A New Geography Resource

After searching for the perfect basic U.S. Geography curriculum and not finding it, I've put together my own, using pictures found from DLTK printables, (that site is awesome!) and maps from Enchanted Learning (I'm a member of that one). Please don't sell or share.  Use for your own family's use and link back here when sharing.  Show some love to the folks over at Enchanted Learning and DLTK printables as well! :)

God Bless,


Just click on the pic!

Just Click on this link for the
South Dakota Replacement Page

Story of the World Vol 1 Timeline Resources and Notebooking Pages

I've created a timeline and some notebooking pages that correspond with The Story of the World Vol. 1, Ancient Times.  I'd like to share them with you so that you may enhance your studies with your own children.  We will be starting Vol. 2 very soon and so I look forward to sharing those with you as well.  When you print the timeline cards out, print them with the settings "multiple pages per sheet".  Use the 9 pages per sheet option.  This will give you the ideal size for the timelines.  I would suggest printing out cardstock at the very least.  Laminate for a more durable, long lasting timeline.

  I have broken down the timeline strips into colors.  Red for ancient, blue for end of ancient and middle ages, orange for early modern and green for modern.  This will aid your child visually to be able to see the eras of history.  I also recommend that you add your own children to the timeline.  This also helps them place themselves in the big picture.


You will find at the top of each notebooking page a timeline. 

 Have your child find the date on the timeline on that page and either draw a dot, use a star sticker, or any other method you may want to use to have your child mark the date.  Please enjoy, learn much and visit for updates.


Disclaimer: You know, the old please don't sell anything that you download here.  I share all of my files free of charge.  Please link back to this blog if sharing.  Thanks!

God Bless,


A random tip...

Here's a random tip for you all. 

If you happen to be grilling out for dinner and you have children, make sure and have marshmallows on hand.  It helps in the summer time.  That way you don't have to go digging through your stash of peeps from Easter.

No need to thank me. LOL.   

God Bless,



Beauty in the Mundane...

Let's play a little game shall we? 

Take a walk around your yard, perhaps the park, on the beach, wherever.  Look around you and see what beauty you can spot in something that would be considered not beautiful. 

Today while we were doing our outside nature study, I was looking for signs of spring.  I am not a flower planter by nature.  I much prefer to plant vegetables in my garden, but I love to look at pretty flowers.  Since we live in an apartment, flowers are rare and hard to come by unless planted by the tenants.  As we were studying leaves and matching them up to our Peterson field guides I noticed some bushes and trees that contained inconspicuous looking flowers.  Upon closer observation I was surprised at how beautiful the little flowers were.  Here's the challenge.  Go around and take pictures of things that at first glance, would be passed over for ordinary.  Look closer with the lens of a camera and see if you can find the beauty in God's creation.  Post back here if you like.  Just thought this would be a fun project.

A mother's favorite "flower"

My little nature explorers

God Bless,

 

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

If you are a mother and reading this, know that your children appreciate all that you do.  Even if they fail to tell you all the time.  They do.

If you are a reading this, then tell YOUR mother how much you appreciate her.  Happy Mother's Day and God Bless!



All About Spelling Letter Tile Boards

As I mentioned in another post, my children each like to have their own set of letter tiles when we work on spelling together.  At this point, they are both working on spelling together at the same level.  But this is a wonderful idea even if you have just one child working on All About Spelling.

Working around a white board may seem like an ideal idea.  It may seem like the only possible way to work with magnets, but the great thing about magnets is that they adhere to each other!  Working next to my children at the table is a much better option for us.  It very well may be a much better arrangement for you as well!  What I did was make my children "letter tile boards".  It is the same exact setup as the book requires for the tiles, except they are on a board for each individual child!  Perfect setup!

First I took a tri-fold project board that I bought at Wal-Mart for $2.00

I cut the board directly in half using an exacto knife after measuring for the center.  I then used some construction paper on the outside just to decorate it up a bit.  I also affixed the cover page I made for it.

Here is a link to the letter tiles folder cover if you'd like to download it for yourself.

Letter Tiles Board Cover

I then took magnet sheets and covered the inside where I wanted my magnets to stick.  I tried just strips as a prototype, but found that they magnets fell off often.  Using whole magnet sheets worked very well.  Even shaking the boards, the magnets still clung on.  You'll need 2 packages of magnet sheets for one board, 3 packages for two boards, etc..

Your child can either lay the board flat and build their words in the center of the empty white space, or build their words on the table in front of them like my kids do.

Since the boards are made from corrugated cardboard, they stand up very well and are very sturdy.  I hope that this post gave you some wonderful ideas about implementing an All About Spelling board that is easy to fold and store. 

God Bless,

 

What Does A Weeks Lesson Plans Look Like At Our House?

  Well, it may look very much like yours.  But on the off chance that it doesn't and someone may glean some tips or ideas from how we do things, I thought I would post them here.


If you click on the images, you can view them larger.

This is tomorrows schedule.  Usually I schedule outside play for 30 minutes but it's due to rain all week here in the Northeast, so Wii and Kinect it is.  They need to shake the wiggles out between subjects.  You'll notice that I do 2 days of  world history followed by 2 days of American history.  I don't break the days up because they can't keep it straight in their heads what history they are working on.  I do alternate nature study and science though, every other day.

Here is Wednesday.

Lastly, here is Thursday.  We work through a 4 day week with Fridays as our "Fine art Fridays" where we do hands on art, art appreciation, and others.

If this post helped anyone with how they lay out their lesson plans, then I've accomplished what I wanted.  The little boxes in the corner is for them checking off when they finish.

God Bless,

All About Spelling Tiles

I made up some tiles to go along with a very "popular"  program that we use.  I wanted both of my children to be able to have their own set of tiles and I couldn't afford to keep buying them, so I made my own.   For best results print on letter size photo paper and use self stick magnet sheets for the backing.

Download Link

This is our white board with my made up tiles on it.  It actually works much better and I prefer it to the tiles that accompany the program.  These tiles are all magnet, so they are easier to handle and stay on the board much better.  I apologize for the pictures.  The one downfall of our schoolroom is that it's so dark.  It is at the back of the house and has a tiny window.  But I'm grateful to have a "school room" at all!

Enjoy and God Bless!

Some Big News for Notebookers!

If you are notebookers such as my children and I are, then you'll love to hear about the news that I just found out about over at www.notebookingpages.com .  It's something big, but I don't want to spoil the surprise for you on here!  You'll need to head on over and check it out for yourself.  I'll tell you though that we are Treasury Members and will remain so for the lifetime of the site.  We love notebooking as part of our Charlotte Mason inspired way of learning! 

God Bless,

20 Month Desk Calendar for you!

I'm offering for you to download this 20 month desk calendar that I have created.  I needed a small calendar to keep on my desk when planning school weeks out and just needed something quick to reference.  I add all of my favorite pictures of Our Blessed Mother Mary, and Jesus.  Please Enjoy! 

For the longest wear, print on cardstock!

Just click on the pic!

God Bless,

All About Spelling Helper Sheets

We use All About Spelling as our spelling curriculum.  My kids love it best and so do I.  I've created a little bundle to go along with it.  Some sheets for writing down the words and phrases in each lesson, and also a few extra progress sheets.  I don't know why for some reason my kids eat them up!  They are always losing them, but I've since bound their books so that shouldn't happen again. If you use this program, you are free to download for your own personal use, but please direct others back to my blog if you want to share.  Thanks! 

Click the Picture

Enjoy!

God Bless,