Truth in the Tinsel~ Christmas/Advent ideas

I recently found this cute little book called Truth in the Tinsel. It's an e-book for the younger set of kiddos that shares a verse and a craft for each day of Advent to bring the focus back to the birth of the Savior instead of on MORE MORE MORE...gifts, treats, Santa. I purchased it and can not wait for the right time to start. I like that she offers either a list of supplies to make all the crafts so you can be sure to have them on hand, or a printable version of the craft for each day so even the busiest of families (or those with MANY small hands) can enjoy the book. Check it out over at http://truthinthetinsel.com/buy-the-book/   Enjoy!
     Blessings, ~K~

MFW Creation Book

This is our Creation Book. Each day has a number and description to correspond with the picture. We're going to make a cover page and take it to Kinkos and have it bound and laminated. :) I love the art work my kids have done in this. :D

This is such a FUN curric and I'm so glad we went with it! :D Yay!!! Thank you, Kristy!!!

~*April*~

Creation

Hello, All! It's been a while since I've posted - unfortunately, that means that it's been a while since we've schooled... soon that will change, though. A new and productive schedule is upon us. :D

We finished the first 7 days of our My Father's World curric. - our 7-day poster and Creation Book are complete. So, I thought I'd share the pictures. :) The 7 numbers - if you look closely - have each of the creation events in them. I'm having a hard time with the pictures of the creation book, so I may put them all together in a different post.

This has been fun and it makes me sad it took us 3 months to get through it. I'll have more pictures and updates as we go! :)

~*April*~

Notes From Rhonda

Where did January go? My how these months just fly by!
For February, Our shape is "Heart", Our number we are working on is "7", our color is "Pink", and we will be working and talking about eating healthy and exercise, so we'll be looking at healthy fruits and vegetables, healthy cooking, and healthy snacks. Our rhyme is "Queen Of Hearts" We will be doing lots of activies with hearts. Since it is "Dental Health Month", we will also be talking about dental health, I can't wait to tell about some ideas I have come up with to show Maria how to "Floss" her teeth!

Music music music! We took a class today on music and made "insturments" we made a drum, a shaker, and a jingle bell wristband. Then we sang and played our musical insturments. It was great fun! We also danced to music and when the music stoped we had to stop dancing.

Our art project today was "How many teeth do we have?" So we made a "mouth" and used marshmellows for the "Teeth" . We talked about how many teeth we have and read the story, "The Tooth Book" By Dr. Seuss.
"

Well Yesterday we went to the Nursing home at around 3:30pm. Maria wasn't feeling well, but she still wanted to past out cookies and sing for the residents. She did a great job, and everyone cheered for her singing! She sang "This Little Light Of Mine" "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" "Christmas Time is Here" "If you're Happy and you know it" I let her pick out the songs she wanted to sing.

We did Preschool this morning,here's what we worked on today;

We read the story again "The Snowy Day" Then played a game of what's missing with Maria's winter gear. This afternoon she will go outside to play and we'll play another game "Find The Mitten" I make up these games for her.

For Manipulative, Maria strung beads on a show string and made necklace and bracelet.

For Art, Maria did sand art on paper.

For Cooking, we made corn muffins and we had them for breakfast.

We worked on reading today and writing . Maria practice writing her name. Then we played "The Name game " Where I hide the letters of her name, and other letters too, around the living room and she has to find the right letters to spell her name.

Well that was our busy morning, this afternoon we will just play outside and enjoy the sunshine!
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Cheers!
Rhonda

Notes From Rhonda

Today we worked on "Jack and Jill" nursery rhyme.

Our Community Helper is "Doctor" So today Maria was "Dr. Maria"! She made a doctors bag on the bag she glued cotton balls, a tongue depressor, and a Q-tip. She then got her own box of band-aids and "fixed" all her dolls and teddy bears. She gave them all a check-up, As we talked about what happens at the Doctors office when we goes see her/him, She claims that they are all healthy!

Next, we worked on Shapes. I took some blue paper and drew a shape on it then I covered it with clear contact paper. then Maria took Cotton balls and lined up them up in the shape. Our Shape today was "Triangle".

Our Story for today was "The Sassy Seniors" we did this story on the felt board. Tomorrow we are going to the nursing home to give cookies to the residents there and Maria is going to sing some songs for them. This is part of our bible work. "Being good and kind to others"

For math we worked on counting to "20" and Maria counted all the canned goods in my kitchen pantry. We were short 3 cans so we went to the pantry in the basement and found 3 cans to bring upstairs. So we worked on 17+3 =20.

We also read again "The Snowy Day" and then Maria practised putting on all he winter gear, snow pants, boots, mittens, scarf, coat, and hat. She then got to go outside to play in the big snow bank that her daddy made for her. When she came in, there was Hot chocolate waiting for her, so she counted the marshmallows to put in her cup, her daddy's cup and my cup. Of course it was to 20!

Notes from Rhonda

Hi I'm Rhonda. I'm a stay at home mommy of two little girls, Maria and Eliza Jane. Maria is 4 yrs old and Eliza Jane is almost 4 months old. I also have 3 adult children,who were home schooled also. I have been married for 28 years to a wonderful man who is retired from the Army and is now a Registered Nurse, in the Emergency room. We live in the Arrowhead of Northern Minnesota, in the country. We raise chickens and goats.

With my old 3 children I used A Beka, and it was a "good fit" we used the VHS videos.
Now with Maria, I am teaching her preschool, and I use a "compote" of teaching styles. I mostly Like Charlotte Mason, and use this style the most. I also use "Before Five In A Row" we love this! Maria also does computer work, she thinks she is "Playing" on the compute, well she is to a point, but also learning so much! She told me she wanted to learn to read, so we use the book, "Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons" I am amazed at how much Maria has learned from just the few lessons we have done, so far. I also use DVDs as a teaching tool. The best DVD to teach the Letter sounds is Leap Frog, "The Letter Factory" In my opinion. Maria learned her letter sounds before she even knew the names of the letters. Now she knows the letters, and learned them by herself. I am also going to use Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Jr." We want Maria to learn how to handle money, to "Give" "Save" and to "spend" ( in cash) This program is for 3 -12 year old. So we are excited about using this.