Frugal Living

Preschool Prep: Science and Nature

October 26, 2013 By Thaleia Leave a Comment

Preschool Prep: Science and Nature

Is Science and Nature part of your Preschool Prep? How do you teach Preschoolers about Science and Nature? Simple. Lots of hands-on exploration and activities. Children are naturally curious so build on that curiosity and you will be surprised at how much they will learn.

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What is Preschool Prep?

Do you have a young child or two who has outgrown Tot School and is ready for Preschool? Have you looked at all the free online choices during your preschool preparation? Does thinking about preschool curriculum make your head spin? Well, I know that the amount of free “Letter of the Week” and “Themed” curriculum is astounding.

I am creating the Preschool Prep series to help other moms and caregivers out! I have spent lots of time researching and planning for Preschool for Lil’ Red and I want to pass on this wealth of knowledge and resources to my readers!

I plan to share a variety of ideas and ways to prepare yourself, your environment, and your child for preschool in a multi-part series. I could create a super long and over whelming post with tons and tons of ideas, but I do not want to add frustration to your Preschool Prep situation. I want to share ideas for learning letters, numbers, colors, shapes, name recognition, character studies, etc. I will share with you very simple activities you can create yourself or some items you could look for during garage sale season. I am hoping to lessen your time and the amount of money you spend by sharing what I am doing.

Science and Nature

Take a walk around your yard, block, park, or neighborhood. Head to a nature park if you have one nearby. Be sure to take a magnifying glass or box with you to get an up close look at the new things you might find! Check with your states Department of Natural resources for free local field guides or stop by your library for resources for your area.

Basic Supplies:

Magnifying Glass

Binoculars

Field Guides

Nature Story Books

Natural Materials-simple to find with a quick walk around your yard or around the block

Hands-on Learning:

FREE Science Discovery Curriculum for Early Childhood– 75 core science-related learning experiences,with coordinating lesson plans

Dental Health

Skeletal System

Bird Study

Games and Active Activities:

Make Neighborhood Tree Guide for Kids- Kid World Citizen

Learning About Trees with Wooden Train Tracks

Things to Make:

Check out other posts within the Preschool Prep Series:

Preschool Assessment

Preschool Prep: Curriculum

Preschool Prep: Art and Music

Preschool Prep: Learning Shapes

Preschool Prep: Learning Letters

Creative Ways to Organize Crafts

October 16, 2013 By Thaleia 6 Comments

Creative Ways to Organize Crafts

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. What better way to reuse frappuccino bottles, spaghetti bottles, spice shakers, and large snack containers than to house craft supplies? If your family is at all crafty, then you probably run into the dilemma of how to store your craft supplies.

One problem is that most craft supplies come in non-resealable bags. Once you tear or cut open those bags then you now have craft supplies on the loose. I love creative ways to organize crafts that DO NOT COST MONEY! That’s where clean empty bottle come into play. Save your empty bottles that have good fitting lids. I would save more plastic than glass if you want your children to access the craft materials without your assistance.

My hubby was on a frappe kick for awhile and it was cheaper to buy the four pack then buy them individually. Of course I save one holder and the bottle to reuse them. I did throw out quite a few holders BEFORE I had the brilliant idea of re-purposing them!

We love our pom-poms and beads. We have beads in all sorts of kinds of materials like wood, plastic, and glass as well as all sorts of sizes!

What home with school-agers and preschool would be complete without FOAM stickers! We got all sorts of those, too! Since my Lil’ Red likes to use them I made sure the containers were plastic. Just so happens I save my spice containers and parmesan containers just for these sorts of things!

We cannot forget to mention all those wonderful seasonal sensory bin items! What do you do with them out-of-season? How about storing them in a jumbo UTZ pretzel or cheese puff container. This one was given to us by my parents!

Go dig into your recycle bin and save a container for your crafts or hobby items. Yes, get up and go right now! Wash it out. Allow to air dry and think of what craft material you will put inside!

Stop by and enter to win a Keurig:

Do you have craft materials that need organizing? What ways do you plan to reuse something you already have for organization?

Creative Coffee Crafts

October 15, 2013 By Thaleia 7 Comments

Creative Coffee Crafts

What better way to involve your children in your coffee ~~addiction~~-I mean habit- then to allow them to have fun making a creative coffee craft. There are so many fun things you can do with coffee filters and coffee grounds that I thought a quick round-up would help. I asked some very helpful friends from Kid Blogger Network and got a ton of great ideas.
If you recently switched to a Keurig and now have extra coffee filters, then you have come to the right place for creative inspiration. If you are like me there’s no way you’d throw the old coffee filters out. What about all the things you can do with coffee grounds? Have you thought about using your coffee grounds for a craft or project around the house?

Maybe you are not the creative type, but would love some “green” craft ideas to do with children. You have come to the right place for creative coffee crafts featuring coffee grounds, coffee beans, coffee filters and even coffee cans!

Coffee Ground Crafts and Activities

Tea and Coffee Sensory Tray

Coffee Filter Crafts and Activities

Pipettes and Coffee Filters

Rainbow suncatchers

Coffee filter sunflower

Coffee Bean Crafts and Activities

Coffee Can Crafts and Activities

Stop by the Warm Up to Fall Keurig Giveaway.

Warm Up to Fall Keurig Giveaway

October 13, 2013 By Thaleia 1 Comment

Warm Up to Fall Keurig Giveaway

With cooler weather approaching I thought, ” What better way to Warm Up to Fall than with a Keurig?” We were able to purchase a Keurig this Summer for an astonishingly cheap price and LOVE IT! I have had my eye on a Keurig for a couple of years but with prices so high it was not something that we were going to purchase full price or the first generation machine. So glad I waited.

My daughter loves making lemonade and sweet tea. My hubby loves making dark roast coffee. My oldest son loves making hot chocolate. I love being able to heat water up super fast!

I have teamed up with an incredible group of bloggers in order to offer our reader’s a chance to win a Keurig Brewing System! Yes, you read that right. One loyal and lucky winner will WIN a Keurig B40 Elite Brewing System This giveaway would not be possible without the wonderful bloggers who joined with me. Without further ado here they are:

Meet your Host:

Meet your Co-Hosts:

Meet our Sponsors:

Enter to win below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Big Kindle Fire Giveaway Blog Hop

September 25, 2013 By Thaleia 28 Comments

Big Kindle Fire Giveaway Blog Hop

A Big Kindle Fire Giveaway Blog Hop www.teachersofgoodthings.com

Myself and a team of 22 other bloggers have joined together to offer 3 winners a Kindle Fire (valued at $159! each). Yep, we are giving away 3 Kindle Fires and there is a BIG chances you can win one but first you have to enter this BIG Giveaway Blog Hop.

Here is how it works…

Comment on my blog by answering the question – you will get one entry
Once you left a comment, enter as many or all of the entries by following or liking each of the Bloggers on the social media platforms you use – if you DO enter them all, you will get 46 entries in this giveaway for this option
Visit the other bloggers to learn about the sponsors of this BIG Kindle Fire Giveaway and leave a comment to let us know you stopped by

If you counted it all up, you could have 47 chances to win a Kindle Fire, in 3 different drawings. If you don’t have enough time to enter all these entries or visit the sponsors right now, be sure to come back before October 1st, midnight EST, when it closes.

Let’s meet the Sponsors of this BIG Kindle Fire Giveaway Blog Hop…

Extreme Couponing, Stretching a Buck Blog

Winners will be notified by their entry email on October 2nd, after they are confirmed as entering correctly. Winners have 48 hours to provide us with your mailing address before another winner is selected.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you are a blogger and would like a way to improve your social media stats and increase your traffic, then join in on this great opp:

Frugal Living

Preschool Prep: Science and Nature

What is Preschool Prep?

Science and Nature

Basic Supplies:

Check out other posts within the Preschool Prep Series:

Creative Ways to Organize Crafts

Do you have craft materials that need organizing? What ways do you plan to reuse something you already have for organization?

Creative Coffee Crafts

Coffee Ground Crafts and Activities

Coffee Filter Crafts and Activities

Coffee Bean Crafts and Activities

Coffee Can Crafts and Activities

Warm Up to Fall Keurig Giveaway

Meet your Host:

Meet your Co-Hosts:

Meet our Sponsors:

Enter to win below:

Big Kindle Fire Giveaway Blog Hop

Here is how it works…

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