Learning Letters and Sounds with Flashcards

Being a teacher, I couldn't resist showing these to you! I stumbled upon this idea as I was looking for some baby/sewing tutorials, and thought I should share the work of this talented mom with you! If you are a mom of a preschooler or a care-giver of any sort, read on!

Homemade by Jill is a blog I have visited before. In this post of hers, she shows off these cute little flashcards that she made to teach her son the letters of the alphabet and the sounds each letter makes. I have a son who is reading a bunch already (and not quite in school yet) and a daughter who couldn't care less about letters and numbers. However, the ballerina card was pretty catchy for her, so she looked through them all. :)

Thought I would share them with you. . . the teacher in me thought they were very cute and very useful. Laminate, punch a hole and put them on a ring, and you have an instant "book" to take along with you in the car or to read before bed.

(One warning I do have for you if you are printing them off, the "regular" print option had a few glitches when I tried it. . .some of the letters needed a bit of fixing before laminating.)

*Image taken from Homemade by Jill post (see link above)

Summer Reading Review Continued

If you missed my first post about the summer reading club I am doing with my kiddos (and are interested in reading it), go to this post.
Otherwise, here is a continuation of my {humble} reviews a few of the books we've read together.

Week of July 19-25

The Turn-Around, Upside Down Alphabet Book by Lisa Campbell Ernst.

See the little sticker on the book? This one is recommended by the library to develop early reading and literacy skills.

In my humble opinion, I'd have to agree!
This book is great. I remember taking it out last summer with my son, and he found it again this year and loved it! Each letter is big and bold in the middle of the page, set against a contrasting-like background. Then you have to turn the book to view the "picture each letter creates at each angle. The denellian writing tells you what you should be able to see. This year it was neat to see E show Princess A what the picture was supposed to be and even read some of the words. It was also neat to see if they came up with another picture than the ideas given in the book. Later on E even made a picture out of the letters in his name. . .not quite following the way the book uses letters to make pictures, but it sparked something of interest for him, so I'm grateful for this book. Princess A tried to join in, but her pictures are usually just blobs of colour at this point. My only negative for this book is that because most children's books are not written using denallian writing, some of the letters caused him some trouble in reading (ie: the letter k).

The Princess Party by Joy Allen

If you have a princess in your house, you can't NOT take this book out! It's a little rhyming story about a group of girls having a princess party. It's very cute in that you see each girl dressed as a different kind of princess--from ballerinas to cowgirls. . .and you see their "real" clothes under their dress-up attire. The photos also show a little brother in the background (hee-hee!) of many of these scenes. Another creative bit to the pictures is that when the rhymes refer to "castles" or real princess-type words, the girls are shown jumping on a trampoline or playing something in the backyard--again, spurring the imaginative minds of little kids.

My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall.

You might be familiar with other books by Michael Hall, but this one was just GREAT! Again, rhyming verses about animals, all created using various sizes and colours of hearts. This book can definitely be a good one to have around Valentine's day, along with a google search on making animals out of hearts. Many "teacher pages" have printables on how to make dogs or penguins (two I've used) using different sizes of hearts for a Valentine craft or Centre activity.

Week of July 26-August 1

Whose Garden Is It? by Mary Ann Hoberman; Illustrated by Jane Dyer

I chose this book for my kiddos because we had been weeding the garden and "tending" to its growth(its amazing how you can get a little bit of watering done to your garden during a water/sprinkling-ban when you give a kid the nozzle!) But this book went far beyond any gardening information. It showed ALL the parts of a garden and environmental factors that work together to make a garden grow. So when the question "Whose Garden Is IT?" is posed, it becomes clear that this is not an easy-answered question. Very thought provoking. Perhaps a little beyond my kiddos in terms of the thinking process, but still quite enjoyable. It would definitely be a good book to read along with any plant, garden, or spring unit in school.

The Animals Watched: An Alphabet Book
I LOVED this books too!This was great because we recently bought some passes to the zoo, and as small as our {local} zoo is, many of the animals in this book are at the zoo. Aside from an illustration of that particular animal, the minds eye was at work. The book told the story of Noah from the perspective of each of the alphabetical animals. I thought that was very creative. The other thing I liked about this book was that it didn't pick common animals. B wasn't for bear. (Yes, Z was for zebra, but come on, what other animals that started with Z could have walked two by two into the Ark?) Capybaras and Kiwis were featured. Then, at the back of the book, there were a few pages giving a brief paragraph of information about each of the animals (where the lived, what they ate, etc). In a household of Zaboomafoo-watchers, this book was definitely a hit!

Week of August 2

Yah. . .lost the photos on my camera, so. . .from memory, here goes. . .

Elevator Magic by ?

This book was good in terms of teaching some basic math skills. It did some addition and subtractions of what floor the elevator had to go to. (ie: 7-2=5. . .they had to be on the fifth floor if they were to go down two floors). But the "magic" part of this book was kinda dumb--in my humble opinion. The kid lands up on a floor and there is a farm taking over the bank. . or something along that line. There is nothing in the book that builds up to these weird occurrences on each floor and nothing that ties it all together except that it has been a fun and weird day type of ending. I could've done without this one. . .

Sea Creatures by?

Again. . .not sure who wrote it or published it. . .but it was an information book. The kind your kid takes home from the school library and you dread reading it with them because it goes on forever! This one was good in that it just had a few paragraphs on each page. We read a few each day, and it was bearable for me, and very interesting for E.

I know there was one really good book this week, but can't think of it at this point. Need the photo to jog my memory!!! I promise that next week I won't delete photos and I'll have a few more reviews for ya!

Summer Reading Reviews

Well, we have joined the local summer reading club at our library. We being the kiddos. (As if I have time to read!!! Maybe in the future I can give it a try!) We read daily anyway, and being a teacher, I have quite the collection of books here at home, but this does force me to go to the Library each week and gives the kids the opportunity to pick out books and a video of their own choosing. (Okay, I admit, I jump right in there and offer my own suggestions to them as well! I love children's books!)




I did the summer reading club last year with E, and he thought it was great to collect the stickers and find the poster of the "frog" around the library. This year E and Princess A are doing it, only difference being the search is not for a frog to find this year, its a little guy. They are loving it. (The power of being able to put a sticker on a fancy paper for children! I love it!)


So. . .just to do something with it. . .I thought I would offer my {humble} opinion of some of the selections our family has chosen. I'm going to try to review two a week, but as you can see, I'm already quite behind! But here goes a try!

Weeks of July 12-23

Billy & Milly, Short & Silly by Eve Feldman and illustrated by Tuesday Mourning (hee-hee--isn't that cute? We did not read it on a Tuesday morning. . .that was our Library day!)



This is an amazing book--one that would be appreciated more by kids older than pre-school, but was still quite interesting to my 5 yr old. It is a bunch of "short word stories" that rhyme. This book relies heavily on the photos to help tell the story, and teaches synonyms. An example of our own short word story is "tree, me, flee!" The pictures would show a tree, me standing my a tree, the tree getting cut down, me running away before it falls down on me. Get it? I found E asking many times, "What does mean?" So hopefully his knowledge of words/vocabulary is expanded because of reading this book. :) We tried to make up some ideas for stories on our own, but that was too hard at this age, but it would be a great way for a teacher to use the book!

*A good book to teach vocabulary for younger grades or ESL.




Gnash, Gnaw, Dinosaur! by Tony Mitton and Lynne Chapman


This book is great fun--a rhyming information book about dinosaurs! E is totally into dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures right now, so this book was an easy find for him. Lots of information packed into the pages (about 6 lines per page?) The other cool thing about this book is that it has fold out pages that show/ talk about different traits about dinosaurs--for example: one page showed a dinosaur (an apatosaurus?) eating low, and then if you fold the page out, it shows how high it can stretch its neck. Pretty neat, huh? And all kids love fold out pages. (Thank goodness our kids are beyond the breaking books phase, otherwise, this would be hands-off for them!)






Ma! There's Nothing to Do Here! by Barbara Park


What a cute book! I met a friend in the library, and she found this book for me. She is getting ready to have #2 (so she looks like the cover of the book) and my little man is getting well over that newborn stage. When she offered it as a suggestion to me, she said that her mom had found this book for her. It is a story about a baby's perspective of being "trapped" inside and the things going through his/her little mind as he/she grows and gets ready to be born. It is very well done, and after reading it, my kids had a lot to talk about with their new baby sibling! It was neat to hear to hear them say, "Was I like that?" and "Is that what little A did in your tummy?" And it is a very cute book for every mom who knows the feelings of jumpy, bumpy, wiggly, jiggly babies inside! :)



You're All My Favorites by Sam McBratney and illustrated by Anita Jeram.


This book is by the same author (and illustrator) as Guess How Much I Love You and a few others with these same characters. A feel-good story about sibling bears who are trying to figure out who their mom and dad love best. Then mom and dad go through reasons why they are each unique and special--and all their favourites! My kids were smiling the whole time. It's just a good, wholesome book! We've read the other one mentioned, and this one was quite similar in style and feel-good-ness.





This book was SUPER special to me because the three bears are the same as my three kids (same age, order, some of the same traits, etc). It was neat to see my oldest be able to make that connection as we read it. (My younger one had to be walked through the connections.)


And, as a mom who LOVES kids and who knows three is it for us, this one got me a bit teary. It reminded me once again that God made each of my kids special for me, for our family, and for his purposes. They are each unique and special for their own reasons--just as in the book.



Well, until next week. . .happy reading!

A Great Book--Emma's Journal

I read a great book!!! It's called Emma's Journal –a novella Ed Rowell (2003, WaterBrook Press, Colorado Springs, CO).

I'm not very good at picking out books for myself so I generally rely on the opinions of others as a way to choose books. The Shack, The Flamboya Tree—those are a few GREAT ones I have read on the advice of others. A few weeks back I was chatting with my sister on the phone and she said she had a book for me. All my sister said was, "You are going to LOVE it!" And she was right!

The book is essentially about how an old woman was able to touch so many lives by putting the words of Luke 2:52 into practice. Yep, I dare you. Go look it up. Not a clearly laid out verse with instructions on how to change the world! But through the story and many lives that become intertwined, Rowell wrote about how this woman was able to slowly change lives by making some small changes in her own life.

Some things I liked about the book:

1. Rowell deals with some big issues and life events in a small book. Being a "Christian" book, he doesn't sugar-coat these issues or events, and they are not all solved by the end of the novella. I think a person who doesn't believe in Christ could pick up this book and find many truths and many relationships to his or her own life in the story.

2. The characters are not common, nor are they the Hollywood-type of creations. They are characters you and I could relate to—and you can probably find something in common with at least one of them, even if you don't really want to!

3. During the funeral celebration of the main character, Rowell carefully entices you into the salvation message. How wonderful to hear about God's saving grace for all at a funeral where there are people who need to hear it present.

4. The Journal.

Let me further explain #4! The main character in the book was named Emma. She was a grown widowed woman whose two children had already moved out of the house and had busy lives of their own. Emma accepted Christ and made it her goal to learn more about God. One day she stumbled upon Luke 2:52 and from there created her "Living on Purpose Journal." While the book explains it so clearly and eloquently, I'm going to give you an abridged version with the HUGE encouragement to read the book on your own!

Reflecting on the verse, Emma believed, "The verse sums up Jesus' life from the time he was twelve until he began his public ministry around the age of 30" (p. 89 of Emma's Journal). Emma interpreted Luke 2:52 in a way that she could break it up into four areas:

Intellectual=wisdom

Physical=stature

Spiritual=favor with God

Relational=favor with man

Emma proceeded to make small attainable goals in each of those areas to grow in the same fashion as Jesus did, or for us, closer to our Father. She made, "Just a little goal or a little step to take. She said if she couldn't do it, it was too big and she'd break it down into something simple. When that little step became a habit, she'd take another step" (Emma's Journal, p. 91) For example (and note that some of these are taken from the book), a spiritual goal might be to read a psalm each day or memorize one Bible verse each day. A physical goal might be to walk 15-20 minutes each day or learn how to play baseball. An intellectual goal might be to learn Spanish or read one of the classics each month. A relational goal might be to politely greet the people you walk by each day or bring a meal over to a neighbor.

There are two things I like about her goals. One thing is that they are small and attainable. So often we set goals for ourselves that are out of reach, too hard for us to do on our own, or take too long. Emma made them small and simple and built upon then, rather than shooting big right away. Each small goal or step may lead to one of these big ones, but it was enough for her to take it one step at a time, one bit at a time, rather than biting off more than she could chew and getting frustrated at a "failure." Another thing I liked about her goals was that she kept herself accountable to them. She took four areas of her life, looked at small things she could do to change these areas and made a plan. Then she wrote them in a journal to keep herself accountable. And before you get discouraged about the fact that this might involve journaling, I need to tell you about how many people had a journal in this book! (Yes, I know, it's just a book, but I think it is a book that could possibly happen!) The journaling wasn't long and wordy, it was just a goal (and more if you wanted), just to keep yourself accountable. Just so that, if the goal wasn't becoming a habit, you could re-visit it and figure out how you could make it attainable. Or so you would remember it!

On the first page of her "Living on Purpose Journal," Emma had written this:

"When it's time for me to go, I just want to know that my life made a difference. Lord, help me to take advantage of every opportunity to touch others in ways that demonstrate your love."

I can't argue with a statement like that. I'm not sure than many people can. But Emma also recognized that touching the lives of others with God's love was going to happen by just carrying on life as usual or sitting quietly in her house. And so she developed her journal as a way to ensure that she was demonstrating God's love in 4 aspects of her life.

When my sister had told me about this book, she said, "I know you and (another name) have been pushing me to use a journal, but I think this is a way of journaling that makes sense." Who knows? Whether this book (or this little, humble blog entry) encourages you to journal, I hope it does encourage you to take advantage of the opportunities that God gives to you to share His love with others.