Monday, March 29, 2010

Random pictures

Posting for Blogger has changed.  I am sure it is supposed to make blogging easier, but  I have yet to figure it out.  Because time is precious, I will type my comments here at the top. 

Here are some random pictures that I have taken in the past couple of weeks.


  • We usually meet Stacie and Anna on Tuesdays. Anna told me she was painting her puzzle frog red so that he would be a "poison dart frog."

  • Stacie helping the boys put together a dinosaur 3D puzzle. 

  • Everyone is happy to see that flowers are in bloom.  Ryan picked me a bunch for the table. 

  • A picture of our newest time-line characters.  Jonathan drew the soldiers while Justin wrote, "On October 17,1781 the Revolutionary War ended."

  • Jonathan practicing his piano.  He and Justin have lessons with Jilayne on Mondays.




Saturday, March 20, 2010

Curriculum savings

I was so excited to find that Amazon sells used ABeka books!  So... I used my swagbucks to get a discount on my teacher curriculum for Jonathan's next math book.  My total was $9.98!  If I were to order it new from Abeka, I would pay $24.00 plus a minimum of $6 shipping.  Just really excited about being able to save that much money that I had to document it!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Fruit of the Spirit study (lapbook pictures)

I had been wanting to do a Bible study about the fruits of the Spirit. So when I saw the lapbook idea, I decided to go for it.

We learned a lot when we made our first lapbook . The one lesson we learned was to take our time and spread the work out as long as needed. This time, I used someone else's idea instead of trying to create from scratch. But this time I printed out everything and we worked on each part a little at a time.

We worked on our Fruit of the Spirit lapbook for about 2 1/2 weeks or so (all material and ideas from:http://www.lapbooklessons.com/FruitoftheSpiritLapbook.html) .


Here are the boys gluing and decoupaging...


Ryan doing a tracing assigment...

Playing the memory game...

We printed, cut, and decoupaged this board game to to a file folder. I used key rings to mount the question cards to the folder so that they won't get lost.

Game question example:
"A kid at church is always getting picked on by other kids. They call him names and throw things at him. How can you show kindness?"

If you answer correctly you get to move...
This is a pocket in Justin's folder where we keep the memory game:


Memory game...






Inside each booklet, there is a verse or definition...

This was a fold out tracing activity (mini-book style)...


Decoupaged work-book cover...

One of several worksheets...

Copywork...

Writing assignment...

Page insert...

Ryan's slider (kept in his envelope and hidden under a page)...









We are currently using our books to memorize the verses under each fruit and study what it means to be filled with the Spirit.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Incentives


I don't normally like to do a constant stream of incentive activities because I believe children should help around the house and do their work because it's expected and right.
But I think it is a good thing to do occasionally.
I found this neat website where you can print mazes (It's on my sidebar now). I printed three little mazes with a bug trying to get to the ice cream cone (the one above).
My plan is that if they complete the chores and work listed on their clipboards by a certain time each day, they get to move through the maze. When they get to the ice cream cone, we go out for sundaes or something like that.
I wrote numbers on the maze. Each day they complete their list of tasks, they can move the bug to the next number. I cut everything out and mod podged (decoupage) them to a heavier paper. I used scotch tape on the back of the bug cutout so he can move. Mod podge is a WHOLE lot easier than trying to laminate.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Children's Museum I

We recently had the opportunity to go to the Children's Museum with Amy, Hayden, and Ethan
I couldn't resist taking a picture of that sweet smile...

The first section was dinosaurs. Of course a lot of it was "pish-posh" as Justin put it, but being boys they still loved it.


Digging for bones...




Dinosaur eggs...



They had a really neat train display. This train had a loud bell on it.


Sitting on a train car...

Go to post II for more pictures

The Children's Museum II

This was really nice. Children were able to go under a tunnel and stand up in the middle of the train tracks.
Here is Ryan standing up in the middle.






The train track attached to the ceiling.

Blown glass art in the ceiling



Obviously these are only plastic, but they look like the real blown glass pieces





This was a Star Wars gun display





This was part of the blown glass display; very beautiful!

Amy said this display has been there since she was a child...

Bob the Builder (the boys kept their distance ha!)
Ryan enjoyed this section...



Race car!

I like this picture...



The pool balls go through the little obstacle course


One of their favorite activities was to build a little boat and send it through the water




















This was supposed to be like an underground slide. Ryan stayed in there too long and it made me a little worried, but he just wasn't sure about coming down the dark slide.


Justin was driving the crane...


He controlled these "rocks"...
They really liked this tractor...







This was in a hall of mirrors...
There were several cute little playhouses...










Of course, we must ride...


Trip to "Egypt". This was supposed to be an Egyptian marketplace. It smelled
like Egyptian spices... At the Nile...

I liked this display and backdrop...





Back at the Egyptian market...

This was some type of chemistry display. One of Jonathan's favorites...