Art Journals

This year I am doing Art Journals with my two oldest boys (8 1/2 and 7). Do not think that I am any kind of artist- but I want to encourage creativity for everyone in my home. So I googled "art journals" and found so much inspiration online that I knew this was something we could do. Specifically, I found this website chock full of information. Incidentally, she also posts other Art Projects For Kids ideas (that's the name of her website).

I decided to purchase 3 art journals so that I could participate as well. This has helped my boys "buy-in" immensely. It's also increased the time we spend on the project so that no one (mainly Nate) is done in 2 minutes, leaving me frustrated at the terrible ratio of set up and clean up to time spent on a project. And it's been great fun for me, too.

My goal is to encourage creativity in both materials and subject. So far we've used watercolor paints, oil pastels, markers, crayons, colored pencils and lots of fine point Sharpies. We've been setting up at the kitchen table about once a week, during the little ones' naptime, and I usually have a theme of some sort. They are free to do something completely different but this helps if they can't "think of anything!". Some recent themes have been choosing and copying a creativity quote then decorating the page; a fairy watercolor suggestion from an Usborne art book I have; also, my mom sent the boys some photos from their visit so they scrapbooked a few on one of the pages.

Here's a photo of Trent's art journal page from last week:

For this page, we lightly taped index cards on a blank page (we used a double page spread; you are seeing the right side page). Then we sponge painted the page using our own selection of colors and way of painting. After the paint dried (it didn't take long at all since the sponges helped it go on thinly), we removed the index cards. Then we wrote something about our week in each blank spot. Trent chose to use 2 index cards on each page and then write one thing in each card, drawing a picture to go along with what he wrote about.

I love quotes, so I've been putting a quote on most of my pages:

That's the watercolor fairy painting from the Usborne Big Book of Fairy Things to Make and Do... and also proof that I am NO artist! But I am enjoying this project and trying to just focus on letting my creativity out without worrying about the finished project... something I want to instill in my kids.

Lapbooking: Have you tried it?

Lapbooking has been all the rage in homeschooling circles the last few years. Have you tried it in your homeschool yet? If your kids are tired of filling in worksheet and notebook pages, lapbooking may be for you.

We don't use lapbooks for everything we learn but when we do use them to add some spice to our homeschool topics-The boys LOVE it! In fact the older two boys often get upset if I am making a lapbook with the younger boys and they don't get to make one too.

Lapbooks themselve are not the learning, they are more like a visual and hands-on catalog of what the child has learned about a specific subjects. We often use them along with literature units. For Example: We made Pig and Rat Lapbooks when we read Charlotte's Web. We read the book and included some trivia, character descriptions and plot details, along with learning more about the specific animal and including information about it in the lapbooks.

There are many free lapbooking resources. I hightly recommend doing a predesigned lapbook for your first time, so you can get the hang of it. After you have caught on to the brilliance of lapbooking, you can start designing your own and using the many mini booklet templates, your word processor program or a publishing program.


The following are my favorite lapbooking resources. There is no wrong or right way to make a lapbook, so be creative!

Lapbooking on Squidoo-best intro to lapbooking
http://www.squidoo.com/lapbooking

Homeschool Helper Online: Lapbook Section

Lapbooking Lessons 
http://lapbooklessons.ning.com/



Homeschool Share
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/
They have the best Minibook and template library-just click and print!

Free Museum Admission

The Smithsonian is hosting a FREE Museum day on Sat. Sept. 26th

Please visit their site to sign up and receive your free printable pass card: http://microsite.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/about.html

Limit one pass card per family, one pass card is good for two admissions into the museum.

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Sale

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is a Christian-based homeschool support magazine. 

Right now The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is only $7.95 for a year subscription! http://bit.ly/r8gma

Offer expires 9/20/09 

It's A Homeschool Life #1

While driving home in the car-

Kaleb (age 6) : Mom.... Mom, Mom...MOM!
Ian (age 9): She can't hear you she is driving.
Kaleb: Why do we have thumbs?
Ian: She can't hear you!
Kaleb chants: Why do we have thumbs? Why do we have thumbs? What do we have thumbs for?
Me the Mom: Ignoring him and driving
Josef tired of the chanting (age 11): SO WE CAN GRAB THINGS!
Kaleb: Oh...
Kaleb: I could grab something without my thumbs.
Josef exasperated: No you couldn't.Thumbs are special. Humans are the only ones that have them. Animals don't have thumbs to grab things like cups. We need our thumbs to hold onto things and type and stuff. Otherwise...we'd be like animals. (He continues to rattle on for 2 minutes about how we are better than animals because we have thumbs.)
Kaleb: Gorillas have thumbs.
Josef: Whatever.

Homeschool Lesson Planning Resources

“It pays to plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.”

Depending on the sort of homeschooling method you use, most of us need to plan...at least a little. Planning often makes our job easier as homeschooling parents. We can use planning processes to determine; what we want to teach, when we want to teach it, for how long, on what days, and what materials we will need to gather ahead of time.

Probably, the single most common tool for planning for your homeschool would have to be the Teachers Lesson Planner. If you haven't looked at Lesson Planners in a while, I suggest you take a new look. They have come along way! There are of course the traditional paper planners, then the printable versions from online, internet based planning programs and also software based planners. Below are my favorites in each category. I was not paid to endorse any of the products below. I have done my own research over the last 5 years, in search of the perfect planner.


Paper Based Lesson Planner: 

This is by far my favorite paper based planner. Click here to view sample pages.   This handy and sturdy spiral bound planner has amazing versatility and is easily customized to your needs. It includes yearly and monthly calenders. The weekly planning pages cover a two page spread with enough pages to make 40 weeks of plans. The columns are easily customized. The pages are large and lined so you can easily and neatly add plans. This planner is prices at around $15. There are cheaper planners out there, but I ranked this one as my favorite based on customization and sturdiness.
The Ultimate Teacher's Plan Book



Printable Lesson Planner:

Donna Young has the best printable homeschool planning pages on the net. Her site ranks highest because of the ease of use, variety, and customization. She's got a forms any homeschool can use.
Check out her great printable planning pages here:

Internet-based Lesson Planner:

There are a few of these on the net now. These are great because of there extreme accessibility. You can access them from the internet wherever you may be. Great for families that travel, are on the go, or so you can share what your doing with other family members. My favorite is the Homeschool Skedtrack, because it's free, easy to use, and created by a homeschool family. It's simple, but extremely flexible. Changes are as simple as typing into a form box. Assignments not completed are automatically bumped up to the next day.   They even have video tutorials to help you learn how to use it! Its an amazing value for....FREE!
Homeschool Skedtrack


Lesson Planning Software:

Lesson planning software varies in price, versatility, and ease of use. A majority of the lesson planning software available are specifically designed to meet the needs of classroom teachers, so adapting them to meet the needs of your homeschool can be tricky. There are a handful that ARE specifically designed (or adapted) to meet the needs of homeschoolers. After downloading and trying out many trial versions, my favorite was Homeschool Tracker. Although none of the programs tried were easy to use, Homeschool Tracker had the best tech support for learning the program. It came in at a great value also, Free for the Basic Version and $50 for the Plus Edition, with free lifetime updates. After learning how the software works and how to input the data you want, it can be customized to meet your needs in a variety of ways. If the $50 cost is too much for your wallet, try out the free version, you can aways upgrade without losing all your information.  Homeschool Tracker

 

I hope you found this post helpful. 

Got a favorite Lesson Planning resource? Share it in the comments!

Happy Planning!

The Organized Homeschool

It's August again. Here are the Mitchell house we are packing up house for a move. I am so glad I had already organized our homeschooling material earlier this summer, because it has made packing so much easier. Around August many homeschooling mother's are gearing up for a new homeschool year. Getting everything ready for your school year and organizing your learning materials can be a challenge even for those type 'A' moms. What are your favorite organization secrets and tools? Please comment to share.