Desert study

For our desert study, we read and studied 2 books - Roxaboxen (Arizona) and The Gullywasher (Mexico).  Along with these books, we studied desert animals.  In order to save on pictures, I am posting only Alex's lapbook of Roxaboxen, and Nicolas's of The Gullywasher.

This was the scariest mini book in this lapbook.  I can't imagine a spider this big on the loose!!!

The Gila Monster is the largest lizard.

Information about the scorpion (the second scariest mini book).

About the Saguaro cactus - very interesting plant!  Makes us want to visit the desert.

Alex's copywork.

Alex's roxaboxen design, if he could build his own.

This is one of our smaller lapbooks.  There was much more I wanted to cover, but we only had 3 days of school for the week (Thursday I had hand surgery, so Thurs and Fri were difficult for me to help them.)  We still have fun and learned some about Mexico.

What is a gully?

What is a mesa and where can you find one?

Nicolas's drawing of a sombrero.

Since Nicolas writes slower than Alex, Nicolas started this copywork during Roxaboxen and finished during The Gullywasher.  Alex did the following copywork for Gullywasher:

Pinewood derby

Here are pictures of the boy's pinewood derby cards they made for scouts this year.  We raced last Tuesday.  Both boys did well and received a pin for being fastest in their dens.

Alex's is the silver one on the right.  (They also raced one of their older cars.  Alex's is the red and black on and Nicolas's old car is the yellow one on the far right.)

The black car on the left is Nicolas's new car - the one he made this year.

Speaking of art...

... the boys got the results of their artwork they entered into the homeschool art contest for convention.  Nicolas got an honorable mention for his copy of Cynthia Rylant's Henry and  Mudge.  We will go down on Friday, Apr 3 so they can see what their competition was like.  Here is the drawing:

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/my2SMALLboys/661588/

 

Desert sand art

For a co-op activity, the kids drew a desert scene and colored it with colored sand.

Nicolas's picture above, Alex's below.

TV station & race track

For Indiana history, we visited WISH-TV channel 8's studios in downtown Indy.  The kids got to see the newsroom:

and the studio:

This is the weather center.  Randy Ollis is sitting there on the left. 

Then we stayed to watch the taping of the noon new live.  We watched from an upstairs conference room.

When we left the TV station, we headed to Speedway to the Indianapolis 500 track.  We took their track tour in a bus around the track.

This is the start-finish line.  The track was originally made of bricks - which is why they call it the Brickyard.

Overall, the TV station tour was much more fun, educational and exciting - and it was FREE!

Our schoolroom

Some of the ladies on homeschoolshare have wondered how other families organize.  I thought I'd take pictures of our new schoolroom (since we have moved) to show how and where we keep things.

This one is a picture of our new bookshelves (under $30 each at Menard's).  On the left, I have basically curriculum type stuff, homeschool supplies we use often, and reference materials (dictionaries, Audobon books, etc.)  On the top I have magazine holders with last year's lapbooks.  The second shelf holds this year's lapbooks.  The bottom shelf has magazines and expandable folders that I keep each child's loose work in (co-op activities, writing, book reports, etc.)  The right book shelf holds non-fiction books on the first 2 shelves, FIAR books, picture books, easy readers, Holiday books, and art/music books.

Here is a close up of the top shelves.

And a close up of the bottom.

The canvas tote has our glue, markers, crayons, extra pencils, etc that we use often for lapbooking.

This picture is the other side of our schoolroom.  The bookshelf holds our chapter books, and other misc. books (some that aren't school related). The filing cabinet on the right has my laminator, folders, colored paper, cardstock, other paper (graphing, drawing, tracing, etc.), and the bottom drawer has our other crafting supplies that we don't use often.

Here is a close up of our paper/folder drawer.

And our bottom craft drawer.

In the middle of both sides is a large window with a baseboard heater underneath, so I can't put shelves.  We keep our school desks here.  Inside the desks, the boys keep their everyday workbooks and lapbook mini books until we are ready to glue them in the folders.

My dining room table sits in the middle of the room, so if we need it for crafting, or for me to do planning while the boys are working, it's available.  The boys used it for clay today.  Behind the dining room table, we have a music corner.

We are a musical family.  I play piano, cello and some viola.  Ryan plays the cello and some guitar.  Alex took some guitar lessons and has taught himself some beyond.  Nicolas would like to learn the drums and keeps some beat, but I would like for him to have lessons to help him along.  My wonderful husband bought me the keyboard a couple years ago so I could do more than just notes.  I can add rhythm or change the sound to play more contemperary songs and choruses.  I plan to add piano into the boys schooling next school year.

Picture frame idea

I saw this idea in Family Fun and have been waiting for the opportunity to try it.  Now that we have moved, we had the glass in several pictures break.  Rather than throw the entire frame away, I put magnetic strips to the backs of them.  Now I can frame pictures on the side of our filing cabinet.  My boys don't do much artwork, unless it's making their own trading cards - but I have a wonderful neice who loves to make pictures for her aunts.  I have framed a couple of her pictures.  Now the boys want to help me fill the other 2 frames.

The wood fram and the black on beneath it are 8 X 10, the gold one is 5 X 7 and the cherry wooden one is a 10 X 13.  I may even look for more at rummage sales this summer and add to the side of my refrigerator!

Our new school organizational system

In order to try to stay more on task with our schoolwork, and to make sure that everything I would like to get done, does get done, we have implemented a new system.  I have made a 12 box schedule out for each day of the school week and laminated them for each boy.  Then I will write on their schedules with wet-erase marker the things I want them to accomplish each day.  After every 3 boxes, they are allowed a break.  I have found that some of the things I dream of the boys doing for their schoolwork gets pushed aside, keeping only the essential school subjects.  We have tried several times to add in typing, nature journal, music, artist study, etc. with no consistency.  I am hoping if I have it written down for the boys to see, it will actually get done.  They understand that there is no TV, Wii, playing outside, etc until all 12 boxes are done.  Today was the first day - our trial day.  Here is what they looked like today:

Rainforest & Desert

For our field trip yesterday, we visited Botanical Gardens in Ft. Wayne.  They have a desert room and a rainforest room.  Since we have just studied both of them, we got to see some of the plants we have studied.  First - the desert.

The Saguaro cactus.

Ocotillo plant - the kids on our story Roxaboxen used these as swords.  DANGEROUS!  The thorns were very sharp!

There were even flowers blooming in the desert.

Second, the rainforest.

And... here's the chocolate tree!