Here are a few of the books we've been enjoying this week.
Edwardo the Horriblest Boy in the Whole World by John Burningham was one of my favorites. It's a good reminder to parents to build our children up, not tear them down. I think this is a must read for every family.
In honor of Earth Day, we read Big Bear Hug by Nicholas Oldland. The story is about a bear who likes to hug! He hugs trees, would-be-dinners, and more until he sees a man cutting down a tree in the forest. Suddenly the bear doesn't feel much like hugging. This a cute and funny story about conservation and being true to yourself.
Stuck, by Oliver Jeffers, is an over the top story about the lengths to which a little boy will go to retrieve his kite from a tree. The story is absurdly funny and had my kids laughing out loud.
Our favorite read this week was Scaredy Squirrel. Scared of the unknown, Scaredy Squirrel spends every day in his tree. One day, his safe world is disrupted and Scaredy Squirrel must make some changes (after he panics of course!).
We recently had the opportunity to review K5 Learning, an online reading and math program for kids from kindergarten through grade 5. K5 is designed for home use and can be used for after-school, weekend and summertime supplemental study or in conjunction with a homeschooling program.
We received a 6 week free trial to evaluate the program. I had tried out some of thesample lessons on their website and was fairly impressed at how fun and informative the program was.
Pinky, my techy lover, was very excited to try out the program. We began with an online assessment of her reading and math skills. This was not her favorite part as the tests were long (it is suggested you break the test up into several sessions), but it was nice to have a fairly accurate picture of what she already knew and what she needed to work on.
Once the assessment was completed, it was time to play...or rather, learn. When Pinky logged in, she was able to choose which area she'd like to work on: Reading, Spelling, Math, or Math Facts. Pinky really enjoyed the animation and the games. As a parent, I loved the feedback that was provided in the parent area (progress reports, quiz results, spelling words learned and the progress made on each math fact). I also liked that parents could assign any math or reading assignment to their child at any time and add specific spelling words to be studied.
After using the program for 6 weeks, I can say that both Pinky and I enjoyed it.
Pros:
The segments or assignments were broken down into smaller, 5 minute increments. It was nice to have the option to take breaks or limit screen time for a day.
The assignments were fun. Pinky enjoyed them and would ask to play.
The feedback I received on Pinky's progress was helpful and informative.
Customer service was very helpful and friendly.
The site is ad free.
They offer a free two week trial (and they don't ask for payment information - it is really, truly a FREE trial).
Cons:
The cost. K5 is available on a subscription basis for $25/month or $199/year with discounts for siblings. As a supplemental study program, I feel that it may be cost-prohibitive for some families.
Overall, I was impressed with the K5 program. It is something that I will keep in mind for bridging the gap during summertime. I encourage you to try the 2 week free trial if you feel this program could work for you.
Disclosure: I received a free 6 week trial of K5 Learning in order to write this review. All opinions presented are mine and not influenced by the company or the free product I received.
For a long time, I have been struggling with the issue of too many toys. With 4 kids, 2 sets of grandparents who love to send gifts, and my personal love for garage sales, there has been a constant flow of new toys in our house. It felt as though we were drowning in toys. No where was this felt more than in our playroom.
While the kids loved to play down here, it became a source of stress when every tote, bucket or bin would be emptied on the floor (you can see that the totes were so full of toys that some of them wouldn't even fit on the shelves).
When it was time to clean up (and at times it felt as though the toys were ankle deep), the kids would become overwhelmed. Then, we would argue. We would yell. We would threaten. We would help clean up. We vowed to not buy more toys. We promised we would get rid of some toys. But nothing worked.
Almost as soon as I finished reading I grabbed some (okay, a LOT) of Rubbermaid bins and dumped every. single. toy. into the center of the room and started sorting.
The mess wasn't pretty, and a few times I questioned my sanity for taking on a project of such magnitude., but I persevered.
I immediately weeded out any toys my youngest had outgrown, toys that were broken, or toys that had come from McDonalds or other cheap/trinkety type toys. To be honest, I didn't really get rid of anything else. I was very fearful that the kids wouldn't like the new playroom and wanted to be sure I could "go back" if I needed to.
To sort the toys, I put sets together inside plastic freezer bags and labeled them along with the number of pieces included (to make it easier when they were rotated out).
I added signs to the outside of the totes that outlined exactly what was inside. I tried to avoid generic labels, for example, labeling "Little People Farm" and "Little People Garage" instead of just "Little People." (I plan to show you my storage area in a future post.)
Once every toy was packed away and organized (including large items like the play kitchen and washer/dryer set), I made a list of which toys I wanted to include in our first rotation. I listed each child's name and, under it, each category that Kim included in her article. I tried to make the toys overlap between kids as much as possible.
Finally (the part I had been looking forward to), I got to work setting up the chosen toys. I was VERY nervous about how the kids would react. I had told them I was working on making the playroom even better, but I was certain there would be tears or protests about the finished product.
I unveiled the "new" playroom to the kids about a week ago. I am happy to say they LOVED it. I know they loved it because they wouldn't stop telling me how much they loved it. I made sure to bring out a few toys that they hadn't played with in awhile (and the ball pit was my insurance policy that something in the room would be awesome for them, just in case there were tears).
Here's a close up look of what's on the shelves:
Little People Farm and an additional animal/farm set, Peek a Blocks gumball machine, My First Purse, Mr. Potato Head and a Playmobil safari animal set
Puzzles, Dora school set, wedgits and 2 large Tonka trucks
Fisher Price Loving family dollhouse (Wild One decorated this one for me).
Also "on rotation" but not in the close up pictures - a ball pit and a tunnel.
After nearly a week, the kids are still just as happy with the room. They have been playing longer, with less complaints about cleaning up. And to my amazement - they've been playing with fewer fights too! For my husband and I, the room feels calmer and more inviting - a place we don't mind spending time anymore. I even feel like we can finally add some artwork to the walls without completely overwhelming the space.!
I have a lot of fun ideas for upcoming toy rotations. My plan is to rotate every 2 weeks. I hope to share the rotations with you so you can see how rotating toys works (or doesn't work) for our family in the long term. Be sure to check back!
I've seen many versions of storytelling games online. We even have a few storytelling card games of our own. Still, I couldn't resist making these dice for the kids.
The wooden blocks (they are 3/4 inch squares) came in a 6 pack at Micheals. I'm not certain on the exact price, but I do know the were under $2. Using a black Sharpie, I drew characters on one die, setting on another, and objects on the third. I'm not an artist, so I tried to keep the pictures simple. I knew my kids would enjoy these, but I was surprised by how long it held their attention.
Super fun, easy, quick and inexpensive - everything I love in a project!
**Just a quick note - I welcome any pinning from my blog as long as it does not include pictures of my kids. If I credit the idea from another blog, please be sure to pin from the ORIGINAL source so proper credit can be given. Thank you!**
Pinky is 6 years, Chaos is 4 years, Wild One is 2 years, and Sprout is 1 year
This week Chaos learned about the Letter T.
We started with our uppercase letter creation - Taxi T!
Chaos kept asking to do more, so we put a lot of pages in our Alphabet Binder this week: 1. Handprint T (Chaos traced his own hand) - Tiger 2. Tactile T - toothpicks. The idea for this craft is here at The Active Toddler and the letter sheets were printed from Quality Kids Crafts. 3. Color by Letter. The sheet is from here at Education.com. 4. Letter T maze (Chaos loved this even though it was a bit hard for him). This worksheet is also from Education.com. 5. Color by Number from here at 1+1+1=1 6. Animal T coloring sheet from here at Education.com 7. Triangle art page. The idea for this page came from here at Kidscount1234.com 8. Taxi T uppercase letter creation
Chaos has been asking to write his letters so I laminated some tracing sheets for him. He thought this was okay, but still prefers to write on the magnadoodle. These adorable letter tracing sheets are a free printable from Lawteedah.
We played with Chaos's Hot Dots Jr. this week too. We have the Getting Ready For School set and used the "Learn Your Alphabet" and "Uppercase and Lowercase Letters" cards. He did very well with these.
The favorite activity of the week was the Letter T Discovery box. I found the idea here at No Time for Flashcards and modified it a bit. I gave Chaos a bin and had him search the house for "T" items to put in it. We had a lot of fun talking about our "treasures." One of Chaos's search results - a tissue, tea cup, toothbrush, tiger, table, triangle, toilet paper roll, and Thomas the Train.
For our second "row" Wild One and I read Goodnight Moon. She really enjoyed this book, and I loved that she would say goodnight to every object in the room ' "Night-night chairs! Night Night bears!" She also insisted on counting the three bears each and every time we read the book.
After we read it a few times, I set up a baby bed for her doll and we had fun putting baby to bed. Wild One really loves playing with dolls so this was an activity we did a LOT this week.
Next we made a moon craft with instructions from I Heart Crafty Things. We added silver glitter glue for stars. All of the kids had fun with project (especially when they found out glitter was involved!).
Finally, we had some fun playing with a red balloon!
Pinky and I started our after school adventure by reading a book by one of my favorite authors: Bear Shadow by Frank Asch.
The book led to a discussion about why we have shadows.
To get a basic understanding of shadows, we read What Makes a Shadow?
We tried a few of the experiments in the book. First, we used a flashlight and a stuffed animal to predict where the shadow would be (in front, to the side, behind, etc). We moved the flashlight around to see how the shadow moved.
Next, we shined the flashlight through objects with different opaqueness and predicted if the shadow would be dark or light. We used a paper towel, a sheet of vellum and construction paper, and a book. We talked about why some of the shadows were lighter (more light could shine through the vellum and paper towel). I tried, but could not get a decent picture of this activity.
Finally, for some shadow fun, we made our own shadow puppet theater. I used the tutorial at minieco.co.uk to make a theater from a cereal box. I cut a few landscape shapes from cardstock to set the scene. Instead of cutting out characters (which would be easy to do with your Cricut and some black cardstock) we used Star Wars figurines. We really had a lot of fun with this project, and I encourage you to give it a try. You may be surprised at how creative you kids can be while telling a story (and learning something too!).
The warm weather has inspired me to change out the sensory bin for something more Spring-like! The base of the bin is Easter grass and black beans (for the garden area). To keep the two bases seperate, I used a line of playdough across the bottom of the bin and inserted the fence pieces. It's not perfect, but has done well so far.
The grass area of the bin features a birds nest (Micheals), 2 birds (Dollar Store), feather butterflies (Dollar Store), a metal bucket (Target Dollar Spot), a shovel, a wooden birdhouse (Dollar Store), a tiny plastic paint bucket that has been used as a bug jar (Michaels), and various plastic insects (Insect Toob).
The wooden fence posts are from Michaels. The garden area has 3 terra cotta pots (Dollar Store), silk flowers (Dollar Store), and a plastic bee (Insect Toob). I added some black beans inside the pots so the flowers can be picked and planted.
The kids quickly added some pompoms to be used as both eggs and seeds to plant the flowers. They also managed to find the watering can I was looking for!
I finally convinced Pinky to try something new (she's been in a Rainbow Fairy rut), and we started reading Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. We're about halfway through and we're both loving it. The story is great, and at the end of each chapter, Pinky begs me to read "just one more!"
We've also been enjoying a few fun finds from the library:
When a Dragon Moves In is a clever story about a dragon moving into a little boy's perfect sandcastle. The kids had a great time studying the pictures and connecting with the little boy's imagination. Was there really a dragon on the beach? That's up to you to decide.
Giraffes Can't Dance has quickly become one of my favorite books. I love the message in the book (about being different) and the kids really connected with Gerald the Giraffe.
and used the "Learn Your Alphabet" and "Uppercase and Lowercase Letters" cards. He did very well with these.
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by Grace Lin. We're about halfway through and we're both loving it. The story is great, and at the end of each chapter, Pinky begs me to read "just one more!"
is a clever story about a dragon moving into a little boy's perfect sandcastle. The kids had a great time studying the pictures and connecting with the little boy's imagination. Was there really a dragon on the beach? That's up to you to decide.
has quickly become one of my favorite books. I love the message in the book (about being different) and the kids really connected with Gerald the Giraffe.