I am a very disorganized person by nature but I have always loved the idea of doing unit studies, but lack the organizational want to to pull one off. I tend to have lots of different ideas, but never seem to implement them. I knew this year I wanted to start some Geography with Lillie, I also knew I wanted to do some lapbooking, just not on the big scale I have in times past. Lapbooking is great when your kids do the work...that was not the case with mine. Perhaps when they're older and learn how to control the amount of glue coming off the stick... I also thought it would be nifty to lump history and geography in one sitting...so my idea of a unit study is not traditional. I don't tie every subject into what we're studying, but just compile a bunch of books, multimedia, projects etc...make a big ole list and then just start checking them off.

I initially got the idea for our Globetrotters Journal here. This site has many neat ideas so I encourage you to check it out. Our journals contain just the right amount of lapbook components as not to be overwhelming, but highly educational as well when looking back over them. I will post pictures of them some time in the future as I have to fill up my memory card before I can load any pics onto my computer. I bought each child a composition book. Inside the cover there is a pocket that contains a pretend passport (you can get one here). When we study a place, we glue a few lapbook components or make my own if I can't find one online. Just the basics...include a map of where the place is, index cards with key attractions or interesting facts as well as any other information you might find helpful.

This year my goal is to cover the major ancient civilizations and all 50 states. For these studies I will combine geography with the history of the region or area being studied. Using our Book of Centuries helps us keep a timeline of the events so we don't get confused about what came when.

My kids became interested in Ancient Egypt while we were studying Moses and Joseph in our Bible time. So this post is choc full of links and general helpfulness for those of you who might want to do a unit study, or need ideas, or just want to learn more for yourself. I know I learned alot and that's what I've said so many times before about Homeschooling...I love that I get to learn right alongside the kids. You don't have to be an expert on everything to teach your children...all you need is an excitement about the material and a love of learning yourself that bubbles over where your kids can see it.

Books Used

Usborne Beginners Egyptians Tutankamen by Gill Harvey

These books are always a hoot to read...
And unbeknownst to me until I found it this morning...this one is online for FREE.

About the French dude that broke Hieroglyphics...

These are books we did not use, but would have if they had been at the library...I'm cheap like that. They are all Usborne, because Usborne books are the BOMB! Excuse my slang from the old days.



Videos/Multimedia
For some reason, my children can sit through an hour and a half program on Nova about the Sphinx but they have trouble sitting still for 10 minutes while I read aloud, so I am thankful for PBS and You Tube who provide me with videos on any subject we seem to study. We watched three videos and so I'll embed them here. Remember to turn off the music player on my right sidebar if you watch the You Tube ones here...if you like full screen on the You Tube ones, just double click them and it will take you to the You Tube site page. I learned heaps and really enjoyed watching these, especially the one on King Tut.
My kids really love Prince of Egypt and Joseph King of Dreams. I would caution that you watch these with your kids and also that you first read and discuss the BIBLICAL account so that you can point out differences in the story. Nothing is a substitute for the Bible! These videos can be found on You Tube by searching for them. I found them to be educational on the life style of ancient egypt.

Nova Riddle of the Sphinx This also has alot of other video clips and features that are great!

Nova Building Pharoah's Boat











Online Activities:

Homeschool Share Lapbook This is what I chose the few templates from for our journals. Also has projects and a unit study to go with it so you could mix and match or glean some additional ideas to taylor make this for your homeschool setting.

Another Ancient Egypt Lapbook Would be great to combine this with the former plus this one has a booklist and activities as well.

Interactive Tomb Exploration

Interactive Make a Mummy

Online Hieroglyphics Translator

Online Pyramid Explorer from Nova

Other Activities

Mummify a Barbie Really super neat, didn't do it as it's hard to get all three kiddos involved and it's hard to keep all three from wanting to be right in the center of attention.

Design a Sarcophogus

Paper Pyramid Would be great to pair with a diorama!

Additional Online Resources

Mr. Donn's Ancient Egypt I love Mr. Donn's History sites...they are full of stuff...show Mr. Donn some love, would you?

Ancient Egypt Lesson Plans, Videos, Games etc.

I'm really diggin this laid back approach and school has been coming along so nicely this year so far. I'll share next time what we've been using and what we're into this year.

Have a Blessed Day!

Catch-up, Please!

Okay, so it's been fairly uneventful here. Which is sorta good and sorta not...leaves little to blog home about. We are into school work and housework and churchwork and not much else. Doing a Polar unit study with the kids. We're a little over halfway done with it. I am always amazed at how much I learn while I'm "teaching".
This was an activity we did to study icebergs... froze water overnight in a ziploc bag and then dumped it in water. It showed why icebergs are so dangerous...because only small part of it is visible...the bulk of the berg lies underneath the water.We did an experiment to show why plants and trees don't grow in the arctic tundra. We put some lima beans in wet paper towels and put them in a warm place and them put some in the fridge. And after a week the beans in the warm place sprouted and the ones in the cold didn't.
We've found several short documentary videos online about arctic and antarctic animals...fascinating how God engineered these things. My fave...the emperor penguin...the dad's really man up...or , ummm penguin up in this instance...No deadbeats in the penguin colonies.
Lot's of dressup and imaginative play going on, as well. Jack is obsessed with all things dinosaur...hasn't uttered a word about cars in over a month. He loves to play Dinosaur Hunter with anyone who will play....

Lillie Anna lost her first tooth... I can not believe I have a child old enough to lose teeth...She was very concerned about it at first, but now has embraced her toothlessness with pride.

And for her birthday got a nifty digtal arts studio for the computer...the kids have gotten so much enjoyment out of it...Thanks Aunt Shanna and Uncle Paul. Lillie used it the other day to make crowns for everyone...Jack's , of course, had dinosaurs on it...Lillie's had princesses, of course, and not sure what Chloe's theme was....

Jackson is becoming quite the good big brother to little Chloe...reading her a pirate story yesterday at nap time.
Have a blessed day!

Snow Day!!!!!!!!

Well, the first real snow of the winter has arrived. I'll be honest...with the price of heating going up, it's been a real blessing that this is the first really cold run we've had. I do love to look at the snow, though I'm not a big fan of being out in it. Well, as far as school is going, boy it has been difficult to get back in the swing of things after our month long hiatus. We've started studying Westward Expansion and are currently reading about Daniel Boone, since his story is regional history. When warmer weather comes, I'd like to take a field trip to Sycamore Shoals where the treaty to buy Kentucky between the Cherokee's and Richard Henderson took place, sparking the cutting of the Wilderness Trail, a very important means of transportation through Kentucky and key in opening the western territory. Boone was an adventurer, to be sure! If there is a fine line between brave and foolish...Boone was it! His life is a peek into a time of great courage and is well worth studying. Here's some ideas and links if you're interested in a study on Mr. Boone.

*We are reading the Discovery Biography by Katharine E. Wilkie called "Daniel Boone: Taming the Wilds" but any book from your library would do.

* Lillie completed a state page (you can get it from Jimmie here) for Kentucky.

*We plan on playing some Cherokee games and maybe branching off a little into Sequoyah and the Cherokee Alphabet as well.

* Listen to an audio story about Daniel Boone from the Reading Well.

* Make a Log Cabin

*Study Tracking, Go Hunt for some tracks. Use Plaster of Paris to cast found tracks or make some of your own!

*Archiving Early America has Boone's Adventures in his own words!

Jackson has gotten great use out of his Lincoln Logs he got from his Nannie and Poppie at Christmas. He really has improved on his building!

For science, we are starting a unit on birds. I made the kids "field journals" in which we will be using notebooking instead of lapbooking, just cause it's easier for the kids to be involved in the making of the notebook, as opposed to the lapbook. We did a really neat activity when we studied bird songs. I found some sites with free bird sound effects and downloaded them onto a cd. Then, I played it through telling the kids what sort of birds they sounds were coming from. Some , like the rooster and the turkey, they knew right off...some were a bit more difficult. Then I played the cd again and had them identify without assistance the calls being made. If you want to try this, here are a couple of sound effect sites...

Partners in Rhyme Bird Songs

A1 Sound Effects

Now, here is a site that has a bird song game.

Here are links to three fun songs from Singing Science Records your kids are sure to find catchy...I did!

What Does A Bird Have That I Have Not?

The Birds Have a Language

How Does a Bird Sing?

I have more projects planned ...alot of notebooking and crafts and activities, so stay tuned. We plan on studying birds till the learning plays out!

Well, here's some random pictures of the the kids taken over the last week...

LOOK AT THAT NASTEEEEEEEEEEEEE MOUTH!LOOK AT THAT SAME NASTEEEEEEEEEE MOUTH TRYING TO LOVE ALL OVER ME!!!!!!

The scene this morning from the front porch

Sometimes it can be hard to be a Big Sister...

Like when Little Sis gets into Mommy's lip gloss and needs to be cleaned up and really isn't being very cooperative.

A very cold nature walk at Dad's house with cousins on Saturday! Dad and Roscoe.
Here's the kids marveling at the beauty of the snow, safely and warmly inside the house.
Tucker in on the action...
Chloe lookin' very comfy in her rocking chair...

All Spaced Out!

Our planet Unit study is mainly focused on learning the names and characteristics of the planets and their order from the sun. Yesterday, we learned that the closest planet to the sun is Mercury. It is also the fastest orbiting planet. It gets very hot during the day (for obvious reasons) but gets extremely cold during it's night (More than -200 degrees...brrrrrrrr.) We read a book we got from the library that was part of the same series of books by Picture Window Books and it was called simply "Closest to the Sun". I did a vocal review of what we've learned so far in our study and then I let the kids watch a video of the Messenger (the spacecraft that will explore Mercury around 2011) being launched for test runs. Jack was totally jazzed about all the noise and smoke and action. Probably reminds him of dinnertime at our house :) Click here and watch for yourself. I also found a neat little site that compares the size of the planets to one another. Mercury is nearly half the size that earth is. Oh, and for those of us who always want to lose weight...move to Mercury, trust me on this one. I know it's really hot and their is no atmosphere, but if you can at all figure it out, go and go before the holiday feeding frenzy! Click here to calculate your weight on different planets. I'm going to hang myself out there for you. I weigh 168 lbs on earth...on Mercury? I would only weigh 64 lbs! So, if I've figured correctly, I could be 300 pounds here and when I move to Mercury I'd only be 113 with room to grow! That settles it! I've already picked out my spot on the planet. I'm going to open a coffee shop and gouge myself on pastries!

However, not sure Lillie would make it. She'd only weigh 15 lbs! After we got done with the foolishness, we set down to make our own constellations. Get some black construction paper and some of those cheapy foil star stickers at the Wal-Mart or wherever and let the kiddos stick them on and then draw lines connecting the stars to make a new constellation. Here's the kids with theirs. I had to somehow make a dinosaur out of Jackson's mess, I mean, work. And Lillie had so many stars on her page there was no room to draw lines, but they learned and it was fun. Here they are with their finished products...

I even got in on the action and made a constellation too...guess what it is!!!!

Ahhh... to live on a planet where the coffee flows abundant and you don't have to be a senior citizen to get a cup for free. Where latte's fall from the sky and the desserts are fat free without sacrificing flavor! I know it probably sounds like I suck down coffee all day, or I have an IV bag attached with a double chocolate mocha in it. I only drink one cup a day and if I'm in town, I might spring for a Frappacino or a huge Iced Coffee from McDonald's. I am NOT an addict...

Have a great day!

Anyone Know How to Cure Lapbook Fever?

Been lapbooking this week like a madwoman...got scissor calluses to prove it! Thought I'd share some with you. Been workin' on a humdinger for Jack, but am not going to reveal it until I am all finished. I have made him several file folder games , card games, and flashcards, so decided to make one big lapbook out of them all to cut down on space and to help keep up with them. When it's done it'll house file folder games, flash cards, memory games etc... covering patterns, letters, numbers, colors and shapes. This will allow me to sit down with him and he can have a choice of fun, brightly colored activities to learn with. I am excited to almost have it finished.

Well, it's all about addition for Lillie in math right now, so I've made her a couple of addition file folder games and will tape them together in a fashion similar to Jackson's and for the same purpose. Here's some pictures of the addition lapbook...

I got this one totally off Homeschool Share (check my link in the sidebar) which was nice cause I didn't have to hunt around, it was all there . This particular lapbook will teach her addition facts.

Hey! Like my flip flops? You can be honest! Just be thankful you can't see my toes!Oh, well, so much for not seeing my toes...sorry.This one is a dandy little file folder game where Lillie can work the problems using her counters and then check her answers by lifting the window. I got this off of Enchanted Learning and this is only one of two that they had for free!

Okay, this one is homemade and very simple. Just printed off a plus and equals sign and glued them onto a manilla file folder. Then found some number flash cards here and printed off several copies so that Lillie can invent and solve her own problem. Alrighty, now to school for today. Lillie did her reading off of the Starfall website, she sucessfully read three little books and I was so tickled. For writing, I made a worksheet of the Robert Frost poem "Gathering Leaves" She will trace the words over a three day period. I thought the poem was fitting as fall is falling all around us now. Math, we played the above game using counters and Lillie did very well. Today was our day to do History so we continued on with our Native American unit. Read from "Red Feather" today about some foods the Native Americans ate, how they secured their food and how they cooked it. Added a fan book to our lapbook, as well as some shutterfold books outlining the different tribes by region. Inside the book was listed the principle tribes and then I printed a little tiny US map and colored in the region.

We discussed in detail the Three Sisters. Corn, Beans, and Squash. These were three very important crops to the Native Americans and they planted them in a mound together. We call it companion planting. Here's a diagram:

One thing I have tried to bring out to Lillie in this study, is how the Indians took care of each other and they all pitched in and helped out. The women cooked the meals together, planted and harvested together, and the men hunted together. There was none of this "You go to your wigwam and I'll go to mine." They ate together and worked together. You just don't see that in our country anymore. Seems like everyone is out for just them. "My four and no more." you could say. The Three Sisters method of planting went right along with that mentality that everyone needed to work together to survive. The corn provided a sturdy place for the beans to grow. The beans provided necessary minerals and nutrients to help the squash and corn grow and the squash helped protect the plants. They all worked together to ensure survival. We could sure glean some lessons from the Native Americans, couldn't we?

Well here's what we added to our lapbooks which we are almost done with!

These are mini file folder books that I set up like a Jeporady question. On the inside is a picture of a famous Native American in history (in this case Sacagewea, Squanto, Sequoyah , and Pocahontas) and on the outside is a description of what they are famous for.

Gosh, this is a bad picture. Flash ruined it! But, hopefully you can see the little map of the US inside the shutterfold books.Fan book describing the food the Native Americans ate and some facts about how they were such good stewards of the resources they were given. Something else we could learn...but maybe another post...I got all these templates off the Homeschool Share site under free lapbook resources. There is a link in my sidebar. Okay, so that's it. I'm off to make up cookie dough to put in the fridge so I don't have to keep mixing up dough everytime somebody wants a treat! Have a great day.