Auditory Discrimination

If your child is struggling with auditory discrimination, then this list is for you!

• Make a Sound bingo - record different noises around the house (toilet flushing, dog barking, phone ringing), take pictures of the items and make a bingo game. (can be purchased as well Sound Bingo (Games) *)


• Play with this website Find Sounds and play a sound, have child guess what it is.


• Memorize nursery rhymes


• Change the beginning sounds of words like "let's have boop and smackers for lunch" Have the child guess what you are saying. (Soup and crackers)


• Check this game out for beginning sounds practice Behind the Lions game


• Play other sound games Sound game


• Play rhyming games rhyme game more rhyming games


• Check out all the great printable activities here Prekinders Rhyme activities


• Read tons of rhyming stories (esp. Dr Seuss!)

*affiliate link!!!!!

Have you Seen This?

http://www.homeeducationresources.com/index.html


If you homeschool, go here now!

Wednesday's Website

Many amazing Montessori ideas...great for a bit of inspiration! http://www.absorbentminds.co.uk/acatalog/ideasbank.html

LuSa's Baby Wipe Juice Contest!

Hey all you Mamas with babies! Go check out this giveaway! What a cool opportunity to give a different product a try!

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.

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

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!

Wednesday's Website

http://www.barkercreek.com/index.php

Check out their Free Lessons and Ideas section. If you are a fan of the Draw Right Now series, here is a good place to get it and Free Shipping on orders over $25.

Sure wish I had money in the budget right now!

Shannon

Wednesday's Website

Just a newer Montessori blog today!

Montesecrets: An insider's guide to Montessori
http://www.montesecrets.com/

Check this one out! Make sure you go to the actual blog site, not just adding it to your reader! There are a ton of resources on the actual page and MANY more to come!

B-I-N-G-O and more games I love!

I just love finding fun ways to reinforce skills we are working on. I have found Bingo to be a great way to do just that. It really is a great game that can be played in a variety of ways depending on your needs! We own 3 different versions but have been able to use them since Josh was quite young and will be able to continue with just a few alterations to game play!


The first Bingo that I used with Joshua is the Colors and Shapes Bingo!

• The first use is just to work on colors, "put your dot on a red shape!"
• Next, working with shapes in the same way but still only using one parameter, "put your dot on a rectangle!"
• Finally, to work on both skills and as a great LISTENING activity, "put your dot on a red rectangle!"

We also own Alphabet Bingo!

• First use would be to just reinforce the letter you are learning, "put your dot on the letter t!"
• Next to work on sounds, "put your dot on the letter that says /t/ or tuh!" (Montessori style would have you do these 2 activities the other way around learning the sound before the letter name.)
• Another activity could be to help child to isolate sounds in words, "put your dot on the letter at the beginning of turtle or end of pot!"

Finally, and possibly the most flexible is Number Bingo!

• First for number recognition, "put your dot on the 16!"
• Addition, "put your dot on the answer to 8+8!"
• Subtraction, multiplication, easy division....
• Place Value, "put your dot on the number made from 1 ten and 6 ones!"

Also do not forget how easily the numbers, shapes and colors could be converted into a foreign language game, "put your dot on ocho, or verde, etc..."

Writing Workshop/Art Shelves!

So I never did find the shelving I was searching for, but it is always best to just make use of what you already have. Here is my plan http://sjbacb.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-latest-scheme.html

Here is what I did so far...What do you think???

I combined the art and writing shelves together since so many of the materials overlapped. It has been working really well for us so far. This shelf is in the dining room, underneath the bar that we have never used.

TOP SHELF~ Tray with letter stamps and stamp pad, sand tray with black sand, letter tracing with wipeoff pen, basket of assorted paper.

SECOND SHELF~ Stencils, Pencils and Pens, Colored Pencils, Sandpaper letters, Magnetic Drawing Board.

THIRD SHELF~ lowercase wooden pieces for HWT, basket of crayons, scissors and hole punch, markers, ruler.




FOURTH/BOTTOM SHELF~ Perler Beads Bucket and trays, Tackle box with craft items, notebooks on top of junk drawer.


I still have a few more things I want to add but it is sure nice to have it all up and running. When we do our Preschool time, the days we do not go down to the Montessori room, we do work at the dining table. So this set up works really great! SO what do you think? Any suggestions?

Wednesday's Website

Go to this site right this minute if you want to find great "teacher approved" educational websites for your kids.

http://www.topicbox.net/index.php

Montessori Monday

Idea from Karen at http://www.amontessorimarketplace.com/teachertraining.html. I took one of Karen's classes more than a year ago! These are GREAT for homeschooling Moms, she actually provides you with her entire album to download as the class progresses. There is no real work involved just an open discussion of the lessons within her albums.

This is a simple activity for any child learning to write their name. I just created mine in Microsoft Word adding a picture of Josh at the top and appropriate lines. I then printed it out, wrote his name and laminated the whole card. He can now use a wipeoff crayon or marker and trace over the top and wipe it with the felt before he puts it back. Easy to make and great practice!

Also check out Montessori Monday at http://athousandjoys.blogspot.com/!

Wednesday's Website

http://www.sonlight.com/p34.html

Sonlight is a homeschooling curriculum. It really seems very comprehensive and if that was the route we were taking I think I would probably use it.

But we are planning to send Josh to school in the Fall and just "afterschool" him. So, what I really use this website for is the AMAZING booklists. I check the books out of the library when I need them. I linked to the preschool list but make sure you check out the other lists as well. We are currently using the K and 1st Grade lists. They span many subject areas including Science, History, Geography, Handwriting, Literature, etc...

Wednesday's Website

http://www.kidscraftweekly.com/

If you have not already done so...sign up for the Kids Craft Newsletter. It comes every month or so and is packed full of thematic craft activities. Also check out the website and make sure to skim through the archives.

Wednesday's Website

http://mrsriley.com

This is an amazing site I just stumbled upon in which you can create your own sets of 3 part cards by just dragging the picture you want onto the format you choose! Super easy. I have already made 3 sets!

Warning: This site is in a beta trial so is free for now! I say use it before we lose it!

Watercolor 101

Thanks to those who left advice! I have also been researching on my own and figures I might as well share some of what I have found!

An entire watercolor tutorial! We will be doing this as soon as I buy new watercolor paints
Cool watercolor activity. Stay tuned for info on an entire snow theme we are doing!
A watercolor techniques lesson.
The only recommendation for what type to buy was for this brand! So expensive though...
color mixing with watercolor

Watercolor must haves...
any watercolor paper (this is just the type I found in my stash!)
watercolor paint (I would like to try something other than these caketype paints!)
...and what I am most lacking...

Wednesday's Website

http://www.education.com/

Check out their worksheet section and activities section! I have been busy planning some fresh new work for us (stay tuned...) and have been finding a ton of ideas on Education.com. For example... how about Super cheap sandpaper letters anyone????