Okay, I certainly have not kept my pledge to post more frequently! This post isn't even about anything "littles"-related, either. I'd like you to see for yourself the reason for my prolonged absence. Today marks the official Grand Opening of RS Designs, my custom blog header design business. Since I've finally got that up and running, I think I'll be able to return to my normal blogging routine, including posting here at Little Fun on a much more regular basis!
Would you mind taking a look at my new site and leaving me some feedback? I'd really appreciate it.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Grand Opening
Monday, April 9, 2007
Letter V crafts and activities
Boy, it seems like forever since I have posted about the alphabet! Today we are focusing on the Letter V.
The first word that comes into my mind when I think of V is violin. First-School.com also thinks violin is a great V word. They offer a Violin Theme page as well as ideas for Vulture, Volcano, Valentine, and more. Try their Vegetable Basket craft, Letter V Activity worksheet and Printable Materials, and Letter V Mini Book.
Another V word is vegetable. At Preschool Express by Jean Warren, the "V" Activities page includes instructions for a Vegetable Guess game, a Vegetable Poster craft, V Snacks (raw vegetables, vanilla ice cream, and more), the original "Don't Forget Your Vegetables" song, and many other activities to help you teach the letter V.
Here are some other sites that offer free resources for teaching the letter V.
- Visit Everything Preschool for V Songs, Art, Books, Games, Science, Coloring Pages, and More (anything that does not fit into the other categories). They have a great variety of ideas for you.
- About.com's Homeschooling page offers Fun with the Alphabet. Their V theme includes AlphaSongs Lyrics and Activities, Recipes, Crafts (including cute Veggie Tales puppets), Activities, Coloring Pages, Letter Writing, and Letter Sounds.
clip art courtesy of fotosearch.com
Sunday, April 8, 2007
In celebration of Christ's Resurrection
We pause today to remember Christ's wonderful and miraculous resurrection. Thank you, Lord, that You not only died to save us from our sins but that You also proved your power over death, sin, and hell by rising from the dead. Thank You that we serve a risen and soon-coming Lord.
Friday, April 6, 2007
My Favorite Letters & Sounds Curriculum
Hello everyone! I am pleased to be a guest blogger on Revka's Little Fun; Little Learning. In case we haven't met before, my name is Karen and I am a writer for the blog Thrifty Mommy.
While I am indeed a thrifty mommy, I am also a preschool teacher. I have been in the education field for about 10 years now and have been teaching preschool for about 4 years.
Today I would like to share with you my favorite curriculum for teaching preschoolers their letters and sounds. This is my second year using this curriculum and my students are having excellent results.
Letter of the Week (Book 1) is by the creaters of The Mailbox. Many activity suggestions are provided for each letter. If you will click on this link, you will find a very small sample of the activity ideas for "M week".
Most of my preschoolers come to school Tuesday-Thursday and I plan my activities accordingly. Here's an idea of what we do each week:
Tuesday: Introduce letter of the week and it's sound and begin our weekly list. In my classroom I have a bulletin board that has lists of words. For each week I have a colored piece of paper on the board and we put words on the list that we discover during the week that start with the letter we are learning. The students are getting pretty good at this activity now and they'll come to school proud that they can tell me a word they discovered that starts with our letter. We also do a literacy activity from the Letter of the Week book. Unfortunately, there is not an example of this on the site, so here's a sample of the ones for "W week" that I was cutting out yesterday. Sorry, they're not completed yet, but you get the idea.
Each day I also read books that go along with our letter of the week and we sing songs and fingerplays too. There are some examples of fingerplays and songs on the Mailbox sample link I gave you earlier. I use more songs and fingerplays from other sources.
Wednesday: Review our letter of the week, add words to our weekly letter list, and we usually do another consonant activity. Next week for "W week" the students will have a worksheet with several pictures. We will talk about each picture and discuss whether it starts with our letter or not. If the picture starts with "W" then the students will color the picture. This also becomes a great listening activity. Many students struggle with following directions and this activity teaches them to listen for a teacher's prompt and not to just do their own thing. Sometimes on Wednesdays I have some extra time left to review other letters or skills we have already learned.
Thursday: We review the letter and learn how to write it. The curriculum has a page where the students can practice their writing. It also has a picture on the page that the students can complete. There is usually a sentence they have to complete that goes along with their picture. I've seen that this activity helps to stretch their imaginations and become creative. I have been saving these writing pages all year and will soon combine them to make an alphabet book that they can take home. It will be interesting to compare the pages and see how their skills have improved throughout the year. It is a great keepsake for parents.
I usually try to do an art or craft activity to go along with our letter each week. For "V week" I cut out pictures of vegetables from magazines and we made vegetable collages. It was also a lesson for the students about what vegetables are.
While searching for the picture for this curriculum, I also learned that The Mailbox has Book 2 available. After looking at the sample page on their site, I believe this is a book I would like to invest in buying.
Thanks to Revka for inviting me as a guest blogger. Maybe I can share some ideas with you again some time.
Monday, April 2, 2007
Easter
Easter is one of the most significant of our Christian holidays, for without Christ's resurrection there would be no salvation. I tell my girls that, while it is a lot of fun to eat chocolate bunnies and hunt for eggs, Easter is the celebration of Christ's resurrection from the dead.
Here are some links to aid you in teaching your child about the true meaning of Easter.
- DLTK's Growing Together offers complete teacher's guides for not only the Resurrection but also the events of the preceding week: the Triumphal Entry, the Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Crucifixion, and Jesus Loves You. Each of the lesson guides includes links to corresponding activities and crafts.
- Sunday School Network.com was a new site to me, but they have a lot of Easter-related crafts and activities. Easter treat ideas include a Candy Palm Tree, Empty Tomb Snack, Resurrection Cookies, and more. Crafts include Jesus Arise!, the Empty Tomb, and the Mosaic Cross, and several more activities.
- Shirley's Preschool Activities offers many coloring pages for Easter. Scroll down a little to find them past the advertisements; it's definitely worth your time. This website also features a page of Christian Easter Crafts such as the Golgotha Silhouette, Easter Fingerplay, and a Jelly Bean Easter Poem.
resurrection photo courtesy of fotosearch.com
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Please pray
I sometimes forget that I can write whatever I would like on my blogs and become focused on writing only about my target subject here at Little Fun. While I do like to write about child-related topics, I feel that it is appropriate for me to go off-subject for this post.
Layne Daniel is our former pastor. He recently suffered a seizure and ended up in Chapel Hill with a diagnosis of bleeding on the brain. The doctors suspected that he had a tumor on the frontal lobe of his brain. In a heart-breaking turn of events, that suspicion was found to be fact. Surgery was performed, and the tumor was found to be malignant. The doctors estimated that it had only been there for about a month, but it was already the size of a golf ball. The doctors were able to remove all of the tumor that they could see, but the tumor was found to be a class 4 of 4. This particular kind of tumor grows back after surgery more often than not.
I spoke with his wife tonight. Tomorrow will be two weeks since his brain surgery. He preached at church tonight and did well but was, understandably, tired afterward. He goes to Chapel Hill on Tuesday for a consultation and begins radiation treatments on Wednesday. He will be receiving chemo orally and will have radiation treatments five times a week for the next 6 1/2 weeks. He and his wife will be staying in Chapel Hill during the week and will be home on weekends. His wife has taken a leave of absence from her teaching position, but their children will be finishing out the school year.
Please pray for this family. The future does not look hopeful, but we know that God controls the future. Thanks for your prayers. I'll keep you updated as I hear more news.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Back in business
I have been so busy writing paid blogging assignments and beginning my custom blog header business that this poor blog has been shamefully neglected, but now I'm back, and I intend to do a much better job of posting regularly. My friend Karen has been giving me some ideas for posts, and she may even guest blog for me sometime. Thanks, Karen!
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Helpful ideas
I love Moms Niche. Tracy just has the best ideas. Here are some recent posts that I think are worth reading:
- ideas for getting kids to eat their "greens"
- inexpensive Easter gift ideas for kids
- Easter candy alternatives
- 7 cardio exercises for 7 days of fun with your kids
Friday, March 16, 2007
A Beka Book
My mother home schooled each of her five children until we turned seven, at which time we began attending a Christian school. My youngest sister did not do well at school and ended up being home schooled from elementary all the way through high school.
All five of us kids started out in a school that used the A Beka Book curriculum. When I entered sixth grade, we began attending another Christian school which used the A.C.E. (or School of Tomorrow as it is now known) curriculum. I attended Pensacola Christian College, founded by Dr. Arlin and Mrs. "Beka" Horton (who also founded A Beka Book).
My little sister's materials all came from A Beka, and in high school, she became part of A Beka Academy (more information about that to follow).
As you can see from my background, my practical experience lies mainly with A Beka Book and A.C.E. Therefore, I choose to begin this curriculum series by presenting A Beka Book.
A Beka Book publishes materials for nursery-12th and includes all the normal subjects necessary for college preparation. One of this curriculum's strengths is their focus on review. I can tell you that I had mastered the phonics rules and will never forget my multiplication tables!
A Beka Book offers several options for homeschooling:
- A Beka Academy DVD program - this option means the child learns by watching DVD's. All report cards and transcripts are created and maintained by A Beka Academy, and this is a fully-accredited, college prep course. This option is available for K5-12th grades. DVD's, textbooks, tests, answer keys, and other necessary materials for the school year are all included.
- A Beka Academy non-accredited DVD program - this option means that the child uses the DVD's, but the parents keep all records. This option is available for K4-12th grades. DVD's, textbooks, tests, answer keys, and other necessary materials for the school year are all included.
- A Beka Academy traditional parent-directed program - all teacher and student materials are provided for the year. No educational experience is required of the parent. All report cards and transcripts are created and maintained by A Beka Academy, and this is a fully-accredited, college prep course. This option is available for K5-12th grades.
- A Beka Book - all teacher and student materials are available for purchase in kits or individually. Materials offered cover nursery-12th grade. This program is ideal for the parent who wants to use different publishers for different subjects.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Good to hear
I recently heard of Critique My Blog, a blog devoted to reviewing other blogs (upon receipt of the owner's request). I submitted this blog for review, particularly wondering how the template appeared since I had recently created my own header. I am pleased with my review:
"... it is a great place for me and my wife to get good ideas. (What did we all do before the Internet?) As for the blog itself it is beautifully done with a catchy template and good design. Nice job and continued success! ..."
You can request a review of your blog by submitting your blog via e-mail. (Click on my "submitting your blog" link or visit Critique My Blog and click on his link in the sidebar.)
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