So I am really behind in the times. I don’t know if other moms of large families go through the disconnection issues I had a few years ago with so many ages of children, but when I looked into lapbooking a few years ago, I couldn’t figure out how to make a simple unit study lapbook work for a 6 year-old and a senior in high school. I really wanted to give it a try, since we are using the Heart of Wisdom Approach, and I researched and looked at videos, but frankly, my type-a, non-artsy, oldest daughter just was not interested. I didn’t realize at the time that she just didn’t have to be. It was ok to work on a lapbook with everyone else. I also was missing a few elements of simplicity and importance in the whole lapbooking experience.

In the past few months, I have been reviewing some really awesome lapbooks from Knowledge Box Central, as well as Project Packs from In the Hands of a Child. I mentioned them in the my Simple Woman’s Memo Monday. Seeing them all put together and the instructions have really inspired me.

I have been so thrilled to find these awesome sites for free lapbooking resources and videos.

The online community Lapbook Lessons offers you a community of other lapbooking moms and their ideas. It is run by Valerie. She is a Christian Stay at Home Wife and Mother to two little ones. Her children are 5 and 2. Here is more about her: “We are exploring homeschooling as an option for our family, so far we’re liking what we see, and we hope to at least keep the children home for the early years. We started using lapbooks as a way to learn some fun Preschool, and Kindergarten skills, and I found them so helpful that I decided to start this site to help others get started using them. I hope that this site will be useful for you as you go about your homeschooling, and if you have any questions or feedback you can email me personally at Valerie@lapbooklessons.com.” She also runs the Little Blots of Faith site.

You must be a member of the community to view the pages, but membership is simple and so very worth it, because you will have access to videos, plans, free lapbooks as well as the community itself. I seriously cannot tell you enough how useful and helpful the photos of completed lapbooks and step-by-step how-to’s there are on the site!

Another great site for FREE lapbooking resources is Homeschool Share. They have a boat load of Lapbooking Links and Free Lapbooks. I think the majority of them are for younger children, except there is sure to be a larger variety through their awesome links!

SchoolinRHome put a really super-sized lapbook for preschoolers and grade school age children on youtube. It is Preschool Flower Lapbook. She packed so many activities into it, and it is very pretty the way she decorated it.

Caroline Hampton has a video to make a Pretty Petal - Tulip Head - mini-book

RING DESCRIPTION: This ring is for blogs which (at least occasionally) feature lapbooks and/or minibooks used in homeschooling. These blogs have any of the following: pictures of completed lapbooks and minibooks; link lists and bibliographies for research related to lapbooks; ideas, templates, and how-tos for minibooks.

Lapbooking_made_simple Yahoo Group

We are a homeschooling couple who have made Lapbooking our passion and business. We own Knowledge Box Central, at www.knowledgeboxcentral.com. We specialize in lapbooks, copywork notebooks, notebooking pages, activity books, and more!
We wanted to start this forum to learn more about the needs of homeschoolers, allow them to share their ideas, and to share our products and expertise with tme. Our main objective is to prove our motto: “Lapbooking is not a craft! It’s an ADVENTURE!”
Feel free to jump in and ask questions. Look at the lapbook pictures and add yours! No advertising, please, including links including affiliate codes. Also, please note that this is a group OWNED by Knowledge Box Central. We do not allow advertisement or open discussion of other products that would be considered “competitive” with our products. We are here to offer support and informaton, as it relates to Knowledge Box Central products. You can check us out at: www.knowledgeboxcentral.com

Lapbooking 101 Yahoo Group

Lapbooking is one way to present information using folders. We would love this group to enthuse and guide you in creating LAPBOOKS, flapbooks, shutter folders, lap packs, presentation folders. A variation on projects, unit studies and scrapbooking for children. Can be used with pre-school, primary and older children - in schools or with home educating (homeschooling).

Notebooking2Learn Yahoo Group

The files you will find here are all notebooking and lapbooking templates that I have created to use in our studies. It is my prayer that you will find them to be a blessing to your children as well. I will add more as I am able. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you find a mistake. Sometimes I look at these things so long that I miss the obvious. If you have any questions on how to use a template or notebooking page that you find here, please let me know. As time allows, I will take requests to make templates and/or notebooking pages for a subject you may be working on. Blessings, Jessica

Lapbooking7up

“Lapbooking is the creative and interactive laying out in a folder - of information on a chosen topic or from a unit study. Popular with homeschoolers. This group will provide a forum for lapbooking for grade or year 7 - approx 12 years old and over. “High School” Lapbooks. International group.”

Robin Sampson also does Scrapbooking to Learn. She has created a Scrapbooking to Learn Community for moms who use this approach also. View my page on Scrapbooking to Learn

Needless to say, I am not nearly as confused as I was a couple of years ago! This year, we are going to do lapbooks for the Doorposts studies we have: Plants Grown Up and Polished Cornerstones. We are also going to be using Heart of Wisdom’s Biblical Holidays too in a lapbook.

I know many moms I already know are homeschooling with really awesome lapbooks, so, if you are, please leave links to your lapbooking category or videos and pictures! We would love to see them!

Don’t forget about all of the great carnivals there are for us homeschool moms. Carnivals are a great way to find the links you need for new ideas, keep posted on homeschool news or just think about something in a different way. Join Sprittibee for this week’s Homeschool Carnival.

Click on the Hottest Carnivals icon to find the recent carnivals, contests, and giveaways!! Be sure to enter to win the Schoolhouse Planner and the latest book in the Lamb Among the Stars Series.

Speaking of giveaways!! Melanie has also offered everyone a FREE LAPBOOK for you to download:

Free Presidential Elections Lap Book Folder

BLESSINGS!!!

Welcome to Memo Monday. As usual, I am posting this late. I have no excuses. I have been chatting online with my friend and fellow HSBA writer, Christina, for about an hour now. I could have gotten it done. Before that, I was chatting with my friend, Danielle, who is not a writer on HSBA, but just decided to really blog, and she actually joined the May & June 2008 Swap too, to my surprise!

I worked late last night on The Homesteading Carnival: Southern Sunset Edition, and could not force myself to get this done. I am a last-minute, does-better-under-pressure kind of woman, you know. Besides that, I kept finding other things to do.

I have been participating in Robin’s meme: Super Spiritual Sunday Links for a couple of weeks and was recalling my favorite links last night. In addition to that, my DH, Matt, wanted to watch a movie late last night, and I told him I would, if he brought it upstairs, so I typed and pasted as we watched The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Sounds like a good name for a Memo Monday, huh? I think I would have to stop at the Good though.

In my last few Memo Mondays I covered Online Homeschool Groups, Gardening, Gas Prices, and Vacation Planning. I am kinda stuck on what else to write about. That means you are stuck reading my “Lately” post. I just got a sleepy babe to sleep. Jocelyn used the weed-eater on our jungle, but there is much more to overcome. We published Growing in Grace Magazine -July Online Edition on July first, and I got the August assignments out a few days ago. Or was that just yesterday?

I am getting so excited about school plans! I am reviewing some Knowledge Box Central lapbooks for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, and I am just ready and rearin’ to go! A really neat resource I am reviewing is America’s 50 States by Learning with Weblinks. Awesome! Even Amanda looked through it and said, “Wow! That is neat, Mom!”. The lapbooks I have include the Elections one, and it will be fun to do that one in this 2008 Presidential Election year! Homeschooling real life! Awesome!

I also received two In the hands of A Child Project Packs, which are lapbook instructions too, and they are right up our alley! One is American Government, which will go great with the KBC Elections lapbook, and also Plants, which, if you know us, is totally us!

To be honest, I am a make-my-own curriculum teacher, and I had not seen these resources before. I am so pleasantly surprised with them. I already had the Modesty Lapbbook download, which I had received free from CurrClick, and I am excited to get to that with our children. I knew that the lapbook instructions - packets came in EBook format, but I did not know that you can purchase some of the lapbooks from KBC already assembled. We have a good printer and many hands to help assemble, so I wouldn’t need that option, but since that is how the Lapbooks came to me to review, I thought it was odd. Now I know. Now you know!

Also on my “Lately” list is Peanut M&Ms. Yes, I am going to talk about M&Ms. They are an infrequent treat. I wanted some chocolate, Amanda brought me my favorite, Peanut M&Ms. She also brought home a Dark Chocolate bar, but those are good for me, right? Well, that is what I read: Benefits of Chocolate

Amanda is currently reading Run, Baby Run, by Nicky Cruz for a GGM Interview with him or one of the actors in the upcoming movie. Be on the lookout for that!

I also ordered Eric the rest of the set of The Kingdom Series by Chuck Black. I was so glad that the Schoolhouse Store offered that he would sign one of the books! I didn’t tell Eric, but he is going to be SO excited! The boy has literally read the first three of his own six times! He borrowed the last three from the library, but wanted his own to read the other five times, I guess! What a thrill it will be to see his face when he opens it and see Mr. Black’s message personalized to Eric! Isn’t that fun?

Rachel and Eric also read The Sentinel: City of Destiny, by Landel Bilbrey, which I have yet to post (sorry Mr. Bilbrey).

Last, but not least, you have to check out the new E-Book: The Schoolhouse Planner. I think one of the lovely HSBA ladies will be reviewing it here soon, but you can always get a sneak peek. It is really awesome! It is interactive, which I love! My laptop is my scheduling brain, and I forget about papers, so it is really cool for us.

Since I love The Homesteading Carnival and Carnival of Homeschooling (though I rarely remember to submit before the deadline), I might as well give you the run-down of carnivals this week. There are so many that are beneficial to the homeschool mom.

Carnival of Homeschooling

current issue:
Jul 08, 2008
The Daily Planet

next issue:
Jul 15, 2008
Red Sea School

current issue:
Jun 10, 2008
Learn Me Good

next issue:
Jun 11, 2008
Learn Me Good

Learning in the Great Outdoors

current issue:
Jun 01, 2008
The Miss Rumphius Effect

next issue:
Jul 14, 2008
Alone on a Limb

Music Education Blog Carnival

current issue:
Jul 01, 2008
So You Want To Teach?

next issue:
Aug 01, 2008
Music, Technology and Education: Mustech.net

The Charlotte Mason Carnival

current issue:
Jul 07, 2008
Hearts and Trees

next issue:
Jul 22, 2008
Praiseworthy Things

The Homesteading Carnival

current issue:
Jul 14, 2008
Walking Therein

next issue:
Jul 21, 2008
HowToMe

If you like to do memes and love the Psalms or Hymns or Worship songs, please feel free to join me for Saturday Psalm and Praise every Saturday. It has been a joy to read everyone’s favorites, hear the songs playing on their players and just get to know friends on that level.

I posted a contest on my blog for Baby-Wearing Mommas, if you are interested: Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride. You have until midnight on July 31, 2008.

Have a great week!!

Summer is right around the corner, and gardening is getting into full swing on many homesteads, backyards and pots on porches. We started gardening a few years back, and have always included anything to do with it as learning. From planting and starting seedlings to observing the fruit of the plants to taking photos of the work and the beauty.

If you have not yet planted a garden it is still not too late. You can purchase plants already started and put them into pots or a garden spot even now. We use organic seeds and plants. I have found too many things out about eating non-organics, and, well, do your own research. Since eating organic has gained popularity, they should be rather easy to find. Organic seeds can be ordered online from reputable companies.

For us, tilling such a large plot is usually the hardest part of gardening. We did buy a nice tiller last year, so it has become less of a job, but it is so important to get the ground ready so that the roots can grow deep. If your garden is small, a rake and a hoe will do the job just fine. We found some pretty nifty tools at Tractor Supply last week that are claws on the front and hoes on the backside. They are also extendable, so any of us can use them.

One thing to keep in mind is that many plants in a garden are direct-seeded, meaning that you don’t have to start them from a plant. You will want to direct-seed lettuce, spinach, corn, squash, beans, lima beans, carrots, cucumbers, and zucchini(I know that’s a squash too, but I love it!).

Vegetables that you will want to purchase as plants are: tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and onion sets. We did potatoes last year, and they are so easy.

I was asked last year where to get some Heirloom Seeds from. Here is my experience from the past year or so…. We use organic and Heirloom seeds, so I thought I would give you some links.

We order many of our organic seeds from Seeds of Change out of NM. My Dad ordered ours and his. He ordered from them, because they are solely organic and he wanted to support solely organic growers. He also bought some organic seeds at Lowe’s from Ferry Morse.

Gardens Alive! has organic seeds and chemical-free insecticides, fertilizers and such. We ordered through them last year, and I was happy with them. You could also look at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds Co. Underwood Gardens has hard-to-find, open’pollinated and heirloom seeds. They also have a safe seed pledge not to knowingly sell chemically-engineered seeds, etc.

Children love to play in the dirt, so planting a garden is an easy one to get them involved in. what aplace to teach your children the beauty and omnipotence of God’s creation. If you are interested in ways to use gardening as a unit study, I posted about it: Gardening 101 - You *Can* Teach Your Children!!

An excellent resource I have found for gardening that is easy to read for adults and children alike is Square-Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew.

Contests:

For a May Contest: This month’s contest is geared towards the kids; however, anyone can take part!! The last day to enter is May 31st. To participate, find the very close up pictures on the blog and figure out what they are. On May 31st, email the answers to us at contests@centurytel.net. The prize is Volume 1 of Patch the Pirate’s Story & Song Treasure Box. The winner will be drawn from all correct entries on June 2nd. Complete rules (and a better explanation) can be found at There Is A Season.

Ok, I really don’t *want* to share this, but for all of you mommas who have Littles 4 or 5 and under… here is a contest you do not want to miss: Win the Ergo Baby Carrier of your choice in our Spring 2008 Contest! No purchase necessary to enter & win! Just CLICK HERE to enter by midnight on May 30, 2008. Winner of the free Ergo Baby Carrier will be picked at random from all correct entries.

Don’t forget that my sweet graduating daughter, Miss Amanda Dixon, is hosting a fun giveaway for homeschool Seniors class of 2008! She is giving away some class of 2008 t shirts from The Homeschool Boutique! Be sure to swing over and check it out.

So there…. you still have a few days to enter these contests. Go check them out!

Carnivals for this week:

Carnival Of Homeschooling #126: End of the School Year? Or Is It? at Walking Therein. Come on over and join me!

The Homesteading Carnival is up ap Grandma Rosie’s Texas home. Take a look at the 51st Homesteading Carnival ……..Summers on it’s way.

That is all for this Memo Monday! Have a fabulous week, and get out and get dirty with your children this summer!

Hello everybody! I haven’t posted much yet, but I’m Sheila, and I’m great! At least, that’s what I’m telling myself as I am sitting here with wet hair at 8:52 a.m. when school is set to begin at 9:00 and I haven’t had breakfast yet and the kids are complaining. But I’m great! Yeah, right.

In my public life, I write. A lot. I’m the author of four books, and you can check them out here. In my private life I homeschool three kids and I surf the internet and I pretend that I am not sneaking chocolate every chance I get.

But while I surf the internet, I come up with things for your benefit! So here is our Tuesday Tour.

First, for a laugh, you have to watch Tim Hawkins’ video on being a Homeschool Family. I think I posted this before, but it’s worth another go.

Now for the serious stuff. Make sure you read my post here and watch the accompanying video if your children have ever learned math in public school. Or if you’re not sure if your math textbook is really teaching your children to do multiplication and long division properly. Sorry for linking to myself, but it’s really the video you have to watch!

 But let’s talk SUMMER! The school year’s winding down, so we parents are wondering if we should throw in the towel now on school or keep slogging away. And next year’s curriculum is on everybody’s mind.

The Thinking Mother has a great post on 10 things to think about when choosing curriculum.

Our own Sprittibee is talking Elementary Grammar curriculum!

Stepping Heavenward is a recovering curriculum junkie, and has a couple of posts up about trying to decide what to do for next year. Start here and then look around.

For those still heading out to conventions, Mingo has a good post on how to handle all the pressure in the curriculum hall!

With a Taste of Chocolate helps you put standardized testing in perspective. And gives her thoughts on the end of the school year. But be sure to read her other posts; she’s got some funny stuff in there.

And here’s something cool: Want to teach your kids Hebrew for free? Heart of Wisdom has a link to how you can get a great Hebrew tutorial by email for no money! It looks promising, and I’ve signed up.

That’s all for now! Have a great one!

And be sure to stop by To Love, Honor and Vacuum! I’ve got a book giveaway contest going on!