J is for Jelly Belly Factory

*This trip to Jelly Belly Factory took place in November 2015*

I am very behind on my field trips! I haven't posted since the letter F, so I will get those letters that I missed up eventually. This week is J, and I had a really hard time coming up with something that we could do currently. But this trip we took to the Jelly Belly factory back in 2015 fits perfectly. I can't believe this was almost 4 years ago. Seems like we just went.

I must have used my camera phone which at the time wasn't very good. I don't know why. I do remember that we had a sick kid, but we weren't sure how sick yet. He just started not feeling well. I might have been a little stressed and probably didn't want to take my big camera around. It was still a fun trip though.

Going to the Jelly Belly factory was a side trip and halfway stopping point during our trip down to Southern California for Thanksgiving, on the way home. We did have to divert off the Interstate 5 path, so it added a few hours to our trip home. It was worth the extra drive though. The kids really enjoyed it.

The whole place has jelly beans everywhere! It was pretty busy the day we went. I can't remember what day it was. It might have been a Saturday. We immediately got in line for the tour.

Giant jelly beans floating above. Awesome.

There were so many pictures made of Jelly Belly beans. It was fun to walk through the exhibits and see the creations. The kids all got hats. The kid missing from this picture (Aric) is the one that wasn't feeling well. Look how young these guys look!

One of the pictures up a little closer. I don't know why I didn't get the whole display in the picture?

They got some free jelly beans in their hat at the end of the tour. Yumm!

 And, of course, we had to buy some to take home!

That concludes our letter J field trip for this week! I am linkng this up with abc blogging through the alphabet.

Famous Artists Unit Study (A REVIEW)

My kids love to do school on the computer, or any kind of device that I will let them use. We have a lot of fun choices for math, science, learning apps, games, art, and so much more being discovered everyday. There are online classes, and even virtual schools. It's amazing the education kids can get through computers/online today, and my kids seem to always want more of it. I've had to let go of my "less screen" mantra, and embrace the online world of learning because my kids continually ask for more of it. I've slowly been learning that the technology world is their future, and I must learn to accept it and teach them to be wise in their use. So I was excited when I first learned about a review for  Techie Homeschool Mom. She helps us homeschool parents learn how to be more comfortable in the technology that our kids are using everyday. She offers Online Unit Studies that utilize online resources, and teach through fun unit studies that she created.

When we log in to start our unit study, this is the icon we click on to get to the course we want from the courses we have purchased.

The unit study course that we chose and received access to was Famous Artists Online Unit Study (Vol. 1), which includes 10 different famous artists to study.  After enrolling for the course we have unlimited access to the course itself to use on any device that has internet access. No other books are needed, just a few supplies for the hands on projects. Everything else is done through videos, websites, and digital projects within the unit study.

To begin we log-in to our account at the Techie Homeschool Mom website. It takes us directly to a page with our courses, we chose the one we want to work on. In our case, the only course we were registered for is this one. We click on that image, and it takes us to the main page (see picture just above) where we can see our progress. The things we've already worked on have been checked off. We can go in order and do the next thing/artist, or we can choose a different artist that might interest us. In the beginning of the course we had some basics to work through first. Such as getting some things set up, getting to know how the course would work, and some basics of art.

One way that we really like to do unit studies is with the laptop hoooked up to the TV so we can all see it because I have younger children that need help navigating through things. This worked really well for seeing the videos and the art work in this unit study, and lets us have a nice discussion together.

The Leonardo DaVinci first lesson page. There are often videos and websites to click over to from these lesson pages. Once it's complete we click complete and continue and it marks it off.

After we got through the basics of the course and a short introduction to art it was finally time to start with the artists. We went ahead and did the next thing which was the famous artist Leonardo DaVinci. Each artist is broken up into 4-5 sections. The last 2 sections being a hands-on art project and a digital project/showcase. The lessons are easy to follow, and they flow. It took 1-2 hours to get through an artist (depending on how much we talk), which can be broken up in any way we choose because the website saves our progress. We can work on a section in a day, or all of an artist.

Notes on DaVinci with Google Docs. One of the recommended ways to take notes in the course.

There are many websites and programs used as we go through the course. These include Google docs (for taking notes), and Emaze (for presentations). Both are free to make accounts with, and easy to access.

The Leonardo DaVinci hands-on art project was to make a parody of the Mona Lisa. This involved a light table for tracing the Mona Lisa, so we made a temporary light table.

We traced the Mona Lisa, and had to decide what kind of parody we wanted to make. I made a Baseball fan. My son tried to make a Star Wars theme with a light saber, but he couldn't get the arm right, and gave up. His tracing came out great, but he gave up when he got frustrated. It never got colored. This project was harder than it looks!

I too got a little frustrated, but I persevered and was able to get a completed picture. I am stil lnot happy with how the coloring came out. I wish I had used colored pencils instead of markers for better coloring, but oh well. It is what it is. Still a very fun project.

This unit study resource is amazing. I learned so many new things about doing a unit study online, and how to use some new amazing websites with my kids. This is a great opportunity to get to know some new technology while learning at the same time. This is the future for our kids. They will have to know how to navigate the online world, and how to create projects for their ideas or work. I am really excited to see what the other courses are like at Techie Homeschool Mom because I plan to purchase more of the other ones in the future as we finish this one.

In the mean time if you want to see what unit studies the other crew members tried out you can click on the banner below.

Wordless Wednesday: Soup

Monday's lunch!

So delicious, and healthy. Probably the healthiest lunch I've had in a long time.

CrossWired Science (A REVIEW)

This review is a bit different than any review I've done before, and it's because we had the opportunity to try out a new science program that is still in the works, but we were able to start using it as sort of a beta test. CrossWired Science has given us (so far) Sound, and Fluid Dynamics to try out, and more units are coming soon. There is so much fun stuff in this science program, even with just the 2 units we received that I look forward to the rest as it rolls out, and as it is fine tuned even more I think it will be an awesome science curriculum. My boys actually asked to do CrossWired Science first each school day!

CrossWired Science homepage

CrossWired Science is an online/video based science curriculum. Every lesson includes a video and a quiz to complete after the lesson. For example in the first unit, Fluid Dynamics, when clicked on it opens up to a whole page of lessons. The student starts with the first video/image and it opens up a video to watch along with a quiz to take. Once the student completes the video and quiz that part of the lesson is checked off. Then they can move onto the next image (See next picture for example).

The lesson page with images to show student what they need to work on.

Along with videos to watch there are also experiment pages, general link pages, activity pages, field trip pages, and more. where the student has to complete things and submit a paragraph or 2 about what they did. There are so many great choices within those different pages that my boys have kind of gotten stuck. They want to do some of the more involved science experiments (like raise fish in a fish tank) which is awesome, but it has taken us a little more time to figure those out because we have had to go to the fish store and price things out. There are some easy experiments too! I keep trying to convince them to do one of the easier experiments, but I do love all the choices within this science curriculum. So many ways to make great connections in science with the videos and the world around us.

A glimpse of some of the experiments offered in the Fluid Dynamics unit.

The videos are so fun to watch, and they keep the kids' attention so well. Most of them involve images and clips of things to help explain the concept. There are also people that talk about the science concepts and explain the things that are happening within the video. They tell stories, and explain things with language that kids can understand easily while also introducing new vocabulary words and explaining them. CrossWired science is an integration of many different kinds of sciences which is why it is called CrossWired. It crosses science from different topics so that you can see how it all works together. I think this is an excellent way to learn science, and love this idea.

This is a shot of the screen while the video is playing. It can also fit the screen if the student wants.

What ages is CrossWired science for? Any! It is good for preschoolers all the way up through high school. How is this possible? CrossWired science says this:

 "One of the favorite CWS mantras is “What you sow at 4, grows at 5 and shows at 6.” This means that what children begin to absorb at four, grows in their understanding when they are five and much is added to it."

The videos are done in such a way that they are interesting for all ages, and the concepts are explained in such a way that it is advanced for an older child, and the younger child just benefits from what he/she can understand. I had my 2nd, 5th, and 7th grder working on this. They enjoyed all of it, even at their different levels. Obviously the older the child the more they'll be able to do without a parents help. My boys are mostly able to complete it on their own with help from me for the activites and experiments. I am all for a curriculum with less for me to do!

I really enjoy this curriculum. I love the depth the lessons go into, but also the freedom it has with regards to experiments and activities. The videos are just fun and packed with information. There is just so much science fun with CrossWired Science! I really recommend you take a look. It is still in development stages, but it is improving each day, and has improved a lot even in our review period.

If you'd like to see what others had to say you can click on the banner below.

Wordless Wednesday

Spring!

Transcripts Made Easy (A REVIEW)

With my 7th grader quickly approaching the end of his 7th grade year, and the last year of middle school I am starting to think about his high school years, so I was excited to for this review of  Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler's Guide to High-School Paperwork from Everyday Education to help me prepare. I have to admit homeschooling the high school years feels really intimidating to me, but reading this has given me a little bit more confidence and understanding.

Cover of Transcripts Made Easy by Janice Campbell

I received this book through email as an e-book. I downloaded it to my computer and opened it up as a pdf. At first I was going to read it just on the computer, but decided it would be worth it to print it up so I could read it anywhere, and refer back to it. It is a 130 page book with many pages to write things down including worksheets for keeping track of subjects, a transcript form, a reading log, and much more. There's a lot of great  helps and tools in this book!

My printed up black and white version

How did I use this? Since my son is only in 7th grade I am not ready to use this to its fullest yet, so I have not been able to implement anything yet, but I read and skimmed through it with the mindset that we will be using it soon.

The book is split up into 6 parts, starting with meeting the transcript to creating the transcript and everything in between. Followed by all the reproducibles and resources at the end. This book covers everything you could think of, and even the stuff I didn't think of! It also includes information for unschoolers/non-graders and what to do if you are a very relaxed homeschool family. It can even help if  you have a senior and need a transcript right now. There is literally a tutorial on how exactly to layout a transcript, and exactly what to put in it. There is also information on how to create a high school diploma too!

Another great thing covered in this book are many tips on preparing your homeschooler for college, and not just the credit/transcript side, but the practical side too. The reality of it. For example there is a section called "Seven strategies for a successful year at college. These are things you can do to help your high schooler to prepare for the realities of college life. They are things I didn't even think about, but I am thankful they were pointed out in this book. There is so much to think about with the realities of college that I am wishing I had thought about with my daughter who is almost done with her senior year. I am looking foward to talking to her about some of these things. Even though I am not making a transcript for her, I wish I would have found this book a long time ago. It would have helped me in other ways as she navigated her high school years.

I highly recommend reading this if you have a homeschooled child getting ready to enter the high school years. Even if they have already started, it's not too late. And even if you aren't creating a transcript yourself for your child this book is a great resource for thinking about needs for college and preparing your student.

If you'd like to see what other review crew members had to say about this e-book: Transcripts Made Easy, you can click on the banner below.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for (continued):

8. Family time in any form
9. Kids who like to bake
10. Plenty of books to read
11. Starting a new puzzle

This is part of my ongoing thankful list. My last thankful list was back in January, yikes!

Desiree

Laura Ingalls Wilder, A Storybook Life (A REVIEW)

We had the opportunity to try out another biography from YWAM Publishing. This time we chose Heroes of History- Laura Ingalls Wilder from their  Heroes of History series. We love these biographies because they are packed with so much information, and they are fun to read aloud together. This title was just as great, and really gives a great overview of Laura Ingalls Wilder's life through all her books.

For this review we received a physical copy of the book Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Storybook Life, and and electronic access to the Unit Study Curriculum Guide. The book is a standard sized book with a nice soft cover, and almost 200 pages of reading inside. The Unit Study Guide is available in pdf format and easily printable. I was able to print it up into a booklet about the same size as the book, and the pages printed back to back very easily, so I was able to save a lot of paper. I had it stapled in the middle so it would stay together, but in the past I have also coil bound these books.

 The book

Laura Ingalls Wilder--A Storybook Life

As I said before this book is packed with information about Laura Ingalls Wilder, her life, her books, and her family. It has many portions of her story from her own books along with some new information to tell the story of her life. Some of the chapter titles are even the same as the titles of some of her books. As an avid fan of her books it was fun to recognize and read portions of her books as I read this biography. I was also excited for some of the new information that is intertwined into the book. A Storybook Life is a great compilation of her life using her books, along with other pieces of her history that she may not have written about herself.

The Study Guide 

Unit Study Curriculum Guide

The Study Guide is just packed with really great ideas to go along with the reading. Not only is there the Chapter Questions (which we use the most), but there are ideas for student explorations, quotes, a display corner, and much more. This can help cover so many subjects including History, Geography, Writing, Public Speaking, Drama, Art, and Reading Comprehension. Unit studies are a great way to accomplish a lot of subjects, and this study guide is a really great resource for that. We didn't even get to half the things suggested.

One of the things we did do was a display corner. I've always wanted to do this for the past YWAM books we've read, but never really had the resources or time. This time we were able to pull some things together including displaying a good portion of Laura's books that we own, some paper dolls to represent her family, some era clothing (including bonnets that we had), a barn and a log cabin to represent her life on a farm and living in a cabin as a child, and a quote board with some of her quotes. What I didn't get around to doing was some actual pictures of real-life Laura Ingalls Wilder. I was going to print a few up and put them in a frame. I am pretty happy with how our display turned out though, and would highly recommend doing this with your children. My boys (who have a hard time really getting into Laura) had a blast putting some of these things together with me.

Laura Ingalls Wilder display corner

At the beginning of the biography it introduces Laura in her older age when she was attending a book signing for her ever popular books. It talked about how she longed to just be back home on her farm because that is where she was most comfortable, so one of our first projects was to make a barn for our display. Somehow. I brainstormed a bit because I really wanted my boys to be involved in the making of these things for our display. Then it occured to me that they could build something! My boys love to build. Luckily, we didn't have to build something from scratch. I was able to do a quick search on our favorite online marketplace and found a wooden barn kit. It was reasonable price, and looked fairly easy to build.

My 8 year-old and I worked on it one morning. It needed to be glued together as we built it, so he couldn't really do it all himself.

I did most of the painting as I wanted it to look a certain way. But my boys gave lots of suggestions that I took.

Painting the barn for Laura's farm display.

The final result was a cute barn complete with animals. Alex had fun putting all the animals around it.

Creating a farm scene was so much fun. It was Laura's favorite place to be.

Another thing I wanted to do was represent Laura's family in some way. I thought about doing a family tree, but didn't have time to fully develop that idea. I did come across some Little House paper dolls though. I thought that would be a perfect way to include the boys. Again, I had to find something to accomplish this. I thought about just printing some up, but I found and purchased this book of paper dolls instead because they would look better.

I purchased the paper doll set to include in our display

The boys had fun cutting them out even though this is a very "girl" activity. I was so glad that they were happy to do this. It also turned out to be a great activity for them to do while we read the book aloud together. I did end up having to do a lot of the cutting out, but theyd did some. These are very detailed pictures!

Some of the activites for the boys to do while we read the book included cutting out and making paper dolls to represent Laura's family.

As a review crew we had many titles we could choose from, so other members of the crew are reviewing different names such as Heroes of History- George Washington, or Christian Heroes- C.S. Lewis. You can click on the banner below to see what titles the other crew members chose to review. Maybe there is someone that interests you!

F is for Farm (in the Fall!)

 Bauman Farms Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

October 8, 2018

This field trip is from last fall when we went to the pumpkin patch at Bauman Farms with our homeschool group. We go every year, and I was beginning to think that my kids had grown out of this field trip (mostly the older ones), but they had a really good time this time.

These pedal bikes were a blast. The boys spent the most time on these things.

 They were pretty  hard to pedal, but for some reason they just loved 'em.

 Dirt, wheels, and a thumbs up!

They loved that they were big enough for even the big boys.

They had to keep the momentum going on these things. Otherwise it was hard to get going again!

 Our fall trip to Bauman Farms always includes a tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch.

 Leaving us with plenty of pumpkins for the porch.

Alex was excited for the ladybug train this time. I think they definitely had more attractions open than they ever have in our previous years on the school field trips. The weekends all the exhibits are open, but the field trips are during the school day, so not all of the rides/things to do are open when we go with our homeschool group.

 Lots of mazes, slides and hay stacks to climb.

 The zip lines were open too. They were excited to get to do this for the first time.

They were so high up there.

That smile is pure happiness.

Waiting for the pre-teen's smile.

 There it is!

Our great group of friends.

We always love their silly and fun painted hay faces.

We love the animals too.

They are fun to feed and watch.

The goats are always excited to see the kids come because they get more food, but these guys were just chill. And the babies, they're always cute, and they always seem to have a few.

 Are we having too much fun? Yes! Time to go!

That's all for the letter F for this round of abc blogging through the alphabet. I am enjoying sharing our fun, simple, and sometimes unique field trips with you. Hopefully I will be on time to link up wtih the abc blogging through the alphabet linky party for the next letter G!