Teaching Little Ones At Home

Printable | Preschool Homeschool | Mathematical Concepts

2013-07-20T04:01:00.003-04:00

Mental Checklist for the Preschool Homeschool – Mathematical Concepts

Like many ELA teachers, Maths was never my strong point in high school. Don’t get me wrong, I took advanced maths and I passed easily, I just had to actually study and get my Dad’s help to achieve it. And I only got a C+ on my final exam. My problem was that I couldn’t see any use for the mathematics that I was studying, and it’s not that I simply didn’t care, I just couldn’t wrap my brain around some of the trigonometry and calculus concepts… they just wouldn’t stick! And probability and statistics didn’t come that easily either. I could do enough to get basic genetic probabilities for my biology studies, but anything beyond that was beyond me!

My keenest memories of mathematics are generally more about my quirky teacher (who resembled Moses, simply substitute the ten commandments for a maths textbook, and the flowing robe for khaki shirt and pants…same outfit every day.) He always told me I was destined to be a Maths Teacher (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA) but then, he had taught my father, and my father should have been an accountant. I think he wasn’t, because his father (my grandfather) WAS an accountant.

My maths teacher’s favourite classroom advice was, “When in trouble, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.” His favourite examination advice was, “When in trouble, when in doubt, plot points.” Sage advice indeed. Truthfully, he was a wise, intelligent, and dear man, who was well loved by all his students, and his quirks are remembered far more easily than his brilliance both as a mathematician and as a teacher.

But I digress.

I know that beyond teaching my children to count to twenty (which they do very well, and very loudly at the supermarket) I have somewhat neglected mathematical concepts in my instruction. When I started looking up how to teach preschoolers, I naturally leant more towards the reading and nature side of life... I am, after all, an English and Biology teacher.

I had to laugh when I saw that one Pinner had pinned my Motor Skills checklist onto a board entitled ‘The Language of Wolves’. A bit of research told me that wolves are those parents/teachers/administrators who are objective obsessed, and demand that every learning experience be tied to a demonstrable, measurable objective. If the Pinner had bothered to read the post, she would have realized that is not my intent at all.

Like my other lists, this is more for ME than a list of objectives for my children to master. Am I giving them opportunities to develop these skills? Am I encouraging them in their sorting and measuring (which they love do to), or am I downplaying the importance of these types of play in favour of others. I do not plan our ‘schooling’ around these lists. I barely plan our schooling at all. I let them play and discover, and find teachable moments in what they are doing and what they are interested in. I might focus on a particular letter, or a particular bible story, or nursery rhyme, or other integrating device (learned that term in 1st year of university back in 1992!) but beyond that, I try to let nature take its course and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit (our greatest educator) and my children. A checklist of this nature is simply there for me to glance over every once in a while and ask myself if I have provided my kids the opportunity to develop these skills or learn these concepts. And if not, I find ways to do so, mostly through play, stories, or art and craft.

You can download a pdf copy of this checklist here.

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Printable | Preschool Homeschool | Social Development Checklist

2013-07-16T18:47:00.002-04:00

Mental Checklist for the Preschool Homeschool – Social Development

Social Development was always my biggest concern when it comes to the idea of homeschooling. Having done my research, I know that there are many, many options for homeschooling families when it comes to getting their children out and about and mixing with others.

Knowing this, it is still a major concern for me. We don’t belong to any church family at this moment (not for lack of trying…it’s a long story) and we have no family in the area. We have developed relationships with a few people, but we really don’t have any families with children our kids’ ages with whom we’re in regular contact. I have heard that there is a rather large homeschooling community in our area, but I’ve no idea how to get ‘in’ if you know what I mean. They don’t advertise anywhere that I have seen!

But I’m working on it. We’ve started attending a local MOPS group, and I’ve plans to start using the new public library that will be only 10 minutes away (when it’s finished being built!)

In the meantime, my children have wonderful manners (when we’re out) and can both carry on conversation (Ada to quite an advanced degree, Ida less so…she only started talking at 2). They love to play with each other and other children whenever they have the chance, and make friends easily with kids of various ages.

We are still working on a couple of things in the list with Ada, and Ida (15 months younger) is coming along well in all categories… the paediatrician was impressed at our last well-child visit.

As with the Motor Skills Checklist, this is not a list to organize your curriculum around. Simply cast your eye over it periodically and make a mental checklist of what's going well, and what you'd like to focus on for the next little while. Incorporate learning into the activities your child already loves. I have found that conversation while working and playing is the biggest learning tool in our house. I live my life out loud with my children. As we shop, as I cook, as we even watch TV, we are always describing actions, asking questions and pointing things out.

Download link below

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Self-Awareness
-Demonstrates Personal Preferences
-Personal Information
   -Knows gender
    -Knows age and birthday
    -Knows first and last names
    -Identifies self by categories
    -Knows home address and phone number
    -Knows parents’ names
-Demonstrates emotional well-being
    -Can be away from parents for 2-3 hours without being upset.
    -Enjoys hearing stories about self
    -Displays positive self-esteem and self-concept
    -Demonstrates confidence
    -Demonstrates increasing independence
-Develops appropriate trust in adults.

Develops self-regulation
-Follows transitions and daily routines
-Follows simple rules
-Expresses feelings through appropriate gestures, actions and language
-Demonstrates personal responsibility for self and possessions
-Follows self-selected plans for play
-Demonstrates respect for classroom property
-Asks for help when needed
-Connects actions and consequences
-Stays with, or repeats, a task
-Maintains concentration over time
-Accepts suggestions

Builds relationships with peers.
-Recognises feelings of others and responds appropriately
   -Shows empathy
   -Takes turns
   -Helps others in need
-Engages in interactive play
   -Shares and cooperates
   -Initiates play situations
   -Plays ‘house’ – imitates other children and adults
-Forms friendships
   -Learns how to make and keep friends
   -Enjoys making others laugh and being silly
   -Gets along well with other children
   -Talks easily
-Resolves conflict.
   -Works with others to solve problems

Cooperates and Collaborates as a Member of a Learning Community/Family
-Recognises and accepts individual difference
-Participates as a member of a group/activity
-Uses social conventions
   -Recognises authority
   -Uses good manners
   -Meets visitors without shyness
-Negotiates with others to change rules and suggests new rules
-Uses materials appropriately and puts them away
-Helps with chores

You can download a pdf copy of this checklist here.

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Craftivity | Making a Paper Quilt

2013-07-14T01:53:00.000-04:00

We have taken a significant break from our God's Little Explorers activities as we have been tending to other needs in life. Learning has still been happening, simply not in the formal way it had been before we took our unplanned sabbatical.

We are slowly getting back into the swing of things, and picking up where we left off with the letter 'q'.

Yesterday we made a paper quilt, as Ada has been desperate to use scissors again, after I had to institute a ban for hair-cutting.

My Mum took up quilting as a hobby (as opposed to a lifestyle, as with most quilters) when I was in my late teens, and I have vague memories of her first quilt, which involved the 'log cabin' block pattern, I believe it's called. Since its only lines are straight ones, it was perfect for Ada's reintroduction to scissors.

After a practice run, in which I cut my construction paper five sheets thick and just eyeballed the measurements (you can guess how well that turned out) I decided to invest a bit of time in making up a cardboard template, and pre-measuring and marking up all my paper squares.

Ada had a field day with cutting, although I raced to cut at least two complete sets out before she got to all the squares; she's not yet really got the hang of straight lines. Her cuttings ended up back in the junk trunk to live another day.

I had pre-drawn the log-cabin block pattern (times six) on the plastic side of some contact paper, and once we were good to go, we started with the squares at the center of each block. Working our way out, the only rule was that we couldn't have two pieces the same colour touching each other.

The activity required a lot of direction (both girls) and re-sticking of pieces (Ida, mostly) but I think given another year or two Ada (who will be 4 next month) would probably be able to complete the actual forming of the blocks on her own.

The bonus about using clear contact was that we were able to stick the page directly into their God's Little Explorers notebook without having to bother with glue!

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Printable | Preschool Homeschool | Motor Skills Checklist

2013-07-09T08:18:00.000-04:00

Mental Checklist for the Preschool Homeschool – Motor Skills

As a teacher, objective based education was the norm. Each lesson was planned via a ‘backward mapping’ process in which what the students were expected to be able to do by the end of the lesson was the primary focus. The objectives. I grew to hate the acronym ‘TSWBAT…’ It took me some time to figure out that it stood for, ‘The Students Will Be Able To:’ I hated, loathed, and despised posting objectives on my board every day. Mine was always a somewhat unconventional classroom in that the narrative of the lesson was the most important thing, and if the story took an unexpected turn that day… oh well… let’s learn something else instead. For English, as well as for Biology. No question was too hard for the class to find an answer to. Lesson plans always seemed more of a ‘suggested guide’ and rather than have a daily plan, I would prefer a weekly or monthly plan, leaving room for ‘exploration’.

Don’t get me wrong… I see real value in objectives. I think it is very important to have some form of ‘road map’ or the curriculum gets bogged down and goes nowhere. You have to begin with the end in mind. My classroom application, however well it worked well in high school in Australia, was not so much of a fit in middle school in the US. I received low marks in several reviews because I did not have a lesson plan to show my supervisor at the end of a ‘surprise observation’. Never you mind that all the other categories were checked off as ‘excellent’.

So I have come to the conclusion that, as good as I was as a classroom teacher, (and I WAS good… VERY good...) I don’t actually fit well in the current factory model of schooling, and might, in fact, do much better as a homeschooler in this day and age.

And I will still have objectives – but not so much as a list of items to be tested; more as a mental checklist for me to make sure that I do have an ‘end’ in mind for each unit of work.

Preschool is a little different in that there is no list of dates, facts and figures to be learned. Instead there is a series of skills and concepts that must be mastered if later learning is to be successful. And yes, later learning is not simply a list of dates, facts and figures….the learning of skills and concepts continues into adulthood. It’s just that there are more dates and facts and figures to learn later ;)

Over the next few weeks, I plan to outline my Preschool Homeschool Mental Checklists for Mum for a range of Objective Groups. This week is Motor Skills. Rather than try to plan lessons around each item (as one would for school objectives, sadly) this is more of a list to glance at occasionally and select a few items to focus on over the course of a week or so. Better yet, pick an activity that your child loves, go through the list to see what skills it hits, and then select a couple of extra skills you can extend the activity with. Be creative!

download link below

Suggested Age Range – 2-3 (My 2 year old can do a lot of these. My 3 (nearly 4) year old can do all of them.)

Gross Motor Locomotor Skills

Hops
Runs/Changes DirectionSkips
Marches
Walks backwards at least 5 ft
Walks tiptoe for short distance
Follows a designated path
Crawls through a tunnel

Gross Motor Balance and Rotation

Jumps at least 6 inches both in the air and in distance.
Alternates Feet Down Stairs
Walks a straight line/balance beam
Stand on one foot for 5-10secs
Climbing (e.g. a slide)
Pedals a tricycle

Gross Motor Manipulative Skills

Kicks a ball forward
Throws a ball overhead
Throws underarm
Attempts to catch a large ball
Aims at a target

Fine Motor Skills

Clasps hands
Touches pointer fingers
Controls fingers individually
Demonstrates pincer control (picking up small objects)

Self Help Skills

Able to button a garment
Able to zip a zipper
Puts on own shoes (no laces)
Can feed self with spoon and fork
Can wash hands
Can get a drink
Uses toilet semi-independently

Scissor Skills

Handles scissors well
Cuts simple shapes

Writing/Drawing skills

Correct pencil grasp
Draws/writes with increasing control
Able to copy simple shapes
Draws and colours beyond a simple scribble

Other

Stacks 7 or more blocks
Pastes objects
Completes simple puzzles
Can pour from one container into another

You can download a pdf copy of this checklist here.

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Printable | Number Formation Practice

2013-07-02T14:38:00.002-04:00

Having made a template for letter formation practice pages, the next logical step was to create number formation practice pages.

One commenter noted that it it's important to remember that children have 52 letters to learn how to write, and I would add to that, in that there is also ten figures needed if children are to be successful in mathematics.

62 different figures to learn is quite a number, and I want to make it as interesting as I can for my girls. These practice pages only come into use after a heck of a lot of fine motor work (that pincer grip is vital), and a lot of fun-style letter/number recognition games, and letter/number formation through other media, including craft activities, playdough, chalk on concrete, and letter/number manipulatives.

I have included the figures 0 to 9. If you can write those, you can write any number.

You can download a copy of the number formation practice pages here.

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Cheap and Easy Storage Solutions | Permanent Marker Hideaway

2013-06-30T01:56:00.000-04:00

I should have known it was coming. Ada was about this age when she started doing it. It's worse with Ida because she is a climber. It doesn't matter where I stash them; she always manages to find them.

They are, of course, my permanent markers. And just about every wall in the house bears testament to how much fun they are to write with. Hubs and I agree. We're so glad we decided to put off replacing carpets and painting the interior after we bought the house. We'll save it for when the kids are past the drawing on walls and spilling anything and everything all over the carpet stage.

Still, I'd like to minimize the artwork on the walls. And Ida also like to draw on her own tattoos, which gets a little embarrassing at the store because I can't always get it off her face. So the permanent pens need a home where she just can't get to them.

I have an eye for seeing how two unrelated household items (one of then usually destined for the garbage bin) can be combined in to some awfully useful storage solutions. Converting a Ramen Noodle Box into a portable bookshelf, or a plastic blueberry container into kids' puzzle storage are just two examples of how this has worked in our house.

Here's another.

As an Australian, having a cuppa is very important. A cuppa is a cup of hot tea. Milk, no sugar for me. I have an English friend with kids of a similar age, and we get together weekly so the kids can play while the mummies have a cup of tea and a chat. It is something that is bred into most of the commonwealth. At home you see road workers in the heat of the day with their sandwiches for lunch and a thermos of hot tea.

And my children are the same. They like their cuppas. But they don't have tea - too young for the caffeine. They have either a grandma's cuppa (hot water, milk, and sugar - the way my Dad's grandma used to have it) or Ovaltine. If we were in Australia it'd be Milo. Or Horlicks in winter. But they don't have those here. So we have Ovaltine. And it does the job.

And the plastic jars are pretty useful too.

An empty ovaltine bottle just happens to be the perfect height for permanent makers. And the lid is just big enough that little hands can't twist it off and have ready access to said markers.

I no longer have to move my pens from hiding place to hiding place, never able to find them myself when I want them. I can keep them out in the open, safe in the knowledge that Ida can rattle that container as much a she likes...she's not getting my markers!

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Printable | Letter Formation Practice | Upper Case

2013-06-25T12:29:00.000-04:00

Well, I posted a set of lowercase Letter Formation Practice Pages a week ago. I thought there might be a few people who found them useful, even though they were pretty simplistic. Apparently a lot of people found them useful. I guess it's not just my own kids who find it constraining to write the same letter over and over.

I really don't know how I feel about that. I boarded with my grandparents the first year I was at college, and I remember finding one of my grandmother's copybooks from when she was a small girl (rode a horse to school and all!). It was pages of the most beautiful copperplate lettering...it makes me sad to think that the generations that followed have such short attention spans that we can't do it anymore.

But it is what it is.

My children are happy, intelligent, developmentally advanced (according to the pediatrician), and have a love for Jesus that warms my soul and makes my heart sing.

So here is the Upper Case set of Letter Formation Practice pages. I'll also be working on a set for numbers, and extended sets for colour words, number words, and high frequency words. Cassie Osbourne ((3Dinosaurs) has offered to work on sets for sight words as well (her kids are a few years ahead of mine) so be watching her site as well.

You can download a copy of the Letter Formation Practice - Upper Case pdf file here.

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Printables | English Language Arts Essentials | Text Types and Student Glossary

2013-06-22T01:36:00.000-04:00

When I began teaching Middle School ELA in the United States, I began a second career in teaching, that was totally different to my first career as a high school teacher in Australia. Education, it seems, is yet another one of the many facets of culture that differ vastly between Australia and the US (not simply our pronounciation and spelling of aluminium).

Now, I was no longer a teacher of various subjects to various grade levels, but a teacher of one subjects, to one grade level, simply performing what was essential the same lesson, six times in a row. Variety is truly the spice of life. 7th Grade ELA can become mind-numbingly boring after the third year. So mind-numbing, in fact, that one starts to ask questions one has never asked before.

How are the terms, 'non-literary' and 'non-fiction' related? What is the difference between an informational text and a non-fiction text? Are they different? The answers from my fellow teachers varied. It seemed to be a matter of opinion more than a matter of course.

And so I looked for a resource that would clearly deliniate the different types of texts and how they were related to each other. It seemed strange to me that I had never seen one.

Here I was, after more than a decade of teaching complex biological concepts in one subject, hortatory expositions and the relevance of Shakespeare to the modern audience in another, teaching genre to 12-year-olds, and unable to find a satisfying answer to how the term 'genre' relates to 'types of text' and how all the types of text in the lovely glossary I had typed out to give to my classes, were related to each other.

And so I set about classifying texts into their various types (I was a biology teacher first, after all), and began with the decision that the term 'genre' should be used only to define a category within those types of texts. The best examples, of course, are the genres of fiction (Romance, Comedy, Science Fiction, Fantasy etc) and the genres of poetry (ballad, epic, Limerick, etc). 'Genre' comes from the same root as 'Genus', which is the second to lowest level of classification of the species, so to my mind, genre should fall some way down the list when it came to 'types of texts'. I wrote down all the types of text I could think of, and asked my students and fellow teachers for more examples. I then set about classifying them under various headings until I had found a classification system that seemed logical to me. Oddly enough, there were a lot of 'ahaaa's from not only my peers, but several of my supervisors, when I showed them my little treasure map. Apparently there was a lot of confusion over the non-literary/non-fiction issue.

The reason this comes up now, is because I was fossicking about on my hard drive this evening, and found a long lost pathway of files left over from my classroom days. (I make it sound like it was an eternity ago, but it was really only 4 years.) And of course, I stumbled across my Text Types Chart, and my Glossary (that took forever to type out) and reminisced of how proud I was of them, and how useful they were to me and my students, (and how so very thankful I am to be at home with my two wee girls), and thought I would share them with anyone who wanted a copy.

I know this is mostly a preschool blog, but preschoolers grow up, and study various types of texts. If you're a classroom teacher, it behooves you to be a master of your subject area. There is nothing I hate more than the idea of ELA teachers who do not know grammar. If you're a homeschooler, it behooves you to make sure your children come into contact with all of the various types of text listed on the chart (especially if you are compelled to undertake some form of state testing).

You can download a pdf copy of the Student Glossary here.

And you can download the Types of Texts pdf chart here.

Or you could have just clicked on the images and not bothered to read down to the bottom of this wordy and unnessarily long post when you're just here for the free printables! Ha Ha! Got you!!!! ;)

Post Scriptum: Don't you think we should all use the word 'behoove' more? It's a great word. Say it out loud a couple of times. Let it roll around your tongue like a good wine. Behoove. Behoove. Behoove.

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Printable | Letter Formation Practice | Lowercase

2013-06-18T12:47:00.000-04:00

Ada is getting much better at coloring between the lines...when she takes her time. I think she might be a bit of a chip off the old block here in that she likes to rush things because her active little imagination is racing ahead to the next thing she wants to do.

It's the same with handwriting. Her pencil grip is quite good, and she can form most letters fairly easily, but you can forget about straight lines and keeping between them.

Unfortunately she's not one for copying the same letter over and over until she gets it right. That's boring.

So I have to make her letter practice a little more visually stimulating.

The first time was for letter X, and we were using water color paints. I drew several boxes of various sizes on her paper, showed her how to form an X, and let her at it. She could use any colour or brush, our only rule being she had to form an X in every box.

She loved it, and we've since done it for every letter in their God's Little Explorers notebook.

She's at a point now where I want to introduce her to writing between the lines, so I've confined the boxes with blank writing lines. We're starting with lowercase, but I'm working on an upper case set as well.

You can download your Letter Formation Practice pages (lowercase)here.

Addendum: Letter r has been added to the file! So sorry to miss it the first time!

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Cheap and Easy Storage Solutions | The Ramen Noodle Box Bookshelf

2013-06-13T08:31:00.000-04:00

One of the greatest gifts my parents gave me, after raising me to know Jesus as my personal saviour, was the gift of growing up without. After hearing the voice of God as clear as a bell in the pineapple field he was working in, my father went back to college with a wife, three kids, and a mortgage.

And God provided.

Not always in the ways you expect. Those were lean years. But I didn't know any different. I was 19 years old and doing a socioeconomics class when I called my mother to ask, "Mum, were we poor?" with a note of incredulity in my voice. We were always clothed and shod (albeit in hand-me-down clothes and shoes), there was always food on the table (my Mum packed out our meals with lentils and rice), our freezer was always full of bread (Dad would get up at 4am every Thursday to go to the local bakery and pay 20c a loaf for the old bread, before the local pig farmers came to pick it up for the pigs), we always had a houseful of people (usually foreign students with no family of their own), Dad put money in the plate at church every week, and the mortgage was always paid on time.

There is much more to that story but it was not really my intent to write even that much today.

Maybe someone needs encouragement in their lack. I grew up without all the things my friends had. Stayed behind at school because we couldn't afford the money for field trips. Wore faded school uniforms that been worn by three people before me. Only got a school photo every other year. Listened to my mother ironing other people's clothes, our typing up other people's assignments late into the night. Never knew what a baby sitter was, because if Mum and Dad couldn't take us, they wouldn't go...no money for babysitters. Never had soda or candy but for special occasions. Birthday parties only for ages 7, 14 and 21.

But I was happy and content. Because we had enough. And I thought everybody lived the way we did.

Don't fret about the effect being poor will have on your children. It is not the lack of things that damages children. It is seeing their parents grasping for that which God has not given. God gives enough.

Being poor taught me to make do. To see use in things that others would waste no time or thought on.

Like a Ramen Noodle Box. Ahh, the original point of this post.

The one luxury we did have, was books. Mum would scrimp and save for book club. Not every month, but whenever possible.

Books.

My mother always said the world was going to sink under the weight of all my books. I've donated and given away many times over what I own now.

My children have a lot of books. Shelf space can be a problem.

Those 8" square books get lost on a bookshelf. They're so thin, you can't see the spines between all the picture books. And they get bent, and torn, and scrappy.

You know the ones. They cost $3.77 at Walmart.

And my kids LOVE them.

I want them to be portable (bedroom, to living room, to play/school room), and I want them to be visible. Not lost in a big bookshelf.

And then I bought the family box of Ramen Noodles from Aldi. (Yes, I feed my kids two-minute noodles. They love them, and they eat their veggies, so it balances out).

And my brain that learned to 'make do' saw potential. Because a Ramen Noodle box, and an 8" and smaller book collection are a match made in heaven. A perfect fit.

Just cover with construction paper (or paint or whatever), insert books, et voila, there you have it, a portable bookshelf for those flimsy books.

It's so easy the kids can do it. A great decorating activity.

Cheap and Easy. (Not me, the bookshelf...I may be cheap, but I'm never easy...as my Mum used to say).

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Ten Free Bible-Based Preschool Curricula

2013-05-20T19:09:00.001-04:00

When searching for a free preschool curriculum online, I found several that I liked, but only one that really fit my kids and me. The most important factor (after the fact that it was free), was that it had to be Bible-based, and if it introduced the letters of the Alphabet as well, then that was a bonus, and less planning for me.

The following collection of ten Bible-based preschool curricula are similar only in that they introduce Bible stories and Bible concepts. In all other regards they differ greatly: some are highly prescriptive with detailed lesson plans, others are simply suggestions for activities and a basic outline.

Somewhere in here, I am sure, is a free Bible-based preschool curriculum that will suit your family. I've not gone into much detail for each, beyond very basic information, as I believe my opinion should count for little in your choices for your family. It is simply my desire to remove some of the leg-work, and present links to them all here in one place.

God Bless,

Teacher@Home

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Craftivity: The Ten Plagues of Egypt

2013-05-15T08:02:00.001-04:00

As a part of our exploration of the letter 'i' and the story of Moses leading the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, we completed a craft activity based on the Ten Plagues of Egypt. This activity was very useful in helping my oldest (aged 3 1/2) in retelling the order of the plagues and what they were.

You can read about our week learning about Moses in Egypt here, and you can download a template to complete the project yourself here.

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God's Little Explorers: An Infant, Insects, and Infection

2013-05-09T00:37:00.002-04:00

The story of Moses in Egypt is not a brief tale. Nor is it an easy tale. Slavery, the slaughter of innocents, murder, insect plagues, infection, death...and yet through it all we are shown the faithfulness of God to His children, and in the redemption of Israel from slavery, given a foreshadowing of the Redeemer who came to set all of us free from the slavery of sin.

An Infant, Insects and Infection

An Exploration of the letter 'i'

Letter: i

Theme/Focus: The Story of Moses in Egypt

Memory Verse: Exodus 8:1b
"Let my people go...so that they may worship Me."

Song: I Will Sing Unto the Lord
The lyrics of this song are taken from Miriam's song of praise after the children of Israel reached the far side of the Red Sea and watched the destruction of Pharoah's Army in the water. The tune is very much in the Jewish style.

Introductory Activities:
Of course we watched excerpts from 'Prince of Egypt' and the Veggie Tales version, 'Moe and the Big Exit'.

Insect Matching:
This was mainly for Ida (2.5) but Ada got quite involved as well.

These came from Our Little Monkeys' {free} 'Going Buggy' pack

Bible Craft/Activity:
We completed several of these to mark the different events in Moses' life leading up to the Exodus from Egypt.

A maze to help Miriam follow baby Moses through the bullrushes. I found this maze here.

A collage of red tissue paper to illustrate the burning bush. The coloring page we used is from Ministry To Children

A flip page for Aaron's rod turning into a serpent. That's an actual stick cut in half lengthwise so it has a flat side to glue down. This idea came from Hands On Bible Teacher.

The Ten Plagues of Egypt:

I took this idea from one I had seen online, which was pre-printed number cards showing the plagues. This has also been done for the 7 days of Creation as well, by quite a number of people. Since I don't like to buy anything I think I could do a fair job of myself, I started by cutting out numbers from appropriate colors (blue for water, pink for skin, brown for cow etc), and glued them to the page. I found a sticker sheet (thanks to Deb Jackson, the QUEEN of Pinterest in my book) of the ten plagues from a site that no longer exists, but still has files to download if you have the link. You'll find it here, although I had to draw my own circle for flies, as the creator of this sheet used a bunch of other animals for pestilence.

I then cut out shapes to symbolize the ten plagues, and used the stickers as a guide for Ada to illustrate the plagues on the numbers. It was pretty complex, but I am constantly astonished by her capacity for recall (of course she takes after me!) She asked me over and over to tell her what the plagues were, and when hubs got home from work, she was able to relate them all to him by herself, including description of what each plague included (frogs in houses and beds, itchy skin from bites, locusts eating all the crops etc).

Story Sequencing:

Another excellent resource from Ministry to Children. Mandy Groce is one of their main artists and her work is excellent.

Letter Collage:

This was pretty simple... just an island. I wanted to do something for lower case i, using the sun as the dot, but failed to find inspiration.

Letter Puzzle:

From the Cornerstone Confessions Encompass Curriculum. I trace around the letter, then cut out the piece and trace their individual lines, then let the girls' at it.

Flap Vocabulary: Igloo

Ada and Ida both enjoyed the 'lift-the-flap' Turtle vocab we did for the letter T, and the clock we did for the letter C, so much that I have decided to try and do a 'Flap Vocabulary' every week. The hard part is choosing something beginning with each letter that is also made up of several elements that can be used to make the flaps, although Igloo was perfect this week.

Science Connection: Insect Anatomy

The scientific names of the insect orders are purely for my own benefit. It's been nearly 10 years since I had 11th graders doing insect collections, so it's nice for me that I can still recall the names of all the Families in the Order Insecta. I got Ada to color the head, thorax and abdomen of the examples in coded colors, and then she counted the legs on each one, coming to her own conclusion that they all had six legs. Of course, we then had to discuss spiders and how they have eight legs, and that means they're not insects.

I don't have photos yet, but we have a cocoon we are watching, that is attached to a rose bush outside. Ada keeps trying to shout at the moth (I'm sure it's a moth) to wake it up.

Other Activities and Resources:

Alphabetti - Progressive Phonics
Lapbook Pieces - Homeschool Share
Letter Maze: 1+1+1=1
Sea of Sound: Sparklebox
Reading Readiness and Rhyme Time: This Reading Mama
Dot Marker Letter: Confessions of a Homeschooler
A-MAZE-ing Alphabet: Me. Get it here.
Alphabet Roll'n'Graph: Me. Get it here.

Note:
We are following 'God's Little Explorers,' a free, Bible-based curriculum for preschoolers by Stacie Nelson, who blogs at motherhoodonadime.com

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A Question of Quail - Moses in the Desert | an Exploration of the Letter Q

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'10 Top ABC Coloring Pages' Rides Again

2013-05-05T23:54:00.001-04:00

Life is a little busy, but the crayons are always handy, and the alphabet never gets stale.

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10 Top ABC Coloring Pages

2013-04-22T11:56:00.006-04:00

We love to colour, and when life gets busy and schoolwork gets pushed to the side for a time colouring is a great activity to keep working those fine motor skills, visual discrimination, and vocabulary. Here are 10 of our favourite alphabet coloring sets
.

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Cheap and Easy Storage Solutions | Puzzle Box Blowout Fix

2013-04-12T10:30:00.002-04:00

Kids love puzzles. Sometimes a little too much. They're not only good for brain development, and fine motor skills, but they make GREAT teethers, and the boxes are great fun to use for indoor hopscotch.

Unfortunately, the indoor hopscotch isn't so good for maintaining the integrity of the box.

So what starts out looking like this...

...ends up looking like this.

Many of our small puzzle boxes have ended up like this, and got to a point where there was more tape than box. And the fixes don't last.

Also, we like blueberries, so I had a lot of blueberry containers that were too small to use for planting seedlings, and I felt guilty just throwing them out.

It just so happens that a small blueberry container is the perfect size for sorting a small 24 piece puzzle. They're pretty hardy; they're not appealing as hopscotch platforms; they latch closed, and don't fall open when you pick them up; they're not a big as the original box... perfect really. And they have a nice little window (after you've got rid of the label) into which you can glue a small cutout showing which puzzle goes into the container.

My kids love the fact that they're see-through. I love the fact that it inspires them to put the pieces away when they're done with the puzzle, and that they no longer jump on the boxes for fun!

So there you have it. Use the cardboard for doing other crafts, upcycle some plastic, store your puzzles, and feel like you've accomplished at least one small step towards organizing the kids' stuff.

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Printable: Letter Recognition Assessment

2013-04-12T10:19:00.004-04:00

Formative assessment is the most important of the three types of assessment used in the classroom, whether it be a regular school classroom, or the homeschool classroom.

Diagnostic Assessment simply tells you what your students already know at the outset of a unit. Probably more useful for the regular classroom teacher who gets a new batch every year, than for the homeschooling parent who really knows her own kids.

Summative Assessment only tells you what they studied the night before the test have mastered (at least until they've forgotten how to do it a few weeks later). Again, more important for the regular classroom teacher who needs to show parents (and admin) that they do actually have teaching and learning occurring in their classroom. (As a middle and high school teacher for over 15 years, I can attest that summative assessment is considered the be-all and end-all for most of the school community...it's all about grades.)

Formative assessment tells you how your kids are actually doing. It can be done through observation, quizzes, conversation...in fact there are numerous ways a teacher can gauge how a student is performing each and every day. For both the homeschool parent and the class teacher, formative assessment SHOULD be the daily yardstick that informs instruction and provides direction for the curriculum.

I devised a formative letter recognition assessment to use with my kids to see how well they really recognise the letters of the alphabet. Most assessments of this kind tend to pit letters against unlike letters, and to my thinking, that's not really a fair test... of course it's easy to spot the 'A' when the other symbols you are looking at are completely different letters.

This assessment gives a letter, then requires students to weed out symbols and letters that are actually similar in appearance to the given letter... they may not actually be letters of the English alphabet, but similar looking symbols from other alphabets.

Students can either circle or dot the correct symbols(s), or can practice their fine motor skills by covering up the incorrect symbols with small stickers.

You can find the Formative Letter Recognition Assessment here.

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God's Little Explorers: A Coat of many Colours

2013-04-04T13:23:00.001-04:00

For week six of God's Little Explorers, we moved on to the story of Joseph and his Coat of Many Colours, and the letter 'c'.

A Coat of many Colours

An Exploration of the letter 'c'

Letter: c

Theme/Focus: The Story of Joseph

Memory Verse: Romans 8:28
"...all things work together for good to them that love the Lord [and] are called according to His purpose."

Song: Rejoice in the Lord Always!
I tried to use this simple song to teach them how to sing a 'round'. Didn't quite get the concept yet, but we're working on it!

Introductory Activities:

Colour Puzzles (thanks to the Dollar Bin at Walmart! We love Curious George, by the way.)

Alphabet Roll'n'graph (we used Crayon stickers to mark the spaces in our graph)

The complete Alphabet Roll'n'Graph set can be found here.

Bible Craft/Activity: Yarn Coat of Many Colours

Just a multi-coloured ball of yarn cut into strips, and a back with two front piece cut out of yellow construction paper. I covered the paper with glue and let the girls at it (although I did help Ida a lot. Ada worked independantly). The finished product actually opens like a real coat!

Science Connection: Mixing Primary Colours

This activity is taken directly from Mama Jenn. Using red, blue and yellow food colouring to place drops on the appropriate sections of the colour wheel, then mix with a toothpick. The finished product is paper towel we laid over the laminated palette. I'm trying to teach my girls the actual names for the colours in the colour wheel, because I think Chartreuse sounds much prettier than 'yellow-green'. This one was a lot of fun, and definitely well worth doing if you are teaching colour.

Letter Collage:

After we had made our colour wheels, I got Ada to choose crayons that matched the primary/secondary colour wheel. Both girls coloured in squares of paper using the crayons she had chosen. I drew circles on the back to that Ada could get her cutting practice in, and then I made C's out of the circles. We glued them in order of the colour wheel to form a Caterpillar C.

Letter Puzzle: From the Cornerstone Confessions Encompass Curriculum

The Counting C's activity is from Homeschool Share and the Letter Book is from Sparklebox (both linked below)

Flap Vocabulary: Clock

Ada and Ida both enjoyed the 'lift-the-flap' Turtle vocab we did for the letter T so much that I have decided to try and do a 'Flap Vocabulary' every week. The hard part is choosing something beginning with each letter that is also made up of several elements that can be used to make the flaps. Ada is starting to be interested in clocks and time, so this week we did a clock.

A-MAZE-ing Alphabet Maze:

The complete alphabet set can be found here.

Reading Readiness:

I like Becky (from This Reading Mama)'s resources very much. When Ada is ready, I am going to use her 'Phonics by the Book' Curriculum, probably in conjuction with a repeat of God's Little Explorers for Ida. As Ada gets more and more ready to read, I have begun including some of Becky's Reading the Alphabet resources (another GREAT pre-reader curriculum).

Both Ada and Ida seem to inherently read as God intended (right to left, like Hebrew), so I am continuing with these activities from Becky's stuff. This time we used a car to 'drive along the sentence' from left to right.

Rhyme Time:
This also comes from This Reading Mama, and Ada loves it.

Nursery Rhyme: Incy Wincy Spider

When I choose a nursery rhyme to go along with our Bible Story, I try to choose one that is linked by either subject matter ('Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' to go along with Abraham) or one that makes a great analogy. I don't think you can ever be too early in teaching analogies. In this case we drew a parallel with Incy Wincy and Joseph being at the top, then being knocked down by circumstance, but climbing again to reach the top (being faithful and not giving up). Just like the sun came out for Incy Wincy Spider, so God blessed Joseph.

Other Activities:
Alphabetti - Progressive Phonics
Lapbook Pieces - Homeschool Share
Letter Maze: 1+1+1=1
Sea of Sound: Sparklebox

We read 'Mouse Paint' by Ellen Stolle Walsh.

We also really liked this:

Note:
We are following 'God's Little Explorers,' a free, Bible-based curriculum for preschoolers by Stacie Nelson, who blogs at motherhoodonadime.com

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Craftivity: Paper Dolls

2013-03-26T11:43:00.000-04:00

As part of our week with Abraham (Traveling with a Tent - the letter 't'), I found it appropriate to introduce my girls to the wonderful world of cutout paper dolls. Our song for the week was 'Father Abraham' and yes, he did have a number of sons.

(For those who only read the more popular parts of the Bible, Ishmael and Isaac were not his only offspring... after Sarah died, Abraham remarried and had a number of children with his new wife Keturah; although she's sometimes referred to as his concubine. And so Abraham is not just the father of the Jews and the Arabs, but also a number of other ethnic groups, including the Midianites. Read Genesis 25:1-6.)
This is such a simple craft, yet it can incorporate so many physical and mental skills, it's really a wonderful exercise to engage your children with.

- Paper Folding (Fine Motor)
- Fractions (Half, quarters etc)
- Scissor Skills
- Colouring, Drawing faces, clothes etc.
- Counting

We started with a simple paper chain. I folded the paper concertina-style and drew a doll pattern for Ada to cut out. She REALLY likes to cut, so we did a few of them before putting the scissors down to unfold our creations. Both Ada and Ida were delighted with the result, so we cut some more, this time with skirts and pigtails instead of pants and no hair.

Once we were done cutting, I had them draw faces and clothes on the dolls. When I say 'them' I really mean Ada. Ida likes to draw, but she's not at the face stage yet. She has always been a good scribbler and has held her pen like an adult from the beginning, even before Ada did! Her targeting is very good...she loves to scribble directly on top of letters I've written, or pictures I've drawn. Just no drawing for herself yet, only coloring.

After making our families of paper chain dolls, I decided to go one step further and use the idea of paper dolls holding hands to create a visual representation of our song for the week, 'Father Abraham.'

Instead of a straight concertina paper chain, I folded in half, in half, and them in half from corner to corner to make a triangle. Using this as my basis, I cut out a paper doll shape so that, on unfolding, I ended up with a circle of dolls holding hands. Pretty neat, I thought, but a little too complex for Ada. If you have older kidlets, they would probably find it a neat activity.

So there you have it...a flashback to my childhood at least. Simple, lots of fun, and some great skills practice. All you need is paper, scissors, crayons, and tape for joining your chains up into one long mega-chain of paper dolls!

For the faint of heart, I have a couple of templates to make it really easy. You can find them here.

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God's Little Explorers: Traveling with a Tent

2013-03-21T15:02:00.003-04:00

For week five of God's Little Explorers, we moved on to the story of God's Promise to Abraham, and the letter 't'.

Traveling with a Tent

An Exploration of the letter 't'

Letter: t

Theme/Focus: God's Promise to Abraham

Memory Verse: Hebrews 11: 9-11 (Excerpts)
"By faith [Abraham]...lived in tents...and was enabled to become a father because he considered Him faithful who made the promise."

Song: Father Abraham

I like to give Ada and Ida as visual a representation of the song as I can, considering they are not readers. For 'Oh be Careful Little Eyes' I used a rebus. For this song, we used paper dolls (blog post forthcoming on our paper doll fun).

Introductory Activity:
Took the easy route here and watched the Veggie Tales episode, Abe's Amazing Promise.

Bible Craft:

I like using stickers to exercise Ida and Ada's fine motor skills. Together they placed 100 stars in the night sky above Abraham. I had Ada colour in a picture of Abraham from Christian Preschool Printables, then cut him out and added him to our picture. Ada also traced the words 'God's Promise to Abraham'.

Math Connection: Counting to 100.
I chose 100 stars exactly in the previous activity because I knew I wanted to introduce the concept of counting to 100. I used another 100 stars to create a chart where we circled the ages of people we know, and added Abraham and Sarah, to give an idea of just how long they waited on God.

I don't have photos, but we also made paperclip chains (2 for Ida, 3 for Ada, 38 for Mummy, 65 for Pa - my Dad - and then 100 for Abraham). This gave a very good representation of 100 as well. In a group of more children, you could have them take steps to represent years, and have someone stand at 3 steps, 20 steps, 100 steps etc.

Cutting/Collage Activity:

This was really in place of doing a collage this week. Ada cut out the 't' to place in the tent we had made. As we are making in interactive notebook of all their Explorers lessons, I like to include some pages that are actually interactive!

Vocabulary Turtle:

We actually did a number of turtle activities that I have not included here (in the interests of not boring you to death!). I liked including the turtle not only for the 't', but because the turtle carries his home on his back, in the same way that Abraham and Sarah carried their household for years as they obeyed God and traveled where he led them.

The turtle has liftable flaps under which are pictures of 't' things. I had Ada trace the easier words on the flaps.

Reading Readiness:

I like Becky (from This Reading Mama)'s resources very much. When Ada is ready, I am going to use her 'Phonics by the Book' Curriculum, probably in conjuction with a repeat of God's Little Explorers for Ida. As Ada gets more and more ready to read, I have begun including some of Becky's Reading the Alphabet resources (another GREAT pre-reader curriculum).

Both Ada and Ida struggle with 'left to right' and while she can't read the sentence, she learned the sentence, and I had her use the turtle to 'walk along the sentence' from left to right. When I glued the activity into their notebook, I added arrows, laminated the turtle with packing tape for durability, and gave him his own pocket at the end of the sentence.

Rhyme Time:

Another resource from Reading the Alphabet. Ada is all about what rhymes with what at the moment, so I added a Rhyme Time into our curriculum every week. This will help introduce her to rime (as well as rhyme).

Dot Marker Activities:

I usually use Erica (at Confessions of a Homeschooler)'s alphabet dot marker pages, but I forgot to print one off this week, and ended up just making my own with paper and pencil. I made a modification in that I numbered the dots to reflect how the letter is constructed, and had her dot them in order. I think I will continue to do this.

Nursery Rhyme: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

It only made sense to include this nursery rhyme this week. The colouring page came from Sparklebox and the star cutouts we did ourselves. Ada loves to cut, and if I don't give her things to cut, she somehow manages to find her preschool scissors and the I find little bits of paper all over the floor!

Other Activities:
Alphabetti - Progressive Phonics
Lapbook Pieces - Homeschool Share
Letter Maze: 1+1+1=1
Sea of Sound: Sparklebox

Note:
We are following 'God's Little Explorers,' a free, Bible-based curriculum for preschoolers by Stacie Nelson, who blogs at motherhoodonadime.com

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God's Little Explorers: Noah's Zany Zoo

2013-03-14T15:39:00.002-04:00

We continued our journey through the Bible with God's Little Explorers, to the letter ‘z’, and a study of Noah, and the enduring faithfulness of God.

Noah’s Zany Zoo

An Exploration of the Letter 'z'

Letter: z

Theme/Focus: The Flood and God’s Rainbow

Memory Verse: Genesis 6:8 "But Noah found grace in the eyes of God."

Song: Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory
This song has the entire story (even the gopher wood!) except for the rainbow!

Introductory Activities:

Animal Cracker Match

An easy enough activity to prepare for… just go through the entire box of crackers and pick two unbroken examples for every animal in the box. Stick them in a container then have your child pull them out one at a time and match them up!

Bible Craft:
From Christian Preschool Printables. This was a perfect activity to include in an interactive notebook. We modified the activity by tracing the pattern of the ark onto construction paper, and adding clouds, lightning and the ocean waves. This doubled as a cutting activity for Ada - I drew waves and clouds and she did the cutting.

Because we focused on the letter ‘z’ I tried to find ways to include at least the shape of the letter in most of our activities. Lightning, being zigzag shaped, was a perfect way to keep ‘z’ in the picture!

Story Sequencing

One of my favorite ‘go-to’ sites for Bible colouring pages is Ministry to Children. The have some wonderful resources that go beyond simply coloring a page. I turned this story sequencing into a ‘lift the flap’ activity and had Ada retell the story as she lifted the flaps.

Nursery Rhyme: Rain Rain, Go Away.

After her pre-writing and letter writing practice I had Ada write some Z’s on yellow construction paper. These I cut out and we used them as lightning bolts (similar to our Bible Craft at the start of the week) on our Nursery Rhyme page. I also drew raindrops in pencil and had Ada trace over them in pen.

Zoo Puzzle:

This one came from the Homeschool Share Lapbook/Notebook resources (Linked below).

Collage:

We tried a new trick with paint in an effort to make zebra stripes using a ketchup squeeze bottle. Unfortunately, the paint was too watered down, and we ended up with more like urban camouflage. It was a lot of fun, regardless.

Once again, I included zigzags in the craft.

Science Connection: The Light Spectrum

Seed Catalogue Rainbow

I’ve blogged about this craft activity elsewhere, but suffice to say, both kids had a blast sorting colours and gluing them onto our template. Ada can name and identify the colours of the rainbow (actually, she’s been able to for some time) but Ida is just starting to learn her colours. Ida was a late talker and is still working on a lot of vocabulary.

ZigZag Rainbow

Just another way of throwing in the letter z zigzag shape.

Other Activities:
Alphabetti - Progressive Phonics
Dot Marker Letters: Confessions of a Homeschooler
Lapbook Pieces - Homeschool Share
Letter Maze: 1+1+1=1
Sea of Sound: Sparklebox

3D Calendar Art: My Little House

Note:
We are following 'God's Little Explorers,' a free, Bible-based curriculum for preschoolers by Stacie Nelson, who blogs at motherhoodonadime.com

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Spring, Seed Catalogues and Rainbows Craftivity

2013-03-10T15:01:00.001-04:00

Spring is Sprung
The grass is riz
I wonder where the birdies is!

(or in Daddy's case, I wonder where the mower is!)

Take those seed catalogues that you signed up for but never order from (because you just pick up your seeds at Walmart or Aldi where they're cheap enough).

Find fruits and veg for every colour of the rainbow (you may have to raid the flower pages for blue and violet)

Use a circle punch to cut out a bunch of colour discs for all seven colours.

Use a frying pan lid as a template to draw your blank rainbow segment.

Sort colours!

Glue!

Sing a rainbow song (we like the one from Sid the Science Kid, even though we're not fond of the show).

Retell the story of Noah's Ark.

Talk about the variety of fruits and vegetables represented in your rainbow and eating a healthy diet!

Celebrate Spring, New Life, and the Empty Tomb!

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God's Little Explorers: Adam and Eve and the Apple

2013-03-07T15:24:00.001-05:00

As we continue our journey through the Bible with God's Little Explorers, we stop at what I believe is a critical moment of understanding for every little soul, and lies at the crux (literally) of our relationship with God.

The problem of sin.

This is a very deep knowledge for little ones to grasp, and needs to be approached in conjunction with the answer to sin, lest we leave them without hope.

I chose to spend more than a week with this topic, and simply followed the leading of the Spirit in determining when I felt Ada (3.5) particularly, had a good grasp of the problem and the promised solution.

Adam and Eve and the Apple

An Exploration of the Letter 'a'

Letter: a

Theme/Focus: The Fall

Memory Verse: Romans 3:23 "For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Song: Oh Be Careful Little Eyes
I felt that this was a great choice of song for this topic, as it really personalizes the issue of choice and accountability when it comes to sinning.

Ada (3.5) has been going through the 'monsters' phase, and is currently scared of the dark. I was able to use the song as a way of explaining why she is not allowed to watch certain TV shows...you can't 'unsee,' and there are certain images I don't want running around her head at bedtime. Oh be careful little eyes what you see, indeed.

Nursery Rhyme: Humpty Dumpty
The focus of this nursery rhyme for us is that, just like Humpty, we all are broken. And like Humpty, all the King's horses and all the King's men can't fix us. Only the King himself could fix poor Humpty, and only the King himself can fix us. This, of course, is an extension of the nursery rhyme, but for the true believer, is very apt.

Introductory Activity: File Folder Games

Apple Patterns from Pre-Kinders
I can't for the life of me find the actual page on prekinders that I downloaded this activity from! My apologies. If I find it, I will update the link.

Apple Matching/How Many Apples? from File Folder Fun

Bible Craft:

From Christian Preschool Printables. This was a perfect activity to include in an interactive notebook.

Letter Puzzle:

A great resource from Kathy, at Cornerstone Confessions. Her Encompass Curriculum draws from a number of resources, but these puzzles are her own creation, and my kids love them!

Collage:
Not so much a collage this week as a pictogram, with lower case 'a' used to represent both the apple tree and the apples. Ada and Ida then took turns stamping each apple with a red upper case 'A'.

Science Connection: The 5 Senses

The idea was to tie in with the song 'Oh Be Careful Little Eyes' and it worked extremely well. I found the 5 Senses Sort at Lakeshore Learning, and was surprised at how well Ada did with it. I was expecting her to need a lot more help, but once I demonstrated with two different examples, she just went for it. I was able to go and load the dish washer (with help from Ida) and she completed it herself - completely correctly too!

The book I found in the dollar section at Walmart. Bargain. And very timely (thank you Lord!). I am very careful about what my kids watch (we are a no-Disney, no cable household) and Sesame Street is one I am ok with. My kids are limited to PBS and Qubo (although not all shows are allowed!).

Cutting Practice:
The snake tied in with our story this week. I added the pink tongue and we glued it into their interactive notebook. The girls can grab the tongue and lift the snake up.

Other Activities:
Alphabetti - Progressive Phonics
Dot Marker Letters: Confessions of a Homeschooler
Lapbook Pieces - Homeschool Share
Letter Maze: 1+1+1=1
Sea of Sound: Sparklebox

3D Calendar Art: My Little House

Note:
We are following 'God's Little Explorers,' a free, Bible-based curriculum for preschoolers by Stacie Nelson, who blogs at motherhoodonadime.com

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Printable: The A-MAZE-ING Alphabet

2013-03-04T11:16:00.000-05:00

In our exploration of the Alphabet, I have continually seen the need for constant exposure to letters, from pointing them out on the side of a truck, to pointing to the words as I read them in a book, even knowing that my little ones might not yet make much sense of them.

At this stage both Ada (3.5) and Ida (2) can recite the alphabet and name any letter they see, both lower and upper cases. Ada can also name the sounds letters make, and enjoys telling me what letter words begin with ("Mummy! Poo starts with p...p...P!")

I feel it's time to start giving her exposure to the SHAPE of letters as well as the SOUND of letters. She enjoys simple mazes, so I decided to use letter shapes in maze form. This is a complete alphabet set to go along with the Alphabet Roll'n'Graph set I made a few weeks ago. You van find that here.

You can find the whole alphabet set here . (Note: For some reason there is a blank page between E and F. Must be computer error. Surely it's not possible that *I* did that!)

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God's Little Explorers: God Creates a Garden

2013-02-28T21:10:00.001-05:00

God Creates a Garden

An Exploration of the Letter 'g'

Letter: g

Theme/Focus: The Creation

Memory Verse: Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,"

Song: My God is so Great
This song was a great choice, not only because of the g's in the title, but because it clearly speaks about God as the Creator, with lines like, "there's nothing my God cannot do," and, "the mountains are His, the rivers are His, the stars are His handiwork too!"

Nursery Rhyme: Mistress Mary
I really believe that nursery rhymes are an important part of early childhood education. I intend to write about that more fully at a later date, but suffice to say, I was always saddened, year after year, when a large proportion of my 8th grade English students barely knew what nursery rhymes were, let alone actually know any.

Introductory Activity: Planning a Garden

My seed catalogues from Burpee and Gurneys had recently arrived, so Ada (3.5) and I spent time looking through planning what seeds we wanted to get for the garden we are planting this spring. ("Not peppers, Mummy!") We then bought quite a few different seed packets at the grocery store when we did the weekly shopping. Ida (2) was pretty indifferent to much of this, although she enjoyed sorting the seed packets when we got home.

Bible Craft: The Symmetry of Creation

I have recently blogged here about this craft activity, including providing a downloadable template and links to the original chart that gave me the idea.

Collage: A Garden

Lots of fine motor practice picking and sticking tiny flower stickers to our lowercase g. I have a box of various stickers left over from my classroom days (you'd be surprised how well 17 year olds respond to the inducement of a sticker reward!) and was able to dig out some gardening and insect stickers as well.
The grass at the bottom gave opportunity for some scissor practice for Ada.

Letter Puzzle:

A great resource from Kathy, at Cornerstone Confession's Encompass Curriculum. I modeled this off a neat (and free!) puzzle app on my phone, from Intellijoy. I traced around the G, then after cutting up the puzzle, I traced out the individual pieces. Ida (2) is becoming very adept at this kind of puzzle, and enjoyed the activity in real life as much as she enjoys it on the phone.

Cutting Practice:

I found a book called 'I Can Cut' (from Carson Dellosa) at Michael's. I am trying to match activities from the book with our weekly theme. This week, there was a 'Moon and Stars' mobile, which we tied to the Creation. Ada did fairly well cutting - what you see is all her own work. The best star I managed to rescue after she informed me she was cutting off the sharp points of the stars because they were, 'dangerous, and someone might get poked by them!'

Other Activities:

Alphabetti - Progressive Phonics
Dot Marker Letters: Confessions of a Homeschooler
Lapbook Pieces - Homeschool Share
Letter Maze: 1+1+1=1
Sea of Sound Phonics: Sparklebox

Note: We are following 'God's Little Explorers,' a free, Bible-based curriculum for preschoolers by Stacie Nelson, who blogs at motherhoodonadime.com

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