Dog Breeds Lapbook Setup

Zach is going to be doing a lapbook on dog breeds over the next couple of weeks.  The lapbook comes from Hands of a Child. He has really developed an interest in dog breeds and dog training since getting our mini Schnauzer, Titan, this past summer. So I decided that I would set up his assignments for the lapbook ahead of time so that he can be as self-sufficient as possible as he works through the lapbook pieces. He is in 7th grade and by this time he should be able to do most of this on his own.  I wanted to set it up so that I could easily put the materials in his workbox.  Here is what I did:

I made a schedule for what lapbook pieces he should do each day.  One piece of the lapbook is to study the top 20 dog breeds and do a fact file on each.  So that will be an ongoing project.

Next, I printed off the informational pages that are in each Hands of a Child Lapbook. This is the packet he will need to use to get his information to finish the pieces.  I also printed off the activity instructions so that he will know what to do for each piece.

I then decided that I would cut out his pieces for him.  He hates cutting, and that is a big roadblock for him in doing lapbooks.  I cut the pieces out and put them in baggies with the number of the activity that corresponds to the activity number in the instructions.  That way he can just look at what number the piece is and find the same number in the instructions.  We are not doing every single lapbook piece.  Really, it is ok!  It is ok to not do every single thing!  I would rather him focus on the parts that will interest him the most.

I stapled the ends of a file folder to make a large pocket.  I then adhered the schedule on the front.  I Finally, the information packet, the activity instructions, and the lapbook pieces were slipped inside.  This is ready for his workbox!

Stay tuned!  When he is finished with it I will post pictures.

They did it!

Ok, so my photos are horrible (blurry), but the boys did a great job!  Each created a Lego Sphinx using some simple (ok, maybe not that simple!) directions I gave them.  See this post for more information.

Flags for Workboxes

We went to Canada this past summer for vacation. During that time I picked up a book called The Kid's Book of Canada to use in the boys' workboxes. I had the boys pick out a provincial or territorial flag of Canada and create it. The Architect decided to the the flag of British Columbia in Legos...The Artist drew his flags.... Nunavut Northwest Territories

Lego Sphinx--Can They Build It?

We are in the midst of studying ancient Egypt. So I thought it would be fun for them to try to build a Lego Sphinx. No, we can't build what you see in the above picture...far more Legos than we own!!! I am putting the instructions in their workboxes tomorrow...we will see what happens!

BrainBoxes

I recently found these cool games! They are made by Mindware. It is called BrainBox and there are several versions of the game: World, USA, US Presidents, Animals, etc. I was able to get the world and animal versions for free today! The idea is to absorb as much information on the one side of the card as possible in 10 seconds. Then you hand the card over to your partner. Your partner asks you a question (on the back of the card) about the country (animal, state, etc.) that you just studied. The person with the most cards at the end wins. You can set the amount of time you want to play. We played each of our games for ten minutes.

These games would be excellent for workboxes. There is even a version of the game for one player! I have to warn you though your kids may beat you! I found out that this old brain just doesn't absorb info like those younger ones! I didn't do so well...my 8 year old got 4 times as many than me in the animal game!

Fun Egyptian Activities

We are currently studying Ancient Egypt. Here are some fun activities on the web that relate to Egypt.

Coloring pages

Writing Egyptian Numbers

Write your name in Hieroglyphs

Play Senet (Ancient Egyptian Game)

The Mummy Maker (takes you through the process of making a mummy)

Video clips

Our Upcoming Workbox Week

Kendra over at the Aussie Pumpkin Patch hosts a weekly meme for workboxes. Check out her site as she has a lot of cool ideas!

Here is what is planned for our week...

In history we are working on Ancient Egypt. Here are some of the books that we are currently reading...

For science this week we will be working on two items....animal classification and amphibians. These are actually two different lapbooks that we will be doing. Why two lapbooks at one time? Well, the amphibian one is from A Journey Through Learning and I will be reviewing it for the TOS Crew. The other one is from Hands of a Child and was what I had originally scheduled for this week.
Another fun item that will be in both the boys workboxes this week is A-Z Mystery Flags. This is a cursive handwriting book with cool exercises. I got this book because I wanted to teach my boys how to read regular cursive. My boys learn cursive italic without all the loops and frills, but they still need to be able to read the loopy cursive. So they do the activities by converting the loopy cursive into italics. When we finish with this book they will have written every country from A-Z out. There are also mystery flags to try to figure out which country they are from. And for geography, I am having them find every country that they write out on the map. This past week we did the countries that started with "A". This week will be the "B" countries. Here is a sample page so that you can see what they look like. This book is by LightHome Publications.

Jello Cells

We are studying zoology this year. To see our lesson plans, go here. Today we made an animal cell model out of jello and candies. It was fun even if the end product looked kind of weird! To see the instructions for this idea, go here. Here is Zach mixing the lemon jello...this is the cytoplasm of the cell. Here are boys putting in the different parts of the cell...there was a nectarine for the nucleus...gummy worms, round jelly beans, raisins,etc. for the other parts. See the above instructions for ideas for the different types of candies to use. I did have to make some substitutions because we didn't have certain types of candies available to use (i.e. folded ribbon candy).Here is "our cell"!

Our First Full Week with Workboxes

We started school full time today. The workboxes are completely filled and the boys remarked at how full they feel! For Bible and history this year we are doing the Ancients. Today using our Bible curriculum (Remembering God's Awesome Acts), we discussed the idea that the continents were probably one mass at one point (Pangea). They were pulled apart during the flood of Noah and the days of Peleg. Genesis 10:25 states that the earth was divided during the days of Peleg. The boys had fun working with the continents to see how they fit together. They noticed that Africa and South America fit together quite nicely.

Fun Workbox Items

Yesterday while the boys were at TaeKwon-do class, I used my extra time to go to JoAnn's for some cardmaking supplies...while I was there I picked up a couple of fun items for the boys workboxes today. They were so appreciative of me doing this! Now that we have workboxes I can slip in some fun stuff now and again.
For Zach I got him two rolls of duct tape (lime green and silver). He loves making stuff with duct tape! For Noah I got a pyramid that he had to "excavate" to find a hidden treasure inside. Noah has been begging for some Egyptian toys since we are studying Ancient history this year.He got a stone tablet with hieroglyphics on it!

Borderline Geography Games

Zach and I have been enjoying Borderline games! These are geography games where the object is to get rid of your cards first. Each country card you lay down must border the previous country card. Bluffing is a part of the game and makes it real enjoyable. I think we have all four editions of the game....there is World, Europe/Middle East, USA, and Africa. Last night Zach and I played the Africa edition! I have very limited knowledge of African geography, but the beauty of these games is that you don't have to know the geography to play! I may be adding these to our workboxes from time to time.

Workbox Ideas

Last week I made a long list of ideas to use in our workboxes. A lot of these activities are based on my boys likes and interests. These would be activities outside of our normal curriculum. This is what I came up with....

*Small bag of Legos with instructions to build something (build a food, a vehicle, a building, etc.)

*TOS Crew materials (that we will need to review this year)

*We will use the above book that we picked up while in Canada. Some of the activities will be...

-Build provincial flags out of legos

-Color the provincial flags

-Read the history of the province. Narrate it to mom.

-Write down how each province got its name.

-Label provincial maps.

*Draw historical scenes.

*Color scenes from the Story of the World activity book.

*Kid cryptograms

*Calculator games

*Learn the Babylonian number system

*Fibonacci numbers

*Homeschool Share Workboxables

*Study Times Tales

*Put envelopes of skip count numbers in order (Right Start game box)

*Study "Yo, Millard Fillmore!" book to learn the presidents

*Read a Greek myth and then tell it back to mom

*Whittle something

*Magic number squares

*Cook a recipe

*Create a chess board out of legos

*Study chess strategies

*Make 3D snowflakes

*Label a picture with Spanish words

*Pick a Bible story and draw its events

*Animal Classification (here and here)

*Listen to Skip Count Kid CD

*Make a list of extinct animals

*Do Word Roots computer game

*Find a country for every letter of the alphabet

*Look at a map of the US. Categorize the state according to what letter they start with.

*Alphabetize the states.

*Put the books of the Bible in order from a list of the books which are out of order.

*A-Z flags

*A-Z exotic animals

Workbox Ideas

Kendra over at the Pumpkin Patch does a weekly meme (on Fridays, I believe) on workboxes. Check out her site! Also, if you are looking for more ideas on workboxes check out these two things....

Posts on my blog

Homeschool Share's Workbox Ideas