Paddle to the Sea book/map study

I bumped this post up from 2009 (wow-that was eons ago!) since I will now be covering this book study with my youngest.  I will come back and add in any new things we use for idea helps for you but for now-here are some great links.




I found this thru the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival-

Part one of Paddle to the Sea

A gal posted the You Tube link for the Paddle to the Sea movie. How fun is that?! I wish we had had this when I did the study with my daughter a couple years ago. It is broken into 3 parts (10 min. for first 2, about 8 for the last one) to enjoy. My son was mesmerized...and it was filmed in 1966-so there is nothing flashy about it!

This makes a great addition to your geography studies, esp. if you are doing Paddle to the Sea. And if you are looking for a great study guide for geography, I highly recommend the Beautiful Feet Geography Guide. It covers four of the classic Holling C. Holling books-Paddle to the Sea is one of em. BF Books has 4 great maps to go with the study and they make very nice keepsakes-I have done this with 3 of my 4 and when Buddy enters 4-5th grade, he'll do it as well.




In the right sidebar of You Tube, you will find the other 2 parts. Thanks to Established Work (can no longer find this blog-sorry) for posting this info.

Teaching Science: Apologia Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day Notebook

 

Apologia Textbook: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day

Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day Notebooking Journal

images from Amazon.com. 

Usually I copy and create notebook pages to supplement our science but this year, knowing our schedule-I ended up purchasing the notebook that is specifically designed to complement the textbook.  It has been a God send!  I mean it.  I have found that I am no longer spending huge amounts of time searching for material or creating go-along pages/activities, and I don't need to come up with lapbook components either! Granted, some of the activities we have skipped (which is quite alright in my opinion) but for the most part has been a seamless way to further implant the lessons into the Boy's head.

Some page examples:

lapbook: flip book activity

The lapbook components (included in back of notebook to pull out to create as needed) are very colorful and nicely done.  Talk about saving cash on printing!  Whew. 

Anyhoo-we're truly enjoying this so far and I am super happy I bought the notebook to go along with the next text we'll be doing (Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day).  I also greatly appreciate the little schedule that comes in the notebook.  It really helps me stay focused and keeps me accountable-which is always a good thing.  Not sure if you have tried these, but if you are debating them-like I did for a time-I strongly suggest giving them a try.  :)

Now I did not receive a thing for my opinion here-notta.  I bought these puppies and just wanted to share a good thing to my readers. But hey-Apologia, if you are reading this, I would love to write a review for another of your science notebooks/text after we're done with the Swimming Creatures one...cough, cough.  :)  

Beautiful Feet Books: Geography Maps and Notebook ideas using the BFB Geo Thru Lit study

So this year we have gone back to our favorite study guides for history-Beautiful Feet Books (BFB)*. We are feeling so much better and enjoying this transition back to what we know and like. As an added bonus, I have pulled in the Beautiful Feet Books Geography Through Literature study [which my 3 previous kiddos did and loved] because it goes along, just about perfectly, with the California and Westward Expansion that we are covering this year..  Like amazingly.  :) Love when that happens!

We put his maps above our white board.  He was getting sloppy with his work on the second map-and admitted it.  Ah boys-my girls were meticulous and he is like 'whatever'.  LOL He also said he decided to go all 'colory' on it, after examining his older brother's and sisters' maps (yep, still have em) and stating that he chose to go wild while they did theirs all nice like (paraphrase of his comment-let me tell you he had me in stitches laughing about his decision). 

Because there are four books used in the Geo study-all Holling C. Holling books-I decided to divide the year into 2 books per semester.  Since we started out with the expansion/exploration of sea faring brave-hearts, we began with Seabird.  This is actually one of my favorite H.C.H. stories. The boy especially enjoyed it because it was all about sailing and man stuff. The kind of man stories that inspire young lads to dream of heading out to horizons unknown. We also did notebooking [per the instructions in the guide plus a bit of our own] pages on it. And if that wasn't enough of a tie in, since it's about a bird (for the most part) it actually melded seamlessly with our Apologia Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day program!  [The first couple chapters are all about birds-so yeah!!! Talk about getting more bang for the buck!]

I found this pic of a seagull coloring page, and then had him 

categorize the names like we did in our science lessons. 

The notebook is broken into the book sections. I 

simply photocopied the cover for the title page, 

to make my life easier. 

Obviously you could just have the student

write the name of it on paper. 

Then we moved to Tree in the Trail.  My favorite of the four in this study.  Since both the California and the Westward Expansion talk about the movement from east to west in our US history-it was a  no brainer of a choice for our next map. Again, we did notebooking as well.  Plus, here again-our Little House on the Prairie study fit nicely too (they didn't do the Santa Fe Trail but they did move via wagon and such) which is part of our literature and LLATL study. We have read the first book of hers and the Almanzo book (Farmer Boy) so far.  We'll keep on with the series per my grand overall plan for our lit studies. Not to mention they will only further blend into our overall history study for the year.

These pics are from Edwin Tunis's Frontier Living Book-

this is out of print, I own it.

Again, we just copied some pics cuz he doesn't like 

drawing and well, again-it's easier. I don't usually

push photocopying pages but there are times, and since this

is for educational purposes and not being sold-

it falls into that gray area.

And there you have it. We'll be done with this semester pretty soon and I have to say, this time around has been so much more enjoyable and refreshing.  I will post more about our Apologia experience and other thoughts soon.



*I am not an affiliate for BFBooks but boy I should be-I truly love this curriculum. It is literature based,  we can cover as much or as little as we wish,  and at our pace. It has activities/notebooking that are easy to do and (at least right now) it is beautifully tying into many of our other subjects!  So anyhoo-this is my own personal take on it and no, I didn't get paid or receive anything for it.  

Couponing Tips 2: updated binder storage for printed coupons and what I do with the leftover ones

So my printed coupons have grown. My original idea worked pretty swell but I needed a bit more division and organization.  So when I saw some binders and tabs and little pockets marked 1/2 off in the school clearance section of my local CVS-I grabbed what I could. This is what I came up with, mind you-everyone has their own style of keeping their coupons, and this seems to work best for me. It may be too cumbersome for you or simply not your style-so be sure to search the web and the great couponing sites for more ideas.

I put together three binders. Two for regular products (divided into sections based on the isles at the store I shop at the most) and one for organic stuff.  I also took the tabs and duct taped the old ones to the new ones (Spider Man theme there, hey that was like 80% off so why not? Saving is important ya know) to bump the tabs out far enough to be equal the coupon holding sheets. Yes, it hangs out over the edge but I don't mind.  It doesn't look all nice and tidy-but it was not spency to build. And I am all for not putting out extra cash for this project.


My goal is to get the organic book the sheets I have in the other ones, but for now these pocket things will do. I added a piece of card stock to divide up the pocket to give me two sides, just like in the horizontal clear pockets in the other binders.  It works. I also took 3 of the pockets and folded the top corner down to make an envelope tucked edge for the three stores I get the most Catalinas from...Meijer, Kroger and CVS.

That way they don't go flying all about when I open it or pull the binder in and out of the bag I carry these in. Oh, and now I finally have a bag that I can carry all the binders in when I go shopping too!  Got it for free using my points the Kelloggs Rewards program. I guess it is sorta free-after all I had to buy Kelloggs products to earn points to get it-but hey, we ate, we enjoyed and now I have a cute Toucan Sam bag to hold it all.

This bag goes with me to the store, even tho the green one will already have my lists/coupons for that store already organized in (pencil) pouches.  Rarely will I go into a store without this.  If I see something I can score a great deal on and I 'forgot' the bag in the car-I will go back out and get it.  Otherwise, if it is at home and I have made a 'quick' stop for something-I will jot a note about it, then go back next time I pass the store to get the products.  But yes-this puppy is my baby and it shops with me. I will pull out and find additional coupons for non-advertised items and clearance goodies. I have walked out the stores with some 'almost paid nothing for' items by having this with me! Love when that happens!

And if you are curious what I do with all the coupons I get each Sunday-well, I go thru each one (piling up and matching pages from the individual flyers) cutting out only those coupons I know that I know we will use or will even consider. Then I put all the same pages together, tuck them into the outer fold of each flyer (Red Plum, Smart Source and Proctor and Gamble) then pen the date on the top outside cover, and put into large Ziplock bags by months.

When I am doing my lists/pulling matching coupons prior to shopping (by going thru several couponing sites to see store match ups) I may decide to purchase something that I did not cut the coupon for. All I do then is find the correct month packet and go to the listed flyer and grab the coupon(s). This extra coupon thing can get pretty bulky and heavy-so it stays at home. I do all my planning before walking out the door-so I rarely have one of those, "Shucks! I don't have that coupon on me!" moments.  If I do spot something I know I have a coupon for at home-I jot down the store name, item and then can go home and pull it for another time that I may be going by the store.

And that is the basic way I store and use my coupons.

Creating Activity/Trinket Boxes out of Food Boxes (like for Montessori works) [cross-post from my What's in the Box? blog]

So what does one do with all those little pieces or parts that are a must when using Montessori works [aka: a specific activity meant to teach something], or some matching activity or whatever it is you have that will need to be contained?  What can you use that keeps them all nice and tidy and looks good too? 

Well, being frugal is always a great way to start. So you search your humble abode, and perhaps even ask friends/family for those particular boxes that once housed delicate chocolates or sugar packs. Then you scrounge thru your various scrapbooking paper, collect glue, scissors, a bowl and a brush and you get busy. And that is exactly what I have done lately.  Whenever we get (usually a gift) those nice quality chocolates, I always save the boxes.  My husband actually found one I tucked away and he had the nerve to pitch it.  I gasped in horror and immediately plucked it from its demise.  Thankfully there wasn't anything in the trash yet so it was safe from grossness, and I must say-he won't make that mistake again. The shocked look [from such outlandishness across my face] surely left a lasting impression on him. LOL

Anyhoo-the reason I am posting this because there are times folks need a box or something to hold those little goodies. So why pay a lot of cashola for something you can make?  I don't know why you would.  I try my best re-purpose things when I can; this is a fun, creative way to get a few storage boxes that are sturdy and useful for our schooling needs.


Now I do not have a canister of Modge Podge about the house, so I did what any frugal gal would-I made the 'poor man's version' of it using Elmer's Glue and water to thin it.  Worked like a charm!
Figured I would just do a picture tutorial (for those who have never tried such things) and put a wee comment under when necessary.  Hope this helps you out.

The Basics:

Find a piece of scrapbook paper that appeals to you. I recommend using the thinner style. Then figure out there the lid fits best-allowing for enough paper to cover up over the sides and slightly over into the inside edge.

 Cut to the area where the corners meet

-but not too far in as you can always fix as you go.

 Put a nice, but not too heavy layer of glue down on the

 lid then lay down in the center area of your paper.

 Flip over and use one of those handy-dandy Pampered Chef  

scrapers (or a soft edged tool) to get rid of any air bubbles.

 Glue, fold and press out any bubbles, along all sides.

 Trim off any excess and tuck the corners in nicely.  Try not to over do it on the inside because the extra bulk may prevent the lid from going over the bottom.

Coat the entire top/sides with thin layer of glue.

Let dry thoroughly. I actually did two coats.  

Very smooth and durable.

And there ya go-

 

Now I have a lovely box to contain language materials.  And hey, if it gets crushed-well I am out like 30 cents.  Not too shabby!  :)

Just updated the Not Back to School post on the classroom but here's the Reader's Digest version

Here is the newly set up nature study table/art picture study and focal book area.  I have wanted to do this for a long time and was able to get that accomplished today. The other side of the room-well not so much but will finish that this week. (UPDATE:  this has since been removed and our geography center now takes up this area)

I literally just did a treasure hunt about the house to find doo-dads and some display things to pull this together.  Robbed a few of my decorations in the kitchen and such and then added the Safari Ltd. toob birds (backyard and a couple from the exotic b/cuz we have hummingbirds and owls around us)...added the labels so he can start remembering them.  Will have my pop scour his yard for various bird feathers (he has like a sanctuary or something in his back yard-the birds and critters know where to go for food) and those will go in a flatter basket (need to purchase) so he can check those out when we are covering birds in science (which will be right off the bat). I can add/delete as necessary and change the items per season.

 The workboxes used to be under the rain gutter book holders,

 now it displays our current studies 

and future study items 

(cannot wait to start the Laura Ingalls stuff!!!!)

 A necessity is the Mrs. Sharp's Family Traditions book! 

[Left hand corner of table] LOVE IT!

And I taped up the picture study cards I had

from when we first covered Audubon.  We'll

cover him again this year but will spend more time on 

his animal drawings for that.

 This little wood armoire is my dd's. She used it when she 

played with her American Girl Dolls-LOL

  Was just sitting in storage so had to use it.

My goal is to get a nice apothecary cabinet or 

discover chest cabinet to keep all the little fun nature things

in.  Maybe next year's budget will allow for it but for now-

just using what we have around here. 

Not Back to School Blog Hop 2013: Day in the Life

The last installment for this year's NBTSBH is about what we do when we 'school'.

You can join/visit o

ther's blogs on the

Not Back to School Blog Hop Main Page

When our kids were younger, I did my best to maintain a schedule that was pretty regular and wasn't changing constantly . I found my children did better when they had a pretty good idea of what was to come-which included snack/nap time, etc.  But as they grew, we had to morph to accommodate their skill levels (meaning at one time I had a baby/kindergartner/middle elementary student and upper elementary almost jr. high student) to meet the demands of a variety needs.  Then when it came time for scouting or swimming lessons or what-have-you, well, it just made sense to readjust and redefine.  So now we're at this point-one upper elementary aged student. That's it.  So we have a much more relaxed schedule. 

We're not morning peeps.  I also like to take the first hour or so after arising to do my 'office work' and pray. That includes going thru my emails, making appts, prepping or just enjoying a cup of Java without noise, or anyone too nearby.  I think I deserve that after 25 years of parenting-LOL.  I find that when I have a bit quieter morning-the rest of my day goes better which equates to a more tolerable mom and happier student.  :)

Obviously, if we have afternoon commitments (like during baseball season) we work to get his studies done by 1 pm.  That way I have a bit of time to do what needs to be done around here and he has some off time before heading out the door.  

Plus, we do not have a 9-5, M-F dad.  He travels up to 12-14 days per month then works from home the rest.  So when he is gone-I have double duties, making my workload a bit more and therefore, during those times we adjust as needed.  Because of his travel, at times we are also able to do "tag-alongs" which offers us a change of scenery but throws any 'schedule' or major book work out the door (or car window if you prefer).  

So we have no typical day but I do my darnedest to maintain a relative "must do per week" for the following:

M-F:  reading work/spelling (intense to help combat the dyslexic struggles we have going on here)

M-Thur:  Bible (sometimes Friday), Math, art projects

M, W and F:  history, geography

T, Thurs: Science, artist/musician study and if weather permitting some type of nature study activity

F:  catch up for anything I really wanted to cover but couldn't for whatever reason, crafts, art projects wrap-up, etc.

Since I have become a big couponer-I do a blitz shopping every other Thurs. and frankly, that takes pretty much most the day and when I get home I am exhausted...so on those weeks we'll just move any Thurs. assignments to Friday and call it even. 

Monday mornings are also my intense 'office/coupon prep time' which means no teaching from me but he'll have some easier assignments he can do nearby to occupy him.  I found the biggest route to burn-out was using all my weekend time to do school stuff when I should have just been doing home stuff and enjoying the fam. Sometimes, this is unavoidable-but I have drastically reduced that b/cuz it never left me any time to just be me.  And that was not good.  It is just too easy to be drawn back into 'prepping and organizing' and before I knew it my weekend was gone and I never got a recharge.  I learned that one after oh, about 15 years of hsing.  LOL  Now I know better.  

As for the where?  Well some of it is desk work, and usually he does that in the education room which is right nearby the fam room...or he comes to the table I am working at.  Most reading (and we do a lot cuz we use a lot of literature based curriculum) is done on the couch.  But if it is nice, we'll go outside and sit on the porch or back patio.  When we travel and nature study opportunities arise, we work right where it is....so on a beach or nature trail, etc.  Well not on the actual trail, we might get run by a rogue biker or block the path-so we'll use nearby picnic tables and such. 

and that is a basic day in the life-

but that can all change and 

probably will! LOL

Samples of activities for zoology using critter replicas, labels and control cards

We're going to be covering birds and insects and swimming creatures this year for science. I have always enjoyed activities that help reinforce the lessons by using fun little goodies to do so.  Being that I have a Montessori background, and love the Charlotte Mason method-I try to combine the best of both worlds when I can.

image from the Safari Ltd. site

So I found (like why didn't I take a closer look at these before? Really? I am not happy with myself for walking right past these little gems for some time now-OY!) Safari Ltd. Toobs.  These containers hold a nice amount of critters, or people or flowers or well-known landmarks that can easily be tied into most lessons. One can use them for map work, science activities, matching lessons, and more.  So my goal is to collect the Toobs we need for our year. I should have all or at least most of them bought before Oct/Nov.  I am of course, focusing on the immediately needed ones first.  I have already purchased both the backyard birds and the exotic birds sets.  Being that I hate paying full price, and the couponer in me demands this-I gathered up my 40% and 50% coupons for JoAnns to save a few bucks-which I could use b/cuz they were not on sale. JoAnns has them for around $9 something and so I was able to get one for about $5 ish and the other around $6ish.  I will continue to use the coupons until I have all the sets I want :)!

image from the Safari Ltd. site

Thankfully, on the Safari Ltd. site, you can click the image to see what is included. If you ctrl/prt sc then go to MS Paint (if you have such programs) you can cut/trim it and then save it to put onto MS Word to create a control card for your activity.  I enlarged one kinda big (for youngers to place the actual bird onto) but it kinda fuzzed the wording. So I also shrunk it to a better size (as a control card for my son) that isn't so bad. I also used the MS Word to create name cards as well.  I then printed and laminated for long term use.

I then will put it on the tray (as pictured, but I am going to paint it white) when we get to those chapters in science.  It is just a kinda fun extra thing for my son to do to stave off boredom.  For the younger set-it is a great activity (very Montessori) to help learn the different birds (or whatever critter you want to study). The basic deal is that the student takes the word card and matches it to the right bird.

I will also be purchasing the N.A. animals and the river ones too.  I need that snapper from the river set to use along the Minn of the Mississippi book (BFB geography). Figured we would have fun occasionally moving the turtle down the great Mississip (with our sense of humor I am sure it'll be interesting) map that he fills in/colors as he goes thru the chapters. And it'll serve as a great replica of what a real one looks like. Mind you-he's already had fun poking at a snapper or two when his dad and him have been out and about on their walks. He knows a snapper and understands just why it is called one. That said, because this is one critter you do not want to handle for real-this is a great option to have! LOL.  Plus, I can pull a lot of those animals from the river set for our history study of the expansion west (in the US) that we're tagging into our Calf. history (by BFB).  Once I get a fun set together for that-I will be sure to post.

The beauty is you can create what you need. 

I also printed off a free coloring page of a snapper to use to teach turtle parts.  He covered that way back when he was in Kindergarten but obviously, it's been a while and why not revisit it?  So I will the laminated pic, some Vis-a-Vis markers and a control card (still need to create) that he can use to remember them. He'll just use different colors for different parts. I will also make an actual turtle control card with the correct areas labeled so he can self-check it.  I will probably do it for the Seagull one I have when we do the book, Seabird.  I have to go thru the Apologia notebooking wkbk I bought to go along with the Zoology 1 I have. If they don't do that-then I will create one.

This is just a simple idea that can create a fun, integrated 'accessory' for your  student's learning experiences. Think outside the one-dimensional when you are looking for different ways of teaching and you'll be surprised at what you find!

**the Toobs use the correct names for most of their sets, which is good b/cuz I prefer the child learns the right name of an animal. For the younger kids, you can get away with saying "bird" or "flower" but it does help significantly if you label it as it should be-their specific name.  I will also make cards with the Latin names for my son to match up because when we do our nature study notebooks (CM way), we always add that and I want to be sure to provide another opportunity for him to learn them.

**I am not an associate for these companies-altho I should be LOL. Just wanted to share what we have found to be very useful for our lessons.

2013-14 Artists/Musician Study choices

I have finally made my decisions on who we will cover for our artists and musicians for the coming year.
Because we're going to be studying American History thru the new Beautiful Feet Books Westward Expansion in combination with their California History, I wanted to zero in on artists who did a good job representing the natural world and the peoples from that time period.


Now we have covered John James Audubon (info on several artists noted on this page) a couple years ago-but we didn't do a total in depth study nor did we cover his animal paintings/drawings.  So we'll do some bird time (esp. since our science covers the flying creatures of the fifth day-and of course birds are a part of that), then move to the critters.  So I am currently researching the books I will need from the library and will get some color copies made of some of the animals-esp. ones that are found out west.

The BFB Westward Expansion does include one of the books with a little ditty on him so I wanted to be sure to revisit him.

I will also tie in George Catlin.  He did some absolutely beautiful paintings of several Native Americans/Tribes.  He also knew (I believe also painted one or the other of the Lewis and Clark dudes) so since we'll cover L and C as well-I wanted to be sure to cover him as well.  I am currently hunting down books to use (from the library) and will get some pics printed for the picture study too.  I am excited to cover him since I know very little about him.





I will also revisit Benjamin West since that is a part of the very early expansion.  We covered him slightly last year (I think it was last year lol) but wanted to expand that study a tad more too.  I found some neat books via the library on him-so we'll do that too!


All of the artists we cover this year will be small and short lived studies since they are pretty much review for us.  Once I get all the materials and activities figured out I will be sure to do a link up of those.


And then I will cover one musician.  I bought a book on Stephen Foster (by Opal Wheeler) and a TG, and the CD so we'll cover him. I will get some music of his via the library.
Visit Zeezok's site because it looks like they have dropped and added different products.  They used to have the book and guide and cd set.  I don't see it anymore tho.  [updated 1/19/16]

Not Back To School Blog Hop 2013: Student Pics

So this week highlights the student(s) and right now all we have is one.  Hoping to change that tho, sooner than later (thru adoption)...but for now-I leave you with some pics of our boy from our recent trip.

You can join the NBtSBH 2013 and check

out what other homeschoolers have planned 

for the coming year!