30 Days to Peace (book review)

  What do you look for in a book?  A good plot?  Does it need to be a mystery?  Are you just a fan of the author?  Do you read only a specific genre?  What do you think about adult coloring books?  What defines a book? 

  I have read a lot of books this year.  More then I read last year and hopefully I will read more next year.  You can get so much from a book.  Information, relaxation, spiritual direction and self-help.

  30 Days To Peace is a self help book but, also a device you can use to document your life.  Although this book is only a peek at 30 days it's fun and inspirational.  Each day guides you in a different objective.

  The other pages have bible passages as well as motivating quotes.  Taking a peek at these before I start my day gave me a little more spark for my day.  Then ending my day with the prompt worked great for me.  A time to reflect before and after my day made this a good 30 days.

  This was a nice book and I enjoyed the concept.  It would make a nice gift for anyone as everyone could take a little time out and reflect on their day.  Finding peace in their day, in their space and in their daily routines.

  You can find out more about this book and find out where to purchase it here.


  I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.  All opinions are my own.

Snow Day 3

  The end is near the call came in that there will be no school for another day but, I know after seeing patches of the road and finally the plows that school will be back in session for 2 days this week.

  Every year the kids get a a nice bit of days off.  Either in January or February sometimes even circling around already planned days off.  I can never keep up with if they are at risk of losing a scheduled day off or not but we still have the rest of Jan and Feb to go before we are home free of snow.

  So to avoid that 5 letter word repeated multiple times and sometimes in surround sound I have to get involved.

  We had facials today.  Mud mask treatment for little people because they have treated their skin so badly since they were born that we need to fix it. Or was that an anti aging mask?

We also got to coloring! The kids worked on some adult coloring books and I started in on my new journaling bible!

Of course with snow just outside there is a call for that too.  Of course the requests die down to go outside after the first day.  The newness has worn off but I think they like to see how the snow is feeling on a daily basis.

The salon could also only fit one person in for nails.  So tomorrow everyone else is getting pedicures.  

One more day.  I know when they are gone I'll miss it but, everyone likes a schedule.  A routine gives you piece of mind and keeps you grounded.  To many days without structure is unnerving.

Well lucky for them I have a few more things planned for them so it will pass the time.  Then they will be back in school and the house will be quiet again.  I wonder if they will miss me!

Wouldn't it be so much easier to leave the ares for snow storms?  If I knew I could have had 3 days off along with the weekend we could have went to alot of places (and aways from the snow) Would you leave if you could or stay and play in the snow?

Letter G preschool

G is for gorilla, grapes, goose and Grover.  Those are some of the items on the desk the first day of letter G.

Each week I try to take full advantage of the letter.  Worksheets help with visual skills, hand writing, pre-reading, scissor practice.  Props including games, crafts and other activities help reinforce the learning.  Hands on learning completes the circle of learning.

For this worksheet you listen to the statement and circle the appropriate letter. G is for gumballs!

This worksheet can be used in multiple ways.  Playdough was the chosen resource today but, you can use the dot markers, cereal, candy or pompoms.

I pulled out the letter G stamp to stamp on the goat this week.  He has not seen the letter stamps before now but liked them.

G is for garage.  Of course he didn't make this but, we sat on the floor playing with Legos together.  When I presented him with this we discussed what it was (he called it a shed) and I showed him what to do with it.

Q-tip painting the upper and lowercase G.  I encourage him to slow down and make precise paint dots in the circles.  

Coloring skills are funny to watch.  On color by numbers he just wants to initially color just the number.  No, little man keep coloring. This sheet only needed 4 colors to make the picture when you print in color the directions are in the color you need.  So he can "read" 1 is blue.

Lastly g is for golf.  We got outside got moving and some fresh air.

That concluded our letter G for the week.  Each week I can see his retaining a little bit more and its heartwarming to know I have done that!

Playing with Leaves

  We had some downtime this week and through in some different leave art.  I enjoy using nature in art projects and the kids are amazed that it's even possible.

  We collected leaves and continue to collect them randomly for projects.

  I started with introducing my daughter to shading the leaf.

  She thought this activity was neat.  We had went outside and collected three different leaves.  Different sizes and shapes are the best!  I then showed her how to hold the crayon and shade over the leaf in order to get the best result.  After that it got better when we used several colors to shade one leaf versus one color.

  Next we taped a leaf to the window and she traced it.  This opened up new opportunities to her because she understands we are using the light from the other side to allow us to trace.  She is ready to trace everything now.

  Lastly I saw this activity on Pinterest.  Using coffee filters we drew leaves and cut them out.  Then dropped paint on the leaves allowing the colors to blend then dry and that's it.  We used food coloring which gave it the same effect I believe just a little messier.  Because of the filter the paints blend nicely and it looks so close to a real leaf.

  

The kids enjoyed their leaf play day.  I can't wait to do it again and am patiently waiting for some leave changes!

Multiple Elmer (Pinterest Challenge)

  Have you read Elmer?  It is a book about an elephant, a multi colored elephant.  One who gets tired of feeling different.  He wants to be the same as everyone else. His present state of a patchwork of all colors makes him feel self conscience.  He decides to paint himself gray like his friends.  He eventually figures out what happens when you try to act like something you are not.

 The story of Elmer tries to teach us that we are the way we are and sometimes when we try to change who we are and it's really not necessary.  The people you have in your life accept you and like you for who you are.  Kids need reinforcement to know that their differences are no excuse to change and certainly no reason to make fun of people.

  To emphasize the beauty of Elmer we made some crafts to go along with the book.  We started with a color by number sheet.  My daughter had to follow directions to color the appropriate numbers.  However you could just skip the directions and color Elmer whatever colors you want.  That's the true fun of this book.

The second craft we did was to recycle good old toilet paper rolls.  She selected a color of her choice and we constructed an elephant.

Lastly we pulled out the Legos.  My daughter is getting better with directions.  Legos make it easy to assemble their projects.  Step by step she followed the instructions to build her very own Elmer.

  Reading a book and following it up with a craft or two helps your child in multiple ways.  A child is able to recreate a scene, reflect on a important point or summarize the overall story.  Creating a project is not only fun, the child is making a lasting memory of a story as well as bringing it to life.  We found all our projects on Pinterest.

  Pinterest is a great resource to tie books together.  With a little research you can find projects including  crafts, food, coloring sheets, lesson plans as well as other theme related books.

  We had fun with this project and I can't wait to read and craft another book with the kids.

Artist Trading Cards (ATC's)

  I randomly like to post the status of a group I am closely related to.  It is a group full of artistic kids.  Kids of all ages and artistic abilities.  Kids from all over the world to include homeschool and public school kids as well as teachers for elementary classes are involved.  Church groups have participated as well.  Any group is invited to join not just individual kids!

  I was introduced to ATC's a couple years ago through another group and eventually started to participate myself before bringing my kids into it.

  Artistic Trading Cards (ATC's) are cards made, designed or decorated  by any means.  The cards are 2.5 by 3.5 in size and traded in group themed events or individually.

  My kids group available on Facebook is comprised of children ranging in age of 4 years old up through teenagers.  Most of the trading is done in the group themed events.  I offer a different them event every week.  Kids make 3 cards for the theme and mail them to me.  I receive all cards and mail different cards back to the participants.

   Kids enjoy mailing the cards off and receiving cards from different kids in different locations.  There is room for more kids if your interested comment below.

  Come back tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday to see the variety of cards!