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Princess chose and quoted this verse to me to add to a photo we took last month!
Sunset Scripture
Homeschooling
Tot School – 10 Ways to Play with Your ABC’s
10 Ways to Play with Your ABC’s
(Disclosure: There are affiliate links within this post. The links provide a way for us to support our site and provide great ideas and content to you! Thanks for your support.)
Just wanted to share with you some simple ABC Tot Trays. I’m sure you will be able to find suitable items lying around your house to create these fun Tot Trays.
1. Magnets and Metal Juice Lids– if you drink frozen juice concentrate or know of some families that do, then ask them to save the lids. Wash and dry very well. Then use permanent marker or vinyl alphabet stickers. The magnetic letters will stick to the lids and make a great matching game.
2. Flashcards– Try to come up with a new way to use them. Say the name of the letter, match a magnetic letter to flashcard or spell the object on the flashcard.
3. ABC and Baseball Card pockets– use a few baseball card pocket sheets and stickers to create an easy match game. Small or flat letters can be placed inside pockets. Larger etter can be placed on top.
4. Sound and Letter Match– small 3D objects (dollar store toys) to represent the letters you have. Some sort of divided tray helps to sort out objects. (I bought mine at a garage sale for .10) You can use foam alphabets or magnetic letters or wooden alphabet for this tray. Use what you have or borrow from a friend.
5. Small ABC erasers and ABC Desk strip (magnetized)– I have a few sets of small abc erasers, probably from the dollar store, that work great with the small deskstrip abc’s teachers often buy in rolls for their classrooms. (I got mine at a teacher’s moving sale!) I used some old business card magnets to make the strip so it won’t move on those metal trays from Dollar Tree!
6. Foam Letter Stamps, Paper, and Metal Tray– I bought these foam alphabet stamps at Joann Fabric and Crafts using a 50% coupon. Princess used these during 1st grade to stamp some of her spelling words. I know Lil’ Red will love the hands-on crafty mess! 
7. ABC Wooden Puzzle on Metal Tray– I wish I knew where these wooden puzzle pieces came from. My husband has a larger set from his childhood and we got this set, but are missing some of the pieces.
8. Poker Chips, Stickers, and Magnetic Letters– I made these BEFORE Eldest was born while I was going to college to earn an AAS in Early Childhood Development. They have been sitting in my alphabet box all this time!
9. Chalkboard and Jumbo Letters– This is a small chalkboard bought at a craft store years ago. The jumbo magnetic letters were back from my ECD college days as well.
10. ABC Wooden Blocks and Plastic Animals– Use wooden blocks to spell out the names of animals. For younger tot’s I would use a flashcard or nonmenclature card for them to match the letters. Older tot’s you can help them read the words and match the animals. You can ask the child what sound the animal makes.
Another way to learn letters (affiliate links):
LINKING Up With:
Auditory Learners
or Too Busy to Learn?
Are your children auditory learners? Do you have children that need hands-on activities in able to learn? How about those boys that must be “busy” either by hand or body and CANNOT sit still to learn? Then I would suggest audio learning! The amount of free resources for audiobooks is outstanding. I could probably create an entire blog around them, but for now will stick to a post.
READ and educate yourself about how children learn, your teaching style, and how boys/auditory learners are different. A few books I would reccomend are:
Bringing up Boys by Dr. Dobson
The Way They Learn by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias
Here’s a link to a site which offers free audio for history and literature:
https://something2offer.com//kids.learnoutloud.com/Kids-Free-Stuff/Page1#self
FREE Digital book resources:
Free Kid’s Kindle Books
Digital Book Index– searched Children
International Children’s Digital Library
Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature
AUDIOBOOKS are wonderful!(my 9 1/2 yr. old loves them, but will also read as
well) He has read The Chronicles of Narnia, Eragon, Eldest, Brisinger, Inheritence, and Dragon Rider- all via audiobook cd. We also have tons of books downloaded to use for school time. We find them free from lots of different places from deal blogs, email lists, librivox, library, etc.
FREE Audiobook links:
Open Culture– 450 free audiobooks, courses, langauge lessons, movies,etc.
Reading Motivation by Sylvan called Book Adventures
Check my Literature Ideas on pinterest for great links for free
downloadable books, records, classic lit, preschool literature ideas, etc.
https://something2offer.com//pinterest.com/tmaher45356/
Websites/blog articles talking about boys and homeschooling:
Homeschool or Hell– by Holy Spirit-Led Homeschooling
Homeschooling Boys– essential supplies
20 Ways to Re-set Your Day– when your kids start a bad day
Cultivating Curiosity– by Walking by the Way
please fell free to pursue any of my boards I have tons of free homeschool resources! https://something2offer.com//pinterest.com/tmaher45356
DISCLAIMER: I do have a few affiliate links within this post. if you were to click on those links and then make a purchase I could make some money from that purchase. I also do not endorse all links to be child friendly WITHOUT parent supervision. Websites and their content can change by the hour. Please preview the site for suitable content and download what you deem appropriate for your child or family.
Charlie the Duck
So we went to a local county nature park to take pics for a giveaway and since the weather was gorgeous. We found some flowers and took pictures of the kids using the nature guide. Then we walked to the small pond trying to get pictures of Blue Heron which flew away by the time we reached the pond.
Eldest walked onto the wooden viewing deck. Princess was wondering near when I spotted a duck. Both were taken with the duck. I was used to this type of duck and even had some as a child. Next thing I know they are calling “Charlie” the duck to come follow them. Princess lays down in the grass to draw Charlie. Eldest and Princess both try to pet Charlie. We decide it was time to head to grandma’s where Lil’ Red was. Charlie tried to follow us to the parking lot. Obviously this duck was a farm duck and very used to people. Soon he waddled over to the pond and went right in probably looking for some lunch:)
Backyard Campfire 101
Backyard Campfire 101:
How Siblings Light a Fire
It is sad to say Summer is almost over and we hadn’t had a campfire at all this year. I think the main reason is due to a much hotter Summer earlier than normal. We had weeks of high 90’s and over 100 numerous times. We have a firepit in our backyard that totally needed some TLC. Princess set to work arranging all the bricks that had been knocked into the firepit and taking all the small sticks out of it. I had mowed as close as I could and pulled some weeds the mower couldn’t reach.
We promised the kids we would have a bonfire but had been too tired the night before by the time it would be dark enough to have one. So this brave and CRAZY momma allowed Eldest and Princess to build a small fire in the firepit by themselves. I provided some guidance and we tried to use a matchless flame lighter. The child-proof buttons proved to be too difficult so we opted for (gasp) real matches.
Eldest declared he had learned the safe way to use a match at nature camp. I said that was fine and he could teach Princess how-to do it. So with Lil’ Red on my lap I provided verbal instruction for how to lay the sticks and where to place the small balls of newspaper and where to place the matches. I reminded them to hold the flame end up so as not to burn themselves.
Once Riley was home from work we proceeded to roast hotdogs for a late evening snack. I was smart this time and gathered the supplies on a large tray for the hot dogs. Then I used a different container to hold the graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows for s’mores. Both of these containers were placed on our glass side table within reach of our lawn chairs so we weren’t running inside for missed items.
