Weekly Wrap-up - April 14

Another fun, busy week. And GORGEOUS weather!! Woo-hoo!!!

On Sunday we went to a "Dairy" near our house. Penny and the boys had gone before, and invited us to go with them. What a fun place! There's ice cream, and a playground, AND a little "zoo".

You can buy crackers to feed the animals, and all the kids had great fun with it.

MiniMe spent forever trying to coax the fallow deer to come to the fence to be fed, and finally succeeded. E thought it was great fun that if he walked along the fence of the goat cage with a cracker and have all the goats follow him LOL.

*I* thought the wallaby with a baby in her pouch was the coolest part :)

Monday was practically perfect weather, and by afternoon it was warm enough that the girls asked to go wading in the creek. They were out there ALL AFTERNOON.  After I had confirmed that they were really going to stay in (and not dip a toe in and declare it too cold LOL), I called and left a message with Penny letting her know they were wading in case the boys wanted to join them. J was napping, but E came over and spent the afternoon, and Penny brought J over when he woke up from his nap :)

 Tuesday was gorgeous again.  We gathered up our school books and headed out to the gazebo. What a perfect place to have circle time and read alouds!!

 Wednesday, Penny and I "traded kids". She needed to do some packing at the house they're getting ready to put on the market, and I needed someone to administer the CAT (standardized test) for the girls, since PA law requires that someone other than the parent administer it. So, she left the boys with me and she took Sassy and MiniMe with her. They took the test while she got packing done.  Then she took them out for lunch :) I wasn't sure how they'd handle the whole "testing" thing, since we don't "do tests" per se AND I most definitely have not "taught to the test" like some schools do. But, they declared it "easy" and finished all the sections within the allotted times.

Meanwhile at our house, I was being reminded how much I appreciate my big kids LOL. The 3 littles were great, but aren't big enough to leave by the creek alone, so I got to hang out on the creek bank while they played in the creek. The biggest challenge was them not all wanting the same thing (shocking, isn't it?). Little Bit and J were ready to leave the creek before E was, but I couldn't be 2 places at once. Then later Little Bit wanted to blow bubbles outside but E wanted to build with Legos. It all definitely runs more smoothly when the big girls are here too :)

Wednesday evening, Little Bit and I finally got around to coloring eggs for her "color unit" in school. We used beets, turmeric and purple cabbage and died some white eggs and some brown eggs in each.  The beets weren't as impressive as I'd hoped, they didn't really dye the brown eggs much at all, the white egg was kind of a brownish pinkish color. But the turmeric and purple cabbage was great! Since yellow is her favorite color, the turmeric was a hit with Little Bit, and I love the "surprise" of the beautiful robin's egg blue from the purple cabbage!

Thursday was, at all long last, Sassy's first violin lesson. Needless to say she was VERY excited LOL.

Since Little Bit got antsy enough during MiniMe's piano lesson, I figured it would be pushing our luck to expect her to sit quietly during BOTH lessons, so I made sure it was ok with the teacher, and then dropped Sassy and MiniMe off (with homework to do during the other one's lesson), then Little Bit and I went to the farm where we get milk and eggs, and picked those up during the girls' music lessons. Even with that, we got back for all of Sassy's lesson, so I think next week we may do some grocery shopping too.

Sassy's first lesson was mostly how to hold, and care for,  the violin and bow, but she did learn to play 2 notes, and has been practicing them non-stop ever since LOL.

Friday we had hoped to go to the zoo with Penny and the boys, but our gorgeous weather ended, and it was cold and rainy. Since the kids were all expecting to get to spend the day together, they couldn't bear the thought of NOT being together, so we ended up playing at Penny's house most of the morning LOL.

One would THINK the kids might be starting to get tired of each other, but E was disappointed when I said that the girls needed to do some school Friday afternoon, instead of staying to play, and he was disappointed that we weren't staying to eat lunch at the church on Sabbath. Almost every day that Penny works, Little Bit asks me about seeing the boys. This week, she asked if Penny was working that day, and when I said yes, Little Bit's response was "I don't like Miss A" (the boys' babysitter, who also goes to our church, so Little Bit knows her too). When I asked why, she explained "because WE should be watching the boys, not her!" LOL.

In between enjoying the gorgeous weather, the girls have been learning some Spanish (a review product), and learning about composers. Sassy has declared it "unfair" that Mozart was able to play musical instruments so effortlessly LOL. They're also wrapping up a "literature study" that we've been reviewing, and that I'll be writing the review for in the next couple of days.

We're reading our LAST book for the Civil War part of American History, then we will "jump back in time" to learn more about westward expansion since we skipped over that last summer. They're continuing to enjoy the Astronomy unit we reviewed, though now that it's not a "required review item" it isn't a priority to do EVERY day, this time of year, I try to keep "school" to a minimum to allow for plenty of outdoor time :)

That "plenty of outdoor time" has meant we haven't done as much with Little Bit's school lately either. In another week or two we'll be starting my FAVORITE unit from this curriculum though, so will be making it more of a priority LOL. It's all about insects, and soo fun!!!! I'm hoping she enjoys it as much as the big girls did at her age (and who are we kidding, *I* love it too!)

So, life's busy, and fun, and going great!!! :)

Schoolhouse Crew Review: Supercharged Science

My kids have always enjoyed science, especially when it's "experiments" and "how things work". So when it came up as a review choice, I figured they'd probably enjoy the e-Science subscription from Supercharged Science. And I was right :)


Supercharged Science is an e-science subscription for grades K-12. I love how flexible it is! There are lesson plans, for those who want to have everything planned out for them. There is textbook-ish reading for those who want to assign reading. There are TONS of experiments. And THAT is what caught my kids' attention and we pretty much stuck with that. We're not much on textbooks or lectures or . . . "doing school". But experiments, that's right up our alley! Or, more accurately, it's right up Sassy and MiniMe's alley. And if Daddy's home and hears about it, it's right up his alley. And I WANT it to be up my alley. In theory, it sounds great! But . . . then I think about the mess, sigh . . . and that is where this is even MORE awesome!!!! Because, not only does Supercharged Science have tons, and I do mean TONS of experiments, AND they have really done their best to make sure as many of them as possible use simple household items that are probably already in your house, or can be easily, and inexpensively obtained. But, here's the best part, for this mess-averse mom. They ALSO have well-done videos of Aurora DOING the experiments. So in many cases, my girls were perfectly happy to just WATCH HER do the experiment.

Some, they needed to try for themselves.  MiniMe was fascinated at the very idea of cheerios being magnetic and HAD to try that! Daddy was happy to hear she wanted to try that one, he LOVES Cheerios and I usually don't buy them, so this was a great excuse for him (and Little Bit) to get a box :)

Today they thought we should microwave a grape to see the plasma burn. But . . . the little disclaimer warning at the bottom of the experiment, mentioning that it MIGHT break the microwave was too much for me (mean mommy, I know), it WAS cool to see the video of it though, if I had a cheap old microwave, I just might have to try it too!

We received a one year subscription to Supercharged Science, this costs $37/mo for K-8 or $57/mo for K-12. You can read more about the pricing here.

This is a great way to make sure your children are getting a comprehensive science curriculum without much prep-work time for you. It can be used by anyone from a "school-at-home" homeschooler (with pre-made lesson plans, textbook-like reading, etc) to an unschooler, which was how we used this, just turning the kids lose with the experiments and letting them have a blast :)

While the program is listed as being K-8 or K-12, I think, based on what I've seen, it would probably be best starting around 3rd grade. I definitely think younger kids would enjoy doing the experiments and learning alongside older siblings, but I'm not sure I'd choose to spend the money on a subscription JUST for K-2 children.

To see what other members of the crew thought of this, click on the banner below.

Weekly Wrap-Up - April 8

After the busy, busy week of the girls' birthdays, this past week was a "quiet" week, but still lots of fun (and lots of time with our awesome neighbors! :)

On Monday we went over to E & J's house to play with them, and some other friends (T & K).  It was  not too cold, and windy, so J asked Penny if they could fly kites. And it was an awesome idea. All the kids had a blast. And the field across the street from our house (and next to E & J's house, is PERFECT for kite flying).

Tuesday was the end of Passover, so Wednesday morning we made bread. And of course, when you have fresh, homemade bread, you have to share with friends, so we invited Penny and the boys to come eat lunch with us :)

Thursday was a VERY  momentous day for Sassy. After piano lesson, we stopped by the violin shop and picked up a rental violin for her to use. She is SOO excited to start violin lesson this week!

Friday Daddy took all 3 girls to Grandmom's where they got to spend time with Grandmom and Aunt Lynette, and go to their favorite Chinese restaurant.

Sabbath we had a potluck lunch at church (as we do every 1st & 3rd Sabbath). Usually the kids all play for awhile after lunch, but this time, something had come up that Penny & Brian needed to leave right after the meal, and it was J's naptime. E was disappointed at not being able to stay and play, so I suggested that we could bring him home when we came. That worked well, and then, of course, once we got home, the kids all decided they needed to play. So E and the girls all played outside all afternoon, and J came and joined in after his nap, then we headed over to Penny & Brian's for supper :)

So that was our week. In between all the extra fun, we managed to squeeze in a good bit of school too. And while I had the house to myself on Friday, I got a good start on sorting/organizing all our books . . . :)

Book Review: The Magic Runes by Emma Leslie

Our first year reviewing for the Schoolhouse Crew, we were thrilled to review some books from Salem Ridge Press, and we loved them.  Since then we have purchased other books, and enjoyed all that we have read. So, when we had the chance to review ANOTHER book from this great company, there was much rejoicing and excitement.

Then came the hard part. How to choose ONE book from the list they gave us to choose from. After much discussion we decided on The Magic Runes.

This is a book set during the time of Charlemagne. It focuses on the conflict between Charlemagne and the Saxons. In this story, a Saxon family has been driven from their home by Charlemagne's army, all in the name of Christianity. They are found by a Charcoal burner and his daughter, who care for them, and show them what true Christian love is like.

We used this book as a read aloud, and if my girls had had their way, we'd have read it all in one sitting, LOL. All of us enjoyed it, and finished it in 3 or 4 days.

This story did a great job of weaving the history of the time period, including the atrocities Charlemagne's army committed in the name of "converting" the pagan Saxons, with the timeless lesson of the importance of witnessing by showing God's love to everyone.

This book is listed as being for ages 10-adult. Sassy and MiniMe (just turned 10) could easily have read it on their own, and probably WOULD have finished it in one sitting LOL.

One thing I love is that the publishers include definitions of unfamiliar words at the bottom of the page where the word first appears. I think that would be especially helpful with younger readers, though there were a few times I referenced it as well (and in several cases, as I read, they asked me what a word meant, and I was able to just glance to the bottom of the page and read the definition instead of having to think of how to describe it on my own.

My only "complaint" is that I wish the book had included a pronunciation guide for the names. I would have liked to make sure I was pronouncing the fictitious characters' names accurately, since they were reflective of the time period in which the story was set. If the girls had been reading the book on their own, I'm guessing they would have pronounced Charlemagne, phonetically (I would have, at that age), which might have led to confusion later when they learned about Charlemagne, and/or embarrassment if they were talking about him to others and mispronounced his name.

This book is great for history, Bible, or just for fun reading!

The softcover is $10.95 or you can choose hardcover for $20.95. My fellow crewmates and I were given a LONG list of books to choose from, so be sure to go read the other Schoolhouse Review Crew Reviews (just click on the banner below) to find out about a bunch of other great books from Salem Ridge Press.

Recipe: Egg Salad

This is going to be another one of those "dump" recipes . . . but it's a favorite at our house, so I thought I'd include it. In fact, Little Bit has declared it "MY FAVORITE!" :)

You will need:
A bunch of boiled eggs, peeled
mayonnaise
salt
celery seed
tumeric
whatever other herbs or spices strike your fancy

Chopping eggs is a great thing to have little ones help with. Little Bit was soo excited to be able to help make the egg salad and feel like she was REALLY helping. I just gave her a butter knife and let her chop away, using the plastic lid of the bowl that I was making the salad in, as her "chopping board". So, get those little helpers into the kitchen (make sure to dress them in yellow, with a yellow apron so they coordinate with the egg salad LOL), and chop away. Yu want all the egg whites chopped pretty small. The yolks are going to end up mashing in with the mayo anyway, so they don't matter. Once the eggs are all chopped, add a generous spoonful of mayonnaise, and a shake of whatever herbs and spices you're using (I'm not sure tumeric adds much flavor, but it's healthy, and adds yellow color, so I always include it), stir it all together, taste it, and add more of whatever it needs.  You can add pickle relish, chopped celery, whatever else you like too (I once had it with carmelized onions, that was yummy, but I think my kids would object if I did it that way LOL).

Serve it in sandwiches, or wraps. When we have sandwiches and a green salad, I often skip the bread and just add a generous spoonful of egg salad instead of dressing on my green salad. And I must admit, today for lunch, there was a little bit left, and I was the only one home, so I just took a spoon and finished it up LOL.

So there you have it, quick, easy, tasty, and great for little ones to help make!

Weekly Wrap-Up - April 2

Last week was insanely busy (LOTS of fun, just REALLY busy!)

Sunday:  Rodney and (neighbor) Brian, worked on setting up the basketball net the big girls got for their birthday, with some help from MiniMe. Despite the claims that it included all needed tools, ummm . . . not so much. But they eventually got it up and the girls have been enjoying it!

While they were getting sand for the base of the basketball hoop, I suggested they go ahead and get enough for the sandbox too. We've had it since the twins were toddlers, had it set up for awhile at the last house, but the big girls kind of out grew it, AND left the lid off a few times too many, so it hadn't been usable since Little Bit was old enough. She was very excited with her new toy :)

Penny and the boys (Brian's family) came over to play in the sandbox, and they all ended up staying for supper.

As they were leaving, Sassy pointed out that, if it snowed the next day, as predicted, we NEEDED to get together to play in the snow. And so, that brings us to . . .

Monday: it DID snow. We DID get together, and a great time was had by all! (except the poor men, who had to work instead of staying home to play with us LOL).

It's a good thing, the kids were impatient and insisted we go out and play in the snow that MORNING, because by afternoon, though it was continuing to snow, it had warmed up enough to melt what had stuck in the morning, as well as the new snow coming down.

All 5 kids worked together to build a snowman (though in some cases the help was . . . not real helpful LOL. Still, they managed to get one built, and it stood for at least 30 seconds before someone knocked   it down LOL.

Since we don't have any hills around here, the big girls decided to get the sled out and give the little kids rides. They wore out alot faster than the little kids did (especially when E wanted his turn since he's bigger than Little Bit and J), but it worked well, just the same.

After the big girls declared the sled-pulling-service to be ka-put, Little Bit and J figured out that the saucer worked pretty well on the handicap ramp that goes off our deck. 

Monday at sundown was the start of Passover. Daddy was working late that night, so it was just the girls and I for our seder. It was really nice. We opted for a simple meal of beans & rice, and used a simplified program to keep it from being too long for Little Bit, and it worked out very well. Even Little Bit enjoyed it :)

Tuesday was Little Bit's actual birthday.  When she woke up she discovered a path of yellow hearts leading from her bed to the "Birthday table". Yellow is her current favorite color, so I covered the table with a yellow playsilk, and made her a yellow felt birthday crown.  I'd LOVE to be able to afford a birthday ring or spiral, like this, but since I can't, at least for this year, I just made one out of modeling clay (it worked well, I may make one out of some type of air-dry clay so it can be permanent), and stuck birthday candles in it. For Little Bit, I used 3 yellow birthday candles and her "4" candle that we'd had for her cake. I set that on a pretty plate and had it on the table along with her presents and crown. She LOVED it all!!! 

She came downstairs and dove right into the presents. Once she'd torn through all her presents, she was ready to see what the candle ring was all about. Since her preschool curriculum is Waldorf-based, I've been reading more about Waldorf. One thing that is a part of birthdays in Waldorf schools and homes, is a "Rainbow Bridge" story. The traditional story starts with the child being an "angel, waiting to come to earth", which I wasn't comfortable with, so instead I modified it to start with a "tiny baby in a warm little nook" :) The story proceeds, personalized for the child, so in Little Bit's case, I mentioned how she wiggled alot. Then, when it was a time a "fairy whispered in her ear" that it was time, and she crossed the rainbow bridge and met her family. Typically, Waldorf schools use a large rainbow playsilk as the bridge (or might even have a wood bridge as part of their classroom), and I WOULD like to make a rainbow silk at some point (first I need to find my stash of undyed silks . . . ), but for this year, I used our large rainbow stacker, and just split the pieces up and lined them so that they formed a "path" for her to walk across. After that I lit the first candle, and said a couple quick things about when she was one, and so on for each year. When we had lit the 4 candle, she got to blow them all out. She LOVED it!! We ended up doing it at least 3 or 4 times LOL. The rest of the day continued with meals of her choice and, at her request, a trip to Target to spend her birthday money on LaLaLoopsies. 

Wednesday, Penny and the boys had invited us over to play (E was sad that he would be at the babysitter's on both actual birthdays, so we agreed to get together on the day in between). Sassy and MiniMe had told Penny about the miniature daffodils that grew wild by the creek at our old house and usually bloomed just in time for the girls' birthday. So E helped Penny pick out 3 pots of miniature daffodils to give to the girls for their birthday. They were very excited!! Penny also had a special birthday dessert ready for them. We had PLANNED to only stay until after lunch, but the kids were all playing outside so nicely that we ended up staying most of the day.

Thursday was the big girls' birthday. I did pink and purple hearts and pink & purple playsilks, and pink and purple crowns, and TEN candles on the spiral. Even though they didn't make a big deal about it, I think they enjoyed having all the same fun, Little Bit had :) 

Thursday is Piano Lesson & Errand day, so piano lesson took up part of their birthday (MiniMe was ok with that, but Sassy was rather annoyed, though I DID make a point of contacting the violin rental place that day to at least get the ball rolling on the violin lessons, STILL playing phone tag with him, sigh . . .), then we went to Chipotles for lunch, at their request. Instead of stopping to get groceries on our way home, I opted to go home first, figuring I'd have to run out on Friday to get groceries. But Rodney was working from home, so it worked out to leave them home, to play Legos all afternoon while I went back out to get groceries and such. We wrapped up the day with the supper of their choice :) 

On Friday E & J saw the girls playing outside and decided they needed to come play :) So they brought their basketballs over and all the kids played basketball and E, J and Little Bit played in the sandbox, and they all went out and threw sticks in the creek or somesuch. Since they were still here at lunchtime we decided to combine resources for lunch.

After lunch Sassy and MiniMe had to get ready for Miss Denise to pick them up to take them with her to rehearsal at the church for the Easter program.

So, Sabbath for church was an Easter program. I didn't have time to figure out "real" costumes for Sassy and MiniMe, but they used their baby wraps as headcoverings, and wore solid color dresses, and I think it worked. They passed out rocks (that everyone took up to the front as a "laying down of burdens" kind of thing, at the end), and then dismissed the rows at the end. AND it occurs to me, that I don't have any pictures yet. A friend who was already taking pictures said she'd e-mail hers to me, so I'll have them eventually :) 

Sabbath afternoon, since we hadn't seen Brian and Penny much (ha!) we went to their house for lunch, and finally went home at suppertime LOL. When the kids were all playing outside, J got out his motorized "motorcycle, and was taking Little Bit for rides on it :) 

And then, Little Bit got a turn driving :)  Once she figured out what buttons to push, she did pretty well, though she struggled abit with the concept of lifting her foot off the pedal to stop LOL. I think that smile says it all :)

And as proof that even after spending significant parts of FIVE days with Penny and the boys, on Saturday night we got home, ate supper, and Little Bit immediately asked "now can E & J come over to play?" LOL.

So, a fun week! Believe it or not we DID manage to squeeze school into the nooks and crannies of our packed week, AND do a relatively good job of keeping up on chores.

Crew Review: A Journey Through Learning

We've enjoyed lapbooks from time to time ever since we started homeschooling. So we were excited to get to review lapbooking and notebooking products from A Journey Through Learning. They very generously gave us FOUR products, and asked that we use at least one of them during the review period. The four products were:

Letters, Numbers, and Shapes (age 3-5)
The Earth (Grades 1-4)
Knights and Castles (Grades 2-7)
Astronomy and Space (Grades 2-7)

I let MiniMe and Sassy choose which one they wanted to do, and they agreed on Astronomy, after I told them that I'd prefer they do one of the science ones, since this year has been pretty strong in history and not so much with science. I also started through the Letters, Numbers and Shapes lapbook with Little Bit.

Astronomy and Space is different from the other choices because it's a unit study/study guide, NOT a lapbook. I made sure the girls understood that, and they were fine with it. It is laid out to do one "lesson" per day for a little more than a month. Each lesson includes a page or two to read, .and then questions or an activity to go along with what was read. There are also vocabulary lists in the back, listing words from the reading and the student writes in the definitions.

I printed out the complete file for each of the girls, and then used my handy-dandy binding machine to bind them into a book for each girl. That way their reading and their questions are all in one place, easier to keep track of!

Since we are very much NOT a workbook kind of homeschool, there has been some balking, mainly from Sassy, about doing the more workbook-ish pages, and she is not at all a fan of writing out the definitions of the vocabulary words. But overall, I think they've enjoyed it. Not surprisingly, their favorite parts tend to be the hands-on things.  One disappointment was that one of the "experiments" required something to be set outside on a warm day (I believe the minimum temperature 

was 85 degrees, though I may be remembering wrong. It was high enough that it most definitely was NOT going to happen here, in March, certainly not THIS March, where we're STILL seeing snow in the forecast in APRIL!). The girls commented that "they should tell you, this study has to be done when it's warm".

Something else, I really wish was included, was a comprehensive list of all required supplies (there is a "list of supplies" but it only lists a 3 ring binder, tabs, and the study guide) . One of the days, the assignment is to read a biography about Neil Armstrong. Sassy was excited about that, and asked if we could please get the Childhood of Famous American's biography about him, which was great, but then we had to wait while I requested it from the library and it came in. She was still thrilled to read it when it came, but it would have been nice if I'd known we'd need it, and could have had it ready when she got to that lesson. Same with various craft supplies, knowing what we needed, without reading through the entire notebook ahead of time, would have been helpful, especially things like an empty paper towel roll, we rarely use paper towels, so I would absolutely NOT have been able to produce one, much less 2, paper towel rolls on demand. Thankfully, I remembered our neighbor mentioning that she had a whole trash bag of paper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls that she kept on hand for her kids' crafts, so we were able to get some from her.

Finally, just something to be aware of. The intro information at the beginning of the study says that doing one lesson per day, this study will take "about a month". I assumed that by "per day" they meant roughly 5 days per week. A few weeks into the study, I actually sat down and counted the "lessons" and there were 27. So apparently, when they say "per day' they are expecting you to school 7 days a week.

All in all, they've enjoyed the Astronomy study, and it's seemed to be good for their grade level. When I mentioned to MiniMe that I needed to write this review, she said "but I can still finish up the study, right? It's interesting. I wouldn't want to do workbooks like this all the time, but once in awhile, it's fun."

And a final picture from Astronomy. Not specifically listed in the notebook, but we can't do a lesson on the phases of the moon without our very own Oreo moon phases, right?!

I am not in favor of requiring academics of preschool age children, so I let Little Bit choose, from day to day, whether or not, and how much, she wanted to do in her lapbook (if you are not familiar with lapbooks, near the bottom of A Journey Through Learning's homepage, is an explaination). She has not finished it. Sometimes she'll go a week or longer and say no every time I suggest working on it, other times, she excitedly does several minibooks all in one sitting.


One thing that's worked well is taking this with us to MiniMe's piano lesson. It's a great, quiet activity for Little Bit.



 This lapbook is made with 3 file folders, it includes minibooks for the letters of the alphabet, counting, shapes, and colors. We have been working through it in order and she's probably about halfway through it. When she's in the mood, she's enjoyed it. I'd say it's a good option for a preschooler who likes to cut and glue and enjoys letters and numbers. I'm never a fan of pushing academics on this age group, so if your child would rather dig in the dirt, my vote is to go with it :).

I did have a couple minor complaints about this one. A couple of the minibooks are actually pockets to place cards in. The "pocket" is no where near large enough for the cards to fit, if everything is printed normally. It's pretty easy to work around, I just cut out the front of the pocket and glued it onto a larger "pocket" that I made with plain paper, but if I were purchasing this product I would be frustrated with having to tweak something so basic.

The other one that I'm still pondering, is a minibook that asks the child to draw various animals. It's a "counting thing" so one page asks you to draw one dog, two cats, etc. I KNOW if I had asked MiniMe to draw specific animals (or things) with no instruction on HOW to draw them successfully, that at that age, or even up to a couple of years ago, it would have led to a complete meltdown because "it doesn't LOOK like a dog!!!" Little Bit, I'm not sure, she's done great drawing things that start with each letter of the alphabet, often coming up with NOT the easiest thing, BUT that's when she is the one coming up with what to draw. My concern is with asking a child to draw something specific, and not give them any help on HOW to draw it (and quite frankly, *I* am not going to be much help at drawing realistic, or even recognizable animals). So, just be aware of that minibook and decide if it works for your child. One of the things I love about lapbooks is that it's usually pretty easy to leave our a minibook that doesn't work for your child (or you).

All of these products are available as instant downloads for $13 each (there is pricing for CDs, printed, etc on the website as well).  This is a great value for the astronomy notebook. For the preschool lapbook, it depends on how "crafty" you are. I think I could have come up with something similar using free printables online, but for someone who doesn't feel creative enough, or doesn't have time to hunt down free printables, this is a great option.

Everyone on this review for the Schoolhouse Review Crew received the same 4 downloads, so click on the banner below to see what others thought of the 2 we reviewed AND the other two.