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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The Mommy On The Bus Says... HUGE Giveaway!!

Hey guys!  Check out a fellow MOMYS' blog, The Mommy On The Bus Says...  Grace Anne's giving away 7 AWESOME gifts, beautiful things for Mommy or babies!! All of them were made and/or donated by WAHM's, which I think is really awesome!  Make sure you head over to enter, and check it out!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Nutrition Lapbooks

So, we've started new lapbooks!!  (Imagine that...)  We're working through Nutrition Lapbooks at the moment.  These, I paid for, but it's all good, because they were worth it!  I got them from In The Hands of a Child for $16.00.  (Pricey, IMHO, for an ebook, but it was a treat!)  

As you can see below, the lapbook covers a lot.   Everything is covered, from the Food Pyramid (which, by the way, has changed since I was a kid...) to tracking your food in a Journal, reading labels (really important to us, as a family with sensitivities) to the digestive system, exercise, food poisoning, bacteria (good and bad), even organics!  It's pretty neat, there's a lot I would forget, if I didn't have this to go by.






The Project Pack (what ITHOAC calls their products) comes with a 14-page resource guide, and 20 activities.  The kids are having a lot of fun with it!



Even though the project pack isn't in color, and my kids do prefer colored products (ITHOAC is intentional in this, though.  You're supposed to print them out on colored paper, but my kids get too distracted by that), overall, I'd recommend this.  We're enjoying learning about food (and overhauling our diet in the process!), what our body's needs are, and how everything works together.  The one thing I could see being a problem, is that instead of a "protein" food group, there's a "meat" food group.  Not a problem for most people, but if you're vegetarian, and your son happens to be extremely detail-oriented, it might take some more explanation. ;)

It is a bit on the pricey, side, it seems that ITHOAC products are, from looking at their site.  But their products are very well put together, lots  of information and activities, so I won't have a problem buying from them once in a while.  But they will remain just treats. 

The Busy Mom's Bible




A few weeks ago, I was absolutely blessed to have the opportunity to review The Busy Mom's Bible for Zondervan.   First let me say, the ribbons and tags you see in my Bible, above, I added.  I can't live without my ribbons and tags.  ;) 


Now, onto the review.  First of all, it's pretty.  It really is.  It's a nice, soft leather, in dual tone pink, with a strip down the middle of chocolate brown.  Now, that doesn't have to do much with the spirituality of the Bible, but to me, it was important.  See, I have a hard time with "femininity."  I was raised by feminists, basically, and was never taught how to be a sweet, soft, feminine lady.  Now, I have to surround myself constantly by pretty femininity, in order to remember that I am a lady, and I need to behave as one.  (Not saying everyone needs to do this, but I do.)  So, having a pretty, pink Bible, that really stands out to me.



Now, onto the Bible itself.  This is an NIV Bible.  It's not my favorite to study with, but then, this Bible wasn't meant for getting-down-in-the-dirt study.  It's designed for busy wives and mothers, who are having a hard time finding time to get into the Word.  And for that, the NIV is really good.  It's simple, plain language, and you don't have to sit and think really hard about what it means.  It simply says what it means.

The study guides, or Thought Starters, in this Bible are broken down into 1 minute, 5 minute, and 10 minute sections.  They look like this:


Basically, the idea is to do one Thought Starter a week, memorize the verse, and ponder and meditate on it all week.  The 1 Minute paragraphs give the idea for the week.  If you have time, you can do the 5 and 10 Minute activities, too.  (The 5 Minute is called Reflect & Pray, and the 10 Minute is Study.)   The Study section gives you what pages to turn to back in the Study Index (which is nice, not having to flip through the index), for deeper study on the subject.



The Thought Starter pages are brightly colored, and each page (13 of them) has a different "theme,"  with four sections per theme.  The themes are:

God Is...
Family Ties
Your Marriage
Raising Your Kids
Your Relationships
Your Identity in Christ
A Woman of Character
Overcoming Obstacles
Your Emotions
Your Spiritual Life
Healthy Living
Stewardship
God's Love for You


All of these, we should be studying daily.  But, it's hard, sometimes, to carve out that time in the middle of all the chaos going on.  With a 8, 7, 3, and two 8 month olds, I know!!  I try really hard, but when the twins have ear infections, and are up all night, or the 7 year old decided to get up at 4:30... and stay up... waking up the 3 year old in the process because they share a room, or when the day has just been more than I can handle... It's SO nice to have a study laid out for me, quickly, easily, and to the point.

That isn't to say the Thought Starters don't require thought.  For example, the first section under Family Ties, although it was directed to blended families, is on Acceptance, and really spoke to me.  The Holy Spirit used that small study to show me and convict my heart of the way I treat one of my children, and how I need to accept this particular child, just as the Lord made them, because the Lord knows what He's doing!  That was a hard lesson for me to learn, but it was much needed, and I have been much blessed from it.  So, although the Thought Starters are small, they can be very powerful!!

There are also two more sections worth mentioning in this Bible, a Concordance, and a section on Biblical Maps, both of which I really appreciate.


Overall, this is a really nice Bible.  I was so excited to get it, it's been years since I've had a Bible of my own!!  (Bought more than one for hubby or the kids, but not one for me in roughly 10 years.)  So, to have a Bible not just for me, but designed for busy women and moms... it's priceless to me!!

I highly recommend this Bible!!

You can buy it on the Zondervan website, for $24.99, or find a retailer near you there.


***Please Note:  I'm not going to get into discussions on different Bible Versions on this blog.  Please don't start any.  Any comments to that nature will be deleted.***

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Dependability Lapbooks

Yep, yet another lapbook!!

My beloved likes for the kids to do something during Family Worship.  Our kids are active, to say the least, so having them involved, physically, really helps them retain what we're trying to teach them.  We've already done Obedience (I'll have to blog about that later, they're put away at the moment), and now we're onto Dependability or Faithfulness.  (By the way, I get these lapbooks at Homeschool Share, all of their Character Training lapbooks are on one page, which is kind of nice.  Oh, and they're free... double nice!!)



Each booklet has either something to do with Dependability, is a copywork exercise, or shows examples of Dependability.  In this one, the kids write a definition. 




This is one of the copywork pages.  They don't tell you what to copy, it's pretty much up to you on this one.  (On the Obedience lapbook, they had verses to copy.)  



Right/Wrong game:  Basically, there are just sentence strips that you cut out, and put them in the right or wrong pile.  Pretty easy, but for kids like mine, the practice reinforces the ideas.



We'll learn the Parable of the Three Servants, and their Talents...





And there are verses to learn.  You can choose KJV or NIV.  We chose NIV, I think, for this one.  

We meet dependable people in the Bible... Lydia, Timothy, and Ruth.




Overall, this lapbook isn't very big.  The Obedience one is bigger.  But, I think lapbooks are just awesome for Family Worship.  You can take the theme, and stretch it out as long as you need to.  It also appeals to all of the "learning styles."  We have the kids look up the stories and verses, and we find hymns to go with our theme.  Then we read, talk about, and fill in the lapbooks.  Everybody wins!!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Teeth Lapbook and Experiment

Every month, I've been convicted that we need to study more about health and the wonderful way God created us!  Last month was Dental Month (or something to that effect) nation wide, so it was the perfect time to study teeth!!!


We had lapbooks, provided free by Lapbook Lessons!


We watched a movie, and learned all about plaque and such, provided by Colgate's Bright Smiles, Bright Futures Program!  (TONS of free downloads, printables, and generally cool stuff-- including a movie!)


We did an AWESOME science experiment that we found on the Crest site, which shows the effects of soda and acids on our teeth!  (The kids loved it!)  I tried to remember to get pictures of it all, but I know I missed some steps.  Sorry.  Also, I sort of combined the Crest experiment with the one on Colgate.

THE EXPERIMENT

What you need
2 eggs
Floride toothpaste
A can of cola
Plain vinegar

First, you're supposed to coat half of each egg with the floride toothpaste, and let it sit overnight.  We found that it didn't matter much in the end.  ((shrug))  Sorta makes you wonder about all that toothpaste...

Anyway, after the eggs have a chance to sit in the floride toothpaste for a while, you wipe the toothpaste off, and put one egg in vinegar, and one in cola.  Make sure they're covered!!


Vinegar



 

Cola


When they submerge, you'll see the reaction begin!  It's especially easy to see in the vinegar.  Here's sort of what it looks like from the top:




OK, now, you let that set for quite a while.  We started the experiment first thing in the morning, and ended it right before bed.

Now, here's where I forgot pictures.  ((blush)) Sorry.

The kids thought the cola would be worse than the vinegar.  What actually happened was:

Well, you'll just have to do the experiment and find out for yourself!!!  



Enjoy!!

Fruits of the Spirit Lapbooks

I got our Fruits of the Spirit Lapbooks from Lapbook Lessons.  It was a sweet, fun thing to do, and would be really good for K and up.  (Mine were 2nd grade, and they did really well, although some of it was probably a bit easy. ;) ) 


This is the cover.  Isn't it cute?  Luckily, our "school stuff" is mostly in our kitchen, so having fruit everywhere is generally OK.  LOL



This is the first "page."  It was an empty basket, and the kid's glued all of the fruit onto it.  As they did, we discussed each one, and what they meant.




A writing page.  They were supposed to say what each picture meant to them, and how it showed the Fruit of the Spirit, or give an example of how they can show the Fruit of the Spirit in their lives.


This was a little book and pocket, that they traced the Fruits of the Spirit on.


Final page, copywork of Galatians 5:22-23.


We did these on the first day of school, and the kids just had a blast!!