Notebooking, continued

Continued from yesterday's post.

I realized I had some paper downstairs, so I checked it out. I don't have to buy any legal size paper. Quite a few years ago, someone gave me a huge stack of 11" x 17" white paper (not construction paper). Well, I just have to fold it over punch holes in, and the paper fits nicely into a binder. This is what I will use for the human body notebooks. I'm so glad. I'm trying to spend the least amount of money as possible for homeschooling this year.

I am disappointed that I can't get the Editor in Chief book for Tom. That is ok. Someone gave me a box of books a few months ago with the Rod and Staff English 7 set. That saved me some money.

I still need to get Becca 11th grade. In the mean time, I'm going to switch her schooling to 12th grade books, which I have. I will list them on the left sidebar.

I still need the knowledgequest maps. Tom needs to have geography. I do have the Ultimate geography book but the KQ maps would be better for our studies this year.

Not sure about math. I would like to use R&S math 7 and Life of Fred. I have to talk to Ed about ordering these.

I'm hoping we will be able to visit Valley Forge within the next few weeks. I was talking to Ed about going and he said he would like to go also. I was just going to take the kids myself. I also want to go other places but believe it or not they are closed. The Daniel Boone Homestead, Washington's Crossing...closed. What is this government doing? This is history, our kids history. They need to see all of this. I have to find some other places. I would like to go (with Ed) to Philly (some things have been cut there also). The kids would like this. We had an opportunity to go earlier this year, but I didn't because Ana would not have made it through the day. She's quite a few months older and I think she will do fine.

Have a nice day.
~Margarete~

Happy Birthday, Katie.

Katie is 7 years old today. Where did the time go? She has been asking for a bible so that is what we bought for her. She pulled it out of the birthday bag with a nice smile on her face. I made 2 cakes to take with us to the "play area". One for her friends and one gluten free for herself. It is pretty good. No, she won't eat the whole thing today. ~smile~ I'll bag most of it and put it in the freezer; this way, she will have cake for awhile.

Happy Birthday, Katie. We love you.

~Margarete~

Human Body Notebooking

I have been putting together the binders for the human body study. I was thinking, (dangerous, I know), Instead of regular size 8 1/2" x 11" paper I would use legal size and fold the one side in. That would give more room for the body manipulatives that we will make. My shopping day is at the end of the week so I will buy some and try it out. This might be a very good idea especially for an older child that doesn't want to use the file folders anymore. I don't know if I want to keep the page blank or make a decorative border. This would also give more room for him to write, not just on the booklet.

Tom will be using Abeka Health 7, and also: human body lapbook booklets, McGraw-Hill 'The Human Body' The 100+ Series Reproducible activities grades 5 - 8, Gross Anatomy by Christine Becker, R.N., B.S.N. (I know, groooossssss...but it is life), Fascinating Facts about The Human Body 98 Ready-to-Go Reproducibles Grades 4 - 6 (size of pages minimized), The Body Book Easy to Make Hands On Models that Teach by Donald M. Silver grades 3 - 6 (sizes minimized). With this last book, he will put the models on the appropriate pages instead of making the body model. His notebooking will be, of course, for an older child. We have the human body model game and I believe we also have a human body to put together (I think). I hope I didn't get rid of it. We also have the Professor Noggins Human Body game. Ohyeah, I also have the Easy Make & Learn Projects The Human Body Grades 2 -4 We can use this also, minimized of course.
I will find some videos, etc. I will also add these to Tom's school list on the left sidebar.

Tom did The Human Body quite a few years ago. He must have been around 4 or 5. He doesn't even remember. Thankful I took pictures.

Katie and Ana will be doing this also.

~Margarete~

Quiet Day Today

What a nice quiet day. Tom had a friend over, Katie and Ana played out in their pool, Ed cleaned the van and garage, Becca did the laundry (WOW!!), and I made 10 loaves of zucchini bread. I'm going to try and make some more tomorrow after church. I'm also going to make some gluten free/zucchini bread. I have a roast all ready in the crock pot and I have left over potatoes, will add some vegetables and dinner is ready for tomorrow. ~nice~

Enjoy your night.
~Margarete~

History

On the WTM boards, someone just reminded me about the Time Travelers Colonial Life study by History through the Ages. Wow! My kids will be doing alot of crafting this year. I will post the craft books we will be using tomorrow (on the sidebar). I'm tired.
Have a good night everyone.
~Margarete~

Notebooking pages

I'm so tired of trying to find free notebooking pages so I have started to make my own. I have started to post some, not all, on www.hslaunch.com that is a free site. Also, I will list what I have done so far on the right side bar.

Hope this helps someone.
~smile~

Van Picture

This is the inside of the van. We do need to shampoo it.

Katie is fascinated with the sliding doors. We are enjoying it!

Prayer Needed

This little boy needs prayers. http://isaiahs-journey.blogspot.com/ This is someone we know. We are not close with them. But I believe they need as much prayer as possible.

Blog Button

If I get a free blog button, how do I make a link to get to my blog??

Monday

Did not want to get up this morning. I heard it raining so I needed to get our bikes up on the porch. So, my day has started. Dishes are just about done. Still working on copying and making notebook pages for school. I'm going to get the log sheets together and we will start reading every day now. We haven't done anything for this next school year. I know some people don't start until September but I'm not going to do that. Earlier the better. School days can be shorter or I can just take a day off here and there. I'm sure there are alot of families that just keep schooling. I'm glad they can do that.

Yesterday we attending the police picnic. It was nice and quiet. Everyone looked so hot and tired. Except for Katie, of course. She was running all over, playing with the games (by herself), and just enjoying the day.

Later in the evening Tom, Katie, and myself went to the concert in the park. They had a band playing music from the 60's. I remembered a few of the songs. I was very little when alot of those songs were created. Out of, at least, 200 people, Katie was all over. She wanted to talk to a police officer but wouldn't do it without me. No, I really didn't feel like bothering him while he was working. She remembered him from the picnic. She remembered where he sat, who he sat with, how long he was there, etc. Then she found cicada shells on a tree and she had to smash one to here the crunching sound (ugh!) She actually followed Tom, all the way around the whole park area, running while he rode his bike. She didn't get tired. Sometimes I get very exhausted just watching her.

Ben and Becca were bored at the picnic. I guess it is there age and the fact that they didn't know anyone. If they would just talk to someone it wouldn't be boring. Jon came along and talked to the chief a little about becoming a police officer. I'm so excited for Jon. Since this boy was born he has always wanted to be in the military or police. I believe it is going to happen.

This is out of the blue but, I think I want to get one of those Fushigi balls. Did you ever see one? They are a "magic gravity ball". They look really cool. Yes, I can have something fun once in a while. ~smile~ Ed would tell me I'm crazy. ~LOL~

I'm going to get moving now.

Have a happy day.
Margarete

Church, Picnic, and Stuff

Today we got a slow start so we are just going to church today. We missed Sunday school. Everyone is getting so tired.

We were invited to go to the Police picnic today. Since Ed is now on the town's board we get invited to different functions. We are now starting to know alot of people from town (we've only been here for about 12 years!!).

We went to a small gathering the other night so we could meet the new police chief. He's very nice. He will be talking with our son Jon about becoming a police officer. This will be good for Jon.

Ed started painting the 3rd floor yesterday. We will be moving kids around to different bedrooms. This way, Katie and Ana can be split up. Let me tell you, they are trouble together. Bedtime has never been easy (honestly). Most bedtimes are horrible! Now when they are separated, they can fall asleep in peace and I can be calm by the time I get to bed.

Just another comment about the van we are getting: I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Smile and have a beautiful day,
Margarete

P.S. I started to put up files on hslaunch.com ~smile~ I finally figured it out. Now, as I make something I can post it right away. I hope to make many for others to enjoy.

VAN!

We are getting the mini-van we looked at the other night. I cannot wait! I need to do grocery shopping by myself. Nothing against Ed taking me but, I usually like to go early in the morning to check out meats that go on sale. He just doesn't have the time to take me everywhere. And he just doesn't like to shop, does any man? ~grin~

Enjoy your day!
Margarete

Another Post For The Day

First let me say, "It is so darn hot out there"! I walked to the coffee shop, which was fine. But, coming back I though my chest was going to explode! Now you have to realize that we live on a hill, a very long hill. Going down is fine but people are usually huffing and puffing by the time they reach the top. In weather like this, they are ready to die!

Ben's diploma arrived in the mail today!! (he hasn't see it yet) It is offical. He has graduated! Now to get him moving to sign up for classes at the community college.

The kids are back from the last day of VBS. Ana, and Becca are not feeling well and, get this, Katie is doing my laundry! Yes, she is. She just came down and asked me if she could empty the dryer and put in the wet clothes. Wow! Am I to say "No"? I don't think so. She can fold it while she's at it. ~grin~

Tom came in from VBS and sat in the living room at proceeded to turn on the tv. I went in and he is watching, get this, a soap opera (Y & R)? Me: "Tom, what are you watching and why". Tom: "I'm watching a soap opera because I "had" to watch it with Auntie down at the shore". Me: "Tom you could just walk away". Tom, "No I couldn't. There was no where to go". The shore is a very big place. I don't know what he was thinking but he sure was interested. It is now off and will stay that way. Just a little note; the people on their sure are getting old!

I am now going to put papers into binders though I'm debating whether to cut out all the papercrafts now or we do it as we get to them. I'm thinking it would be better if I cut them now so we don't have to much to do when the time comes. What are your thoughts?

We looked at a Venture mini-van last night. It is really nice. (8 seats) The van only has 68,000 miles on it. It was used to transport people to doctor appts. The man has it priced to high so Ed was going to call him today to see if he could lower it. He actually lowered it by $200.00 as we were talking. He is over the Blue Book price. If this doesn't work out, we will look at another one at a dealer.

Ok, I need to get off of the computer and do my work

Have a good day.
Margarete

Katie's Soccer and Other

We decided to sign up Katie for soccer. She has so much energy. The good thing was that this morning I had to wake her up. That NEVER happens!! She was actually wrapped up in her blanket and sound asleep. It really is ashame that I had to, but it is the last day of VBS and she loves it there.

This picture is my favorite. There is no mistake, she is a happy child.

(See her two teeth missing at the bottom?)

Tom is now thinking about basketball. We were going to sign him up for volleyball with the local homeschool group but if basketball is at the same time, we will probably let him do that instead.

Lapbook with Notebooking

I posted some pictures of Tom's lapbook with notebooking on my other blog ... scroll up for the link.

School Room Pictures

1st picture is of the girls calendar. They put on the month and days with velcro.

This has the Pledge of Allegiance and pictures from Child-Size Masterpieces

This of course is a picture of the maps and 3 pics. of the birds drawn by Audubon

This is an attempt of mine to make a wall timeline with electrical tape and velcro. The dates are in yellow. We will be using Hold That Thought Timeline Pics. and any others I can find (free). We are going to be learning about early American history, so that is why there is a big gap with the 1700's and 1800's.

This is my other attempt at making an animal kingdom wall chart. I still have to find the pics. of animals. I do like the clipart/book that http://www.doverpublications.com/ has.

All of these are pics. of the posters from Picturing America. Everywhere the kids look in the schoolroom, they will learn something.

No, she's not a permanent fixture. She is literally all over the place. And no, I don't let her do this all the time. It was just a fun picture that she wanted to pose for.

This room will eventually be redone, so I will not be able to always do this.

Timeline

This is a timeline Tom made a few years ago using STOW 1. I used cardstock and attached them together by folding one edge and gluing (I think this is found in one of Dinah Zike's books). I used colored electrical tape and address labels. They folded up nicely and fit in a flexible 1" binder. Tom, Katie, and Ana will be making another one like this for American history. This year, I will try to find the repositionable glue for the dates and pictures. I have to figure out what pics. we will use. For the timeline below, we used stickers, coloring books decreased in size, clipart, drawings, the paperdoll from http://www.makingfriends.com/ , and some things from the STOW 1 activity book. We also added some flaps because we forgot some dates or pictures. All in all, this has been a favorite of mine to go back and look at. Hope this helps someone.

Quiet

The kids are at vacation bible school today. It is so quiet. Ben is here but he doesn't make much noise. ~smile~ The only real sound is the humming of the air conditioner and the birds chirping outside.

My list today consists of:

bike ride ... done
cleaning bathrooms ... done
laundry (as usually) ... almost done
dishes (almost done) ... done
making lunch (watermelon is cut up) having egg salad ... done
already have dinner meat prepared and potatoes ready
vaccum rooms ... done
work on the school room and getting papers together
sit outside and read while the girls play in the kiddie pool (later)

~Enjoy your day~
Margarete

Gardens

Our Garden is doing very well. I had posted before about our friend, Jimmie, giving us plants. He also brings over manure to keep the plants thriving. I didn't realize he is a biologist and used to teach at a college. He has also recruited Tom with helping him plant 1,500 plants. Yes, that's right. 1,500 plants. He told me he has corn and strawberry popcorn planted in another area. I've never seen strawberry popcorn.
Does anyone else have a garden? Post a link so we can see yours. ~smile~

Bike rides and Williamsburg

Last night I took a nice bike ride around the park. It was actually nice and cool under the trees. This morning I took Tom and Katie out to ride but Tom gave up and went back home. Katie went under the pavillion and played ball with a little girl. I don't know how many times I went around but I got alot of exercise in today.

We most probably will be going to Williamsburg some time in the fall. I'm trying to get dates together and make some type of itinerary. This will be good considering the kids will be doing American History. I do want to make sure I have enough breakfast foods (especially Katie's) and I want to pack food for lunches. We will just buy drinks and dinner. This will surely save on money. Oh, I am including starbucks mochas (or any type of chocolate/coffee drink) ~smile~

Have a nice "cool" day.
Margarete

5th of July

We had an excellent party yesterday! We had a few friends and family over to celebrate Ed's birthday. We had ALL our children there. Bob and Bethany came up from VA and Ed was so surprised. Everyone knew they were coming but him. We haven't seen them since there wedding last May. The girls missed them so much. Hopefully we will see them in the fall.

Back to the party. Ed had a great time. He got gifts; he doesn't like to receive, he likes to give. But all in all he liked what he got. He enjoyed every moment. We had so much food! I made a huge tray of potato salad and another of pasta salad. A huge bowl of Ambrosia salad (that is gone already!), and a huge tray of chocolate cake. I also made a gluten/casein, soy free chocolate cake for Katie. Others brought salad with chicken and all the makings, macaroni salad, taco salad dip, fruit salad, monkey bread, cookies, chips, and we can't forget the watermelon. It was so good. We still have food left so I don't have to cook for another day or two.

After everyone left, Jon, Ben, Becca and two of their friends lit fireworks. Katie and Ana thought it was the best thing. Katie could not believe that I had sparklers when I was 6 yrs. old.! LOL!!

I just have to say that Eddie's (the oldest), hair is so nice. It is black and curly. What woman would pay for hair like his. I don't know where he got it from. We all have straight hair...blah.
LOL!

Today I'm "trying" to copy more things for school. I'm tired and I don't feel like doing anything. Well, I already did dishes and alot of laundry including hanging it out to dry.

I should try to relax but I feel like things always need to be done. It's too hot to ride a bike or take a walk. I could fill up the kids little pool and soak my feet in it. I wonder what the girls would think if I took over their pool...that sounds like fun. ~smile~

Have a nice quiet day.
Margarete