If you are thinking about homeschooling...

I sat down this evening to start setting some goals for 2012 - both personal and professional (ha, ha - by that I mean things to do with parenting, housework, and homeschooling). Even though we've been "doing school" for almost 5 months, I am still looking for ways to do it better. Namely, to put a little more effort into it.

In my organizing tonight, I kept coming back to the website Homeschool Creations, created by a homeschooling mom of 4 named Jolanthe. She does so many awesome things on her blog. And I got to thinking that her blog really could be the start and finish of a great homeschool curriculum for anyone starting out with homeschooling their preschooler. She has a long list of Printable Packs that she's developed that are centered around a variety of topics - ex. Princesses, Robots, Disney Cars, etc. The idea is to print off the free Printable Pack and use it over the course of a week to cover things like pre-reading, pre-writing, shape sorting, number recognition, etc.

She has also been working on developing Literature-based Printable Packs. These are along the idea of the Five in a Row book. The Printable Pack is centered on a book - ex. Blueberries for Sal, We're Going on a Bear Hunt, etc. It would be so easy, so fun, and SO educational to just do a book a week and use her free Printable Pack.


I realize as I write this that it sounds like one big advertisement for Homeschool Creations, and I guess maybe it is. Except I don't know this lady and I'm not getting paid for it! Really, I was just thinking to share her blog here because I know there are some of you with preschoolers at home that would like to try your hand at homeschooling. So I encourage you to go check it out. Pick a book, print off the pack and see what you think.

A spin on our toddler bed

A year and  half ago, I bought an antique head/footboard from a lady in North Carolina. She had cut the legs off of this bed and didn’t have any side rails to go with the bed. That was fine with me because, I  wanted to make a bench out of it.  However, after cherishing its antiquity and doting over the detail in this bed, I could NOT entertain the thought of taking it apart and making a bench.

Plan B was now to make a toddler bed out of it.  My baby was just 10 months old at the time, so I knew I had to hold onto it for a while.

When we moved, I toted it with me. DH tried to get me to get rid of it, and I looked at him like he had two heads. This bed was a work of art in my mind. I had great plans for it, and wasn’t going to keep it stashed in the garage forever.  I just had to wait for the right time.

Well, today was the day! The right time had come, now that little bits was in need of a toddler bed.  I wanted to use both the headboard and footboard and assemble the bed to look just as it would if I had a big, full mattress in the bed, but use a crib mattress instead. My handyman hubby did a great job building a foundation for the crib mattress to sit on, since we didn’t have side rails.

Can I just say that I LOVE LOVE LOVE how the bed came out?

Ta-dah!

We have to do a little bit more work on the bed on the sides to keep the mattress from scooting, as well as keep her from scooting upward in her sleep.  I just love it!  When she outgrows this bed, which won’t be too long, we’ll keep it in the girls’ room as a reading couch for them or put an   actual full mattress in the bed instead of a crib mattress.  They will love making forts/tents from the bed posts.

Can you tell the girls just love it? Big Sis wanted to sleep in it too tonight. She also loved jumping off the bed onto the floor in a “geronimo-style” fashion, like doing a "can-opener" onto carpet. Little Bits likes to go down the white stairs on the right, but I’m sure she’ll be jumping before I can blink.  We both laid down in her new toddler bed tonight at bedtime. Her smile couldn’t have gotten any bigger. Just melts my heart. I had thought about the girls sharing a bed at one time, but a full bed seemed a bit small for both of them, since they are both rambunctious sleepers, toss’n and turn’n every which way. A queen bed would probably work perfectly, but then again, I think I still like them having their own space since they share a room. Any thoughts on same gender siblings sharing a bed? I’d love to hear it!

Preschool Websites

I've had a lot of people ask lately which websites I'm getting a lot of my ideas from, so I thought I'd quickly do a separate post with a lot of links. Here they are:

Little Hands, Big Work

ABC Jesus Loves Me

TLSBooks

Children's Learning Activities - great list of preschool resources

Homeschool Creations

DLTK's Printables

PreKinders

List of Preschool Activity Bags

Walking By the Way - More Activity Bags

Squidoo article on toddler workbox ideas

Starfall - preschool letter, pre-reading computer games

These are the blogs on my reader right now:

Confessions of a Homeschooler

ABC and 123

1 + 1 + 1 = 1

No Time for Flashcards

Make and Takes - kids crafts

Our Days/Weeks

I hope you like pictures because this post has a few! I thought I'd do a post similar to Hollie's that includes a random sampling of activities and things we like to do on a typical day. All of these pictures were taken within the last week, so they are relevant to what we're doing now! There will also be some overlap from last week's post on Toddler Activities. I had a few questions I thought I'd answer here.

Before I jump in to our days...the first picture above shows what I mentioned before about how I do stickers with my toddlers. I really thought a picture helped explain this. You can see how there is no background around each sticker and Ava is able to easily pick the sticker off! I thought this was the best trick ever when I learned it while teaching 2 year olds at church!

When thinking about our day, I generally separate it into morning, lunch, nap, afternoon, dinner, bed. Our mornings are the most "organized" with specific things I like to accomplish. Lunch and nap are standard and afternoon and dinner depend on what we have planned for the evening. Mornings might consist of free play inside, table time activities, trips to the library or museum, quiet play time in their beds, outside play time or a video.

Adeline loves to play in the beans. LOVES them! She could scoop and pour for hours.

This is one idea of a preschool activity I have for Will. I found the idea here and he liked it a lot! You can see that he has to count all of the dots on the domino and "park" in the right location. It subtly teaches addition because as he is counting up to 4, he sees that there is a 3 and a 1 - even if he doesn't realize that yet!
This is what outside play time often looks like when Adeline finds the potting soil.

We also love going to the museums and library. This was taken last week when we went to the NC Museum of Natural Science. I haven't taken the kids in a long time and they really loved it. It's free and even though we have a membership to the Life and Science Museum in Durham - I love both, really. Will particularly liked the green snakes and meeting the animals during a program we went to.
Here is another activity Will did recently which was a little difficult for him. I used pony beads to make color patterns on these pipe cleaners and asked him to copy the pattern. He struggled, but worked through it. We'll definitely be doing some more pattern activities...

And this girl could string pony beads onto pipe cleaners forever!

(Forgive the quality of these pics - my sweet hubby took them for me when I was sick on Monday!) This is another activity Will did - spelling words! I used small letter beads (bought at Walmart) and cards with a picture and the word spelled out. He used the letter beads to spell the word onto the pipe cleaner! He liked it.

And because I got some questions about it - I took pictures of the system I'm trying out for Will. It's taking up a lot of my time right now, so its very relevant to my post on "our week." Basically, its patterned off a popular homeschool method of using "workboxes." Except we use drawers. It really encourages and motivates Will to move through the activities because I space out "fun" ones with more challenging ones. He has to finish the drawers in order before moving on to the next.
Each drawer has a numbered card that he puts on the top when he is done. It really just keeps me accountable for planning out activities for him (5 new activities, 3 times a week). Once he's done the drawers, he's free to repeat ones he really liked. I do drawers for Monday, Wednesday and Friday - but leave the activities there in between. Does that make sense?

Here is what is in our drawers this week. I love these markers that I got at Michaels with a 50% coupon (otherwise these suckers are about $14!! I'd love to find a cheaper version so I can get some for the girls as well). He used these to count bears in the bear book you can see.

I got these puppet kits (thanks, Martha Stewart!) at Big Lots. He needs help with this one.

This one uses the cookie sheet to match letters. Uppercase matching with the fridge magnets and lower case with some cards I made.

A jigsaw puzzle. This is a "fun" drawer - so I left him switch the puzzle for the Mickey puzzle that he wanted to do.
Matching colors and shapes with those foam lacing beads. I'm a big fan of multipurpose items since we are limited on space - so these beads are great for us! We use them for ALL kinds of activities!

And believe it or not, other things fill my week that are not centered around my kids! Like Hollie, I love to craft and sew. I thought I'd post what that looks like for me after a reader asked this question last week,

Hollie, I would like to know how you store your sewing/craft stuff. Right now my kids share a room so I use our guest room for sewing, but in thinking about long-term, I really don't know where I will sew or craft. Any ideas?

I know she asked Hollie, but I was in the same situation so I thought I'd share. Before my daughter took our extra bedroom/office/craft storage room, I mainly stored all craft supplies in her closet. I would drag them downstairs to the kitchen table everytime I wanted to sew or craft. Not practical. Now I've added this bookshelf to our dining room. Not my favorite, but necessary at this time. My sewing machine is on top and the bookshelf's contents are hidden by two panels I sewed to match my dining room.

They velcro in place and are easily removed to reveal all the craft supplies. Aside from this, I do store kiddie craft supplies in two other locations and my fabric is in the top of my coat closet. :)

Ok, so I guess this is somewhat centered around my kids as I love to sew clothing for them. This was the first skirt I made for Adeline when she was 16 months old.

Another big part of my week is coupon clipping and coupon shopping! While the newness has worn off and I no longer take pictures of all my deals (or document them) I still clip coupons most weeks and keep up with the deals. I shop at one grocery store and after a short hiatus I've returned to the drug stores - CVS and Rite Aid - as well. Although, Walgreens is calling my name after the FREE pull-ups I scored last week... Here are some POH posts on coupons.

And lastly, I want to address a question that often comes up. SO MANY times when talking about any one of these things that fill my time - I get asked, "How do you have time to _______?" Whether its coupons, crafts, cloth diapers, blogging, tutoring, preschool, cooking from scratch etc. My answer is that you simply make time for things that are important to you! Those things will not be the same for everyone and that is OK! Mine have certainly evolved over time.

For example - when I first started coupon clipping, it took up ENORMOUS amounts of my time. As I've learned and gotten into a routine, its second nature and doesn't seem to take up much time at all. The same things goes for all of those things listed above!

And often times, I find that one thing (right now its reading about homeschooling and planning our efforts in that area) is taking up TOO MUCH of time when the rest of my house starts to look like this:

So I usually step back and refocus my efforts a little more. :) Make sure the family is fed, house is cleaned, husband is happy...and then I return to reading the book about homeschooling or looking at a blog about preschool.

For the sake of being transparent, I'd also like to confess that the cleaning schedule I blogged about here NEVER worked for me. I think it might be because our house is on the market, but I much prefer to just kind of wing it when it comes to cleaning. Sometimes I get a burst of energy and want to clean the whole house. Sometimes we have a showing and I HAVE to clean what I can quickly. Sometimes I can't take another second without vaccuming my floors. I still have a "lesson plan book" or family notebook, but it just doesn't include a cleaning schedule. :)

And that concludes the longest, most hodge-podged post EVER.

What do you feel like are your biggest struggles with managing your time on a daily and weekly basis?

Toddler Activities

This week we're going to be sharing ideas for activities to do with your toddler! We realized (today!) that toddler no longer means most of our oldest children (Samuel, Will, Laney, Meredith and Lydia) but our younger ones. I know that I immediately thought of activities I do with Will when I first read this week's topic. But instead, we'll save those for a later week on preschool activities!

That being said, I have been spending a lot of time on preschool activities for Will. Right now, it consists of about an hour at the kitchen table at least three times per week. The problem is that I still have two toddlers running around the house! (Adeline is two on Wednesday and Ava - the girl I keep - turned 2 in January.) Most of my activities are things to keep them busy at the table. These also work to have everyone seated while I fix lunch!

I have been AMAZED at some of the activities I created for Will that the girls are able to do. Especially Ava! Here are some foam lacing beads that also double for sorting by color and/or shape. Will loves to do this with some salad tongs for extra motor skill practice. I gave them to Ava one day and got her started....

Went back to help Will and the next thing I knew she was DONE sorting by color! You can see in these pictures the trays I use for our table activities. These were 3.99 at Michaels (in the kiddie paint aisle, near the Crayola products) and are a lifesaver! None of our small objects - beads, crayons, craft supplies, puzzle pieces - roll off the table!

Adeline didn't do so great at sorting, but she sure had a blast filling the cups and dumping them again.

This was an activity I made for all three kids and again was shocked when Ava completed it the first time I gave it to her! I bought the cheapest cookie sheets I could find at Walmart (3 pack for 3.97 I think). I made a chart with all the uppercase letters (only first half shown above). Laid the chart on a cookie sheet and gave them magnetic fridge letters to match to the paper! I was careful to pick a font that closely resembled the font of the fridge letters. You can see how well Ava did - only some of the letters are backwards!

Another favorite toddler activity is dress-up. This is kind of a DUH one though. But I had the picture so I thought I'd share!

Even my toddlers like simple crafts. Their absolute FAVORITE activity right now is to put stickers on a piece of paper. I've found that if you remove the extra sticker parts from around the stickers - they can more easily get the stickers off the paper. Does that make any sense? Do you want a picture of this?? I cut up sticker sheets and the girls will stay busy for 10-15 minutes putting stickers on a piece of paper! They also enjoyed gluing the cotton balls on the snowmen you see above.
We even painted ornaments at Christmas! I just hovered over them with a wet rag ready to wipe up messes. (It was acrylic paint!)

This is our aquadoodle and the girls love it! Will does too - but this day he wasn't here so they got their own time with it. It's like painting with water. You can make a cheap aquadoodle by using water and paintbrushes on a chalkboard. (Saw this at our favorite museum!)

Other activities we do (but I have no pictures of):

-playdoh!

-going to storytime at the library (ours has a "rhyme time" for 2 and unders!)

-stamps (just use washable ink - they love these!)

-bean bag games

-looking at pictures of babies in my parenting magazines

-cutting out and making collage of those babies (I cut - they glue.)

-playing in a tub of dried beans (don't use kidney beans)

-sidewalk chalk outside

-sidewalk chalk on dark colored construction paper if rainy outside!

-pony beads on pipe cleaners - can make a bracelet (probably older toddlers - I didn't try this with the girls until they were about 20 months or so)

-stringing pasta

-pudding fingerpaint

NOTE: Almost every activity listed is a "table time" activity where my kids are supervised the entire time. Lots of choking hazards, but I lay down the ground rules about not putting items in their mouth. But I wouldn't recommend pony beads for a toddler without supervision, of course.

A couple of other resources for toddler activities:

Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready

No Time for Flash Cards

Preschool Rainbow Toddler Activities

ABC and 123

Craft Box Starter Kit

I called my friend Jen on the phone and asked her what she thought would be a good list of craft supplies to keep on hand for your kids to play with. She gave me a great list and I headed to Walmart to see how far $20 would get me. I was pleased with all I was able to get. Here's what you're looking at:
*Flexible straws
*Feathers
*Pipe Cleaners
*Pom-poms
*Cotton Balls
*Glue Sticks
*Wooden Sticks
*5 paints & a paint pallete
*Scissors
*Googly Eyes
*Paper Plates
*Plastic Spoons
*Scotch Tape

Additional items Jen mentioned were: air dry clay, Q-tips, construction paper, clothespins, paper doilies, foam shapes, and a hole punch. She also keeps a basket for "scraps" that can be used again. (And she said she tears all of the googlie eyes off of projects before they go in the trash so they can be reused!).
I asked how old her kids were when they started making crafts. She said she started doing crafts with her kids when they were 3 and 4 (her two oldest). She said her oldest really got into it once he turned 5. At first she would sit down and work on projects with them. Now she does some projects with them and also allows them to have free time with the craft closet and make whatever they want.
Isn't this adorable? Her oldest son made it. "A is for Alien":

Teaching Toddlers Love For God and Love For Others

Hi everyone! I was asked by the lovely Leah Payne (great name!) to share about how I teach my toddler. My name is Leah Finn, and I have two children--Georgia, who will be three in October, and Baxter, who will be one in September (see end of post for a cute picture of them). Thank you for this opportunity to write for the wonderful Prayer of Hannah community.

In my mind, I always imagined I would have a structured teaching time with my children from a very young age. And then I had children! While right now a structured school time is not necessary for my toddler daughter, Georgia, it is important that I teach her something. The Well-Trained Mind (Susan Wise Bauer, Jessie Wise) points out that toddlers and pre-K children are sponges, but they have to be given water to soak up. I believe it is the parents’ responsibility to provide this knowledge (water) for small children who are so eager to learn.

My husband and I occasionally talk about things we need to teach Georgia, or areas in which she needs to develop. Often this is not a long conversation, but is something we will discuss as the thought occurs to us, or as a situation presents itself. Now that Georgia is almost three (and her younger brother, Baxter, is eleven months), our teaching centers around two main themes: love for God, and love for others.

We strive to teach Georgia and Baxter love for God, His word, and His church. The best means of doing this is by loving the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and strength, and displaying that love to our children. We talk about God, we pray to God, and we read about God.

As a family, we read the Bible together after dinner most evenings. There is a series of questions we go through with Georgia:
Q: “What is this?”
A: “The Bible”
Q: “And who does the Bible tell us about?”
A: “Jesus”
Q: “And what do we know about God’s Word?”
A: “God’s Word is true!”
We also use children’s storybook Bibles to read stories with Georgia—our favorite is the Jesus Storybook Bible—and I often tell her stories from the Bible while we are playing or talking. Memorization comes naturally to small children—they pick it up quickly, so saturate your child with Scripture verses! For example, Georgia knows Psalm 23. I learned the psalm as a small child, and I wanted to teach it to her. For several days, I would quote the psalm to her before she went to bed, or while I bathed her, or when we played outside. Soon I was able to drop the end of each phrase and she could finish it. Now she can say it on her own for the most part, with occasional cute toddler phrases thrown in. I look forward to memorizing more with her.

Worshipping with fellow believers in Christ plays a crucial role in our life, and we want to pass on that priority to our children. One of the ways we do that is by simply taking them to church from an early age. As such, we model the importance of church involvement to our children. We also speak of our church family, and talk with excitement of ‘going to be with our church’ on Sundays. We want to instill in Georgia and Baxter anticipation for corporate worship, and a love for fellow church members.

We hope to teach our children love and respect for others. We are from the South (does our daughter’s name not give it away?), and politeness is virtually required in the South! More importantly, politeness and respect in speech display kindness to others and are a means of showing Christ’s love to the world around us. Georgia has been taught from the time she could talk to say “Please,” “Thank you,” “Yes Ma’am/Sir,” and “No Ma’am/Sir”. Simply from repetition she has learned to say “Good morning, how are you this morning?” because we often ask her that question. Consequently, she responds, “I am doing well, thank you.” Sharing toys and books provides a regular object lesson for how to speak kindly and show love to others.

Though I do not sit down for a planned school time (yet) with my toddler, I realize more each day how teachable every moment is. It is my prayer that I will seize these teachable moments, and that my children’s hearts would be receptive to the Savior through the process.

Toddler Teach? Or Toddler Play?

It's funny that this weeks topic is titled, "Toddler Teach and Play." You see, we have spent almost all summer debating over which direction we should head with my son (turned 3 in June). I know this week isn't about home school versus preschool - but that was my debate. I won't go into the pros and cons that we hashed out because I think they are SO different for every family and every situation.

In the end we decided that he would benefit from the structure of doing AWANA each week at church, in addition to Sunday mornings of course and possibly some gymnastics or soccer lessons. If I added preschool in the mix - even just two mornings a week - I really felt like I was going to miss out on valuable time with him. So we've decided to embark on a slightly more structured version of what we were already doing at home. I hesitate to call it "homeschooling" yet - but that is really what we're preparing for in a few more years.

Even deciding to add a little more structure to our "play" time was difficult. I guess the question really was do I just let him continue "playing" or do I get more intentional about "teaching" him as well - whether through a preschool or at home? Margaret was so sweet to remind me that toddlers learn SO MUCH from just simply playing! That is really all they need for quite a while. No Mom should feel guilty for not enrolling their child in preschool or not adopting an official home school plan for their toddler or preschooler! They learn so much from playing, reading and interacting - preschool isn't necessary to accomplish those things.

For us, I felt as though I still needed the accountability of a slightly more structured plan to our "teach and play" time. I needed to get a little more serious with encouraging him to persevere through a task (like a puzzle) and finish the whole thing - assuming its age appropriate. After much research over options - I settled on what I think to be a SUPER easy to use and zero stress plan for myself and for Will!

ABC Jesus Loves Me!

It is a FREE three and four year old curriculum written by a Mom! ABC Jesus Loves me is "a free Preschool Curriculum website - Dedicated to preparing a child for Kindergarten in a simple and non-stressful way while giving the child a solid foundation in both the Bible and education."

It includes lessons for 36 weeks and is all laid out for you - charts and all! There are lots of printables and really everything you need (besides a few books from the library!). The three year old curriculum covers a bible story, bible verse (with a song to memorize with), letters and/or numbers, colors and other activities to build on each week. All the activities correlate and the lessons and bible stories line up with holidays as well. Obviously, you can pick and choose parts that you and your child do. If nothing else, it is a wealth of information for age-appropriate activities for three and four year olds.

It's written to start this week, the fourth week of August. We have worked on it this week - and its been so FUN for Will. He begs me to do "school" with him and read his "One Book." This week's bible story is about Creation Days 1 and 2 and while he still hasn't mastered the story, its OK because it can carry over to next week when we add Creation Days 3 and 4!

This week's colors are blue, black and white. One activity for practicing the colors was to give the child a flashlight and have them go around the house shining the light on all things of a certain color. Will has done that for at least 10 minutes several times a day. He is BEYOND excited when he finds something with his flashlight.

Overall, this method of "teaching" my toddler - well, preschooler - is working great for us so far! Has anyone else chosen a more intentional method or curriculum for their toddler or preschooler? We'd love to hear about it!

Teaching My Toddler is Fun!

Hi! I'm Meagan DeLong, a friend of Leah's and a Mommy to a 7-month old and a 2-year old. When I first thought about the topic for this week, I didn’t think I’d have much to write about. I don’t do any “formal” teaching with my 2-year old, Karis. I really don’t think you have to work very hard to teach toddlers. They just naturally soak up every bit of information around them. So I thought I'd just share some ways that we have really enjoyed learning together and some of our favorite resources:

1. Doing what Mommy does --- Karis helps me do all my chores. I could get them done much more efficiently during naps and after she goes to bed, but I usually save them for her. It takes longer and might even be twice the work, but she loves it and is learning so much! She sweeps the floor, helps me put clothes away, and even does dishes. (Ok, maybe she just likes to play in the bubbles, but she is always there right beside me! :) We use all natural cleaners like vinegar and tea tree oil, so she even helps me scrub the bathrooms! Cooking is absolutely her favorite thing to do. Karis has put her little fingers in everything that I have cooked ever since she was big enough to stand on a chair by me at the counter. She is actually getting to be quite a helper now because she knows the names of all my cooking utensils and can hand me things. If I am chopping vegetables, then I give her the My Safe Cutter from Pampered Chef and she just saws away at her own little carrot. Sometimes it can be frustrating, like today when we were making Healthy Chocolate Candy (her potty training treat :) and she sneezed right in the pan. But it’s always so much more exciting to do it with my toddler!

2. Singing – my toddler learns through song better than anything else! I always have songs in my head, so when Karis was very young, I just started singing them out-loud to her. She already knows so many hymn/worship songs by heart and will randomly start singing "Holy, Holy, Holy," "Tis' So Sweet," or "My Jesus I Love Thee" while doing dishes or swinging outside. It melts my heart. I know that she doesn’t completely understand what the words mean yet, but I hope that as her understanding grows over time those words will be as special to her as they are to me. I thought I would try to teach her Bible Verses, but my stubborn 2-year old had absolutely no interest whatsoever until I put it to a melody and started singing the Bible Verse. Now she begs me to sing it over and over! Songs are also great for teaching the alphabet, numbers, etc. My Mom is a speech teacher and made me a copy of one of her teaching Cd's, Sounds Like Fun. There is one song that goes through each sound that a letter makes and a word using those sounds. Within a week, Karis could make every sound on the song and was singing the whole thing to me from memory! It is also a very mellow CD and is great for calming my girls down on car trips :)

3. Reading – I started reading to Karis when she was first born and now she begs me to read to her all day long. We start our day off by reading together for at least a half hour, but usually longer. It’s the only time all day that my busy toddler sits still and she just soaks up the words on the page! So many times when she is repeating words that I read to her, I think to myself, “there is no way that she would have learned that word in our every day life because we just don’t talk about that topic very often.” Books make her excited about things she has never even seen! I thought I’d share a couple of books that seem to have taught her the most. All of these can probably be found at your public library (and most libraries have a fantastic method of requesting books online that you can pick up at your convenience!)

My First Bob Books – These are cute little colorful books with silly pictures and stories. Karis loved the Alphabet set when we got it at 18 months, and she started really loving the Pre-Reading Skills set about the time she turned two. But even before she could completely follow the stories she loved flipping through the cute little books and looking at the silly pictures. I went ahead and bought them because they are all bound together in a fat cover at the library and Karis really enjoyed having all the separate little books to flip through so much more.

My “A” Sound Box books – There is a “sound box” book for every letter and Karis thinks they are so much fun! Because of these books, she has started picking out letters in other books that we read!

My Very First Library by Eric Carle – These are fun because the board book is cut in half to enable the child to read it on his own, kind of like a puzzle. For instance, Karis sees the blue top page and will flip through to find the matching blue bird on one of the bottom pages. The library includes colors, shapes, words, and numbers.

Anything by Dr. Seuss – I have been so amazed that my busy toddler will sit through several of these long books at a time. She absolutely loves the Cat in the Hat, The Diggingest Dog, and especially Go! Dog Go! The last one is my favorite because it taught her prepositions correctly at a really young age.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear – I love this book because of the repetition and color recognition. I started reading it to Karis when she was just days old and so far, this is the only book that Karis can read completely on her own.

4. Coloring – It sounds simple, but it is really the best preparation for writing I can do with her! And I love it; it is so relaxing! I color with her and help fix her fingers if she forgets the correct way to hold the crayon. We “chat” about the picture we are coloring, the color of our crayon, or sing whatever song pops into her head. It is definitely one of my favorite things to do with my girl!

Well, this post ended up being a lot longer than I expected, but I hope that I was able to convey that teaching a toddler does not have to be hard work at all – it can be pure fun and a completely natural part of your everyday routine!

Toddler Teach and Play

Kids are busy. There is no doubt about it! I know sometimes when my daughter is tired of her toys, she just seems to wander around the house, waiting for me to give her something to do. She wants to be busy doing something, and I need to be prepared with fresh ideas to engage her in learning and play. With kids three and under, playing is learning! I have to remind myself that my toddler can really have a good time doing very simple tasks. Just pulling your child up to a sink full of cool water and giving her spoons and cups to measure and pour with is learning! Put and apron on her and have a large towel nearby and she’ll have a great time! While I love simple activities like this, I do try to have some “educational” toys in a closet that I can rotate when she tires of the ones she usually has out. I find that puzzles are wonderful for teaching concentration and problem solving, and you can pick up cheap ones anywhere. My daughter and son really like lacing spools and cards too (you can make them yourself!). I also always have art supplies around. Kids love to do art projects and they can learn so much! They can learn about how colors mix by playing with water color paint. Don’t throw away scraps of paper or string! I keep them in a small box in my art cupboard and my daughter loves to glue them down to a piece of construction paper (Hollie also had this great idea on her blog for doing glue-less art projects!). Finger paints are also nice. I draw basic shapes on paper and have her try to color in the shapes with her fingers. You can get more specific with your directions as your kids grow. Have them color in all the squares blue, the hearts red, etc. I’m generally not a spontaneously creative person and have to see an idea somewhere before I think of trying it. So, don’t underestimate the importance of checking out books about engaging children in learning and play at your library. This one by Trish Kauffner is one of my favorites. She has TONS of ideas to keep your kids busy and most of them use things you already have around the house. Use other people as resources, even blogs can be valuable sources of information. Kids can be a great source of inspiration too because everything is so new to them! When you find bugs outside, try to engage your kids by having them watch it carefully to learn how it moves. If you see a racoon in your yard, spend some time looking up other pictures of them online and try to make a racoon face out of a paper plate. Your kids will remember many of these things and will learn so much while they are having fun.

Teaching my toddler?

The title of this post is posed as a question for a good reason. Like most first time Moms - I have no idea what this should look like. I'm certainly learning as I go! My son turned 2 in June and I've only recently been intentional about teaching him. A few weeks ago, I had a friend ask me if Will knew his ABC's or was counting yet. I laughed. Her son is three months older than Will and had also shown little interest. I wondered if it was a boy thing as I have friends with girls who have been much more eager and willing to master such skills.

The bottom line is that the most important thing I can teach Will is scripture and biblical truths. I long for him to know the joy of Jesus. Krista shared some wonderful scripture in her post about this. As a teacher, I also want to see him master those preschool skills as well. Since formal preschool of any kind is currently not in the budget, I've been researching some preschool level home school options. Here is what we are currently doing and things I've found helpful.

1. In the morning from about 9-10am, Will has quiet time in his room. I've mentioned this before, but this is what we transitioned him to once he dropped his morning nap. It serves several purposes. First of all, he has learned to play independently. I frequently switch out toys from downstairs to his room to keep it interesting. Second of all, Adeline is also sleeping during this time so I get this time to myself as well. Lastly, as he gets older my plan is to transition this to a time where I encourage him to spend with the Lord. He already listens to praise music during this time, but I hope this expands to time reading his bible or praying once he is older.

2. Once his quiet time is over, Adeline is usually still sleeping. I have started to become more intentional about using this time for one-on-one with Will. We sit at the kitchen table and use this time to do puzzles together, practice his ABC's, counting, color, finger paint, other small craft projects, play with playdoh, etc. He LOVES this time right now. He is so eager to learn and has already mastered a 9 piece jigsaw puzzle!

3.

We have the "Hide'em in Your Heart" (vol. 2) CD. I think someone mentioned this in a comment on Krista's post, but I second that recommendation. We LOVE this CD. And did you know it was also a DVD too? It's a little outdated, but really great. Essentially, it's scripture put to songs. Will already can sing several of them and asks for this one often. I want to add vol. 1 to our collection as well. I think putting scripture to song is one of the easiest ways for ANYONE (not just my preschooler - me too!) to learn scripture.

4. My husband and I have recently started teaching Will's Sunday school class. Yes, we're crazy - 19 two year olds can be intense! But I love it and there was a huge need for teachers. I also love knowing what the lessons are and being able to reinforce those at home. Find out what lessons your child is learning at church and try to reinforce those at home. I know Will loves it when we talk about our time at church during the week.

5.This book has been recommended to me by several friends to teach simple (or maybe not so simple) biblical truths. I have yet to get a copy for us, but thought I would pass it along. There is also a book on Memory Verses and Prayers from the same series. Give us a review if you have any of these books!

6. I have recently begun researching home school options. (This could be another weekly topic in itself!) I do not yet know if we will home school. I am simply learning what I can right now. If we continue to pursue moving overseas - then homeschooling will become more likely. I recently found a great website, ABC Jesus Loves Me, with a free preschool curriculum. So far, I really like it! I've checked out some books at the library, but so far it seems to me that this website would provide all that we need for homeschooling during the preschool years. The curriculum includes a lot of scripture memory verses using simple nursery rhymes. I am not a singer - but I think I could teach these to Will!

Teaching Our Toddlers

I've really been looking forward to this week's topic because I so believe in the importance of education and want to make sure I'm doing all I can to raise Lydia to be a godly, bright, and well-mannered young lady who knows and runs hard after the Lord . With little exception, moms who stay at home are the greatest teacher of their toddlers. Yet, all the wordly knowledge without regard to God is meaningless. Psalm 78 talks about it like this:

". . . we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done (v. 4). . . so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands" (v.6-7).

So, this is what we're to do, but how?! Deuteronomy 6:6-9 has this to say:

"These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."

What does all this look like in our home? Well, first and foremost, I am so very thankful that I can be with Lydia all day and be there to share with her in all the situations that arise. As far as teaching her about the Lord, we pray before meals, at night, and all throughout the day. As I voice a prayer to the Lord I'm learning to say it outloud so she can be involved. When we look at pictures we lift up a prayer of thanks; as we're out walking along the sea we thank God for His goodness; as I make bread we talk about Jesus as the Bread of Life, etc. When my heart overflows with thankfulness I share it with her; when we need to pray for something/one, we stop and pray right then; even when we need a parking space we pray and then thank God when He provides! We also read from her children's Bible each night.

As for as other learning opportunities, I try to talk to her - a lot. If I'm cutting veggies, I'll either have her on the counter watching and talking, or she'll get her play food, knife, and cutting board and do it alongside me. We play color games, sing songs, use Leap Frog to learn her ABCs, read lots of books, and do creative things like coloring, finger paint, and play dough. We group her stuffed animals by type or by color, etc. When we're out I'm pointing out things we see and she's like a sponge sucking it all in. Now, she'll usually spend our time out pointing at everything she sees telling me what it is.

I've tried to search online for further resources but haven't found much of anything for her age (she just turned two). I would LOVE to have suggestions! I want to do a better job with helping her memorize scripture. And, I feel like I need more creative ideas of fun games to help teach her things.

Well, that's a few things we do in our house. We really hope you'll share what you do to help teach your toddler!