Martin Luther King, Jr.- A Dream

Typo issues- I can't correct the typos from the post below-please bear with me...

Our Own School Room

Well, I had a few things I really wanted to get done while we were out for Christmas Break. I actually accomplished three! One was to finish up on the murals in my sons rooms-still working on that, but at least I got started on them again-which was a goal within itself. The second thing was to get a desk in our school room. Let me back up a little on this...
The school room...I was so happy when we got our house built that we had the option of breaking up our living room and formal dining room into separate rooms. I am not big on formality. When growing up, I could never understand the purpose of a formal living room. Why have a room that was nice to look at but you could never, ever step foot into-unless you were company. Then, if you ever got the privilege of doing so, you had to take your shoes off due to the carpet being white or a very light color. Once you made in, you had to sit on the plastic that covered the couch and the love seat-very uncomfortable, especially to kid in the summer time with shorts on. My legs would always stick to the plastic....eeeewwwwweeeewwwww.
I am so happy for this room! It makes things a whole lot easier! Well, my children had their desks from a school that was throwing their old desks out. I bought a couple of cans of spray paint and painted them the colors of their rooms-just in case we decide to the desks in their rooms later on. But I didn't have one! Wellllll, we still have houses being built around us and I am still amazed at what the builders will throw away. One day I was out walking and I just happen to glance in the trash bin and there was a kitchen island iWellllll I whole entire island! There was nothing wrong with it! I told my husband and he got it out for me. It sat in our garage for about 6 months. Then, it dawned on me that the island could be my desk! It was more than enough room at 4'x3'. I had a two drawer file cabinet and will buy another one for the other side, in the meantime, I had boxes with school books in them. My husband got the island and put it on top-VOILA! MY DESK!!!! And it is perfect for me. I have enough room to do lesson planning, while using my laptop and my printer/fax/copier/photo printer I received as a gift for Christmas. All of my lapbooking things are in order...which brings me to the third thing on my to do list. I got all of our supplies out of the school room and put them in the cabinets under the island in my kitchen, which is where I want all of our crafty things-there is carpet in the school room.
Well here are the pictures:
That's my bookcase in the corner with all my teaching info and stuff, the other bookcase is next to my desk with the materials we are currently using for lessons:

These are the children's desks and a few of our bookcases. This was taken from the doorway that leads into the school room:

Another view of the desks:

Nice pic of my bookcase-again. The big cream colored binders are our curriculum:

Last but not least, my desk. I have bought a lamp since these pics were taken:

One of my most prized possessions-a pencil sharpener. When we lived with my parents, we always used on of those 3 for a $1 ones. I thought it was great because the kids could keep them in their backpacks and have them handy-nnnnnooooooooo! It didn't work out as planned. The blades would become dull and wouldn't sharpen the pencils correctly or the kids would loose them or I would. And don't even begin to think about the battery operated kind. I would get so tired of them (the pencil sharpeners, not the kids). I told myself, when we moved I would buy a pencil sharpener like the kind in schools that could be mounted on the wall. While shopping in a whole sale store, I came across this one that could be like a clip on, I guess really a screw-on-it is perfect. No more excuses for an unsharpened pencil!

Here's one of the murals in the younger boys room-this is by their window-notice one of her gloves is black? I was so excited to get back to painting I accidentally did this. Oh, well-I'll fix it later. The little round circles above her head are "bubbles", they are really mirrors:

Here's Patrick at the doorway and once again, mirror bubbles.

I have the Spongebob portion halfway finished and will post pics as soon as its done. I love it and so do my children. My oldest son's room is Spider Man themed and I really need to get started on his before he changes his mind!

Phonics Booklets

This post is really for my brain and to remind me of a few good things:

My plan is to lapbook each letter of the alphabet for my 5 year old son to help him learn his letters and phonic sounds:

Jamin shared these websites on her page:

http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/learning-letters/books.htm

http://www.starfall.com/n/N-info/onlinebooks.htm?n=downloadcenter

Birthday Celebration

Here are some pictures of my son's cake. He had a party but because there are other children and I don't have permission to posts their pics on here, so I decided to stick with my son and his cake.

I love Wal-Mart birthday cakes! They have such a variety to choose from and the prices are reasonable. When my children attended public school, I would buy the class cupcakes- 24 for $10 and they would come with little rings with the character of my choice on them. The children loved them and I loved the price!

Back to my sons cake. This year, he requested a Spongebob Cake. Well, the main reason I love Walmart cakes is because they come with toys as part of the decor- when the cakes gone, the birthday child has something to play with!
Here are some pictures:

We have an 8 year old!

Today is my middle sons birthday and he is 8! I am so surprised at how fast times goes when you're having fun. He's one of easy going children-he got that from my side of the family . Just kidding. Prior to having him, I was diagnosed with a disease and the doctors told me I could not have anymore children. I was raised to believe in the power of prayer. God healed my body and I am perfectly whole. My first indication of God healing me was to find out I was pregnant with my son. THANK YOU, JESUS!!! Not only did I have him, but we had another son after him- I should demand a refund from that doctor!

Anyway, we both almost died the day he was born, but God in His grace and mercy spared our lives. My favorite scripture from that day on has been:
This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
(Lamentations 3:21-23)

Happy Birthday my Honey Bun King!!!! I love you!

A little change in the MUS Lapbook

This was suggested by my friend Chanin- to make little car shapes to write on, instead of the squares. I will still keep my square shapes for my older children. To make the cars like this, I saved the car shape to my computer,(I have the link at the bottom of this post), then I went into a program I have called Print Master (if you have Microsoft Publisher or equivalent that will do just as good) and adjusted the size-which turned out to be three per page. Following that, I printed the cars on three different card stock colors, cut out white circles to fit the top section and black ones for the tires (want the perfect size tire? I used a children's medicine cup and traced around it-lol-Hey, it worked!). After cutting and using a glue stick to hold everything in place, I covered them with lamination on both sides. The lamination is PERFECT when used with a dry erase marker -it doesn't leave any smudges or require you to wet the surface for cleaning. I made three sets so just in case some little cars get lost ( or towed away) we will still have a complete set:

Here's they are with the MUS Lapbook:

Here they are on the "street":
If you like the cars, here is the link to the pattern:
http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/local/massri/images/Car-Outline_9.jpg
If you like the idea of cars, but not necessarily this one, Google "car outlines" and then click on images and you will have plenty to choose from.