Friday, June 29, 2012

Summer Bible Reading Adventure- July


Hi Everyone!  How are you doing with your Summer Bible Reading Adventure?  My prayer is that you are reading from the Bible everyday with your kids.

Shrade and our reading chart


Go to Scripture Adventures for a FREE download of a Summer Reading Calendar for July.

And here is my Summer Bible Reading Plan for July printable. Both June and July are on this document. This document is Shared, but if you can't access it, please email me at shondaet@gmail.com.

Remember you do not have to read the same verses as we do, but I would like you read at least ONE verse everyday with your child.  Think of how to open your conversation about God's Word.  Everyday I tell my son that we are reading words from God.  What does He want us to know?  I also talk a little bit about the verse and we put a sticker on the number of the day.  He looks forward to our daily Bible reading.  He says, "Mommy, are we going to read from the Bible today?"  Yes!!

Are you new?  You can still join!  Fill out the form below and every month I will email you to see how you did.  I will give a prize to the family that completes the challenge with the most days read and answers an ending survey.   Prize will be a children's Bible. Prize awarded at the end of the summer.



For those of you who completed the June Bible reading, 
please fill out the check in form by July 10.  Thanks, Shonda






Wednesday, June 27, 2012

What's on our Bookshelf? Jessna's Picks: ABC is for Circus by Patrick Hruby


 

Jessna is back to share another book pick: ABC is for Circus by Patrick Hruby.  This book is definitely an eye catcher with it's bright colors and shapes.  Jessna immediately took to this book and loves to point at the pictures.  This is a board book and very good for babies, it also introduces kids to the circus!
I love books!
 

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Highlights from Letter A Lessons for Preschool (Age 3.6)

Here it is!  Our first lesson for "Preschool!"  I can see that this will be developed over time, but I'm excited to start piecing together a great first school experience at home with my son.  I was a K teacher for 12 years and had everything curriculum-wise handed to me.  I made up a lot of things to do on my own, but for the most part, it was already set up.  Not so for Preschool at home.  For one thing we are on a very tight budget so I'm trying to find the least expensive way to have a wonderful Preschool experience.  Much of what I will do I have gathered from a variety of sources, but I make it all fit together.  So come journey with me on the wonderful adventure of Preschool.  I plan to take about 2 years to go through the whole alphabet with this system.  By that time I will be ready to homeschool Kindergarten.  So here we go!

First of all, I want to share my lapbook that basically hold a lot of information (books to read, verses, Bible story reference, topics to study) plus a few poems, reusable worksheets (I just put contac paper on top of the worksheet that I glued to the folder) and a book.  I couldn't fit everything on here that I wanted so I have several loose sheets that I have in an extra packet. I will have links to some of those worksheets in my lessons. Everything I do will be based on this lapbook.  See my Preschool Plans for places where I get my printables.

And here are all my Letter A ideas on Pinterest.  Check there especially for the crafts!

Although I'm focusing a lot on letters I will be doing lots of number sense and math activities too.  




I started off writing ALL of my lesson plans, but I don't think I will be able to keep up with it every week, so I'm going to give you some highlights, books we read and some links.  You can find most of my ideas on Pinterest.

Bible verse of the month:  "A soft answer turns away wrath." Proverbs 15:1
From Raising Rock Stars Preschool
Books we read that I recommend: 














Apple Counting book
Apple tree dice game















Pretending to be Johnny Appleseed
lowercase a craft (Shrade did all of the gluing)


a is for astronaut


Proverbs 15:1 from Rock Star Preschool
Anthill snack- graham crackers and chocolate chips
Anthill craft with Aa


straws and pipe cleaners for A
Writing A- Shrade did it himself!


Apple Waffle Cookies- YUM! 
 APPLE WAFFLE COOKIES (No oven required)

1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup softened margarine
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
a dash of cloves
1/2 cup peeled, shredded apples
nonstick cooking spray
Waffle Iron

Beat together the sugar and margarine; then add the eggs and vanilla. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients. Add the apples. Preheat the waffle iron; then spray it with nonstic cooking spray. Drop a heaping teaspoon of dough onto each corner of the waffle iron. Close the lid; then bake the cookies for 1 1/2 minutes or until they are brown. When the cookies have cooled, sprinkle them with powder sugar. This recipe make approximately four dozen cookies.

Finding his seat on the "airplane"

 Highlights of Links:

My (very rough) lesson plan for Letter A
 




*Alligator Printables





































The Philosopher's Wife

Lunchtime Learning: Letters on the Go (Matching)

A few weeks ago I saw this great idea on No Time for Flashcards for using a paper plate to make Letters on the Go.  It didn't really work for us to use it in the car since my son is still learning his alphabet, but it worked great for lunchtime.  I gave him the paper plate and showed him a flashcard and he had to find that letter and turn it down.  Easy and fun.  We also worked on sounds and there are pictures on the other side of the flashcard so we identified those as well.

 

What other lunchtime learning ideas do you have?

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Summer Reading Challenge 2012 Week #3




 Check out all the details at No Time for Flashcards and enter to win a $50 Amazon gift card.

Week #1-77
Week #2-69
Week #3-58

Total so far-204
Goal- 500