VocabularySpellingCity

If you follow my blog, you know that my twins are now reading.  The next logical step (other than improving their reading fluency) is to work on spelling.  Thus it was quite timely to receive an invitation to review VocabularySpellingCity.com.  I'll be trying it out with my girls and then posting my feedback on this blog.. stay tuned!

Disclosure: I've been given a Premium Membership to VocabularySpellingCity.com for a candid, personal, online review. VocabularySpellingCity helps students study word lists using 25 different learning activities such as Unscramble, Hangman, WordFind, and Crossword Puzzle. Parents can create their own spelling lists, find published lists already available on the site, or use any of dozens of free teaching resources on topics such as Multiple Meaning Words and Possessive Nouns . Be sure to come back in three weeks to read about my experience.There might be more free memberships available for bloggers. If you're interested, find out how you can review VocabularySpellingCity.com.

Observing Caterpillars

Two weeks ago, we received some mail-order caterpillars.  The girls (and I) have been having a great time observing them and learning about the butterfly life cycle...

Tot School - 21 Months Old

H is 21 months old - I can't believe that 2-years-old is just around the corner! Lately, I've been really absorbed in working with H's older sisters (almost 4 years old) now that they've started reading, so getting that one-on-one Tot School time with my little boy is really special for us both.  H is such a quick learner that I often have a hard time keeping up with him and thinking up activities that are enough of a challenge for my clever little dude...

Model Building with Preschoolers

This afternoon, the twins (almost 4 years old) and I built a wooden 'model' firetruck.  Although the label said that the set was for ages 8+, my preschoolers did an excellent job (with some help, of course), and it was a neat project to work on together.  Little did my kids realize that this was a learning activity requiring math, spatial reasoning, and problem solving skills...

Hidden Words Reading Game with 3D Glasses

A couple weeks ago we got a game with 3D glasses and a workbook with objects to find in a Chick-Fil-A kids meal.  The kids enjoyed playing the game as intended, but were particularly fascinated with the glasses.  I made them a fun reading game with hidden words that could only be read using the 'magic' glasses.  You can make this game using any red tinted see-through object (color paddles, Magna-Tiles, etc..).  This game provided lots and lots of entertainment (and reading practice) for my kids. Here's how it's done..

Teach Your Preschooler to Read!

 

Today I am participating in a guest blogger series on teaching your children to read on Life & Lessons from a Country Road.   In my guest post, I describe some of the lessons I've learned as I taught my twins to read by age 3.5.  Please head over there and check it out!

Homeschool Preschool - April

The twins are 3.5 years old.  I hope some readers have stuck around through my blogging hiatus this month.  We're moving (again) so April involved a lot of sorting through all the kids' toys and homeschool activities and organizing/packing everything.  We still do Homeschool Preschool twice a day, but the packing has drained my creativity so we've stuck with activities that are already on hand.  Here are some highlights..

Tot School - 18 months

Baby H is 18 months old.  I haven't been keeping up with taking photos of all our learning activities and explorations lately, but I really want to write about all the neat thing my little boy has been doing...

Apple Peanut Butter Crunch Snacks for Kids

My kids absolutely love snacks that they can make themselves, and this apple peanut butter crunch do-it-yourself snack fits the bill perfectly!  It's really simple, fun, and tasty.  Here's how we made it..

Homeschool Preschool - Weeks 29 & 30

 

L and E are 3.5 years old.  If you follow this blog and have been wondering what has happened to my plan of doing a book-related activity every day in March, well we've actually been sticking to it.  However, my kids have been doing so great with our Homeschool Preschool sessions lately (2-3 times a day for about an hour each session), that I've kept the book activities pretty simple.  Sometimes we read a book and then watch a YouTube movie about the subject, or complete a puzzle on the theme, etc.. nothing that would be interesting enough to blog about.  Here's a little glimpse of what we've been working on in preschool over the past two weeks..

Rainbow Toast {Painting Bread}

When the girls saw Rainbow Toast in their Highlights High Five Magazine (back-issue from 2007 from Ebay), they begged me to let them try it out... so we did!  This activity was a great way to make a snack using all sorts of Montessori practical life skills and creativity.  Here's how to do it..

Indoor Penguin Snow Play! {Antarctic Antics and My Penguin Osbert}

It snowed this past weekend, but instead of bundling the kids up in layers upon layers of winter clothing, I decided to bring the snow play indoors this time!  And why not integrate it with a mini-unit on penguins?  Here's what we did..

Paper Rainbows Activity {What Makes a Rainbow}

Rainbows seem to be a popular theme in March for St. Patrick's Day, so today the girls and I joined in the fun and made our own paper rainbows.  Our book of the day was What Makes a Rainbow? by Betty Ann Schwartz, and this little activity was a nice way to wrap up our afternoon session of Homeschool Preschool.  Here's how the girls made these lovely rainbows..

Dog Stencils {Hairy Maclary Activity}

I like to take a break from blogging on the weekends so I can spend time with my kids.  We haven't been slacking on our book-a-day challenge for March, though.  Yesterday I read the girls a couple books in the Hairy Maclary series by Lynley Dodd, and our activity was to use make artwork using dog stencils.

Homeschool Preschool - Weeks 27 & 28

L and E are 3.5 years old.  The whole family is now feeling better after nearly a month of being sick with various colds, so we're back to doing more Homeschool Preschool activities.  Here's what we've been up to...

Brown Bear Straw Toppers

Aren't these straw toppers / puppets adorable?  Our book of the day was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle, and I surprised the kids with these super-cute straw-topper puppets.  They were so much fun to make, and we had a great time retelling the story with them...

Sorting Art Cards {Fancy Nancy at the Museum}

Like yesterday's selection, today's book is a vocabulary-builder as well: Fancy Nancy at the Museum by Jane O'Connor.  The Fancy Nancy books are early readers so they aren't literary classics by any means, but my girls (3.5 years old) enjoy them a lot.  In this story, Nancy goes to the art museum on a class field trip.  After an eventful bus ride, the class finally gets to the museum where they are shown the difference between portraits, landscapes, and still life paintings.  Our activity expanded on this concept, as the girls sorted art cards..

Alphabet Soup {Carmine: A Little More Red}

I read somewhere that children's book authors are sent a list of words (mostly sight-words) that they are 'allowed' to use in their books.  I'm not sure if this is true or not, but it makes me sad. That's why I'm always excited to discover a new book that will expand my children's vocabulary.  I absolutely love the book Carmine: A Little More Red by Melissa Sweet which has taught my 3-year-olds some wonderful new words.  The story starts out by explaining that Carmine's grandmother taught her how to read by making alphabet soup.  It then proceeds to retell the story of Little Red Riding Hood where each paragraph highlights one word that starts with each letter of the alphabet.   For our activity today we made our own version of alphabet soup...

Grouping Family Members {Five Creatures}

Today's book of the day was Five Creatures by Emily Jenkins.  It's a fun book about a family with five creatures (a girl, her parents, and two cats) and all the different ways they can be put into groups.  For our activity, the girls drew pictures of our family (eight creatures total) and we came up with different ways of classifying ourselves...

Dr. Deuss Activities for Little Kids

In celebration of the birthday of Dr. Seuss on March 2nd, I thought I'd put together a little roundup of the activities we've done over the past year related to books by Dr. Seuss...