4th of July / Independence Day Lapbook

Our 4th of July / Independence Day lapbook was born out of a year-long study of U.S. history that began with a trip to Washington DC and ended with a patriotic play. I'm looking forward to making it again once Ava is old enough to enjoy it. Maybe this time, I'll actually get to take photos of it! In the meantime, you can download it here.

A note about free curriculum downloads:

I am happy to share curriculum I've put together; just because I like to reinvent the wheel doesn't mean everyone else should! All I ask is that you sign up to follow my blog and/or Facebook page before downloading. As with all our free curriculum downloads, please notify me of any errors or problems with the download links. If you're new to lapbooking, be sure to check out my how-to video, which includes links to other great lapbooking sites.

For the lapbooks, check out the lapbook archive and corresponding unit study posts; I'll usually have pictures of our completed book to help you along the way. If you like the way it turns out, please consider sharing thoughts or pictures of your experience on our Facebook page.

Enjoy, and happy homeschooling!

Wild Idea Wednesday - Our Capitol Flag

Need some new ideas for keeping learning fun? I’ll be sharing our favorites each week on Wednesday. To be honest, the thought of committing myself to having one great idea every week is stress-inducing, so I’m going to put it out there in advance that I will probably borrow heavily from all my wise mama friends.

Okay, this one gets a big photo because it's the big excitement in our house today. I'm putting it under Wild Idea Wednesday because, hey, it's Wednesday and also because it was a pretty wild idea to march up the steps of Capitol Hill at midnight with my four-year-old so she could ask the guard with the really big gun all about her favorite DC landmark.

For some reason, visiting the Capitol building was Ava's only request for our visit in DC, and there was no way she was leaving without seeing it. Her unwavering determination fueled our late-night adventure through the streets of the city.

Though she was disappointed to learn that she couldn't go inside and "see the bills" at this late hour, we did discover that with proper planning you can in fact tour the Capitol - and we plan to do this on our next visit. The guard also tipped us off that you can contact your state representative to request an actual U.S. flag that has been flown over the Capitol building - they fly a new flag each day.

Fast forward two months, and a Capitol flag is the newest addition to our homeschool classroom. Ava was so excited when it arrived this past weekend, along with a certificate bearing her name. It stated that this flag had been flown over the Capitol on October 14, 2010 for Ava Marin Long!

Of course we are happy to have a nice flag for our classroom, but more importantly, it will always remind me of my determined little girl and our amazing adventure together.

Teaching Tool Tuesday - Mad About Money Week 1 Curriculum / Lapbook Now Available!

Don’t tell, but my wish lists at Lakeshore Learning and Amazon are much longer than the one I have at Endless.com. Honestly, I’m a complete sucker for books and educational games, software and toys. But this past year I’ve honed my ability to discern which tools will be fun once or twice and which ones we'll use over and over . . . and I’ll be sharing our favorites with you every Tuesday.  


I've definitely never blogged about my own curriculum on Teaching Tool Tuesday, but I'm so excited about how our money unit is turning out that I'm making an exception. Last week, I taught week one of the money unit to our homeschool co-op, and we started the related components of our money lapbook. I've also never done a lapbook in small stages like this, but so far, I'm liking it a lot.

The early parts of the money curriculum are based heavily on The Everything Kids' Money Book and cover the history of money, types of money and some very basic personal finance. We'll dive deeper into personal finance in the later part of the unit (which I'm planning will take all year), using Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace, Jr.

The Week 1 curriculum and lapbook components are now available to download. You'll find them in the right sidebar under "Curriculum to Share". I'd love to hear from anyone planning to do this unit along with us, and as always, I always love to hear comments or suggestions on my lapbook templates! 

 

Talking United States Map Really Teaches

Well, I came really close to getting Teaching Tool Tuesday done on Tuesday for a change. It's just past midnight, so I'm thankful that my blog is on Pacific time (just as I should be).

I've always liked this Talking U.S. Map, but I didn't really know that it was blog-worthy. Press each piece to learn the state name, capital and nickname. Noah's enjoyed it from time to time, but it's never been in the same category as the interactive anatomy toy . . . until this week.

As you know, this week's co-op with SLC was on the United States. I was excited for Noah to learn the Pledge of Allegiance - mostly because I felt like a slacker for not teaching it to him by now. To my surprise, as it was being read aloud he recited it from memory (at least the rendition of a five-year-old who's never been taught to say it properly). I was stunned! And when I asked him how he knew it, he told me - you guessed it - the Talking U.S. Map. Amazing what they pick up when you're not even trying!

A funny side note to this story . . . he recited the pledge several times during dinner last night. I thought it was especially appropriate (and cute!) that his dinnertime version ended with "with liberty and digestion for all".