Timeline Builder

 

History is one of my favorite subjects to learn, ahem, I mean teach.  As a high school student history was the one class that I really enjoyed.  Unfortunately, it wasn't until I started homeschooling that history really came alive and clicked for me.  Prior to homeschooling, what I knew about history seemed fragmented and sloppy.

One thing that I think has really helped the kids and I to put things in perpective is having a timeline.  It allows one to stand back and look at the big picture.  Enter, Timeline Builder from Knowledge Quest, a user friendly App for history lovers of all ages!

 

 

 

Things we really liked about the Timeline Builder:

• We do already have a LARGE timeline on the wall in our school room, but I love that this one can be seated right next to me wherever I am.  Like when the kids and I are snuggled on the couch reading a good historical fiction and we want to add some thing we learned to the timeline or look something up.

 

• Timeline Builder is very user friendly, for moms and kids! This App has instructions that explain how to get the most out of your timeline.  I felt that the timelines were easy to create, change and add to. 

 

• When adding a new timeline event or figure you can connect to Wikipedia to add facts and pictures.  I must say this is quite an awesome feature!

 

• I like that you can create several different timelines.  You could have one for American history, Ancient history, your state's history, composers, scientists or even your family tree!  Endless possibilities!  The kids can also personalize their timeline a bit by choosing their own background.

 

• Fun!  The Timeline Builder is actually really fun to work with.  The kids and I both enjoy using it. We like that you can be creative and design your own timelines.  Kids love to move the pictures around to arrange their timelines.

 

What I felt could be improved:

• While this is not a huge deal, I would like to be able to create a timeline from creation to present that we could scroll through.  This doesn't seem to be possible due to the fact that each timeline is a as big as one iPad page.  Not a deal breaker by any means, just a feature I wish they had.

Here is a great video of the Timeline Builder in action....

 

The Timeline Builder is one of our favorite products that we have reviewed.  We will continue to use it for years to come!

You can purchase your own Timeline Builder through the App store.  Normally it is $6.99, but it is currently on sale for $4.99.

 

 

You can see what others on the Schoolhouse Review Crew have to say about the Timeline Builder over at the SRC site.

 

 

Tasty Tuesday: Homemade Rotisserie Style Chicken

 

This little baby is one of my crew's favorites!  We love store made rotisserie chickens, but unless you can catch a good sale they can be a bit pricey.  And we need to buy two of them to really have enough for our family.  When I came across this rotisserie chicken recipe that I could make at home I was VERY excited. 

When I make this I double the seasonings and cram two fryers into my large oval crock pot.  I have also made this with chicken legs, which is also great!  

This recipe is so easy, tastes great and is perfect for a busy day!

Here's what you need:

1 small chicken (I usually get a 4-6 pounder)

3 tsp of sea salt

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp of Italian seasoning -OR- 21 season salute from Trader Joe's

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp pepper

4 whole garlic cloves

1 yellow onion, quartered

Directions:

Rinse and dry your chicken.  Place in the crock pot.  

In a sperate bowl, mix together all of the dry seasonings.  Rub the dry mix on the inside and outside of your chicken.  

Place the garlic and onion inside the chicken.  Put the chicken breast side down in your crock pot.  DO NOT add water.

Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 8 hours.

I know that your first thought will probably be that you need to add liquid.  I promise you do not need to do this.  The chicken has enough juice and will not be dry, trust me!

Menu Plan Monday - Something Old, Something New!

I haven't posted our menus in a while, so I thought I'd share this weeks plan with you all.  We have a busy, busy week so simple is the name of the game!

I usually keep our breakfast and lunch ideas about the same, adding in leftovers and something new occasionally.  I am keeping a simple menu of easy family favorites this week, along with two new crock pot recipes.  

Breakfasts

• Cereal w/ Banana Slices
• Waffles, Pancakes or French Toast w/ Berries
• Oatmeal
• Baked Oatmeal
• Eggs w/ Toast or Egg Wraps
• Yogurt, Fruit and Granola

Lunches

• PB&J's - one would think that kids would get tired of these, but they are one of my little peeps favorites!
• Turkey & Cheese Roll Ups (no bread), Baby Carrots, Apple Slices
• Cheese Quesadilla w/ Salsa and Baby Carrots
• Hot Ham & Cheese Sammies, Fruit and Chips
• Hot Dogs, Fries or Tater Tots and Apple Sauce
• Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
• Whatever-is-Left-in-the-Fridge Wraps
• Leftovers

Dinners

• Hot Dogs, Pasta Salad, Fruit
• Breakfast Night - Crock Pot Hash Brown Breakfast Casserole
• Taco Topped Potatoes, Cantaloupe
• Honey Mustard Chicken w/ Bacon - this time in the crockpot w/ Rice and Carrots
• Sliders, Potato Wedges and Veggie Medley
• BBQ Pork Chops, Mac & Cheese and Mixed Veggies
• Crock Pot Chili Mac & Cheese, Green Beans, Salad

 

Weekly Wrap Up: 85 Books and a Train Museum

This week seems like it has flown by. I can't believe it is already Friday.

Believe it or not, our week started out with a field trip! I have never thought I would be a field trip on Monday kinda mom, but opportunity happened and we took it. I had heard that I local train museum was inviting homeschoolers out for a visit. We had never been before so we decided to check it out. It was actually right in the town we live in, so we set out to learn about trains, as well as some local history.

The gals that offered the tours had a wealth of local knowledge. One of them was a sweet elderly lady in her nineties! She showed the children old quill pens, hankies and told them of her years as a young lady. She even shared with us how she had worked at a bank that used to be next door, and about the day they were robbed by the Tri-State Gang!

The kids got to pretend like they were purchasing train tickets for a trip, play in a real caboose and climb up and explore in the watch tower. To top it off, there was a reporter for a local paper there that took some pictures of us and interviewed the older kids. Our field trip actually made the paper, that was a first!

After the train museum, we went to a local park to play, have lunch and go on what ended up being a nature walk of sorts. It was a great way to start the week!

We have continued in our Lewis and Clark studies and followed along with Trail Guide to Learning. This week we learned about beaver, prairie dogs and grizzly bears. We are continuing to read Seaman as a family read aloud. The girls are working their way through Munford and The Captains Dog, both girls love their readers!

Everyone has been progressing with their independent studies (meaning the things they do separate on our group studies). The Lil' Chef has been struggling a bit with the actions in Teaching Textbooks 7, so we are laying that down fora bit to take time to work through the Key to Fractions books. These little books were recommended to me from a veteran homeschool mama. I am hoping they will be as helpful to us as they were to them.

Computer Girl is working her way through the Life of Fred elementary series, she is doing this along with Teaching Textbook 4. We are also ting to get all of those multiplication facts down. We have done the flash card route and now we are doing multiplication copy work. I did this with the Lil' Chef years ago, little did I know we were doing copy work. {smile}

Alpha Boy is plugging along with math and phonics. He would much rather be outside than learning math and how to read, but like I tell him it's life and he needs these things to be a productive adult. I don't think he cares much about that right now, especially when there is a backyard fort calling his name!

Little Bits and I have had a great time working through Letters, Numbers and Shapes from A Journey Through Learning. I think lapbooks are his things, for sure!

We have been reading a bunch this week, which is one of my favorite things to do with the kids! We have done lots of I Spy-ing, these are the boys go to books for bedtime. We have also been enjoying the books in the Click, Clack, Moo series by author Doreen Cronin. Trains are also a. Reading topic this week.

During our library trip this week we came home with 85 books! Yes, eighty-five!!! I say it was all the kids fault, they blame it on me. They are probably right, it was mostly me {smile}. We got all kinds of books more I Spy books, chapter books for the girls, train books, Curious George books, farm books and cook books for mama. We also grabbed more books from the Click Clack Moo series. And some to study more on beavers, prairie dogs and grizzlies. E poor lady at the check out counter looks at me and says "do you homeschool?" After I busted up laughing, I said, "how could you tell?"

The kids have also been able to spend some time outside this week, thanks to the pretty great weather we have been having. They have been having a good ol' time!

I hope you all had a great week too!

A Journey Through Learning {Review}

 

As a home school mom I have learned that learning doesn't have to be boring.  I love finding new ways to make learning interesting, as well as enjoyable! There are several ways to do this, two of my favorites things to do are add lapbooks and unit studies. 

Recently, we were given four downloadable products from A Journey Through Learning for review.  Here's the line up of what we received:

Letters, Numbers and Shapes Lapbook (ages 3-5)

The Earth Lapbook (grades 1-4)

Knights and Castles Lapbook and Learning Guide (grades 2-7)

Astronomy and Space Unit Study (grades 2-7)

 

 

 

        

 

 

After looking them over, I decided to do Letters, Numbers, and Shapes with Little Bits, my four year old. Can I just tell you I can hardly think of a time that I have seen a kid so excited to do school! Literally, every single morning my little guy would faithfully bring me his workbox of supplies so we work on his lapbook. 

Through the Letters, Numbers, and Shapes lapbook we got to learn and trace each letter, as well as search magazines for pictures to go with each letter. We practiced counting and tracing numbers. There was even a memory game that we got to make and play, then store in the lapbook. We went over shapes and what shapes different objects are.  We also got in a pretty good amount of practice with our cutting skills.

 

 

Here are some of the letters we traced and cut out pictures for.  You can also see the pictures used to describe the different shapes.  

 

 

More letters!  There is a counting booklet where we were able to trace numbers and number words in.  You can also see the cards to a matching game we got to play.

 

I was pretty impressed that there were even games, activities, poems and book suggestions included!

 

 

Little Bits really enjoyed all the cutting and gluing that he got to do.  He especially liked the ice cream cone, bubble gum machine and fire truck for the shapes portion of the lapbook.  This lapbook has become his favorite things to!  I think that the variety of letters, numbers, shapes and games really helped to hold his interest. 

I thought that the Letters, Numbers and Shapes lapbook, as well as the other lapbooks, were very well laid out and had a good number of components with each of them.  There is enough content for a child to learn, yet not so much that they get overwhelmed and bored. 

Even if you have never done a lapbook before I recommend giving it a try.  They are lots of fun and the kids love to show them off and retell (narrate) what they have learned.  When I first saw them I was a little intimidated but really it is just like scrapbooking.  Here is a quick video on what lapbooks are and how to do them.

 

See, it's easy!

 

 

I would most definitely recommend the lapbooks from A Journey Through Learning!  They offer tons of different lapbooks on all kinds of different topics at affordable prices.  All of the lapbooks that we received are available for instant download for $13.00.  There are several lapbooks that are even available for just $1.00!

Check out what other TOS Crew members have to say about A Journey Through Learning's lapbooks and unit studies!