Animal Basket

      Skyler is all about animals and it is a tad bit of a shocker it took me this long to make her an animal basket! Let's just say she is now thrilled!! Of course her cat is thrilled as well since she now has another place to sleep. The majority of the books in this basket are all by The Thinking Tree. The idea of theme baskets comes from the author of these books Sarah Janisse Brown. She is also the awesome lady who started the whole Fun-Schooling idea. 

       My kids love her books and we will continue to use them until they don't. They enjoy the variety, the art work and the endless ideas they inspire. So on to the basket and how Skyler uses it. 

      We can all see how Stella uses it!

     The crafts are just things I have scored at various places when I see them. Some at Dollar General some at Hobby Lobby etc. 

     
      The Passport Into The Wild book is something we have had for years. It is a very cute book. It has opening panels for each continent and shows you all kinds of animals which live there. It also had a little passport with it and stickers of each of the animals. 

     She is really liking the Endangered Animals journal that just came out. She would base everything on animals if she possibly could. She hates writing but when I use the writing journals by The Thinking tree that are animal based she does very well. She creates very detailed stories and spends quite a bit of time on them. 

     As usual she has an animal to do school with. Clotho is her newest baby. She has dreamed of one of these dogs since she was a toddler and saw a movie with one. I managed to get this little cutie for her for free! I am not fond of small dogs to be truthful. I call them ankle biters and have turned down many chances for Skyler to get one of them but, this little girl she just stole my heart. She makes a great addition to our animal planet LOL!! 

     She watches animal type shows when she uses her animal basket. She enjoys Vet Life, Wilderness Vet, United States Of Animals, Animal Cops and Vet School. Really any animal related series grabs her attention these are just the few that steal all my recording time!

     She uses a mix of the computer and the animal encyclopedia we have had for years now to do research. 

     I truly love this spelling book and since animals are included on every letter so does Skyler. It also includes geography as well as musical instruments. If I can combine learning about something I am all for that. The Thinking Tree is a great resource to have as far as combining subjects as well. 

     So how does Skyler use her basket? Well, any way she wants pretty much. She can use the Endangered Animal journal which has writing activities, drawing and of course research. She uses her spelling book and the other creative writing books as well. I am most likely going to be adding the animal theme in Dyslexia Games Series B as well as she really enjoys them. I will also be adding the Teach Yourself To Draw books too. That is pretty much it for the animal basket!