Here's a look at our first-ever mini offices.  Mahayla made her own.  I made Caleb's.  He is very excited about these, which was quite a shocker to me.  I expected Mahayla to be the excited one as she loves this sort of thing. 

I wrote a post earlier with links to pictures and print-offs for mini offices.  I found just about everything I copied from those sites. 

Mahayla's Language Arts Office includes lots of writing helps and editing reminders, and a parts of speech chart.

Her Math Office includes - oops, a cursive chart! - a multiplication table, measurement equivalencies and conversions, a Roman Numerals chart, a place value chart, a reminder of radius vs. diameter, word problem key words, and a US map (because we didn't know where else to put it.)

Caleb's Reading Office includes sound reminders for all letters and many blends, a phonics rules charts, manuscript and cursive charts, an editing checklist, a punctuation chart and some tips for writing good paragraphs.

His Math Office includes a 100 chart, a coin chart, an ordinal numbers chart, perimeter vs. area reminders, a skip counting chart, spellings of the days of the week and months of the year, and that pesky US map.

Okay, this is probably a tip that most of you already know about, but they're new to me and WAY cool!

Mini Offices are somewhat like lapbooks because they're made out of file folders that you refold, but they're used as reference sources that your child pulls out and places at their workspace when needed.  You and your child decide what kinds of references would be handy.

map of USA and/or world

manuscript or cursive ABCs

 multiplication table

number line

number or color words

grammar rules

writing rules or editing chart

phonics rules

vowel sounds

months and/or days of the week

how to write the date

money values

how to write an address

100s chart

shape names

tally mark values

Roman numerals

Then paste the references into the folders and you've created a mini office!  Never again do you have to remind your child what short "a" sounds like!  Never again do you have to spell the number eight out loud!  Never again do you have to show your child how to write today's date!

The possibilities are as endless as your imagination.  Just in case your imagination doesn't stretch that far, I've found some SUPER resources!!  You'll find pictures and lots of premade reproducibles.  Get your printer and folders ready.  You won't be able to resist the urge to create once you see these sites!

Teaching Heart

Mrs. Meacham's Classroom

Reagan All * Star Kinderbears

Busy Teacher's Cafe

Shadow-Earth

Related Tags: homeschool, mini offices, reference

We just finished a wonderful lapbooking unit on horses!  Back when Eli was only a month old, we did our very first lapbook on snow.  Although it was fun and a great learning experience, I didn't put much effort or planning into it.  This time, I took time to plan and  - wow, what a great unit it's been.  The kids have learned SO MUCH and have a beautiful keepsake of their work to remind them of our time spent.

I used the lapbooking unit from Hands of a Child and added some of my own assignments as well, especially for Mahayla.  Her added work included a circle story about a horse, a horse report, taking/saving/printing pictures of horses, a checklist of horse care skills learned, a log of horse books read and songs learned, a map of horses around the world, drawing horses, a visit to a tack shop and horse farm, completing a crossword of breeds, and creating a horse comic strip.  Caleb did some of these things, too.  There were some of the activities we didn't do from the Hands of a Child unit  because I preferred to have the kids learn a few of the things in different ways.  The lapbook books can get a little tedious, so I spiced things up a bit. 

Here are the covers.  Mahayla's is a picture she drew.  Caleb's is a dot-to-dot he colored.

Here are the back covers - a world map.

Here is Caleb's - two folders put together.  In the first. I'm holding up a story he narrated that we stapled at the top.  In the second, I'm holding up a Draw Write Now horse picture he drew.

Here is Mahayla's.  Hers is three folders put together.  The second picture shows an animal report and a drawing stapled at the top.  There are lapbook activities underneath.  The fourth picture is the third back of a folder.

Co-op gals - I've found yet another wonderful resource for lapbooking info, ideas and links.  Be sure to have a cup of tea and plenty of time before you visit this link!

  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/eclecticeducation/Lapbooking/

This is what I was tryin' to say the other day!    http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/jaminacema/228122/

I ran across this by chance today and knew it would be very helpful to those of you who were interested in trying lapbboks.  Now, if only I had been this organized the other day, right?  I have an excuse I didn't find out I was teaching until Sunday.

Hi gals!  Here are the lapbooking and notebooking links you asked for! 

LAPBOOKING - places to buy lapbooking units and learn more about lapbooking:

www.handsofachild.com  and www.knowledgeboxcentral.com

NOTEBOOKING - places to learn more about notebooking and find free notebook pages:

www.notebooking.org and www.cindyrushton.com

Don't forget to sign up at Homeschool E-Store for a FREE weekly download!!  That's where I've gotten tons of wonderful resources for lapbooking units, notebook pages, unit studies and more.  I think you even get a $5.00 gift certificate just for signing up.  I have a quick link to their site on the right.  -------->