Raft, which we simply didn't get to last year. We'll see. Anyway, don't forget you can get these awesome spiral books from my friend Heidi's company-Pear Educational Products. Love them!

The brown pocket slot holds a couple pages of activities he did

(some in co-op, the rest at home).

The copywork and stamp project are in the brown pocket-

the Postal Transportation Time Line is from the Postal Service download

noted in my previous post on Mailing May.

There are tons of neat projects in there to do.

Like the thorough teacher that I am-uh, I totally forgot to check the answer key to see where the stamps should go. We were short on time and just tried to get it as close as possible to the correct spots. The kids didn't care. Anyway-this was a fun activity and the kids really enjoyed making their own stamp.

Look for our final co-op story's section on Miss Rumphius soon.

Mini Bunny project for Easter, spring or just because

2011-04-19T13:46:00.000-04:00

Now, Easter is my fav. holiday/biblical celebration, and we know full well that it isn't about bunnies and chocolates and plastic eggs. But it is fun to create a few crafts that scream "spring" and this is one of them. If you don't like to mix bunnies with your Easter celebration, this would still be a fun craft for spring or when you study bunnies/animals and what not.

You will need to do the following to make your bunnies:

*1/2 and 1/2 or small milk containers-one per child (rinse and rinse and then do a final rinse with a touch of bleach in the water to kill any milk and smell that may remain-let dry completely)

*stapler (staple close the opening you pour the milk from. I waited until I cut the ears/sides out to make it easier to get that area cut out-but you can do this first if you wish)

*Sharpie pen to mark out the ears and sides to cut along (I did this and even cut it out-saves time and it is not that important for the kids to do). They should take up the better part of the top, you can trim it down a bit so the ears don't touch (b/cuz the cotton fuzz will)-stop at the fold near the pouring area.

*scissors and a sharp pointed cutter to start the ears. I cut the ears out first, then did the side trim.

*hole puncher-make a hole in the middle of the top rim of the container. This is where you will pull the whiskers thru. I actually had the kids put the pipe cleaners thru before gluing. I had 2 pipe cleaners per bunny, but it is up to you. You can use pipe cleaner or yarn or whatever you have that looks like whiskers.

Yes, have the kids wear old clothes: glue, fuzzies and reg. boys gone crazy junk

will get all over their shirts.

*Pink paper for the middle of the ears. Cut out smaller than ear size but it doesn't need to be perfect, the cotton will cover a lot of it. Glue on the ears in the middle of them.

*glue, a container for it and paint brushes. It is simply easier to "paint" the glue on the box than squeeze it on.

*Cotton balls. I had a bag of 100 and I have plenty left (we did 2) so hopefully, that will help you judge the amt you need [1/3 bag or so was left over]. Have the child glue the sides, add cotton balls and keep going until the outside of the bunny is filled in nicely. We tore the balls into smaller pieces for the ears (front) and to fill in spaces. I suggest packing them in good on the facial area, esp. around the pipe cleaners. Pack them in tight to hold those in place and puff up the face as they wish with layers. Glue a big puff on the rump for the tail. We glued/cotton balled the back of the ears down a bit and my ds also did one row on the insides. You will stuff the center with Easter grass, so you don't need to be too worried if it is plain on the insides.

*add googly eyes, and a pom-pom nose (or you could use a button, paper, etc.) and your bunny is ready to go. Let it dry good though, before adding grass and placing on your table. Stuff with grass and add some eggs/goodies to finish it off.

Hippity Hoppity Easter is on its way.

6 step Water Color art project

2011-04-15T11:23:00.001-04:00

During our Co-op the kids worked on a 6 step water color project. I have to get the exact directions still, but thought I would share the results-they are beautiful (and they didn't even turn out like they were "suppose" to-so we'll do this again to see how we do the second time around. Doesn't matter-I am quite pleased with them!)

Using watercolors, a series of steps, saran wrap, salt, rubbing alcohol, and lots of water-plus a black pen for outlining-this is what we got and I cannot wait to frame and display these beauties!

Final results are striking. DD's is horizontal, DS's is vertical

close up of dd's-salt is the white splashes, round dots-I believe is rubbing alcohol...have to check tho

close up of the saran wrap leaf-it is suppose to leave these marks-dd's didn't work right-prob'ly b/cuz we had to move them to dry (due to being at the church and we couldn't leave them out)...so when we do this at home, they will stay put to see if we get better results.

I will post some more of the other kids too-have to get them transferred to this puter first-but they are gorgeous! I am so proud of our little watercolor artists! Look for the update soon-

FIAR: Miss Rumphius [co-op study]

2011-04-15T08:28:00.001-04:00

The third and final book we covered in our FIAR class at our co-op was Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney. This class had a bit of a twist because the teens had to teach it to the younger set. Due [running theme here] to time constraints, I had to decide the majority of what they were to cover and assign the teens their duties for the two classes.

What we did:

booklets from Homeschool Share (links you to Miss Rumphius' page)

We did Where is Maine? and How Seeds Travel

Enchanted Learning

lots on plants/flowers available-esp. if a member

from the Worksheet Place, parts of a plant

Life Cycle of the Plant
to make it more manageable, I selected adding multiple pages per sheet when printing
-you'll have to adjust your page perimeters prior to printing
-otherwise, you'll get a much larger booklet of this.

Miss Rumphius copywork I created and you can download it from my Scribd page.

Project:

image from howstuffworks.com

I picked up some seed potting pots (packet of 10 in gardening section-these are the throw away ones)

potting medium and some Lupine seeds. The kids planted a few seeds in their pot, and used a popsicle stick to identify it as theirs (wrote name on the stick). The Lupine will tolerate being planted in at the seedling stage, or you can directly sow into the ground. Obviously, we needed to pre-plant so the kids could watch them germinate and plant in their own yards. I found the seeds at our local grocery store, and am sure you can find them just about anywhere they sell seeds.

Visiting from the Ultimate Blog Party?

2011-04-01T08:00:00.006-04:00

If you haven't joined the fun-do so! It's a great way to meet other bloggers, and perhaps win a prize or two!

If you are linking from my main blog, I thought I would do a quick infomercial on the goal for my

Scrapbooks and Lapbooks by Sheri Blog.

The goal for this fun blog is to highlight various ways to implement lapbooks, mini-books, enviebooks and notebooking into one's schooling (ether at home or in other institution). I have many posts that show what we have done-along with the links to the sources I found most helpful in creating them. I also have links to my Scribd pages (I believe that if you don't have a Scribd account, you may have to pay for them-read up on their website for more info).

actually there is more info on this over on my Charlotte Mason Sampler blog

I also have a few posts on the various pages I have scrapbooked for my kids' high school yearbooks. I am a bit behind in those type of posts, as I am a bit behind in my scrappin! But never fear, this year my goal is to get a few more of those posted for you.

Inspiration is a great thing and hopefully-you'll walk away inspired to try a few of these projects yourself!

Enjoy!

FIAR: Mailing May [co-op study]

2011-03-22T17:41:00.003-04:00

The second book we discussed is, Mailing May by Micheal Tunnell. This is a sweet book, and it offers up lots to do for side exploration, but being that we only had a 20 or so minutes to cover it-I had to be selective in my options-

We did the following:

Copywork page I made, that you can download

from my Scribd page.

Homeschool Share page on Mailing May

(ID shutterfold, Mailing Me, Train Tickets)

There is another-How Much to Mail-but for the life of me, I dunno where that came from.

For the Mailing Me booklet-we weighed the kids, then they wrote down how much they weigh then converted the amount to cents (I did a bit of math and came up with May costing about a penny per pound...not 100% accurate but close enough-so they just converted their weight to see what it would have cost them to go by mail)

Postal Pack (6th download down from top of listings-

it is the Postal Pack for Elementary Students)

we chose to do pages 16-19 which is
the postal transportation time line project.

I also chose to do a few extra activities
with my son at home-there is some cool stuff in this)

We also added:

Potato chips for our snack-being that Idaho is a big producer of tators!

As usual for our FIAR books-we did the map disk placement. I own a fabric world map, that I have

placed the appropriate velcro dots on (location of the various books) and then have the story disks

for the student to place in the proper spot (of where the story takes place).

obviously not all disks are on there for this-I took this pic to show the ones I have right now

The kids are working on rug braiding for their Handicraft class, and so that covers a project idea for Mailing May (love when that happens).

my boy working on his at home (which everyone has to do-not enough time in co-op)

And a mom is bringing in her kids Thomas the Train set to play with since May traveled on a steam engine to get to her grannie's house. Now I would have loved to delve into the trains more, since all but 2 of the kids are boys-and you know how boys love trains...but again-the time crunch prevented this. So I am adding that into my son's extra work on Mailing May. [I will highlight those pages when we are all done]

I am again, penning before we are completely done with it-so I will come back and add some pics and show some work they did.

FIAR: A Pair of Red Clogs

2011-03-07T20:17:00.003-05:00

I noted on my HSing on a Wing and a Prayer blog about our CM co-op's venturing down the FIAR river...and we are currently working on A Pair of Red Clogs.

image from Amazon.com

You will need the FIAR teacher guide-which can be purchased through various sources. This story is noted in Bk 1 of the FIAR series. You can find out more about it by visiting the FIAR website

Mini-Books/Lapbook Components/Additional printouts:

I provided the families with a weather wheel to help them to complete their weather chart.

You can download the weather chart via my Scribd page

This is part of the Weather Wheel

you can download from Enchanted Learning

(this is a member's only printout but for $20 a year-this

is one expense where you will definitely get your money's worth)

I created these Weather Telling Game cards to help the kids figure out what the position of their clogs meant. They flipped off their flip flops/clogs and then used the cards to determine what the weather was to be the next day.

My Scribd download
UGH Scribd is changing the upside down one to right side up-see if you can change it prior to printing
-if not, email me and I can send you the correct one.

I suggest cutting out the squares and gluing the correct answer

to the back of the image. (The answers are below the right images) or

simply cut it out in 3 strips.

Mini-booklets for lapbook:

we did the Flag of Japan, Honesty Bklt, Where is Japan located and the Thermometer Pull Tab bklt. These are available for free via the Homeschool Share site.

For my son's FIAR book-I added an extra goody, the Japan Book found on Enchanted Learning (again-members only PDF) [I didn't focus too long on this one because we have 2 more coming up in the next 4 weeks. So these are relatively simple and short studies].

Additional Fun Activities:

image from familyfun.go.com

Sweet Sushi Recipe

Weather Telling Game

Ashita tenkini nare!
(IE: It will be fine tomorrow!)

We will be moving into Mailing May for the next 2 classes-so look for that post once we've completed that row.

Have you checked out Pear Educational Products yet?

2011-02-12T18:01:00.001-05:00

Well you should! They offer blank, spiral bound books and blank fold-up project base kits to make lapbooking easier and much more professional looking! What's more (and my personal fav) they have the adhesive strips that you place on the back side of the lapbook-so that you can store them nicely in a 3 ring binder!

Pear Educational Products

Whatever lapbook guides you use, you can make them fit these nice project books/fold-ups. No more taping in extra pages! They are all white so you can decorate it how you want! And no more backing of file folders to keep it from "folding in" at the center of the lapbook!

And yes-I have tried them out personally, and I can attest to the quality and awesomeness of these!

**I received a few free samples each of the spiral bound books, the fold-up lapbook kits and the adhesive strips, so that I could test them out with my family; and offer ideas and suggestions during the product line's preliminary testing phase. I did not receive any financial compensation from Pear Educational Products for my honest opinion of them. Nor do I receive any affiliate payments for products sold.

I have added info to three pages (FIAR, Notebooking and Scrapbooks of our Lapbooks)

2011-01-21T12:01:00.003-05:00

You can find the updated info on the pages (just look at the tabs above here and click on them)-it lists sites and blogs that can help you with finding FIAR resources and the scrapbook of our lapbooks shows you the covers of the ones we have made so far (not all are up yet...)

HTH you all out.

Five in a Row: Higgin's Bend-Updated

2011-01-08T18:40:00.002-05:00

We're excited to do another FIAR book (IV) selection this coming week. I had all the goodies for the lapbook already done (thru my summer print/cut/package ahead of time spree) and waiting to go. The passport is where I put a little sticker or print out of the country the story takes place in. This is a shorter study, so we should have the pages posted soon (It usually takes me a couple days to get to pasting them into the book...but we'll share when it is done).

Here is the finished lapbook (in the big FIAR spiral bound book)

I put a velcro dot on the tackle box to make it easy to open-I just took images from MS Word for the pics for the pieces you'd find in one.

Sources:

Homeschool Share-Higgins Bend Song and Dance LB

Enchanted Learning-fish diagram (open to both members and non-members to print)

I also plan on doing a couple activities, if I get to the store-one being making "stink balls" out of some kinda PB ball thing and gummy worms, along with a couple other projects-just have to schedule it in and I will be sure to update once completed.

States Study update

2011-01-04T22:02:00.001-05:00

Just a few pics to showcase our states study. We do about 5 then review those b4 moving on to a new set. I am really liking the material from the Homeschool in the Woods Olde World US maps. It is creating a lovely notebook! Plus, I have included sompe pics of the passport-the boy adds the little goodies each time we do a state. We're really enjoying this study. You can see all the posts I have done regarding this by clicking the links or just going thru the archives. HTH spur your states study on.

The cover of the binder

sample of pages in it. The kids color their US map to match the color they chose for the state, to

make it easier to recognize. That will go in the front of the binder once we have completed

the entire 50 states.

The inside of the passport-I will be able to squeeze 25 in each booklet-just have to put one state on the back
page. It is cute and an easy project. I am very excited that I finally finished getting all the postcards for our 50 state book (so now it can be bound!) to use for reference and just for the fun of it. Read thru the prior posts to get more info on where I found this stuff, to help you put together your own study.

on my What's in the Box? Blog:

US State Study links

Geography Center

State Learning Game

on my 1 of 100 (Plus 25) TOS Crew Reviews blog:

Homeschool in the Woods: Olde World US Maps review

Well it is finally up and now I can show you what I have been hinting about!

2010-11-22T16:44:00.003-05:00

So awhile back I mentioned that my pal, Heidi was working on some lapbook/notebook favorable items. She now has those goodies available for sale! YEAH. You can visit their website Pear Educational Products to see them and get some for yourself!

One of the biggest things with making a lapbook is the folding and subsequent bendi-fold in the center of the booklet. Which means that I would have to glue a sheet of construction paper down to give it more firmness, and that started getting old. Plus, I don't necessarily like having to work around the cover issues (like right down the middle, which meant cutting the cover or designing one to fit the flaps), which the traditional file folder ends up having.

that beast of a crease

I don't like this fold down the center of the main part of the lapbook-makes it flimsy and bendy. Most folks wouldn't give this a second thought, but I am just like that-it is annoying to me.

Gone are those days because Heidi has made some lapbook folders that are precut (either with 3 folds, or 3 folds with a flap) to put your mini-booklets on.

This is the 3 fold with the flap- it is laying on top of the main-middle fold, but you can get them without the flap (which is good for bigger projects or when you need more space for larger components). I used the 3 fold in the project I am about to show you. Plus, they are white-which lends to a much more neutral background that one can jazz up or leave as is. The beige color was not my fav really; and the color folders are not cheap [plus they have the above crease issue, so they are no better]. I didn't always want that solid color for the base-so this fixes both of those issues for me too.

AND best of all-the most irritating factoid in lapbooking-what to do with them after they are done? How does one store them? Well, now you can store your lapbooks in a 3-ring binder (any of them you have made-regardless if on file folders or with their pre-made ones- b/cuz you can purchase these in a 10 pack) to keep them safe, easy to flip through, or to remove/then replace when done, in order to truly enjoy them. I am so geeked about this product! My lapbooks were getting squashed, crinkled [I know I didn't want to use duct tape], so these are like the perfect answer to the problem-o.

The adhesive strips have the usual 3 ring holes in em,

with a line of adhesive to adhere to the back of the lapbook.

You simply peel the paper off, and stick (but be careful, this is strong adhesive-no repositioning!)

Just stick it to the back side of the lapbook and it is good to go.

WOW heh? Yeah, I think so!

And to show you what we did with the 3 fold out one-our Tchaikovsky and the Nutcracker Ballet Lapbook:

The cover page-I did back the coloring page with 2 sheets of card stock

to make it pretty-again, that is just my crafty nature. Nice, but not necessary.

I stamped with 3 different colors [the musical note, swirl and snowflake], to jazz up the background because this lapbook simply lends itself to such jazziness. I also grabbed off white card stock to print most the booklets on; and it looked rather sad on the empty background. I didn't want to print on any other color [for the booklets], due to all the color images already on them. So it needed something. And since this material is easy to color or stamp-why not?

The tri-fold opens all the way (Tchaikovsky's info page is now face down under the Nutcracker story side [R]) showing all the components. We used the puppets as a way to fill dead space (since I didn't want oodles and oodles of mini-books in it) and to add some nice contrast. I will try to get the 3 booklets [the large "My favorite scenes" holder, the "Nutcracker based on" fold and the "First performance" one] I made on to my Scribd pages soon. Otherwise, just make your own (if so inclined to study this ballet/composer) using your MS Word clipart and tools.

We came across this timeline and hey-why not have it there too?

So it claimed the back side of the lapbook, where the newly attached adhesive strip lives too.

**the pocket holds the worksheet where the kids drew their 3 favorite scenes from the ballet.

Sources:

see my CM blog for the post with the exact sources listed

My post on the Tchaikovsky study

I will come back later and add the Scribd pape link for the misc. booklets

for lapbook and spiral lapbook supplies:

Pear Educational Products

I used the stamps and ink I have laying around in my collection-one could do nothing or use scrapbook paper too. It is purely my crazy decorating need that prompted this stamping background fest.

**Let it be noted that Pear Educational Products provided me with some free samples of their lapbook products and spiral bound books-but mostly as a way to say thanks for serving as their tester, and to also enjoy creating some neat lapbooks with. No financial compensation was received for this honest post regarding their materials.

Art project idea using Spears Art Studio curriculum

2010-11-12T22:40:00.001-05:00

This pretty activity came from the Spears Art Studio-high school curriculum. I really like the results-and I saw a great variety of different leaves come to life, when the children in our co-op were tapping away on to create their leaves. My daughter chose to put less darkness in her leaf. Others made theirs similar to the drawing and some even ended up creating new leaves all together (because of not counting the blocks correctly-but that was totally OK, it was a fun moment and the student was able to create a whole new "species" of plant!)

sorry about it being hard to see, I should have taken the pic on a darker surface-but it is late and so this will have do for now. The one on the left is my daughter's final artwork-the lesson is on the right.

Alongside their reg. art, I like to include projects that relate to their current nature study lessons; to help them gain different techniques, and styles for creating a wide variety of work, in their NS notebooks. We also had the children do a Maple leaf rubbing, and copywork to really round out this lesson. So if you are lacking in one or both of these areas in your hs...I suggest combining them into one lesson with shorter focus on each area, to "kill 2 birds with one stone." It has helped us to keep these valuable areas of study in our reg. weekly plans.

I keep finding all sorts of gems in the art curriculum. If you are curious about it-I actually reviewed both the elementary and the high school programs. You can read about it over on my 1 of 100 (plus 25) TOS Crew Review blog.

Our FIAR book of books-volume IV

2010-11-12T22:24:00.002-05:00

We are working through the Five in a Row book 4 stories and I decided to put the lapbook components into a blank book instead of a lapbook file. This way we can stuff several of the projects into one book. The pages are a bit plainish to me-as we have not yet gone to the craft store to get some stickers that match the themes...boats and pumpkins. Once we have those, I will let the boy sticker up some of the white space to jazz it up more, but anyhoo-wanted to post this gem for you all. Another option for your lapbook displays.

Arabella [our Aug/Sept. book] didn't have a ton of info, so we pulled things from everywhere. He also worked on knot tying-which is not in here (the diagrams are-not the ropes) and that about completed this unit. I still have to put the Nautical Terms booklet in...that got waylaid due to a the puter crash and I also wanted to get started on our October book, The Pumpkin Runner.

The Pumpkin Runner took the whole month of October to work on, due to us not doing the unit every day-only a few times per week. I wanted to time it also to the pumpkin harvest time, so that we could do our floating pumpkin experiment too. We have to wrap up the Fauna booklets still-again, due to the puter crash we are behind in this-but once that is done, our study will be complete.

I glued the top only, then folded the bottom part to make these fit. I didn't want to dedicate a whole page to them, nor encroach the up coming new book (which has yet to be determined).

The Koala and Kangaroo (under the pic of the bear) was a fun painting project. I found the book at the library (Hand-print Animal Art by the Kids Can! Series) and tried these. We spent most of our time laughing because the kangaroo is so warped looking, but the Koala came out better. That is why he is on top! LOL.

Almost all the components for these 2 FIAR books, I found at one of my favorite lapbook places, Homeschool Share [just look under the free lapbook section]. Due to his age, and because I don't want to over "mini booklet" the series, we were much more picky about which ones we wanted to focus on.

To finish out each unit of study-we are making a Sculpy ornament to commemorate it. I am struggling with the boat-it kept falling apart, so Arabella remains "in que" [perhaps a sea bird will do], but we did each make a pumpkin [will post another time] and once we have a collection of them-we will hang them on a FIAR mobile!

**The blank book is a Pear Educational Products Spiral Bound Project Book. This works perfectly for smaller lapbooks you want to clump together, and all in one convenient large [lap]book.

I have created another blog all about Charlotte Mason homeschooling

2010-11-11T14:11:00.003-05:00

I found that I simply needed to create a blog dedicated to the CM areas of our homeschool. I hope this will serve as a blessing, and challenge you to try her methods as a part of doing "school" with your family. Even if you are new to CM, or an old timey CMer-I pray something there will encourage you or provide a new idea or two.

I will be adding posts as fast as I can, I have a lot of ideas and also will be cross-posting old posts from my other blogs to this one for you (so you can find the info quickly). I hope to have an intro to CM and how we use it someday soon--but until then, I have linked in many great blogs, sites and companies that are all about CM.

Stop by for a visit and tell your friends!

A Charlotte Mason Homeschool Sampler

Ways to make projects look professional and easy to assemble/use for reference: Art Appreciation

2010-10-18T17:48:00.000-04:00

Finally! I have these ready to post (well not all of it-but the beginnings of it)...

SO I am really trying here to do more in the Art Appreciation (CM related) department, instead of "getting to it later." My intention this year is to study at least 3 artists. Being that we are into Am. history this year, I chose 3 folks who express the true essence of America. I wanted someone who also recorded aspects of nature-so we are starting with John James Audubon. Couldn't think of anyone who better fits the nature loving (OK mostly birds) requirement. What's more, it so nicely ties into our regular nature study course (and I am throwing in the bird study too)! Geez, I feel so special having this click so well together!

Anyhoo-back to my story here...so I came across these little blank books (but alas, they are not quite what I want, but will do--so good thing my pal Heidi is working on a great new line of blank books, lapbooks and such for my crafty needs), to use to create something lovely and sturdy for our studies. I used MS Word to create the covers, and ran them off on card stock. The teen wanted turquoise and the boy got light blue. The goal is to put the data/pic info in the one for the study of the artist and then (pic of JJ Audubon with his signature) is for placing at least 4 post card sized reproductions of some of his work. We will use photo corners to keep them on the pages, then they can take them out to study them. I have to still order those, but when I have them-I will post a pic of it for ya. Then as we work thru the other artists, we'll add their info too.

The Study of Famous Artists book

The Artwork of Famous Artists book

I wrote what the boy wanted on his page (lined notebook pages I purchased, and are a part of an Audubon eBook-just chose the 2 per page print option to get em smaller)...and the teen will journal her answers on her own pages...then those will go after the basic artist info. I am going to also have a couple of their favorite pics he drew printed up (small) to place in there too-

We are also making a whole Audubon/Bird study book using coloring pages of birds, notebooking pages, data, some lapbook components and NS drawings to complete this whole study. Once I get that built up a bit, I will post those pictures for ya.

Yet another way to record and keep the goodies we are studying. I really, really like the idea of putting this into a blank book. I cannot wait to share the lapbooks Heidi designed (no more yellow file folders and all that taping/folding to get an extended lapbook!) and all the other blank books they are working on (no, these ones shown are not theirs..as I had purchased these prior to Heidi's company production of similar products), because I believe you'll love em too. What's more-they slide right nice into a bookshelf! Gotta love that!

Queen Anne's Lace Nature Study

2010-09-12T19:36:00.004-04:00

Today was a beautiful day-picture perfect. I couldn't resist the call to nature-so I printed off the notebook page on the Queen Anne's Lace study, grabbed Anna Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study, the kids' nature supply totes and well-the kids. We went to up the to the "hill prairie" (another section of our sub that has not been developed)...and found quite a abundance of the precious weed...here are some pics.....

We chose to use on pencils in our sketches this time. Since this is a year long study, we have plenty of opportunities to use several other mediums...which will be fun to compare. Unfortunately, it doesn't photograph well-I tried to darken them a bit so you could see.

The boy's (he dictated, and I wrote what he observed)

The teen's (she decided she would do more observation than drawing

because once she starts-she gets very detailed..so this is her quick sketch)

I did a bit of both. The object here is not to sketch a perfect looking likeness, but to

learn to observe, and take in the amazing handiwork of our Lord.

You can find out all about this great The Outdoor Hour study on Barb's Handbook of Nature Study blog-which is an awesome place to visit!

New site for homeschoolers offers free stuff-yes!

2010-09-01T10:00:00.000-04:00

So lookie what I had found out about...Lapbook Lessons and Curriculum Share are giving away this awesome new Time Travelers kit from Homeschool in the Woods. I love HS in the Woods stuff! I was even fortunate to review a couple items of hers whilst on my TOS cruise...you can read about those here:
Olde World Maps and the New Testament Lapbook Kit.

HS in the Woods Giveaway

Visit this great new site: Curriculum Share

This is one sweet idea!

I am always excited to share ways for HSers to expand their repertoire and jazz up their studies-and this is certainly one way to do so!

*I am simply sharing info here-no financial or other compensation was received for doing so. I could win this giveaway-but that is not necessarily my reason for blogging about it.

So remember that lapbook book poll from a while back?

2010-08-07T10:19:00.000-04:00

Well, my pal-Heidi at Chatter, Clatter and Things that Matter is the one who is working on getting a line up for us lapbook-aholics. They are sending me a package of samples and best yet!!!! I mentioned my storage problem and how I would like to have something to put onto the lapbooks (instead of Duct Tape) to get them into a 3 ring binder and lo and behold-I think they have something! I will wait til Heidi and her hubby finalize and tweak em and such to explain just what they are...but you are gonna love em!

So your lapbooking needs just may have been solved! Love when that happens.....

(and isn't that nice of me to bait you and then not explain? Sorry....suspense can be good ya know)

Hey, if you are a user of the Cutest Blog on the Block templates

2010-07-21T12:31:00.000-04:00

this Friday, they will disappear. Apparently they upgrading the site-so you best wanna find a new one til they get back up and running. I am using Hot Bliggity Blog for these, and they have several-just click their icon in the upper left-hand corner and it'll get you there. Just a heads up-

Due to my need to just not do any type of schooling really-there has been no lapbooks/notebooks to show

2010-07-09T12:48:00.000-04:00

well, there are, but they are not assembled...LOL...decided I needed to rearrange the classroom to a way that best suits us and makes it all appear fresh. So that took some time-and well, it is not complete yet...had lots of other things pulling for my attention and so it sits-lost and forlorn a bit still. But I will tell you this-once I gain order in the classroom-I will be sitting down to decide what lapbooks I want to cover this year. Then I will find the components, copy, and precut as necessary, then toss them and the book (if I own it) into a giant ziplock bag to have it ready to go. I think that was my biggest hurdle, finding time to get all that stuff copied. So that is my big plan for that part of our school. I have a big tub for files, and if I can fit them into it-I will (after labeling em) so all I have to do is pluck em out as we go.

I need to regain organization of the school process-I had let it run a muck and I cannot simply live like this anymore. My Type A personality has let the Type Z over run the house and it is killing me. Then, after I do the list of the lapbooks, I will search for notebooking pages and any other components to add to the study. I am also longing to see what my pal Heidi comes up with on those lapbook spiral bound books too. I am always looking for different ways to present the materials. Oh, and that reminds me-whilst shopping our neighborhood garage sales this year-I found 2 big binders (meant for photographs) that perfectly fit the lapbooks (file folder ones) and so I need to get some of those cloth-type hooks (dunno know the name but have seen them, so I know they exist-when I find em I will post about em) to latch [stick] onto the sides of the lapbooks (cuz I simply do not want to put duct tape on em-it will ruin some covers by hiding the titles or pics) to make it so they can pop right into the 3 ring binders. I think they are like picture hangers or something like that...well, anyhoo-another project.

Then I will have to move along into organizing the workbox stuff a bit better, creating a few more areas for our centers (meaning buying the science project boards to create a history board and I know I had another one to do...but forget at the moment) so busy, busy and more busy. All this while squeezing in some TOS reviews, doing all the work necessary to get this new co-op started, getting out (when it isn't like the surface of the sun) to do some good ole fashioned nature studies, rest, celebrate some more b-days of the kids/hubby and so forth and well-live.

So that is why it has been sorta quiet here...Life. Crazy as it is-I still love it and wouldn't have it any other way.

Lapbook Survey-need your help

2010-06-19T15:34:00.000-04:00

I will get some pics up from my trip up north-in due time...

so, anyhoo-the survey: My pal Heidi P. at Chatter, Clatter and Things that Matter, has an idea. You see her fam runs a binding company and after seeing this post from my pal Tristan at Our Busy Homeschool, where her daughter shows her lapbook in a bound book form, she wondered if others would like that option. So Heidi was thinking that they could offer us-the lapbooking fams that we are-a bound book to host our mini-booklets, reports and such. Let's face it-the manila folders can get a tad boring after a time. This is another great option to display our creations in. SO here is what she needs [in order to come up with something and to see if it is wat ya all would like to have offered]-

What do you need? a 10 page book? 5 page book? Pocket holder on one page? Tabbed pages? Spiral bounding in a variety of colors? Different sized papers? Etc. General like stuff. Plain cover? Or I think they can get a title one, but that bumps the price up a tad. Whatever you think you'd like to see and then I will pass this info on to her and then they can make what they can. Go ahead and list it and then they will see if they can accommodate it.

So be sure to leave a comment mentioning what you'd like to see. :0)
Thanks for you time and help!

Featured on Shining Dawn Books site!

2010-05-10T19:03:00.000-04:00

Ah, I love it when something that pops in my noodle can help others and offer up new ways to streamline their homeschool goodies and such-and well, the gals over at Shining Dawn Books asked if they could borrow a post of mine about organizing your eBooks. I am very honored and thank the ladies for highlighting me. Please take a look see at the site-they offer some really neat looking nature units and ideas for resources for nature study and more!

Wow, new site for DigiLapbook Designer

2010-05-06T14:59:00.001-04:00

I have a follower whose has this neat application available-you create your lapbooks via online-

Homepage

and since I am all about sharing good ideas and products-I just had to let you know. Take a peek-this is really cool!

For those reading my Circle C Adventures: Andrea Carter and the Trouble with Treasure review post

2010-04-29T20:59:00.001-04:00

Here is the link to the lapbooks that I mentioned in my review of the Trouble with Treasure book.

Journey through Learning

They seem to have the lapbook packages for all of them. So if you are a lapbooker and like this series, this may be a great way to tie them together!

On the Circle C Adventures site, you can download a free study guide too-so lots of goodies for this series!

Owl Moon-a lapbook and extension of Molly and McGee

2010-04-16T14:53:00.000-04:00

If you have been strolling around the internet-you are probably familiar with the Live Owl Box of Molly and McGee Watch. We've been watching Molly as she has incubated, hatched her eggs to now keeping up with her brood. We have been amazed at what you can learn by watching them! We have discovered a lot of things we didn't or usually couldn't know about owls and how they care for their young. And besides, they are just darn cute!

So I decided to pull the Owl Moon book and the FIAR guide II to work on some owl activities.
So using Homeschool Share's owl lapbook and a few other crafts and such to study these amazing creatures.

Today, we did a neat owl art project, Owl scissor/tearing skills art. I had my son tear the "feathers" but he also cut some. I lightly outlined an owl on a large sheet of black construction paper for him to use as a guide. I then poured some reg. school glue into a container, gave him a paint brush and let him go wild. I came in (per his request) and added a couple speckles and additional feathers for ole Molly. I think it came out adorable.

This is our intro to the owl study. I will add in some owl magazines, a cute owl cookie project and of course, the reading of the book with some of the activities too. I will post our final project in about 2 weeks (as we are just starting it and that is usually how long I dedicate to each lapbook).

An organization idea for your ebook lapbooks

2010-03-24T22:11:00.001-04:00

Ok, so after attending a conference last weekend, and hearing Niki from Hands of a Child speak and show her wares, I got to thinking....I know I have a lot of their ebooks, but which ones and where are they all. Well, yes-I am that unorganized with such things-I have them burned to CDs and on my flash drive...but not all in one spot (now I do, as I made one CD with just those on it). So then I thought-hmm, when I am planning, I don't want to have to go thru the CD to see what I have...how can I make it so I know which ones I have and have it all neat and tidy? Hmm...then duh! I have had some postcard plastic sheet holders (I used them in my SU demo chick days to showcase the cards I made) and well-why not...

So I right clicked/saved then transfered to MS Word, the pics of the ones I have. I resized em to fit the holder slots, and now I have a nice display and reference of what I have. No more guessing. I can easily slide them out and rearrange to add more down the road too. I did copy em in color, but one could easily do just gray scale. I used what I had laying around...so these holders are bigger than what most would want. I know you can buy those baseball trading card holders (most stores carry them in the sporting goods or in the trading cards area) in a pack, and then you could just size them for those slots. It would save on ink as well as get you more per sheet, due to the smaller size. I also am have a section going for my Home School in the Woods lapbook collection, my Live and Learn Press and the A Journey through Learning lapbooks too. I just haven't printed those but for one, due to running out of colored ink and time (IE: having to go thru my CDs to find them again...after knowing I had to get my puter diagnosed and then subsequently get it switched out from Vista to Windows 7-I had to do a quick "save it or lose it" CD burn-a-thon...so they are everywhere). SO that is for another day when I have nothing better to do.

Hope this idea helps you organize your ebook collection too...and man, frankly-I could do this for all my ebooks I have. Hmm, another project for down the road.

I have these stored in my Lapbook 3-ring binder. I also have the stuff I copy off from Homeschool Share in tabbed sections behind this-that way if I revisit the stuff, I have it already to go.

That empty spot is for the Hot Diggity Dog cover...I believe it is the current free one for the semi-annual freebie on HOAC..so until that is back on the site...that spot sits all empty like. Oh that is funny-just realized the Galaxies needs to go down to that blank spot and Hot Diggity can go after...guess I need to brush up on my alphabetizing skills-LOL!

I have one more on the back side of this...a couple are the free sample lapbooks (so I only have some sections of it-and plan on just writing "sample" on a slip of paper to slide in on top of them until I buy the full kit). Many of these are ones I got for free, others I bought, and one was a part of the goodie package I got when I renewed my TOS magazine subscription. I am awaiting the States, and the Astronomy one (just purchased them at the conference)...looking to check them out. Fun, Fun!

Finally! Snowflake Bentley Lapbook

2010-03-24T17:43:00.000-04:00

I have had the components sitting in the baggie, just itching to get put into a lapbook. I was going to put it on a "cereal box" display-but was having major wrapping malfunctions (of the package-you know-so you don't see the writing on the box-long story)...so decided to put it into a lapbook pocket. This is slightly different from the usual folding for lapbooks. I took 2 manila folders, put the lower tabs together to form a pocket in the center of the book. Kinda hard to explain. Basically tho-just glue along the bottom and up the sides to the tab but leave the center non-glued so you will have a pocket when done. I also stapled the edges to make it stronger. I will come up with a tutorial soon...

Anyhoo-here it is.

I had laminated the cover page prior to deciding to use this approach-so I am going to run off another copy to make matching cards-the main piece is removable (ah yes-Velcro'd) to make it easier to use. The cards will then go in the pocket for storage.

The first opened page. I only used what components I liked from the HSS site. We were getting tired of this study, so I shortened by not doing as many booklets. The backing is blue construction paper glued down over the folder (hides the staples quite nicely).

The pocket. Again, I will do a few more pics to show how I got this. The entire lapbook opens like a book. I have more pics showing close up shots too-and will add those then.

These are the paintings he did using the green plant Styrofoam stuff...carved like snowflakes (thanks Leslie for showing that on your blog) then coated them with white paint, to which he then stamped out the different flakes.

The second page (the pocket is now to the left). I got the Snowflakes booklet via

Enchanted Learning. I think you need to be a member to access that particular one tho.

So all in all-still a lapbook, just a different way to fold/open it. And there you have our SFB lapbook. Whew-glad that is done. :0) Oh, and a couple posts back, I posted the Borax Snowflake project we did to accompany this study too.

History Notebook ideas

2010-03-18T21:41:00.000-04:00

I created this cover using MS Word clip art

I shared some pics of my son's history notebook, with a TOS mate/pal Tim, and thought-perhaps some may want to see it too...so I have put up a couple of the Leif Erikson and Chris Columbus stuff. I use Beautiful Feet Books products for this level (young elementary-actually to high school too...but this is my 8 year old's notebook for the Early American hisotry)...

I would like to point out that I use several different sources-BFB guide, books listed in the study Enchanted Learning and ABCteach. I use what ever I can, including online sources to get some goodies.

Please remember, my son is color blind so lots of stuff is green, brown or oddly colored.

I buy the construction paper (you'l need to trim it to fit) from the dollar store, and that is what we use as our background paper

copy off the image we need, add the typed info and slip em into page protectors

I type up the stuff for the most part-b/cuz he is not big on writing it all out-and the point is to keep his interest, not burn him out...so for now-I type. As he ages, he will take on that responsibility. The Columbus Day Activity book is from Enchanted, and I made a pocket for it to slip into (stapled it on to another sheet of cardstock)...

It is easy to build a notebook using any history program, as you can add pics, text, poems, maps, etc. that fit each area you study. Using this technique not only provides a great source to reference back to-it makes such a neat "step back into time" too. I love going thru the older kids' books to see their stuff-it is so sweet.

Well, hopefully, you are encouraged to give this a try.

Another artsy thang from my daughter-a bday gift for a friend

2010-03-17T21:18:00.000-04:00

Haven't had an op to post much here on this blog-so thought I would share my daughter's latest...she has lots others I want to post...but for now-a bday gift she drew.....

She used her Pen Tablet and imagination. I liked how she put the keys in the scarf. I counted that as her art for the week-LOL.

Adding in some science worksheets to the Science Notebook

2010-03-03T19:43:00.002-05:00

The snappy Science Notebook (Maureen-she loves this cover, so I never did cover it in scrapbook paper) :0)

Module 8 section. Note I used one of those sticky on tabs for the new section, then labeled accordingly. Yah know, he wasn't too bad of a looking fellow.

The first worksheet set (2 pgs) was folded over and over again to make a wee book. The bottom right side was what was glued down to the notebook. I found a coloring sheet with SB's pic and so just shrunk it to make it fit, added the wording and printed on yellow paper-easy as pie. :0)

First section.

Open sesame.

The grand finale.

(I love Mr. Crabs-except for his money hungry ways that is).

Added this pic on the page before the spot where we will put our pics of our pea plants we're growing. She will document their growth, and that chart will go in here too.

We are also doing the radish experiment-so that will go in the notebook too. :0)

Will add those pics when we get those completed.

SO as you see, you can take worksheets, clip art and such and add it to the notebook to create a pretty good visual reminder for the kids to refer back to.

Using the Graphic Toolbox program-I made this and this

2010-02-28T12:43:00.000-05:00

betcha didn't know we personally knew ole George did ya?

Some art projects

2010-02-01T09:41:00.001-05:00

My daughter is taking 2 art classes through our HS group-one is 3-D Art and the other Abstract Art. A project for the 3-D was to create a sculpture that has no front side, is interesting, and offers up some 3-Dism. This is what she came up with (using paper, foam board [which the teacher provided] and scrapbook paper/punches) and 2 of the origami projects they worked on in class. This is a pretty easy project you could have your kids do-just have them create boxes out of paper or use a variety of sizes/shapes from around the home [little cereal, sugar, candy, food boxes].

We either taped or glued-depending on the application needs [taped the boxed down]. The pics show each side (I think she/I [cuz I helped a bit] kinda made a front unintentionally-but oh wellers).

Snowflake Bentley coming along-

2010-01-27T22:20:00.001-05:00

We are still working thru the Snowflake Bentley-a bit slower than I would like, due to outside activities, but we have managed to make some awesome cool snowflakes with pipe cleaners and Borax. We've done some experiments with snow, read the book several times, read a book on the water cycle, done a mini-book on snowflakes from Enchanted learning and will wrap this puppy up next week. So look for the pictures, links and such then...but to tease ya...here are our snowflakes we made

The pics don't do these justice...the Borax sticks and dries to the pipe cleaner, which makes it all crystal-like and pretty and sparkly.

I believe I got the instructions from Enchanted Learning under the crafts ideas-I will check to see if you have to be a member to download it....

Not exactly a lapbook but more of a notebook on steriods

2010-01-21T20:01:00.000-05:00

I have a new post up on my Hsing on a Wing and a Prayer blog-which discusses the latest in my need to create-the Science Notebook-take a look see-

This is a great way to have the kids (any age) remember the details of their studies. Love it!

Chopin Envelope Book

2010-01-16T17:24:00.001-05:00

Using the technique discussed in the Envelope Book post-you can add a host of goodies to your book. For our Chopin study-we used

Title Page:
I printed one of the pictures from the CD, under the PDF coloring book section which was included in the study package, for the cover. I typed up the "Chopin" on MS Word using the calligraphy font-which for whatever reason came out looking like Ariel on the document on Scribd...so if you want the classical look-you will have to type it up on your MS Word. We glued it to a blue construction paper background and then glued it onto the cover section.

First Section (double page layout):

I forgot to show a pic of the info under the "Frederic's Music" flip book-but it is on the Title/Info download.

I found a pic of Chopin using Google images, for the top info section on Chopin, typed up the name/DOB/DOD on him and for the lower right-hand section, I typed up a ditty about Chopin. As we get into the Later Years book-I can add more info if need be (to the top section of the flap).
Info available on my Scribd pages What's in the Box?

The 2 maps are from Enchanted learning, but I found some free ones from ABCteach, which are listed below under the resources section. With older students, one could certainly have this be a flip up booklet, where the student would then write some info about Poland underneath the map (just fold a piece of a construction paper to size in half, glue down the backside to the book page, then include any info you want on Poland on the inside. I saw lots of stuff that could go there, such as the flag, the info on the people, industries, etc. I chose to forgo this because of my son's age and the time crunch.

Second Section (double page layout with the pockets at either end):

On the left side, we chose to center more of the piano picture he colored (ABCteach) [I make these things up as I go-in hindsight-I would have scooted the piano over even more to accommodate the big piano key flip book (or shrunk the size of the keys) to make it look better], then cut out the name "piano" from the sheet too. The Piano Keys flip up book (again-just fold a sheet of construction paper in half, which fits the size of the keys image, to make this). Inside this booklet we included some basic info on pianos. How many keys (52 wht./ 36 blk.), type of instrument (keyboard)and the info on Cristofori. One could certainly do a larger study about the piano if need be, for older students-and add that info there too.

I also downloaded some sheet music worksheets, and had my son copy some lines from one of Chopin's music. And because Frederic loved to make create his own newspapers as a child, I had the boy do a front page edition of his own (both of these activities are stored in the left pocket). I had him write the titles on some and then I took down his dictation for the story section. This is a great CM way to do this project.

The other side has a 2 division pocket. The first one contains some coloring pictures from the Early Years, I downloaded from the CD that came with the study; and the section behind it contains the Later Years coloring pages.

We're still in the midst of the study, so the coloring has not been done yet-but it shows you how you can stuff this side with the pictures. You can also put the Early and Later Year labels on the inside division sections if you would like.

the little glue down flap is under the purple piece at the top-

The Chopin's Music pieces pull-up booklet, is on Scribd too. The part you glue down-well I make this stuff as I go, and realized it was backwards-so to make it look proper-see the pictures concerning it-but you will need to cover the section with a wee bit of construction paper to make it work. Or just cut off the tab and slip the stuff into a pocket fold (from construction paper) with the title cut off and glued on the top of the pocket. Then stuff the 3 pieces into it. I also glued the clip art of the music score on top of the paper to jazz it up. I actually was going to use that in the other corner-so now I am not sure what I will put there-maybe just another copy of the music score...well, whatever-you get the idea of what you can do.

And that is our Envelope Book on Chopin. As he gets into higher grades, I will have him revisit Mr. Chopin in greater detail. But for his age-this is a perfect fit. And I did type up most of the info, per his request. I don't sweat it over whether or not the child does all the writing...he had enough with the coloring and the music copywork, and the newspaper edition he worked on.

Sources for pictures:
The Piano picture is for members only on ABCteach-so I cannot link it...but there should be something out there in freebie land for you to download.

ABCteach's Piano Key Image (I used this one) I suggest making it smaller (if possible) cuz it is pretty big

ABCteach's map of Poland

ABCteach's map of Europe

I actually downloaded Enchanted Learning's maps for our project. I am a member, so I have access to these images. If you too are a member, just search for map of Poland, or Poland. Map of Europe.

Music Sheet printout (I don't see this being for members only-give it a try)

Envelope Booklet

2010-01-12T22:13:00.001-05:00

We are working on a study of Chopin. Now because I don't have a ton of things for this (nor time because I want to get this completed to include in my review about this study set)-I decided against the traditional lapbook approach. After watching Dinah Zike demonstrate a few on a free DVD I got when I won her book....I was hooked. So
I looked thru her Big Book of Books and Activities on how to make this, then did it for myself. Here is my version:

You will need some manila mailing envelopes-depending on the size you need (totally up to you) I bought the ones with the clasps-but I recommend the non-clasped ones (you can add Velcro dots to open/close the flaps that way)-oh well, live and learn.
I only wanted two for this-but am sure you could add more.

Fold both in half- end to end, not end to sticky flap part. Cut down to the inch point only [I will call this envie A], down the center fold line on either end. On the other envie [I will call envie B]- you need to draw a line down the middle to cut, but stop short of one inch to the end parts. You will need a blade to cut it, a board to slip into the inside so you don't cut thru both sides of it-thick cardboard will work if you don't have a small cutting board to use. So you will have one envelope with 2 cuts on either end (one inch down) of the middle fold, and one cut down the center to just before the one inch mark to the ends. Then fold envie A into a hot dog fold (longways in half-but do not crease, you just need to have it squeeze thru the open section of Envie B) so gently fold it. Put it thru so that opposite end goes in first (IE: the sticky tab parts/closure flap will be at either end). Now you can close it over to make the book. You will have one section (first part when you open it) that is a 2 sided, non-opening section. Then you will have one end with an opening to put some goodies, the middle area to put stuff, then the other end actually will have one pocket with 2 divisions-so you have another pocket with 2 sections to stuff some more goodies. I decided to put some ribbon on either end to tie it shut. So I took some handy dandy (small) brads, punched the puncher (1/8" point) thru the ribbon and envelope to make the hole, then secured the brad with the ribbon (you could use bigger brads-but the tiny ones look nicer). I have this stuff b/cuz I am a scrapper-if you don't, then you could secure it by hot gluing it or making a larger hole and running the ribbon thru to knot it at the envelope end (so you still have a longer end to tie the bow), use a rubber band around the whole thing instead or do nothing at all. I also decided to fold the sticky flap part into the pockets and seal them down-I am not concerned with stuff falling out, and I don't want the boy using the prongs b/cuz I am afraid he'll end up ripping it...so that seems the best solution for this situation-no fold over flaps to lock the pockets.

Then add the title cover, and any other mini-bookelets, pictures, etc. one wants to for their mini-envelope book. This is a good choice for smaller unit studies. If I used larger envelopes, then I would have more space to add the material we cover. So I hope this is kinda understandable. By looking at the pictures, I think it will make more sense. Look for the finished Chopin Envie Book soon. :0)

Snowflake Bentley

2010-01-02T19:05:00.000-05:00

I had a wee chat with the boy and asked what he wanted to do next for his lapbook selection for Jan. He pondered a few, then we finalized our pick as Snowflake Bentley. We'll be using the HSS free Snowflake Bentley lapbook to complete the study. I will probably branch out to other sites via the internet, so I will post any of them with the final project (shooting to be done by the end of the month).

I am actually thinking this one would be a good one for the cereal box display or envelope one...so look for a different presentation in the final product.

That is our big news for January's selection of lapbook ideas (that and we'll be continuing our lapinder of the planets for science-which this month will finish Mercury and start/finish Venus). Now that there are not any major holidays or business to distract us.....

Now this is exciting

2009-12-30T19:48:00.000-05:00

I was cleaning up the classroom before the Christmas break, and finally found the free CD I got when I won a book by Dinah Zike (Homeschool Share contest) [ I set that thing aside, to get to it later-'cept I couldn't find it in the mess...] and watched the mini-tutorial lessons on it. I get to the last one, and wow! So I see her chatting way about these envelope booklet thingies and these cereal box display thingies. I was like, that is so cool!
So I watched, re-watched and re-watched it again to glean what I could about the mechanics on how to do them (her book on them is not out from what I can tell)...so I am in the process of working on those now. I have a cereal box display (kinda like a lapbook on steroids without as much room for mini book) for the Chopin study we will be doing. This should work nicely, because I do not want to spend forever on the booklets/components for it. It will allow for a nice way to showcase the learned material, without the huge amount of work of a full lapbook approach. I am pretty sure I got the basics figured out...so when I finish it-I will share it.

I also am familiar with the envelope approach to doing some things-I did it when I was a SU demo chick and so that won't be so troublesome, but to use it in the lapbook realm is something new. I plan to work on a project using the envie style display too...so that will be posted as it is completed.

I have to say too-that the wealth of info, folds, ideas and such from Dinah is amazing. If you haven't heard of her or are not familiar with her books, please visit her site:DMA to see what I am talking about. I am very excited to be getting the upper level foldables book soon-I need to spice up the teen's work and retention skills, and I do believe this is the way to go. So-there is a hint as to what I am working on and I hope to display it soon.

Legend of the Candy Cane Booklet

2009-12-11T22:57:00.000-05:00

Due to the season, and my being a bit behind the times-I shortened it to only those components that we could do in one day. So I used my favorite place to go-Homeschool Share-to get the The Legend of the Candy Cane lapbook info, then had the boy color, write and glue like a mad elf finishing up its work load for the season.

Next year I am planning on doing a huge study of the various symbols of Christmas and all those fun stories that surround 'em-but our mini study will have due for this year. I do know that I have enjoyed reading and learning the stories, right along with my son. So far, we have read the Legend of the Candy Cane, The Legend of the Christmas Tree, various symbols of Christmas books and such. I have the Legend of the Christmas Stocking coming (hopefully) soon from the library (gotta love the library, as that is where I have been able to procure all of these)....so....we'll see....

The middle section is a 3/4 page-and on the back side is the process for the

making of candy canes, I downloaded off a candy company site (I believe the link is

within the HSS info for the lapbook)...

and there is our mini book on the Legend of the Candy Cane.

State Post Card Exchange Book Peek

2009-11-22T12:27:00.000-05:00

Thought I would share what the Post Card book looks like-I still need to get the few cards so that I can get it bound, but then we will have a really nice display for the state name/scene and map cards. When we get into the actual study, we will be using the Lapinder approach, with a few pages per state (larger map, basic info about it, more post cards, etc) -which I expect to take at least 2 or 3 semesters to complete. I want to take our time and not slam the kid with the material so fast that he gets nothing from it. Anyhoo-this is a peek of it pre-bound/finished. I probably will upload the "State of the Union" sheets on Scribd for ya all-the only "learn from doing it" advice I have for ya-trim down the paper by at least 1/4-1/2" so that the edges laminate better (since you are putting 2 pages back to back and with the 4 post cards-it is a bit thick)...

I am showing one state here-but again-I have them 2 per page. The top is the state name/scene card and the bottom the map. I will be doing a different book for the capitals.

I am working on wrapping up my postcard book-and need help

2009-11-15T10:39:00.003-05:00

I am short a few postcards to finish this project and am looking to my bloggie pals for help.
We need a few more states (either one with a map of the state and/or one where the state capital building is on the front-usually they have the state's name too)-now I don't care if it has writing on the back (like if Aunt Polly sent ya one from HI whilst on vaca) b/cuz we glue it down to cardstock-we just need to get this done and I have exhausted most avenues to finding them-short of flying to that state to pick up a couple-LOL. If you have a post card or 2 on our list and would be willing to donate to our project, or trade for a MI one (I also have some from other states to trade-so if you are doing a postcard swap too, maybe I have one you need) in return, please leave a comment (I won't publish those with details-I get them first to review, so I can keep them private) . I want to start the states study in the spring and am looking to get everything ready and waiting.

Here is our list: I really need the state map ones first, to finish the State Map and Card book we are making.

State Capital Buildings:
Alaska, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, ~~Iowa~~, Kansas, ~~Maryland,~~ Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, ~~Washington~~

If you have or can get one or more of these, please let me know-

Thanks so very much!

HS Blog Awards final voting is up

2009-11-10T10:31:00.002-05:00

HS Blog Awards final voting is up. I see that my blog , Homeschooling on a Wing and a Prayer, made two categories. I am so honored and actually, stunned that I made a final roll call list. I certainly didn't expect that-so thanks to all who voted me into the second round-I am honored. I wanted to point out that anyone who maintains a blog is worthy of an award-it is a work of love coming from the heart of the author who pens it. I am so grateful for all the fine blogs out there that inspire and encourage, make me laugh and cry, and offer great tips and links so that I can carry on with this great work called Homeschooling. I truly know that without all of your blogs-I would be a bore. So thanks again to all of you-regardless if you received a nomination or actually come out the top blog dog from these awards.

If you are curious-I am under 2 sections: Best Encourager and Cyber Buddy.

Again, thanks to all of you who stop by and read my dribble, and also who comment and encourage me to keep up with the blogging. I have never blogged for the sole purpose of gaining awards-because my real reward is knowing I can empty some of this junk from my head, and have it actually help some of you out-and I will continue to do so-award or no award. May God bless you and your blog so that it too, will continue to bless others.

Apologia Exploring Creation Through Astronomy Elementary Lapinder update

2009-11-05T12:42:00.000-05:00

The Lapinder pages for the Intro to the Apologia Astronomy Course-after completing the mini-booklets, we organized and placed them into binder. We are just about done with the Sun section-just a few more to go, then we'll post those. With the added use of the Science Center and various extra books-this is a great study. We're looking forward to learning about Mercury now (kinda sick of the sun-LOL).

I believe in a previous post, I mentioned the sources for these. If not-I will come back later and post those for you.

Crafty pumpkin by Buddy

2009-11-01T16:04:00.000-05:00

We did the 2nd grade project from the Spears Art Studio program. They worked on each section of the pumpkin-making different doodle lines/shapes. He had fun, and it was easy to do. He was so anxious to have it up on the blog-so as promised to my boy-here it is.

Guess this is becoming my Artsie blog-well, here is a neat project

2009-10-16T20:16:00.000-04:00

Isn't this pretty? I think so anyhoo. Well, I had my daughter do this assignment that was in the Elementary Spears Art Studio [grades 6-8], under the line-up for October. It is the Pointillism Tree lesson. Using several fine-point markers, she followed the directions and sample, and came up with this as the end result.

It is all dots. Neat heh?

You can read my review on the Spears Art Studio Christian Art Curriculum [K-8] and the High School one over on my 1 of 100 (Plus 25) TOS Crew Review Blog. This was one of my favorite items to test out last year. The projects are easy to do, and the results speak for themselves.

I had her do this, so she would be working on an art project that is somewhat similar to the one I am having her brother do (also in the lessons), using the same technique (which I hope to post soon). She also lamented about the fact that in her Acrylics Painting class (through the Homeschool Group) she had to paint trees, and was very frustrated about how difficult it was. Figured she could use the extra practice. This is one project we simply didn't get to last year, and yet-it was worth the wait.

Hot Diggety Dog Lapbook (from Hands of a Child)

2009-10-12T21:23:00.003-04:00

We did the HOAC lapbook on Hot Diggety Dog. It was fun to learn about the hot dog's origin and all those wonderful good things you never even thought of in regard to a hot dog!

The lapbook is designed to open top to bottom-I didn't use the suggested layout. I then did the glue spray adhesive deal to the black construction paper, and stuck em down to the backs of the file folders. I remembered to packing tape the extra (cut down a tad) folder to the main one first (which I usually think of afterward). I just built a hot dog out of my scraps of card stock, then used my Quickutz (Snowman) letters to make the title. I did cover this puppy with packing tape because I didn't want pieces falling off (and most likely, they would have). That is not something I do with every lapbook, but this one screamed to be taped up on the cover.

Lots of info we enjoyed learning about-and so glad we finally wrapped it up-as it took forever to work thru it because we had to squeeze it between a lot of other activities this fall.

Oh, and it is still their free semi-annual download-so you can do this too-head over to the HOAC homepage and click the free icon, sign the download agreement and there you go!

Hot Diggety to you all!

Peek at my daughter's art portfolio

2009-09-29T14:03:00.001-04:00

My daughter still finds herself busy working on the 'puter drawing and I thought I would share some of her work-b/cuz as a proud momma, it is simply the thing to do.

The Japan Fox was designed for my pal Lynn's daughter for the Summer Exchange-and since Nina likes foxes and Japan-Sis drew this for her:

And recently she sent a fellow TOS Mate Tina's daughter (Courtney) this for her Bday (and the cool thing is the girls celebrate their birthdays only days apart, and were born the same year-cool!)

Sis designed this for herself. She likes Scooby Do stuff and Velma especially, so this is what she came up with:

She has a lot more, but these are the few she'd let me show-kids! LOL.

Bravest of Us All Lapbook

2009-09-12T16:06:00.000-04:00

Finally, it is done. You can see most the elements in the picture show of it. You can find all the downloads for it (FIAR level 4 study) at Homeschool Share-Bravest of Us All Lapbook

2009-08-16T10:13:00.008-04:00

Well, to go along with my organizing goals, I have constructed the binder for my son's future notebooking, mini-bookletting, and other info in regard to his study on the Solar System this year. We are using Apologia's Exploring Creation through Astronomy (Elementary book)as our backbone source, and will add in various other books, activities and projects to round it out. I used black and yellow cardstock and images I found in my MS Word images section, to create the section dividers (I am showing only a couple of them-figured you'd get the idea...I have it start with the sun and move along all the planets, the earth's moon comes right after earth [obviously], and then followed the lead of the chapters of the book for the rest); and then when we have a lapbook component, notebooking page, drawing or what have you-he will put it in (on subsequent black or yellow cardstock) the correct section as we go. I have a few different lapbooks on space and astronomy, and various other website downloads to add to this project. I am excited to see how this will come together over the next few months. The Lapinder^© will provide a lovely visual memory of our study for years to come.

How I go about organizing the lapbooks we'll be doing

2009-08-08T11:36:00.004-04:00

I found the easiest way to have all the necessary mini-books, and lapbook components set and ready to go, is to download/print (or copy from a hardcopy source) the various things, then cut them out (I have my son help with this step), and store them in a Ziplock bag, along with the book (if we own it). I also run off any notes or important info that I will need, and label accordingly. Then when it comes time to stuff the workbox with the material we'll need for the day-it is right there, all nice and tidy.

I store them in a clear, md-sized tub for easy access, as well. This will allow me to quickly find it, without having to stop to print, cut out, or find additional resources-which only serves to disrupt our day, create a lack of organization for me, and well-it leads to my precious student losing interest in what we were discussing.

This is a part of my new system of organization I am working on. Anything I can get done beforehand will greatly decrease my level of stress in the future. I know it will also help to make for smoother days, more learning and less aimless behavior.

I hope this will help a few of you out as well. Sometimes we have the all the dots there, we just need someone to connect em-in this case, I hope I have helped connect a couple dots on your "How to save time in the long run" page. It does require you putting some time aside to do all this prep work, but alas, when it is done-it should be done (I suspect there will be times one will need to do some last minute things-but better than the working on the whole enchilada!) HTH

OHH, Homeschool Share has the new goodies posted

2009-07-22T18:27:00.002-04:00

Well, this is exciting-finally, the wait is over! Homeschool Share has uploaded all the new lapbooks, unit studies, notebooking stuff and of course-the brand new section: WORKBOXABLES! Yeah! There are a ton of ideas and projects just waiting for you, and they are all free downloads! Cannot beat that!

I am tickled pink, that I was selected as the winner for one of the Early Bird prizes. I won the awesome Ultimate Lap Book Handbook (Thank you Tobin's Lab!)that I have been wishing to purchase for a long time. I submitted my lapbook based on the FIAR, BK 4 title: The Bravest of Us All, so if you are a FIARower, and you are considering this book, please head on over. This particular lapbook study involves a lot of weather mini-units, a touch of character study thrown in, and a wee bit of history too. My son will start working on it this coming week, so when it is finished, I will post pictures of it for you too.

And for those of you who Workbox your way thru you school day: I submitted a Money Center file (which I believe I mentioned in a previous post) where you can download cards to put in the workbox for the kiddos, and number cards, ideas and a sign for your center area.

Well, there are lots to see, so take a look see, so you can build up your Lapbooks, Unit Studies and Workboxable collection.

Pretty, Pretty-worth a whole 2 page scrapbook spread

2009-07-03T18:24:00.005-04:00

Here are some shots of the flowers in my back yard. The daisies are ala naturale...the blue ones, I bought and are Delphiniums (I do believe-have to find the tag and double check-but pretty sure)-they have spread out and I finally have more than 2 or 3 shoots of flowers per plant. Love when that happens!

I could easily just scrap a whole 2 page spread with the pics I took of these beauties...but alas-time is short and so, maybe some day. Here are just a few I took, and along with the other flower shots I have been racking up in the old camera clip-I should have a nice mix by summer's end. No where near the extent of flowers I want to have scattered around the homestead, but these are likes, not needs-so a few each year is what I can afford. Anyhoo-that is my scrappin post for now-more like a digital one-but hey-I try! LOL

Touch of summer-finally!

So my son does Lapbooks-my daughter does her drawings and art

2009-06-21T10:19:00.007-04:00

This is not a lapbook, nor a scrapbook, but something inbetween-a part of an art book? Art Portfolio? Anyhoo-I am going to be sharing her stuff here, since this is the artsie/crafty blog I maintain.

This is what she drew (via the 'puter) using the characters she has designed...they are Wockies...not sure what that is, but I guess that is sorta what we see here. She loves the movie It's A Wonderful Life, so she redrew the poster they originally printed, when the movie was advertised, with her own critters. I think this deserves an "A" and it can go into her art portfolio. She has a lot of really nice drawings, and maintains a guild too-we're proud of her. I finally got a crafty-artsie child! Whoohoo!

****A fellow blogger asked what program she uses-it is the Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 along with her Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen Tablet (we found hers at Best Buy).

Now I can think of some awesome ways to use this

2009-06-05T10:06:00.003-04:00

Scrap and Learn

I saw this on the Scrap and Learn site. I think this would make a great backbone for a notebook on a subject, or a lapbook in a notebook. Especially for the older kids. You could easily decorate the outside using nice scrapbook paper or an image of sorts, then paste in info, notebooking sheets, mini booklets (lapbook style) and so forth. The price certainly is right! They are on sale (dunno for how long) for $5.56 each.

Our Frog lapbook

2009-05-22T18:08:00.006-04:00

Alrighty, here it is. We used the templates at
Homeschool Share, under Frogs. The only thing we didn't add to the lapbook was the Observation sheet of the local frogs/tadpoles...as they are very difficult to find right now, due to the colder weather we have been having. In fact, we fear we will not be able to find any this season-unless the weather improves! At least we were able to do this fun study, and learn a tad (no pun intended) about frogs.

Salamanders

2009-04-29T13:56:00.003-04:00

Here is our mini-book on Salamanders. I downloaded the 2 notebooking pages from Homeschool Share and the home for a salamander/life cycle under their The Salamander Room Lapbook Instructions. I found the other info on the National Geographic Kids Site, and the big spotted salamader to color on The Family Books and CDs free coloring pages site.

It was a nice way to still pull in some lapbooking elements without all the extra work, while still having a nice mini-book to show for our study

Manatee Lapbook

2009-04-24T09:12:00.004-04:00

We've wrapped up the Manatee Lapbook. We enjoyed this one, as the Manatee is the boy's favorite sea creature. It was fun to do the experiment on salt water with fresh water on top (how manatees get water to drink), as it was really cool. We'll be offf to study Frogs these next couple weeks. Trying to time it so the tadpoles will be visible in the local pond to examine too. Since it has been so chilly this April, I have been having to hold off on the ole frog study. Of course, we'll be using the Homeschool Share freebie for the lapbook info, and some great books from the library.

The Legend of the Easter Egg Lapbook

2009-04-09T12:04:00.006-04:00

Buddy hamming it up a bit

Using the free lapbook and mini-unit study available at Homeschool Share: Legend of the Easter Egg, we were able to get this one squeezed in before Easter. I didn't know if I would get the book in time (thru the interloan) but thankfully, we did. Altho-we had to kind of rush thru it. He gets the jist of it, and we totally enjoyed the science experiments and crafts.

We colored eggs, counted jellybeans (I didn't take a pic of it, but put the graph he made on the back of the lapbook), did the egg experiments, and made the Resurrection Rolls.

Kitty wanted to see what all the fuss was about

Oh, a new monocle for the boy

This was one weird experiment-but cool-
as we learned some things we never knew!

It was a joy to do this study. I also added in my own craft creation-making our own Faberge eggs...using the bigger plastic ones, little jewels and glue. They turned out pretty cute considering I thought of it about 10 min. b4 we did it. Anyhoo-if you have a chance to do this next year-please do...this is a great lapbook/unit project they have there.

The boy decided to make a King Faberge Egg

The Resurrection Rolls

Well, I hope you enjoyed taking a peek at what we did this week. To all of my bloggie pals-Have a very blessed and wonderful Easter. God Bless you all!

New blog just for Workbox chat

2009-04-08T18:15:00.002-04:00

I started a blog just for the workbox ideas and chat, so if you are using that system, please stop by to visit.

What's in the Box?

Working on our Manatee lapbook

2009-04-03T09:07:00.004-04:00

Starting to come together-we watched one Video on Manatees and have another to go-then we'll hit the books and assemble the thing and I will post when complete. I had to waylay the project to complete the Easter Egg one, so we will wrap this one up in a week or so and I will get it posted then. It is turning out so nice, thanks to the hard working gals who submitted and edited the Manatee (free) lapbook at Homeschool Share.

Tapestry of Grace Lapbook-Year 1, Unit 1

2009-03-18T17:38:00.004-04:00

Ah, an Airmailed letter straight from the Old Testament times.

This project is a part of the Tapestry of Grace review (coming soon) I am working on. You can purchase the lapbook as a supplement to your study. I truly enjoyed working on this, and highly recommend it as well.

Please remember that this is copyrighted material, like the New Testament Hands-On Activity Kit posted below. You will need to buy the CD or download in order to have access to the material.

I made the cover in my Microsoft Office program, simply by using the images that came up when I searched for "Moses", "Egypt", etc. There are plenty of choices. I also made the side panels with Egypt and some of the symbols you'd see with it; then across the way-the other panel is for Israel and some Hebrew/Jewish symbols (these were "dead or blank" spaces that needed something). The secondary fold-over flap was also created using images found in regard to Bible characters-I was surprised at how many I found. I used clear packing tape to seal them in (to prevent any tearing, etc.) and black construction paper to lay over the folders to (again) create a nice visual appeal, and strength to the folders. I found some scrapbooking paper with giraffes on it to fill in the empty space below the Days of Creation-all simple, yet nice touches to personalize the lapbook.

Tiger Lapbook starring our own Marshmellow the Tiger!

2009-03-18T10:23:00.004-04:00

Ok, this is our Tiger Lapbook which we downloaded from Homeschool Share. I have it laid out differently than as shown there, so wanted to post my version. I have a fold down flap, and a saloon door flap (my creation there-at least I think-made it up one day while working on the Dougie lapbook) which is split in half and opens out like a saloon door-hence the name. I layer the back of the folder with black construction paper to give color depth, and strength to the folder. I also had a slight malfunction because I make this up as I go and so normally, the taping of the first fold down flap would be taped down to the folder, then the paper would be layered over it (to hide it) -so tape your flaps first ladies~
that is the downside to making it up as you go. It still came out nicely tho. We are 1/2 way done with filling in the information, and will have a nice reminder about our mini-study of Tigers in the end.

I had the kids take some shots of my son's favorite stuffed critter-Marshmellow the Tiger-the kids had fun acting like professional photographers and I do believe Marsh is quite pleased having earned the cover shot of this lapbook.

I used my handy dandy Quickutz tool and Metro alphabet to add the title as well.

Enjoy~

As a side note here: This is a great tie in to the tiger toys we received from the Schleich Toy Company. See my review for more details on them-as they have tons of animals that you could use to tie into your studies!

HS in the Woods Hands-On Activity Pak

2009-03-13T18:48:00.004-04:00

I have the review for this up on my 1 of 100 TOS Review Blog, and wanted to show what it looks like. Please remember all of this is copyrighted material. It is sooo worth the price-very professional and a real show stopper!

Here is our rendition of the New Testament Hands-On Activity Pak:

Enjoy the show!
Popcorn optional, but highly recommended!

Scrap Weekend sampler

2009-03-02T12:19:00.009-05:00

As promised in my post on my Homeschooling on a Wing and a Prayer blog-here are a couple pages I did. I have not done the journaling yet; but they are some of my more complete ones. And yes, we do do Halloween. There is a big controversy on that subject and I do not wish to get into here in this blog. Let it be said that we do the absolute minimal participation in it. Our neighborhood area is very small and we keep it very light (we didn't even get a pumpkin until the night before). I will save that post for another time.

That said, here they are-as I get a few more finished, I can post them as well.
I use the first 2 books by Close to My Heart- Cherish and Imagine for inspiration; amongst other things to spur me on. I am pining away for the Reflections one. I really think these are some of the most helpful ones I have come across. Anyway, here ya go:

This is part of the series of my 3rd's b-day celebration last fall...she had her buddy come over, they went skating and to a movie-and we also did a family party (but saving that for her Birthdays Thru the Years album)

Sister actually didn't go "trick or treating" b/cuz we don't allow that after 12, but she offered to take brother to the few houses by us, and so she could wear her cat outfit.

2009-02-18T18:48:00.012-05:00

**the Notebooking2Learn yahoo group no longer exists. Jennifer moved to Homeschool Launch and you'll have to join (free) and search for her (JFeliciano). I am not seeing the flying creatures ones tho. The Astronomy ones are available. HTH

Ok, here is my LAPINDER^©...basically, it is a 3-ring binder with a title page, and file folders cut down to fit, with punched holes to match the ring clasps. I then used construction paper to back the folders to add color and bring your attention to the booklets placed on top of it.

Since the book, Flying Creatures on the Fifth Day (by Jeannie Fulbright) and mostly sold by Apologia, has 14 lessons, I will need to get a bigger 3 ring binder, but for now, it will fit 6 in this one. I then was able to get the lapbook mini-booklets FREE from the Notebooking 2 Learn Yahoo group which is now closing down. You will need to go here to get them-I am not sure how long they will be available tho. Now these are basic booklets without any additional information, so if you are searching for more insight and in depth material, you may want to purchase the lapbook for this book at CurrClick or directly from Knowledge Box Central, but please note: you need to purchase both sets, as they are sold in two sections (lesson 1-6, I have the link to the second set). You will have to download and print your material as well.

I created the title cover by using my Microsoft images/Microsoft Office-added a couple extra strips of the green paper I had left over to enhance it, and wallah. This Lapinder^© approach works great for this type of application due to the very nature of it-being that each lesson has about 3 sections to fill up a folder, and that each is somewhat independent of the others, putting it into the binder allows the lapbook to stay together in a cohesive manner and in a nice orderly fashion.

Once that was done, I titled each folder to correspond to the particular lesson.
These files are set up and waiting for the lapbook mini-books that we will download as we get to them. I chose to use different colored construction paper to back the areas to keep them visually separate, as well.

The Lapinder^© will work wonders for other types of studies which have a bigger collection of material needed for the lapbook concept. One could also add a few page protectors for the notebooking, artwork or any other material that would enhance the child's study.

Well, there you have it-my not so famous name-Lapinder^© for lapbooking/notebooking/journaling and just plain organizing. Enjoy!

A New Coat for Anna Lapbook posted on Homeschool Share

2009-02-02T13:00:00.007-05:00

Well, I finally got all the goodies submitted to Ami at Homeschool Share so she could transfer them into templated printables-Thank you so much Ami for all your hard work and professional polishing. She did an excellent job and my hat is off to her!

Ok, you can find it here:
A New Coat for Anna

Enjoy!

A New Coat for Anna -Lapbook instructions finally!

2009-01-30T12:57:00.005-05:00

This is the alternative cover I came up with. Nothing fancy, but it does have a mini version of the big one I originally designed. I have sent Ami at Homeschool Share the directions and hopefully, they will be up soon. Look for them shortly.

My sources: Vista Microsoft clip art, Stampin'Up! font Little Lamb, Google clip art and Education Place (www.eduplace.com), my brain, my scrapbook supplies, JoAnn paper and Office Depot file folders and tape.

My daughter found this "Flair" for me

2009-01-25T17:49:00.004-05:00

and it fits perfectly!

I look like that after a long 15 hour scrap session too!

Enjoy-

Douggie Lapbook pics

2009-01-19T14:26:00.007-05:00

As promised, the Douggie Lapbook pics are finally up. I used a combination of several sites and the Sled Dog Lapbook from Hands of a Child. I did not show detailed shots of those parts of the HoaC due to it being their stuff, not my own or Microsoft images.
I used Enchanted Learning for some pics, the maps are from Education Place and some from Pam Flowers site. We did parts of the Sled Dog unit of HoaC and added magnetic and water freezing experiments too. There was a show on National Geographic about the Arctic the same week we did this (talk about tying in!) and read the companion book about Big Enough Anna by Pam Flowers, as well as Balto, and the Great Race by Elizabeth Kimmel.
For the cover, I drew the pic from one of the drawings in the book, added my fancy dancy Quickutz lettering (Metro and I think, Ginger) then used clear packing tape to secure the entire cover.

Hope you enjoy it-we had fun doing it. Please note that due to the fact I used another's copyrighted material, I cannot supply this to HomeschoolShare nor offer up the exact directions/info. Most of the free pics are on Enchanted (non-member freebies). I originally wanted to do the Polar Bear book they have for members, but was unable to get the subscrip right now...maybe next time. If you have the membership, then sub the polar bear stuff for that instead!

Douggie the playful pup who became a Sled Dog Hero lapbook

2009-01-03T01:20:00.010-05:00

Alrighty-
been working on this one since I found it at the library. I still have some final things to do with the A New Coat for Anna lapbook, before I can get it over to Homeschool Share-mostly due to technical issues (IE: computer) and I have not come up with a cover I like (the one I have for ours is too complicated, and has too many variables. So I have to create one that is suitable for others) so don't give up hope on seeing that-it's just going to take a while.

Ok, so I see this book at the library and all the while I am reading it to the boy-I am thinking, "This is going to make a great lapbook!" and I have been working on it when I have had opportunities to during the Christmas break.

This coming week the boy and I will do the activities and hopefully, have it done by this Friday (my target date anyhoo). I will post the final pics when it is completed. But here is a taste of the layout I came up with and the cover is done.

This is a fun one b/cuz it covers sled dogs, the Magnetic North Pole, polar bears, dog breeds, and so forth.

Look for updates soon.
Enjoy-

The cover-I used my handy dandy Quickutz sets to make the title and drew the pic of Douggie the dog
This one opens horizontally, not vertically.

When opened, there is a flip section (the green part) that will fold down into another section that opens to a 2 fold section (this will make sense when the info/pics are on it).

Then one opens the shutter doors I created to reveal the interior of the lapbook after flipping down the mini-book (the green section has now been flipped down to reveal the second area for info. Those little green tabs you see are on the little folds I made to aid in opening the shutter doors-I will have a better pic later on those)

The lapbook completely folded out. I will have some smaller flip books here and there, but this is the basic shell of it. I used 3 folders (one for the main body),one cut in 1/2 (to make the shutters with one side, and to use for the art work of the dog with the other). Then the 3rd, to create the mini book to flip down (cut down to size).

Keeping with the rule of no more than 3 colors: I chose dk blue, olive green and a light tan. These cardstock papers are from the assorted packs I get from JoAnns. Not only does the layering beef up the lapbook, it creates a nice background and adds to the overall visual appeal to it. When we place our info on it, it will not disappear into the background-but rather, it will "pop off" the page. I copied most of the folded info parts onto the light tan (which obviously are not on it yet) but did do a few in the green for a nice color change. The rest is printed on normal copy paper.

With the final lapbook, I will list the sites and resources as well. I used the Hands of a Child lapbook Kit on Sled Dogs for the majority of my sled dog sections, but was able to find some other goodies on line for free.

Til then....

geez, just came across on my Microsoft images

2008-12-08T20:41:00.003-05:00

I came across on my Microsoft images selection and was so excited to see... ready (or maybe you know it already...but hey, thought I would mention it)...

There are not only license plates, but other great images for each state that you can use in your lapbooks on the states! Yes, there are a couple sites I mentioned in the post below, but this is great if you have it! I was so excited!

Thought I would share that...be sure to check your microsoft office images-there's some great stuff there!

Blessings

Right now its all about the States

2008-11-24T15:46:00.007-05:00

Ok, so I am bouncing around like a rubber ball...but I am in to collecting and sorting goodies to work on the 50 states-so thought I would share some good sites and ideas to make your state study awesome. Hmm, roll over the names of the links cuz for some reason-they all went white but the groups one. That will take you directly there.

Lapbook Kit (designed to be used with all states)
Hands of a Child
Knowledge Box Central

Post Card Exchange Yahoo Group (awesome way to collect state cards to add to study/lapbooks)

Big Book of Books and Activities by Dinah Zike: page 29 shows an awesome way to do matchbook state mini-books

Blank Map Outlines by Instructional Fair/TS Dennison (great state maps you could shrink/copy to fit your lapbooks or mini-matchbooks)

Dover United States Coloring Book (again-shrink and add to your lapbooks or just leave as it)

Free Downloadable Maps of US and World

The Little Man in the Map by E. Andrew Martonyi. (charming children's fiction to enhance your state study with rhyming and colorful pictures)

My blogger friend and crew mate, Lynn, has some wonderful ideas and links on her blogs, so be sure to visit them for more ideas!
Lapbooking and Main Blog

Let me know if you have more links/ideas not listed here or on Lynn's blog.
Thanks!

Forgot to post some great notebooking/lapbooking sites

2008-11-17T09:50:00.006-05:00

so here we go.....

*just click the icon to get there

She offers many lapbooks/notebooking kits. One of which is the Apologia science courses (so far I see General and Physical Science, and the Jeanne Fulbright books) along with many others. If you click the pic above, it takes you right to em. It will take some time to go thru all of her stuff, but I am sure you will find some great helps.

Homeschool in the Woods

I cannot believe I forgot this wonderful company! Geez! She has some very professional and awe inspiring lapbooks/notebooking pages. Great kits for your lapbooking needs.

www.edhelper.com

Also: Ed Helper...now they do not sell kits/lapbook stuff per say, they offer the things we need to go into them...puzzles, pictures, labeling charts and so forth. Some you can get for free, others you will need to be a member to get. I have not joined yet; but will be with the start of the new year-there have been so many times I have "needed" just what they have for a project, and yet was blocked due to not being a member. I think they are pretty reasonable too ($20 a year).

www.knowledgequestmaps.com

Knowledge Quest has some of the nicest, most professional art work and products. I actually wrote a review on her ABCs of Homeschooling which mentions this. The artwork is perfect for notebooking/lapbooking projects. You could include nice maps, drawings of the characters you are studying (historical in nature) and so forth. Definitely worth checking out.

EduPlace for free downloadable maps

www.enchantedlearning.com

Enchanted Learning is again, one of those sites that offer a few free printables, and then has a membership section. I have pulled a lot of good stuff off of this site. This too is on my "to join" list, and is $20 a year also. That is really about 2 bucks a month-definitely worth it to me. I grow tired of searching and searching for the "free" stuff that takes all my time in the process, and usually leaves me without the pictures/diagrams I need.

And I love this site-I have purchased a couple things (Spanish games and Presidents Cards) so far. These prices are very, very low and the products are good quality (online only-downloadable files)..definitely worth checking out!

Home Education Resources

Do not forget to just google lapbooks-you will hit the jackpot with more sites of free and not so free ideas.

Also, wanted to mention my friend's blog where she has a some of her lapbooks posted. Lynn has some links to sites that are most helpful (state license plates and coins, and postcard exchanges for instance). This link takes you to her blog with this info, and ideas. Very nice lapbooks here girls!

Now, if you too have some great lapbook sites/samples, please let me know I will get your stuff posted here too!

Splish-And Then Mama Said...It Takes Time to Learn to Read Matchbook mini-book

2008-11-14T19:45:00.002-05:00

Here is an example of what you can do using a matchbook fold, another basic flip fold and some great graphics. This is for the new Splish book (review found at
Splish review).

I used the free Splish Activity Lapbook that comes free with the purchase of the book. I trimmed down the copywork pages on the turtle, stapled them and we glued them into the fold about turtles (picture of turtle on cover) and then pasted it to the top part of the matchbook inside. Next, we placed a label picture of turle body parts to the bottom inside of the matchbook. I cut/pasted and shrunk Tia the Turle for the cover of the matchbook and typed up two sayings: Tia the Turtle and What is a Turtle. Tia went next to the picture, the What is went on the outside flap of the matchbook cover.

We will continue to make all the critters' matchbooks and eventually place them in one folder for easy reference.

Enjoy!

Ultimate Free Lapbook site with tons of info!

2008-09-13T20:33:00.002-04:00

I am not kidding...I got this addy from Leslie in the Cindy Rushton Weekend Seminar and I am floored. I am kinda new to this lapbooking thing...and holy purple cows! Go there. Gives you patterns for mini books, how to make lapbooks and more. Enjoy!

Lapbooking Help

Founnd another great site

2008-09-12T12:56:00.005-04:00

For those who notebook or want to try...I saw this on another gal's blog and went over..like what I see. I like my graphics looking professional and she has that! Take a peek...

Hold that Thought

Enjoy....