B is for Bilbo Baggins

It is a stretch I'm sure but this past week Cameron decided he wanted to watch The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Mommy decided we weren't ready for that yet and found The Hobbit (cartoon version) in the video collection (on VHS mind you). So this past week we visited Middle Earth and journeyed with Bilbo Baggins on his adventure to find the ring.  While the story basically  follows the book there are songs to get the kids into the story.  I happen to have the Progeny Press unit study of The Hobbit so pulled that out and had Cameron do the vocabulary exercises.. I was amazed at his ability to look at the word in context and figure out what it meant. Not an easy task with some of the words in the first 3 chapters on the book. Being Cameron is only in the 2nd grade I wanted to make the unit fun so I had him draw a picture and write 2 sentences about the beginning of the story.. He likes to draw so I can usually get him to write something as long as he can draw a picture to go with it (even his copy work is like that.)  I can't find my copy of the book so I'm thinking I will get an e-book copy and just read it on the Nook with him... Don't get me wrong I love holding a book and reading it together but I'm flat running out of bookshelves and still have most of my collection at my Mom's house...  Anyway, I am thinking of picking sections of the story for copywork, but not sure what else to do to go with a mini unit on the Hobbit.. The unit doesn't have to last too long as we are heading into our Civil War unit in only a week or so...

A: About Us

Thought I would keep it simple to start the A to Z Blog Challenge.
About us:

Soon you will start seeing more posts from Cameron, he is our oldest and is 8 1/2. While he isn't a huge fan of reading he does like a good story especially if it is in the form of a movie.  He loves to ride his bike and harrass his little brother Nathan.  He likes our garden and loves the vegetables we grow.  He is also a big fan of Playmobil and Lego...

Nathan is our youngest and is 5 1/2. He is already writing (don't think I'll have him blog much yet). He loves Math and Science. We are already shopping for a new Science curriculum for next year with lots of hands on stuff... He enjoys working in the shop with Daddy and building anything. He has already decided he wants to be a farmer and invent new farm tools. He is a big fan of all things John Deere and Rescue Heroes.

Daddy (Mike) is an auto mechanic specializing in vintage and antique American automobiles. He started his own shop about 10 years ago and went full time in the shop just before Cameron was born. Mike has found a love of sound engerineering and speaker building over the past couple years. This gives him opportunities to teach both the boys and Mommy about sound.. He also started teaching and helping with our local home-school co-op. He taught a wonderful basic automotive class to the High School students and was blessed to have nice weather all 8 weeks he taught turning the class into a hands on practicum.

I will leave my intro for another post as I have a blog started already for it...

TOS 2011-2012 Planner presale

Need a tool to help maintain a well-organized home and homeschool? 

Want to get your kids organized too?

Get ready to plan another great year with The 2011-12 Schoolhouse Planner, the brand-new 2011-12 Special Needs Schoolhouse Planner, and the 2011-12 Student Schoolhouse Planners for students from kindergarten to high school.

Erase the frazzled feeling of disorganization with The 2011-12 Schoolhouse Planner and bring order and efficiency to your school year. 

Packed with relevant articles, clever calendars, useful forms, handy lists, and so much more, this planner is the key to meeting your many goals for the 2011-12 school year. With over 175 new forms, you'll have all the organizational tools you need to make this the best school year ever.

New forms this year will help you:

• Plan beautiful holiday celebrations.
• Run a successful home business.
• Plan a course of study over four years.
• Run a well-organized home from top to bottom.

And so much more!

Whether organizing your homeschool curriculum, household tasks, a home-based business, or jotting down lists of things you hope to do some day . . .

The 2011-12 Schoolhouse Planner has all of the planning components you will need to make this year a great success. 

 

http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com/index.phpmain_page=index&cPath=191_193

Don't wait! Take advantage of great prices with the special presale going on now until April 14.

Want to see the in-store product description one more time? Visit here.

Workbox cards my first attempt

This evening I decided to try my hand at a set of workbox cards. I needed something simple to go along with what we are actually doing lately... I made 5 rows: Copywork, Math-U-See, Lego.com, Lapbooks, and Bible Verses.  I couldn't decide on the icon for Lego.com so I left it blank and am going to use some stickers I have (saved on ink.)  I uploaded the cards to our 4shared account if you would like something simple.. I hope to create some more cards as we expand our folders/boxes.
Enjoy! Hope you are having a great week.

Workbox Wednesday

Image via WikipediaToday Cameron and I have been thinking out a plan to get us both back on track.. Our workboxes are a mess and our planning pages aren't working.. Thankfully I found and revisited Sheri's workbox blog  and downloaded her Planner Book pages. We are going to do 3 days worth of pages and numbers.  We are also going to do file folders instead of workboxes. The idea is that in his boxes will be all the folders for the day. We will eventually if this works get colored folder like the ones pictures color coding subjects but for now I am reusing some basic manila folders I had laying around.  I created 1/2 sheet labels the say Workbox #__ for each folder to coordinate with his schedule pages and cards. Lately we have been doing copywork and reading with a little math thrown in... We need to get back on track so we can start some of the fun units we have planned, especially our Civil War unit next month. 


Here is a link to the first 2 labels. They print on the half sheet labels we use for shipping USPS. 

Mingle Monday Blog Hop and Mom Blog Monday

So this is a little early, but why not...
Mingle Monday is hosted by KdBuggie Boutique
Hop over and check her blog and join this family friendly blog hop.
I hope you will follow our journey and leave a comment here so I can follow you back.

Here is another Blog Hop, Mom Blog Monday hosted by Sippy Cups and Cloth Bums



I hope you will hop over and visit her Blog as well.

Weekend Blog Hop

I am finding all kinds of wonderful blogs to follow by joining various blog hops. Here is another one I found. If you found our blog through this or any other blog hop this weekend please leave a comment with your blog and follow us. We love to follow newly found blogs.