Unprofessional Lapbooks

I'm not one of these slick mamas with computer generated lapbooks. And I want the world to know that you can make a lapbook with nothing but paper, markers, and scissors. If you have to. And I do. Unless I'm downloading some slick mama's lapbook off the internet. Bless you slick mamas. You make my school easier.

But Little Bit told me she wanted to learn about Dora. And there is precious little homeschooling information on Dora. So I had to use my brain. And yes, it did hurt just a little. But in my brainstorming I thought of some wonderful things I could use Dora to teach. So, without further ado, here is our very unprofessional Dora lapbook:

Materials needed for cover: black magic marker, printout from computer, and cutout from a shoebox.

Here's the left side of the lapbook. I think the obvious thing to teach was beginning letters. I got the little books from this site and the Dora character printouts from the computer.

Here's the other side of the lapbook. We did a 5 Senses unit the week we evacuated for Hurricane Ike. Then we made this book. Little Bit thought of all the things Dora would use her senses for.

Then we covered the four seasons just for review. We discussed what kinds of clothing Dora would need to wear in each season and sorted our calendar month names into the right seasons.

Lastly, we made a star pocket on the back of the lapbook.

We did a small unit on community helpers. I was all geared up to do a really big community helpers theme as it seems to be a really popular theme for kids Little Bit's age. But what I found was that she could already tell me exactly what a fire fighter, mailman, doctor, etc. did. Why do a whole unit on it? We read some books and made these little "community helper stars."

So, that's how you make an un-slick lapbook. As you can see it's all made with materials that you probably have on hand. Next time, I'm going to search the internet for lapbooks BEFORE I ask, "So, what do you want to learn about next?"

REMINDER: Fitness Friday is tomorrow!!! This week we are discussing what we are doing differently at mealtimes. See you there!

The Olympics--Homeschool Style

We completed our first week of school today. We didn't do every subject, but it was a nice week of easing back into our routine. Tuesday night I suddenly remembered the Olympics were starting today (Friday) and decided to cover the Olympic games with the girls. This is the first Olympics either of them have been big enough to know what is going on. And, it's the only Olympics of Sweetheart's elementary school career. Isn't that crazy?

So I found some free stuff online and made it fit our needs. Here is Sweetheart's (age 8) lapbook:

The middle flips up to show this:

We still have a few things to do inside of hers. And here is Little Bit's (age 4). I just wanted her to understand the basics.

We also made Olympic torches:

I know tissue paper would work better but we didn't have any, OK?

And painted small paper plates for the rings on the Olympic flag:

We were most amazed to learn that in the first Olympics the runners ran naked in the race. Wouldn't you want to, as they say, "gird up your loins" for such an event? Oh well. History is interesting. And learning about the Olympic games lends itself to LOTS of geography. I just had Sweetheart find the places where the games have been held in the past with her finger on the world map. Simple and easy. Towards the end, she was remembering the continents without me having to tell her. We also watched Kerry Strug's famous vault where she hurt her ankle on YouTube. Gotta love technology.

This morning we had the 2008 Family Revised Backyard Olympics. The girls did not compete against each other as that would have been completely unfair. I just made these charts for them and they put a sticker next to each event as they finished it.

First off was the Yard Stick Throw. (Think javelin)

Little Bit needs a little work on her technique. Can you see the yard stick in the picture there?

Next we had a "run" across the yard. (Couldn't call it a race!) Go Little Bit! Sweetheart was too fast for my camera to catch her.

Then we had a Ball Kick. They were supposed to be aiming for marks on the fence but it seemed like they were trying to hit the coach/photographer.

Grandpa cheering on Little Bit.

OK, I know it's not even 9:00AM but it's HOT out here! Let's do some pool events. Little Bit just had to jump in and run around throwing all the floats out of the pool as fast as she could.

Sweetheart also threw out the floats, but she had to swim there and swim "laps" back to the ladder in between each one. I think there is a size requirement on pools for it to be considered a lap, but oh well.
I wanted at least one team event. Here they are running a relay race with a cardboard paper towel tube. I think that's funny.

At the end, we had the award ceremony. I'm happy to say they both got the gold! The gold center cut out of the middle of those plates that we used to make the Olympic rings. How's that for recycling? It was totally unplanned.

Now, lest anyone feel badly after reading this post. (Which the thought of that makes me laugh, but I know how I feel when I read other people's posts...) I'm going to keep it real here. I may have had it all together on homeschooling this week (or not), but while searching for a missing library book, just look at what I found under my bed.

Yes, those are packing peanuts. So I thought really hard to remember where on earth packing peanuts could have come from and then I realized....it was from Little Bit's birthday present...LAST NOVEMBER!!!! So, obviously I'm on the "once a year" plan for cleaning out from under our bed!

Have a good weekend everyone!