School Week 22

We are a little behind on our school post so here we go. Two weeks ago we rowed the book Make Way for Ducklings. We've read this book before but never made a lapbook.

Geography: Boston, Mass
Language arts: vocabulary words, copy work
Art: draw ducks
Science: all about ducks




Something funny happened this semester, we switched the order of school... let me explain.
A8 usually starts school with a FIAR book and lapbook and the last workbox has her spelling. I noticed that she kept going for her last box, she would do her spelling and then her language lessons and math and then she wanted to do the book.

So I decided to let her switch her boxes in whatever order she wanted them in. She has her FIAR last instead of first, which means, she doesn't need me till math. I took advantage of this and switched X5's boxes and now I am able to do different books with him!

To catch up on our book list we've been rowing two books a week, the lapbooks are very simple allowing us to do this till we are caught up.

This week we read We're Going on a Bear Hunt and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

School Week 13

This post is a little late, but better late than never :) This week we are rowing the book Ox Cart Man. It is not a FIAR book but it is a Caldecott winner and I found a lapbook for it on Homeschoolshare.com, so I decided to added to our book list! I'm glad I did because the kids and I are really enjoying this book, so simple yet so many lessons!

Soc Stu: Geography:New England, Then & Now...
Language Arts: Comprehension & discussion...
Science: Farmers market, farm animals, maple sugaring...
There is so much in this book we could spend two weeks on it, we won't! However this is a book that I would not mind re rowing in the future, we could get so much more out of this book!!!

X5 is doing a The Very Hungry Caterpillar mini lapbook.

We've been starting school after 1 o'clock all this week. Normally this would not work, but for some reason this week it is. The kids are all feeling much better, however I'm still a little under the weather, I take some cold meds in the morning and after lunch I'm all ready to go and so are the kids! We had no piano lessons this week and that helped as well. I think Thursday will be our last day of doing it this way since Friday we have Coop at 1 o'clock.

School Week 12

This week we are rowing the book, The Finest Horse in Town. I've never read this book before, it looks a little old, we'll see how the kids like it. Not too many lessons with this book.

Geography: Maine, turn of the century
Language arts: stories inside stories, reminiscing
Science: caring for horses, ice from ice house
Art: trees and fall colors(we've pretty much covered this already)

X5 will be doing a mini lapbook from the book Brown Bear, What do you See?. Here's what's inside the lapbook.
I need to give a shout out to Tot Book 1+1+1=1. She has perfect mini lapbooks for X5. He really enjoys doing them plus they are all ready to go, all you have to do is print them out. Makes life a little easier for homeschooling Moms!!

School Week 11

This week we are rowing the book How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. We rowed this book two years ago, before we were into lapbooks. We love this book and I really wanted to make a lapbook out of it so we are reading it again!

The truth is I forgot last week was Columbus day week, I had a Columbus unit study for us to do last week but I grabbed the Babar folder instead. It wasn't till I noticed the neighbor kids weren't at school that I realized my mix up. By then, it was too late!! The kids loved the Babar book and did not want to do Columbus.

Oh well, we can hit Columbus next year, I have extra lapbooks around for times such as these and Apple pie was one of them!

Geography: Vermont, England, Sri Lanka, France, Jamaica
Language arts: sequence, copy work, word search
Math: subtraction, fractions
Science: salt experiment, evaporation

X5 will be working on his own Apple pie lapbook, sorting apples game and the letters M & N mini lapbook.

School Week 10

This week we are rowing the book: Babar To Duet or Not to Duet. This book has to do with piano playing and since A7 plays the piano I know she is going to love it. We have other Babar books and the Babar movie. YouTube has the the Duet movie, part 1 and part 2.

Geography: India(we haven't done this country yet and even though this story is set in "Celestville" which is a fictional town, I decided to use India because there are lots of elephants there!)
Social Stu: Relationships, taking advice, making yourself vurnerable, telling the truth
Language arts: copy work, music vocab words, days of the week
Science: elephants: african vs asian

X5 is going to be working on a Thomas the Train mini lapbook that will look something like this when finished.

X5 has been doing a mini lapbook for the letters of the alphabet as well, we spend two days on each letter doing different activities for the lapbook, he is on letter K and L this week.

School Week 9

This week we are rowing the book The Story About Ping. We rowed this book two years ago with A7. Back then we knew very little about lapbooks, we did a few activities and she colored some China coloring pages but that's about it. I've been wanting to do a Ping lapbook and here's our chance. I'm sure X5 will love the book as well!

Geography: China, Yangtze River, Symbols of China
Social Stu: Chinese culture, discernment, learn about China kit
Art: origami
Language Arts: copy work, repetition
Science: float or sink

We are going to use our "learn about China kit" for this book!!

X5 will be working on a Veggie Tales mini lapbook that will look something like this:

School Week 6

This week we are rowing the book Night of the Moonjellies.
"This beautifully illustrated picture book debut evokes the fullness of a New England childhood through descriptions of a single summer day"

Geography: New England
Soc. Stu: Responsability
Lang. Arts: Vocabulary words
Science: biome, moonjelly fish

X5 will be working on his C & D lapbook & Big Machines lapbook. It will look something like this.

School Week 4

I decided to label the school posts with the school week we are on. We have to do school for 36 weeks or 180 days, Our first week was Roxbury week. Then two weeks of reptiles and amphibians unit study. Now we start our 4th school week. We are now settling into our school routine of a FIAR book, with lapbook, MUS, Language lessons, spanish and any other activities in the boxes.

This week we are rowing the book Madeline in London. I love to start our FIAR journey with Madeline!


Geography: travel from Paris to London, what is there to see in London? Where in the world in England?

Language Arts: Vocabulary words, reading comprehension, copy work

Science: taking care of horses

ps. update post to show pic of lapbook later in the week.



X5 will be rowing The ABC Bunny with a lapbook.

I know I said I would show the activities in the boxes for the week, but that is proving to be a little difficult at the moment. I have a few plans but the thing is Clubs is starting next week and so is COOP and that takes priority right now.

I don't want to overdo it just to show a few pics on the blog.

Spring & Easter

It sure was busy last week. I didn't even post anything about what we did for school.
Yes, we did have school last week. We read this wonderful book Miss Rumphius!
Seeking adventure in faraway places, Miss Rumphius fulfills her dream and then sets out to make the world more beautiful.

Geography: Maine, town by the sea (tropical island, dessert, snow covered mountains)
Language Arts/Art: how to make the world more beautiful
Science: How do seeds travel, Seed Book


This week and part of next week we'll be reading a number of books that have to do with Spring and Easter. We'll be looking at why Christians celebrate Easter they way they do and the other Easter celebration that includes Easter eggs, bunnies and chocolate!!

Here are the books we'll be reading:

The Story of Easter: Book describes Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, then moves on to explain the origins of other springtime rituals and their connection to the biblical traditions.

The Legend Of The Three Trees: The story beings with three young trees who dream of doing big deeds. When the woodcutters come, the trees each find that the reality of their existence doesn't match their dreams…

It's Spring: The excitement of spring is in the air as a boy explores the world around him.

We'll be doing a spring and Easter lapbook as well as other Easter activities. I'm hoping to be done by Tuesday of next week. Then we can have the rest of Holy week off!
I'm not sure how much time I'll have to post during the week or even next week. So let me just wish you a happy Easter now!

The Bravest of Us All

This week we attempted to read the book The Bravest of Us All. I've been wanting to row this book for a while now. I love learning about tornadoes, which is what the book is about. I rented the movie Night of the Twisters. Yes, I know, there is a movie called Twister which is probably much better that this one, but Twister also has things which are not age appropriate, so I took my chances with this other movie.
The kids loved the movie and they got a real sense of how powerful and dangerous tornadoes can be.

Geography: Tornado Alley
Language Arts: vocabulary words
Science/Art: tornadoes


This has been a tough week for us all. First X4 got sick, then DH got sick. Thankfully DH was not vomiting like X4 was, but his stomach was in a lot of pain. It hasn't been only us, our neighbor's kid had the stomach flu as well and one of our Club leaders. DH was not able to do Clubs last night, neither was I, so three Club leaders were not there last night...from what I hear, a lot of kids were not there either...this flu thing is really getting around.

Andy and the Lion

This week we are rowing the book Andy and the Lion. This kid Andy is reading and reading about lions, then one day he runs into one. The story is very sweet. I happen to love lions, so reading this book is no problem!
Geography: New York Public Library
Language Arts: vocabulary words
Science & Art: lions


This is Club week, it started with Club Sunday, the kids and all the Club leaders wore their Club shirt on Sunday morning. We had a small presentation of what we've been doing this year with Clubs and the kids got to sing our Club song Jesus is our Superhero!
Tonight as part of Club week we are having build your own Sundae and Saturday is the Shape N Race or as it's commonly known, the Pinewood Derby.
Next Sunday evening we are going roller skating at Cosmic Skate, should be fun!

Three Names

This week we are rowing the book Three Names. It is about a Great Grandfather and his dog Three Names! The great grandfather is telling his great grandson stories about his childhood "a hundred years ago". The kids really like this book, it is a little long but A7 has been reading along with me and that makes it even more fun to read!

Social Studies: prairie land, then & now
Language arts: hyperbole, simile; what are three names' three names?
Science: wildlife on the prairie

This week we start our COOP once again. We'll be doing eight weeks which takes us to the first week in May, that day we will be having a Field day for all the kids!! I will be teaching this time around, something called Lentils, it is science and math for groups 2 & 1. It looks really fun although setup time is a little long.

It's been a busy couple of weeks, haven't had time to post much. We had a great Valentine's Day!
My Hubby made me this wonderful gift. I don't usually post about Valentine gifts because they are personal (when it comes to valentine's gifts I prefer the home made kind rather than chocolates, flowers or jewelry) and I don't always want to share that stuff but I have to post about his gift this year!

He made me a Valentine's Day lapbook! here's a pic!

This is one of the best gifts ever!!!!!!

Warm as Wool

This week we are rowing the book Warm as Wool. This story is set in 1803 Ohio, a pioneer mother has a plan to keep her children warm: it starts with sheep purchased with coins she'd been saving from her former days in Connecticut.

Geography: Ohio & Conneticut, Pioneer life
Language Arts: Sequence of events
Art: drawing sheep & log cabin
Math: math cards
Science: sheep, animal groups

Lapbook will be posted later...

Another Celebrated Dancing Bear

This week we are rowing the book Another Celebrated Dancing Bear. It is the story of two bear friends who happen to live in Russia. They also like to drink a lot of tea! One of them is a dancer, the other an animal doctor, but he dreams of being a dancer like his friend!
I really enjoyed this book, it is a wonderful story, the kids were not as moved by it as I was.
It's a good thing we are only doing this book for half the week. The lapbook was pretty simple and we were able to finish it today. On Thursday and Friday we'll be reading Valentine day books and doing valentine day activities.


Geography: Russia, Russia is known for...
Language Arts: drama cards
Science: boiling point, freezing point of water.

Super Bowl lapbook

Since we were done with our lapbook on Thursday, I decided to do a fun lapbook for the upcoming Super Bowl. We are Steeler fans and are looking forward to Super Bowl 43.
It's not too in depth but it has things the kids can understand...I know there are a lot more positions on a football team but I chose the ones that are easier to explain.

The kids really got a kick out of this one! We'll be finishing the lapbook on Sunday, since we need to know who won and what each team scored. I hope we'll be happy with the results!

Go Steelers!

Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car

This week we are rowing Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car. The story is really simple, it's almost the same story as Mr. Gumpy's Outing. The only difference is they are riding a car instead of a boat.
The lapbook for this one doesn't have much, I'll post a pic as soon as we're done with it.

Geography: England
Language Arts: onomatopoeia {words that imitate the sound it is describing like "oink" or "meow"}
Science: the water cycle
Arts/Craft: rainy day mobile

We are getting lots of snow now and we may be getting lots of ice as well. Piano lessons were canceled today and we may have to cancel Clubs tomorrow. It's a good thing we have plenty of bread and milk!

Here is the completed lapbook, it was a very simple one. We were done with on Thursday.

Inauguration Day

We watched the Inauguration this morning as part of school and that's pretty much all we did. I purchased an Inauguration Day Fold and Learn from FIAR digital.
These fold and learns are pretty interesting. They are different than regular lapbooks. They contains lots of info and pics but is not set up the same as a lapbook. I went ahead and did my own thing with it and made it into a foldnlearn/lapbook. It came out pretty good.



I wasn't sure how I was going to explain this all to the kids but interestingly enough they were able to follow everything I was telling them. I gave them so much information about presidents, vice presidents, slavery, Lincoln, but they stayed with me! That was a pleasant surprise!

I was also surprised to see just how excited they got when Obama finally made it to the platform. X4 was jumping around saying "There he is, there he is!" They seemed to be very happy that Obama was now our President!

Very Last First Time

This week we are rowing the book Very Last First Time. It is the story of a girl named Eva, and the adventure she has under the sea.
Geography: Northern Canada
Culture: Inuit culture
Language Arts: vocabulary words
Science: dress for the season, temperature, who lives in the tide pool.

Here is a pic of the lapbook we made.

Ocean Unit Study & lapbook Part II

This was our second week doing the ocean unit study. This week we got more into, God creating the land and the ocean and what they mean to us and all the creatures that live in it.
They learned what a continent is and how many and their names. We also learned their location and the oceans names and location.


We also read the book Arabella, about a grandfather his grandson and the sea. The book is out of print but somebody from the Five in a Row message boards knows Wendy Orr and contacted her. She sold us the book, shipped it from Australia and signed it!! Thank you Wendy! It is a wonderful story and my kids enjoyed it very much!
I have a world puzzle that has the continents and oceans, they played with that everyday. We finished the second lapbook, oceans and continents:




Then on Friday we watched Planet Earth The Complete Series dvd. We watched Shallow seas and Ocean deep. They got to see all the ocean creatures we learned about last week plus we got to see which ones live on which ocean and how they travel from one ocean to another for different reasons. The Great White footage was incredible!



Amazon.com has the complete series dvd for under $20 if you buy it used, which is what I did. If you buy it new, you're looking at $50+. This dvd is going to come in handy when we do our Zoology unit study at the end of the school year.

Next week we're going back to doing a book a week.

Past Lapbooks

I wanted to post about the lapbooks we've done so far. I'm going to be posting pictures of our lapbooks this year but I don't have any of the ones we did when we first got into lapbooking, so here they are!

Our first lapbook, Mirette and the high wire!

Madeline's Rescue

Red Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge

Climbing Kansas Mountains

The Story Of Ferdinand

The Wild Horses of Sweetbriar