Our second Family Lapbook... on Election and Voting!!

This is our second attemp at lapbooking :-) This one is not a full kit, so we purchased colored file folders and printed off a free series having to do with the election process and voting. This is another great study! As you can see from the pictures we are not done with this lapbook either. We just started this lapbook this past week and will get the information filled in this coming week during school. There are a lot of great info in this that the children will be able to use for years :-) There is lots on age of leaders, voters registration cards that the children fill out, info on electoral votes, differences between the republican's, democrats, independents, etc. So here you see the lapbook (file folders) put together and ready to go and all the mini-books cut out and ready to be filled in and placed in the lapbook. Another great educational tool!!

Our new favorite part of school... LAPBOOKING!!!

We discovered lapbooking this year for school. We started a new Science curriculum this year called Apologia. We are doing the elementary series as a family class, the book we are working through is Zoology 1. The children are truly enjoying this study!! Well, there is a company (a few companies actually) that sells the lapbooking kits that go along with the study. We do another part of the lapbook at the end of the lesson each week. So at the 1/2 way point of the book we will have one lapbook done and then we will do a second lapbook for the 2nd half of the book. Here are pictures of our first lapbook... this was a kit remember, so all the children had to do was cut out the pieces, add the information, and glue them into place. These lapbooks make awesome study guides for quizzes, tests, and the future :-)

Griffin's "room" gets a new look!!

Here is Griffin's new Chicago Bears "room"... I say "room" because he is actually in a closet, we call it his cubbie hole :-) Ya see, with having five children it will be a rare turn of events when EVERYONE gets a room to themselves. Well, some of the children get along much better than others and it was just a much better situation to give Griffey a "room" to himself. We were going to give him his own place in the basement, but he was scared to be alone... even though the other boys are all down there. So I had this brilliant idea of putting him in the cubbie hole. He was thrilled, and after sleeping in there for a few weeks, I thought it would be appropriate to paint it for Griffin. Well since his favorite colors are orange and yellow, he decided this year he was going to go with orange when he chose his "favorite" football team. So he chose the Chicago Bears. So check out what his new "room" looks like :-) He really loves it!!

GET OUT AND VOTE TODAY!!!!!

For any of you have not voted early or by absentee balot... GET OUT TODAY AND VOTE!!!! YES, ONE PERSON CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!

A New Week...

Yesterday we did some of the main subjects for school of the morning, along with the chores that just need to be done daily. Then we headed off to take part in a "community service" project. Some friends in town had purchased a home awhile back and their oldest son's room never got painted. So we joined forces and painted the day away :-) It looked very nice and since their son was away all day, when he arrived home that afternoon, it was basically done and he was thrilled! It was fun spending the day together and doing a good deed also!! The kiddo's did all kinds of things together, from making "houses" in the backyard to playing games and just spending time together. It was a good day!

Brekyn had a couple of the girls over to our house once we headed home in the late afternoon and they played even more together. We took them home around 8pm last night as we headed to yet another friends house to watch the Red Skins get their booties kicked by the Steelers! Oh well... it was fun watching the game and I am sure my Pop-Pop was happy!! We don't subscribe to any cable/satellite so we don't get to watch Monday Night Football unless we are invited to our friends :-) Thanks Walkers' for the use of your TV!!

Today is just another gorgeous day!!! We are finishing up Math and Language Arts this morning and will soon be eating lunch and moving along with Science and History :-) Since I need to get out to vote, I may just ride my bike to head out to the poles and then to the library. Corben needs another certain book for his Literature Study. I am loving this weather and am sad that it will only be here for a short time longer :-( Unfortunately, Brekyn is not feeling well... she has gotten sick a couple times and is just not ready to get up or we could make it a family outing. I tucked her all in and she is taking it easy right now. Uugghhh, I feel so bad for her!!

Sean mowed the front lawn yesterday for the last time this year... he will do the back today. It is hard getting used to the time change... darkness came at like 5:15 last night. A couple of the boys took off to play football with some friends and I said be home around 5-5:30... They did good and were home at like 5:15, but it was already darker than I like for them to be out in. So it will be 5 tonight.

Well, I have a list of To Do's Today...
Vote
Clean Van/Vacuum Van
Finish Laundry
Library for book
Call Vet Dink needs a check up Appt.
Load van up with Goodwill stuff

I am sure there are more... but I haven't added them to the list yet, they will pop into my head throughout the day :-)

Have a most wonderful day!!!

More about Birds...

You all are probably getting tired about hearing about birds, but our science is focusing on the Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day... and well... BIRDS are a huge part of that!!! The kiddo's are just loving learning about birds and I don't want to lose that, so as they stay intrigued, we keep learning and doing to learn :-) Here we have a few more bird pictures. Ya see we feed the birds well in our front tree and when we have birds in the tree or on a feeder, the kids get excited. A couple of them just love to try to capture the birds in a picture so they head outside when certain birds show up and sit quietly and still to get a great picture. The other day a bluejay was the center of their attention!!! They did great with the picture taking so I thought I would share!!!





Then we needed a dessert for our party Friday evening. Griffin was really wanting to help me, so we searched for a fun dessert that would be good for the kiddo's. We found Bird Nests :-) SO... we captured them on film to add to our science study :-) Here is Griffin my great helper of the day with the end result :-)

Our Fun Family Filled Weekend...

Well, we started the weekend out with Friday evening going to friends where we enjoyed a few games with the children, ate lots of soup/hot dogs/smores/desserts, and had a great bonfire to sit around. Since it was Halloween and we don't participate in trick-or-treating, this was a great alternative! We enjoyed the evening... here are a few pictures...


Brekyn's hair is finally back to "normal" after three shampooings :-)



We all got an early start to our Saturday morning... We left the house around 7:20 or so... we aimed for 7ish. After grabbing some quick gas at the in town station at $2.02!!! (loving the lower prices!!!, it is $1.99 today WHOOO HOO!!!!), we were on the road for our almost two hour trip to a scratch and dent book sale. This is probably crazy to many of you all, but it was SO worth the trip for our family!! I was able to get the Language Arts I was wanting for Corben along with some writing and grammar curriculum books I had been checking out, but wasn't sure if they would suit us or not. The kids each got to pick out some fun educational things. Logan got none other than a bird book, it is pretty graphic and neat. Sean was VERY drawn to the art/drawing books, at one point he had like 10 books in his arms :-) We narrowed that pile down to 3. He ended up with a dog/horse/mixed drawing book. He also was able to pick up two charcoal pencils for 10 cents each!! Brekyn purchased a horse set, they aren't all that educational, but she is into horses lately and so she was thrilled!! Corben went with a paper airplane book. Griffin got a phonics wheel set. Then daddy picked up a couple books, one is Critical Thinking, one is tricky mindtrap puzzles, and another is Make amazing toy and game gadgets using normal household items. We all had fun looking and wandering through the booksale!! Thank you Rainbow Resources for the great prices!!!


After that we had promised the children we would do something fun as a surprise. It was somewhat a bribe... they have been unbuckling in the van or not buckling in at all or whatever and so we said if you ALL buckle in for 7 days straight we will do something fun. If we catch one of you all not buckled in then the 7 days starts over. Well, Brekyn, Logan, and Griffin all started the 7 days over a few times, but they finally got on track and into the habit and did very well... so we had our fun surprise yesterday!!! CHUCK E. CHEESE!!! Who couldn't or wouldn't like THAT surprise :-) They were all VERY happy with our surprise and we had a lot of fun for about 3 hours :-)








Then we left Chuck E. Cheese's and headed back home! We pulled off at a HyVee so that I could run in and purchase a box of generic drumstick ice cream cones :-) Ya see, it is MUCH cheaper to purchase a box of goodies than to go to a Dairy Queen or whatever for a family our size :-) So off we were again, eating ice cream and yet enjoying our family weekend!! Once closer to home, we had to stop to take Sean to a Birthday party. We played for a bit at the local park while the time passed a bit for Sean to go roller skating...





Then we had yet another busy day today, Sunday!! We had an excellent message at church, encouraging people to get out and VOTE this Tuesday!! Don't just vote, but vote morals and issue's!!!

Then this afternoon we enjoyed another park day!!! This time is was our city park. Our town is a Playful City USA :-) We got a grant to put in a 9 hole disc golf course!! Today was the grand opening! They gave away free disc's and had lots of other fun things going on! We played all together one round of disc golf and some of the more ambitious ones went ahead to play a second round :-)

Then this evening our county 4-H group held their recognition ceremony. Sean had put in for a couple awards. We knew he was getting one due to a letter we received in the mail. Well, he got them both!!! WAY TO GO SEAN!!! He ended up with Jr. Merit Record Book award... meaning he kept a great record book for his past two years in 4-H. The other award was for Jr. Spirit Award... meaning he has shown spirit by pitching in and helping when needed in many area's, not only 4-H, but also church, community, school, etc. Yeah Sean!!! You will see pic's from our evening, enjoying Subway party subs and brownie sundae's, then going on with the awards ceremony. The large group pic is of all that received awards, the small group is of our own 4-H group... the ones that showed up tonight for the awards ceremony!!! Go HOMEGROWN HELPERS!!!









GOOD JOB SEAN!!! YOU DID AN AWESOME JOB!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!