Lapbooks

For a while I was obsessed with making file folder games. This was for a good reason because Gabriel first put phonics together to read. I wanted to keep feeling that elation with the kids learning and it was fun. Until I got sick of making them. File folders are great and work well for special needs kids but the reward for me doesn't last long because the kids lose interest rather quickly.
I found lapbooks recently and I am now obsessed with making them. They are an awesome way to tie together an entire theme. The kids are proud of their work when we put the lapbook together.
The first lapbook I made with Lane was about Cinderella. http://www.homeschoolshare.com/cinderella.php Lane added a clock because Cinderella had to leave the dance by midnight. We also located France and learned about pumpkins. We made a life cycle of pumpkins. I even learned something - I had forgotten that pumpkins are fruit and not vegetables. We added the virtues of a Princess. Lane insisted on taking her Cinderella lapbook to school for "share".

Lane and I finished a Humpty Dumpty lapbook. It was a neat project. http://www.homeschoolshare.com/humpty_dumpty.php Lane made a Humpty Dumpty sequence book and a picture with a broken Humpty Dumpty falling off a wall. She learned about ovals in the real world. We also talked about horses, one of Lane's favorite animals.

Lane finished her rainbow lapbook this week. She colored rainbows and learned ROYGBIV. I found an easy rainbow template here: http://www.rainseason.net/rainbow-printables/ We talked about color words and learned about primary and secondary colors by mixing paint. http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net/2008/04/rainbows-lapbook/
We are currently working on a grocery file folder. It has quite a few parts to it so it might take a while to complete. Lane is learning about good/bad food choices, coupons, money, and more. Gabriel likes cheetahs so I found a lapbook for him to work on in the mornings.
Lapbooks will continue here for a while because it ties our units and topics together. I have a ton of file folders and we can put these together easily. I have a plastic bin to keep all of our lapbooks in for reference later.

Yy is for yellow yarn

I took Gabriel to JoAnns to buy some craft items. He was very helpful but I had to explain that the pricey scrapbook cart wasn't a great piece of luggage. He talked me into buying yellow yarn. He adores yarn and it was in sale for under $3, so it was an affordable splurge.
Gabriel and Lane wanted to do something with the yarn after school. While they snipped pieces of yarn, I decided to make another "y" art project with Lane.
I printed a letter Y and cut it out for her. We glued it to yellow paper and Lane had fun adding yellow poms and her pieces of yellow yarn to her letter Y.

Week 5 summer education

We are almost to the halfway point of summer break. In some ways the last month had gone fast. I can hardly remember dragging the boys to school in the morning. Yet some days are challenging and seem to drag on far longer than 24 hours.
Gabriel started the week like a two year old. Curious about things that aren't his like my mascara which ended up in his hair, making it an interesting morning. Some days autism is very annoying.
Eventually I got everyone settled in the playroom for some learning time. Gabriel worked on the alphabet puzzle with Lane. This was a neat moment because Gabriel doesn't care for puzzles and he doesn't always take time to show his younger siblings things that he knows how to do.
I found cookie sheet activities for the kids. Lane matched upper case letters with magnets while the boys created words. I like this activity a lot. It is far more interesting for them to play with magnets than sit and write. I didn't have to motivate them to work at all. The link to the cookie cutter sheet activities is here: http://blog.maketaketeach.com/?p=508