Big Green Pocketbook

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This week we jumped back into Before Five in a Row with The Big Green Pocketbook by Candice Ransom.

I printed and laminated the “Green pocketbook pocket and items” from homeschoolshare.com.  (I can’t link it directly to the page, but if you search for “Big Green Pocketbook” on the site, you’ll find it!)  For some reason the box of crayons didn’t print out, only a blank card.  I just drew my own.  Ian LOVED this activity.  I pulled it out the second time we read the story, and he insisted on doing it every time we read it from then on.  The first time through, I handed him each item.  After that I spread them all out and when we came to each place where the little girl added something, I let him pick out what the right object was.  By the third time, he was choosing the right one before I said the word.  Lots of fun!

We made green pudding out of blue and yellow (using food coloring in vanilla instant pudding).  We did this a few months ago for our Bible notebook page on Adam and Eve and Ian loved it, so it seemed like a fun chance to talk again about combining primary colors.  Once again, Elijah HATED this activity.  (I started by giving him plain pudding in a bowl since he’d been so against it last time, but then he begged for “colors” so I thought maybe he wanted to copy Ian.  Evidently joining in was NOT was he was trying to communicate.)

  

The B4FIAR manual suggested talking about shapes (like the ones on the little girl’s shirt). I thought about making shape cookies, but after doing the pudding that seemed like a lot of sugar for one week, so we used the shape cookie cutters with playdough instead.  Again, I let the boys mix blue and yellow playdough to see if we could make green.  Elijah (22 months) surprised me by naming the “diamond” and “circle” on his own.  I was curious as to what other shapes he knew, so I asked him the others as I held up cookie cutters.  He missed the rectangle and square (although he said “star” and might have just been having trouble pronouncing it right), but knew “triangle,” “star,” and “heart.”  Sorry to brag, but I was mighty impressed since we haven’t made any effort to teach him.  I think it’s such an advantage to kids to have an older sibling!

  

We didn’t write our own thank you notes this week, but we received one from a friend (who just happened to have drawn a picture of the gift we gave him), so we talked about expressing appreciation.  We also went to Grandpa’s office to use the typewriter and to stamp papers with a “ker-chunk” like the lady at the bank.

It’s been a while since we did anything from Before Five in a Row, and I think we were all glad to be back!

Posted in B4FIAR, Preschool

King Josiah and the Hidden “Treasure”

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We had so much fun this week!  We learned about King Josiah and how excited he was when the Book of the Law was found in the Temple.  When they found the lost scroll, it was like finding a treasure, so we talked a lot about how special the Bible is and how we “hide” it (the NASB says “treasure” it) in our hearts.

I told Ian the story of King Josiah over breakfast Monday morning.  (I was so frustrated last week with not being able to keep his attention, so I thought I’d try something different.  It definitely captured his attention better!)  As soon as we’d eaten, I got out crowns for both boys.  I had cut them out and decorated them with glitter paint the night before so it could dry, and then we got out the markers to finish up with their own artwork in the morning.

Then we went over to our flannel board set to review the story.  I had all the things inside the temple lying on their side, with a scroll for the Book of the Law hidden behind a table, and we talked about how the temple was in need of repair. Ian helped act out Hilkiah the priest finding the scroll and bringing it to Josiah.  Then we all helped “clean up” the temple by setting things straight and tossing out the statues bad kings had set up.  We talked about what a special place the temple was and how excited they were to find the “treasure” of God’s law.

The story is from 2 Kings 22:1-20, which we read at bedtime.  The only Bible story book we had that talked about Josiah was The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley), so we left that out all week and read through it several times.

We just happened to have the perfect Bible  for this lesson: this Bible that looks like a treasure chest.   To emphasize how precious God’s Word is, we played a game of “hot and cold” where I hid the “Treasure Bible” and had the boys look for it.  Ian loved it!  He and I took turns hiding it over and over and looking for our treasure.  We played this game several times throughout the week, and Ian was excited to “teach” it to Daddy.

After the first time we played, I introduced our memory verse, Psalm 119:11. “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”  (See our iPod playlist for memory songs.  The first two use this NIV text.) For our Bible notebook page I wanted to “hide” a Bible inside a heart, but I also wanted to convey the idea of the Bible as treasure, so I drew a treasure chest with a Bible inside.  Then Ian glued it inside a folding heart.  I’m not much of an artist, but it got the point across.  Such a simple notebook page, but it really captured the essence of the verse.

  

Ian really liked our iPod playlist this week and requested it almost every time we got in the car (in addition to listening several times at home).  I didn’t have anything for the story of Josiah, but I found lots of songs about our memory verse.  Here it is:

Posted in Bible lessons, Preschool

Beautiful Vision by Sally Clarkson

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“Seeing my children’s hearts and souls as treasure chests so to speak, I prayed and pondered, how could I so invest in their lives so that they would have eternal and true values and memories, and foundations of truth and godly purpose to carry with them and to draw from the rest of their lives.”

This morning I was reading Sally Clarkson’s latest blogpost, and I just had to share the link.  It puts into words so many ideas I’ve had floating around in my mind but haven’t yet found a way to express.

Posted in Our Vision

Elijah Goes to Heaven

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What better way to finish up our weeks on Elijah than with the exciting story of the chariot of fire coming to escort him up to heaven in a whirlwind?  I don’t know if it’s just because Ian accepts whatever I tell him or if he really didn’t get it, but he didn’t seem all that amazed at the miraculous aspects of the story.  It probably didn’t help that we had less time than usual for lessons this week.  We spent one day at a children’s museum he’s been begging to go back to for months, and then Grandpa and Grandma returned from a month-long trip, so we were pretty busy this week.  I didn’t want to skip our Bible time altogether (I’m now in my third trimester and the way I’m feeling, we’ll probably be taking a break from “school” soon), so I just focused on getting the story into Ian’s heart and mind, and we skipped much of what we usually do (like a memory verse, a page for our Bible notebook, an iPod playlist, and any kind of literature unit).

When I introduced the story with our flannel board set I was a bit disappointed because Ian didn’t seem all that interested.  (In fact the first time I tried, I ended up stopping halfway through because he kept getting distracted.  We came back to it later and made it through, but still without much comment from Ian.)  However, later that day I found him playing with the flannel board on his own, and he’d obviously caught more than I thought. In his mind I guess Jesus was in the chariot, because when he was retelling it, the Elijah figure got very excited, saying, “Jesus!  Jesus!” and kissing him all over.  I love how God works.  I’d tried telling Ian the story, got frustrated, gave up, tried again and made it through but still felt like a failure, and yet it turns out God was working in his heart the whole time.  Jesus may not have actually been a part of the story, but I think Elijah must have felt that same sense of excitement at going to see the Lord.  Ian caught a part of the story I hadn’t even considered.  It was a good reminder to me that my job is just to be faithful in teaching my children God’s commands.  “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” (Deuteronomy 6:7).  God’s the one who stirs their hearts.

The only other thing we did was review the story throughout the week.  We read it from The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley) and The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes.  Ian also requested it for his bedtime Bible story, so we read it from 2 Kings 2:1-14 in the “real Bible”.

And that wraps up our four weeks on Elijah!  We’ll be doing a few more Old Testament stories this fall, then we’ll take a break to welcome our little Arianna to the family, and hopefully jump back in with the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum for New Testament stories starting in January.

Posted in Bible lessons, Preschool

Entertaining Elijah (tips for toddlers)

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Elijah playing with “rainbow stones”

“What do I do with the toddler/preschooler while I’m homeschooling an older child?”  I know I’m not the only mom who has asked that, because when I started looking online for answers, I found lots of great suggestions.  So I thought I’d share the list I compiled.  Most of these are activities you can set the child up with and let them “work” independently, but there are a few “preschool-type” activities that are for you to do with them.  I was too lazy to separate them out.  (Just being honest!)

A few of these are original ideas, but the vast majority are copied from various other sites (which I’m afraid I can’t cite because I either forgot to note it down or else I found it in multiple places).  I broke them down into categories because, well, that’s just the way my mind works best.  I haven’t tried them all, especially the ones that would be better for an older preschooler, but I’ve found it very handy to have a list for when I’m not feeling very creative.  (Activities in bold are favorites around our house.)

NOTE: Many of these suggestions involve small pieces that could be a choking hazard.  You know your child best!  (Some of mine could be trusted… others not so much!)

“Seatwork”

  • New Coloring Books (in order to keep them new, just tear out unused pages and staple them together)
  • Paint-with-water books (where the color’s already on the page and you just run a wet brush over it)
  • New Crayons (try to keep the crayons fresh by sharpening them or melting old crayons and making new ones in fun shapes)
  • Color Wonder Paper and Paint/Markers
  • Chalk or light colored crayons on dark construction paper.
  • Sticky notes and pencil.
  • envelopes, labels, paper, and stickers.
  • Stickers & Wax Paper (they can reuse the stickers that way)
  • glue stick and white glue, scissors, construction paper and paper scraps
  • Easy-to-use paper punch and strips of paper.
  • Scissors and paper (no other objective in mind!)
  • Stencils, paper, colored pencils
  • rubber stamps
  • Put paper clips onto paper
  • Tear paper (use for a mosaic-type art project later?)

Sorting/Matching

  • Matching shapes – cut out shapes, then draw around them on another sheet of paper. Let the kids match the shapes.
  • homemade cards to play as a memory game or in any other creative way.
  • Sort Duplo blocks by color & size.
  • Look through a button box.
  • Magnet and paperclips, washers, a nail, etc.
  • Magnets and a Small Cookie Sheet
  • Ice trays/muffin tins/egg cartons and buttons, beads or marbles for sorting.
  • Various colored pom-poms to sort out into colored cups with a small spoon/tweezers/tongs

Tactile Play/Small Motor Development

  • Lacing Beads (easy to make a homemade set with colorful beads or cut up straws and a shoelace or pipecleaners.) Older child can do patterns
  • Lacing cards (I bought some Melissa & Doug ones but you can make your own with just cardboard shapes with holes punched around them.) Attach yarn, wrap masking tape around the end.)
  • plastic canvas and a large plastic needle with yarn
  • Chalk & Small Chalkboard (you can get them at craft stores for about a dollar)
  • Make a necklace or snack chain with yarn (masking tape on the ends) and any cereal with holes (like cheerios). If the toddler is old enough, they may be able to string them himself. Older child can do patterns
  • Nuts and bolts to sort. Go to a hardware store and pick out several sets of large nuts, bolts, and washers that fit together. Buy several of different diameters. Use them as an assembly project. This builds eye-hand coordination and estimation skills.
  • Writing tray; Put a layer of rice or cornmeal in a cookie sheet or baking pan. Good for spelling practice or picture-drawing or practicing A B C’s. (vacuums up!)
  • Colored rice to pour through a colander or funnels.
  • Rice/birdseed/lentil bin:This is a fun alternative to a sand box that can be used indoors or out by children who do not put things in their mouths. Fill a large, shallow plastic box ¼ of the way with rice or birdseed. If you’re using it inside, t’s a good idea to keep an old sheet underneath, or put the whole box inside an old wading pool to keep the spills under control. Add spoons, funnels, measuring cups, a two-liter bottle, a metal strainer, etc. for play. Play figures and toy cars work well, too. Activities: stand the two liter bottle upright. Try to fill it up using the measuring cups, and then the funnel. Compare/learn math: See that two halves equal one cup, etc. Add a container of salt to the mix. Have the children use the strainer and see if they can separate the two. Just playing with the rice/birdseed is soothing to children and will engage them for a long time.
  • Pouring Beads: small tray and 3 different containers and a spoon used to pour small beads.
  • Play-dough with a plastic knife, rolling pin, cookie cutters, small plastic toy, play dishes (my kids love the stuff in the set I linked, but there’s so much you can do on your own)
  • Refrigerated cookie dough and a cookie sheet. They can play with it and you can eat all the results.
  • Using a spoon, tongs, or tweezers, pick up and sort objects such as blocks, spools, coins, beans, marbles, cotton balls, pins, buttons, straws, nails, nuts, bolts, popcorn, etc.. and place them into containers of varying sizes (i.e. egg cartons, cups, mugs, jars, etc.)
  • Rice table: have a mixture of rice and several kinds of beans. Child uses a large slotted spoon and picks up a spoonful of rice mixture. They are to carefully shake the spoon back and forth until the rice falls through the slots and only the beans are left. Pour the beans into a small container. Goal is to continue until the container is filled.
  • Put ping pong balls into a dish tub of water (or bathtub), then have the child tongs to transfer them to another bucket.
  • “rainbow stones“: we have an ice cream bucket full of colored glass stones like you use for silk flower arrangements.  Both boys LOVE playing with these (just running their fingers through them, spooning them into containers, sorting them by color, etc.)
  • Geoboards with rubber bands

Entertaining Household items

  • Several cardboard boxes (cereal boxes, shoe boxes) to make a train or a town or just to stack and build with.
  • Sticking crayons into an old parmesan cheese container
  • Small cars or super-ball in a wrapping paper tube.
  • A retractable measuring tape to measure with.
  • Game pieces from lost games & cards. Find old games at garage sales if you don’t have lost pieces.
  • Pringles can with a slit cut in the top to drop cardboard or plastic coins.
  • Draw roads, houses, etc. on large paper or cardboard and have them use cars and trucks on it.
  • A large box (that’s all they need – they’ll do the rest).
  • Throw a blanket over a coffee table or card table. Give them clothes pins. They’ll figure it out.
  • A plastic bottle (clean milk jug, well rinsed detergent bottle, etc.) and small items like clothespins, pennies to drop in and shake out again (this can be a little noisy during school).
  • Damp washcloth and wall or window to “clean”. Paper towels and a spray bottle with a little water in it.
  • Let them “wash” a few plastic dishes. Put an egg beater, measuring cup and baster in the water.
  • Soft foam balls or daddy’s matched socks in a ball to pitch into the laundry basket.
  • Poke holes in thick cardboard with a tack. (Just be sure you know where the tack ends up!)
  • Mini-sandbox; Put a layer of sand in a box the size of a banana box. Add trucks, cars, popsicle sticks.
  • Shallow bucket on a towel on the floor. Add water, boats. Plastic fish, measuring cups, etc.
  • Make a tunnel of kitchen chairs.
  • Give them a crochet hook and a length of yarn. Demonstrate chain stitch a few times. This is not for everyone, but if you refuse to do it for them, you’ll be surprised at what they figure out.
  • Scrap wood, hammer, nails.
  • Bucket of water and a paintbrush-for outside painting. Works best on wood or concrete.
  • Chalk on sidewalk or steps.
  • A cup with non-toxic soapy water and a straw to blow bubbles. You may put it on a sheet of paper and add food coloring to the water.
  • Watch a bug ! At the table, at an anthill, wherever.
  • Sort/Stack Poker chips
  • Use sprayer bottles filled with water and sponges to have the child “clean” a desk or table, then squeeze the excess water into a dishpan.

Store-bought Toys

  • Wooden Puzzles (no more than 2 puzzles per activity box)
  • Wooden Train Set
  • Shape Sorter
  • Peg Boards
  • Lace & Link (made by Lauri)
  • Fit-a-Space (made by Lauri)
  • Blocks (my boys like making roads and tunnels out of them more than building up so far, but they’re still a hit!)
  • Beanbags and a bucket.
  • Tops- bought or made with ½ toothpick and cardboard disk.
  • A marble maze – set it in a shallow cardboard box or cookie sheet to cut down on the lost marbles.
  • Ziploc bag or “Toob“of small plastic toys such as farm animals or little people.
  • “Little People“- we have various sets (house, school, barn, etc.) from my childhood that entertain for HOURS
  • Have a stuffed-animal tea party with real crackers.
  • Dominoes (my boys especially like our colored set)
  • Toy shopping cart to collect things around the room.
  • Unifix cubes and numbers printed on cardstock. Helps with number recognition and 1:1 correspondence.
  • Arrange blocks by size, color, or shape
  • Cuisenaire rods
  • Felt board play: Betty Lukens Felts makes beautiful, full-color felts for counting, telling stories, and so on, or you can make your own by using a black sharpie to outline or draw shapes, numbers, letters, animals, and so on onto heavy duty interfacing (find it at your local fabric store). Color with pastel crayons and cut out. You can also cut pictures out of magazines or discarded books and apply iron-on interfacing to the back. For the board itself, use a large piece of heavy cardboard, wrap in blue flannel, and secure with tape/hot glue.
  • Nest/stack cups or containers of different sizes. Discovery Toys’ Measure Up Cups are pricier, but have correct measurements and are great to use with sand or water.  We’ve also loved the Fisher Price Stack-and-Roll set
  • pattern blocks (either by themselves or with design cards)
  • Melissa & Doug “See & Spell“

Other

  • Books (make sure to pick some out that are ONLY used for special times)
  • Small CD Player, Headphones, & Fun Music or stories to read along

If you want help finding anything let me know!

Posted in Homeschool Resources

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

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Goldilocks and the Three Bears (Golden Storytime Book)While looking for bear ideas, I stumbled upon First-School’s page with all sorts of ideas for “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.”  Ian LOVES this story, so I decided to take a break from Before Five in a Row to do our own literature unit.  We read the story from two different sources, both treasures from our used bookstore visits.  It’s in the first volume of the Childcraft books, and we also love the version in this book.  It’s older, but the illustrations have so many details, like Goldilocks losing her locket and one shoe, which almost create a story within the story that is never mentioned in the text.  I realize I am rather traditional, but even I was surprised by how many versions of the story are out there (and how many I didn’t like).  There are some key features I looked for in choosing a book:

  • characters: the 3 bears = a dad, a mom, and a baby (I found a few “creative” versions that changed this.)
  • sequencing/comparison: hot, cold, just right; big, small, just right; hard, soft, just right (It actually drove me crazy how many people messed with this!)
  • Just my personal preference, but I prefer more classic looking illustrations as opposed to anything too cartoonish.

As I said before, I found some good ideas at First-School’s page on the story, but we actually didn’t end up getting to all the ones I’d prepared.  No worries.  I’m sure we’ll spend time on this story again in the future, and maybe we’ll get to them then.  I printed out and laminated some pattern strips, sequencing cards (small, medium, or large–also a good sorting activity for Elijah making piles of beds, chairs, and bowls), and a 4-piece puzzle (which Ian really liked, to my surprise, since he’s never shown much interest in puzzles).  On another site I found masks of Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear.  The boys really like masks, though they were more interested in running around the house growling through them than retelling the story.  (I never could get them to stand still long enough for a picture!)

  

To incorporate some nature study we took a morning walk like the bears and enjoyed a woodsy park near our house.  I really want to start spending more time outdoors now that it’s cooling down. (I despise being outside when it’s too hot.)  We don’t have terribly defined seasons here, but there are plenty of things to appreciate in the coming months, so I downloaded the Fall Nature Study from Five in a Row.  (Not all of it will be appropriate for preschoolers, but we can get ideas from it year after year and I needed some inspiration.)  One of my goals is to start a very basic “nature journal” with Ian.  So on our walk we collected things for nature collages and had lots of fun assembling them once we got home.  I just used clear contact paper.  (My original intent was to make a “turkey” to help us decorate through Thanksgiving, but I couldn’t quite figure out how to do the body so it’s a little abstract.)  Both boys really enjoyed playing with all the leaves, feathers, and flowers we found.

  

And finally, as a little something different, we watched the first six Salsa Spanish videos from Georgia Public Broadcasting.  The first is the story of the three bears, and in the next five Goldilocks returns to make amends in various ways.  They are pretty much completely in Spanish, but don’t let that turn you off if you don’t speak the language!  They’ve actually been favorites of Ian’s since right around his third birthday.  I speak VERY little Spanish myself, but I hope to include it in our homeschool curriculum.  For now, that just means the occasional Salsa video.  The vocabulary is simple and repetitive without being boring.  Here’s a complete list of episodes (with links to the videos).  (If you’re interested in doing the program, there are additional resources available for teachers of Kindergarten through 2nd grade.)

Posted in Literature Units, Preschool

Elijah vs. the Prophets of Baal

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This week we talked about one of my absolute favorite stories in the Bible!  I love imagining the scene on Mt. Carmel with Elijah and the prophets of Baal.  In fact, Elijah’s faith as demonstrated in this story was the main reason we chose to name our second son after him.  It’s one of those stories that’s so incredible, but if we’ve heard it over and over it can start to lost its “punch.”  So I had a lot of fun bringing it to life at our house this week!

To introduce the story as dramatically as possible, I told it on my own with our flannel board set.  Then throughout the week I reinforced it by reading 1 Kings 18:20-39 from my ESV Bible as well as from The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley), The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes, Classic Bible Stories: A Family Treasury, and a new story book this week, The Rhyme Bible Storybook, which provided some review of our previous stories about Elijah.

We sang our memory verse (1 Kings 18:39) to the tune of “The Farmer in the Dell,” and it was a HUGE hit!  (You never know what’s going to tickle their fancy!)  We sang it in the car, as we played, every time we read the story or randomly thought of it… and every time it turned into a wild celebratory chant.  Arms would flail, legs would dance, and both boys would be singing/shouting at the top of their lungs:

The LORD, he is God / The Lord, he is God / First Kings eighteen thirty-nine / The Lord, he is God

  

I wanted Ian to understand how powerful God’s fire was.  So in spite of 100 degree temperatures this week, we lit a (tiny) fire in the fireplace to show how wet wood doesn’t burn like dry wood, and how stones don’t burn up in an ordinary fire.

For Ian’s Bible notebook I was inspired by several ideas at christianpreschoolprintables.com, but I ended up going with their “God Brings Fire” craft because it was so different than anything we’ve done so far.  The idea was that the marble painting would create the “fire” on a paper printed with logs.  Ours didn’t look quite like the sample (Ian didn’t do much besides tipping the tray back and forth, so we didn’t get many curvy lines), but both boys LOVED marble painting. Ian also liked mixing the red and yellow to make orange (which we’ve practiced with bathtub paints, so he felt really proud knowing what the outcome would be).  I didn’t have a box the right size, so I used an old cookie sheet.  After first trying little bowls with the paint, I switched to little “puddles” on the sides of the trays that the balls could roll to and recover themselves.

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This week’s iPod playlist was quite entertaining:

 

Posted in Bible lessons, Preschool

Elijah and the Widow’s Son

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Elijah and the Widow's SonThis week as we talked about Elijah bringing the widow’s son back to life, I wanted to focus on how God can use us to minister to others.  So in addition to reading that story in 1 Kings 17:8-24 (including the story of Elijah meeting the widow and her son and how God provided for them all), we also read John 14:12-14.  In this passage Jesus, who by this time has performed many miracles, including raising people from the dead (Jairus’ daughter, the widow’s son, and Lazarus) tells his disciples, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.  Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”  I’m always awed by that verse.  And convicted.  I don’t walk daily in that kind of faith.  But I want to, and I want my children to grow up knowing that truth deep within their beings.  That’s why I chose to work with Ian on memorizing John 14:14, which we sang to the tune of “Jesus Loves Me”:

“If you ask me anything / in my name I will do it. / If you ask me anything / in my name I will do it.” / John 14:14, John 14:14, John 14:14 / “If you ask… I will do it.”

When Elijah asked the widow for bread, she told him she was down to her last bit of flour and oil.  He told her to first make him “a little cake” and then prepare some for her and her son.  God continued to multiply her flour and oil so they had food to get them through.  We enjoyed some pancakes for breakfast this week to remind us of the story.

Our iPod playlist was pretty similar to last week’s (but even simpler):

And now for a confession.  We didn’t spend nearly enough time on our memory verse for Ian to become familiar with it.  Nor did I have any ideas for our Bible notebook page.  Given those two factors, we skipped it.  I didn’t want to drag the lesson out any longer (and I’m looking forward to my favorite Elijah story next week), so I just decided to move on.  I didn’t even take pictures of our flannel board set this week because Ian started acting crazy when I got out the camera.  Kind of a dud of a week, huh?  All the more reason to put it behind us.  I know Ian learned the story (actually I had my doubts until I heard him re-telling it to Daddy at one point) and that’s what’s most important to me.  The “products” of the journey are secondary to getting God’s Word into his heart as we go.

Posted in Bible lessons, Preschool

Elijah and the Ravens

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Over the next few weeks we’re going to be learning about one of my favorite people in the the Bible: Elijah.  This week I introduced Elijah and the evil King Ahab with the story of Elijah proclaiming there would be no rain until he said and then following God’s leading to a place with a brook that provided water and ravens who brought him food every morning and evening.

The story is found in 1 Kings 16:29-17:7, and I read the passage from my Bible as I used our flannel board set.  Then we got out our Bible story books and read from The Beginner’s Bible by Karyn Henley (very simple but clear retelling) and The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes.

I was feeling pretty wiped out this week so we didn’t do many “extras,” which was too bad.  I had found lots of good ideas (songs, worksheets, crafts, etc.) in this free sample lesson on “Elijah and the Birds” at daniellesplace.com.  (So far I’ve only used her free material, but I’m considering becoming a member to have full access to all her wonderful content!)  We did watch the video “Elijah” from the Nest’s Animated Stories from the Bible series.

  

For Ian’s Bible notebook we made a “collage” of Elijah and the ravens using these color pictures.  (They’re also available in black and white.) Ian painted the scenery with his watercolors (and generously invited our own Elijah to help).

For memory work, we reviewed the verse from the ABC Jesus Loves Me week 8 lesson (on the parting of the Red Sea): “My God will supply all your needs.” Philippians 4:19, sung to the tune of “London Bridge.”

“My God will supply all your needs, supply all your needs, supply all your needs. My God will supply all your needs.  Philippians 4:19.”

Our iPod playlist this week was pretty simple:

  • “Sticks and Stones” song from the ESV Audio Drama Children’s Bible from Faith Comes By Hearing
  • “1 Kings 17  Elijah – Fed by Ravens” from the ESV Audio Drama Children’s Bible from Faith Comes By Hearing
  • “Elijah” from The Singing Bible
  • Karen & Kids podcast: “Elijah Part 1” (I’ve downloaded all the available episodes to use as they apply to our lessons.)

Looking forward to more wonderful stories about Elijah in the weeks to come!

Posted in Bible lessons, Preschool

“Now I Know My ABCs…”

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It struck me this morning as Ian was putting together his alphabet train puzzle that someone looking at this blog might think Bible stories and literature are the only parts of our “school” experience.  I haven’t really used a formal structured curriculum for teaching basics like the alphabet, numbers, shapes, colors, etc. (although they’re all included in the ABC Jesus Loves Me lesson plans).  We just have lots of activities and books around the house that provide exposure to those concepts, so Ian has learned a lot that way (and Elijah is quickly catching on as well).

Here are a few of the things you’ll find around our house (not everything listed made it into the pictures):

Alphabet:

  • Alphabet train floor puzzle by Melissa & Doug
  • Upper and lowercase wooden puzzle by Melissa & Doug
  • Alphabet caterpillar puzzle (inherited from Grandma when she retired from teaching Kindergarten)
  • tactile letter cards (I inherited upper and lowercase sets, but I know people have made their own or bought them on Amazon.)
  • My First Steps to Reading series (recommended in the ABC Jesus Loves Me curriculum)
  • wooden alphabet blocks
  • playdough with ABC cookie cutters
  • phonics matching game from CurrClick.com
  • Big Thoughts for Little People by Kenneth Nathaniel Taylor
  • refrigerator magnets
  • foam letters for the bathtub
  • LeapFrog Fridge phonics set
  • Melissa & Doug See and Spell
  • LeapFrog Letter Factory DVD
  • Starfall.com (my older son loves to play, my younger son loves to watch him–and they both learn!  We love it so much we subscribed to
    “More Starfall” for the year!)
  • “Alphabetti” books from progressivephonics.com  (Ian learned his letters long before he expressed any interest in learning to read.  I wasn’t going to introduce any reading or writing activities for a few years, but he has been asking to learn to read, so we’ve just started using this program.  I’m sure I’ll blog out it more later if it looks like something we’ll be using for a while.)

Numbers/numerals (Note: I try to focus more on “number sense” rather than recognizing numerals, especially in the early years, so we do lots of counting activities):

Shapes:

Colors are everywhere! It’s pretty easy to incorporate them in conversations throughout the day or in activities like the color bears matching game that we’ve been using with our literature unit this month.

So many of these toys teach more than one concept (like the wooden clock puzzle, which could be used to teach shapes, colors, numbers, and how to tell time).  It’s hard not to learn when you keep things like this around!  And many of them can be used in different ways as children grow.  For example, when Ian first got his alphabet train puzzle, I always kept the pieces in order so all he had to do was take them out of the box one by one.  He was learning to recognize the letters, developing visual perception as he looked at how the pieces fit together, and practicing small motor skills as he put them together.  Now that he knows all his letters by sight, he can start with the pieces mixed up.  By singing the ABC song he figures out what piece he needs next and looks for the correct letter.  Later on we can work on reading the name of each animal on each piece.

It looks like we spend a fortune on educational toys, but really I usually just buy them for Christmas and birthday gifts (and pass the ideas on to relatives).  I also save my Swagbucks (which I earn just by using their search engine/toolbar) for Amazon gift cards to buy little extras (see sidebar under “Get Free Books!”).  And I’m fortunate enough to come from a family of teachers.  I have things left from my own teaching days, plus Grandma’s retirement last spring came at the perfect time for my kids. I’ve collected a lot with Ian, knowing that we’ll be using them all over the next few years as the other children grow into them.  I don’t have to plan out lessons for teaching these concepts–they just happen on their own when someone grabs an activity.  This morning Ian saw his puzzle and decided to put it together on his own.  Elijah enjoyed looking at all the letters as he did so, and ended up singing the ABC song all day after hearing Ian.  I love that learning is just a part of life!

Posted in Preschool
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