Our Australian Lapbook

 We have had a very enjoyable time creating a lapbook, filled with all the facts we have learned about Australia.

 Many of the components of our lapbook came from Homeschool Share....my very favorite resource for FREE lapbooks and activities.

 We tried our hand at Aboriginal dot painting.

 The artwork turned out lovely.

 We enjoyed many great books...the "meat" of our study.

 We learned all about marsupials, and found another free lapbook at Homeschool Share.

 Our favorite book from the above photo was Wombat Stew.  Many activities for this book can be found here.

 Some fun fiction Australian books are shown above.

 Our "meaty" Australian book was Australia by Ann Heinrichs.

 We spent a whole week learning about the Great Barrier Reef.

 Another resource (which is not free) is from Hands of a Child.

This lapbook is very indepth.  I just picked out what we were interested in.

 I did have to add another file folder to our lapbook because we keep running out of room.

 

 The Australian animal wheel came from Enchanted Learning.

You have to be a member, but I find that Enchanted Learning is a great addition to all our schoolwork.

 

We have all learned alot and enjoyed putting together this lapbook.

We are now looking forward to our next study.

Sunday afternoon lessons

 Gracie was overjoyed to have her first sewing lesson this afternoon.

We bought flannel on the way home from church to make pillow cases.

She quickly became an expert on very straight seams.

 Complete!  I love her choice of fabric.

 The test....does the pillowcase work?  Yes, it does!

 She continued her sewing and made both Kim and Luke pillowcases of their own.

 Cozy

 Kim discovered it works. (

 After Grace finished sewing, I used the left over fabric to make oatmeal "logs" for these chilly days and nights.



A Lot of Cozy Warm Kids

 I completed Gracie's nightgown today...

We now have a whole lot of coziness at bedtime.



The Sewing Machine has been Humming

Poor Luke always seems to get short end of my sewing time, so before I sewed other item for the girls I decided to make him some Spriderman pajamas.

He loves them..and they are a perfect fit (which always makes me happy).

It seems all my patterns are getting to small for my growing children, and luckily, Joann's Fabrics had their Simplicity patterns on sale for .99 this past week.

This is Simplicity 4388...it will also be used to make a nightgown for Gracie later this week.

Happy 13th Birthday, Mark!

We are so proud of our newest teenager.

He is becoming a wonderful young man.

 

It doesn't look like Mark can open his presents until next Christmas!

A New Favorite Yarn-and hat pattern

I have discovered a great yarn for hats and mittens and scarfs...perfect for our freezing winter

Deborah Norville Serenity Chunky Weight.

My favorite hat pattern is a freebie from Red Heart...the Gotcha Covered #1 hat.  It is perfect for any yarn and has all sizes included in the free pattern.

Just perfect for all the snow we have been getting.

Kimmy is a catalog model

I was contacted by the Earth's Birthday Project company requesting permission to use Kimberly's picture with a painted lady in their current catalog, both electronic and paper.

After investingation the company I gave my complete approval.

Head over and check this great educational site out.

They have quite a few get looking education kits available.

We are now expecting praying mantis' in April....I can't wait.

Sunday Art lessons-Aboriginal dot art

We began looking at Aboriginal art online....I just searched for Aboriginal dot art and found many images.

I then found a template for a kangaroo (the fish is freehand) and printed that out onto cardstock.

The kids painted this brown.

We then used the eraser end of a pencil to add dots to our paintings.

In the artwork we looked at the complete "canvas" was filled in with patterns of dots, but this is about how many dots the kids had patience for.

Our finished projects.  I think they came out great.

I will print out a photo of the finished product and add that to our lapbook of Australia.

We're headed to Australia

right from the kitchen table.

A Passport to the World

It was a very important day for Kimberly and Luke.  They each got their own library card.

They were very excited this morning.  In fact they tried to wake me up at 6:30 so we would be ready to go at 9:00.  (We managed to get out the door by about 9:30.)

 

Kimberly had a little stage fright when it was time to write her name in that little white space on the card.  I just love it.  I hope she keeps it forever! A few of my big kids still have their first cards with their 6 year old signatures on them.

Luke made some wonderful choices on his own today.

Kimmy picked out three books....she has almost finished reading the Dick and Jane book.

We now have 8 people living in our home, all with a library card.  Each person can check out 30 books at a time, so in fact, we could have 240 library books to keep track of on any given day.

PATRON SAINT OF LIBRARY BOOKS PLEASE HELP ME!!