how many cups are in a gallon?

I came across this on good ol' Pinterest.

It has come in very handy with teaching 3rd and 4th graders.

So handy, in fact, that I had to share.

G = Gallons

Q = Quarts   4 quarts in a gallon

P = Pints   2 pints in each quart

C = Cups   2 cups in each pint

Visual tricks are so good to apply schoolwork to real life.

How many cups are in a gallon?

Where's Jesus? Project

I {love} making the Bible come alive and real.  A few days before Easter I helped my kids and my little brothers make this Easter mural.  Everyone was in on the project!

We unrolled a huge roll of white paper across the table.  I sketched the ideas, than assigned projects to each child.  As I did a basic idea of each story the kids looked up the stories about Jesus in the Bible and wrote verses of Scripture off.

 It turned out really long!

We titled our project "Where is Jesus?" With footsteps connecting each scene except for palm branches leading up to the Last Supper.

The first picture is Jesus' birth.  

I did the original sketch to help them but the kids did all the coloring and extra ideas such as animals, details of costumes, weapons for the Roman soldiers, etc. It was fun to see them imagine shepherds and angels out the stable window. 

Next was Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist.  Complete with a little brown turtle watching the activity.

See the water drops when Jesus came out of the water?

Jesus did many miracles and they wanted to draw them all.  I opted for the feeding of the 5,000.  Maybe another time we can do a mural with just miracles!  

The Last Supper with each individual disciple.

They drew goblets and bread on the table. One discussion came up that some of the disciples should be blond, (like us) but the answer was Jewish people aren't blond.

Next, Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when he was taken by the Roman soldiers.  Eden drew a nest and birds in one tree.





























The sad {but needed} picture was Jesus on the cross.  They added the 2 crosses with the thieves and the sign declaring who He was.

 The last part of our mural was Jesus rising from the grave!!!  Complete with an angel sitting on the rock and sleeping Roman soldier!

very fun, educational project.
  

Remember "whoo" loves you

Let me start off with expressing my love for "felt".

It's pretty awesome stuff.

Inexpensive, comes in a bunch of great colors, easy to cut, doesn't unravel,

 I {seriously}could keep going.

My girls love tiny little things, so a few days ago, I cut them out small animal shapes

 and had them sew {itty bitty} little stuffed animals.

So keep in mind, these were mainly sewn by a 6 and 7 year old.  

We did a few redo's to make them look "the best they could".  

Felt is really great for teaching little kids to hand sew with.

I think they turned out precious.

Princess Alexis came up with the idea of making little finger puppets with them. 

She made this to send to Aunt Monica....very fitting.  If you know Aunt Monica. {snicker}

Moriah wanted a hoot owl.  These turned out to be really simple and adorable puppets!

The girls wanted the wings to be able to "flap".

Their creative little  minds decided to hide a secret "love note" inside.

little homes from coffee tins, scrap paper, and modge podge

count your blessings

#64 fresh coffee smell in the kitchen...reminds me of my dad

#65 a pack-n-play crib to hold busy little people

#66 my living room rug

Laying in a Pink Tent

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

After some school, in the morning, we went outside to play in the yard.  The princesses and I ended up making a pretty, fun {pink} tent in the yard.  I love their imaginations.  I packed a container of crackers and bottled water and we had fun laying in the breeze (flicking the ants off the rugs).  Just like my mother, I turned it into a science project!  There were a lot of ants, but they weren't biting us, so we "studied" them.  I talked about how they have 3 parts to their body, and we let some walk on our hands to see them up close.  I let the girls grind up crackers, and the ants promptly started carrying little pieces home.  Our science "lesson" then went to how they can carry so much weight and then about their homes.  I love being a mom.

We, also, went to see our Jamaican baby doc.

  Princess Eden fell asleep in the waiting room.  Ok, I'll confess I did too.  I couldn't help myself this time.  There is air conditioning (one of God's amazing creations!) there and it just relaxes me so!  There wasn't room for all of us to sit together, because the room was so crowded.  Josh and the bigger girls had to sit around the corner.  I dozed off for a minute or two and woke to find Eden asleep beside me, sucking her thumb, and her feet propped up, in the lap of the lady next to her!!!  I was so embarrassed, and apologized as I tucked her feet back into her chair!

Daddy sat with the sleeping beauty while Alexis went in with me to visit my doctor.  She is a wonderful Christian lady.  We were discussing something and she told me to, "Jus pray 'bout it.  God will take care of it."  As we were listening to the heart beat she declared, "You 'ave a nice strong 'ealthy bebe."  The doctor asked Alexis if she wanted a sister or brother.  Alexis said, "a girl."  When the doctor asked her why she didn't want a brother, Alexis said, " I love Daddy the most."

Very sweet, honest answer.  She wouldn't want to share Daddy with a baby brother.  She is definitely Daddy's girl.

Learning Lapbooks and Luggin' Laundry

"Wake up, Mom, it's the first day of school!"

As I raised my eyebrows, up into my hairline, in an effort to get my eyes to open..... I see two of my Princesses dressed and eager to start the day.

Well.... the little one was wearing a swimming suit...but to her that's dressed.  It's hot here...remember!  And the way I figure it, it's less clothes to wash when it's all one piece.  See... I think things through.  {wink}

I sent them to wake up the other Sleeping Beauty and I went to mix up some waffle batter.  {yummy}  The castle was in the usual "day-after-Sunday-looks-like-a-hurricane-hit" state.  So while I was stirring with one hand, I was filling the sink with dirty dishes with the other and using my feet to make a pile, out of the toys, on the floor.  Mothers are such wonderful multi-taskers.

Moriah loves to cook the waffles, so I left her to that as I gathered laundry and ran around doing the many other {fulfilling} tasks that make up being a mom and wife.

Our last school year was very....fun and I think the girls learned a lot.  Because of traveling the entire United States (several times) and moving to a different country, I decided to not even start organized daily lessons until we were settled.  I don't think this put my girls behind, because I'm continually reading to them and I always carried different types of flashcards to work on while we drove for days without stopping.  {the good ole days....deputation}

I'm thinking, that with a new baby due during this school year I'm going to have to be extra organized.  So that is why we started our school year today.  The 2nd day of August.

We have a big, heavy box of beauuuutiful fresh-smelling A Beka books, waiting for us in Louisiana.  When I first realized that we would not be able to start with them, I was very disappointed.  I'm over that though...life rarely goes like I plan.

I started reading about homeschool lapbooks on line.  It's not the convention way to learn, but I love them.  We started with several different themes.  We have a Bible folder, My Body folder (science), American money folder (math), Princess Addition folder (math),  My Jamaica folder (social studies),  Alexis has two folders with Shapes/ Colors and Letters/ Busy work.  I even made a folder for Eden (who always notices when the other girl's have something).  Eden's folder contains colors and shapes, and I'm going to add small numbers and beginning letters.  Moriah is also doing Penmanship and some of the A Beka readers.

The Princesses were decorating their Bible Folders.  Today it contains ABC A Beka memorization cards.
But I plan on adding the books of the OT and some learning ideas from the OT.  

Alexis said, "Eden yours looks cool."
Eden turned to me and said, "Mama, Allie say me cool!"

I'm not sure how others do this, but we start with a few things in their folder and we add new learning tools and ideas everyday.  I think they are really going to enjoy them and have fun.

 

This is their American Money Folder.  I had these cardboard coins in my teaching stash and they were perfect. We talked about the different names of basic coins and how to spell them.  We used a cute little riddle and also played a heads and tails game.


Most of the ideas I have in my lapbooks are from other's ideas off of homeschool blogs.  I don't claim to think of them all by myself.  I believe in giving credit where credit is do, whenever possible.  So here are a few of those blogs.  I looked at so many and took notes from so many that I couldn't mention them all.


This one has some cute ideas on Science Lapbooks.  One Little, Two Little .  She also has ideas and downloads for a cute Curious George lapbook and I printed some out for Alexis's K-4 busy book.

This one has several fun ideas click on 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 .

Lapbook Lessons site has many good ideas.  I really liked their Bible lapbooks, I plan on using some of their Fruit of the Spirit ideas.

I found a couple of neat ideas on Money lapbooks on this site Preparation Education