Learning in the Box

New Year and finally back

2012-01-05T20:33:00.003+10:30

I cannot believe how long it has been since I last posted! So much has happened, we have moved states, bought a house and are slowly getting organised!

Fitting 5 kids into a 3 bedroom house has been a challenge, as has setting up our workboxes when we no longer have a seperate school room and now have to share the dining/lounge space with our school things.

We have started school this week and I will share more of that soon. Hubby is in a new job that is still on the other side of the country, new job has meant a new shift and we are adjusting to a 9 days away and 5 days home routine. This means that we are going to homeschool year round, formal bookwork done while Dad is away and "holidays" when Dad is home when natural, informal work will happen.

We have lots of changes planned with our curriculum this year and I will share them in another post. My new years resolution is to blog more :) and hopefully have a better record of what we did in school this year. So heres to a more settled school year with no moves!

Moving :)

2011-08-14T07:05:00.001+09:30

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. But I have just got regular internet back after our BIG move.

We have just finished packing up everything and moving across the country back home. We have been blessed to be able to stay in a friends house for 3 months while they are overseas on mission work. We have been house hunting and found a house the first weekend we were back. We are waiting on final approval from the bank but it looks like by the end of September Godwilling we will finally have our own house after 8 long years!!

We did not expect to be away from home so long. It was supposed to be a 6 month stint with us all together as a family, while the baby grew and Hubby finished the job he had to do. It turned out to be 2 1/2 years!! We met lots and lots of friends who we will miss, were part of the fantastic Noah’s Ark Playgroup for kids with special needs, and managed to get ourselves close to debt free. All in all our time in Kalgoorlie brought many blessings.

Unfortunately Hubby’s job has not finished and at this stage he had not found work else where so we will be going back to a FIFO (Fly in Fly out) role. So this will bring big adjustments to our family. The older kids can remember those days but the youngest 2 cant.

So this last week has been spend unpacking boxes, setting up our workboxes and getting ourselves ready for school again. Meanwhile the kids are enjoying exploring the new backyard, finding caterpillars and go-carting down the driveway! After one ripped skirt and one crash the rules are Jeans, shoes and helmets!! Little Man is enjoying meeting his cousins and being introduced to a whole new BOY world!!

We also joined our local library and bought home a whole pile of books – now life is starting to feel more like normal.

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

2011-06-02T22:39:00.001+09:30

It has been ages since we rowed this book. So long ago that I don’t have a record of it! Only have records for the last 2 years – the rest are in storage in another state! So in preparation for a re-row here are some resources I have found around the web.

Other Homeschoolers share their Rowing of the book

Joyful Mother of 6 Children rowed going on a bear hunt here. I LOVE her sensory tub ideas, in fact I love all her ideas!

Delightful learning shares here. I love that she shares a video of the author reading the book.

The Bough Family make a bear hunt guide here.

Workbox ideas (all of the ideas below would be great additions to a workbox)

HomeschoolShare has a Bear Hunt Lapbook on their Resources page More ideas from the HomeschoolShare Message board here

Circle Time Poster for We’re going on a Bear hunt here. This would be perfect for children to use to retell the story.

Patterns for We’re going on a bear hunt from Kidzclub (can download in color or black and white)

more patterns for felt board this time from MakingLearningFun*com, they also have a 3D map for the story, and an emergent reader.

And a Story pack (Please note this is from Sparklebox – see blog post here first )

Sparklebox

2011-06-02T22:36:00.001+09:30

I know that a little while ago there was some debate on line about using Sparklebox. In case you are not aware the owner of the website is a convicted pedophile. I link to Sparklebox resources on a regular basis and at this stage I do not intend to stop this but I want people to know so they can choose to or not use them.

The story is listed here and here

I have no intention of debating the issue raised here. This post is only so people can make an informed decision before they choose to use the resources.

If you feel uncomfortable using the resources here is a list of other sites providing similar free resources as Sparklebox does.

Mrs Pancake

SEN Teacher

First-School – not as colourful but one of the first sites I ever used and still come back to use it.

Best Primary Teaching Resources – not all are free but most are.

I will try to add more to this page as I find them.

Sonlight Surprise–One and Zero by Kathryn Otoshi

2011-05-28T12:00:00.001+09:30

I found a surprise in my mail box today. A parcel from Sonlight. But I already have the new catalogue and I didn’t order anything. Inside was a book …

and a letter explaining my special gift from Sarita Holzmann president of Sonlight Curriculum.

The book is two books in one – one side is One by Kathryn Otoshi and the other side is Zero by Kathryn Otoshi.

I had never read these books before or heard of the author but as soon as I opened the books I was impressed. The pages are clear with simple illustrations, simple number concepts and colours but such a deep message. One deals with bullying and standing up to a bully. Zero deals with the fact that we all are important we just need to find our value. I had some quiet time today with only my “baby” home, something that rarely happens so before he went to sleep we read the book together. He loved it. Wombat is 2 1/2 with developmental delay and Hypermobility Syndrome. It was good to see him pointing to the pictures, the simpleness of them seemed to appeal to him. Next week I am going to read it to the older girls and see what they think. For me it has joined my book list of favourite books.

I was also impressed with the fact that Sonlight has done it again. I did not have to do anything to get this book. It arrived a complete surprise. A gift to me. What other company does this sort of thing? Especially to overseas customers? We are in Australia and so many times any specials offered by many companies are sent to those in the US only. How many companies send you a gift for faithful business. A gift to help you encourage your children in being able “to step up into the roles God has called them to”*

Thank you Sarita and John. Sonlight has made a difference in our homeschooling journey and I appreciate the work that you do, supporting me in homeschooling and in providing such great books for us to read together.

* (quoted from the letter accompanying the book from Sarita Holzmann)

Interesting Links regarding these books

Interview by the Author Kathryn Otoshi

Kathryn reads her book ‘one’ on Youtube

Become a Charlotte Mason Teacher

2011-05-17T08:03:00.001+09:30

I was sent a link to the blog ChildlightUSA and in particular the post on becoming a Charlotte Mason teacher. I recommend reading this post if you are thinking about using Charlotte Mason’s principles in your homeschool journey.

I will be adding this blog to my list of favourites to read. Enjoy

The Curiosity Files–Puffer Fish Product Review

2011-04-28T16:55:00.001+09:30

The Curiosity Files™ : Puffer Fish

Explorations with Professor Ana Lyze—Expert in Outlandish Oddities
A FUN unit study for kids ages 8–13

I know it is school holiday time but the kids wanted something to do and I was given this product to review so this week was a good time to use it.

I have never used any of the Curiosity Files before. They are published by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. Each File is $6.95 for a downloadable Ebook in PDF format or you can get a downloadable bundle of all 9 books for $46.00 (or $49 if you would prefer them on CD). In the series are Cicada-Killing Wasp, Blue Diamond, Blue-Footed Booby, Dung Beetle, MRSA, Platypus, Red Tide, Zombie Fire Ants, Quicksand and Puffer Fish. All unique and interesting subjects.

The series are written from the point of view of a child asking questions of Professor Ana Lyze (the name appealed to Zebra (10) as she is just starting to understand plays on words). The information presented about the puffer fish was interesting and even though we had done a short study before on the fish we learnt some new things. My children love the Magic School bus and this reminded me a little of them – (zany and strange things of nature) The difference is that this series are God focused. The kids (and I) really enjoyed reading about the fish and not having to wade through the normal evolution biased information which seems to be in nearly every book you pick up.

The information about the fish was interesting, clearly written and simple to understand. This is the first bit of the Ebook which was a huge 85 pages. You could print this up if you wanted to or do as we did and just read it off the computer.

The next bit of the Ebook is a review which we did verbally (you could do it as a written test). I was impressed that the girls could answer all of the questions except one. Then the fun starts or it would have if my printer had not died. I was disappointed that at this present time I was unable to print out any of the worksheets and lapbook components. I think there is enough work here for 1-2 weeks of work. Every subject is covered –

Bible study and memory verses
Math, history, and geography investigations
Literature and suggested book list
Writing, spelling, and vocabulary activities
Beautiful copywork pages (manuscript and cursive)
Science observations, projects, and experiments
Discussion questions
Art, crafts, drawing, and coloring pages
Lapbook and notebook pages
Internet resources and video links
Complete answer key at the back making it very easy for Mum to check work.

It would also be perfect to use for a science fair project topic.

I liked that it was perfect to use with the workbox system as you could just print the bits you wanted and add to the kids boxes.

The age range was 8-13 and I think this was fairly accurate. My children are 5,7,9 and 10. There were bits that could be used with younger children and my 5 year old was happy to listen to most of the information. There was a lot that was above my kids work wise so this unit would be perfect for a family that likes to do unit studies together. Just print and give the appropriate bits to each child.

Having tried this one I would buy more in the series as I feel that they are really worth the small cost ($6.95) as all the kids can use them, it was a simple and easy way to do a whole family unit study with no preparation on the part of Mum other than printing out the relevant work sheets. All the information needed was included along with a list of links for more learning if you wanted to learn more.

I was very impressed to see a section for kids with special needs giving ideas for extending their learning, with hands on ideas. Having a son with special needs and a nephew with autism it is nice to know that they can be easily included in the unit study as part of the family with out Mum having to alter things specially for them.

Did you know that to become a qualified chef in Japan you have to do 2-3 years of study, and if you make it to the end of the exam have to eat your fish? About 100 people die each year from eating Puffer fish? Just some of the interesting facts included in the book.

If you would like to try a sample of this ebook click here. If you would like to purchase this ebook or others in the series click here or go to The Old Schoolhouse store website and search under Curiosity Files.

**Please note I was not paid to write this review.

I was given a free copy of the product for the purposes of review. ***

Holidays time

2011-04-16T00:14:00.001+09:30

Down under here the first term has just come to an end and we are on holidays for 3 weeks (at least our family is! ). I haven’t planned anything for the holidays except relax and enjoy our selves but the girls have a few ideas they would like to try so we will see what happens.

So for all of those in Australia who follow the school term a big Happy Holidays to you! and see you in 3 weeks time

From Akebu to Zapotec

2011-04-05T13:18:00.001+09:30

Sonlight had a extra download in 2009 (It was called Core 1 Tips – but with the cores renamed and the website under change I am not sure how to find it )

I am going to provide the direct links that were given in the Sonlight download for this book. Please note these link direct to the PDF’s – they were really hard to find and link to any other way. I found these really good – I printed up the map for the kids to mark the country on and the info about the country I printed for me so I could share more about the people as we read about each one. They are from www.vernacularmedia.org/ There was so much more we could have done with these lessons – but if we took every rabbit trail we would NEVER finish a core!!

Akebu people – supplemental lesson PDF

Brokpa People – supplemental lesson PDF

Chut People – supplemental lesson PDF we read about these people after we had read some books about the Vietnam war, which made the people and the place seem a little bit more real and closer to home for us here in Australia.

Dongxiang People – supplemental lesson PDF

Elkei People – supplemental lesson PDF

Fania People – supplemental lesson PDF

Gusilay People – supplemental lesson PDF

Hrusso People – supplemental lesson PDF

Ica People – supplemental lesson PDF

Jumjum People – supplemental lesson PDF

Kulango People – supplemental lesson PDF

Libido People – supplemental lesson PDF

Melanuau People – supplemental lesson PDF

Ngizim People – supplemental lesson PDF

Osing People – supplemental lesson PDF

Phuan People – supplemental lesson PDF

Quechua People – supplemental lesson PDF

Rajbanshi People – supplemental lesson PDF

Safwa People – supplemental lessons PDF

Temacine People – supplemental lessons PDF

Umeda People – supplemental lessons PDF

Vadar People – supplemental lesson PDF

Woleai People – supplemental lesson PDF

Xibe People – supplemental lesson PDF

Yinbaw People – supplemental lesson PDF

Zapotec people – supplemental lesson PDF

We made a cover for our notebook which you can download from HS Launch here

There are prayer journals for your children to pray about some of the people they read about here at Wycliff.org (Lesson 7-8) the prayer cube (lesson 6) is a cool idea too.

There are pages here from Jjn3beans’s homeschool Launch Page (sorry I am not allowed to link direct to the downloads – but they are listed on the left side of the page)

This book made a HUGE impression on Duckie, she included the people in her prayers and reminded us to also pray for them. It never ceases to amaze me how different things appeal at different times, we have read the book before but this time for her it was so different.

New Sonlight Catalogue has arrived

2011-04-05T08:39:00.001+09:30

How exciting – my catalogue has arrived – we are in Australia so assuming those in America have had theirs for a little while. As we packed to go away over the weekend I glanced quickly through it, thought about sneaking it into my suitcase and reading it but decided in the end to focus on having time out from school and everything and enjoying some rare family time out. We had a wonderful time.

And now to read my Catalogue –

In my quick glance through before we left, I noticed that the Cores have been renamed but I also noticed how much clearer the catalogue is to make sense of. After patiently showing friends how to order their Sonlight orders for the first time and how to work out what they needed. I feel that Sonlight has made it so much easier to make sense of. I am also excited to see that All about spelling has been added to the Sonlight range. I have seen so many good reviews for this program and so really want to try it. So off to make a list for next year!

Workbox Schedule–updated

2011-03-22T23:43:00.001+10:30

We have used a few different schedules since we started our workbox journey 2 years ago and this is my favourite – it works for us!

Our first schedule was exactly the way it is described by Sue in the book. But I found that with lots of pages for the day the kids would turn too many or not see the last cards. Duckie works best when she can see all she has to do, all on one page.

I found a few sites out there where the schedule was set up for a week. What’s in the Box, Ginger Snap Shots, Homeschool Creations,

I liked What’s in the Box’s bound schedule but office supplies are so expensive here and I thought I could come up with something cheaper and homemade! I downloaded her pages but only ended up using the calendar numbers. Below is Bunny’s schedule. Each card turns over when used so it doesn't get lost and I don’t end up with hundreds of cards to sort through (which was driving me nuts ).

cards have velcro on front (see camel card) and on back. Each child choose a sticker set that they wanted as a “reward” on the back of each card. No lost cards. I prefer the velcro coins cut in half but ran out and was given free strips of velcro so used that instead.

Any spare cards go at the back of the folder, as do number cards for the calendar pages.

Here is how I made it – bought a folder ,

removed the binder bits, print up and laminate your pages I used a heavy laminate

hole punch the pages to match the holes in the cover. I used red dots to mark 4 holes so I would punch in the right spots.

Put hinged rings through the holes (for those in Australia I bought mine at Office Works) and you are done

If you would like to download my pages they are here at Homeschool launch.

I also did a single page book for Monkey (photos below) where she matches the numbers on her schedule to the number on the box so her numbers do not turn over, they stay on the box so at the end of school she has an empty page. I just collect the number off the box and put it back in her folder for the next day. I also focused on the days of the week rather than the dates for her.

you can download that one here at homeschool launch

Science Week 1

2011-03-22T02:10:00.001+10:30

We have completed week 1 of Sonlight Science 1 and the girls love it, and so does Mum. It is sooooo easy. We read the book and then we do the activity sheet. We watch the DVD and then we do the experiment how simple is that!

This week the Discover and Do lesson was on Magnets so we did a workbox activity with it. So simple – a box of different things and a magnet. I made up an activity sheet to go into our Science Notebook. They choose 5 items and stuck the picture of the item onto their sheet and then made a guess as to whether the magnet would stick or not and then tested their guess and crossed out the sad face if they got it right or the happy face if their guess was wrong. So simple and easy to do.

You can download the Activity Sheet here at Homeschool Launch

Monkey did spend a while exploring with the magnets after doing her sheet. The other girls were happy to do the experiment and move on. This would also make a great waiting station activity.

The set up of the box was specific for a reason – the focus of the box was learning about magnets so I had pre-cut all the answers and the child just had to find the right one and stick it on. I used little glass containers (from Ikea) to hold the answer pieces. I have found that the less complicated and simple looking the set up the more the kids are attracted to go and do the activity. I love the way Montessori sets up the environment as I feel kids are attracted to the simplicity and organization of an environment.

New venture–In our spare time :)

2011-03-11T08:57:00.002+10:30

A friend and I are trying to make a little extra money to help out the budget and decided to capitalize on our hobby - sewing, we both love sewing and so the weekly sewing group was formed.

Here are our first efforts ready for sale. You can see them through our blog Creating in our spare time or on facebook.

We are happy to take custom orders. We have lots more to add. We have 5 girls between us and 4 boys so will be adding some modest, nice older girls clothes as we know how hard that is to find.

I would also like to add some Montessori items, am currently sourcing some inserts if you are interested in anything please let me know.

Sonlight LA 1 Week 1

2011-02-20T19:02:00.001+10:30

In the folder for week 1 is the following

# A copy of the weekly spelling list

#Weekly spelling cards

#Sonlight Activity Cards

#An activity for activity #7 (see below)

#copywork sheet – one is laminated which I write on for her to copy and a blank one for her to write on.

Here are my downloads and notes for week 1 – you NEED the Sonlight Instructors Guide to use these downloads. I am not affiliated with Sonlight in anyway I just love their books and use their program as my base to homeschool my 5 kids.

You do not need to add extra to the Sonlight Program but we do because it works better this way for our family. Please note that I am using HWOT (Handwriting With Out Tears) paper for all my downloads.

Spelling -

All spelling words – download here from Homeschool Launch

Find a word for this weeks spelling list – download here from Homeschool Launch

Phonics Activities -

#1 – we used a ‘th’ page made to go with the THRASS chart, then discovered that THRASS had produced a PHONICS WORD BANK book. So I won’t be making any more THRASS worksheets (unless I really, really need to ).

#2 we used the magnetic letters I made. You can download them here from Homeschool Launch

#4 we are using the THRASS Phonics Word bank book instead of making a chart.

#7 If your child does not like writing use the sheet I made and either get them to cut out the letters and paste on to the chart. (WORKBOX HINT: Think about what you want to accomplish with this activity and if cutting is not part of it do the cutting yourself before hand ) or laminate the chart and use a cookie tray and magnetic letters to “write” the answers. Download at Homeschool Launch here.

Creative Expression -

Creative Expression Activity sheets week 1 – download here from homeschool Launch

Writing Activity - Pat the Rat Notebook page download here from Homeschool Launch

Extra Activities for the Workbox this week

‘Penguin Learns at words’ at Sonflower School house. It is no #185 January 2010

‘Sonflower sight words’ at File Folder Fun

To see all our weeks with Sonlight Language Arts 1 go HERE

Sonlight LA 1– Beginning to Read

2011-02-20T18:57:00.002+10:30

We are working our way through this LA with Duckie so this page will continue to grow as we make and use extra things to go with our Sonlight Program.

Please note you do not need to make extra things – Sonlight does provide worksheets for every week but we wanted them to be in the HWOT (Handwriting With Out Tears) format and Duckie wanted some pictures to make them more exciting. We are also using THRASS so our edits to Sonlight will reflect that use.

For the year:

I have found a small whiteboard essential for spelling – mistakes are rubbed out straight away so there is not chance of wrong spelling becoming stuck in the brain. Plus no extra paper to file and keep and a white board is lots of fun!

Word cards – You can download the sight word cards from Sonlight here. I have made word cards for the spelling words too.

Weeks 1-10 Download from Homeschool Launch here.

I also made a weekly spelling List. I did this in one hit so you can download the entire years list here at Homeschool Launch. I use these along with SpellQuizzer to help Duckie review her spelling words for the week. Download from Homeschool Launch here.

Mini Alphabet Cards – we laminated these and then stuck a magnet on the back. We use them instead of the go-fish cards and also with some of the activity sheets I altered (more about them later) Download them here at Homeschool Launch. You can also use the ones that Confessions of a Homeschooler has made to go with her letter of the week curriculum and just add magnetic backing to them.

Below are the links to each week as we complete it with more downloads and links for each week.

Language and Thinking by Ruth Beechick and Jeannie Nelson has lots and lots of extras to go with it so I am going to make that a separate post. See Language and Thinking

Week 1

Week 2

Not back to school Fun Introduction

2011-02-12T22:23:00.004+10:30

I am joining Our World Wide Classroom (another Aussie Mum) in her Not Back to School Fun. For those of us homechooling downunder the school year has just begun with the start of February so we are just getting back into the routine.

So our introduction:

First in the line up is

Zebra – Our eldest Daughter she is 10 turning 11 at the end of the year. I am so proud of how far she has come since we started our homeschooling journey. She is turning into a confident young lady. Her reading has taken off and now she is just like her mum with her nose always in a book. She loves being outside, especially climbing trees. She has hundreds of questions and is doing her best to learn everything she can RIGHT NOW!

Duckie comes next, she is 8 , turning 9 – Duckie loves people, at Playgroup she always has a baby near her. She is my crafty girl – loves drawing and is not too sure that school needs to be done. She does best with workboxes, knowing what is coming next and exactly what has to be done each day – do it and get it over and done with and get on with life!!

Bunny is 6 nearly 7. This year we will start more formal learning, she is eager to learn to read this year. She too loves learning and her main interest at the moment is learning all she can about the insects and bugs in the world around her. She has started collecting seeds and wants to learn about every plant she sees. She is keeping me busy learning along with her.

Monkey has just turned 5. She will be playing lots this year. Her only curriculum will be B4 FIAR and we will be reading the books from Sonlight’s P4/5 program – these are all new to us so I am sure the others will be eagerly listening in too .

Wombat is 2, he is at an interesting age!!. Wombat was born with Infantile Esotropia. Both eyes were crossed and he had to have an operation last year. The operation was a success but other issues have come up. We have just found out that he has Hypermobility Syndrome (as do at least 3 of the girls), his is considerably worse and we will be doing lots of sensory things this year to help him. We also have weekly physio for him and we attend a weekly playgroup for him which all the girls come to. So lots and lots of Tot school will hopefully be happening for him. We are also using Macaton signs with him to help with his communication.

This is our 6th year of homeschooling – wow that sounds like a long time! Each year is so different from the last. Officially only Zebra, Duckie and Bunny are homeschooled as in Australia you do not have to send your children to school until they are 6, though most kids start kindy at 4, pre-primary at 5 and year 1 at 6 in Western Australia.

Next week I will post about the curriculum we are using and our plans for this year.

Blog Link up - This post is part of the Not Back to School Fun Blog Hop hosted at Our World Wide Class Room

Ask Mr Bear Rowed Feb 2011

2011-02-12T21:42:00.003+10:30

This is the first time that Monkey has rowed this book – the other girls have all done it at some time in the past. So it was all new to her. We started the year with this book because she had just had her birthday and Daddy’s birthday was this week so it was good jumping off point for thinking about what to get him and making cards for him. The older girls are also reading Charlotte’s Web so this week was Farm Theme week for Monkey.

Things we did:

Made a Lap-n-Note – All of the mini books were from Homeschool Share (Ask Mr Bear lapbook) I did make a cover for the lapbook using the cover of the book you can download that here from HS launch and I also made a matching game which you can down load from HS Launch here. This will be added to our Ask Mr Bear book bag so that anyone who wants can pull out the game and play it – it is the same as the one in Monkey’s folder, except she coloured the cards in. I Laminated the whole page and the pictures and then added velcro dots to the backs so they don’t get lost.

We walked like the animals

Played with a rice sensory work box filled with the animals from the story and a Mum and boy. Wombat was fascinated with the little boy – love that his hat came on and off!

Monkey was given a farm animal sticker book for her birthday which I put into her workbox this week and she enjoyed putting the stickers on the right pages.

We also watched a Playschool DVD – one episode a day on farm animals. All the girls enjoyed this and I think I might get more playschool DVD’s. We don’t have TV so this is one thing they have not had.

We also started an Animal Classification Chart. As we are discussing animals this year we plan to sort them onto the chart. Below is the empty chart in our Science corner of the room. You can download our Ask Mr bear Animal Classification cards from HS Launch here. The animal classification chart labels are from Confessions of a Homeschooler’s Expedition Earth: Discovering God’s Animals. This is her post on her animal wall.

It was a fun week one for Monkey.

Added 7/4/11 - Homeschool creations has a birthday preschool Pack to download here . This would be a perfect addition to a birthday theme when rowing Ask Mr Bear.

First day of school

2011-02-07T22:10:00.002+10:30

Well it wasn’t exactly as I had planned due to having a doc appointment for Wombat this morning, which of course look longer than expected. I have not yet had one doc appointment that I haven’t had to wait at least 1 hour for!!

So all we did was some more work on our praying mantis learning. Wombat was fascinated by the “Bub” his word for bug! We also read some of the farm books we borrowed from the library.

Homeschool Share has a fantastic Praying Mantis Lapbook which we are using.

Below - First day of school photos. We always take a measurement each year and compare how much the kids have grown. That piece of wood is our measurement board! We have moved so many times over the past few years and it always comes with us! Duckie just had to sneak Honey into help her do school. You learn so much better with a puppy on your lap!!

try 3 weeks of Sonlight

2011-01-31T22:23:00.002+10:30

Would you like to try Sonlight before you buy?

The link below enables you to try a 3 week sample - you could borrow the books from the library and see if it is what you are after. Once you have tried Sonlight you will LOVE it.

3 week trial

The Ultimate Montessori Homemade Materials Collaboration

2011-01-27T09:08:00.002+10:30

Montessori Items are so expensive to buy especially for good quality ones. So What DID we do all day? has come up with a linky list – so if you are wanting some ideas start here (click on the picture to go to the blog and then the link)

– if you have made some please add to the list.

ReadingLessons.com

2011-01-26T20:20:00.002+10:30

Another Free reading Program – again this one looks great and has all the information you need to teach your child to read.

ReadingLessons.com has 52 books in the series that you can download free of charge. You do need to create an account but this is so easy and gives you instant access to the site. Each book has word cards and lesson plans to help you teach the lesson. I am still exploring the site but what I have seen so far is fantastic!

My Downloads are down!

2011-01-26T20:08:00.002+10:30

I am in the process of swapping all my downloads from Scribd as I discovered that you have to pay to download or have an account and upload there first so I am going to store my downloads at 2 places and see how they work. For the moment you can still access the Scribd ones but I will be changing all the links slowly

The first is at Homeschool Launch and the second is at Media Fire – I am still in the process of getting that up and running. So please be patient with me. I am slowly tracking down all the file I have that were saved in various spots while I had no computer and then replacing all the software I had so I can remake and edit them. So far I have some Sonlight downloads up at Homeschool Launch.

Free Reading Program for the month of January

2011-01-14T07:33:00.002+10:30

Funnix Reading Program is offering their complete reading program for free this month – it is a computer download. The author of the program was also behind the reading program ‘Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons’

Remember this free offer is only for the month of January 2011!

A-Rhyme-A-Week Site

2011-01-12T22:08:00.002+10:30

A-Rhyme-A-Week is a phonological awareness program featuring 30 different rhymes – It is a 30 week program and covers the following “rimes” -ack, –ail/ale, –ain, –ake, –ame, –an, –ap, –at, –ate, –aw, –ay, –eat, –ell, –est, –ice, –ick, –ide, –ight, –ill, –in, –ine, –ing, –ink, –it, –ock, –oke, –op, –ore, –ot, –ump. (note these are listed in alphabetical order and not in the order presented.

There are free downloads for each week and they look like a fun and easy free way to add to your child’s learning of some of these difficult sounds. Zebra is very visual and I am sure this will help her a lot.

Just a note ...

2010-12-03T09:47:00.002+10:30

... to explain my absence. I have no computer due to a breakin at our home :( as soon as insurance gets their act together and replaces it I will be back on. Meanwhile I have a host of ideas and am looking forward to beginning Sonlight Core 1 in January. See you in the new year!!!

Tt is for Turtle

2010-08-04T12:43:00.001+09:30

We are spending one morning a week with another family and doing a “theme” day around the alphabet. This week was letter T. We used the turtle theme from Confessions of a homeschooler.

To make it more Australian we also read Yakkinn the Swamp Tortoise – the most dangerous year. This follows the first year in the life of an endangered tortoise. We really enjoyed the pictures (the illustrations have an aboriginal theme to them) the story was well written and we will be looking for the next book. I want to add this one to our personal library!

The girls illustrated the book by making pictures depicting the seasons as shown in the book.

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We made turtles out of collected gum nuts.

We had turtle bread for lunch – each child making their own turtle out of bread dough.

View Full Album

We had fruit turtles for afternoon tea.

Turtle FUN!!

Font Fun

2010-08-03T17:58:00.003+09:30

I found this amazing website with lots and lots of free fonts and they will make a font for you using your handwriting - how cool is that!!

Fonts for Peas

Looking for dot fonts - to make handwriting sheets - this is so hard as they all want you to pay for the font!

Handwriting Worksheet maker lets you make worksheets using dot handwring.

There are hundreds of free fonts at 1001 fonts -

Miss Olsen's ClassroomFonts 1.0 is a dot font (you might have to scroll down the link to find it)

FIAR volume 2 Master List

2010-07-23T18:31:00.003+09:30

You can click on the titles below to see what we did when we rowed these books, or resources I have collected ready for when we read the books.

(this page is a work in progress as we continue to row and enjoy FIAR books)

The Giraffe That Walked to Paris by Nancy Milton
Three Names by Patricia MacLachlan
Wee Gillis by Munro Leaf
Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
A New Coat for Anna by Harriet Ziefert
Mrs Katz and Tush by Patricia Polacco
Mirette on the High Wire by Emilly Arnold McCully
They were strong and good by Alice and Robert Lawsoon
Babar, To Duet or Not to Duet by deBrunhoff
The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
Down Down the Mountain by Ellis Credle
Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
Mr Gumpy's Motor Car by John Burningham
All Those secrets of the World by Jane Yolen
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Grey Bridge by Hildegarde H. Swift
Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
When I was young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant
Gramma's Walk by Anna Grossnickle Hines

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

2010-07-23T18:24:00.003+09:30

This is one of my favourite books, my mother read it to me and we used to borrow if often from the library and read it over and over again. It is one book I had planned on reading so my kids so I was very pleased to discover it was part of the FIAR program.

If you are unable to find the book you can download it on the web (this links direct to the PDF version of the book).

B4 FIAR Master List

2010-07-23T18:11:00.004+09:30

Click on the book titles below to see what we did when we rowed the books. (Another work in progress page)

Jesse Bear, What will you wear by Nancy White Calstrom
Yellow Ball by Molly Bang
My Blue Boat by Chris L Demarest
The Little Rabbit by Judy Dunn
Ask Mr Bear by Marjorie Flack
Rowed February 2011
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McClosky
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
The ABC Bunny by Wanda Gag
Caps for Sale by Esphy Slobokdina
If Jesus came to my house by Joan Gale Thomas
The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
The Quiet Way Home by Bonny Becker
Play with Me by Marie Hall Ets
I am an Artiset by Pat Lowery Collins
Angus Lost by Marjorie Flack
Katy No-Pocket by Emmy Payne
We're going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
The Red Carpet by Rex Parkin
Corduroy by Don Freeman
Jenny's Suprise Summer by Eugenie

Changes

2010-07-23T14:53:00.003+09:30

I am making some changes here at the blog as I try make it easy for me to find things - the blog tends to be my memory for sites I have found and plan to use as well as my record of what we have done. I also want to create some more pages as main records for Sonlight and FIAR.

What do you think? Is it easier to find things?

Continent Boxes

2010-07-23T00:30:00.004+09:30

This is what our Continent Boxes look like, nothing fancy, just two sets of 4 drawer units that sit on top of our bookcase. They are up high so Wombat doesn't get into them again :)

At the moment they are missing half their labels as Wombat got into them when they were down lower! I made labels which have the name of the continent and a world map showing the continent. The colours of the labels match the colours of the continents on our felt world map.

Download the labels to match our felt map OR

Download the labels in Montessori Continent Colours.

As I add to them you will be able to click on the names below and see what we have in our boxes.

Australasia (Australia and New Zealand)

Asia (Japan)

North America

South America

Antarctica

Africa

Europe

For more details about Continent Boxes see here

Japan Swap

2010-07-22T22:10:00.007+09:30

There is a yahoo group for Montessori Continent Box Swaps. This is the 3rd swap we have been a part of with this group.

When we studied Japan earlier this year, we contacted one of the ladies on the group who lives in Japan and asked if she would do a swap with us. Kim said yes and her parcel arrived today.

Kim has included so many things!! The girls were thrilled and so was I with all the extra little bits she put in and did.

Here is what we received in our parcel:

Above: 1 - little envelopes for each child with their name written in Japanese, and containing coins and notes - you can imagine how this impressed the kids!

2- fans and chopstick holders

Above: 1 - Japanese toys and kites. 2 - model of Tokyo tower and info.

Above: 1 - Tea towel and coasters (?),
2 - Pack of cards - which Kim has written all the words on for us.

Above: 1- map and the photo is not very clear but Kim has included a handwritten map showing where she lives. 2 - postage stamps.

Above: 1- postcards. 2 - maps

Above: 1- A huge flag. 2- packet of different sorts of paper.

This was fantastic swap - thanks to Kim and we hope she was please with the bits we sent her from Australia. Kim asked us for some specific things and not a true continent box swap for her, which we were happy to do. These things will make our Asia continent box really interesting. What an exciting way to learn about the Continents and how other people live.

The Story about Ping

2010-07-22T19:17:00.007+09:30

It has been awhile since we rowed this book. We have rowed it twice so far and it is always a favourite.

Here is a PDF of the whole book (note this link goes direct to the PDF). There is a huge list of books you can download here. Many FIAR titles can be found here (it is a huge list and you have to scroll for a while to find what you want!).

I love the idea of raising a duck as shared by Delightful Learning in Meet Ping. Zebra has raised a duckling before and would love to do it again.

The Story about Ping is a great story to introduce a continent box and begin collecting things about China.

Go-Along Books
#The little duck by Judy Dunn - as with all her books beautifully illustrated with photos and shows the growth of a duck.
#Alexander's Outing by Pamela Allen - An australian book about a little duck who gets lost when his mother takes the family for an outing. Shows pictures of famous Sydney Buildings. A good Aussie Go-along book!

Fun things to do:
#We always find some ducks to feed when we row this book.

#Learn 5 little ducks song. The words can be found here if you don't know them.
Serving Pink Lemonade has some very cute little ducks to use with this song on her magnetic board post.
Monkey loves this YouTube Video of the song

About the Author - Marjorie Flack - She also wrote the Angus books which are used in the B4FIAR stories - Angus and the Ducks would be a good go-along if you are looking for books to tie in for younger children.

About the Illustrator - Kurt Wiese

More Ping Resources - Lapbooks
Ping Lapbook at Homeschool Share.

If you are a visual person you might like to see a video of a ping lapbook here

Another lapbook and what this family did shared here at Barracuda's Corner.

We also did the Hands of a Child Story about Ping Lapbook.

Duck things

Some ideas at Handbook of Nature Study for the Outdoor hour relating to birds and ducks.

D is for duck and other activities at first school

Cute fluffy duck craft at msss crafts

Life cycle of a duck (Link to PDF) Note this is at Sparklebox.

Posters showing duck growth (Link to PDF) Note this is at Sparklebox.

Human Body Box

2010-07-20T17:23:00.005+09:30

I am making a Human Body box to sit on our shelf with all our books and resources in for learning about the body. I have found that the girls love hands on things and having all the resources together about a topic means they will explore them in their free time. I will upload photos when I have finished the whole school room re-arrange.

I have been looking for cards for the body for ages and today found the nicest 3 part cards for the body - they came from United Teaching
Here is the download link at 4Shared

I love that they are photos and will be so nice for introducing the names of body parts to Monkey. She knows most of them but this will help her learn the rest and I think the older girls will enjoy using them as 3 part cards and reading the words.

Preschool and Kindy Links

2010-07-18T15:22:00.007+09:30

As I re hunt for Preschool and Kindy resources that I threw away when we moved house and state or lost from my favourites when my computer crashed :( I have realised that I have forgotten where I used to go so ....

this list is my favourite links for Preschool and Kindy age. As I re-discover them I will keep adding to the link. If you have any to share please add them in comments. Thanks

Kidzclub.com

Starfall

Childcareland

Confessions of a homeschooler (I love her letter of the week program)

1+1+1=1 (Tot School)

Learning Page (requires membership but is free to join)

World Paper dolls

2010-07-17T11:50:00.002+09:30

We discovered friends paper dolls a while ago and noticed that they have some paper dolls from around the world that would make a great addition to lapbooks or continent boxes.

I was please to find even more paper dolls here that are world paper dolls. Each download comes with the doll and one outfit and a bit that includes the flag, the name of the capital city and a favourite food.

Alphabet Cards

2010-07-12T15:04:00.005+09:30

Highway Alphabet Cards - so cute now I just need some tiny cars to drive over them.

Little People Magnetic Alphabet

(Photo from Serving Pink Lemonade - used with permision thank you Amy)

Not exactly alphabet cards but such cute little people download here they come in black and white or coloured and if you look at Serving Pink Lemonade you can read how Amy has turned them into magnets and all the magnet fun ideas she has to share. My girls would LOVE to play with these.

File Folder Fun and Games

2010-07-01T17:13:00.002+09:30

Here is a growing list of sites that offer free file folder games and fun to download

Teach with Games

File Folder Fun - this requires free membership to access the full range of games - so worth it.

Christian Preschool Printables (sister site to File Folder Fun)

HEG on 4 Shared

Sonflower Schoolhouse offers lots of games (at the moment this link is down)

Preschool Printables (click on the list on the left hand side of the page to access the games)

File Folder Heaven has some free as well as some to purchase

Mormon Chic File Folder Games

In memory of Rosie

2010-06-19T21:38:00.004+09:30

This week Duckie's dog Rosie was hit by a car and killed instantly in front of her. Duckie had to make the choice not to follow Rosie and so be hit herself and just stand and watch it happen.

A chain of unfortunate events led up to Rosie getting out and being hit, there was nothing anyone could do. It has been so hard to watch my darling daughter cope with all that happened. She had picked out her puppy and waited 4 years until we were able to get one. Rosie had been a part of our family for just over 12months and we are feeling the gap she has left.

Remembering Rosie Photo Album

Volcano LapN'notes

2010-06-19T10:01:00.005+09:30

Most of these mini books are from Homeschool Share
Volcano LapN'note
These photos are from Zebra's (9) LapN'note. Duckie did one too but hers is very similar so only showing one.

Spelling

2010-06-08T23:06:00.003+09:30

Yes I know I am still going on about Langage Arts and Sonlight!

I found a great post at Pioneer Woman on how she has altered Sonlights program to fit her son's spelling needs (another post here). I like her ideas.

She also has a good review for Handwriting without Tears in this post.

I love it when I find another Homeschooler who has made curriuculm that I am about to use or using work even better for their family. This is what homeschooling is all about!

Desks

2010-06-04T08:59:00.003+09:30

Setting up the workbox system could get pricy, after all you need all those shoeboxes and a desk - but how to get a cheap desk, and how to fit that many in a room, especially when you have 5 kids all needing a desk??

This one (pictured above) uses a book case to divide the table into half. I love how simple it looks when finished.

The plans are avavilable here at do it yourself. You can either buy a bookcase and modify it or build your own.

This one is a bit more expensive as it uses a plexiglass panel as a divider. I think I would just use a piece of wood and paint it, that way the kids couldn't see each other and we might get more work done ;)

Handwriting without tears

2010-06-03T23:08:00.004+09:30

After doing my own thing, adding in bits of THRASS, doing my own thing, doing my own thing ... you get the picture :) I finally took the plunge and bought the Handwriting without Tears Program. I bought it all! well my order arrived and frankly I was overwhelmed.

Where do I start them?

Zebra is left handed and learnt to write using the Sonlight LA program. I just showed her how to form each letter. Her writing is not too bad concidering that she is left handed. She has used the THRASS letter formation songs and her writing is formed fairly well.

Duckie on the other had has part THRASS and while she can write, her letters are all over the lines and formed all over the place. I am hesitant to take her back through print and wondering if we can go straight to cursive as she is keen to learn this. We will alter it though I do not like the G or the Q in HWT.

Bunny is just learning so will start her with the first book, But not sure if I teach her in the order of the HWT book or to match the Sonlight letters as she learns them???

Monkey I am going to start with playing with Mat man and learning to form the letters before she writes them using some of the ideas from Preschool Playbook . I found this blog to day and I like the fun way of playing with the the wooden bits. I love the polishing idea, this is so Montessori.

I would love to find a font that matches the HWT program so I can make up some copywork sheets but so far no luck.

Oh well ... Off to learn how to write again. (I can write in my handwriting, THRASS handwriting and now to learn HWT!!)

Homestead Blessings

2010-06-03T00:00:00.004+09:30

If you have daughters you will love these DVD's, we borrowed them from a friend and the girls watched them over and over again. We have made some of the bread recipes and it really is as easy as they make it look.

Raising Homemakers is a new site and they are giving away a set of Homestead Blessings DVD's. Hop over there and leave a comment and you might win it, personally I am hoping I do :)

My Sonlight order has arrived!!

2010-06-02T23:04:00.004+09:30

It arrived!! I ordered on Friday last week and it arrived today Wednesday (6 days) is impressive in my book for a curriculum to come all the way from America to Australia. Sometimes it takes up to 2 weeks for post to come from the other side of Australia to us!! I was disappointed when it first came as only one box arrived, only half my Sonlight how can I wait for another day for the rest :( Luckily the other box arrived 3 hours later with a different courier, somehow they had got separated, so we were able to unpack and admire all these new books and resources, for me to do the usual panic why did I buy this, how am I going to use that, how soon can I start it?

My only complaint is that I got caught with customs GST and taxes this time which I have never had to pay before. Importing anything over $1000 attracts a tax (I discovered) my order was translated from approx $900 American into $1000 Australian $$ and so attracted a tax. Next time I will split the order and watch this as it cost me another $190 for my order!!!!

If you are ordering from Australia BEWARE of this import tax. Also if you split your order and process it at the same time and all the packages arrive they will add them together, if total cost is over $1000 you will still be charged the tax. So next time I order it will be in 2 bits, with a few days between them. I already have my next order sitting in my shopping cart waiting to go!!

Consequently instead of finishing our volcano study today the girls spent the morning reading all the new books. I wish I had stopped to get a photo of them. One was curled up on the beanbag with the dog reading, the others were scattered around the room reading.

The MathTacular DVD is great - I only ordered 1 thinking I would see what it was like before I got the rest but, after seeing part of it we will be getting the rest, the girls were prepared to sit through the whole thing in one sitting if I had let them!! We are doing Math-U-See but will be using this to reinforce the concepts when they struggle with something.

So I now have P 3/4 to do with Monkey and Science K and 1, then some bits that I had to replace in 1 (we lost the IG in our move) and somehow lost The Usborne Time Traveller since we have been here. Zebra was so please to see this replaced she loves it and reads it for fun. I also got the Handwriting without tears program, and some LA workbooks.

I have decided that there is not point hoping for a perfect curriculum to fit my children's particular learning needs and so we will make the LA work by altering and modifying it and adding in my own bits as needed. In the words of Sue Patrick "I believe that any good, Christian-based curriculum will work with your children, regardless of their learning style. It may not be the best, but you bought it for a reason" (pg 66 Workbox System).

My reason for buying Sonlight I like the books more and more each year. It comes with the IG which I can use or alter to fit our life. At the moment I only have 3 days for school as the other days are taken with Physio and other activities so we do Sonlight 3 days a week and it still works!! and (big plus) I only have to order from one place.

Volcano's

2010-05-30T21:50:00.009+09:30

This study was a rabbit trail from our Japan Study that went along with "A pair of Red Clogs".

Did you know that Japan has over 100 volcano's?? So of course you have to study volcano's.

We (of course) made a volcano. We did this as a homeschool group activity. One lovely mum made a play dough volcano at home that we exploded and then the kids made a paper mache one that we exploded on our Japan day. I must admit that the explosions were a bit disappointing. It looks good but if you were expecting a big explosion that did not happen with ours (we used bicarb soda, dish washing liquid, red food colouring and vinegar)

After reading This blog . I want to try again but the opposite way to what we did - we added the vinegar last maybe adding it first and adding the bicarb last without the dish washing liquid might make it better - will have to try it.

Making our volcano

StormTheCastle.com has fantastic tutorials giving a few different versions of volcano's to make, and it contains pictures for those of us who really need a visual guide :)

Our Playdough volcano exploding (it did look good, even it it didn't blow huge)

Lapbooks, mini books and LapN'notes

Mini book at crayola

Volcano Lapbook at Homeschool Share

More fun hands on things to make:

3D paper model of Mt. Fuji

Extra books we read and resources used

The magic school bus blows its top DVD

We have a number of National Geographic and Discovery Channel DVD's and we watched all that had involved volcano's.

The magic school bus chapter book #15 Voyage to the Volcano

The hill of fire (Sonlight Reader 2)

Pompeii: buried alive (Sonlight Reader 2)

We used this volcano web quest, which was lots of fun and saved me from hunting all over the web for the information.

Our Volcano LapN'notes are here.

Royal Flying Doctor

2010-05-30T17:23:00.004+09:30

The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia (RFDS), known as 'The Flying Doctors' is an air ambulance service for those living in remote areas of Australia. It is a not-for-profit service and if you use their services you will never be presented with a bill. A big relief when you consider the extreme distances in outback Australia.

So we were please to support their open day and fundraiser last week and get the chance to see their new long distance plane. As the airport is Federal land you had to wear a tag to go out on the tarmac. It was a fantastic opportunity to see inside a plane and for the girls to sit in the cockpit of a plane.

Bunny in the cocpit of the plane.

For more information about The flying Doctors check out

Royal Flying Doctor Service

Wikipedia

Sonlight and FIAR which do I chose?

2010-04-25T11:09:00.003+09:30

I have been asked which one - Sonlight or FIAR? This is a very tough question because so far I have not limited myself to one but we are using both so here goes ...

We first started looking for a homeschooling curriculum in 2005 and bought both Sonlight and FIAR at the same time. One came in a box with everything I needed to teach every subject (except Maths as we choose to use Maths-U-See and had to buy that elsewhere), the other came from everywhere I had to hunt and buy the books as I found them, even now I do not have all the books as some are out of print.

Both contain beautiful stories to read and share with your children. Many have become old favourites. I cannot read the PK or B4 FIAR books to just my littlies without the older children stopping what they are doing and wanting to join in listening.

We chose Sonlight because it contained everything I don't have to hunt for the books, or skip the ones that are out of print. The IG (Instructors Guide) schedules all the books for me and gives extra activities and things to talk about as we go. CONVENIENCE. When I first started homeschooling I wanted a guide so I could just tick the boxes and not have to worry if I was covering everything. But I wanted something that involved lots of reading and a very gentle way of learning in order to reflect a Charlotte Mason style of homeschooling. Sonlight has been this.

We choose FIAR because I love the FIAR stories and how you get to spent time slowly reading the books. A lot of the same books are used in Sonlight and FIAR. The difference I have noticed is that Sonlight introduces the books earlier for example The Boxcar children is read in K (5-7yrs) but in FIAR it is read in Beyond FIAR (8-12yrs).

We tend to go slower through Sonlight and add in the FIAR stories to fill in the gaps. Currently a Sonlight core takes us about 1 1/2 years to complete because we lapbook and notebook and add in extras as we go, plus babies and lots of moving house in the past 2 years has slowed us down. We are starting to speed up as the kids grow and life changes so I don't expect the stretched out cores to continue. Although we will still continue to add in extra things as we go.

I like how all the girls (ages 4-9) can be reading the History and Geography Read alouds together but be working on Language Arts at their own level.

Sonlight is focused on reading books and so you read them faster than you do in FIAR. For example you read the story about Ping once but following FIAR you read it everyday for a week while you focus on a different aspect of the book daily. Some kids will love this, others will hate it.

FIAR is not a complete curriculum. You still need to plan out the lessons although the activities are in the manual, you also need to add in a language arts program and a maths program from somewhere else. If you like planning things for yourself then FIAR is an option. Homeschool Share has lots of extra things including lapbooks to go along with the FIAR manuals.

It really depends what you want, personally I think Sonlight provides a better coverage as you can start at age 3 and go right through high school and is planned into time periods of history. FIAR has no real linking between the books chosen in each level other than that they are all good books. They are currently introducing Above and Beyond FIAR which goes past 12 years of age (at this stage there is only one book planned but I am sure there will be others). I personally feel that Sonlight will be a better choice for our family as our children get older and I can see FIAR slowly being put aside and Sonlight becoming our main curriculum.

My only complaint with Sonlight so far is the Language Arts program. I am still struggling to get this to work for Zebra BUT she has had learning difficulties and struggled from the start. But this is the only area of the program where I feel like I am having to "rewrite" it to fit my child's style of learning.

I hope this answers your questions. If not leave a comment and I will try to answer it.

Continent Boxes

2010-04-09T14:17:00.005+09:30

What is a continent box?
It is a Montessori tool that is used to aid children in their learning about the world continents. There is a good explanation and photos at Montessori for Everyone. At the bottom of the post there are links to more continent boxes.

My favourite link is from Serendipity Blog here. If you scroll down she includes a very good general notion of what to put into each box.

Our Continent Boxes
We are slowly putting together our continent boxes and I found this site that has travel guides for most cities in the world. We will be adding some of these into our boxes as they fit with our learning.

There is a yahoo group continentswap for those who would like to participate in swaps and collect things for their continent boxes. We are currently engaged in 2 swaps one with a family in France and one with a teacher in Japan.

Wombats operation

2010-04-09T14:01:00.004+09:30

I have not been posting much the last few weeks because I have been occupied with Wombat. He was born with Infantile Esotropia. 4 weeks ago we had to travel to Perth (a 7 1/2 hour + drive) so he could undergo an operation on both eyes in the hope of straightening them. So far we have had a fairly good result, although in the past week we have noticed that when he is tired or unwell the eyes automatically turn in.

The first photo is in hospital before surgery. The second is at home a week after surgery

Already Wombat is walking more and his gross motor development is improving, we are so thankful to our Heavenly Father for his overshadowing hand, and kindness is granting our little man a fairly successful operation so far and also thankful to Dr Tandon and the Staff at Princess Margaret Hospital.

Consequently my posts have been far and few between BUT I am working on a lot of new projects. I hope to have more THRASS linked resources up soon and also some continent resources to share.

FIAR volume 1 book list

2010-03-04T14:48:00.004+10:30

Here is the book list for FIAR Volume 1 - I will add links as we row these stories.

The Story about Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese
Lentil by Robert McCloskey
Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
A Pair of Red Clogs by Masako Matsuno
The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills
Who Owns the Sun? by Stacy Chbosky
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
The Glorious Flight by Alice and Martin Provensen
How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman
Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say
Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin
Another Celebrated Dancing Bear by Gladys Scheffrin-Falk
Papa Piccolo by Carol Talley
Very Last First Time by Jan Andrews
Clown of God by Tomie dePaola
Storm in the Night by Mary Stolz
Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton
Night of the Moonjellies by Mark Shasha
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost (Susan Jeffers' Illustration)

Beautiful Living Books about Australia

2010-03-04T14:13:00.008+10:30

Beautiful Living Books about Australia

This is my list of Children's books about Australia that we are using as we study our beautiful Land Down Under. I will be adding to this list as we go so keep checking back :)

My Country by Dorothea Mackellar

I Love this poem. From the first time I heard it in school I have loved it (but then I love Australia!). This book beautifully illustrates the poem. The illustrations are paintings that show the beauty of the Australian landscape. This book is the perfect way to introduce your child to this poem and begin to learn it.

My Place by Nadia Wheatley

This book follows the history of one piece of land in Sydney through the eyes of the children who have lived there. You can tell that the author loves history and the illustrator really did their homework. Together they have produced a beautiful book.

Note: the book has been around for 20 years and has just been republished and updated. If you are looking for a copy you might want to look for the new one.

Extra Resources to use with this book:
Teacher Notes PDF (direct link) written by the author

Looking for more on the history of sydney? Check out this link.

My Grandfather Marches on Anzac Day by Catriona Hoy

Story is told of one Anzac Day through the eyes of a little girl watching her Grandfather march on Anzac Day. (My guess is this is based on a true experience)

Extra Resources to use with this book:

About the author: Here is her site. She is an Australian Author who has published a few books. Her latest one Puggle about a baby echidna looks beautiful too.

Resources to use with the book from the author.

Want to learn more about Anzac Day? There are lots of resources here

Milestones

2010-02-28T01:33:00.003+10:30

Isn't it so exciting when your children move onto the next stage? Zebra came to me at the beginning of the month and said "Mum, I think I'm ready to read Chapter books" She picked out Naughty Amelia Jane by Enid Blyton and started reading. Since the beginning of the month she has read 14 books! I gave her a new notebook and said she has to write the date she finished the book, the title and author of the book in it. She is reading an Enid Blyton book in 2 days!!!!

Reading was such a struggle for her and now she had done it :) I am so excited for her!

Wombat has taken his first step! Which again was so exciting. Godwilling he will have an opperation on his eyes in 3 weeks so as that gets closer I will be blogging less as we plan and prepare for the 8 hour drive to our nearest specialist. It was so exciting that he has progressed so far as we did not expect him to walk before the op.

Magic School Bus Lapbooks

2010-02-28T01:28:00.003+10:30

We love the magic school bus DVD's and books and now with Zebra reading chapter books I bought her the set of magic school bus chapter books. I also found this website which has a lapbook for each magic school bus book.

Button Snake

2010-02-22T00:25:00.003+10:30

The Activity Mom has a very interesting activity here - a button snake.

This would make a good workbox activity for preschooler or for a boy who need to learn to button but is not interested in playing dress up or dolls. Great fine motor activity.

Apple and the Arrow Unit Study

2010-02-17T20:03:00.003+10:30

We have almost finished our reading of the Apple and the Arrow.

I used the Unit Study at Homeschool Share for the oldest two and we made a Lap n-Note for this book using the Homeschool Share resources.

Rabbit Trails we went on

1. Medieval Times including castles and knights.
We briefly looked at the Medieval Times using the following books and resources:
Living in a Castle by Rupert Matthews - a very simple castle book we borrowed from the library.
Castles, Pyramids and Palaces (an Usborne book) This was another library book. There was really only one page on Castles in this book but the whole book was interesting if you wanted to see different buildings.
Pendragon Castle (a Panorama Pop-up book). This was a fun one as it popped up and showed a real castle in Britain.

Medieval worksheets here including parts of armour.
Notebook pages from Robin Hood Unit Study at Homeschool Share which can be used with this topic.

This page will take you to all the Homeschool Share Connections for the Middle Ages. If you are looking for books to read that cover that time period this is a good starting place.

Costumes:
Zebra wants to make a dress-up. I think she was really after making a knight costume! But here are some of the sites I found while looking for ideas.
Medieval Lady Costume (scroll down)
Lots of ideas here for authentic dress-ups including how to braid a crown (I am not showing Zebra this link or guess what I will be doing EVERY morning for the next few weeks!)

Setting up a Dress-up Box

Games for the Workbox
Medieval Tic Tac Toe
There are games and so much more at this site

Other People's Lapbooks
Medieval History Lapbook from Dawn @ My home sweet home. Here is the Medieval History Unit Study Dawn taught.

2. Apples
We used the cards from Montessori for Everyone to show and learn the life cycle of an apple. This is a free download (On this page - under Botany Life Cycle of an Apple). Zebra used these cards to make a circle wheel book to go in her Lap n-Note showing the life cycle.

Here are all the Apple Connections at Homeschool Share - this is a good starting point if you are looking for apple books to read.

Other People's Apple Lapbooks/Lap n-Notes:
Apple Lapbook @ Albright-News
A is for apple from Ami @ walking by the way. This has perfect ideas for a preschooler.
Work Box Activities:
For Bunny I had a apple alphabet match puzzle (From Child Care Land Scroll down to Apple Alphabet Puzzles). We used only the letters she had learnt so far and had to match the capital to the lower case.

Apple Tree Maths Mat from Homeschool Share (under Preschool Workboxables or Math Workboxes) There is also a apple file folder game here too

More Resources:
I did not use these but want to save them as I think we will use them the next time we study the Middle ages in more detail.
This homeschooling Mum has collected HUNDREDS of links on the middle ages all on one page. How great is that
Build a castle activity (older children).
A good read on toys in the middle ages.
Games played in the middle ages.

Live and Learn has a apple lapbook - I am not really impressed with their lapbooks as most of the pictures are colour and we don't have colour printer at home and if you print them black and white they come in shades of grey and are hard for the kids to colour. It is free though so it might be of interest to someone else.

Sonlight P 4/5 The Starting Point

2010-02-17T12:32:00.003+10:30

I have the old Sonlight PK Core but have listed below are the books for the new P 4/5 Core, some of these are new books. This page is a work in progress as I slowly upload the things we have done and are doing as we work our way through this core again and again and again. (There are still 2 more at this stage to enjoy these books!)

Bible
Family-Time Bible in Pictures

World Cultures
The Gods Must be Angry
New Toes for Tia
People from Africa
Then and Now
Things People do

Read-Alouds
American Tall Tales
Children's Book of Virtues
A Child's Book of Art
Classic Tales of Brer Rabbit
The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit
See here for all my links for Peter Rabbit Unit Study
Eric Carle's Animal Animals
The Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book
Milly-Molly-Mandy Story book
Stories from around the world
A Treasury of Mother Goose Rhymes
Uncle Wiggly's Story Book

Peter Rabbit Unit Study

2010-02-17T00:03:00.001+10:30

I have just posted about our Peter Rabbit Study but the dates went wrong and so it saved as an old post! If you are interested in reading it please see here

Language and Thinking for Young Children

2010-02-11T09:27:00.004+10:30

by Ruth Beechick and Jeannie Nelson

As this book is used in both Sonlight K and 1 I am going to put all the links here rather than post them double. Again this page is a work in progress.

Learning about the Telephone
Download the printables from DLTK here I like how Home Grown Hearts as made it into a magnetic Fridge game. This would make a good centre or poster workbox activity.

Core B - Introduction to World History part 1

2010-02-10T16:17:00.007+10:30

Core B prior to April 2011 called Core 1

I am cheating as I want all the girls together on the same level - easier for me, so this page adds some more in for the older kids. This page will be a work in progress as I slowly add to it - collecting for later and reviewing as we go. Please check back later as we add to it. (Note: we started Core B in January 2011) History & Geography: Eat your way around the world. This article has some interesting ideas on eating the meals from the countries you are studying.

EGYPT Tut's Mummy Lost & Found, The Usborne Time Traveller Fantastic Egypt Lapbook to download and make - I love that you make a 3D pyramid - how cool is that. It also included hands on ideas and a notebooking page for Tutencarmen. (You will need 'Living Long Ago' which is a K book to re-read when doing this study) Make a mummy. This post from Jamin explains what how to do it. There is an ancient Egypt Lapbook and unit study at Homeschool Share here ANCIENT CHINA The Great wall of China, Little Pear (RA)

Check out Jimmie's Squidoo Lense on Ancient China then use the lapbook at Homeschool Share to go with it. Free lapbook and unit study from Homeschool Share

GREECE

The Greek News, Detectives in Togas (RA) and

Greek Myths for Children (RA)

Archeologist Dig for Clues

From Akebu to Zapotec

George Muller

Missionary Stories with the Millers

The World Series

Read-Alouds

Charlotte's Web - look on my download page for lots of downloads we made to go with this book

Favourite Poems of Childhood

Follow my Leader

Henry Huggins

Homer Price

Mountain Born

Mr Popper's Penguins

Homeschool Share has a unit study and notebooking pages for this book.

For younger children who want to do penguins HSS has a penguin filefolder

Hands of a Child has a Penguin Project Pack

Understood Betsy

The Year of Miss Agnes

Gooney Bird Green

Mrs Piggle-Wiggle My girls LOVED this story there are 2 more books in this series that we bought and read.

The Wheel on the School

Sonlight World History

2010-02-10T15:56:00.005+10:30

I discovered today a fantastic blog with lots and lots of downloads (especially for Sonlight) Here is her page for Sonlight World History - I am not sure whether these are for Core 6 or earlier, but they look great anyway.

Australian History Study

2010-02-10T11:17:00.006+10:30

I Love Sonlight and FIAR but neither has a huge lot on Australian History so here is the beginning of my Australian History Study. I am using the book Our Sunburnt Country by Arthur Baillie as the spine for the study and supplementing as we go through it. I expect to do this a few times over the years going into more detail each time as the kids get older, so once again this page will be a work in progress.

Downunder Literature sells a resource called Australian Book Traveller which is similar to FIAR except these books will help you travel around Australia. I really would love to get this as I think it will fit perfectly into what we are already doing. They also have a free timeline of Australian history to download.

Australian Maps to download

Very basic one here to fill in and label

Map and Quiz

Map Puzzle here (this is a computer game)

Australian Flag

Here and here or at Homeschool Share

Downunder Literature has a Flag Lapbook

Australian Resources at Homeschool Share

Looking for Tot School ideas to explore Australia while the bigger kids study it?

This post @ Creativity Abounds has some fantastic ideas.

Our Sunburnt Country Unit Study

Chapter One

Lots of links here about the dream time

Stories of the Dreaming listen to stories from the different states of Australia.

More online audio stories here and here. Bunyip stories here

More about the dreaming here this site also leads to more links such as tools and technology which is another topic covered in Ch 1

Rabbit Trails - Look at other stories about Creation from around the world. More links here and here

2010-02-09T22:14:00.002+10:30

Looking for pictures for your chore charts or for workbox schedules?

This site is perfect http://www.visualaidsforlearning.com/products/index.htm

We will also be using this for Wombat as we start using sign language and pictures to help him communicate.

Sonlight ???'s

2010-02-08T18:46:00.005+10:30

Ok - I love the Sonlight program but I am not sure about the LA. We are at week 4 with Reading with Easy Readers(LA2). For spelling this week the words are under, problem, number, basket, winter, escape, magnet, bandit, sister, picnic!! Anyone spot a link between these words? My daughter took one look and the "I can't do this..." started. I haven't been learning the rules as they don't fit with THRASS but we have been doing the spelling so far.

Looking at the Sonlight program as of Core 3 there is no spelling anyway, so should I just get a spelling program now and start it? I don't want to end up with too many things to think about so was hesitant to add in anything else but the spelling is just not working for her. Any thoughts on what to do?

i-pod Listening to the Bible

2010-02-08T09:53:00.003+10:30

I love our ipod - We really need more than one for use in our school. Everything that can goes on the ipod for the girls to listen to (and yes it goes in our workboxes!). I have found it helpful for listening to times tables, handwriting sequence and many other things and now we have added listening to the bible. I have used this site to download the bible. It is the KJV which I personally really like. It then gets copied to the ipod and listened to. We are going to start listening to it during breakfast time again as we have let the daily reading slip and it really is time to pull this habit back into our routine.

In the past I have set it up on the computer and the girls have listened to the sunday school story of the week from the bible chapter.

Any other uses for ipods or bible audios in daily life would be appreciated. How do you use it?

2010-02-02T13:34:00.004+10:30

Currclick has a mini unit study on Gladys Aylward free this week only. Perfect to go with your Reading Aloud 'Hero Tales' (In reading through my lastest sonlight catalogue I can't find this book in the book list so it must be only in the old K Core)

Earth Activities

2010-01-29T15:56:00.002+10:30

3 part cards for layers of the earth here
Ideas for teaching about the layers of the earth . This would make a fantastic centre activity

Keeping it all organized

2010-01-28T22:36:00.004+10:30

I found this fantastic blog post today full of ideas of how to keep it all organized. I love the forms she has made for record keeping.

Mini Alphabet Magnetic Letters

2010-01-28T21:16:00.006+10:30

I made a set of mini alphabet cards, laminated them and stuck a magnet on the back, and we have been using them for doing the worksheets I made to go with Sonlight Language Arts 1. We also use them for spelling and other activities.

In her book Sue mentiones "Paying close attention to the number of skills that will be necessary to complete the work" (pg 82). I have a child who hates to write so for her using the magnetics is focusing on the words and not on the extra skill of writing. It makes this activity achievable for her.

So far I only have the lowercase alphabet done. I need to get another box to put the uppercase letters in.

You can download the mini alphabet here if you want some too.

Science Centres

2010-01-28T20:56:00.004+10:30

These two links were shared by another Mum on a yahoo group.

Science Centres here and here. These ideas would be perfect for a science centre or workbox activity.

The Homeschool Den has lots of science experiments here I wish I was at their house :) science is not my thing!

Never Ending Learning with Sonlight

2010-01-26T15:41:00.004+10:30

I love the Sonlight books - of all the curriculum we have looked at or tried there are only 2 that I want to collect the whole set of - Sonlight and FIAR and don't ask me if you can buy them when I have finished because they are NEVER for sale. I intend to read these books to my Grandchildren one day Godwilling :)

I read the K Core with Zebra 2 years ago but we were new to homeschooling and we never did anything extra with the books we just read and discussed. Then we discovered FIAR and Homeschoolshare and realized that you could do more than just read a book and discuss it. You can lapbook it, you can go on rabbit trails, you can go where ever the book and child leads you, so we started to do the same with some of the Sonlight books. That is where this blog came from a place to compile the ideas we have used or seen that go with FIAR and Sonlight and now we are adapting them to the workbox.

Today in Australia is Australia Day. We went to the local park and spent a few hours participating in the local celebrations and then came home - forget school for the day, its a public holiday. But looking around Duckie has decided to redo her appalling copywork from yesterday (yes I said she had to redo it but today?), Zebra has pulled off the shelf 'Living Long Ago' and is busy hunting through the recycling box so she can make something from the book, Duckie read the book after her and then went off to make herself a tent for her dolls ... the list goes on.

The Usborne book of Living Long Ago would have to be one of the girls favourite books along with the Bernstein Bears Science Book (that one is falling apart). I do wonder how many of these books will actually survive until I am blessed with Grandchildren some are pulled off the shelf so often to re-read! Is there a law against hiding books from your children just so the books survive!

Sewing Finger Puppets

2010-01-26T14:28:00.002+10:30

I have all these things in our sewing workbox but I just love the way Montessori teachers present things see here I wonder if I presented it like this on our sewing day if it would appeal.

2010-01-25T00:55:00.002+10:30

In case you haven't guessed it yet I am not a fan of worksheets but ...
these 2 sites are worth a look at.

Worksheet Works.com is a make your own worksheet so you are able to make the sheet exactly for your child.

Amazing Handwriting Worksheets - a free handwriting worksheet maker - It prints up well (the ones I have tried)

Fun and Workboxes

2010-01-24T18:30:00.002+10:30

I have been thinking about this for a while and come to the conclusion that activities for the workbox should not be fun for the sake of fun.

Let me try to explain. I have just re-read Sue's book and found no mention of fun boxes just for the sake of having fun. She does mention fun teaching, fun work, fun and interesting materials.

Here is my conclusion we need to be thinking very carefully what we are putting in the workboxes and why. Are we just filling the work with worksheets or activities to fill in time? If so why?

"The philosophy of the Workbox System is to provide:
1 Structure
2 A firm foundation in discipline
3 A clear and visual presentation of their curriculum
4 A way to present expectations for their curriculum in a clear and logical way
5 Fun and interesting materials
6 Important educational repetition
7 An expectation of greater independence"

(From pg 23 Sue Patrick's Workbox System User's Guide)

Through out the book the emphasis is on SCHOOL and learning in the best possible way for our children. Does this involve fun? YES but fun with a purpose. I have been reading some discussions on a few different yahoo groups and this subject of fun in workboxes is causing burnout to both parents and children.

If you are having trouble filling your boxes and resorting to fun or worksheets to just fill them. Or are you struggling to get through all the work in the boxes? We were for us 12 boxes was just too much. That is why we planned the boxes based on time and what we needed to accomplish each day.

(I have a post here that explains in more detail how we planned the boxes)

Sue allows 4 hours for school work 8:30-12:30. (my oldest is only 9 and so far this time has been ample) So break up your subjects to fit this time and then in the afternoon (other than chores) it is fun time or extra activity time - we go swimming most afternoons in summer, sport with other families, extra art activities, sewing, cooking, the list is endless. For those who are more inclined to natural learning I suggest you find another name for this "school time". Learning never ends but for us this 4 hours is the time we focus on the book work side of school, the formal lessons of maths, writing and reading.

I would like to share another quote from Sue

"Homeschooling is not what we do when we don't have anything else to do. It's not what we do when we're not doing laundry and cooking and cleaning. Homeschooling is what we do first. In order to raise a generation of homeschooled children that are good representatives of what it means to homeschool, we must be committed. It is mission work and it is a full time job. Having it take any less position in your life will be to short change your children and yourself. You have been called to homeschool for a reason, and to do it well and to the best of your ability."

(from pg 51 Sue Patrick's Workbox System User's Guide)

Because of this I have removed all posts on my blog labeled as fun and relabeled them with the real work category they should be :)

Cutting with Scissors

2010-01-22T18:17:00.006+10:30

There are printable pages here at DLTK kids to practice cutting with scissors.
More printables here at kinderprintables
Create your own cutting worksheets here
Otherwise just draw lines with a ruler and cut along them.

WorksheetWorks.com allows you to make your own worksheets for practising cutting with scissors - you can make them as complicated or as easy as you like.

More ideas:

cut playdough
cut up straws to then thread and make necklaces
use the cut paper to make paper chains
cut up a magazine picture and then use it as a puzzle
cut up magazines

For those who want a more challenging project - fold the paper and make cuts to make a paper snowflake.

This is a Developmental Activity Idea from Sonlight K

Button Sorting

2010-01-22T18:04:00.007+10:30

I have a small jar full of buttons, most came from my Grandma who had the most amazing button collection.

I gave them to Bunny and asked her to sort them - however she wanted. She sorted them by colour. We then talked about all the different ways she could have sorted them.

Of course Monkey wanted to play with them as soon as she saw them.

(This is a Developmental Activity listed in Sonlight K week 2)

2010-01-22T17:53:00.002+10:30

Printable ABC Bible verses for copywork are available here. They match 'Sing the Word from A-Z

Compound Word File Folder game

2010-01-22T17:30:00.007+10:30

File Folder Fun has put a Snowman Compound Words Game up.

This was perfect to use with our Sonlight LA 2. I printed up the blank one provided, wrote the Sonlight word list in it, laminated it and away we went. I didn't add Velcro dots to this one as Zebra asked me not to. We were able to mix the tops of the snowman around and see if it was possible to make any new words. I think I will also at a later date make up the one at FFF and add to our LA workboxes as a fun revision activity.

Australia Day Resources

2010-01-21T20:34:00.002+10:30

Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Celebrated on 26th January it commemorates the arrival of the first fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788, the hoisting of the British flag, and the proclamation of British Sovereignty over Australia.

Listen to the Australian National Anthem here

Australian Timeline from Downunder Literature
History of Australia Day in more detail
Maps of Australia here at A to Z Teacher stuff and here

Lots of Aussie things here at Teacher Planet
Australia craft ideas for younger children here at first school

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

2010-01-21T02:43:00.015+10:30

We have just spent the last 4 weeks working our way through a Peter Rabbit Unit Study. The girls LOVED it. (A friend has boys and they did not like the book, not sure if this is a boy thing) There was so much more we could have done but unfortunately it is time to move on to the next book.

We started by reading 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit every day for the first week - we used a couple of different books and compared the differences. The story was the original one but some of the pictures were bigger or brighter coloured. We even had a pop-up Peter Rabbit (that was Hubby's when he was little - so maybe some boys do like Peter Rabbit!). At the same time we read a page a day from Beatrix Potter's journal. I LOVED this book. My darling Auntie gave it to me for my birthday and it was perfect. Beautifully written and illustrated with lots of pictures and photos. In the back was included a copy of her original personal printing of Peter Rabbit which we read later in the month. This was a great opportunity for the girls to see how the book was edited and made shorter in order to keep the costs down when printing it.

After the first week we then read a different story each day. There were many that I had not read before and we really had fun with this.

The journal lead into a study on Victorian England and we used the Horrible Histories books from Scholastics for this. I read a small amount out of them and edited it as it was really a bit advanced for the girls. I was really impressed with the amount of information in these books and will be adding them to our library as I find them for a reasonable price. The activity books that go along with the books were also fantastic. For really young children I would probably just get the activity book. (These would also have made a good work box activity). The timing of this was good as we had just talked about convicts and being shipped to Australia in time to celebrate Australia Day. After we finished reading the journal we watched the DVD Miss Potter. I felt from what we had read this was well done.

We finished up by holding a Peter Rabbit Party. I will try to post photos of this later. (At the moment I seem to be having trouble posting photos). Each of the girls invited one friend to join us. So we sent out invitations (made using rabbit stamps). We decorated by putting as sign on the door that said "Welcome to Mr McGregor's Garden - No Rabbits allowed). We also used a Peter Rabbit soft toy in a small watering can as the table centre piece.

When each guest had arrived we made a paper rabbit ears crown then went outside and played a game of trying to sneak up on Mr McGregor without being spotted. If you were spotted moving you had to go back to the start. After this we had lunch.

The menu included - lettuce, radishes, carrots, celery, tomatoes, cucumber, french onion dip (rather than eating onions!), fresh homemade bread and black berry jam, black berries and currants and current buns. (we watched the Homestead Blessings Bread making DVD and added currants to their cinnamon rolls, they were really delicious and so easy to make). After lunch the girls watched the animated DVD's of Beatrix Potter's stories. We had such fun and was a great way to start the year.

Using the FIAR 2 Manual I had planned out activities to do/discuss every day for the 4 weeks - some we did and some we didn't do in the end, it depended on the day. Homeschool share has a number of activities to go along with the activities in the FIAR manual. You will find them here. They also have a rabbit lapbook here.

I was lucky enough to get a Beatrix Potter Lapbook from Hands of a Child when I had a super membership (I highly recommend this membership it is really worth it). This lapbook was great - we used a lot of it in Zebra and Duckie's Lap n-Notes. The other we used was The Tale of Peter Rabbit Project Pack. If you are reading The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit as part of Sonlight P4/5 and would like to make a lapbook or notebook I think this was fantastic. It was perfect for Bunny (6) and Monkey (4)

I hope to revisit some of this study in July (28th) which is Beatrix Potter's birthday.

We made Lap n-Notes for this book rather than traditional lapbooks. You can view photos of our Lap n-Notes here

Bunny ear crowns here

Rabbit Trails:

Queen Victoria - Beatrix Potter grew up during the reign of Queen Victoria.

Notebooking pages for Queen Victoria can be found at activity page here (a choice of 4)

A Queen Victoria Notebooking page here at Homeschool Share.

Beatrix Potter -

A Beatrix Potter Paper doll can be found at Stardoll.com

Rabbits

With the younger girls we also rowed 'The Runaway Bunny' at the same time. Homeschool Share has a Rabbit Lapbook which lends itself well to this trail. Bunny began some of this lapbook and we will add to it as we row more books about Rabbits this year. There is also more on rabbits at First-school.

More Peter Rabbit Links:

There are literally hundreds of things on the web for Peter Rabbit. There was so much more we could have done while studying this book. These are just a few of my favourites.

Lots at Making Learning Fun (Peter Rabbit Page - including masks) I found this link after we had finished the unit study but I will still be printing up some of the games and adding to the Peter Rabbit Folder for next time and also to our Rabbit Unit Study folder. This site also included lots of maths games that would be good fun to add to the work boxes.

Pre-writing skill cards

Download an audio version of Peter Rabbit here. This works really well copied to an ipod and put into a work box.

Peter Rabbit @ the Virtual Vine

Carnival of Homeschooling - Peter Rabbit Edition

Added June 2010 - I found a link for a Peter Rabbit Garden at Michigan State University. When we get our own home with garden I am going to try to recreate this. The girls LOVED our Peter Rabbit Rowing and still pull out the books and toys.

Sonlight K Introduction to World Cultures

2010-01-17T18:56:00.017+10:30

Here is a list of all the links we have used or made when reading the books. As we are currently working our way through the books this year I will be slowly adding to this page so check back often for more updates. In looking at the latest Sonlight catalogue I have just realized that the core had been updated some books are not in the new core so I will be providing links to some books that are from the old core as that is what we have at this stage. Books with a (new) next to them are ones that are in the new core and not in the old.

Please do not be overwhelmed by all the extra things we have added (we don't do them all ) Plus I am adding extra to make K books work for older children as I am doing 4, 5, 7 and 9 year olds together to make it easier for me :0 Some of the girls are doing these stories for the second time so we are going into more depth, if you are using K with younger children some of these activites may not work for you.

Bible
Copywork pages to match 'Sing the word from A to Z' can be downloaded from here
If you are looking for Lapbooks or other younger children's activities to go along with your bible Stories look at Bible Story Printables or look at Christian Preschool Printables or little blots

Lots of free Notebooking Pages for Bible can be found here at NotebookingPages.com if you are wanting to add to your bible studies.

Language and Thinking for Young Children by Ruth Beechick & Jeannie Nelson. All my links for this book are here (This book should probably be in Language Arts K, but I have listed it here too.)

History and Geography
Free history timeline and other notebooking pages here at NotbookingPages.com
Usborne Internet-Linked Children's Encyclopedia (New)
I Heard Good New Today (New)
Living Long Ago
This article has some good ideas on eating your way around the world. There are some ideas given as you read Living Long Ago but it wouldn't be hard to find and add more if you want to.
Wild Places

Read-Alouds
Hero Tales (This book is not in the 2010 Core K)
Free Missionary Notebooking Pages are here at NotebookingPages.com There are some blank ones that would be perfect to record what ever you wanted to about the missionaries you studied.
Gladys Aylward
*For more info on foot binding read here I decided not to show this to my children as it made me feel sick but at least I can now explain to the girls how it was done.
I have been unable to find a DVD of 'The Inn of the Sixth Happiness' but from the reviews I have read the story line seems to stick closely to real life.
*Looking for images of Gladys for notebooking? Do a search for "gladys aylward pictures"
*Notebooking pages I made for Gladys Aylward here and here
*Hands of a Child has a lapbook called 'Christian Missionaries to Know ' item 1096 which includes both Gladys Aylward and George Muller along with others. (I was lucky enough to get this as a freebie at one stage and so we may use it as we read the book)
*Currclick has a freebie this week only for a mini unit study on Gladys Aylward.

The Apple and the Arrow
Lapbook here at Homeschool Share. There is SOOOO much here.
Here are all the things we did plus more when we read this book.

The Boxcar Children
Dolphin Adventures
Dolphin Treasures
Family Under the Bridge
Five True Dog Stories
A Grain of Rice
The House at Pooh Corner
The Hundred Dresses
In Grandma's Attic
James Herriot's Treasury for Children
Johnny Appleseed
The light at Tern Rock
The Llama Who had no Pajama
Mary on Horseback

My Father's Dragon
The girls have loved this book each time we have read it. So far we have read it twice and Zebra has lapbooked it twice (her choice!). There are 2 more books in this series Elmer and the Dragon and The dragons of Blueland. I would like to get these books but so far have not found them. The first time we read the book and lapbooked it I had to make all the bits for it. Now there is a fantastic lapbook at HSS, we used this the second time. Free lapbook at Homeschool Share
Lapbook example @ Walking by the Way.

The Real Mother Goose
Richard Scarry's Please and Thank You book
The Story about Ping
The Story of Dr Dolittle
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Twenty and Ten
Capyboppy

Developmental Activities
week 2 - sorting buttons
week 3 - cutting with scissors
week 4 - Painting with string

Sonlight LA K

2010-01-15T11:30:00.014+10:30

This page will be ongoing as we work through the program it will contain links to other activities I have made or used to supplement our Language Arts Program. I am altering the program to reflect the THRASS (Teaching Handwriting Reading And Spelling Skills) phonics program. So you will see this approach in the worksheets I have made.

Keep checking back during the year as we slowly add to these resources.

Resources we use for the year

Sandpaper Letters (I used the letter sheets from here) and cut them out of sandpaper and stuck them onto another sheet of cardboard. Confessions of a Homeschooler has lacing cards that would be possible to use to make sandpaper letters
(I teach the Upper and Lower case letters together by name and the sounds (phoneme) in a box so we learn all the grapheme (spelling choices) for this sound at the same time. We have a lot of fun with our THRASS chart.) If you want to learn more about what this is. Look her e

Find the letter worksheets from BeginningReading.com I will print these up and laminate them and add them to the Letter Folder I am collecting for each letter so next child round I am all organized :)

Make a calender using the blank calender here This is the second year we have used this calender and the girls really like having their own calenders. They cross of a day each day and so keep track of the year.

Note to self - while this calender has been working ok for the older girls, I think the younger girls could do with more calender learning. On my to do list is make a calender board like this one here @ Our World Wide Classroom which is based on this one here @ 1+1+1=1

Favourite Websites for overall Language Arts activities are:
Hubbards Cupboard (check out the abc stations for activities that could easily be adapted for workboxes
ChildCareLand look under free printables. This site has a wealth of extra ideas for workboxes and so simple.

Weekly Letter Page or Alphabet Album

Sonlight has you make a letter page each week. Instead of doing that how about making a photo book? The Photo and idea is from Let's Explore
She has a new Let's Explore Blog here. You could allow your child to take photos and add to the book (and tick off technology for that day!)

Week 1 Letter Ff activities
My Letter Ff Worksheet

Lots of extra activities to do at Confessions of a Homeschooler. I don't do them all but they are good for ideas and extra games to add to the workbox Letter F activities here.
From No Time for Flash Cards - Letter Ff

Week 2 Letter Bb Activities
My Letter Bb Worksheet (note this worksheet contains 'lamb' & 'thumb' which really belong in the "m" sound box. If you don't want to explain this use this one Letter Bb worksheet edit. I didn't realise I had added these until we used it this morning!

Confessions of a Homeschooler - Letter Bb activities

From Walking by the way comes B is for boat

No Time for Flash Cards - Letter Bb

Letter Bb Fun Bag activities from Home Grown Hearts

Lots of fun Bb Activities at Delightful Learning

Language and Thinking Alphabet - we will be using the THRASS alphabet rap song and printed alphabet sheet. Bunny will be able to listen to it on the ipod and follow along on the sheet. This will be a daily workbox activity. You could copy any favourite alphabet song to CD or ipod and allow your child to listen to it independently as a workbox activity - a fun way to learn the alphabet letter names.

Day 3 Activity - Write an Invitation
There are some really nice letter writing papers for downloading here. They are printable letter and envelope in one.
Now would also be a good time to introduce a workbox activity for writing letters. Honey at Sonflower Schoolhouse has one ready to download and go. Letter Writing for the Workboxes (Scroll down the page it is no 67)

Day 4 Activity - Story Sequencing
3 Bears Story pictures printed from Sparkle box . I already have a felt board set for this story I made when I was working in Childcare so I will be offering the option of either or both on different days as a fun workbox activity.

The 3 bear bingo set also from sparkle box will make a good working with sibling fun workbox.
My Sequencing Cards for 3 Bears Activity - use if your child needs pictures to help them.
There are some really cute printables at Kidzclub.com for the three bears. They would make a good book bag activity for the three bears story.

Week 3 Letter Mm Activities
My letter Mm Worksheet

Letter M Fun From Confessions of a Homeschooler

Day 2 Activity - Cornmeal Letters.
I did this activity last time we did K with the last child but I ended up with worms getting into my cornmeal (not nice) so this time I am going to use sand - as soon as I can find a nice box. I want THIS ONE. How nice to write in orange sand and see a beautiful blue with each letter.

Week 4 Letter Tt Activities
My Letter Tt Worksheet (This week there were so many words on the THRASS chart that contained T that the worksheet is 2 pages (print double sided if you want) I actually prefer it this way as it looks like a real THRASS chart - I might have to redo the others!)

Turtle fun for the Letter T from Confessions of a Homeschooler

Day 2 Activities - 3-D Letters
You can download playdough alphabet cards from Childcareland. Scroll down the page until you come to the photo and download.

Day 3 Activities - Bean Bag Game
Make some bean bags (if you don't already have some. Easy instructions here. This would be a good sewing project for children.

Week 5 Letter Rr Activities

Lots of Rainbow fun from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Sonlight LA 2

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Sonlight LA 2 Reading with Easy Readers

Here I am going to keep an ongoing list of all the extra activities we have used with this program. I am hoping to make Sonlight more work box friendly. Keep checking back through out the year as we update it as we work through it. You will need the Sonlight Language Arts 2 IG in order to fully understand the activities listed.

Reader Book List
The Beginner's Bible
Surprises
Pompeii: Buried Alive!
Owl at Home
Frog and Toad are Friends
Mouse Tales
Greg's Microscope
Hill of Fire
Frog and Toad all Year
Daniel's Duck
Amelia Bedelia
Nate the Great
Frog and Toad Together
The Big Balloon Race
The Fire Cat
The Sword in the Tree
Wagon Wheels
The Titanic: Lost ... And Found

(Spelling) Word cards for first 4 weeks here

Week 1

(Spelling/Phonics) Compound Words File Folder game (game to use instead of the Activity)
(Writing Activity sheet) Worksheet for child to use when brainstorming and using Descriptive Words here

Week 2

Zebra really struggled with the spelling words this week. There were just too many long words for her to deal with.

**NOTE** (Added 14/4/10) We have persisted until week 5 with the spelling words but are giving up on the Sonlight spelling words part of LA2 for the moment so will not be adding anymore spelling activities. I don't have the finances at the moment to add in either the Explode the code or the Wordly Wise books. Instead we will be doing our own spelling activities based around the THRASS chart.

(Writing Activity Sheet) Verbs. There are lots of activities listed in this squidoo lens on Verbs.

(Writing Assignment) Worksheet for Like What? Assignment here

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

(Writing Assignment/Activity Sheet) Book Report - I made 2 sheets to go with this activity either a plain worksheet for use with the three little pigs story (here) or an Accordion Book report

Week 6

(Writing Activity) Journal Entry. Some ideas to make a beautiful journal that your child will treasure

(Writing Activity) Self-Assessment. Worksheet here

Week 7

Week 8

(Writing Activity) Communication. If you are wanting more information on the history of communication check out Wikipedia History of Communication scroll down until you get to 'history of telecommunication'

(Writing Assignment) Address book: Create an address book here are some quick and easy ways to make an address book - calendersquick, Kaboose, Donna Young and more Donna Young here

And my favourite: Correspondence a princess/prince mission. This lapbook would be perfect for teaching your child communication (topics include - How to use a phone and safety, How to write a letter, Personal address and phone book, email etiquette, and much more) for the princesses and for the princes

Week 9

Week 10

Tot School Week 1

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Highlights from week one.

Monkey loves learning new songs so this week we focused on Baa Baa Black Sheep - we learnt the song and added it to her song book along with Moo Moo Jersey Cow. We made a play folder with the song on the front and inside the paperdolls from the song, number 1-5 cards and black and white sheep for making patterns. Also her black picture match which we made during the week. This folder will go into her workbox for her to pull out when ever she wants to. Considering I made the whole thing my self with only a black and white printer I am happy with our first play folder.

We used the bible matching cards Monkey was given for the first time this week she loved them.

She loves the felt map this was meant to be a waiting station activity but if she enjoys it who really cares :)

Stamping and cutting has been a real hit. She made party invitations for her birthday during this time one morning.

Waiting Station #4

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Big world map with felt pictures and labels to add to map. Girls also like using our plastic animals with the map.

I bought the map from Chalk Educated Toys for $60.00 Here is the direct link to the product. (If you still can't find it for some reason the product code is C9191) It comes with over 100 felt pieces - pictures of famous landmarks, animals, people, rivers and labels to add to the map.

Planning for the new year

2010-01-14T23:52:00.002+10:30

Here is the link to my post on how I planned out my workboxes this year. I am too lazy to type it out twice so you will have to go to my other blog if you are interested. I combined Sue's schedule in her book onto my MOTH planner and used Flylady for the chores side of it. We have just completed our first week and it went so smoothly and the house stayed together!

Felt Crown Pattern

2010-01-07T12:54:00.001+10:30

Balancing Everything has a very cute felt crown pattern which would make a good sewing project or great dress up for younger children. With 4 princesses in the family and 1 little prince I am sure it will be in high demand.

Gardening

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Not sure how you would fit this in the box but I just love the idea of making a miniature garden (Ideas here).

This was something we always did when we visited my grandma. She would collect sand from the river out the back of the property and we would then put it into old margarine containers or foam meat trays, dampen it and then "plant" it with plants from the garden. They never lasted for long but we had lots of fun making it. These gardens look more longer lasting. Could lead to a unit study on Bonsai if the child was really interested in miniature gardens.

This would also make a good go along when reading Milly-Molly-Mandy as from memory in one of the books Milly-Molly-Mandy and Billy Blunt make a miniature garden to show at the show.

Life Skills in the Box

2009-12-01T19:25:00.005+10:30

http://www.hsclassroom.com/2009/11/multitasking-workboxes.html had the idea of adding in life skills into the workboxes. Here are some of my ideas for life skills in the workboxes.

Setting the Table. Learning Lefts and Rights and how to set the table.

Cooking - the last workbox for the day could be a simple recipe to prepare for lunch.

Montessori Workbox activities

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http://www.absorbentminds.co.uk/acatalog/ideasbank.html has beautiful montessori activities that would be perfect as workbox activities. It never ceases to amaze me everytime I look at activities like this just how simple and beautifully presented they are - I love this concept of Montessori

Chore Charts

2009-11-13T16:17:00.002+10:30

Along with workboxes to make your children more independent Sue talks about Chore Charts. There are lots of different interpretations of Chore Charts out there just as there are many different workboxes :)

Here are a few of my favourites.

Chore packs we have these and I love them. Problem is we now have too many kids and not enough chore packs and I need to make more cards for them. This idea could be adapted by using Sue's workbox schedule strip as a chore chart schedule strip.

I love this idea for non readers - a get ready for bed chart and best of all there is a gold star when you complete each thing. Here are some card I made to download to make your own chart. Although I think her idea of using photos would make it more personal for kids.

Above are the charts we use (for Morning and Evening Chores) The first one is for the older girls you can download a copy of this one here. The other one is for the younger girls. I didn't save a copy of that one. The velcro dot on each one is to stick a small reminder on to change the sheets on the day I wash so the girls remember not to make their bed that day but to pull the sheets off!

I like the idea of W.I.L.D. cards here (W.I.L.D. stands for Walk In, Look and Do) from No Place Like Home

I like the way this chart at Pumpkin Patch has all the jobs on and you just select the one's the child needs to do today.

I WANT a Do-It door (idea from Being Made New)

Someone (if it was you please let me know so I can give you credit) suggested a morning and nightime chore "list" that kids (all pre-readers) can use their five fingers for.
5 morning chores - their 5 B's. They are...Bed, Breakfast, Brush (hair and teeth), Be dressed, Behavior (take a minute to think about what kind of behavior they need for the day)

For night time... 5 T's .... Toys (pick up), Tidy (whatever is left out- clothes, etc), Teeth, Talk (to God- prayer time), To Bed.

The chores all start with "B" or "T" so it makes it easy to remember- and they know they need to do 5- one for each finger :) Very simple and no a poster or chart to maintain . For very littlies you could make a poster for a reminder until they remember it.

And More Charts
Very cute but practical chart from ModEco Kids I really love her reasoning for the heading "How I contribute to my family" After all who really like to do Chores - just the name puts you off! :)
Coloured by the kids from The Hollands
Using a pocket chart here

What about rewards - the jury is still out on whether kids should be paid for chores or expected to do them as part of being a family. from Family Fun Magazine make some "Daddy Dollars" (picture of daddy pasted on a template of a dollar bill). There would be 2 waiting on the counter for each child in the morning but they would be gone by the time set. Dollars could be redeemed at "Mummy Mart" (pre-made list decided on) things that don't cost money.

Looking for pictures to make your own chores charts? Check out the links below.

free chore chart at CurrClick

make a chart at DLTK

Addition facts

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joey joey game from Pumpkin Patch

Doggy Addition Facts File folder, Flowerpot addition, from homeschool share (scroll down the page until you get to Math Workboxables

Pocket Maths Fact cards from Shiver Academy

Weekly fun for the workboxes

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Instant challenges at Delightful Learning
These look fun and easy to do - they use household items so easy to put together. The instructions of how to do the challenges are very very clear.
Challenge your kids to have fun, get creative and think critically!

Recycled Creations at Wayzley Academy
This challenge is just beginning you do need to have on hand a box of recycled materials ready to use and then go for it. Aimed more at younger children would also make a good art activity.

Kids who think has a number of different challenges all designed to make you and the kids think.

Unplug your kids weekly Projects These are not very specific but still will give you some ideas of things to do.

For older children Dr Jeff's weekly challenge could be fun - you have a week to work out the solution before it is posted on the blog. These seem to be more science related challenges.

The Outdoor Hour - based on Anna Comstock's book Handbook of Nature Study. These are fun and easy to do and can be done in any order. A great place to start if you are wanting to do nature study CM style and need a helping hand to get started. (As you will probably combine a nature notebook with this time this challenge covers art as well as science and also developing important skills such as observation and memory.)

Not Weekly challenges but lots of ideas for you to use weekly

Lots and lots of drawing challenges at The Creative Journey with Karen Winters

Deep Space Sparkle has lots and lots of art lessons. These would be fun to print out a selection and add to the workboxes on a regular basis. In the left hand side bar all the lessons are organized by grades.

The Crafty Crow always has lots and lots of fun craft ideas to make. Again print out the ones you like and add to the workboxes

Decimal Street lapbook or poster

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Here is a decimal street lapbook - would be great to add to a workbox and practise making numbers. Goes with the Math-U-See Math program.

I LOVE this and one day will have to make my own. I did make the house's and castle out of cardboard which we use at the moment but this is soooooo much nicer.

http://theischysfishys.blogspot.com/2008/12/decimal-street.html has used the same idea but made it slightly differently. Don't you just love the way one idea is adapted to suit each family.

Or you could make it as a poster (all so shown at the same blog) and use it as a poster centre.

Squirrel Stash

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This file folder game comes from File Folder Fun (you do have to join to get access to this site but it is worth it - especially as it is free!!!)

Matching numbers to Number words (no's 1-12)

I stuck the squirrels randomly on the page and then put a velcro dot on the tail to stick the acorn to.

Apple Tree Math Mat

2009-11-11T15:35:00.000+10:30

This Apple Tree Math mat is from homeschool share's Workboxables scroll down the page to Math Workboxables. I downloaded the black and white one (colour printer not working AGAIN) and the girls coloured it in. I did add a number 1 to the page as there was none there and the girls asked for it. The apples and numbers have Velcro holding them on.

What's in the box?

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Wombat loves his boxes too!!

Math in the box

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Online Resources
Mathwire blog - lots of ideas that could be used for workboxes. This link takes you to their index by grade. A lot is worksheets but there are games in amongest the worksheets you just have to look for them. Sue does talk about adapting worksheets in her book to make them more interesting and this site does have some fun looking worksheets.

Worksheet Generator for extra practise
Math worksheet creator site – make your own worksheets this is one of the easiest to use I have seen. You can also print out an answer sheet at the same time. http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/math/

Art in the box

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I must confess that art is not my favourite "box". I worked in childcare for too long and hated the emphasis on having to produce art work to send home so Mum and Dad could have something to show for the day. Plus I dislike paint and the mess it makes.

This past year we have been lucky enough to have organised art classes with a group of other homeschoolers. We have done drawing (girls LOVED this and learnt lots of teckniques to make their drawings look more real) and basketry (another success especially weaving) unfortunately I was finding it too hard as it clashed with JJ's sleep time. Maybe next year when he is a bit older and if we are still here we will join in again.

So what can you put in the box to cover art?
Harmony Art Mom has sketch ideas every tuesday. You could just print out the idea and stick it in the box every week. I love all the Charlotte Mason art ideas. My dream is one day to do art this way.

There are some monthly artist studies posted here. This could be adapted to workboxing - choose one a month to study and study it once a week.

Elementary Art lessons here

Don't forget that when doing nature study and other notebooking activities art is quite often covered.