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Homeschool Art Project: Board Book

From Pattern to Board Books

After our pattern unit, we dove right in to a shaped board book art project. Inside our board book, we will add animal silhouettes.
  1. We used a shaped book of a zebra as a pattern for 3 board book pages. Cut this pattern out of bristol board, card stock or some other sturdy paper.
  2. Next we glued colored heavy construction paper on each side of the 3 pages (picture on far right).
  3. Because the front page (the zebra’s head) is smaller than the other 2 pages, make sure you add in the feet and stripes (center picture).
  4. We used a belt punch or heavy hole punch to punch holes at the top. Wiggling the small key rings carefully, we pushed them through the holes so that the book opens easily.
  5. Using markers, add the silhouettes of various animals onto your board book pages. Remember, the more unique shape an animal has, the easier it is to recognize by shape! You can free-hand these drawing or use stencils to help you.

Tip: You can find out more about this art project, and other art projects by joining my FaceBook group Homeschool Christian Mom and by subscribing to my Youtube channel Homeschool Christian Mom Elizabeth Estelle.

What colors and shapes will you choose?

Using markers, color in your animal shapes. You can have pictures on the back of the zebra’s head (page 1), the front and back of page 2, and the front and back of page 3.

Last step: On the back of the book put ©2022 and Your Name.

  • Supplies:
  • Brightly colored heavy construction paper
  • Bristol board
  • Glue sticks or Glue
  • Hole punch
  • Small keys rings or decorative twine
  • Fine-tipped black markers

Frequently Asked Questions:

Can I use this project for younger children? I recommend age 8 and up for this project. For this age group, you will need someone to help them cut out their pages. Also,  I give them the option of using a stencil to draw their animal, drawing it themselves, or I will draw the outline for them and they can just color it in. 

If the student has the scissor skills to cut out their own pages-hooray! I let them.

What if a student draws their animals so they appear upside down in the book? You can leave them that way or replace that page by gluing another piece of construction paper over it.

What if a student draws shapes that are unrecognizable? If the student is happy with his book, I say leave the drawings alone. If a student is unhappy, perhaps they can re-do that page or you can help by adding in a line or two where it is needed.

Do the animal shapes they color in have to be colored only in black? No, they do not! I have seen great animal shapes in all colors and one koala that was pink with black ears. While we usually think of silhouettes as being black, this book can be a fun shape book without each animal shape being black. 

Can you add words to this book?  Sure you can! Some of my students like to name the animals that they have drawn. Example: Elephant. 

Some students like to add text. Example: “The pink pig says Oink.”

How long should this project take? I plan for two, 1 hr. art classes, but this last class it took 3 hours. The students made their books a little extra detailed and so we took the additional time. I find it best not to rush the students if you can help it. 

Tip: Keep each student’s pages together with a clothes pin until the book is tied or ringed together.

Let me know how the project goes at homeschoolchristianmom@gmail.com.

You can also follow me on Instagram @the.elizabeth.estelle

Want to make my day? Subscribe to my Youtube channel @homeschoolchrisitanmom

 

Bonus:

At our house, we have been able to get outside to rake leaves out of the flower beds and pick up twigs. The sun felt so good and I enjoyed being outside again.

My husband has been teaching through Nehemiah- what an example of leadership. He did his best where he was (the king’s cupbearer), as a motivator of the builders and as a warrior (working AND holding a sword). Let’s remember to be training our children to be leaders as well. Give your children age-appropriate opportunities to tackle a job, help a neighbor, cook dinner or help you teach a class.

The following hymn sounds like the song of the homeschooling mom, doesn’t it?

Hymn: To the Work! by Frannie Crosby

To the work! To the work! We are servants of God;
Let us follow the path that our Master has trod;
With the balm of His counsel our strength to renew,
Let us do with our might what our hands find to do.

  • Refrain:
    Toiling on, toiling on,
    Toiling on, toiling on;
    Let us hope, let us watch,
    And labor till the Master comes.
  1. To the work! To the work! Let the hungry be fed;
    To the fountain of life let the weary be led;
    In the cross and its banner our glory shall be,
    While we herald the tidings, “Salvation is free!”
  2. To the work! To the work! There is labor for all;
    For the kingdom of darkness and error shall fall;
    And the love of our Father exalted shall be,
    In the loud swelling chorus, “Salvation is free!”
  3. To the work! To the work! In the strength of the Lord,
    And a robe and a crown shall our labor reward,
    When the home of the faithful our dwelling shall be,
    And we shout with the ransomed, “Salvation is free!”

Do you need some activities for those wiggly children of yours? Don’t be afraid to include some exercises into your routine!

  • Jumping jacks
  • Windmill Toe Touches
  • Arm Circles (clockwise, counter-clockwise, small and large)
  • Marching in Place
  • Lie on your side leg lifts (right and left sides)
  • Sit-ups

If you have a high schooler that is interested in video editing, be sure and check out this previous article on Sarah Rosendahl. She has a free-lance video editing business and also teaches video editing.

If you need a new dinner idea, make sure you check out my latest recipes at HomeschoolChristianMom.com. This week I add Chicken Thighs: Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Spinach with Pepper Jack Cheese.

And just for fun, here’s a few reels from the past week. I hope you enjoy them! Board Book 1, You Have to Be a Saint to Homeschool, and Time to Paint Turtles

Until next time,

Elizabeth Estelle and the Homeschool Christian Mom Team

👫 👧 👧 👦 👧 Mom of 4 strong willed kids 🎨 Art Teach and Momcoach 📚 Love to read! Visit HomeschoolChristianMom.com for more info the.elizabeth.estelle on Instagram

Let’s connect: FB group Homeschool Christian Mom

 

 

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Chicken Thighs on Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Spinach with Pepper Jack Cheese

 

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Chicken Thighs on Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Spinach with Pepper Jack Cheese

Course Main Course
Cuisine Mediterranean
Keyword chicken
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients

  • 4 chicken thighs bone removed and flattened
  • 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes + 2 tbsp oil from the jar
  • 1/2 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
  • 10 oz frozen spinach
  • 2 tbsp olive oil

Marinade

  • 1 tbsp yellow mustard
  • 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp Italian mixed herbs
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper

Instructions

  1. Whisk together the marinade ingredients in a bowl.

  2. Using a barbecue brush, coat the chicken on both sides with the marinade. (Let this set for 10 minutes.)

  3. Meanwhile, microwave spinach for 6 minutes, drain and squeeze dry.

  4. Heat a non-stick frying pan to medium heat, adding 2 tbsp olive oil.

  5. When frying pan is medium-hot, add chicken thighs. Chicken should sizzle but not spit all over. When chicken is brown on one side (about 8 minutes), turn over. Check again at 6 and 8 minutes till done.

  6. Microwave spinach, chopped sun-dried tomatoes with a little drizzle of their oil, and pepper jack cheese for 2 minutes. Stir with fork. Cook and additional 2 minutes till hot and cheese is melted.

  7. Check chicken thighs with a meat thermometer. When the thickest part of the meat is 165°, it is done.

  8. Serve thighs on a bed of the delicious spinach/tomato/cheese mixture.

Recipe Notes

While this recipe is sometimes made with chicken breasts, we find the thighs much more flavorful. And by making it in a frying pan instead of the oven, it's a quick and easy dinner. Enjoy!

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Review of 7th grade Language Arts BJU

Language Arts for 7th Grade

Short version: I highly recommend this thorough program! The 7th grade Writing and Grammar, Explorations in Literature and Vocabulary A work together to give your students the tools they need to evaluate written literature biblically, improve their written communication skills, and improve their word usage. The books list supplemental resources if you need it and all the prep work is done. On day one, you teach lesson one, etc. So the value of that kind of complete curriculum was worth every penny to me. You can see their curriculum here: https://www.bjupresshomeschooling.com/site/include.php?id=35_21

Themes for Literature

Hello this is Elizabeth Estelle, Homeschool Christian Mom and thank you for joining me as I review this 7th Grade Literature curriculum from BJUPress Home School so I’m going to be talking about their Vocabulary Level A. The Writing and Grammar that has a baseball theme and then the Explorations  in Literature and we’ll get started here. So the Vocabulary A is a small book it can be done in one semester or through the whole year. We usually did it in a semester and it would be one page twice a week to just get through in a semester and the emphasis in the vocabulary book is

  • on the principles of where did English come from,
  • what do common prefixes and suffixes mean
  • how can we just discern the meaning of a new word from what we already know about it.
  • So it differentiates between specialized and general meaning using context clues with good supplemental activities.
  • There’s a comprehensive index in the back of the book and
  • it has activities throughout so to supplement
  • if you need it or you can just stay with what’s on those pages and I found that this was a very good preparation later for the pre-college SAT and/or ACT tests.

The Vocabulary book is A but of course it goes A, B, C, D, E and F, all the way up through 12th grade. They say some books you can switch which one you do which year like E and F can easily be interchanged but they don’t recommend interchanging C and D because of the progression in the books.  So in Vocabulary Book A you’re mostly talking about Latin roots, in Book B Greek and then C, D, E and F go on from there and expand the knowledge and etymologies of the words.

Grammar

The Grammar book is a separate book. It has a CD in the back and I can’t emphasize enough the importance of getting the Teacher’s Edition because there are so many more resources in the Teacher’s Edition. If you just get the student text you’re only getting about one third of the information.

The CD has rubrics for helping you grade papers and also supplemental materials for the text. You might say,  “Well, we already speak English. Why do we need to study Writing and Grammar?” We speak English every day but the grammatical terms and concepts are largely familiar to you so there’s an emphasis in this book on the orderliness of language plus it includes a writing component.

The writing assignments include informative writing, personal narrative, descriptive writing, creative writing, persuasive writing and report writing and it makes sure that your students know that as you talk or the way you would write with your friends or talk with your friends would be different than the formal writing that they’re talking about for essays or a personal story.

Surprise: An Art Activity

I really like that in chapter one to introduce writing they actually have sort of an art activity.  They create a book jacket. Now book jackets used to just be for protection from dust and dirt but now a book jacket is a lot of advertisement, isn’t it? So even though we say “You can’t judge a book by its cover,” that is what we often do when we’re looking for a book and looking for something that looks good to read or judging it by its cover. So it gives your students an opportunity to create a book jacket.

 The book includes a section in the Writing and Grammar on using troublesome words correctly- not just spelling them but in usage. I thought that was very important and I found that this format helped my children do well on standardized tests at the end of the year and then later when they needed to get into college.

Categories for the Literature

For the Explorations and Literature book there are different sections. They (the sections) divided them by categories:

  • courage,
  • nature and man,
  • generosity,
  • our land,
  • humility and
  • family.

Explorations in Literature are foundational concepts necessary to the study and appreciation of literature, emphasizing the application of scriptural principles in our literature.

Why are we reading what we’re reading?

Are we reading good wholesome things?

Then, there is a whole section in the teacher’s book of how to address objectionable elements in literature. Not all the stories have good characters that do the right thing but all those plots and protagonists are talked about in the light of Scripture. So what makes a good moral tone for a book? Well, the good guys win and the bad guys lose and sin is also always portrayed as evil.

These books differ from their public school counterparts.  I remember in public school having to read some literature that was very disturbing and it didn’t have a good moral tone and  it was just troubling. These books and all of the BJU Press homeschool books do not do that. You can feel confident that your children are reading a good material and are looking at it through the lenses of Scripture.

The Exploration in Literature book also comes with a CD and these CDs  you can look through them in 10 or 12 or 15 minutes to see what’s there. They’re not like so extensive that it’s overwhelming but they do contain a lot of extra things:

  • enrichment writing worksheets,
  • rubrics to help you grade short answer quizzes,
  • ESL tips,
  • reading and vocabulary word lists
  • bulletin board ideas

I like how they introduce the writing projects. You can introduce them on Monday, require a rough draft by Wednesday, the student corrects it on Thursday and can hand it in on Friday. Their writing lessons are organized in a logical step-by-step process so it should not be frustrating for you or for your student.

Your Children Will  Enjoy These Stories

These stories are for your young women and young men! The very first story is “It Was a Dark and Dreary Night,” This first story is of two boys camping out at night. One boy doesn’t want the other one to know he’s afraid of the sleeping out in the dark at night.  The other boy doesn’t want the anyone else to know he’s afraid of bats! There’s some comedy in the tale but it also has some serious elements about how you work with your friends.

Get the kits!

Do you need all of these books? I would highly recommend you get the complete kits with the Explorations in Literature, Writing and Grammar and the Vocabulary because they all like a team:  well-integrated together to work together!

Tests and Answer Keys

These tests are well-written!

  • It’s not all short answer.
  • It’s not all multiple choice.
  • It’s not all essays.
  • It’s well mixed together so your student learns to think critically.

Bonus for Literature:

I hope this has been helpful. I’ll put my link below in the comments. It would be great if you could buy through my link for the BJU Press Homeschool. And I hope you have happy homeschooling and join me on Facebook Homeschool Christian Mom or I have very helpful articles at homeschoolchristianmom.com and I’ll have a blog article that will go with this as well in a little while. Thank you so much for joining me if you have any questions put them in the comments and I’ll answer them later.

Note: Some links in this article are affiliate links and if you click on them and purchase I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.

Let’s connect!

I post recipes that our family actually eats! Why? Because no matter how good a homeschooling day you have, you (usually) still have to make something for dinner! I hope you enjoy these recipes.

You might also like: Rich Tomato Vegetable Soup to Keep You Warm and Keep Away the Munchies

Warm and Comforting Spinach Artichoke Dip

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