When I first started homeschooling with my oldest, I had so much fun planning themed lessons. I would pride myself on finding free printables that I would laminate and cut out. We would play new games every week! I soon realized after having a 2nd child, I had less time to do this prep work. So, naturally, when I had my 3rd I had to face reality that time for prep work had gone down considerably and I had to prioritize spending time with kids instead of prepping as much. Therefore, I knew I … [Read more...]
Sight Word Practice Cards
Learning sight words is an important stage in learning to read. Sight words are words that are frequently used and they appear on almost every page of text. These are also words that can’t necessarily be sounded out, so they need to be memorized. For example, if you sound out the word ‘the’ it would sound totally different than how it should be pronounced. The more children practice sight words, the easier it is for them to learn to read them. I have some fun sight word readers and sight word … [Read more...]
5 Ways to Teach the Alphabet
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to Amazon. See my disclosure for details. Teaching the alphabet is foundational for reading and writing. Around the age of 2, children begin showing interest in learning alphabet letters. While some kids learn letters very quickly, others need more repetition and time to learn letters. Today I'm going to share with you some of my favorite ways to teach the alphabet to little ones. This post contains affiliate links. See my disclosure for … [Read more...]
Gold Coin Activities
It's almost March, which means it's time for St. Patrick's Day activities! I have a whole bunch of gold coin activities to share with you. In fact, I created a free printable for you to use with gold coins. These are playful learning activities for preschoolers that work on concepts such as counting, patterns, number recognition, and more! The only thing you need for these activities is a set of plastic gold coins. I found a set at Hobby Lobby and it included gold and green coins. We used … [Read more...]
St. Patrick’s Day Sensory Bin
March is around the corner, so it's the perfect time to start making a St. Patrick's Day sensory bin! We made one this week and it's simple, yet so fun. I'm also sharing an easy math activity using plastic gold coins. Materials for St. Patrick's Day Sensory Bin dried split peas white rice gold paint Ziplock bag tray lined with wax paper plastic gold coins (found at Hobby Lobby) large bin little cauldrons (found at Target) I first colored the rice. All I did … [Read more...]
Brush the ABCs
February is National Children's Dental Health Month, so it’s the perfect time to try this Brush the ABCs activities. We LOVE dental activities for preschoolers because they are fun and they help teach little ones about the importance of teaching kids about dental health. I have a simple printable for you for this activity. All you do is just print it on card stock paper and either laminate or place in a plastic sleeve. To do the activity, you’ll first write alphabet letters on the white … [Read more...]
Fingerprint Valentine’s Day Craft
Every holiday has decorations, because who doesn’t love them?! I finally got around to putting away the Christmas bins and realized that Valentine’s Day was coming soon and with last year’s purge we got rid of most our old decorations. That left me with candles and some kids craft packets for Valentine’s Day. With the kids getting older I thought what a great way for the kids to get involved; we were going to do DIY Valentine’s Décor! Sure, paint or beads might have ended up on the floor, and … [Read more...]
Candy Heart Math Printables
Valentine's Day is just around the corner, so today I'm sharing candy heart math printables to use with preschoolers. Here's a peek at what's inside this math packet: First, there's practice with counting and number sense. Just have the child place the candy hearts in the ten-frames. The purpose of this activity is for kids to visualize quantities and develop number sense. By grouping them by tens,it helps the child understand what ten of something looks like. Math Skill: Number … [Read more...]
Winter Sensory Bin
Winter is in full swing! Brrr! The temperatures here are absolutely freezing this week. I realized we've never made a winter sensory bin, so I decided it was time! I love how it turned out. We used a few different items from the kitchen and the colors are beautiful and icy blue. Winter Sensory Bin Supplies: large plastic bin (this one works well!) blue and silver paint (we used acrylic and washable paint) rice star-shaped pasta (found at Target) short cylinder pasta (found … [Read more...]
Celery Heart Stamps
Have you ever used fruits or vegetables for art? You can make some pretty cool things with them! We used leftover celery to make heart stamps. It's so easy, too! Materials for Celery Heart Stamps: celery stalks washable paint jars or bowls paper For this craft, find a celery stalk that looks like the shape of a heart. Not all celery stalks look like this, so you may have to check over your stalks. Then just dip the end into paint and stamp it onto paper. You don't want a … [Read more...]