Abby's Alphabet & Number Poster

I found this post at Playful Learning about cutting out letters from magazines to make an alphabet poster.

I decided to use a piece of poster board and make squares for each letter and number, from A-Z and 1-9. I wrote each letter and number on a square. Then, we went through magazines and cut out letters and numbers.

Abby had a lot of fun at first, cutting, pasting and matching, but she got frustrated with the cutting. So, I cut out the letters and numbers and she glued them to the matching square. She likes glue, so that was a good compromise.

Here's the finished poster:

We did both uppercase and lowercase letters. We still need to find an uppercase Q, an uppercase X and a lowercase z.

Make a mental note to buy poster board during back to school season. I got tons of it for just pennies each, back in September.

Hooked On Fridays: Homeschool Blogs

I love browsing through homeschool blogs and finding activities and ideas for my daughter. There is such a wealth of information online, I wonder how we ever lived before it! LOL! I guess, there was the library, but this is way more fun and addictive!

Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order:

Heart of the Matter

Homeschool Bliss

Her Cup Overfloweth

No Time For Flashcards

The Homeschool Classroom

The Crafty Crow

A Listmaker's Life

1+1+1=1

Totally Tots

1,2,3...Come Homeschool With Me

The Mom With Brownies

And I'm really looking forward to the kick off of ABC & 123 on March 13th! Check it out for more information.

If you follow the links, you'll notice that many of them are for younger children and toddlers, however I find that many activites can be adapted to older kids and if not, it's still a lot of fun to see all of the creative people out there!

So, this week (and almost all of the time) I'm hooked on Homeschool Blogs! Head over to Hooked On Houses to see what everyone else is Hooked On.

JumpStart World Giveaway Winners!

Thank you to everyone that entered my JumpStart World giveaway. The site is awesome and I know both you and your child will love it!

The winners (chosen at random.org) of 3 FREE months of JumpStart World are:

comment #5:

sallyanne03 said... Oh my goodness...this looks great! My daughter would love this. I think that it is wonderful that they are combining education with gaming. It seems like more and more the industry is trying to cater to the action of games and not on the learning! Thanks for sharing! Love it! sallyanne03@gmail.com

and comment #8:

jenjen said...

Wow Jenny - that is really cool. I have some older version of Jumpstart games - but this new version is so much better. Better graphics, and more exciting!

Really cool!

Jen

Congratulations! I have emailed you both and just need you to contact me with the email address you'd want to use for your subscription.

Thanks again and I hope to have more giveaways to share soon!

Measurement, Park & More

First of all, don't forget to enter the JumpStart World giveaway! Today is the last day and the winners will be announced tomorrow. Above is Abby feeding her kitty in Petland!

We've had quite a busy day. Last night, I printed a Kindergarten Skills Test. I just happened to stumble upon it and I was curious to see how Abby would do. It made my sister feel great, because my nephew already knows all of it! He taught him self how to read, just from her reading books to him over the years. Matthew is 6 and will be in 1st grade this Fall. I'm hoping maybe he can teach Abby how to read. :)

Abby was able to:

• say the letters, both lower and uppercase
• know the shapes
• know some of the colors, pink and white. This I was surprised about!
• count orally to 30, many times further.
• know her address
• know her birthday
• know the days of the week, not in order.
• I was surprised that she also knew some of the blends, br and bl.

While Abby is only 4 1/2, it's fun to do these activities. I know a lot of people are against testing, but to me it's nice to see where we are sometimes. It makes it easier for me to plan activities and projects.

Even though that sounds like a lot, it only took about 10 minutes. We then moved on to some measurement worksheets I printed from Instructor Web. As soon as I told her the instructions, she knew the measurements for each line right away. She even added inches when she said it. She had more trouble actually writing each number on the line.
She then used a measuring tape to measure a few items around the house. Here she is measuring her kitty. You may have noticed kitty in almost every picture. That's because where Abby is kitty is. She's had him since she was 8 weeks old. He goes everywhere and surprisingly has made it through tons of washings.
While Abby was measuring, we got a call from my cousin asking if wanted to meet at the park. Of course! The weather was beautiful and we had a great time.

Abby with her cousins Jacob and Lauryn.

I Hope She Always Wants Me Around

This weekend, Abby told me that when she grows up, she wants to have a house that Dave and I can live in. My room would be purple and Dave's would be blue. When I told her that Daddy and I like to share a room, she said it would be half purple and half blue then.

I asked her where she would live and she said, "Right next door to our house right now." She then said she was going to have 4 kids, 2 boys and 2 girls that I would "keep track of for her." LOL! I told her that would be so exciting, but would she be paying me for that? 4 kids is a lot, you know. She said, "Yes, $100 Mom! You can buy jewelry, I will buy you that ring at the store. We always check out the jewelry at Sam's and there's a 3 stone diamond ring I love!) Dad, I will give you $100 for meat!"

At this point, Dave and I were cracking up at her story. I asked her more questions and she said that her and I would take the kids out every day together. "To the toy store, restaurants, Target..." I informed her that she'd better marry someone who would be able to provide money for all of that shopping and the 4 kids and she said, "I'm going to marry Matthew."

Matthew is her cousin! LOL!

Blog Follower Issues

UPDATE: I was just informed of a possible issue with leaving comments that require word verification. If you have tried to leave comments and weren't able to, I'm very sorry. I just took off the word verification step and I hope it fixes the problem. If you had trouble entering my giveaway because of this, let me know.

Thank you to Abby at Me and My Boys for posting about the Blogger Followers Issue. Apparently Blogger had an issue where they accidentally changed all of our blogger followers to "anonymous".

Follow Me and My Boys steps on how to fix the problem:

Go to your Dashboard, scroll down until you see Blogs I Follow.

Click Manage.

Then change all of the drop down menus from anonymous to PUBLIC.

I hope this helps everyone. I was wondering where some of my followers went yesterday.

Thanks again, Abby!

Alphabet Photo Book

Friday, we started an Alphabet Photo Book project I found at Playful Learning. Abby gathered items that corresponded with each letter of the alphabet. I really wanted to get this project finished on Friday, because Walgreens had a one day deal of 20 prints for FREE! However, that didn't happen. That's ok, because Abby was way more into it then I thought she'd be, which is great. She spent a lot of time thinking about the perfect items for each letter.

My favorite part was when Abby tried to pick up Ditto our cat for the letter "D". He wanted nothing to do with it as you can see below. LOL!
For "I", she found her ice cream cones and then ran out of the living room. A few minutes later, she came back with Dixie cups filled with water. She told me she was going to put them in the freezer to make ice. I thought that was pretty clever!
Keep in mind that for some of the letters, I guided her in finding items. Such as "H". I asked her if there was anything in her toolbox that started with "H" and she opened it and pulled out a hammer.

This really is a fun activity and we are going to work on it more today. I did send the pictures we had finished to Walgreens on Friday, but some of the writing was cut off :( Oh well, they were free. I'll have to redo those.

If you are curious, I use Picnik to upload my pictures to add the text.

Also, it just so happens that No Time For Flashcards did a Weekend Repost about this same activity! Check it out here. I have to say, her version looks much easier! Why didn't I think of that?

I've Been Honored With A Blog Award!

Thank you Katie, from A Listmaker's Life for nominating me for the Love Ya Blog Award! (sorry it took me so long to post about it, I just found it today)

The Love Ya Blog Award~
These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

So, I'd like to nominate, in no particular order:

Kelly's Korner- She really inspires me with her love and trust of God.

The Interrupted Girl- She also inspires me with her faith.

STL Mommy- For keeping me updated on the latest deals in my area. I know she must be up all hours of the night working on the Dierberg's coupon match up!

Tatertots & Jello-She always takes time to leave me comments. Plus, she makes beautiful jewelry! Check them out on her blog.

From Melissa's Desk- Her Dr. Pepper sign is hilarious! It has also kept me motivated to stay on my no soda kick. I haven't had any soda since before Christmas!

Both Katies at ABC and 123- They created an awesome resource for homelearning.

The Homeschool Way- I love that in her "about me" it says she's a non-Oprah follower. That cracks me up! I also was very moved by her post on Gianna Jessen. I had never heard of her and was absolutely amazed by her story. Everyone should hear it.

Ramblings of a Crazy Woman- She has wonderful craft ideas for kids.

Thanks again for the award, Katie!

Hooked On Fridays: Blog Giveaways

Ok, who doesn't like to win things? I love entering blog giveaways and I've even won a few things! My most recent win was a $25 gift card to Build A Bear.

Here are some great links for you to submit your blog giveaway and/or click to enter giveaways:

An Island Review
Contesting Monday
Frugal Mommy of 2 Girls
Go Graham Go
Mom Fuse
Mom Giveaways
Mommies With Cents
Money Saving Mom
Now What Baby
Prize-A-Tron
Prizey
The Funky Monkey
Thrifty & Chic Mom

Whew, what a list! Plus, there are tons of blog and sites that I don't even have listed. I enjoy these sites, because there are giveaways in any category you can think of...from books to homeschool items to children's shoes to household cleaners!

Become Hooked On giveaways too by following the links! Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a Free 3 Month Subscription to JumpStart World.

Visit Hooked On Houses for more Hooked On Friday posts.

What We've Been Up To

This week has been pretty cold and gloomy. Abby and I haven't done any cool activities. We took down the Valentine's decorations and Abby is ready to get out the Easter stuff. I am too, but I think we'll wait until March, since Easter is so late this year.

We also had my nephews over on Wednesday, while my sister went to the dentist. Abby and Matthew had a great time playing and coloring. And baby Andrew did so well. That's him in the picture, talking to me and smiling. Do you see those teeth coming in? He won't even be 3 months until next week!

Today we went to the library, Taco Bell, Babies R Us and Target with my sister and Matthew. We had a great time. Abby was excited to find a Peep DVD at the library, Peep and the Big Wide World: Chirp Flies. Peep is Abby's new favorite show.

So, it hasn't been a very eventful week, but I'm looking forward to planning some new activities for next week.

Works For Me Wednesday

I missed the time cut off for last week's post, so I thought I'd post the link this week. Here's what works for me:

Every year in September, my Mom, Dad, younger sister, sister and her family and us 3 go to Branson. This will be our 3rd year! (the picture above is our first year)

You may be wondering, "What does this have to do with Works For Me Wednesday?" Well, every single day, both Abby and Matthew talk about Branson. They play Branson. Her bedroom is the hotel, my bedroom is the elevator, they pack bags of stuff and pretend to drive, they even go shopping and my sister and I have to check out their purchases. One time Matthew was "driving the car" and Abby was shopping. My sister and I overheard Matthew say to Abby, "You have to stop buying things or it won't fit in the trunk!" Needless to say, he couldn't fit it all in the pretend trunk. We were LOL, what a man!

What works for me and my sister is...

They don't know about Disney yet! Staying in a hotel in Branson that has an elevator and a pool is the highlight of their year.

For us 3 to drive to Branson, eat, shop, got to Silver Dollar City and stay in a hotel for 5 days costs less then just the plane tickets to GET to Florida!

So, we cherish these days that Branson is good enough for our kids...Shh, don't tell them about Disney!

Thanks for visiting. For more Works For Me Wednesday posts, check out We Are That Family.

Target Deal: Number Magnet Set

Abby loves this number magnet set. We found them at Target this weekend in the Dollar Spot section. They were 30% off, making them only 70 cents.

I like how the set includes multiplication, addition, subtraction and division symbols as well as equals symbols. There is also 2 of each number.

As you can see, Abby's made quite an equation on the refrigerator! LOL! Her new thing is to ask us questions like, "what is 3 plus 4?" Now, we can show her the some basic math problem with the magnets.

For an even cooler set, check out these Melissa & Doug Magnetic Wooden Numbers. We have the Melissa & Doug Magnetic Wooden Alphabet and they are really great quality. The whole back is a magnet, so they don't slide around like the cheap plastic ones. But for 70 cents, I couldn't pass up these numbers!

Does anyone have any ideas for number magnet games? Abby loves games, so it would be fun to think of a cool activity with these.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for the JumpStart World 3 month FREE subscription! It was really a hit with Abby.

JumpStart World Review & Giveaway

I have an awesome new site to share with you! Knowledge Adventure, a leading developer of children's computer games, contacted me to do a review of their latest project…JumpStart World. Does JumpStart sound familiar to you? It did to me right away. We have several JumpStart workbooks that Abby loves! I remember the JumpStart name from back when I was a kid. Check out the list of awards they have received over the years here.
JumpStart World is a new, virtual learning experience designed for children ages 3 to 10. Basically, it’s a huge online learning theme park! There is even a map to explore all 5 worlds: Neighborhood, Beach, Petland, Jungle and Town. Each world has what seems like endless amounts of adventure and learning. Everything from matching, counting, sorting, letter and number recognition, colors to riding a canoe, coloring pictures, taking a submarine ride and playing music! All of these fun activities incorporate important early learning skills, such as listening and following direction.

After exploring JumpStart World for a bit, I was eager to introduce it to Abby. She jumped right into the fun! She immediately was able to get around and the first thing she did was make a “Jumpee”. This is the character you use to guide you through the adventures. Abby made hers into an orange striped cat, with a butterfly in her hair, a blue shirt and purple shoes. While creating your “Jumpee”, you will find there are dozens of skin colors, clothing options, hair options, eye shapes, mouths and more. Want to be a one eyed monster? Yep, it can be done! A purple cat? Sure, go for it! There is also a Jumpee Contest going on right now where your child can create a Jumpee and enter it into the contest for a chance to win $10,000!

Abby has had so much fun exploring JumpStart World and learning. Every time she opens another adventure, it's her favorite! I have also really enjoyed JumpStart World. My favorite part is the fact that Abby can learn and play at the same time. Plus, you have to admire the graphics! They are very well done and you will love the attention to details, such as the “Jumpee” wearing floaties in the water.

JumpStart World is available for only $7.99 a month. There is also a non-member registration available, but the access is very limited. I think for the amount of fun and learning included in the membership, it’s a great deal! Try it out for a month and see what you think!

Want to WIN a FREE 3 month trial? Knowledge Adventure is very generously offering 2 lucky readers a FREE 3 month trial subscription!

To enter, visit Jumpstart World then come back and leave a comment telling me what you think about it.

For extra entries:

*blog about this giveaway and link to the Jumpstart World site. Leave a comment with a link to your post.

*Grab my button and leave a comment letting me know.

*Follow me or subscribe to my emails and leave a comment letting me know.

This giveaway will end Wednesday February 25th. Winners will by chosen by random.org and announced Thursday, February 26th.

Don’t forget to leave a separate comment for each entry and include an email address.

Good luck!

Happy Valenitne's Day!

That's me and my hubby. LOL at how silly we look. Abby took the picture of us and she was cracking us up!

I hope you've had a great Valentine's Day!

We took Abby to Build A Bear with the $25 gift certificate I won at Mom Fuse! Apparently we weren't the only ones with the idea to go to Build A Bear today, because it was packed full! The line was out of the door. The lady at the counter said she has worked there 2 years and has never seen it so crowded.

Isn't that the cutest cat? Her name is Fuzzy Pink Kitty Cat. She is so special that she got to go to Sam's with us after the mall.

Happy Valentine's Day and have a great weekend!

Hooked On Friday: Conversation Hearts

Last night, we had a lot of fun with this conversation heart math lesson. First, Abby sorted the hearts by color and then counted how many there were of each color and she wrote the number on each heart.

For a similar conversation heart lesson, check out Ramblings of a Crazy Woman.

Speaking of conversation hearts, I wanted to show you my Nester Ragamuffin Garland. I picked out colors that would look good for Valentine's and Spring/Easter. Then I put jars of conversation hearts on the mantle. (The jar on the left is empty in the picture. I ran out of hearts) I love how it turned out and I can't wait to put jelly beans in the jars for Easter. Check out this awesome post from Just A Girl. I love her ideas of what to put in apothecary jars.
I also love these adorable Valentine's Day centerpieces I found over at the You Can Make This Blog.

So today, I'm hooked on conversation hearts! To see what everyone else is hooked on this week, head over to Hooked On Houses for her weekly Hooked On Fridays Mr. Linky Party!

I Need This

This license plate cracks me up! Of course if I got this, then I would need a van too.

If you need one, they are available here.

Rainy Day & Chocolate Playdough

Can you tell it's a rainy day? Abby found some yarn and made a huge web across the family room. It even stretched down the hall, connecting to all of the door knobs. It was a mess, but at least she had fun!

This week, I started printing these tracer sheets that say what day it is and "It is..." I have Abby write what she thinks the weather is like outside. Today, she wrote it is RainE. Can you see how she tried to turn the E into a Y?
Then, Matthew came over again today and we made chocolate playdough. They had a great time taking turns mixing it and it smelled so good. Good enough to eat, but I tried it and it's disgusting! LOL! Next time, I'd like to try the edible playdough recipe. I just didn't have all of the ingredients.
Abby used a heart shaped cookie cutter to make heart brownies.
Here is Matthew's Indiana Jones Pyramid and skull something or other. I'm not up on all of these boy things, so I forgot what it's called. He's never seen the movie, but he remembers the toys from Happy Meals.
Speaking of playdough, I love this idea I found at No Time For Flashcards: Valentine's Playdough gifts from The Entertaining House. Wouldn't that make a great Birthday party favor? I bookmarked that post in hopes of remembering that in May.

Signs of Spring & Valentine Crafts

Today is a beautiful day. It is about 60 degrees here, so we decided to meet up with my sister and my nephew at the park. Abby found a worm in the driveway (see it on the leaf) and wanted to know if it was Spring yet. We are sure getting close to Spring, the birds have started chirping again and days are getting slightly longer. Here's Abby and Matthew at the park:

When we got back to my house, Abby worked on making a Valentine's day placemat for our party on Saturday. I had planned on showing her how to make hearts, but she wanted nothing to do with that! She only wanted the hearts I already cut out. Oh well, we'll try that another day.
Matthew decided he needed to make a Transformers book instead. He said it was, "very serious work". LOL! He cut out small sheets of paper and attached a Transformer sticker to each page and then had me write their names on it. We he was finished, we punched a hole on the side and bound the book with a piece of yarn.
We will be doing Valentine's Day themed activities all week. Here are some cute ideas I've found recently:

Beaded Heart Garland, The Crafty Crow
Salt Dough Sweet Hearts, The Crafty Crow
Preschool Valentine's Game, Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

Please share any of your Valentine's Day craft ideas!

Valentine's Crafts

I'm glad I checked to see what No Time For Flash Cards was up to today! I saw her Bunches of Love post and decided that we would make some Valentine flowers too.

My sister came over, and my nephew was also eager to make some flowers. These were so easy to make and I had all of the supplies already. In fact, the only color pipe cleaners I have are green, so it was perfect! We put our flowers in clean PB jars.

See that adorable doily butterfly? That idea was also stolen (I mean borrowed) from No Time For Flash Cards.

And last but not least, I took this picture of my nephew. I just love his sweet little cheeks!

So, thank you to No Time For Flash Cards for the awesome craft ideas we used today. They make great Valentine's Day table centerpieces.

Taming Kid Clutter

I have another cold, so we didn't do much today. We made it out to Target to get milk, but that's about it.

I did find a neat post from The Shabby Nest about Taming Kid Clutter. Check out all of the Mr. Linky links to find great ideas for organizing all of your child's stuff!

I posted this on my old blog several months ago, but the above picture is an organizer I made for Abby's craft stuff.

I have always loved this adorable arts and crafts Lazy Susan from Pottery Barn Kids. However, the set is $49.

As the frequent Target shopper that I am, I remembered seeing buckets in the $1 section in the front of the store. So, I purchased a lazy susan for $9.99 and 4 buckets, $1 each at Target.

Not bad for $14! A $35 savings over the PBK version, not to mention the cost of shipping!

We didn't attach the buckets to the lazy susan, and it's only been knocked over a few times, by my husband! LOL! It sits in the middle of our kitchen table everyday, so Abby can be creative whenever she wishes :)

Wordless Wednesday

Max and Ruby, Ruby and Max...

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, check out Go Graham Go, Jolly Mom and 5 Minutes For Mom

Please Pray For Cynthiaa & Her Family

A fellow blogger, Cynthiaa (Confessions Of A Yummy Mummy) needs our thoughts and prayers.

Yesterday, during a routine doctor appointment, Cynthiaa found out that her baby boy, that was due in only 2 weeks, had passed away due to umbilical cord strangulation. And now she has an infection from the c-section.

Please take a moment to pray for Cynthiaa at this truly devastating time. Let her know you are thinking of her, comment on her blog: Confessions Of A Yummy Mummy.

Her Memory Amazes Me

Today, I remembered that I had this neat Magnetic Chalk and Dry Erase Board set in the closet. I had bought it when Abby was too young to use it, but totally forgot about it.

We opened it up and Abby started putting the numbers in order and then the alphabet. Then we turned the board over to the dry erase side. I said the sound of a letter and then she would write that letter on the board. I like doing these activities, because it helps me see what she needs to work on. She is getting the F and V sounds confused. She also has trouble writing S. She writes a 3 instead. As soon as she writes it, she knows it's wrong and laughs, but her hand can just not get the curves to go the right way! She did practice a lot, because she wanted to get it right. Dave just came home and she showed him how she could make an S!

Of course, she had to start drawing. She drew this picture and said...

"Remember on your birthday? The water drops? You know the lights!" It took me a minute to realize what she was talking about. Duh, how could I forget? We went on a ride through a Christmas lights display on my birthday and here's what Abby is talking about...
You can't really tell in this blurry picture, but at the end of the hose there are water drops!

What a perfect quote for the day:

“It's surprising how much of memory is built around things unnoticed at the time”
-Barbara Kingsolver