Football Lapbook

I know it seems odd to create a football lapbook but frankly I have to do whatever I can to interest Kid #1. Right now he is very interested in college and professional football. Whenever we are riding in the car he asks me a thousand questions about rules, positions and players- of course, I have no idea what he is talking about half of the time. So, I have finally completed a football lapbook in hopes that he can teach himself all about football and its rules.

I used mini matchbooks to help him understand the offensive and defensive positions.I used the "Who?Where?" book for him to write about the history of football. The Shutter book has a few football terms that seem to be used a lot that he can define.

In the middle of this section I have placed this great folder game called Eduball that I got for this site:http://www.teachertools.org/games_dynam.asp. The top of the folder is like a pocket and in it I have multiplication fact cards for him to use with the game.

In this section I have a place for him to keep pictures of his favorite players. This was very easy to find using Google Images.

On this page I focused on the referees of the game. There always seem to be so many officials in a football game and I thought it would be good for him to learn who they are and their jobs. The wheel book lists the different positions and the graduated book lists the duties of each position. At the top of this page you can find a book with the rules of football.

For the book templates I used :http://www.homeschoolshare.com/lapbooking_resources.php#Templates_Listed_by_Divisions_

For the football information I used: http://football.about.com/od/footballpositions/Football_Positions.htm

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/25/American_Football_Positions.svg/604px-American_Football_Positions.svg.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_(American_football)

http://football.about.com/od/football101/l/bl_glossary.htm

For the flashcards: http://www.multiplication.com/flashcards.htm

Kid #1 was so excited about this and he cannot wait to finish his guitar lapbook (below) so that he can get started on this one!:) Yeah Mom!!!

Guitar Lapbook

After a friend introduced Kid#1 to Guitar Hero (much to my disappointment:)), he has been very interested in all types of guitars. Since this is all I hear about daily, I decided why not let him learn about guitars instead of just talking about them all of the time!

First, I made a list of all of the different aspects of guitars and tried to find information about them on the Internet. I found some great sites with lots of information: http://www.guitaralliance.com/ andhttp://www.gutairsland.com/. Secondly, as you can see, I made sections on the history of guitars (who?what?), the guitar family (wheel), guitar vocabulary (shutterfold), Electric vs. Acoustic (Venn diagram), How to play guitar chords and Famous guitarists (graduated book), diagram of guitar parts, and descriptions of the different categories of guitars (large matchbooks). To indulge my brillant engineer hubby, I included the physics of the guitar!:) All of the templates I got off of http://www.homeschoolshare.com/lapbooking_resources.php#Templates_Listed_by_Divisions_.

The blackened guitar images I copied from http://www.onyxforgeguitars.com/guitar%20shapes.html.

Needless to say, Kid #1 was thrilled beyond words and I don't even have to push him to look up all of the information to fill in the books. He wants to do it!:) Praise the Lord!

Sarah Palin

I am a little late in posting this, but on December 1st the kids and I went to see Sarah Palin campaigning for our local Congressman Saxby Chambliss. Frankly, I could not believe I was there, but my husband urged me to take the kids so that they could take advantage of seeing Sarah Palin speak. We were VERY early and were about the 50th person in line to get in and then it started to snow! IN GEORGIA! So, after about an hour of snow, it finally stopped and just became down right cold! By the time I was good and frozen, they let the line form inside the arena waiting area. Being warm really made the time go by faster!

When they opened the doors so that we could begin seating, it was like a rock concert from my youth!:) All of these old people:) started pushing forward with no consideration of a line at all! Finally, I had to start yelling because I thought that I might become separated from my kids, not to mention that if they, by chance, fell they could be trampled! It was very alarming. When we got into the arena, I insisted that we sit in the stands and not stand on the floor in front of the stage because I was afraid of what these crazy, old, Republicans would do!:) I guess everyone was just very excited to see Sarah Palin, as were we I must admit.

After waiting 3 + hours, the show began with John Linder, Johnny Isackson, and Saxby Chambliss. Then came the main attraction- Sarah Palin! I must admit it was great to see her in person. I hate to say things like this but it seemed like I was watching someone who was destined to make a change in our world. It was pretty cool.

Well, having learned from the earlier stampede, I decided to get out of there as quickly as possible so we left before the speeches were over. It was a little hairy but I am glad that the kids got to see Sarah Palin in the flesh and even more glad that we made it out alive!:)

WebKinz Lapbook

Okay- I finally gave in to the tsunami that is WebKinz! Kid #2 loves WebKinz and has way too many of them, so I decided to try to create a WebKinz lapbook for her. I found a website that had coloring pages for the cover (http://www.wacky-packages.org/how-to-draw-webkinz/webkinz-coloring-pages.htm. First, I had her choose her favorite ten WebKinz. I used the index card lapbook templates from Homeschoolhelper (http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/lapbooks.htm) and then I copied the pictures of her favorites from the Ganz website. For the different pages of the index cards I choose to have her write the WebKinz facts (W Facts) for the animal and then on the next card the "real" animal facts (Animal Facts).

Secondly, I created a Quizzy' Question Corner out of the matchbook template from Homeschoolhelper.com, and for the questions I used the fan book template. I just wrote questions that pertained to what we are learning right now. Then I created a Wheel of Wow using the wheel template from Homeschoolhelper.com. I just choose the prizes based on what I have heard the kids talking about when they play WebKinz.

Finally, I had some room left on the lapbook and I asked Kid#2 what else I could put in the book that would interest her. She really wanted a Gem Hunt, which of course I had to create from scratch. To do this I used Word and created this picture. Under the "rocks" I placed different colored shapes with two digit numbers written on them. The instructions for the game are for her to find two gems and then add the numbers together. We are working on addition of two digit number right now and this gives her a little added practice.

After we got it all together, she was anxious to show Dad, her brothers, and even in the neighbor!

Tree of Thanksgiving

Just thought that I would share what we do to celebrate Thanksgiving with our kids. Every year I have the kids write down things that they are thankful for on cut out leaves (see picture). After that, I attach them to a large stick that I get from the backyard and place the stick in a pot. Then we have our "Tree of Thanksgiving". Another aspect of this that I like is that after Thanksgiving I can use the leaves for my scrapbooking page on Thanksgiving.

Stone Fox Book Review by Kid #1

I just finished a book called Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner. I would recommend it because it is an interesting book about dog racing.

Stone Fox is fun to read because it is exciting. It is exciting because you never know what will happen next. The main character is winning the race. He takes a short cut and gets ahead of everyone. The short cut is dangerous because it goes over ice and it could break. You have to read the book to find out what happens next.

Another reason to read Stone Fox is because it is suspenseful. At the beginning, Willy's grandfather is sick but Willy thinks he is pretending. After the doctor comes, Willy knows that Grandfather is really sick. Willy starts running the farm and enters the race to win the prize money so that he can pay the taxes. But you have to read the book to find out if Grandfather gets better. The race is for adults but Willy still enters it anyway. Everyone thinks he will lose because Stone Fox was undefeated for the last 10 years. When reading the book, you are surprised by who wins.

I recommend this book because it is exciting and suspenseful. It is a good book for boys and girls.

Children's Book Reviews

I received this information from a Yahoo group that I belong to and I checked it out and it looked really neat. The site has book reviews written by parents and educators. It details possible offensive content and gives a thumbnail summary of the book. Their objective is not to promote censorship, per say, but to give the parent the opportunity to judge for themselves whether or not the book is right for their child.

It also has an option to submit book reviews yourself.

www.factsonfiction.org