7. August 2008 by Shannon.

We all know there are a gazillion planners out there, from buying a standard bound one at the local copy shop or Walmart to customized HOMESCHOOL planners available from many different sources (each with their own particular angle).  As school is FAST approaching (for those of us who follow the typical school year) I thought it might be a good time to do some planning (not a bad idea, eh? *grin*) and so I spent some time looking through the many planners I have here on my computer and at my fingertips… yes, I have several.  I’m kind of a Planner Junkie.. always looking for the “perfect” organizing tool.  Just like I believe that the real reason I’m disorganized is because I don’t have the right planner yet.. LOL!  Okay, that’s  my excuse, and I’m stickin’ to it! *wink*

Please note that although I have to list the planners in SOME KIND of order… as we are trapped in a linear world, I am not putting them in any particular order… just as I locate them on my hard-drive and refresh my memory (and take notes of my own of which sheets to use from which planners - yes, you read that right, I MIX-AND-MATCH! *gasp!*).   

1. One of my FAVOURITE planner for this upcoming year is more than just a planner, really, it’s a whole HOW to plan planner.  Not only does it include all the forms necessary to plan out your school year by the month, week and even day, it also includes an innovative way of planning your curriculum and how to figure out (legally) what resources you need to have to homeschool in confidence that you are meeting all state/provincial requirements.  It walks you through VERY THOROUGHLY a whole planning project, including taking a break because you deserve it!  I like a planner that remembers that planning is had work! *grin*  SO, my FIRST PLACE goes to the Simply Charlotte Mason’s “Planning your Charlotte Mason Education in 5 Easy Steps” planner (can I recommend the “printed book and DVD” option as it cost me a LOT to have this book printed and bound at the local copy shop, and you really do need to have a printed copy of it to be effective - just my .02).  It is just so much more than just a collection of fill-in-the-blanks homeschool forms, it encourages and inspires… and dispite the name, it works very well for whatever “methodology” of school you use, including unschooling and strict school-at-home styles… just make it work for you. 

2. The Ultimate Homeschooling Mom’s Planner has some exceptionally refreshing forms such as a completely new (and imho, more in line with what we SHOULD be concerned about in our children’s education) twist on a “Yearly Evaluation” of our children, including such areas as “organization” (hahaha!) and “individual expression” and “character maturity”.  Yes, they include all the “standards” like yearly, monthly, and even Family Fitness (there’s a thought!) as well.  The pages are delightfully decorated, but for those on a budget all that colour might be restrictive (*hint* set your printer settings to “print images in greyscale” or something along those lines… that will keep your colour ink for more important printing projects).  You can find the Ultimate Planner at www.homeschool-curriculum-for-life.com .

3. The Old Schoolhouse Magazine has come out with a planner that certainly has you covered, not only in an extensive forms section (covering everything from educational objectives to end of year evaluations and report cards) but it is also FILLED with facinating articles, important (US) lists and official documents (no more hunting around to find a copy of the Louisiana Purchase - I can hear the sighs of relief from across the border! *grin*).  Some of the neater forms are things like craft logs (including place to paste a photo - no more cluttered fridge or boxes of dusty kindergarten crafts filling up your storage space!), curriculum purchases organizer (not the kind where you list what you have, but rather list what you need and the cost involved - very handy!, and even (and this is the coolest!) a begining/end of year form… where you list such things like your child’s height/weight and get a copy of their signature… what a great way to remind you and your child how much they’ve GROWN this past year!  Of course there’s room for a picture from both the start and finish of the school year.  One really nice feature of this planner is that it includes the very convenient “Type-It-In” option.  You can type (AND SAVE) your information into the file, so  you can print off very professional looking forms later on, and earn organizational brownie points with The Powers That Be.  All in all a very thorough planner.  You can get the Schoolhouse Planner at www.theoldschoolhousestore.com .

4.  Cindy Rushton’s “Brain in a Binder” planner is the most spiritual homeschool planner out there.  She has all the standard forms for planning your school year, but she includes MANY forms you don’t really find anywhere else, such as pages from her Discipleship Notebook, Bible Study Logs, and Discipleship Goals planning sheets.  Everything is in Cindy’s signature country style, clean and simple, with just a touch of southern charm.  The Discipleship Notebook pages are probably worthwhile getting, even if you are using a different Homeschool Planner.  I can’t believe how they have helped me in my study of God’s word, and Ev, my 14 year old son really loves them as he seeks to be a “man after God’s own heart”.  You can pick up the Brain-in-a-Binder OR just the Discipleship Notebook from www.cindyrushton.com .

5.  The Master Planner from Westvon Publishing is a VERY complete planner.  I like that all the pages on the CD come as separate files, so in my computer I put my settings to “view thumbnail” and can QUICKLY find the form I was looking for… a little thing, but a nice thing.  They’ve also labeled their forms very well, so even if you can’t “see” it, you can still “read” it and aren’t obliged to flip through pages and pages of a file to find the One Form that will change your life.  LOL!  They include all the basics, of course, but also many little tools to encourage your student to set goals and meet them.. like their acheivement certificates and Reading Goals sheets.  They include many notebooking pages in their planner as well, for things like weather recording, timelines and venn diagram sheets.  One of our favourite sheets is the Babysitter Information sheet, which my daughter brings to all new babysitting jobs and fills out with the parents and files in a binder of her own… and this upcoming year I plan to extensively use the “Monthly (something)” charts.  They have a Monthly Bird, Animal, Fish, Planet, Dinosaur, Biography, etc… all set up nice and simply to print off and embark on a little learning adventure with your child.  This is a really exceptional product… some of my most used forms come from this planner.  Find Westvon’s Master Planner and also their FABULOUS History Scribe series of notebooking pages at CurrClick .

6.  My dear friend, Heidi Jo, has some really useful household planners, which most of the time (when planning such things as menus and to do lists) are the first thing I print off.  She also has a Lesson Planner which although is not as fancy as some, is very simple to navigate and probably the most effective one to have printed up at a local copyshop and bound.  Although Heidi Jo says she uses one for all her children, I think for myself (being as OCD as I am) I would want one for each child.  It is clean, clear and very Charlotte Mason in it’s layout… so maybe that will be my choice for my weekly planning for the Littles which I want to start on a personalized CM Education this upcoming year.  Heidi Jo lives in the BREATHTAKING Bahamas (lucky duck!) and you can find her planning forms at CurrClick .

7. Knowledge Box Central also has a Charlotte Mason Planner (are you getting the impression I might be a closet Charlotte Mason Fan? LOL!) called The Image Bearer (the name implying our children are bearers of the image of Christ).   This Planner also has the desireable Type-It-In feature, making it another one of my favourites for presenting a professional image to the World.  One of the nicest things that I find different from this planner and most of the others is the inclusion of a “Term Planner” (the other one that has it is the Simply Charlotte Mason planner at the top of this list)… another neat thing is the Field Trip AND Evaluation guide, a handy way to not only record where and when you went, but what everyone thought of the trip and whether it was worth repeating (and unfortunately some are not).  As with the bigger KBC documents (like the Ages and Stages Timeline Notebook, the best out there) there is a easy reference bookmark list on the side, which acts similarly to the way the Master Planner does in letting you find the page you are looking for easily.  You can also find The Image Bearer at CurrClick (one of my favourite one stop shopping spots for all things homeschool, can you tell?! *grin*).

and last but in no way least (at least for today because I think this is one of the longest blog posts in history! LOL!):

8. The Homeschool Tracker is a software planner… meaning you enter in the lesson plans and the software does the sorting for you.  You can create and print whatever “reports” you want (reports are anything you’ve entered, really).  The nice thing about this is that when you enter in the “grades” your child gets, the software keeps track (hence the name Tracker?) and you can print out VERY professional looking report cards at the end of the year, as well as book used lists, assignment lists, field trip logs, etc.  VERY versatile, but has a bit of a learning curve to get the hang of it.  *hint* use “copy assignment” freely, you can always delete it later if you’ve put too much! LOL!  Find it at www.homeschooltracker.com .

So, I guess instead of babbling about planners, maybe I should start actually PLANNING, eh?

Blessings!

Posted in Curriculum Choices, General Homeschool | Print | 1 Comment »

10. July 2008 by Shannon.

A Satire « Grey-haired Geek

HAHAHA!  I remember reading something like this a long time ago, although this author does a better job than the original version I saw.  I hope you enjoy it!!!

An update:  Here is my Square Foot Garden taken yesterda, July 9th… less than 2 months from planting day… we’ve harvested (so far) 3 Zuchini and 3 Brocoli… DELICIOUS!  I have lots of tomatoes in various stages of development and ripeness.. and my beans are trying to reach Heaven!  I have to rethink some of my supports for next year… maybe build something over it and have strings drop down to support the beans and cukes.  Anyone have any good ideas? (psst, you can click the picture for a bigger view of my crazy veggies!)

Blessings!

Posted in Gardening, General Homeschool | Print | 2 Comments »

18. June 2008 by Shannon.

Be sure to check out all the FREE STUFF over at currclick this week (not sure how long all these things will be free… ) including an Anne of Green Gables (my favourite book of all time) Unit Study, a TimeLine project, and oodles of notebooking pages!!!  ALL FREE!!!!

Also, don’t forget the Quarterly Freebie at Hands of a Child, which right now is a fabulous unit on Zebras (anyone up to a summer safari without having to leave home?? *grin*).  

There’s also lots to be had free at my other favourite lapbook company, Live and Learn Press…. they have a few freebies for those who sign up for a free membership and join their Yahoo group!  Their lapbooks are incredibly attractive and well designed, and if you are using Apologia Science (the high school ones), they have designed fabulous support lapbooks for those course….  you should check those out for sure!!!    Turn the Study Questions into a Study Session!

But if you can stand one more great lapbook stop… (haha, you’ll be as addicted as I am soon!!!), head on over to Knowledge Box Central.  Their lapbook sets are quite thorough… their lapbook on The Human Heart is really great though… really!!!  And they have lapbooks on interesting subjects (not typical “school” subjects) such as Modesty, Grandfather’s Wisdom, and Basic Cooking Skills.  I love that they’s branched out into not so well trod areas to give us something fresh to work with, and I’m sure you’ll like them too!!

SO.  Summer vacation is here for so many of you, why not sneak in some “school” stuff without letting the kids know they are doing it?!?!  C’mon, you know you wanna… *wink*  So snag yourself a great lap-e-book, print it up on some coloured paper (or not!), and grab a kid and have some fun cutting and pasting.  You can even take these projects outside to work on, why not have a little quiet time under the picnic umbrella while at the beach (after all, you have to wait 30 minutes after your picnic lunch before you can go into the water, right? *grin*)?

However you use them, remember the Golden Lapbook Rule… FUN FIRST.

Blessings and Enjoy!

Posted in LapBooks, Great Finds, General Homeschool | Print | No Comments »

17. June 2008 by Shannon.

Well, not that we’re there yet, but we are certainly getting anxious around here for the end of the school year!!  This week *should* be our last for the currect school year, and we’ll pick up again in the middle of August.  Kenzi still has math to complete over the summer to finish up the Saxon book she’s working on, but otherwise all “formal” lessons will end on Friday.  MOM can’t wait!!!  This was a challenging year, I’m not afraid to admit it… it was a lot of nagging and a lot of heartache as we both worked out our comfort zones…. but then we found Connect the Thoughts and that helped SO much, and then a very wonderful friend gave us an old laptop for Kenzi to use for her lessons and that helped even more… I didn’t realise how much of the battles were in fact related to her dysgraphia…. amazing really.  But as wonderful as this new “system” is, we really are in need of a break… a time of just being Mother and Daughter, and not Teacher and Student… really!

Ev is finished his school year in the Junior High School, and will be homeschooling next year as well… that will also make a difference around here in that we’ll be together for learning instead of having all our days so choppy.  Everett can’t wait to start Connec the Thoughts Creative Writing courses either… he’s looked the two I have over and is so excited to get started so he can move onto the Master’s Courses.  I was surprised to hear that he wasn’t as interested in the Animation course… but I think if he tried it he’d probably like it… we’ll have to try it as an elective in August.  He also just finished his Puzz3D that he’d been working on for a while… the Sistine Chapel!!!

This past week was the cadets Annual Review - both Ev and Kenzi were on the Drill Team, and Kenzi even got an award!!!  She was given the “Tracy Turton Award” for “the cadet that perseveres”.  That’s a positive statement, eh?  She was so surprised (as was MOM!) and proud that she’d stuck it out… it was a long haul, that’s for sure!  But she’s looking forward to Basic Camp this summer.  Ev got Leadership Camp, and he’ll be gone for a full three weeks!  I don’t know how *I* am going to handle it… but I guess it’ll be lots of fun for him! *grin*

(Ev and Kenzi right beside him…. Kenzi getting her award)

We have a new dog… I can’t remember if I blogged about him already or not, but his name is Charley (okay, I’m a die-hard Lost fan, and we wanted a name from Lost, but we were torn between “Hurley” and “Charlie” *our two favourite characters!* … so we decided on Charley… clever eh?  LOL!  Not that he cares, he just answers to anything - silly boy!), and he’s a lovely blond cocker spaniel.  SO cute…   He had a little “mohawk” going when we first got him, but we trimmed it off because it made him look even sillier than he generally does.  He’s so smart and learning more by the day… and he’s SO sweet to the kids!!

We got him about 3 weeks ago and although he’s housebroken VERY easily, we’re having “Bark Busters” come in to work with us and the two dogs next week. We’re hoping it will make a difference in some of the undesireable behaviours he has, mostly we believe caused by improper (none existant) training he recieved at his previous home.  He’s very bright and learns fast, and best of all, is eager to please. 

And lastly… my garden update… this is my garden ONE WEEK from the last picture… I can’t believe how fast this thing is growing!!! We finally got the tomato rings on and had a real battle to do so, since the plants are not only large, but really sturdy - not easy to “flex” to get them through the center!  But we did it… and they seem happy! *wink*  From the looks of the the flowers, we are going to have LOTS of everything.  The only thing I’m not sure of is the eggplants… are they supposed to be slow starters?  If anyone knows, I’d be so happy to find out!

I have to tell you this funny story.  Miss Chaeli came inside COVERED in dirt the other day, and I was, of course, worried about my lovely vegetable gardens.. what had she done?  Well, apparently nothing… she’d been playing in one of our front gardens… anyhow, while I was out there “fixing” her mess, I noticed these three obviously fast growing plants had taken root in my annual bed (I only have one, we positioned it over the septic tank lids so we can always find them AND it doesn’t matter when it’s dug up because they are only annuals anyhow… smart eh?).  As “pretty” as they might think they are, I didn’t want them there.  So, UP goes the plant… well, it has what looks like a giant peanut on the end.  Interesting.  So, I yank up another… this one is a normal looking root.  The third one (these were all the same type of plant, btw) told me what had happened… we had POTATOES growing in my annual bed!  HAHAHA on me!  I guess we must have had some potatoes go to seed and we tossed them, and I suppose a squirrel must have found them and reburied them in my garden… clever little agricultural creature that he must be.  but alas, I stole his harvest…. after all, everyone knows potatoes need to stay buried so they can grow… so I repotted the one plant, buried it up past it’s leaves… and a couple days ago, we could see the little leaves peeking through again, so today I buried it some more.  Chaeli keeps trying to dig them out, but I think this time I’ve convinced her to “let’s wait and see what surprises we can grow”.  I hope we get some good potatoes!!  If we do, I think maybe next year we’ll make this a FORMAL school project… maybe to end off the school year for Greyson… along with a little lapbook on Plants or something. 

That’s me… always planning ahead! *LOL*

Blessings!

Posted in Chaeli, Gardening, Greyson, Kenzi, Everett, General Homeschool | Print | No Comments »

28. May 2008 by Shannon.

Okay, let’s face it.  If you are reading this blog, you are probably a homeschooler, right? 

One of the biggest challenges most homeschooling families face is the choice to live on only one income.  In our day and age, that usually means sacrificing some of the luxuries we see our two-income friends enjoying (new cars, new pools, expensive vacations *that dont’ have to double as a school field trip - grin!*).  I’m not saying that those sacrifices of material things are not worth it - when we hear our “baby” reading his first book that YOU taught him how to read, to see that lightbulb moment when our teenager “gets” algebra for the first time… these are just some of the rewards we get for that sacrifice.  BUT… seriously?  Wouldn’t it be NICE to have some of the luxuries AND still have the time and freedom to homeschool?

That’s where “Affiliate Marketting” comes in. 

Affiliate Marketting is where you find someone else’s product and you promote it for them, and in return you get a commission cheque (you know, to spend on BOOKS!  LOL, okay, maybe that’s just me… *grin*).  Usually the commission cheques range anywhere from 10 - 50% of the cost of the product you are promoting (and, btw, by promoting, I mean just buzzing about the products you are going to be using anyhow… right?  We all do that anyways.. just attend any homeschool support group and you are going to be hearing a LOT of buzz about such-n-such curriculum or such-n-such new book everyone just *has* to read, right?)

Recently, a friend of mine, Rhea, introduced me to a program to help boost my Affiliate Marketting sales… this is what she had to say:

Are you tired of getting piddly little affiliate checks in the mail.  Sick of promoting products for a measly 30 to 50% cut of the profits?

You see, I’m about to let you in on a powerful secret one of my good buddies is using to multiply his affiliate Commissions—to the point he’s making a sweet 200% to 300% commission for every product he promotes!

You read that right…that’s more than the actual product is worth!

His name is Russell Brunson and he’s make a lot of people extremely rich with his affiliate marketing skills. Now he’s finally Spilling the beans on the “Commission Bump”…an unique Strategy that allows anyone to “bump” their commissions with ease!

Check it out here:

http://my5angelsmom.TheSecondTier.com/affiliateevolution

You see, Russell started revealing the “Commission Bump” on Tuesday through his new product: Affiliate Evolution. He sold 1000 copies in mere hours…and it’s not slowing down. The only thing is Russell said he’s going to raise the price any time. This is such a powerful secret he’s crazy for letting it go for such a cheap price.

Again, head on over to:

http://my5angelsmom.TheSecondTier.com/affiliateevolution

…and evolve your affiliate marketing skills today!

Have a great day!

http://my5angelsmom.TheSecondTier.com/affiliateevolution

P.S.  If you’ve never sold a thing as an affiliate, Russell’s got you covered. He’s revealing a couple bonuses that’ll enable you to make your first affiliate sale in a mere 24-hours. But you’ll only get them when you take action and get Affiliate Evolution today!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I just signed up myself, and it really is as good as it sounds… I can’t wait to get my NEXT commission cheque (btw, yes, I really *do* make money as a stay-at-home, homeschooling, just bloggin’ and buzzing Mom!)!  

There is nothing I would like more than to see MORE homeschool Moms storm the internet and start practicing Proverbs 31:16 and “(she) considers a field, and buys it:  with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard”  If you are a homeschool Mom - consider THIS field!  If you are willing to type emails to friends and take time to blog your days - consider planting THIS vineyard!!   I can’t tell you how pleased my husband was the first time I bought something for our homeschool using commissions I made from the ‘net… and I know that with  Russel’s help, maybe a BIG homeschool field trip might not be too far in the distance (can Mom and Dad take a “field trip” sans kids? *wink*).

Blessings!

Posted in Great Ideas, General Homeschool | Print | No Comments »

23. May 2008 by Shannon.

Nah… I’d rather pass on those, BUT…. after suffering really bad and ending up in bed this afternon, I am wide awake this evening…

 And, apparently, feeling quite creative/resourceful!  I was putting stuff away that the Littles had taken out, when I noticed that Greyson was doing some “math flashcards” (they have the simple problem, shown in pictures, “such as three fish - two fish =” and a blank to fill in the answer).  Not all the answers were right obviously, BUT he was definately INTERESTED.  I also noticed (while cleaning up) that he had found some colouring pages and had coloured quite nicely on LOTS of them… so he must like colouring AND math, right?  

Now, I know what you are thinking I’m going to say… you’re thinking I’m gonna say that we could do up some colour by numbers using math equations… NOPE!  I had an even more “fun” idea… and less frustrating, imho.

 Math Hidden Colouring Pages!

Look…. FIRST I drew a picture and covered it with post it notes (which just touched to overlapping) and wrote math equations on them:

THEN, as he DOES the math equations (CORRECTLY)… he gets to peel off that part of the picture!

THEN when he’s done… he has a picture to colour as a REWARD for working hard at his math! 

How stinkin’ clever is that?  I’m POSITIVE there are lots of other creative Moms who have thought of this first… and NO, I will not be using my DH’s work post-it notes for my son’s math… this was a quick mock-up to show you what I mean.  I’m going to get some coloured ones and vary the colours for each problem… make it more fun.  But as  you know from past posts… I’m the Mock-Up Queen!  LOL!

Hope this blesses you!

Posted in Great Ideas, Greyson, General Homeschool | Print | 1 Comment »

5. May 2008 by Shannon.

 CurrClick has a real treat for those who visit their site this week.  Of course, every week they offer a free ebook (curriculum or sometimes even a story), but this weeks ebook is really something special!  They are offering one of Knowledge Box Central’s Interview Series Lapbooks called “Grandfather’s Wisdom“.  What a treat!  This lapbook is designed to help your child glean the wisdom of his/her grandfather and to compile it in a neat way that will certainly become a keepsake to treasure!  Summer is coming, lots of “family time” to work on it.  Why not make it a summer project?  The ebook is regularly priced at 24.99$ but you can get it FREE this week only at CurrClick!  Don’t miss out!!!

OH!  And something really neat has happened here in our homeschool (well, for Mom anyhow *grin*) - Steven David Horwich, author of the Connect the Thoughts course recently sent an email out to several hundreds of people who had signed up for his newsletter - and a little known Yahoo Group exploded!!  My friend Stephanie and I, who are both using CTT in our homeschool, had started up a Yahoo Group looking to find others using CTT in their homeschools.  Well, it was slow going as neither of us is a marketting guru (apparently).  But with Steven’s email came a big surprise!  He had listed our group on HIS site (http://www.connectthethoughts.net) and our “population” grew… often by the minute!  It was a crazy chase to get everyone approved, but I am DELIGHTED to say that everyone started sharing and encouraging from the get-go, and Steph and I have found ourselves exactly what we wanted - Community!  Yippee and BIG THANKS go out to all those who joined and of course to Steven and his Webmaster,  Ray!  If you’re using CTT or would like to know more, I encourage you to check out the official site and you are also welcome to join our little (but growing!) Yahoo Group too at http://groups.yahoo.com/connectthethoughts .

What a whirlwind week -  the Ultimate Homeschool Expo is over (phew!  What a ride!!!) … BUT NOT REALLY!  I’m seriously going to talk to Cindy about renaming this amazing event to the Ultimate Forever Parenting Online Convention… or something equally appropriate!  I was talking to a friend of mine about it, who doesn’t homeschool and I was trying to explain how this isn’t just for homeschoolers, and it isn’t over!  Not only have all the sessions been recorded and will be available on the Members Site, but they aren’t just audios for homeschoolers.  These are really audios for great parents (LIKE YOU!).  There is everything on there from bringing up Godly children to Planning for your future to spiritually uplifting talks like God is Sufficient.  And all the “homeschool” related talks are equally appropriate for those who are involved in their children’s education in the public system, or could I even say, for public school teachers to learn how to intill the love of learning in their students?!  So don’t feel like you have missed the “ticket”… you haven’t!  And if you buy it now, you’ll get the “convention” price of only 40$ (soon it’ll be repriced at 99$ - so don’t delay!!).  Go grab your ticket here:

Now - one last thing (I saved it as your “dessert”)… KENZI was in a THEATRE production this week!!  Okay, it was a homeschooler play, but I am SO proud of my BIG girl!!!  She’s so shy, and overcame many obstacles to play the part of one of the narrators (which meant she was on the stage the entire 45 minutes while the play was being performed).  She was dressed as an “ancient greek” because the play was an adaptation of several of Aesop’s Fables (written by Gerald Murphy - which I got a kick out of because that is also my uncle’s name… LOL).   The whole cast did amazing and I was so proud of them!  It was directed by Melanie Doerr and was performed at the Hudson Village Theatre.  Well done everyone!  (psst… that’s Kenzi on the left with her little narrator friend who, in my opinion, was the funniest member of the cast hands down!  “Don’t ask ME - ask AESOP!”  HAHAHA!)

Have an ABUNDANTLY blessed day!

Posted in LapBooks, Curriculum Choices, Kenzi, Great Finds, General Homeschool | Print | No Comments »

22. April 2008 by Shannon.

Yesirree… I finally got to making up my mock-up of the timelines for lapbooks…

Thank you for patience!!!!

Alright… in this first picture, I have cut an 8.5X11 sheet of cardstock (okay, I’m lying, this is just construction paper, my kids used up all the cardstock.. gotta buy more… *grin*) in half widthwise.

Attach the smaller cardstock pieces end to end as long as you need to to cover the time line you want. If you stick masking tape (as I have, without cutting it, someone ran off with my scissors too.. sigh.) to one side only, you get a nice clean line on the reverse for your timeline…

Tape one end to one inside seam of your lapbook…

Add your line and you have yourself a Time Line in a Lapbook! Of couse, you can add as many sheets as you need to the timeline to accomodate the time period you are studying.

Fold accordion style to “put away” your timeline.

OH! And I have an idea of what you could put on the reverse side if you are not going to be continuing your timeline on it… stick more minibooks, sticik photos, small drawings, make a bibliography list of the books you used on the unit, maybe a calendar of “events” you did while doing your lapbook… the options are limitless!! I also thought, if you were to draw a vertical line halfway through each “page” as it flips out, instead of putting a timeline bar across horozontally… you could use it as a “sequence of events” timeline for younger children… like “what came first in the story” “what came next” .. and have them draw the events ON A SEPARATE PAGE (critical, because if they are like my kids and mess up their “good timeline” they will be crushed!) which can then be cut out and put in to the different “squares” of the sequence timeline… I’ll probably use it this way in the autumn when I am working with Greyson for Kindergarten. I can’t wait!!! *grin*

And Greys would like me to share with you what HE was doing while Mommy was playing with her lapbooks… *wink*

Doesn’t he look proud? He tells me, “It’s Santa and a Christmas Tree bringing presents to Chaeli” (okay.. this I don’t understand, we DON’T do Santa, that looks like a Palm tree to me.. and well… IT’S APRIL!!! Gosh goodness, we finally got rid of the snow and the kid is talking Christmas again!!!! YIKES!)

Before I go, I’d like to add a little plug for a fellow lapbooker here who has come up with a very nice “digilapbook” on creepy-crawlies… very cool! I have to look more into this one!

I hope my ideas have inspired you in your lapbooking adventures… I probably won’t be around mcuh for the next week and a bit - but I’ll be THINKING, and BRAINSTORMING new ideas to share with you!!!

And NEXT week I’ll be attending the Ultimate Homeschool Expo!!! I REALLY hope I will see you there!!! Don’t miss this incredible event - a homeschool convention in your computer, perfect to either participate in LIVE - or to take along with you as you wear the many hats of your day! Get your ticket here for your own membership site with so many goodies to help you on your homeschool journey!

Blessings!!

Posted in LapBooks, Great Ideas, Greyson, General Homeschool | Print | 3 Comments »

17. April 2008 by Shannon.

YES!  Spring has finally SPRUNG (even here in Quebec!)!!!! The kids “escaped” yesterday and brought me home probably the only three flowers in my lawn brave enough to peek their heads through the snow… I love Spring!  Here’s a picture of the one Kenzi brought me… unfortunately the Littles’ flowers didn’t “make it”… *wink*  Pretty, huh?  (btw, it was VERY tiny… that’s the grain of the wood of my desk under it.. I got a reeaaaaaallly close up shot - I love my camera!)

One of my FAVOURITE (and sometimes least favourite as I will explain later) parts of Spring is SPRING PLANNING!  That’s when all next year’s stuff gets planned out (okay, loosely) and books are planned to be purchased.  It is when I seek out inspiration and encouragement more than ever, because… (which brings me to my LEAST favourite part)  I really hate the End Of Year drudgery. 

We always are just dragging along - trying to get all our “things” finished, when really what we want to be doing is going OUTSIDE - as you’ve seen above ^^.  

SO… in the spirit of motivating MYSELF to get into the Spring PLANNING and less into the END OF YEAR (and to help past the avoidance issue of going out to play instead) mentality… I would like to share with you a resource from the “sneak peek” on the membership site of the Ultimate Homeschool Expo for this year.  After the postive response I got from the last set I shared with you, I got Cindy’s permission to share another little “freebie” with you - she really can relate - she’s in the process of preparing for her second homeschool graduation with her sweet daughter, Elisabeth (her son graduated a couple years back, and in fact is graduating again THIS WEEK from his Basic Training for the MILITARY!  Way To Go Matthew!!!).  She’s been there, she’s got it all figured out (okay, not all the answers, but, Boy, is she good!) 

So, without further blah blah from me, here’s HER description of this FREE gift!  This is an ebook AND an audio set to help you  get all “orgamanized”  - and remember, there are LOTS more free gifts when you sign up for your own ticket to the Ultimate Homeschool Expo - in fact, a whole “Mommy Grab Bag”!!!!

Let’s Get Ready for a New School Year Super Set!

Let’s Get Ready for the New School Year Mommy Planner…
Ebook by Cindy Rushton

Need some help gearing up for the new school year? Wish you had a friend to take you by the hand and help you plan your year? You will LOVE this! It includes a quick Mommy Planner with a potpourri of planning sheets from all of Cindy’s products to help you get started on the right track with your homeschool planning. It is full of goodies!

Download Part One
http://www.cindyrushton.com/pdfs/GearingUp1.pdf

Download Part Two
http://www.cindyrushton.com/pdfs/GearingUp2.pdf
PLUS! Companion Audio!
Let’s Get Ready for a New School Year–Audio

Download by Mp3
http://www.cindysdesktop.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/GetReadyNewSchoolYear.mp3

Isn’t that cool?

And, just think…this is only ONE of the awesome gifts included on the Membership Site… There are hundreds more!!!

Take my word for it, you will WANT a ticket to this event and access to all of the wonderful resources. Grab your ticket here:

Posted in Curriculum Choices, Kenzi, Great Finds, General Homeschool | Print | No Comments »

16. April 2008 by Shannon.

<pasted from a post I made in Lapbooking7up at Yahoogroups on why I love lapbooks so much> 

I love webdesign… and when I heard of lapbooks, gosh, 10 years ago… I totally “got it” because it was like a website. You “click” (life the flap) on thigns to get further information... like when y ou click a link on a website to learn more… it just seemed so intuitive… and prepatory for internet technology (really!). My kids totally “got” the net at a very young age, even down to how we don’t click just anything, because when the “flap is closed” we don’t know what’s behind it… so we are particular about what we “open”…. it was a natural connection for my kids… (not that we put scary things in our lapbooks.. grin!

I was thinking, after doing lapbooks, when thety feel like they are “outgrowing”the cutting and pasting stage (some do)… they could move on to learning html… maybe creating a “virtual” lapbook on their area of study…

<end of pasting>

<new pasting from same group>

… all you’d need to do is get them to put up a webpage, then add a little javascrip that would allow for small popup windows when people clicked on certain areas of the page… like on a picture or whatever, but instead of getting a whole new page (unless it was for a lot of information), thye’d get a “ballloon” popup, which has a small X to close it, and the main page is not lost…

<end of pasting>

I also have to add a little idea here that a new friend of mine, BJ (who can’t remember just yet where she got the idea from so I’ll add that info later or she can add it as a comment if she remembers, *wink*) did with a lapbook on Spain.  Here’s how she did it:

“Another way to make a fabric flag lapbook style: We used the lapbook flag of Spain which some nice person posted (on other site?) but he wanted his flag to be of fabric. What he did instead was cover the lapbook flag with 2 layers of a used dryer anti-static fleece sheet, traced over the flag & then coloured it with felt pen - sure did look like fabric to some people ”

OH!  And we came up with a good name for those Lapbooks IN Notebooks idea… we’re officially (with the help of my Lapbooking7up friends) calling them NotePacks.  *grin* … and to take it one step further (here I go spiralling inwards again, I’m definately part Fractal!)… notebook pages IN said NotePacks would of course be called LapNotes.   Alright, alright… I’ll stop being so silly! LOL!

I’m bubbling over with ideas for this now… expect more soon, now it’s a matter of making a mock up of each idea and taking pictures to put on here… I hope you are all liking these ideas as much as I am.  I’m all inspired now!

Blessings!

Posted in Notebooks, LapBooks, Great Ideas, General Homeschool | Print | 2 Comments »