The babies spread these letters all over the table without permission, but look at the good that came out of it!
Early American Lapbook – Close-up of Booklets
These are some of the booklets from the Early American lapbook we did from Hands of a Child. They demonstrate how a lapbook can be used by different aged children at the same time. The younger children can do the more basic, simple booklets while the older children write longer reports and go more in-depth into topics.
The teacher can let children choose the topics they want to write about or assign a booklet based on the length or difficulty of the task. I have found that lapbooks have been one of the only ways I can get some of my boys to write anything. They sometimes resist at first, but then they usually do a good job and feel proud of their accomplishment.
Anna filled in the answers about the Star Spangled Banner.
Morgan also wrote a story called, “My Day with Davy Crockett” which I posted here. He wrote this in conjunction with this Early American lapbook.
Teachable Moments Caught on Film
Here’s the crazy way I teach sometimes.
His Octopus Walks from Penney Douglas on Vimeo.
Everybody gets into the act!
Patrick Teaches the Twins to Read from Penney Douglas on Vimeo.
I teach multiple concepts with one lesson, such as phonics, earning and saving money, responsibility, and whatever else comes to mind at the time. The Spirit leads me to bring in character lessons and spiritual lessons during times of interacting with each other or reading stories to the children, too.
Eating Green Eggs and Ham from Penney Douglas on Vimeo.
For St. Patrick’s Day, we always talk about the miracles St. Patrick did. And we eat green eggs and ham. This year while we ate, we tried to come up with rhyming words like the ones in the story about where we would eat green eggs and ham. We watched the video online of the story Green Eggs and Ham.
Even the older kids will watch a show with the younger ones when it’s well done. They appreciate fine animation, vocal talent and music.
Patrick as Saint Patrick from Penney Douglas on Vimeo.
Patrick extemporaneously acted out the life of St. Patrick with a little help from the twins. He converted some chieftains, taught them about the Trinity using a “shamrock” and baptized thousands in this little improvised skit.
Sullivan and the Giant Squid
A Science story by Anna
Sullivan was a normal sperm whale. Being born 14 and a half feet long, he was now 60 feet long and an adult. Sullivan had not yet found a bachelor pod to travel with and had decided he was rather hungry. He took a fancy to the idea of getting himself a giant squid for lunch. He planned out where he should dive, for he wanted to get as close to the ocean floor as possible. This would be as easy as taking a step is for a human. If only the giant squid lived on the continental slope or rise (where he spent most of his time) he’d have light to see in the twilight zone.
Sullivan swam to what he thought was the best spot to dive into the abyss, lobtailed to give him more speed and shot, at an angle, downward. It got darker the farther down he went. He heard the warning call of a fellow whale – a humpback – not a good sign. He stopped before all light completely disappeared. Sullivan scanned the waters around him. Nothing. He swam forward, staying completely alert. He was confident, for he was quite big for a toothed whale… But just the same, there’s always a bigger fish. Especially down here.
Suddenly he saw something move past very quickly. Something with a ghostly glow. He caught only a glimpse of what looked like many arms. Could this be it? He swam very slowly now. There it was again! Sullivan readied himself. The third time the giant tangle of arms swam past, he caught the cephalopod by one of its largest arms. The giant squid was quick to react, it grabbed Sullivan with the other feeding arm and pulled itself onto him.
The whale hadn’t really planned this far, he struggled to free himself unsuccessfully. It was quite cold down this deep, where the sun doesn’t reach, and Sullivan wasn’t used to these temperatures, he could feel himself slowing. It was becoming harder to move. He had to get to the surface, and quick, or he was going to die to this beast. The sperm whale struggled, determined not to let himself be dragged into the black. He saw a huge eye staring hate at him. Ow, she began squeezing tighter and pecking him, yes pecking mercilessly, leaving scars all over.
He pushed upward. It was very difficult with something half his own size squeezing him to death. Slowly the battling two floated upward, toward light and warmth. Sullivan bit off one of the monster’s arms and heard a kind of screeching of pain come from her. The huge suckers felt weird in his mouth, and he almost gagged on the arm.
As the whale felt the squid weakening, he too, felt too tired to fight. He had made it so far, how could he give up now? But the enormous eye no longer looked angry and hateful. Sullivan was a whale. He was used to the rule of the ocean – kill or be killed. There was something strange about this case, though. He had a feeling, no, he somehow knew that this was a mother, strange as it was that she was alone and not in a shoal… maybe it was different with giant squids.
In any case, he could not end this creature’s existence. The effort would probably end his own life, as exhausted as he was. The eye looked as though this seemingly emotionless creature were begging for mercy. She let go of him! He stopped fighting and left her be. She, now having only 9 arms, looked at him, then up, as if thanking the Giver of Life for saving hers to care for that of her eggs, slowly swam back into the dark, cold waters of the abyssal plain.
Fin
Author’s Note:
Sullivan did not, indeed, become a vegetarian, but stayed in his rightful parts of the ocean, finding himself a bachelor pod to swim with and living quite a satisfactory life – never again to go looking in the cold and dark to find bigger prey.
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Anna wrote this as an assignment from her Apologia Science Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day.
Notebook and Lapbook Photos
"Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is placed in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into its soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no other's hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." -JR Miller
