Peter Rabbit Notebooking

Peter Rabbit has been an enjoyable unit for J5 and I! He is reading the book all on his own and will enjoy the other stories as well. His reading has really clicked. He reads anything that comes into his path! You have to catch him at the right time, but he loves to do some notebooking too. He likes to create a lot, but sometimes he's just not feelin' it. Can you relate? We all have those moments!

We've been using the 10 x 12 spiral Bare Books this year for our kindergarten notebooking. I LOVE this notebook. The only thing is there are 24 pages in there and it fills up quickly. At $3.35 a book that isn't too bad I guess, but then there is a $25 minimum order over there. If you've never been there, we've gotten game boards and pieces from them too. Totally worth it! I'm going to be working on Kendra's nature game very soon with my spare boards. Have you ever seen E12's The Truth about New York Game? It went to state fair last year and he used a Bare Board for that as well.

Anyway, I really like the size and weight of the pages so I may continue to use them or I will simply switch to regular sized sheets that I have bound or bind myself. Or use a 3 ring notebook with sheet protectors- like Michelle uses at Delightful Learning. Whew that link took me a while! Michelle is elusive with the notebook itself in those FIAR posts she does! My idea of what makes a great notebook changes a lot. With older kid unit studies we use the 3 prong folder.

J5 is a big fan of the corner rounder. He's an expert too- pointing out how quick he was about it. When a boy doesn't want to do notebooking, I pull out a new tool. Works every time!

Cutting and arranging a page for comparing rabbits and hares. We used the FIAR Fold n Learn for this story. I don't have all the Fold n Learns, but this one we've had for a few years and it's one of my favorites.

He colored a map of England and we talked about how Peter Rabbit is a naughty and which rule he broke. Then J5 dictated to me a few of our rules. Do you like the construction paper we used for matting? It's a marbled construction paper I used to get from Discount School Supply. Now I don't see it. Bummer!

We added his Peter Rabbit watercolor to the notebook along some free painting J5 did that day.

A finished set of pages! We talked about how Beatrix Potter wrote the rhyme- "This little pig went to market" J5 remembered all the words. He used to love that one.

A close up the rabbit vs hare page. He dictated to me the information for the chart after I read to him a comparison of rabbits and hares. Then he wrote his words with no help from me other than showing him where to find the spelling. Notice if he has the space he takes it all up! And there's my beloved Creative Memories corner rounder. It has a pocket that catches the corners. I love that!

This week we'll be working on finishing up our study of Peter. We've been looking at Beatrix Potter's artwork and enjoying the The Ultimate Peter Rabbit's Visual Dictionary. I have plans to do some garden planning and math work with seeds and growing season before we are done. I'll be sure to post another update when those are complete.

The Notebooking Fairy- In the Spotlight!

In case you don't wander around the homeschooling blog world too much, I thought I'd let you know that Jimmie at The Notebooking Fairy has a feature called Notebooking Spotlight where she interviews moms who use notebooking in their homeschools.

This week Blog, She Wrote has been in the Notebooking Spotlight. 

Find out how we made this little notebooking gem. Click on over to The Notebooking Fairy!

Feel free to go on over and visit to find out more about how we use notebooking in our homeschool. Thanks Jimmie for a chance to be featured over at The Notebooking Fairy!

Outdoor Math

As May approaches, here in NY we are starting to see some nice days here and there. Where we live, when the weather is nice you drop everything and head outside. It's tiresome, but that's the way it is! However, sometimes there is work that just needs to be done. Such was the case the other day and we headed outdoors into the wind and warmth to do some math. I8 finished his up pretty quickly. He's been doing a lot with fractions- equivalent fractions and reading fraction picture books (I'll share these in another post) and I had just taught him about adding fractions with like denominators. So, that was his 5-a-Day for that day. R10 has been working through Life of Fred Fractions and she's sorta stuck on getting three wrong on her second set of bridges on chapters 1 to 15. Finally, I started focusing on which problem types she was having issues with and we worked one some together in the warm, gusty air.

The rocks were to hold down the paper...she's working on equivalent fractions and Greatest Common Factor. We had a nice conversation about the GCM.

After a lovely day most of the day- besides the very warm air that is cooking up storms...this one is finally going to land on  us. Notice that our tree is getting serious about having leaves. Finally!

The kids love this tree swing hanging from that big tree with a nice long rope. I'm thinking some good math fact practice will be happening out here this spring.

In the final throws...it was a great lesson day for both of us. She understood my explanations and I was able to figure out where she was getting tripped up.

Sometimes it's just fun to change up the scenery. You can still enjoy the outdoors without abandoning all responsibility. Though, I still reserve the right to call "Sun Days" since we work through most snow days! Enjoy our spring, wherever it takes you!

Top 25 Homeschooling Blogs!

Won't you take a moment and visit Circle of Moms to vote for your Top 25 Homeschooling Blogs? Let's show some support for the online homeschooling community and take a moment to click over and vote.You can vote once a day. Wow.

Blog, She Wrote is over there as well as Heart of the Matter to which I am a Contributor. I know you'll find some favorites when you visit!

Voting ends on May 11, 2011. Thanks for reading and voting!

Concrete Poems

This unit's pre-writing activity was to paint a scene from which the kids could choose an object about which to write their concrete poem. We had the option to take a field trip or go outside, but since I've got a cold and we had another fever this past week oh and the weather has been awful, a field trip did not sound fun. Instead, we looked out our windows and chose something to draw. Then we did some brainstorming to prepare for writing the sloppy copy today.

We began with watercolor pencils. E12 sketched our spruce tree out front.

R10 wanted to paint first, but E12 convinced her she could have more definition with the pencils first. This is a drawing of our two tiered flower garden in the backyard showing the few flowers which are blooming. Originally, the drawing was to be on paper plates which is novel and provides a natural frame. However, our plates were coated which was no good for watercolor! So, R10 made her own frame.

I8 chose the street light and utility boxes.

R10's finished drawing- always amazes me how an artsy person sees the world differently.

Some of our watercolor pencils- some are Prang brand. The watercolor paper I order from Discount School Supply.

The journaling activity on concrete poems- the kids used words from the word list to arrange around the tarantula.

Our other watercolor supplies. We really like the tube watercolors and the best tray sets are Prang brand. For Christmas we loaded the kids up on the double Prang trays from Staples.

R's drawing after adding the water. She is really pleased with it. She added the purple frame for fun.

J5 had his watercolor lesson for Peter Rabbit while the other kids worked on their paintings.

E12's journal entry and brainstorming wheel. His concrete poem is on football.

R10 chose to do her poem on the hyacinths in the flower garden. The exercise was to focus on something out of a larger scene- like the flower garden itself and then on just thing in particular so she chose the hyacinths.

So, after all that work yesterday, today we made a large "sloppy copy" of the poem after they drew a shape onto a 12x18 piece of construction paper. Then the kids did a self-edit of their poems. With a concrete poem, most of the editing was spelling. Usually, the pre-writing activity (in this case the painting) and the brainstorming are done on separate days. The sloppy copies are written on one day and the editing is done the next. However, we are playing some catch up this week so we doubled up. Tomorrow the kids will fix their sloppy copies and make a final published product.

WriteShop Junior E- Beta Testing

Many of you know, we do not use a formal writing program with our children. I have always done copywork and dictation with our unit studies and coached my kids on a lot of the writing process through lots of different types of writing over the years. We have been very consistent with it and it has worked very well.

In the fall, I listened to an mp3 of Kim Kautzer at WriteShop and began reading her blog, In Our Write Minds. I found a lot of great tips there and began using some of her suggestions. I looked at WriteShop and thought if I were to write a curriculum for writing, it would look a lot like this. So, when she put out the call through a newsletter that she was looking for folks to beta test a 5th grade program, I jumped at the chance to try it out. We've been using WriteShop Junior Level E since February. It's been a great time! I use it with my three oldest kids though it is designed for 5th grade. I think it's right on target and I'm very happy to report that the coaching I've been doing all these years has paid off! Even my 3rd grader using a 5th grade program is doing very well without missing a beat.

This week is a concrete poem- so the kids got to choose a shape.

And paste the words in their shape to make a poem.

We do a modeling of the assignment together. This is our poem on The Sword.

Each lesson topic lasts two weeks and is very predictable in terms of the order of the activities. My hands on girl loves the variety and she has been producing a lot of great writing. I already mentioned that I love the editing process. It has given me more concrete ideas for improving their self-editing skills which has made a difference.

I am more convinced than ever that a formal program of writing and grammar has not been necessary! I'm not sure what's in store after this semester. I will likely return to coaching and daily writing with our younger boys. E12 will definitely be using the One Year Adventure Novel next year in 8th grade (with a return to it in 10th or 11th grade). I'm not certain what R10 will do for 6th grade next year. I do own WriteShop I and we will likely give that a go. One thing I love about WriteShop is that it breaks down the writing process without leaving behind the authenticity. It is very easy to relate the types of writing we learn to very familiar books that we have experienced together. It has been a great experience to work with Kim and her WriteShop materials. I'm sure you will hear more about our process before we finish up in June. We are about half way through this beta program at the moment.

Found! One Perfect Library Bookshelf!

At last...at long last I found it! I was on the way to my favorite little consignment shop, but I lost out on a parking space at the front of the building. This turned out to be providential because parking in the back lot requires going through the furniture/housewares sister store. Every time I go through there, I look for that perfect little bookcase. It has to be the right size and the right price. But until this day, it was not to be. Bookcases fly out of there and that means the price doesn't need to be particularly low. I even sent my husband to try and buy the fixtures from our closing (sniff) Borders store which proved not to be productive. I was so disappointed.

But yesterday was the day! I was packed for the grocery store with four kids in tow. I had stopped to see about an Easter dress and to see about a shirt for E12 for next week's Civil War Ball. I saw two other shelves that weren't it and then I saw it from across the room. As I approached it, I told the kids...this is going home with us today. A nearby shopper laughed that I was a woman who knew what I wanted. No doubt! I bought that bookcase and hauled it to my van. THEN went grocery shopping and bought two carts full of groceries. Seriously folks, I like to live the adventure. So, after moving children around and putting down a seat in our slick Honda Odyssey, I moved the shelf on top of the folded seat and still had room for two carts of groceries!

Isn't it a sight to behold? It's a Sauter's little thing but it's in great shape and it has the sweetest bevel on the top where it bows out. Great style. Great color. Great price. The most difficult thing will be what to do with that basket of books you see on the floor just to the right of the new bookshelf. I need to farm them out, but that's no easy task!

It's so handsome, I had to include another view.

On the top, I have a little runner and at long last I have a small space to display (and rotate) books that go with our study and some objects of interest for each unit. I can't put all of anything out at once, but it makes a delightful place to rotate things out to the top. Already I caught R10 cruising through the travel book on Great Britain that is open. As she was looking and reading she asked why it was open...I simply said to invited you to look at it and well it worked! And she laughed.

Now if you recall from my previous post on Organizing Your Homeschool Library, this is the shelf I've been waiting for to hold books from the library! My homeschool library dreams have indeed come true!This is our library books only shelf. I had just taken a bunch back or this thing would be nearly full. I also keep our current read alouds on here and the large dictionary for easy access. Trust me...I had this thing disinfected and ready to roll almost before the groceries were away.

In Commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the Start of the Civil War:

E12 has been working on this animation for a few weeks. It was all good fun until he hit a stumbling block.  It became a lesson in perseverance which I think, in the end, he won. He admits it was well worth the extra effort required to finish well. As for me, I've just been waiting for the cabbage's debut on Blog, She Wrote! Congratulations E12 on a job well done!

For those of you interested in the origin of our esteemed cabbage's recitation of the Gettysburg Address...for Christmas he received the Klutz Book of Animation and they introduced us to SAM Animation some user friendly software designed for students and teachers for classroom (or homeschool) use. There are a lot of ideas in the Klutz book and they've been trying out some of them. Hopefully, we'll see some more fun results.

As for the cabbage...I  believe you saw his contribution to science already. Well done cabbage.

Field Trip: Fish Stocking

We had the opportunity yesterday to experience a NY State Deptartment of Environmental Conservation fish stocking at a local creek. They were stocking brook trout in a popular tributary very close to our home. So, despite the weather (30 degrees and half raining/half snowing), we donned our muck boots and jackets and headed out to meet the fish truck at 10am.

Never having done this before, we weren't really sure what to expect but I can say we felt like roadies taking off after the truck after each bridge stop. Nothing like the kids hustling into the car as I shift into drive at the same time the Honda Odyssey's power doors are closing! Fear not, we were all properly buckled and I didn't actually go anywhere until the doors safely shut. Crossing back country roads to follow the fish guy, it felt a little like Dukes of Hazzard only there were no spin outs and no Boss Hogg.I had to be quick. After all, the serious fish fans knew the next stop. It was likely their favorite fishing hole. We were just along for the show. And the mud.

First stop he just threw over the bridge himself. Until he unloaded some fish he didn't have the extra water for the bucket brigade.

J5 was all decked out in rain gear, but I made him wear a fleece...it was snowing. And raining.

This was our first stop to handle the buckets. It was just near a bridge we cross frequently.

This was the moment of sweetness just before all.the.mud.

The big tanks hold the trout until they are put in the creek.

He is distributing fish among the buckets for the kids to help.

Here they are! The fish of the hour...let me just say R still doesn't like to touch fish and if one didn't quite make it, she'd watch it wriggle in. I was braver if I was around to help out.

I took a turn with two buckets and R was having trouble getting a clean shot. This slope was pretty slippery and that creek was cruisin'. We've had A LOT of heavy rain here and the water was moving too fast at this stop for me to feel comfortable about the kids getting too close. It was a mom call. Sorry kids.

E12 takes a turn tossing the bucket. This was our last stop- we bailed at the very last bridge simply because the younger boys were all done and parking on the "busy" road was not ideal for safety- for me and my four.

E12 learned an important thing this day- never stand still too long in mud. He would say he learned never to follow your mother's directions when she tells you to walk into a really muddy area next to a creek when it's been raining so hard for days. In my defense, the bridge was closed for work. Access to the creek's edge was limited.

Somehow, though they carried that bucket side by side...R10 had more mud smarts.

All in all a terrific field trip! I hosed off those LLBean snow boots (the boy wearing actual frog muckers had the least mud of all!) and I hosed off the Odyssey. Although we were mostly on paved sections of road, I would not want any evidence of the "muddin'" to be left on our ride.

Our Friday nature study will be devoted to the brook trout or trout in general so we learn a bit more about these lovely creatures. I also think we need to find out about how far they go after being thrown into the creek. Some of these bridges were only a few hundred yards apart. Do they travel far? Are there only certain sections of the creek that are fishable legally? I assume this is all fly fisherman territory when it comes to snagging trout.

But after our fish stocking road trip experience, my real question is...exactly how many bridges cross this creek before it empties into one of the many gorges and falls to the lake some miles from here? THAT would be a cool question to try and answer. This is the same creek on which we observed the eddies when studying Higgins Bend Song and Dance.

You might notice these photos are not a perfect picture of spring. Welcome to an upstate NY spring friends. I think all the wind and rain has blown the flowering buds off the trees so who knows what's happening to the maples right now.  All you readers with spring flower pictures and other visions of warm weather loveliness really give me a good laugh this time of year. Enjoy your spring! No matter what your weather!

Boy Scientist and His Snap Circuits

J5 has been spending a lot of time with his brother's Snap Circuits recently. He is just a figure-outer kinda guy. He's been mapping out the circuits with great success. I think some add-ons to our current sets might be in his future. If you've never seen them, they are an electronic building set where the pieces of the circuit snap into place. What's especially nice about these is that unless you build it wrong, it works! No persnickety wires to be sure are completing circuits and things like that.

The blank slate is before him...what will he build?

The musical doorbell- he loves the sounds! His brother...not so much.

The finished circuit. It works! Not bad for our resident kindergartner! For those of you who know me...yes. I even buy batteries at Wegmans.

As much as he would like it, he doesn't have free reign with the Snap Circuits. When Dan saw that he was making up his own circuits, he had to channel him back to the authorized maps. But "when he grows up" he's going to make his own. In fact, he has a whole list of scientific, inventor, tinkerer type activities that he will get to do when he is old enough!

Organizing Your Homeschool Library

My post is up over at Heart of the Matter today. I wrote a post on how to organize your homeschool library. I thought it would be helpful to have the pictures to match my descriptions, so I'm posting the pictures with the entire article here! I did rearrange it some and added captions for clarity. Happy Reading! (click here for the original post)

I bet I’m not the only one who has a home overflowing with books. Sometimes it’s just really nice to have a book on-hand rather than going to the library all the time- especially when you have a small library and have to order in like we do.

But how do you store and organize all those books on your shelves so that you can use them efficiently? I know some folks use a service like Library Thing.  Some families use the Dewey-Decimal System to organize their home library. I’ve always figured that if I need to shelve the books in my home using Dewey Decimals, my husband would declare us once and for all to have too many books! So, I haven’t taken that step.

I do a combination of several systems at our house. First, I have a magazine wall rack which holds our reference materials- the atlases, subject encyclopedias, DK general books, dictionaries, thesauruses, spellers, and some Field Guides.

I keep biographies, Newberry honor books, and other chapter favorites in shoebox bins on the shelf so the kids can flip through them. That strategy is a favorite of mine because it turns the book covers out. The other books on the shelves, but not really organized other than not being in any of those other categories. I am pretty good about remembering where a book is and pointing children in the right direction or pulling them myself. I have dinosaur books, train books, and stencil books together, but they aren’t labeled as such.

I like how the boxes let me see the covers of the books- a cool way to turn books out on a normal shelf

 The other books I arrange by subject on the bookshelves. I use a color coding system to organize them together on the bookshelf.  I just colored plain white sticker labels in a small size and then stuck them to the bindings of the books. Purple- math, Green- science, Red- Social Studies

Green is science

Red is Social Studies

Math is marked with purple

The books I use for instruction are on a different bookshelf and they are grouped together by subject area- usually there is room for two disciplines per shelf. On the very bottom of that bookcase, is where I keep seasonal picture books and our Five in a Row collections. I converted cereal boxes into magazine holders and I labeled them with winter, summer, spring and fall. I also have a box for Five in a Row, Before Five in a Row, and Beyond Five in a Row books. On another bookcase I have boxes for alphabet books, Henry and Mudge Books and a few other series we’ve collected over the years.

Five in a Row books (all levels). These homemade boxes might look stressed, but I've had them for 6 years or more...not bad for a generic cereal box.

Some social studies and science on my shelf- I've got a little Janice VanCleave collection going.

Ok I moved the shot a bit and got more of the science end of the shelf.

One of my shelves- art and social studies type books are on here

Our kids keep their favorite books on their gutters! (click to see) Jim Trelease is a big advocate of using rain gutters to hold books so that kids can see their covers. We have a set of those in our boys’ room and each child has one next to their bed for tucking away their favorite titles. We have a large bookcase in our living room which holds special books.

This system has worked wonderfully for us. I really only see one problem… I need more bookcases! OK…I’d settle for one more. I need a half size bookcase, but not a narrow one, that would be for library books only.  My book organization dream would come true if I could have a bookcase, just the right size that would hold all the library books we have out at any given time.

Our many books provide a print rich environment for our children and allow them to explore many topics and places. The key to having lots of books is making sure they are somewhat organized. If you have another way to organize books, please leave a comment and share it with us!