Dinosaurs, They walk among us! Latest Lapbook!

Dinosaur Lapbook!

Dinosaurs, So many questions about them so few answers. One thing on my 6 year old sons mind is- Did they really exist? We decided upon a Dinosaur Lapbook to help come to a conclusion with much help from the Free Templates and Mini books at Home School Share. A ton of helpful information but also from the Huge Freebie Dinosaurs Lapbook at Live and Learn. Here are the photos and lapbook, he learned alot and so did I. Most interesting to him was the size and the word Coprolite- Oh yes look it up!

I found a bag full of Dinosaurs at the Thrift Store and we were set to recreate History! (maybe, because, you see, my Einstein is still not totally convinced)

Water Cycle Lapbook

Here is an experiment from our Water Cycle Lapbook. This proves that plants absorbs water through its veins. We put blue (red would have been better) food coloring in a jar added a stalk of celery. Then we watched the blue water climb up the stalk, at some point we couldn't take it anymore and broke the stalk to SEE the process, quite an exciting process for my son. He learned alot! And enjoyed it! We took resources from more places then I can remember. I start collecting our resources and copying papers etc, about 3months or more in advance so when the time comes we can just dive into it. Below are a few links and references for you to follow. And hopefully a picture too!:}

http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/lapbooks/water_cycle.htm - These links and pages give you access to a number of minibooks to help you with your Lapbook, use the links under resources along with links here to help your child learn and fill in the books.

http://www.watchtower.org/e/20010622/article_02.htm- Article entitled Where Has All The Water Gone? Very informative.

http://www.watchtower.org/e/20010622/article_01.htm- Are we running out of water? Wonderful diagrams also discusses the effect of the Water crisis on Health and Food

http://www.kidzone.ws/water/ -helpful simple explanations of the processes

Questing-Finding-Accomplishing

I'm on a quest to get organized this year, you'd think after nearly 10 years of homeschooling I'd have it down. Well I know people who've been schooling for 14+ and still can't find anything;}We get our work done and in a timely fashion even when I can't find what I'm looking for, we improvise. So here we are entering into 7th and 6th grades, so I'll tighten up my belt a bit. Any who, I wish to share with you some wonderful spots on the web to aid in your homeschooling quest. These you'll no doubt find helpful whether you've been schooling for 2 years or 20. These are some awesome sites with much to offer and most are free! Here are some of my favorite and most relied upon:

• http://donnayoung.org - tons of organization forms, planners, tips from homeschooling to household aids
• http://teacherspayteachers.com/ - although a site for teachers to sell lesson plans they have over 6,000 for free- just browse
• http://www.typing-lessons.org/preliminaries_1.html - this is nice for teaching keyboarding skills to children right online
• http://www.spellingcity.com/ - online spelling program and more!
• http://www.paperdali.com/dalis.html#top - a cute little site offering free paper dolls to use in your lapbooks, projects or wherever
• http://members.tripod.com/dscorpio/book_reports.htm - this site has a ton (literally) of different book report options, ways I never thought of to get a project done
• http://dorioakes.bravehost.com/index.html -Oakes Homeschooling Consulting- here is a wonderful lady that offers many more links and oohh-gobs of tips and advice on homeschooling, links to FREEBIES and more- be sure to check out her tumblr for daily updates
• http://www.lifeprint.com/index.htm - an online American Sign Language course! Wow!
• http://gardenofpraise.com/art.htm - famous art study, really good lessons, lots of exposure to the art and artist

Homeschooling Fever

At certain times of the year I get this feverish Homeschooling feeling and spend quite a bit of time. Planning, reorganizing, breaking down, constructing and deconstructing our plan. You know- the perfect one from last semester. Well this year, I'm using Homeschooltracker. From homeschooltracker.com it is a FREE HS tracking software. And it really is quite awesome. And did I mention its FREE? If I like it I'll upgrade to plus for a fee, still worth it I'm sure. We are starting Lapbooks and I'll be sure to share that with you as soon as the first is complete! I'll be adding some fantastic links that you'll find helpful no doubt. Taking advantage of this weather, we're going to be trying to venture outside more and for this I've made them Field Journals~made from completely recycled material, stitched and bound, with clear pockets for inserting the days finds. They'll be in the store~Stella's soon:) No doubt you'll find them most useful for your Adventurers too. Or for the Wild Wonderer in yourself!