Early Years resources { and other limited time offers, you shouldn't refuse!}

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So, today, I finally got round to having a REALLY good look at the Build Your Bundle sale options.  I am simply blown away, and super excited, about what I am "walking away" with, from my shopping trip.

(Don't you love those kind of shopping trips? The kind where you don't need to pack all the children into the car, endure a journey with fighting and moans, trail them around umpteen shops, then bring tired, grumpy children back home in the car, where they fall asleep, then don't want to go to bed when you need some peace and quiet???)

I am not one to keep something great from those I care about, so I want to highlight some of the fab items I have bought - especially the resources for the younger years.

Early years education is an area that divides in the home-edding community.  Many will use highly structured pre-school programmes.  Many will say "do nothing - they will learn from having fun!".  There is merit in every camp, but I particuarly felt I needed to give my littles something more structured to do - more to keep them occupied, than anything else.  I also felt that I was missing out in focussing on character training - teaching them whilst they are young.

Having had all this on my heart, imagine my excitement when I looked at the bundle for "Tots and Pre-school", and found lots of wonderful resources, particularly focussing on character!

This bundle is great for ANY parent, whether you plan to home educate or not.  Every small child needs to be taught about godly character, and how God expects us to live!

First off, there are several different character training resources, all offering a slightly different focus.  As you may know, repetition is a GREAT thing for children to learn more efficiently, so by working through all these different resources, certain qualities will be emphasised more than once, making it more likely to be remembered.  At the same time, it gives you variety as the parent and teacher, which is always good!

Raising Rock Stars is a foundational preschool program based on God's Word. It begins with the foundation of learning, memorizing and applying a verse each week, taken from the awesome book, My ABC Bible Verses. Kumon inspired learning with colors, numbers, and sight words incorporated along with early reading skills.  There are lovely tracing cards, fun lollipop stick props (I LOVE these!), and many other helpful printables. It would be a brilliant addition to any phonics programme. 

Another great set of resources is four different items from Character Concepts.  One is the Character Concepts for Preschoolers Mom`s Guide.  It's a teacher's manual with 36 weeks of lessons based around 12 character traits.  They suggest many ways in which you can apply and reinforce these characters, with resource lists and fun ideas.  Also from Character Concepts is Proverbs for Preschoolers: Through the Proverbs from A to Z.  This has a lovely selection of verses from the book of Proverbs, with pictures to colour, letters to trace, and verses to learn. They are nice and simple, for little hands to manage.  Then, there's Character Trails Flashcards. This set of 12 full uflashcards is designed to help you as you teach your children to hide God`s Word in their hearts! In order to apply character to their lives they must first understand what it is with simple, kid-friendly definitions (illustrated on the front side along with Bible pictures). On the back side they learn what God`s Word says concerning this quality (illustrated by pictures from the Boyer cousin story in Character Trails). In less than 5 minutes a day, children will learn and soon internalize godly character in their lives. Finally, there's Hands On Character Building. Create precious family memories as you dive into projects, activities, and games designed to teach kids obedience, self-acceptance, a forgiving spirit, meekness, hunger for righteousness, and a bold testimony.  These items normally cost $50 alone!! They really add to the bargain of this particular bundle!

Another one, which I am looking forward to trying out, is, Character Badges!  Character Badges is a system consisting of three charts (the Obedience Chart, the Disobedience Chart, and the Consequence Chart), a series of specially designed badges, and a set of flash cards which work together to make character training fun and rewarding for both you and your child.  It;s bright, it's colourful, and more importantly it teaches your children about character in an encouraging and positive way.  It's designed for children aged 3-12, so it is not just for your little ones, but it's good to start training them whilst they are young!

Another one, which I hope will provide me with some much-needed inspiration, is 101 Independent Activities for Tots & Pre-K.  This is an e-book packed with ideas of activities which can be done independently, by your littles! These sound perfect for any mother trying to juggle little ones, with helping older ones with school work.  I know we would certainly benefit from this!  My feisty 2 year old, and my emotional 4 year old, (never mind ALL my other children) could do with some encouragement in this area.

This is just a selection of what is available in the bundle.  

These items ALONE are worth $70 retail value, so by buying the bundle, you have a saving before you add any of the other great items!  

I am really pleased with it, and printing out the various components is now on my "to-do" list for the summer, because I have a very keen 4 year old who could do with an some letter work, in a fun medium, before he starts his formal schooling next year. 

I must reiterate that this particular bundle would truly benefit any parent.  There is so much of value in it, which would be a valuable tool in training your children. 

Head on over to the site, by clicking on the image below, to find out much more.  Whilst you are there, have a look at the other bundles, too.  I have gone for this deal...

Yes, I am a Scot, who can't resist such a great deal!

Don't forget that you can build your OWN bundle, choosing from any individual item valued at $19.99 or less.  ear in mind, though, that you'll  miss out on some doozies, but you'll also stick to only the items you really, desperately want.  Have a look around at everything, and choose your own adventure!

Right, I'm off to add printer ink and laminator pockets to my summer spending list!

Tots on a Tuesday {fun ways to count and learn numbers}

I realised, recently, that a couple of my little ones didn't quite have their number recognition sorted.  The older child was understanding certain maths concepts, but not able to recognise the number in the sum!

So, I set out to find some fun and interesting ways to tie up number recognition, with counting.

I conventiently viisted The Range, just as I was about to set out doing these activities, and I picked up a few items that would be helpful.  These are all things that you could find in other places - not necessarily the identical item, but similar, and still able to function the same way.

So, what were they?

Rainbow pom poms, wooden numbers and clothes pins with hearts on the end!

The heart pegs, I numbered from 1-20, with a Sharpie, on the heart end.  There are loads of things you could do with them, but I decided to grab some items I had in the house, and use them to do some counting. I got the tu of "children's" buttons (not my nice ones!), and got them to first put the numbers in order, then to count out the correct number of buttons into each section in the egg carton! They had a lot of fun doing this!

You could easily find similar, small, wooden pegs in a craft store, or even a hardware store! I have found similar ones in Poundland before.

(Keeping it real - this is what happened when Simeon got the buttons!)

Then, we got to using out wooden numbers and our pom poms. Now, when you want to use any item to count to ten, and want to have the exact number of items to do so, it's helpful to know you need 55 items... my pack had 50! Not to self - buy more pom poms!)

 I just love rainbow things, so these were a real find! As I say, I *MUST* buy some more!  Once again, though, you could use any pom poms, or any other manipulative, like buttons, counters, and such like.

Another activity we did, which I don't have a picture of right now, is having them draw around the wooden numbers, then draw items matching that number - 1 bee, 2 flowers, etc etc. A year ago, Abi wouldn't have enjoyed doing that, but she enjoys drawing much more now. Elijah? He would draw until the cows came home! You could use these numbers for kinesthetic tracing, getting them to trace the number with their finger on the actual number, or inside the shape once they have drawn it.  That all reinforces, in their brain, how to form the number.


We did another couple of activities, with some items we already had.  First off, we used some printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  I think I may have shared them before, or perhaps the alphabet ones?

You can easily find these wooden, geometric shapes, in online stores such as Amazon.  I have a set of them.  I also have a set of shapes, very similar, in our Spielgaben set (which is something I plan to tell you about very soon!).  I have these printed out for 0-20, but we just focussed on the 1-10.

Taking great care to do it precisely!

It's funny how older children appear when the younger ones are having fun!!

One final thing I also want to share, is building numbers from Duplo.

As I have mentioned before, it's nice to be able to use toys, to make education more fun!

Once again, mess, just out of shot! 

There are absolutely endless ways to work with numbers - we did more than I have shared today, and I can share that another time!

If you have any fun ways you have worked with numbers and counting, please link up or share in the comments below.  

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Tots on a Tuesday {play dough shape mat}

Today, I found a super duper activity for my tots to do. I realised, recently, that Elijah loves playing with any left over icing I have (the fondant variety) when I have been cake making. He sits for ages playing with it, making all sorts of little creations.

When I came across an idea, based on play dough, I realised he was going to LOVE it.

Better still, to capture MY interest, it included BUTTONS!

My interest is always captures by activities with the potential of teaching about mutliple concepts, and this one totally fit the bill.

It involved using a printable, from Learning 4 Kids, which you can find here.

First of all, ELijah had a turn doing it. I thought he did a really great job, filling in the shape of the bear. Then he had fun putting buttons on, too.  We talked about what colours they were, how many, which colour there were more of, what size they all were, and how many holes were in the buttons.

It's funny, because they ALL appeared at various points, wanting to play with the play-doh!

This was Elijah's completed bear (it did end up having "claws" added, after the camera was gone - a manly bear! )

ELijah "posing"

THen, Simeon had a go. He REALLY loved playing with it, and tried very intently to fill in his shape.

I thought this was a very admirable attempt, for a 2 year old!

His big brother (erm, the 12 year old) helped him a bit, then he added some buttons, too (Simeon, that is.)

Would you just look at the level of concentration?! He enjoyed trying to count as he stuck them on, and although the buttons DID end up on the floor later, they all had fun with it.

I think that the lady who shared the free printable used them for alphabet themes, this one being "b".  I was thinking, however, that I could print other shapes of my own, and make more colours of play-doh, to have some variety.  

This is one we will being doing again, for SURE! Fun had, all round!

Oh, the recipe I used for playdoh was from The Imagination Tree, but I missed out the Cream of Tartar, as I didn't have any!  I could have done with more food colouring, as it didn't come out very blue (yes, that's supposed to be blue...). . I know for next time. Cuz, there's gonna be a next time! 

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Tots on a Tuesday {chick printable}

I want to start sharing with about some of the activities I do with my younger children, of pre-school and early years age.  There are many things that I have found to have both fantastic play and educational value.  I think that it's good to share, so that's what i plan to do!

Today, you have the added bonus of being my "guinea pigs" - I am sharing my first ever set of printables! So, please have grace if things are not perfect! I have tried to pick up on any errors and sort them out, but please let me know if I have missed anything.

When I was recently at The Range (a large store with LOADS of craft/home items of all sorts - LOVE IT), and they had cute little packs of craft style chicks, for £1 per pack of 8. They CALLED to me.  They said "I could be very useful - BUY ME"! Of course, I did.  *aherm*

Cute, yes?

 I was looking at them today, and thought "you could be part of something wonderful".

I have been working on identifying numbers with my younger children, and these chicks seemed the ideal candidate to become a fun, soft, cute little manipulative.  I began with the concept of cards, with pictures and numbers.

I thought these could be used with the chicks, and the child can place the right number of chicks to match the picture and number.

Like so..

I also printed the number words to match the numbers (1-10), which can also be matched up.

You can also see (just about, amongst my spots on teh tablecloth!!) that I have little circle "counters" with the chicks printed individually.  If you didn't have the craft type chicks, these could be used instead.

I also produced little cards with just the chicks on them, in groups of 1 to 10.

If you printed two sets of these you could play "pairs" - the memory games - or snap. 

I also thought you could use these as a clothes pin activity, matching peg with the correct number, to the picture with the right number of items. 

I already had the pegs with the numbers written on them, and added the printed chicks.

You could also use the pegs to match the numeral with the number word.

At the moment, I have no cute pictures of my children using these, because they are fresh off the press! As with any printables that I use, I have laminated them for durability. You could do it on card, especially if you don't want to be able to see the picture or words through the back.

There may be other ways to use these cute chickie items, and feel free to share anything you do with them! 

You can find the printable here. As I mentioned before, let me know if there are any problems or errors.  

Enjoy!