Josh Wright CD Review and Giveaway!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED. The winner has been notified. Thank you!

Next Tuesday is the official release date for the debut self-titled album by up and coming concert pianist Josh Wright. Thanks to my review relationship with Deseret Book and their Shadow Mountain imprint I have been listening to the CD for several days already. You can pre-order a copy here for $16.98.

What’s on the CD? There are 11 tracks, a mix of classical pieces by masters like Rachmaninoff and Chopin woven together in new arrangements. Just what did Josh Wright combine with these classics? Hymns. Beautiful does not begin to describe it. For example, the very first track mixes Clair De Lune by Debussy with the hymn How Great Thou Art.

What We Thought: We love it! Listening to classical music is an experience but adding in hymns to these themes makes it a truly inspiring CD. I love hearing how both are woven together into a seamless new piece. My children even enjoyed listening and trying to recognize the hymns ‘hidden’ in the music.

Thanks to a generous publisher I have one free Josh Wright CD to give away to one of my readers! Here’s how to enter:

1. Visit Josh’s website and watch the 2 minute video on the front page. Come back and leave a comment telling me what two instruments he was playing at the same time.
   
2. Follow Our Busy Homeschool on Google Friend Connect. Leave a comment telling me you do.
   
3. Get Our Busy Homeschool straight to your email. Leave a comment telling me you do.
   
4. Tell me your favorite hymn or classical composer in a comment.

The Fine Print: This giveaway is open to U.S. residents and closes Tuesday, April 5th, 2011. One winner will be drawn using Random.org. I must be able to contact you through email or another winner will be drawn, so make sure you leave your email or have it shared on your profile.

{Disclaimer: I received on CD free to use and one to give away. I received no other compensation and all opinions presented herein are my own.}

How to Make a Homeschool Portfolio!

I have mentioned before that in Ohio there are two reporting options for homeschooling.  The first, which we do not use currently, is standardized testing.  The second, and our favorite choice, is having a portfolio of our child’s work reviewed by a currently licensed teacher of our choice.  Keeping a portfolio is really simple.  All year long Makayla simply put finished work samples into the hanging folder at the front of this black crate.  Many people have asked to see what that portfolio looks like, hence this post has come about.  Let me say something at the beginning here though.  A portfolio will look different for each family and every child in that family.  These pictures are of Makayla’s portfolio for 4th grade, which we finished last week.  In Kindergarten it would have been smaller, with different expectations (like a sample of handwriting practice and books she could read at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year).  So here we go! For math we have the test books from the levels she worked on during this grade.  What you don’t see is that inside the orange book is a post it note stuck on the first chapter test she did in 4th grade, which was chapter 20.  Remember, we do school year round, so we begin and end books at odd times of year. This folder holds all her spelling tests.  I think for 5th grade we may just use a small notebook dedicated to spelling tests, it would look a bit neater. Art samples from the year, including a notebook of her drawings and specific projects.  I’m also printing some pictures of other things she has done for art, including knitting and pottery. Finished writing papers, which are kept in a file folder.  These are the final drafts of reports, stories, and writing from the year.  There are also some samples of the homonym worksheets she did, though we do grammar mostly during the writing process.  The paper on the left is a list of the books Makayla read or listened to this year, though we left out anything shorter than 50 pages and some of the audio books.  The paper on the right covers some of the subjects that don’t produce paper.  It lists things done for physical education, first aid/safety/fire prevention (required in Ohio), music, and field trips we took.  Health has been a mix of real life learning and using Exploring Creation with Anatomy and Physiology.  We notebooked our experiments and things in anatomy, and also did specific studies on influenza using a review item I’ll post about soon.   This picture shows the history, geography, and government studies from the year.  I’ll link you to the posts for some of these to learn more, so click on the titles to see inside these.  From left to right, top to bottom we have:

1. The California Gold Rush – an internet-linked study I wrote for Makayla.  We also read By the Great Horn Spoon and other books during this unit.  My booklist is here.
2. If the World were a Village – a survey of world statistics based on a picture book.  Free on Homeschool Share.
3. Kit Kitteridge/Great Depression Unit – This one was a review item that posts in a week or so, I’ll link it then.
4. U.S. Government lapbook – This covered several things, from jobs of the president and congress to how a bill becomes a law.  Click on the title and scroll down in the post to see pictures. 
5. Civil War lapbook – This thing was huge, click the title to see inside.  I also have the booklist for this unit here.
6. World War I – Again, click the title to see inside this lapbook turned spiral bound notebook.  The booklist for this unit is here.
7. See the World notebook – This is a conglomeration of our country studies done with Expedition Earth(my review here).  Instead of linking to lots of posts I’ll just share a peek.  The countries covered in this notebook are China, South Korea, India (and part 2 of India’s booklist), France, Greece.  Click the country to see my booklist for each.

Science – this is the last major area in the portfolio.  Again, if I’ve already made an entire post with pictures of the insides I’m just going to link the title here.

1. Tigers of India – done during our study of India, we also visited the tigers at our local zoo during this study.
2. Kite Capers – This Download N’ Go Unit was fun as it incorporated the history and science behind kites around the world.  I don’t have pictures inside really, but you can see inside and buy it yourself – affiliate link.
3. Astonishing Animals – This is another Download N’ Go Unit.  Makayla really enjoys these because she is independent, they involve a lot of internet links, and they are a lot of fun.   Click here to view more details – affiliate link.
4. Recycling – We just finished this last week and I posted lots of pictures.  You can also see my internet resource list for the unit here.
5. Meerkats – During a brief study of Tanzania with book club Makalya decided to make a lapbook about these animals.
6. Creation Camouflage – Yes, another Download N’ Go unit.  They really are great.  Here is a quick peek inside hers, we print in black and white: You can buy one too, and if you didn’t catch it yet, I’m an affiliate.  Anything you buy through this link gives me a small credit to buy more things for my own homeschooling.    My budget thanks you!

There you have it!  That’s a look at how we do a portfolio.  Do you have any questions?  Thoughts?

This post is also linked to Works for Me Wednesday.

Review and Giveaway–Color It By Numbers: Animals Coloring Book software

This Giveaway is CLOSED. Winner was drawn with Random.Org and has been contacted.

It is time for my third review and giveaway for Color It By Numbers products. Today’s theme is my oldest daughter’s favorite, the Animals Coloring Book software. I also have a special discount code just for my readers, so even if you don’t win, you can get a deal. Read all the way to the end of this post for all the details.

Color It By Numbers is a series of computer coloring books that offer a child three ways to color pictures on the computer. The first mode, which is wonderful for those just beginning to recognize their numbers, is “Color it by numbers”:

In this option a picture is divided into large sections to color, each designated with a number, 1-9. To the left are 9 tubes of paint, labeled with corresponding numbers. To paint a child simply clicks on a tube and then moves their paintbrush over each area with that number and clicks. If they are correct the area fills in with paint. If they are incorrect, two things happen. First, the area does not fill with color. Second, the correct paint tube to the left is highlighted by growing larger, a hint to the child.

Mode 2 is “Color it to make it visible”.

Each picture is divided into many smaller sections in this mode. It takes the details and has a child color each piece. It is a great mode for my 9 year old.

Mode 3 is “Color it in your favorite colors”.

Now the pictures are unnumbered, there are 18 color tubes to the left, and a child can fill in the areas with any colors they choose. This is the most creative mode, one that is fun even for mommy!

Switching between pictures is as simple as clicking the little green arrows at the bottom right of the picture. Like a real coloring book, the pictures stay just the way your child has colored them even when you switch to another picture. If they have finished a picture, it remains colored. If they have colored only part of a picture then that remains colored, enabling them to come back later to finish. In the main menu is an option to clear the coloring book so a child can begin again.

The coloring books have another neat feature, the ability to change the tubes of paint to colors you like in any mode. Simply click on a tube of paint. At the top left of the picture a rainbow colored tube of paint button appears. Clicking on this opens a color screen where the child can click on any color they would like. That changes the tube of paint selected to the new color.

Today I am reviewing and offering a giveaway for is the Animals Coloring Book. This program currently has 20 coloring pages with a variety of animals, from pets to ocean animals to farm animals and more. Here are just a few of them:

We have had a lot of fun with each of the coloring book themes, but the animals one has provoked the most questions as my children have wanted to know the colors that the animals are in real life. For example, we have seen white cows with black spots and solid color cows, but the automatic settings for the cow picture in the program uses browns. They wanted to know if there really were cows with that coloring. Once you have a license for the coloring book any updated versions are free. If you want to try it out first you can download this coloring book (and the other two themes) HERE. The first two pictures will be unlocked to use. If you choose to purchase a license it will unlock the rest of the pictures in the program. On that note, if you want to purchase any of the Color It By Numbers coloring book programs you can use the code “ourbusyhomeschool” at checkout to get 15% off your purchase. The coupon is valid through May 31, 2011.

Thanks to the generosity of Color It By Numbers I have one license for the Animals Coloring Book to give away! Here are the rules:

Required Entry: 1. Visit Color It By Numbers and leave a comment on this post to tell me one other coloring book theme available for purchase.

Optional Entries(Leave a comment for each entry): 1. Follow Our Busy Homeschool on Google Friend Connect. 2. Sign up for Email Updates from Our Busy Homeschool. 3. Tell me one theme you would love to see made into a Color It By Numbers Coloring Book.

This giveaway ends Sunday April 3, 2011. Winner will be drawn at random and notified by email. Be sure your email is attached to your profile or leave it in your comment entries. Winner will have 48 hours to respond before an alternate winner will be chosen.

{Disclaimer: I received two free licenses for the Animals Coloring Book, one to use and one to give away. I received no other compensation and all opinions presented herein are my own.}

Giveaway–Bedtime and Naptime book and CD

THIS GIVEAWAY HAS CLOSED. The winner has been notified. Thank you!

I’m so excited! Remember my review of the book and CD Bedtime and Naptime. . . and Bedtime and Naptime by Hillary Weeks? Deseret Book contacted me tonight offering to send a copy to one of my readers. That’s right – I’m doing a giveaway for one copy of Bedtime and Naptime. . . and Bedtime and Naptime.

How to Enter

1. Follow Our Busy Homeschool (through email, Google Friend Connect, etc) and leave one comment for EACH way you follow.


2. Leave a comment to tell me one of your favorite things about being a mom, other than bedtime and naptime.

The fine print: This giveaway is limited to United States residents only. Entries will close Sunday April 3rd, 2011. I must be able to contact you through email or another winner will be drawn. I will use Random.org to draw the winning comment.

Armed for Battle

I wrote this post for Latter-Day Homeschooling today, but wanted to share the message here as well because families are so important to me, and this is about strengthening our families.  The world grows louder and more distracting by the moment.  The background noise of the popular culture is closer to the sound of a rock concert than a lullaby.  Amid all this, we are raising children from God.  In our childhood and our parents and grandparents childhood Satan’s distractions were present but not so overpoweringly public and accepted.  Don’t take my word for it, an apostle of God warned us in last April’s General conference:

“Teaching in the home is becoming increasingly important in today’s world, where the influence of the adversary is so widespread and he is attacking, attempting to erode and destroy the very foundation of our society, even the family.” – Elder L. Tom Perry

That sounds serious, doesn’t it?  The phrase “he is attacking” paints such a word picture.  Satan is not complacently waiting around for us and our children to wander off the path into temptation.  He is not setting traps and stepping back to see if we step into them.  Satan has launched a full frontal assault on the family.  He no longer needs to work behind closed doors.  He is on the offensive and our families are his target. 

What can we do to protect and arm ourselves and our children for battle?  Prophets and apostles have given us counsel repeatedly about the importance of teaching our children truth, of preparing them to rely on the Spirit’s guidance.  In the same talk Elder Perry gives us specific direction:

“Parents must bring light and truth into their homes by one family prayer, one scripture study session, one family home evening, one book read aloud, one song, and one family meal at a time.  They know the influence of righteous, conscientious, persistent, daily parenting is among the most powerful and sustaining forces for good in the world.  The health of any society, the happiness of it’s people, their prosperity, and their peace all find common roots in the teaching of children in the home.” (emphasis mine)

It sounds so simple, but the advice is profound. The best soldiers are those who make the daily effort to prepare for the enemy. What are our daily efforts?

One family prayer at a time – Prayer is intimate communication with the God of the Universe.  Our Father in Heaven is real, and he loves his children.  Praying as a family draws us closer to one another, and to Him, as we share our thanks and seek His blessings and direction each day. 

One scripture study session at a time – If God sent you a personal letter would you read it?  Of course you would!  The scriptures, coupled with the influence of the Spirit, become a daily, personal letter from God to us as we read, study, and ponder them.  Children can feel the spirit of the words long before they can read them on their own.  Read the scriptures as a family.  Find a time and make it work.  Nothing is more important for that short 15 minutes or half hour.  If there is not a single time when your entire family is together each day then something needs to change.  Make the time.

One Family Home Evening at a time – FHE can be done in so many different ways, it truly adapts to the needs of each family.  What we do changes as our children grow, but the important thing is we do it.  You can read a wonderful talk on the subject by President Gordon B. Hinckley here.

One book read aloud at a time – Are you surprised to see this?  I’m not.  Reading aloud good books together with our children builds a family culture.  We’ve all read and lived the same stories together.  We’ve talked about the characters and their choices, imagined what it would have been like to be in their place.  It may be something as simple as a picture book even.  Read aloud to your children, and when they are old enough, let them do some of the reading aloud to the family!

One song at a time – I love music.  Not only do we remember things more easily when they are set to music, but it can be fun or even inspiring.  The First Presidency Preface to our hymnbook says the following:

“Music has boundless powers for moving families toward greater spirituality and devotion to the gospel.  Latter-day Saints should fill their homes with the sound of worthy music… We hope the hymnbook will take a prominent place among the scriptures and other religious books in our homes. The hymns can bring families a spirit of beauty and peace and can inspire love and unity among family members.”

“Teach your children to love the hymns. Sing them on the Sabbath, in [family] home evening, during scripture study, at prayer time. Sing as you work, as you play, and as you travel together. Sing hymns as lullabies to build faith and testimony in your young ones.” (Hymns, x.)

^{Do we follow this counsel?  My church offers an entire website of hymns and Primary songs for free to listen to and download to make it easy for us.}   

One family meal at a time – Eating together as a family can be very interesting at my house.  We’re all working on manners right now, but with 6 young children it is quite an experience!  I love this Ensign article about eating meals together as a family.  I can’t say it better, so I’m not going to try.

As homeschooling parents we are blessed with a greater opportunity to follow the counsel Elder Perry offered.  We are with our children so much more each day.  We are able to read aloud, pray, eat together, sing together, and spend more time together each day.  Satan is waging a full frontal assault on our families.  Let us not grow complacent about arming our children and ourselves for battle - one action at a time. 

Spring Break at Last!

For the next two weeks we are on Spring Break.  It is getting much less exciting as more of my children succumb to the spring cold that Oliver has, but I am grateful for the time off.  I have a few things planned for these two weeks, including organizing Makayla’s portfolio for 4th grade.  I started going through the crate of items yesterday, deciding which samples of her work to keep.  I’m binding some items into notebooks, like the series of country studies she did in the fall (China, India, Greece, Japan, France).  I need to type the list of books she read this year and print it, as right now it is a hand-written list in my homeschool planner that is in several different inks – quite messy.  Once I get everything organized I will share pictures of her portfolio here on the blog, so you can get a better idea of what we include in one.

Other plans for the next two weeks include doing some spring cleaning and decluttering around the house.  This is neverending, isn’t it?  I want to gather up things to donate to Goodwill.  I need to go through the children’s clothing (mostly the boys’) to check for pants with holes that need mended, cut off into shorts for summer, or tossed out.  I want to go through my kitchen cabinets and wipe them inside and out.  There are about 30 other things that come to mind for spring cleaning.  One of the best parts is that my children will be responsible for some of it, especially their bedrooms, windows, walls, and baseboards.  Which reminds me, I need to get some Mr. Clean erasers!

My children plan to play outside if the weather warms up.  Right now it is 25 degrees!  Cold!

What are your plans for the week?  Are you taking a spring break anytime soon?

Bedtime and Naptime–A Deseret Book Review

There are wonderful, rare times when within minutes of opening a new book I know that I love it.  I had the experience this week when the new book and CD Bedtime and Naptime . . . and Bedtime and Naptime by Hilary Weeks arrived.  Subtitled “The Simple Joys of a Mom’s Life”, I was instantly intrigued. 

As I read through the 76 pages it was not only pretty to look at, it was inspiring.  I laughed out loud, I smiled, and I may have even teared up a time or two(shh! don’t tell the kids I cry over books).  The book has everything from quotes and recipes to memories about the experiences of motherhood.  Then I decided to listen to the accompanying CD. 

I laughed so hard my children wanted to listen to it and see what was so funny.  A popular speaker and songwriter, Hillary Weeks has taken some familiar tunes and made parodies about motherhood, with a few sweet titles thrown in.  You can hear a few highlights from the songs on the CD in this video:

Bedtime and Naptime . . .  and Bedtime and Naptime is available from Deseret Book for $14.99.  I think it would make a wonderful gift for the mothers in your life!

{Disclaimer: I received this book and CD free to review.  I received no other compensation and all opinions presented herein are my own.}

My Kindle Fairy Tale

I’m now the happy owner of a Kindle.  I want to share a little fairy tale about the experience.  It has a happily ever after ending (I promise), but the road to get there was bumpy like any good fairy tale.

Once upon a time there was a mom who loved to read.  She loved the smell of paper, the weight of a book.  She could be found cooking in the kitchen with a book in one hand stirring a pot, with a small child or two playing with the bowls at her feet.  She would even read aloud to the children amid all the food prep. 

As time passed her family multiplied, but her hands did not.  If you peeked in the kitchen at dinnertime you found that same mom with a book in one hand, a spoon in the other, a baby wrapped on her body (thank goodness for slings!), a toddler at her feet with the silverware, the preschooler trying to ‘help’, and several not much bigger children scattered around the house making a general mess of things.  Now the mom began to wonder why books are so heavy – couldn’t they be made lighter to hold?

She sank down on the couch one evening, exhausted.  Her arms were full of children trying to fall asleep.  Those big books were too heavy to hold with one hand. How could she turn the pages anyway?  She started to dream.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to fit a whole library in one hand, a library that weighed very little and could turn pages with just one finger?  After all, holding the sleeping baby and the toddler who thinks he just might still be the baby was important.  She wanted to read aloud then because she had learned that her most boring, droning voice reading aloud was a wonderful sleep inducer for the children, who did not yet appreciate Jane Austen’s works.  (Ah, the tricks of a mother!)

Lo and behold, along came a fairy godmother named Amazon.  She took pity on the mother and created a Kindle.  With the miracle of electronics the books of the world could be put together in one light device.  And turning pages?  As simple as the click of a button with the tip of one finger.  The mother awaited the arrival of this new thing – a Kindle.

Alas!  Her trials were just beginning.  While the master of the home (and the one with electronic inclinations) was away slaying the dragons of the day the Kindle arrived.  Mother looked at the instructions and got it to turn on.  However, it needed to link to some magic called wireless internet to gather books to read.  She followed the recipe exactly to no avail.  Everything she tried just failed. 

A call to Fairy Godmother Amazon led her through many alternate recipe steps.  Nothing worked.  It was determined that the ISP imps were responsible.  Mother called up her ISP, only to discover they were lacking in brains.  They did not understand what to do, though she told them exactly.  “It’s not our fault!” they insisted, and hung up. 

Back to Fairy Godmother the poor woman went.  A few more ideas to try were assigned.  Amazon would call and check back later to see how it went.  The poor mother cooked dinner while trying to access her own wireless network’s system and change it herself.  She succeeded, but the Kindle still could not work with this magic of wireless.  The ISP Imps laughed at the mother.

When Fairy Godmother Amazon checked in on the woman she offered to send a new Kindle that used cellular magic in a thing called 3G.  The first Kindle was returned and the 3G model arrived the next day.  Within moments the magic was working.  The mother’s dream of a library at the tip of her finger came true. 

She spent time finding treasures – all free for the asking.  Classics like Pride and Prejudice, Anne of Green Gables, and Beatrix Potter.  Poetry, too, was placed on the Kindle.  Old books and new ones to inspire her children.  They snuggled up and read ‘till her voice became hoarse.  Then the oldest daughter took a turn reading aloud. 

And they all lived happily ever after.

{Disclaimer: Any resemblance between real people and the characters in this story is deliberate.  The events really did take place – almost exactly as written.  Next I’m asking the Fairy Godmother Amazon for a maid to do the laundry.  I’m sure she can come up with something for that if I’m desperate enough, and I am.}

Caleb in Pictures

Caleb has been particularly photogenic this week.  I can’t help sharing these pictures, he’s just one of my favorite little people.  These are from him sitting in the corner of our big sectional couch.  First he was smiling and drooling.

In this shot he noticed his hands and was trying to figure out what to do with them.  He chews on them all the time but I think he’s never really looked at them.

And one more of his smile.

Four months.  We’ve had his sweetness blessing our lives for four short months and it feels like he’s been here forever. 

They grow so quickly.

Spring Struggles and Sickness

This almost spring time of year is often a struggle for me.  Spring comes for a day or two, then leaves again.  In the middle of it all my children often begin to struggle with seasonal allergies and spring colds.  The days of drippy noses and itchy eyes, coughs, and fevers cycle through and seem as if they will never leave.  Oliver has been on the mend from a recent cold, left with just a barky cough when he slept.  Then yesterday evening he took another turn for the worse.  The fever came back with a vengeance.  Coughing woke him from every nap he tried to take.  The only place he slept well was in my arms last night, so I spent most of my sleeping hours awake and holding him. 

This morning he has not eaten much, though he is still drinking well.  He finally got up off the couch to play upstairs, or so I thought.  After not hearing from him for a while I went looking for my sweet boy. Do you see him all the way at the top of the stairs?  At first I suspected he was just filling his diaper (don’t laugh, it’s true).  However, when he didn’t respond to my call from the bottom of the steps, I went up to find this: The poor guy was so worn out he just fell asleep.  I moved him to his bed and he is still sleeping.  If only I could take a nap too. Oh well.  Instead I am going to go start a project with the other children and hold the baby. 

What are you doing today?

Pictures from Today

Today was busy, some of which I’ll share about on another day.  For tonight I just wanted to post a few pictures from the day.  First is Caleb, who has discovered his fingers are pretty good for chewing.  These others are from today’s book club.  We met at another family’s home this week.  Our first story was about a farmer whose pigs moved away.  It was cute, though I can’t remember the title.  The children performed a play about pigs after listening to the story.  We also had fun with the book Color by Ruth Heller, drawing pictures with only the four colors a printer uses (yellow, magenta, cyan, and black).  Wonder of wonders, even with crayons you can see the colors mix! Oliver and Daniel were too busy playing to get in on the coloring.  Daniel was packing this net full of things for a trip somewhere.  He never really said where he was planning to go. Oliver played with every ball he could find. 

What did you do today?

Items for Sale–Clearing Shelves

I have been looking through my bookshelves to see what needs a new home.  Here is what I have for sale.  Prices include media mail postage.  I accept payment through PayPal.  If you are interested in anything on the list please email me at tdrowlee@yahoo.com .  Thanks for looking!

1. Galloping the Globe - $15.00
2. He Was President When...Connecting Events with Presidents - $5.00
3. Spiral bound Lapbook Project Packs from Hands of a Child.  Would you believe there used to be a time when I would not buy e-books?  
   - Invertebrates  $5
   - Australia Continent Study  $5
   - Multiplication Pizza Party  $5 
   - The Human Body  $5
   - A Devotion A Day Project Pack - This one is $9.00 because it includes the preprinted kit they sell, we just never used it.
4. 4th Grade Building Life Castles teachers manual and workbook (first 4 weeks/lessons filled in).  This is from Positive Action for Christ, retails for $47.00, asking $25.00.  See my review HERE.
5. Rocket Phonics $95.00 –   The whole Rocket Phonics kit ($160.00 new):
   - 2 big Rocket Phonics readers
   - Two sets of Play & Read symbol cards
   - Bingo chips
   - Rocket Peeker
   - Bingo sheets and Word lists for testing
   - Three files that came with the program (big printable letters for beginning games, word find and phrase game files), which I would email to you or put on a disc, up to you. 
   - I already have printed the fourth file out - pages of hands on game ideas to do with the colorful cards from the kit or the big letters in the first file, so I would stick those pages in with the books.  These are what made it so perfect for Joseph when he used it.
   - I also printed an entire book worth of extra reading materials that I was given access to.  It was from a previous edition they did with another company and is no longer available.  It is printed in color and spiral bound as well, we used it a lot!  It gives you extra reading material for the reading phonetic words section and my kids really loved these.  All have color pictures and they start with reading a single word and looking for that in the picture.  Then they work up to reading phrases and decided if it it true or false (a red hat might be what they read, but the picture may have a blue one in in).

Recycling Lapbook Complete!

We have a few more activities to do together in our recycling unit study, but Makayla finished her lapbook today and I wanted to share it.  We used a few different resources, but the majority of the lapbook is from Hands of a Child’s Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Project Pack.  Some of the larger colored pieces were from a recycling activity book we found for free online.  When you first open it up this is what you see: You’ll notice that the folder is a special one that had extra flap extensions already on it!  You can buy these and other wonderful lapbooking helps from Pear Educational Products.  This one has another flap to open: Makayla needed all the extra room!  If you’re interested in what is one each page you can keep reading, I’ll do closer shots and tell you a bit about what you see.  Here we have the recycling symbol, with a little information on each arrow related to how we can reduce, reuse, or recycle things.  The three flaps across the bottom are things we’ve reused in our house.  Under the flaps she tells some of the different ways we’ve reused clothes, boxes, and paper. This page has a list of reusable things in our house under the flap on the left.  The numbered piece on the right is where she recorded the five steps of the recycling process:

1. Separate trash from recyclables.
2. Recycling plants collect your materials.
3. They process them (melting metals, etc).
4. The materials are turned into new things.
5. We buy the new items.

Page three has a flap on the top left where Makayla kept a journal of things ways she reduced her trash output.  The orange pocket has eight cards inside listing reasons to recycle.  The flap at the bottom is where she told the difference between a landfill and incinerator and the drawbacks to each.  This page holds a coloring page she did about different plastics you can recycle on the bottom.  The top is an accordion that pulls out to show the 7 questions to ask yourself before buying something new.  (They are great questions!) Lifting up that flap reveals this page.  Along the left is a fact sheet about how many times different materials can be melted down or reused in new ways.  The top right has 13 vocabulary words we talked about through the unit, including steward, compost, incinerator, and decompose.  The folded up flap on the right is a graph she created about the packaging of things she found around the house.  She had to decide if they were over packaged, had reusable packaging, or if the packaging was recyclable. One last page with several pieces on it is all that is left.  The top left has the title “What am I made out of?” and underneath are pictures of things like t-shirts, pencils, and aluminum foil, and she decided what each was made from.  Under the Materials that Can Be Recycled you find information about biodegradable and industrial recyclables.  The petal book with no label has information about composting inside.  The Hazardous Waste envelope is where Makayla told what the dangers are of hazardous waste, as well as listing some items that fit this category (paint, batteries, etc).

If you’re thinking about doing a similar unit study in your family you can see the resources we’ve used in this post.

Review and Giveaway–Color It By Numbers: Vehicles Coloring Book software

This Giveaway is now CLOSED. The randomly drawn winner was comment #10 by Lorus. They have been contacted. Thank you!

Last week I posted my first review for Color It By Numbers software, specifically the Princesses Coloring Book. This week I’ll share how their software works and offer my review of the Vehicles Coloring Book – with another giveaway. I also have a special discount code just for my readers, so even if you don’t win, you can get a deal. Read all the way to the end of this post for all the details.

Color It By Numbers is a series of computer coloring books that offer a child three ways to color pictures on the computer. The first mode, which is wonderful for those just beginning to recognize their numbers, is “Color it by numbers”:

In this option a picture is divided into large sections to color, each designated with a number, 1-9. To the left are 9 tubes of paint, labeled with corresponding numbers. To paint a child simply clicks on a tube and then moves their paintbrush over each area with that number and clicks. If they are correct the area fills in with paint. If they are incorrect, two things happen. First, the area does not fill with color. Second, the correct paint tube to the left is highlighted by growing larger, a hint to the child.

Mode 2 is “Color it to make it visible”.

Each picture is divided into many smaller sections in this mode. It takes the details and has a child color each piece. It is a great mode for my 9 year old.

Mode 3 is “Color it in your favorite colors”.

Now the pictures are unnumbered, there are 18 color tubes to the left, and a child can fill in the areas with any colors they choose. This is the most creative mode, one that is fun even for mommy!

Switching between pictures is as simple as clicking the little green arrows at the bottom right of the picture. Like a real coloring book, the pictures stay just the way your child has colored them even when you switch to another picture. If they have finished a picture, it remains colored. If they have colored only part of a picture then that remains colored, enabling them to come back later to finish. In the main menu is an option to clear the coloring book so a child can begin again.

The coloring books have another neat feature, the ability to change the tubes of paint to colors you like in any mode. Simply click on a tube of paint. At the top left of the picture a rainbow colored tube of paint button appears. Clicking on this opens a color screen where the child can click on any color they would like. That changes the tube of paint selected to the new color.

Today I am reviewing and offering a giveaway for is the Vehicles Coloring Book. This program currently has 20 coloring pages with a variety of vehicles. This has become the favorite program for my two oldest boys to play with. Here are just a few of the pictures:

Once you have a license for the coloring book any updated versions are free. If you want to try it out first you can download this coloring book (and the other two themes) HERE. The first two pictures will be unlocked to use. If you choose to purchase a license it will unlock the rest of the pictures in the program. On that note, if you want to purchase any of the Color It By Numbers coloring book programs you can use the code “ourbusyhomeschool” at checkout to get 15% off your purchase. The coupon is valid through May 31, 2011.

Thanks to the generosity of Color It By Numbers I have one license for the Vehicles Coloring Book to give away! Here are the rules:

Required Entry: 1. Visit Color It By Numbers and leave a comment on this post to tell me one other coloring book theme available for purchase.

Optional Entries(Leave a comment for each entry): 1. Follow Our Busy Homeschool on Google Friend Connect. 2. Sign up for Email Updates from Our Busy Homeschool. 3. Tell me one theme you would love to see made into a Color It By Numbers Coloring Book.

This giveaway ends Sunday March 27th, 2011. Winner will be drawn at random and notified by email. Be sure your email is attached to your profile or leave it in your comment entries. Winner will have 48 hours to respond before an alternate winner will be chosen.

{Disclaimer: I received two free licenses for the Vehicles Coloring Book, one to use and one to give away. I received no other compensation and all opinions presented herein are my own.}

Spring and Rolling Over

I wanted to do a quick post about two things.  First, that flower is the very first flower of spring at our house.  We are all so excited to finally see life growing.  Snow is gone, though in Ohio it may come back a few times yet.  For now we’ll be grateful for what we’ve got.  The second thing I wanted to share was this picture I took today of Caleb.  He turned 4 months old yesterday, which is hard to believe.  Even harder to believe is that he has been rolling over from his back to his belly for almost a week.  I took this picture today after he spent about 20 minutes spinning in circles on his back and finally decided to just roll over instead of spinning more.  He amazes me daily.  Each child is different, each is precious. 

Time flies, enjoy each moment.