Totally Polar!

The view outside our front door is just gorgeous.  Our neighbor has some young trees that have just turned the most golden color.  On the side of his house, he has planted sugar maples that will one day turn a deep brick red at the onset of fall.

It made a perfect backdrop for my mom to take some pictures of the girls (and their cousins) last weekend when they all visited.

*you can click on any picture in this post to view it larger

This past week, we have started our newest group project/lapbook:  Polar Animals.  I don’t know what it is about this past year, it seems we have concentrated on all things cold!  We did an Iditarod lapbook last spring, and then we did Penguins, now it’s all Polar Animals.

Our theme came from Denna’s workbook she has been using off and on for some time now, called Going On Eagerly by Rod & Staff Publishers.  This is the first workbook in their new Preschool G-H-I Series, and each workbook with have a habitat theme!  We are excited for the whole series to come out.  Each workbook could lead into a lapbook about that particular geographical region.

Here is Denna working on some pages from her workbook, and making a note for daddy to put in his next care package.  It says “Love Denna”.

Our table covered in lapbook making tools and papers.

Raven’s minibook about pinnepeds.  We got the information from this download.

Raven’s drawing minibooks.

What Denna’s lapbook looks like so far.

Denna has colored all these polar animals according to what the instructions say they should look like.

Here are the resources we have used so far for our studies:

Page about Arctic Wildlife

Enchanted Learning- Arctic Animals

Polar Animals Wheel pdf

Polar Animals preschool activities and crafts

Polar Animals lapbook at HomeschoolShare

Seaworld Teacher guidebooks (we used Arctic Animals and Seals, Sea Lions, and Walruses)

Polar theme coloring pages

Links and books for a Polar theme

Library Books:

Deldobuss Bussinger’s favorite books »

Share book reviews and ratings with Deldobuss, and even join a book club on Goodreads.

New Bold Believers Workbooks. . .

During my husband’s last deployment, I went in search of some materials to study Iraq and the Middle East for our homeschool.

I decided upon Bold Believers in Iraq from Voice of the Martyrs because of it’s easy workbook format and the fact that it not only taught about the country, but also the persecuted Christians, and those that need to hear the gospel of Christ.

Recently, I was looking on their site once more for another country to study, and I saw that they have provided some of their workbooks free in download format.  You must register with the site, but it is free.

These are wonderful resources to teach about missions, geography, worldview, religious beliefs, and evangelism.  I will be using these throughout our studies.

Along with the free resources, I have ordered Bold Believers in Nigeria.  We know a young man from Nigeria, and my children have been very interested in his country.  I have been collecting resources and will soon share what we have studied, as well as any links or files we have come across.

Exodus through Conquest Lapbooks!

We have finished our reading through the Exodus out of Egypt and the wilderness wanderings and have jumped right into the story of Joshua.  I decided to wait on the specifics of the law until we have more time, so we covered the major themes and moved onward.

The last couple of days we have found some amazing resources online for the missing parts we had in our lapbooks.  It is really hard to find much for kids after the story of the Ten Commandments.  Since I wanted our study to go beyond just the Exodus and continue throughout the Old Testament, I wanted to include some lessons and lapbook elements that would fill in the gaps.

Here are what the girls have put together:

Raven’s-

| View Show | Create Your Own

Denna’s-

| View Show | Create Your Own

Resources:

The awesome story wheels and other printables were found on my new favorite bible lesson sight, Henny Penny’s.

All the other elements I listed in this post.

Here are some study questions and lessons for the first few chapters of Joshua* (these are pdf files):

Joshua and the Conquest of Canaan

Joshua meets Archeology

Joshua study questions

Bible Characters: Rahab

*just a note, I have not checked all of these out as to their doctrinal stances or teaching  We just found them in the last couple days, and I am in the process of putting together our bible study questions and projects.

The Mitten Lapbook

When I was not feeling well a few weeks ago, Denna and I read several books that had coordinating lapbooks at homeschoolshare.  The Mitten was one of her favorites, and so we created the lapbook this week for fun.

| View Show | Create Your Own

The big mitten was her favorite project, as she got to hide all the animals from the book in it and pretend that she was acting out the story.

The author, Jan Brett, has a wonderful website full of printable activities that go along with her books and characters.

To see the other books we read, and activities to go with them, see this post.

Snail Mail. . .

My blogging has been sporadic and shallow as of lately, and I apologize.  I have been going through some changes in life, physically and spiritually, and it has distracted me even from homeschooling at times.

This pregnancy has seemingly been the most tiring for me, not only because I am getting a little older, but because I have 2 other children to take care of and educate.  They are with me 24/7 with very little breaks throughout the week.  Just these last few days, I have found myself praying that God would give them right attitudes on how to treat each other, and that he would give me a patient and gracious spirit to guide and discipline them without getting annoyed.

God has shown me in his strength that I cannot change their attitudes when they decide to argue or speak hastily to one another.  But, he has guided me in how to counsel them in His Word, and how to discipline their grievous behavior.  He has revealed to me how much it grieves him to see us behave in such a way, as I know I have done on numerous occasions.

Homeschooling News:

Since we have been having the above-mentioned struggles in our home, we have been focusing most of our time on the Bible.

As we have been going through the Old Testament chronologically, we have discovered anew the similarities we have with the grumbling Israelites.  Tonight, we began an in-depth study of Joshua together, starting with his history as a servant to Moses.  We delved into the 1st chapter of Joshua this evening, making notes of the commands and promises Joshua was given, along with the themes of inheritance and rest.  We studied the parallel of Israel’s physical inheritance, and our spiritual inheritance (by looking at Ephesians and Colossians)

I think the girls really enjoyed digging deeper, and they asked some very good questions.  Raven was concerned about God’s grace towards the nation of Israel, and how that related to the commands to obey the law in order to have peace/rest in the land.  Denna asked about our current spiritual battle, and especially about evil spirits.  We discussed the Holy Spirit, and our victory in Christ.  We also had a great talk about God’s part and our part in the Christian walk.

Hubby News:

I have prepared our first care package to go out to daddy on Monday.  It seems so weird to me that we can chat online and email documents to each other, yet I still have to rely on the good old snail mail to get some things to him.  He enjoys the snacks and goodies we send, and I have started recording his favorite TV shows onto DVD’s so that he can keep up with them.  I am thankful for technology to be able to communicate with him, and that he can be assured that we are doing well here at home.

Hobby News

I have once again had a desire to delve into some crochet projects.  I think it is the onset of cooler weather that makes me go back to the warm yarns.  I have made 2 pair of fingerless gloves in adult size, and I am currently trying to change the pattern to make a child size version.

I have also gotten the urge to do some pretty heavy reading, heavier than I have handled in a while.  I picked up three books at the Christian bookstore on Thursday, and of course have started them all. (because who can read just one book at once?)  I know I have other books on my shelf that have a bookmark halfway through them, and I will get to them eventually, but right now I am engrossed and encouraged with these three:

Getting The Gospel Right

Respectable Sins

Be Rich (a study in Ephesians)

I intend to get most of the books I own (at least the non-fiction) up on Goodreads in the near future, so if you want to check out my nerdy library shelves that is the place to look.  Or, you could come over to my house and borrow one anytime. ;-)