I was just checking my email and saw that CurrClick has a free booklet for making shields out of duct tape. It is an excerpt from The Battle Book: Warfare by Duct Tape. Of course, I downloaded it and know that after the boys get a hold of it, they will want to make more stuff from the whole book. This will give us an excuse to get some of the really cool colored duct tape at the store. Maybe I'll make my very own pink or purple shield so I can join in the fun.

Police K9 Unit Study

I don't do unit studies very often but an opportunity presented itself and I can't let it pass by. My husband is a police officer, so the topic is near and dear to our hearts. One of his co-workers told me about a public K-9 demonstration coming up and as I was passing the information along to other homeschoolers, I decided to look for some related educational sites. I found some really good ones and decided that next week we will do a unit study on police officers and their canine counterparts.

Dog Heroes Unit Study

How Police Dogs Work

German Shepherds - Information from the AKC

Community Helper: The Police Officer - Preschool lesson plan, crafts & activities

Police Coloring Pages

Elementary Read-Alouds:

Officer Buckle & Gloria - Here is a lapbook study to go with this title.
Aero and Officer Mike
Police Officers on Patrol
P is for Police

2010-11 Curriculum

M1 - 10th Grade

• Algebra I - Teaching Textbooks Algebra, Life of Fred Beginning Algebra
• English I - Excellence in Literature-Introduction to Literature
• To Kill A Mockingbird, Around the World in 80 Days, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Jany Eyre, Pygmalion, Treasure Island, Animal Farm, The Tempest, Gulliver's Travels

• Biology - Apologia Exploring Creation with Biology 
• Spanish - Rosetta Stone Spanish/Latin America Homeschool Edition
• World History - Around the World in 180 Days
• Drivers' Education - Rules of the Road DVDs, Crash-Proof Your Kids
• Life Skills/Personal Growth - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, Do Hard Things, Money Matters for Teens

NG - 6th Grade

• Unit Study - A World of Adventure - Covers Ancient History through Age of Early Exploration, social studies, science, Bible, language arts, and fine arts
• Math - Singapore Math, Life of Fred Fractions
• Language Arts - I will probably supplement with Painless Vocabulary, Easy Grammar 5/6, and some spelling
• Typing - Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing

IB - 1st/2nd Grade

• Phonics - Alpha-Phonics, BOB Books, LOTS of read-alouds
• Math - Miquon Math, games
• Unit Study -A World of Adventure - Little Adventurers
• Language Arts - I'll teach him grade-level appropriate concepts using homemade games, flashcards, etc.

2/4/11 Update: We are using Time4Learning for a while for NG, IB, and LJ (PreK). 

Saturday Thrift Finds #1

Normally, on Saturday mornings, I jump right into the daily routine of fixing meals, laundry, cleaning, etc. But, on occasion, I sneak out with just the baby and go to the local thrift stores. I never get out early enough for yard sales. Today, I went to Goodwill and St.Vincent dePaul on a mission to locate old jars or canisters, classic books for the boys, decorative plates to hang on my walls, and possibly some kind of shelves or baskets for organizing our office/school room. I ended up finding several of those items plus some other good stuff for a total of $18.92. Here's what I found:

Eight books (the 1946 copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is upstairs and I was too lazy to go get it)

I'm really anxious to start reading Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas. The little bit I read while nursing Miles in the van was very good and thought-provoking. We have The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families by Stephen Covey, so when I saw The Seven Habits for Highly Effective Teens by his son, Sean Covey, I knew it needed to be on Mason's high school reading list. He snatched 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea because he loves old hardback books.

Director's chair
Walker toy

As soon as I saw the director's chair, I grabbed it. It's in very good condition and was only $6. It went straight to my teen's room. The walker is for M2, of course, because he is determined to be walking much too early.

Clothes for Miles, who is growing way too quickly.
Old Navy, Gap, Carter's, Greendog, All Mine, Gymboree, Koala Baby

You would think that having five boys would mean plenty of hand-me-downs for the baby, but I actually had to start from scratch because I didn't have anything under size 2T. God surprised us with one more blessing after I gave away all of my baby clothes.

Two old jars with pretty fruit/herb patterns and an ironstone saucer

I am going for an eclectic French country kind of look in my kitchen. Our "new" house is 54 years old and we're only the second family to live here. The original owner never updated so we are remodeling and I get to make it just how I want it. I'm so excited! It will be new but I don't want it to look too new. Know what I mean? I want something that looks inviting and cozy, kind of like my Grandmas's kitchen, only without the metal cabinets and green linoleum.

Do you have a post about your special treasure hunt finds? Leave a comment with a link to your blog or just tell us about it. Happy Hunting!

Climbing the Walls

It is a well-known fact that young children, especially boys, need to move, run, jump, and climb. They need to explore and conquer something, anything, everything. All of my boys have been very active, so much so that my mother (who only had one introverted girl) used to ask me if I thought my son was "hyper". She asked that with each one until I had our fourth son because by that time, she had finally figured out that they were just being "normal" little boys. She regularly comments about how I must have "nerves of steel". Haha. No, I have just been conditioned over the past 16 years and have become more relaxed around all of their energy and rowdiness or able to tune most of it out.

Over the years, all of my boys have literally climbed the walls in narrow hallways and doorways. They have also climbed the counters, furniture, stairs, shelves, storage sheds, and trees. So, we knew that when we moved into a new house we really wanted to have a climbing structure of some kind. Enter Grandma and Grandpa. They love to buy things for the boys so we suggested that this would be a worthy investment. The boys and I had our eyes on the Highlander at Sam's Club. Three levels, covered, slide, swings, seesaw, rock wall, picnic table, made of cedar. Yes, they needed that.

The perfect spot. Visible from the kitchen window over the sink and the back door.

NG put together the picnic table, then Dad showed up.

Every one of those hands were busy building the Highlander. Over the course of a week, the total time spent putting it together was about 20 hours! Needless to say, no one wants to build another one any time soon so it needs to last at least 10 years. Of course, if we continue to have the whole neighborhood show up, it may not. Yesterday, there were 16 kids in our backyard playing on it, playing soccer, and running around. And only 2 were mine.