Character Education: Kindness

There is not a day that goes by that I am not thankful to the Lord for the heart He has given my little girl. Ever since she was crawling, she was always mindful about who's pacifier was who's and returned it to that baby in the nursery.

It just boggles my mind sometimes.

We started our Pre-K 4 homeschool year with our Mother Goose Time unit on Friends and Feelings.  One of the new additions for this year are character education books called Forest Friends.

Our first book is called A Kind Friend and we were introduced to a fox and rabbit who are friends. 

After reading the story, it was time for retelling with puppets.  I attached the scenery cutouts to the window to give more of a forest feeling and she played with her rabbit and fox while retelling the story.  We added one of our log blocks to retell when fox got hurt.

She really did a great job, but my favorite part took place a few days after we read this story.

We had a discussion on things she does that are kind and helpful.

I asked her how she helped me at home.

"I help take care of Everett (little brother).  I give him his pacifier when he is screaming."

She does.  And she sings to him.

Ever since he was a little baby, whenever he started hollering, she would sing Hush Little Baby, and she still sings that to him.  When we brought him home from the hospital after 17 days in the NICU, the first thing she did was read him a book.

Heart melts every day.

I know her kindness is completely of God.

Anyway, back to our activity.

I had her draw her being kind to her brother based on our teacher guide lesson, and then I recorded what she told me her picture was about.

Yall, this picture is HILARIOUS!  

Avaleigh drew a picture of herself, complete with "little boobs" and a "itty bitty belly button" giving Everett his pacifier. The pink head is momma and the liitle stick figure is Everett. Her drawings are my favorite. 

Those fingers!

And I look like I am about to eat my baby.

Goodness. LOL.

 I am so glad I get to have these moments.  

I am so thankful to see her heart and stay home with them.

I wouldn't trade it for anything.

3 Shape Activities for Preschoolers

We have had lots of fun with shapes this month.

 This month Mother Goose Time sent us Tangram Shapes as our monthly manipulative along with tons of activities and games.  Many of these activities revolved around Friends and Feelings- our theme for this month.

You can easily do these activities at home by cutting out simple shapes from card stock or construction paper.

Here were our top 3 Activities with our shapes this month:

Feeling Faces

Using some chalk, my girl drew an oval on her table.  After spinning the spinner, she then recreated that face with the shapes. With older kids you can ask, "What is that face feeling?  How do you know?"  She could tell me each emotion the face was showing when I asked.

Feeling Shapes Sort

We had 4 shape cards with faces on them.  Each face had a specific emotion- the triangle smiled, the rectangle frowned, the parallelogram was mad, while the circle looked surprised.  I piled her shapes in front of her and she began sorting them.

After sorting the shapes, she then started creating designs with them.  I was really impressed as I watched her create.  I could see her making patterns and really thinking about what she wanted to do.  I snapped a pic of her designs down below. 

Pattern Making: What's Next?

This month we have been focused on an AB pattern, and our pattern making game came with 4 strips with premade patterns on them.

Our strips had an AB pattern (green), ABB (blue). and ABC (red). and a create your own (purple).

There is so much reasoning and understanding that goes on when creating patterns and especially making your own.  Avaleigh has just recently become interested and is really understanding patterns, so we try to squeeze in pattern making whenever we can.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some ways to help your learner have fun while learning about their shapes.  If you would like to see more learning ideas, be sure to like our Facebook page. 

 I will try to do a GIVEAWAY on there soon <3.  

What are some of your favorite shape activities to do with your kiddos?

Calendar Time Routine with a Preschooler

Hey friends! 

If you are new to the blog, WELCOME!

I am a homeschooling momma to my 4 year old preschooler and 9 month old son.

We are so blessed to share our adventures using our Mother Goose Time Preschool Curriculum, which we think is downright amazing.

We never have school at the same time everyday.  

However each time we start school, it goes in the same rhythm, and it always starts with Calendar Time- even if I get nothing else done homeschool wise.

So here is our Calendar Time Routine which is all completely provided by MGT.

Because I want my girl to learn to count, know number recognition, and think about pattern as we go, we start the month with a blank calendar and add to it daily.  Each day my preschooler has to figure out what the next number is, what the pattern is on that card (this month is boy/girl, purple/blue), and what the day of the week is.  She then tells me the weather and we go through our sight words that come with our I Can Read Book.

Here's a 3-4 minute video.  She is soft spoken, so you might have to turn up the volume :) 

 Once we complete all those things, it's easy to transition to our Daily Topic Poster and discuss what my preschooler sees and what she thinks we will learn about that day.

Here is a video to what Calendar Time looked like when she was 2:

And here is what it looked like when she was 3:

I am so glad I have these videos.  It really shows how much she's grown in the past 2 years.  

If you want to follow us on our learning journey, be sure to like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel.  We'd love for you to join us!

What Calendar Routines do you have?

I Can Read: -ad Words

My girl is book obsessed.

Has been since she was less than one.

If you sit on a floor, she will make a beeline for your empty lap.  With a book in her hands, she will fill your lap with her tooshy, and ask for you to read to her.

Lately, she has become quite interested in words. 

She knows all her letters, capital and lowercase, and all their sounds, and she recognizes that all words "say" something.  I normally have to point to the words while we read.  If I dont, she will point to the words asking, "What does this say, momma?" 

Because she is so interested lately, I have taken the beginning steps to teaching her how to read.

Our Preschool curriculum comes from Mother Goose Time, and each month they send us a new "I Can Read" book.  This month's focus was on feelings and -ad words like sad, mad, and glad.  We also learned 3 sight words: he, she, and is.

When we get this book, I usually read it to her a few times, and then have her read it to me.  I then give her a sight word pointer, and as she reads, she is to point to the words and then match the sight word pointer to the correct word.

Here's a video to see it in action:

After we finish the book, we place it next to her bedside.  It becomes part of our bedtime routine for the month.  

As this year continues, I hope to continue to foster her love of reading.

I don't expect her to read at this age- if she does, spectacular! 

All I hope to do, is continue to help her to love books, being read to, and help her learn what she is desiring to learn about, and lately it's been words. <3 

Happy Reading! 

Leaf Man: a FREE Nature Craft for Kids

Have you read books by Lois Ehlert?

He uses natural objects to make beautiful illustrations.
And anytime I can incorporate reading or books into our learning, the better!

Leaf Man is one of our favorite books of his.

The leaves of our oaks and crepe myrtles are changing here in Texas, and as the nuts fall from the trees, it is the perfect time to go on a nature walk and collect items.

That's just what we did this morning.

After we collected the nature items my girl found interesting, we sorted them into our Dollar Tree chip tray that is perfect for housing all our nature treasures.

Then we sat at our table and read Leaf Man.  My preschooler pointed to objects and told me what animals and items she saw in the illustrations.  It really is lovely seeing how Lois Ehlert used his creativity to make such vivid illustrations using natural items.

After we read the book, we played with our nature items and created different creatures like:

A brontosaurus
(she's dinosaur obsessed yall... you can read about her Rainbow Dinosaur 4th birthday here)

Then she wanted to make a robber! I have no clue why.  We haven't read any books about stealing, but this is what she wanted to create. I was really impressed with how she made her robber man.

See his little money bag?  It's the black walnut, lol!

She then created a fish with leaves for fins and a cracked black walnut that I ran over with my car for eyes.  Those nuts are tough, I tell ya!

Why not a tree?

Lastly, we transformed the tree into a butterfly.  Can you see its' oak leaf antenna, black walnut eyes and leaves for wings?

When we finished playing with our items, we placed them back into our Dollar Tree tray ready for play and observation another day.  Now to just keep my golden retriever from eating our sticks, cause she has... and she will.


I hope you feel inspired to get outside and play today!
God gives us such great beauty to partake in everyday- it's just taking the time to see it.
Be sure to check out all the awesome Fall activities to do with your kiddos at the
Mommy and Me INC Fall Blog Party!

If you want more great ideas, please follow us on Facebook and Pinterest.


Some of our favorite Lois Elhert books: