In my weekly series about our Tot-School, this week I go over our Calendar Time Routine: what we do now, what our goals in the future are and how I get my tot involved and taking ownership of this skill developing time each day!

http://runningtheraceb4me.com/2013/05/12/sunday-song-series-guest-post-by-candace-cameron-bure/

Over at the blog we have started a series of customized curriculum with the help of an experienced preschool teacher.   In recent years it has become popular to jump around the alphabet rather than learning the ABC song, that way the child learns the letters rather than a song.  This week on the blog we are focusing on the…

If intelligence is the ability to learn, then babies are born geniuses!

Yesterday when I went to pick up my son from daycare, he was playing and having a great time.  The teacher was letting all of the kids in his classroom play with puzzles and my son was trying very hard to get the puzzle pieces into the right spot.  It was fun to watch him play and learn a new skill.  I…

In our home Tot-School is basically purposeful playtime with a tad of structure to it and some goals. We base our Tot-School off of a Bible Story each week and add in other age-appropriate lessons (for example, Noah's Ark is a week we learn about animals, rainbows, colors, the number 2 and the word "pair") --- do YOU do Tot-School (or a version of it at your home)??

Check out my full post here - including how we "structure" our Tot-School days:…

Yesterday I shared about my “oxygen mask” approach to life these days – the need for us, the caregivers, to care for ourselves so we are better equipped to care for those who truly need us.  I shared a few changes that I have made in my life in order to focus on my own health and strength (and sanity!).

A few minutes ago I was reading a devotional for today.  I have several that I read through on any…

Increasing your child's vocabulary happens one word at a time.  A word you introduce, and have fun using!  My blog is adding a word a week!

That's right Fleeple! Today's word is Divine.<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/B4QovwEwGIg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

DIVINE heavenly, beautiful



It appears in <em>Enjella Uprooted: A Tooth Fairy Gets A New Job</em> on page 9:

“She’s just…

Computer time is something I have recently started doing with both girls. At this point, M loses interest  pretty quickly. Recently we started getting on starfall.com and both girls love it; L more so than M. I now know the types of activities on there that keep M's attention. 

L has been very interested in writing and trying to write her letters. We have a very cool dry erase tablet where she can trace her letters. We do different activities that helps with this too. I get a lot of ideas from Pinterest. She loves to try, she concentrates so hard and gets so excited when something clicks and she "gets" whatever it is that she's trying to do! When we are about to do a "sit down activity," I'll have a few ideas in mind and I'll ask her if she wants to do a…

It's not fair to compare the girls and say one went through this and the other one didn't (although that's how I was thinking earlier today). But as I sit here thinking about what I really want to say, I started to think about how "at this age" they both have had different circumstances. M is 26 months old right now and will do just about anything she can to antagonize L; When L was 26 months old, M was only 16 months old new to walking around and barely talking. L didn't have much to…

In my early lit class we read the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff. I talked to the kids about Cause and Effect or Action vs. Reaction. I asked questions like: If you demand a glass of juice by saying, "Mom! Get me some juice now!", what kind of reaction do you think you'll get from your mom? If you asked nicely and said "please?", what…

     Unless you have had the chance to read about us from the beginning, our youngest son, Nathan, was diagnosed almost four years ago. My husband and I have an older son besides the two older children I have from my first marriage. My eighteen year old son has enlisted in the military and goes off to basic training in February. My twenty-two year old daughter has blessed me with a grandson who just turned two years old. She is pregnant…

Originally posted on my blog, "Reading is Elementary"

http://readingiselementary.blogspot.com/2013/02/toontastic-project.html

I am embarking on a new project with a group of second graders.  These are students I pull for RTI purposes and they are super excited to have the opportunity to work on a project that involves reading, research, and culminates with a Toontastics cartoon where…

Sometimes it is the simple things that keep them entertained (and learning) the longest. (Remember the colander and pipe cleaners?)

This week we had fun exploring simple chemical reactions. You guessed it, this momma brought out the vinegar and baking soda!

To contain the mess I sprinkled the baking soda in a cake pan first. I let the kids touch it and play with it a bit before I brought out the second ingredient.

Then I brought out small container of vinegar. I didn’t…

http://earthgirlsrock.com/sight-word-dice…

Originally posted on my blog Reading is Elementary

http://readingiselementary.blogspot.com/2013/02/awesome-idea-flipping-book-study-and-pbl.html

Awesome Idea: Flipping a Book Study and PBL

Will I ever have a schedule that works that I can stick to?

Probably not, as things are always changing; the kids needs, my needs, our goals, etc. But I can keep trying, right?!…