One of those days...

Please go here to read my post on what we have read, are reading, and plan to read! I accidentally posted it before it was done so if you have a blog reader it will not repost....apparently!

Sorry for the hassle!

OOOoooops!

The last post was an accident! I will repost when it is finished!

Shannon

People...He Just Won't Stop Reading!

I had a request from a friend to share what we have read and what we are reading right now. It is pretty difficult to find books that are appropriate for the early reader. Often you can figure out the reading level by flipping the book over and looking in the lower corners. It will say something like RL~2.4, which means Reading Level second grade 4th month of school. You can also look reading levels up at Scholastic Book Wizard. We try to keep Josh reading wholesome happy books. FYI~ He is 4 years old and is reading books that are from the 1st - 2nd grade level right now.

Books for Early readers

• Henry And Mudge First Book We LOVE this series! They are sweet but still interesting enough for an action loving boy.


• Frog and Toad Are Friends (I Can Read Book 2) Classics!


• Little Bear (An I Can Read Book) Classic and full of healthy adventure!


• Harry and the Lady Next Door (I Can Read Book 1) If your kids like dogs this is a great series.


• Corduroy The original is the best but we have read and enjoyed a few others. Nice to see such a classic with a Child who does not look just like me and my son!


• The Littles And Their Amazing New Friend These are so fun! We are really into this series right now. Josh has no trouble reading and they are silly but in a nice clean wholesome way!


• Star Wars: Clone Wars: Watch Out for Jabba the Hutt! (DK READERS) What can I say...he loves it! This one actually is not too bad. It just talks about the characters that Anakin meets. Nothing scary...the title is a bit of a mystery!


• If You Give a Moose a Muffin (If You Give...) We enjoy all of the If you give a books. They are fun and silly and right at Josh's level.
• Many other picture books that we had previously read aloud.

Chapter Books we read/have read to him

• Nate the Great These are nice mystery books that most children will enjoy. Nate is a great, quirky character that makes even Mommies and Daddies laugh! Josh can probably read these now but we have not tried.


• Magic Tree House There are tons of these and they are really fun to read. Not too mention they teach geography and history. I have learned a ton myself!


• Encyclopedia Brown We have read a few of these short chapter books. They are cute detective books (similar to Nate the great books).
• Geronimo Stilton Books The fun part of these books are that the pages are FILLED with little illustrations, even among the print. Fun to read together and fairly silly. Geronimo is a mouse who is a reporter at a newspaper who is often sent on fun adventures.

Recommended Books on our wishlist

• My Father's Dragon
• The Mouse and the Motorcycle
• The Borrowers
• Ramona Quimby, Age 8 (Avon Camelot Books)
• Treasure Island #1: The Treasure Map (Easy Reader Classics) (No. 1)
• The Boxcar Children (The Boxcar Children, No. 1)
• The Story of Doctor Dolittle (Yearling Book)
• The Bravest Dog Ever: The True Story of Balto (Step-Into-Reading)
• Detectives in Togas
• Mr. Popper's Penguins
• Henry Huggins
• Harriet the Spy
• The Phantom Tollbooth
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh (Aladdin Fantasy)

Any other recommendations?

Have you Seen This?

Living Lettuce !!!!

I bought some at our local Meijer, which is a "superstore" in the Midwest. (Headquartered here in Grand Rapids!)

Anyway, the roots are still attached to the lettuce and you just peel off what you need, wash it and enjoy! The lettuce lasts FOREVER! Well, not literally but for much longer. It is grown in Tennessee and comes in completely recyclable packaging. Oh yeah, and it is delicious! Very tender and a pretty green.

Thankful Thursday!

I am taking time today to remember what a blessed life we have created here. I am extremely grateful for all of our blessings, most noteable today...

• Spring! It is supposed to be 80 today and I am LOVING IT!
• Resources that are readily available in times of need. (Library, Internet, Friends and Family)
• Having my Parents so close that when I desperately need to get away...I can leave Josh with people I trust. (Had a lovely couple of hours thrifting with my Mom!) Thanks Dad!
• Andrew! For, oh so many reasons...including how he puts up with my monthly emotional rollercoaster, that he works hard to provide every opportunity for our family, and for all his support.
• Josh for his own way of reminding me of my choices and why I made them. I vow to do better and be better!
• Forgiveness from my readers for publishing everything a day late this week....OY!

Wednesday's Website

Do you all know about Currclick - Curriculum in a click?

It is a website that sells tons of different curriculum and always has freebies available!

Dye Free Food Choices

If you want to feed your kids dye free or if, like us...it is a necessity, here is what we do.

Vitamins (We use either, depending on sale, coupons, availability, etc...

• Lil Critters Gummy Bear Vitamins, 190-Count Bottles (Pack of 2)
• Rhino Gummy Vitamins

Breakfast

• Waffles~ I buy the frozen nutri-grain storebrand variety! Like these ~ Eggo Nutri Grain Waffles,Whole Wheat, 10-Count Boxes (Pack of 12)
• Cereal~ Cheerios, Chex, Rice Krispies (Often mixed together)
• Raisins or other fruit
• Milk
• Pancakes
• French Toast
• Toast (often with Peanut Butter and/or Jelly ~ Simply Fruit or store brand version)

Lunch/Dinner Normal lunch/dinner items! Just be careful of items like...

• Cheese (often contains dye especially american slices)
• Jelly (see above Simply Fruit link)
• Macaroni and Cheese (Blue Box packet type has dye!) (Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, White Cheddar, 7.3-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 24) does not have DYE!) Another favorite is Annie's Homegrown Classic Macaroni & Cheese, 6-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 12)
• Drinks! Watch "juice" boxes, avoid Kool-aids, even Lemonades!
• Crackers can be difficult too! (Goldfish, saltines, Ritz are all good!)
• As always READ the labels!

Snacks/Treats The Hardest by far!

• Stretch Island Fruit Company Original Fruit Leather 48 Piece Variety Pack (we have bought at Costco for MUCH less but have not been able to find recently!)
• YummyEarth Organic Lollipops, Assorted Flavors, 150-Count Container
• Clif Kid's Organic Twisted Fruit Variety - 24ct
• Florida's Natural Assorted Nuggets, 8-Count, 0.6-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 12)
• Pepperidge Farm Cheddar Goldfish - 4.1lbs
• Other Crackers as mentioned in lunches!
• Pretzels
• Cheese but BE CAREFUL! String cheese is often fine!
• Peanuts
• Animal Crackers
• Crackers with Peanut Butter (Spread your own!)
• Fruit
• Earth's Best Sunny Days Snack Bars, Apple, 5.3-Ounce Units (Pack of 6)
• Graham Crackers

Josh drinks Milk or Water! Rarely, we give him juice but it is a treat and he often refuses!

MISC...

• Store bought frostings contain dye!
• Marshmallows and many white foods contain blue dye!
• Read labels! Dye is added to so many everyday items that you would not expect.

Good Luck! Feel free to share items you have found and ask any questions about our journey!

Earth Day Activities

Plans for the coming week!

• Maze
• Earth Day Activity Book
• Jigsaw puzzle Practice coloring, cutting, and assembling!
• Earth Day Word book Handwriting practice
• Word search Might be fun to try since there are not too many words!
• Super simple Earth suncatcher
• Environmental Color pages Book???
• Color page
• Simple cut out style Sudoku Nice first attempt!
• Another Simple Sudoku
• Many Earth Day Craft Ideas
• Bird feeder Directions
• Crayon Melt Earth Craft (Better direction and template)
• Songs
• Create your own Dominos
• Create your own Memory game
• Earth Day Song I used last year

Hello!

Just a quick note to say I will be back soon!

Been a bit crazy...

• broken washing machine with resulting MOUNDS of laundry...
• Easter Fun keeping us busy.
• Lovely weather calling us out of doors!
• and mostly...we are having a bit of a parenting crisis that needs my COMPLETE attention.

Tie Bunny

Here is a cute bunny project I used to do when I taught Kindergarten. We had fun creating them together today!
Materials

• ~tie (easily found at any thrift store or Daddy's closet...ugly is good!)
• ~Pom pom
• ~googly eyes
• ~yarn
• ~button
• ~construction paper scraps
• ~glue
  

All you need to do to make these is just cut off either end of a tie, depending on if you want a tiny bunny or a larger bunny. I made the blue tiny and Josh made the larger brown.

Cut off a bit of yarn for whiskers and place them in a puddle of glue on the pointy end of the tie. Add a bit more glue on top and press on the button nose. Add googly eyes, construction paper ears and a pompom tail. Allow it all to dry!








Josh's masterpiece, he only put one whisker...I was proud of myself for only asking once if he was adding more or was he ready to pick out a button for the nose...trying to not be such a control freak...

Recipe for Resurrection Rolls

http://patrizziagundich.blogspot.com/2009/04/resurrection-rolls.html

We are definitely going to make these! Join us if you'd like!

Landforms

I have been intending to make the landform work for Josh for well over a year now. I even bought the plasticine and store brand containers. Well finally this week I did it. I really like how it turned out. It was a bit more difficult than I expected...sheesh is that clay hard! But well worth the effort.




In the above picture you can see how a peninsula is just the cutout portion of a gulf.

All you need is...

• 10 containers


• Plascticine (but for a temporary set playdoh would work!)


• Knife to cut out the shapes


• cards like these
  
  montessorimaterials.org/Geography/LandFormCards.pdf
  
  http://www.montessoriforeveryone.com/Land-Water-Forms-Nomenclature--Photos_p_263.html $
  

I just divided the clay into 5 equal amounts and smashed them into 5 containers. Flattened it and used the cards to give me an idea of how to cut. I took out the unnecessary clay area carefully and put it into another container. (The landforms are all opposites like a lake is the opposite of an island. So you can use the clay you remove from the lake to be the island landform.)

I plan to present these soon having Josh pour a bit of water into each to show the actual landform. I also printed off cards https://edutccom.ipower.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=93 that show a more photographical picture of a landform. We will add small animals and fish to this work to further extend his understanding.

Landform Lesson!

Thankful Thursday!

So much to be thankful for...

• Tomorrow we get a free day together! Andrew has the day off...which is very rare. We are planning a fun filled day together!
• Well...the weather has been pretty crumby lately but I am very thankful for the moments of sun that have peeped out in the past couple days.
• Bright Beginnings playgroup, this has been a lifesaver for me as a SAHM.
• Good health, it was a ROUGH weekend but this week has definitely brought improvement to my smallest guy. The fever is gone, as is the sore throat and headache. Even the taste issue that made him cry at every meal is definitely IMPROVING. Now he just had a bit of a cough.
• Cheap entertainment! Like Flick's Family Film Festival.

Everything Easter

I was thinking of doing an Easter lap book this year but I am going to just print out and prepare everything and see how it goes. I am hosting, so things might get a little rough that last week!

CRAFTS
Bunny Napkin Rings These are adorable!
Transparent Eggs This is a great creative, do what you want activity!
Egg Carton Tulips To decorate the table, centerpiece!
Peek a boo Eggs

POTENTIAL LAP BOOK IDEAS
lap book cracked egg template
Easter Basket Grid

SCIENCE
Eggshell Plant Pots

PRACTICAL LIFE
Jell-o Jelly beans directions I already bought Jell-o, not dye free, so....
Maze

MATHS
I bought tiny Easter eggs to use for counting, adding, graphing, etc...
Rabbit dot to dot Josh just loves these right now!
Color by number and count eggs

MISC...
Blank Egg Shapes
Printable Egg Card Maybe he could write cards to a few people and send them out for a Writing activity?
Easter Egg Coloring sheets

CHRISTIAN ACTIVITIES (LAP BOOK IDEAS TOO!)
Christian Preschool Printables I teach Josh about Easter using the Resurrection Eggs every year so this has a ton of fun/useful activities...esp. the res. egg printables, cross math, etc...

BOOKS WE USE AND LOVE! (These are not showing up on your readers! Sorry for the hassle! You can see them if you click over to my blog.)



I highly recommend you checking out Benjamin's Box if you use the Resurrection Eggs (Parenting)! It goes perfectly!

Wednesday's Website

http://www.childcareland.com/teach.html

This site is packed full of fun stuff but my favorite is the 7 pages of teaching ideas that includes great pictures!