Shalom!

We are enjoying our tour of the United States with Exploring Countries and Cultures from our homeschooling curriculum.  There's something we have added to our days and those are prayer cards for the following categories:

• Windows on the World (We write down the prayer ideas in the book onto the back of the card.)
• Family & Friends (Mainly extended family, church friends, and the like.)
• Our Prayer Needs (For our immediate family.)
• When Families Pray (This is a category based on the book with the same title by Cheri Fuller that we are going through as a family.)

I imagine we might add a few more categories so that we can have a week's worth of prayer categories to go through.  Each child can pick a family, people group, or the like to focus on for the day.  We want to go deeper in our walks with the Lord and I thought I would share these ideas if others would like to do the same.  I may share a picture later on.

Blessings to all!

It's About the Cross

~ Merry Christmas from our home to yours. ~

Simply Lapbooks Blog

For those who followed my blog Simply Lapbooks, or those who might be interested in such a blog . . . I had to shut it down to make some edits to certain posts and have *hopefully* completed the task.  I may not add to it but at least it is a resource for both you and I once again.  Smile.

Looking for some new books to enjoy? Look no farther!

Little Pea by Amy Krause Rosenthal.  A sweet little pea does not like to have candy for supper every night.  Yet, he endures until he can get his favourite treat at the very end.  A cute and engaging book that might just win your picky eater over

Father and Son: A Nativity Story by Geraldine McCaughrean.  This book takes a look at the feelings Joseph might have felt as he held God's Son in his trust.  He was to be a father to a young boy that had been there when the moon was hung, knew the best jokes, and fashioned the world with His hands.  A thoughtful portrayal that causes one to think more deeply.  The pictures are also bright and engaging taking us beyond Jesus' babyhood and into his boyhood.

Need Free Writing Paper?

Click on this link:

Thinking About Christmas . . . Already!

I have sought to make Christmas more meaningful with our family using various traditions that we have incorporated in our lives along our journey.  Last year, we started using our stockings to write blessings.  I heard of this idea on a Yahoo group I was on and here is a blog post that shares more about such an idea:

Christmas Stocking Stuffers ~ We kept our messages from last year and I hope to make scrapbook-type pages out of each year's messages or binders for our little ones (and adults) to keep.  It takes the focus off of "self" throughout the season, I think.  It also gives us an opportunity to say the things we forget throughout the year and reminds us to do these types of things more frequently in our daily lives.

Hubbards Cupboard also has a list of Christmas crafts that can be done with children that might be fun to put into a Christmas theme week.

Kangaroo Week (MFW-K)

Our Activities for the Week:

Mark 42 feet.

Measure children’s jumping distances.


Watch Zoboomafoo episode with kangaroos in it.

Make a kangaroo pencil holder. (We used a different template for our pencil holder but I can't find it.  Here is a link with another pencil holder that one can make.)

Find Australia on a map.

Teach words: ocean, island, & continent.

Collage of animals that hop.

Sew pockets on a shirt, apron or make a bristol board apron with pockets. Make a pocket for Katy, her baby and all their animal friends. Act out the story.

Books that We Read:

• Katy No-Pocket (Emmy Payne)
• The Life Cycle of a Kangaroo (Lisa Trumbauer)
• Too Many Kangaroo Things to Do! (Stuart J. Murphy)
• Kangaroo Island: The Story of an Australian Mallee Forest (Deirdre Langeland)
• A Kangaroo Grows Up Amanda (Doering Tourville)
• Kangaroos on Location (Kathy Darling)
• A Kangaroo Joey Grows Up (Katie Marsico)
• Kangaroos (Kate Petty)
• Kangaroos (Jill Anderson)
• Watching Kangaroos in Australia (Louise Spilsbury)

OUR LAPBOOK RESOURCES WERE:

Cover:

• Image and title made using Print Master.

Left Flap:

• Circle Pocket
• Kk booklet was made using our vocabulary cards that are provided with our curriculum.

Middle:

• Kangaroo Graduated Book
• Kangaroo Diagram
• Boxes on the bottom were taken from this kangaroo fact sheet.
• Where do kangaroos live? I simply folded a piece of paper and we wrote in the places where kangaroos live. Of course, one could colour in a black and white picture of the world to show where kangaroos live.

Right Flap:

• Top pocket holds our necklace and has the theme of the week, from our curriculum, written on it.
  
• Square Pocket

Back:

• Image found on the net.
• My daughter wanted to note a lot of interesting facts about kangaroos so we just wrote them on the back of our lapbook.

Other Resources:

• Katy No Pocket at Homeschool Share
• K is for Kangaroo
• Kangaroo T-Book
• Marsupial Lapbook. This has some great additions for a kangaroo lapbook.
• KidzWonder Magazine. This free sample magazine has some great aspects that can be used in this lapbook. Scroll down to the appropriate pages and see what you'd like to use.