My Son's Self Made Lapbook

My oldest ds came to me yesterday and said he wanted to do a presentation on the Rain Forest and he wanted to do it by himself. (For school we are studying dinos.) I thought it was just something to keep him busy for a few minutes, but much to my surprise, he pulled out our Child Craft Encyclopedias and worked for about two hours!!! This is my 11 year old son-who does not like to read, write nor do schoolwork .
WOW. Then he asks me for a folder to make a lapbook. HUH?!?!? Did HE ask to do a lapbook!?!? After working diligently and telling his brothers to be quiet because he had to concentrate, he shows me his lapbook.
He drew all the pictures, colored them and did a small report on each. He then proceeds to tell me what each drawing is, ect. I am sitting there totally in wonder and awe- he can really do it!!! Here are a few pics of his hard work...

My son and his lapbook- so proud!

Front cover with pic of a Red Eye Tree Frog
Here's what you cant's see- on the left he wrote about trees in the Rain Forest, In the middle is a report about various plants found there and on the right is a Tree Monkey, with a report. Oh, he added a leaf as a little extra something so that we could "scratch and sniff" to enhance our Rain Forest Experience!
Please congratulate him on his blog:  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sonicman525                                                                                    

My Husband

I have been trying to wait for the professional pictures to come back, but I just couldn't! I am so proud and excited!!!! On Sunday, my husband became an Ordained Minister at our church!!!! Talk about unexpected blessings! Oh and while I am speaking of unexpected...A wonderful, dear friend-really SISTER, came with her husband and 7 children to the services!!! I was just so outdone. God knows when you need certain people in your life. She came at the exact, right time. It was almost a 3 hour drive one way. Her being there was the icing on the cake, it made the day all the more special. Her family fit in with our church so well, until it scared me (yes, that's a hint). I could go on and on, but I know she'll tell me to get over it.
Here's a pic of the most wonderful Husband in the Whole Wide World...that's him facing the camera, on his knees, with his head bowed and waiting to be anointed with oil.

Back to the Dino Stuff

Well, we are back to our dinosaurs again. I purchased a lapbook from Live and Learn Press  ( to see a preview, click on the blue letters) to cover the subjects. I like it because we can use our own beliefs of creation with it- anybody can for that matter. I am really enjoying the lessons being covered. As soon as we are finish, I will post the pics. In the mean time, we have been learning about various Paleontologists-some from the past and some from the present, what their jobs entail and objects they use. Today, we got into fossils- what they are and how they got here. We made our booklets for the lapbook and then the kids watched a video online at Cosmeo.com. To go with the lesson we put our own fossils together. I found the kits at a nearby store for $2.88 a piece. They were more fun than I thought they would be to put together and the results were pretty impressive. I thought about covering the pieces in dirt and letting the kids find them, but I didn't want to loose or get any pieces mixed together. Once the fossils were together, we looked them up in some dino books from the library to see what they looked like with skin...some were surprising and some weren't.

State Fairs

I live in the city so, a trip to the State Fair, for my family and I can turn out to be very, very educational. I never thought of it that way until last school year. In our curriculum it was suggested that we visit a sheep farm. I could not for the life of me, think of where I could find a nearby sheep farm. I prayed about it and forgot about it. Then one day, as I was driving down one of the busy streets in our city, I looked up and saw a billboard that said, "Come visit with us at the State Fair", next to a picture of sheep. I hadn't been to a local fair in awhile, so in my mind, when someone said ,"the fair", I thought about rides and food- just not sheep.
I mentioned going to my husband and parents and since none of us had been, we thought it would be a good outing and interesting. To make the idea even better, the fair offered a Home School Day, along with a free ticket and educational info.
We went and had a wonderful time. I wrote down questions for my children to ask the "shepherds" that would apply to our sheep lesson. I thought there would be one or two sheep there- boy was I WRONG!!!
There were 100's of sheep and so many different farms from across the state!!! I felt like I had struck gold.
Well, we went back this year and once again learned a lot of info. My younger boys favorite part is something the fair calls, "Little Hands on the Farm". It's a pretend farm set up for kids so they can pretend to be farmers and in the end they "sell" their produce to the pretend store, get the money and spend it on some healthy food item of their choice. It's pretty neat. At the beginning, the children are given a small basket for the various items they will gather while farming. They also get hats that is thiers to keep. Here are some pics:

 

This is sad

I am sad to announce the departing of our family frog..."J3"
Her sunrise was some time in June and her sunset was August 22, 2007.
In frog years, she lived a good, long life. She will be greatly missed.
But, one cannot put a comma, where God has put a period.
She leaves to mourn in her passing and to cherish her memory, all of us who knew her.

She has now taken her final resting place via the Porcelain Ride to the Great Beyond.
Any condolences can be left in the comment section below.
Thank you...

Make A Tombstone Memorial

I would like some toys!

The Battle for the Toy Box Contest!
I entered the Battle for the Toy Box Contest
on the HSB Company Porch.  I hope to win
over $100 worth of, Tales of Glory, Bible-based toys
from one2believe!!

Ancient Egypt Lapbooks

We finally finished up our Ancient Egypt lapbooks! We were so exhausted at the end of the last school year, until I immediately put everything down in the middle of whatever we were covering and took our Summer break! To see more on our study of Egypt and to see the resources I used to make our lapbooks with, click here.
A few instructions when viewing them:

• If you need the slide show to slow down, click on the - sign in the lower left hand corner.


• To pause, hit the pause pause button in the same area.


• To see the titles of the pics, just put your cursor over the pic and the title will come up. Enjoy!!!

 

Dinosphere

We are to begin our study & lapbooks of Dinosaurs on Monday- We are easing our way back into schooling after a nice, long summer break. We went to my favorite place and explored the best Dino Exhibit in the whole wide world! (That's my personal opinion) I didn't realize how much info was there. I plan to go back after our study is completed because we couldn't see it all in the little time we had. Here are a few pics of the kids having a good time (and learning without them realizing it  :))

 

My Princess turns 13!!!

I am officially the mother to a teenager! My Princess turned 13 today. I am trying to figure out what happened to my sweet, little, chunky baby!?!?! She has been a blessing to us through the years and I love her dearly and look foward to the years ahead. Happy Birthday, Princess. Pop, over to her blog and tell her Happy Birthday- she will love it!

First Set of lapbooks

I finally found out how to get categories in my blog- it took me forever! The Lord had mercy and saw I wasn't about to stop until I got my categories! Anyway, here a few pics of our Lapbooks we did awhile back:

 

Cool Slideshows!