Letter C and muffin tins

This week in our preschool we are learning about the letter "C".

We read the book "Caillou Tidies His Toys"

It's a fun little, cute book and encourages my preschooler to clean up.  OH yeah...clean (starts with a little C).

As you see, we're getting some good use out of our cookie sheet for our projects. 

All I did was draw the letters on construction paper.  Then my daughter is using cotton balls to glue along the outline of the letters.

We could have used beans or glitter or any number of items to glue on it, but when I realized "cotton" started with "C"...bingo!

Also, I  got the idea of using  muffin trays for my kids' lunch from two of my favorite bloggers, Muffin Tin Mom and A  Mommy's Adventures.  Muffin Tin Mom has tons of different meals and tutorials.

This particular meal idea is purely- whatever was in our fridge at the moment.  So, we have ramen noodles, carrots and dip, and grapes.

I'm also working on a student binder for my preschooler so she can proud of all her work this year.  I'll share that with you once I've got it together.

That's it for now!

Libraries, haikus and art

We've been visiting our local libraries a lot.  It's free, it's nearby our home, and we're all bookworms in our family.

Even though we try to go a few times a week we still end up coming home with 2 or 3 bags full of books.

We LOVE getting out and having a library just a few blocks away- within walking distance- from our apartment is awesome!  Plus, getting to the library completely takes my mind off the fact that I have just moved.  I am still in shock from it all.  It happened so quickly.

I like that of the 2 libraries closest to us, we have 2 storytimes a week for Z's age (4 and under) and one for Ny's age, an after-school school story activity hour.  This gives us something to look forward to each week.  I'm sure we'll join more or our local activities for kids and homeschoolers soon, but for now we're just doing good to situate our belongings and furniture and find our way around town!

So, yesterday Ny wanted  a book about how to draw horses.  She's been really getting in to drawing a lot more lately, especially horses- her favorite thing to draw.  We brought home some horse books, along with a book called "Hip Hop Speaks to Children- a celebration of poetry with a beat".  I actually enjoyed the book just for me! Ha.  But I used it as a starting point for a lesson on writing poetry.

Here's the book:

A CD comes with it, which makes it a lot more fun than the kids listening to me read yet another story :-)

The poetry is urban, some free form, all encouraging messages and thoughts, and helps children to learn (through example) how to express themselves through rhyme and beat.

I listened to this with both girls and asked Ny to take anything that inspires her as a springboard to write her own poem.  I sent her to her room with pencil and paper and nothing more.  She was to come out with a poem.

About an hour later she emerges from her room in deep thought then returns to her room for more writing.  Then she comes bounding out of her room again- this time with a haiku (of all poems!) AND an illustration.  Tell me I wasn't proud!

Here is her poem and drawing: (she used a page of her "Top Secret Personal Beeswax" June B. Jones book)

She later realized the second line only had 5 syllables, and not 7...so she changed it to "I would feed it every day".

This is her version of the original picture found in "Drawing Horses and Foals" by Don Bolognese.  Here is the original drawing in the book:

Now, here is Ny's version of it (no tracing, only drawing- and she's drawn herself riding the horse).

I think she has a good eye for art...so we'll be looking for art activities around town for her to participate in.

So, that's all for now.  More updates to come next week...

BJU Press Reading Review- Book 3B

From time to time we used this book last year in NyGirl's second grade.  I can honestly say that I wish more readers were as pleasant for young children as these beautiful "classics", as I like to call them.

This BJU Press Reader is  full of stories which remind me of the wholesome readers I kept lying around my room as a once third-grader bookworm.  They are Christian-based, deliver wholesome content, and promote purity and godly character in young children.

Can you blame me for liking this little book?

There are a series of BJU Press Readers for Christian Schools, which range in grade levels (1-6).  I happened to stumble upon the 3B at a used book sale and thought I would try it out in our school last year.  We started off pretty structured on when I would introduce the stories to her each week...

...that is, until NyGirl decided to take off with the book and read all of the stories on her own.

I did, however, receive the pleasure of reading some of them out loud to her.

Book 3B is divided into 3 content sections.  Each section focuses on a particular topic, such as "A New Land" (covering stories on the beginnings of America), "Creatures Great and Small" (covers stories about animals) and "Treasures" (a collection of wonderful stories about missionaries, God's provision, and other beautiful stories).  There are about 10-14 stories underneath each category topic, so you'll be guaranteed (if you pace it out, unlike us!) a school year of wholesome little short stories to introduce to your younger children.

As I don't have older children, I have not seen the books for upper grades (5a-6b) so I cannot adequately describe these and how they work...but if they are anything like the lower grade books, you couldn't grow with content- especially if you are a Christian parent looking for pure stories which strengthen godly character in your children.

Storynory for Kids

NyGirl LOVES Storynory.  My daughter sat at the computer for an hour, completely mesmerized by the audio stories available at this site.

This website is awesome on too many levels.

First of all, this site is a collection of stories for young children which vary in  genre, from classics to fairytales.  There are educational stories as well, bible stories, stories about the saints, and even original stories.  If you have much younger children, they might enjoy stories from the "junior" category.

Click on the story you like, then click on the play button to listen to it.  The storyteller has a wonderfully soothing reading voice, which would suit children really well.

The best part about this site (besides it being FREE) is that these are quick and easy access to audio stories like the classics (Alice in Wonderland, Dickens stories, poetry, and Rudyard Kipling stories) that I have been meaning to introduce to my daughter but just never had time to sit down and do those "read-alouds".  Even if they aren't available at my local library  in CD or mp3 download, I have them available right here at this site.

Not to mention, my two year old enjoys The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood.

I always say, if you can't get a child to read, you can at least get him to listen to a story.

Storynory is a wonderful online audio resource for enchanting our kids with reading. And for our kids who are already reading, this is a great online resource to help introduce them to classic literature they may have never chosen to read on their own.  Plus, it builds their imagination.

NyGirl can't wait to  hear what will happen next on Alice in Wonderland.