England Lapbook

This is only our second lapbook, so we are definitely amateurs. But it was fun!


On the left is the open lapbook (with all the flaps/mini books closed), and above is the lapbook with some of the flaps opened.

We have British government, England's capitol, maps showing England, Great Britain, the United Kingdom, and Europe, English Food, dd's favorite stories from England, and English landmarks. On the back of the file folder, dd drew a picture of a tea party.

We need to add the flag, and some more landmarks,

Schooltime week ending 9/22

I posted on Monday, and then Homeschool Blogger wasn't working on Tuesday, so I moved my blog here. Now I'm finally catching up with what we did all week.

Phonics: 5 pages
Math: workbook from Walgreens, and Princess flash cards
Reading: library books about weather, Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothes, Go Dog Go
Writing: practicing c and d, a letter to a Bible study teacher at church
Looking at: library books about England,
Lapbooking: making a book about England. We included government (queen, PM, parliament), landmarks (White Cliffs of Dover, Stonehenge, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace), food (cotswold cheese, afternoon tea, bangers and mash, fish & chips), stories (Paddington Bear, Alice in Wonderland, Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Rabbit), capitol city (London), language, flag, and maps (England, Great Britain, United Kingdom, Europe).
Listening to: Alice in Wonderland, Paddington Bear, The Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe

Explode the Code

For the most part, dd has enjoyed the Explode the Code series. We're on book 6 now. One frustrating thing for her is that the vocabulary is larger than her own. Words like "harbor" and "battleship" are words she's never heard before (not words you use often when you live in the desert). So although she's able to read them, she needs a lot of one on one time with Mama to complete these pages because she just doesn't know what the words mean. Other new words recently have been "hornet", "bandit", "varnish", "dart", and "stork". It's great to learn new words, but it does make Phonics more difficult than it has to be.

Favorite Blogs

http://inashoe.blogspot.com/ This lady often has free shipping codes for Christianbook.com

http://www.mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/ This woman is hilarious! As funny as Erma Bombeck!

http://www.sophysfavoritestuff.blogspot.com/ Ok, it's mine. It's a useful (to me) list of my favorite stuff.

http://paisleyteacup.blogspot.com/ Yes, this one is mine too. I started it to share the details of our trip to Ireland in June 07. I like to think I'll start posting at least once a week. When I have energy at night to do more than stare at the television screen. I think that might happen in the year 2020...

http://braintrainjoys.blogspot.com/ another Winter Promise Children Around the World mom

Supplementing the England Week

Winter Promise's Children around the World program is excellent. But it's for third grade and up (it seems to me) and dd is only first grade. So this year I am treating it like the Pirate Code -- not rules, just a sort of guideline.

Dd has just discovered audio books.
This week she is going to listen to Alice in Wonderland. I ordered Paddington Bear (read by Stephen Fry!!!!!) but I don't know if it will arrive this week.

About Lapbooking

http://www.squidoo.com/lapbooking

and how to make really simple mini-books: http://www.squidoo.com/lapbooking/#module2314219

and a note about a lapbook resource:

I downloaded Cindy Rushton's Let's Make a Lapbook e-book. I paid $9. There are quite a few rather obvious suggestions ("you'll need to choose a topic", "You'll need scissors") as well as nineteen pages of advertising her other resources. I was anxious to see and use the instructions for making small books to attach to a lapbook. There aren't any. There is a list of links to other people's websites that tell you how to make mini books. For me, this was not a worthwhile investment.

Monday, England Week

Schooltime today:
Explode the Code book 6 p. 14 and 15
Math: Princess flash cards with addition problems. I wrote all the answers on post it notes and she matched the answers to the problems. This was her first time doing math that way and it worked well once we got past the new-activity drama.
Reading: Ice is...Whee, by Carol Greene (this author has quite a few books in the early reader section at our library, and dd loves them). I think I only helped her with one word.
Handwriting: practicing the letter b.
Listening, Looking at: two books about England. England by Michael Dahl, and Look What Came from England, by Kevin Davis. We're looking at these together, getting ideas for a lapbook.
This afternoon DD will spend an hour or two listening to audio books, either Boxcar Children or Alice in Wonderland.

English Food

This week we are studying England. We began with an English dinner/tea last night.

We had cotswold cheese with tomato slices (cotswold cheese is available at Trader Joe's. It's a double gloucester cheese with herbs. Fabulous on a sourdough bread sandwich with tomato slices), sausages, scones, crumpets, and biscuits (that's "cookies" to the Americans in the audience).

Of course we had tea to drink. We listened to the soundtrack from Pride and Prejudice (the REAL one with Colin Firth).

The kids all enjoyed the menu very much, but of course this is a not at all an unusual menu for us.

First and Second Week

Phonics (Explode the Code book 6), pages 1-11.

Reading: Nutcracker book from WP LA, Library books, Ten Apples Up on Top, Go Dog Go, Young Reader's Bible, Snow Joe, I Am Sick, When I am Scared.

Science: Blast Off, Bones, Our Planet, Watch It Grow (dd read these to me, with a little help)

Writing: letters to Grammy, Grandpa, two to Sunday School teacher, 2 memory verses, extra practice on letters s, a, n, d.

Math: three lessons in Math U See, online worksheets from Math U See (doubles, +2)

Listening to: Wrong Way Wendy, How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World, Me on the Map, and Boxcar Children audio books.

Children Around the World: Made a Lapbook with Name, Address, Phone Number, City, State, Country, Continent, Planet, country's leader. On the cover we added details about our culture: pets, house, music, church, games, language, clothes, food. Talked about culture, introduced and drilled continents.

Our Curriculum 2007 - 2008

School began on September 5! We're using

FIRST GRADE DD:
my own adaptation of Winter Promise's Children Around the World with lapbooking (CATW is really geared for third or fourth grade, see winterpromise.com)
Math-U-See Alpha (as well as workbooks from Walgreens),
Disney Princess stationery for Handwriting (letters to Grandma, this week's memory verse, letters I notice she needs help with),
Simply Science by Nora Gaydos, (other books to be added later),
Explode the Code Phonics,
lots of library books to read aloud, and audio books for listening.

3 YEAR OLD DD:
Letter of the Week (very simply. Introduce the letter, drill an A Beka Flashcard, and read the suggested library books) http://www.letteroftheweek.com/preschool_age_3.html
Lauri puzzles,
and some A Beka and Kumon workbooks.

1 YEAR OLD DD:
Her main accomplishment is looking absolutely adorable. And napping during schooltime. Theoretically.