Happy Thanksgiving!

"A turkey is a funny bird,

His head goes wobble, wobble, wobble.

And he knows just one word,

Gobble, gobble, gobble."

Happy Thanksgiving!

Candice S.

Free LeapFrog Book's

You can order a free ABC Junior Leapfrog Book, which is geared toward infants to toddlers.  

They also have the option to order a free Ozzie and Mack Tag LeapFrog Book that is from their new Tag Reader's product line made for toddlers and preschooler's.

It takes about 6-8 weeks for shipping.. I received our Ozzie and Mack book about 6 weeks after we ordered it.  We LOVE it so much that I'm Santa is going to bring the Tag Reading System that includes the pen.  Harmony can read by herself by taking the Tag Reading Pen and pressing it to each word allowing her to recognize letters, words, sentences, and play games with the book.

How awesome is this promotion from LeapFrog?  And, it's FREE!  Wooohoo!

Candice S.

Wordless Wednesday =)

Harmony Paige
Born July 14, 2006
6 lb. 13 oz. 19 1/2 inches long

4 Years Old- November 2010

Mark Andrew Jr.
Born March 25, 2010
7 lb. 12 oz. 19 inches

8 Months Old- November 2010

These picture's make me smile and give me a million reasons to be thankful this Thanksgiving.  =)

What are you thankful for?

Happy Holiday's!

Candice S.

I live in Florida, where you can garden all year round.. :)

I do not have a green-thumb, by any means.  Actually, I think that my four year old can help a plant thrive and survive better than I.  ..This wall garden, however, is so brilliant and so "green" that I just couldn't help but share a photo and a link to Modish Blog's tutorial on how to make it.  

I'm in love .. and am so willing to at least make an attempt at it one day!  

Do you have any gardening tips for house plants and the like that you would like to share?

Candice S.

Thankful Turkey's

We made these a few weeks ago to write what we are thankful everyday.  Mark Sr. and Myself have also included some of our thanksgiving submittals.  We do this every morning before we start school.  

Harmony and I had a lot of fun making a ga-zillion (lol- is that even a word!?) of these thumbprint turkey's!  I remember making these in school.  How fun, right!?  

Thing's I'm thankful for:

Thanksgiving is about giving thanks for every aspect of your life.  I am beyond blessed for my wonderful husband, and even more blessed that I consider him to be one of my best friends.  I am thankful for my children who are healthy and beautiful.  I am thankful for my sister and my mother.  I am thankful for having the courage to go back to school and the opportunity to raise my kids and do so at the same time.

What are you thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Candice S.

Eric Carle- Papa, please get the moon for me

Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me

This book is beautifully written, simple, and elegant just as every book by Mr. Carle.  We checked it out from the library and can't get enough of it!!  

I don't want to spoil the book's cuteness by ruining the story..but Harmony had to run and ask her daddy to get a ladder, after we went outside and found the moon so we could look at it.  

I'm thinking that Santa might be dropping off this new story at Christmas time.  

Happy Holiday's!

Candice S.

Pine-Cone Turkey

What isn't fun about this turkey?  We cut shapes and had fun gluing the paper feather's (although we had to hold them on for a few seconds to insure they stayed in place).  

You can use them as a center piece, for setting place holder's, or for great gifts!!  

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Candice S.

I shared this idea on....

Children and Infant Books

As promised, here is an updated book list for Wednesday.  We usually check out about 20 books so I'll add more as we read!  :)

Thanksgiving Poems, By: Myra Cohn Livingston

Had excellent Thanksgiving Poems, which were geared towards an older crowd but it was fun going over the meaning of them with Harmony.

Hello, Good-Bye, By: Arlene Alda

Fun book on opposites so Harmony could guess what the opposite would be as we read.

Papa, please get the moon for me, By: Eric Carle

We have read this one about five times already, since getting it last night.  Harmony apparently has selected a favorite!

Hello, Florida, By: Heather Tomasello

For Mark Jr.  It was definitely adorable!

Baby Einstein's Language Nursery, By: Julie Aigner-Clark

At the end there is a mirror and Mark was cracking up when he saw himself!

Blueberries for Sal (CD-Read Aloud), By: Robert McCloskey

This was a great read aloud story!  I have never actually read the book, but it was excellent!  We enjoyed it!

Have a great day!!

Candice S.

                            

11/15/10 Preschool Planner and Resources

11-15-10PreschoolPlanner

Theme:  Thanksgiving

I've decided to stay strictly with our Giving Thanks/Thanksgiving, Fall Theme for November.  There's just so much fun to be had with it.. plus, it provides a general need of thankfulness that must be taught to children.  I must say that it opens the eyes of the teacher, as well.  :)

Letter of the week:  "G"

Activities include fine motor activities and coordination promotion of writing, worksheets, arts and crafts, etc.  I decided that we are not going to do the mini book from First-School this week, as I noticed Harmony was getting a little bored.

Math Lessons:
Adding and Subtracting, Recognition, Sorting, and Measurements

Tools for Math Lesson: Beans, lids, jars, and bottle caps

Every morning we write down one thing in our lives that we are thankful for.  We write this on the back of our thumbprint turkey cards.

Books:
Will post on library book selection.  Any good idea's for good Thanksgiving and Christmas books?

Crafts:  
Cornucopia Mosaic (didn't get to it last week), Turkey Pinecones, and Thanksgiving Hand Print Tree

Have a great week and don't forget to give thanks!

Candice S.

Homemade Paint

Store bought paint for kids can become expensive, especially when you are using it as often as we are in this house!  When Harmony turned two years old I started looking for alternatives to store bought paint that was inexpensive, easy to clean off of furniture (and everything else), and was not harmful if consumed...

I found one!   :)

Ingredients: 

1 Tablespoon of Flour
1 Tablespoon of Water
1-2 Drops of Fooding Coloring

I take about a tablespoon of flour and equally parts of water, mix together.  After that I add or mix our colors.  I use food coloring to do this because it's safe.  I'll do this in different containers and then whatever we don't use up I just dump in the sink.  If you want thicker consistency add more flour.  I tend to try to get it where it is not too runny, but just right!

Love it!

Candice S.

Number Re-Cap Game

  

The Number Re-Cap Game is a fun number recognition game that allows your child to sort through bottle caps and separate them by number, as well as practice their counting.

Here's out it works.  

You mark one bottle cap with the #1, 

then you mark two bottle caps with the #2, 

and then you mark three bottle caps each with the #3.  

I did this up to the #10 until I can collect some more bottle caps.  You're going to need about 55-60 or more.  The best part about this game is, Harmony LOVES it and it never gets boring.  I will need around 200 total bottle caps as I want  to include the alphabet, shapes, and more difficult colors. 

For more on this activity you can few this detailed tutorial from one of my all time favorite websites, Education.com

Enjoy learning and have a spectacular weekend!

Candice S.

Paperbag Scarecrow

This craft was apart of our fall themed preschool week.  Oh how we love festive and adorable decorations to place around the home... and Harmony enjoyed coloring the scarecrow pieces for his/her face, cutting them, and pasting them on the paper bag.  

Tidbit* Helping your child learn how to control the hands, thumbs, and pointer finger movements through activities such as cutting and pasting allows for better writing skills and hand control.

Go here for: Scarecrow Face Template

When Harmony glued all of her decorations on for the Scarecrow's face..Stuff the bag with newspaper or magazine pages.  We opted for the magazine pages.  

Sometimes I do not grasp the clearest concept of a simple craft project, like this one.  I decided to use pipe-cleaners to seal the top of the bag- but you should fold the top of your bag and staple it.  

On every Thanksgiving Craft that we do, we are writing somewhere on it what we are thankful for.  This one states, "I'm thankful for my Mommy, Daddy, Unicorns, and my Baby Brother."

Have fun teaching your child about scarecrows and what their purpose is.


Scarecrow, Scarecrow

Scarecrow, scarecrow,
How scary can you be? You scared (Baby Brother)
But you didn't scare me!

Happy Fun Fall Crafting and Happy Thanksgiving!

Candice S.

Sensory Trays

Get excited!  Come on.. My excitement is radiating all over me right now as I'm looking for excellent idea's to create a sensory tub/work table for Harmony.  I have seen so many amazing, AMAZING idea's for sensory tubs and how they apply to your child.

Ok.  So what is it?  A sensory tub is an array of learning objects (think I-Spy) thrown into a tub.  You can do this with little thought or pick a theme and go with it.  For instance, you feel that you want a fall theme, then you collect fall leaves, acorns, add in a small bucket or cup for pouring, and let your child go at it!  The point is this.  You want your child, from ages 2-5 (as long as they don't eat anything) to utilize the tools that you have provided for him/her by using their five senses. 


The best thing about sensory tubs is that you are promoting learning and development in the following areas:

• "Fine motor skills (eye-hand coordination)
• Creativity (artistic skills)
• Creativity in play (deciding how to use the materials)
• Social skills (sharing, cooperating)
• Emotional development (tension releasing, soothing, failure proof, and confidence building)
• Knowledge of science (experimentation, evaporation, gravity, physics, construction, and engineering)
• Knowledge of math (1:1 correspondence, counting, and concepts like grouping, sequencing, weight, volume, and measurement."

Preschool Education Articles. (2010). Sensory Materials. Retrieved on November 8, 2010, from http://www.preschooleducation.com/art30.shtml

Colored Rice

I finally found an idea that would be perfect for our fall themed preschool week.  We made a sensory bowl and then put it into a tray for better access!  First, we started by coloring our white rice to stand for our red and yellow fall leaves.  After, we even added pipe cleaner's that are converted into apples and oranges to use for our pinecone/tree's.  Harmony has played with this every single day since last Monday.  She has added objects to it to fit to her liking.

Enjoy!

Candice S.

The Elf on the Shelf

The Elf on the Shelf is a fun tradition that was given to our family last year as a gift.  My daughter LOVES seeing her elf.  Here's out it works.  There is a book that comes with the Elf that you read to your kids.  The elf cannot talk but can take "requests" for gifts, etc. and provides the list to Santa.  He is there in your home to watch over your child and flies to the North Pole every night to report to Santa on your behavior....so you better be nice.  Every single night the elf finds a new place to watch you from..so your child can get up early and look for him/her.

This is such a cute little Christmas Tradition that Harmony has been begging to do for the last few weeks.  She's been asking where "Pinkie Pie" is.. so I told her that we're expecting to see our elf in the  next week or so when we start decorating for Christmas.  :)

You can buy The Elf on the Shelf at any local Barnes and Noble and other book stores.  I think you can purchase the set for about $15.00-$30.00 and that includes the little Elf, it's keepsake case, and the book.

Happy Holidays!!



What are your favorite family traditions?  Or, do you plan on starting something new this year?

Candice S.

Preschool Week, 11/08/10

11-8-10PreschoolPlanner

Weekly Theme:

Giving Thanks/Thanksgiving

Weekly Letter:

"F"

We'll choose our book list today at the library.  This will be updated!!  :)

I found some really exciting crafts that I will be posting tutorials on..including adding crafts from last week.

Happy Thanksgiving!  This IS the best time of year!!

Candice S.

Preschool Books, Phonics, Tracer Paper, Supplies List...

I have found two wonderful things.  First, I have been using this website First-School that has FREE printable worksheets, themed lesson plans, games and toy printables, craft ideas, math/reading and basic skills lesson plans and worksheets, and additional learning resources.  This website is amazing for additional help for toddler, preschool, and kindergarten lesson plans and printables.
You must go check it out!

Teaching Resources:

First-School

Basic Preschool Supplies List

Themed Lesson Plans

Progressive Phonics: For FREE E-Books, Printable Books, Phonics by Age, and Worksheets

Reading A-Z for 30 Free Books

The next website is great for Thanksgiving especially if you have a curious little investigator.  It allows you to be the historian and follow a set of facts, pictures, and fun so you can learn about Thanksgiving.  If your children are computer literate and are of reading age, you can have them do this themselves.. or, like Harmony and myself, we are going to sit down together and learn about the first Thanksgiving together.  I will adapt this to fit our preschool needs, as she is young and will have a shorter attention span.  I plan to entice her by asking her to "click" on an object while I am reading and to make sure that I ask her a lot of questions.

Please, Visit and have fun!  ...  The First Thanksgiving.

Last but not least, traceable paper that you can PRINT!  Woohooo!  Now, listen.  If you are trying to reduce on paper usage or you are a recycling nut like myself, then you have probably drawn a lot of "dots" so your children can practice tracing and writing letters, numbers, names, and addresses.  ..But, I couldn't help but get excited as I walked onto a fun creative resource found on the First-School website.  You have the opportunity to put in say, line 1: Harmony and it will show up in the first traceable row so she can then use the second, third, and fourth row copying or tracing.  LOVE IT!

Create Free Tracer Pages

Have a great day!!

Candice S.

Preschool Planner 11/01/10 =)

Happy Wednesday!!

I have been a busy bee planning, cleaning, planning, teaching, trying to catch up on my own academic endeavors.. just plain ol' busy!  :)  I wanted to share a rough draft of our preschool week.  This is most of the stuff we have accomplished this week.  Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday is our normal preschool day's but with Halloween on Sunday, I was too tired trying to get paper's turned in, etc. to plan our week Sunday night.  I usually sit down Sunday Evening's and find some fun stuff for Harmony and I to do.  You can also easily incorporate developmental activities with your babies, like my 7 month old, as you are teaching your preschooler.  I do not have a play room so we utilize our living room.  I also pick a theme for the week, as this week is FALL and a letter.  I haven't figured out how to incorporate shapes (as Harmony knows all) or numbers quite yet.  There are a lot of areas that we are just trying out for now to see Harmony's learning and tolerating speed.  Four year olds are super busy so she tends to give me an allowance of 30 minutes before she starts climbing the walls.  

Enjoy and check for updates at the "Kids Corner" section of Rattles and Redheads.

Candice S.

11-1-10PreschoolPlanner Sheet1

Book Review Tuesday: Thanksgiving Book-Turk and Runt

I wanted to share an excellent Thanksgiving book with you that you are your little one's will find very entertaining.  It is considered to be a comedy called, Turk and Runt.  Turk is a large turkey who assumes, with the help of his mother and father, that he is being selected by human's to go do something great.  His idea is to become the next football player or dancer.  :)  Turk's brother, Runt, knows better and does everything he can to keep Turk safe.

Definitely a must read!  Harmony and I got this book from the library last week and have re-read it many many times.  Ms. Harmony just can't put it down!

..And I have to share this with you.  Harmony was informed a few weeks ago what a hot dog is made of, by your's truly.  (Hey, she asked now.. I wasn't going to LIE)  She has yet to consume another hot dog- for we are only purchasing the chicken dogs now.  Here's the funny part.  The entire time we are reading and re-reading this book, she keeps going "Yummmmmmm.." and "I can't wait to eat turkey for Thanksgiving, Mommy."  Can you believe this kid?  I even told her that a pig and a turkey are still animals alike.. but it didn't phase her.  Not one bit or one tear.. just, "Yummy, hmmm-yummm, Turrkkeeeyyyy."  I guess that piggies are just too cute to think about eating.

Enjoy your Tuesday and check out this book!

Candice S.

 

Happy Halloween!

Savannah (Cousin) "The Devil" and Harmony "Glittery Witch"

Our family had such an amazing and productive, October.  Mark and I decided that I would further Harmony's preschool education at home so we have been busy creating lesson plans and utilizing so many wonderful educational and developmental resources that are available out there.  Free resources are the best and they are so much MORE useful when you have mom's using them hands on, just like we are!  :)  You will be seeing a significant amount of fun preschool activities and idea's.  I think that I'll be including our weekly theme and schedule for you all, as well.  I will be placing this on Rattles and Redheads, as soon I as I update it.

Happy Belated Halloween!  -I so should have said this, yesterday.  You have to love how late of a blogger I am.  I am always one step, behind.  HA!  I wanted to share my scary halloween babies with you.  They were pretty dang adorable.

Look at these way too cute "trick or treater's".  =)

Harmony "The Glittery Witch"

Mark Jr. "The Cuddly Lion"

My kids were too stinkin' cute.  Note to self next year, "Do not dress up 7 month old in way too hot costume.. when we live in Florida and it's 80 outside.  He will not stay in it for the entire evening, period."  Ok.  Other than that!  Our day was well spent and so were we!

I hope that each of you enjoyed your Halloween this year!  Muuahhahahahahaha!  (In scary crazed Halloween voice).. lol.

Candice S.