Summer Worship Series- The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes by Kenneth Taylor

When I was growing up we had this book that we read from.  I love it because the stories are short and each has a picture, questions and Bible reference.  I just started reading this to my son even though it's for children who are little older, but he remembers the people names and I review stories over and over.  It's a fun way to introduce little ones to God's Word.  When I pull out this book Shrade calls it our "Bible study."

Handmade Fun 4 Children: Wooden Moose Creations Review/Giveaway

HANDMADE FUN 4 CHILDREN PRESENTS:

WOODEN MOOSE CREATIONS

One thing that is really satisfying to me is to find a toy that Shrade and I can play with together that is not only fun, but packed with learning possibilities!  Wooden Moose Creations not only has several great products like this, but the way these products are made is what caught my eye.  Each creation is made from pine wood which is perfect for wood burning and not one is the same!

We were given the Fruit Puzzle to review.  This puzzle includes 6 puzzle pieces that fit on a board.  Each large puzzle piece has a certain number of a specific fruit.  The pieces are sturdy and only interlock in a specific pattern.  This allows great fine motor and problem solving skills.  Shrade was able to analyze where the pieces fit on the board and how they fit together through trial and error.  It was fun to watch his young mind as he turned pieces to match on the board.

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We also had fun counting the different fruits and identifying what fruits they were.  I loved the detail that Emmalee made on each piece.  Shrade was occupied for several minutes as he manuevered the puzzle pieces.  I overheard him chatting to himself.  "Oh, this one goes here.  Uh, oh, it doesn't fit."  I truly believe in letting children explore with open ended play and this was definitely a winner!

Emmalee has so many other uniquely wood burned products that you will enjoy browsing in her Etsy shop.  She has a great gift to create such one of a kind products.  She also has some products that can be personalized.

Let's get to know Emmalee:

*Where did you come up with the name of your shop?

I have always loved working with "wood". There's something special and nostalgic about wooden toys and since I have had children, I started making a few toys for them. "Moose" came from my love for them and quest to see a real moose one day. I put the two together and my shop was born.

*How long have you been making crafts?

My mother is an artist and we have been making things my whole life. Of all the different artistic venues the 4 of us children were exposed to, I always loved working with wood. My mother taught me how to wood burn in high school and I haven't stopped since.

*What do you like best about what you do?

I love approaching a piece of wood with no ideas. It's like looking at a blank canvas. Nature inspires me the most and I love adding some of those images back to wood. Thankfully, I never get tired of it. Trying to incorporate nature back into our children's lives these techno-driven days is fulfilling to me.

*What is unique about your shop?

There are many people who wood burn and there are many people who make wooden toys but only a few put them together. I am one of them.

Thank you, Emmalee!

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

Buy it: Visit Wooden Moose Creations and enjoy her wonderful products!

Win it: Emmalee is giving away a matching game- nature images with handmade bag.  Giveaway ends Friday, July 8.

To enter:Be sure to click on all the links before filling out the entry form.

1. Be a follower on  my blog (required)

2. Visit Wooden Moose Creations and tell me another product that you like (required)

3.Use the Handmade Fun 4 Children button for your blog post about this giveaway and provide link

<a href="http://www.milknhoneylearnandgrow.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="MMEM" src="http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l22/da_angel_321/HandmadeButtonprint-1.jpg" /></a>

4.  Subscribe to my blog by email

5."Like" Milk N' Honey Learn and Grow on  Facebook (link on my blog).

6. Post about  this giveaway on  another site (blog, facebook, twitter,etc)  (1  entry for every site)

7. Add Wooden Moose Creations as a favorite on Etsy.

8. "Like" Wooden Moose Creations on Facebook

9. Make a purchase at Wooden Moose Creations.

10. Tell me one thing you learned about Emmalee.

Entry for Wooden Moose Creations 

If you entered more than one giveaway this week:

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Handmade Fun 4 Children: Mama's Felt Cafe Review/Giveaway

HANDMADE FUN 4 CHILDREN PRESENTS:

MAMA'S FELT CAFE

Pretend play is one of the best ways to develop critical cognitive skills like problem solving and vocabulary.  Upon finding Mama's Felt Cafe, I see great potential for creative pretend play.  We were given the Heart Shaped Whole Wheat Peanut Butter and Jelly Felt Lunch to play with!  My son is a big fan of PB&J sandwiches and it was fun to watch him "make" lunch with this felt version.  Included in this set 2 slices of heart shaped whole wheat bread, a layer of peanut butter and a layer of jelly, three granny smith apple slices and two cookies.  All are hand sewn with wool blend felt, Eco-Felt and Polyfil stuffing.  Love was definitely in the ingredients too!

So many great concepts were discovered with the felt lunch.  Shrade learned about matching shapes (hearts) since the sandwich is a heart shape.  He also learned about different colors.  Which color would be the jelly?  Yes, the red heart! 

We also did lots of counting.  How many hearts are there?  How many apple slices?  How many seeds on the apples?  How many cookies? 

And can we forget...food identification.  Shrade figured out right away what everything was except the cookies.  And he was a little distracted because we found a surprise in one of the cookies!  There is a little bell that jingled when we shook it.  Sweet!

And after assembling the lunch, of course we had to "eat" it.  I put all these items in a paper lunch bag and periodically throughout the day Shrade will volunteer to "make" lunch for me.  We go through all these different concepts in the form of pretend play and it's fun!  Be sure to check out all of Brittany's felt food and other felt products that can encourage such bonding and growing with your child.

Let's get to know Brittany:

*Where did you come up with the name of your shop?
~My blog, www.mamasfeltcafe.com, came before the Etsy store name. When I first started making felt food, I flooded my personal Facebook page with pictures and links to the tutorials I used. I decided to start posting my own tutorials and create a fb fan page to contain my crafty excitement. There are a lot of felt shops/blogs out there, so when it came time for a name, it was a bit overwhelming. I wanted to use "Mama" as that is my main job title at home, and my husband had suggested a restaurant theme for my felt food collection so I toyed around with "cafe", wanting there to be a social aspect to the name. Hence, Mama's Felt Cafe was born!

*How long have you been making crafts?
~I've actually only been doing this about 6 months. I found a wonderful wooden play kitchen for my son this past Christmas and I needed food to fill his little pantry. When I looked online, there were many resources for making your own toys. I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed hand sewing and started crafting everyday. If someone had told me a year ago that I would have a craft blog and Etsy shop, I would have laughed aloud. But, you never know what you are capable of until you try!

*What do you like best about what you do?
~I love having a creative outlet and building my own little community with the blog and fb page. I was starting to feel a little hum-drum in my stay-at-home-mommy life. You can only fold laundry and load the dishwasher so many times, you know? But this has given me an opportunity to stay close to my son, challenge myself by creating new items, teach others how to make toys for their own tots, and earn a little money on the side. I can't think of a more fun way to spend my time!

*What is unique about your shop?
~I really pride myself on trying to create original, unique items. There is a lot of redundancy in the felt food world--much of which is representations of junk food. I think we can offer our children play food that sets a healthier, more diverse example. If I have an idea for a food piece, I'll do a search on Etsy to see if someone is already selling something similar. If so, I generally go back to the drawing board. There are too many fun things to make to spend time doing what has already been done!

Thanks, Brittany!

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

Buy it: Visit Mama's Felt Cafe and enjoy her wonderful products!

Win it: Brittany is giving away a pancake breakfast set.  Giveaway ends Friday, July 8.

To enter:Be sure to click on all the links before filling out the entry form.

1. Be a follower on  my blog (required)

2. Visit Mama's Felt Cafe and tell me another product that you like (required)

3.Use the Handmade Fun 4 Children button for your blog post about this giveaway and provide link

<a href="http://www.milknhoneylearnandgrow.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="MMEM" src="http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l22/da_angel_321/HandmadeButtonprint-1.jpg" /></a>

4.  Subscribe to my blog by email

5."Like" Milk N' Honey Learn and Grow on  Facebook (link on my blog).

6. Post about  this giveaway on  another site (blog, facebook, twitter,etc)  (1  entry for every site)

7. Add Mama's Felt Cafe as a favorite on Etsy.

8. "Like" Mama's Felt Cafe on Facebook

9. Make a purchase at Mama's Felt Cafe.

10. Tell me one thing you learned about Brittany.

Entry for Mama's Felt Cafe

If you entered more than one giveaway this week:

Fill out the EXTRA ENTRY FORM!

Handmade Fun 4 Children: Glory Glass Magnets Review/Giveaway

HANDMADE FUN 4 CHILDREN PRESENTS:GLORY GLASS MAGNETS

Shrade and I had so much fun exploring and learning with this ABC Alphabet Magnet Set.  First of all, Shrade was fascinated with the magnets and loved to see what parts of the box the little glass gems would stick to.  This set came in a little magnetic box with an alphabet set of lower case letters that includes a complete set of the alphabet plus an additional set of vowels and three larger glass magnets with an image and word. The bottom of the tin has a card of additional words to spell, A to Z, each with a corresponding images, apple to zebra. Use the back of the tin for the spelling surface. These 3/4" glass gems are colorful and little hands can practice fine motor skills.

This ABC Alphabet magnet set is great for identifying pictures, increasing vocabulary, spelling and matching beginning sounds to words.  This is a great learning tool for kids as young as 3 years old.  Even though my son is only 2.5 he is starting to recognize letters and this was fun to see him using his thinking and reasoning skills to match the letters to the pictures.

What I really liked about this product is that it is compact and would be a great activity to take in the car and use during times of waiting.  It's a fun way for kids to interact with letters, pictures and words and is perfect for little ones getting ready to attend school. I also loved the quality of this product.  It was very user friendly and the pieces are made to last a long time!

As you can see, there are multiple uses for hours of fun and learning with this small, yet powerful teaching tool!

Let's get to know Martje:

*Where did you come up with the name of your shop?

My sister in law came up with the name. We bantered names about and hers was the best. It was based upon my original items which are the Bible versed based magnets. There is already a Glory Glass shop on Etsy, though it doesn't seem to be in operation. I added the word "magnets" and became GloryGlassMagnets on Etsy. I do go by Glory Glass for everything that is not Etsy.

*How long have you been making crafts?

I have been crafting since I was a young child. My mother was a Kindergarten teacher and in that era, teachers made almost all of the visual teaching aids, bulletin board decor, etc. themselves. Both of my parents were very artistic and so it seemed natural to be creating things. One of the first things I recall making was a trash can for my bedroom, out of an oatmeal box and covered with wallpaper scraps. I learned to sew when I was 11 years old, which opened up a whole new world to me. I had LOTS of throw pillows on my bed in all shapes and sizes when I in high school! When my children were young, we would devote the month of December, beginning with the Friday after Thanksgiving, to our holiday crafts. Over the years that evolved into major cookie baking - I had so many decorations that I really didn't need more! I am pleased that my daughter has made crafting and baking part of her daughters' lives as well.

*What do you like best about what you do?

I enjoy the designing of the art and layout. I'm certainly not Rembrandt, but drawing and painting is just plain fun! I also really enjoy the research that I put into the Bible themed magnets - looking up commentary and related quotes.

*What is unique about your shop?

While many shops have glass magnets and push pins for sale, I don't find any other Etsy shops or internet stores that have anything similar to my ABC Alphabet set for children or the line of Bible verse themed magnets. And though there are many inspirational or Bible verse quote magnets for sale, I have a growing line that is really devoted to helping people understand the meaning of the Bible verses, not just the verse itself.
 Thank you, Martje!! 
*This product was provided to me  free of charge for the purpose of this  review.  This is my honest opinion of  this product  and no monetary compensation  was received for my opinion.*
 

Buy it: Visit Glory Glass Magnets and enjoy her wonderful creations!

Win it: Martje is offering a 25% discount on any one item.  Giveaway ends Friday, July 8.

To enter:Be sure to click on all the links before filling out the entry form.

1. Be a follower on  my blog (required)

2. Visit Glory Glass Magnets and tell me another product that you like (required)

3.Use the Handmade Fun 4 Children button for your blog post about this giveaway and provide link

<a href="http://www.milknhoneylearnandgrow.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="MMEM" src="http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l22/da_angel_321/HandmadeButtonprint-1.jpg" /></a>

4.  Subscribe to my blog by email

5."Like" Milk N' Honey Learn and Grow on  Facebook (link on my blog).

6. Post about  this giveaway on  another site (blog, facebook, twitter,etc)  (1  entry for every site)

7. Add Glory Glass Magnets as a favorite on Etsy.

8. "Like" Glory Glass Magnets on Facebook

9. Make a purchase at Glory Glass Magnets.

10. Tell me one thing you learned about Martje.

Entry for Glory Glass Magnets 25% discount 

If you entered more than one giveaway this week: 

Fill out the EXTRA ENTRY FORM!

Brightly Beaming Resources: Week #10 Trains

"All aboard!"  The Shrade Train

We've been having fun with trains this week since that is Shrade's #1 love right now. Daddy even took him downtown to see the trains as well as we have a train track right next to our house.  The other weekend they had a steam train come through!  We've also been having our "lessons" up in the new room!  I like a change of scenery besides the living room.

Don't know why it's turned this way- Steam Train from tracks next to our house.

Thomas the Train Lapbook: from 1+1+1=1 (We don't have a color printer, but it still works!)

I got this printout from Lightning Bug Literacy.  We put little rocks on all the circles.  Great fine motor and brain activity for 1 to 1 correspondence.

This lapbook has matching shape cards, numbers, 1-1 correspondence (colored train circles), book, letter recognition (TRAIN) with matching.

Books we read:

*Also a book called Let's Go that had two stories: Hello Freight Train and Little Red Caboose


Music:
This CD has a song called "Little Red Caboose"

We also used the lesson from Totally Tots (Once Upon a Book) about The Little Engine That Could.
With this lesson we had fun using a flannel board story from Rising Moon Adventures.

For letter J I decided to start a craft with Letter of the Week at No Time for Flashcards.  I recently purchased the Alphabets Craft Ebook where I found this Jellyfish project.

Handmade Fun 4 Children: So Simple So Sweet Review/Giveaway

HANDMADE FUN 4 CHILDREN PRESENTS:

SO SIMPLE SO SWEET

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Shrade and I had SO much fun playing with this very unique puppet set- Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  So Simple So Sweet Etsy shop has several puppet sets that include a glove with magnetic squares on each finger and foam character pieces to mix and match to tell a story.  Wow! 

Setting up the characters

Shrade is telling the story

What I found quite compelling about this puppet set is that it offered so many great ways to bond with my child.  It was highly interactive and with so many possibilities of sharing a story that are different every time.  I like this story because it is repetitive and helps my son to learn the art of storytelling, retelling and increases vocabulary.  The characters are cute and simple and have great visual quality.  The little foam pieces provide great fine motor skills and are very durable.  This is definitely a worthwhile teaching tool and will get kids involved with literature on a whole new level!

Retelling with daddy

It was so enjoyable to see Shrade retelling the story to daddy.  And since the characters are magnetic, they can be used on any magnetic surface such as the refrigerator.  And you can easily take these with you on road trips and use for waiting in airports or doctor offices.  Inspire the imagination of your child with these great puppet gloves!

Let's get to know Heidi:

*Where did you come up with the name of your shop?

I wanted a name that was easy to remember that was not product specific so I could change what I was selling if I wanted to! I love trying new things and the name makes it so I can try whatever I want!

*How long have you been making crafts?

I have been crafting forever! I have been papercrafting since I was 11 or 12 and I started making puppets about 5 years ago. I love doing many other crafts like jewelry, sewing, and painting.

*What do you like best about what you do?

I love that I can stay home with my kids while I craft! I would not trade being a stay at home mom for anything and so working at home is perfect for me. I needed a creative outlet that was somewhere for me to be more than a mom and etsy is perfect for that!

*What is unique about your shop?

I feel like I offer a unique twist on the old favorites of finger puppet gloves and greeting cards. I get tired of the same thing all the time and love to find new ways to do things. I really like that my puppets are not just for the glove, they can stick on any magnetic surface and so you can use them anywhere and everywhere! I also think my pocket card idea is unique because the greeting card has been around forever and it is sometimes hard to find one that is not the same old, same old. They are fun for kids and adults alike and the tag parts of the cards are so cute you can keep them around! I am really a believer in quality not quantity, I would much rather pay more for something that will last, and I make my products well so they will be around for a long time! I spend a lot of time making sure my puppets and cards are durable and not made in a rush.

Thank you, Heidi!

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

Buy it: Visit So Simple So Sweet and enjoy her wonderful creations!

Win it: Heidi is giving away any puppet set (except brown bear) or one of her cards.  Giveaway ends Friday, July 8.

To enter:Be sure to click on all the links before filling out the entry form.

1. Be a follower on  my blog (required)

2. Visit So Simple So Sweet and tell me another product that you like (required)

3.Use the Handmade Fun 4 Children button for your blog post about this giveaway and provide link.

<a href="http://www.milknhoneylearnandgrow.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="MMEM" src="http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l22/da_angel_321/HandmadeButtonprint-1.jpg" /></a>

4.  Subscribe to my blog by email

5."Like" Milk N' Honey Learn and Grow on  Facebook (link on my blog).

6. Post about  this giveaway on  another site (blog, facebook, twitter,etc)  (1  entry for every site)

7. Add So Simple So Sweet as a favorite on Etsy.

8. "Like" So Simple So Sweet on Facebook

9. Make a purchase at So Simple So Sweet.

10. Tell me one thing you learned about Heidi.

Entry for So Simple So Sweet

If you entered more than one giveaway this week:

Fill out the EXTRA ENTRY FORM!