Notebooking the Jeannie Fulbright Way

Apologia is now producing notebooking journals that accompany each of the elementary science books. Both Botany and Astronomy are now available. You can see samples on the Apologia website here:

See the sample pages here:

Click Here for Botany Sample
and

Click Here for the Astronomy Sample

These journals are beautiful spiral bound notebooks that will save you time and money. You won't have to print and keep up with your child's notebook pages, buy and maintain page protectors, or purchase and compile binders...everything that makes notebooking time-consuming and labor intensive for mom. Also, your child will adore having their own notebooking journal.

Each of the notebooking journals include:

• A daily schedule for those who like to have a plan or would like their children to complete the book on their own
• Templates for written narrations, the notebooking activities and experiments
• Review Questions
• Scripture Copywork, with both print and cursive practice
• Reading lists and additional activities, projects, experiments for each lesson
• An appendix with beautiful, full-color, lapbook-style Miniature Books
• Field Trip Sheets to keep a record field trips
• A Final Review with fifty questions the students can answer either orally or in writing to show off all they remember and know at the end of the course.

See the sample pages here:

Botany: https://apologia.securesites.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=128

Astronomy: https://apologia.securesites.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=127

Jeannie is giving away four Astronomy Notebooking Journals and four Botany Notebooking Journals to bloggers who post about this on their site. Visit her blog to learn more about this contest: www.jeanniesjournal.com

Hannah off to camp

I am so sad...my little girls are growing up! I know its a good thing and the way things are suppose to go...but it seems just yesterday Hannah was a little colicy baby....where did the time go??? So Hannah will be off to camp soon..I know she will learn so much and be just fine without me but I don't know how I'll do without her...

They are having a hoedown BBQ at church camp this year so I made her and her little friend hankerchief ribbon tops to wear for it. They turned out really cute! The picture shows it a little big on her. I went in and took the sides in to make it fit a little better. She wanted hers a little longer so she could wear it with leggings if she wanted.

She needed another pair of shorts so I found some really holy jeans and cut them off. She wasn't impressed...then I added a little ruffle and rick rack. She told me, "Mom, I don't like them- I LOVE them..." That made me a happy camper since she is so hard to please in the clothes department.

We are all packed up that we know of. We tried a little suitcase...but when you are packing sheets and towels and such....its so hard to get it all in there.

Still got the bug....

The weekends are now finding me tucked in my little closet sewing. I guess its my spring fever in a way. This weekend I plan to get in there and CLEAN out so I can add a good 2 more inches to my workspace and we can at least get in there to get our clothes and shoes out...I need another closet!!!

We've taken a break from school these last couple of weeks. We've done school at least 2 days each week plus any co-ops we've gone too.

The girls made windchimes at 4-H last week. They really turned out cute! And they sound so pretty. It took about 2 1/2 hours to put them together but so worth it!

Last Monday my dear friend Candy and I painted the girls bedroom. The new color doesn't show up well in the pictures but look so much better than what it was! Our plan is to get bunk beds and do a lady bug theme with pictures and such. I have one twin duvet cover made for the beds. The other material sits in my closet waiting on me to make it. I chose red and brown twin size sheets to make the duvet cover. It cost about $8 per cover...can't beat that...well...I guess free might...smile! I put one of their older comforters in the duvet and sewed little ties (with bias tape) to the inside of the duvet cover and to the comforter to keep the comforter from slipping down. Here are before and after pictures.





These are the pictures of before we painted


These are the pictures afterwards. You can see the red duvet I made...it only covers 1/2 the bed b/c the bed is a queen and I made it for a bunk bed. This took 3 coats. The color looks snotty in the pictures but it is a nicer shade of green in real life.

The girls used some acrylic paint paper and painted ladybugs to put up on the walls in nice white frames I had from their princess room. NOw I need to get some ladybug or some type of red handles for their dresser.

The sewing bug has caught me!

I know I have to make Mikayla something next...she's feeling left out...smile!

Hannah's was easy breezy....just adding ribbon and hemming the back and bottom up.

Autumn's took me several hours to put together but I really have been wanting to make her an outfit like this for months. I think I bought the fabric back in February and the pattern in March...but have been scared of the ruffles and the pants.

I followed the pattern by Kwiksew for the bottoms and did a basic pillowcase top (these keep getting easier and easier with the help of the website where I found the pattern at Red Instead Blog) with the fabric I bought.

After being inspired by $30 and $40 outfits like that at Canton Flea Market...I thought...I so need to make this...now I know how to do ruffles, pants, use the overedge foot thingy on the sewing machine. It feels so good to learn something new...smile!!!



Autumn needed just one more outfit...haha...but they are so cute! I also made her a shirt out of one of Chad's shirt that shrink up too short...but I have to find it in my pile of scraps that I have from making the other stuff...smile!

I have been hiding in my closet that also doubles as my sewing closet all weekend...*if you knew how small my closet was you'd probably get claustrophobic...but I do love the seclusion sometimes from the outside world and having a finished product at the end of the day.

I also wanted to show you these cute bottletop necklaces we bought for the girls at the Canton Flea Market. They were everywhere....smile!

Anyhow....that's all for today...!

Bible Bee

We've begun our endeavor for Bible bee. After I printed everything out....I am a little intimidated. However, I do know that God is in charge of it all and we will learn what we are suppose to learn. No matter how many scriptures we learn and how much Bible knowledge we acquire it will all be more than the girls know and maybe more than I do and in that...there is reason to be proud. We are suppose to go to our Local Bee this September and however much they learn...we will be excited!

www.biblebee.org

The system we've set up to learn our scriptures. Our first goal is 100. Scripture memory system.

This week in Germany

We started our study in Germany this week. This will be our last country until summer is over. We have learned that Berlin is the capitol of Germany and they use the Deutscher Mark (DM) for their currency. We've learned that they speak German but their accents are different in different parts of the country.

Famous and infamous people from Germany that we've learned about so far are Handel (we listened to some of his famous music he composed and learned much about the different types of music he composed that was influenced by the places he lived) and Albert Eisenstein (famous scientist and mathematician and also a Jew (who fled from Hitler) and Hitler (who at first promised the people economy prosperity before he started his horrible assault on the Jews.)

Today we are going to be learning about Kings and Castles. Next week the plan is to listen to some Beethoven and learn about him as well as learning about Gutenberg.

Chad has been reading the girls- Heidi and they have thouroughly enjoyed it.

We will begin next studies in the next few weeks of A child's geography (this is more of an earth science study) with a friend of ours. We hope to finish this in 11 weeks.

We will pick back up galloping in the Fall with a little bit less intensity since we will be adding a formal science and I want to add History in consistently. I figure 2 days a week with science, 2 days a week with Galloping and 2 days a week History reading (reading History on one day with science and one day with Galloping.

We shall see...
My goal for this coming year is to work 4 days a week with the girls for 6 weeks at a time (one week off). That gives us 7 sessions with a total of 10 weeks off for the year. I will also count co-op days so that may increase our school days..because indeed co-ops are learning...smile!

Our co-ops next year will include American History (once a month) PE (once a month) and Music theory, Piano, ASL, Art, Science (Apologia Astronmy) (I think this will either be every week or every 2 weeks) and whatever we do with 4-H. Busy days ahead!!!

Hannah fundraising for summer camp

Hannah is going to summer camp for her first time. I can't believe how much she is growing up...makes me sad and happy...smile!

This past Saturday they had a pancake breakfast fundraiser to raise money for the camp. I am not a big fan of fundraisers but for this one I was glad...we don't have the money to send her so I am hoping she has reduced her cost...smile!

She was so cute. They had them working a little bit and she was hostess for an hour.

Flowers from the Garden

Gardinia shrub

Blue Salvia, Butterfly weed, & Gaura

A crafty girl this weekend

I don't know what has come over me...maybe Spring is making me feel like doing a little of this and a little of that...of which I am very good at. I never specialize in any one thing but like to do lots of little things. I haven't been this crafty since I was pregnant which scares me...but unless miracles have happened we have nothing to worry about in that category.

So after the pillowcase dresses, I have also decided to try my hand at Switchflops. I LOVE the idea of the Switchflops...they are so cute and so practical...something I adore in life (practicality). But the price lends itself to some trial and error to make do with what I have. So, I took a pair of brown flip flops and attached 3/4 inch black Velcro to them. I started off with brown ribbon and 2 brown flowers so I could at least still wear them in plain brown if I never got around to making more ribbons to switch them up with. They turned out pretty cute. I am sure they are not as cute as the real thing...but at $30 a pair of switchflops I can afford to not be perfect in my replica.

Basically I just used 7/8 inch ribbon, velcro, fabric stiffner and fraycheck to and practiced the angles of cutting my ribbons. We will see if I get fancy before long.

Pillowcase Dress

After seeing a few of these dresses at a craft fair this weekend...I thought surely I should be able to make on of these. I've made two so far...and learned a little something each time...I just need to make one more for Hannah. Now I would like to make some cuter ones with prettier pillowcases or fabrics. This was a standard size pillowcase. I made one for Mikayla and Autumn. I have one more to make. Even those these are plain red...how cute will they be for July 4th...smile!

I am having a hard time not having the arm holes seem a little awkward...I'll figure it out.

Homemade DS Case

Mikayla just couldn't keep her DS in her case...so I made her this one...she has done good for the most part. I mostly made it just for the fun of it...I don't know where I find the time to do this stuff...maybe it keeps me sane...who knows...

Michelangelo

We've been learning about da Vinci and Michelangelo while visiting Itatly. Today we did some Michelangelo painting like he did at the Sistine chapel. The girls couldn't believe he worked on his work of art for 4 1/2 years....they were exhausted after a few min of painting...smile!

The Princess and the Kiss

I wrote last week about buying a set of books from a friend at the homeschool sale. There is the original book, a bible study and coloring book to go with it. The Princess and the Kiss (a story of purity) is what we've been reading. We are on day 3 of the bible study. I've read the book twice to the kids so far because they asked me to read it again.

Anyhow...while we do the biblestudy I have been letting them color from the coloring book to keep them focused. Today, we did the third day of study like I said and one of the activities we did with it I think really hit home...even for me!

I know that this activity has been done before for other word picture examples but I couldn't believe how much it hit a nerve in us all.

The Activity:
A clear glass of water (representing purity)
Pepper (representing giving our "kiss" or emotional and physical purity away)

I went over how the clear water was how pure God has made us and how He wants us to keep our bodies and minds physically, emotionally and spiritual pure for Him and if He choose for us to have a husband then also for our husband.

I shook the pepper in a little. They verbally spoke how it was dirty. I offered it to them to drink...they declined. Then I sprinkled in a little more...they still didn't want it. I sprinkled in even more...they really didn't want it then.

I talked to them about how that is what it would be like to offer this "peppery" water to our future husband if all the pepper in the glass represented how we've allowed other boys to share our kisses and emotional and physical hearts with them.

We talked about how we need to keep ourselves pure for the one God has chosen for us to marry so we can offer that gift to our husbands.

How different a would this world be if we all would have been able to do that for our spouse. For every person of the opposite sex we give a part of ourselves it is something we never get back nor have to give to the one we will spend the rest of our lives with.

Thank you God, for your purity, even when we mess up, you make us pure!