Starting the School Year Right!

I am causing my normally type B personality to question itself with all the Type A preplanning I am accomplishing! I have up to week 7 of Classical Conversations notebooking pages created and have my new "busy work binders" ready and raring to go.
I have been doing extensive Mommy Blog research this summer and we are going to try out notebooking this year and incorporating them into, what I am calling, a Busy Work Binder.

You have questions? Well let me will elaborate!

Notebooking is pretty well know in homeschool circle, by here is the Readers Digest version for any newbies. Using a notebook, or binder in my case, students write out what they are learning and use color pages, matching, magazine clippings or their own illustrations to cement the concepts they notebooked.

Ta-Da notebooking in under 35 words!

I am endeavoring to combine notebooking with the Rise and Shine binder. What is a Rise and Shine binder? A fun learning tool I discovered at The Internet Mothership, aka Pinterest.

Here is a link to an example of these type binders that I am rebranding Busy Work Binder!
http://tunstalltimes.blogspot.com/
A few more pages that I am incorporating:
firstgradebrain.com
teacherspayteachers.com
teacherspayteachers.com/

Here are a few of my pages

Hopefully these little puppies with help out when I need to focus on one kid at a time. My master plan is to have one kiddo work on the laminated pages and learning aids (math flash cards, letter cards and the like) while I work on math and/or reading with the opposite kiddo. Then we will work on the notebooking pages together during our CC memory work time.

I will track my data when the school year begins and keep you abreast (awesome word)

Egg Carton Counting

I found a great use for an old egg carton! I added numbers to the bottom, 1-12, and gave James a pile of Cheerios. He loved it and really loved getting to eat the cherries as we finished the rest of our school work!

Hot dogs, marshmallows and star gazing

Finally had a day warm and dry enough for a fire in my swanky new fire pit. We broke out the marshmallows and hot dogs and had a dandy time. ;)
We also got to look at the stars with our new iPad app Night Sky. It is the most fun! You just point the screen at it shows you the names of stars and constilations. It also shows satellites and constellations on the other side of the earth. It is way fun! :)

roasting hot dogs

MMMMMMM! Good! 

USS Razorback Submarine

We when on a Thanksgiving trip to Little Rock, AR and had so much fun.
Really, I am serious!
We went and toured a submarine and went to super fun restaurant that had trains that delivered your food to the tables! It is called All Aboard and if you are ever in the area you have to check it out! We really enjoined the Sub and I am planning to do a section on subs with James next week. The history is so different than what we see in movies.
This submarine served in WWII and it was hot (100-120) and cramped! The interior is basically a walk way flanked my either stacks of beds or machinery! Crazy! I can't imagine working and living like that, but the tour guide said they were very well paid and the top 2% of the navy.
God bless those who protect us and our freedoms, especially if they did it from a WWII Sub!

Here is my little sailor!

Samaritans Purse Toy Boxes

I have wanted to do the Samaritans Purse boxes for a couple of years and have finally gotten it all together in time, barely in time! James was very interested and glad to give to the "children with no money to buy toys", though he did ask if they were going to send him a toy in return. I told him that the gift that we get is knowing that we have make someone happy, and made God happy. He seemed OKAY with this! haha! I was also very proud that he was able to shop for the boxes without begging and was happy to pack them up and send them off. He is a good boy!
We packed toys and school supplies for a boy and girl about James and Lillian's age. Also we included photos and a note/picture the kids drew. The site said that if you include your address you make hear back from the child that gets your box. It would make James's day, and mine, to get a letter from Africa!

Color Fun

I am an artist, so for me color and creating is really high on my pass-along-to-my-kids list. So any project that teaches color or is an outlet for me to see there little creative hearts, then I love it!
Here are a few we have done recently...

Zip lock bags and paint taped to the table. Say No to mess and Yes to fun!

 

 

(BTW I really need to make some real curtains for in here...PLEASE pardon the sheet!!)

 

 

Sidewalk outline people! The kids love being traced with the chalk and really really love adding features, hair and clothes to create themselves in chalk.



 

James came up with a great idea to stand against the wall to create a standing up chalk man.

 

 

Mod Podge + tissue paper + muffin pan = Awesome

 

Lillian doing it her way....the teen years will be super fun!

James showing her how to do it. I made it for her but he seemed to like it more.

N is for nest

We are trucking along in our My Fathers World lessons! We are doing N for nest. He is really getting that letters have sounds, he knows most of them, and that the sounds strung together make words, we talked about "at" words today, so all and all I am pleased!
I will say that I am starting to hear the homeschool green eyed monster creeping up behind me. Comparing one kid to another is not helpful! I keep repeating my new mantra, "he is only four, he has his own special gifts, don't compare, don't compare!!". But, as I am sure any parent, homeschooling or otherwise, knows that that none-comparing attitude only lasts until I stop saying the mantra!
Anyway! Back to Nests!
We made butterscotch haystacks and added some marshmallow eggs to make nests! It sounded a lot better than the suggested edible nest in the book!

Apple Math!

I took an idea from our curriculum and ran with it! The actual game in the workbook was one for real apples and organizing them by size and color, but i was out of apples so i made paper ones and carried the idea over into math as well as organizing.
It is really working well for James. I think he is defiantly a tactile learner, so being able to see the addition and subtraction is really good for him.
I am having him add to one row, take away from others and so on. It is also great for listening skills!

Moon cakes

We had a blast making moon cake!
"What is moon cake?" You may ask! Well...it just cake, it is the making of said cake that is the fun!
Moon Cake:
9" round pan. preheat oven to 350
Mix "moon sand" right in the pan
   1 1/2 c. flour
   1/2 c. brown sugar
   1/2 c. sugar
   1 tsp. salt
Form 3 craters in the moon-one large, small and medium
    add 5T oil to the LARGE
    add 1 tsp. baking soda to the MEDIUM
    add 1 tsp. vanilla to the SMALL
Then pour 1 T. vinegar into the medium crater and watch it bubble!
When it is all bubbled out, add 1 c. milk, mix and bake for 25-30 min

I love playing while you learn. It is one of the reasons we are going to homeschool. I am so excited for James and Lillian to be able to explore the world, not just look at it from a classroom!

 

Moon Landing

We are in our 2nd unit of our My Father's World curriculum and are really enjoying it. The lessons are great and the activity ideas are wonderful. We talked about the moon today and learned all about gravity and space! We looked at moon pictures and watched astronauts float in space, Hurray youtube! One of the activities suggested was a moon surface made of flour and using various balls to create craters.

 

Creating mountains and valleys in our moon surface

Our fabulous craters!



 

As you know moon landing are fraught with danger from passing herds of dinosaurs

 Lillian joining in the fun ;)

Oka Kapassa Festival

The kids and I got to go to the Oka Kapassa Native American Festival. We had lots of fun seeing all the presenters and hearing about native American arts and life.

One interesting thing I learned about he festival itself is the name Oka Kapassa. It means "give water". Apparently when the Indians came through on the Trail of Tears the settlers here in Tuscumbia gave them water. The festival is to honor that gift.

I have been to several Native American gatherings when I lived in New Mexico and Arizona and the all leave me a little sad and always in awe of their culture. When we lived in New Mexico we went to a true traditional festival on a Reservation. We were invited by a lady that works with my mother and there were very few "white" people there, mostly the tribe. They did there feast dancing in the make-up and garb in the same Square where they had done it for 100 yrs. The ground was eroded at least 3ft from all the years and years of dancing. It was amazing and not at all like in the movies. Seeing the fierce make-up, the war calls and the drums really makes you appreciate the fear that the early settlers had. It also gave me a great respect for Native Americans.

I also have to say, even though people always laugh because I am so pale, I am part Indian! I am part Cherokee and Comanche. My family has a wonderful photo of my Comanche ancestor and her husband standing in front of the home they had build out in the wild west!

Here are some pictures I took of the kids and the presentations!

This man showed use how to make a canoe, you burn and scrap and burn and scrap! I loved his hat with the metal, it made me think of the old westerns I used to watch as a kid.

This gentleman showed us the traditional flutes that he makes and the horse hair head piece that the warriors wore.

I wish I could have gotten more pictures of the dancers and a video of my kids trying to do the dances, but alas the kids were getting a bit rambunctious by this time and I only managed the one shot!

 

Look at that boy sitting so still and at least looking like he is listening ;)

 

Lunch over at the pond and in the shade, it was hot!