Letter A Preschool FUN Part 3 Including week 1 of Sonlight

     We loved reading from the "Berenstain Bears' Big Book of Science and Nature" this week from our Sonlight curriculum!  We read all about winter including: how snow is made, what to wear, activities that happen during snowy weather, the names of the winter months and more. I happened upon a wonderful activity on Pinterest to make our winter readings more interactive.  You can find the activity here: Sugar Aunts Snow Ball fight.  This website had a plethora of fun activities for different themes and I will definitely visit often!
I tweaked our activity and used clean white socks rolled in pairs for our snowballs.  Not only was this a fun activity, but it also included a chance to practice counting by 2s, and gross motor skills! Afterwards, we had a fun family snowball fight!  

Since we are concentrating on the letter A, we also played Animal hide and seek.  I took two animals and Bug took two animals and we each hid the animals in different rooms.  Whoever was able to find both the animals first and sit on the couch was the winner.  My sweet competitive Bug had a blast while Little Man bounced along beside her!  Afterwards, we put the animals in pairs like Noah's Ark and counted them by 2s.  Lastly, I helped Bug to create an /A/ with all of her stuffed animals and Bug, Little Man and I also made a lowercase /a/ with our bodies!              
                                                               
                                                             

                       Bug after her big win!                                  Making her stuffed animal letter /A/

Bug also practiced writing the lowercase /a/ by penning a letter to her favorite Disney character: Sheriff Callie.  I was so excited when I found out that you can write the characters and Disney will send a postcard back! You can find the addresses Couponing to Disney  She was so thrilled to write the letter that she had no idea we were doing school work by practicing handwriting.  I love making education fun and tailored to her interests!  

                           WE also had a very fun playdate with sweet, close friends from Church

Look at all that fun! 

 Bug also did a letter /a/ word hunt which can be found at this website: This Reading Mama

I have found a wealth of information and wonderful resources at this website and I cannot recommend it enough!

 We ended the day by watching our favorite letter /A/ Disney character: Ariel! I love how Bug watched most of the movie standing inside her tent!

                                     And of Course we had our sweet, cuddle movie moments!

I can't wait for their baby sister to join us in December!

We have one more day of letter /A/!  It has been such a blast so far!

Sonlight Preschool Week 1 continued

      We are just loving our Sonlight Bible book: "101 Favorite Stories From The Bible" that we started today!  I highly recommend this bible too!  Bug was very engaged while we were reading about God's wonderful story of Creation today.  Afterwards, we reviewed each day of creation and answered the questions at the end of the story.  This Bible has an excellent way of drawing young minds in and really helping them to understand the content of each bible story.  Even though the selections are fairly short, the information is rich and detailed.   After the bible story, it asks a few questions about the content which is a great way for the Word of God to take root in their sweet little hearts! We are using both the"My First Hands on Bible-NLT"and the "101 Favorite Bible Stories Bible" because you can never have enough of God's word!  Sonlight also gives you a verse to memorize for the week and I am so happy that Bug is making great strides to memorize it!

We read "Jack and Jill" from "A Treasury of Mother Goose" today which is a part of our Sonlight curriculum.  I had Bug memorize the first part of "Jack and Jill" and then we were off to the park (which happens to start with an /A/)!  On the way, we played "I spy" going through the alphabet, starting with: "I spy something that starts with the letter A." Bug really adored giving me different clues about her "I spy" pick!

After we arrived at the park, Bug and Little Man loved doing the planned Sonlight activity by running up and down the hill with their pails of water while Lily loved reciting the poem!  

Afterwards, we had a blast playing on the playground and Bug even found a green caterpillar!  She was elated! This gave us an excellent opportunity to review the four stages of butterfly metamorphosis! Bug absolutely loved this little Caterpillar and carried it around for half the day!  She even took it on a ride on her toy truck. 

Bug also practiced writing the letter /a/ in her tray of sand.  Little man loved joining in on the fun too!  We also went through the second day of the literacy program found at www.thisreadingmama.com.

During cooking time today, we made applesauce to go with our letter /a/ theme.  I found a wonderful recipe at the Pioneer Woman's website that was very time-friendly and smelled wonderful!  Unfortunately, I burned it by adding extra time but that's okay because it was still so fun to make! 

I loved listening to Pandora's kids worship music during lunch, it lets my sweet little ones hear wonderful worship songs and relax after alot of fun and excitement from the morning.  

 I just love how Bug keeps telling me what places we can visit during different letter days. For example, Bug said "Mommy lets go to the Carousel on the /C/ day and make cupcakes."  I love watching her joy of learning already starting to flourish!

We ended the day with a popsicle party and swimming!  I am so very thankful for such a beautiful summer day with my precious little blessings!

First Day of Homeschool Preschool with Sonlight and much more!

Our first day of preschool was yesterday! I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to integrate God’s creation with Bugs education! We have chosen the Sonlight Preschool 4/5 program and I couldn’t more thrilled about all of the wonderful materials it contains.  I especially love how the teacher’s manual has a check box to show completion of each day.  I love how I do not feel pressured to come up with piecing together a curriculum because it includes all of the subjects that need to be covered.  However, I also love that I have time to add in fun extras as time permits!

 I chose Sonlight because I have read wonderful reviews about how the curriculum is challenging, fun, and interactive through all of the grade levels. I can’t wait to begin our journey! 

Of course, I am so excited about homeschooling that I had to supplement with some wonderful ideas I found from Pinterest.  So, our first day we supplemented the Sonlight pre-planned program, which included a plethora of exciting books with some fun books and activities.  

We started the first day of preschool by coloring and applying glitter to this cute first day of Pre-K hat I found at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/First-Day-of-School-Crowns-FREEBIE-1335943 and this adorable free preschool printable at http://www.modernparentsmessykids.com/2014/08/free-printables-back-school.html

We read the "My First Hands on Bible-NLT" during breakfast which I highly recommend!  Each bible story ends with a prayer, related questions, and suggested activities for the preschool age group!  Bug and Little man both loved it!  Little man is 18 months so he is included in all of our fun!   

We also made a flower collage on a plate with contact paper after going on a fun nature walk

 I found this activity at this wonderful website:

http://artfulparent.com/2014/06/10-nature-art-projects-kids.html 

We also followed the first day of literacy activities for preschoolers from this wonderful FREE literacy program at this website: www.thisreadingmama.com and 

made a letter T book and practiced recognizing the sight word "a". 

We also had a wonderful time practicing writing the letter /Aa/ on the dry erase board with fun colors and using Do-A DOT markers to make the letter A which I found here: http://www.dltk-teach.com/alphabuddies/daubers/index.htm

We also made a foam and construction paper chick to go with the DAY 1 selection in our Sonlight curriculum book :"Animals, Animals" by Eric Carsle.
There are also a million ideas for cute little chick crafts here: http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=chick%20craft
Our little chick has a sad face. Bug explained that she made a sad face because someone had stolen his shell!

Lastly, we did a fun letter A scavenger hunt!  I set the timer for 5 minutes and told Bug that whoever found the most items that started with the letter /A/ would win a prize!  Of course Bug won and was incredibly delighted!  I found a free Letter A scavenger hunt printable at a wonderful site called Confessions of a Homeschooler! You can find the link to the letter A materials here: http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2010/08/letter-for-apple-2.html.  I highly recommend you visit her website at Confessions of a homeschooler.  She has very educational and fun preschool and kindergarten sets that are available for only $15 each which is extremely affordable considering all that they include!  She also has a plethora of fun ideas and activities for homeschooler!

We had an amazing first day filled with laughter and joy!  I cannot wait for tomorrow!  We have apple stamping, making apple sauce and much more on the agenda!  Plus, lots of wonderful books and activities from our wonderful Sonlight program!

Language and a fun activity for all ages!

Repetition!  Repetition! Repetition! 

Okay- I think I made my point:) Sometimes,  children need to be exposed to new words multiple times in order to learn them. Therefore, I believe repetition is a highly important and easy to use tool that we as parents can utilize to strengthen our children's receptive and expressive language skills.   WAIT!  Let's back up, what exactly is receptive and expressive language?  In very basic terms,  expressive language is the words spoken while receptive language is the understanding and comprehension of words spoken. What does repetition look like practically when conversing with your child?  I'm glad you asked! :):)

Newborn- Pretoddler

Babies can hear outside noise in the womb at 30 weeks!  Isn't that incredible!

I am amazed by God's creation and that He loves us enough to make us each special!

Psalm 139:14 states:

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Lily is now a toddler and I find that repetition is more important now than ever!

1.  ALL AGES: When Lily and I see a picture of a new object/person/animal in a book, I will label the object and then continue to repeat what the object is in sentence form.  For example, "Lily look its a "hippo."  "Oh I like the "hippo." Third, I will describe it - "the hippo is big."  I overemphasize the new word being targeted.  Often times, by the third time I am referencing the object, Lily will repeat the word.  Then, I make it a point to show her the object in different books, or pictures that we see in our daily routine.  I am a huge believer in encouragement!!  The bible says in

1 Thessalonians 5:11 "Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing."

Therefore, when Lily does point to the targeted object and identify the object, I am clapping and saying great job!!! Then, I continue to re-emphasize the word and say you said "hippo" Wonderful job! Animals are so much fun and provide great avenues for language learning!

FUN ACTIVITY:  Try going on an animal safari with your little one!  They will absolutely love it!
You can print off different pictures of animals found in the jungle and hang them in different places in your house.  Make pretend binoculars out of a paper towel roll cut in half and look for the animals!!  There are so many language opportunities for this activity that I am just brimming over with excitement!  Once, you find an animal and identify it, you can talk about how it feels, what it sounds like, where it lives, what it eats, its size, color, and more!! Then, have fun and pretend to be the animal, the more animated the better!!!
Please please please, if you try this activity, please comment below and send me a picture if you can!! I would love to hear any feedback!


 Please NOTE: (if your baby/child is non- verbal, you can use this same technique but without the expectation that they will repeat the word after you)

Lily loved this activity! We used plastic animals instead of paper 

but both work great!

She loved giving the animals a bath in the river (a plate with water)!

Increasing your child's language skills

Teaching my precious toddler new language skills just excites me and I would love to share some of my ideas with you! So, lets dig in!  I have put together five simple and useful ways to begin really encouraging growth in your toddlers language repertoire. Lets start with #1 for today! :)

1.  Narrate everything and I mean absolutely everything.  I know this will feels so silly at first but it is absolutely paramount in increasing your child's receptive language skills.  You can start this while they are tiny newborns but please don't feel discouraged if you did not!  For new moms, I would encourage you to start this as soon as you take them home from the hospital.  But how does that look practically?  Here are some things that I did with my Lily when she was fist born.  

Newborns-pre-toddlerhood

A. I would walk to the different pictures in our house and tell stories about her sweet family.  I would include information about each relative and describe where the picture was taken and the fun memories behind it!  

B.  I also would walk around and take her on "imaginary" trips!  I know this one is funny to imagine but I had so much fun with it!  I would say things like and now Lily we are going to take a trip to Alaska. And I would narrate the whole sequence of events for her.  We would pick up our pace as I told her we were taking off in the airplane, and would describe the beautiful sights we saw.  I would tell her "oh look at the moose eating grass and the grizzly bear uh-oh lets hurry up!  Since sweet Lily could not obviously not dialogue with me, it was a fun way that I could help garner her language skills!  

C.  I would explain everything I was doing!  I would explain even the simplest task like - "lets open the big black door," the more descriptive the better!  I love to pile on the adjectives!

Toddlers:

1.  I still narrate everything with Lily and she has increased her vocabulary by leaps and bounds! 

For example, when we go on walks I describe everything we see! Yesterday we compared "hard vs. soft"  This is how it looked: she picked up a few rocks that she was very excited about at the playground.  So, I said "oh you found rocks!  Wow!"  The more inflective your voice is the better! I asked her how many rocks do you have?  (Lily is able to count up to ten- only to 3 when counting actual objects) so I would not have asked her this question and waited for a response except that I knew she could complete the task. If she was not counting yet, I would have said: oh you found 2 rocks!  I like your 2 rocks.  Lets count them together!) Then, I said oh your rock is hard.  Let's feel it together!  And then I compared it with her stuffed bear and said "bear feels soft and gently put her bear to her face. But the rock is hard and I let her feel the rock again.  We talked about this concept a few times and I repeated the words hard and soft several times because repetition is essential and I will cover that next! I also described the plane in the air, the clouds outside, the children riding their bikes, the bunnies hopping by, the squirrels and what they liked to eat and more.  Do you see how this just becomes a lifestyle? I have truly seen the fruits of this recently or I would not be sharing this with you!  It reminds me of one of my very favorite bible verses: Galations 6:9

"But do not grow weary in doing good for at the proper time you will reap a harvest if you do not give up."

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Legacy

Today I feel incredibly blessed by God's provision of wonderful, God fearing friends. I love studying God's word with those who are passionate about Him! I just finished studying the book of Ruth with my Moms bible study group and I am amazed and in awe of Ruth's charcter and courage! She left her homeland, followed Naomi even after Naomi urged her to return home! She followed after God courageously and then with hard work and perseverance in the fields was noticed by Boaz. She was a woman with character and integrity and pursued excellence with her whole heart. Then, I love how the story of Ruth culminates with Ruth giving birth to Obed, who is the father of Jesse, the father of David! What a lineage! What a legacy because she courageously left everything to pursue God! I often pray Lord "Enlarge my territory" as seen in this verse in the Bible: ‘Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory. Let Your hand be with me, to keep me from evil, so that I may not be grieved.’ (1 Chronicles 4:10) And I pray all Christians follow after Christ and leave behind what the world has to offer!

Easter is coming so I have been on Pinterest finding different ways to help celebrate Jesus and his resurrection with my sweet 20 month old! We loved planting an Easter Garden which can be found here: http://mediacache.pinterest.com/upload/218495019391568479_3wI73Ndz.jpg

We loved watering our Easter garden with our new milk watering jug which can be found here: http://ajourneytoadream.blogspot.co.uk We also loved making the palm branches from her palms which can be found here: http://impressyourkids.org/ We plan to make Resurrection rolls and have a feet washing ceremony and read John 13!

We also plan to bless our neighbors in small ways to show Christ's love! I love being a mom and sharing Christ's love and hope you do too!!! Oh and don't forget to invite your neighbors to Easter service!