In the Mood to Learn- Emma's Portfolio

Today was a wonderful lazy stay home day.

A bit of cleaning and organizing. Games are now next to the kitchen table for easier access.

Occasionally I feel that I should be doing more "structured" educational activities with Emma, as opposed to the random fun activities (like oobleck, magnetic dolls, barbie clothes, scrabble slam, I think you get the picture)  that happen to be educational. Of course, if we want to get technical, every moment of every day is educational. 

My latest project is updating Emma's portfolio. When Jared graduates, we have no idea where we will end up. Our hope is to be in a state (or area) where homeschooling laws are pretty low. On the off chance we end up somewhere that homeschooling laws are strict, I figure having a portfolio is a good idea. 

Of course having this blog will probably help as well. I would consider it documentation. 

Aside from putting Emma's work into the portfolio, I also use it to hold worksheets and such that I think she might like to do. As long as she is in the mood. I sat down with Emma today to explain the portfolio to her. I want her to be an active keep of her portfolio, so I explained what types of things go into it, and how it is organized. As we flipped through the math section, she noticed some math work sheets. "What do you do on this one?"

Counting dots on lady bugs and adding them. 

She went through this pretty quick (once the distraction of the camera was gone). 

I want the portfolio to be functional, but fun to look through as well. I thought that maybe a artsy cover and dividers would help jazz things up. 

Bubble letters- Printout with words, freezer paper, puffy fabric paint. The letters can be peeled off the paper once dry and glued down where we want them. I am think of doing some collage on cereal boxes for the dividers, and gluing the letters on. 

"Emma's Awesome Portfolio" 

Emma worked on the cover while I worked on the words for the dividers. 

Eventually the desire to paint herself took over, so I switched her to acrylics. 

Just as I was about to snap a cute photo of her engrossed in her work, she turned this face to me. Stinker. 

I finished working on the words for the dividers while Emma painted herself. 

Then I did some goofing around with the puffy paints. Before getting distracted, Emma did manage to finish one full word. 

I think that should work just fine.