24. March 2009 by Shannon.

When it’s been a while since I’ve posted a real “how-to” notebook/lapbook post… but I was just so inspired by a “nothing” thing that my friend had lying around on her kitchen table.  I SNATCHED it up as fast as I could and BEGGED her to show me how she did it… and now I’m gonna show you!  (Yes, I asked her permission to share it, she laughed at me and said, “of course”.. the poor girl didn’t even know what she had sitting in front of her.. so simple, yet so brilliant! LOL!).  SO.. here, my dear Readers, is ONE MORE WAY to include those unit notebook pages into your lapbooks:

(in steps)

STEP ONE:  Take a LEGAL sized folder (it has to be LEGAL… I don’t do illegal around here.. *wink*)

 STEP 2:  Open the folder.

 STEP 3:  Fold up the bottom quarter till the side edges meet (see next picture before pressing that fold down!)

 MAKE SURE THE BOTTOM EDGE MATCHES THE ‘CURVE’ OF THE LABEL SECTION!  This is critical, and it also makes it much easier to have this little “guide” for your fold:

 STEP 4:  Resume normal lapbook folding - fold both flaps in to the middle seam.

 STEP 5:  Voilà!  A Notepack pocket to put those little notebook pages in.  NOW… before I get “comments” that the pages will just fall out, you can ALWAYS slip a little paper clip at the top of the folder to hold the tops of the pages in.  You can also stick all your minit books around it, behind it, on the flip up bottom, same as usual.  AND if you cut off a mere 3/4 inch off a letter-sized folder, it’ll stick side edge to side edge just right and you have yourself a double lapbook with notepack on one side.  PERFECT!

So there you have it… Enjoy!

OH… and if your fingers are just itchin’ to do a lapbook now, head on over to Currclick and check out this week’s FREEBIE!  Hands of a Child has been gracious enough to offer up their fantastic Amelia Earheart Project Pack as this week’s free download!  Don’t miss out, download it today (it’ll be changed to a new freebie on the 30th of March!).  Also, while you are there, be sure to sign up for the Currclick newsletter which keeps you up to date on the latest freebie being offered!

Blessings!

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

20. March 2009 by Shannon.

WELL!  We had my neice, Bethanie, staying with us this week to give her mom a little break… and what a blast we had!!!  We visited a museum, went to a nature preserve (kinda, it’s for wounded animals from the St Lawrence Seaway), made the St Patricks’ Day lapbook from Hands of a Child (our favourite school activity!), played games, played outside in the wonderful spring weather, laughed a LOT (Beth has a contagious laugh!) and just enjoyed having her as part of our family for the week.  It makes me want to steal her more often! *grin*

Here are Greyson and Chaeli’s First Ever in their Lives LAPBOOKS! *applause*

Blessings!

Posted in LapBooks, Chaeli, Greyson, Bragging, General Homeschool | Print | 3 Comments »

9. October 2008 by Shannon.

 Once again, you are all standing around scratchin’ yer noggins saying, “Huh?”  heehee….

A friend was wondering what to use that was more “Charlotte Mason Friendly” than a big science textbook (like Apologia).  I just wanted to share my reply to her concern here in case it blesses someone (else… I know my friend, Lori Lynn was blessed by it *smile*):

What we do for Science (using Aologia) is read Dr. Wile’s chapters together… very CM.  I read it to them, cuddled up on the couch, then we do the experiments together and have fun (I record my own lab sheet too!) and then we talk about the results before we move on to reading what Dr. Wile has written about “what was supposed to happen”.  We use a lapbook system for the “study questions” so they can quiz themselves effectively, then we do the test… it’s been very interactive.  I cannot imagine asking my kids to do that HUGE text alone… You can find some interactive hands-on materials for Apologia at Currclick  and you can get the lab kits at Sonlight (which can make a difference between facing the experiments confidently or not)… you can find them in the core 7 science they are called NSK and I’m not sure the other one, the other one is the one gears specifically for “General Science”)

I believe that almost anything can be done in a somewhat CM-y way… reading the lessons together and getting excited about it and discussing it with Dad ‘round the dinner table (narrations anyone?) cements the learning.  Don’t give up quite yet…

BUT…another resource (with the exception of the first course, which I recommend ONLY if you omit the last lesson) are the connect the thoughts science courses… they are thorough, however NOT faith based (and in my humble opinion it is impossible to separate the two and get a “good” science education… since a good researcher would go to the source of the thing they are studying, right?  Well, since God made everything, it seems logical to go to Him about His creation.  Ya know?).  However, from a completely “separate from God” point of view.. these are excellent.  They can also be done as a “read together” then “discuss the questions or do the projects together” kind of way, although it’d be a bit more challenging.  You can find them at also at Currclick.

High school science is tough… not tough to understand with the right “teacher”, but a tough “responsibility”… you don’t want to leave your kids short changed, yet it’s hard to make a not-text book type choice and be sure you’ve covered all the basics. 

I was also thinking, maybe ask around and see if anyone else in your homeschool community is doing the Apologia and see if maybe you guys could organize “group experiments” or something, your son might be more interested if he knows he’s not alone and has something to look forward to (getting together with some science buddies)?  I have the benefit of both my Bigs doing this science together with me, so it makes it a “mini-group” and we’ve had some fun “arguments” over what we think should happen or should HAVE happened (um, the balloon apparently wasn’t *supposed* to explode all over the kitchen – who knew?) and to discuss the lesson together.  

I hope you can find something that works for you…

Blessings!

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

8. October 2008 by Shannon.

I was visiting my friend, Lia, the other day and of course, whenever homeschool moms get together there is the eventual, “So, how do YOU do it?”… of course I asked.  You see, my friend Lia has 9 children, all homeschooled from the start… she has graduated 2 or maybe 3 of them already into Post Secondary and right now one of them is actively pursueing a job as a fire-fighter!!!  (Personally, I don’t need any more white hairs, thank you very much!)

Okay, back to “how she does it”.  Well, the way she homeschools isn’t really what I want to write about… I want to just share one little nugget of gold that she practices that jumped out at me and I immediately had to go home and implement… and my kids are THRILLED!

Lia makes a binder full of pageprotectors (nothing special yet, eh?  hang on to your hats… there’s more!) and then she FILLS said page protectors with several copies of different layouts of templated notebooking pages.  There are so many amazing Homeschool Moms out there who have designed incredible notebooking pages; with spaces for pictures, maps, timelines even!  And of course… a written narration (summary) of that days/subjects lesson. 

So, her children do their school reading/research, then go over to the Master Binder, flip through and choose something that appeals to them that day, slips a page out of the page protector and go back and do their notebook page.  When finished they slip it into the last place in their own personal notebooks and have added to their “Personal History Book”.  It’s so simple an idea.  When they take out the last sheet, they inform Mom who then looks at the sheet they printed out, goes to the computer, prints out more copies of that particular sheet (and believe it or not, it’ll surprise you which ones your kids will “click” with!) and plops them back into the empty page protector … ready for the next lessons!

Now, as you all know, I’m all about the pictures, so here is a picture of a few pages from MY notebook page binder… and a picture of a page Kenzi did today on Madeleine de Verchères:

 So, my thought for today is….

THANK YOU LIA! :o)

 Blessings!

OH!  PS, here is my “creepy crawly of the month”… I found him crawling up my study window—>

 And here is my other little friend who is OBVIOUSLY not doing his job!

Sweet Dreams! *grin*

Posted in Notebooks, LapBooks, Great Ideas, 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 | 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/group/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 | 2 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 »

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 »

10. April 2008 by Shannon.

HAPPY SPRING!

(okay, I know that was technically last month, but up here in Canada we’re FINALLY seeing signs of spring - LOTS of MUCK!) 

Previously I posted a way to use duct tape to put lapbooks into your notebooks… but sometimes there are lapbook specific pages you’d like to include IN your lapbook (which is now IN your notebook… we’re spiralling inward now! *grin*).  I took pictures too..

As you can see, I’ve used brads to hold the notebook closed. It is secure and doesn’t slip open at all because it’s wrapped across twice. It also looks pretty *grin*  I would suggest (if you are going to add this to a notebook, though, that you put duct tape BEFORE you add the brads, as if you put it on after, then the brads will be rendered useless for helping keep the lapbook closed.  You might need to use a sharp edge to make “guides” for the brads to get through the duct tape too… that stuff is tough!). 

Opening up…

As you can see the page protector doesn’t pass the right side of the back of the lapbook, so it doesn’t interfere with closing the lapbook.

As you can see, the brads on the front cover become “duotang” type fasteners on the inside left cover which holds the edge of clear page protectors… as many as you see fit to add (obviously there is a limit or your lapbook won’t close easily - but still, it does let you add those special “unit related” pages to a lapbook - you can probably add about 10 or so, which gives you - double sided - 20 notebook pages to add to your lapbook).BTW, I used a “fake” lapbook to demonstrate, so no, this is not one of our real lapbooks - I just wanted to demonstrate my idea - but we will be adding pages this way in out next lapbook project “Art Appreciation” by Hands of a Child - this will be our very first HOAC Co-Op!  I’m so excited!  When we are done, we will be sure to post pictures!!

I hope you like my idea! Let me know how you find it works in YOUR homeschool!

Blessings!

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

19. March 2008 by Shannon.

I knew there had to be a way to bring Duct Tape into homeschooling! LOL!

My daughter loves to do “lapbooks” or “portfolders” or “lappacks”… basically a file folder refolded to make a portable viewing station housing a collection of little homemade folded booklets. It’s a great way to teach children to organize their thoughts… and we’ve been using it for years. THIS year however we decided to head in the direction of notebooking (keeping a binder full of page protectors in which we keep all our work each day)… now… Kenzi still wanted to do lapbooks… but how to put them into the binder to keep all her work together? Hmmmm…. Mom had to think about this a little.

Then it came to me! DUCT TAPE. Of course we all know that DUCT TAPE is the answer to all Life’s Questions… in fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find a striking resemblance between God and Red Green when the DAY comes…. (jk)

SO, I thought I would include some pictures, so you have an idea of what I’m talking about.

First, take an ordinary folder and refold it to make your project pack…

Second, measure a piece of duct tape just slightly smaller than the long folded edge of your folder.

Third, stick a (roughly) 1/4 inch section onto the folder. I do this while hanging the edge of the folder off the edge of the counter so the duct tape doesn’t stick to anything else (like my counter! LOL!)

Then flip the folder over carefully and folding carefully, stick the duct tape to the folder abotu 1/4 inch again to the other side, leaving about a 1/2 inch “tag” along the edge.

Be careful to stick it down straight, or you’ll end up with ridges and lumps in your duct tape!

Now… if you have a great three hole punch, go ahead and punch this like it is… I do not. And because it is tempermental, I decided the safest route was to go with my one hole punch and a piece of loose leaf to guide me.

Once the holes are punched… there you go! Slip it into your binder and move onto your next project!

Personally, I think this would be a neat thing to do to a bunch of folders in one session… it’s kinda sticky work, might as well get it over at once… so either hang on to the folders and insert them later, OR, you could make a bunch of folder packs up at once and duct tape them and THEN use them…. because the duct tape is so durable it won’t matter if it’s being handled.

Some examples of our lapbooks…. some of these are double (two folders attached together by one of the shorter edges… holds more mini books that way!

We love lapbooking! :o)  (okay, so these are just the outside covers…but honest, there are mini books inside… and maybe someday I might even get around to photographing them!  …. but then, that is what the notebook is for, isnt’t it?

Enjoy and I hope this has helped someone!

Posted in Notebooks, LapBooks, Great Ideas, Kenzi, General Homeschool | Print | 14 Comments »