Hands of a Child

I wanted to post this over the weekend but we just had a very busy week last week so I thought I would take the time today. I am preparing for WB 24 and decided to choose the Mayan, Aztec, & Inca study as one of my projects.I was having trouble finding a easy to use tool for this study.Ancient Egypt you can find a ton of great products but not this topic. I could not find any great living books either.Hands of a Child came to the rescue this time. They have so many unit studies to choose from at many different age levels. There are many unit studies that go perfect with the WB. I purchased a Hands of a Child lapbook a few years back & was very frustrated for two reasons. One I did not purchase the answer key because I thought it was included & I purchased an ebook.Now you might not need an answer key or ebooks might work for you but I am so much more comfortable reading from a book and feel more comfortable knowing the right information is being placed in the lapbook. You can get the answers from the book but this saves time for me. Another nice thing about Hands of a Child is they sell stickers, coloring books, paper dolls etc, that you can use to spice up your lapbook or notebook. The only thing with the Dover products is there is nudity in them so be sure to tear them out ASAP or cover them with stickers etc. if it is a paper doll.

On the left is the answer key book.It has a schedule for you so you can pace your self. It tells you what to read & what mini-booklet to do. On the right is a sample of the lesson which is great you don't have to spend time researching the information and simply read it out loud. You can choose to have older students read it on their own or research & look for the answers instead.

On the left is the answer key to the mini-booklet.This is great to help in saving time if you are assisting your students with the information and an answer key if you choose to have older students do the research to check them. On the right is a sample of a mini-book. Another thing I like about the book is you can make copies so if your computer dies life goes on lol.I have learned the hard way do not totally depend on computers that is another reason purchasing the printed book is beneficial to me.

You also have the option to purchase a CD that they place in your book. I love that option to since I print more than I copy.Again, if the computer dies on me my mini book is on CD. On the right they also give examples of were you can place the mini-booklets etc. in a lapbook but these are just suggestions you can do your lapbook how you want or place the mini-books in a notebook.

The printed book is a little more costly but I can place it on my bookshelf and have it ready to go when I go through the WB again. I also like that Hands of a Child does let you use it in a co-op setting. Other companies have you pay fees.

I was so frustrated with the first Hands of a Child lapbook that I tried (ebook with no answer key)but now that I have the printed book & answer key in my hands I can't wait to use it when we do WB24.
www.handsofachild.com

WB 23 Civil War

Today we did just a project day. We continued our study in the Civil War.

WEC Spring 2010 week 9 & closing program

Today was the closing program for our co-op.There still is one more week.Here is Dom & Joe in front of the two class room displays.

Job is showing his book he made in the his pre-school alphabet class.

Daniel & Angelo really enjoy their Draw Write Now Class.
of course what boy would not enjoy a Medieval class. The teachers each set up a display table so the parents can see what the students learned during the past semester. Angelina took an art class.She was practicing for a performance while we were taking some pictures. I wish I would of taken a picture of my display table :/

Daniel, Angelo, & Job were in the Noahs Ark play. Daniel had two parts of course he was a lion & Angelo was able to be a tiger :O)
Job is showing one of the many cute things he has made in his pre-school art class.

We had a great time of fellowship afterwards. We had no power because of an aggressive storm that came through so we were thankful when we pulled up to the church and there was power. When we came home our power was restored praise the Lord!

WB 23 Theme Song & Civil War

Today we did our Theme Song worksheet. We then continued our Civil war study. One of the nice things about the Time Travelers series is the timeline you slowly work through as go through the lessons. I think time lines are so important in studying history. I am thankful the WB include a timeline with each WB that you can use as a tool to copy or use as a guide to place in a notebook or lapbook.

WB 23 Character Quality WS & Civil War

WB 23~* Meditation WS & Civil War

Verse: Mathew 5:25-26 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him.....

Today we did the Meditation Worksheet & then lesson 2 on the Civil War. Daniel continued in his notebook while the older students worked on their notebook.

Even though these are pictures of yesterday lesson, I wanted to state what a world of difference it makes now that I have printed out the teacher manual. In the past I have tried to save paper & time by reading off the computer. I have learned at least for me I am very old fashion and love to hold a book in my hands! I enjoy reading the lesson like a read aloud then doing the projects. Amy Pak's projects are a great compliment to the lesson.She has crafts too which you can do or not do.Since we made a can lantern earlier this year I choose to skip this craft. Another advantage of a printed out teachers manual is the students can look at the instructions for maps or time lines etc.

Finally I think a benefit of printing everything out is when we do this WB again it will be on my shelf ready to go.
Our recent field trip to the Johnstown flood museum went perfect with this lesson.Since we live in the north the were able to see from the museum what the north was like during that time with the Steel mills and coal mining etc.It it was also good for the kids to understand how hard it was for the immigrants as they came over to work in the mills while the south problems were the slaves. Our freedoms are not to be taken for granted and we are so blessed.I would not want to be an immigrant in the mill or a slave during the time of the Civil War so I am counting my blessings today!

WB 23~Major Concept & Wisdom Quiz

Today we did WB 23 Major Concept~*Agreeing Quickly requires Wisdom & humility. We did the Commands of Christ Be Wise as Serpents Command 22.We then began our study on the Civil War which we will work on all month.

I spent 3 days printing all the notebooking pages & mini-booklets for the WB 23 notebook. I then bound all of them to make a complete notebook for WB23. There are worksheets for each resource. It was a lot of work but now that it is done the rest of the month will be minimal prep work since everything is in the notebook.

Now that the weather is getting warmer we are spending the evenings riding the horses and the kids are getting riding lessons.