Tag Archives: preschool

Cool Printables for Young Ones

I stumbled across this really neat website that provides some really nice printables each month. This link goes to the Raccoon set.

It includes counter cards, name recognition cards, rhyming cards, letter recognition, do-a-dot activities, and even a gameboard and a math activity. :) Soooo cute!

Apparently she releases a new unit on the 15th of each month to subscribers (which is free). Here is a link to the ones she provided free online last year.

Spend some time looking around her website. There is a wealth of information there. There are fall, winter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, winter, and even Ten Apples Up On Top units. Soooo much available, cute and fun!

There is a search feature at the top of the site, so if you are looking for something in particular, search for it. Such a great website.

I hope this is helpful to you.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Active Toddler Link

We have conference this week at our church and are volunteering our help, so I’m going to keep this a bit short today. ;)

Children with a lot of energy have to expend that energy in order to be able to sleep. I saw this post with 44 high energy activities for toddlers. It includes things like laser chase, dance party, and hokey pokey to name a few. There are also some purchasable games that I have not heard of before, so maybe they’ll be some new ideas for you as well.

I hope this is helpful to you.

Until next time,

Michele ºÜº

Dollar Tree Homeschooling Items

I popped into my local Dollar Tree this week and decided to look over the items that could be used for preschoolers and early elementary children. I had hoped to find those cook dice that are about three inches and have a dry erase circle on each side but my store was out of these. If you find any in your local store, I suggest you snap up a couple because they can be very useful.  You can write or draw pictures for sit, stand, jump, letters, numbers, letter blends, sight words, and any number of other things.

Next, these letter, number, and shape foam puzzles are great for kinesthetic learners. They have some nice texture to them. :) You can use the capital letters and lower case letters for matching once they are at that place. You can also put together CVC words. As you can see, this is one item that can be used in many different ways as your child grows and learns.

This play dough is really nice! I bought some for use with my grandson and I was surprised with how nice it was. You can use it to form letters and numbers  with dough rolled into ropes as well as general play.

Here is a write-on wipe-off on one side and a chalk board on the other. This can be a good way to practice writing.

These foam dice come two to a package and can be used in a variety of ways. I try to remember to share more on that at another time.

These dice are interesting and can be used various ways too. It can be used to give your child some gross motor skill work and working on left, right, and center too. (Think Mother May I type game.)

Here’s cool timer that can be used for a number of things.

These cones can be set up to have children do gross motor activities. There are some flat ones too that I think might hold a ball, which be a fun activity.

These fractional foam circles are cool to talk about fractions when ready. There are three different ones, each with a different number of sections.

I don’t know if this is similar to those dice I mentioned earlier in that you can write whatever you want on the sections but it looks pretty cool. :)

I hope these things give you some ideas of some inexpensive things you can use to help educate your children. There are also bowls, pans, trays and even the cat litter pan that you can use for things like shaving cream and rice where you can have them practice drawing the letters and numbers.

Oh and don’t forget the stickers, craft supplies, coloring books, and educational workbooks. I’d recommend getting several things to begin with and then using a few dollars each week to get a few more.

I hope this is helpful to you and your children.

Until next time,

Michele ºÜº

Preschool Supplies

Supplies

It’s always fun to have some “school” supplies and to do crafts. The dollar store is a good source for these items but don’t forget places like Michael’s and Hobby Lobby where you can use their weekly 40% or so off coupon on an item.

Here are a few links to some webpages of ladies that share what they’ve gotten to use with their preschoolers from the dollar store. Oh, and remember that stores get new inventory weekly, so check back often for different supplies.

(Sorry about the formatting of this post. I was exhausted and I needed to get it up, so I took a few shortcuts and it isn’t the best but the links are good. :) )

Dollar Tree Homeschool Deals

Homeschool Supplies at the Dollar Tree & Goodwill

Play dough mats:

https://www.time4kindergarten.com/2011/07/rainbow-write-or-play-dough-mats.html

How to use mats:

https://www.supplyme.com/products/play-dough-shape-mats-a3298

Dollar Store Deals for Preschool Days {and toddlers, too!}

Homeschooling Bargains at the Dollar Store

Dollar Store Preschool Homeschool Curriculum

I hope these links help you.

Until next time,

Michele ºÜº

Preschool at Home

It’s hard to believe our grandson is now three years old. I think he’s adorable.

This post is in an effort to help any mom new to homeschooling. I’m going to include some online preschool resources to help you. But first I need to say,

Don’t go crazy.

Make sure you give them plenty of time to explore things on their own. Don’t get them so structured that you suck the fun out of learning and play time. ;)

Make it fun.

Little ones learn so much through play. If you can make it a game, as in something they like, they are going to be so much more engaged. Don’t insist that they do everything your way. Allow them to play and explore things.

Have a schedule.

I know this one kind of goes against the previous ones but many children thrive on schedules, as do most adults. ;) Find a way to convey your schedule to your little one. They will pick up on things like after lunch we go outside and play or after we play we come in and eat a snack and take a nap or after dinner we take a bath, read a story, and go to bed. Children do well, generally speaking, with routines.

Get them outdoors.

When the weather is not dangerous, get them outside to work off some energy. I know my grandson has a boundless supply of energy. Getting him outside helps to wear him out a bit.

I suggest getting him outside to run, climb, and play before nap time and before time to make dinner to help him be tired enough to take a nap or have quiet time quietly. ;) And also be ready to go to bed at night.

If it isn’t tornadic, sweltering, or storming, it is even good to let them outside in the rain and jump in puddles, when dressed appropriately. ;) Of course, that might just be the grandma in me and not the cool mom. :D

Read books with and to them.

It’s good to run your finger under the words as you read, so they can see a correlation between the words you are saying and what is on the page. You don’t need to do any instruction with this, just simply run your finger under the words as you read them. :)

Books are so important!!! Reading is a fundamental milestone that everyone needs to attain in their lives–but there is no age when they MUST learn; it’s about when they are ready. The important thing is to read to them and to read on your own, showing them that you read too helps them see it is important.

If your stuck with some ideas of some good book choices, here are some lists to consult.

  • Ambleside Online – be sure to scroll down the page for the book titles. I’m sure you’ll see some familiar ones. :)
  • Simply Charlotte Mason – has a good list too
  • 1000 Good Books List – Note that this link is for up to 3rd grade, so some of them will be too much for your little one to sit and listen to. Don’t force long periods. Choose books the right length for your child’s attention span.
  • What is Twaddle? – with a short list of preschool book suggestions.
  • Scribing Life – This lady combined books she found on some of the lists I’ve mentioned above and made a comprehensive list.

Seriously though, once you get a feel for the kind of books on the list and that your child enjoys, you can just pick books from the library.

Curriculum

  • Mama Hustle Repeat has some good preschool homeschool ideas. :) And more on this page.
  • Brightly Beaming Resources! – This is one my sister used with her children. This preparatory set of lessons is good for ages 2-4 and covers just 26 weeks. It focuses on a theme of the week but introduces them to a letter each week too. Utilizing a Learning Poster, changing the focus each week (completely described on the website and very simple to do). This can be made easily with a presentation board from Dollar Tree or simply a poster board.  * The first week covers the theme Cows with the vocabulary word calf, shape square (shapes alternate with colors), letter A, and number 1. It gives some book suggestions, some poems, and songs that relate to the theme. Then it also offers a gross motor skill activity, a fine motor skill activity, and a nursery rhyme. * The focus is not on the alphabet but does simply expose them to the alphabet in this 26 lesson period since the next step focuses on a letter a week. :)
  • Easy Peasy Getting Ready 1 (for 4 year olds – similar to Letter of the Week by Brightly Beaming). I only include this so you are aware that there are options but I do not recommend it for 3 year olds.

I’m sure you can see that I highly recommend Brightly Beaming Resources Step 1. They have more curricula for older ages as well. So if your child is a bit older and is already familiar with the alphabet, check out Step 2 or whichever step is appropriate for your child’s level; better to start lower and it be too easy than to be too challenging and frustrate your precious one. :)

I hope this is of help to you and that you have fun as you continue to teach your child. Remember, you’ve already taught them a lot. You’re just helping them explore more ideas and things. :)

Until next time,

Michele ºÜº

Early Learning Printables Galore Link

While I was looking for the preschoolers passport last week I found several other things that I’ll be sharing over the next little while, starting with today. :)

The Reading Mama has loads of printables!!! I clicked on Preschool Printables and then on the Preschool Fun Packs and then on the Summer Smileys Preschool Fun Pack. Once there I found some summer book suggestions as well as quite a few printable pages in the free download.

This download focused mostly on number recognition and used dice too. It had some two piece puzzles and some tracing pages all in color and black and white. Oh, there’s even some sequencing cards.

You could print the color for eye-appeal and the black and white pages for coloring.

There are so many printable pages on this site covering a lot of different areas like reading readiness, cutting practice, sight words, reading family books, and even Bob Book printables.

Oh! You can laminate or place the page in a page protector so that the page can be used repeatedly. And I’d probably glue the cards to a colored piece of paper/cardstock instead of printing color on the backside and thus saving ink.

There’s also a simple phonics assessment and spelling reference folder for those that have children that already reading somewhat.

I hope this website with its free pages to download and print are a blessing to you.

Until next time,

Michele