Children’s Books About Heaven
My heart is heavy as I write this post. Oh, how I wish we lived in a world where innocent children didn’t have to know the pain of losing a loved one! Sadly, the reality is that most children…
Book Club for Moms: Week 2
Our assignment last week was to read Chapters 4, 5 & 6. The farther along I get into this book, the more these two things come to mind: (1): Most of the examples she gives are beyond the capabilities of…
Book Club for Moms: Week 1
Phew! Did you get all your reading done this week??? I did…but just barely! Three chapters in one week was A LOT (especially with all the craziness we’ve had going on around our house this week)! Chapter 1: Beds & Clutter…
Book Club for Moms: Introductory Chapter
I really enjoyed the Introduction chapter of Cleaning House: A Mom’s 12-Month Experiment to Rid Her Home of Youth Entitlement. I felt like it gave me a window into the author’s home, letting me get acquainted with her and her family…
O is for “Olympics” Craft
Put an Olympic twist on learning letters with this fun alphabet craft! Here’s what you’ll need: Our O is for Olympics Printable page, Froot Loops cereal, and glue. 1. Download and print the “O is for Olympics” page. 2. Let…
Books about the Olympics
Believe it or not, it is difficult to find books about the Olympics that are age-appropriate for young children! Between visiting the library, ordering one on Amazon, and checking out Barnes & Noble…I was able to find a few to…
Book Picks of the Week
The boys and I had fun getting to share our favorite books with you last week, so we thought we would make a habit of it (at least for the summer). Here are our book picks for this week (fyi:…
Book Picks of the Week
We’ve been reading a TON lately, mostly due to Big Brother’s desire to fill up his Summer Reading Sheet from our local library. For every 10 minutes a child reads (or is read to), he/she gets to color in one…
Giving Joy to the Ears
Guest Post by Marji of Do, Re…Me? The beauties of Classical music are wonderful and we need to put these sounds into the ears of our children. One major benefit is that artistic music sparks imagination. As a culture, we…
Children’s Literature: Caldecott Winners from the Past 15 Years
After sharing my tips for choosing a good children’s book last week, I thought I would introduce you to the Caldecott Award. If you’ve been around Children’s Literature at all, you’ve probably heard books referred to as “Caldecott Winners” or…
Pound-a-Sound
There are a few wonderful things about this activity. First of all, it teaches left-to-right orientation, which is an important pre-reading skill. Secondly, it is great for the relationship between a sound (phoneme) and its corresponding letter (grapheme). Finally, it’s…
Children’s Literature: How to Find a Good Book
We’ve all been there…we walk into the Children’s Section of a bookstore or library and are completely bombarded with thousands of books. How in the world are we supposed to choose a good book for our children? What defines…
The Forgotten Pre-Reading Skill
Guest Post by Malia of Playdough to Plato You probably already know that before children can learn to read, they need certain pre-reading skills including rhyming, clapping out syllables, and naming the first sound in words. But, did you…
Learning Sight Words
Guest Post by Julie of Make, Take, & Teach After your child learns the letters and sounds of the alphabet, the next step in learning to read is learning sight words. Being able to recognize sight words is…
Green Eggs…and blueberries?
Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!!! You are 108 today! Big Brother woke up with a fever this morning (again) and he was so bummed he missed his Pajama Party with green eggs and ham. I tried to console him by…
How To Read With Your Child
Guest Post by Leah of Your Dime Your Time Reading daily with your child is critical to their development in many ways. There is no better way to increase vocabulary, teach literacy fundamentals, and expose your child to images…
Five Ways to Retell a Story with Your Toddler or Preschooler
Guest Post by Dawn of Toadally Tots “Again, Mommy, again!” Our little ones often squeal with delight over having their favorite story read over and over (and over!) again. While there is nothing more delightful than to listen to our…
T is for Tent
It has been a while since we’ve done an alphabet craft, but since we’re sticking with our camping theme, I thought it would be fun to do a tent craft with the letter “t”. I chose to do the lower-case…