Where Does the Time Go?

I realized tonight it has been over a month since I last wrote. I had no idea it had been that long. My how time flies.

Briefly (and the best I can remember) these are some of the things we have been up to.

In both November and December we went to the Homeschool class at our library. November was all about the election process. The children had the opportunity to make a button to wear proclaiming they are future voters, they made a lapbook and even had the opportunity to vote in a election for best dessert. Th elibrarian had chosen the two candidates; cookies and brownies earlier. The children were then given the opportunity to decide which one they wanted to campaign for. Then in small groups they had to come up with several reasons to vote for their candidate and share them with the whole group. As a special treat the children were given a brownie or cookie snack.

 
Decembers' theme was optical illusions. After a brief discussion defining optical illusions the children experimented with several illusions at various stations. Among the projects they experienced were making a flip book, arrows with the ends pointing the opposite direction to prove the center part is the same length, taking to similar pictures, cutting them into strips and reassembling them by interspersing the strips with each other. Then by tilting is sideways they would only see one picture at a time.


At home in December we  kept up or regular schedule for several weeks, then spent more time on Christmas themed activities. One of these was completing the Christmas Around the World lapbook. This project pack had a lot of information and activities in it, but we also read several books along with it. These are pictures of the completed lapbook.
 

I discovered several Little House on The Prairie Christmas Anthologies at our library so we enjoyed stories from them for a read aloud throughout the month.

December was also very busy with music. Both children had the opportunity to play Christmas piano music in public settings on several occasions throughout the month.  They each played several pieces as prelude music for our church's children's Christmas program. Daughter also had the honor and privilege of accompanying the children when they sang "Away in a Manger" during the program. Even though I am biased, I do have to say she did a good job.

Both of the children decorated these mini gingerbread houses from a kit. After I made the icing Daughter put the houses together herself before decorating them. She was generous and let her brother decorate two of them.

I guess that is about all the news from our house for this month. See you in 2013.

Hands of a Child Christmas Giveaway

For a few more days In the Hands of a Child is hosting their first Sprint of Christmas giveaway!!

So what does this mean?

If you help publicize this event, in various types of social media and leave a comment on their blog about what you did on, you are entered into their giveaway for $100 worth of their lapbooks and notebook sets. You even get to choose which ones you would like!

My children and I really enjoy the Hands of a Child lapbook project packs. Right now we are using their Christmas Around the World set. It is an interesting look at several Christmas customs from 8 different countries around the world.

We have completed a number of lapbooks but some of my children's other have been Multiplication Pizza Party, Operation English Grammar, Exploring Nearby Space and American Girls. It seems we always have at least one or two lapboks in progress. We use them to complement a topic already being studied, to explore an interest, briefly study a topic I feel in important at the time or just for fun.  I have plans for several more in the new year as well.

If you're interested in lapbooks, check out In the Hands of a Child.