Four New Fun Filled Books for Preschoolers from "The Beginner's Bible" Collection Review

 

Every so often I come across Bible story books that really capture the true essence of what is actually written in the Bible.  Jesus Feeds the Hungry and Jesus Heals the Sick are beautifully written and illustrated to capture a young child's attention and give them the story from the Bible that honors the way God would have us understand his great Truths.  I was brought to tears as I read the different ways Jesus healed the sick and the responses of the people.  I know that this was God using a children's book to create an urgency to know him better.  I know this will also urge a child to ask about the awesome God we serve.  Both of these stories have colorful pictures that bring the pages to life. 

I am just ecstatic when I find great Bible resources for young children.  The Beginner's Bible is an easy way to introduce children to God and now Zonderkidz has produced some amazing complements to The Beginner's Bible for interaction and application.  While you are reading The Beginner's Bible, you can give your child the Super Duper Mighty Jumbo Coloring book which corresponds with the stories in the Bible.  Kids will be eager to color their own pictures of loved stories.  And the Super Duper Mighty Jumbo Activity book introduces young children to mazes, word searches, dot to dot and many more challenging yet kid-friendly activities.  There are over 800 pages of learning fun for your kids all centered around the Bible!

PRESS RELEASE:

Arriving in stores just in time for the new school year are four new books from the bestselling The Beginner’s Bible collection, all sure to provide hours of entertainment and invaluable life lessons to preschoolers.  The new editions include two vibrant picture books depicting famous Bible stories and two interactive activity/coloring books, each with artwork from The Beginner’s Bible.

In THE BEGINNER’S BIBLE JESUS FEEDS THE HUNGRY and JESUS HEALS THE SICK (Zonderkidz; September 2012; $3.99 each), traditional Bible stories are presented in a lively and simple way. Each tells a celebrated story of how Jesus performed miracles such as feeding a crowd of five thousand, healing a paralyzed man, and restoring sight to a blind man. Kelly Pulley’s original illustrations – renowned from The Beginner’s Bible – pop off the page, exploding with vivid colors and playful animation.

In THE BEGINNER’S BIBLE SUPER-DUPER MIGHTY JUMBO COLORING BOOK and THE SUPER-DUPER MIGHTY JUMBO ACTIVITY BOOK (Zonderkidz, September 2012; $5.99 each), youngsters can color, doodle, and connect the dots, as they bring their favorite Bible characters to life with a series of fun prompts. Each book contains nearly 400 pages of pictures and games, promoting hours of creativity and imagination.

The uplifting messages in JESUS FEEDS THE HUNGRY and JESUS HEALS THE SICK will teach young children of God’s love and compassion. Budding artists will be inspired to create their own faith-filled masterpieces with the SUPER-DUPER MIGHTY JUMBO COLORING BOOK, while the ACTIVITY BOOK will help strengthen memory and increase Bible knowledge.


 *These books were provided to me free of charge for purpose of this review from Zonderkidz. This is my honest opinion of these books and no monetary compensation was received for my opinion.*

I'm Guest Posting at Good Morning Girls

Hi everyone-  I wanted to let you know that I am over sharing a Word Study for Kids to coincide with Good Morning Girls Colossians Bible study!  I am very excited to be reading God's Word to my kids and I pray that you are doing that as well.  So jump on over and see what I have cooked up!  Thanks, Shonda

Good Morning Girls- Word Study for Kids: Where, What, Why, Write

Monthly Plan- September 2012

BIBLE: 

*Bible Verses:

We are going to take a break from Bible verses this month and review all of the ones we have learned.  We are starting Awana and I want to see what the Bible verse memory is like with that program.

We usually use verses from Songs for Saplings 

We are making a little book for these verses and we sing them everyday during our "Bible study" time.
And while we learn our Bible verses for each letter of the alphabet we are also learning the sign language for that letter.

Bible verse activities and printables from Totally Tots

This month we are going to go through The Jesus Storybook Bible, Read-Aloud Edition: Every Story Whispers His Name for Bible storytime.

LESSONS:
*Milk N' Honey Preschool:
We have started Preschool.  See my Preschool Plans.
So far we have done A and B.  See my lessons and blog posts below.
In September we will do Letter C. I have 10-11 lessons that I will do including books, crafts and activities.
I also am going to start a morning circle time and include math activities from Hands On As We Grow.

Source: handsonaswegrow.com via Shonda on Pinterest

Letter A- lapbook with books, crafts and activities
Blog post

Letter B- lapbook with books, crafts and activities
Blog post 

All About Reading

This month we started using real curriculum from All About Learning Press- All About Reading Pre-1 Level for pre-readers.  I made a recent post about the material which I just reviewed.   I can already see how fantastic the lessons are.  So far, this program is fun and not too challenging for my little guy. 

Be sure to pick up your FREE activity book from All About Learning.

*Brightly Beaming Toddler:   Jessna is now 16 months old.  I have to admit that I hardly do anything with her like I want, but now that I have things a bit more organized for Preschool, I hope to concentrate on Little Girl too!  She is learning body parts and some sign language already.

This curriculum includes 24 lesson plans.  There are 2 lessons for each month of your toddler's life from 13 months to 24 months of age.  You can spend approximately 2 weeks on each lesson plan with your toddler.  The lessons are geared to a toddler's development as he/she progresses through the second year of life.  Keep everything fun and only do activities when your toddler wants to.

16 months: Lesson 7

16 months: Lesson 8

*Sensory Play:
-water play
-playdough 
-outside!

Everyday Sensory Alphabet Activities by Melitsa Avila

We will be using a lot of these activities when we learn the letters!

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


*Art:
 -watercolor painting
-using paintbrush
-coloring
-chalk drawing outside

*Field Trips:
Playdates
MOPS Park Days
Library story time for Preschool
Mall playground
Nature Center
Exploring new parks with friends
Play to Learn- free community program



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

*Other Activities
Check out my Pinterest Boards for Preschool Ideas! 


We are also working through a BIG Preschool Workbook for ages 3-5.

*Skills/Chores:
 What Shrade is working on: 3.5 years of age
-Responding with "yes, mama" without whining or crying
-brushing teeth
-brush hair
-playing gently with sister
-setting the table
-wipe up spills
-sort laundry
-making bed

*Academic
-cutting
-tracing
-letter sounds
We will also do some name activities.

Source: blog.memetales.com via Shonda on Pinterest

Jessna is working on:
*first moments of discipline- what to touch, what not to touch
*learning how to sign "more"
*learning to sign "all done"
*learning to sign "please"
*playing in play pen for 10-15 min independently
*coming when called

I get a lot of these skills/chores from What Every Child Should Know Along the Way (Teaching practical life skills in every stage of life.) by Gail Martin.  I HIGHLY recommend this book that has so many practical ways to teacher your child along with many Bible verses. I will be sharing this book in the fall during my Thursday parenting series.

All About Reading Level Pre-1 Review

       

This month we had fun learning with a real curriculum for pre-reading from All About Learning Press:  All About Reading Level Pre-1 .  

"All About Reading Level Pre-1 is our pre-reading program for preschoolers and kindergarteners. Your child will enjoy the special games, crafts, and storytime read-alouds, while as the parent and teacher, you will love how your child effortlessly learns the five essential pre-reading skills that we call the Big Five Skills."

What I loved most about this program was how easy it was to sit down and pull out the materials and start the lesson.  And the lessons could be as long or short as you want them to be.  I would do one lesson every other day and my son was ecstatic, especially when Ziggy the Zebra (puppet) was part of the action. My son is 3.5 and already knows almost all of his letters and we are starting to work on sounds.  He is quick to pick up on new skills and I was very surprised at how well he played the rhyming games right from the start.

So what makes All About Learning Press unique?  In each lesson there are 5 components that make a complete learning package called the Big Five Skills: 

1. Print Awareness teaches how print is used.   Each lesson provided opportunities to develop print awareness such as pointing to words in the reading book.  The teacher manual also gave many helpful tips for reading with your child that included print awareness activities like counting words in a sentence or identifying letters in the title of a book.  We also did sensory activities like the one below where we built letters with objects like dominoes.

2. Letter Knowledge is learning and understanding the alphabet. In each lesson we would look at the large poster with all the letters of the alphabet and sing the alphabet to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb."  My son picked up on this song rather quickly.  Here is short video of him singing it. 



3. Phonological Awareness teaches children to hear and identify the different sounds in words.  We loved the little rhyming games that Ziggy played with us using flashcards and also just oral questions and answers.  Shrade would always laugh when Ziggy made a mistake and in correcting him, he was able to use rhyming words to make the sentence right.  It was definitely a highlight of our lesson time.

4. Listening Comprehension is the ability for children to understand the meaning of the words they hear and relate to them in some way.  This was developed through questions and discussions with the poems and stories that we read.

5. Motivation to Read is an important skill demonstrated by a child's eagerness and and willingness to read.  My son has always been interested in books and continues to be even more intrigued since he is making connections between letters, sounds and words.  He loves to pick up a book and "read."

Playing a rhyming game "Get out of the Wagon!"

Completing a worksheet from My Book of Letters

There are 78 lessons in this curriculum and covers capital and lowercase letters and their sounds.  The variety of activities and also the systematic way they are taught is very appealing to me.  I was a teacher and I enjoy structure and it is very well laid out that even moms who were never teachers can pick this up and have lots of fun learning with their child.  The only consumable product is the activity workbook, so multiple children can be taught with only having to buy the workbook for each succeeding child.

If you are looking for a great way to introduce your young preschooler to letters without having to do a lot of preparation work, this is the resource for you!  Check out All About Learning Press for more information.

*This product was provided to me free of charge by All About Learning Press for the purpose of this review. This is my honest opinion of this product and no monetary compensation was received for my opinion.*

 

The All About Reading Level Pre-1 Deluxe Package includes:

• Teacher's Manual (208 pages)
• Student Packet
  • My Book of Letters and Sounds Activity Book (192 pages)
  • Picture Cards
  • Letter Sound Cards
  • Capital Letter Alphabet Chart
  • Lowercase Letter Alphabet Chart
  • Progress Chart
• The Zigzag Zebra: a rhyming alphabet hardcover book
• Lizard Lou: a collection of rhymes old and new hardcover book
• Divider Cards (to keep your Picture Cards and Letter Sound Cards organized)
• "Letter Sounds A to Z" CD-ROM
• Ziggy the Zebra puppet
• Activity Box to hold your student's learning cards
• Adorable Animal Stickers for the progress chart
• All About Reading tote bag to keep your components organized

Summer Bible Reading Adventure Recap

Hi Everyone! Were you able to read the Bible everyday to your children this summer?  Well, I almost did!  I'm so glad I was intentional to open God's Word and expose my children to HIM everyday.  This starts a very good habit while my children are so young.  I intend to read the Bible everyday to my children just as I read it for myself.  Someday I can actually teach them how to do devotions.

I hope you were able to follow me on Facebook for daily verse postings!  It was a great accountability for me to post and then remember to read that passage to my children.

For those of you who completed the August Bible reading, 

please fill out the check in form by September 10.  I also included a short survey.  And as promised I will reward one family a children's Bible.  Be sure to leave your email address.  Thanks, Shonda

Check-In for August

For those of you who are interested, I will be having a Fall Challenge Scripture Reading Adventure starting in October.  Be sure to check back in the middle of September for details.  And let me know if you think you will be part of that challenge. Thanks!