The boys book club my youngest son joined last month met again yesterday. The boys are now going to be reading the Wishbone books! I am very excited about this because I have such great memories of reading them with my oldest son. Although these books are now out of print, my oldest son LOVED them so we own many of them already. If you have kids over the age of 10 you probably remember the PBS show Wishbone. The premise of the show (and the books) is that Wishbone, a cute little dog, imagines himself as the main character in classic stories. He also has a current day story going with his owner Joe that follows the same theme as the classic story.
Beowulf was the first story...and boy was it a BOY story! LOL Dragons, monsters, swords, and lots of action packed fighting! What is not to love? My little man was on the edge of his seat from cover to cover! The writer did a good job of taking a classic tale that is intended for a much older audience and introducing it to kids.
Here are some pictures of the boys at book club...
Discussing the book.
My little man working on his Beowulf craft. A SWORD!
Making swords is a GOOD boy craft!
He likes it!
It's even better after adding a few jewels!
Yep, boys book club was a hit!
My son is already excited about reading the next book, which is based on Treasure Island! There are actually several series of Wishbone books. The ones we are starting with are The Adventures of Wishbone series. Here are the books we will be reading in the coming months:
Salty Dog based on Treasure Island The Prince and the Pooch based on The Prince and the Pauper Robinhound Crusoe based on Robinson Crusoe Hunchdog of Notre Dame based on The Hunchback of Notre Dame Digging Up the Past based on Rip Van Winkle The Mutt in the Iron Muzzle based on The Man in the Iron Mask Muttketeer based on The 3 Musketeers A Tale of Two Sitters based on A Tale of Two Cities Moby Dog based on Moby Dick The Pawloined Paper based on The Purloined Letter Dog Overboard based on Kidnapped A Pup in King Arthur's Court based on A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthurs Court The Last of the Breed based on The Last of the Mohicans Digging to the Center of the Earth based on Journey to the Center of the Earth Gullifur's Travels based on Gulliver's Travels Terrier of the Lost Mines based on King Solomon's Mines Ivanhound based on Ivanho Huckleberry Dog based on Huck Finn Twenty Thousand Wags Under the Sea based on Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
As you can see the boys will be getting some great exposure to some wonderful classic literature! I am so thankful for the mom who is hosting this in her home each month! My son is LOVING having his own boys book club and I am thrilled to see him SO excited to dig into books!
Awhile back I gave a quick 15 minute talk about organizing lapbooks at our monthly homeschool meeting. I have been meaning to post the info here too, so here it goes!
Here are the basics...
When we start a new lapbook I print out all the pages and put them in a folder. If all 3 kids are doing different lapbooks they each get their own folder. If the littles are both doing the same one I put all the copies in one. Then I also put a gallon sized ziploc bag in the folder with the appropriate child's name on the bag. This is where their finished booklets will go.
Next I decide how long I want them to take working on this lapbook. I count the number of booklets and divide it by the number of days. Then I write a note in the folder letting the kids know how many booklets they need to do per day.
During school time when we are ready to work on our lapbook we have a bag that we keep all our lapbooking supplies in.
In this bag we have:
packing tape
double sided tape
other scrapbooking adhesives (Whatever I have gotten cheap at Big Lots.)
crayons
color pencils
scissors
stapler
staples
pencils
Sharpies
templates to make letters
templates to make lines in booklets (Bought these in Target Dollar Bin)
Stamps to make lines on booklets (Bought these at Michael's Dollar Bin)
glue sticks
ribbon
brads
Little booklet of Bible verses (Kids use this often to find a verse to add to their lapbook.)
Once the kids have completed all their booklets we have a bin of folders for them to chose folders from.
Once they have selected their folders we work together to lay out the booklets and place them inside. Honestly my daughter is much more interested in this process than the boys are. Often I end up putting the booklets in for the boys. :^)
To store our completed lapbooks we use these cardboard magazine holders from IKEA. They work great and they fit on a bookshelf nicely. We have 7 of these filled after 4 years of lapbooking!
That is pretty much it! One of the things I love about lapbooking is how simple it really is!
If you have felt intimidated to start a lapbook I hope this helps to simplify things.
Week 2 of Addy was SUPER busy! We started out the night with a Spelling Bee! I had emailed out a list of spelling words last week for the girls to study. Since the girls range from Kindergarten to 6th grade we split them in 2 groups. (K-3 and 4-6) We did a double elimination so that the girls wouldn't be out if they missed only one word. They all did really well! It was nerve wracking for many of them, but I think overall it was a good experience. I made certificates of participation for them at this website:
http://www.123certificates.com/makeit/spelling.php
Next I showed them the abacus I made and explained to them a little about how it works. We also passed around a little slate like Addy would have used in school along with her abacus.
Finally it was time for our craft! This week we made an appliqued pillow. There was a great picture in the Welcome to Addy's World book of a quilt that had been made by a slave. It had appliqued pictures of Bible stories on it. I showed that to the girls to inspire them. Then I turned them loose with fabric, thread and felt!
The girls working on their pillows.
Stuffing!
A few of the finished (or almost finished) projects!
For snack we had Black Eyed Peas and Buttermilk Biscuits. They were great!
In book two of the Addy series Addy goes to school for the first time. One of the tools she uses at school is an Abacus. I wanted to girls to get to experiment with an Abacus, so I thought I would make one for them to try out.
I found the directions to make this HERE. I followed the directions pretty much (Which is odd for me.) although I added an extra bar for support. I also used hot glue instead of wood glue.
I plan on using THIS Brief Introduction to the Abacus to explain to the girls how to use it. And showing the THIS video for more info. (And just for fun HERE is a video of a Japanese girl using an Abacus lightening fast!)
Our much anticipated Soups Around the World Kid's Day was last Friday and it was a BLAST!
Here is a summary with LOTS of pictures!
We were part of the China table. Here are my littles with two of their friends who are from China.
Our whole China group.
Love, love, love her and her outfit and jade necklace!
A few things from China on our table. A Chinese paper cut, fan and a piece of the Great Wall. I can't believe that the ONLY display I forgot to get a clear picture of was our China one! The kids did such a great job putting it together. Many of the items we had displayed on it where from the China Learning Kit we got from Jimmie last year. It was really fun for them to have so many real things from China to share with their friends. What we did was split the items between the kids and then have each of them write a little bit about that item. So we had info on the flag, pandas, paper cuts, and red money envelopes right along with the actual items. Then we had a lot of other items on the table. One of the family in our group has been to China twice, so they had GREAT things to share!
Trying out Egg Drop Soup at the China table.
One of the members of our group passing out lucky red money envelopes to the kids who came to our table.
Next we have Africa! This group did a great job of representing a whole Continent! They had info on Nigeria, Madagascar and Egypt . Plus they had info on Missionaries to Africa and LOTS more! They also had a great soup that was a sort of corn chowder. YUM!
One of the girls wore a outfit from Nigeria.
Hawaii! Hawaii had a lot of fun information and a great soup! The soup was a pumpkin pineapple soup served with whipped cream mixed in. It was warm/cool and sweet and yummy! Very different than anything I have every tasted before and it was WONDERFUL!
Alaska Alaska had lots of fun info I didn't know before and a great fish soup. One thing I really loved was the map in the middle of the board that has Alaska superimposed over the USA to show how BIG it is. We always see it reduced at the bottom of a map to make it fit in. This really gave us a good idea of how BIG Alaska is!
Here are some of the kids checking out the Alaska and Hawaii tables. Each table had a soup and a stamp for the kids passports. The kids were given a passport when they arrived to get stamped at every table. They really enjoyed that!
Welcome to Mexico! The Mexico table had a lot of great hands on things. Like a relief map, paper flowers, and a Aztec Temple made of Legos.
A few of the kids learning about Mexico!
There was also corn to grind by hand!
Italy! Italy did a great job and I wish I had gotten better pics. They had all the kids make different things in Italy in Mosaic. They were on the front of the table. You can also see a little of the Leaning Tower of Piza they made in this pic near the bottom. :^) They had a lot of info on the famous people of Italy and the food of Italy. There soup was YUMMY too!
Here is a shot of all the people who came in costumes from their locations. From left to right we have Nigeria, Mexico, Hawaii, China (Including a dragon who led our Dragon Dance for China! LOL), and Egypt. (Egypt is wearing a belly dancing hip scarf.)
After about an hour of traveling from table to table we all met together for each group to give a presentation.
We started with Africa...
Mexico went next...
Italy was 3rd...
Alaska was next...
5th was Hawaii... I was so proud of all the kids. Almost every single one of them got up front and presented something to the group. Even the littlest ones took a turn holding up a picture they had drawn and told the group about it. It was a neat experience for all of us!
Our China group went last because our presentation was going to wind the audience up....We started out with a couple of the girls reading reports about the history and origins of the Dragon Dance. Then 2 of the girls showed a short video of a Dragon Dance Parade and talked about the parade. (Almost all the kids in our group had gone to a Dragon Parade this year for Chinese New Year.)
Then we had a demonstration of a blooming Jasmine tea...
Cool! (And it was very tasty too! I LOVE tea and am going to have to get some of this for our next tea party.)
Then we finished off with our own Dragon Dance Parade!
Yep, I think they are having fun learning!
No Dragon Dance Parade would be complete without a drummer!
The procession continues down the halls and through the rooms! We finally made our way back to the room we started in. That was the end of our fun day! The kids and parents had a great time! I know that this was one of my little ones favorite Kid's Days we have had. We will have to see what we can come up with next year to top this one!
Happy Homeschooling,
Jamin
Click HERE to read about our Ancient China Lapbook we made.
Click HERE to read about our Dragon Parade Puppets!
Today our homeschool group is hosting Soups Around the World for our monthly Kid's Day. We will be having 6 tables with soup and information from 6 different locations. Alaska, Africa, Hawaii, China, Italy and Mexico. (More info to come later!) We are part of the China table so I thought I would have the kids do a Ancient China Lapbook to display on our table.
Here it is.... We used 2 sets of resources for this lapbook. I copied the China pages from a book we have called History Pockets - Ancient Civilizations and we used a few of the free printables from Homeschool Helper Online. I decided to go with Ancient China to make the lapbook manageable. There is just SO much information on China we could have filled a dozen lapbooks if we wanted to!
But, here is what we did...
Folder #1 has kites we designed, Chinese Lanterns we made with the numbers 1 to 10 on them in Mandarin, a Dancing Dragon Puppet that has info on the dragon dance, and some vocabulary words from Ancient China. (calligraphy, chopsticks, peasant and emperor)
This section has a picture of a women in a traditional outfit, info on The Great Wall of China and a little booklet with a few facts about current day China. (The only current day info we have in the lapbook. I just wanted to kids to see how amazingly big China is today!)
In this part the kids wanted to draw some pictures of their favorite things about China. My daughter did a Panda, the Great Wall and a China Flag. My youngest drew pictures of his favorite Chinese food...rice, chow mein and orange chicken. He also drew the Great Wall. Each of the kids also made a full size page of the China flag. (HERE is how we added the clear page protectors to our lapbook.)
Here we have a little booklet on Chinese food, Chinese animals, a map of China and postcards from ancient China. The postcards are written like the kids went to Ancient China and wrote a friend to tell them about it. :^) (The map below is from HERE.)
So that wraps up our China lapbook! We are SUPER excited to share it with our friends today!
For week one of Addy we started out with the question "Why do we study history?" The girls threw out a few good observations and then we talked about this quote:
"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
George Santayana
We talked about how whether the part of history we are studying is "good" or "bad" that it is important for us to know about it and learn from it. Some parts of history are fun and easy to study. Other parts of history are difficult and uncomfortable to study. But all parts can teach us something and hopefully what we learn will help us not make the same mistakes twice. Then I reminded the girls to be sensitive to each others feelings and to talk to their parents about any questions or concerns they have.
Next one of the girls read Genesis 1:27 for us.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
We discussed how the Bible clearly says we are all made in the image of God. And therefore we are all of equal value to Him. And should treat each other as if we all have equal value.
Next I asked the girls what they had for breakfast that morning. (I know that seems random, but stick with me. ;^) They all had fun trying to remember and telling what they had eaten. Then I asked what they had for dinner that night. Again they all shared. Then we talked about what Addy says she had for both breakfast and dinner in book one...Cornmeal mush. Here are the ingredients for cornmeal mush:
Cornmeal
water
salt
WOW, none of us could even imagine that being our families main food! We also discussed the possibility that she didn't mention what she had for lunch because she may have NOT had anything for lunch. For snack we had cornmeal mush. I got the recipe HERE. It came out pretty much like very plain grits. (The girls that liked grits, liked it and the ones that didn't, didn't.)
For craft we made a cowrie shell necklace and a kerchief bundle. Both of these items are super simple and actual items Addy has in book 1.
Addy's shell necklace is given to her by her mother as they were in the process of escaping slavery. It was a reminder that the love she carried in her heart would help to give her strength and courage. It was made from a shell handed down from her great grandmother who had it with her when she was kidnapped into slavery from Africa. In the book the necklace was strung on a shoestring that belonged to Addy's older brother who had been sold along with her father. (The catalyst that sent Addy and her mother to escape.) So for our necklaces we kept them simple too. Each girl got a cowrie shell and a yard of thin black leather cord. We put the cord through the pre-drilled whole, tied the 2 cords in an overhand knot right above the shell. Then we used adjustable knots to finish up the necklace and make it adjustable. The only took a few minutes to make, but the girls will really enjoy having them I think. I made one for me too and have been wearing it as a reminder to pray for the girls as we work through our study of Addy.
After we made our necklaces I read the girls the book The Listeners. This is a book about 3 slave children that help out their parents by listening to what is going on in the masters house. They spend every evening, after a long day at work, sitting outside the window of the big house. Then they carry important information back to their parents. I also showed the girls pictures of some slave quarters I found HERE.
Next we made our kerchiefs that can be tied into a bundle. For this I gave each of the girls a piece of fabric cut with pinking shears into a 20" X 20" (ish) square. Then I showed the girls how to tie the ends together to make it into a bundle. My daughter also showed them the bundle that she got with her Addy doll for her birthday. It also had a small gourd in it that Addy would have used to drink from and the half dime given to her by Uncle Solomon in book one.
Next I read to them the book Under the Quilt of Night . This is a book about the Underground Railroad. It is beautifully written and illustrated. I also read to them the first 7 pages of the Welcome to Addy's World book. This talked about slavery, the Civil War, The Battle of Manassas, and the promise of Philadelphia for escaped slaves.
My daughter with her Addy doll that she picked out for her birthday last month.
This week we will start our study of Addy in American Girl Club. This week will mark the 35th week that we have met for American Girl Club! (We did 6 weeks each on Kaya, Felicity, Josefina, Kirsten and 10 weeks on Samantha.) Out of all the studies we have done together Addy is going to the the toughest. Honestly, I have been wondering about how exactly to handle teaching Addy since we started American Girl Club last year. The problem is that slavery and the Civil War are just a really difficult period of American History. One of the beauties of studying American History through the American Girl books is that the girls get emotionally attached to the characters in the book. Which is great, except in this case it makes the subject matter even more difficult. Our club has a wide range of girls from different backgrounds. Plus our girls range in age from 6 to eleven. I have been struggling for weeks on how to teach this material in a sensitive and appropriate way.
Last weekend I sat and read through all 6 Addy books at one time. WOW, I cried a lot! What I decided was that it is best for our group for the girls to read the stories at home with their mom's and then discuss them with their mom's. Normally we start our time together discussing the books, but this time we are not going to discuss the books at American Girl Club. This way it will leave it up to each mom to decide what their daughter is ready to hear. And it's not just the slavery issue that I want to be sensitive about. (Although that is a big one.) But, there are plenty of other issues like leaving a baby behind, being separated from dad, extreme poverty, war, and even amputation. Whew!
I have prayed and prayed over the best way to teach Addy. We will still be discussing many of the issues raised in the Addy books, but we will be using other materials and activities to make it all not so personal. After much prayer this seems the best way to approach this for our group. If you are teaching an American Girl Club I encourage you to prayerfully plan what you will be doing and discuss with the mom's in your group what will work best for your girls.
Below you will find my week by week plan for Addy which represent many, many hours of planning and research. Please feel free to use it and change it in any way that will better fit your American Girl Club. If I have linked to pictures that we took on our trip to the East Coast please feel free to share those with your girls too.
Week 2: Addy Learns a Lesson - Book 2
Theme: Addy starts school in Philly / Difficulties starting a new life after slavery
Craft: Applique Pillow
Activity: Read If You Lived at the Time of the Civil War
Snack: Black Eyed Peas and Buttermilk Biscuits
Read From In Addy's World: Pages 8 - 11 and 28 -33
Other Ideas:
Bring a Abacus and slate for the girls to try out.
Take an online tour of the Betsy Ross home. This is VERY similar to the home Addy and her mother stay in and where her mother works as a seamstress.
Week 3: Addy's Surprise - Book 3
Theme: Christmas/ New Life in Philly/ Helping other escape slavery
Craft - Shadow Puppet and a Scarf for Mama
Activity - Sing Joy To the World and This Little Light of Mine
Snack - Sweet Potato Pudding
Read From In Addy's World: Pages 12 - 23
Other Ideas:
Take a Kerosene lamp for the girls to look at.
Write a poem about an event in Addy's time and recite to the group.
Week 4: Happy Birthday Addy - Book 4
Theme: Spring/ Addy's Birthday/ Emancipation
Craft: Hobby Horse
Activity: Jump Rope
Snack: Make Ice Cream in a Bag
Read From In Addy's World: Pages 34 - 37 and 40 - 41
Other Ideas:
Bring ice for the girls to snack on while I read from Sojourner Truth.
Week 5: Addy Saves the Day - Book 5
Theme: The Civil War is Over
Craft: Spool puppets
Activity: Read book Abe's Honest Words.
Snack: Molasses Cookies and Iced Tea
Read From In Addy's World: Pages 42 - 47
Other Ideas:
Week 6: Changes for Addy - Book 6
Theme: Getting the family back together
Craft: Rag Dolls filled with beans
Activity: Read Emancipation Proclamation, have a Emancipation party,
Snack: Have a Potluck! - Ham, collard greens, peas, rice, cornbread, rice, biscuits, mock apple pie, yams, watermelon, goobers/peanuts, etc.
Read From In Addy's World: Page 48 - 58
Other Ideas:
Ongoing project at the end of the evening - Have the girls continue to work on their rag rugs that they started in our Kirsten study.
So that is the plan. I we may not do everything and I know things may change as we move along, so stay tuned. I will be posting each week with pictures and details as we go.
Last week we had the 3rd of our eight Mad Science classes for the year. These classes have been SO fun! This one was on Light and Color. Here is a little of what we learned.
How our eyes see colors using light.
How colors mixed together appear as white.
How color solutions mixed together make black.
We used chromatography to help us seperate black to create a rainbow of colors.
We used diffraction glasses to break light into a rainbow of colors.
We made a Newton Color Wheel that blends colors into white.
We learned about the chemical energy of different metals.
Watched an indoor fireworks show with our diffraction glasses.
The Scientist showing us light through a prism.
Demonstrating the Newton Color Wheel.
Building our Newton Color Wheels. (My kids are now the proud owners of battery operated motors. Life will never be the same around here again! LOL)
My little man building his frame for his motor.
All the kids building their frames for the motors for their color wheels.
The teacher demonstrating with the black light.
My little Scientist sporting his diffraction glasses.
The kids watching the indoor fireworks with their diffraction glasses. :^)
Cute little Scientist!
Happy Homeschooling,
After much anticipation my youngest son FINALLY got to go to his very first Boys Book Club! YAY!!! The book was Flat Stanley and he LOVED it!
Here are the boys answering questions about the book.
The boys working on a crossword about Flat Stanley.
My little man making his own Flat Stanley version of himself. :^)
Icing Flat Stanley cookies!
The boys really liked this!
My little man's masterpiece! We can hardly wait for the next Boys Book Club!
For week 5 of Kirsten the girls quilted a pattern on a potholder.
One of the mom's made the potholders ahead of time and brought them to club. Then the girls used brown paper to cut out a pattern and quilt on their pot holder. Simple things like hearts, square, leaves, and flowers worked best.
For snack we had potato soup. It was yummy!
It was a simple but FUN week!
For week 6 we made bunny pin cushions. This was really fun because it was the first sewing craft I have given to the girls that I did NO prep work. When we did our first sewing project last year during Samantha the girls pretty much had no idea how to sew and the mom's did most of the sewing. Over time I have tried to continue to give them sewing projects (That are appropriate to each time period.) and get them to do a little more sewing each time. They have gotten pretty good at sewing! YAY!!! So for this project I just laid out the materials and let them have at it! I didn't even cut out the pieces for them! I just put the pattern pieces on the table and they did it all themselves. It is very rewarding to see the progress the girls have made since we started American Girl Club!
Here is my daughter working on her bunny.
The girls working on their projects.
So that is it for Kirsten! Next week we will be starting our study of Addy!
The kids and I recently went to see Slim Goodbody. We have been to the Slim Goodbody show twice now. The pics below are from our most recent time. It's a great fast paced show with lots of good information about how our bodies work. If he's going to be in your area I highly recommend the show!
Freebie Friday - Feb 19, 2010 - Freebies for High School
Welcome to Freebie Friday!
I frequently am asked about freebies for the high school level. Now that I have a highschooler I am realizing how handy it can be to have some free online resources bookmarked. This week I am sharing resources for highschooler. Although if you are not ready for high school freebies be sure to keep reading anyway. The last freebie is a really cool new No-Cost Curriculum that is being developed for preschool through 8th grade. (Preschool through second grade is currently online.)
This first freebie is an amazing resource for Literature Units. Titles are listed alphabetically and each one has a free printable pdf to use with your student. My sophomore son is currently using the one on The Canterbury Tales. http://www.ntc-school.com/sec/literature/litlibrary/index.html
Ambleside Online is completely free and most of the books in the reading schedule can be downloaded and read for free or even printed. http://www.amblesideonline.org/index.shtml
Another wonderful free curriculum is An Old-Fashioned Education: http://oldfashionededucation.com/index.html It currently covers through 11th grade and 12th grade is being developed currently.
If you are looking for a way to teach your student computer programing check out Alice! This is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. http://www.alice.org/
For our second Mad Science class at my house we explored the wonders of dry ice!
Here is some of what we did and learned this week:
Dry Ice is frozen carbon dioxide and has a temp of -109F (Don't touch!)
There are 3 states of matter - solid, liquid and gas.
Sublimation is when a solid because a gas without turning into a liquid.
We watched dry ice sublimate!
We talked about how carbon dioxide gives soda it's bubbles.
We tasted carbon dioxide bubbles. (It taste like flat soda or a burp! LOL)
We trapped carbon dioxide inside a soap bubble and then popped them.
Freezing water in a spoon that is touching dry ice.
Blowing up a balloon with carbon dioxide.
Playing with the gas!
Making bubbles....
All the kids wanted their mom's to touch the bubbles because it was SO cool!
:Passing out a taste of carbon dioxide!
Having a taste. It's NOT so yummy!
Happy Homeschooling,
Well, due to snow our Valentine pary had to be postponed a week...but we finally got to have it a week late!
Here is the party in pictures.
Bean Bag Toss game...
Parachute game...
Lots of food...
And the story of St. Valentine...
We also had our bookmark craft, a valentine exchange and LOTS of FUN!
Yep, I turned 45 this weekend! WOW! That is a BIG number! LOL My family treated me very well, they took me away for a resort weekend! We had a great time hanging together and having fun as a family! I am very blessed!
Me with my littles.
With all 3 of my kiddos...
With my hubby! I keep telling my self 45 is just a number. (Although it is the number that means I am half way to 90! LOL) I closed my eyes this weekend (while I was in the hot tub) and pondered this question...If I woke up tomorrow and didn't know how old I was....how old would I feel? Homeschooling and keeping up with my kids keeps me feeling young! I don't think I feel a day over 30! ;^)
You all know how I love a good FREEBIE! Here is a really COOL free Science opportunity!
ASPEX Corporation (a leader in automated microanalysis) is offering FREE scan of ANY item you choose to mail them on their Scanning Electron Microscope! Here is how it works:
1. Download and print this form from the ASPEX website.
2. Fill out the form and mail it along with the sample you want scanned to:
ASPEX Corporation
Free Sample Submissions
175 Sheffield Dr.
Delmont, PA 15626
3. Once ASPEX has completed the scan, the images and report will be posted on ASPEX's website here.
Note: It should take about 2 weeks for the results to post to the ASPEX website, and they will also notify you via email. Samples scanned for free will not be returned.
This is a wonderful opportunity for your students to see an item on a super high power microscope! Have you ever seen the little hairs on the eye of a fly? Or up close in the crack of a piece of granite? What does dog hair look like magnified thousands of times? Want to know what moldy cheese really looks like up close? Whatever you are curious to see they will scan and post your pictures online. This would be a great group project! You could get all your homeschool friends together and send in your items. Then you could complete to see who had the grossest, coolest, most unusual, smoothest, most spiral, etc. item. The kids could write reports about the difference. I bet you could even work a lapbook into this somehow!
You can find out everything you need to know about this HERE.
We have homeschooled our children from the start and we love every minute of it! This is my place to share my thoughts on homeschooling, my kids and living for the Lord. All the while being a little outside the box!!
Copyright 2007 jaminacema. All Rights Reserved.
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For information on reprinting materials from this blog please contact me at jaminacema@earthlink.net
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"For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 6:23
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16
"I have come that they may have life,
and have it to the full." John 10:10
Click below to hear GREAT Sermons, from an awesome Pastor I love!
Want to further investigate the claims of Jesus CLICK HERE
For Video Podcasts from Lee Strobel
An extremely dense, vertically developed cumulus with a relatively hazy outline and a glaciated top extending to great heights, usually producing heavy rains, thunderstorms, or hailstorms.
I can't believe that the ONLY display I forgot to get a clear picture of was our China one! The kids did such a great job putting it together. Many of the items we had displayed on it where from the 
This group did a great job of representing a whole Continent! They had info on Nigeria, Madagascar and Egypt . Plus they had info on Missionaries to Africa and LOTS more! They also had a great soup that was a sort of corn chowder. YUM!
Hawaii had a lot of fun information and a great soup! The soup was a pumpkin pineapple soup served with whipped cream mixed in. It was warm/cool and sweet and yummy! Very different than anything I have every tasted before and it was WONDERFUL!
Alaska had lots of fun info I didn't know before and a great fish soup. One thing I really loved was the map in the middle of the board that has Alaska superimposed over the USA to show how BIG it is. We always see it reduced at the bottom of a map to make it fit in. This really gave us a good idea of how BIG Alaska is!
The Mexico table had a lot of great hands on things. Like a relief map, paper flowers, and a Aztec Temple made of Legos.
Italy did a great job and I wish I had gotten better pics. They had all the kids make different things in Italy in Mosaic. They were on the front of the table. You can also see a little of the Leaning Tower of Piza they made in this pic near the bottom. :^) They had a lot of info on the famous people of Italy and the food of Italy. There soup was YUMMY too!
I was so proud of all the kids. Almost every single one of them got up front and presented something to the group. Even the littlest ones took a turn holding up a picture they had drawn and told the group about it. It was a neat experience for all of us!
We finally made our way back to the room we started in. That was the end of our fun day! The kids and parents had a great time! I know that this was one of my little ones favorite Kid's Days we have had. We will have to see what we can come up with next year to top this one!
We used 2 sets of resources for this lapbook. I copied the China pages from a book we have called 
Both of these items are super simple and actual items Addy has in book 1. 
We can hardly wait for the next Boys Book Club!
This was really fun because it was the first sewing craft I have given to the girls that I did NO prep work. When we did our first sewing project last year during Samantha the girls pretty much had no idea how to sew and the mom's did most of the sewing. Over time I have tried to continue to give them sewing projects (That are appropriate to each time period.) and get them to do a little more sewing each time. They have gotten pretty good at sewing! YAY!!! So for this project I just laid out the materials and let them have at it! I didn't even cut out the pieces for them! I just put the pattern pieces on the table and they did it all themselves. It is very rewarding to see the progress the girls have made since we started American Girl Club!
I keep telling my self 45 is just a number. (Although it is the number that means I am half way to 90! LOL) I closed my eyes this weekend (while I was in the hot tub) and pondered this question...If I woke up tomorrow and didn't know how old I was....how old would I feel? Homeschooling and keeping up with my kids keeps me feeling young! I don't think I feel a day over 30! ;^)
