Our Pre-School Beginning

Its that time of year when everyone is getting ready for the school year. We decided to do pre-school things our way for our 3 year old, and that includes a lot of fun things!

1) Check out your library/community center
We recently registered for some "tot" classes that include story times, crafting, and creative movement. Some of them were free, and some were a small fee, but well worth it since they are one day a week for a couple of months.
Our library has story times as well as a bookstore where they sell books for just 25 cents!


2) Check out thrift stores and your local teacher stores.

I found this clock in a thrift store for just $2. Noel can't tell time yet, and I don't expect her to, but this is a great puzzle that teaches number order, shapes, colors, and so much more. When she is ready for time, it has the clock hands and teaches seconds/minutes/hours.

3) Puzzles/ Letter practice

Noel already knows the letters and sounds. Now she is practicing reading short words. With Christmas approaching, she is recognizing her name EVERYWHERE!

Don't underestimate the use of handy workbooks, flashcards and quiz games. The workbooks were B1G1 free at Staples!

 

These letter cards were ours when we were little, so I laminated them to help them stay sturdy. If you want more lamination ideas, check out this post.

Use simple ribbon/rope to practice letters!

Cards like these penmanship cards I recently made are handy.

They are only 4x6, so they're a perfect size for little hands/purses/backpacks. There are many dry-erase options nowadays (markers/crayons/low-odor). They are for sale in my shop for just $1 this week! They come double-sided with one side having dashed letters.

3) Get Hands-On
We love our easel, playing with play-doh, things around the house.... and studying nature. When weather permits, I expect to go outside and explore even more. If you want a homemade play-doh recipe, check out this post! Want to make some spelling spools? Check out this post!

4) Routine....we have started a short morning and evening routine. There are just 4 things on this list I made with simple clip art, and then laminated it. Noel gets to mark off the tasks with a dry erase marker, which she LOVES to do.

Read More

Spelling With Spools

My 3 year old is learning to put words together, so I put together some spelling spools for her to practice making small words for a start.
So far, I have made only 4 spool-spinners, as I call them, but more can always be made if there are more words we want to practice.

Also, if you decide to make some, don't feel like you need to keep them on dowels....it may be just as fun to leave the spools loose, and allow your child/students switch out spools and practice forming random words on their own once they are ready.

I like them on dowels just because I don't want to mess with losing any, and it helps make them easy and portable.

These could be adapted for other subjects such as math and reading too!
Try separating prefixes and suffixes or teaching syllables with the spools. You can choose to add a little space to a dowel to allow letters to be spaced and sandwiched as close or as far apart as you wish.

Have students use a pencil or a straw for another safe alternative if you don't have a wooden dowel.
(Supervise children at all times)
What we used:

Wooden dowels  (3/16th inches diameter x 12 inches long)
Wooden ball knobs with 3/16th in. hole

Wooden spools (3/16th in. x 7/8th in. ; 1/4in. hole)
(I tried recycling some spent thread spools, but found they didn't work as well)
Paint (optional)

 Letter Stickers ( you can also write the letters on if you rather)

1) Once you have your supplies, determine what words you want to make.

Our 4 spools spinners were made to spell the following words, but feel free to make your spelling spools with any words you want!

 Spinner 1) HE ME WE
Spinner 2) POP TOP HOP
Spinner 3)RED FED BED RUN FUN BUN RAT BAT FAT
Spinner 4) HAT CAT BAT HALL BALL CALL

(I realize we did bat twice, but it's OK ;)

2) Cut your dowels to a desired length...our dowels were little enough, I made an indention with a pair of scissors and then just broke it by hand in seconds.
3) Add your spools and knob endings.
4) Apply stickers on spools accordingly. For the spool size we chose, we could fit 3 different letter choices on each spool if we wanted to.
Try to match up words that share a similar ending or beginning.
5) Coat the spools with a layer of mod podge or clear paint to keep the stickers in tact.

These fit perfectly in a child's hands, and they have fun twisting the spools around to make various words!

POP, BALL, HE, RED

 Turn them a little to reveal new words: HOP, CALL, ME, BED

NOTE: Supervise children when using these...not meant to be put in mouths ;)

Read More

Children's Book Review..and a Giveaway

I know my giveaways aren't the most popular giveaways out there, but if you happen by this blog post, I hope that you will comment and take my recommendation for this adorable book. If I happen to get a minimum of 10 comments on this post, I will give a new copy of this book away to one lucky commentor.

Let me introduce you to Caps For Sale  by Esphyr Slobodkina.

This is a wonderful story..."A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business" as it is also known. It was originally written in 1938.

Growing up in the 80's, this book was a must at my bedtime when I was little. I will never forget my parents would read this story to me and imitate the actions and voice of the peddler as he meandered throughout the town trying to sell his stack of caps he wore on his head. When he is confronted with monkeys who steal his caps when he is sleeping, the peddler is so frustrated and tries everything he can to get them back!
Does he get them back? You will have to read it to see ;)....or google it since now we are in the 21st century and have such a luxury.
Back in my day (sounds funny coming from me), when the Reading Rainbow guy posed this question, I really did have to read it to find out.

What's even better about this book, and why it means so much to me, is that it has stood the test of time and wear...now cozy on the bookshelf in my daughters room. Its so fun for me to read it to her several nights a week when she excitedly requests "caps" for one of her bedtime stories.

I try to make the voices and actions just as I remember my parents doing, and much to my enjoyment, she can recite half of the story back to me in her own cute voices.
The handrawn pictures are also a special treat.

Books are a necessity in our house, and I prefer them over any toy or stuffed animal that can be bought. I hope this book can bring joy to another family, as it has done mine for the past 25+ years.

The book is perfect for ages 2+, in my opinion....even an older child would enjoy it.
It is available in English and Spanish, so the winner can let me know which they prefer.

Give it as a gift, use it in a classroom or donate it to a child who may not get new books often.

To Enter:
 Please share this giveaway with friends and like me on FB.
Leave one comment below letting me know you did!

If you feel like it, follow my blog too by GFC at the top right side of this blog.
Winning comment will be chosen on 4/27/12...my daughter's 3rd birthday!

 I am not in this just to have a ton of likes, so if you really wont find ideas about organizing and crafting with your family interesting, then please dont like my page. Thank you

Read More

Fun can be cheap ;)

Fun doesn't have to break the bank...
here are just 3 ideas we have started to experiment with and use in our house! More posts of more things are to come, of course...afterall, thats what LifeCreated is about ;)

Living in Arizona for the past 2 years, we have figured out a way to have fun at home/indoors when it is so hot outside, or when the budget is tight.

Maybe these 3 ideas can help you when you have an hour to kill or some kiddos to entertain.

1) Sensory box!--I put mine on the porch for us to play with outside...cool evenings or mornings are perfect for this...today alone, it kept Noel for about an hour!!

Find a tote of any size you wish and fill it with different textural items...let your toddler go crazy just exploring everything in the tub. My 2 year old, Noel, has a fascination with pouring, so she could sit and pour beans from one cup to another forever if I let her.
We just put this together today, so I have yet to fill the box up completely the way I like. Even with just a few things in the box, Noel spent quite a while pouring shaking the beans around.

Here are some things you can use:
Box (I used a flat rate shipping box I had laying around= FREE!)
Cups and scoops
 Funnels
 Pinto beans
 Lentils
 Rice (might be more messy)
Different shaped pasta
 Large wooden beads

I plan on hiding little things in the box for discovery also...little trinkets, etc.

Head over to the dollar store and see what you can find for your box!!




2) Painting with water...what couldnt be better on a warm, boredom-filled day.
Give your kids a cup of water and a paint brush and let them go at it, painting away at the ground.
This is a free project that not only gets them outside, but has no mess!!

Practice drawing shapes or letters...my two year old knows all of her letters, but we also practice the sounds of those letters...she knows almost all of those too!

Today, we practiced spelling out her name...

3) Tape on the ground

I couldnt figure out a good way to take a picture of my tape on the ground, but the name should be pretty self-explanatory without one...
all I did was take a roll of blue painters tape.. you could use any tape, but maksing and painters tape do come off of carpet really easily...and taped a long 10 foot line in the middle of my living room.

Noel really loves to practice walking on it with "airplane arms" during the week, so she is ready to go on the real balance beam in her gymanstics class.

Other games you can play with the line are jumping side to side from one end of the line to another, walking backwards on the line, doing forward rolls on the line, and "hopping like a bunny" down the line...Noel loves to do them all.
...this is what Hope did while were having all of the fun...

I hope you try these at your house, with your kids.

Read More

Rope Letters

Do you have a piece of ribbon or twine or a thin rope laying around you have no use for?
Well, if you have little kids who still have to learn their letters,  you may have a use for this rope, afterall.

In my daughter's mommy and me gymnastics class, the girls were given jump ropes and then asked to form letters using the jump rope. Later that day when we got home, my daughter found a piece of ribbon that I had out on my kitchen table (aka my craft table) and she proceeded to "make an O".

Try this at home with your kids! A great way to play and learn together with something so simple as a piece of ribbon.

Make sure you supervise all children when playing with strings/rope/ribbon, etc. as they may pose a danger.

I found that a piece about 2 feet long was great for making good-sized letters on the ground.
If you want, you could even cut a smaller piece- maybe 8 inches long or so, and keep it in your purse in case there is ever a long wait at a restaurant or some place like that.

We opened a letter book we had so that my daughter could mimic the letter shapes she saw visually.


I hope your kids have fun learning with you!

EXTRA IDEAS:

• Make a sound of a letter and ask your child to form the letter for the sound you are making
• Come up with a movement for each letter. (Example, form a "J" and then ask he/she to do some jumping jacks)
• Try the upper case and lower case forms of the letters

Read More