Weekly Wrap-Up : An Odd Week...

This week was an odd one. It was one of those where you work and work but you really don't want to work. You know what I mean? We all have those times where you just don't want to. I am not sure why. Not sure if there's something crazy in the air, our weather has been kind of dreary. Not sure if the impending eclipse has us all in a "mood" or what. Whatever it is, we did less than we have been but still moved forward. Which, that's the point, right? So here's a look at our week. ( Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers this week)

All Thing Math
Math is moving along pretty well. There has been one day so far in the whole four weeks of school that tears showed up but otherwise it's been pretty good. We're moving along learning the distributive property this week, working with expressions, and learning lots of terminology. To be honest, I'm not sure who thought it was a good idea to add the alphabet to the math world but hey... He's getting it :)

Science
Have I mentioned how much I love Apologia? Well in case I haven't, I do! This week in our science reading we are still working on the history of science. We're learning about scientific ideas that were once believed and now are not, we're talking about tons of the major scientists throughout history, how the Dark Ages affected science and so on. One thing this week that I just loved seeing was about Sir Isaac Newton. Did you know that Newton wrote more on the prophecy of Daniel than he did science?? I was blown away!! Many of the scientists we've learned about were devout Christians.

My kiddo has some great examples in his life of science and faith working together. My father and mother both have science degrees and our praise and worship leader, who Boo Bear just adores, works in a laboratory herself. So he has some pretty amazing examples of how science and faith can coexist. However, I have had moments with him where he broke down in tears asking how could you love science and believe in God. These reminders in this science book are just what we needed to reiterate that in fact, God and science go hand-in-hand. So thankful for this!!!

Reading, Writing, History and Everything Else
We've been moving right along in all our other classes as well. He's doing such a great job at tackling all his workbook pages and getting them done. I'm seeing a real change in how he handles school work this year. I'm very proud of him for all the hard work he's putting into his school work. It's not that he hasn't before but I can see a very big difference in how he is tackling the work to get it done and completed without the hassle :). That's a huge difference!

I tried a new recipe this week, well two new recipes, and they were a big hit. I did a Mediterranean Pork Loin and the cauliflower broccoli au gratin I had been wanting to try. Even Boo Bear liked the side dish so that was good!

So, this weekend we are looking forward to some relaxing downtime, I believe. Never know what we might get into. How was your week? Hope you have a blessed weekend ahead and a great week to come!

Week Three Down!

Welcome to our school journey through 6th grade!

Week three is in the books! We have been diligently working right along. Boo Bear is totally blowing my mind this year. He's been working very hard to get all of his school work done. No fighting or tears. Well, a few tears because let's face it, whoever decided to put letters in math was crazy!!

Otherwise, we are working away and getting stuff knocked out. I am very pleased with how our curriculum choices are going so far and how everything seems to be flowing well.
So here's a look at our last few weeks.

Math
He has completed chapter 1 and we are halfway through chapter 2. The 1st one was a simple review and chapter 2 has thrown him right into the mix of Algebra with it's equations, expressions, terminology and putting those darn letters in with numbers. He's doing great though. We've had some challenging days where he wanted to quit, but we worked through and he's doing amazing.

Science
This has been really fun so far. We are learning a history of science in our General Science curriculum from Apologia. I'm trying to take it a little slower than we will eventually go through this book because it's a lot more involved than our past books. I don't want him to miss things. He gets to go do experiments with Papa and Mimi so that is lots of fun.

Language Arts

This has been going well with writing and reading. Spelling is a different story. This seems to be a struggle for my guy but we're working on it every week. Some of the things I'm running into are he has all the letters there but a few of them are in the wrong order. We decided to shorten his spelling list this week to see if it helps. Also, on one of his tests, I asked him again to spell it orally instead of writing and he got some he missed while writing them correct. So, I'm trying to work on helping him memorize those words and figure out how we can get through our spelling lessons. I've told him that some people just have trouble with it and so we're working diligently. 

If you have tips or tricks on learning words, please feel free to share them! 

He also found a few new books he's enjoying from the library. He's loving these two series, The Adventures of Arnie the Doughnut and Here's Hank. He's reading these books in two days or less, which if you read of our earlier journey in reading, this is a huge accomplishment!

History

We are loving NotGrass American History! I mean we are having a blast so far! We started watching Teen Jeopardy this week as they were featuring young kids and some of the questions on there Boo Bear knew because we had just read about them. 

This is certainly a hit for us. We've been reading about Jamestown, Boston, Maryland, Native Americans and so much more. I am loving the Map studies he's doing and the lesson sheets are a great help. 

We have a few more weeks before his theater starts back up so we'll be busy, busy! Fall always brings on lots of fun activities and crazy running. I really like getting our school back into a routine before things like that start up. So far we are on track with the lesson plans and are doing well. I pray this pattern continues. 

So that's about where we are right now. He's plugging away at his history right now and I'm gearing up for a relaxing weekend, hopefully. 

How is your school going? Hope you have a blessed week ahead and thanks for stopping by!! 

Linked up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers 

Welcome to Our 6th Grade Year!

Wow! Can't believe we are about to embark on our first year of middle school! Time sure does fly when we're having a blast! Right? Here we go! Welcome to 6th grade!!

So I wanted to take some time and share our curriculum choices for our upcoming year. We are going to do a soft start on Monday so we can ease our way back into school. This is the first year, ever since we started homeschooling, that Boo Bear has received a true summer break. Usually we work right on through the year but this time with theater camp, we changed that up.

He played the best Magic Mirror I've ever seen. (not bias here at all)

We had some adventures too. We visited a museum with Mimi and Papa, went to see several movies on the big screen and have hung out with friends.

Even tried out the new trampoline park close by with a Ninja Warrior course and everything.

But alas, school must return. So, here's a look at what we'll be doing for our 6th grade year.

Science, Language Arts, and... Batman!
Science this year is again an Apologia course. We've worked with this curriculum since we started so we're sticking with it. With Papa and Mimi being close this year, it will surely be a fun experience! We are working on General Science. He is in 6th grade and that's supposed to be for 8th grade but we feel he's ready for the challenge. We'll see!!! It's going to be a lot more work than he's used to so prayers for both of us are appreciated!

Language arts is a mixture of workbooks we've used before. We'll be working more on cursive handwriting again, spelling and reading comprehension. Also going to work on a Geography skills workbook and writing workbook to help his handwriting and language arts learning. He needs to boost his confidence in his spelling and writing. He also got his Mama's issue of not having a neat handwriting so those are all skills we're going to tackle. 

And of course, you can't have school without some fun, right? Hence the Batmobile pencil box so that the Dark Knight can have his supplies ready at the helm!

History

I am so excited about history this year! I love American History and always have. So, this year we're going to be working on Notgrass America the Beautiful! We are both super excited to use this amazing looking curriculum. I've heard nothing but awesome things about it so we are ready to dive in! 

Math

We are sticking with Math Mammoth and moving along with this curriculum. I love the ease of use, that everything is all in one place including teaching manuals. I am excited to move forward and see where this year goes!

Our School Room

We also have a different set up this year. I have to admit. I can't stand things looking cluttered.  (in most scenarios) My desk and Boo Bear's desk is two of those areas I want neat and tidy. I feel like it is more conducive to working if it is all organized and ready to be tackled. So here's a few shots of our new set up. 

Darth Vader makes journal writing more fun!

So, I went to Dollar Tree ( love that place!) and got some red and blue bins for his books and school items. Each bin is labeled as to what is in it and has all the supplies in each bin for that subject. So for example, Math has the protractor, ruler, compass, and calculator he will need throughout the year. Science has his notebook and all required textbooks, etc. Hopefully this will make it easier for us to work through this year and keep everything where it should be. I also have a bin for Science Experiments that has all the items needed for experiments through each module.

So that's a look at where we are so far :). I look forward to sharing our adventures this year and hope you stop by to see where God takes us. I want to enjoy this journey as all too soon it'll be over and he'll be off to college and getting married, and... Sigh....

Happy weekend to you and yours and we'll see you around!

Weekly Wrap-up: Dancing Raisins, Science Experiments and Fun!

Happy Friday! I hope you've had a wonderful week. This week was pretty smooth going for the most part and we are making progress. Here's a look at what went into our week this week:

Science and More Science
If you've been around this blog for any length of time you know I LOVE doing science experiments almost as much as my kiddo does (maybe more). So this week we had some fun experiments in our Apologia Chemistry and Physics book. We were able to learn the difference between polar and nonpolar mixtures, had some dancing raisins, and saw what dish soap, milk, and food coloring can do.

We had our last science class of this month and they made volcanoes yesterday. They talked about biomes and then to celebrate the last day of the dinosaur exhibit at the museum, they created their own volcano action. It was fun and we are looking forward to next month's session on space.

MathThis week we went back to Math Mammoth. I enjoy Singapore but for the money, Math Mammoth makes it much easier for me as the teacher to get the lessons done. So, we are combing that and Khan Academy to help fill in any gaps that may have been missed along the way.

Boo Bear likes doing the Khan Academy videos and it's free so it helps to shake things up a bit.

Reading, Writing, and Everything Else
We had some beautiful weather here this week and took advantage of it. We did some of our work outside until it got too warm and the pup needed to get some AC and water.

We read some more in the 39 Clues book and finished our audio book in the car. We were listening to the Magic Thief. It wasn't one of my favorites but we are about to start the story of Maleficent on audio so we will see about that one.

Boo Bear is reading one of the Franny K. Stein books and we picked up the George Washington biography to read as well.

Writing has taken on a new spin for us. I have started a journal book for Boo Bear and give him titles to write about. It is easier to see what he knows, where he has gaps, and what we need to work on. Plus, he enjoys writing crazy paragraphs so that he can come up with his own story. It works for both of us! He enjoys the topics and I love that it's writing without the tears.

We had some fun times around the dinner table this week too. I love that his dad gets him sooooo tickled he can't see straight.

I love my two boys. They are both amazing and keep me on my toes and in laughs daily.

Today we have friends coming over to hang out, watch the inauguration, and eat some tacos. Great way to start the weekend if you ask me.

So what did your week look like? Hope you had a fabulous one and have a wonderfully blessed weekend ahead!!!

I'm linked up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers today. Make sure to stop by and check out other weeks in the life of homeschoolers!

Weekly Wrap-up: Crystals, Football, Tornado Warnings and Freezes!

So, crazy week we've had here! As in we went from normal temps to tornado warnings at 1:45 in the morning to freezing cold temperatures. All in the span of about 48 hours or less!!! Then we started to normalize back out to our normal weather pattern, which means lots of beautiful days and lovely temperatures.

Here's how our week looked:

As I mentioned, this past weekend we had some crazy weather going on. It started storming Friday night and then we ended up waking up at 1:45 to the tornado warning going off.

Hubby and I got up and checked the weather and stayed up till around 2:30 when it finally calmed down. We had strobe light lighting going on and that is what concerned us. Once that storm passed, in came the cold weather. I mean, cold for Florida. Freezing temperatures, freeze warning going off all day for two days kind of cold weather. Whew what a weekend!!!

Monday we did our regular school load and moved on through our normal routine. Monday night was the big National Football championship game and of course, I watched. As much as I could anyway. It was on way past my bedtime so I only made it till the beginning of the 3rd quarter. Sigh... I'll just say this... I always have been and always will be.... a Bama girl!

The rest of our week went about normal. I had a doc appointment this week to follow up with my normal blood work so Boo Bear got to have school with Papa. Have I  mentioned how thankful I am they are closer now so they can help with school? If not, know that I am SUPER grateful!!!

We have crystals!!!!

Last week I talked about working on the crystals chapter in our Apologia science and we did our crystal kit. They were pretty cool looking too! I think the green is maybe where we had cross mojination between the orange and blue.

We are moving right along using our Singapore math and the Khan Academy website as well. I'm considering going back to Math Mammoth for the second half of fifth grade math. Mainly because it's either buy that or buy the homeschool teachers guide for the Singapore and the other book we need for that. I'm just not liking the fact that I don't have any guidance/instructions on teaching the concepts. Most concepts are okay but some of them I'm looking up cuz let's face it, it's been a LONG time since I've been in 5th grade math and it's wayyyyy different than when I was there anyway.

We had our science class yesterday too and I'm really liking the teacher this month. She's great and seems to really connect with the kids, AND they are learning something !

Sometimes.... cake for breakfast is a necessity. Don't worry, it's Trim Healthy Mama luscious lemon cake and super yummy!

This weekend will be spent, hopefully, working on some of our home projects. I want to start working on our spare bedroom to set it up for a LEGO building, Nerf storing, extra fun room. Right now it's a throw everything in it and shut the door space and I want that to change.

I think that's about it for our week. Things were pretty normal here except for doc appointments and that crazy wacky weather. How was your week this week?

Check out other homeschool Mama's weeks and see what homeschool looks like by clicking here to visit Kris's site. Thanks for hosting the link up and thanks for stopping by!!

Homeschool Weekly(actually monthly) Update...

Hey y'all!! It's been a couple months since I had time to sit down and write up a homeschool wrap-up. It has been a crazy busy couple of months and it's just gearing up to be even more wacky and wild. However, I'm trying to make a conscious effort to blog it more and take more pictures. I want to live IN the moment but also document the moment at the same time.

So, here's a look at our 5th grade year in action, so far:

We have gone to the local science museum in August for their homeschool day. We actually ended up getting the yearly pass this time so that we can visit more this year. I want to start doing more field trips. I say that every year and every year we fall into the rut. The rut that we just try to drudge through, you know what I mean?

 We have also had an amazing opportunity to view the traveling Vietnam Veteran's Memorial wall. We were able to see the parade as it was escorted through our town, meet some helicopter pilots that flew in the war and see the wall itself.

It was quite an amazing experience that I don't know that we would have had if not for this wonderful traveling exhibit. I highly recommend you visit it if you're close to the actual one or if this one comes to your city.

We have been doing a science/math tutoring/co-op with my parents as well this year. They have moved to the area so we are able to harness their knowledge and awesomeness. You know what I mean.. It has been fun to go for once a week sessions where the kids can learn from someone other than us Mama's. It makes a difference!

In case you didn't know, we like science around here! So we are again loving our Apologia Science series this year with all the fun hands-on experiments to try out.

We are using Singapore math again this year. I feel it's easier to have the workbook on hand so that is one reason we went that route. Plus it's an awesome program!

We have been doing a book club with Mimi and the kids are all reading The Magician's Nephew. They have all been enjoying it and it's a great lesson for Boo Bear. He's learning that sometimes we read what we want and other times we do have to read items that may not be what we've personally picked out. However, they can still be fun and neat if we give them a chance!!

Our drama and science classes have kicked into full gear again as well. He loves those classes and I'm not sure what we'll do when he outgrows the science program here. Papa will have to kick his weekly co-op up a notch! ;-)

We have been working along in all our books and moving at a pretty good pace. We've hit some rough patches but that's the awesome thing about homeschooling. If we hit a snag, we don't have to just "hope" he gets it later on. We can take time working on it until he gets it to move on.

We are now gearing up for fun fall activities that we want to do, park days since the weather is finally not 1,000 degrees outside, and of course those fun carnivals and festivals that are coming up. We are currently in Halloween costume making mode and getting ready for our church's involvement in our local city's Trail of Treaters. One day I'll have to share my heart on why this event is so big to me, but that is a whole other post.

So, how is your homeschool year going along? Are you have a good one so far? Have a wonderful week this week and we'll be back soon! (I promise)

Welcome Back to School! 5th grade Here We Come!

Wow!!! Did I really just say that? 5th grade? Can it be? Yep!! This kiddo is in 5th grade this year.

We started our new school year last week so this is kind of a late first week wrap-up. But hey, better late than not at all, right? So here's what our year looks like this year.

Science:
Apologia Physics and Chemistry - this one is really exciting for me. I've always loved Apologia but this new set is even more fun. It's two different topics that I've generally enjoyed in my past science experience. And who doesn't love lots of experiments? If you do then Apologia has them all for you too. This is a fun new book that we are super excited to dive in.

Math:
Singapore math -5A and 5B. This is kind of a change for us. We have been doing Math Mammoth for the past few years and enjoyed it. I was kind of looking for an actual textbook in our hand type of deal this year though. We are changing up some of the way we do things and so this just fits in with us better for now.

Reading:
We are reading all sorts of things so this will be something new every time.

Grammar/Spelling:
We are working on a couple of workbooks to get our spelling and grammar in this year.

Other classes:
We are of course keeping up with drama/theater this fall. We also have science classes going on starting back up next month at our local science center. These are two that Boo Bear looks forward to every semester.

We also have added in a co-op of sorts. My parents have since relocated nearer to us and so they have volunteered to do a science/math/reading co-op deal for us and a few of our homeschool friends. We had our first meeting this past week and the kiddos were well worn out and had a great time.

We've also already hit our first field trip this year to the local science museum. They always have a free day for homeschoolers and we love visiting. I also opted this year to get the yearly pass, not sure why I haven't before but this year is a totally new year. There will be lots of museums on our field trip list this year.

So we've had a successful, busy couple of weeks getting back into our school routine. Have you started yet or do you have a plan to start soon? What is your week looking like?

Happy New School Year!!

Apologia Educational Ministries: Writers in Residence Review

Here in our house we love Apologia Educational Ministries company! They are a staple in our science program and have been since we started homeschooling. Recently we were awarded the opportunity to review their new homeschool writing curriculum by Debra Bell called Writers in Residence.

Apologia Educational Ministries is a great company that offers curriculum for a variety of ages, subjects, and grades. We have used a variety of their items including science programs, their awesome field trip journal and now the writing/language arts curriculum program.

What we received:

We received the physical student manual book and the answer key for me. The Volume 1 all in one book contains a guide to get you started, teaches you how to use the book itself, and my favorite, a planned out program for you to use and know how to schedule the modules.

As with all of their curriculum, this program incorporates a Biblical based writing program that helps your child learn to be more creative with their writing projects. It offers a variety of items throughout the book to encourage them to write more often like the Spotlight on Christian Writers. Throughout the book there are stories with questions and answers from famous Christian writers. They tell their stories of how they got into writing, where they get their ideas from, and even if they enjoyed writing when they were younger.

How We Used It:

Each week we would follow the guidelines that the program lays out. For me that was one of my favorite parts of the curriculum. (the science program does that too). It makes it easy for this Mama to know that this is how much work we should be able to cover each day and the pace to keep us on to finish this program in the recommended time.

We would read the daily lessons together and work on the writing projects. Boo Bear is not one that loves writing, (typical boy) and so we worked more together than others. You can let your child work on the assignments themselves or do them together, whatever works best for you. This program includes everything from capitalization, punctuation, grammar, and even figuring out how to come up with your ideas for the stories you write.

Your child learns to investigate their ideas, brainstorm for their ideas, and even how to work with a rubric module. It is broken down into easy to manage steps and processes for grades 4th - 8th. So this would work with a couple of students, depending on their levels.

What we thought:

 We enjoyed working with this program as we do all the Apologia Educational Ministries programs. This is an all inclusive language arts curriculum and makes it easy to get everything in one lesson. It is a program based on 32-weeks at 4 lessons a week. That works great with our schedule as we tend to take one day off a week for make-up, field trips etc.

I highly recommend you check this writing program out from Debra Bell if you're in need of an easy to use program that encompasses the entire language arts.

Click below on the banner to see other reviews and check out Apologia and Writers Residence on social media.

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Apologia Educational Ministries: The Ultimate Homeschool Planner Review

   I'm a planner. Like, really a planner. Details make the event, day, party, whatever it is. So I was super excited when I received the Apologia Educational Ministries newest Ultimate Homeschool Planner.  If you've been around here for any length of time, you know I love Apologia. This review combined two of my favorite things together in one. 
I received the Ultimate Homeschool Planner with the blue cover. You can also get a yellow or orange cover as well.  What's inside: Inside the planner you're going to find everything you need, and some you didn't know you needed, to plan your homeschool year out. The book starts off with a guide on how to use the planner and also how to set your homeschool year up for success. Tips include items such as establishing a yearly planning retreat, weekly planning, Monday morning tutorials and more. I really enjoyed reading the very beginning of the Ultimate Homeschool Planner as I had never thought about the yearly planning retreat. I honestly just plan a month or possibly a semester at a time. I think it's important to sit down and set up your goals for the year ahead. 

It also contains a calendar of the months all the way up to the year 2023. Whew! The planner contains instructions and tips on how to set up a session each Monday morning with you child to go over what you're planning for the week. It also discusses having Friday afternoon reviews on what you have accomplished during the week. I have started implementing this and it seems to be working for both of us. It can honestly get out of hand when you have extra classes outside of home, work at home duties, and just being at home duties too. These times have helped both of us center in on what we are accomplishing and what we might want to do differently.
The planner contains pages for monthly planning. weekly planning, grades and reading lists. I used the monthly planning pages to write out our activities for the month. This gives Boo Bear a calendar of his month ahead as well. Each week I would write down his assignments including any extra classes, appointments so we can both see them at a glance. 

Throughout the Apologia planner you'll find inspiring quotes and scripture verses to help you get through some of those tougher homeschooling days. At the beginning of each weekly section, there's a page for you to plan out your action plan for the week. Items include Bible plan, battle plan. prayers, and outreach sections for you. You'll also find a page for the end of the week that you can record anything you want to remember about that week or those moments where "evidences of grace" were seen. 
In the back of the planner there's a section for recording grades for up to six different children. You'll also find a reading list section to record all the books your child has read that were assigned, independent choices, or fiction and non-fiction. I'm utilizing this section to help us record the books needed for our reading program. It keeps it all organized and in one place for us to both keep up with it. 
You'll also find some amazing tips in the back of the planner such as making memorable moments and things to remember as you're on this homeschooling journey. It reminds you of the different learning styles, not to rush through, and how to really make the most of your homeschool journey. 
While we aren't quite ready for it yet, it also offers a huge benefit to high schoolers or those close to high school. The planner provides an area that helps you map out the critical high school years and what is typically needed for graduation. That's such a huge help as you are beginning your journey into the high school waters or if you're already there and need some assistance. 
I highly recommend this planner to anyone who would like an all-in-one system to keep your homeschool assignments, records of the year, and encouragement. There's pockets on the front and back cover for you to throw in notes or worksheets you want completed for the week. You can track anything and everything all in this one location.  You can check out Apologia on social media with the links below. Head on over to the other Schoolhouse Reviews by clicking the banner below as well. 
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Apologia Educational Ministries Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal Review

If you've been around here you know that we love Apologia Educational Ministries. We have used them for science ever since we started homeschooling. We recently got the chance to review a brand new product from them called the Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal.  What it is... The Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal can be used in a variety of ways. As homeschoolers , field trips are a huge part of our year. This helps to reiterate what we have learned. It is a way to learn new things and to put your hands on history, science and even math once in a while. This journal gives you a way to record all you do each year and to explore options you might not have thought about as a field trip.  The book itself is full of pages for you to document your adventures. To start off with it has a checklist /guide for you as the parent to prepare for a field trip. It talks about discussing your field trip location before you get there. Give your child goals for the trip of things that you want them to learn and take away from the visit.  It also discusses virtual field trips. We haven't done a whole lot of those but I am looking at doing more. I think it's a great way to "visit" far off places you might never make it to. It also gives your students a checklist for them to make sure they are ready for their trip. 

 The book lists a variety of field trip ideas to help you plan places to go. I know I have some trouble at times thinking of free/inexpensive trips to take. Oh there's plenty of places to go that you have to budget for. Those "off the beaten path" trips are a little harder for me to think of. Thankfully there's a list in the book to help give you ideas!

 The next pages you'll find are places for you to document where you've been. Places in your state or places in the country that you've visited can easily be tracked and placed on these pages.

You can track the date and the location. I am going to have him color the states as we have visited attractions there. I think that'll be a neat way to see how you travel across the country. We have been to several states in the South but my/our goal is to visit even more outside of the South. It'll be interesting to see how many states we can get colored in.

The next set of pages are for you to document each trip you take. This could be a group field trip or one you take with just your family. Each page allows you to document the following :

• Date of trip
• Books read to prepare for trip
• Story of your day
• Map of location
• Emergency contact and more!

There are pages for your photo of the trip as well or your child can draw what they remember. 

Other pages in the journal include your child's special spot. It is one of their favorite places and there's a page for all four seasons. It allows them to record the changes they see throughout the year and it's fun to see how each season affects their spot. 

How we used it... We are using this to record all of our field trips for the year. (or until we fill the book). We have recorded the trips we have taken this year and he has new trips while he was visiting with Grandparents. As we get ready for a trip we make sure we research the spot before hand and write down what we want to learn before we go. If it is a history sight, we spend time reading about it or researching what took place there before we go. 

We have filled in our trips to other states and tried remembering everywhere we have visited. We take the book along with us on our new field trips and write down as we go through the trips. 

What we think... I honestly love this journal! I love the idea of writing down the adventures we take. So many times we snap photos of our adventure with our phone or digital camera and I'm bad about not printing them out. I shudder to think what would happen if I lost my computer or disk I have them saved on. This gives me a reason to print out the pictures so that he has a keepsake to take with him. Here's a shot of the pages we did for his recent visit to a museum with his grandparents. 

His favorite thing he saw was the knights in armor. We are currently printing off some of the pictures he took so he can add them to the pages. 

I would advise you to take the journal along with you on your trip. Your child can write down different aspects of the trip while you're visiting the area. This helps you remember the awesome things they saw right then. I help him write and take down what he says on some of the information as he's a typical boy and hates to write. (we are working on that :))

This is another wonderful product from Apologia and I highly recommend you considering it as you try to incorporate more field trips. As usual with the Apologia curriculum you'll find a password in the book that will take you to a list of awesome field trip ideas they have put together for you. 

Be sure to click the link below to read more reviews of the journal!