Archives for 2015

Free 27 Week American History Study through Lapbooking In Chronological Order

February 4, 2015 | 16 Comments
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Today, I have rounded up 27 free American history lapbooks to keep American history fun, hands-on and covered in chronological order if you choose to cover American History in order too. There are enough lapbooks here to turn this easily into a year long study on American history.

Free 27 Week American History Study through Lapbooking

Some lapbooks have more resources added to them and others less. Some topics have two or three lapbooks, but then again, the topics like the American Revolution and presidents, you could spend two or three weeks on.

American History Lapbooks | Christopher Columbus

Also, you’ll love these other history resources

Hugs and love ya,

Free Academic School Calendar 2015-2016 7 Step Homeschool Planner

February 3, 2015 | 4 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have the first color choice for the free academic school calendar 2015-2016 and I named this form Limon {Spanish for lemon}. I just love the way this word sounds in Spanish, okay, okay.

Free Academic School Calendar 2015-2016

Each year I like to give you options for the free academic school calendar and this year is no different. I have more color choices coming too.

Also, just to avoid confusion, I try to remember to explain each time I release a new form how to use it. Most of the time the form is obvious, but sometimes it is not.

This form is pretty clear, it is just a calendar. You may be wondering why I am even explaining this, but I promise you I have a reason.

Download Free Academic School Calendar 2015-2016 – Limon Color

In addition to preparing several color choices for the academic calendars each year, I prepare another set of pages that look like a free academic calendar but there is a very fine and important difference.

Curriculum Pages for Planner

The calendar today is not for planning or noting school weeks but it is just a reference.

One of the color choices for this calendar will go in the front of my planner and sometimes I put one in the back or closer to my planning pages also.

These general academic school calendars are kept on STEP 2 Choose Calendars/Appointment Keepers because they are just that, a helpful calendar.

The general academic school calendars, which I call Year Around Planning Schedule, have a planning section and place for noting school weeks and are kept on STEP 5A. Unique Forms Just For You because they are used for planning and tracking school weeks.

Look at the Year Around Planning Schedule here to note the difference between the one I have today and the ones I prepare for planning.

So the Year Around Planning Schedule includes a calendar to help you plan, but its main focus is planning school weeks for the year.

Bottom line is that you need BOTH forms.

Choose one or more of the general calendars on STEP 2 Choose Calendars/Appointment Keepers each year because they are general calendars and it doesn’t hurt to have a few placed throughout your planner and choose only one planning calendar from STEP 5A. Unique Forms Just For You each year because you only want one master planning schedule.

I hope that makes it more clear and I hope you like the first color choice Limon for the general academic school calendar.

Hugs and love ya,

Grab a few other free printables for the 7 Step Homeschool Planner

Free 5 Year Holidays List – 7 Step Homeschool Planner

Grab some new Free Back Cover Pages 7 Step Homeschool Planner

Linking up @ these awesome places:

From Textbook to Homeschool Unit Study Starter

February 2, 2015 | 4 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

In my post Homeschool Unit Study Textbook Tips – Uh? I wanted to encourage you to take a no holes barred attitude toward unit studies by even using textbooks. Creativity in planning can be nurtured by anything and a textbook is no exception.

Today, I want to show you how to bring to life a unit study using a textbook by going from textbook to homeschool unit study starter.

Remember, normally at the beginning of a topic is where you decide if you are just going to do child-led interest on one topic as enrichment or if you are going to do a full-blown unit study.

Right now though for the sake of showing you an example, I am going to use a textbook page below and we are not going to worry about making that call right now.

Too, I took this page of a chapter because it is a great example of information that can be extracted to start your own study.

The copy is from a page about the French Revolution and actually when planning my unit study for the French Revolution, I gave it a glance.

Right away on Number 1, it gives you an idea of a time period to cover.

Textbooks cover broad strokes and this page is no exception because it gives you a longer time period to study about than just the French Revolution.It also includes the life of Napoleon Bonaparte.

For my unit study needs, I preferred a more narrow time period so I chose only the period of the French Revolution, which was from 1789 to 1799.

Here you have several choices for your own unit study and questions I would ask myself when planning are: What interests my children? What topics have we not covered? What topics can I connect to previous unit studies?

All of these questions help me to narrow my topic to just the French Revolution so that I could focus on that significant event in world history.

How to Create a Unit Study Outline in 10 Minutes

Another way to grow this page into a unit study is if you wanted to do a unit study based on a historical figure like Napoleon Bonaparte.

Then you could zero in on the years of Bonaparte’s lifetime and use the events on this page of the French Revolution as significant events in his life.

Overlapping events is a strong point in unit studies.

To keep from being overwhelmed with events and information, focus on ONE main topic either the French Revolution or Napoleon Bonaparte and then use the other one you did not choose as a sub-topic. Both of these topics are connected and you want to introduce them to your children.

The difference in a unit study is that you will work your way from the inside (or main topic) to connect it the outside (sub-topics) and sub-topics will normally have less focus or information.

Key is deciding which main topic is important to your family so that not all information gets the same of time and attention.

Number 2 or Key Events gives a starting point as to what sub-topics to include under the topic of French Revolution.

To use my choice of focusing only on the French Revolution as an example, I could use only the first two events as sub-topics to read more about or to learn about because they pertain to just the French Revolution.

When I research about those two sub-topics, other sub-topic will emerge. But using two of the points under this sections gives me a point to begin.

Number 3 or The Impact Today gives you a starting point to making a connection today. It is not always necessary to make a connection to present time. This is a feature of a textbook because it gives you a lot of information to gulp.

You will want to decide with each other unit study whether or not it is necessary to make information connect to present day. You may think that making a connection to present day is always a good idea but I have not found that to be so when teaching a unit study.

Because I kept my unit study of the French Revolution on a middle school level, I didn’t want Tiny to have to make a connection to present day.

Our French Revolution was his first introduction to it and I wanted Tiny to lounge in the time period for a while. I created a board game so that he could become familiar with that time as well.

In other words, I am giving you ideas as to what goes on in my mind as I look at resources and weigh them against my objectives or goals.

There was no need for me to push Tiny to weigh all the political issues because this will be presented again in high school and at that time we will look at a connection to present day.

Too, if I was doing this unit study with my highschooler, I may grab one of the points to assign a persuasive writing paragraph or two to my highschooler.

The topics under this area are a natural fit for writing why my highschooler may agree or might not agree with one of the ideas. In addition, if you decided to make a connection to present day, you could still use one of these ideas for a language arts assignment.

Number 4 or the timeline I would eyeball as making a helpful printable to remember some of the key events for my middleschooler.

Too, the events on the timeline could also be used as sub-topics to cover or if one of them interested my children, we could take our time reading about one of the events or key persons.

In addition, the timeline is helpful when deciding what topics to choose to write about.

How to Kill Boring Homeschool Unit Studies

From the timeline, I created a board game so that Tiny became more familiar with the events of the French Revolution.

Also, creating cards for memorizing these events, making a visual timeline, writing about the life of King Louis XVI, making French bread, making a French pastry, studying French fashion are also a few more ways to bring these events alive for this time period.

All of these ideas can be a springboard from this timeline.

Even the picture of the globe or Number 5 could be helpful here.

Taking out our atlas, we could look up this area and label the countries to get our geography bearings about where this significant event in world history took place at.

Creating a salt dough map (always a favorite of ours) can be another hands-on activity. Also because geography includes modern day issues a country may be facing, we did make a quick connection to modern day France by highlighting one of their issues about energy by creating a solar oven.

Too, the solar oven craft would also be part of a science related topic for this unit study.

When looking at how to include geography remember that geography is not just about labeling maps.

Geography involves the culture, religion, food, present day problems and issues a country may be facing and products made by that country.

If you find a list of products made by a country, past or present, the list could be used to give you ideas for relative crafts and hands-on meals. For example, when we studied Africa, we made a meal.

When studying about the country of France, this unit study could be extended to make a French crepe, study wine making or making a French meal.

To cover art, focus on famous French artists from that time period or architect designed during that time period.

As you can see, a textbook page just starts the ideas flowing for a unit study and your creativity is the only thing that will handcuff you in any unit study.

Once you start the creative juices flowing with a unit study, it becomes easier to do the next one. Like anything, every day use of the lesson planning muscles strengthens with use.

Using something you have like a textbook not only lessens the lesson planning stress, but it is a frugal idea when you are a beginner at unit studies.

Planning unit studies from living books is always a great start but not having one should not hold you back from trying a unit study or two.

How about you? Have you tried making a unit study come to life through resources you already have?

Hugs and love ya,

Homeschool Unit Study Textbook Tips – Uh?

February 1, 2015 | 2 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Taking the leap from textbooks to planning an interest led unit study can be a scary notion.

Ruining your kids for life, being behind, not being able to measure progress and not having a starting point are all hurdles that hold us back from testing the unit study waters.

Using homeschool unit study textbook tips in one breath can seem like a contradiction, but today I want to show you how to use what you may already have or feel comfortable with as a launching point for unit studies.

Though text books are not my first choice for planning a homeschool unit study, most all of us have textbooks in our homes.

Too, being a firm believer in using fully what I purchased with hard earned dollars and with a bit of love for being creative, textbooks certainly can be a starting point for a unit study.

When I first started doing unit studies, I didn’t plan every day or every sub-topic. Rather, I used textbooks to plan an interest led unit study as enrichment.

So the first step in using a textbook is to decide if you want to use parts of it as a springboard for enrichment or to only use the outline as a framework for a more thorough unit study.

The easiest tiny baby step is to use a point made in the textbook as enrichment.

Look at some of these things about a textbook that make them an easy bridge to unit studies.

Outline. An outline of ideas in a chapter and a break down of chapters in the book gives you a framework to build on.

Public school teachers and homeschoolers both can spend hours and hours building outlines until they have a framework of main ideas and supporting details for a topic.

The outline in a textbook can make planning a cinch because the legwork is done for you. Quit reinventing the wheel and step over into easy planning by glancing at the outline.

Broad Strokes. One of the negatives about textbooks, which is that it has a slice and dice approach to the subject may be a positive because it gives you the broad strokes.

A unit study can have a flood of information which makes starting one overwhelming.

By using the subjects that have been whittled down to broad topics and comparing that with other resources you have gathered like living books, articles and dvds, you can compare topics.

Then, choosing topics that interest you and your kids, you can feel confident that you are covering some of the broad strokes of a topic.

Quiz, Self Checking, Other Activities. Each textbook is different, but a lot of them have many different sections that you can pull from to enhance your study.

Quizzes and self checking tests are important especially if you live in a state where you have to do some kind of record keeping.

Living in an area that is more strict with record keeping or having a highschooler where there is more emphasis on testing can hold some back from doing a unit study.

Textbooks can ease you into unit studies because the quizzes and self checking tests can be done orally or still used after you cover the information in a unit study fashion.

Quizzes and self checking tests are just two parts of what a textbook may have. Depending on the subject and grade, some textbooks also include activities for hands-on projects.

Vocabulary building sections and writing topics are also a few more examples of some unit study enhancing features of a textbook.

From Textbook to Unit Study Starter

You may have other sections in your textbook too that can be used as a tool to either include in your unit study or to give you an idea of what else to include in the topic that interests you.

When we use something that we are familiar with we ease into unit studies.

Whether you want to use your textbooks as stepping stones to trying a new homeschool approach or because you want to maximize your textbooks to the full, they can be one tool to jump start your unit study.
In my second post and because I love visual aids, I will show you how to take a page or two of a textbook and add in some creativity to spark a unit study.

How about you? Do you have plenty of textbooks that could be used as unit study starters?

Hugs and love ya,

Look at this post Day 3. Selecting Superior Sub-Topics. 10 Days of Diving Into Unit Studies By Creating A Unit Study Together

January Dynamic Sponsor Shout Out– Luv ‘Em

January 31, 2015 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I saved the best for last this month because I always have time to do a shout out to my January Dynamic Sponsors.

I am never too busy on my blog to show my appreciation for companies that not only want to do business with me, but that I am proud to represent.

Like us, kids enjoy connecting with each other. So when I heard about Kids Email I was thrilled to use it. I was told about the trial period and one thing I knew that I absolutely loved right away about the way they do business was the fact that I did not have to give out ONE piece of personal information.

What I Heart About Safe Email for Kids

A lot of sites make you fill out every piece of personal information about yourself, including your charge card before you get to test drive any of the fancy features. Not so with Kids Email. They are so proud and sure of their product that you don’t have to give out ONE piece of information and that includes your billing information before you get to use it.

That appealed to me right away and then that is not even the best part about their service. It truly is very unique which is why I am proud to have them as a sponsor. You can read about how I use them at my review.

Though they would turn cart wheels if you bought something, follow them and check out their free resources they share.

Connect and Follow

The anatomy of a well laid out homeschool high school geography curriculum is not an easy find because so many programs want to stay focused only on a text-bookish style which I have a problem with.

If you have been homeschooling for any length of time then you know that after you get out of the preschool grades that homeschool geography curriculum options are slim to none.

Simple Geography Projects Equals Huge Wow Factors By North Star Geography

Because of my love for geography, I am proud to have Bright Ideas Press as a partner and sponsor.

Check out my posts about their wonderful middle and highs school geography program, North Star Geography curriculum .

Connect and Follow

Bright Ideas Press Website

Google

Twitter

Facebook

I have a special fondness toward Rainbow Resource because they share a wedding anniversary year with me.

It is not hard to forget how long they have been business.

A Heart for Homeschoolers – Over 25 Years and Going Strong at Rainbow Resource Center

They were well established by the time Mr. Senior 2013 came along and so I ordered all of my homeschool curriculum from them.

Did you know that in 2013 they formed Our Homeschool Forum? It is a natural extension of the help they have already been given to homeschoolers for over 25 years.

They have product reviews, helpful articles and other resources for homeschoolers who are at all different stages of their homeschooling journey.

Do you get their catalog? Be sure you get it and check out their new homeschool forum.