Most Loved Toys - Vol. 2

Balloons

 While we do not have balloons around everyday, we certainly do not reserve them only for birthdays. It's just an empty rubber bubble, yet so much fun for a kid. Whoever came up with the idea really should have been paid a million dollars. I have a feeling he didn't.

Yes, that is my kid licking a balloon.

Big Box of Pom-Poms

Yes, it makes a mess every.single.time the box of pom poms are out, but for some reason, that box holds the magic to entertain all four kids at the same time. Into the box I threw a few small containers, some serving tongs, and an old Christmas candy jar. The kids play candy store, scoop and dump, throw snowballs (uh, yeah. not my favorite), stuff them in their shirts... whatever pops into their little heads.



{For those who are also Money Saving Mom readers, I promise that while she beat me to it, I am not just copying her post today. I took these pictures last weekend and woke up this morning with the intention of writing this post tonight. Honest, really and truly. I take no blame for making you want to run to the nearest craft store to buy pom poms.}

Preschool- Young K (adv. 2's-young Ks) Busy Bag Swap

This swap is now closed.

There will be 12 groups. Each group will have 2-3 fill ins. Your coordinator will contact you in the next few days. (There were 368 people, so please be patient. It will take me a while to group them all.)

If you have not been contacted, check your junk mail folder or spam folder.
If you cannot find an email from your coordinator, email me.

This swap is for Preschool- Young K ONLY. If you're looking for the toddler swap, it is re-opened! If you're wanting to join the K-2nd or the Math and Reading swaps, they are coming soon.

This swap will include 30  activities and 30 swappers + 5 or so fill ins per group.

Want to join this one?

Step 1: Please review the following list of activities. Choose your top three choices of which you would like to create, or let me know if you have another idea that is not listed here. Other ideas are welcome. If you participated in the swap last May, the activites will be very similiar to last time, but you are welcome to sign up again if you like.

You may need to be creative when you brainstorm your activity to make it fit into the budget or into your current stock of stuff around the house.

Shapes & Colors

--Shape Hunt & Sort

-- I Have, Who Has Game
(That's a lot of printing, but the game looks so fun. Wonder if you could play the game with just half the number of cards?)

--Double Trouble Shape Match

--Popsicle Color Match
(Make it with felt rather than paper to make it withstand the use of small children)

--Pom Pom Patterns


--Roll-a-Cise


 Numbers/Counting/Early Math

-- Number Wheel

 --Five Fabulous Frogs
(Can use any object and you can make your own sorting mats on smaller sheets of paper)

--Measure It

--Laminated Numeber Tracing Cards and a WASHABLE crayon or dry erase marker
(To keep the cost down, maybe you could just do one page, the numbers 1-12. If you use a crayon, it must be a Crayola washable crayon or it will not wipe off.)

--Felt Number Tiles and Bug Counting Cards


Alphabet

--Any of these alphabet activities from Confessions of a Homeschooler

--Felt Letter Tiles and Alphabet Tile Cards



Just for Fun

--Playdough and Play Mat(s)
(Some ideas: Number Mats, Letter Mats, Shape Mats look under "shapes", Berry Pie Mat, Carrot Planting, Facial Expressions, Feeding Giraffe, )

--Felt Cupcake Decorating


--Clothesline


--Spooning Beads


--Felt Snowflake Builder
(For the board, you can simply glue a sheet of felt to cardstock)

--No Sew Felt Fishing Game


Step 2: Read the general overview of the swaps, if you haven't yet.


Step 3: If you're absolutely sure this is something you want to do, fill out the form below. This form will be taken down Tuesday night or when a "ridiculous" number of swappers is reach. (he he)


Step 4: Feel free to invite your blog readers or friends to join in.


Filling out the form is not a way of expressing interest. It is a commitment to be a part of the swap. It is not fair to the other swappers if a handful of half hearted interest people sign up, only to flake out at some point. That would mean that many people spent time and money assembling 30 activities, but would not receive 30 in return. If you're not sure if you can handle the expense or the time investment at this time, then maybe you should pass this time around. If however, you do sign up with full intentions of participating, but then realize that for some reason you are unable to continue, please let me or your swap coordinator know right away, so that we can contact someone else who would love to be involved.

Incredible Online Thanksgiving Resource for All Grades

I was casually searching online for some sort of activity or lesson plan for Thanksgiving. I wasn't liking what I was finding. There were lots of fun crafts and activities centering around turkeys and pumpkins, but I was looking for the true story of the pilgrims. Then I stumbled upon this incredible resource from Scholastic. Oh my word!!! There's so much there! There are video clips on the journey to America, what life was like in the new land, and the first Thanksgiving. So many interactive aspects. This can be adapted to any age level. Just do as much or as little as they can handle. I'm super excited this!

Operation K-10: Wk. 1-2 Review

I am loving, loving, loving school time with my girlie. And apparently, my little men are loving it too. It's so cute to sit down with Cherith and all of a sudden there's two little guys right there too, with Ethan chanting, "'ant skoo, 'ant skoo" (want school). The boys join along with all the Bible and Character stuffs, then go their way when we move on to reading, math, and science/social studies.

Without further ado, here's the pile o' books we're using, otherwise known as the cirriculum.

The whole sha-bang:

My Teacher Book (as the kids call it):

My handy dandy pocket for holding small bits of paper that a lot of kdg projects and games seem to consist of.

List of resources (what I'm using for each subject):

Lesson plans for each day of the week:

The character trait page (one for each week):
We are using the character line up (and printable character pages) from Mother Hubbard. We learn what the character means, the Bible verse that goes with it, and sing the song. Ethan LOVES the songs. We then read a Bible story that goes along with that trait and do a project that goes along with it.


The Character/Bible activity pages pocket: (I use this pocket to store the printed pages I will use that week.)
Some highlights of the last two weeks' character/Bible time:

Name puzzles (ordering letters correctly to spell their name)

-This picture is actually a bit embarrassing. My three year old (who is potty trained) is wearing a diaper because I was so behind on laundry there was no underwear.

Noah's Ark (follow directions to make an ark),

Order the days of creation

Nehemiah's Wall (be a good planner and leader to build a wall)

Bible verse for attentive

Stick puppets for the story of Mary (attentive) and Martha (busy with good things at the wrong time)

Character review books

Math: (The workbook I found at Sam's Club. We skip the first pages that cover the easy stuff.)

Our Calendar Book: (explained here and here)

How many days in school: (hundreds chart)

Months of the year chart and song:

Days of the week song:

Monthly Calendar:

Weather graph:

Tempature graph:

Observation worksheet for each month's weather graph:

Social Studies: (A family journal that I put together. It also somewhat coordinates with the character line up.)

Some social studies pics:

Science: (A workbook/textbook about the human body that my sister in law and I are putting together that matches up with the character trait schedule)

Some science pics from the last couple weeks:

Observation report from our listening walk:

Homemade kazoos demonstrating how sound vibrates:

And I saved this for last, because I need some help...

Our reading stuffs:

The Tinkerbell notebook is Cherith's kidwriting book, explained here:

I like a lot of things about the 100ez lessons book. It's easy enough for me and Cherith. She's learning to read from it, but she finds it very boring. I'm needing to add more hands on/active learning besides a big book with lots of black print. Any ideas or help here? She's not a total beginner reader. She knows all the sounds of the consonants, vowels (short and long), and some blends and dipthongs. She can read short vowel words and a few long vowel words. She does not read smoothly yet. She still has to sound out each word. So, we're not needing alphabet work. I'm just not sure exactly what direction to go in. I would love any reccomendations.

Time for Some Procrastination

We're having a yard sale this weekend, starting tomorrow. I think I have almost everything together and priced. But as a result, my kitchen smells from piles and piles of dirty dishes. There are probably five loads of laundry sitting in the walk way behind the couch that need put away. My bathroom needs cleaned and the floors need some serious vacuuming. But rather than deal with all that, I just took a bunch of pictures for my next blog post: Operation K-10: Wk. 1-2 Review. K-10 being "kindgergarten 2010". So now I should probably get busy.