Let's All Make a Circle with Meredith LeVande DVD Review and Giveaway!!

 

A few years ago I was privileged to review Meredith LeVande's CD What Are the Odds?  This DVD brings all those songs to life!  Meredith has a very engaging smile, voice and story telling by song.  Each video is very unique.  Meredith plays the guitar, drums and shares the stage with a wonderful group of children as well as some eye-catching scenery.  The music draws kids to interact by copying the movements of what they see on the DVD.  Kids learn so much about social skills, gross motor movements, fruits and vegetables, wheels, bubbles, silly animals,funny knock-knock jokes and more!  My kids enjoy spinning around the room and watching all the fun that is happening in each video. I can even hear them singing the songs when the DVD is not even playing.  They are very easy to catch on to and remember!   This is a great DVD to pull out for those rainy days and playdates for kids to get up, moving and being silly!

What I really enjoyed the most was the Teaching Guide attached to the cover.  Each of the songs has a great teaching point for your kids to get more enjoyment, learning and growth all while having fun and being goofy.  There are some great early learning skills attached to the songs on this DVD.  So pick it up today and start your journey of imagination and wonder!

Here is fun video trailer of the DVD.  Stay tuned for the giveaway at the end of this post! 

 

*I was given a complimentary copy of this DVD for review.  All opinions are my own.*
 

AS SEEN ON OVER 100+ PUBLIC TV STATIONS NATIONWIDE:

MONKEY MONKEY MUSIC WITH MEREDITH LEVANDE TO RELEASE NEW DVD THIS SUMMER

 

“Meredith LeVande is a music video star” – The New York Times

 

“Has a huge future…as a children’s entertainer” KCET Los Angeles

 

“Meredith LeVande really gets kids moving” – Parenting Magazine  

 

NEW YORK CITY – Award-winning children’s musician and public television star Meredith LeVandehas announced the July 1 release of her second children’s music DVD: Monkey Monkey Music: Let’s All Make a Circle (Monkey Monkey Music, $19.99, run time 45 minutes, for ages 2-5).

 

Let’s All Make A Circle is the highly anticipated follow-up to Meredith LeVande’s award-winning first DVD, and brings to life songs from her acclaimed CD collections through a uniquely creative set of dynamic, imaginative music videos. These 15 colorful, high-energy videos construct a series of playful worlds full of children and animated characters, popping bubbles, telling silly knock-knock jokes, springing up in gardens, spinning circles, and much more. It’s all made to get kids moving and learning as they dance, shake, and sing along.

 

On Let’s All Make A Circle, Meredith LeVande combines bright vocals, smart lyrics, and whimsical videos to offer a fresh take on children’s music – one that’s wholesome, fun, and designed entirely with the child in mind. That doesn’t mean parents won’t find themselves dancing and singing along! But with Meredith’s music, it’s truly all about the kids.Let’s All Make A Circle engages and entertains them at every turn, with kid-friendly, kid-appropriate themes and an emphasis on child growth and development. The inside album cover also includes recommended activities to help parents assist children in key areas of early learning as they experience each song.

 

Children everywhere already know and love Meredith LeVande as a public television star. She is one of the few children’s artists in the country who is regularly seen on TV, with an established presence on hundreds of PBS member stations airing across the country on broadcast, cable, and satellite TV. Viewers from coast to coast can catch Monkey Monkey Music – often multiple times per day – alongside such favorite shows as Thomas the Tank Engine, Curious George, Sesame Street, and others on stations like WETA Kids (Washington DC), Kids 13 (NY/NJ/PA), NJTV, Idaho Public Television, KCET (Los Angeles), and many more.

 

 

About Monkey Monkey Music/Meredith LeVande

 

Monkey Monkey Music was created in 2001 by Meredith LeVande, who has since released two award-winning CD collections and two DVDs, performs live at countless venues and birthday parties nationwide, and airs across the country on public television, OnDemand, satellite radio, and much more. Meredith’s unique style of dynamic, creative music is fun and engaging at every turn, encouraging movement and learning through every song. One of the few children’s artists who is regularly seen on TV, Meredith’s Monkey Monkey Music videos currently air on hundreds of PBS member stations nationwide. In fact, her music is so compelling that Hawaiian Airlines’ included it in its in-flight video lineup to keep young passengers engaged and happy on long flights! For more on Monkey Monkey Music and Meredith LeVande, please visit www.monkeymonkeymusic.com.

GIVEAWAY:
 

I am having a giveaway for Let's All  Make a Circle DVD.  Giveaway ends Sunday, July 7.  US only.

Ways to enter: (Be sure to fill out the entry form at the end of this list)

1. Make a comment on my blog- What children's music do you like? (required)

2. Subscribe by email

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4. Like Milk N' Honey Learn and Grow on Facebook.
5. Like Monkey Monkey Music on Facebook.

5. Post about this giveaway on another site (1 entry for each)- Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Other.

Entry FORM for Let's All Make a Circle DVD

Plans for PreK and Toddler School in the Fall!

I am so excited to finally be planning some REAL lessons and being more organized.  It was so hard to narrow down my choices and I am not even sure I have completely done that, but I do have some main resources that I will be using this year as we embark on 1 more year before Kindergarten at home.  I also am going to start doing lessons with my 2 year old. I will be making plans all summer!  I am reading Homeschooling 101 by Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler and she has me so pumped!   So, here are the plans:

PreK Plans: Fall 2013 (4.5 year old)

 

 

Bible: Calvary Curriculum (FREE)
Prayer- MOB Society monthly prayer calendar
How to Pray-Hand craft 

 Reading the Alphabet with This Reading Mama (FREE curriculum)
30 lessons

PreK Daily Learning Notebook from Confessions of a Homeschooler (FREE)
I love that I had this made into a 3 ring binder.  Then I can add other printables to it!

 

Supplement:

Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve

from Heavenly Homemakers

 

Math:

 

 

 

 

20 Preschool Math Activities 

School Sparks- Early Learning Worksheets
Along with my many math manipulatives I can make something work!

 

 

 

Other:

 

Cooking-
 Kid's Cooking Activities
 

Teaching Your Kids to Cook

 

Read Alouds:
Library list of  100 books to read before Kindergarten 

 

 

TODDLER: 2 year old (my little girl)
 

 

Brightly Beaming Resources (FREE)- I had such good success with Shrade that I'm going to do it again with Jessna.  Isn't Shrade cute?  He had just turned 2.  Oh, that was so long ago!!

Source: milknhoneylearnandgrow.blogspot.com via Shonda on Pinterest

Ideas from Carisa's book- Where to Begin with Tot School (free by subscribing to the newsletter)

Bible Memory: Songs for Saplings

Read Alouds:
Library list of books about the Alphabet, Counting, Colors and Shapes

And this book has so much great advice for me as a mom-
The Happy Mommy Handbook by Katie Norris and Susan Case

OK, there it is!  I'm so excited to start writing out my plans and figuring out how to occupy these kids, have fun, grow, and make learning natural and learning at home a joyful experience.  I'm so thankful for all the resources that I have found.

Stay tuned as I hope to share HOW I'm planning my days!

Jump In to Summer Learning: Space

 

About the beginning of June a few blogs (Royal Baloo and 3 Dinosaurs) that I have obtained the BOB book printables from shared that they would be making some fun summer learning printables for 5 weeks!  I was excited to see what they had planned.  The first week was Space.  They put together printables for Tot, PreK, Kindergarten and 1st grade with 5 days of learning with lessons plans, craft ideas, snacks, word wall cards, sight words and more!  I was so impressed that I downloaded everything.

Find all printable links HERE.

Books we read:


We had a great week in Space.  We read books about space and did the daily printables.  We also made "moon rocks" and wrote a story about visiting space.  Here are some pictures from our week:

Recipe for "Moon Rocks" (aka No Bake Energy Bites)

 

Shrade's Space Story:

One day I went to space.

I went space walking.

I picked up moon rocks.

And walked on the moon some more.

 

And we watched this very cool video of Neil Armstrong stepping foot on the moon- July 21, 1969

Summer Reading for Mom: Homeschooling Ebooks

Before I had children I was a Kindergarten teacher.  I also decided that when I had children that I wanted to homeschool.  God has made it possible for me to stay at home and I have been doing fun learning activities with my son since he was about 2.  That's when I started blogging here at Milk N' Honey Learn and Grow.  And over the years I have started gathering information on how to homeschool.  Just because I was a teacher does not mean I know how to homeschool.  I'm finding out it is completely different than my teaching job. 

Many of these resources I found for FREE, but now some of them are not free anymore.

Here are several of the resources that I have found and plan to read this summer:

*Homeschooling 101 by Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler (I bought it and had it printed at Fed Ex.)  So excited, can't you tell?!  I love the planner that is part of this book.  I will utilize this when I plan PreK and Tot School for this coming up year. 



*Homeschool Tips by Connie at Smockity Frocks

*Secrets of a Successful Homeschool Mom by Jamie Martin of Simple Homeschool (Free by subscribing to the blog)


*Homeschooling for FREE and Frugal by Jamerill Stewart of Free Homeschool Deals and Holy Spirit Led Homeschooling (You need to "like" the page on FB and believe me, you want to subscribe to the blog.  There are so many great free homeschool deals that I've snagged!)


What other homeschool ebooks have you found?

Joanie Leeds Takes June...Review of Bandwagon

Joanie Leeds adds fun to every project she does.  Bandwagon is no exception.  She takes some everyday activities that kids think and feel and puts them to song to help them learn about vacation, school, nutrition, using your words, seasons, bedtime, biking and more!  She also includes a song about UFO's (a little imagination is great for a kid) and her tribute to New York is a video that is at the bottom of this blog post.  Joanie obviously loves singing, trying out unique music styles and getting kids involved in life and enjoying the events that come their way.  So, get on the Bandwagon and take the tour with Joanie in her YouTube channel with 14 videos of her brand new songs!

*I was given a complimentary copy of this CD for review from Waldmania.  All opinions are my own.*

Starting on June 2nd, Joanie will release 14 music videos, each based on a song from Bandwagon. Every other day throughout the month of June, a new video will be posted on Joanie's YouTube channel. The series will kick off with "I Love NY," a hip and groovy paean to Joanie's adopted home town.

Joining Joanie Leeds and her band, The Nightlights, on Bandwagon are Justin Lansing (of the GRAMMY winning Okee Dokee Brothers), GRAMMY winning producer Dean Jones, folk superstar Jonatha Brooke, and acclaimed singer/songwriter Rachel Loshak of the Gustafer Yellowgold family.

Gifted with a soulful, "rock solid" voice and an instinctive knack for capturing the essence of any style she goes for, Joanie Leeds has delivered, with each new album, music that thrills admiring adults yet speaks to kids in a friendly, non-patronizing way.

Says Sirius/XM's Kids Place Live Program Director Mindy Thomas, "Joanie Leeds is that cool babysitter who would let you try on her lip gloss once your mom left the house. You idolized her, and your mom knew she could trust her. That's Joanie. Only she's also likely to completely ROCK THE ROOF OFF YOUR HOUSE!"

Summer Plans 2013

Hi Friends-  Summer is just around the corner.  I have so much planned to do this summer!  I find that when we are busy, I am less stressed, but I also need to keep up with all the stuff we do.  My kids need to be active.  When we stay at home too much, I tend to lose my cool, so we are going to be out and about this summer.

Here are my plans and ideas for the summer:

*Highlights- Puzzle Buzz Club and Hidden Pictures Playground.  We get these magazines in the mail and they cover some great skills for visual learning and fine motor learning like matching, expressing imagination, using stickers, sequencing, recognizing and identifying shapes and letters and MORE!  Love these!

*All About Reading- We do these lessons in the afternoon.  Very easy and fun for me and my son.
 

*Preschool Workbook- We are working through this a few pages at a time.  Morning work time.

*Summer Fun Lessons I found on 3 Dinosaurs and Royal Baloo.

Source: 3dinosaurs.com via Shonda on Pinterest

*Kids Bowl Free- 2 Free Games all summer!

Source: kidsbowlfree.com via Shonda on Pinterest

*Vacation Bible School in July.  Shrade loved it last year and is looking forward to it again this year.

*Tour of Parks with local friends (we made a private FB group)- We meet a different park every week of the summer!

*Preschool Mini-Day Camp- This is a new adventure/activity that will be in July.

*Activities from Summer Survival Calendar by The Confident Mom

*Summer Reading Program with local library

*Summer Bible Reading Adventure- Fruit of the Spirit.  I think I will do about one fruit a week.

*Thriving Family- Around the World in 60 Days.  We will do this for family devotion times in the evenings. 

*$1 movies- Regal Summer Movie Express

Source: regmovies.com via Shonda on Pinterest

*Concerts in the park- I just printed off the local concerts that are in our area for the summer.

*Make some yummy healthy ice pops and frozen treats.  Subscribe to The Nourishing Home and get this free ebook.  Recipes include: Banana Split Pop, Homemade frozen Go-Gurts and Wholesome All Fruit Pops.  And you won't want to miss her awesome menu plans.  I am so inspired by Kelly!


*Playdates and other things will be added as well. 

*Farmer's Market, Children's Museum, hikes with daddy, swimming and more!!

*And I have TONS ideas on my Pinterest board.


I've included a few links, but I will share about each one we do over the summer in blog posts.  Stay tuned!  I look forward to a fun and busy summer filled with lots of family time and getting out and enjoying friends and new activities!

Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve updated version relaunch SALE!!!

A few years ago I bought the Learn Your Letters Learn to Serve Curriculum from Heavenly Homemakers. I was planning to do it with my son when he turned 3. But then I added another child and all my plans went upside down.

 I feel like I am finally back on my feet and we can move ahead with PreK this fall.  I have so much planned and I can't wait to share all that I am doing, but I will be using the Learn Your Letters Learn to Serve Curriculum with BOTH of my children this coming year. 

And Laura has just had it revised and updated with new graphics.  The content is amazing with Bible verses, writing, singing, talking, thinking, books, alphabet projects, thinks to make, ways to serve and more!  There are also tons of recipes, parenting tips and printables. 

So get your copy today ON SALE at Heavenly Homemakers.

Learn Your Letters Learn to Serve Preschool Curriculum

On SALE until June 12