Memory Verses

I found instructions online for a memory verse box. It was a Charlotte Mason related post, though I just don't know now where I found the information.

*** I just found the link for the memory verse box. ***

I used a Really Useful box from Staples. I chose the 4x6" size, which I believe is 1.6 litre. We are also using these to help organize photos.I love being able to repurpose some of our stuff. These cards came from old photo boxes (the long boxes from craft stores). I labeled them like this, DAILY, ODD and EVEN, MONDAY thru SUNDAY, and numbered 1 - 31.You choose a verse to learn and place it behind DAILY. Every day you go over this verse a few times. Don't worry about how long it takes you and your family to memorize. Take as long as you need. Once it is memorized, place it behind an ODD or EVEN card and put a new verse behind DAILY. Each time you memorize a new verse, you will move the cards back one set (ODD/EVEN, WEEKDAYS, Numbers). So on Tuesday, August 31, assuming you had enough cards in each section, you would read the verses filed under DAILY, ODD (because 31 is an odd number), TUESDAY, and 31.I intend to incorporate our Christian Friday School verses into the box and maybe we will have some memorized this year.

Blueberries!

Then God said,
“I give you every seed-bearing
plant on the face of the whole earth and every
tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be
yours for food.”
Genesis 1:29

More blueberry picking today. As often happens, the boys "helped". Xav ate berries as fast as I could pick them, announcing "I ate another one!" every. single. time. Mal's assistance consisted of dumping the dish into the grass TWICE. Reminded me of a song.

Some kind of help is the kind of help that helping's all about.
An some kind of help is the kind of help we all can do without!

We have been picking and sharing blueberries for nearly two full months! I still have two bushes producing. Today, I even still have some white/green berries. There will be plenty of berries for more jam this year. YUM!

Sunshine Award

I received the Sunshine Award from Patriots of the Republic Academy. It's my first blogging award! Thanks so much PRA (or would that be PotRA?)!

As recipient of this award, I am to post seven tidbits about myself and pass on the Sunshine Award to seven blogs. I don't know why, but thinking of interesting things about myself is always difficult.

Let's see...
1) There are nearly 20 years between the bigger (#1 son) and the bigger little (#2 son).

2) I am nine, yes NINE, years older than my husband.

3) I met Micah in an 11 car pileup. He rear-ended me twice! He was the immediate answer to a prayer. :)

4) I left Christianity for a while, but I was re-baptized in 2002. Now I don't know what I would do without the knowledge of the saving grace of Jesus Christ and the love of my Heavenly Father.

5) I'm going to become an aunt for the seventh time around the same time the bigger becomes an uncle for the first time.

Hmmm.... those all involve numbers. What can I tell you that doesn't involve numbers? *thinking thinking* I know!

6) I may have an addiction to chocolate. Especially to dark chocolate.

7) I used to love wind chimes, as long as they weren't too tinkly. Now I can't help but think of the movie Signs every time I hear them. It's a creepy alien movie. Curse you, M. Night Shyamalan, for ruining wind chimes!

Now to pass on the Sunshine Award...

1) My sweet friend Sara's papercrafting blog, Sara Stamps.

2) Kirsten's beautiful family blog, Lucky Seven or maybe that should be "blog of her beautiful family.

3) "Somewhat crunchy" Becca's Living with a Handful.

4) Heather T's incredible photography at Memoirs & Offerings.

5) For a cute baby fix, visit my girl NoJo's Stinkyface Portraits.

And to two women I am inspired by...

6) Jennifer at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

and finally, 7) Courtney at Women Living Well.

Going on a Lion Hunt...

This past few days we have been on Safari with Download N Go's Expedition Africa!Download N Go is a unit study/lapbooking series created by Amanda Bennett and The Old Schoolhouse for grades K-4 and is intended to take one week to complete, though with all the resources available it would be easy to expand that. They are bright and colorful and loaded with information. DNG studies have five daily objectives with components for a smart little lapbook, clickable links to videos and websites, vocabulary, history, geography and more.
The main objectives for Expedition Africa are:
Day 1: Where on Earth Is Africa?
Day 2: Some of the Special Places in Africa
Day 3: A Bit of History
Day 4: Cool Things to Know About Africa
Day 5: Fun and Games in Africa

We did have trouble finding the books from the included recommended reading list for this study at three local libraries, but we are very rural. I was able to find great substitutes for most of the topics and we especially enjoyed reading and learning all about the unique animals that make their homes in Africa. Grandma Jean was visiting with us while we were on Safari. I think she had as much fun "doing school" as the boys did. We watched some beautiful videos each day before we had story time on the same topics we had just covered. Did you know some experts think that a zebra's stripes act as air-conditioning to protect them from the heat? The black stripes absorb heat while the white stripes are simultaneously reflecting heat which creates cooling air currents around the zebras body. God is very smart. He thinks of everything. :)

I've really enjoyed each of the Download N Go units we've used so far. While Expedition Africa didn't hold the boys' attention as well as some of the others, when we stuck mostly with animals they ate it up! At 3.5 and 5.5, the littles are really on the lower end of the age range these studies are intended for. I definitely plan to do this study again in a few years. I love that we can do that with these units and I'm confident we will love it even more then.

You can purchase a copy of Expedition Africa here for only $7.95 or order in a bundle and $ave. Click the link on that page to see the colorful sample pages for this unit.

Roller Coasters Winner!

The winner of Download and Go's Roller Coasters unit study, as selected using Random.org is comment #3 - Soaring Eagle. Congratulations! You will receive a one-time use link where you can access and download your unit study.Thanks to everyone who entered. Keep an eye out for more chances to win.

Download N Go Roller Coaster Review

The littles and I just spent a great week learning all about roller coasters. Thanks to Download N Go's Roller Coasters unit study, we were able to ease into our school year with a bunch of really fun projects.Download N Go is a unit study/lapbooking series created by Amanda Bennett and The Old Schoolhouse for grades K-4 and is intended to take one week to complete, though with all the resources available it would be easy to expand that. They are bright and colorful and loaded with information. DNG studies have five daily objectives with lapbooking components, clickable links to videos and websites, vocabulary, history, geography and more.I spent a little time looking through the entire study before working on this with the boys. You could use this time to decide how many pages you will print, what household objects you will need for the week and what library books to reserve.

The daily lessons for Roller Coasters were:
Day 1: What Is a Roller Coaster?
Day 2: The History of Roller Coasters
Day 3: People and Places of Roller Coasters
Day 4: Science Secrets of Roller Coasters and RidesDay
5: Goodies and Gadgets of Roller Coasters

My boys are very active little guys who really need a bit of excitement to hold their attention. Well, this unit did that! We spent the whole week creating roller coasters, both virtual and physical, with any and every medium. We created coasters with wooden train tracks, Fridgets and paper towel tubes, to name a few. We watched a few great videos chosen for this unit and now the littles are ready to build their own backyard roller coasters. I hope daddy feels up to the challenge!Checking out angles and trajectory. :) When Xav learned how roller coasters are tested, he wanted to volunteer.Grandma offered to take us to North Pole, NY and Xavier was dying to ride the roller coaster. Neither boy cares much for rides, but thanks to this study we were able to enjoy more things at the North Pole.

We did have trouble finding the books from the included recommended reading list at three local libraries, but we are very rural. I was able to find substitutes for most of the topics though and it wasn't long before I was sitting at home reading to the littles and I realized, I was having a discussion about physics with my 3.5 and 5.5 year old boys - and they were getting it. Incredible. If only physics was that fun when I was in school.

You can purchase a copy of Roller Coasters for $8.95 or see below to try to win it!

Giveaway is over!

I've been given the opportunity to pass along a copy of Roller Coasters to one lucky reader. I will choose a winner on Friday, August 20. Be sure I have your email address so I can contact you if you win. Winner will have 3 days to reply or a follow up winner will be selected. To enter the giveaway, leave the following comments on this post.

1. (Required first entry) go to the Download N Go store, browse the unit studies and leave a message here telling me your favorite title.
2. Like DNG on FB and leave a comment.
3. Share this giveaway with your FaceBook friends and leave a comment.
4. In honor of county fairs everywhere, leave another comment telling me what your favorite thing is to do at the fair.

For more chances to win a copy of Roller Coasters, check out the blog hop here. Some of the other DNG reviewers are also giving away a copy.

**I was provided a copy of Roller Coasters to use with my children in order to give an honest review of the product and one copy to give away. The opinions are mine and mine alone.**

Oh Toodles!

Rendered in chalks by Malachi, Disney fans will recognize this drawing of Toodles and Mickey.

Biking

Mal getting ready to ride with Daddy.My bigger little is having fun!Xav rides also. His legs are a little short yet.But he has a blast!It's a fun game around here to chase any and everyone on a bicycle in the yard.

Geocaching

M started geocaching recently. He has taken the boys a few times and I even tagged along on one treasure hunt.I really enjoyed the one we all went on together. The "treasure" was all books for children. We left Harold and the Purple Crayon and Noisy Nora and came home with Mice Twice and Animal Baby Letter A.One of Mal's new treasures.A lot of the geocache boxes are ammo cans. M took Mal to the gun store recently and Mal was *very* disappointed to find out all of the treasure boxes were empty. :)

School Projects

Things we're working on for the next few weeks.

Download N Go's Roller Coasters.Our first Clifford book is Clifford's Manners.

Our own version of Flat Stanley.

My homework includes planning my Walk Like the Animals class for Christian Friday School, our co-op.

School Preparations

We have been tidying up and organizing our school supplies. It really is crazy how much has fallen into our laps at little or no cost to us. I am having fun figuring out how to repurpose things we already have, though I have purchased a few things.

I'm really interested in Sue Patrick's Workbox System, but honestly, those carts are too big and really more than we need for PK and K. I found these great carts for only $9 at WalMart in a variety of colors. Mal chose green and Xav chose blue, so I thought it would make things simpler if I could color code my kids. Unfortunately, they don't want to be blue or green, so I can only color code their things. I wanted more than three spaces for each day, so I dug out these old wall files. They are the same color, but a few coordinating file folders and the littles now have six spaces available every day. There will also be plenty of things we can do together that are educational *and* fun that won't go in their individual boxes. Nifty.

I recently won a gift certificate for Tikatok from Lesson Pathways Blog. It will be so much fun to build a book for the boys. There are so many themes to choose from.

The most exciting school related news is, literally, an answer to my prayers. I know I've educated my boys since birth, but I am so nervous about "teaching" them! Well, after receiving a Download N Go Unit Study last year (Autumn Treasures) and seeing the beautiful, thorough study DNG created, I "fanned" them on FaceBook (though I guess now I "Like" them - and you can too, by clicking on their Facebook link to the right).

Anyway, word went out that DNG was looking for families to review some unit studies. I actually ignored the first call, because I have about six followers plus a bevy of friends and family who read this blog and my sporadic posts. Bevy = a large group. Technically, that doesn't apply. I just wanted to use the word bevy. Then I felt like I had missed the boat by not jumping on this wonderful opportunity to use these studies with my boys. Thankfully, a second status mentioned there was still a need for reviewers and I thought, "why not?", popped off an email and the next thing I know, I'm a member of the Download N Go reviewers!

Then, THEN there is a call to help The Old Schoolhouse Magazine with some reviews and I've been selected for one of those groups as well! Can you imagine how excited I am to have these incredible resources? God has answered my prayer to help me teach my children this year.

Stay tuned next weekend to hear how our time with the DNG unit study turned out AND... a giveaway! I will be giving away one copy of Roller Coasters!

Whew! I think that is the most links in one post ever. :)