Smart Sweets Ebook from Katie at Kitchen Stewardship on SALE!!

It's HERE!  The Smart Sweets Ebook by Katie at Kitchen Stewardship.  I'm just dying to make these yummy, yet healthy treats.  Click HERE to see the contents and see more pictures.

Check this out for the first week:

• Use the code DESSERTSLAUNCH for 50% off the first 100 copies.
• Use the code 2DAY35OFF for 35% off through midnight 11/18.
• The code for the free “Buttered Life” eBook will be in the email to your Paypal email that includes the Smart Sweets download.

There are cookies, bars and brownies, cakes and cupcakes, pies, candy, frozen desserts and MORE!  Can they really be healthy?  The recipes have easy directions and many variations.  

Be sure to snag the FREE download for Apple Crisp if you haven't already.

 Visit Kitchen Stewardship for more details!

Little Lamb's Bible and Little Lion's Bible Book Review

God shaped the earth, turned on the light,

and separated day from night.

Genesis 1-2

Little Lion's Bible and Little Lamb's Bible are perfect beginner Bibles. The soft covers feature a very cute animal that kids are instantly drawn to. My son was excited when I opened the box and he ran his hand across the lion. Inside are 10 simple stories from the Bible such as Creation, Noah's Ark, the Christmas story and the Resurrection. Every story is told in a rhyme with 8 lines and your child will instantly fall in love with these sweet little Bibles.

*This product was provided to me free of charge for purpose of this review. This is my honest opinion of this book and no monetary compensation was received for my opinion.*



From Zondervan:

Two books that small children will love to hold and cuddle with, the Little Lion's Bible and Little Lamb's Bible (Zonderkidz; February 2012; $15.99 each), arrive just in time for Easter. With textures kids love, the warm and fuzzy covers of both board books will spur a love of key Bible stories. They contain words children will understand and colorful artwork to spur their imaginations.   

Using a cuddly lion and a soft lamb, author P.J. Lyons and illustrator Melanie Mitchell present an inspiring collection of ten Bible stories for parents to read to their young children. Throughout these plush-covered books, children will learn that they are loved and cared for by God as they hear about God's faithfulness in stories from the Old and New Testaments, including Noah's ark, David and Goliath, and the birth of Jesus. With sweet rhyming text and colorful illustrations, these soft and cuddly character storybook Bibles are sure to become a favorite with preschoolers. The books, with different covers to appeal to all children, will be perfect for Easter baskets, or any gift-giving occasion.

Don't miss this wonderful opportunity to share these delightful new additions to the Zonderkidz library that parents will love and children will cherish as they learn about God's love for them.

What's on our Bookshelf? My Four Book (My first steps to math)

This month I've been really concentrating on math concepts.  I picked this book up at the library- My four Book - My First Steps to Math and I was really impressed at the simplicity, yet the complexity of teaching math in repeatedly different ways to master one concept.  This book was very interactive and draws the reader to count along with the story.  There is addition, subtraction, and ordinal numbers (first, second, third, fourth).  There is even a little practice page at the end of the story.  And this story centralized around a little boy's visit to the zoo.  It was all very fun and presented some great first steps to math.  I'm excited to explore more of these books.  At my library they have 10.  Happy reading and learning!

Brightly Beaming Resources Week #16: Butterflies

This week we learned all about butterflies!  We discussed the life cycle (egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly) with hand motions.  We pretended to be butterflies using scarves for our wings.  On Friday we made a butterfly from tissue paper and pipe cleaners.  We also counted to 16 and did our art project learning letter P with 16 pennies.  And we recited "Mary, Mary quite contrary."   It was a great week.  Can't wait to see caterpillars and butterflies next year!

This week we learned letter P and the number 16 so we glued 16 pennies on the P.  I use No Time for Flashcards for our letter of the week projects.

We also played around with a fun learning kit from Lightning Bug Literacy.

Here are the books we read:

This summer we got to see a beautiful caterpillar in Minnesota!

Learning Activity: 1-1 Correspondence with snacks!

I love spontaneous learning time.  The other day when I gave my son crackers and cheese I decided to have him place a piece of cheese on each cracker.  This is called 1-1 correspondence.  I wouldn't know that if I wasn't a teacher of Kindergarten for 12 years.  I also know that many of my students could never master that, so I'm starting things early with my spongey son!  He doesn't even know that he is learning.  Of course, then he can munch all he wants afterwards.

What are some fun ways you teach early learning math skills?

What's on our Bookshelf? Tip Tip Dig Dig by Emma Garcia

There is nothing more exciting to me than to read my son a story and have him go back and look through the book.  A few weeks ago the librarian read this book Tip Tip Dig Dig at story time.  I decided to check it out because I knew Shrade would really like the pictures of the construction vehicles and the simple text.  I was never more surprised than after just a few readings he plopped down on the floor and "read" through the book himself, turning pages and remembering most of what the book was about.  I'm so amazed and he was so proud of himself.

Take a look!

November Monthly Plan

*Bible Verse:  Thanksgiving Verse  "Be thankful to Him and bless His name.  For the Lord is good."  Psalm 100:4b    Songs for Saplings 

Bible verse activities from Totally Tots

*Brightly Beaming Resources:  We are using the Preparatory Curriculum for 2-4 year olds for Shrade.
I try to blog about what we do for each "weekly" activity.  It takes us about 2 weeks for each theme.  We will be done with the Prep Curric when we reach 26 lessons!  Not many more left.  :)  Then we will start The Letter of the Week Curriculum for preschool age.

Sheep: lesson 17

Ears: lesson 18

*Brightly Beaming Baby:  Nursery Age starting at 3 months for Jessna (lessons are for up to 1 year).  She is now 6 months old.  Each lesson is 2 weeks long and includes literature, poems, nursery rhymes, Bible, speech & vocab, classical music, lullaby, foreign language (I'm going to do some Spanish and sign language), baby game, exercise and baby massage.  I love these lessons because they give me a focus on what I can do to entertain my baby!  It's fun and she loves it.

Lesson 7

Lesson 8

*Sensory Play: (really need to work on this)
-water play
-playdough
-dig in dirt

-nature sensory bin

*Literature Connection:
 Thanksgiving Tot Pack and ideas from Our Little Monkey blog

*Daily Music time: Songs from Music Notes and CD's we get at the library

*Pre-Math Activities
 I'll be using this book Totline 123 Math: Pre-Math Activities for Working With Young Children (1-2-3 Series, Math: Ages 3-6) by Jean Warren.  I'll try to blog about some of the activities that we do.
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*Art:
You can also see in our "weekly" lessons that we do a letter of the week from No Time for Flashcards.  Right now we are doing the capital letters.

-coloring

-water painting

*Field Trips:
Playdates
MOPS
Zoo- free day
Nursery
Nature Center
Mall playground
Play to Learn
Library Storytime

Pretend Play:
-building a fort
-cooking
-dress up with scarves and hats



*Skills/Chores:
-When asking a question to mommy and daddy, begin with "May I please...?"
-wash hands- was doing well, now starting to play  :(
-taking off clothes and put in laundry basket- doing well
-putting clothes on-just started this
-drinking from cup- doing well!
-clean up toys- say "yes, mama" when asked without whining or crying- still working on this
-throw away garbage/recycling
-clean up messes on the floor 

-put dishes in the sink

-help put dishes away from the dishwasher

-put clothes in the washer
-Help mama with the baby!
-Cooking with mama
-spelling his name- he can do it!!
-starting potty training (sitting on toilet- he can do #1!!)
-brushing teeth (we've been working on this for awhile)

Shrade can spell his name!