Sometimes when we are doing a study that includes a lapbook we have a lot of other projects/experiences that aren't flat and or small enough to fit in our lapbook. In a couple of our lapbooks we have included scrapbook pages with pictures of the things we have done. One example of this was the American Girl Lapbook my daughter did for Felicity. After we ended up going to Colonial Willamsburg we decided to add pictures from our trip.
For this we printed pictures from my Creating Keepsakes Scrapbook program and then put them in 8 1/2'X11' page protectors. On the folder that is the back of the lapbook I marked the 3 holes on the page protector, hole punched them (I used my scrapbooking eyelet punch to make the holes.), and then I used ribbon to tie the pages into the book. (With about 1 yard of ribbon thread from the back to front through the top and bottom holes. You will go through the folder and the page protectors. Then from the inside both ends of the ribbon will go back through all the layers to the back again through the middle hole. Once you get back to the back of the folder you can tie it off and you are done!)
The backs will look like this when you are done.
On the Felicity lapbook we added 4 page protectors for a total of 8 pages of pictures!
For our Little House in the Big Woods lapbook we also wanted to add pictures. This time I uploaded the pictures to the Walgreen's photo website. Then I had them print a collage page. This is the one I had printed for my daughters lapbook. This was nice because I could fit a lot of pictures on one page and I could pick the background color to match our lapbooks. The program online at Walgreen's automatically places the pics and you can keep switching them around until you get them the way you like them. You can also add a title bar if you want to the bottom or top of the page.
The collage pages from Walgreens cost around $3.00 each. It's a little confusing because as best I can tell they don't have a place to just go make the collage pages. You have to upload your pics, then when you try to go check out it will pop up automatically. Once I made one I had to put it in my cart, sign out, re-click the pics I wanted for the second one and then the collage generator came up again.
I also had a 5'X7' printed for my daughters book of her in her Pioneer times costume.
My daughter loves to get out her Felicity lapbook and look through the pictures. Then she also looks at the lapbook and reviews what she learned while doing our study on Felicity. I know both of the littles will enjoy seeing the pictures in there Little House in the Big Woods lapbooks for years to come! Review is always good!
Here our Bible Quizzing team is awaiting their 5th match of the day to begin. There are 7 on the team, always five quizzers with 2 alternates. We had a very good day with two first places, three second places, and one third place finish. Amber managed to have three perfect quiz outs (a quiz out is the best one can do -- when a team member answers 5 questions or quotes during a single match - then they must sit out the rest of that particular match and give others an opportunity to answer -- a pretty neat honor and I love how everyone claps and encourages everyone else.
Jeff working on the interior of our sauna. He just finished the walls & ceiling - still has more to do, but it's getting there. The cedar smells so nice in there.
Thought my southern friends would like to see MN in February.
These photos were all from yesterday. It wasn't that cold out, in the low 20's and I really don't mind the snow that much since we could use the moisture after last summer's drought, but I do tire of the gray/white sky. The snow is pretty, but MN winters are lacking in blue skies & sunshine.
Behind our house - all day -- snow & more snow.
I thought this turned out pretty - a picture taken by Amber of our house the other night.
The snow is mostly ended. I haven't heard an official snow totals yet -- we really didn't get that much as SW Minnesota got hit the worst. It's not that bad this time of year with the warmer temps., spring is just around the corner (although now we are going to have some -5 to -15 windchills for a couple of days).
February 6th was my birthday. Here are some of the highlights:
I was invited out for breakfast with two good friends.
I received a pretty journal from one of the gals. Her thoughts on the inside cover make it very special.
I escaped into the spring-like day for a long, long walk. Being outside and enjoying the birds and the fresh air is often a treat that I give to myself. The sunny day, though, was God's gift to me. The temperatures got so high that I had to remove my jacket. It's February! It sure didn't feel like it.
I received wine and chocolates from my husband.
The family and I went to a Greek restaurant for dinner. Yum!
I enjoyed some quiet moments at House of James soaking in Cathy Hardy's concert. (Well, only half of it...but, better than nothing!)
I needed a new book and found a treasure-of-a-one. This feels like a gift from God too.
Some of the girls from my former Bible Study class remembered my special day and sent loving words in a card along with a little plant.
My mother-in-law gave me a little red envelope. A little pocket-money always feels as thought its brimming with possibilities, doesn't it? I won't spend it for a while. I'll savor that feeling.
For nearly 2 years now I have been making out a weekly dinner menu every weekend for the next week. This is SO helpful to me! Honestly I don't mind cooking, but I don't like deciding what's for dinner. So having "What's for dinner?" planned out in advance (And posted on the fridge.) is a huge help to me! But after 2 years of doing this I started getting tired of trying to think up what we should eat for the week. So the family is now planning out the menu! What we do now is each week, each member of the family gets to chose one dinner meal. This gives us Mon - Friday scheduled out. (On the weekends we eat leftovers, eat out and/or my husband cooks.)
The family has been doing the menu now for a couple of months. One thing I noticed was that the kids kept picking the same meals over and over. So I sat down and made a list of all the things I could think of that I cook. I printed the list out and put it in a clear page protector on the side of the fridge. Now we can all review the list before we make our choice for the week.
This has been a great help because we are not eating the same handful of things over and over. Like last night my youngest son picked Turkey Asian Lettuce Wraps and we hadn't had them in over 2 years!
Organizing is a constant companion to homeschooling. The better the house runs the more time we have to have fun with our homeschooling!
Our church is quite large and has many small group ministies. David received the wonderful opportunity to sing and play guitar for one of the groups. I was able to sneak in and get a few shots and a little video! (Sorry, they are bad. I was trying not to be obvious and stayed toward the back...)
Our homeschool group recently held a fun Valentine's party at church. There were about 60 kids, all ready for games and treats!
The party began with an entertaining and educational drama...
the kids..
Who says you need a classroom for a cheesy class photo?
QT boys...
This was a game where the kids raced to see how many candies they can pick up with chopsticks and place in their cups in one minute...
Custom bookmarks...
Making Valentines for residents at a local Alzheimer's home...
Waiting in line for the valentine exchange...
The Valentine bags waiting to be filled...
It was our BHN leader, Lori's (R), birthday. Pres (L) organized a binder full of birthday greetings!
Well, we finished reading The Little House in the Big Woods and completed our lapbooks! This was SO much fun! I was thrilled when we read the last page of the book and my 6 year old little man said "When can we start the next one?" YAY! This is the first chapter book he has really, really listened to every word of. He LOVED it!
So here are our lapbooks!
The covers...I bought these checkered file folders a couple years ago and this is the first time we have used them. They were perfect for this lapbook!
Folder number one. The heart booklet is the poems that were on the candies the girls were given when they visited the store in town for the first time. There are also booklets about Pa's gun, churning butter, what food is stored in the attic, and a smokehouse, complete with a dot of liquid smoke to make it smell authentic.
This side has....Our origami pigs bladder, sewn pocket from when Mary rips her pocket in the story, Pa's fiddle, animals in the Big Woods,cheese wheel, soap whittling booklet and our fires we marble painted.
Here you can see a second pic of what's in the attic and the smokehouse. On the other flap we have our booklet on their nightly prayer, a booklet on lying and a booklet on what things were done in each season.
Lastly we have the kids drawings they did about Pa and the Bear in the Way.
We all loved, loved, loved doing this lapbook and all the great activities that go along with it! You can find the free lapbook HERE.
Weekly Wrapup: Is Alaska our next step of the near future?
Posted By Mom of Three Little Ladies and one Little Blessing Boy
From the Heart:
You might want to hold onto your seat before you read what you are about to read. It may come as a surprise. I haven't shared the specifics of our changing plans on here before now because we hadn't spoken to anyone here locally. Now that the news is out, I will share with you what has been happening here.
This afternoon I had an interview with an organization in Soldotna, Alaska to fill a position as a physician assistant in their community health clinic. It went well. Next week, if they choose me, they will call and let me know, and then they will fly Tim and I out there for a formal interview. We are so excited.
That said, I must also admit that I've been doing a lot of grieving this week also. You all know that my heart's desire is to be home with my children. That dream and heart's desire was granted to me for the past almost six years. I praise God for this gift that was given me. It looks that my time as full-time mom is coming to a close soon. At least for awhile. The Lord is opening some doors, it seems, to another dream Tim and I have had for a long time. The location is perfect. Tim can pursue further education to find the skills he needs to find gainful employment that will support us in the future. For the rest of the year, once I start working, he will take over the homeschooling. We will see what will happen next year based on how this year finishes up.
Soldotna is an amazing location. Google it and see! The clinic is an amazing workplace with great people to work with and great pay. You can see three active volcanos nearby, or watch beluga whales in the Cook Inlet. There are state parks and the Kenai River nearby with King Salmon runs.
On the Home Front:
I guess I need to start thinking about packing and moving. We've got a lot of stuff. Too much stuff. Being in one location with four kids, stuff accumulates. I imagine we'll be even getting rid of a lot of our furniture which is hardly worth moving so far. It will be like going on the mission field...which it really is for me.
In the School Room:
The bigger girls and I are almost finished with World War I. We finished our unit on light and color - very fun, by the way! They made great progress with their research papers, which will probably need another few days to finish. Mountain Princess still struggles along with her math, but continues to work hard. Snow Crystal is getting more independent in that area. We finished our 23rd week this week, so we have only 13 to go.
Little Critter learned "K" with his older sister, and both made a letter page for their ABC notebook. Bubbies continues to learn about the human body. I didn't get to all of our school work with her today because the group in Soldotna called me an hour early!!! Yikes! Talk about mad scramble for getting the kids a babysitter in a five minute time-frame. Thank God for good friends who will help in less than a moment's notice!
In the Way of Parenting:
This week we had some great times talking with the kids, praying with them regarding potential upcoming changes. This is drawing us all closer together in an amazing way.
On the Mission Field:
Our team in India is on their last two weeks of service before coming home. Pray for them.
If you've been watching the news, you've seen something about bombings in Pakistan involving American soldiers. This is the first time any Americans have been harmed in their civil fighting going on. We were amazed to realize that all of our friends who were over there are out of the country or on their way out at the time. This is God's providence in action.
In the Literary Scene:
I started Second Touch of the AD Chronicles by the Thoenes. I also started a new Bible study on Wednesday nights with the women here on the mountain. It is the Esther study by Beth Moore. I loved the first night! Can't wait to do it. Hopefully I can get it done before we move.
Feeding on His Faithfulness,
Carol
If you would like to join me in this theme, just write up your own weekly summary, using mine or your own categories. Then sign the Mr. Linky below. I'd love to read your weekly summaries too! I hope to post mine on each Friday or Saturday. At the latest it will be on Sunday. If you get yours done before I do, just leave your link in my cbox or comments from the week before. Be sure and check last week's Mr. Linky for any new ones who posted before I did! It is a great way to meet new people.
My husband John and I have been married for 22 years as of April 2009. We have 3 children- two teens and a 10 year old and have been homeschooling for most of their lives. After John left the State Police in 1992, we spent 10 years as missionaries to Romania. We returned from the field in March of 2007. John was rehired by the State Police in 2008 and the whole family is very involved in ministering in a new church plant.
This was nice because I could fit a lot of pictures on one page and I could pick the background color to match our lapbooks. The program online at Walgreen's automatically places the pics and you can keep switching them around until you get them the way you like them. You can also add a title bar if you want to the bottom or top of the page.
Jeff working on the interior of our sauna. He just finished the walls & ceiling - still has more to do, but it's getting there. The cedar smells so nice in there.
From the Heart:
