Read and Share Bible series

Two years ago I found these great Bible resources for preschoolers. And can I tell you that my. kids. love. them! The stories are engaging, accurate, and easy to understand for Ethan (2 years old), Ella (4 years old) and Gracelyn (5 years old). I have even caught the girls acting out some of the Bible stories on their own. This is what I will be using for Bible during homeschool this year and we will do it as a group. I plan to share my lessons as we go along. This is an example of one of the stories from the Bible.



Each Bible story on the DVD is about 3 minutes long and the animation is so adorable. The narrators speak with an Irish accent and their voices are so soothing! We have the Read and Share Bible and the Read and Share DVD - volumes 1 and 2. Volumes 3 and 4 are on our wish list, too!




Here is an example from one of the dvds:
http://www.tommynelson.com/blog/adam-eve

It seems that CBD has the best deal on these resources and I even found a coupon code for free shipping with a purchase of $35 or more-
coupon code: 313114TS
expires: 9/10/2010

* If you watch the Bible story of Adam and Eve, let me know what you think of it!

we made it!

The move is behind us and now we have the huge task of getting settled in, getting familiar with our new town, making friends, and adjusting to life in Alabama. We arrived last Sunday evening to about 20-30 helpers ready to unload the moving truck. Lunch and dinner was provided for us all last week and it was so nice not to have to worry about cooking on top of unpacking boxes. This past Sunday night, the church hosted a "pounding" on our behalf. I had never heard of a pounding before and was pleasantly surprised to find out that it is like a pantry shower. Originally a pounding was for the congregation to bring a pound of something like flour and sugar, but now it has grown to include any kind of pantry items. So, now I have a pantry full of dried goods, canned goods, suar, flour, corn meal, and lots of paper goods!


food from the "pounding"!

For most of my life I have lived in the same town where I grew up and was always surrounded by family and friends. It has been so nice and comforting to know that we left our family and friends to come to such a generous and loving church family. They have went over and beyond making us feel welcomed and meeting our needs. It doesn't get any better than that!

oh. my. wow!

Can you guess what we are doing this weekend?

bittersweet!

This weekend was a whirl wind of events for us. My husband, Matt, felt the call to full-time ministry about 2 years ago. For the past 2 years, God's answer was to wait. A couple of different times during the course of those 2 years, he sent out his resume to a few different churches. We never heard back from any of those churches. So, we kept waiting.

A couple of months ago, he felt it was time to persue the ministry again. And this time, God started openning doors for us! He was contacted by a church in Alabama. This weekend, the church invited us down for a face-to-face interview and for him to lead worship on Sunday morning. After the service ended, the church voted to "call" him to a full time ministry position! We are so excited for this opportunity and it seems that the church is equally excited too! We will be packing up this week and moving to Alabama! We are happy and sad all at the same time. Happy for this new journey and sad to be leaving our family and friends.

Here is a clip of Matt leading worship at our current church.

homeschool village - kitchen helpers!

This week we have been sharing tips and ideas on cooking with children. My girls love to help me cook, but I'm guilty of not always remembering to slow down and let them help me. Although, when I make homemade biscuits, one of the girls always helps me. They love to cut the biscuits out with the cutter and lay them on the baking sheet. This week Ella was my bicsuit cutter!










buttermilk biscuit recipe:
2 cups of self rising White Lilly flour
4 tablespoons of Crisco
buttermilk - start with 1 cup slowly add mix all the ingredients together (keep adding buttermilk until the dough is a little sticky)

1. preheat oven to 475 degrees
2. after mixing the dough, place a tea towel or paper towel on your counter
3. sprinkle flour onto the towel
4. you can use a rolling pin to roll out the dough, but I just use my hands because I like the imperfections in the biscuits!
5. have your best little helper cut out the biscuits and transfer to a baking sheet
6. bake for about 8 minutes until slightly golden on top

*While the biscuits are baking, have your other best little hepers set the table and get out the butter, jelly, and honey!

One of Gracelyn's chores is to put away the silverware.


Be sure to visit the Homeschool Village to see how other homeschooling families cook together!

word families (part 2)

I've had this finsihed for a while, but haven't taken the time to post it. This set goes along with the first set of word family cards. If you have already printed out the first set of cards, just use the beginning letter cards for this set, too. If you haven't printed off the first set, here is the link for the first set - wordfamilies.docx

materials -
wordfamilies2.docx - cut and laminate for durability
velcro dots



educational benefits -
1. teaches word chuncks so they don't have to sound out each letter
for example: cap - sound out the c and add the chunk ap forming cap

2. encourages children to find patterns in words

3. helps with teaching spelling
for example: if the child knows how to spell cap, they will only have to replace the first letter to spell tap

child labor!

My little man has turned out to be quite the little helper! He loves to help me do laundry. I will admit that with his technique of throwing the clothes into the washer, we now have a graveyard of clothes behind the washer!

Now I get the step stool for him and MOST of the clothes make it into the washer!

summer fun

I had planned to continue doing school through the summer. Really I did. But, we have just been too busy enjoying summer. We have been swimming alot and all of the kids have really enjoyed it this summer. Last summer, Ethan would scream and cry if he even got his toes wet! This summer, he can't get enough of it! Everytime we get to the pool, I remember that I forgot to bring the camera (again). Maybe I will remember it and get some pictures of them swimming before the summer is up!

We did a week of VBS and we all had fun doing it. This was the first year that we have done VBS. I was a family leader and Matt was Joseph's guard. Our church uses Group Publishing's curriculum and we were in ancient Egypt all week. The girls' wove baskets, made Egyptian collars, made a brick, sampled some Egyptian food, and got to hear and see the story of Joseph every night.


We made our own Egyptian necklaces at home.


Gracelyn and Ethan are sorting out the Bible memory maker coins for me.


We just got back from visiting some family and watching fireworks with them. Their town always does fireworks on July 1st and we have sorta of made it our tradition to watch the fireworks together.

We took a field trip to the Atlanta Zoo with some friends and had a blast seeing the animals! I remembered my camera, but was only able to take one picture before the batteries died! So, here is our one picture from the zoo!



To see what others are up to this summer, check out the Preschool Corner!

Also, don't forget to check out the interview and giveaway with Ashley Goertemiller, author of Behavior Booster.