State Study Scrapbook and Lapbook

This year my two oldest kids will be studying our state history (I know, I said that last year, but this year they really are going to do it!). Since they will be doing a lot of this unit independently, I thought it would be fun to have them create a state study scrapbook and lapbook.

Roughed Up Maps No. 1 by Katie Pertiet

Basic Paper Alpha Notebook by Katie Pertiet

Stitched by Anna Borders Evergreen No. 1

Ingrid Solids by Michelle Martin

My kids will be creating digital scrapbook pages of the places we have visited plus several fun fact pages about Indiana. For the lapbooking elements, we will be using many from the Indiana History unit at Homeschool Share. The layout above it the title page for their books. They will be creating all the rest of the layouts using Photoshop Elements. We'll get the layouts printed as 8x8 photos and adhere them to the scrapbook page (I found 10x10 spiral scrapbooks on sale that we are using. Any top-loading album would also work).  My kids love creating on the computer and my plan is to try to actually go visit many of the sites in our state so they can scrapbook them. If you'd like to know more about digital scrapbooking with kids, check out my article called "Digital Scrapbooking as an Educational Tool"

At the end of the unit I hope they will both have a wonderful keepsake plus fact book of our state.

I went ahead and looked through Designer Digitals' store and found some digital products that would work great with geography theme projects. You could use them to create scrapbook pages for learning, regular scrapbook pages, hybrid projects or even printables (for personal use).  Most of these products can be used with any photo-editing software program. Just create and print! :)

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World Geography Mini-Unit from TOS

This week on Spell Outloud I thought that I would focus on sharing some geography resources. The first up for the week is The Old School House's Travel the World June Planner Module. These monthly modules are supplements to the School House Planner. You don't need to have the School House Planner to use these additional modules.

What is Travel the World Planner Module?

It is an e-book unit with information for the student to read, hyperlinks, mini-books for lapbooks and other printables. The Travel the World unit focuses on what is geography, some of the basic terminology (longitude, latitude, compass rose etc)  the continents, and the oceans.

How We Used the Travel Unit:

When The Old Schoolhouse first gave me the e-book to review, I had originally planned on using this with my 8yr. old dd and 10 yr. old ds. Instead, I was able to use it with all my kids at various levels and it was my 12 yr. old dd that really love the unit.

The unit starts out with 8 informational pages that are hyperlinked. My 8yr. old and I read the material together over a couple of days and followed the links which enhanced the topics that were being covered. My 10 yr. old and 12yr. old read and did the material on their own. 

Next my 3 oldest requested that I print out the word searches for them. There are also some other supplemental printables such as crossword puzzle,  fill-in-the-blanks, rebus activity, and acrostic poem. I usually consider these types of pages "fillers" but my kids enjoyed doing them.

I had originally planned for my 8yr. old and 10 yr. old to start their world lapbook. There are mini-books for each of the continents and a special travel book for the student to write about a country they are interested in learning more about. Though we didn't get to this part, I plan on having them start this project this school year. The booklets included in the Travel the World download will be the beginning of the lapbook  and we will add additional mini-books for each of the countries we study this year.

What I Thought:

I was surprised that I was able to use this unit with 5 of my kids. I appreciated the fact that there were materials included to cover various age-ranges. For instance, there are coloring pages of each of the continents. While working with the older kids, I gave my younger girls (and my 8yr old because she loves to color) the pages and they were so happy to be doing "geography" just like their older siblings. There is also a section on the e-book that is geared toward high-schoolers. So the information in the e-book can easily be customized for various age-ranges. I would say though, that the material fit best with my 10-12yr. old, but with help, my 8yr. old enjoyed doing it too.

Specs at a Glance:

E-Book: Travel the World!—June 2010 Issue
Publisher: The Old Schoolhouse
Price: $7.95
Format: downloadable product

Not sure if this is for you? Well you can check out a sample to see more of this geography resource.

There are 12 supplemental e-book modules, each for each month of the year.

* Every module is filled with interesting information and facts, studying a topic in-depth.
* We look far and wide to find the best additional resources to expand your studies.
* You'll find activity pages, quizzes, and puzzles your kids will beg to work on!
* Your children will enjoy coloring pages designed just for our modules.
* We include copywork to help develop penmanship skills.
* Yummy recipes in every module!



Disclosure: I was given this product for review purposes only. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

We have had soooo much rain lately! One of the many reasons I went with a Square Foot Garden in my backyard is that the ground stays too wet after it rains. I'm so glad my garden is able to drain! Right now the back yard is kind of squishy. Still more rain in the forecast this week. The good thing is that I haven't had to water anything! :)

Well my garden has really been growing since I last posted. My bush beans are getting huge, tomatoes are appearing and my squash, cucumbers, pumpkins are growing like weeds!

This is my garden that's just outside my backyard. It is the first time I've planted anything in it. I am so happy that the plants are really thriving! I didn't have time to prepare the soil as I would have liked, but I did manage to add a couple bags of compost. In this garden I have my raspberry starts, 2 pumpkin plants, 2 zuchinni plants, 2 watermelons and 1 acorn squash. I figure they can all go wild growing everywhere. :)

I can't wait until we are able to pick some of our vegges! Like I mentioned before, on my summer to-do list is to learn how to can some of the tomatoes and green beans. My kids enjoy seeing how much the plants have grown since we've first started our garden.

This week my little girls will be doing some activities to go along with Muncha! Muncha! Muncha. (Supplemental books: In the Garden: Who's Been Here? and Vegetable Garden by Douglas Florian.)



Homeschool Share has a whole lapbooking unit based around Muncha! Muncha!Muncha!. We'll be using the printables found there.

There are also some songs, snack ideas and more found on Here.

We'll also be taking some ideas from Totally Tots: Once Upon a Book-Muncha!Muncha!Muncha!

After we do some fun gardening things this week, I hope to bring the kids to our local musuem where they have a World War II canning and Victory Garden display. We saw part of the garden when they first planted it, but I'm sure it is huge now!

So that's on our list for some Big Summer Fun!  Don't forget to link up your summer plans for the past couple of weeks on our Big Summer Fun Blog Hop. I plan to post this weekly through the summer on Mondays.

Up, Up and Away!

There is something about hot air balloons that are just fascinating to me. They come in so many beautiful colors and even shapes, but it is rare that we ever spot one. Well this past Friday our whole co-op got to see one up close, and even were able to help set the balloon up.

One of the first things that was done was to release the black balloon to see the direction of the wind and what the air currents were like. Here's a more technical explanation from How Stuff Works:

"Additionally, a pilot might send up a piball (short for pilot balloon). A piball is just a balloon filled with helium that the pilot releases to see the exact direction of the wind at a prospective launch site. If it looks like the wind would take the balloon into prohibited air space, the crew needs to find a new launch spot."

Next the kids helped pull the balloon out of the trailer.

Up....

Up...

Up and away! We didn't go for a balloon ride (thank goodness! I don't think I could handle going in the balloon even if it were tethered!) but we all got to circle around the basket and see how the balloon worked. For a good explanation check out How Stuff Works: Hot Air Balloons.

And here's the inside of the balloon. Just beautiful!

Hot Air Balloon Resources for Kids:

Make a Hot Air Balloon

Hot air expands, cool air contracts experiment
Build a Hot Air Balloon out of a plastic bag

Printables:
Hot Air Balloon mini-book for a lapbook
Hot Air the (mostly) true story of the first Hot Air Balloon Ride - complete lapbook unit
Hot Air Balloon Mobile Coloring Page
First Hot Air Balloon to Cross the English Channel Coloring Page
Hot Air Balloon Coloring Page

Books and Movies:





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WannaBe™-When I Grow Up I Want to be a Firefighter |Review

The Old Schoolhouse recently sent me WannaBe™-When I Grow Up I Want to be a Firefighter  unit to review. I thought this would be perfect for my 10yr. old son.

Cost: $8.95
Format: PDF file
Ages: K-4th - though I think that it would work best for ages 8 on up.

Here is some information about the unit from the site:

• Discover the history of firefighters and the evolution of firefighting equipment.
   
• Learn what other emergencies firefighters respond to.
   
• Explore the ins and outs of a fire truck.
   
• Pretend you are a building inspector and learn about building codes.
   
• Meet a real-life fireman and hear him describe his job in his own words.
   
• Fall in love with Wilshire, the firehouse dog, who teaches children about fire safety.
   
• Examine the pay scale for firefighters across the country.
   
• Learn about the relationship between firefighters and robots, and build your own robotic arm!

My 10yr. old son was able to work through this unit independently. I was impressed with the narrative. It was easy to read yet contained factual information in an interesting way. Since my son was doing this independently, I did create notebooking pages so that he could summarize each section in his own words. I was surprised that several times he came to me on his own and started chatting about certain firefighter facts. This is not normal for him. :)

While we did enjoy the main e-book, I found that we didn't use most of the activities. I would have appreciated some notebooking pages in lieu of crossword puzzles. We didn't use the copywork pages because he already has other copywork. Both my son and I were a little confused with the robotics section. While we understand the connection, it seemed like it was a bunny-trail in the middle of the unit (though bunny trails aren't necessarily bad). My son did think the information was cool and wanted to know if a robotics unit was available.

My thoughts: I think this unit would be a good fit for 3rd-5th graders who already have an interest in learning more about firefighting. The narrative portion is well-done and would be a nice side-study in careers. This series does not include a weekly lesson plan, so one would need to be created. While the unit is full of ideas, you would have to pull everything together. You could read most of the unit on the computer, but I've found that we work better with a hard-copy.


If firefighting is not your cup of tea, check out the other e-book units in the WannaBe -When I Grow Up Series:

• Veterinarian,
• Chef,
• Military,
• Doctor,
• Police Officer,
• Missionary,
• Artist,
• Pilot, and
• Farmer

*Tristan, from Our Busy Homeschool left a comment regarding a supplemental booklist that works well with the fire fighter unit. I didn't want it to get overlooked in the comment section.
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This unit was given to me for review purposes. No other compensation was given. All opinions expressed in this post are mine.

Download N Go Unit Study Australia | Review

 

This past week we started our third Download N Go unit study by Amanda Bennett. Download N Go unit studies are one week themed units that have everything planned and ready to go for learning. We had already finished and blogged about Winter Wonders and Birthday Bonanza, and were excited to try out the Australia unit.

Ages: K-4th

Cost: $7.95 per unit, though there are package options available that reduce the price per unit. Since it is a downloadable product, each unit can be reprinted for other siblings to use, or to go back and do again.

Supplies Needed: Paper, notebook, file-folders (or cardstock) and access to a computer.

Preparation: A weekend to print materials, set up the folder and gather books. Once that is done there is virtually no daily prep. needed.

The Australia unit has been our favorite unit so far. My 2nd grade daughter loves the subject matter and the different types of activities that are included. The unit is laid out so that the student can work through everything independently if they are able. It really is Download N Go! My daughter and I work on the unit together. We pull up the PDF file on our computer since Amanda Bennett links directly to the videos, websites and learning activities for the day (I love this feature!! Takes us directly to where we need to go). My daughter also has her notebook open to follow along with any reading and to complete the written portions. Usually there is a combination of videos, websites, notebooking/lapbooking activities, and read-alouds for each day.

Now that we've done a few, I have a certain set-up that I like to do for each unit. The nice thing is that you can use the unit as-is or tweak it to work for you. I have found that my daughter needs two weeks to complete a unit. This is because the unit is not her only curriculum and she also needs my help moving through things (though she is getting better at being able to do more of it independently).

  

First I print everything out. Then I use 5 color pockets and 10 divider tabs. I also 3-hole punch several sheets of cardstock and place them at the front of the folder. We adhere all our lapbooking elements to the cardstock instead of creating a lapbook.

  

Since the original unit is made for a week, I place all the printables listed for that day in the pocket.

  

Then I place two divider tabs for the days it takes me to complete the one day of the unit. I've found that usually I can evenly divide one day's workload into two.

 

Then behind each day tab I made an assignment sheet to help my daughter and I know what activities we need to do each day. Each day my daughter does her two vocabulary words, and we read at least 1-2 books on the topic together. Sometimes we have additional crafts or projects to do along with working though the unit materials. This sheet is not necessary for the unit, but is something I added to help our day go smoother.

Once a unit is completed, I move all the papers from the white working notebook into a big 3" blue notebook that holds all our completed units. You can find a free cover from The Old School House store. Then I reuse the tabs, pockets and notebook for our next download.

The Download N Go units have been a perfect fit for my 2nd grader. Just the other day she commented on how much she liked doing her special units. For the price, the time it saves me in preparing my own units, and the ease of implementation --we will definitely be adding more studies to our year.

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The Australia Download N Go unit was given to me for review purposes. No other compensation was given. All opinions expressed in this post are mine.

Birthday Week

 

This week my DD#2 celebrated her 8th birthday! Goodness I can't believe she is that old already. Her older sister made her a special brownie-bite birthday cake. MMmmmm!

We started working on a special birthday unit last week and are wrapping it up this week. She loved having her school work focus around her. :) This is our second Download-N-Go unit and we are enjoying them immensely. The big perk for me is that besides initial prep work, it is all done for me! DD and I sit down together and work. Since I have everything in one notebook, I decided that instead of making a separate lapbook, we'd just put the lapbook elements in the notebook.

 

She then decorates a piece of cardstock and then adheres the lapbooking elements on the cardstock. That way everything is in one place. This particular unit makes a wonderful keepsake. I'm sure we'll enjoy looking through it over the years.

Maps and Coloring

 

We are on year 2 of Sonlight Core 3-- American History. Yes, it's normally a 1yr. program but we had many off-topic weeks, special projects, and just plain off weeks. It has taken us a little longer to get through than I intially had planned, but that's ok. We were just ending the American Revolution when I remembered that I had won a Time Travelers: The Early 19th Century History Study from Homeschool in the Woods.  I pulled it out and was thrilled to see that it covered everything we were getting ready to study. This history study has projects, lapbooking elements, map-work, crafts and more. There is a lot there! Be sure to check out the site where it describes in detail what all is in this unit.

This was exactly what we needed to get out of our history rut. Don't get me wrong--I love the Sonlight books, but we needed to switch it up a little. We'll be supplementing many of the projects into the rest of our American History unit and adding all the notebooking and lapbooking elements into our History binder.

 

Today we did some map-work. We haven't done much of that in the past, other than looking places up on our markable map. My kids loved it. My son even commented on how he liked doing work like this.

 

We even little littlest DD "color" her own map. Ok, it wasn't a map but she doesn't know that. She thinks she was doing school work just like her big brother and sister.

 

I think we'll incorporate more map-work in our curriculum. And if I do that, I'm going to be getting a set of Prismacolor pencils. I used to use them all the time when I was really into paper arts. They blended well and were easy to use for detailed work. The pencils we used today worked ok, but the kids would try to sharpen them in order to color in tiny spaces and the tips kept breaking off. They could never get them to a fine enough point for some of the more detailed coloring they needed to do.

So I am happy to be on track with history again, and am looking forward to finishing Sonlight Core 3 well instead of just getting it done--lol.

Snowflake Bentley

picture by Michael

I had been contemplating purchasing several Download N Go curriculum sets by Amanda Bennett for my 2nd grader. My 6th grader and 4th grader are currently doing Sonlight Core3, which we are enjoying immensely, but even though my 2nd grader tags along, many things are not at her level. Since I know that I cannot do two Cores at one time, I was wondering if these mini-units would be helpful. After reading Carisa's post on 1+1+1=1 regarding the Download N Go, I decided to purchase a couple and see how it goes.

We started the Winter Wonders unit this week. Each unit is designed to last one week, but we are going to cover it in 2. I set up my dd's notebook similar to Carisa, except I have the materials divided out by day so that we know where to stop (each day in the unit is spread out over 2 days in my notebook).  I also typed out a vocabulary/book/craft list for each day so that my daughter knows which vocab. words to do for the day, which library book to read and if there are any other project to do.

All this to say, we love it so far! My dd is loving working one-on-one with me right now. She's enjoying doing her own special work. Today we read and learned about Snowflake Bentley. He was the first person to photograph snowflakes. We were amazed at the beauty of each ice crystal. My dd was totally fascinated with all the photos. I was learning right along with her. I'd never heard of Snowflake Bentley before. We watched videos, looked at pictures on-line and read a book about him. Then we spent sometime making our own virtual snowflakes---this was a little addicting. :)

Here are some other resources that we've added to the unit for today and tomorrow:
Creating a Real Crystal Snowflake --see photo above
Snowflakes-Early Reader Printable Book from Enchanted Learning
Dave's Snowflake Patterns
Snowflake Match by Confessions of a Homeschooler

Free Christmas Around the World Unit

I meant to mention this earlier, but I wanted to remind everyone that there is a free Christmas Around the World unit available at Homeschool Share. It is huge! We will only be spending a week on it as an overview, but you could spend the whole month learning about how other countries celebrate (or don't celebrate) Christmas. I wanted to point two things out that might get over-looked with all the information.

1. Each country has a coloring page. This was done so that toddlers/preschoolers could have something on their level to make their own Christmas Around the World Book. The pages could also be used as country divider pages in a unit notebook.

Cover Sheet
Argentina Coloring Page
Australia Coloring Page
England Coloring Page
Ethiopia Coloring Page
France Coloring Page
Israel Coloring Page
Mexico Coloring Page
Philipinnes Coloring Page
Sweden Coloring Page
Switzerland Coloring Page

2. Christmas Around the World File Folder Game (Unit Review)
File Folder Game
Game Cards 1
Game Cards 2
Game Cards 3
Game Cards 4
Instructions

Everything Apples

I know it's been pretty quiet here on my blog lately, but believe me I've been working on some things to share with you! We've started working on an apple unit and are having a blast! I planned the unit for my DD#2 and figured my DD#3 could tag along with some of the stories too. I've created a couple of toddler activities to go along with what DD#2 is doing too. I've been surprised though that the older kids wanted to join in the fun too. So now we all are doing apple activities!

Here are some of the resources we are using:

Apples:
Apple Trees and Apple Blossoms-great info. by Evelyn Saenz

Apples to Oregon unit from Homeschool Share

How to Make Apple Pie and See the World Unit from Homeschool Share

The Apple Pie Tree Unit from Homeschool Share

Johnny Appleseed:
Unit by Naturegirl 7

Mini-Unit and Lapbook from Homeschool Share

Misc. Apple Stuff:
Preschool Apple File folder game from Homeschool Share

Apple Tree Math Mat from Homeschool Share

Apple Pie Recipe by Aunt Opal from All Recipes.com

I spent some time last week photographing apples and I'm pretty proud of my attempt! I definetly won't be moving into food photography anytime soon though ;)I did however, enjoy using those images to create toddler apple pattern cards. DD#3 has been working on learning apple colors, so I thought she'd enjoy practicing using the apple cards. If you'd like a copy too, just click the photo.

Next week I'll have a guest post showcasing one of our toddler apple activities. My 2 1/2 year old and I had so much fun putting it together. I can't wait to share it with you. :)

Oh, my kids are doing an informal survey and would love to know what your favorite apple is. We'd love if you'd post your answer in the comment section :)

McIntosh
Red Delicious
Golden Delicious
Granny Smith
Jonathan
Gala
Fuji
Winesap
Cortland