Charlotte's Web Lapbook

We've discovered lapbooks this year and love them!  Tyler has done two for books she has read.  Our first attempt was with "The Courage of Sarah Noble".  I've included some pictures below.  One of the ladies in our co-op found instructions online for this one along with the templates.

Tyler's Custom Cover for "The Courage of Sarah Noble"

The various sections inside included listing the members of the Noble and Robinson families in alphabetical order and coloring a map of the 13 colonies and tracing the route Sarah and her father took to their new home.  On the other side they did a pocket on Measuring Fear.  For various situations that Sarah found herself in throughout the story, the kids rated on a scale of 1 to 5 how scared they would have been.  The looked up various vocabulary words in the story and wrote them out on the moccasin book.  And they looked up various forest animals and plants that were mentioned through the story and wrote facts about each one.

Inside Tyler's 1st lapbook

Animal & Plant facts

Our second attempt which we just finished was a lapbook for "Charlotte's Web".  One of the mother's in the co-op came up with the ideas of what to include and we came up with our own creative ways to showcase these elements.  While looking for ideas I found a wonderful site with tons of templates. 

Homeschool Share - Lapbook Templates

Below is a video I took of Tyler's lapbook for Charlotte's Web and each of the elements we added.  I apologize as the video is a bit blurry, but it is good enough to show all the different items.  It is sideways as well and I can't figure out how to turn it.

Pictures of the lapbook:

Our cover - we keep it closed with a small piece of velcro.  Tyler can't stand it.  She hates the sound of velcro!

The inside of our lapbook

Animal Facts - Pigs, Rats & Spiders.  Tyler picked a picture and fact about how humans can catch and eat rats if necessary in an emergency.  Ugh!

Our questions - this one is about whether Templeton was a villain or hero

Spider facts - these were some of Tyler's favorites that we looked up.

Similes - Tyler wrote down all the similes we found in the book.  I was surprised we did not find more.  The purple circle are the 10 characteristic Tyler thought were important in a friend.

Vocab Words - we had 20 words from the book that Tyler looked up and included on these cards.  This book has a lot of very good vocab words for kids to learn.

Next Attempt?  We are doing lapbooks for our Social Studies/History samples to be turned into our charter school at our next meeting.  Tyler and Austin will both be doing one to showcase what we are learning over the four week learning period.  I'll share those once they are completed.

Austin's Favorite Person in History

As their last History assignment this year (and our last sample to be turned into the charter school) I had each of the kids write about their favorite person in History from this year.  Tyler had read a book about Helen Keller and absolutely fell in love with her.  So of course her paper was on Helen Keller.  She did quite good on it too.

Austin's favorite person was George Washington.  His writing is pretty legible, but just in case you can't make it all out, it says the following:

My favorite person in history is George Washington.  He is famous because he was our first President.  I like him because he cut down a cherry tree.

Our Recent Homeschool Projects

This year we seem to be getting a better hang of this homeschool thing and getting more creative regarding different projects.  Here are a few that we've been working on the past few months.

Weaving - I found a nice little bag at a book fair that comes to my work.  For $15 I was able to get Tyler a small loom with yarn and everything else necessary to learn how to weave.  Below are pictures of her first attempt.  The boys want her to make them blankets now.  I guess if she stuck to it she could do squares the size of the loom and then sew them together.  Her weave is not real consistent yet, but for a first attempt I think she has done a wonderful job.

Pottery - a friend of mine from work makes pottery.  Mostly vases and coffee mugs.  She was kind enough to share a few hours on a Saturday with us to show Tyler how to use a pottery wheel.  The wheel was a bit large for Tyler, but from what Jennifer said, she did a great job for it being her first time using one.  I went out and got her a cheap kids version to practice with some and told her if she continues with it and shows me she is serious I would look into getting her a real wheel.  She is already making plans to take over part of Shaun's shed and trying to figure out where she can sell her masterpieces and for how much.  The boys even tagged along.  They did not use the wheel, but they got to play with the clay too.

Austin's Masterpiece

Tyler getting instructions from Jennifer

Tyler's masterpiece

Jesse doing his thing

Solar System - Tyler and I have been spending a few weeks now on the solar system.  We did one really fun experiment where I made a landscape in a box of tinfoil covered in clay.  We then covered the box with a piece of paper with a graph and she used a small wooden dowel to measure the terrain using the graph.  We used different colors to represent the different depths and she charted the colors on a duplicate graph  So one color was the valleys and another was the mountains.  Due to Venus being so covered in clouds of gas they've used a process similar to what they use to map the ocean floor to understand the terrain of Venus.  It involves sonar and this project was to help Tyler understand that process a bit better.  I was surprised at home much she enjoyed it.  We just might do it again!

We also made a solar system.  Not the traditional one that you usually see though.  We did one to scale using modeling clay for the rock planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and Pluto - I know, it is no longer a "planet") and paper to reprsent the gas planets.  We did not do the sun because it would have been 11.5 feet in diameter if we'd done it to scale and I was just not up to doing that.  Shaun actually agreed to Tyler's request to hang this in our front living room so if you happen to come over in the next few weeks you'll probably find it hanging there still.  Here are some pictures.  It was kind of fun to see how big the other planets are compared to each other.

The "rock" planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars to scale. 
You can see a part of Jupiter the first gas planet too. 
HUGE compared to the first four planets.

The "Gas" Planets and the non-planet Pluto. 
It is the tiny little gray dot you see hanging to the right of the pink planet which is Neptune.

All the planets together to scale.  Pretty cool to see the differences in sizes.
Pluto the non-planet is a little tiny gray dot just to the right of the pink planet (Neptune)

More Science - Plants: Our final current project at the moment is a Venus Flytrap.  This was a request made by Austin, fulfilled by daddy and having to be upkept by mommy who has been known to kill an aloe vera plant (which I was told could not be killed!)  So the poor things does not have much of a chance.  But we did do some google searches on how to care for them and have made a little home for it which we hope will keep it humid and warm enough.  Tyler caught herself an ant the other day and I'm sure if anyone had been watching they would have gotten a good laugh at us trying to feed the ant to the plant.  I still don't think the plant got it and I have no idea where the ant ended up.  Not sure I want to know either.  The good news though is they apparently usually only eat once or twice a month.  At first I was worried I was going to have to figure out a way to collect up insects every day for this thing.  I'll keep you posted on how this little guy fares in the Smith household.  It could be interesting.

Science Time - Volcano

This week we learned about mountains for Science with Austin (Kindergarten).  His favorite part was the volcano we built.  We found a bottle and made a mountain out of modeling clay and he searched the yard for the perfect rocks to push into the clay before it dried.

Then once it was dried we mixed up the necessary ingredients and waited for it to erupt.  We did not have to wait long!  Austin and Jesse were both so excited to see that it actually worked.  I think they were expecting something to explode into the air, but I had warned them that was not how it worked ahead of time.  They were still pretty impressed.

Afterwards we dumped out everything the best we could and cleaned it up.  When daddy and Tyler got home we were going to try it again, but with a twist.  They were surpised when it erupted BLUE lava!  Austin's choice of course.  Jesse is still voting for orange and I'm sure Tyler's vote would be purple.

Austin also wrote up a paper about his project so we can turn it in when we have our monthly meeting with our Supervising Teacher.

Homeschool - Field Trip

Yesterday, one of the moms from our homeschool co-op arranged a field trip.  It was led by a group called Sequoia Ministries.  This was Austin's first field trip.  They both had a blast and had tons to tell Shaun and I about what they learned and about the nature walk they went on (unfortunately, due to timing of month end I was not able to attend this time.)

We are going to have more field trips with this group so I'm hoping to be able to join them next time.  Amanda was kind enough to take my children and send me pictures that I get to share with all of you now.

Austin was very attentive and LOVED that the guide had dressed up.

Tyler & Austin - Daniel Academy Field Trip (9/30/09)

Homeschool News!

We started homeschooling this week - this year we have two in school. My daughter is in 3rd grade (her 2nd year being homeschooled) and my eldest son is in Kindergarten. Monday was the first day of our co-op and they both did great and loved it (picture above was taken just before we left for the co-op). Today was our first day at home. We are going with a new curriculums this year and I really like them. And I'm much more organized this year, which helps too.

We are part of a homeschool co-op 3 days a week and then doing 2 days a week at home. This co-op has been such a blessing to us - so much support and such wonderful families. We are a group of 11 families that all are homeschooling our children and have similar beliefs in how we want to raise up our children. The "teachers" are all parents. The main focus for us is to raise our children to be like Daniel in the Bible - to excel in academics, to lead lifestyles of prayer and fasting and to run with excellent comrades.

I never would have imagined even a few years ago that I would be homeschooling my children or that I would enjoy it so much. It is alot of hard work and takes a bit of juggling for our family since I work, but it has been so rewarding in so many ways for the entire family!

To celebrate the new homeschool year I wanted to mention to everyone that The Homeschool Lounge is having a Homeschool Open House. Check it out!!!

If you homeschool or are thinking about homeschooling I recommend considering this site as a resource. I've found tons of great ideas here for us.

Getting Ready for School!!!

We got the last order of books that we are going to have to buy out of our pockets for next year. The rest should be covered by the Charter school.

I can't believe we'll have two in school this year. One in 3rd grade and one in Kindergarten. Look at all the books - and this is just Language Arts, Math and Music. I still have Science for both of them, Art and then we'll be doing Spanish and Typing again with Tyler.

Austin is so excited about school and I have to keep telling him the books are for next month when school starts. Tyler is very excited that she'll be doing cursive handwriting this year.

And I must admit, although I know it is going to tire me out - I'm really excited too! But I'm going to have to get a planner for sure this year to juggle their school, Daniel Academy, work and everything else! Thank goodness I have a week off to go visit family before the school year gets started!

Lying & Punishment

Tonight I came home from work to find out my daughter had lied to my husband. Now, don't get me wrong, she is no angel and she has her faults, but lying is not usually one of them. She tends to feel really guilty and gives herself away pretty easily at even the smallest white lies.

Today, part of her schoolwork was to do her Typing Tutor. When my hubby got out of the shower she told him that she had done it while he was in there. He believed her but said he was going to look and see how well she had done. Apparently she did not realize we could check on her in this way and asked if he could really see that and he said yes. Even after that though she sat down right next to him and did not say a word as he checked the program and found out that she had not been on it at all!

When I came home tonight I was upset that she had lied, but even more upset that she had done so when it is so out of character for her. I asked my hubby if he had decided on a punishment yet and he said no. I think he was even more upset than me.

One thing I often worry about is how well I'm raising my kids. I want to keep certain things from them and avoid exposure to certain things. But at the same time I want them to not be so sheltered that it is a culture shock when they see what the "real" world is like. So while I do try to keep my kids from certain things I also try to explain to them why I want them to avoid those things that may be considered "okay" to the rest of the world. Now I was worried about some of the influences on my daughter since it seems she had flipped so fast.

I thought about it awhile and decided on a punishment for her. I sat down to speak with her about it. She admitted that she had lied and did seem really upset about it and sorry. She apologized to her dad. When I said something about punishments though, she looked at me and said, "I've already grounded myself Mom."

That stopped me short. So I asked her what the punishment was, thinking it was probably something like "no dessert tonight" or something else that was not very severe. But her answer surprised me. Her punishment was even harsher (but not too harsh) than what I had in mind. So I decided to let her punishment stand.

So while I am a bit dismayed and concerned at the ease of her lying today which is so out of character for her - I'm happy that she realized the seriousness of her actions and decided to handle things on her own. The rest of the evening was quite pleasant after that exchange and we actually got through quite a bit of her history and reading and we both had an enjoyable time!

German Homeschooling family seeks asylum

I've posted here once before about how homeschooling in Germany is under fire. Parents can be fined, jailed and even have their children taken away for homeschooling, so many do it in secret looking over their shoulders constantly. Recently in the news there has been a story regarding a family that has recently taken asylum in the US.

I'm also adding the HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association) to my sidebar under Homeschooling resources. I've just started exploring this site and it has some pretty interesting things on it.

Field Trip - State Capital

California State Capital Building, Sacramento

Today we had our first homeschooling field trip. I took the day off from work and we went to the State Capital in Sacramento. I had never been there. I grew up in Washington State and have been to the capital building in Olympia, but have not been to this one.

It was an awesome mother-daughter day. We learned alot and had a blast doing it!

Our day started off with us stopping by my work. My daughter got to meet a few of my friends including my soon to be new manager (I'm transferring to a new position in January).

Then we headed to the Capital. We signed up for a free tour which took us through the capital building and went over California State history. Since I did not grow up in California I'm not very familiar with its history - so I found this very interesting. I grew up learning about Lewis & Clark, not California Missions.

We then got to go into the balcony above the Assembly. There are 80 members of the assembly. In one of my pictures you can see the board with all the Assemblymen names. When a new bill is introduced they have a green and red button at their desks that they use to vote. The screen on the wall shows their vote. The Assembly members are supposed to be closest to the people which is why the room is all done in green. It represents the earth and shows that they are closer to the people (I think I got that right!) They serve 2 year terms and can serve up to 3 terms.

Assembly Floor - note the list of names on the left side. The fuzzy portrait

at the top is of Abraham Lincoln.

Assembly floor - note all the green,
you can see the desks in this picture but can't

make out the button. We could see them though.

Then we were able to visit the Senate. There are only 40 of them and they vote by roll call. So no board with names or green/red buttons. Not sure of the meaning behind the red color. They serve 4 year terms if I remember correctly. Just like our president.

Senate floor - the columns are red with pink - kind of hard to tell here.

Note no board with names, they vote by roll-call. The portrait here

is of George Washington.

Our tour guide was impressed that Tyler recognized the paintings of Lincoln and Washington and was a bit surprised when she volunteered that Washington was our first president. He was really impressed when she told him that the president served 4 year terms and could only serve 2 terms.

Inside of the dome at the Capital. Makes you dizzy to look up like that - but it is beautiful.

We also got to see portraits of past California governors. I remember knowing in the past that Ronald Regan was governor of California (when I was born in fact!) but I had forgotten about that. When we got to the portrait of Gray Davis (the only governor of CA to be recalled and the governor in office when we moved to CA and Tyler was born) the tour guide asked Tyler about the flowers in the painting (Gray Davis is standing in a field of poppies). I don't think he expected an answer because he was really surprised when Tyler answered that it was the State flower of California. Those state books from the library and the state journal she has been doing is paying off! (And Mom's not biased or proud at all!!!)

Tyler in front of the Capital - technically on the side of the Capital I guess. I was using my phone camera and the lighting was not good to take it in front.

We ended the day with a trip to Starbucks (of course!) and a visit to the library to get some more state books.

We will definitely be going back for the tour again in a couple years when she is older and will get more out of the tour.

Tonight while confirming a few facts I learned today I came across this site for kids which I'll be showing my daughter. It walks them through the law making process in California. They are able to write up a new law themselves and then follow it through the entire process. Pretty cool. Check it out!

Your Idea Becomes a Law

Homeschooling Update

We are about halfway through the fall semester now and we are both still LOVING the homeschooling. We have a field trip planned for next month to the Capital Building in Sacramento. I know my daughter won't get as much out of the tour as she will in a few years, but she is very excited and will still get plenty out of the trip.

I received a note from her Math teacher last week from the co-op talking about how wonderful she is doing and then yesterday they gave out awards and Tyler received an Outstanding Student award for Math. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of her. The teacher had mentioned about how she was very focused and quiet in class (my daughter!?). She said even so she had no problem speaking up in class and described her as having a "quiet strength". It is so wonderful to hear that from others about your daughter.

We are loving Science and have started getting more into History as well. Those are not covered at the co-op. We are making weekly trips to the library now. We've found some wonderful little state books. She picks out 2 or 3 each week, reads them and then journals about what she has learned about that State. We also have a map of the US on her bedroom wall where she is putting a sticker up for each state she learns about.

Another thing that excited me yesterday was to find out that in their Friday co-op class "Praying for the Nations" they will be concentrating on praying for the US and the upcoming elections beginning tomorrow and will continue to do so until after the elections. On my other blog one thing that has been very important to me and on my heart has been praying for our nation, leaders and the upcoming elections. I'm so excited that the kids will now be praying for this as well. I truly believe that the Lord listens even more intently to their prayers.

Her teacher has asked that as parents we discuss the election issues with our children. I've discussed abortion with her briefly in the past but we will be discussing that along with other items such as Prop 8 in the next weeks.

Regardless of the age of your children and whether or not you homeschool I think discussing the issues is a wonderful thing to do and then having them pray for our nation. Our nation definitely needs to be interceded for right now!

First Real Day of Homeschooling

My daughter is part of a homeschool co-op Monday, Wednesday and Friday - but Tuesday/Thursday the co-op does not meet so she normally goes to work with her father because we both work full-time. We are determined that homeschooling and this co-op is what is best for her and are determined to make it work.

I put together a lesson plan and homework for her to do the night before and go over it with her and then she basically does an independent study those two days. My husband is there to help her with any questions but it is not the typical parent sitting with her the entire day. Each night I go over with her what she had done for the day (even the co-op days). I was a little worried at first about doing things this way since she is doing school basically all throughout the day, but she really loves it.

I've really enjoyed this as well. It is definitely more work than in previous years when she attended private school, especially since some subjects I do all the teaching as they are not part of the co-op (for example Science).

To be honest in previous years going through her homework each night and doing projects were often more of a pain/obligation than something we enjoyed doing together (myself or my daughter.) However, this year it is all so different. The extra work and stress is far outweighed by the enjoyment I am getting out of sitting with my daughter and teaching her. It is a joy in my life now!

Yesterday was the first day I've had off since school started for which she was not in the co-op. So when my husband got up and took the boys to preschool/daycare I got up and started doing our first full day of school. We got through quite a bit but more importantly we had a blast! We met with our Supervising Teacher from the public charter school she is enrolled through around lunchtime. I had put together a pretty aggressive schedule for the day and we were doing great by the time we had our meeting so we stopped by Starbucks on the way home as a treat. It was the best day I've had in a long time.

I never imagined how much homeschooling would bring me joy and bring me closer to my daughter. If I could quit my job and stay home full-time and homeschool, I think I really would enjoy it. In the past I always thought being a stay-at-home mom would drive me crazy - but now I think it would actually be an amazing blessing!

Tyler's Bible Reading

Part of Tyler's language arts homeschooling each week is to read a story each day in the Beginner's Bible as well as reading a few chapters in the Bible with me each week. This week we read Genesis 1-3 and discussed them.

We talked about how God made the earth and about how when Adam and Eve disobeyed God they tried to point the finger at someone else. We talked about how no matter what other do to us, we are responsible for our actions.

You'll notice on my sidebar that I now have a Bible Share tracker for not only myself, but also for Tyler. We decided we were going to start tracking her Bible reading as well online so she has a visual of how much she has read during the year. Come back and see how we are doing!

First Day of School

Yesterday was my daughter's first day of 2nd grade. If you have been following my blogs you'll know that we took her out of the private Christian school she has been attending the last two years and we've enrolled her in a local public charter school which supports homeschooling parents. In addition, we have become part of a homeschool co-op, so three days a week she goes to the co-op which is taught by parents and two days a week she is doing more independent study (she goes to work with my hubby and does her work in the office).

The charter school officially started last week while I was on vacation visiting my family with the kids. We had some items for her to work on while we were there. The co-op though started yesterday. I was a bit worried because although she was excited about the co-op and being homeschooled she was also at times almost in tears because she had loved the private school she attended in prevous years. She had alot of friends there as well.

I called my husband yesterday after he dropped her off, wondering how it went. He said that she jumped out of the car and did not even stop to tell him goodbye. Then on her way home yesterday I talked to her on the phone. I asked her how her day was and she was so happy and excited!

Me: So, how was your first day at school?

T: It was fun! I don't ever want to go back to A (private school) and I don't ever want to go to public school. Homeschool is soooo much fun!!!

She even told me that she did not have any homework, but when I came home I realized she did have a packet of math work to finish before her next co-op day (Wednesday). She loved it so much that she did not even consider the packet of papers homework. She did some of it last night and then finished it today while she was at work with my hubby. And she started a typing program on the computer that we purchased for her along with some writing, reading and Science that I had arranged for her to work on today. She loves all of that as well.

I love to have things all planned out and this whole homeschool thing is very new to me. On top of that the co-op is just starting this year and we are still figuring out all the logistics. This is very stressful for me given I'm an accountant and like to have things planned out ahead of time. I can handle things not happening the way I planned, but I want at least a preliminary plan. These loose ends are driving me nuts.

But at the same time I am loving this and am so excited to be more active in what she is learning this year. This is going to be tough and different, it will definitely stretch us all. But I am so excited for this new journey and I'm so thankful that my daughter is enjoying it as well.

Homeschooling Resources

I'm not sure if I have mentioned it much on my blog or not, but as of this fall we will be homeschooling our daughter. For the past two years (Kindergarten and 1st grade) she has attended a local Christian private school (this was my hubby's idea originally!).

We can no longer afford to have her attend this, especially considering in just another couple years the boys will be attending school as well.

Neither of us are thrilled about having our daughter attend public school, so it was in my opinion God's divine timing that a group of homeschooling parents in the area have decided to start a co-op. We are enrolling our daughter in a local public charter school which helps people homeschool their children. And as it is a public school, the curriculum is covered by public funding so our costs will be minimal compared to what we were dishing out for private school. Even better is they assign you a teaching assistant to help you put your homeschooling plan and assignments together. One of these teaching assistants is actually someone I do church with AND is taking the lead for this co-op that is starting. This truly is a blessing b/c other than this couple and my aunt and uncle who homeschool, I know NOTHING about homeschooling. But the more I learn the more excited I am. My hubby was a bit doubtful at first but has agreed to give this a try for at least a semester. I mean how bad can we mess her up in just one semester! :) However, I think he is coming around more and more to the idea every day.

So three days a week our daughter will be part of this co-op and they have asked me to be the "Treasurer" since they need one and that fits into my schedule better than actually teaching a class does (and I'm scared to death to try to teach these kids!). Two of the days are normal classes such as science, reading, math, etc and will be taught all by the parents. The curriculum for those days will be paid with the public funds from the charter school. Fridays are PE and bible study classes as well as some time spent in the weekly house of prayer. On Tuesdays and Thursdays she will be at home (we are still trying to work out the logistic of this, she may be going into the shop with my hubby) doing the homework she was assigned the other days of the week. We are also looking into other things we can set up for her those days through the charter school. For example, I think I'm going to try to purchase the Rosetta Stone Spanish program. They were teaching her Spanish in the private school and we would like her to continue with that.

So - this whole long post is to say that you may notice a new section in my sidebar. As I come across sites/resources regarding homeschooling that I find helpful I will be adding them to my blog. If you homeschool and have sites you recommend please let me know. So far I have come across one awesome site that is dedicated to homeschooling co-ops that I am already finding useful.

Homeschool CPA

I look over all these things and am so excited for my daughter (she is excited too!). I wish I had this opportunity growing up myself.