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Thursday, May 29, 2008 - June Writing Prompts
Really short post here. Just wanted to get you the June writing prompts.
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Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - May Journal Writing Prompts
Just wanted to be sure to post this month's journal prompts for those that use them. Just wondering if I should continue posting the calendars for during the summer months? What do you think?
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Monday, April 14, 2008 - Princess Ceremony
We had quite the busy weekend. Friday evening my son and his girlfriend came over for their birthday celebration. His girlfriend’s birthday is the day before his and he wanted to have a joint celebration.
He really liked his quilt and we shared stories that went along with the patches of fabric.
On Saturday we had our daughter’s Princess ceremony. It really was beautiful. My sons took the pictures and videoed it. There was a little glitch in the videoing part. My middle son thought the camera was on but it wasn’t so he missed the first half of the ceremony, but he got the last half. We sent out invitations, had programs, and I wrote out the whole ceremony. We don’t have much family living near us, but my folks and my oldest and his girlfriend all came. We found a ‘princess’ dress at the Goodwill months ago and we had bought her crown at the Renaissance Festival in the fall. We also decorated the room to make it special.
We made the arch from PVC pipe we had and covered it with streamers. The two tables are from my bedroom and held the pillow I made to hold her Princess Kiss necklace and the other held the “kiss” candles. We had three chairs decorated with streamers also. She sat in the middle under the arch with her father and I on each side. While we were waiting to begin we passed around her completed Princess Notebook and a special certificate for everyone to sign.
We used battery operated tea light candles we found at Hobby Lobby, purple heart shape candle holders we got at the dollar store and a tall candle stick I had. We placed the glass globe from my anniversary clock that my son gave me over the tall set up to represent her ‘kiss’ and the two other candles represented her father and I helping to guide and light her path in purity. When she came down at the beginning of the ceremony she was carrying the silk rose and placed it in front of the candles symbolizing how precious her kiss was.
After welcoming everyone and an opening prayer, I read the Princess and the Kiss story while she quoted Scriptures she had learned through her studies. I had these typed out on slips of paper so she wouldn’t be nervous that she would forget them all. After she read each Scripture at the appropriate time she placed them on the table around the necklace/pillow to represent how her purity is surrounded by God’s Word.
After reading the story, she told everyone what she had learned during her studies and explained the meaning of the candles.
Then it was everyone’s turn to express what they thought was special about her and why she is a treasure to them. It was very emotional for my daughter. She understood how important it was making this formal commitment to purity. We paused for a few moments after everyone said what they wanted to let her compose herself. I knew she was tenderhearted but now I know how much like me she really is. There were quite a few tears all around.
Then I read the meaning of the symbols on the necklace from the Life Lessons from the Princess and the Kiss book.
Next my husband gave her the Princess blessing from the book and presented her with the necklace.
We ended in prayer and lots of hugs and kisses. She then served refreshments to everyone. It was a wonderful afternoon.
If you are interested, here are some of the printables I made for the ceremony.
Life Lesson’s from the Princess and the Kiss notebook pages.
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Monday, March 31, 2008 - April Writing Prompts
Just a quick post for today. The kids and I are taking today as a ‘Catch-up/Clean-up’ day. We need one of these days about once a month to stay on track. It’s a rainy day here, so it’s a perfect day for it.
I wanted to post the April Writing Prompts calendar though, so those who are using it will have it for tomorrow. I am so glad that everyone is finding these useful. If you get a minute please let me know if you like the format of the prompts in a calendar or do you think that they would be better in a list form. I am working on an e-book and would appreciate any input as to what works best for you. Thanks for your time.
April Writing Prompts Calendar
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Friday, February 29, 2008 - March Writing Prompts
Here is the March Writing prompts calendar. I sure would love to hear from those who have been downloading them. Last month there were over 50 downloads, but I only heard from a few. Would really like to know what you think of them, how you are using them and what I might do to make them better. Thanks.
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Tuesday, February 12, 2008 - Thirteen Colonies Study
We have been working on a unit about the 13 colonies. We are only studying the basics of who, what, where and whys of the founding of the colonies. We will be using Homeschool in the Woods Time Travelers The American Revolution after we complete this study so I needed to fill in the gap between our Explorers study and the American Revolution. I’ve been able to find a few things to use for our lapbook and have made some. I am still working on a couple of things to add to our. We hope to complete this unit by the end of the month. I haven’t completely laid out the lesson plan, but wanted to share what we have so far.
These are a few of the sites we are using.
USGenNet has a lot of links to help in our research of the subject.
Education World has a neat lesson plan for Colonial America including a link to George Washington’s Rules of Civility, which makes for excellent copy work.
This site has a timeline for colonial America from 1492 to 1763 as does the History Place.
And if you haven’t found anything useful at these sites let’s not forget Mr. Donn’s site. His site is a great stepping off point for lessons and Power Point presentations.
A good site for printable ‘foldables’ for U.S. History up to 1877 is the US History Standards of Learning Site.
For each state we will be doing a wheel with a window. The inside has been broken into 8-pie shapes with the following labels for each section: year founded, founded by, first settlement, first leader, chief economics, religion, government, and reason for colonization. The top circle has the state name and an outline map of the state. The kids will mark the important places on these mini maps and fill out the information on the inside circle.
Inside Circle- (four circles per page) (you will need to print 3 of these)
Georgia- (includes top and bottom)
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - February Writing Prompts
Didn’t get a whole lot done with the room switching yesterday because we had skating and my daughter had a basketball game. She had the opportunity to play most of the game and I forgot to bring my camera. Drat! Being the youngest player on the team by 3 years, she hasn’t played a whole lot, but last night she did awesome. I am so proud of the way she plays and is always positive towards the players. They won the game with a score of 44 to 26.
I finished February’s Writing Prompts calendar this morning. I’m glad that others have found them helpful. I know that when I find something I can use in our school I am happy that others freely share their creativity.
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Friday, December 28, 2007 - January Writng Prompts
Here are the writing prompts for January. The program I usually use isn’t working right even though I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled it, so I had to go into Word and start from scratch. Let me know what you think.
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Tuesday, November 27, 2007 - More Explorer Printables
We are well into our explorer studies and as promised here are a few of the things that we are using.
This is my Basic lesson Plan for this Study:
Here is a hyper-linked page of the websites that we are using to gather information about the explorers:
These are the pockets we made to put our completed explorer cards into. We printed them on different colored paper representing the different countries.
Explorer Pocket 1-Spanish Explorers
Explorer Pocket 2-English Explorers
Explorer Pocket 3-French Explorers
We are also adding to our vocabulary. We are using the words: astrolabe, cartographer, circumnavigate, compass, conquistador, exploration, expedition, isthmus, missionary, navigation, Northwest Passage, and peninsula.
This is a basic vocabulary flap booklet for 12 words- there are two sheets in this file. 1 side is the front and can be used alone, but I made the backside because my kids have trouble writing in a straight line and I wanted them to have guidelines to keep their work neat. Just do double-side printing. Also, be sure when you page scaling to fit in the margins. Had a bit of trouble with the sizing being even.
2-sided, 12 Word Vocabulary Flap book
We are using a single page booklet to make mini- biographies of each explorer we study. Again I’ve made these with lines. I am using Amy Pak’s History Through the Ages timeline figures on the front of each booklet. We also printer these on different colored paper to match our explorer pockets.
Booklet with lines and blank cover
Booklet with lines and blank front and back
How to make one sheet booklet:
Hope that someone will find these things of some use. Love to hear what you think.
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Thursday, November 15, 2007 - Explorer Trading Cards
We have started a new unit of study in history. Now that we have completed the required study of state history, we have resumed where we left off on our chronological discovery of the past. We have begun to learn about the explorers of North America and will be moving on to Colonial Days in December. I thought that we would try our hand at lap booking. We already use the note booking method so, inspired by all the wonderful projects others have done, we thought we’d give it a go and add some dimension to our study. In our lap book I plan to include an accordion fold out timeline, mini-bios of the various explorers, maps of their routes, and vocabulary words. I made some Explorer baseball cards for the kids to fill out the backs of and to include in pockets separated into Spanish Explorers, English Explorers, and French Explorers. There are 4 explorers on each sheet. I printed each one out on parchment colored paper, then printed the back on each one, cut them out, and trimmed them to be the size I wanted (3”X 4”). On the back there is a place for birth, death, sponsor, motivation for exploration, claim to fame, and a small world map to mark the routes they took. I wanted to share those with you. I’ve also included an Explorer Card key with the information for the backside of the cards and the cover we are using for the front of our lap book. If I come up with anything else I will post them later.
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Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - Thankful Bulletin Board
The month of November is often associated with thankfulness. While we say prayers of thanks everyday, in November we go a step further. As a visual reminder of all the things we are grateful for, each year we make a bulletin board. We write what we are thankful for on various shapes. We have used pumpkins, cornucopias and leaves printed out on colored paper. This year we stopped by a teacher’s supply store and bought a turkey shaped note pad to add to the other shapes. We use fall related bulletin board pieces as the back drop, but you could easily create your own thankful bulletin board by drawing a tree on large paper and posting it on the fridge or the back of the door, or tape your shapes to a window, or even use a basket and fill it up with thankfulness. This visual reminder of all our blessings makes the approaching holiday season more meaningful for our family.
Here are some shapes for you to print out if you would like to make your own display of thankfulness.
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Monday, October 29, 2007 - November Writing Prompts
My kids enjoying using the writing prompt calendars for there creative writing. Each day they chose to do their journals first. I would sure love to know if you are using these and how it is working for you.
Here is November’s writing prompts calendar.
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Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - Progress Reports
Well, I’ve printed out the kid’s progress reports from my Homeschool Tracker program. From the results, I can see that they are doing fairly well, with the previously noted exception of spelling. Science and math could stand a bit attention, but, for the most part, not too shabby.
Even though I print out progress reports, I transfer the information to a traditional report card. Here I also note their character development.
I’ve posted the cover and the inside here for anyone who wishes. I have also posted them in the Microsoft Word format so you can edit whatever you like to make it fit your needs.
Progress Report Cover-Word Doc.
Progress Report Inside-Word Doc.
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Tuesday, September 25, 2007 - October Writing Prompts
The kids have finished Wordsmith. I asked them what they thought of the program and was met with mediocre enthusiasm. They requested that I switch back to Journal writing using journal prompts, so beginning next week that will again be our creative writing class. We had been doing this in the past but I thought that they needed a more formal program. I think I was wrong. They used to love writing in their journals. When I switched to another method they became overwhelmed with the mechanics. They get plenty of that in their other Language Arts subjects. I want writing to lean more on the creative thinking side. I have created a calendar of writing prompts for them to follow. I have also been mulling over the idea of having them post a few of their assignments to their totally neglected blogs. I’d love to start a writing ring just for kids, something like Blogger Friend School, but don’t know if anyone would be interested. Just thinking out loud here. Love to have your feedback about this.
October 2007 Creative Writing Prompts.
October 2007 Creative Writing Prompts Zip File
(If you'd like me to continue to post each month’s writing prompts, please leave a comment to let me know.)
(Had some problems with loading file. Taking forever. If it doesn't come up let me know. Will work on it later)
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Friday, August 10, 2007 - Life Lessons from the Princess and the Kiss Notebook Pages
I’ve finished my notebook pages for Life Lessons from the Princess and the Kiss. If you are unfamiliar with The Princess and the Kiss, it is a storybook that teaches girls about the importance of purity and following God’s plan for relationships. The Life Lessons from the Princess and the Kiss companion book has 21 lessons based on the book that Biblically reinforces the principles presented in the book.
I have broken down my notebook pages into 7 separate files because of the size of the files. There are a total of 58 pages, which include the lesson plan I will be following, cover pages, lined and unlined pages, and specific pages for the Creative Focus section of each week’s lesson. If you are interested, feel free to download them. If you do, please let me know what you think or make any suggestions you would like. (You will need to be patient for them to download as they are large files.) I will be working on pages for Life Lessons from the Squire and the Scroll soon and will post those when I get them finished.
Princess Notebook Pages-Zip File- contains all the files below-16.1MB
Princess Notebook-includes notebook cover, my lesson plan, and pages for the Princess Prepares Her Heart- 10 pages- 4MB
Princess Prayers- includes pages for the Princess Prayers section- 7 pages- 3MB
Jewels of Truth- includes pages for the Jewels of Truth section and patterns for a paper treasure box- 8 pages- 2MB
Creative Focus 1- Creative Focus cover page and pages for lessons 1-4- 11 pages- 3MB
Creative Focus 2-Creative Focus pages for lessons 7-10- 12 pages- 3MB
Creative Focus 3- Creative Focus pages for lessons 11-16- 10 pages- 3MB
Creative Focus 4 & Princess Reminder - Creative Focus pages for lessons 17-19 and Princess Reminder pages- 7 pages- 2MB
The Princess and the Kiss and the other companion products can be purchased from the publishers at Revive Our Hearts.
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Wednesday, July 11, 2007 - Story of the World Reading List
We used the popular Story of the World for 2 years. The kids really enjoyed this series. Along with the coloring pages and map work in the activity books, there are other reading suggestions. At the beginning of each chapter there are corresponding pages that can be read from the Usborne Book of World History, the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History, the Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World, and the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia. I would assign the kids to read the pages associated with that day’s chapter and to write in their history notebooks something new that they learned from that day’s reading. To make assigning the reading pages easier, I made these lists. I hope that they can add ease to your planning.
If you are not familiar with the Story of the World series, you can view samples of book 1 at Well Trained Mind and book 2 at Peace Hill Press.
Whether you use the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History or not you can go to their website using the list as a reference, and find some really interesting things to enhance your studies.
On a side note, while looking for sites for you to check out Story of the World, I stumbled across this sample of First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind Level 3. Thought it was interesting.
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Tuesday, June 26, 2007 - Planning Sheets
With Girl Scout Camp behind us, my attentions are turned toward preparing for the new school year. Even though we school year round, the slower pace of summer is a good time to layout what we want to accomplish in the next school year. After reviewing this past year’s schedule, I have decided to streamline our studies and place more emphasis on the subjects that I think the kids need to work on more diligently. For my daughter that means a stronger focus on math and for my son spelling is his challenge. I have already chosen our books and will be spending the next few days planning out their lesson schedules. I do this first by planning monthly goals, and then I break those down to daily lesson plans. I use a spreadsheet that I print out for each of these tasks. After I am satisfied with my plans I use the Homeschool Tracker Lesson plan feature to save my plans, making them easier to assign during the year.
Here are a few of the forms I have created for goal planning:
Yearly Goals -I use this for planning a year’s worth of monthly goals for one subject. I print one sheet for each subject for each student.
Course of Study -I use this as a reference sheet for all subjects, listing book(s) used and publisher. I print one for each student.
Assignment Sheet -This is the weekly assignment sheet I used before getting Homeschool Tracker. I would use 1 sheet per student per week, filling out their assignments and checking them off in the block as completed. I would also record on it any grades received making it easier to record test results at the end of the week (or whenever I got around to it LOL)
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