My Favorite Early Learning Math Materials!

I am definitely not a math expert. And while math was never my personal favorite subject in school, I find that I really enjoy doing math activities with Lucy and Collin in our home schooling efforts. As a kid I had a few experiences in school that caused me to lose confidence in my ability to understand or be successful with math.  Looking back,  I realize how those moments really affected me negatively and I wish I could somehow go back to my younger self and undo some of those confidence-shattering math encounters... Of course I can't do that, but I CAN do whatever I can to help my kids experience a level of success in math at an early age and try to bring some joy into their learning process.

This is just a smattering of materials and activities that I do with Lucy and Collin to supplement their main math curriculum (they both do kindergarten level math at this point).  They seem to genuinely ENJOY these activities, and if we can tackle math in an enjoyable and playful manner, then all the better in my opinion!

1. Inchimals by Fat Brain Toys

We LOVE Inchimals!  This is a set of 12 beautiful wooden blocks, ranging in length from 1" to 12".  Each block is represented by a different animal, and includes the inch markings on the sides.  Not only do my kids love using their inchimals to measure things all over the house, but they love using them to solve the math equations included in the spiral-bound dry erase book included with the set.  The math equations are presented using the animals that are assigned to the blocks.  Below is an example of a simple addition equation that Lucy solved by finding the "lady bug" and "mouse" blocks.  One she determined the length of each block and wrote their numerical value below, she was ready to add the two pieces together and then search for the inchimal that was equal to the sum of the two original blocks.  In this case, she figured out that "mouse" + "lady bug" = "rabbit" or 4".  As your children work their way through the book they'll encounter subtraction and more complex equations to solve.  I love that they can grow along with it!

2. Do A Dot Art Markers, Ready 2 Learn Giant Number Stamps, and Ready 2 Learn Giant Math Signs Stamps

I snagged these jumbo number and math sign "Ready 2 Learn" brand stamps from Zulily sometime ago, and we are sure putting them to great use!  The number set includes stamps for numerals 0 through 9 and the math signs set comes with stamps for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, greater than and less than and equals signs.  My kids love it when I pull out our giant ink pads, construction paper, giant stamps and our Do A Dot markers! They get to pick out the color of paper, color of ink, and number stamps (which they truly find thrilling!) and with my guidance, stamp out an equation at the top of their paper.  If we work with addition, then they use the Do A Dot markers to stamp out the number of dots indicated by their chosen numbers and solve the equation visually.  When doing subtraction, they stamp out dots representing the larger number and then use little squares of paper to cover up the dots corresponding to the second number in their equation. My craft-loving kids just love the process and feel so pleased when they solve their equations.  It may seem like a lot of trouble to go to for a couple of math equations, but their delight in the activity makes it worth it for me.

3.  Eeboo Preschool Lotto Game and Mr. Printable's Simple Printable Numbers

During Lucy and Collin's preschool days, our family spent a lot of time playing the delightful Preschool Lotto Game together!  Now they go for games that are a little more complicated during free time, but we have found ways to breath new life into this game by incorporating it into subtraction lessons! 

 

I printed off and cut out several sets of these simple number cards from the Mr. Printables website and keep them tucked inside the game box.  To play the game, each player takes their own game board which has six illustrations on it arranged in a grid. Players take turns drawing tiles from the center of the play area and matching the tiles to the identical illustrations on the board.  The first player to fill their game board wins. 

To turn this game into a subtraction lesson, the kids and I play until everyone has filled their game board.  Then I have each kid find a number 6 card, representing the total number of illustrations on their board and a subtraction sign card (which is included in the set).

Then I call out a color, and each kid looks at their board and removes from their board every tile that has that color in it.  Once they have removed and counted those tiles, they find the corresponding number card and arrange it with the other cards the found before and create a subtraction equation to solve. Then it is simply a matter of them counting their remaining tiles on their board to identify the difference. 

 

We normally refill their board with all the tiles and call out more colors several times to work in as many subtraction equations as they have the attention for.  Obviously the lesson is a bit limited by the fact that the highest number we are subtracting from is 6, but I found it to be a good introduction to the concept of subtraction.

4. Learning Resources Primary Bucket Balance and Learning Resources Centimeter Cubes

It is pretty hard to teach kiddos the concept of measurement without giving them something tangible that invites them to personally explore it.  The Primary Bucket Balance and Centimeter Cubes make it easy to introduce the ideas of measuring mass using items found around the house.

Sometimes I will take a basket and fill it up with small household objects.  Then I present the items to the kids along with the bucket balance and tub of plastic centimeter cubes and have them discover how many centimeter cubes are equal in mass to each object.  They are instructed write down the number of cubes for each object and once they find the number for each object they then arrange the items in order from least to greatest. It is also fun to have them guess the answer before they take the measurement and see them experience delight when their guess was close, or wonder to learn that their item had much more or less mass than they guessed.

Of course there are so many more things you can do with these items! This little activity is just one way we enjoy them. It is also pretty great just to put these items in the kids' hands and see what they come up with on their own. 

5. Kathy Troxel Addition Songs and Subtraction Songs (with addition and subtraction flash cards)

For the most part in our home schooling efforts, I emphasize foundational mathematical concepts over memorizing rote facts. But, memorization definitely has its place in our curriculum and when I do introduce memorization tasks I try to make them as pleasant as possible! Kathy Troxel's music has made these efforts seem effortLESS! 

To make the most of the memorizing attempts I wanted to pair these songs with flash cards so there would be a visual and auditory component.  I looked for the most simple addition and subtraction flash cards I could find and ended up with these by Trend Enterprises:

     

  

We are slowly downloading our way through Kathy Troxel's Addition Songs and Subtraction Songs albums. I simply stack the flash cards in order before playing a song with the kids and we sing along and flip through the cards together. Pretty simple but my kids seem to enjoy it and haven't protested once when I pulled the cards out and played the music. 

6. Dot to Dot Books

Often I find that when I am doing school with my kids one of them is needing individual attention while another is left without much to do.  It is nice to be able to point them toward something that they can enjoy and do independently!  When I want to point them towards something that will reinforce math-learning I frequently gravitate towards dot-to-dot pages. It seems like such a simple suggestion, but my kids  rarely tire of them and I like the way they help them in recognizing and putting ordinal numbers together from least to greatest. 

If you are wanting to invest in some supplemental early learning math materials for your kiddos, I sincerely hope this has given you some ideas that will be helpful!  Do your kids have some favorite math activities?  Please tell me about them! I am always on the look out for fresh ideas!

xoxo,

My Favorite Learning Materials for Social and Emotional Skills

While social and emotional skills are not overtly academic in nature, I suspect that most parents and caretakers of littles would agree that when a child is struggling in his or her ability to interact with others and manage their emotions, academic learning comes with greater difficulty.  Add in the fact that early childhood is a time when most kids are concrete and literal thinkers, it is not an easy task to help them to navigate their way through such a grey "subject".  But it is an important task.

A couple of things I try to keep in mind when it comes to helping my kids learn and grow in their social and emotional regulations skills:

• I try to remember that Darin and I are in this for the long haul.  Our kids' hearts are tender and precious and right now they trust us with their feelings and they take their social cues from us.  The way we handle their feelings now could lay the foundation as to whether they will trust us with them later in life.  The examples we set for them in social interactions now is likely to influence how they relate to others as adults.
• It definitely pays off (at least in our experience) to "teach" about emotional regulation and social skills when they are not already in the midst of big and distressing feelings or a difficult social scenario.  My hope is that when Lucy and Collin need redirection and/or correction in such moments, that the instructions I give are already familiar to them because they were addressed in a less escalated moment.  Of course, sometimes, we don't realize specific areas that we need to work on with them until a situation becomes escalated, and other times it does not matter how much groundwork has been laid, things can just go badly.  But you get what I'm saying!

Now, for the materials and resources that I have compiled for emotion regulation and social skills!  

Here's what I have for ya!

                                     

1. Ready 2 Learn Giant Feelings Stamps
I found this set of giant feelings stamps on Zulily and snatched them up. The set has ten face stamps, each one depicting a different feeling.  Some of the feelings include: content, nervous, tired, scared, happy, sick, etc.  Lucy and I have an ongoing project with these stamps.  I give her a sheet of construction paper and ask her to choose one of the face stamps and the color of ink she wishes to use. After she stamps the image on her paper I tell her what the feeling is and I have her print the word on the sheet.  Then she and I collaborate on making a list of what kinds of things bring about this feeling in her. Then she and I have fun looking in a mirror and making the facial expressions that match the feeling we've just talked about.  She LOVES this activity, and when we have made a page for each of the ten feelings, I plan on assembling them together in a little booklet for her to revisit as she wishes.

2. Kimochis Mixed Feelings
This is a simple set of cute and quirky little softies that depict facial expressions and are labeled with the corresponding emotion.  They are good for introducing and defining a variety of feelings in a gentle and playful way.  Each "kimochi" is small enough to fit inside a little hand or be carried around in pockets, if that provides any comfort to little ones who are learning about BIG feelings.

3. Mr. Printables Emotion Flash Cards
The Mr. Printables website is so. Awesome.  This is NOT the last time you will hear about Mr. Printables from me!  They offer so MANY high quality FREE printable educational materials.  LOVE them.  These are some robot-themed emotion flash cards that provide another fun opportunity to expand a little one's awareness of emotions.  These may especially appeal to any little boys out there who, like my Collin, love robots.

4. Mr. Printables Make a Face DIY Toy
See, I told you I would be talking about Mr. Printables again!  This is such a clever little printable/DIY project.  Print and cut out the face and individual facial features. The tutorial suggests mounting the pieces on cardboard but I printed mine on card stock and laminated them instead. The features are then attached to the face with brads. Once the piece is assembled, it can be used to show and talk about SO many different feelings.  Children have fun experimenting with all the features and can see how just changing the position of the eyebrows can show an entirely different emotion. I also like that it includes teardrops-was able to use them along with the smile to help my kids start to grasp the concept that someone could cry "happy tears" which can be a very puzzling concept for them to consider.

5. Eeboo Polite Pig Activity Book
Eeboo is another name that I'll refer to often as well.  I love Eeboo products for their beautiful visual design, physically sturdy materials and frequent depiction of cultural diversity, or, in the case of this charming little activity book, diversity and good breeding in the animal kingdom! : )  "Polite Pig and His Good Friends" is a simple coloring and activity book that I appreciate, not only for its introduction to good manners and politeness, but also for the exposure it gives to some basic mathematical and visual-spatial reasoning concepts.

6. Eeboo Make My Day Chart
Another offering from Eeboo, the "Make My Day Chart" is great tool to help little ones start out their day well with realistic expectations and goals.  It is a sturdy cardboard wall hanging that incorporates little dials for kids to spin and select what day of the week it is, the calendar date, the season, current  weather and what kind of clothing would be appropriate to choose.  Children can then use the board to communicate the feelings they have as they start their day and express what things they wish to "try".  At the end of the day children and parents can even use the board to choose a descriptor for how the day turned out and select a reward sticker if desired. This product is set apart from the other items I have mentioned so far because it makes the important connection between social and emotional functioning and an awareness of what is going on in our physical environment and how to begin orienting ourselves, our goals and our decisions according to the calendar.

7. Melissa and Doug Bear Dress Up Wooden Puzzle
This little puzzle from Melissa and Doug has been around for awhile, in fact I believe ours was handed down from my nieces who have practically grown up despite the fact that I specifically asked them not to! : ) This is a great addition to any toy and puzzle collection and proves to be another helpful way to introduce and identify moods and emotions as children can give the bear a different facial expression to go along with each outfit that may be interchanged on the puzzle.

8. The Big Picture Story Bible
I saved the best " learning resource" (in my opinion) for last  When it comes to guiding my children through the difficult work of understanding and managing their feelings, it could be pretty easy to lead them down a path of self-absorption which will not serve them well. As a follower of Jesus, it is my conviction that the best way I can serve Lucy and Collin in this area of their life is to point them to our Heavenly Father and endeavor to show them the joys of entrusting their hearts to Him.  We have several "Bible storybooks" in our home library and each one has been helpful in our efforts to introduce the scriptures to Lucy and Collin. The reason I highlight the Big Picture Story Bible in this list is because I feel that both the author and illustrator did a stunning job of portraying the emotional responses of mankind to God through the ages including joy, sorrow, fear, anger, etc. as well as God's response to mankind. Additionally, I appreciate the way the authors keep the individual stories flowing together to present the Bible as one big story about a great God. A great and loving God who invites them to trust Him with their big feelings, find forgiveness and be made new and whole through the cross of Christ Jesus.

Thanks for allowing me to share. I hope this collection of resources will be helpful for many of you, and if you feel so inclined to share with any other parents who are interested, I'd be honored. Also, would love to hear about any other resources or materials along these lines that you might recommend! I'll be working on adding more lists of my favorite learning resources little by little as I am able.

Xoxo,

The Happy Home-School Helper

I am a total nerd enthusiast when it comes to quality learning materials for my children. Whether I am scrolling through my Pinterest feed, checking out what's new on Zulily, pawing through the shelves of TJ Maxx or walking the aisles of my favorite local educational supplies shop, I always have an eye out for high quality learning materials that I believe will be an asset in my efforts to facilitate joyful learning experiences in our home. 

I also keep finding myself talking with other mamas who are either contemplating home-schooling or are looking for more ways to engage their children in joyful learning outside of school or during the summer months. I have been asked by several of these ladies "where to start" with curriculum and materials, and though I am certainly not qualified to advise anyone on "where to start" I am a total extrovert and will happily tell anyone about materials that help the kids and I to delight in learning together.  After recommending the same websites, products, and book lists to three different mamas recently, the thought occurred to me that I could attempt to compile some lists of my favorite early-childhood learning materials and share them here in hopes that it could be helpful if only to my small circle of friends who are interested.  So that is what I hope to do over a series of posts when I am able to make time amidst all my other responsibilities.

I hope to organize my lists by category and share one post at a time, but before I jump in, I thought would finish out this post by defining what I even mean when I refer to "learning materials" and sharing the "criteria" that guides my decision-making process when I purchase the items. I would consider learning "materials" to be any books, craft supplies, games, toys, workbooks, flashcards, songs, apps, or websites that contribute to a child's joy of learning.  That is a pretty wide range and the market is saturated with "educational products" to choose from.  It can be dizzying to choose what to bring into our home from all that is available.  The following criteria are not rigid for me but a basic list of what I look for when choosing "high quality learning materials" and most of what I will try to share in future posts should reflect these "values":

• Simple, yet can be used to address more than one set of skills. When choosing games, educational toys, books, or manipulatives to engage my children in playful learning, I don't want items that are complicated for me to assemble and figure out or will overload them with sensory stimuli. I also love it if an activity addresses more than one skill, for example, fine motor through manipulating small objects as part of an activity that addresses mathematical concepts.
• Physically Durable and Timeless Content. When I consider purchasing a non-consumable item with my children's education in mind I ask myself if I expect it to stand the test time.  Is this item physically built to last as my kids play hard with it and makes memories with it? It may show signs of wear, but would they be pleased to present it to their own kids someday? Also, is their content too dependent upon the times in which we are now living? Or will it aid me while I try to show my children that things were much different before their time and that they are certain to see rapid change in the world around them in the years ahead?
• Visually Well-Designed. I love to see children's materials that give evidence that someone took great care to consider the importance of artistry in their visual design. I like to see visual design that is not dependent on the most popular current children's fads and television characters. I like design that embraces child-likeness without being childish; that honors the intelligence of the child as a whole person. (This is a concept from the Charlotte Mason Educational Method that I have come to embrace during my short years of parenting so far.)

My life is pretty full right now and getting blog posts up hasn't been a high-priority lately, but this is a "project" I am excited about and hope will benefit friends who are like some of the ladies I have talked to lately and are just looking for a "place to start".  Thanks for reading, and I hope to be back soon with my favorite materials for a very difficult skill set: social and emotional regulation skills.

xoxo,

Plugging Away At Preschool

So we are two months into 2013 and our Midwest winter weather has afforded my little sweeties and I a lot of indoor time at home.  We have been plugging away at our pre-school lessons, but it has been awhile since we've done a Before Five in a Row unit (as much as we LOVE doing them).  I have several more BFIAR books on our shelf that I hope to go through with Lucy and Collin before the school year is up, but after Christmas, I was looking at all the gifts the kids received for Christmas as well as the MANY wonderful educational games, books (not BFIAR), iPad apps and preschool materials that we have collected over time.  I realized that while I was scouring the internet every week for printable materials to go with BFIAR lessons, I wasn't making the best use of what we already had at our fingertips. So, during the past couple of months we have taken a less formal approach for our learning times by simply pulling things from our school room shelves and our iPad and enjoying them together.

Here is a smattering of SOME of our favorite things that we have recently enjoyed together:

1. ABCs of God app for iPhone and iPad.  We have had this sweet little iPad app for several months now, and I just adore it.  It addresses letter recognition, writing, upper case and lower cases and highlights a different attribute of God for each letter.  Lucy has mastered letter recognition and sounds, but my Collin is still working on these concepts, so I have him play with this app a lot and he really enjoys it!

2. Gakken Let's Create preschool workbook.  If you are a fan of the Kumon preschool work books, then you will love this Gakken preschool workbook, "Let's Create".  It includes tracing, cutting, pasting, and coloring.  The illustrations are engaging and cute and it includes stickers to put on each completed sheet as a reward.  It is a hit with both my kids.  My only wish is that the sheets were perforated especially for the pasting activities, but we still love it.

3. Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game. I can't express how much preschoolers learn through playing board games!  Aside from the academic component of educational games, I love the opportunities to teach social skills such as waiting for your turn and learning to win and lose graciously.  Lucy and Collin request to play the Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game all the time.  It is very similar to "Hi-Ho-Cherry-O" with the added step of grasping the pieces (in this case, acorns) with tongs, which is a great fine motor  skill practive.

4. Over the Rainbow Game.  This is another great board game that my kiddos love.  I am very impressed with the quality of the cardboard pieces and illustrations.  It addresses color recognition and helps to build vocabulary.

5. Eloise Wilkin Stories In the beginning of this school year, I was considering using Sonlight's Pre K 3-4 Core with Lucy and Collin.  While I didn't go with the full set, I did purchase some of the individual books from the reading list, and the Eloise Wilkin Stories treasury book has been such a big, big hit.  I love and recognize many of these stories from my childhood and they have obviously stood the test of time because Lucy and Collin have become quite attached and seem to have made friends with several of the characters even though they are obviously from a different era.  The first morning that I read "We Help Mommy" to them, they were practically begging me to give them some household chores to do.  Score!

6. Bug Games app for iPhone and iPad.  Here is another pre-school iPad app that we love.  It includes phonics, visual-spatial awareness, counting/number recognition and music activities in a bright and simple bug-related games.  Lucy and Collin particularly enjoy putting virtual stickers on the giant leaf every time they complete three activities in a row.

7. The Book of Children's Classics.  I think I picked up this book treasury at Half-Price Books years ago before I even had children.  I bought it because it contained so many beloved children's books from my own childhood that I had to have it and save it for "when I had kids someday".  The included stories that have been the biggest hits in our home are: Corduroy by Don Freeman, Ferdinand the Bull by Munro Leaf, and Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans.  These books have been a particularly big hit with Collin, and he loves to retell them in his own words, which is such a great learning practice, especially championed by the Charlotte Mason educational methods.

8. Preschool Lotto Game by Eeboo.  This is yet another high-quality game that Lucy and Collin keep requesting to play over and over again. It is also a great vocabulary-builder, especially for kids like Lucy who need extra help with speech-language development. If you haven't discovered Eeboo products yet, then you are in for a treat.  Their games, puzzles and craft kits are so fun, creative and engaging.  I have a feeling that this game is just the first of many Eeboo products to enter our home.

Another exciting development in our family that pertains to our preschool endeavors, is that Miss Lucy has begun sounding out words!  I have been so proud of her dedication to learning to read simple words and I can't express how wonderful of a feeling it was for me to be present for the first word that she sounded out independently.  To keep her little mind stimulated, I created a couple of sight words file folder games.  She brings them to me all the time requesting to "work on her words".  I thought it would be fun to share the two games that I created as free printables, in hopes that they will be fun early-reading activities for others to enjoy with their little ones.  I am totally new to this whole PDF-document-making and uploading thing, so if anyone would be so kind as to test these links out and let me know if you were able to successfully download them, I would love to know if they work or not!

Sight Words File Folder Game

Sight Words File Folder Game 2

We sure have been enjoying our laid-back learning here at home in the past few months.  I hope that these "reviews" are helpful and give good ideas to other parents who desire to have meaningful learning opportunities at home with their preschoolers!

xoxo,

Preschool at Home: Caps for Sale

With the arrival of cooler fall temperatures in Cental Iowa, increased exposure to GERMS has naturally begun as well.  The last two weeks, both of my sweeties had a miserable, drawn-out upper respiratory cold that resulted in sinus and ear infections.  Truly, this made me pause and realize that our family has enjoyed a long HEALTHY stretch for some time and I am so glad that we made it through the summer and most of the fall with virtually no sickness (at least none that I can remember) and this is indeed something to be thankful for.

We stretched out our next Before Five in a Row unit, Caps for Sale, over the course of two weeks and enjoyed reading, learning and playing in between coughing, sneezing, washing hands, doctor visits and slurping down medicine.  

I am so glad we had such a fun and spirited book to learn along with, as Lucy and Collin were often needing cheering up.

This is the classic story of a cap peddler who makes a poor decision to sleep on the job and ends up losing his wares to a treeful of monkeys!  As the story goes, the peddler unsuccessfully tries to get his hats back by making angry demands of the monkeys and ends up accidentally getting them back when they mimic his frustrated act of throwing his own hat to the ground and storming off.  I remember this book capturing my attention as a young child in elementary school and it did the same for my two little "monkeys". We definitely enjoyed multiple readings and it was especially fun to "act" out the story together.

We enjoyed lap book activities from Homeschool Share as well as the trusty printable pack from Homeschool Creations. Notice that the majority of our school times in this unit were spent in our PJs and with rumpled hair (mommy was no exception!).  Yep, that's how we roll on sick days. : )

This little activity from Homeschool Creations was a great exercise in fine motor/cutting skills as well as sequencing.  They did a great job with the task of ordering the caps just the way they were in the book. I expected them to need more of my help, but it turns out they didn't need my guidance at all with this little project.

Simple fun trying different hats on our monkey "paper doll".

We of course, had to try our hand at balancing a stack of hats on our heads, just like the peddler.  That's no easy task!  No wonder the guy was tired and had to take a nap. : )

Poor Lucy, you can tell by her face that she felt miserable that morning!

My hat-loving boy loved this activity the best.  No surprise there.

Despite being sick, these sweeties were happy and engaged with our Caps for Sale unit.  I think it definitely helped that we stretched it over two weeks and took a very relaxed approach.  This week they are back to their normal, healthy selves and we are currently taking another break from Before Five in a Row to enjoy a Thanksgiving-themed unit.  More on that to come. 

xoxo,

Preschool at Home: The Big Green Pocketbook and The Runaway Bunny

The month of October has been a wild one in our world including wonderful visits from out-of-town friends and family, a garage sale, a weekend trip out of town for my beautiful cousin's wedding and the addition of FIVE new pets (that would be two chickens and three bunnies-more on that later!).  Thrown in were some technical difficulties with my printer (which I depend on for planning and putting together lessons for each school week) and we had some real threats to our little homeschooling routine around here.

Despite the changes to our schedule and lack of normalcy, we still managed to fit in some decent learning times with the next two books in our Before Five in a Row series, so I'll recap both of those weeks in one post here:

The Big Green Pocketbook

This sweet book easily became a new favorite for both kids!  It is the story of a day spent between a mother and daughter riding the city bus to accomplish several tasks and errands.  The main character starts her day with her mama with an empty green bag and fills it up with various bits of ephemera and trinkets from each stop.  Perhaps it was the simplicity of the tale that made Lucy and Collin connect to it so well, or possibly the emotions experienced by the girl when she loses her bag at the end of the day were relatable but they NEVER got tired of reading and connecting with the story.

Here's just a quick look at our activities together with this book:

Letter "P" collage with pipe cleaners:

 Practicing writing the letter "P".

We had some great fine motor practice with cutting and story sequencing with this lapbook activity from Homeschool Share.  They each created a paper "pocketbook" pouch and then cut out pictures of each item that the girl in the story placed in her book.  Both Lucy and Collin enjoyed listening to the story and filling their pocketbooks along with their "friend" in the book.

Perhaps the highlight of the week was getting to experience an afternoon of riding a bus and making stops around downtown Des Moines with our sweet play group friends!  This week was my turn to plan our activities for our get together, so I arranged for us all to meet downtown where we read our book at the sculpture garden and then hopped onto a free shuttle bus for an adventure. 

Each child brought an empty backpack to fill with treasures from our stops, our final and most productive stop being the public library where each enthusiastic little one picked out a stack of books to take and enjoy at home!  How fun!

The Runaway Bunny

The Runaway Bunny is a story about the enduring love between mother and child.  No matter how hard the little bunny in the story determines to run away from his mother, she is doubly determined to never let him far from her sight. This is another book that has special meaning for me as it was also one that was a part of my childhood.  It definitely ranks as one of my mother's all-time favorite children's books and our copy was a gift from her and my dad when Lucy was a newborn!  It just so happened that my parents were visiting from out of town during our week with this book, so it was wonderful to invite my mom to participate in our school time while they were here!

The kids with my parents, "Mama Gail and Grandpa!"

Here's some highlights from our week:

The recent addition of BUNNIES to our household made the book's subject matter particularly meaningful.  Here Lucy and Collin share a moment with little Cottontail:

We used paper straws to blow pom poms across the table, just like the mama bunny said she would become the "wind" and blow her baby bunny where she wanted him to go should he "become a sailboat  and sail away from her."

We also made the bunny masks which you see on their heads.  This was an activity from The Runaway Bunny "Fold and Learn" printable pack which is available for purchase from the Five in a Row website.  (Sidenote: the fold and learn packs are fun but a little pricey, so they are not something I can afford for every unit!  But it was fun to give it a try and we did make use of it!)

We also enjoyed various activities from the wonderful Runaway Bunny printable pack from Homeschool Creations:

This ended up being a fun and fairly relaxed learning week. It was also nice to let my mom and dad have a little peek into what our learning endeavors are like, which was a rare opportunity as we only see each other about twice a year. I love the memories we made together this week!

xoxo,

Preschool at Home: Fall Fun

This week the kids and I took a little break from our Before Five in a Row curriculum and did a Fall-themed unit. With the help of this wonderful Fall Fun Printable Pack from Homeschool Creations and the GORGEOUS Fall weather and colors in Cental Iowa this week, this proved to be a fun and meaningful week together.

Rather than working with one book in great detail, I just found several fall-themed books we happened to have on our shelves to read and enjoy throughout the week:

 My Happy Pumpkin by Crystal Bowman

Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie by Herman Parish

From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer

We took another trip to the apple orchard that we visited with our playgroup friends during our "Ask Mr. Bear" unit. We had a great time once again and Lucy and Collin both enjoyed picking out some pumpkins and gourds to take home.

We used Q-tips and "fall"-colored paints to create these tree pictures. (An idea from this website which I discovered on Pinterest)

We did a lot of early/pre-math activities with all the wonderful Homeschool Creation Printables I mentioned above.  These activities really held their attention this week.  It was particularly fun to see the concept of sorting by size as well as pattern recognition begin to "click" for them.

Towards the end of this week, I also spent some time thinking through and rearranging the layout of our little "school room" (which seems to always be a work in progress.)   I ended up removing/relocating our wicker loveseat and papasan chair frames, and kept the papasan cushion to create a cozy little nook.  We're going to try to sit here together for our read-aloud times and memory verse practice.

They seem to like this new spot and I'm pleased with how much more space and "wiggle room" we have to work with now. In case you are interested- the little "posters" on the wall there behind the kids were free prints that came from another one of my favorite online learning resources, Mr. Printables.

(Alphabet, Map of the USA, Baa, Baa, Black Sheep)

I loved bonding and learning with my little ones while we enjoyed the beauty of Fall.  I can't help but think that all the time we spent admiring and enjoying the beauty of God's creation made a difference- it was a much more relaxed and peaceful learning time than our last couple of weeks and I was sorry to see it come to an end.  But so grateful.

Thanks for reading!

xoxo,