Pumpkin Shaped Jello

Now that the temps are starting to dip into the 80s it's starting to feel a little bit more like Fall here in Texas. (Could you hear all that sarcasm?) Anyway, it may not get that cool here but it doesn't stop me from fully embracing the Fall season.

I decided to kick things off with a fun cool treat for the kids. When I was in the hospital I became a big fan of jello. It was so cold and yummy. I thought it would be fun to make some orange jello for the kids and use pumpkin cookie cutters to make little pumpkins.

As you might have realized by now - I am not the type of Mom that tries to reinvent the wheel. I am going to share this super easy activity with you. All you need is orange gelatin mix and pumpkin cookie cutters.

Make the jello according to the package directions. You can make the jigglers version of these pumpkin by following the directions on the side of the box. You'll need to two boxes of jello for that. We didn't have jigglers because I didn't read the entire box until we were home. #momshrug

Note to Moms everywhere - Sometimes reading the box while in the store can be extremely helpful. 

The jello has to set in the fridge for what seems like forever. Next time I'll make the jello in the morning so that it will be ready by school pick up.

The pumpkin molds came out perfect! You have to press a bit to get them to pop up into the cutter. 

I plan to do this again in November. In December we'll use red and green jello with our Christmas cookie cutters. I love a cheap, easy and fun activity!

Will you be trying this? Don't forget to use the jigglers recipe. It would really take this activity to the next level.

Back to School Fashion Haul

I finally got a chance to film and upload Savannah's back to school fashion haul. We got some really great deals by using coupons, our military discount and taking advantage of tax free weekend.

She got some really cute stuff. I wish some of it came in a mommy friendly size. How was back to school shopping for you? Get any good deals?

Preschool at Home: Spelling Spoons

During school drop off one morning I noticed one of the activities for the morning were "alphabet spoons". It looked interesting and the kids really seemed to enjoy it. They were sounding out words and learning to spell in a fun way.

At first I wondered why they weren't using regular flashcards but then I realized that the spoons made it fun and different. I decided to make Savannah some of her own spelling spoons. There are so many ways to use them. I've thought of a few different games already.

All you need to get started is a bag of plastic spoons and a sharpie. Write each letter of the alphabet on a spoon.

That's it. Here are some of the games and activities I've thought of to use our spoons...

-Make a phonetic sound and have your child find that spoon.

- Say a word and have your child spell it out using the spoons. Have them sound out the word as they look for the right spoons.

- Play a rhyming game. Choose an ending sound and teach them how to identify words that rhyme.

- This game is for 2-4 players. You will need at least three sets of spoons. Hand each player 10 spoons. Place the remaining spoons in a plastic cup scoop down. Have each player create words using the spoons in their hand. If a player needs another letter have them choose from the cup. You can only pull from the "deck" once per turn. Using a timer, each player has 60 seconds to spell out their word. The first player to get rid of all the spoons in their hand wins.

- Spell a word and leave one letter space blank. Have your child fill the blank with the missing letter.

- Scramble up the letters of a word and have your child move each spoon to their correct place to spell the word correctly.

What do you think? Sounds fun, right? I'm looking forward to playing more games like this over the Summer with the kids. Will you be trying 'spelling spoons'? It's a fun a alternative to flashcards!

Preschool at Home: Learning to Read at Home

I have decided that our main learning objective for the summer will be reading and handwriting. As you know I am constantly trying different things to find the right fit for Savannah and I. I also use all this research to form a blueprint for BabyM's learning path too. Of course, different kids respond to different things but at least by the time he is ready to learn to read I'll have a better road map for teaching him.

While doing a search on Amazon I came across this book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. The title alone peaked my interest. The promise states that all you need is twenty minutes a day everyday for 100 days and you and your child should have a nice foundation for reading. That seemed right up my alley. I can do twenty minutes everyday.


This book has been amazing. Not only does it teach your child how to sound out words but it also focuses on reading comprehension and handwriting. I did things kind of backwards with Sav. I taught her the alphabet and each letter's phonetic sound then I taught her sight words. I wish I had found this book before we did sight words. It hasn't really hurt her but I see now where it would have been better to use this book to teach her how to take the phonetic sounds she knew and turn them into words with these lessons. 
Hopefully I am saying this all clearly, LOL…
Anyway. I highly recommend this book if you are a parent that needs a road map. The book tells you exactly what to say to your child. It doesn't get much easier than that. It is such a joy to see Sav sounding out words and actually reading. We are only about a quarter of the way through the book and I am really pleased with her progress so far. After her lesson we sit and read a book together. She reads to me and I help her when she asks me to.
Has anyone else heard of this book? Have you used it? What did you think about it?
*I am not a teacher. I am not in the education industry. I'm just a Mom teaching my child at home. I did NOT get paid for this review. I purchased the book myself.*

Preschool at Home: Reading Resources (Sight Words)

I have often found that when people know how to do something, like sewing or doing hair, they are often not interested in teaching other people how to do it. Some may not even be willing to share how they learned. That's so funny to me. It's like they don't want anyone else to learn how to do something they're good at. They may even tell you that they'll be more than happy to teach you or share the info but they never follow through on that…

Well. As I have said before, I am a girl's girl. If I know something and I think it can help you I am going to share it. If I see that something has worked for my daughter or son I will be more than happy to share that with you. Why not? Sharing is caring and at some point I know I'll need someone to care for me and mine.

Today I am going to share some of the resources I have found online to make introducing Savannah to reading a breeze. We first started off by learning letters and their phonetic sounds and then we moved to sight words. I am not a teacher or educator of any sort. I am fumbling my way through teaching my daughter. I try different things until I find what works. So please consider all of that when you are reading these preschool posts. I'm just sharing our journey and I am not trying to come off as an expert at all.

Teaching Sav the sight words extremely boosted her confidence in reading. She even sounds out words a lot better too. We still have a long way to go but I think we're off to a great start. My little lady should be reading by her birthday and that was my goal for 2014. With that said, here are all 220 of the non-noun sight words sub-divided into five levels.

I like making my own flashcards. Since Savannah already knows many of these I'll be making cards for the words we still need to work on. If you visit this site you can download bingo cards to go along with the sight words. That's another fun way to help them learn. You may also remember that we like playing "musical words" or "word hop". I lay all the cards out on the floor and I have Savannah hop to the word I call out or I play music, she walks around, when he music stops she has to pick a word and tell me what it is. Very fun!

Did you find this helpful? I'll continue to share stuff as we find what works for us. Feel free to share and pin!

Preschool at Home: Kindergarten Preparation

Now that we've gotten into a better schedule centered around learning I thought it would be a good idea to make a list of everything I wanted to teach Savannah before she starts school next year. This is my last school year having her at home and I want to make sure she is prepared for her first day of school.

This list is based off what Sav already knows and what she still has to learn. I'm pretty sure there are some things that I may have forgotten so I'll do an updated list and share it if I need to. I am still really loving the Preschool Prep Company's literacy tools. She's on their level 3 sight word reading books now. As we go through each book she gets better at sounding out words. It's been so neat watching her become a little reader.

I really need to do a lot better about teaching her numbers and math. I am a word person and I naturally gravitate towards books and writing. I plan to start alternating our lessons. One day we'll do Reading/Writing and the next day we'll do Counting/Math. That's my plan between now and next August when she starts school.

What do you think of this list? Anything I missed? Feel free to pin and share if you'd like!

Preschool at Home: Paintbrush Tip

The unusually cold weather we've had these past couple days has given Savannah a great opportunity to play with a lot of things around the house. She's recently gotten back into painting a lot. The other day she wanted to paint a picture of her brother. Since he wouldn't cooperate and sit still (imagine that for a second, haha) I happily filled in as her model.


Here's my tip for the day. Normally after she paints I soak her brushes in a cup and then I wash them later when I'm cleaning the kitchen. Today when she was done painting I couldn't find my 'soak' cup. Pretty sure I probably threw it away. So I grabbed a set of popsicle molds. I put a brush in each mold with it's own water and cleaning solution. This was just so much cuter to look at during the day, haha...


The popsicle molds are so inexpensive I can always buy another set. The molds work well for paint sponges too. I noticed during the day that the water didn't get all gross the way it normally does in a cup too. What do you think of this idea? Does your child's paintbrushes get nasty like Savannah's?

Preschool at Home: Upcoming Review

I have exciting news to share!

Savannah and I have been invited to review K5 learning! As you know, I've been working with her to build strong reading and math skills. I'm excited for the opportunity to review this online program. Her literacy skills are really growing so this could not have come at a better time. To be honest, I'm hoping it will help us get a better handle on where she is with math and numbers. I'm not a math person so I am looking forward to utilizing another resource to help us.

Stay tuned for the review coming soon!

K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students. I've been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program. If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their open invitation to write an online learning review of their program.

Preschool at Home: Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.

We are half way thru with January. Can't believe it. Savannah and I have been working really hard on sight words and reading. We live in walking distance to the library and we go there often to check out books or rent Wii games.

For this particular trip I wanted to focus on finding books that talked about Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr. Our library had a few books to choose from and we chose the three below. I have enjoyed reading these to her and introducing to her some of the facts about our nation's history.


Since we had been reading so much about MLK's vision I thought it would be fun to help Savannah make a vision board, but on a smaller Pre-K level. I started by getting some of her painting paper and my letter stencils.


Then I just asked her what her dreams were. I wrote them down in the color of her choice. As you can see, this activity had very little to do with her learning to write or cut. This activity was all about teaching her to recognize her dreams.


I thought she came up with some pretty good dreams for a three year old. I asked her simple questions like, "If you could learn anything what would it be? and " What do you want to be when you grow up?". I think it will be fun to do this with her every year at this same time and save them. When BabyM is old enough he'll do it too.

I plan to stencil her name at the bottom between the stars. I wanted to get this post up before it got too late. So. What do you think? How will you observe MLK Day with your little one? I know someone is out there thinking that this maybe too much for a three year old. So. I'll share something with you that I told a friend earlier today…

Preschool at Home: Learning Sight Words

Now that the holiday season is over we are getting back to our routine. Slowly but surely. For Christmas Savannah received a literacy set that focuses on sight words. I will share the set and my review on it in a separate post. It came with DVDs and books. We've started using it but I want to use it a little more before I do a review here.

Anyway. While we were watching the video and reading the books I was trying to think of other ways to get her to recognize her site words. Part of learning to read is recognizing these words without having to figure them out. Since repetition is everything  I thought it would be fun to make large flashcards that can be used in several different ways. This way, not only is she learning to recognize her words but she's also having fun. Double win. Go me.

In this particular picture I put the words down on the floor, called out a word and had her bring the word to me. She really enjoyed this. Savannah thought it was so fun to look for words. She starts a literacy class in a couple weeks and I can't wait to see her turn into a little reader.

The kit that she received for Christmas says that you can start as early as 15 months. When Sav was that age I was teaching her the baby book of 100 words. It didn't include these type of sight words but I think I will start early with BabyM. When you know better, you do better, right?

What do you think about this idea? Have you started doing sight words with your little one?

Preschool at Home: Using What You Have

Savannah is finally starting to feel better. She had no fever today and she was playing as usual. I didn't have an activity planned for us today. I was expecting her to still be a little sick. She asked me if we could do "homework" and that's when I knew she must be feeling a lot better.

So. I pulled out her workbook and we did a few pages. She then requested to do numbers. This made me happy because we really need to focus on her numbers. My focus has been on her letters, writing and phonics and because of that we haven't really focused on counting/numbers as much.


After completing a few pages, I remembered an activity we had done with her class. The teacher had us doing simple addition using candy. Since Sav loves marshmallows I added those to some m&ms. We counted from zero to twenty a few times.



Then we sorted the treats and counted them.  This was a fun activity. It was quick and luckily I had somethings in the pantry. We had previously decorated Christmas cookies so I just pulled the candy and marshmallows from there.


You could do this activity with anything you have that your child likes. You could use chopped fruit or nuts. Another cool idea would be to use colored pasta. My point here is to use whatever you have on hand. Everything doesn't always have to be so thought out and perfect. As long as your child is learning and you both are enjoying it that's all that really matters.

What do you think? Isn't this so easy? I love getting ideas from Savannah's teacher during class and using them at home.

Preschool at Home: Paper Plate Snowman

Here we are with a new craft idea. Today I thought it would be fun to make a snowman. We never have paper plates in our house. Since we have a few leftover from Thanksgiving I decided to use them for a craft with Savannah.

For this snowman you will need three paper plates, tape and whatever you'd like to use to decorate your snowman. We used eyes, puff balls, pipe cleaners and construction paper (for the hat). This was super easy and fun.

To start cut out your two smaller circles. I used a cup to trace the smallest circle. Then use the tape to build your snowman. We used tape because it was less messy and there's no drying time.


Remember to keep your left over paper plate pieces. You'll need them if you decide to do a scarf or use them for arms like we did.


At first we were going to use pipe cleaners for the arms but I'm really glad we went with the paper plate pieces.


And here is our finished project. I used a sharpie to dot on his mouth and we added the pipe cleaner (that was originally for the arms) to his scarf for a little extra flair.

What do you think about Savannah's snowman? Will you be trying this? If you like the crafts you see here please feel free to pin and share them!

Preschool at Home: Christmas Crafts

It has been really hard staying on our learning schedule with family in town. We have always used workbooks but I have a new appreciation for them now. When I don't have time or the opportunity to do full blown lessons with her it's great to whip out one of these workbooks. We can do a couple pages in a few minutes. I like that because it keeps us from totally abandoning our learning efforts while we have so much going on at home.

We normally always do some type of learning lesson before we start our craft. Today we did the workbook before moving on to some fun Christmas crafts.

I found a pin on Pinterest that used popsicle sticks to make ornaments. I found these colorful sticks at the Dollar Tree and we used super glue to make them hold their shape. She decorated them with glitter after they dried.

I also thought it would be fun to make a Rudolph face. For this quick and easy craft we used a paper plate, eyes, puffy ball (for nose) and pipe cleaners. I also used a hole punch to make the holes for the "antlers" but you don't have to. The pipe cleaners should poke right thru the plate. Savannah curved the cleaner in a U shape before I poked it thru the plate. Rudolph's smile came out pretty nice. 

Once we were done I felt like our face didn't look like a reindeer. I grabbed a brown marker and filled his face in. It made him look so much better. I would recommend wrapping your plate with a paper bag or painting your entire plate brown if you decide to do this. Hindsight being 20/20 I guess I could have cut off the white edge. Maybe next time (LOL)...

What kind of crafts have you been doing with your little ones to get into the holiday spirit?

PreSchool at Home: Mixing it Up

Today I thought I'd share some of the other activities we do to create days full of learning. I have recently figured out that chopping up activities and offering different learning opportunities throughout the day really work well for Savannah. It keeps her from getting bored with what we're working on. 

Another thing that I like about this new way of offering activities is that it limits her "free" time. There really isn't much time for TV when we're both actively engaged in an activity together. Now. I know for some people you're wondering how I can do other things if I'm so glued into this new way of learning. The truth is much of it is self directed by Savannah. I set up the expectation that we're going to do something and then she does it independently for the most part. 

While she's working on the Starfall site or doing a page in her workbook, I'm cooking. When she's doing her phonics board in her room, I'm folding laundry. It's a great way to multi task. I can get things done while she's learning. It's great. 

Here we are together working with her phonics board...

Other activities that we've been adding to our day include playing the matching game, playing alphabet bingo and she's recently really taking a bug interest in cooking.

She received this alphabet bingo card during her weekly PreSchool class and she's been playing with it ever since. 

And here she is in her kitchen. I've been letting her help me in the kitchen more since she seems to have a genuine interest in cooking. I think I'm going to let her be my little sous chef when I make the baby's food this weekend. She's going to love that.

By sharing how we've been filling the day I hope it's giving you more ideas. Does anyone have any ideas for me? I'm always open to trying new activities!

PreSchool at Home: Update

It's been a while since I've shared some of our PreSchool activities. In an effort to get into a really good routine I have been trying to simplify our schedule. Now that Sav is going to a Preschool class once a week I have been using what she's learning in class to guide what we do at home. We still do our own activities but I really try to reinforce the lessons she learns in school.

My main focus with her right now is reading and phonics. We've been spending the majority of our "learning" time on that. We had been doing letters and phonics for a while but I didn't really know how to take the next step to help her start learning to read. Her teacher suggested that I try Starfall. I had heard of Starfall before but never really looked into it. Sav loved the site.

This month we are working on the short "a" sound. At first, I couldn't tell if she was really reading or if she had memorized the book from reading it so much. When my husband came home from work I had her read it to him to see if she could do it and I was very surprised that she could read it to him with a little help from me. She was also very proud of herself.

Today we did our reading in the morning (after I realized a planned trip to the zoo wasn't happening) and some pumpkin painting in the afternoon.

 

So slowly but surely we are settling into a routine that I am happy with. Can't lie. Cutting out a lot of play dates and moving dance to the evening has given me more time to spend with her. I have also been able to get so much more done around the house. These past few weeks have been really great. Anyone using Starfall? How do you like it?

PreSchool at Home: Finger Paint Flashcards

We have officially started adding more hands on activities to our routine. We have always played learning games and read books but I wanted to start introducing Savannah to Pre-K skills. I want to make sure she can hold a pencil, use scissors properly and listen to instructions for activities.

Today I thought it would be fun for her to make some number "cards". I have been collecting paper bags from the grocery store so we used that to make our cards. I cut down the center of one side to make to strips of paper.

I then cut the bottom of the bag off to make a paint holder. Save the rest of your bag for another activity later.

I then cut the two strips into six squares or "cards".

As we went through the numbers I wrote the number out. I then showed her how to write the numerical version of the number. Then it was her turn to write the number. For the tougher numbers I made dots and had her connect them.

On the other side of the card I wrote the number out again and had her paint the appropriate number of dots on the card.

She used the left over paint to make a picture. She enjoyed herself. Today we made cards for numbers one through six. We'll work with these cards by placing them around the house. When she sees a card I'll have her do one of the following things: -Count up to that number. -Count as high as she can starting from that number. -Tell me what comes before and after the number.
From what I've read it is important to have children prepared to work with numbers one through twenty before they start kindergarten. What do you think of this activity? 

Pre-School at Home

In an attempt to try not to sound like I'm whining I want to talk about Pre-School and how my child isn't old enough. At first I was very upset that she wouldn't be able to start school. She's ready. After looking up all the schools in our area I learned that the birthday cut off is September 1. Since her birthday falls two weeks after that she wouldn't be eligible for any of the programs this year.

I even looked at putting her in some of the highly recommended private programs. They had programs with curriculums for three year olds, but your child has to be three by September 1. Bummer. I then considered putting her in one of the Mother's Morning Out programs. I figured it would be good for her and she would still be able to learn in a group setting. Once I learned that the MMO program didn't follow a curriculum I decided to take a step back. I was told that the MMO program offers learning through play and that the three year old school is the first time curriculum is offered for students. So, with all that information... I decided that it would be best to continue teaching Savannah at home.

She already participates in activities. We go on play dates and I plan to start taking her to a weekly playgroup once the older kids here go back to school. There is also a program here called Ready Set Learn that's pretty awesome. It's a pre-school type class that meets once a week. We'll be starting that too. My goal is to have her doing something learning related every day. Between the resources that I have available to me thru play groups and Ready Set Learn, her dance class and the activities we'll be doing at home I feel pretty confident in my decision to not put her in a MMO program. Why would I pay for her to go somewhere twice a week when I can get that same learning environment for free? 

I have already started collecting our supplies for our at home learning days. Of course I've been on Pinterest looking up different activities too. I also found a book on Amazon I plan to use as a guide along with a book that I've had since I was a child. I think this will be a good start for us. Here are some of the supplies we have so far. I've been getting paper bags for my groceries for arts and crafts. I love the Leap Frog Learning Skills books for handwriting and worksheet style activities. There are still some things I need to get but I think this is good for now. We already had crayons, paint, playdough, chalk and lots of other art supplies so I didn't have to get much of that. I do however need to stock up on more crafty items like beads, pipe cleaners, colored tissue paper and all those types of materials.

How did you go about getting your little one ready for Pre-K and Kindergarten?