I'm not sure how many of you watch Dr. Phil....I never have, as he tends to irk me in the extreme. I hate that he presents himself as a psychologist, when his PHD is in physiology. I always hated how he railroaded guests to make them seem like stupid red=necks and he the most intelligent person on the stage. But I've never been so disgusted by him until a recent episode of his show came to my attention. Recently Dr. Phil had a show called "The Great School Debate" which would make one think there would be opposing views laid out and that these people would explain their stands. Instead, Dr. Phil had on a 'radical unschooler' and set out to make them look ignorant and weird. It was horrendous to watch. You can see the show on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9IfxXl5SAc and you can read an audience member's accounts at http://localhs.com/scuttle/2006/10/great-school-debate.asp
This pisses me off because those who know nothing about homeschooling will think this is what it's all about! Sure some of us are attatchment parents - but that's a completely seperate issue form homeschooling. If he had truely wanted a debate then he should have offered various homeschooling opinions - from CHarlotte Mason, to Traditional Home Schooling. There was no need for the calamity he presented.
I've had a lot of questions about mini-offices. These are essentially reference books made by mom for the kids to take out.
I fold mine so they can unfold into a sort of cubicle. You can make them for many subjects. You essentially search out the best printables then glue them into the folders (usually a minimum of 4) then laminate the whole thing to protect them from grubby fingers.
Here's some ideas, I'll see if I can find some links to add in.
World Geography:
- Bodies of water
- Continents
- State maps (different kinds - road, topagraphy, water, etc.)
- United States maps
- Flags (state and US)
Language Arts:
- Parts of Speech
- Alphabet (I used an exacto knife to make a pocket and put in the alphabet in sign language, cursive, chinese, etc.)
- Days of the week
- Months
- Punctuation Chart
- Paragraph Writing
- Research writing rules
- Types of writing
Math:
- Addition / Subtraction / Multiplication Charts
- Number Line
- Clock (time)
- Counting to 100
- Basic coin chart
- Number chart & Roman Numerals
- Basic Charting
- Problem Solving
- Ruler
- Skip counting chart
- Area/Perimeter
- Simple Shapes
- Fractions
- Liquid Measurement Equivalents
US Geography/History:
- President Chart
- State Abreviations
- Timeline
- State Nicknames/Fast Facts
- Famous Americans
- Native Americans (Sayings, History, Tribes, etc)
- Morse Code
- Major American Wars
Science - Notebook (as it's bigger and can hold different sections)
Astronomy:
- Planets
- Earth
- Solar System
- Meteors
- Satallites
Earth Studies:
- Layers of the Earth
- Volcanoes/Earth quakes
- Rock Cycle
- Water Cycle
- Rainbows
- Reduce/Reuse/Recycle
Great Pictures and ideas for lapbooks:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/94168846@N00/collections/72157601906639826/
http://lapbooking.wordpress.com/2009/03/28/butterflies/ (LOTS OF RESOURCES)
http://butterflieslapbook.tumblr.com/ (LOTS OF RESOURCES)
http://lapbooking.bravehost.com/Butterflies.html (MORE RESOURCES)
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/butterfly_lapbook.php
http://www.lapbooklessons.com/ButterflyLapbook.html
http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/lapbooks/butterflies.htm
(pictures) http://littleblots.ning.com/profiles/blogs/1230297:BlogPost:27267
Whew, the Biggest Loser competition is finally over. Every year from Feb through May I'm busy busy guiding 4 clients through the turmoil of weight-loss. It's physically and emotionally draining for the personal trainer as much as it is for the client. But WE WON!!! (see at my gym, each trainer gets 4 clients who we severely abuse for 10 weeks, then compete to see who can lose the most pounds, inches, lower their Body Mass Index, etc.)
Whew, the thing I hate most about the competition, is the pressure on my time and energy - it means homeschooling is squeezed down to the bare bones of a couple of hours (which is fine with my boys ages) usually consisting of a lapbook a week, or an ongoing lapbook - like our anatomy lapbooks. But I can't really post to my blogs or my HS Groups, my body is on shutdown - and my brain becomes incapable of thinking about ANYTHING.
But, today is a special day in my faith - it's May Day, a day to welcome Spring and the first blooms and blossoms. It's a day of joy, being free in appreciating the beauty around us. I also combine the day with Earth Day lessons - like we've spent the last week picking up litter in our neighborhood - walking a different street each day picking up the little papers and such on the side of the road.
I'm also trying to organize my family reunion this year (the weekend after the 4th of July). I've been busy designing a website for our family - with our family trees and such. And I'm now busy trying to plan our 5 hour drive with the kids (I make busy boxes for each of them, of course!).
Sorry, when I had made the office lapbook, I had been using a different blog, guess I didn't copy over that post...oops..lol..
Here's some of the links I used:
World Maps (the whole world)
Mapquest
World Clipart/Maps (including bodies of water & Continents)
The kids are learning all about China this month (among other things..lol)...so here's some of the links we're using....the lapbooks look awesome so I'll download a vid of it soon!!
DJ's 2-4th grade Lapbook: Reference Mat'l
- World Fact Book
- China: People & Places
- Ancient China & Lesson Plans
- Virtual Tours of China
- Religions in China Lesson Plan
- Homeschool Share
FIVE UMBRELLAS
Submitted by Jan
Five umbrellas stood by the door,
The red one went outside, then there were four.
Four umbrellas, pretty as could be,
The blue one went outside, then there were three.
Three umbrellas with nothing to do,
The green one went outside, then there were two.
Two umbrellas not having much fun,
The yellow one went outside, then there was one.
Just one umbrella alone in the hall,
The purple one went outside, and that was all.
X-Man's k-1st Grade Lapbook: Reference Mat'l:
- How People Live in China (Homes)
- Kids go to school
- Let's Get Ready To Go To China!! (we made our own min-book on these prep facts)
- Climate & Geography
- Transportation in China
- Sun Mini-Book
- Wind (since China invented the kite)
- Wind MiniBook
Go Wind!
By Lilian Moore
Go wind, blow
Push wind... swoosh.
Shake things ,
take things ,
make things fly !
Ring things ,
swing things ,
fling things high!
Go wind, blow
Push things... whee!
No, wind, no.
Not me, not me!
SPRING WIND BLOWS
Teach your little performers this chant to help them start thinking about wind.
The spring wind blows this way and that
Oops! Watch out! There goes my hat! (Wave hands above head.)
The spring wind blows round and round.
It blows my hat across the ground. (Move arms in a rolling motion.)
The spring wind blows. Spin, spin, spin!
Oops, it blows my hat again! (Move hand in a circular upward motion.)
The spring wind blows left and right.
Then it blows my hat out of sight! (Move hands to the left, then right.)
(Wave bye-bye.)
I also found these wonderful printable workbooks on Saving The Giant Panda from the Smithsonian.
Well with spring here it seemed the perfect time to discuss germination. We planted some vegetables in the house (well in little pots..lol) because it's still too cool at night. But the boys did so well -
They loved getting their hands dirty in the lesson and when dad came home they told him all about plants -
The 4 components of soil, essentential elements for germination, conditions for plant growth - these were the focus' this week.
DJ seems to have regressed a bit in math, or he's just not paying it any attention. We had covered addition over a year ago and had been moving onto multiplication, but he not acts as if he has no clue on addition, so he's done worksheet after worksheet on addition this week...still struggling with paying it any attention.
DJ has also done worksheets on Action Verbs. He took to them really easily - reading has always been his easiest subject!
X-man has worked on his letter writing, as well as vowel sounds. We did several worksheets on 'long vowels' and he did really well. He is not very confident on the penmenship, wanting mom's help, but he can read and understands the general concept so I'm not stressing about it....
Well that was our week in a nutshell!
Well, it's been an interesting few weeks since I've written last. Here's the update on the Kickbutt's crazy life....(I signed up for this...right?...LOL)
About a week ago I subjected myself to a new fitness certification. This one required about 30 hours of Muay Thai kickboxing in a 3 day span. It was utterly exhausting (but waaaay cool). The sad thing is, with all my medical conditions, I'm not as capable of recovering from that kind of stimuli as I used to be. I ended up with my right leg (the one with sufficient veins) swelled up and discolored. My bad leg (the one with no working veins) also discolored.....so began a week of being in and out of the hospital as well as the pain and fear of having another blood clot. It totally stunk. It's been a few years since I last had a real clot. But I soooooo remember the pain of it. Even worse, the doctors worried that I had maybe clotted off my by-pass....which would have been horrendous. My vascular surgeon refuses to ever perform surgery on me again, it took 3 months of hospitalization and 3 surgeries (the by-pass, then 2 hemotoma evacuations, plus I had a reaction to my blood transfusions causing my lungs to fill with fluid)....so if I clotted it off now, that would mean having to find another surgeon to trust - and that doesn't come easy!!!
The poor boys were troupers, whereas my poor hubby was scared outta his mind - he's not hip to the whole medical side of things...lol...So the boys read a bunch of books and did their time4learning, because mom couldn't even sit at the computer to print out new worksheets. But, alas, vacation is over. Kickbutt is back, well, kicking butt and now it's catch-up time!!!
This week we're moving onto the following:
X-Man (who turned 5 almost 2 weeks ago)
- The study of me, my family & my neighborhood. (we're making, well, it's more of a mini-office than a lapbook. Covering more health/wellness, social studies, and family history...it's a big on-going project of many lapbooks put together)
- Writing his numbers & letters (he can do it, he just doesn't like to!)
- We've also been practicing calling for help - in the event that mommy or daddy become injured - calling 911, Grandma, Dad, Papa, etc. He's actually very good at it.
- Begining Addition
- Further getting back to our Dr. Seuss Lapbooks.
DJ (who is still 7, anxiously awaiting turning 8....in July!)
- We're moving onto our home state of CT and are going to be doing a lapbook on this state.
- Our ongoing Health & Physiology Lapbook
- Working up to multiplication tables (we're just about done with skip counting)
- Parts of Speech. He's actually doing really well with this. I'm just about finished putting together a Lapbook for the parts of speech, rules of writing a paragraph/sentence, as well as punctuation.
For Both:
- We're planting an indoor garden (to later be transported outside) and discussing what can cause plants to die or sicken, and what that would mean for us.
- We'll also be drawing some diagrams of roots and DJ will study plant cells.
- We're also working on collecting pennies for eradicating hunger in our state. The boys are loving this project!!!
My son has been collecting Magic Tree House books for a while now, so now that he's capable of reading them on his own, he has to do a lapbook on each on as a means of doing a book report.
I'll post what I've made this week for next weeks Polar Bears Past Bedtime so you can see it. (remember the user name is kickbutttidbits with the password kickbuttmama) - This is the Lapbook for the Book report....the following is the lapbook for the Artic and Polar Bears and such...so there are 2 whole separate lapbooks in this post..lol...but I only designed the one above.
Here are some of the worksheets and such we're using in his Polar Bears After Dark book:
-
All about polar bears by SeaWorld: http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/polar-bear/pdf/ib-polar-bear.pdf
-
Polar Bear Families : http://albright-news.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/CA_PolarBearLB_Family.pdf
-
Xander's Polar Habitat Lapbook:
- Polar Bear coloring page (cover sheet): http://www.dltk-kids.com/t_template.asp?t=http://www.dltk- /teach.com/books/brownbear/clips/bpolarbear.gif
- Polar Animals cover sheet: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/docs54367/polar%20animals/cover.pdf
- http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/mcircle_polar_bear.htm
- Polar Bear Cupcakes: http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50050
- http://www.homeschoolshare.com/polar_animals_lapbook.php
- Alphabet tracing http://www.kinderprintables.com/february/bearhearttracingdnbw.pdf
- Number tracing http://www.kinderprintables.com/february/bearhearttracingnumbersdnbw.pdf
- Days of the Week (w/ bears) http://www.kinderprintables.com/february/bearheartdaysbw.pdf
- Months (w/ bears) http://www.kinderprintables.com/february/bearheartcamonthsbw.pdf
Both of them got to play :
- Bears of the Sea downloadable (FREE) board Game.
- And we read about Polar Conservation.
- We also learned more about creating a Polar Habitat here.
- A great printable Artic booklet is here.
- BLUBBER EXPERIMENT!!
With a degree in Physics and a minor in Geology I have a love for science, but that wasn't slways the case. In school I was terrified of science and math. I worried that I would be a failure and the teachers often left me in the dust of confusion. In college I had to take intro science courses. When I received my associates degree and was looking to transfer to a 4-year college I realized my best grades were in Science - no one was more schocked than I. Now I hope to give that love of science to my own boys.
With Spring almost upon us we're going to be doing Butterflies. We are purchasing the kit so the kids can watch the butterflies 'hatch' then set them free. It should be cool. We studied states of matter by freezing a bucket of water and experimenting on changing it back to water (liquid) we did this at the same time we studied the water cycle. We froze the water (solid) then ran warm water over it to turn it back to liquid, then boiled it (to make steam - gas) I froze a hardcover book and carefully held it at an angle in the steam and we watched the water droplets collect then run off (this is how we get rain). It really drove the point home. We love doing little experiments. When studying nutrition (we did another lapbook on it) we over fed a plant and watched it die, this drove home how important good nutrition is to all living things. We used playdough to make a planet when we were studying the layers of the earth.
Here are some links we use when looking for new ideas:
http://www.education.com/activity/kindergarten/science/
http://hastings.ci.lexington.ma.us/staff/SLee/science/
http://www.educationaltoyfactory.com/science_experiments_activities.htm
http://sciencecastle.com/sc/index.php/home/index
When teaching a preschooler anything the key is FUN, FUN, FUN! Here are some ideas for teaching Nutrition & Health:
- Make a Scrapbook Cookbook - this would be a great gift for Grandma as well. I've found some preschooler friendly recepies at:
-
What Do You Eat? We made a little booklet and each page had a different animal and we explained what they ate, the last page was What I eat with a picture of my son and a list of the food groups.
-
Parts of the Whole. One of the best tools of instilling a love of math & science later in life is cooking. You are basically mixing completely different items together to make a yummy whole. This is also great for explaining chemical reactions to older kids. I think having the kids have a hand in preparing meals is also a great way of teaching them about nutrition.
-
Fun with Yeast. Yeast causes things to expand - like bread to rise. We made homemade Amish Friendship Bread, and when discussing what changes are taking place, I needed a way to explain the fun of yeast, so I did this experiment: Place one package of dry yeast, 1/2 cup of sugar and one cup of warm (not hot) in an empty 2 liter soda bottle. Put a balloon over the top and watch it expand!
-
Where I come from! mini-book. We made a mini-book explaining where comon foods come from. My son colored a picture of his favorite food then told where that food origionated from.
-
Check out: http://atozteacherstuff.com/pages/244.shtml
I'm back to my busy weekends planning out our week of HS. I've already posted what we'll be learning in regards to the Inauguration, so here I thought I'd add the links for our Martin Luther King JR. Lapbooks (when we're done I'll upload the vid).
Both Lapbooks:
- I made a pocket for our coloring pages on Word that has the pic of a mountain and the quote "I have been to the top of the mountain. I have seen the promise land!" Just to keep things a bit tidier.
- Color By Numbers image of Dr. King found at www.schoolfamily.com
- "I have a dream" collaborative banner found at Scholastic.com
- My Teeny Tiny Book about MLKjr. found at www.bry-backmanor.org/mlk.html
- "When I think about Peace..." writing prompt from www.abcteach.com
- Word banks printed from www.teachersfirst.com
- Coloring Pages from http://crafts.holidays.net and www.dldk-kids.com
For me: Resources:
- Articlefrom the seattle times - MLK wins Novel Peace Prize from 12/10/64
- MLK Timeline at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com
- Words to the song "We shall over come" from http://www.k-state.edu
- Poem: "Standing Tall" by Jamioe McKenzie (about MLK) from http://www.fno.org
- Robert F. Kenedy speaks about the death of MLK from http://www.historyplace.com
- Article: Why we honor dr. martin luther king jr, from www.king-raleigh.org
- Dove-Handprint Unity Wreath directions from www.dltk-teach.com
- Poster of MLK from www.dltk-kids.com
- Peace Circle ideas from www.abcteach.com
- Civil Rights before & After chart from www.eduref.org
- Timeline (we made our own for the lapbook but one was printed for reference from timeforkids.com)
- I have a dream speech printed from www.teachersfirst.com
D.J.'s middle elementary lapbook also has:
- Word Search from http://homeschooling.about.com
- Civil RIghts before and after
- MLK Matching worksheet from www.abcteach.com
- Map of the US with places important to the Civil RIghts highlighted, map printed from www.nationalgeographic.com highlighted by DJ
- Diversity writing prompt, MLK report form from www.abcteach.com
- Acrostic Poem, Reading comprehension worksheet, vocab worksheet, adjectives worksheet printed from www.teach-nology.com
- MLK Missing letters worksheet from www.schoolfamily.com
X-man's Lapbook also includes:
- Letter K minibook from www.dltk-teach.com
- abcteach also has a children around the world sheet that we used to practice writing the word "Peace"
We're using the Inauguration as our basis for lessons over the next week or so.
Oh, and here's my Inauguration Lapbook!
Here's some of the resources we're using:
-
History of the Inauguration (including Facts)
-
Some great printable like word finds and such. And of course, the king of printable at enchanted learning.
-
We'll even be learning about the history of voting that dates back to ancient Greece.
-
We'll be doing a research project to learn more about Barak Obama. We'll learn about Hawaii (where he lived for a while) as our state of the week. As well as learning about Kenya as our Country of the week (where his family was from).
-
We're also going to learn about Abraham Lincon (whom Obama wants to emulate). And we're going to learn about the freedom of the slaves, and the 15th Amendment which prohibits states and the federal government from a citizen's race, color or previous status as a slave as a voting qualification. Its basic purpose was to enfranchise former slaves.
-
We're using the Letter I as our letter of the week and will be learning some of it's rules (like I before E except after C). My preschooler will be doing the What begins with the Letter I mini-book at dltk-teach. We'll also use this to make signs on what we would do if we were president.
-
And of course we'll combine it with our Martin Luther King Jr lessons and crafts from first-school.
-
And for art we're beginning a chapter on Impressionism Art.
Well I've been trying to come up with a way of teaching the 50 states and their capitals to the boys. I finally decided to set them to the tune of Silent Night.
50 Capitals - via Silent Night
Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
Indianapolis, Indiana,
Columbus, O-hi-o.
Montgomery, Alabama,
Helena, Montana
Denver, Colorado.
Boise, Idaho.
Austin, Texas
Boston, Massachusetts
Albany, New York.
Tallahassee, Florida
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Nashville, Tennessee
These are state capitals.
Trenton, New Jersey
Jefferson, Missouri,
Richmond, Virginia,
Pierre, South Dakota
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Augusta, in Maine
Providence, Rhode Island
Dover, Delaware.
Concord, New Hampshire,
Montpelier, Vermont,
Hartford, Connecticut
Topeka, Kansas
St. Paul, Minnesota
Juneau, Alaska
Lincoln, Nebraska
Raleigh, North Carolina.
Madison, Wisconsin
Olympia, Washington,
Phoenix, Arizona,
Lansing, Michigan,
Honolulu, Hawaii,
Jackson, Mississip-pi,
Springfield, Illinois,
Columbia, South Carolina.
Annapolis, Maryland
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Salt Lake City, in Utah
Atlanta, Georgia
Bismarck, North Dakota,
Don’t forget about D.C.
These are the state capitals.
Frankfurt, Kentucky
Sa-lem, Oregon
Little Rock, Arkansas,
Des Moines, Iowa
Sacramento, California
These are the 50 states
And their capitals
Oklahoma City,
In Oklahoma
Charleston, West Virginia
Carson City, Nevada’s
Those were all the State Capitals.
And the US capital.
Bless the USA.
YES WE ARE!!
Heck, I'm not just teaching cursive, I'm also teaching calligraphy. I think it teaches important motor skills to be able to manipulate the writing implement in different manners and yet still make a legible script.
As a personal trainer, I work with many neurological client (those who've had strokes and such). When trying to strengthen the mind and how it communicates with the body as a whole, I work 2 things: 1) repetition and 2) multi-planar manipulation. Number 1 is obvious, the only way to improve at anything is through high repetitions. Number 2 means taking the same concept and approaching it in multiple fashions - with PT it means planes of motion (front-back, side-side, and rotation) but with all other commands from the brain it also means approaching the same concept (like writing) in different manners (print, cursive, block, calligraphy, etc) not only does this strengthen the writing skills, but forcing a student to repeat similar information in this manner also solidifies the knowledge in their minds and makes recall easier...for instance. I can teach what a diphthong is, and I can give examples...but on an SAT later in life it might list different examples than the ones I'm given. I can hope that their minds will recognize the pattern, or I can get them comfortable to seeing those patterns in multiple lights making a change less, well, different. IMO.
Ugh, I swear the holidays are worse than vacations, I'm way more exhausted at the end then I was at the beginning. Well, we just sent our last holiday visitor away last night, so now I can finally put things back to rights and get us squared away for getting back to daily homeschooling....
Of course, to make things equally complicated, I'll be teaching a Toddler Sign Language class starting next Tuesday.....it should be fun...lol ;)
DJ is curled up on the couch watching the discovery channel since he woke up in the middle of the night with a fever and throwing up.....X-man is fine but chomping at the bit of boredom with his brother sick and mom trying to reorganize...I'm about to get off the computer and let him have it...
Well I hope you all had a lovely holiday and have thought and planned for a equally wonderful new year.
Brightest Blessings!!
How apt that it's snowing on the Winter Solstice / First Day of Winter!! We've got over 2 feet already... Yee Haw! Although I usually like the snow as it keeps it from getting too cold it's pretty cold now - only about 17 degrees -- ahhhh the joys of the North East!
I'm working on making a giant lapbook of all the major celebrations during this season (as I've said before). Above is the Yule portion of that lapbook, here's the Kwanzaa portion...