School Day Outtakes-First Day Back

It's been a little while since we had an official school day.  It was really nice to be back!!  I'm hoping to get a couple school days in this week and next and then go back full time in August.

We've been using a new curriculum during Bible time called Bible Study Guide for All Ages.  Review coming soon, but we love it!

We are also reviewing the Notgrass Draw To Learn books as part of our Bible time.  This one is Life of Jesus. Very neat program.

Remember last week when I mentioned that I was having a hard time interesting the kids in botany?  Ha, well, I brought out this book for our group learning time and afterwards, all they wanted to do was Botany.  I think the nature studies helped, too, because now Mustang is starting to notice the leaf shapes.   We also have some great root lessons coming up-thanks to the carrots in our garden :).

Roots by John Farndon, it is okay.  Has some good info, some annoying info (about our prehistoric humans who looked like apes-unnecessary in a book about roots), but over all okay.  Due to the content, it's the kinda book I recommend checking out at the library and not purchasing ;).

It did, however, motivate all the parts of a plant work.

And the parts of a root work.  All of our botany printables come from The Helpful Garden (free).

The little girls had some new work on their shelf today.  This one is OLD, but my littles haven't tried it.  It is clipping clothes pins on a cottage cheese container.  Mini Cooper loved it.

Going with our 'beach' theme, the Melissa and Doug spill toy.  She's too big for it, got them in and out on one try and then put it on the shelf.  They grow too fast!

Melissa and Doug under the sea puzzle.  I was impressed that Mini Cooper got this put together all by herself!

Explorer tried out the clothes pins, too. Of course she put them on upside down, but there is certainly some hand-eye coordination needed for that!

Happily working.  Love!!

Heading outside for a nature study.  Mini Cooper dressed herself today, and both girls insisted on their boots.  Love them!!

A bug just randomly dropped on their picnic table.  They watched it for quite awhile.

For our nature study, we followed the Handbook of Nature Study for cats. Mustang is very interested in our barn cat lately, so I thought this would be a good lesson.

Wendy was pretty good about the whole thing, and I am quite sure Mustang learned some new things about our cat!

She wouldn't show us her teeth, though, lol!!  So, we will have to finish our lesson with internet sources.

So that's our first day back.  Of course some other things happened, too, but those are the highlights.

Hope your schooling or summering is going well!

Thanks for stopping by,
I hope you will come again.
God Bless,
Lisa

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TOS Review: Dive Into Your Imagination

Even though the calendar disagrees, it has been summer here for over a month.  The hot sunny days have certainly been making us wish that a trip to the ocean was on our list of to dos this summer!  Unfortunately, it's not going to happen this year.  But, we have been enjoying the next best thing.  The ocean has come to us!

We have been watching this super fun DVD, What Makes A Fish A Fish?, from Dive Into Your Imagination.

  Dive Into Your Imagination was founded by Annie Crawley.  Ms. Crawley, also known as Ocean Annie, grew up in Chicago and followed her dreams to become an underwater videographer, author, photographer, award winning youth speaker, and a producer.  I really enjoyed reading all about Ocean Annie's exciting adventures in her biography.

What Makes A Fish A Fish? is one of three DVD's in the Dive Into Your Imagination series.  It teaches children about astounding fish from around the world.  It contains 8 different segments including:

*Frogfish are Funny

*Hide & Seek on the Reef

*Bath Time for Fishes

*Don't be Afraid of Sharks

*Dinner Time for Fish 

and more!

The DVD run time is 37 minutes, so each segment is pretty short but not too short.

The Dive Into Your Imagination Series retails for $19.95 each and are available on the Dive Into Your Imagination site and on Annie Crawley's website.  

So what did we think?

We really enjoyed this DVD!  The pictures are BEAUTIFUL!!  They are extremely high quality and very well done.  I felt like not only had the ocean come to me, but also a science center or aquarium, it is that good.  Ocean Annie kept the attention of myself and all four children with her enjoyable information and amazing video.  The information included is wonderful.  Even I learned new things and saw many new fish.  

And, not only are the DVD's great, but there are also teacher's guides to go with each DVD.  The teacher's guides are awesome!  The guides are almost 300 pages in length and are FILLED with great ideas on how to bring the DVD's to life.  There are complete lesson plans and printable packs for every single chapter in the movie!  The teacher guides come in either grades Pre-K through K or 1st-3rd.  

The Teacher Guides include art and craft ideas, math, literature, writing, and spelling activities.  Combine the DVD and Teacher's pack and you have your entire summer curriculum! 

The Teacher Guides are available in a print edition for $299.00, or PDF for $69.95.  But, if you are a homeschool parent, when you order a DVD, Ocean Annie with include the PDF for FREE!  This is for a short time, though I'm not exactly sure how long. So, if you are at all interested this would be the time to order!  When you do, write that you are a homeschool parent in the memo so that you can get your guide.

For the entire months of May and June, shipping is also FREE, so be sure to take advantage of these generous offers on the Dive Into Your Imagination DVD's.

I really can't say enough great things about the Dive Into Your Imagination DVD's and fabulous Educator Guide.  They have made learning about the ocean a lot more fun at our house this summer!  But, don't just take my word for it, check out this sample chapter,  Frog Fish:

You can also read what my fellow crew mates had to say about Dive Into Imagination by checking out the TOS Review Crew Blog.  

Thanks for stopping, er swimming, by and God Bless!!

Disclaimer:  As part of the TOS Review Crew I received a free copy of What Makes A Fish A Fish? DVD and a PDF download of the Educator Guides in exchange for an honest review.  I was not required to write a positive review.  All opinions expressed are my own.  I was not paid for my review. 

Coffee Filter Fish

This week the kids and I made some adorable little fish out of coffee filters.  I'd like to say it was my idea, but we were just following the suggestion of our curriculum.  They came out so cute, however, I thought I'd share with you.

Day one, use markers to color a coffee filter.

Or if you are Mini Cooper, color your lips.  She has the worst habit of doing this when I am not looking.  Not sure how I caught this on camera.

Spray down the filters and leave them to dry-in our case overnight.

When dry, cut out a fish.  We were provided a template with our Bob Jones Curriculum, but it was actually too big for the filter.  So we improvised.

We added googly eyes.

Tons of glue (kids like glue).

And even more glitter-we sparkled all day!

Mini added 3 eyes-we are working on learning body parts lol.

We created a whole school of fish!  

Yes, we-it looked so fun I made the one at the beginning of the post.  It was, indeed, fun!

Mustang's

and Charger's.

When you are done...destroy the template with scissors.  

I love how focused Charger is in this photo!

We will be hanging our fish for display tomorrow.  It was a great little craft!

God Bless!

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