Learning with Lapbooks

Blessings have been all around me lately! I am thanking God for the doors He has been steadily opening. Let me catch you up to speed on the most recent thing I am doing. As I'm sure you know by now, I like to talk. Well now people will be paying to hear what I have to say! As of today I am the newest author for Media Angels, Inc. I have written a Thanksgiving Lapbook and have two more in the works as we speak!! I have wanted to be a writer since I was a little girl and thanks to my dear friend and mentor Felice Gerwitz that dream is finally coming true. God started me on this amazing journey a year ago when He led me down the path of homeschooling my son Braydon. Now that lifestyle and all that goes with it has erupted in my life! Our wonderful family has supported our decision whole-heartedly making the change in our lives that much easier. Now I am able to take two of the gifts God has given me and mold them into one terrific product!

Thank you to everyone who has supported me during this entire process and a BIG thank you to my sweet hubby! Randy has cooked dinner, tended to Braydon, done laundry and virtually been Mr. Mom in these last days before releasing the book. I could not have asked for a better helpmate! God has truly shown His faithfulness to fulfill His plans for me! I'm just trying to learn to stay out of His way.

The Randomness That Is My Life!

Well, here we are... the end of November. It feels like these last few months have just flown by!! Something I'm learning with homeschooling is that you can't take a break with planning for even a minute or the holidays and specific dates that you want to be teachable dates sneak right up on you! I found myself still putting together Thanksgiving material ON Thanksgiving!!! While I have to say that it was interesting to have it all fresh on the brain when we celebrated Thanksgiving with our families, it would have nice to have had time to dig a little deeper BEFORE the turkey came out of the oven!! :)
All-in-all I have a great list going for next year's first semester lessons, but sadly this year has been a bit of a tester year for us. Well, I say sadly... Braydon is loving it. When mom doesn't get it together in time, we chalk it up to early prep for next year.
I don't have a specific topic for today's entry but I do have a couple of neat stories for you. I'll start with the funnier of the two.
A couple of weeks ago we were in the car and Braydon (getting together his mental Christmas wish list) says to me "Mom, can I have a Pocket Rocket? Cuz I wanna ask Santa for one but I know he doesn't get you things that your parents won't let you have."
It was too cute! Partly because he thought ahead enough to get permission before asking Santa but mostly because of his innocence!! Now is about the time (if he were still in public school) that he would begin to doubt the story of Santa, but hopefully being homeschooled we will be able to hold onto the magic a little longer!
The second is more a quick thing I wanna share rather than a story:
As I have said before. Now that we are homeschooling I see so much of Braydon's creativity coming back that I'm ashamed to say I didn't realizing he was loosing. Well tonight as I sit preparing lessons for tomorrow he comes into the office that doubles as our classroom and sits down at his desk. He opens up his History folder and takes out some research that I had printed out for the unit we are planning to do on Greek Mythology. Then he begins to do his own research on the laptop (using MY printouts only to help him with spelling). After a few minutes he is writing his own rendition of the struggle between the three brother Zeus, Hades and Poseidon. WOW!!! Just out of nowhere he decides to do a little writing!! Of course I am elated because I myself LOVE to write and have always hoped he would too, but I am even more impressed that he is WANTING to research and write just for entertainment! I remember a time after high school when I would get interested in something I saw on TV, begin researching it at the library and the write a research paper on the subject JUST FOR FUN!!! I thought I was the only person in the world crazy enough to do that... but here I sit, almost 20 years later watching my son do the very same thing!!!
God has blessed me so much this year with this adventure Braydon and I are taking together!
I am so thankful to be able to experience these things with my child AND to get to encourage and aid him as he begins to figure out what he enjoys, what he is good at and what he excels in!
We serve an awesome, loving and powerful God and I hope to raise my son to be just as in awe of his Father as I am!

Halloween Fun!

So every year we have a tradition in our family to share some Halloween fun with our friends and family. When we first started it, 5 years ago, it was called Phantom-ing; but now people are calling it Boo-ing. Regardless of what you call it, it is a blast and we love the entire process. What you do is put together treat bags for 2 or more families with a poem and picture, leave it on their porch, ring the doorbell and RUN! The picture is considered the "phantom" and is to be placed in the window of the house so that other participants will know that family has already been hit. It's kinda like a fun chain letter. Once you have been phantom-ed you make copies of the letter and pictures and then put together bags for YOUR friends and family to leave on their doorstep.

Braydon and I spend all day in the kitchen baking cookies and other treats, bagging them all up, decorating bags and attaching the poem/pic. Then we're off to get our sneak on!! Braydon LOVES to deliver the bags, ring the bells and run like mad. I enjoy driving the getaway car that sometimes almost "gets away" before Braydon gets all his limbs back in. And Randy usually just sits back and gets a good laugh at it all... but this year Randy got a REAL taste of the action!

This year, just a few hours before we were to leave, Braydon hurt his foot riding his rip-stik. He was a trooper though and tried the deliver the bags but his foot just wouldn't let him. So, guess who got to be the "ding dong ditcher" for the night... You guessed it! RANDY! I have to say this was one of the absolute funniest years every!!! Randy is not the most stealthy person we know and he also lacks a little in the agility department. None the less, he ran, rang, tripped and jumped his way through the night. I'm so blessed to have a husband that is such a good sport. Not only did he join in the fun, but he allowed us to MAKE fun of him as well!

So to all of you out there who have never had an adventure like this one, it's not too late to start! I have attached the letter and picture we used this year for you to download and then the bag contents are just left to your imagination! Remember, it's suppose to be anonymous so just sit back and enjoy listening to your victims try to figure out where the delightful little treat came from!



ENJOY!!!

Phantom Letter


Phantom Pic