St. Joseph Mercy Health Exploration Center

We took a field trip with the Seeds of Faith group(http://www.sof.homeschoolchoices.com/) to a health exploration center. There was a lot of information presented but the kiddos seemed to enjoy it. All but my oldest volunteered several times. Even Boo answered some of the questions correctly! Then they had an opportunity to "explore" the human body!

We are finishing our school year up next week. I look forward so much to summer vacation as much as the kids are. We have a packed summer with a Major Cutie's 5th birthday, a vacation to Tennessee to visit family, a trip to Port Austin for the 4th of July, a Boy Scout camp weekend, a trip to Missouri for an Ethiopian get together, a trip to the west side of the state for Michigan Adventure and an overnight trip on a WWII ship. On top of that I think my oldest is joining the swim club in Lapeer for the summer. So see, I can't wait to have my "school" obligations done and have time to wake up in the mornings and move out into my flower gardens!

These are actually pig lungs but I guess are quite similar to human lungs. This lady used the hose on the left there to inflate the lungs. It was really neat to see. Below are lungs that were injected with toxins that are found in cigarettes. Did you know about 4,000 chemicals go into one cigarette?This display was cool to the kids because you could push buttons to make all sounds of gross intestinal noises!
My daughter is standing against this ruler in front of the nose. The ruler shows how far your germs spread when you sneeze. Now I don't know if this is in direct proportion to the size of this nose or if all our sneezes produce this type of distance! Yuck!

Still here...

It's been awhile and I'm still here plugging along with the rest of our school year. The kids have started hs swim lessons in Lapeer and are getting quite a workout!! I have some great lap books to take pictures of and show you but not today! Cause tomorrow I am going to the INCH conference (a homeschooling conference) and I am so excited that I can't stand it!!!!
Post soon-

More lapbooks

My friend Michelle asked what lapbooks are and so I thought I'd give my unprofessional opinion. Lapbooks are similiar to what I would call a scrapbook but they are a way of displaying information on books or subjects the kids have learned about. The best part of lapbooks is that all the information is right there in front of the kids. It makes reviewing easy and they are easy to share with family. I heard of some people taking them with them in the car or on plane rides. The kids look through there own books and it helps them retain more information. There are many great sites on FREE lapbooks. They give you all the ideas, the templates and also directions on how to fold different styles of the little books inside the folders. I bought a 100 box of file folders as all the lapbooks use these. Here is my most favorite site... www.homeschoolshare.com This site is fantastic and also includes unit studies. My oldest daughter and I are currently working on a lapbook with the book, A House for Hermit Crab. So far we have covered different types of homes, shells, new vocabulary, studied the bible verse of the wise man and the foolish man and how they built there houses, decorated a paper hermit crab shell, and lots more. I will post pictures when we are finished. We plan on doing an insect book next month. It corresponds with the Apologia Science series. This lapbook is not free but can be found at http://www.knowledgeboxcentral.com/ or http://www.currclick.com/
Have a blessed day!

Stick 'em up!!

A few weeks back we visited the new township police department in our city! Officer Theede was their to give us the tour! We went with good friends of ours, my sister's family, Angie's family (the family adopting MC's bio. brothers) and Angie's sister's family! The kids had fun and were kind of hoping they would see some bad guys locked up but the cells were empty!
This is the coolest officer ever...Officer Theede!This is the locker room for the male officers.The tazers...I think this is how you spell that. These weapons are quite impressive!Let's hope this is the ONLY time these two boys put cuffs on in the Township Police station! Or any station for that matter!! LOL!These are now what jail cells, or holding cells, look like. No more bars. I was kind of hoping to see the bad guy bars...or as was stated on our visit the bad guy and GIRL holding cells!Looking back I wish we would have asked if we could let the kiddos get inside one of these cells! They were pretty quiet when Officer Theede said the toilet is right out in the open and their bed is the cement bench that sat just inside the cells!Our crew!

Our Resurrection Lapbook!

At http://www.littleblots.com/ you can find some great lapbooks for the kids for FREE! This Resurrection Lapbook was really neat to make and made a great way to share the Easter story with the kids.

Narnia will have to wait...

From the looks of Further up and Further In it is a very well put together unit study. I haven't looked at it myself but my friend has and she read some things and we talked about it over the phone. In her opinion this is definately something for children that are in the 6th grade or higher or who have work skills that match that of an older child. There is alot of independent work along with research that the student needs to do on the internet or with an encyclopedia. Writing is expected in every subject and some of it is quite demanding. The Bible section is very good and very thought provoking. I am somewhat bummed that this won't work for us next year but have high hopes it'll be part of our curriculum in the years to come. So now I am still in the decision making process of whether I continue with My Father's World or look into some other unit studies. I would love a great unit study for my oldest son. Got any suggestions?

Oh, and right now we are all working on a Resurrection Lapbook that is turning out to be really cute. I will get pictures when we are finished. And the best part is that is was free! Check out www.littleblots.com! And my oldest daughter and I am working on another lapbook with the book, "A House for Hermit Crab", by Eric Carle. This we found free at www.homeschoolshare.com and I love it! They have a great lapbook on elections that I might do next fall too!

Futher Up and Further In

I'm checking out a new one year curriculum called Futher Up and Futher In by Cadron Creek Christian Curriculum. Here is a bit taken from their website:


Further Up and Further In By Diane Pendergraft Edited by Margie Gray

"This rich study is based on C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. It covers a wide range of subjects, including English and literature, history and social studies, geography, science, Bible and character building, cooking, and art.
What Shakespearean play influenced The Voyage of the Dawn Treader? Where would you find minarets like those in The Horse and His Boy? What does Turkish Delight taste like? Step through the wardrobe with wardrobe with Further Up and Further In and find out!
Like each of the Cadron Creek unit studies, Further Up and Further In is a highly self-contained curriculum. This full-year curriculum is an extensive study of The Chronicles of Narnia, which integrates a wide range of subject studies, including English literature, social studies, geography, Bible and character building, cooking, and art. It also supplements science and history.
Each of the seven books in the Narnia series is studied in a separate four-week unit. The Appendix section comes complete with recipes, activity directions, recommended reading for background information, poems, a resource listing, and a list of subjects covered, organized under headings for quick reference."

One of my friends ordered it yesterday and so I'll be able to check it out in a week! It sounds really interesting and something my oldest son would love! What do you think? Here is their web address: www.cadroncreek.com