It's a "Keeper"

It's "K" week at Five Kids and a Dog... it's been so much fun reading and writing posts for the ABCs of homeschooling.  If you haven't joined this fun meme, I encourage you to do so.  


So often when I stumble upon something that really WORKS for us I'll say to myself (or to the friend whom I'm sharing the resource with), "This is a KEEPER!".    I'd like to share a few our our "keepers" and I'd also like to learn from you what your "keepers" are as well!   

My laminator -- oh, how I love to laminate and for a not so expensive price you can buy your own laminator.   Be careful:  if you have children they may become addicted to laminating as well.  I've had to put a limit on it for my almost ten year old daughter.  I have to tell her that her dolls do NOT need all of their school materials laminated!!    (I got mine at Sam's club for $22.99 and I buy the pouches online through Amazon.)

The Charlotte Mason Scripture Memory System -- I've done several posts about this.  Just read about it and you'll see why I like it so much.   Our whole family has committed so much scripture to memory this way!  

Poem Printables for First Language Lessons from Homeschool Creations -- we love First Language Lessons, and the printables (which I laminated) stayed on our bulletin board all year long.   They are such a great FREE resource!  

Books on CD -- we listen in the car to so many books.  I have not purchased a single one.  We get them all through our local library.   Check out some of our favorites on my booklist.  

A Pocketful of Pinecones -- my favorite book I read this year.  It has so many pieces of wisdom for a homeschooling mother.   

What are some of your "keepers"?    

Easy Night Science

After a wonderful Father's Day meal with family we were walking our last guests to their car.  Coming back in the house we spotted a ton of lightning bugs, so I decided to catch one.  Once I did this the kids started going crazy trying to catch them, too!  Miss B ran inside to get a little container and we wound up with three lightning bugs.    Our lightning bug keeper was nothing fancy... if you want to prepare ahead of time, here are some cute instructions for making a firefly jar.  

I didn't know much about these fascinating little creatures, so once everyone was ready for bed, we laid down with the iPad and did some research.   I love it when we are learning about something that is RIGHT IN OUR HANDS!!!   

Some very interesting facts about Lightning Bugs:  


1.  Lightning Bugs give off "cool" light - they emit no heat!  An ordinary lightbulb is 10% light and 90% heat.  
2.  Lightning Bugs are CREPUSCULAR (we learned this word earlier in the year and both of my children almost squealed when I read them this fact!).  Don't know what it means?  Guess you'll have to GOOGLE IT!
3.  Lightning Bugs are of the order Coleoptera (winged beetle), the same as Ladybugs.
4.  They are endangered, so every single one counts... if you catch them, please let them go SOON!  
5.  There are 2,000 different types of fireflies!
6.  If you are WEST of Kansas City, your probably won't be able to see them ~ no one really knows why.

Some great sources of information about fireflies are at Firefly.org and National Geographic.

Have you had an impromptu lesson recently?  What was it about?