Our Family Year Book

So it was obvious that I wasn't around much on the blog during November. It was the start of that busy holiday season. Another reason I didn't blog much was because I decided I wanted to try and complete a family history album of the past year for our family. It was a huge undertaking and I'm still not finished, but I was able to get quite a bit accomplished.

I wanted to create it by month. Each month contained an overview, what we've been learning about in school and any other significant happenings. I'd really like to go back and do one for every year we've been married and continue doing it every forthcoming year. I think it would be such an incredible legacy for your kids to look back on, and for me to enjoy when they are all gone. I have so many thoughts about this, but won't dump them all on you right now. :)

One thing I wanted to accomplish during the project was making sure that it was fast and easy to do. No complicated layouts. I also wanted it to be cost effective. After trying several options, it came down to doing it 8.5 x 11, printing it for now and putting it in plastic sleeves. Eventually I do plan on binding each year into a finished book.

I've fallen in love with the 8.5 x 11 size and plan to never go back to the square format. (I'll still be doing them occasionally for my design work, but I've figured out how to convert those ones to 8.5 x 11 too so I can have a finished printed copy. I'm also happy to say that ScrapGirls is now doing a lot for 8.5x11. Yeah!!

So I thought I'd share our month of November from our book, since I didn't post much about it here.

Another Year to Look Forward To

I love everything about the new year. I'm one of those people who thrive on change, love a chance to make goals and look forward to seeing what can happen over a year.






I realized I was pretty much absent for half of November and the whole month of December. Oops. Life was busy, hectic and full of good things. We enjoyed a wonderful holiday together as family and were able to relax from a busy month. Beau was on a deadline to finish up a journal paper that he needed to finish before Christmas. He almost made it, but decided to relax and spend Christmas Eve, Christmas and a few days after with us. It's a good thing too or Santa might have just left him a hunk of coal. We had a great time, and he was able to finish it up before the new year.






We are now on the countdown to writing the final dissertation and finishing up the last of the research by mid February so he can graduate come April. I think we see an end in sight. Our first 10 years of marriage to complete his education. Would I have done it differently? Never. He has grown so much in these years. The things he is now capable of doing, and the things he has learned have been amazing. To see him develop talents and abilities, along with watching him grow as a person has been worth it all. There have been hard times, frustration, late hours, stress and tight finances that we have experienced here and there through this road of getting a higher education while choosing to have a family, but the Lord has truly blessed us for that choice. It doesn't add up by the world's ways or on paper, but it has added up in our lives in blessings more numerous to count, happiness that is we could never imagine, and experiences we would never want to pass up.










It is going to be a good year. We can both feel it. Change is in the air and I love it's feeling. Here's to another new year of joy, growth, trials, love, new people, learning and fun.

October in Review

October was a busy month, and I know I wasn't able to get everything posted on here that I would have liked to.  So I thought I'd share a month in review with you. 

 


 
 
 

Graphing Exercises

Mirian had a science lesson on how scientists sort their data, as part of the scientific method. The lesson taught various methods, one being making graphs and charts to compare the results.  So we did some exercises in graphing. This is also a great math activity too. We first sorted stuffed animals by types and graphed it. We then had Mirian go outside and tally how many trucks, vans or cars drove in front of our house over a period of time. We then did the exercise the kids enjoyed the most because it allowed for a snack afterwards - sorting Fruit Loops by color. 

Isaac loved this activity and joined in the fun as well. In fact Isaac spends most of the time doing lessons right along with Mirian as well as Caitlyn.

They both graphed their numbers and looked at the results.  Orange was the main color for both of them. So  there's a good chance that your Malt O Meal bag of Fruit Loops is mostly orange.

Another graphing exercise Isaac really enjoys comes from a preschool pack. There is a dice that has a different picture on each side that he roles, and then a graphing chart to color in. To him it feels like a game, and yet he's learning graphing skills and how to record results in an organized manner.

Another things I've made is these learning to write books.  You can find all of them under the printables section.  She has a category of them called sticky learnings.  They are cute!  I printed out the number book and the letters upper and lower case. I then laminated them and created little books with rings. Now when Mirian is doing Phonics and Issac wants to join her, I can pull out one of these books and have him practice writing with a dry erase marker. She also has another cool book called, "About Me" that I created for him too.  It has things like my home, phone number, address, birthday and pages of "my favorite...."  I then used the Dashed font to write his answers he gave me. He can then copy over them to practice writing and learning important info like his phone number and address.  

This homeschooling hasn't just been for Savannah and Mirian, it truly is a family affair with everyone involved. Isaac gets excited about what they do too. By the time he is in Kindergarten next year, he'll be flying through it.

It's been a long time....

It's been a long time since I have actually put out a Collection Biggie. They just take me too long.  This time around I was able to get all of these done in about a week. It was insane! I love it when inspirations hits like that and I can pump something out in the few moments I have throughout the week. Plus this one was just too much fun!

Just click on the products to go directly to their page in the store. You can also get all of them in this value pack for a killer price, especially with the 27.7% sale going on in the boutique right now too! (Up till Oct. 24)

A Little Fishy

Our current science unit is the different classes of animals.  This specific lesson was on fish.  After doing an online lesson about fish and what makes them different from reptiles, amphibians and mammals, we got to do the hands on fun.  One thing I love about teaching, is the various ways you can learn about a subject. I enjoy doing those little extra things that really make learning enjoyable.

For this unit, even though we have live small goldfish, I was wanting to get a real fish to look at for the anatomy part of the unit. Unfortunately I didn't plan early enough to take everyone on a family out fishing to catch their own. We resorted to the frozen fish at the local supermarket. I was really hoping they still had their insides. Oh well. Next time we're home grandpa you'll have to do a live gutting demo after a fishing trip with the grandkids.

This lesson also reminded me of my own Great Brain project in fifth grade on fish.  We went to a fish farm where we did a video on how to catch a fish, and then later came home while they took a video of me teaching how to gut a fish.  I can even add that to my list of employment opportunities. A whole summer of gutting fish for the local city folks who had come to catch their own fish.  My hands were raw by the end of it. I've never been a greater lover of bag balm and gloves a night.

But on to our lesson.



We pulled our real fish for some hands on action.... which no one wanted to do at first.  They weren't going to touch it.  So Beau had to man up and start explaining where the gills were at, the different types of fins and their scales.



  We finally got some takers on touching it.  Then they even started having fun playing with it.



After inspecting the fish from every direction we assembled a paper fish while labeling the different parts of it's anatomy.



We then incorporated some art into it. (Of course! What else do you expect from an art teacher.)  So we started off with making prints of the fish.  Painting a good coating of black paint on it, we then laid a paper over top, rubbed it and pulled off our own realistic fish prints. I thought they turned out great.



The best part of this whole unit, was the amazing aroma we enjoyed throughout the whole house.  By the time we were finished my stomach wouldn't even think of letting me cook it up. Which would have a been another fun unit of trying a new fish dish, or some sushi.



We then pulled out the clay and built our own fish. This was a art unit I did while student teaching with my elementary teacher. She did it every year with her fifth graders when they studied fish in science. She called them taco fish.  I loved the unit. It was so fun to see the creative side come out of the kids.  I just remembered it when I was looking at this unit, and was excited that I could do it again, even though I no longer teach.

You start with a ball of clay. Roll it out like a tortilla, fill the middle with some newspaper and then fold it up like a taco around the edges leaving the front open for the mouth. You also cut out a triangle from the top back to separate the top fin from the bottom fin.

It's a great unit to talk about texture, slipping, scoring and slabs with real clay and three dimensional sculptures.

I used model magic for these since I don't have access to a real kiln.  Hmmm, could I fit that into the homeschool budget? :)  It worked great, but if you do use model magic, when you get a bucket make sure you use your 40 or 50 percent off coupon at Joanns. It's not cheap stuff. We've been able to make it last for 4 different art units. When it was rolled out flat I had the kids add texture to the clay for the scales and then flipped it over so the texture would be on the outside when it was folded like the taco.

Here is Savannah's fish she is in the middle of making. She wanted to have a worm hanging out of it's mouth.

 Mirian wanted to do a blow fish, which I thought turned out awesome!

Here is Isaac's fish, tongue and all.  He did a really great job for a 4  year old.

Even Caitlyn made a great looking fish. I just helped her pinch the top together and cut the back triangle out.

When they are all finished and dry, they look really great painted up with silver acrylic paint.  If you add a bit of watercolors to it, then you can get various colored metallic paints which can create some very shiny, festive fish. I forgot to get a picture of our final products, which only got half painted because of General Conference and distractions.  We had a great time with this lesson and can't wait to show you our others as well. Mirian had been looking forward to it all day, and has now decided that Science is her favorite class.

Answering your questions

I just wanted to thank all of you that have commented on my posts. I'm not the best at responding to them, but I really do appreciate all you have to say. You have asked me some questions I thought I would answer here.

How do I create the papers I used for our scripture stories?

I actually use a program that I purchased this last summer called StartWrite. I knew I would use it quite a bit to do custom writing pages, so to me it was worth the money investment. If you aren't sure that you would use it that often, and would only be doing it for the scripture stories a cheaper option would be just using a font.  Print Clearly Dashed Font is free to download and would work great. You wouldn't have the writing guidelines or any of the fancy stuff, but it would be free and you could just type out the chapter, verses and synopsis for them to still trace.

If you have older children I ran across these great ideas for studying scriptures and keeping a scripture journal at Noggins and Nonsense.  I love this idea and love how it helps them learn how to ask their own questions, ponder what they're reading and getting in the great habit of writing down what they learn. She also had some great resources that I've been using lately in my own gospel study. They are exactly the way I think and has helped me quite a bit in improving my scripture study lately and getting excited about it again.  The Scripture Journal Ideas and the Scripture Journal Pages.  She also talks a lot about the Red Headed Hostess which is another blog I've come to love. She is a seminary teacher and shares a lot of great things about the scriptures, themes to study and ideas she uses with her seminary students.

My sister in law was also asking me about simple things she could do with her preschooler at home.  I ran across 2 Teaching Mommies a little bit ago and love their little preschool packets.  They are free and they have a good variety of themes that would work for the seasons or the personality of your preschooler.  I've printed out a couple for Isaac and Caitlyn to do and they have had fun with them.  Each kit has basic activities and games directed to helping them learn skills needed for Kindergarten. Skills such as letters, numbers and counting, pre-writing, patterns, size recognition, etc.

They recently had a great time playing Monster Mash from this kit practicing their letters.  Isaac also loves the game of rolling the dice and graphing how many of each monster he rolls.  You could do some extension activities to make these a great unit. Art projects, some cooking activities, etc.  They just released a pumpkin  and forest animal themed kits recently.

Another resource I LOVE is the book Playful Learning.

It is a great resource for learning how to turn your home into a great learning environment for your children.  With simple activities and physical areas that can be set up, you can help your kids have a love for learning. I love her ideas and have slowly started to implement some of them into our own home. I have loved watching them naturally just pick up something and start playing with them and learning, rather than just wanting to watch a movie.

I have honestly loved doing school with my kids, and finding ways to learn and explore together. There are so many great resources out there that you can use to fit to your own personal situation, but help your children grow, as well as spending quality time together.  I'd love to hear about anything you do with your own kids right now. Please share!