The A Journey Through Learning lapbook was an outstanding spine.  I had never used one of their lapbooks before, but it won’t be the last one!  It was put together in a very organized, simple to implement way – refreshing!!

We also completed some of our own inventions using ideas from the Teacher Created Materials Inventions book.  (You can find links to the books I’m mentioning below.)  The kids LOVED creating their own inventions.  I’ve put together a little slideshow of our lapbooks and inventions….

Below is the list of resources that have been in the sidebar.  We read a few more great books from the library, too…Lights Out,So You Want to Be An Inventor?, I Is for Idea: An Inventions Alphabet, The Berenstain Bears Fly-It! Up, Up, and Away!

Inventors and Inventions

Lesson Idea Links from The Homeschool Mom

Lots of Links from About.com

Next stop, Simple Machines!  You can find the resources for that unit in the sidebar very soon.

Creative Memorization Ideas

My all-time favorite creative memorization tool so far has been Times Tales!  My oldest daughter had struggled with the upper multiplication facts for months.  In ONE day of this program, she knew the facts!  I’m not kidding!  It uses little stories to tell about each fact.  After doing the program with her, I still can’t think of 8×7 without picturing Mrs. Snowman and Mrs. Week driving one mile over the speed limit at 56mph! 

Getting children to memorize anything from math facts to Bible verses to dates is going to depend greatly on their learning style.  Lucky for us, there are a wealth of resources available for memorization using different learning styles:

-lists or topics put to songs (Lyrical Learning, Garden of Praise (FREE), Audio Memory)

-flashcards

-facts put into silly stories

-mnemonic devices

We can easily do some of the above ourselves.   We can also put facts or verses to clapping rhythms or movement rhythms.  We can play little games like tossing a ball back and forth to spell out words or complete math facts.  And hey, who wouldn’t work hard for an M&M for each facts or verse quoted correctly??

Here are some really great ideas I found on the internet.  You could use the same ideas for a variety of memory work topics.

Creative Bible Study

Making Bible Memorization Fun

Creative Christian Ministries